Ebony ca to his senses when he was Flickering forward. Presumably in the direction that Ning Xin pointed out. His first thought was to check on her.
He checked that he only very gently froze her wounds so that he didn't freeze her to death. Her body suit was blocking his mana sense but it was quite obvious from the moistness that she had lost plenty of blood on impact. Her heart was beating but even with his Perception, he knew her heartbeat was getting weaker.
From his mories, he rembered she got pierced where her heart was but it wasn't as if he knew the exact position of her heart.
"Are you awake? Please reply to if you are?"
…
"Is your mask healing you?"
…
t with silence twice, his anxiousness rose. He already noticed his own state, it was a miracle that he was still on the move. His left arm had absolutely no feeling in them. He wasn't even shocked that there was no mana chassis in his left arm. There was barely even a trickle of mana getting regenerated and all of it was put into his legs and gravity repulsion kicks.
'No…my body and Will listened and made go deeper. I should've run towards Arcta, at least the Lasils should have so healing capabilities. But that would bring those Jetfins and tar towards them.' Ebony was aware that Arcta wasn't completely defenceless but there were plenty of children and non-combatants just walking around the village he couldn't bring himself to attract so many strong creatures there. There is a very good chance they won't be able to react in ti. After all, a relatively low-level creature had caused destruction in their village before. These were 800 creatures and all were probably stronger.
'What do I do, what do I do?!'
His breath misted over and his numb nostrils and lungs reminded him that one of his lungs had gotten pierced and hadn't fully healed. His heart rate increased as Ning Xin's body temperature continued to drop.
"Why did you ask to run deeper into Hoarfrost Glade?" At this rate, they were both freezing to death as he wasn't recovering either.
"Sister Jing's armour is useless. Your mask can't even heal a weak plague. Isn't your mask amazing, why aren't you waking up?" He complained.
His feet were still moving but there was no response from them as they tore through the Glades.
He wasn't sure if he imagined things but he was stunned out of his complaints when her arms around his neck shook and tightened.
The tremble knocked him back on track and a stream of mana kicked in. Everlasting Tranquillity hadn't been working and it didn't co back fully.
"You knew that would happen and you still guided us here…Your intuition? Is there sothing here that can help? There's only…"
Only one thing ca to mind but he never told her much about Gen or Ful. He might have ntioned a turtle or a massive tree and she might have guessed that it was related to the Glades but that shouldn't have been enough for her to point him here. After all, not even he was aware of their current location. He didn't believe her Intuition could tell her locations. To begin with, how would they help? Were they supposed to help fend off the tar?
It was too late for that.
'What am I missing…'
Ebony tried his best to stabilise Everlasting Tranquillity but the weakening beat against his back rattled him with every beat.
'That preservation!' He was hit with a ray of hope when he recalled the first ti he t Gen.
The turtle froze him without freezing him, taking no damage he was put into a state he saw as cryopreservation.
He didn't know if it would work to stop her from dying but it was the only thing that ca to mind in the current situation. They were an unknown distance away from the closest healer and he didn't know what happened to the Jetfins or tars.
"GEEEEENN!" He shouted like never before, startling himself after the fact. He was so loud he felt as if he popped his own eardrums. It hurt more than just his ears but he cared not for the pain. The icy floor and atmosphere shook from his yell. The vibrations from behind alerted him.
The Jetfins were right behind him and the biggest one seed angrier than before. They were all gung ho and more motivated than earlier for so reason and didn't spare a thought about conserving mana or stamina. They shortened the distance within monts but Ebony didn't have any thods to deal with them.
He didn't see the tar anywhere and that was concerning. It was unknown if he was far slower thanks to his injury or exhaustion or if the Jetfins got much faster but they were closing in fast. They were still far enough that he couldn't Appraise but that wasn't important since he didn't spare them another glance.
'Faster. I have to be faster!' He learnt that the feeling he had now was the feeling of urgency and he wasn't in the mood to marvel at his own discovery. He didn't even know that Battle Song was back at full capacity and he 'gotta go fast'.
He was losing to a bunch of fishes in speed that weren't used to flying and were around 15 to 20 tis slower than their top speed underwater. 'Is it the sheer stat difference?'
Beams of water shot from hundreds of them but they were aid at the sky. The Jetfins' presence in the quiet Glades started to get the attention of its inhabitants. It was fresh to see Hoarfrost Glade's monster get sliced in two with ease.
