Scarlett didn’t need to be told twice. Her body responded faster than her mind and the innate instinct to survive got her dashing faster than she thought her petrified body was capable of.
Her mind was struggling to keep up with what was happening around her on quite a few levels. What kind of Wood Rank could hold back a whole swarm of demons? Was he using the Bone Tiger’s tail as a weapon? How was he using the bone-chain sword so naturally? What kind of fighting style was he using? Surely it wasn’t one that was taught to assassins.
No, really… why was some boy who’d barely had his guardian treating demons like second-rate Aether beasts? This didn’t make sense on so many levels.
And yet, when she looked back at his body, which sometimes fshed right past her, she started to demystify some of the things that were happening around her.
It wasn’t that Alistair was an overpowered being breaking ws meant to cage the weak. It was more like he was pushing the boundaries of his current Temper Rank to its very peak. Being Level Four of the Wood Rank, she was faster than him and stronger… but she had honed her power to be able to achieve an assassin’s goals.
He, on the other hand, had worked on far more. While she could send aether to her legs and push her speed past the capabilities of her Temper Rank, he sent his to every single cell in his body, impossible as it sounded.
Aether Sight proved this theory. It was only for a moment but Scarlett managed to catch a glimpse of the flowing torrents of aether flooding the boy’s systems and pushing him to the pinnacle of the Second Level of the Wood Temper Rank.
His impossible skill in Aether Manipution along with his Wood Temper Rank were just barely enough to put him at the level where demons would grow wary of him.
Of course, that wasn’t the full expnation either. Scarlett also noticed that he wasn’t focused on finishing the demons off. He was more interested in diverting their movements, pushing them out of the way, throwing them off their bance… if only to allow a small window through which the red-haired girl would dart right through.
Not all demons were weak enough to fall for this though… And for those, he cut a path around them rather than through them. Sometimes, he told her to slide or leap over towering masses of demonic flesh caught in a thrashing mess of vines.
‘He’s using his cirvoyant ability too. How is he not dead?’
Aric felt his muscles grow taut and the aether in his body burned worse than when he was in the Tempering Chamber in Sariah’s basement. But he wouldn’t falter. He needed his aether to flow faster if he was to achieve the speed needed to tear through the demons and protect Scarlett at the same time.
If anything, he was thankful for the bde the Bone Tiger had given him. Not only were the bones strong enough that they didn’t break under the immense pressure of his fighting style, but they were also strong enough to send the demons flying. The bde at the end of the bone chain, however, was perhaps the most lethal.
It cut through the skin of demons like paper and obliterated any demon stubborn enough to get cut three times.
The bde and chain continued to flow like a serpentine extension of Aric’s arm as he shot through the woods with the girl at the focus of his combat. His frame shot from one pce to another, cutting through the demons threatening to intercept them.
Two minutes in, Scarlett cried out, “Alistair… this won’t work. You’ll grow tired and run out of aether.”
“Run faster…” Aric yelled out… and so she did.
He didn’t have the breath to say it all out loud but he hoped she would understand why this was the only way he could get them out of these demon-filled woods. At high speeds, rge demons couldn’t keep up which left only the small agile ones… And those, Aric could deal with.
There were exceptions of course. Once in a while, he came across a small abomination a tad bit too fast for its own good or one with a hide too strong for his bde to stab through—which was saying a lot considering how sharp he’d ascertained it to be. Nevertheless, these creatures only needed three cuts to cease being a problem.
Large beasts would be a problem, so whenever they found them, he ordered the girl to either slide under them, jump over them or take a small detour that he was in charge of carving through. The third option was one Aric resorted to only after he tried using the power of his vines and found that even then, it would be too impossible to hold down towering abominations.
All of this though, came second to the one task that took a lot out of him.
Maintaining a clear mental fortitude.
Aric was fighting his way through a storm of blood-thirsty demons. Many of them were capable of ripping him to shreds. Demons with power enough to snap the neck of a human of the Wood Temper rank without breaking a sweat.
Some were so rge and powerful that he wouldn’t dream of fighting them even with the Thomper’s powers while the smaller ones were more than capable of overwhelming him with numbers.
Alistair understood now that the Three-Cut Bone Tiger wasn’t left alive solely because of its power… but also because of its unusual ability to cut the souls of its enemies. Even stronger demons were forced to take a step back in the face of that insidious power.
With his ability to see everything within a three-mile radius, maintaining a calm and collected mind became the hardest task.
He saw beasts beyond anything his imagination was capable of cooking up. Hounds with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth in their maws. Crustaceans as tall as canopies with pincers made of steel. Crawling serpents with legs as many as their bodies were long and many more abominations of different sizes.
Some even sent harrowing long-range attacks at them from the distance. Especially the big ones they blew by.
From boiling balls of sizzling darkness and rge spiked rock boulders to sweltering spheres of fire twice the boy’s size.
He blocked these attacks with torrents of vines and struggled to contain the strain it had on his aether channels. Scarlett shot through the woods at a high speed, keeping to the tunnel the boy was creating with his otherworldly fighting style.
