Arthur Olvasen:
"TAKE A SLOW BREATH, YOU DUMB FUCK! YOU'RE NOT A DAMN PANTING DOG!"
"I AM TRYING! DON'T SCREAM AT ME!!"
"THEN WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT ME, YOU MUDBLOOD?"
"BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND YOUR SCREAMING ALL THE TIME, MUDFACE!"
"THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"
The loud banter between Michael and Astrid caused me to stir and shift in my place as I pulled the hood of my hoodie over my head and pulled it down until it covered my eyes.
The bluish light of the moon permeated through the small gap as I tried to snap my eyes shut and get at least one or two hours of sleep. Or at least until the condition developed further.
The gravelly ground beneath me was broomed once, removing the small pointy stones, but it was still a bit uncomfortable to sleep on.
I turned around and faced the other way, trying to let go of all of my heightened senses and somehow just drift to sleep.
There was a certain chill in the air as I wrapped my hands around my body and tried to warm myself.
Since deserts tend to be quite cold in the nights, this one was no different. I had to rub my arms every now and then to keep hold of the fleeting warmth. To not let it escape me.
Albeit insignificant, hot jolts of pain coursed through my limbs as my body burned with fever.
It wasn't really accurate to call it a fever, but that was the closest term I could come up with to describe the current state that my body was in.
Any immediate danger to my life was already mitigated, thanks to Astrid. However, the natural healing process of my body was quite sluggish.
Or perhaps it was just the looming threat that made the progress seem to move forward at a snail's pace.
Contrary to Mudbloods' imagination and folklore, magic is not as convenient as it is described to be. I had never thought about its implications but now that we were in a life-and-death scenario, I could understand it.
One might think that if Astrid could remove such a dangerous symbiote that was infesting my spine and slowly burning my nerves, why can't she get rid of the fever and other little complications in my body?
The short answer is simple and straightforward. And that is, 'Magic isn't convenient.'
While healing people is a rare Arcane Art—even though Astrid's healing is a byproduct of the actual thing—it has its own set of involutions.
A simple example would be how some bodybuilders — when they need to grow muscles beyond the natural potential of a human — inject testosterones into their bodies. While doing so makes them look big, strong, and powerful, their body loses the ability to produce it naturally. Resulting in long lasting complications.
It was the same for healing.
Repeated usage could result in a slowed immune system and eventually, total failure of it. It's possible that if one exploited the power of healing too much, their body would end up so weak, internally, that no wound would heal without external aid.
This is what Adam — and before him, the Gods — referred to as Equivalent Exchange.
To gain something, one had to lose something of equal value. Equal worth.
Sometimes more.
Exceeding one's physical or magical limit required these strict stipulations.
On the other hand, unlike me, Astrid could use her own healing at herself without worrying about the ramifications. Since it's a direct derivative of an 'application' of her Arcane Arts, it won't have side-effects on her.
"JUST GRAB A HOLD OF AMBIENT ARCANUM, SHOVE IT IN YOUR PRIMARY NODE, AND BOOM. IT'S DONE. HOW STUPID ARE YOU?!!!"
"WHAT ON UNHOLY EARTH IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, HUH!?"
I shifted in place again and heard Astrid let out a yelp as she heard the faint rustle of the blanket I had made from leaves and a few branches.
"You're going to wake him up."
"It's your fault for being dumb! Why the fuck am I even teaching you anything? Die. Kill yourself."
For some reason, the whispering conversation between Astrid and Michael was even more disturbing than their screams.
After we had spotted the Wujin army charging in our direction, we decided to relocate to a higher place. But for some reason, they started to march back. It seems like they will attack again once they think we have dropped our guard.
When they fell back, Astrid started to bleed from her ears.
It was Arcanum overload.
Due to her body entering a biome that had an unusual amount of Arcanum, contrary to the one where she had spent all her life, it couldn't handle it and induced internal bleeding. It was the same aspect as people having their hearts exploding upon awakening.
However, since she could do basic augmentation, she pulled through.
Due to my body's poor state, Michael — surprisingly — decided to tutor her about how to control the influx and outflux of Arcanum without having her heart explode.
And while I don't doubt Michael's talent in Arcanum manipulation, his methods of teaching are…well, I don't think I need to explain.
