It was a hail of rocks and boulders for the creature. The earth beneath the thing rose and smashed brutally into the creature with fierceness. Unable to either move or retreat it screeched yet again its ears ringing.
Hildelith didn't even realize that the explosion from her arrow landing behind it had popped the things hearing.
Suffering various status effects and disoriented it could only thrash about.
Even so, she dared not near it. Instead, she acted from a distance.
The earth was her fists as lumps of rocks disconnected from the white ground saturated in a green glow to join the fellowship of stones smashing continuously into her enemy. The swiftness and balance of her body helped her speed as she moved from one earthen construct to the next making sure to stay out of sight.
It happened then.
She was fortunate without realizing it due to the creature's lack of sight. The Cloak of the One barely suppressed her presence but didn't manage to hide her totally since the shadows were non-existent. If she had used Form of Nothingness then maybe it would have been more effective. As it was she didn't doubt the Cloak to be effective.
If Hildelith had taken a closer look she would have realized one thing about this world. There was neither sun nor moon in the sky just a black stretch of nothing. Yet there was eternal light on the grounds of the world. Which meant no shadows for the Cloak to use.
A problem that she overlooked or just didn't know would be one. The creature hunting her lived by sound. Erasing her presence couldn't hide the shift of the sand or soil under her feet. Nor the slight push in the air around her body when she moved.
A creature made to hunt and kill yet handicapped without sight. The hearing was everything for it.
The status effects had long ended. It had merely been prolonging its act while sensing for her. For the first time, the creature displayed intelligence that alarmed Hildelith and those observing her. Showing proof that maybe, no mob in this game was dumb.
A gasp left her as it tore across the white ground headed straight for the earth construct towering up, a construct which she was about to land on. Hildelith landed tucking into a roll and stopping just as the thing arrived. Its tall, lean, and almost skeletal body showed great strength and resilience as it crashed right into the boulder shattering it.
Hilde acted without thinking. Raising another boulder instantly as she leaped from the falling pieces of her foothold. But she wasn't leaping to the new boulder. Her eyes watched as the thing slammed into the new one instantly eviscerating it.
She landed on the ground performing yet another roll to break her force then sprang up entering a dash like a devil was onto her for the city.
The creature attracted to the footfalls of her feet gave chase.
Hilde turned what should have been a rather straightforward run into a mess. Walls raised behind her to slow the thing down and some pillars rose in slants that she ran across and that went over the ground which she ran on.
The last piece of rock moved with a glow as her body perched on it and she urged it forward, letting it fly over the last patch of land and crash into the ground. Her body was flung off a good distance away bouncing on the grass and rolling to a stop.
There she lay looking up and finally noting the black sky. Her mind trying to patch the whys of how she'd been oblivious to that fact. A snarl got her attention back to important things like the hungry beast racing for her.
And she smiled. A devilish smile that most noticed.
"Who's hunting who now?"
Hildelith stood from the ground pulling away the will that activated the cloak letting her presence spill out into the white world. Her hands still aglow moved as the earth followed.
The creature was fast, not just in movement but in reaction. Its sense of hearing being so advanced to offset its lack of sight.
Yet that was its very doom.
The ground to its left tore apart prompting the creature to leap away to safety. Its feet barely touched the ground when a shock wave of electricity flooded its body sending volts of numbing energy through its body.
Beneath its feet, the cracked ground was shifted, little amounts of liquified lightning spilling on the floor.
The creature barely fought to detach its feet from the spot when an arrow crackling with energy slammed into its shoulder and carried it off the trap and a few meters back.
[+548 Damage]
The beast rolled about in the white grass shrieking as it spasmed from the normal arrow shot by Hilde. One that was powered by the true force of Bane Of Heroes.
The Bow didn't materialize arrows like Harbingers instead giving arrows the deadly power and strength to fell the mighty.
It had a catch though. One could only use it with both will and divinity, the will was like an activation switch while divinity flooded the strings of the bow. Finally, the damage was double the average Might and Abstract stat of its wielder due to the divinity flooding in.
She didn't wait though as she tugged on her Nothingness to form a portal. Black mists poured from her skin and formed a black sphere behind her, unlike the kind she was used to back in her universe. Luckily it did the same sucking in, tugging her through it and out the other side where she landed behind the best.
Another arrow sailed straight and rammed into its leg savaging the limb up.