Her heart was beating in her ears and the chaos around made her curse her weakness. The air around her rippled and a phoenix shot out of a tear in space, listening to the one cry her master was able to draw out of her lips, “Help him!”
………………………
It was another day in the Adventurer’s Guild Hall and Helga was going through the documents on her table. Dotting those I’s and crossing those t’s on the little things that needed tying up. Payments to high-profile adventurers whose fees were paid in instalments, trade deals to be made by the Guild, summarizing the quests that had been completed as well as going through the news ones that had come in.
This woman was responsible for a lot of things when it came to the inner workings of the Adventurer’s Guild. Most of what she dealt with was superficial though, making sure to direct the important matters to the Guild Master. She was the reason the man even had a life.
Schiller, the man in question, came strolling down from his office, looking exhausted despite all the work Helga got off his shoulders, “Helga dear… I know I don’t normally have to remind you of this but tell the adventurers who go out on hunts that the Purification Ritual is just around the corner so they should be careful about how far they go into the Purified Zone. Demons tend to linger at the edges when the Holy Magic grows thin.”
Helga’s face lit up, “Oh yeah… It’s been that long, huh… I’ll start telling them that.”
Before the man could leave, though, a woman came rushing through the door and straight to the receptionist. Her blue dress was torn at the ankles with dirt patches all over her. Most of all, sweat blotched the clothes as though she’d been racing in a marathon.
The only problem was that… this woman was well-known in the guild and at her side, a staff floated in the air. She was a mage, not at all built for running, “Maple? Are you okay?” Helga asked the woman.
Maple raised her hand up, struggling to catch her breath, “One minute… I just need to…”
“Take your time, dear,” the receptionist responded, getting more concerned about the adventurer.
“I saw… We saw… I was out with one of the guys hunting as always. We didn’t go too far because, you know, the demons tend to come close around this time… but then, Dash, he was gambling st night and he got himself in debt with Bumi and he really needed the money to pay him off so…”
“Get to the point, Maple,” Schiller’s voice was quiet but filled with more urgency than any of the two women had ever heard.
“We wandered far… roughly ten kilometres, give or take a few… and that’s when we found them. Demons… as far as the eye can see. We barely made it back. Dash… well, Dash was trying to protect me and he… he got hurt badly and… and…”
“Did you take him to the Apothecary?” the Guild Master held Maple’s shoulders. The woman was shaken far more than she appeared. Her shoulders shivered and her eyes teared as she nodded in confirmation.
“Y-yes, he’s getting treated as we speak but Guild Master, you don’t understand… Those demons…” her eyes went dark as though her mind was travelling back, “There were so many.”
“How many?”
“I couldn’t count. They were everywhere,” Maple replied with an ashen expression.
“Helga, how many adventurers do we have out there?” Schiller boomed. The Guild Hall had grown considerably quiet at that point.
Helga started going through the papers on her desk in a panic. Her fingers shivered as she sifted through the different documents until she picked up the list of adventurers that had gone out that day. Her face went pale and she covered her mouth, “No!”
Schiller grabbed the paper from her and froze…
Two names were scribbled down along with Maple and Dash. They read: Alistair… Scarlett. The Guild Master pced the form back on the table, “Send Purification requests out to the Purification Tower and the Matriarch. We’ll need all the Holy Mages we can get.”
With that, the man was out the door.
…………………………
Aric wasn’t sure exactly how he was supposed to fight with a phoenix helping him. He was moving far too fast to switch from the Dance of the Serpent to the Dance of the Falcon or even the Dance of the Stork. Each dance was unique and powerful but Aric wasn’t even well-versed in these dances to switch between them on instinct like he did with the Dances of the Serpent, Bear, Tiger, Mongoose and Mantis.
Besides, right now, he was using his most powerful variation of the Dance of the Sword. Not because he knew the Dance of the Serpent most but because it was the perfect Dance for his current weapon. The tail of the Three-Cut Bone Tiger and the power he acquired from Old Thomper were the only reasons he was still alive.
Knowing the depth of knowledge guardians came with though, Aric was sure the phoenix would figure a way out, so Aric kept his body moving at lightning-fast speed, cutting demons to pieces and curving a path for Scarlett as they made their way for Melbourne.
He had two other abilities to draw on but he’d never had the chance to experiment with them. He couldn’t risk breaking his flow in a life-or-death situation. He would have to continue with this fighting style for now. His bde cshed with the steel bdes of a strange amalgamation of a puma and an ostrich, towering above him.
It was enough power to send the cw to the side and blow right past the creature. In the next moment, he was severing the head of a viper off what looked like the body of a monitor lizard. The strange puma ostrich screeched on the other side, keeping up.
Aric’s chain bde cut down three more demons before smming into the steel cws of the troublesome tall demon… ‘Two cuts…’ he muttered to himself before shooting ahead of Scarlett and cutting through a dark deranged monkey…
The Bone bde sang even louder as he cleared the path ahead and called on the vines to crush the demons ahead of him. His throat burned and his heart pumped faster than it ever had. The aether in his body burned like a raging river of va but he wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t slow down.
