Noble released a wave of emotion. Taking on tangible form, it ripped through the burrowers, bursting their tiny hearts with a percussive wave and killing them instantly.
Unfortunately, that wasn't all that burst. Noble winced as her attack obliterated a small section of the plain and pulverized the creatures residing there also.
'Ah, well, at least I didn't need all of them…'
Thankfully, she had kept the area of influence extremely small, so while the damage was significant, it wasn't widespread.
"We'll just have to get them the old-fashioned way."
Noble flicked her wrist.
Already Helios was diving toward the ground, his massive maw releasing a mighty snarl.
He landed in the heap of burrowers, and immediately his teeth and claws went to work. The midsection of the first one was sliced open while the two others were crunched between the guillotine of shining teeth.
Following a trajectory of her own, Noble saw the bloodshed through Nectar's watching eyes.
'Gentle, Helios! Gentle!'
The Symncus grunted but adjusted his tactics. He swatted at the next one, breaking its neck and throwing it off to one side. The Echo began using his head paws and tail to break the spines of those foolish enough to attack him.
Noble herself took a slightly different approach. She swung the Ruby Tear like an ax, lopping off many of the creatures' heads in one fell swoop.
Noble could have sent the weapon to fly on its own, but there was a secondary goal behind eradicating the nest that Noble hoped to accomplish this afternoon.
And nectar was the key. Through the Soul Bloom's eyes, Noble watched her own movements carefully.
She hadn't been in the Dreamscape for years except with Helios. The tournament was not only unavailable for people of her rank, but it also was no longer a challenge for her. As much as it pained her, she had outgrown it.
As such, Noble hadn't gotten many chances to improve her form outside of Nightmares. So she took today as an opportunity to do just that.
Noble looked back at what she had seen Syrce do both in her fight against the others and in their friendly duel. The woman had been a force of nature that Noble had only aspired to be. Now that hope could be realized with time, practice, and attention to detail. Unfortunately, the first two were in short supply.
That made this moment all the more precious.
Now that she was a Saint, Noble's body had been tempered and strengthened beyond anything she could have imagined back when she was Queen of the illusory world of trial by combat.
Out here, she could test the limits of her ability and fine-tune her movement to absolute control.
She had already tried out brute force. The red river of blood through the middle of the colony was a testament to that.
Now it was time to practice her finesse.
Noble's eyes swirled with blue, purple, and green as she aimed and calculated her every move. Each time she landed even a millimeter off when killing one of the abominations, she chided herself and adjusted for the next strike.
[You have slain and Awakened Monster, Burrower.]
[You have slain and Awakened Monster, Burrower.]
[You have slain and Awakened Monster, Burrower.]
The voice of the Spell echoed in her head like the beating of a distant drum. She ignored it, giving herself an assessment that the strangely familiar voice never could.
'My wrist isn't straight enough, and I bent my elbow too much. Again!'
Outside of the Academy, Noble had never had a proper tutor to help her learn how to fight. Rock had given her tips over the years, but mostly she had been self-taught.
And as such, Child of Promise was her own worst critic.
As the frenzied attack from the Burrowers continued, Noble adjusted her technique bit by bit. In the Nightmare, Syrce's fighting style had been wild and untamed, overflowing with power and filled with abandon.
That just wasn't Noble. Child of Promise adopted some of the effervescent Saint's moves, but made them her own.
With each stroke, Noble felt a bit more like the fighter she had always meant to be. She was controlled and measured, yet fluid in her approach. Each situation demanded a unique solution, and being flexible was key.
The biggest thing, however, that Noble wanted to learn was something she hadn't ever been able to practice in the Dreamscape. It was her control of the space around her.
Most fighters had to battle on a two-dimensional landscape with the only directions that their footwork could traverse being the four cardinal directions. Sure, they could throw in a jump to mix things up, but that was it.
Noble, on the other hand, could move in any direction, including up and down at will.
When fighting much taller enemies, Noble had abandoned the ground to find their weak points and avoid being crushed. However, with opponents who were her height or shorter, she had never felt the need.
To some extent, it made sense; lifting too high would make her legs and torso vulnerable to an attack from below. But even small differences in height could make a huge change in the dynamics of Noble's stroke and directionality.
Taking her time, Child of Promise played with the angles and distance from the ground as she ruthlessly cut down the colony of furry, rodent-like monsters. Noble looked more like a surgeon than a warrior as she took down her enemies with infinitesimal precision.
Her movements were deliberate and calculated, and yet she made them with such ease that there seemed to be no power behind them. Only the carnage around her and the voice of the Spell tolling in her ears showed just how deadly her blade really was.
The speed at which she moved was inhuman, resembling the bee to which she had been too often compared. But still, Child or Promise was not satisfied.
'A little higher.'
'Not enough of a downward stroke.'
'Less tip and more of the side of the blade for a clean cut...'
On and on her self-critique went, as a combination of her own muscles and Nectar's feedback gave her insight into her deficiencies. Finally, like a lump of coal being pressed into a diamond, Noble felt something click inside her.
The weight of her blade, the tension in her muscles, and the physical world around her all suddenly converged into one understandable reality.
'That...that's it!'
In her excitement, the world around her seemed to shift. Her Clarity took on a new form as her individual battle style took shape. It wasn't perfect, but even in its rudimentary state, Noble felt euphoric.
Her hand seemed to move even before her brain had fully registered the actions of the monsters, and her distance from the ground intuitively shifted with each and every stroke.
All too soon, the last creature, in a desperate attempt to do what none of its kin could, jumped for Noble's helmet. It never had a chance to see the flash of the Ruby Tear before it was sliced into two equal pieces that parted around Noble's body.
She froze, looking around at the carnage of the killing field. There was not a single moving creature left. She had done it.
No, they had done it.
Noble furrowed her brow. She looked up at Nectar.
"Where's Leo?"