Why? Why was Oru the Devourer so much more difficult to kill than the S-ranked test dragon had been? Was it simply that an S-ranker in a stasis coma didn't have the sa opportunity to employ abilities and defend itself properly compared to one that was awake?
Likely, yes. There was no doubt that there had been nurous unseen abilities and evolved traits hidden under the surface during their fight. Eik too had traits like that.
Or was it a matter of a discrepancy of power between being in the sa rank? It was certainly feasible. The difference between a low S-ranker and a high S-ranker was like the difference between a B-ranker and an A-ranker. It was incomparable.
Eik had been told as much by Andihar when he had begun to approach these extre levels of might. Being able to go toe to toe with one S-ranker didn't an that one could expect to do the sa with another S-ranker.
Even as his consciousness was transferred into one of his Living Manifestations, he felt the Accelerant rock Oru. Hard. Before Eik had even regained his bearings, serpentine streaks of Profound Toxin whipping through the air like ribbons had already reinvaded.
Oru stood in the middle of a large crater, already ruined buildings in all directions now blown away like dried leaves by a leaf blower. The potency of Profound Toxin under Profound Unity was absolutely insane. He got relatively close to the power of the Accelerant of the S-ranked dragon during the Crucible test even though he hadn't had the chance to get nearly as much toxin as he did back then.
In the next mont, Andihar zood out from behind the ruins of a building, making good use of Oru's montary stupor to bring his massive blade to bear in a cleave that severed the cultist's arm cleanly from his shoulder.
"Co on, Eik!" he called, his voice urgent. He was back at his original size. "We have to get out of here! Take the kill already!" Like a common thug, he bonked Oru the Devourer right on his massive head and nearly knocked him out.
Eik was stunned for a second, the mix of the unexpected developnt and the body transfer throwing him off completely. "Do it!" Andihar shouted again, a burst of aura slamming into him and knocking him back into his mind.
Eik short forward. Profound Unity was still in effect, his body still completely enveloped in glittering, blazing blue, but it was a difficult state to maintain and he felt it nearing the end of its duration. Even his hair, completely blue weaved languidly in the air as if under water.
Conjured shards of crystal pierced Oru from all directions like a pin cushion, and Eik created a single, razor-sharp straight knife, his toxic body flaring as he flexed his power. Pumping Backflow to its max, releasing extra doses of Potion of Mighty Strength class 5, and cranking Movent Boost up into high gear, Eik drove the blade into and through Oru's eye socket, the man coming to in that sa mont.
With Profound Unity, all of the processes, such as Concentration and other creation, beca lightning fast, as if the processing speed of his brain had gotten an upgrade. Within the blade now lodged in the howling Oru's large eye, Eik had planted a small but potent rod of hyper toxin.
This would finish it.
As Accelerant flashed into activity, Eik constructed a perfect mold of crystal around the S-ranker's body and thickened it as much as he could before the blast went off. But even that couldn't contain the raw explosive energy of his own ability, the mold shattering into fragnts that rocketed into the air like shrapnel.
Andihar and Eik were already running as Oru died. Even with the crystalline containnt, a sizeable crater was left behind at the detonation site. A headless body covered in long black fur laid lifelessly on the ground.
"Is he dead?" Eik asked Andihar as he let Profound Unity wear off, saving what little of what was left of the duration for an ergency.
"Yeah, he's dead. Well done. Your reward should be coming in any second now, I imagine." And as if on cue, glowing orange script began to etch itself into Eik's arm one painful letter at a ti.
"All right, yeah, there it is," he noted, the pain barely noticeable on his A-rank body. He had so much more shockingly horrific pain at this point, that it just didn't bother him anymore.
His wooden plaque kept getting destroyed at the level of power he now fought at an, honestly, he would probably not buy another one after this. Cleaning fragnts of splintered wood out of his clothes was a bigger bother than getting his skin burned once in a while.
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"Good, then," Andihar nodded. "Now, let's get going for real. Gul managed to get Bobopahn the Reacher into a stasis lock underground to assist our escape but it has already been precious seconds since then. He'll break free soon, and he won't let us get away so easily."
"Bobopahn the Reacher?" Eik asked. "I've heard of him before. He is another S-ranker of Moon Shall Swallow. A General of the Crescent like Oru was. When did he show up?"
"Pretty early," Andihar said as they leapt onto and across the gigantic city wall a good five hundred ters south of the breach site. "He's tough to handle. We could not kill him outright but we managed to keep him occupied to the point where he barely killed any of our own A-rankers."