A black putrid matter flowed from the creature as it wailed on the floor. Hilde crouched. Dismissed her bow and her palms were covered with black energy.
With its numerous spasms missing was possible. Using an explosive arrow could damage the other traps which left patience.
Or just action.
While she wanted to use this chance to move and get up a boulder Hilde felt the creature was simply trying to make her lower her guard.
Her speculation turned out to be right as it instantly sprang up. So sudden that she couldn't drop the flinch she had when it dashed for her at a speed that rivaled its former runs. Its wounds just seemingly forgotten. Her palms jerked upwards pointing at it.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
It ducked low but Hildelith was faster. Her right hand turned green losing the black energy around it. With a short hand jerk, the ground jutted, pushing up in sync with her right hand. The earth in the form of a spike nearly impaled the creature but hearing the slight rustle of the ground it jumped off the path and right into another lane.
Hilde took a step back and then unleashed a hand beam in its path. Like a blast of shadows, the thing was struck back. Its body fought the energy it had been hit with and even with her will to erase it the thing fought the energy.
"What are you?". The unknown had stood no chance against her. But this thing. It was different.
****
THIRD PERSON POV
"This was unnecessary". Haero muttered from the grasp of the dragon's claw.
"You were slow".
"I could have just ridden your back".
"You sound more like a Dream God". Haero glared and the dragon ignored. Light shone on them as they burst through the Nothingness. Sol the first reality in reach and sight.
The very light of Sol spread a rush of energy through Haero that he sorely needed. He grabbed a claw that held him in the dragon's grip and pried.
Molliwag looked a bit surprised. His eyes widening as he watched and felt his claw shift away. The giant fell away and mid-drop into the Divine realm his entire self burst into fire.
Flames shot out of his body in a projected direction pushing him downwards to the Sol faster. He was too fast and too close as such he crashed head-first. Rolling in a crooked tumble till he stopped on his face.
The sense of heat and flames blasting outwards told him the fucker had landed as well.
Molliwag stood uncomfortably on Sol. While the flames didn't hurt him as Haero would have intended it didn't feel pleasant either. His red eyes took on the large expanse of boiling and burning reactions. Explosions of incredible power in the distance and strolling beings of the very fire that burned in this world.
"Amazing".
The word seemed to calm Haero's annoyance as he followed Molliwag's line of sight. "Yeah. Isn't it". He nodded in agreement.
"As much as I'd love to take this credit. Tora made those".
"Tora?". Molliwag looked flabbergasted. "How?. Not mother. You are sure?".
"Yeah. If you look at them you can see her energy all over it. No one but mom controls the Akashic as well as that".
"Akashic. You mean..."
"Yes. Mother's force. We call her Akasha . So feels weird to refer to the magic as Akasha too".
Molliwag huffed. "I am guessing this force is prevalent everywhere," he asked. He could already remember the feeling he had that day. When a strange yet familiar force has pervaded him and Vaustaris.
'That was Akasha'.
"Mum said she made another her so she could always keep an eye on us all". Haero beamed proudly then seemed to frown as he wondered if that meant he was always being watched by Mom. Even now.
'What if she saw this and knows I and Mollie fought?'.
Molliwag felt a chill down his spine for some reason. A glance around showed nothing. Turning back to Haero he pondered.
"This Akasha what does she do?".
Haero tilted his head and then shrugged. Sitting he proceeded to explain everything he knew about Akasha.
"So basically she controls all of creation at the behest of Mother. Even more, she is this energy that can be used to tap into other forms of energies whether higher or lesser that is not tailored to one's race". He nodded his huge head slowly in appreciation.
"My Luminaries could benefit from this".
The look he got from Haero was suspicious and confused. "What's a Luminaries?".
"My Demi-mortals".
"What's a Demi-mortal?".
"Do you know nothing?" Molliwag asked with a huff. Seeing the blank gaze on Haero's face he was taken aback. "Mother must have considered you all too young to tell of it".
Seeing Haero's face already scrunching up he sighed and continued. "Not to worry. She didn't and might not have told me either. I found it myself".
"How?" His face was now excited and curious.
"Unlike you lot, I wasn't born in mother's bosom. I was ripped away and lost to creation. She found me earlier and brought me back home recently".
"Woooah". Haero's eyes sparkled. "So you're like a lost child, no a bastard child. No a..."
"Where do you get all that?".
