Of course, with that many Abyssals, Rieren and her little cohort were likely to be spotted. She quickly guided her Dawn Cloud away from the area and within a thicket of trees where they would be safely obscured but would still be close enough to see what was going on.
In truth, it would have been difficult to actually get away from the army of monsters without an effort. There were far, far too many.
“This is an incredible sight,” Elder Olg said.
Rieren tutted. “You should have seen the amount we had to deal with in the centre of the dungeon.”
“There were even more in the dungeon?”
She considered for a few seconds. “Well, no. I doubt all of these would have even fit inside the dungeon. But there were a great many monsters we had to kill, definitely.”
Elder Olg looked a little dejected then. “If only I hadn’t just about lost myself in the Abyss.”
“’Tis alright, Elder. All is well that ends well.”
“…I am literally just a head, Rieren.”
“I regret not a word I said.”
Perhaps Rieren ought not to be so callous about his condition. How would she have felt if she had been reduced to a mere talking mouth? Not pleased, that was for certain. In fact, considering how generally upbeat, positive, and plain normal the Elder was being, Rieren ought to have been thankful and showed even more respect than normal.
But in truth, she was starting to realize that she was actually giddy at the fact that he was alive. That she wouldn’t have to mourn him. That she wouldn’t have to regret her part in his death for he hadn’t truly died.
That she still had someone she loved and cared about with her.
“What are we to do about all these Abyssals?” Elder Olg asked. He was eyeing her sidelong. “What have you planned, Rieren? I really hope this wasn’t your doing.”
“You accuse me of unleashing a horde of Abyssals on the countryside?”
“This is far more than a simple horde…”
Rieren took a deep breath. “I might have had intentions of farming the Abyssals to sell their Beast Cores, but this is a bit much even for me. I would not let loose this many, Elder. Certainly not in such a wide land.”
“Ha, but you would let them loose! Allow me to guess that you found some dungeons and then somehow managed to create your own Abyss Rents, likely with the help of your cat, and then lured out the monsters to murder them all.”
“Elder, you are still the one who looks more like a monster.”
“You have me there. But yes, will you be murdering this lot as well?”
He had read her correctly. Despite the gloom, Rieren was in no position to let such an opportunity pass her by. She had been lamenting the lack of Credits for a long time, and since she had no intention of taking up the Elder’s advice of hunting for resources all over the Elderlands, she would need to resort to killing.
An army of Abyssals was just what she needed.
“I will need to leave you and Batcat here to scout out the Abyssal army and determine where I can strike best.”
“Can you do it in the dark? It looks like a rather large army as well, even for someone in the Enlightened realm. You should be strong enough to handle B-Grade Abyssals on your own now, especially with your skills, but you might still get overwhelmed if there are too many.”
“You are correct. This is why I intend to scout them out beforehand. The darkness shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I can always use Essence.”
“As you will, then. May fortune favour your steps.”
Rieren thanked him, then helped the Elder and Batcat down from the Dawn Cloud. She made sure they were well hidden in the small grove and were comfortable as well. There was a good deal of fallen leaves that would provide them a better resting spot than the ground itself.
After a short farewell, Rieren headed off on her cloud. She couldn’t get too close. For one, the monsters would sense her. For another, most Abyssals’ direct vision was better in the dark than that of humans’.
But one area she exceeded them was her Essence-fuelled vision. As such, when she was still several hundred yards away from the nearest moving humps and shapes she saw in the distant gloom, Rieren focused Essence into her eyes. Things opened up greatly for her, the night lightening to something of the consistency of early evening.
Elder Olg had been right. There were a lot of monsters. A massive army was heading deeper into the easterly regions. For a moment, she actually felt bad that she had left Mercion and Kerolast to deal with a Banishedborn.
But no, they wouldn’t have to worry. Not when Rieren was about to carry out a massacre all by herself and save the defenders of this land some trouble.
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She waited for a moment, though. The enormous column of moving beasts was coming to a stop, starting with the head of the column slowing down until the whole army had halted. Then they began parting. The entire army separated into three factions, one continuing along in the direction they been going, while the other two turned northeast and southeast, respectively.
Some sort of more advanced tactical manoeuvre? Interesting.
Rieren dispelled the cloud and let her Domain free from the summon’s confines. But before the water could land and cause a ruckus with all the splashing, she turned it all into steam, sending it ahead of her.
They began to obscure everything. Even the stars. The glints in the sky caught her eye, especially the ones that streaked across the night’s canvas. Hmm. Interesting.
Rieren returned her focus to the business at hand. Abyssals. She had to kill them all, and fast. Now that she had sent out her steam, they were aware that something was wrong. That someone was approaching, perhaps.
She wasted no time proving their assumptions to be correct. With quick steps, she approached their vicinity, and once she was close enough, launched Gale Blade.
As always, the skill was devastating in its effect. The Abyssals were grouped together close enough that every slash of the skill carried her from one monster to the next, whereupon the skill’s charge reset as she had already killed her previous target and had moved on to the next.
