Batcat landed on Rieren’s cupped palms. Spirit Beasts didn’t have humanlike expressions to judge what might be going through their head, but there were other clear signs that something was wrong.
The fur on its little body was standing on their ends and it was baring its teeth a little too readily. Rieren had seen such signs before.
“What is it, cat?” Rieren asked.
She didn’t wait for an answer. It wasn’t as if the kitten could talk anyway. Instead, she was already drawing Essence in through the cat itself. The memories came in a second later.
Monsters. Rieren shouldn’t have been surprised that Batcat’s memories were of nothing but Abyssals. They were closing in on their location. The winged kitten had taken the snapshot of recollections from a location high above their current outpost, turning around in the air to observe where exactly the various dangers might be coming from.
At the rate at which the Abyssals were arriving, she was certain they hadn’t stopped at the last outpost where the cultivators had been battling the Arisen.
That suggested the enormous monster was likely already victorious against its foes. Not good. At least Rieren didn’t see any sign of the Arisen itself. She was now simply hoping Mercion and the rest of those who had retreated would reach this settlement in time.
“What is it?” Silomene asked when Rieren had returned back to the real world. Apparently, she had recognized that Rieren was doing something strange with the cat. “What have you seen?”
“The Abyssals are coming here,” Rieren said. “Not far now.”
Silomene swallowed. “And the Arisen?”
“No sign of it yet.”
Rieren didn’t wait to see the relief washing over Silomene’s face. They had to prepare themselves. But as soon as she reached the gates of the little outpost, an alarm blared. The older man ran out towards Rieren and Silomene, looking mightily worried.
“We’ve spotted the monsters,” he said. His words seemed to trip over each other in his urgency to spit them out. “They’re coming, curse the Abyss.”
“We know,” Rieren said. “But these are mere Abyssals. We should be able to handle them.”
“Have you seen anything of the Arisen?”
“Not yet.”
They prepared to face down the onrushing monsters. The defenders were all grim and ready. Just another day for them. They had been facing and pushing back army after army of Abyssals trying to crush their little outpost. Though, this one wasn’t as close to the frontier as many of the others, so had seen fewer engagements.
Rieren still had faith in the people she saw. They looked serious and determined. Haunted, even. They had seen enough horrors to know what was required of them.
“They’re almost here,” Silomene said.
She and Rieren had climbed to the top of the lookout tower. There was just one other man here, a young one who couldn’t have been much older than Rieren herself. She didn’t even have to peer at the horizon to see that Silomene was correct. The monsters were indeed almost upon them.
“Shouldn’t we join them?” Silomene asked.
“We will,” Rieren said. “Once our presence is needed. Best not to charge blindly into the fight without first knowing where we will be the most effective.”
The first wave wasn’t difficult to deal with. There was nothing more than mere Armistice Enforcers arriving in haphazard gangs to take over the land. The defenders made short work of them. Their enemy wasn’t organized in the least, and the defenders had been steadily growing stronger. They were able to put down the roving monsters with ease.
But trouble came when the more powerful monsters arrived. Blightmanes tore in with their regular ferocity. From farther back, enormous Life Stiflers roiled their smoke outwards in all directions.
They looked like they were at manageable Grades of power. The Blightmanes were at regular D-Grade, and the Life Stiflers were at C-Grade at best. There were enough of them to give the defenders some trouble, at first. However, with the addition of those who had retreated from the first outpost, they had enough numbers to push back the monsters.
But the arrival of a powerful Life Stiflers changed the balance of the battle once more. This one had to be B-Grade or close enough, just like the one they had fought in the dungeon. Its smoke was rolling over the ground, eating the corpses of the fallen monsters to absorb their strength.
“There,” Rieren said. “That will be my target.”
“Want me to come?” Silomene called after her as she rushed away.
“No, I will be enough for this one. Wait to see if you are needed elsewhere.”
Rieren rushed on to the where the Life Stifler was about to attack. She had pulled out her Receptor sword, and after depositing Batcat at the safety of just behind the gate, she rushed over to meet the monster head-on.
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The Life Stifler seemed to realize that she was the chief threat to it here. It ignored a few others who tried to draw its attention with various skills, but the Abyssal’s smoke rebuffed all their attacks. All the while, the pointed skull at the top of its body never faced away from Rieren.
As she closed in, she summoned her Domain. Stormy water burst outwards and soon passed under the monster’s body. Wherever its smoke collided with her water, violent hissing erupted. The monster slowed its approach, now more careful of the surf of water all around it. Rieren grinned. Even the trace amount of Divine-Aspected Essence in the water was enough.
She recalled well what the last fight with this kind of Abyssal had entailed. The last time, her steam-borne geyser had allowed Mercion to destroy it with his lightning, but there had been the fact that her water was imbued with Divine-Aspected Essence. That had helped a great deal.
Now, it was about to perform the same function. Rieren had already trapped a great deal of steam beneath the surface. When she released, it a tremendous column of boiling water burst around the monster. The Abyssal screamed with an eerie voice, the water cutting through its smoky body and severing the connections with its bones.
