Kila was having a top five strangest days of her life. A stranger creature that carried the presence of overwhelming nothingness, had just arrived with the severed arm of a fellow Divine Artist in its mouth, and was headed towards the one person Kolo Amani told her to get to safety. To make things worse, if she was somehow able to get Noki away from the creature, she’d have Mion Okari hunting her and by extension her entire family.
“If I had enough Tera, I could just cast an illusion and sneak Noki out of here,” Kila thought, but quickly corrected herself. “Actually, I don’t think I’d have enough Tera to stop…whatever it is inside of Noki.” She looked back to Noki and he was standing in the same place, but she could tell he was on guard; she tried to Tether to him and he flinched the moment she had prepared the technique. “Well, as long as-”
Noki darted towards Mion and the creature at speeds beyond that of an Earthen Soul. Kila’s eyes could keep up, but it surprised her how normal his movements were. Kila herself was a Lesser Iron Soul and could read the movements of a lower Soul Body with ease; it was like they were moving through an invisible, thick liquid. For someone two levels below herself, Noki should have looked as if he were moving at a fourth of normal speed, but he easily made his way over to Mion.
“Don’t get in my way,” Mion bellowed as he reflexively smacked Noki down without looking, only to have his hand hit nothing but air. Noki had dodged the attack and already moved to engage the creature. Mion, not one to take disrespect lightly, appeared behind Noki, grabbed him by the leg, and slammed him two feet into the ground. Mion’s eyes were full of fury as he looked at Noki. “Disobey me again, and I’ll carry out your execution right here.” Mion let go of the leg and turned around just as the creature lunged at him. He managed to weather the attack and counter with his own, but the creature moved just out of his reach. “For a dumb beast, you have a strong fighting sense,” Mion said as he pumped more of his Earth Aspect into his body. A moment later, both he and the beast disappeared, moving too fast for any non Lesser Iron to see.
Kila was forced to use her Divine Sight and saw just glimpses of Mion’s battle. One moment they were fighting in the river, the next instant they were above her on the cliff and then back onto the ground. “It looks like Mion’s able to keep that thing busy. Good, I can get Noki and myself out of here without him noticing.” Kila got to the hole where Noki laid and moved to pick him up, when suddenly Noki’s orange eyes snapped open and he leapt from the ground. He landed on all fours and regarded Kila like a beast on edge. “It’s ok,” Kila said with her arms up, “I’m here to get you out, remember?”
Kila’s enhanced hearing picked up on the sound of dirt shifting under a foot. She drew her daggers, dropped down to a knee and scanned her surroundings. “Nothing, but I can hear movement so they must be obscuring themselves somehow.” Kila heard the sound of someone sniffing and turned to see Noki taking deep whiffs of air. Before she could even ask what he was doing, Noki leapt towards her and punched the space next to her face. The attack connected with something solid and sent it sliding across the dirt floor. Noki landed on all fours again next to Kila and she could have sworn he let out a growl.
“An invisible enemy? But I didn’t see or sense anything.” It was only a half second later that Kila realized that Noki had picked up on the enemy before even she had; how was that possible? “Wait, the sound of footsteps…there’s something in the water!” Kila hurled her dagger towards the river and saw it deflected by another invisible enemy; though thanks to the rushing water, she could see an outline of a pair of legs slowly fording the river.
“And here I thought we only had to worry about the other one, “ the enemy in the river said. The voice sounded muffled,“You got some good hearing girl, I thought the sound of the river would drown out my movements. Hey, you ok Anar?”
“I’m fine,” Anar said, “but the mask took some damage.” Anar stood up and his body flickered between visible and invisible. He had on a white mask that covered his entire face, save for the crack Noki had given it right where his left eye was. The mask had a pink stone slotted in the forehead and pink lines etched throughout the surface. “I think he damaged the stone too.”
Kila saw the stone and immediately knew what it was. Spiritstones were crystallizations of Tera that were found in Embrace controlled lands and could be tempered to interact with specific types of Tera. The deep pink color of the stone told her it was made for Mental Tera and must have already had a preprogrammed Ethereal Art.
