Timeless Prominence

Truly the School of Burning Flesh. The man imploded in a rain of fire upon crashing into the two raven-haired twin ladies.

As he engaged the foe that had just regained his footing, Rein had already reached the conclusion that the black liquid was probably oil. Out of the corner of his eye, he could notice Wilo’s figure burning brightly as she escaped wailing behind the boulder. She seemed to have somehow borne the brunt of that explosion.

The twins rolled on the ground, a majority of their bodies covered in a blue shell, while Xeeseir appeared to be the only one completely unaffected by the suicide attack as he fired rapid arrows at those two remaining oil-spewing enemies in an attempt to give his allies time to recover.

Chirh timed a flash perfectly as the stranded Burning Flesh member targeted by Rein’s split-off group immediately lost his vision again upon regaining his bearings.

Their blinded foe was easy prey. Rein, trusting that Master Yirn had given him a reliable weapon, performed a cross strike directly at his foe’s head with full force.

The soak staff was much more powerful than he imagined, as the strike completely shattered the aurae skin defending his foe’s head. Amazingly, the surface of the staff that became somewhat charred upon contact with the hot protective shell of the enemy, visibly repaired itself using the aurae it had absorbed from the environment.

Dahk was quick to move, immediately taking full advantage of this opportunity. He left nothing to chance, as he thrust his snake spear forward with his left arm while the inscriptions on the weapon lit up. The snake spear tip seemed to twist slightly right before drilling into the man’s head.

Dahk’s final strike was so devastating that he struggled to remove his spear from the man’s skull. He had to step onto the body’s neck to hold the man still in order to forcibly wiggle and drag his snake spear out of the head. The spear had created multiple pathways through the enemy’s brain.

Some might think that this shell advancer lost his life too easily, and to inner advancers at that. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality was that Rein and his allies had simply piled onto the Burning Flesh man relentlessly. The eyes remained a weak point-- a shell advancer would literally obscure their own vision if said advancer layered his or her own eyes with a thick aurae defense!

Thus, Chirh’s inscripted weapon of the flashing effect turned out to be rather effective and repeatedly blinded their foe at inopportune times. As such, it was far easier for a physically augmented Rein to damage their foe’s shell defense, allowing Dahk to deliver a final blow.

At this time, the two remaining Burning Flesh advancers began repeatedly shooting oil into the air as some form of magic shaped the oil torrents into rain, showering Rein and his allies in a greasy layer. They then withdrew tens of spherical orbs-- Rein recognized these as similar to the ones he had used while raiding a caravan with Chenhr--, and proceeded to half-haphazardly launch them in all directions.

By now, the twin ladies had recovered their footing, and spun their bronze whips like dancing snakes, deflecting all the bombs thrown in their direction to the side. Rein inwardly commended them for their exquisite skill-- the two perfectly whipped the many ignition bombs away.

Under his direction, Xeeseir’s group carefully maneuvered themselves toward Rein’s direction-- he probably believed that there was a need for the group to come back together.

Rein and Dahk also leapt sideways, in a manner that extended their distance from their two enemies while allowing them to reform their original formation with Xeeseir. Chirh swung his shortsword, accelerating his body a good ten feet away from the bombs’ landing spots, though his direction was slightly off, and he had to desperately sprint back into the group.

For his part, Rein raised his soak staff and tried to use his water droplet skill again. However, he had already drawn water from air in this area, not to mention, all the heat from the Burning Flesh advancers had further expelled any moisture left in the area.

Rein groaned in his mind, resorting to drawing aurae from the soak staff’s inlaid power gems-- personally, refilling those power gems with aurae was a strenuous task, and he very much wanted to avoid doing so unless forced to.

Even by activating those power gems, the water drop was forming above his head at a much slower pace.

Xeeseir quickly delivered his instructions once the two groups reformed. The twins stood in front, using their long bronze whips to fling and ignite the flying exploding spheres at a relatively safe distance in front of them.

