Ethola P.O.V.
“The officials have left; we just need to hold on for thirty breaths. Then we leave. All together now. He is coming.”
The entire group started to prepare themselves to fight as one. The lustrum formation, artifacts with a dedicated healer, our best bet against powerhouses.
‘We just need to give young master enough time. The officials will report us after twenty breaths.’
“You can only go so far in a land where our influence is rejected, brother.” Blitz spoke setting up his axe for a fight.
“The greedy sleazebags took a quarter of our collected funds. That will be a nice retirement fund. Not sorry that their political careers are over after this.” Corin stated coldly.
“Focus! He is coming. Beris on standby.”
‘Just thirty breaths.’
SWISH!
One massive kinetic energy slash reached our formation. A twenty-four cubits’ distance.
Alor and Piska blocked the attack with the aid of our combined artifacts and energy. Corin fired several arrows to slow him down.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Alor and Piska split taking on the next two slashes absorbing the energy with their shields. Blitz took the brunt of the third with his axe. Blitz weapon only managed to create a deflection. A nearby building received the deflected energy slash.
The edifice crumbled into pieces. Burying whoever was inside with no time to scream. The passersby began to scream and runaround like mad out of fear.
“Ahh!” “Cultivator!” “Help!” “War, war is here!”
“Watch out for that katana!” Beris screamed as he poured energy into our party members.
Corin fired some more.
ZIIING! ZIIING! ZIIING! ZIIING! ZIIING!
“Soul Core demonic!” Blitz warned the group maintaining formation.
We were a whole realm down, compensating with artifacts and formations. The guy got close, close enough for a brawl, almost.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Corin and I, joined the Blitz deflection team. Some slashes absorbed, others deflected. More buildings and structures crashed down or simply evaporated into nothing. More wild screaming from the people.
‘The easterner ogre cares nothing for our rules, you are not supposed to destroy wantonly on a neutral field! He is incensed.’
“He doesn’t care about rules! Be careful!” I gave the order as the group surrounded him.
“His slashes can be illusions!” Warned Corin.
The area wide underground formation fully activated.
‘The orgon filled formation will restrain him considerably.’
All of us charged simultaneously, all we needed to do was to give young master time.
In unison, our cores exploded into action.
“SPHORIA!”
“Gaichū!”
The proud rogue motioned for us to come at him.
----------------------------------------
Ikrei P.O.V.
Stopping our lightning fast dash, we arrived at a chaotic scene.
“What do we do?” I was very worried.
‘Krigsain is reckless sometimes but this was really out there.’
“We wait for an opening to charge through, Ixur is inside that fake portal gate.”
Krigsain’s red eyes were scanning the surroundings.
“AAHHH!” “HELP!” KNIGHTS!” “KNIGHTS!”
“Charge through? See that fight! Come on friend, get real!” I rebuked my crazy ringleader.
“The knights are probably going to bring one of their head knights here. Forty breaths, maybe. Ixur needs help now, the cultivator will destroy the gate to free her, but if he does she might get injured considerably. She is already fighting inside.”
Krigsain took out another couple of the strange artifacts. They started glowing. Two golden looking pins.
“You want to go in? Malaktaraf barrier style, right?!”
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“Quick as always, Ikrei.” He placed one of the new pins on me.
‘Insane, this is insane!’
“We are charging in on the count of four!” Krigsain shouted loud enough for all people around a few blocks to hear.
One more strong shoulder grab later we dashed madly through the edges of the destructive battle. We evaded heavy debris. The pins activated protecting us from some unknown force that wanted to suck all of our internal energy.
Needless to say the accompanying scream could not be missed. We were a blaringly profound red blur.
“AAAHHH!”
We were suctioned inside the portal gate.
----------------------------------------
URGWHOH!
The massive headache made me dizzy.
We crashed an already ongoing three-way. Ixur was evading, dashing and escaping a furious tag team.
‘Those flames are beautiful.’
SWISH! CLANG! BOOOM! SWISH! CLANG! BOOOM! SWISH! CLANG! BOOOM!
“She will tire soon; we are diving in.”
With no time to react a final blur push straight into the dragon’s mouth. Krigsain threw at least a couple of dozens of coin shaped artifacts. We crashed right next to the great consort’s position.
A spherical Will infused barrier manifested around us.
DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG!
The mad flurry of attacks started to bounce off the defense.
“You are here! You are here!” Ixur’s happiness could not be hidden.
“Concentrate all your energy in soul communing with me! We need to keep the barrier up for as long as possible!” He ordered Ixur in a hurry.
I was still wondering what my role was in all of this when ringleader spoke again.
“Thank you brother, really.”
“Really? They’ll breakthrough you know.” I countered.
“Help is already here thanks to you.”
PHOW!
My raucous friend knocked me out flat. My head didn’t have the time to spin.
----------------------------------------
Surlayn P.O.V.
“What is this crazy one doing bolting out like that?”
I followed them closely, no matter how special, the chosen one was, is or will be. My speed is unmatchable by most.