“These guys must be from Blackhide City, it’s the only way they would have gotten the spiritstones. What are they doing here though?” Kila glanced back at Noki and his eyes were a duller hue but still not normal. “As long as he’s like that, I won’t be able to get through to him, I need to buy time until Mion comes back.” She stood up with her hands raised and spoke aloud. “We are students from Watercliff Village that were out on assignment when we were attacked by a horde of scourbeast. They’ve put my friend under a powerful illusion and I’m trying to get him back home.” Kila made sure to make her voice quake for the last part, “We meant no harm, we thought you were more scourbeasts. I have no intention of fighting.”
The still invisible attacker on the ridge spoke. “You’ve picked a terrible night to be out, there’s a lot of talons up for grabs if we clear out the forest. It’s nothing personal, just business.”
“So it is a job.” Kila cursed at herself for not bringing her Tera Locus Pill with her, even if she couldn’t have foreseen these turn of events. Still, she still had hope there was a way to escape without combat, until Noki lunged at Anar. Kila now cursed at Noki for demolishing any hope of leaving unscathed, drew her last pair of daggers and faced the river.
Anar caught the blow in one hand and booted Noki in the chest, cracking three of his ribs. Noki landed a few feet away and shouted before charging in again. His attacks lacked the refinement of a Corporeal Art and were coming in wildly, making it a trivial matter for Anar to dodge. The mercenary bobbed and weaved through the wall of fists, still visibly flickering, until he caught both of Noki’s arms and delivered a powerful knee to his sternum. Noki’s body lifted into the air but Anar held firm, bringing him back down and kneeing him again and again. Each strike was followed by the sound of cracking bone and tearing muscles with Anar only stopping when he felt Noki’s body go limp. He straightened him up and Noki’s head drifted listlessly to one side and blood trickled from his lips.
That caught Anar by surprise; he was certain he had just destroyed Noki’s entire chest cavity. There should have been more blood. Anar looked at Noki’s exposed chest and saw the bruises on his skin starting to heal. He was distracted for a moment and that’s all it took for Noki to snap awake, break Anar’s grip, and swipe at his face. The Lesser Iron stepped back and created distance between the two, but lost his entire mask in the process.
“What are you?” Anar growled, “you’re an Earthen Soul but fight with power of a Lesser Iron. How are you able to do that if you’re shrouded?” With his mask gone, Anar’s body bled into existence. He looked to be a man in his early twenties with brown eyes and pale,peach colored skin. The only hair on his face was a patch of black stubble covering his chin and a thin set of eyebrows. Blue robes laid secured to his body and he wore black footwraps across his arches.
Noki glared wordlessly at Anar. The torn muscles knitted themselves back together and his bones made a sickening crunch as they mended. Noki flashed his teeth and dropped to all fours before a faint orange light flowed from his body like vapor. His dull eyes had blazed back to life and he let out a howl that shook Anar to his bones.
In response to that, Anar slammed his feet into the ground and focused his Physical Tera into his legs. His Corporeal Art was known as Iron Striding and its focus was on delivering extremely powerful kicks. The influx of Physical Tera into Anar’s legs caused them to swell, tearing sections of blue pants off. Anar took a deep breath and exhaled before moving to Noki with such speed, the ground beneath him was ripped in his wake. He kicked Noki square in the chest, with the intent of blowing his chest out of his back, but at the last moment Noki had protected himself with his forearms.
The force of the blow sent Noki hurtling back the length of the river, but Anar wasn’t anywhere near done with him. Using his powerful legs, Anar chased Noki down while he was still mid-flight, and ran alongside him. He then overtook Noki, waited for him to arrive, and kicked him some eighty-feet into the air. Anar leaped from the ground and met Noki in the air, delivering another powerful kick that sent Noki an additional forty-feet higher. Anar landed on an arm of a tree and leapt off again, striking Noki as he fell down, sending him back up.
