Timeless Prominence

Without the maze controller adjusting the paths, Rein doubted they would have been able to find the route leading to the northwest mountains, new to the underground labyrinth as they were. Or, perhaps Chirh had long figured out all the twists and turns.

Now, it was just a simple straight thousand step path sloping upwards, and soon, the four found themselves staring at the cloudless starry night sky that allowed a full moon to blanket the canopy of the woods with a platinum hue.

All they could hear were the sounds of buzzing crickets and cicadas. If not for the summon to battle, these mountains and forests would have seemed peaceful. Instead, the knowledge of the underlying danger made this calmness seem strangely eerie.

The first to complain was Chirh. “Ugh, I forgot it was night time. How, in twelve hells, are we supposed to fight demons and devils in the dark? They’re much more suited for such an environment!”

Demons relied more on smell, and many had nighttime vision. Devils sometimes adopted similar methods, but also relied on other odd methods. For example, wights raised by a devil advancer could easily sense the living energies of a body. In those cases, the five senses wouldn’t even be relevant.

As if to make it worse, a deep male voice resounded in their heads again. “There will also be members of the great sects from the Evergreen Mountains. Do not hesitate when in combat against them. They have chosen to be against us on this day.”

The night was certainly turning out to be eventful, and Rein felt vindicated with his choice. There was certain to be something worth witnessing tonight.

Xeeseir immediately took charge. He did seem to be rather experienced.

“We need to have an idea of what each of us can do. I can handle the close-ranged defense and ranged attack.” He raised his bow and quiver. “I’ve got thirty arrows, a few with unique inscripted magics.”

Wilo withdrew a long wooden needle from her sleeve, and threw it at a nearby maple tree. Surprisingly, the wooden needle was of a significantly tougher type of wood, and easily penetrated deep into the tree trunk.

Chirh couldn’t help but make a squeamish face as the area around the long needle turned blackish brown as the tree rotted from the inside.

Rein wasn’t sure what to display. He wasn’t about to reveal his origin skill. Thus, he resorted to the soak staff. He coughed embarrassingly, not wishing to actually demonstrate the inscription skill in the staff. “There’s a… huge water droplet shield that will wash everything outwards from where I stand upon activation, so…” The activation of the skill always drenched him in water.

Then he stuck the staff into the ground, drawing just a bit of  the aurae in the environment to strengthen his body. He demonstrated a few of his staff moves. All-in-all, rather underwhelming compared to Xeeseir and Wilo. The effect of physical augmentation was not at all obvious to the naked eye.

Then, there was the ‘aura restraint’ skill… another skill rather difficult to demonstrate… It was now that Rein realized Master Yirn and his half-senior Chenhr had made an effort to keep him skills of a subdued nature.

Master Yirn and Chenhr had also actually taught him how to set a few of those inscriptional formation traps. But those required materials and preparations, not at all useful in the current situation.

The three turned to Chirh. What would this timid man bring to the table? 

Chirh drew out a thick shortsword, a weapon that Rein could faintly recall from the first time he met Chirh outside the gates of the Green Trout City. Surely, it would have a few unique offensive magical effects.

He sheepishly performed a slide-slash with the shortsword. Rein half-expected some sort of magical crescent wave to burst forth. Instead, the slash pushed Chirh backwards ten feet.

A disengage skill. Rein sighed as he closed his eyes for a moment. It shouldn’t have been surprising, given Chirh’s nature. And he thought his own skills lacked flashiness.

“Oh, this one… this one’s going to be useful for sure!” Chirh directed the fuller of his board shortsword at the three. The inscriptions within the fuller seemed to be gathering moonlight, and Rein suddenly found himself blinded for a few heartbeats before his vision gradually returned to normal.

Another type of magic to be used to escape. Rein could already imagine Chirh blinding his opponent before dashing away in fear. At least, this skill could also be used offensively. Rein felt rather relieved by this fact.

Chirh then proceeded to do a few stabs and slashes with his shortsword, but Rein himself honestly lacked in-depth knowledge regarding most sword arts passed on within the Minhr Nation. All he could tell was that Chirh was well-versed in his particular sword art, based on a few ones he had studied--but blocked from seriously practicing-- under Master Yirn.