This area didn't have any King-ranked monsters or he wouldn't have survived during his training here.
They bombarded him with larger jets of pressurised water that lted the ground everywhere they passed. Their aim wasn't fantastic and the current distance was enough for him to react and dodge but the rising sense of urgency told Calculated Hunch that he wouldn't be able to dodge when they were less than 5 km away from him.
"Why aren't I regenerating any mana?!" He complained about the lack of mana. The stream of mana he was regenerating was so minuscule that he couldn't do much. His Will was completely drained for so reason and he couldn't cast his domain even if he wanted.
He almost slipped and fell when the icy ground tilted.
A large blue streak swiped behind him, he didn't want to know what it was as he Flickered forward.
The change in vibrations was hard to sense since it was too chaotic so he had to glance back to see the Jetfins in a fight.
Their indiscriminate attack on the floor must have hit sothing deep underneath the glades. The blue streak had been a tentacle and was a bit familiar. The Jetfins unleashed their fury at getting disrupted in chasing him down. A couple dozen of them attached themselves to the tentacle and got frozen onto the long limb but water whips attached them to other Jetfins and they attempted to drag the creature out.
It further tilted the ground as they got so success. Ebony already ran too far to observe any further. The creature below didn't appear to be a match against so many apex hunters of the sea.
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Sadly, more than half of the Jetfins continued to keep him as their priority target. Including the enraged leader of the Jetfins.
He didn't see a point screaming for Gen when the familiar forest and blizzard were nowhere in sight. The lack of mana made him a bit uneasy as he didn't know what he could pull off to distract or slow down their pursuers. The missing tar kept him alert. He was worried the tar went to ta so other monster and was not far.
He heard stories about the strongest known tar and summoner couple in the Empire and their skillset was pretty ridiculous. Both of them together were missing from the current war on any of the tides which was also weird to the soldiers in Fifth Tide. There was a lot of gossip about the lack of forces despite supposedly having the numbers to contest the Trolls better.
Even so, Ebony didn't expect that he was shouting for Gen. It was illogical and he hadn't noticed the slight desperation in him.
Ning Xin's heart slowed to a stop.
Ebony's mind was in shambles, Everlasting Tranquillity had stopped working.
❅❅❅
"He's going to break when he stops pushing aside problems he faces. Letting him ditate and keep a clear mind so young won't allow him to grow into a strong man." The stone-cold expression on the woman's face didn't match with the worry in her words.
"I told him to stop ditating ever since he turned 5 so that he could talk to other kids but he's our son."
"And? I interact with others my age unlike you."
"Interact? Only once for every kid you et, right? I wonder how children's bones you broke."
"We were playing catch, it's not my fault they couldn't catch a simple ball toss. Don't change the subject."
"...I guess we can only reinforce the mindset that he's weak and fragile so that he has more awareness and is more wary of strangers."
"We've been doing that forever, he doesn't even believe that he is stronger than normal humans. I'm saying you're turning him into one of those 'robot' things that this world has. He's going to turn out emotionless like that tribe of yours."
"Hey, our son's not emotionless and neither am I."
"I know. I'm saying that he's not growing any emotional strength if he keeps this up." The toneless lady could send chills down anyone's back.
"Our son is stronger than you think. Maybe the constant reinforcent that he's weak made you forget that he isn't that fragile."
Matthew Ri turned to his son who was exercising out in the field and called him over.
"Ebony. You're still ditating throughout the day, even at school?" He watched the boy dodge the swinging logs and jump from wooden still to still.
"Mmm." He nodded in reply.
"Have you made any friends?"
"I think so."
"What are their nas?"
"...I guess not."
"..." Matthew expected it but it made him think that sending his son to school wasn't working out in terms of improving his son's social skills. "Are you actively starting a conversation?" He asked a question he knew the answer to.
"Is there any purpose to do so?"
"Alright, never mind. I just wanted to tell you that It won't be beneficial if you keep turning a blind eye to everything around you or push aside feelings to the depths of your hea-mind. The longer you keep this up the harder it would be for you to learn about yourself in future."
"Dad, are you speaking from experience?"
"...Yes."
"I like ditating. It's quiet."
"Indeed. But it's not empty. The longer you live the more things and people you treasure. Whether it's by your choice or not. When you do, you'll understand why I call your mind…heart fragile. Let ask you again, what is the main condition to keep oneself in a ditative state?"
"Calmness, collectness and clear-mindedness."