[ Why haven’t you cast an S-grade Concealment Barrier yet? ] Alia asked impatiently, [ That fledgeling of Fire cks the power to protect you or her master. ]
Aric found himself chuckling at his guardian’s comments. He did not doubt that his guardian would shred the attacking army of demons without breaking a sweat. At least, he believed in her strength that much. Strength so much that her very presence had to be concealed, lest they risked exposing her presence to truly harrowing individuals.
As, Aric was too preoccupied to summon the S-grade Concealment Barrier. He would have to weather out this battle until they made it to Melbourne. The only problem was that he wasn’t the all-powerful master of combat that his guardian was.
Yes, he was a boy who’d risen to the Wood Temper Rank perhaps faster than anyone ever had in history. Yes, he had mastered a formidable battle art powerful enough to make his enemies fear the monster that he would grow up to become. Yes, he had a very powerful Inborn Ability that allowed him to amass even more power. And yes, he had monstrous aether reserves.
But even with all this going for him, a stampede of demons numbering hundreds if not thousands, chasing him down for a distance of ten miles was a little too much for him. Aric had tested his body out several times since rising up to the Wood Temper Rank, searching for his new limits.
…and now he knew that limit.
For the first time since rising to this impressive Temper Rank, he felt the pain of an oncoming muscle pull. He felt the burn of his oxygen-deprived lungs, the irritating slick sheen from torrents of sweat. He felt the pain that reminded him that he was… just a human.
He wasn’t going to hold out much longer.
He gnced at Scarlett to say something but his words got caught in his throat. At the moment that they locked eyes, he saw the scared girl vanish from her eyes entirely as a pair of bdes slipped into her hands.
A moment ter, the bck head of a puma fell to the ground, followed by its body. The towering ostrich-like body of the demon crashed into the demons that had been chasing them and reduced the pressure coming from their rear.
Aric’s sword cshed with three more demons before Scarlett was at his back, fighting alongside him with deadly speed and precision.
“I’m sorry I took so long, Aric. Let’s make it out of here,” she told the boy before shooting past the demon he was about to cut down. The assassin weaved right past a panther-like demon with three heads, severing two heads in the process.
By the time Aric’s bde reached the beast, its tendons had been cut and it was crumbling to the ground. The tunnel of safety Aric had been holding for the girl’s safety crumbled and the ‘wall’ on his back vanished.
His lungs burnt just a little less and his muscles compined just a little bit less. It was enough for him to feel the glimmer of hope.
‘We might just make it… No. WE WILL,’ the boy steeled his resolve and shot forward in an attempt to match the assassin’s speed.
Like a pair of death-wielding grim reapers, the pair shot through the demons as though nothing stood in their way. Of course, this was only possible because of their speed and agility.
Aric was gd of one thing… Had he been out with anyone other than Scarlett, then surviving this ordeal would have been next to impossible.
It was still impossible… but with Scarlett’s abilities complimenting his own, there was hope. They didn’t have to kill everything they saw. They just had to make it to the holy barrier.
His body was worse for wear but they were now making better progress. A screech above them alerted them of the attacking phoenix. Scarlett’s guardian shot through the woods and lit a path of fme in the woods, burning any demons she found on the way and creating a column of fmes that made a straight corridor heading straight for Melbourne.
The demons they had to fight grew even less after this. Aric would have celebrated if it wasn’t for the fact that his thigh went stiff in the next second, sending him tumbling in a nasty fall that ended with his head smming into the bark of a burning tree.
Stars dotted his sight and the convulsing forest grew sluggish, having lost part of the power from its commanding master. Aric’s mind blurred in and out of focus. The sound of bdes and growls filled the air, “Alistair… Crap!. You’re worn out.”
Scarlett’s voice reached the boy’s ears but his eyes wouldn’t focus on anything. He was barely breathing. No, he was drowning…
‘Air… Air…’ he coughed. His body was burning. ‘No… not now. I haven’t made it yet.’
He could barely feel hands on him before the ground vanished from beneath him, “Scarlett… save yourself.”
“Like hell I would! We’re making it out of here even if it kills me,” the girl yelled at the top of her voice, “And when we make it out of this, I’ll smack you on the head.”
“Why would you do that?” the boy’s speech was slurred.
“Because you’re one hell of an idiot,” the girl yelled back, shooting for the City of Melbourne. The sound of demons filled the air… before the heavy cng of metal filled the air.
Aric cracked an eyelid open and thought he saw a rge man chop a demon’s head off with the edge of his gargantuan shield. His gigantic sword was cutting another demon in half at the same time before he spun into a kick that sent the third demon crashing through the long procession of abominations that were hunting them down.
‘Huh… Guild Master Schiller is hounding me in my dreams now. He must really hate seeing rookies take on more than they can handle,’ the boy’s mind sighed before he completely slipped into unconsciousness.