“Rein. The ladies have informed me that they need an extensive amount of that water for their magic.” Xeeseir squinted at the water drop forming above Rein’s head, as if urging a newborn babe to quickly climb out of a mother’s womb.

Rein could not resist complaining in his own heart. Wouldn’t it have been far better if those two ladies had mentioned such a potent advancer art from the get-go? Somehow, this information had come late.

Perhaps the twins were mad that they got hit by the friendly fire of the expanding water wave, and failed to mention it on joining the group. Or, Xeeseir had delivered his orders and they had wanted to act quickly, so the twins never had a chance to deliver such information.

Another flash of light struck their two enemies, as Chirh once again attempted to daze their foes. But these two Burning Flesh advancers were prepared, and honestly, they did not need to have a clear sight with the way they were aiming their bombs, hoping that a single one would get past the twin’s whips and ignite Rein’s party.

“It’s not enough!” One of the twin ladies yelled as she took a darting glance at the floating water sphere before refocusing onto the incoming barrage of airborne bombs.

Rein, frustrated that he had to resort to using the inlaid power gems, fumed back, “Twelve hells! There’s no water in the air, and the power gems won’t have enough to last through future battles at this rate.”

“Just draw water from the bloody corpses around, you fool. Those dead bodies no longer have their innate magical protection! You can easily use them as a source for the water!” The other twin lady huffed back as she barely managed to knock away the endless number of bombs. Those Burning Flesh advancers must have a type of spatial magical pouch to carry so many bombs on their bodies.

To the side, Xeeseir had stopped firing arrows. There were only three arrows left in his quiver, and he clearly did not want to use these three at this juncture.

Rein felt slightly sick in the stomach, but there was no choice. Maintaining the activation of the soak staff’s inscription, he willed the spell to instead draw moisture from the various bodies surrounding them. Some of these corpses were long dead before they had even arrived.

He felt he wasn’t much better than that corpse-devil that had ‘resurrected’ the dead mercenaries to fight against him and Chenhr previous to him coming to the Green Trout City.

Disgustingly, Rein could swear that a pink tinged mist swum through the air, enlarging the water drop above his head. But that was perhaps just his imagination, for when he turned his eyes upwards, he saw that the water sphere was as clear as crystal. Chirh, unsurprisingly, had begun retching with bile flowing from his mouth at Rein’s actions.

“Now!” Rein indicated to the twins as he let loose the water drop that had grown to a diameter quadruple his height.

Unlike last time, all members of the ground were fully prepared to get drenched. However, that did not happen, for at the very same time, the inscriptions on the twins’ two bronze whips glowed, and the water sphere split into two streams, each flowing to one of the ladies, rapidly forming into twin water serpents.

With a flick of their wrist, the two sea serpents launched forward, spinning around each other as they formed a water vortex that spun all the bombs to the side as it twisted at the two Burning Flesh advancers.

Upon impact, the vortex curved downwards, and the water vortex pounded their two enemies repeatedly against the ground.

“Oh.” Intoned Xeeseir, a warning that gave most of the group time to brace themselves against the water wave that now crashed toward them from their foes’ location, the remnants of the water serpent vortex art.

They all, with the exception of Chirh, who was still busy being nauseated, glued their bodies flat to the ground as they jammed their fingers into the ground soil to avoid being washed away. Chirh, unprepared, was instead banished from the group to some unknown realm.

Once the surge was past, Rein was the first to dash toward their two enemies, with Dahk closely following behind.

He found their two foes down on the ground, their aurae skins broken, and their eyes bleary and barely conscious.

He exhaled, before swinging his staff down onto one head over and over again, until the man’s skull had been thoroughly crushed.

Dahk, on the other hand, had simply pierced his snake spear through the other’s throat.

Rein was impressed with the strength of these twin ladies. Perhaps it was because they were at the cusp of entering the shell realm, but it was only because of their successful and meticulous transformation of Rein’s water drop into their large water serpents that the advancer art of their bronze whips could have this effect.

Combining advancer arts is also a way to overcome stronger and dangerous foes, but only if done so effectively and efficiently. Their advantage in numbers certainly helped as well.

