ACCR Chapter 14 Futility

The steel board was halted in its tracks, though, I had already expected that. My plan had been to circle left and attack, yet a figure appeared, eliciting a widening of my pupils for a fraction of a second before settling down.

Had it been her instincts that had caused her decision to take the exact same route I had? The question was burning a hole through me, but I pushed it deep within me.

With a yell, filled with every frustration within me, including all the unfairness that I felt, I conjured two long rods, with each palm holding one.

Around myself they twirled, causing some small motes of dust in the air to become agitated. The terrain around us had suffered from the combat, with the green grass destroyed to give way to soil, some of which had been stripped into the atmosphere to turn into the dust.

My gaze hardened as I gazed at my opponent. Even with all the power I felt within myself, there was still fear buried within the depths of my heart.

Before I could even begin a counterattack, my impromptu defense was penetrated instantly, with my hands falling into her palms, halting their speed.

Fear and terror took over me at that moment, with my spiritual energy almost becoming erratic in its flow. How had she bypassed the great defense of the rods? Her reaction speed wouldn't have been capable of that, unless... She had been capable of seeing through the defense, even with that fast movement!

Minor fractures developed within my arm bones the moment I was forcefully stopped, but I gritted my teeth and leaped back, having made sure that the silvery glint atop my combat suit had its particles arranged in a way that made them almost frictionless, allowing my arms to slip from her grasp.

"Be creative! My dear Lily! Do you really want to die that easily?!" She shouted while lunging towards me, kicking out, only for me to scramble out of the way in an unsightly manner.

The wind howled as a collection of daggers were discharged from my body through an omnidirectional attack that made it impossible to dodge without retreating. And I had made sure to fill every single one of them with enough spiritual energy such that even a knick was enough to start contaminating the body with radiation.

She retreated and I regained myself, though not before feeling a small bit of weakness brought on by the overdrafting of my core. But it was soon alleviated in merely a fraction of a second.

The short battle had taken a toll I could feel. It was weighing upon my mind. The body was fine though, as it was filled with inexhaustible energy, with fatigue being easily recovered from. Being pushed to limits I hadn't known existed had caused this. The brain cells were overworking themselves trying to pick out any weaknesses, or even the means of winning. Despair was on the verge of gripping me. I hadn't discovered anything that would allow me to win this battle!

"Weakness is a curse plaguing the Federation... Sitting around for decades, ordering about a bunch of lower realms has made you, and the others, weak!"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"The resolution to die with the enemy... The drive to give a battle your all... All these are being shackled by one simple thing, fear!"

I didn't dignify that with a response. War was the cause of loss. Battles to the death, bred generations of enmity. And cultivation made certain that it was possible to gain revenge if you were diligent and lucky enough. The Federation... To me, it was better.

And ever since ascending to the Core Formation, I hadn't engaged in battle, owing to the duties I had become entrusted with.

Plus, there was no battlefield capable of accommodating Core Formation and Nascent Soul combatants. Though, it was still a profound regret of mine that I hadn't atleast tried out the illusory combat simulations.

After that pause, the battle resumed, with the woman initiating the attack, while I struggled to keep up with her. She was a monstrous genius in the arts of battle, all pivoted upon her abnormal instincts. With every clash, I was coming out worse for wear.

I even started to develop the suspicion that she was holding back, as otherwise, I should have been dead by now!

I gritted my teeth even as I pushed myself. With my super heightened brain, pushed to its limits under the threat of death. My inadequacies were a glaring topic that would have made me blush in embarrassment if it had been any other time.

My opponent on the other hand, was having fun at my expense. There was a perpetual grin playing across her lips, occasionally matted by a tiny frown, though, only briefly. And these tiny wrinkles in her expression only came about when a tactic of mine failed, or was easily crushed by her.

It ate at me to the point that my voice started leaking out, and I started howling with every attack and grunting with every blow. The match up between wind and solid steel wasn't a particularly bad one. This battle conjured up memories of when I had faced people such as her during my time in the arenas. They were the people I had been particularly jealous of, those favored by fate. I had thought that after such a long time, it had gone away, but now, it seemed that I had been mistaken.

I felt something within myself. Because of oversaturation, my spiritual energy was sublimating. It had started to take over my body, replacing bone tissue with steel. For now, it was still mild, but if I kept up circulating the massive volume within me, the symptoms would pose a danger to my life. But I couldn't stop. It was the only way I was barely clinging to life. Though, becoming something like an energy life form wouldn't be ideal.

As I dug another farrow within the ground, the woman's attacks paused as she looked at me in puzzlement.

'What's her deal.'

Then her body suit started to ripple like liquid. At first, the ripples were small, but in a fragment of a second they became even more powerful until a hand poked out, casting a pale color upon my face.

'Two people!'

Someone had been hiding within the darkness?! Her spiritual energy fluctuations had been masking theirs?

"Skotadi, we had an agreement. You wouldn't interfere."

"Aethon! Do you really think I am a little child? How could I not have sensed that there is another close by?"

"I wanted that big fish to come out on their own."

'Someone else is here?'

I had been so taken in with the battle that I hadn't had the time to pick out any other energy fluctuations. But now that I had been alerted, I could sense them. At any other time, there was no way I could have missed a human pretending to be a rock, but within the beat of the battle, I had made such a careless mistake.

Who was it though? Reinforcements by that man? I couldn't breathe a sigh of relief until I confirmed that the person was on my side.

A metallic cry, the unsheathing of a sword, rang out in the atmosphere, agitating the chaotic spiritual energy.

Just that alone prompted the previous easygoing grin to be wiped off the Aethon's face. Her eyes widened for a moment before both her, and Skotadi's figures blurred, dodging in different directions, only for a chasm to open up where they had been standing before. Even I, just a few inches from where the slash had passed by, on my right side, had my heart in my throat. Just a few inches and I would have died without even a chance to react!

Then a person appeared by my side as if they had teleported. That was a speed far faster than even Aethon's! Could it be that her core was related to light?

Vibrant dark hair cascaded down the woman's back like a waterfall, but what truly captivated me was the sheathed sword on her left hip. It was resting within its hilt calmly, as if it had never been drawn before. Through my senses, I was certain that she was the same as me, at the Peak of Core Formation, yet she gave a threat that was greater than Aethon's.

This didn't mean that she was stronger than the other woman. Just that she didn't even bother to hide her edge. Then her eyes, a dark blue bordering on purple, turned to me.

Just a glance, yet all my instincts screamed at me to run, with my hair standing on end. I could feel killing intent! Hadn't she come to save me?

Without any further thought, I pumped energy into my feet, leaping away to a distance that I judged to be far enough to allow me some reaction should she decide to attack.