Rieren was effectively a bladed whirlwind moving like cyclone through the gathered army. Dark blood splattered outwards in an unending, chaotic rain, limbs flew from every swing if her blade, the world blurred unceasingly as she moved like a storm personified.
Most of the Abyssals didn’t even get the chance to understand how they were dying so abruptly. The vast majority were Armistice Enforcers, and another breed of similarly weak creatures called Welded Reachers, serpentine creatures that could extend the length of their compressed bodies. Rieren killed them all before they could showcase their abilities.
There were some more powerful monsters among the Abyssals’ ranks. D-Grade Blightmanes and C-Grade Shadeborns, the former loping about the fringes of the groups and the latter gathered together near the middle. A powerful, central core that could be used to charge through enemy lines, while the flanks threw the enemy frontline into disarray.
Even in the midst of chaotic combat, Rieren was a little consternated. This had the touches of someone who knew how to organize an army. Someone who knew how to fight on terms that only humans should have.
She didn’t have any more difficulty killing the stronger monsters than their weaker foot soldiers. Slicing through the bellies of Blightmanes and zipping past before their guts could spray out over her was easy, as was crashing into the Shadeborns’ ranks to cut them apart before they could react much.
Though, some did manage to present something of a slight obstacle before they fell.
After Rieren killed her first Blightmane of the night, several others howled loudly enough to alert the rest of the little army that someone was here, murdering them all.
She had to face several of the Blightmanes together at one point. There were enough of them that she was forced to halt Gale Blade and resort to Earthfall Blade to deflect the storm of ripping claws and tearing teeth.
It was easy enough to find an opening among them though. Her Mind and Body stats were more than high enough to outclass even the Blightmanes’ enhanced speed and reaction times, and Fray Passage always took her close to the monsters just enough to land vicious, mortal blows.
When she tackled the Shadeborns, her mobility was greatly limited when the monsters bunched up together and tried to surround her. She was forced to turn much of the steam around her back to regular water.
When the monsters threw out their guts in expanding, toothy appendages to grab and swallow her, all they got was her water with trace amounts of Divine-Aspected Essence in it. This caused the Abyssals to writhe in agony, allowing her to resume her bladed whirlwind motion and end them all.
Rieren wasn’t certain how long had passed when she finally stopped herself. She let her steaming cloud dissipate, revealing the full extent of the massacre she had enacted.
Monstrous bodies lay dead or dying as far as her eyes could see, which, granted, wasn’t that far in the depth of night. Nevertheless, she had essentially ended this army in its tracks. Though, when she squinted, she thought she saw movement here and there, especially at the very distant edges of her sight.
“Survivors,” Rieren muttered.
She wasn’t willing to leave behind all this loot she had accumulated. A few Abyssals had left, either to run away back to where they had come from, or to join up with the other two armies. They would surely alert their respective contingents that there was someone hunting them down before they could reach their destinations.
Even if Rieren gave chase, she wouldn’t reach them in time. The amount of movement suggested that there were quite a few who had loped off, and in many different directions. If she ran in one direction, the others taking a different path would get far away.
In that sense, one or more monsters would eventually reach the other armies. Rieren had better things to spend her time and energy on than a pointless chase.
Smiling to herself, she began collecting the bodies and the more precious Beast Cores they hid within. This would add a nice amount of Credits to her collection. As she went about her business, her mind strayed to the strangeness of it all.
The monsters were coming out in huge numbers to invade the eastern region of the Elderlands. Since it had been over a month from the beginning of the apocalypse already, and since people all over the empire had retreated to and gathered together in strongholds, it was safe to assume that the Abyssals had been ranging out into more populated lands for a while now.
Rieren had seen firsthand proof of that already in the village near Lionshard Sect. Her old home had already been destroyed when she had first arrived in this timeline.
It made sense, then, to believe that the Abyssals had already been wreaking havoc all over the Elderlands. After all, why would people retreat otherwise? So was the army Rieren had just encountered one of many that had passed into the Shatterlands? Had the ones before been soundly defeated by a combination of the cultivators and the people who now had access to the system?
Questions Rieren wouldn’t be able to answer while standing here, grave robbing a bunch of dead monsters.
Thankfully, it didn’t take her too long to be done. She had sold all corpses and their associated Beast Cores to grant herself a great deal of Credits, nearly enough to buy another Temporal Recollector.
She frowned. Why was she thinking like that again? She had a Temporal Recollector already, and Batcat’s ability to boot. Rieren had to conserve whatever remaining Credits she had to purchase all the resources she was going to need to overcome the barrier of time that advancing through the Enlightened realm would present—was already presenting—to her.
Rieren decided it was time she set off. Best to kill the rest of the Abyssals before they got too far or encountered someone else.
She glanced at the bloody field she was leaving behind. There wasn’t much she could do about that, not without wasting more time she didn’t have. She did summon her Domain and let the stormy waves wash over the field, but the blood and viscera were tainting her waters and she preferred them to remain clean.
With one last glance at the field of massacre, Rieren jumped aboard her Dawn Cloud and hurried away. More Credits were awaiting her.