As they took shelter within a shallow cave, Gwendith stared at the cloud-covered skies. Lightning danced amongst the clouds and was beset by a feeling of foreboding. Snow suddenly started falling, which quickly turned to hail.

Ptak! Ptak! Ptak!

The ice shattered against the barren rocks around the cave mouth, but most of the hail was actually absorbed by the thick layer of snow blanketing the Vallavega Pass. From the looks of it, the snowstorm would last for hours yet.

“What do you want to do?” Heron asked.

“Eh?”

“Logically, we should shelter for a while—” it was already night and the Pass was dark even without the clouds obscuring the stars and the Luminous Moon “—but…I feel we need to go.”

“I agree,” Gwendith said through gritted teeth.

Fighting against the weather was foolish since the odds were stacked against them, and even if they won, the rewards were nonexistent. If they lost, they might lose their lives in the worst case, but more likely was that they would be stranded somewhere. But even so, with the Levitation spell and Heron’s air platforms, there would always be a way out.

“Then, let’s go,” Heron said decisively.

“What? We’re leaving so soon?” Devotee complained, but even so, Gwendith saw that the Chaos Lord had not removed his backpack.

“Yes,” Heron answered. “I’ve a bad feeling.”

“If you say so. Master commanded me to obey, so lead on.”

“Thanks.”

Gwendith spread her Anima and touched falling snow and hail. The latter had just started to weaken, while the flurries from the wind grew stronger. Soon enough, it was nearly impossible to see the path.

Saki took the lead this time. The darkness was no impediment to her Ennoia, and somehow, she was able to sense the path. Still, it meant that they moved slower than normal, and it took half the night to cross the remaining distance. She warded away exhaustion by cycling her Anima around her body, but even so, about half of her external reserves had been consumed by the time they descended the path.

“There’s the blockade,” Heron said, his eyes glowing blue with his Animus. “But…I think we can slip through easily enough.”

Gwendith couldn’t help but agree. Their buildings were snowed in, and there were no patrols out during the cold night. There were some lights illuminating the fortress, but most of the soldiers were huddling inside. Well, probably, since she couldn't see anyone.

Still, the fortress was built on the narrow part of the pass, and the wall blocked the passage. “We can either fly up or cross the wall.” Gwendith decided.

“Let’s take to the skies,” Heron suggested. “Nobody’s looking up.”

Gwendith would have thought that somebody could have seen them and raised the alarm, but the crossing was smooth. And as soon as they were through the blockade, nothing was stopping them from reaching Yuriko.

The foreboding Gwendith felt only grew worse, however, and the lighting storm continued unabated.

__________

Ptag! Swish! Crack!

Sunblades clashed against the beastman’s electric orbs, and they exploded into sparkles. Yuriko had allowed the Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords to guide the defence, but he was able to read the patterns after a while. They had been clashing for hours and she was sure it was close to midnight. Her glowing Anima was the only source of light aside from the lightning aura around him.

She wasn’t sure where she was, but the beastman had been pushing her east. She evaded and struck back, flew towards the north, west, and south, but he was fast. She couldn’t shake him off.

She wasn’t sure if he was toying with her, but he never went for the kill. He tried to disable her by striking at her limbs, but after the first time he almost tore her leg off, she used her Radiant Elemental Form to recover. Well, she also used it to create a dozen Radiant Lances to fling at him, and the resultant explosions wounded him heavily through his Domain.

There was little doubt that he had one. It had a different feeling than what Jiro Segawa and Iola Brygos’ had, but she reasoned that it was because his was a different flavour. Jiro had a Water Domain, while Iola had Crystal. This beastman had Lightning, or maybe Storm, considering he was able to manipulate the clouds above. Lighting, clouds, rain, winds…he manipulated the Elements easily, and he was slowly wearing her down.

She could easily slip into her Radiant Elemental Form to negate wounds, but it depleted her Radiant energy reserves. And she could only keep up the form for half a second at a time. She kept her Adamant Guardian Seal ready but hadn’t had the occasion to really use it to her advantage. None of his attacks were big enough to leave an opening if she successfully defended. Instead, it was the constant probing, both with elemental attacks, and verbal taunting, coupled with a few close-quarter attacks, that kept her on her toes.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Well, metaphorically on her toes since they kept the fight to the skies.

Huh. Right where his lighting had the advantage, right? Why did she insist on this?

She could see his smirk as he showered her with lighting bolts that she deflected with her sunblades. He always stood above her as though asserting his dominance. She could feel his static electricity persisting in its body invasion, and she couldn’t do much about it except divert some of her consciousness to control her Radiant energy to counter. Her Terror Mien flared every now and then, and at least that caused the man to falter long enough for her to avoid a direct hit.

Guardian of Ishodir.

That’s what he introduced himself as. Well, boasted about while taunting her. Always taunting.

Yuriko’s teeth ground against each other when she realised that her thoughts were being diverted again. Also, she hadn’t done anything other than basic strikes and Radiant Lance ever since the battle started…what was wrong with her?

“Rotter!”

She dove towards the ground but had to pull up and dodge to her left when she was shot with lighting arrows.

