"Split up?"
"Not too far. We can tag team."
"Nice!"
That was all it took for them to understand each other’s motives. They’d fought enough tis to work well together in combat, after all. If anyone had a good understanding of Gio’s [Virtual
Manifestation] by this point, it was Shiro.
He had fought Gio more tis than even Neriah, who had a habit of challenging him whenever she got the chance.
If he could work well with Neriah...
It was as if all ten of the monsters around them ca to an agreent that the newcors had to be destroyed before they started infighting. When Gio and Shiro started properly moving again, they were instantly t with combat.
’There’s still a long way to go before we reach the peak.’
They were at most halfway up the slope they had to climb. There was ti, but only relatively.
If the monsters at the front of the pack were allowed to continue uninhibited, they’d reach it in ten minutes.
’So we have to get to those five as soon as possible.’
Boom!
The sound of Shiro engaging in battle resounded from not too far away. Gio was also engulfed in a blast in the next few seconds.
He put up a barrier and planted his feet on the ground, allowing the energy to pass over him as he looked at the monsters who crowded around.
They never stopped moving. Despite creating a formation to trap him, they remained in motion, always ascending the peak without fail.
The mont they stopped, they’d fall back and et more enemies. Regardless of circumstance, that could not happen.
’Four.’
The monster behind him looked like a humanoid rhino with spikes covering its entire body. On both sides were beings that looked like a mixture between a snow leopard and a jackal. In front was an aerial creature that looked like a miniature hot air balloon colored in pale blue and cyan.
He went for that one first.
Boom!
Pistols appeared in his hands and let loose their bullets on the balloon monster. It made no attempts to dodge, allowing the energy to slam into its body freely.
The virtual bullets lted into the balloon, and in the next mont, the monster’s strange cannon-like mouth opened.
Voom!
A blast of blue energy shot back at Gio. He ducked it, keeping watch of the beast behind him. With his hands trailing on the ground below, he released Hekat’s energy.
The ground was turned into a patch of oil as he moved over it. The monsters in front and to the sides were safe, but the rhino behind was caught up in it without any other choice.
Its feet lost their grip on the ground almost like a scene out of a cody movie and it slamd face-first into the snow.
Gio jumped in the air and turned around, rapidly summoning a rocket launcher and firing it.
Boom!
The collapsed beast had no choice but to take the force of the explosion with its bare body. To say it was injured was wrong, but that didn’t matter.
The force of the impact threw it backwards, and as it tried to regain its footing, it was sent tumbling down the steep slope of the mountain.
’That’s one.’
Gio didn’t have ti to rest.
Before he even landed, he was sieged by the snow leopards on both sides.
"Shiro!"
Boom!
Golden flas shot from the side and engulfed the leopard on the left. Gio was already swinging his sword at the one on the right.
His blade ca in contact with its claws, but it did not imdiately back off. It pushed itself down on him, forcing him to stop and face it as its kin rushed out of the golden flas with burned fur and attacked him from behind.
’Tch!’
[Aura Explosion]
Booooooom!
He wasn’t using it for a reason, but he had no choice.
A massive burst of energy threw away both leopards and slamd into the balloon creature.
The leopards were pushed back, sure, but that was only half of the problem.
Every bit of energy that touched the balloon creature was absorbed. It also didn’t wait for the explosion to end before releasing the energy back at him.
Voooom!
Gio was forced to experience what it felt like to be on the other side of his [Aura Explosion].
He put up a barrier as fast as possible, but his skin was covered in burns and gashes before he had the chance. He felt the blood flowing from his body so viscerally that he almost forgot that he was in a simulated world.
The energy was hotter than he expected. It was scalding, even against his barrier.
"Khhhhh...!"
He struggled, pushing his own energy away while still keeping watch of the leopards coming towards him.
However, he was not the only one fighting.
"Gio!"
He was called the sa way he called for aid prior.
"Tch!"
Without much of a choice, he released his barrier and threw himself into the sky, barely moving fast enough to not worsen his existing injuries.
[Siege Armant]
An array of cannons ford across his body.
[Beam]
Vooooooom!
Huge beams of light shot into the distance, slamming into all four of the monsters still surrounding Shiro. So of them roared in pain, while others ignored it entirely. All that mattered was that they were forced to stop and give Shiro the ti to recover.
A mutual understanding was ford with a single glance into each other’s eyes.
Gio rushed through the air, while Shiro rushed across the ground. Together, they escaped their encirclents and t up several ters ahead of the monsters chasing them.
"They’ll catch up soon," Shiro said.
Unlike the beasts in the middle of the pack. These ones were fast enough to catch up if they stayed still for too long.
"I didn’t expect them to be strategic. We’ll have to face them together if we want to throw them off," Gio responded.
"That’s what I was thinking, too."
Without hesitation, Shiro turned around and planted his feet, burying his hands past the sand and into the dirt.
His eyes glowed golden as his energy followed a predetermined pathway into his hands and left his body.
[River of Gold]
It was simple to say Shiro’s ability was rely to wield golden flas.
But it was much more than that.
It was a fire that could take the properties of other elents. It could beco smooth like water if it wanted and it could beco as hard as earth with just a single command.
A [Carpet of Gold] was produced behind them. The snow lted into nothingness, replaced by a sea of golden fire that rushed down the mountain like an expansive river.
And in the next second, Gio’s power joined it.
[Siege Armant]
The monsters crossed the sea of fla and ignored the pain and damage accumulating in their bodies. Becoming the King ant too much to them. They couldn’t be stopped by re obstructions.
[Barrage]
That was where Gio ca in.
His body turned into a gun. Every limb and every piece of open skin produced its own weapon, and together, all of them shot at once.
The world was filled with a rain of virtual blue bullets. They spanned the entire width of the Golden River and layered themselves. Hundreds upon hundreds of them drowned out the atmosphere and beca the only thing the monsters could see.
And there was only one among them who could be considered safe against the volley.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
They struck and struck and struck. The monsters were pushed back further and further, all the while suffering from the flas that Shiro made stronger with every passing second.
Their legs were burned and their bodies were filled with too much pain to ignore. They roared and cried in any way they could, desperately trying to avoid the barrage, but their ti to escape had passed.
"Now!"
At Gio’s command, Shiro raised his arms off of the ground. The golden river flew into the air, becoming an uncrossable wall of fire.
And as virtual energy entered the mountain below...
RUMBLE!
It felt like its entire being rumbled.
Maybe Gio didn’t have that much power on his own, but as long as he knew where to strike, he could make the impossible possible.
He could do things that should have been impossible to an ordinary Sprout.
He could bring down a part of this mountain.
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