Master Yirn certainly was rather picky with regards to weapons, ensuring that Rein spent most of his short six months time mastering the staff.

 Xeeseir rapidly divided the roles. “I will be a bait target as an archer. My melee defenses are near impenetrable.” Rein recalled the memory of Xeeseir blocking that spearman’s thrust with no harm to himself. It was certainly an impressive origin skill.

“As such, I will require you, Rein, to parry any ranged attacks. But it is unnecessary to defend for me if an enemy sneaks past you into melee range. However, you may need to cooperate with Wilo and Chirh to cover each other.”

“Wilo, with your long poisonous needles, can cover enemies close to mid-ranged.”

“Last of all, Chirh, you will mostly be using that light skill of yours to blind and distract any enemies.” His tone turned grave as he warned Chirh, “Do not use that sword inscription skill to step back ten feet or so. If you split from us as a group, it’s highly likely you’ll be an easy target for the enemy.”

Chirh was nervous with sweat. Rein could immediately tell from Chirh’s face that the man very much regretted having this skill available to him at this moment. It was obviously something he picked due to his natural desire to flee, but could very well be a cause for his death in group combat.

Xeeseir’s instructions were brief, and rather inadequate for exceptional teamwork. But with the short time available to them, it was the best he could do.

“Rein in front, lead the way. Wilo and Chirh proceed side by side behind Rein. I will cover the rear.”

“Rein,” Wilo added a suggestion. “These mountains are bountiful in aurae, but do not absorb too much aurae from each individual region. I need it as well.”

Rein nodded. Her needle art must also rely on drawing certain types of aurae from the earth to activate the poison. In some respects, similar to how my soak staff’s magic imitates the process of a tree drawing energy from the ground to strengthen itself.

It was always interesting to encounter different magics. It was also important that the two do not end up negatively impacting each other’s magical source as a team.

Rein too added a suggestion. “Chirh should be the main person to monitor the environment as a lookout.” The skittish Chirh would certainly be most suited for such a role.

Rein darted his eyes around, surveying the landscape to get a general idea of where the northwest end of these mountain ranges were.

In a diamond formation, the four entered a casual jog toward that direction with Rein at its head and Xeeseir at the back as a commander.

Although the special tunnel had led them relatively close to the northwest exit of the mountain range belonging to the Hall of Heroes, it still took over a thousand heartbeats before the four started hearing faint sounds of battle.

They were now at the northwest foot of the mountains, in dense and dark woods.

“Hide.” Xeeseir ordered. Rein immediately bolted behind a thick trunk, and jabbed the soak staff into the ground, gathering aurae from the earth to augment his body. Wilo had started climbing a tree. Chirh was the slowest of them all, frozen in spot swiveling his head in all directions before diving into some bushes.

Xeeseir’s simple instructions are going to be difficult to carry out, Rein inwardly grumbled. He wasn’t sure how he was going to defend both Wilo and Chirh in their different positions. Then again, his half-senior Chenhr had always emphasized adapting and improvising during battle.

In the time it took to take a few deep breaths, the sound of weapons clashing grew louder. A spearman with a heavily bandaged right arm appeared, backpedaling against two demon beasts. One was a lynx, and another, a rhino.

It was obvious that these two beasts had gained spirituality. After all, under no normal circumstance would normal animals of these two types cooperate. Moreover, their movements displayed an abnormally high intelligence relative to non-spiritual beasts. The rhino was slower but used its mass and charge to threaten the spearman, whereas the lynx speedily leapt back and forth, attempting to inflict wounds to bleed the spearman out.

One would think that the rhino would struggle to charge in these woods. But the rhino easily mowed down each tree in its path every single charge. It was clearly supernatural in nature.

The spearman certainly was a madman. He clearly had yet to recover from his wounds acquired in the duel with Xeeseir, and yet, here he was. Due to his injury, he was now using his left arm as his main spear arm.

He simply could not afford to clash with the rhino’s mass, thus he rolled and sidestepped to dodge the rhino’s charge, all the while parrying the lynx’s movements, which was timed perfectly to prevent him from attacking the rhino once he dodged each charge. A single mistake and he would be a piece of dead meat.

The sound of a branch snapping interrupted the fight. Rein could only shake his head in disapproval at the bushes-- the source of the sound was Chirh’s hiding spot.