“Where are you going~? Come back~”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Thwack! Ptang!

Another two arrows were deflected by the sunblade she held. Her flying swords were diminished to just three hundred as the Guardian kept destroying the others. She was barely able to keep that much active by conjuration.

“Radiant Bolt!” Yuriko yelled out and blasted the basic spells from her fingertips.

“Useless~”

“Tsk.”

Thud!

She landed heavily on the ground, her legs and feet somewhat numbed. She lunged to her right.

Brakoom!

Just in time to dodge a lightning bolt.

She risked spreading her perception aura, and immediately felt the increased incursion from the static electricity. She pulled back as soon as she could, her limbs tingling once again, but at least she had a good overview of the terrain.

She pushed towards a ravine, dodged another couple of lighting bolts, and dove inside.

“Where are you going~?”

Zap! Boom!

The lightning struck the edge and collapsed some earth, but neither lightning nor soil reached her. She shaped her Anima around her body like a drill and dove into the earth. By spinning her Animakinetic force, she moved through the loose earth and stone like sand taking less than a minute to dig several paces into the hillside.

“What do I do?” she muttered to herself. She could feel the Storm Domain intensify its focus into the earth, then she felt the frost creep downwards as it fought the heat her Radiant-infused Anima gave out. “Ah, he’ll locate me that way.” She dug deeper into the earth even as she furiously made more sunblades.

If only she could fuse more than three blades at a time! Perhaps she’d be able to cut deeper into the rotter’s flesh! She had no Eli’Theria to even the odds, and even with Fri’Avgi she couldn’t bridge the gap of two levels.

What could she do?

Boom! Boom!

Thick bolts of lightning slammed into the ground several dozen paces above her. Lightning worms wriggled into the soil, and somehow, she knew those things would find her and…they’d probably force her to surface. Where was she? She didn’t even know how far she flew.

Yet, despite the danger, despite the desperation, she couldn’t help but feel the thrill of the challenge. She could feel her Intent and Will slowly grow, and her Anima, once it recovered, might jump several paces in reach.

Deadly battle, powerful challenges…it seemed that the way to grow stronger, faster, but the danger and risk may not be worth it in the end. She was gambling terribly here, even if this hadn’t been exactly her idea.

No, who was she kidding? She joined the Reclamation Army because she was bored, so this was entirely on her. Still, she had to find a way to even the odds or simply escape.

She continued to dig through the earth, heading west and north. The lighting blasts followed her movement, and since she was moving far slower than if she were flying through the air, the rotter didn’t have any trouble keeping up. If she flew, she would be subjected to his control, but if she didn’t, she’d eventually be exposed.

What to do?

Boom!

The lighting blast reached within a few paces of her. The distance between her and the surface was lower now, as she realised she was moving off the hill.

She was back to a thousand sunblades, but was it enough? If she merged them by threes, she might stand a chance.

She did so while moving deeper into the earth. A couple of minutes later, the booming ceased, and she wondered if the rotter had given up. Her digging abruptly threw her into an underground cavern.

It wasn’t too big, but she could see the tunnel that led outside. And if she saw that, there was…

“There you are~”

Torrents of lightning flowed into the cavern from the tunnel, and Yuriko cursed. She could go back into the earth, but the beastman was already there!

“Come here~!”

This time, the Guardian lunged for her, hands outstretched and claws gleaming.

“Die!” Yuriko yelled and she swung her merged sunblade.

But that wasn’t all that attacked. The thousand blades she made had been fused together three by three, dropping the number to three hundred thirty-three. There was barely any room within the cavern for all of them, and they collided with the rotter’s defences.

“Argh!”

The sunblade she held slammed into the man’s claws. The other sunblades stabbed into his back. But the Domain around him constricted and built walls of lightning, which soon turned into familiar plasma. The burning heat from the collision spread explosively, and the next thing she knew, the cavern’s ceiling erupted and the walls and floor had turned to magma.

The beastman reeled back from her blow, and there was a cauterised wound across his palm.

It suddenly occurred to her: was this man even a Magi? He was too tough to be one, yet he was able to cast several spells to disrupt her movements earlier.

What was the Guardian?

“Ah~ So naughty!”

“Shut up!” Yuriko roared.

She flung more sunblades at him, reasoning that if the several dozen failed to hurt, then she needed to throw more. It looked like it was working as the beastman dodged away. With the cavern’s ceiling blown off, he escaped to the skies.

What should she do? His Storm Domain was similar to her Anima reach. Everything within it that wasn’t under his control was weakened. Her Anima was pressed down, and could barely function as it should, and her sunblades weren’t damaging him quickly enough. Already, the man had turned himself into Elemental Lightning to recover his wounds.

The area around him was replete with Lightning Elemental energies, and it fed into his power. As long as he had that, it was nearly impossible for her to get the upper hand.

So why don’t you change that? Fri’Avgi’s voice sounded in her mind.

Yuriko blinked in confusion for a second before she realised what the artefact spirit wanted to say. Then she grinned and called the greatsword to hand.

Then she tore apart the fabric of reality and let Chaos inside.