Inevitable. Something that was bound to happen now or in the future, something that could be delayed but not stopped.
Shhaaaa…
Spin. Diagonal Upward cut. Crack crack
Shaaaa!
The wind rushed in to fill the vacuum created by his swings only to be blown away by the consecutive strikes that followed. The cut was so clean that not a single crack spread from the point of cut.
Turn—diagonal downward slash.
Nothing changed. What he wanted to achieve still kept getting farther away with each new strike.
Just three strikes and his core and heart felt like exploding, the beat of his heart as intense as the noise produced by the pillars as they fell.
Crash boom crash
Pant…
Huff… huff…. Huff…
Inhale….
Exhale…
Pain spread from his heart to the rest of his body.
Stumble…
Fall.
Boom
The ground shook when the armor fell.
Sitting cross-legged, he started meditating. Just trying to apply the Law squeezed out quite a lot of Qi from him. Despite having practiced for quite some time, he could not manage the destabilization that resulted from the sudden decrease in Qi.
It had to be calmed down.
Time flew by while Inero-ie worked on correcting the stabilizing the core and keeping the Qi under his control.
***
Buzz buzz buzz
'Already?'
A hulking armor moved with agility unbefitting its size. Not a single sound occurred from its steps as it headed towards the mine.
'Hum…'
Siii
Blade equipped and ready to strike. His cuts started becoming slower while the power behind them also decreased. The result was immediate, the amount of Qi consumed as he applied the laws similarly kept decreasing.
'?'
He changed his direction, circling the thing that had been picked by the scanner. There was no reason to fight. It would only cause more monsters to be attracted, not a situation he wanted to be stuck inside in his current state.
A ringing sound. It was minuscule but was picked up by the threads, it was a sound he was familiar with.
The armor sped up suddenly, a slight vibration spreading out from each step.
Tingggg
Threads uncoiled and swayed up and down in front.
'Silk?'
He had broken one. He adjusted the scanner to lower frequencies and started moving aimlessly in the same place, waiting for it to come closer.
He had to finish it quickly before any more monsters arrived.
Sharp and crisp. The ringing sound only got louder. It was near.
He slowed. It neared. He stopped. It neared. He waited while monitoring the scanner, his threads ready to latch onto the monster.
'Now!'
As the massive centipede moved from one pillar to another, he started strolling again.
Closer closer closer…
Closer closer clos–
A leftward burst of propulsion. Swing.
Coiling around the pillar, the centipede attacked, the layers sealing its mouth unfolded, and a spray of wire-thin needles headed towards him. Downward propulsion. The needles bore holes through the pillars.
Jump. Downward swing, booster drastically accelerating the swing speed. A kick.
It crawled up the pillar.
Gravity dragged him down. Downward propulsion.
Hundreds of kilograms of weight fell upon its back. It barely swayed its head avoiding being splattered due to the weight.
Swing. Arm propulsion.
Dissection.
Boom!!
At least now he did not have to guess where its core was.
A jump. A swing.
The blade cut through the pillars, bisecting the centipede into two. He caught the glowing half. Its inside was instantly frozen and shattered as he tore out the core.
The armor resumed the journey back, slicing through the webs that had been weaved in the surroundings.
***
The space opened up as he neared the base of the hill. All the pillars had been leveled to the ground.
On the hill face was a dome. The temperature kept increasing with each sealed gate he passed through until he was finally inside the dome.
Returning to his room he sat cross-legged, meditating until it was time for his shift.
***
It was quite as it normally was.
The general data feed showed no abnormalities so he moved on to each sensor. A web of sensory devices had been weaved in the surroundings that would inform about any activity that took place in the vicinity of the mine.
Sensors were also normal.
He started going through the older data like he had been doing for the past two weeks since he had arrived. Matching the new and old data showed no abnormalities.
"Senior, here are the reports."
A nod.
"Is there any need to be so serious senior? Nobody besides you bothered working so hard here."
He started going through them.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
This was a quiet place as it was located inside the Core Barrier. It would have been a different story if it was in the Mid Barrier or beyond. But it mattered not to him where he was. A mission was no different from an oath and he would do his best to fulfill it.
***
The data feed turned red highlighting the areas that had been breached. He checked the holograms and a pack of Ice Wolves was shown wandering closer to the dome.
The artificial spirit calculated their expected paths.
Outside the dome.
Aim. He waited atop a pillar. Unlike the Silk Centipede, the scanner had long since picked up the wolves, noisier as they were compared to the centipede. It was easy to lock on them.
Aim. Zoom…
He waited, a path without any obstruction became visible through the scope. Fire.
Howl!!!
Crash.
Turn. Aim. Fire. Repeat.
Some dodged, some were hit, their legs destroyed, massively constructing their mobility. He thinned them out some more and then jumped off the pillar. He had to test this armor, Fria-al had made massive improvements to it and he wanted to check its limit.
It would be important when he would be creating the new armor.
Blade equipped.
Qi threads moved, five created a rough sphere while the remaining five latched onto the targets.
A dance ensued.
The remaining five wolves launched, their maws filled with razor-sharp and hardened ice.
A spin. A step forward, downward slash. A step backward, leftward punch. A squat, kick. A jump, downward stab. A burst of speed, breaking out. A sudden stop, rotating horizontal slash.
They rushed at him again despite the injuries. He let himself be surrounded and waited as they rushed to tear him to pieces.
He waited. He waited even when their claws swung towards him.
'!'
A jump.
Crash crash crash
A downward stab. A leg cut off. Stab into an upward slash. Another leg cut off.
A downward thrust.