He has an intrinsic sense for it. Since he expects everyone to know this, he has cursed at Astrid more than he has taught. After a few hours, she snapped and the two of them turned into two animals, growling at each other and scratching each other's faces at every provided chance.
Metaphorically, might I add. Of course.
I wasn't exactly against it since Astrid had been sheltered until now — at least for the past 2 years — this kind of exposure might be good. Even Astrid knows that being a mean nincompoop is what Michael's personality is, hence I don't think the cursing would bring any bad memories.
The problem is that this "alleged" tongue-in-cheek persiflage was rendering me unable to get even a second's worth of sleep. They started slow, but as Astrid struggled to understand Michael's 'Boom, bam, woomp' explanation, the verbal insults kept getting more and more severe.
Throwing the makeshift blanket away and removing the hood from my head, I sat up.
"Oh, hey Arthur. Good morning." Astrid looked in my direction, the frown dissipating as she beamed at me. Clasping her hands together in front of her, she tilted her head and rested her cheek on them, smiling. "I hope you had a good few hours of sleep."
As I stretched my neck to the side, it let out a crack.
"Totally." I replied without looking at them as they still sat at the edge of the platform like place.
"Don't be a burden." Michael chimed in, his voice causing my head to ache.
"Yeah." I merely agreed. I was in no mood to argue with someone as persistent and so obtusely doltish as him. Not when the headache was making it feel like I have a hole in the side of my cranium.
The darkness of the night was pierced by the blue light of the moon as my gaze swept over the potential battlefield. There was no sight of the Wujins. For now, at the very least.
For the first time since coming to Eden, we were finally exploring the place where we had landed and spent the most time in.
Behind the platform we were on was the 40 metres tall remaining part of the mountain. The peak was jagged and the tip was cut off, broken in a zig-zag line.
Be it right or left; everywhere we saw behind us was just a series of mountains. These mountains formed a natural wall. If someone were to attack this place from somewhere beyond here, they would have no visual or idea of what's on the other side.
Each mountain was around 20,000 feet tall on average. Most of them were barren ones, however, a few of them – located in the near distance underneath a thick, dense congregation of clouds – had some greenery over them.
Astrid stood up from her place and dusted her back, getting rid of dust. Walking over in my direction, she slightly pulled at my shirt.
"How's your fever?"
"It's alright." I stopped and hummed as she kept her gaze fixed at me. For a while I continued to look into her eyes, the sky-blue – further punctuated by the blue moonlight – orbs unblinking.
My shoulders drooped down a little. "It's manageable."
"I want to say that don't push yourself."
Her voice was low, restrained underneath a façade of composure.
Cocking my head in her direction, I tried to break a smile at her. "I can wait to hear that. Only a little though."
"If I say it, will you act upon it?" She eyed me curiously, a glimmer of hope.
Tapping her head once like a door, I turned around. "Nope."
I felt her rub her forehead while mumbling something.
Not paying much heed to it, I once again turned my attention towards the mountains. As I was saying, this place – the mountain range – had an unbridled potential to act as a natural fortress, providing ample amounts of both stealth, and better vantage points.
Cold wind blew and I felt a jolt go down my body. Zipping my hoodie up, I slipped my hands into its pockets.
Michael was silent but was impatiently tapping his heel against the ground. I could not tell if he wanted to say something, or if it was just genuine boredom before he could finally fight.
While he was quite on the edge before, after a whole day he finally came to terms with our current predicament.
"Do you have something to say?" I looked over Astrid's head whose eyes were trailing after me, silently. She would occasionally steal a glance at the mountains – the ones right beside us and then at the ones that were barely visible despite the moonlight – and would then frown, as if trying to come up with something.
The whole process of her thinking and being so expressive about it seemed oddly interesting and somewhat...tangible.
I could almost see the gears in her mind whirring, the seed of an idea taking root and spreading tendrils of excitement across her face as it brightened up.
Her eyes shone with the dawning realisation as the idea flourished within her mind.
Her lips parted, ready to speak, but then, as if a mischievous child had yanked a sapling prematurely from the soil, she snapped her lips shut as doubts and counterarguments made by her own mind stood up against the idea.
The excited, almost breathless flutter of her lips ceased and she looked away as if brooding. Her upper lip stretched over the lower one, lamenting herself over the failure of her idea before she could even manifest it into words.
"Not really." Michael's reply made me peel my eyes away from Astrid's face. Much to my astonishment, no snarky, sardonic remark came from his side. Just a genuine answer.