Rieren wasted no time charging straight at it. She had localized the watery eruption to create a hole right in the centre of its form, where its dark heart lay. Now, she just had to strike it down.
A gigantic claw burst in from her right, checking her attacking motion.
Rieren was able to use Earthfall Blade quickly enough to deflect the powerful swipe. She didn’t get time to resume her charge towards the monster’s hearts. More claws came crashing in with relentless fury, trying to crush her while she was in place. She was too busy deflecting them all away, too focused on surviving the onslaught to even find the time to use Fray Passage to get away.
Distantly, she heard Batcat calling out. No. Rieren wouldn’t resort to transforming just yet. There was every chance she would need it later. She would have to defeat this Abyssal on her own.
Another geyser gave her the reprieve she needed. Water and steam exploded around her, obscuring her from the Life Stifler. Its claws still tried to crush the last spot she had been seen, but Rieren had already thrown herself backwards with Fray Passage boosting her momentum.
The next use of the skill shot her straight at the monster. Things turned fast. Thankfully, her Mind was high enough for her to take note of it all, no matter how blurry it became due to the relative difference in speed. As Rieren approached the monster faster than it could react, she summoned yet another geyser from beneath. At the same time, she used Gale Blade.
As before, the column of water held enough power to burst through the smoke defence of the Abyssal. It was enough to clear a path to its heart.
A heart now wrapped in a cage of bones.
Rieren crashed against the monster’s hastily made defence. Her first slash sliced past, leaving a large groove in the bone and throwing up sparks. She pulled her skill to a halt with an unsaid curse. There was no point tackling that barricade head-on when she couldn’t pierce it.
Batcat called out from the distance again. This time, Rieren was tempted to listen and accept the offer.
Of course, she didn’t get much time to consider. The Abyssals was once again attacking with its enormous claws. However, this time, instead of assaulting her with pinpoint accuracy, the monster was swiping the claws along the ground.
Her eyes widened. It was trying to remove her Domain.
The way the claws were dragging over the earth meant all the summoned water was being thrown away. It was effectively ensuring that she couldn’t continue to use surprise geysers to break through its smoky shield.
That was bad. If Rieren couldn’t disperse its smoke, she wouldn’t be able to get in close to deal any major blows. Touching that inky gas would have terrible consequences.
Maybe Batcat’s calls were right. Maybe she was going to have to transform and make use of the greater repertoire of abilities she would have available in her future form. She actually hurried back towards the gate, away from the monster’s dangerous claws and fatal smoke.
But just before she reached Batcat, another warning shout came, ringing loud and clear over the battlefield.
“The Arisen is coming! The Arisen is coming!”
It was the young man from the tower screaming his lungs out about the onrushing monster. Rieren stared at him for just a second, noting that Silomene wasn’t there. She must have joined the battle elsewhere.
Then Rieren whirled around and explored the skies before the Life Stifler could reach her.
The alarm was spot on. From the western horizon, the darkening sky was a prelude to arrival of the Arisen itself. Rieren was once again staggered to see just how enormous that creature was, easily obscuring far too much of the heavens.
Its arrival had also set off a general panic. The Abyssals had been pushed back so far, but now it seemed that the defenders were hurrying over towards the settlement. They had been spooked by the Arisen’s rapid approach. Now, the monsters charged in to fill the gaps they had left, recovering all the ground they had lost. Things were deteriorating. Fast.
Rieren didn’t even get to think about it. The B-Grade Life Stifler had borne down upon her with its smoky body, and she was forced to focus on defending herself.
Sparks flew and clangs echoed over the ground as she deflected swipe after clawed, bony swipe from the oversized monster. Her resummoned Domain was doing well to stop the smoke from reaching her and making things instantly fatal, but it would be difficult to keep it up at this rate.
Especially when the Arisen was about to fall upon them with its full wrath.
That was when their reinforcements arrived.
The first person was a large man overdressed in strange ceremonial armour. The more striking thing was that he was flying in on a burning meteor. Just before arriving at their exact location, he leaped off the meteorite, which went on to strike the Life Stifler. Meanwhile, he crashed down right on top of a contingent of approaching Armistice Enforcers.
Rieren didn’t pay too much attention to the fate of the weaker monsters. Most of her attention fell right on the Stifler, which now had a hole through its middle with much of its smoke burning away.
A hole where the bony cage around its dark orb of a heart had been broken open.
Wasting no time, Rieren once more summoned up a geyser courtesy of applying pressure via steam. This one was the largest she had made yet. Thankfully, none of her water doused the strange fire from the meteorite. It couldn’t have been normal flames, so was not dependent upon the same properties. Instead, all her water joined with flames to destroy the large Abyssal’s smoky body.
Rieren herself had already used Fray Passage to close the distance, and then used Gale Blade as she leaped high. Her aim was perfect. As the monster was distracted by the double dose of pain, Rieren had nothing blocking her from crashing right into its dark heart with her sword. A few slices later and she was falling to the ground, the Abyssal dying around her.
Its bones splashed to the ground, all the smoke evaporating away. They had beaten the Stifler. Just in time for more monsters to show up not far from them.
And one of those was the Arisen.