To make it worse, a bright light suddenly burst forth from within the bushes, aimed at the large rhino’s eyes. Evidently, Chirh had panicked.

The two demons could sense easy prey, and the dark lynx immediately darted towards the bushes. The rhino was slower than the lynx, but it did not seem to be much impeded by that flash of light. Relying on an unknown method, it easily located and stormed toward Chirh’s direction, flattening all vegetation, razing down trunks, and kicking soil into air.

That injured spearman was clearly spent, for he was panting heavily and had to lean against a tree for a short respite instead of giving chase. However, he remained fully alert, eyes darting back and forth just in case that dark lynx decided to sneak back under the cover of darkness for a surprise ambush.

Good luck, Chirh. Rein muttered as he was simply not in the position to block the rhino’s charge, and could only hope that Chirh had already moved position. Chirh’s fate was not sealed. A whistling sounded through the wood as an arrow sped past Rein’s ears, striking the rump of the rhino.

The moonlight peeking through holes in the canopy also illuminated shadows of multiple needles immediately descending onto the rhino’s butt following the arrow. 

The dark lynx’s intelligent and gleaming eyes flashed as it immediately pivoted and zigzagged to escape, before the rhino could even bellow in pain. It had quickly recognized that it was being ambushed and was also outnumbered.

Rein saw his opportunity, and after a few strides, thrusted forth with the soak staff at the rhino’s eyes. He wasn’t quite sure whether his staff would do much harm to the rhino on other parts of the body.

The rhino swiveled his head and saved his eye, and it was Rein’s turn to receive a short ranged charge. To the rhino’s surprise, Rein leapt up with exceptional quickness and height, performed a forward shoulder roll mid-air, using the spin to gather strength into the staff swing to strike down onto the rhino’s head with vengeance.

Without the dark lynx covering, the rhino was much too slow to react, and received a resounding smack on its skull. It tottered unsteadily on its feet, before crumbling onto its side.

Surely, a strike to its thick skull wouldn’t be enough, right? Rein was rather confused about the turn of events. He delivered a few more overhead whacks to the rhino’s head to confirm that the rhino had truly been taken down.

A sword tip poked and failed to pierce the rhino’s tough hide-- Chirh had appeared, and he had recklessly activated a light orb in his other hand to illuminate the rhino’s body.

“By Xune’s spear. Its hide is a thick plated armor. This is not a weak demon.” The sweaty and pale Chirh exclaimed in relief.

Beastkin that had gained spirituality had a slightly different path compared to humans in the advancer world. Chenhr had taught Rein this knowledge. Due to their lower intelligence but significantly higher physicality as a starting point, beastkin initial aurae gains had a huge augmentation effect to their physical abilities, to a much more significant degree than the humans.

Even now, humans had yet to fully understand the growth of the demons, particularly since different types of demons had distinct strengthening processes. On the other hand, the human advancer pathway had long been established and organized into different stages of mastery.

As for this demon, It properly had attained some level of power similar to the second advancer human realm-- the shell realm, under which a body should have undergone significant transformation.

By now, Chirh was examining the rhino’s rump. Amazingly, Xeeseir’s arrow was easily retrieved. Only parts of its tip had pierced the rhino’s skin. It clearly had done little to no serious damage.

“Oh.” Chirh’s astonishment attracted Rein to the back of the rhino. Rein nearly keeled over, unsure of how to feel. A few of Wilo’s poisonous needles had stuck themselves into the rhino’s anus. 

An accident? No. Wilo seemed like she had a vast reservoir of knowledge. Rein acknowledged his comrade’s competence. This was the likely explanation as to why the rhino had fallen over from a single staff strike to its thick skull. The poison was probably already taking effect.

A timely exasperated whisper from Xeeseir frightened Chirh into deactivating his light orb.

“Cut down on the stupid acts. You need to keep calm and avoid attracting attention, boy. We’ve only got one life.” Chirh nodded with his head down. He knew Xeeseir was only critical because of his own foolish decision-making.

“Hmmm…” Rein also was not sure whether he could trust Chirh to handle himself. But then, an idea occurred to him. “Let’s adjust our strategy,” he whispered with mirth. “We will instead use Chirh as bait. He will abuse his light blinding inscriptional skill to enrage and draw attention. We will adjust and adapt around his shenanigans. We can maintain the diamond formation in open areas.”