"You seem restless."
Letting Astrid immerse in her thoughts, I addressed Michael again.
"Itching for a fight, is all." The usual energy behind his reply was absent and his eyes were dull as he looked down at the ground while talking, long strands of white hair covering his features like a beaded veil.
Even though he said he was itching for a fight, his tone betrayed him.
Perhaps it is the sepulchral odds that stripped him of his fighting spirit.
I mean, no one in their right mind would be specifically cheerful about waiting for a battle they can't win.
I looked at Astrid as her face went through the same few stages of happiness and then remorse as she brainstormed ideas.
As for her, she had no idea about the impending doom that awaited us. Not because she was stupid. But perhaps ignorant. Ignorant of the scale of the situation.
Seeing how Michael was sitting dejected and trying his best to hide it was a louring reminder that despite the power he held, he was still a child. There was a lot of time to grow.
My expectations suddenly took a downward curve and fell into oblivion.
I have to do something myself. It's not like I was an overly optimistic person.
Overly optimistic is just a longer and glorified way of calling someone stupid.
But I wasn't going to just sit here and wait for their arrival. Even if the numerical odds were against us, logically speaking there was still a lot we could do to flip the table of those odds back at the enemy.
"Done thinking?" I looked over to Astrid who suddenly shuddered as her mind returned to the present moment and she stared blankly at me, still stuck between the limbo of rapid fire of ideas storming her mind and the small utterance from me in the real world.
"Uh- yeah. I think so…" she sheepishly scratched her cheek, "…I did think of a thing or two. Not sure if it's going to be helpful or not."
Walking over to the wall where I had rested, I placed my foot over the small protrusion and climbed a step upwards.
"Speak your mind. It might help."
"Well, I don't think that anything that I may have considered as feasible would not have crossed your mind." She replied, her tone dejected.
"Doesn't hurt to speak your mind, does it?" Grabbing another irregular surface, I pulled my body upwards. Thankfully the platform was only around a few hundred feet away from the peak of this mountain. It wouldn't take that long for me to get there.
"Chokepoints." She spoke. Despite saying it in a normal voice, it continuously seemed to get distant as I continued to climb upwards. She paused and as I looked back, I saw her looking at me with a worried expression.
"Keep going. I am listening."
Nodding to herself, she continued. "How about we make chokepoints? That can be a good way to pile them up and then you can like- boom, rain magic spells on them?"
I paused midway as my hand pulled the loose rock. Tilting my body to the side, I let it fall downwards. Astrid stepped to the side as well and the muddy-rock shattered on impact. It was mostly made out of viscous mud with a few gravels in the middle that made it look like a small stone.
"Well, I am not really versed into this whole world ending apocalypse war thingy, but from what I can see, the monsters are going to attack us, right?"
"No shit, you dumb little rat." Michael's voice cut through the air as he smirked at her.
"At least I am contributing." Astrid retorted. I was still focused on climbing upwards, but the way her words sounded I could tell she had a silly grin over her face. "The more you talk the more I am convinced of something."
"Enlighten me." He scoffed.
"That thing you call your head only has two brain cells. And both of them are competing for third place."
Hmm. Well, that doesn't make sense. Technically speaking there are only two spots—
Contrary to my thoughts, Michael suddenly laughed. "You're prolly thinking you're funny, aren't ya?"
"I believe I am quite funny." She paused and then spoke again. "There's more to humour than mindless cursing."
He laughed once again.
"You've developed quite a tongue, scaredy cat." Michael hissed. While I do think he won't do anything, Astrid seems to be pushing her luck. "But eh, you have humour, unlike Spiderman from Walmart over there. So, I will overlook it."
I am what now? A Spiderman? From Walmart?
I should boil him.
"I am graced by your words. What I would've done without your approval?!" Her words were laced with sardonic mockery as she placed her hand over her chest with an exaggerated motion.
"Oye!"
I am guessing he is calling for me. Without turning back, I spoke up.
"What is it?"
"Where did ya find this little rat? She's funny."
"Stop calling me a rat!"
"Well, to be fair to you, you look like the rats we got in NYC. Albino rat. A fat white rat. A rat with a big mouth." Michael cackled, seemingly finding himself really funny and breaking out of the cocoon of depression he was inside a while ago.