The group observed their surroundings. Honestly, the repeated expanding waves Rein had used caused both allies and enemies to move a good multiple kilofeet away in wariness. None of them wanted to have the outcome of their battle determined by a random water surge.

Xeeseir took the opportunity to scavenge for extra arrows to refill his quiver. The rest began harvesting the heartblood of the Burning Flesh individuals. Perhaps they would be able to trade such heartblood for something-- none of them within the group seemed to have any advancer art relating to fire.

Soon, Chirh returned from some unknown realm that he had been flushed to, and he, though rather pale, was at the very least physically unharmed.

Rein’s guts told him that he had missed an important detail. The sound of a cracking dead branch caused him to spin around. Right! Rein suddenly recalled that there had been a shadowy assassin!

But it was just Wilo returning. To everyone’s astonishment, she seemed none the worse for wear. They had all noticed her burning the most brightly when that Burning Flesh advancer detonated himself.

She was also dragging a body decked out in a black cloth outfit-- only the eyes and bridge of the nose could be seen. “When I sought a reprieve to put out the flames behind that boulder, the shadowy assassin had returned. Probably to reap the weakened combatants of this exchange.”

She flung the body with venom onto the two Burning Flesh advancer corpses after taking the assassin’s heartblood. This advancer’s black outfit had a sigil of a crevice across his chest.

“That’s the Sirin Sect,” Chirh’s voice quivered. “It’s said that all they need is an open wound, and the poison in the air would kill their foes!”

Rein inwardly sighed. If that was true, this Sirin Sect would probably have killed everyone on this battlefield by now. He reminded himself that Chirh’s information might often be exaggerated relative to the man’s faintheartedness.

Instead of examining this assassin, Rein closely observed Wilo. Her wooden mask was still fully intact. The Hall of Heroes robe appeared fine, if its surface inscriptions appeared slightly less resplendent. Her own hood, too, had sustained no damage.

“I might not like flames, but I’m not that easy to burn down.” Wilo, somewhat irked by such close examination, stated. “You know my weapons, many long needles, are of wood. Naturally, I needed to dispose of many of them, which had been ignited by that sudden heat.”

Rein, slightly embarrassed, could only nod and turn his attention back to surveying for their next target.  However, he was not the only one bewildered. Xeeseir and the twins, both closer to Wilo, had seen and heard her excruciating screams during the incident. Wilo’s current nonchalance was of stark contrast. Still, they were all relieved that she was absolutely fine.

The group ruffled through the corpses of the Burning Flesh advancers finding thick brass knuckle weapons in addition to the already seen flasks.

On closer look, the flasks seemed to be made of clay and layered with inscriptions designed to give certain magics to the liquid residing inside, and also seemed to augment the user in some way. Rein lacked the knowledge to fully discern the method in which it worked.

“There’s no point in taking those flasks. They’re a School of Burning Flesh specialty protected by blood enchantments, and being made from clay, simply cannot be broken down and remade into other weapons,” one of the twins said.

However, to the twin’s confusion, Rein still pocketed one of them-- his goal was to further figure out how this flask worked.

They then distributed the collected four brass knuckles to the twins, Chirh, and Wilo, the four that had yet to receive any spoils. Xeeseir also had yet to gain anything, but he rejected the brass knuckles, while offering a reminder. “These weapons have a protective enchantment. Be careful not to accidentally use them, and find a blacksmith to break down the weapon.”

Seeing these weapons, Rein inwardly chuckled. They had struck these four Burning Flesh members so rapidly that they never even got the chance to use their close-ranged magical skills.

The lady’s voice sounded through the Hall of Heroes robe again. “The javelins are ready. If you are capable of using them and have basic comprehension of inscriptions, head to the edge of the trees.”

Xeeseir, having more or less refilled his quiver, only needed a single glance at Rein to discern that Rein believed himself capable of using these so-called javelins.

“Back to the woods.” He gestured with an arm.

One of the twin raven-haired ladies hesitated as if she wanted the two to go their own way. But, the other had no intention of leaving and a single menacing look ensured that the two would stick with the group.