Howl!!!
Slash. Slash. Slash. With its legs cut off, it lay there, its head snapping at the empty air. Rest of its companion had retreated limping, barely able to stand, their growls reverberating through the air.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
'She doesn't disappoint…'
This armor had performed remarkably despite the minimum exertion from him. The amount of power he could squeeze was exceptional considering his current condition. She really had advanced even further.
But it also meant it would be difficult to die.
A horizontal slash.
Evade and spin.
Another slash.
A light jump.
A kick at a wolf's mouth.
A downward stab.
Evade.
The remaining wolves tried to retreat but that could not be allowed. Whimpers soon echoed as he rushed at them.
Huff… huff huff huff…
Stab on the ground.
Equipping the rifle, he fired at their legs, his threads informing him of their exact location.
Picking the blade he rushed at the howling wolves.
The threads penetrated one layer of insolation after another searching for their bodies for the cores.
Punch. Shatter.
The metallic hand of the armor tore through the layers and ripped out the core. As soon as that happened, its whimpers stopped.
A trial of broken shards spread as he dragged the bodies towards the dome.
This armor really was amazing. Despite having spent a lot more resources on the last armor, this one did almost everything better.
He stopped outside the door and squatted on the frozen ground. Picking a smaller blade, he started taking off the ice plates that covered their bodies and protected them from harm.
One layer, then the next.
He stopped. It looked nothing like the massive monstrosity that it had been just a moment ago. Below many many layers, all that remained was a small thing. He checked the hole he had torn into its body, thankfully sealed off by the cold temperature.
[So small… by the way. Senior, I was waiting for you inside. You made me worry.]
Silence. He would rather be locked away in solitude.
[Senior, I still can't understand… How come such small cores can allow such massive bodies to move.]
Silence.
A few moments passed and another wolf was skinned.
Silence.
[Senior?]
Silence.
[Senior?]
While skinning the corpse, he thought about how he could send this person away. If he did not, he would have a headache from his constant chatter. A thing came to his mind and he shared the book he used when he was still a novice.
[Well this is okay too, I guess. Thank you, senior.]
Thankfully, the silence returned. Only the sound of winds and the dragging of skinned corpses.
[Senior, will you take the cores like always?]
A nod.
[Okay.]
With the skinning over, he sat with his back a lot the door and started meditation. Raw Qi surged and converged toward him causing the surroundings to dim while the temperature dropped further as the cold and dark aspect of Qi gathered around him, trying to rush in and overwhelm him.
‘Qi really is tame in here.’
It was a delicate process. A single mistake and the unrefined Qi would rampage through his body spreading as much destruction as possible. Like everything else in this world, the Qi too was filled with animosity towards the humans. It was only because he was inside the Grand Formation that he was doing the meditation and absorbing the natural Qi instead of the processed Qi from a refined core.
In his current state, absorbing any natural Qi even from the Mid Barrier would result in his core shattering to pieces and his body exploding from the ravaging Qi. A miserable and painful death.
But death indeed.
'Maybe I should just mess it up– no!'
He suppressed the dark thoughts as deeply as he could.
***
With a sharp icicle, Inero-ie swung at the armor plates he had skinned from the wolves.
Stab– crack
Stab– crack
Stab– crack
Stab– crack
Stab– crack
Shattered armor plates kept increasing.
Inevitable could not be stopped but it could be delayed.
It was inevitable that the plates would shatter due to the force behind his strike but he wanted to delay that inevitable outcome.
The progress was slow. Just a few strikes and the Qi consumption would force him to stop. It was a constant repetition of sequence: strike, meditate, strike, meditate and repeat.
Buzz buzz buzz
Crack
The armor stood up, its movement not matching its bulky size. After piling the remaining plates, he returned inside to rest.
Out of the armor, he sat cross-legged on the ground. His but trembled, cracking sounds echoing in the empty room. It really was empty, the only thing on the note, his armor. The cracking sound kept worsening and the spasms worsened. It reached a degree where his arms would move by themselves causing him to fall down but despite what was happening he did not open his eyes. He kept operating the spell.
***
Swing– Shaaa– Crack
Swing– Shaaa– Crack
Swing– Shaaa– Crack
It had been four weeks without a slither of progress. It always felt like it was just a touch away but no matter what he did, the answer always alluded his grasp.
'Why am I even doing this?'
Did he care about it? He surely did not. What did it matter whether or not he could use the law, if anything, he was happy with not being able to use it. He wished he would not succeed–
He quickly suppressed such thoughts, It had been a while since they had started leaking out despite the tight control.
He had made a promise so he would do everything to complete it, even if it meant he would become stronger, even if it meant he would survive for longer, even if it meant he would be further away from death.
He would not break it, no matter how miserable it made him feel.
'I shouldn't have–'
He hated being here. He should be out there surrounded by danger from outside. At least it forced his brain to stop thinking when the slightest mistake could cause death.
Buzz buzz buzz
It was time again. He dragged his body to do his work. It too had become a routine; check the data feeds, make routine patrols inside and outside the mine, make sure no monsters were gathering around the surroundings, and remove any monsters that breached the parameter.
Complete the shift, train, rest, and train. Rinse, repeat.
Time passed.
***
Fifth week. No results.
Sixth week. Still no result.
This operation was near the end but the feeling still escaped his grasp. He had read how difficult it was there but only now could he accurately grasp the difficulty.
Maybe he could get help from someone. If he asked the doctor or Fria-al for advice they would surely give it to him. But no.
He would keep trying his best. If it worked, good. It would pair well with his Dao. If it did not, even better.