"Grrr." Astrid growled, but refrained from talking any further.
Good to know she is aware of when to stop.
"And you! Reply to me."
Disregarding his question, I continued to climb upwards.
Once I had made it to the top, I could finally look beyond the wall of mountains. The front was something that we had grown used to. The area beyond the huge wall of mountains was much better than the one here, with thin lines – that I assumed were roads – lining the whole place amidst a huge forest.
I squinted my eyes; however, I couldn't make much of it.
But it was confusing. How was it possible to have a lush green forest right behind a desert-like place? It didn't make sense. While the terrain was never mentioned in Adam's notes, this was still bizarre.
It was only after a few seconds of blankly thinking about it for a while that I noticed something.
Something when I looked down.
Two crazed eyes separated by quite a few inches. The maw was shut tight and it had held its breath. However, the moonlight hitting its scales and reflecting the sickly green hue gave it away.
Before the Wujin could move, a star sparkled in the sky and I pulled a spear out of the inventory of weapons I had 'borrowed' from the Keep during our escape.
Its frill opened and was about to send a pulse of magnetic wave meant for communication, however, the spear lodged into the frill-like membrane before it could do so.
A few more twinkled and more and more weapons rained down on it. A sword and an axe managed to lodge themselves into the eyes on its shoulders and all movements were immediately extinguished. In tandem with its breath.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING UP THERE!????" Michael was the first to talk.
This is bad.
They have been circling around the mountain. And seeing the marks on this Wujin's skull, it had the same tattoo as the one in Korea. Which means, this as well, was a scout.
I looked down before pulling the lodged weapons out from the Wujin and jumped down.
My landing was evened out as I let out a burst of Arcanum and a small wave of dust filled the platform. As I faced towards Michael, the weapons I had pulled from Wujin returned back into the sky.
"We are getting sandwiched."
**********************************
**A FEW HOURS LATER**
The first whispers of dawn crept through the quiet, frigid night as the moon began to surrender to the encroaching light of the lens shaped – vesica piscis – sun.
The crawling sunlight sliced through the lingering darkness and cold of the night alike, painting the monochromatic horizon with molten gold and smouldering amber. The occasional gusts of cold air reduced and turned balmy. It felt soothing against my fever-stricken body.
After telling Michael and Astrid about the incoming threat we immediately split up.
Astrid followed me while Michael went on his own in an opposite direction. The goal was to spot the huge herd of Wujins. If we know which direction they are coming from, we can at least know which place is safer. And if the worst scenario happens where we can't hold them at bay, we can run back into the forest behind the layer of mountains.
It was a gamble.
After an hour we met again but none of us had spotted even a single Wujin.
Once it was clear that the full-blown attack was upon us in a few hours, we made some preparations.
Astrid's idea about creating a chokepoint was not bad. However, it had a few problems. There was a small congregation of trees right underneath the platform we were on which could give the notion of working.
However, there are a few problems.
First, these are the worst kind of chokepoints.
Chokepoints are usually created using a passageway between mountains where enemies are trapped and are then extinguished in a pincer attack. However, the trees were right beneath the flat, vertical surface of the mountains. There was no passageway to trap them into.
Second, an artificial chokepoint could be made.
But there was a problem with this as well. I can't use lightning to repeatedly strike a single place, again and again, to carve a huge path which will later be used as a trap.
It would give out our exact location. Given the scout Wujin had not already done it.
My physical ability was not enough to carve it. And on top of that, I had not fully recovered from Ed's decaying slash. If worse comes to worse, I have to open Phase 2.
Now regarding this second point, there is good and bad news.
Good news is that Michael can carve a path into the mountain and turn it into a trap using his Arcane Art.
Bad news is that he can't use it for some reason.
He didn't mention the specifics, but if I had to guess, it's most likely like a Divine Covenant.
A Divine Covenant is a Contractual Vow with a God. Generally speaking.
It is quite rare since a Contract with a higher being is bound to be in loss. It's a simple give and take restriction-based concept. No one can increase their primary nodes' size to accommodate more Arcanum. We were able to do so because we already had room for more, but couldn't do it due to the ambient balance on Earth.
Back to the main topic of Divine Covenant. If someone wants to increase their Arcanum amounts via a contract with a God, they'd have to sacrifice something as well. The law of Equivalent Exchange applies here.
In a way. But not "exactly."