The true power of Iron Striding lay in its manipulation of the leg muscles. By circulating the Physical Tera solely through the legs, the user can alter the elasticity of the muscles to make them as hard as iron or as soft as rubber. Anar had been alternating between the two, delivering extremely powerful kicks when attacking Noki and turning his legs to rubber to absorb the force when he landed. The two were silhouetted due to the vibrant, full moon hanging far above them, but Anar could still see the beastial look in Noki’s eye. It didn’t make any sense, Noki should be dead or at least unconscious, but instead he was keeping his eye on Anar. Undeterred, Anar continued his aerial assault, preparing to deliver a final blow.
“Your friend looks like he’s in a bad situation,” the muffled voice said, “though I can’t say yours is any better.”
Kila stood in the middle of the river with a dagger in each hand; one near her lower torso and the other just above her right shoulder, reflecting the moonlight off the tip of the blade. She had superficial cuts across her upper body and one on her back that bled into the river. It wouldn’t be enough to hinder her, they only slightly stung, but that wasn’t the point; her opponent was demonstrating just how easily they could land a hit on her. To make matters worse, she could hear all of the hits Anar was landing on Noki and it made it much harder to filter out the noise of the river, forcing her to spend more energy on her Divine Sight.
“It looks like Anar is about to finish off your friend, so how about I do the same? If you let me pierce your heart, I can make it quick and painless.” The voice seemed to come from every direction at once, no doubt due to the invisible attacker moving at Lesser Iron speeds.
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Kila saw a small ripple in the water and immediately moved in to attack. The ripple stopped and another one appeared to her left. She raised a dagger to the sky and struck what felt like a short blade that was aimed at her neck. The sharp clinking of metal on metal rang throughout the air as Kila battled the invisible enemy, letting them score hits on non vital areas but avoiding major injury. Kila had to keep all of her focus on guarding herself or she’d surely take a fatal hit, but a nagging thought crept into her mind.
“If they wanted her dead, then why announce it? Why even speak?” The Ziri Clan trained in the art of espionage which often overlapped with learning assassination skills. One of the first lessons taught is to never willingly give an opponent an advantage and giving away your location would definitely count as doing so. But this person was skilled enough to completely quiet their movements, which meant earlier they had intended on letting her hear them; so why give yourself away now?
The invisible attacker continued taunting Kila before each attack, detailing how they’d sever her limbs one by one and keep her conscious while they did so; which only served to make Kila question things more.
“Why are they still talking? That’s wasting energy they could be spending on fighting properly..wait a minute.” It was then that Kila noticed that something was off; she had more cuts on her body than were possible. She had deflected fifteen attacks in all and was hit nine times, she was sure of that, but she counted ten cuts including the one on her back. Kila came to a conclusion and took a deep breath to steel herself. Before the invisible attacker could speak, Kila plunged her dagger through her left hand. Pain ran up her body and blood poured out of her hand, and the hand of her attacker.
“You stabbed your own hand?” The muffled voice said in both pain and shock as they dropped their weapon. It became visible once it was released and it was a short sword with a dull gray blade and black hilt. “That was a pretty risky move.”
Kila shot back.“More risky than using an Ethereal Art that places your body at risk?” Her body wanted to heal the wound, but Kila wouldn’t let it; the chance of it healing her attacker was too great and she wasn’t sure if the technique was still active. “I guess that’s why you’re using a spiritstone to make yourself invisible. The Binding Mirror is useless if your opponent can see you.”
“You’re pretty well informed about assassination techniques, I thought you were just a student looking to help your friend?” The assassin took off their mask and threw it to the side. “Looks like this won’t be necessary anymore.” It was a man that looked almost identical to Anar save for having no facial hair but short, buzzed black hair and was less muscular. His arms were covered in wounds that mirrored those of Kila’s and ,with his mask off, the man’s voice sounded as cold as the river they stood in. “After I kill you, I may need to head to Watercliff to make sure no one else knows of the technique.”
