Rieren wasn’t certain how exactly their plan was going to work. She was sure there was more going on than just the simple application of Divine Essence, potentially something to do with the exact technique Cerill was using to apply his Essence.
If it was a simple matter of using Divine-Aspected Essence, the Elders would have known or have figured out by now. She herself hadn’t heard of Divine-Aspected Essence causing Abyss Rents to collapse inherently. There was even proof that wasn’t really the case. After all, Aetherians themselves had come through Abyss Rents, and they had a lot of that Aspect.
Nevertheless, the point was that what Cerill was attempting was working. In fact, it seemed to be working so well that no monsters were emerging from the Abyss Rent he was closing while he was closing it.
Essentially, if they had several Cerills, they would have been able to close all the Abyss Rents.
“It is not just Divine Essence that is destroying the Abyss Rents,” Rieren said.
Silk nodded while she ran. “Correct. I believe it is his skill. Specially, the way Divine-Aspected Essence being used in a destructive way which is causing the closure of the Abyss Rent.”
Ah. If that was true, then the guards could indeed take down the rents. Rieren wouldn’t place any hope until they tried and proved it to be the case, but it was certainly worth attempting.
Unfortunately, there were so many Abyss Rents that it was inevitable that at least some spewed monsters that went on to target Cerill. He was able to continue attacking the Abyss Rent thanks to several other disciples protecting him and dealing with the Abyssals. But then a B-Grade one rushed for him and threw the whole operation into disarray.
“Get the other one,” Rieren said as she, Amalyse, and Silk came to a halt, trying to decide if they ought to deal with the monster the Arteroth soldiers were keeping at bay, or this new danger heading straight for Cerill. “I will protect Cerill.”
They didn’t argue, thankfully. Amalyse wished Rieren luck, then followed Silk towards the hoglike Abyssal.
Meanwhile, Rieren ran for Cerill. He was forced to pull away from the Abyss Rent to protect himself against his new assailant, which wasn’t going well to begin with. The monster was quite powerful.
However, it was also familiar. Rieren had no trouble recognizing that winged, humanoid form with the long tail and the reptilian head clearly indicated a Malomen Shifter.
It was different from the ones Rieren and the others had killed some time back, though. The skin glinted with metal scales covering its entire form, and heavy horns sprouted from its head, shoulders, and tail. Its whole body rippled with far more obvious muscles than its C-Grade counterpart had.
A sudden screech let loose from the Shifter sent Cerill stumbling backwards. As Rieren ran on, she could hear the monster speaking.
“I was supposed to arrive to a world with open skies and boundless expanses,” it was yelling, rage frothing out with its every syllable. “Instead, I am stuck in this field of death and humiliation? Who brings me forth with such an insult?”
Cerill clearly had no idea what to reply to that. All he did was raise his strange spear with the curving growths at the tip like branches of tree.
The monster took offence at that. It let loose another horrific shriek, this time readying itself by spreading its wings as it prepared to attack. Several of the other disciples tried to attack from the sides, having finished dealing with the weaker Abyssals, but one flap of the Shifter’s mighty wings threw them all back.
Rieren was forced to hunker down as well, though she found herself losing her footing before crashing to the ground. She quickly rose to her feet to rush towards the fight. That had been no blast of wind. No, the monster had flung out a shockwave.
Cerill charged with his spear, his skill making golden light shimmer out as the twisting branches spun. At least he wasn’t daunted by the creature.
Rieren would have liked to see that skill connecting but the monster was too skillful in its own right. A quick sidestep let it evade Cerill’s piercing stab, before catching the spear’s haft with one hand. The Abyssal raised both the spear and the spear-wielder high into the air, then flung them both away.
A second later, its fist expanded in an attempt to crush Cerill outright. Thankfully, Rieren was able to reach him in time. She grabbed him up and darted away from the Shifter as the ground behind them was pounded to dust.
“Rieren,” Cerill yelped as they came to a stop and she set him down. “Thanks for the assist.”
“Go get the Abyss Rent,” she said, turning back to the monster as it faced them with a scowl. “I will keep our friend busy.”
Cerill looked around. “By yourself?”
“Go, Cerill.”
He squeaked out a thanks before running off.
The Shifter noted Cerill’s departure. It made to rush after him, but Rieren positioned herself in its path, blocking its way forward. She had already summoned her Domain, water frothing as it all built up into a series of large waves. “You need to get past me first, Abyssal.”
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“Adding insult to my injury,” the Shifter growled. “You, little human, will pay with every drop of blood in your body for your transgression.”
The monster was powerful enough to make good on that threat. It charged in fast, its speed even greater than Rieren had been prepared for.
Nevertheless, she was able to act quickly too. A quick summon of her steam alongside her water made her Domain explode. When the Shifter burst through the cloud of spraying water and overheated steam, it missed her completely. Rieren had already leaped to one side.
As the Shifter passed through, she activated Gale Blade to catch it unawares. Unfortunately, it was too fast for even her incredible, skill-boosted speed to catch up. Rieren’s slash hit nothing but air.
The monster had stopped itself instead of going on towards Cerill. Rieren was thankful for that little blessing for long when it launched another attack. Instead of charging in again, it launched another shockwave from its wings. Rieren was able to deflect it aside with Earthfall Blade, but it still destroyed much of her Domain.