There was a topic Eik had been dreading. "How many died?"
"Eik… It would be better think about that after we have made it safely back ho. We don't have an accurate count right now anyway."
"Co on, Andihar. Give sothing, man. I have to know, even if it's just a ballpark guess." Eik's heart was in his throat. This operation had been launched on his initiative. He was responsible.
Andihar chewed on the answer for a few monts. "We probably lost a little over twenty percent of our forces if I had to venture a guess."
Twenty percent? That was like forty people! Forty people, all dead in minutes. "Fffffffuck…" Eik breathed, resisting the urge to stop and bury his head in his hands.
"We launched a head on assault on the cult's capital city," Andihar pointed out. "All things considered, we got off pretty easily since we were on the defensive from the first second."
That did nothing to lighten the rock of guilt weighing down Eik's stomach. "How can I just w—"
A sudden, massive explosion threw dust and debris high into the air, fragnts of wood and stone clanking against the thousands of Profound Toxic shards still raining from the sky where the Apocalypse Canvas hung.
Without control and maintenance from Eik, it would soon dissipate on its own, but for now, it provided great cover for escape.
"Can you run faster?" Andihar asked.
"I'm still injured," Eik admitted. As soon as Oru the Devourer had died, Eik had covered himself in Panacean Quintessence but with the injuries caused by Oru's attacks, healing was no simple task. "I can go faster if I push myself but… Why?"
He was still in Backflow, mid-level Movent Boost active, and several potions flowing through his veins, not to ntion the permanent boost granted by the many pills of Eik's Legendary Mystery dicine he had ingested over the past couple of years. They were already going at speeds significantly above those of the average A-ranker.
"Bobopahn is going to be here soon."
Despite the pain, Eik upped the pace as much as he could.
The distraction team appeared to have gotten away by way of the planned route. Two fractures opened and carefully controlled about a kiloter from the wall by their two fracture specialist led back to Forest through a series of portal much like the way they had gotten here, made to muddle any pursuers. The fractures would have been closed by the creators the mont all survivors of the raiding team had made it through.
That ant Eik and Andihar would have to run all the way back to the sa fracture in the basent of the shed in the abandoned cult outpost that they had arrived through. Even at the speeds they were going now, it would take several minutes before they made it there.
It was unclear why, but the environnt around the city of Luna was nearly devoid of plant life. Even the hardiest of plants stood withered and sad, having nothing much more than dry, orange dirt and rocks to call ho. It was a depressing sight, frankly.
After a minute Eik was operating at full health. Another two minutes later a crack suddenly sounded from behind them, followed imdiately by a spear.
It missed them only because Andihar drew his massive sword in an instant and expertly deflected the thrown projectile to the side by handling the blade behind his back in a movent that looked like it should have dislocated his shoulder joint. The absurd velocity of the spear sent it tearing through dozens of thick tree trunks. They broke like a bag of potato chips in a hydraulic press.
"Holy shit!" Eik gasped, nearly losing his footing from the shock wave as it passed closely by his shoulder.
"Keep going!" Andihar shouted frantically. Eik did.
A second later the spear flew backward the way it had co, wooden splinters flying everywhere and reminding Eik of the returning knives that the gang leader nad Frank of the Black Fang had used.
"I can't see him!" Eik yelled, throwing a glance over his shoulder as he ran.
"He can throw that spear at least two kiloters with deadly accuracy! Even if we can't see him, you can be absolutely certain that he sees us!"
Sure enough, another distant boom announced the arrival of a second throw. Seeing it coming this ti, Eik tried to avoid it but the projectile swerved abruptly to follow his movent. With barely any ti to act, he only managed to make a few layers of protective shell which barely slowed the spear as it pierced Eik's stomach, taking away his breath as he gasped.
Andihar's massive fist closed around the shaft of the spear and yanked it out as Eik plugged up the wound with Panacean Quintessence. It quickly tried to return to its master, but Andihar held on, his form growing larger.
"Run!" he shouted. "I'll catch up!"
"Fuck!" Eik cursed and obeyed, legging it as fast as his legs could carry him.
When the abandoned outpost finally ca into view, the boom of yet another spear throw reached him. Eik set up a do of crystal around the shed several ters thick and scread for Andihar to co. Seconds later the elf screeched to a halt in the soil, a large chunk of his golden armor missing from his bicep, blood running down the outer tal.
"Hurry through the fracture!" he yelled. "This range is too dangerous for us! We're going to have to wait and deal with him on the other side!"
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