The Binding Mirror is an Ethereal Art that uses both Mental and Physical Tera to tether a person’s body to their target. Once that’s accomplished, any wound suffered by the user is reflected onto the target, with damage done to the target being dependent on their Soul Rank. Kila couldn’t perform the technique herself, but her family had briefed her on signs to look out for in case she ever found herself victim to it.
“I’m lucky this idiot got too greedy and lost count of how many attacks he actually landed, but that only removes one of the problems.” Kila was certain that the man wouldn’t be able to use Binding Mirror anymore since he was no longer concealing himself, but now he would focus solely on close combat and that wasn’t her speciality. If she could just recover some Mental Tera, she was positive she could use Ethereal Tether to overpower his mind.
The man rushed Kila and she was immediately on the defensive, blocking each of his barehanded attacks with her dagger. The sound of metal striking metal gave Kila pause, until she noticed that the man was using his hand as a makeshift blade. She knew it must have been a Corporeal Art, though she hadn’t the slightest clue as to what it was though she could hazard a guess. “He’s able to use his Physical Tera to emulate a weapon? For it to sound like metal means his Tera is extremely potent.”
In truth, Kila was very close to the true nature of the Corporeal Art. Anar used Iron Striding, but his twin brother ,Alvar, used Iron Striking. The true name of the name of the Art was Living Iron and was comprised of both techniques, yet the twins only knew each half. By focusing Physical Tera solely into his hand, Alvar could turn his hand into a blade that never dulled.
Alvar’s blows were heavy and each strike made Kila’s arms scream in protest; she wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long and Alvar could sense that. “I know you must have thought that because I used Binding Mirror, that I must have not had a Corporeal Art suited for close combat, but I’m not like you.” He saw a flash of surprise in Kila’s eyes and it made him grin. “That’s right,” Alvar said as he continued pouring it on, “I was watching you the entire time. I could see your techniques due to the mask, you use Mental Tera to ensare people in illusions before killing them.” He then made it past Kila’s defenses and cut her across her cheek. Blood sprayed as she kicked off his body to create distance.
“You’re just prolonging the inevitable,” Alvar said, “but my offer still stands: If you stop defending, I’ll make this quick.”
When Anar struck Noki for what seemed to be the two-hundredth time, he knew something was wrong. At first he thought that he was holding back too much, so he pumped almost all of his Physical Tera into his legs and delivered kicks that shattered the top half of the trees from the shockwave alone; yet Noki’s body didn’t split in two. In fact, it seemed as if Anar was the one being attacked. He landed on a lower branch as Noki was still airborne and attempted to leap again, but his body needed a moment.
“Why isn’t it working,” Anar muttered to himself, “he should be dead by now!” He shook off his apparent fatigue and bounded for Noki, ready to pour everything into his last attack. Anar rose above Noki and delivered an overhead ax kick with all of the power granted to him by his Corporeal Art. Noki’s orange eyes flicked over to him and he raised a forearm just in time to catch the attack. It sent him towards the middle of the tree and Noki flipped over just in time to recover from the blow. He visibly strained as his feet pressed against the tree, cracking the dense bark, and he shot up towards Anar.
“That’s impossible!” Anar’s voice echoed through the ravine, carrying his anger and surprise. It was one thing to still be alive, but to be able to leap off the tree like that? It was almost as if-no, that’d truly be impossible. Anar was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t realized that Noki was behind him and already launching an attack. He felt the pressure of a kick dig into his back and propel him towards the ground. Anar corrected himself at the last moment and slammed feet first onto the ground, spraying debris into the air. Noki landed across from him a moment later, creating a smaller spray of debris.
If Anar had any hair on his head, it would have fallen out after seeing what he had just witnessed. He spent years perfecting Iron Striding, kicking for hours until his muscles would tear and circulating Tera into his legs to push them beyond the breaking point. It was the only part of Living Iron he had any talent for, and even he was barely considered an intermediate user of it. Even so, he could recognize the technique from miles away, so when it was done directly in front of him by someone who was an Earthen Soul, it raised some alarms.