I reached the nearby area of a bloody conflict. Buildings being swept away. Malgrunians and a demonic cultivator facing off. Something that shouldn’t normally happen.
‘Must be the fault of this long haired personification of chaos!’
“We are charging in on the count of four!” I heard the chosen one’s shout clearly.
The chaotic prick pointed in the direction of the portal gate.
‘He wants to open up the gate forcefully through his blessing.’
If things were like this on the outside, probabilities were high that whatever was inside was definitively worse.
“One, two, three, four!” The unruly one dashed full speed ahead holding Ikrei like a flag.
‘My orders are to guard Ikrei against unaccounted occurrences. Ikrei chose to come here. A grey area since he surely doesn’t know what he is about to face. Despicable tactics! Great Will, why?!’
A quarter of a breath later, I dashed full speed ahead timing my arrival with theirs.
URGWHOH!
----------------------------------------
Fuko. P.O.V.
‘Finally free from that bitch’s influence!’
DOOONG! DOOONG! DOOONG!
“Be quick about it. I’ll deal with our main visitor.” I gave the word to my unperturbable partner.
‘Being able to fight at full strength again is exhilarating.’
Meeting our new foe head on, I opened the welcoming proceedings with a classical introduction. My cloak fluttering with the tunic’s runic engravings activating. Red lines shining in the black cloak.
Phoenix Fist, Kazardim, variant, Flame Strike.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Six high speed punches. Three from the front, three targeting my opponent’s head, thoracic spine and prostate. A little bit of my magic affinity with fire, pure natural talent, no blessing nor endowment.
‘This is the real thing, you howling whore!’
ZEEEZ! ZEEEZ! ZEEEZ! ZEEEZ! ZEEEZ! ZEEEZ!
He easily evaded my opening attack variation. Dancing within my punches like an afterimage.
‘Core Condensation? Who is this? Never seen that cloak before.’
Pure black, no distinctive features.
“Hurry up!”
I shouted clamorously, signaling Tosen to forget torture and to concentrate on retrieval.
A change of tactics was on the cards. The opponent was taking things leisurely.
‘Let’s see that speed of yours, unwanted nuisance!’
Three exact copies of me, materialized in a triangle formation.
One of my own special abilities. Spectre Body.
I charged in fully focused on the incoming rapid exchange.
----------------------------------------
Tosen P.O.V.
‘The two of you, again? This is far more important than expected then. And since you are here…’
I threw ten teleportation glyphs around the new protective barrier they were using. Four main considerations:
* The glyphs will suck out the energy from the barrier instead of the sealed space to charge.
* The phoenix is powering up the barrier so she is going to get drained simultaneously.
* The presence of my personal recharge haversack on the floor allowed me to go all out twice. Since we have a new visitor, change of plans.
* These guys have sneaked inside a Malgrun infused sealed space. Three of them. How? From now on, these three are top priority interests.
The barrier crackled open, unable to resist the immense pressure from the glyphs. I added a massive energy slash on top of the barrier to make sure, there was no time to waste.
SWISH!
CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
The phoenix was gaping heavily, firmly stuck in place, eyes filled with trepidation. I attacked speedily, targeting the weaker pubs not without sending a fully charged needle into the weakened phoenix's neck.
ZIIING! SPURT!
She wasn’t expecting that. She fell asleep.
‘Operation Retrieval: Submission successful!’
ZOOOM! PRACK! PRACK!
One high velocity beeline charge to the long haired beloved and he was sent flying like a kite with my aerial double kick. An aerial piston kick, first targeting the tight and with a turn a finish to the head with the other leg.
CRASH!
An impossible move for a normal fighter.
I grabbed the unconscious recharge system by the head. It was time for a refill. I started sucking his negative energy, it felt even more invigorating than before.
I spoke to the two of them but also loud enough for the fighting pair to hear. I knew Fuko needed help, whoever, whatever came in with these two was dangerous. He was unaffected by the dark.
This was a hastily modified sealed space under my control. And it wasn’t enough to faze the intruder.
“For the sake of my brethren, you two get to live today, only just.”
It wasn’t a lie. Millions of my fellow countrymen were being recalled from all over the continent, if I killed these two right now, no matter how convenient it was for the end result. The lives of my countrymen, hardworking Malgrun loving artists, designers, alchemists, even the rare poison masters that applied their arts for healing abroad would die.
‘No, the Heart of Malgrun doesn’t want that and neither do I.’
CRASH!
A breath later, Fuko’s body crashed a few steps next to me. Our third visitor was making a show of force.
“Fuko, leave those two alone, follow my lead, we tag team this one. All out brawl!”
Thirty breaths. Our estimated time limit for this operation was gone.
We needed to finish up in ten breaths or so.
I was, am, and will always be singular. I can charge up enough to fight a realm above for a time. It was time to show Fuko how things get done in the depths of the Ryaltar and what it takes to become a true Zigur.
‘Show me your reality bending powers, Core condensation nuisance, I’ll show you mine!’
We charged in like the proud sons of Malgrun we were. A unified cry for victory, the song of the flame warrior.
Thirty-one breaths.
“SPHOOORIAAA!”