The way this works is that if I want to increase my Arcanum amounts for five minutes by 200%, correspondingly my physical abilities will nosedive by 200% as well. Not only that, but I might be able to not use my Arcane Art as well.
It's like a 40% profit – 60% loss deal.
This imbalance underscores a fundamental truth: a lesser being cannot stand on equal footing with a greater one, much less negotiate favourable terms. A necessary, unavoidable cost for breaking the natural course of events.
I might be overthinking… but I guess Michael's unusually strong body is a result of this Divine Covenant. His Arcane Art might be the sacrifice. Since I can't imagine a human having as much Arcanum as Michael with a Divine Covenant in action.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM *
My thoughts broke away from this line of thought as the platform I was standing on shuddered. Astrid stumbled to my side and barely held on as the suddenness of the tremor took her off guard.
While I am against this plan, there is no fighting Michael at this point.
I was thinking earlier about how the place beyond the wall of mountains and this are separated. I mean, it is Eden, so there are bound to be differences. This area of our old world was much more peculiar than the one we got. However, it was not possible for these two places to just be segregated by this wall and have no means of travelling from that side, to this side.
Turns out I was right. There was a small, gravelly path. While it can't be called a road or even a proper path, it was still carved out in a way that it would help in providing 'not-so perilous' travel. And right now, Michael was punching holes into the path to create a huge passageway between two mountains by collapsing half of it.
"I don't think this is a good idea." Astrid mumbled while maintaining her balance. "This is such a brutish approach."
I kept my eyes on the horizon, ignoring the increasing tremors that quaked underneath my boots. "In this situation there is no good idea." I paused as the first signs of green scales shimmered in the distance once again. However, this time they weren't moving in a single arrowhead formation.
They had spread out, unevenly. Like the head of a trident. The middle group had the least amount of Wujins with thousands upon thousands of them congregating on the left and right side.
"Only bad or worse." I finished.
Astrid gasped, placing her hand on her mouth. "Oh my…Arthur, they…"
Begrudgingly, I had to admit. "Yeah. They are quite more than last time."
The sky rumbled as the mountain to our side gave away, slowly falling into a steep rockslide. Huge debris fell, chunks of mountain falling down hundreds of feet before collapsing against the trees – that slightly cushioned their fall – and then broke against the jagged spikes that lined the whole place in regular intervals.
His form blurred as he jumped upwards and stood by my side. Wiping the sweat from his face using his sleeve, he looked over the incoming horde.
There was no need to talk.
The Wujin – the biggest one of them – in the centre took a few steps forward. Unlike the others, it was different. Really different. It did not have a crazed look on its face.
About twice as big as the normal scout, it mostly had a stark resemblance with a lizard of some sort.
Elongated, squat body, overlapping plates on its back, a long whip-like tail. It lacked the signature look of Wujins as it had its eyes located on the face.
The head was rounded with a bulging forehead, and its lips curved upwards giving it a permanent snarling expression.
But what got my attention the most was the two-pronged sail on its head which was constantly vibrating as the troops moved around, taking what looked like pre-determined positions.
"That one there for some reason has a very punchable face." Michael spoke.
Taking hold of the weapons, I lodged a few of them into the open ravine that had formed right beside us. However, I made sure that their blades were pointing outwards and only their hilts were lodged into the ravine.
I let out a weary breath.
Taking out a dagger from my pocket, I turned around.
"Just in case." I stole a glance at Astrid, holding the knife out. She was still shivering, now that she had seen them up close. And in such large numbers.
She looked up at my face and then down at the small knife. After a few moments, she took it away.
Her fingers were ice cold against my skin.
A natural biological reaction.
Once the weapons' hilts had lodged themselves into the thin ravine, I turned my head towards the army of Wujins.
The one in the middle took another few steps before stopping.
The pronged sail on its head vibrated and I felt a few, weak magnetic waves pulse in the air. The pulse was followed by the soldiers falling into a frenzy as they readied themselves.
It was only then when it clocked.
"That's the queen."
I pointed at the one in the middle. As if understanding everything happening here, the snarly look on its face contorted into a twisted, ugly smirk. The sail vibrated once more and the left flank started to move in a straight line.
"Beehive."
"Beehive?" Michael raised a brow, his Arcanum flaring as he coated his body.
"I want to test something." I replied, and without waiting for him to talk, I extended my hand to the side.