A pointless defence since the monster’s next move eradicated what remained. It had jumped high and then cannoned into Rieren’s Domain from above, using another shockwave launched behind it to further boost its momentum.
Rieren’s only reaction was to use Fray Passage to get out of the area of impact before she was crushed too. She was only barely fast enough. The Shifter smashed down with brutal force. Forget her steam and water, a little meteor shower of flying rocks went up in all directions, and she had to use her sword to deflect the flying debris from breaking her open.
The Shifter was relentless in its attack. It rushed at her again, this time too quickly for her to summon up her Domain again.
As such, Rieren was forced to depend entirely on her sword skills combined with Earthfall Blade to deflect every powerful blow. She parried crushing blows with overlarge arms, deflected away kicks that would have turned her unto bloody and fleshy pulp, and pushed away its monstrous jaw when it tried to chomp her in half.
Even then, it was barely enough to prevent her from being crushed. Each blow was accompanied by terrible power, nearly throwing her off balance or threatening to make her lose her footing, both of which would have been fatal.
Rieren certainly had no space to counterattack. If she used Fray Passage to grant herself some distance, the monster was sure to close the gap too quickly for her to attack. When she tried to twist around it and launch a counter slice aimed at its side, she was only met with its front as it too had turned around with great speed.
This was what it meant facing a B-Grade monster head on. Relentless fury, barely stoppable power. Even with all her advancement in both her class and her cultivation, Rieren couldn’t hope to stand toe-to-toe against it.
At one point, the Shifter smashed its fist towards her again. But instead of letting its punch be simply deflected once more, it opened its fist and grabbed Rieren’s sword entirely.
She would have used that seeming mistake to slash her blade and open up a vicious wound, which would have then debilitated the monster from expanding that arm. But that would have been a mistake on her part.
Because then she wouldn’t have been able to defend herself against the follow-up
In the next second after it had grabbed her blade, the Shifter thrust its other fist at her. It was a good thing Rieren had been mostly stationary enough to have summoned her Domain fully. Now, as the other fist came flying at her, the pressurized steam she had built up under the water burst upwards, throwing the monster off-balance.
That allowed her to actually slice through the Shifter’s grip. The monster might not have made great use of its ability to expand and contract any part of its body as it saw fit, but now, it no longer had its arm to do so with.
Or, so she had thought.
Even as the explosion of bursting steam and water sent it staggering back, the Shifter had kept a hold on its presence of mind. Rieren’s eyes widened as it grabbed its torn hand, then veritably broke and twisted it around so that there was a fleshy, bloated knot where the wrist should have been.
A knot that expanded rapidly to grow to the size of a boulder. Of course. Now that the slice Rieren had left was blocked up, all its innards wouldn’t come spilling out of the wound thanks to that cursed knot. That had been unbelievably smart and ruthless.
Rieren had to use Fray Passage to get away from the Shifter’s slam. The building-sized knot crashed down into her Domain faster than she could get away, sending her flying off her feet. She twisted around and landed safely, at least. That had been far too close.
“Incredible,” the monster crowed as it continued attacking, unrelenting until its opponent was dead as all Shifters tended to be. “Incredible.”
Rieren dodged away from a swipe of its lengthened tail, before deflecting away a vicious slash of its other arm. Cursed thing was too fast and too strong.
The monster flew straight upwards. “You are standing before me? You are presenting a challenge? Perhaps this will not be as great a disappointment as I had feared.”
It threw its reptilian head forward like a lunging serpent. Both its neck and head had grown enormously. Rieren barely had time to dodge away. Before she could even think to counterattack, the rest of the Shifter’s body followed in quickly as the head shrunk, drawing in the rest of the body to launch another flurry of assaults.
Rieren was starting to feel the buildup of fatigue. She couldn’t keep this up forever. Not after the effort against the gigantic automatons and the other B-Grade Abyssal. Besides, she was making no progress here. Only fighting off and barely surviving.
But. She had drawn the Abyssal away from its original target. She was too focused on deflecting the Shifter’s blows to check on the others, but she had to believe that they were having some success in redirecting the soldiers to attack the Abyss Rents while they kept the Abyssals busy. That had been Rieren’s main goal and she had succeeded in that.
Now, it was time for her to win.
When the monster’s next blow came in, she didn’t dodge or block with her blade. All Rieren did was let it hit her square just underneath her sternum.
Blood burst out of her mouth. The pain made the world go momentarily dark as she was flung back. When she came to, she was lying a few dozen paces away from the Shifter, her hair in disarray and her whole body feeling like it had been punched by a mountain. Quite a few internal organs and bones felt as though they were torn and broken.
But she had survived. She lived, which was what she had been aiming for, something she could recognize despite the fact that the overwhelming agony made even that thought difficult to sustain.
“At the end of your tether already?” the Shifter asked as it approached slowly, sure that its opponent had finally fallen. “It would seem I was mistaken. I will still need to have strong words with the Puppeteer for this grave affront.”
Rieren activated Reaver Stance. The pain disappeared, though the world was still rather wobbly and her throat still burned with the vomit and blood she had ejected out. But the true agony was gone. In its place, violent strength burned through her like an eruption rising from the depths of the world.
As the monster reached her, she opened her eyes. The Abyssal froze.
Rieren grinned at it. “Shut. The Abyss. Up.”