***
Jake stood behind a pillar of rock, flanked by Emma.
They watched as five Celestials ca into view tens of ters away from them.
[Em, rember what the boss said?] Jake telepathically asked as he stuck himself closer to
cover.
[That we're supposed to identify their specializations before attacking?] She answered, bringing herself close behind him.
[Exactly, so what do you think of those guys in the back? You think they're rangers?]
The ones Jake referred to were stationed behind the captain, who at first glance, could be recognized as a Knight.
The two in front of him looked to be a Brawler and a Blade Dancer.
After a mont of thought, Emma replied:
[...Probably, we can't be sure though-]
Her words paused in her mind as she and Jake watched one of theirs disappear.
[Turns out he is... can you track him?]
[No. Us tenth classes can only shoot out basic spells; anything more complicated than that is beyond .]
The 'class' she referred to was related to their specialization path as Spell Weavers.
Which was unlike all the others except the Arcanists, as they too had a path of classes that led to the Apex rank.
Seraphims were the 8th to 7th class, while Archons were the 6th to 5th, Paragons were the 4th to 3rd, and finally, Apex-ranked Celestials were the 2nd to 1st class.
Emma had yet to reach 8th class so she was still an Ascendant.
She wasn't even a ninth class but a tenth class, an Elental Conjurer.
Jake's case was similar; as an Arcanist, he was of the lowest class, and the only difference between their path structures was their limit.
Since Arcanists had twelve classes in their path to becoming an Apex.
And they would only beco a Seraphim when they reached the eighth class from the start of twelve.
This ant that Jake had a long way to go in the journey of runes, as he was only a Runeweaver Novitiate.
Arcanists were known as the hardest specialization for a reason, after all.
[We've got it tough, eh?] Emma joked as she noticed Jake's contemplation.
He looked back at her for a mont and then said:
[It'll all be worth the trouble in the end....]
[Now let's go; we'll attack once we hear Emir's signal.]
Emma nodded, then sneaked around the pillar, approaching her enemies, who appeared to have stood still, or rather, moved, but at an extrely slow pace.
Jake approached them from the left, his duel machine guns already inscribed with runes that upgraded its explosivity and structural strength, while also imbuing the bullets that left its muzzle with Aether.
Just as they reached their positions, a scream resounded in the quiet wasteland. "KNIGHTS!"
And with it ca the sound of battle, extinguishing the silence.
The group before them rushed to action, heading over to Emir and Lyra's side.
But Emma wasn't about to allow that.
"FIRE WALL!"
A shield of flas appeared just in front of the group, cutting through their ranks and burning so in the process.
"AGH! Shields up!"
Their Blade Dancer scread as he stepped away from the fire.
"Aetheric Bulwark!"
Their captain, a Knight stepped forward to et Emma, shielding his teammates behind him.
"Valour's Call."
[Jake now!]
Jake didn't need any prompting, as he was already behind them, his guns aid at the back of their cohort.
He held his breath for a short mont, knowing that he was about to take a life.
'You got this.'
Ratatatatatatatatat!
His bullets were aid right at the Gun Mage's head, splattering it after multiple bullets bounced off the force shield.
If Jake had aid for a more protected area then it would've been easily blocked and it would've taken him much longer to break through.
But as the force shield was weaker near the head, he scored a kill.
"Twin Shot!"
Bang!
'Shit!'
Jake imdiately dropped to the ground, covering the back of his head with his arms, hoping
that it would be enough to block the shot.
And thankfully, it did.
The bullets bounced off, breaking his right arm in the process.
"Ugh!"
Jake winced in pain but got up and didn't stop moving.
His augnted suit, inscribed with all the buffs he could muster, provided his body with incredible speed as he dodged the next set of shots that ca from the invisible Ranger.
anwhile, Emma was experiencing her own struggles as she rolled on the ground, dodging a blast of fire that was headed in her direction.
'Hah! Who the hell said that rolling isn't a good strat?!'
'Oh, that was ...'
Chuckling at her own joke, she sprang up and bellowed:
"ICE BOLT!"
The Knight t her attack with another shield, creating two that separated them.
'Chance!'
[Jake, careful; explosion in three.]
The Liberation's weakest cohort didn't anticipate Emma's plan as they thought of her as a
new awakened.
Soone who could barely conjure weak abilities.
In layman's terms, a dumb blonde.
But no, with Lyra's help, Emma had already understood how to play around with the inner
pathing of Aether.
Ability Pathing was not a new concept for her in the first place, since it was used by all Weavers to fire off their spells.
They had to precisely map out the path Aether would take in their bodies to create each
ability.
It was quite unlike other specializations where the abilities were set in stone, with specialists only able to slightly change its paraters.
Spell Weavers had to calculate everything, one wrong line and their spell would be rendered
useless.
Emma who recalled all that knowledge stood her ground with focused eyes.
She then purposely scrambled the lines of Aether inside her that were connected to the still-
active firewall, causing its entire composition to shift.
BOOM!
The fiery wall exploded as flas belched in all directions, heading directly towards her
adversaries.
"AGH!!"
"FUCK! CAPTAIN!"
"AETHERIC BULWARK!"
Their captain's chant protected them from further harm, as one of the previous shields
relocated and blocked the flas.
During that whole ordeal, Jake chanced upon the Ranger as he noticed the man's footsteps
scurrying away from the flas.
'Got you now!'
His fingers held the trigger, causing bang after bang to echo in the wasteland.
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