“You think you can just take that from me?!” Anar stated, growing more and more incensed. “I bled for that, don’t you dare make it seem like it’s nothing!”
Noki didn’t respond with any words, he simply took the stance that Anar had earlier and gazed at him with orange eyes that seemed to be fading by the minute.”
This time it was Anar who growled like a beast, which caught both his brother’s and Kila’s attention. Alvar was poised to strike again, but relaxed his body. “That friend of yours, he seems to have some talent for an Earthen Soul.”
Alvar took his off of Kila, which would normally be a death sentence, but he had already demonstrated who was the superior combatant of the two; so Kila took the reprieve. “What makes you say that?”
“He appears to be using my brother’s Corporeal Art. I had heard of someone capable of doing something similar with Ethereal Arts, though he doesn’t match the description.”
“Stealing Ethereal Arts? That’s possible?” Kila thought to herself but said, “I’ll say, he even has Kolo Amani Monsari taking an interest in him; in fact, she came to the village just to see him.” Kila laid it on pretty thick, but he struck her as someone who was smart enough to understand the implication.
Alvar looked back at Kila and then over to his brother. His expression remained placid but the look in his eyes told Kila he was contemplating something. “That’s enough, Anar. We’re leaving.”
“What?! No way! This little shit thinks he can get away with insulting-”
Alvar appeared in front of Anar with his hand positioned in front of his chest. “We are going,” he repeated. All of Anar’s anger eroded away, replaced by visible fear.
“Yeah,” Anar said, “let’s get out of here.” The bald man took one giant leap and cleared the ridge on the opposite side of the river.
“Before I go,” Alvar said before turning to face Noki and Kila, “know this. I am more than enough to kill both of you, but I’d be a fool to draw the attention of a Kolo. Tonight, I was denied a bounty by you two, so I’ll remember your faces and strike when you least expect.” With that, Alvar leapt across the river and up the side of the cliff where his brother went, before disappearing over the ridge.
Kila waited until she could no longer hear the sound of footsteps trailing before letting out a breath and nearly falling down into the river; by the Queen’s Grace she’d survived somehow. Her relief was short lived though when she remembered she still had to deal with whatever Noki had become. He hadn’t moved from his location, and didn’t look as feral as before, so Kila cautiously approached him.
Noki shuddered as if waking up for the first time, which caught Kila by surprise. His eyes were black and darting all over the ravine. “When did I get out of the rubble? Where’s Mion?” He lowered himself as if he were getting into some fighting stance and felt a sharp pain in his legs. “Ow, what happened to my legs? They feel like they're on fire.” He sat on the ground and started rubbing them down.
Kila stood there, sopping wet and covered in cuts, in complete disbelief. “What do you mean where’s Mion? Don’t you remember anything?”
“I remember getting hit by Mion, and then you telling me to stay put…and then some scourbeast fell on top of me, I think.” Noki was still rubbing his legs when Kila pulled him off the ground.
“Look, I’ll fill you in, but we can’t stay here. Mion might be back any moment and who knows what kind of beasts were attracted by the battle.”
“Battle?” Noki looked around at the aftermath of his fight with Anar and Kila’s with Alvar. Entire sections of the ground and wall were missing and the river was starting to rise due to the amount of debris impeding it.
“Focus,” Kila said, “can you move?”
“Huh? Yeah, I think so. The pain is dying down.”
Kila scanned his legs with her Divine Sight and saw a fading orange light disappear. “Good. We will head south. There’s a camp that should be free to use for a while.” Kila had gleaned that information from Mion while they were hunting for Noki, just in case she needed a place to hide.
“Wait, I need to be heading-”
Kila struck Noki on the neck and he dropped to his knees. She caught him before he fell face first and hoisted him over her shoulder. He was a few inches taller than her, but her physical strength was much higher than his so he weighed next to nothing. “I don’t have time to argue,” Kila said in a hushed tone, “the sooner I get you to where you need to go, the sooner I can leave this place.” Kila started heading down the river and noticed the mask that Alvar discarded. “This could be useful,” she said before picking it up and continuing south.