"Is that so? Do you think you are calm? Do you think you can continue to ditate under any circumstance?"
"Mmm."
"You will be tested if that's true or not. Calmness is useless for most of your entire life. The only tis you need it are the tis that you cannot stay calm. You'll know if you can be considered calm when the day cos around…Go back to your exercise." Matthew pondered for another mont before stopping his son. "Ebony. The more dire the situation, the calr you have to be. How do you stay calm? Don't listen to your mother, you don't threaten yourself to stay calm or die. Unless it works for you like how it works for her. The thod to stay calm is simply understanding that you can achieve more calm rather than in a panic."
"Mmm." Ebony nodded as it was the most obvious advice he had ever received. His cheeky son used to ask for specifics but his mother got a bit annoyed when he asked too many questions. Now, the boy spoke less as his training intensified since both he and his wife weren't talkative and were completely comfortable with silence. The boy got less inquisitive which made him even more suited to his version of ditation.
❅❅❅
'Understand my ass.'
Ebony's mind settled either by a sudden wave of clarity, the old mory or the fact that Ning Xin's blood was still flowing despite her heart stopping. He could feel the vibrations of the flow of her blood through his tattered robe and her suit.
He was on a tir.
Firstly, those Jetfins. They might be strong and fast but they were as handicapped as they could get with no water or earth around. They had a deep reserve of mana but they weren't willing to spend it on large spells. The Glades weren't exactly his hoground but he definitely had an advantage in the current environnt. The monsters were either underground or camouflaging. He needed to get their attention and pass it on to the Jetfins.
Easy enough. The Jetfins were doing most of the work for him, he added on Tremor Stomps as he ran.
Secondly, he needed to find Gen. Trusting Ning Xin's intuition that he had to go in the direction he had been running towards. There was a good chance they weren't too deep into the Glades but he did not know if the burning forest followed a pattern when they moved.
Gen might only be a Grandmaster that was ready for evolution but he was thousands of years old. Ebony wasn't sure if he could find them if they were insistent on hiding. Trying to get their attention might actually be a better idea. Gen or Ful should have better senses than he did and they might move towards him if they were aware he was here.
Unfortunately, the monsters were either hibernating or could easily sense that they weren't a match for the Jetfins as there was no response.
When it ca to land mass, the Icy region was by far the largest compared to the other 2 regions of the Glades. Despite being categorised in circles, the outer Chilly region was the smallest. It was considerably easy for well-equipped Masters to traverse the Chilly region if they were strong enough to deal with the monsters but Ebony barely saw any of them in the Glades. There were so for sure but they only explored the Chilly region as far as he was aware. The distance to cross was really short if you were to consider surface area since it had the largest diater.
In any case, even with ntal Map, he wasn't sure where the forest where he foraged nuts was or the locations of monster dens. At the mont, the place was as bare as Trailane plains only losing to how bare the conjured battlefield was. Minus the people fighting.
He tried to ward off the cold from them to prevent Ning Xin's body temperature from falling further and he did so with the tiny bit of mana that he moulded heating scales surrounding them. They were uncompressed but did the job of heating them up.
'It's feeding her!' He was excited to sense that the heat was getting drained away. Unbelievably, the rise in excitent didn't knock him out of Everlasting Tranquillity as the mana he was recovering didn't drop. He was only recovering about 7 to 10 mana per second, far less than his limit but he already started channelling them to the heating runes and produced more of these scales.
Finally, he needed to run faster.
He wasn't able to use gravity magic without excess mana so he was forced to improve Phantom's Flicker. He reasoned to himself to stay on the ground and not jump. He wouldn't have the mana to create a platform strong enough to run and he might not even react fast enough if he was caught in the air. His mana was channelled to warm Ning Xin's body and also run his enhancents.
In ten minutes, the Jetfins were already less than 5 km away. His improvents weren't noticeable but Calculated Hunch pointed out that he was getting faster every step he took. For the Jetfins to close the distance ant that they were accelerating as well.
The distance between them halved again in the next few minutes. All of them had crossed a vast distance during the chase but Ebony only started to see so ice rocks and mounds. The leader Jetfin acted cautious enough to stay back with its allies instead of charging at him which was weird but Ebony took it as a sign of the tar's orders. The Troll might be having fun 'tenderising' him.
Unable to run his Augntation anywhere near his maximum output and lacking the stamina to empower his physical stats with Fluid Blitz, he was on his last legs.
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