That was enough to make Xeeseir relax and give a chuckle. “That would work.” Wilo similarly acknowledged the change.

Only Chirh disagreed with the notion that he would be bait. “I know I messed up, but surely… I’m not sure a bit of light would really attract much attention, I mean--”

Rein placed a hand on Chirh’s shoulder. “It will. No enemy would like being repeatedly blinded. Plus, I can tell that your inscription works by gathering light from environmental sources. Within these woods, that skill will have time to gather that light while we’re hiding. Supposedly, there’s open grasslands in the northwest once we leave the foot of these mountains. You’ll be able to use that sword's other inscriptional skill to backstep, what was it… about ten feet? Just make sure you flip backwards behind us.”

“But I--”

Chirh’s continued protestations was cut off a second time by Xeeseir. “Don’t worry. We’ll adapt to your movements and protect you.” Xeeseir gripped and gave a few squeezes to Chirh’s shoulder to indicate that there was no way out. “Plus. Remember. House Larne is very much after you.”

A familiar voice interrupted this exchange. “Why bring a wimp to the battlefield?” The injured snake-spear man had overheard their conversation. He seemed quite recovered from defending against the two demons.

Rein immediately gave out a command. “Flash him”.

“What…?” Chirh was confused by the sudden request.

“Do it.” Rein was adamant. He was starting to feel a bit peeved by this spearman.

“Okay, okay.” Chirh directed his sword’s fuller and in a few heartbeats, a sheet of light burst forth onto the spearman’s eyes.

At the same time, Rein thrust his soak staff forward, only stopping when the tip lightly bumped against the spearman’s nose.

The spearman could only stumble backward, unsure of what had touched his nose when blinded by a sudden onslaught of light. He could only bluster in surprise, “Alright. By the fallen gods, I need honor. Let’s kill some demons and devils!”

“You overheard how we plan to do combat. In addition to all that, make an effort to defend me and Wilo.” Xeeseir brandished his bow as he quickly inserted the spearman into their formation.

“Name’s Dahk. And you don’t need my defense.” Dahk had a clear memory of Xeeseir’s origin defense skill.

Xeeseir rubbed his eyebrows in frustration. “It’s called laying a trap, you fool.”

A squint of the eyes, and Dahk accepted his role.

Rein couldn’t resist staring at the rhino corpse, which was incredibly tempting. He still had a large batch of hidden beast cores for his consumption, but collecting more was always helpful.

There was just one problem-- this rhino was probably filled to the brim with Wilo’s rather fearsome poison.

“The core?” Wilo intuitively knew what Rein wanted.

Caught out, Rein could only shrug his shoulders. It wasn’t as if the rhino died by his hands. But Wilo, probably immune to her own poison, drew a fully wooden javelin from her sleeve. Amazingly, this wooden weapon easily sliced open the rhino’s hide. It was definitely a much higher grade weapon compared to Chirh’s broad shortsword.

She stuck her hand into the rhino’s guts, and her hand returned with a grayish beast core that was covered in purple blood. The blood transformed red again in Wilo’s hands-- the poison was being reabsorbed by Wilo.

She threw the beast core into Rein’s hands, before quickly moving to the rhino’s head, and with surgical and precise movements, detached the rhino’s horn.

“Anyone?”

Dahk tentatively raised his arm. “I didn’t get the kill, but if you’re generous, I--”

Wilo immediately lopped the horn to the spearman. Even if it was not his intention, Dahk had drawn those two demons into their midst, and somewhat contributed.

Perhaps normally, there might be more discussion on these materials, but they were short on time.

“The heartblood?” Chirh wondered. That was the most valuable part of literally all corpses in the advancer world.

“It’s filled with poison…” Wilo held up a vial that contained a stone of fluid. “I need much more time to purify it before sharing it with you all.” She must have collected it while retrieving the beastkin core for Rein.

“We’ll handle that after.” Xeeseir ordered. “Go, go, go.”

The five continued forward, this time with Rein and Dahk leading the way. Very soon, they spied the edge of the woods. They would soon enter the open grasslands of a plateau in between the Hall of Heroes’ northwest mountains and the Evergreen Mountains, the supposed main area of the conflict.