"Akasha tells us stories. She thinks we don't know but we're quite aware she's teaching us while also keeping us busy whenever we're not cultivating. She already told us we could start cultivating when original mother figured it out".
Molliwag nodded. He didn't bother with questioning what cultivation was as he had seen it on his Akashic Records.
"So, Demi-mortals?". He turned to Haero who watched him like a hawk.
"Fine". He grumbled. "Mother created a world in the mortal realms as she calls it. There my children exist. Born from my flesh, bone, and blood. This is why they are emi-mortals. Mortals themselves are entities that are below even children. They are weak and of weak matter. Their skin and flesh are unlike ours".
Haero's eyes were wider as he listened.
"Mother made quite a lot of them and left them to do their own thing in the world". He shrugged.
"Let's go see". Haero was on his feet excitement palpable. Molliwag took a good look at him and shrugged.
"I did want to check on my Luminaries and teach them about this Akashic energy too. Let's go".
Haero rushed for his foot attempting to hold on. Molliwag stepped away and rested a wing. "Get up my back. If anyone is worthy of being there it's family ".
Haero grinned and rushed up the wing unaware of the emotional moment.
****
THIRD PERSON POV
Even then a smile blossomed as it dashed after her surprisingly ignoring its deconstructing and reconstructing body. She spun and dashed off. A black portal appeared in front of her. Vanishing and reappearing back in her former position before she portaled here.
"Two can play tricks" She spun and with a flare of phys-emission she grabbed the beast. It was like trying to scoop up an egg yoke with bare hands. She grunted and the thing was ripped off the ground and flung midair. Crashing right in front of her in the first of her traps.
The earth parted as the creature's body touched the ground creating a chasm beneath it. It evaded only for a crank of gears to make it halt, a whistle in the wind gracing its senses.
The sudden heat and then the searing pain of melting as molten lava gushed out a geyser in the ground and bathed it while the two useless darts stabbed into the ground maddened the thing
Hilde smirked at the trap. The breaking ground was meant to make it move to either the right or left. It never mattered which as both sides had the geysers. The darts were inconsequential, merely distractions she didn't know would work so well at the time since she hadn't realized that it could hear even projectiles. The main factor was tbe ejection mechanism attracting it. Stopping it long enough for the geysers to work.
Hilde about now had already mastered the damned beast. It felt pain alright but never for longer than shown. It used its injuries to draw a false feeling of safety in its enemy. Then struck when the back was turned.
Cunning, fast, and deadly.
'This thing was bred for slaughter ' Hilde realized.
"Can't give it a second to breathe." Activating the bow, its string lighting up with a gold blaze and the wood vibrating with a dull frequency right before the arrow notched unto it vanished.
A little wave of dispersing wind from the shot fluttered her now dirtied gown.
The creature froze realizing it had been seen through. But it was too late no matter how quick it was to react. It could hear the arrow but it was too close to know its direction. The wind spoke of its location but not its direction and before it could move out of the known path in the little time it had to figure things out the arrow struck home.
[Critical Hit]
[+560 Damage]
Slotted right where an eye or eyes should have been the thing was thrown back and sprawled out panting in the grass. More black blood seeped out of the new head wound.
"Hey, I know you can hear me. Stop feigning and attack me like the true monster you are". Her voice loud and audacious carried into its ears. It was much better when it was the dangerous beast she had met in the forest, rather than this cunning version.
It snapped up instantly making Hildelith wonder if it understood her. She wasn't yet sure if taunting worked in this game.
Then it moved.
Hilde, though, saw something different.
"Either it is less powerful or it is attempting to deceive me," Its slower, staggered gait caused her to narrow her eyes.
"Let's find out"
The girl plucked off the ring-shaped blades from her belt. Xena's Chakram.
"Time to see what you are " Nothingness Saturation melded the energy of nothing into the blades. Her abstract followed and her eyes shut as a basic understanding flowed as expected into her head. Done assimilating and nitpicking the parts her eyes opened and locked on the creature.
It felt the gaze. Knowing the moment things had turned. If before it had been coping with the attacks, now it knew differently. Things had changed. A barely imperceptible shiver ran over it. It knew at that moment it was the prey No, it had always been the prey.
She threw the chakram at its face and simultaneously pulled out an arrow. A common one.
Bane of Heroes vanished and returned to the inventory while in its place weaved into its form was tbe Harbinger.
"It's over".