Scooping up the princess, Inero-ie ran down the mountain with a speed that had Cile question why they had been moving so slowly until now but as she saw her surroundings blur by as he jumped from one outcropping to the next, she knew the reason. She did not have the skills to keep up with him.

He did not flatter or become unbalanced despite the massive jumps he was leaping. It was like his body would stick to the ice the moment his feet came into contact with the spikes that were everywhere. The journey that would have taken four to five hours with their previous speed was suddenly completed but not even a quarter of an hour had passed.

His Threads were scouring the area, searching and once he found a suitable spot, he gently placed her on the ground. “Please wait for my return and do not stop the Melding,” he controlled the hair-thick structure created by consolidating nearly a thousand Threads. Once the message was passed, the structure unraveled and the Threads separated once again while he rushed towards the task he had been assigned.

Once he closed in, within the time it would take to blink, the scene was created within his mind down to the last detail and he corrected his path.

He would not be fighting, not against those numbers when he was without an armor suit, not when he had to bring the princess back safely. It would have been a different story if he had been alone. He could not sense any with power equalling First Shedding so even without the armor suit, he could face off against them. But that would create the risk of dying. He could not die, returning the princess took priority over his own desire.

He could feel the Qi reserves dipping as he neared but it was within limit. He still had enough to follow the plan and still return back to the princess.

As his Threads invaded the armor suit to deduce the condition of the pilot, he discovered something intriguing. More and more Threads gathered, and he quickly memorized the formations engraved on the outermost layer. He would consider it as a payment to save the harvester.

The harvester had already been surrounded by the time he got there and though he piloted the armor suit with skill, it was not enough to break through the encirclement. The massive ice monsters would take turns hitting the armor suit and the harvester would hit back, slowly the armor incurred more and more damage, resulting in its mobility slowing down.

‘They are playing with him,’ or rather the Specter was playing with him. Monsters did not have the tendency to play with humans, they only had an unquenchable hatred, a hatred so intense that they never had the thought of doing what was playing out in front of him right now.

The encirclement slowly tightened and as the space grew tighter and tighter, more desperate the harvester became but despite his valiant attempt, what could one do against many? But despite the worsening situation, Inero-ie could not sense any desperation from the harvester piloting the armor suit. 'Does he have anything to rely on?'

Once again he scanned the armor suit and found a pair of guns but much smaller and much more bulky. They were hidden inside the metallic arms and they were connected directly to a secondary Refined Core, though of a much lower grade. A Refined Core solely made to power the guns, he did not need anything else to guess their power.

'Thankfully he is sensible,' even normal guns were problematic to use outside the safety of Grand Formation. The moment something that powerful was used, it would attract everything, even those things that he had sensed.

'Good thing I came,' then he resumed running, his presence hidden by Melding with ever present darkness, smoothly moving among the rampaging giants, ever aware of even the slightest moment, to the degree it appeared as though he could predict the future. Not long after, he climbed one of the monsters, quickly arriving next to the crystalline sphere he had sensed, the specter. It had attached itself to the monster, making itself completely undetectable by the sensory devices of the armor suits.

Even though Inero-ie was standing next to it, the specter showed no awareness, still in the midst of playing with the invader.

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

Inero-ie sat down next to it, thinking about how to deal with this situation. He had to help save this guy and without any fight. The sea of Threads had already hijacked the Threads of the specters and then slowly spread further until all of the monsters were in range. Next, his Qi, carefully controlled, exited the Threads and for the monster and specters that were as dependent on Qi senses as humans were on their eyesight, quickly had their attention caught. An illusion was created.

As he had not really done anything like this before, it was crude but what he did have experience in was messing with the senses of the specters. Its Threads already hijacked, he changed what it could sense, creating a false reality. The monsters had no choice but to follow the specter and other than a few that were left behind to kill off the harvester, rest left to chase after the illusion that Inero-ie had created for them.

The monster had strides befitting their massive size and soon the sound of harvester fighting with the few left off monsters disappeared, replaced by the ever present howls of winds and shattering of ice shrapnels. Inero-ie waited beside the specter who was still unaware, still chasing after an illusion of a group of harvesters that it could never catch.

While he waited for sufficient distance to be created, he prepared himself.

There was a reason he was waiting to destroy the specter. At this moment they were still not far enough, the moment he destroyed the specter, and the monsters were released from its control, there was a possibility they would rush back, ‘no they will rush back, it is not that good afterall.’ He did not have the skill to muddle the senses of these merciless monsters that were filled with nothing but hatred. He had never had any reason to try that before.

***

A grating sound reverberated through the air as the monster suddenly made noises of confusion, the illusion had disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. The sounds capable of making the body shiver continued ringing in the surroundings.

His closed eyes opened, he was ready now and they were far enough.

His palm hovered above the spherical crystal, just a few inches from touching it. At this moment the Qi was circulating inside his body with furious speed. The current was intense and if his control over it loosened, it would rip his Qi circuits, then his body. Slowly he gathered himself, diverting the power towards his palm, then his index finger, gathering it there. Once the whole flood was pressing toward his index finger, his index finger moved forwards, a brief touch.

All tension was removed as the tsunami gushed out the moment his finger touched the spherical crystal. Immediately after, he jumped, body spinning through the air, avoiding the sudden spiky protrusion that tried to rip a hold in his small and feeble body. The air was shredded, pushed back, as massive limbs of the monsters tried to flatten, slash, splash, spear him. All kinds of appendages and limbs were headed towards him.

Not a ripple spread across his face, not a single sign of happiness. If he wanted, his desire was but a moment away. He could die if he just stopped trying but that was not the path he had chosen so he continued resisting.

Qi started circulating once again, his body strained from the pressure but he endured, this was one thing he could do best. His body rotated, barely avoiding the sharp appendaged that was going to rip a massive hole in his body.

Being so small, it was almost effortless to avoid it. His hands moved, latching onto the sharp appendage, from there jumping from one appendage to another, until he dived deep into the icy surface. He rushed deeper inside without stopping and behind he could sense the ice shattering. He forcefully sped up, just barely avoiding the force from impact.

***

Up on the surface, the monster kept rampaging but did not care for it, now that he was this deep under the surface all their rampage was of no use. Instead focusing inwards to recover from the stress he had placed on his body.

Hours passed and the monsters started dispersing, slowly, one at a time. Now that he had recovered, he slowly moved through the ice leaving behind the monsters still on the surface. Only after he was a few kilometers away from the place did he come out to the surface. As he made the return journey, he kept massaging his right arm which was in blinding pain but his finger was completely limp, unable to even twitch. It was the after effect of the abuse arm had been through.

***

Corpses of five monsters littered the ground once he returned, while the harvester was already gone. Threads spread across the area and his face twisted into an ugly frown, the first time his face had moved during this whole journey. The bodies had massive holes, without a single crash and as he examined, he still found traces of the Qi that had caused it.

This was why he hated using guns, especially outside. He stood still, focusing on sensing the world and the hoard had now almost reached this place.

He ran towards the place where he had dropped off the princess. If she had not been with him, if he had not agreed to safely bring her back, if he had not made a contract with her, it would have been a happy occasion but because he had made those promises, this situation was both urgent and dangerous.