'Thunderbolt.' I chanted internally.
Lighting crackled between my fingertips. The lightning branched and an azure light started to fill the entire platform, before spilling like water over the edge.
It started to take shape in my grasp taking a much more symmetrical, multi-pronged, zigzagging shape.
The centre shaft remained in my grip while it extended to both sides with jagged, branching extensions resembling the forks of a lightning bolt.
As soon as it was completed, I heard nothing else other than the crackle of the 'Thunderbolt,' roaring to be released.
Pivoting my body in the right direction, I imbued more Arcanum into my arms before launching it like a missile.
The Thunderbolt zipped through the air and before I could even blink, it was a few centimetres away from the Queen's head.
However, just as it could make an impact, shields stacked on one another.
It was as I had guessed.
There is no queen without her royal guards.
As the thunderbolt pierced through shields, flesh and hardened steel-like bones alike, renting it apart and spilling the royal guard's guts in every direction, several more of them had already started to gather in every direction of the queen, forming literal meat shields.
As 'The Thunderbolt's' rage finally quelled, around 5 of them were already dead.
Ignoring the incoming wave of normal soldiers from the side, I looked back at the Queen who had a snarling expression once again before she was hidden behind the ring of her royal guards.
"They work in a Beehive. The others don't have intelligence." I started to explain. It all made sense now. "If we can take out the queen, I am pretty sure the others will stop functioning altogether."
"Like that Chinese movie?"
I turned around to look at Michael. "I haven't watched what you are referring to, but if that helps you with it, yes. Exactly like that one Chinese movie." I paused as he nodded. "We just need to get rid of those guards."
"Alright." Michael stretched his arms. "Leave that to me."
"No." I stopped him. "You stay here with Astrid."
"HAH?! I don't wanna babysit this rat."
"No, it's not about babysitting." I took a deep breath. "We haven't seen a single soldier from the Keep. It's obvious they led these Wujins here."
"Aaaaannnddd?????"
Do I really have to spoon feed this guy everything? How did he even become an heir? "Can't tell exactly, but I am sure they will attack once we are weakened. Or maybe all of this is a distraction and they have some other agenda."
"Well, fuck! We are proper fucked, aren't we?"
"Not exactly." The words felt out of place. "Only somewhat."
As the left flank reached our left side, a couple hundred feet away from the ravine, they started to pile up on each other and began climbing the mountain using each other as footholds.
"Now that's some zombie apocalypse level shit." Michael snorted.
There was quite some time before they reached the ravine.
Pointing my index finger downward, a metallic bar flew from beyond the saffron hued clouds which appeared as a black blur against the rising silhouette of the sun.
The Wujin queen was a really smart creature. And the biggest strength of her was the viciousness and quantity of her puppets. It was like using magnetic fields as strings. She was a marionette. All I had to do was find the right frequency to start interrupting orders from her.
I had done it once in Seoul while I was experimenting on it. But it was already faint due to its existence in different dimensions. It was stronger as of now, but given enough time, I could decipher it.
I am confident about it.
As the lightning rod lodged itself in front of the queen, her royal guards gathered in front of her.
These twenty or so guards were about the size of an elephant and had the appearance akin to a gorilla, with eyes located on their faces.
They as well possessed the receiver retractable frills on their shoulders and had small, flat-faced heads.
They lacked any tails and their physiology was mostly similar to monkeys.
From one look, I could tell their main weapon was the unfolding heavy armoured frills that served the purpose of shields for their queen.
"Fuu…" I let out a long breath.
As if realising what I was about to do, Michael took a step back.
"Take a few steps back as well." He prompted Astrid, but their voices faded as I focused on my spell.
Dark clouds started to swirl overhead in a cyclone-like shape and azure lightning coursed through it. The rising lens shaped sun began to get muddled by the black clouds as the entire place crackled with a thundering boom.
"Open."
I muttered under my breath as a huge column of lightning fell directly on the lightning rod I had lodged right in front of the middle and right flank.
As lightning coursed through the battlefield, I lowered my stance and extended my hand to the side as a sword flew into my grip.
I had only started the first step of this but I could already feel my body scream in protest. Like pulling itself apart.
I grit my teeth and the adrenaline soaked up any lingering pain in my body.
My vision stretched infinitely as I chanted with a harried gasp.
[Phase 2: Slipstream]