SL Chapter 25 Grueling Battle.
Someone was plotting something big. Bora could feel it within her bones as she looked at the bizarre creatures around her, which were tearing into each other or attacking the awakened humans, who, by some inexplicable reason, had only gotten aligned with the water element.
Bora wasn't idle, she was also slaughtering the beasts, the zombies and all other manner of feral creatures as fast as she could. She was taking great care not to use her anchors, her eyes, to channel her powers. With the reason being that it would strain them immensely, thereby lowering her visual prowess, something she couldn't afford to lose at this point in time.
With a knife hand, an arm from a lunging vampire was torn from its shoulder. Then, with a hordizontal swipe, the head was separated from the body. Before it could even hit the ground, she palmed it towards a werewolf that had been about to bite into Iris' neck, pushing its jaws just a few inches away from her nape, with the other woman's monkey slicing through the beast multiple times, turning it into mince meat.
Bo-ram was struggling to hold off the other creatures, while her hanger-ons had already bitten the dust. She would have been doing even better if she had taken the time to train, yet the bitch had simply been too taken in by the party life.
'This is getting troublesome. How will we reach the northern gate at this point? These monsters are everywhere!'
Bora was frustrated. That frustration was even getting increasingly higher when she gazed at the bodies surrounding them. How many of these feral beasts had they killed so far? Over a hundred! Yet they weren't even getting thinned out. How huge had the native population truly been? No one had taken the time to really count the people, as if they had been ignored deliberately.
The natives had been an amalgam of races. From giants, to beast kin, to night elves, to orcs, ogres... Basically everything! There had been even the bizarre, though all had been normal. Without magic, without true power, yet, this glitch... Or whatever it was, had given them power.
The air whistled while she was caught up in contemplation, attracting her attention towards a carriage that had been thrown from quite the distance. It was black, one not for cargo nor nobles, but one that acted as a taxi. Her eyes widened as she prepared to use her power only for the carriage to dissolve into dust a moment later, with her gaze moving towards the culprit. Bo-ram had acted. The threat of death really brought out the limits of people.
But she hadn't activated her powers without significant strain. Her eyes, both of them, were bleeding intensely, while she had been forced onto one knee, breathing heavily.
Bora moved, her steps as graceful as a cat's, yet possessed the same agility. In an instant, she arrived behind the tired woman, whose head swiveled as she widened her eyes, realizing that she was about to be killed. Their eyes met, and Bora was half tempted to murder her here, but ultimately, decided against it. Besides, her attack was aimed towards a sneaky creature, whose fangs had been about to pierce the other woman's nape.
With a powerful slap, the head of the vampiric creature rotated upon its neck, with the force tearing it right off the rest of the body. Then, changing her palm into a hand blade, brought it down, bisecting the rest of the body in a brutal fashion that splattered blood everywhere.
Bora saw a multitude of words that couldn't be spoken within her half sister's eyes, but lacked the chance to hear them verbalized before she felt an attack from her back, one which would have surely severed her spine if she hadn't blocked it with a back kick. The force almost threw her into Bo-ram, yet she held on and pushed back, causing the attacker to retreat, and also giving her the chance to turn around and finally take in their Visage.
It was a humanoid lion. It's brown mane was fluttering in the wind kicked up by its retreat, yet what attracted her eyes was not its status as a beastkin. Instead, it was the light of intelligence. There was also a brown aura surrounding it, something that caused some small measure of astonishment within Bora.
'It's aura... Has it really entered the liquid state? Or is it a result of something different?' She wondered even as the caution within her heart increased. This wasn't going to be a simple opponent. There was also the fact that she had now recognized a terrifying fact. That there could be others comparable to her hiding within these attackers. That was a dangerous thing!
With a powerful kick towards the ground, that shattered the now bare soil, whose pavement had already been stripped off some time in the near past, it lunged towards her, it's hands spread as if going for a hug with claws glinting a menacing glow. Then, they blurred as it brought them together, launching energy claws that threatened to turn her into minced meat. After making certain that Bo-ram had already moved away, she leaped to the side with a powerful kick to the ground, and with another powerful leap, she launched herself towards the lion, this time making certain of the fact that she was going to have to use her entire ability set in order to swiftly bring this battle to a conclusion.
'Everything I see is an illusion.' The phrase reverberated within her mind even as they crossed paths. A look of mad glee took over the lion's features as it revelled in the fact that it was about to win. Bora knew its entire thought process because it was so simple that it was predictable. If it had been a human in its place, they wouldn't have committed to an attack when their opponent hadn't revealed all of their tricks yet. And that naivety led to its death as it was separated into two halves vertically.
"Iris!" called out Bora after her feet touched the ground once again, gesturing with her chin towards an establishment on the side of the street. The sun was about to set. Fighting within the dark night was going to be even more grueling. If they didn't find cover to recover their energy, they were going to be overwhelmed at some point. And the shop she had noticed appeared to be the best choice for them. Iris' dark furred monkey disemboweled another creature before it shrunk and leaped back onto her shoulder. Then, the three of them retreated towards the small buildings while reducing their combat and presence. The creatures had lost most of their rationality, which made them more prone to attacking their neighbours instead of troubling those far away.
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Thankfully, the small shop had been discarded by everyone, making it one of the safest places to hide in the city. Bora finally took in how it looked like after making certain that there was no living creature. It appeared to have been a jewelery store, with each collection of trinkets enclosed within a glass chamber atop wooden pedestals that were large enough to conceal a person. And with such perfect hiding spots, they had fully settled down, silently waiting for their energy to regenerate.
Bora's face was painted with a frown, illuminated by the moonstone above, embedded within the ceiling. The reason was simply because of a simple fact that they had barely made any progress towards the gates.
"If the circumstances had been different. Would you have killed me?" Bo-ram's voice interrupted her musings.
"Why should I have hesitated?" asked back Bora after making certain that there was no creature outside within her sensory range enhanced by spiritual energy.
"I saved your life with that carriage!"
"Saved...? Are you really that naive, dear half-sister? The carriage would have been easily solvable. You lacked battle experience, thereby placing yourself in danger. Saving you was simply a means to have more bodies to sacrifice should things turn bad." Bora decided to place all the hatred she could muster within her tone. The only reason she had truly decided to save the woman was because of her brother, who was a Crystal stage. The man knew of his sister's whereabouts. And should she perish, the previously lukewarm approach might turn into full-blown hate.
The small shop once again regained its silence with those candid words from Bora.
"What could your brother be planning? Stalling us here surely would also place his dear sister in even more danger. There is also the question of how he would accomplish such a thing. Are you going to stab one of us in the back during an intense battle?" asked Iris, her words coming out as if spit from a machine gun. But that only earned her a sneer from the other woman. And that ticked off Bora.
"We will only stay here for about 30 minutes." No sooner had Bora finished speaking when the ground started vibrating. This time it wasn't an earthquake, but more of the fact that something was tunneling within the ground.