Both ladies wrapped their seven-sectioned bronzed whips around their own arms. Only now did Rein realize that of the twins, one was right handed, and one left-handed.

Perhaps his old habits as a member of the merchants got the better of him, and he couldn’t resist running his eyes over their form and facial features as the group jogged back towards the woods, their formation loose and changing as each individual varied their pace.

Under the pale moonlight and with assistance from the lingering flames created by the now dead Burning Flesh advancers, Rein could see that although these two ladies were twins, and naturally, both had raven hair, there were obvious differences. For one, one of the ladies was half a head taller. Two, the taller twin had a long and deep scar over her cheek that looked to be from a knife.

Outside of these differences, both ladies had identical unblemished soft beige skin, hazel eyes, dark and long eyelashes, upturned nose, rosy lips and heart-shaped chins. They were clearly beauties, though the taller one might be considered by some to be maimed due to that scar.

“Have you finished observing?” The taller twin lady asked. Her tone was bland-- Rein could not perceive her feelings, if she had any.

Thus, he politely bowed his head. “I saw that some oil had been ignited on the two of you. I am relieved that there has been no harm done.” Rein did feel somewhat guilty that he had chosen not to use his origin skill to rapidly offer assistance during that perilous point in their battle.

Part of him wanted to blame Master Yirn and Chenhr for ‘forcing’ him to adopt such careful use of his origin skill. However, at the root of it, it was really his fear of being hunted by those crazy origin skill research organizations, such as the infamous Bloodline Genesis, that motivated his choice of action. Thus, he felt apologetic in that regard, but only a little-- he needed to preserve his little life!

The shorter twin activated her defensive magic and covered half her face with an aquamarine aurae skin, making Rein feel rather silly for his concern. “Easy.” She declared, her voice slightly softer compared to her older twin.

Rein quickly introduced all the other members, though the two twins already had accurate guesses based on their communication in the previous battle.

“I’m Suxeire and,” The older lady gestured at her twin, “my younger sister is named Joxeire.”

Rein’s earlier examination clearly had an effect on her though, for she quickly backtracked the conversation after their introductions. “What do you think of my wound?” She lightly brushed her fingers along the long and thick scar that stretched across her right cheek.

Her tone was ambiguous, making Rein pause as his mind branched into multiple possibilities. Did she want him to ask about the scar? Or is she self-conscious about the scar and he should avoid the topic? Or…

In the end, Rein just went with what he felt was somewhat of a positive note. “I’ve always had trouble telling twins apart back when my hometown had yet to be razed to the ground. So, I’m quite relieved that with you two, I would avoid embarrassing myself and be able to reliably identify you and your sister from one another.”

Both twins simultaneously snorted at his words. Though, Rein wasn’t sure whether it was in annoyance or suppressed amusement. Thus, he quickly added, “Plus, if you truly wished to, you could make the scar disappear once you enter the shell realm of magic.” All advancers, to some degree, are able to slightly modify their appearance as their bodies grow with the aurae they absorb.

Their conversation was interrupted by a unique ox-like beast that rumbled out of the woods-- they had returned back to the edge of this grassland plateau.

This beast, which had the body of an ox, had oversized horns that spanned the whole width of its body. Those horns also had multiple pointed ends-- it could be best described as an enlarged ox horn with a hint of stag horn branching patterns.

Attached to this beast was a maloewood carriage with both sides emblazoned by a golden Hall of Heroes sigil.

A group of gray-robed Hall of Heroes members leapt to the back of the carriage and deftly manipulated a wooden contraption that locked the two doors together.

A few movements of wooden rods and slots after, the doors swung open to reveal racks upon racks of long metallic javelins.

These javelins are the true modern day ‘Spear of Heaven’! Rein found his fingers itching for the opportunity to use such an armament. His half-senior Chenhr had allowed him to practice with the initial activation of one somehow stolen from the Hall of Heroes. Now? He would have the chance to truly use this heaven-shattering weapon!