Beacon from Beyond

The crowd below continued to slow as Gor’s perception sped up, yet Iora’s eyes continued to track him. Now that he was away from the crowd and pumping mana through his body to move, thick ropes of gray Sloth mana whipped out from his body and floated into the air.

The shrapnel of stone around her blurred as she launched hundreds of fragments towards him.

Using his [Sleep Step] he froze the air underneath his foot to kick off of it, dodging the first volley. It was expensive to use, though, and this was a battle of endurance. After the first redirection, he kicked off the larger shards, dodging what he could and redirecting what he couldn’t with his hands.

While he tried to, he couldn't alway close the distance, sometimes needing to move horizontally to avoid getting trapped, but he was always mobile, and he always kept his body between Iora and his wife.

She tried launching smaller pieces, but if they were too small to kick off of, he simply ignored them. She realized she was getting nowhere with the stone attacks, and Gor watched as she charged something else, before glancing at the crowd below.

‘She needs to worry about collateral. If she kills even a single unrelated person under her protection, she will be executed. Even me for that matter, she can't kill me because, even if Dei is guilty, I would only be acting in ignorance’ he grinned.

He still needed to be careful though. Shamanic staffs contained multiple schools of magic. He knew they had all the elemental ones, as well as the Soul and Soul-derivatives. All of them also had Darkness and Light, Barrier, Celestial, Life, Beast, Tracking, Enhancement, and Crystal. Past that, each one had at least two affinities unique to it, depending on which soul was used in its creation. They could never fit Virtue or Vice affinities though, he didn’t know why, they just never seemed to be able to.

Excluding the unique affinities, he didn't need to worry about Beast as it was focused on manipulation, and there were none close. Crystal and Life took too long to work for them to be relevant in a direct battle. Soul and Soul-derivative affinities also wouldn’t work well on him when he was boosted by [Slumbering Giant].

His [Half-Lid] Skill would help block the blinding and illusion aspects of Darkness and Light, so she was unlikely to use them in this fight as their offensive was weak. Tracking wouldn't help either, and she was already using Enhancement to keep up with him, so he would watch out for those Skills, but the real focus was on the last six.

Fire, Water, Earth, and Air would be her main hitters. She would use Barrier if he got close, and she would lay traps around them with Celestial.

Now that he better expected what she was going to do, the entire plan taking hardly a millisecond, he moved back in while keeping watch of the two to four unique affinities for her particular staff.

Multiple flaming projectiles moved towards him, mixed in with the shards of earth she continued to recycle. He kicked off a patch of earth to dodge one ball of fire by almost a foot, but was surprised to still feel something hit him.

The Air casing around the fireball shattered and was devoured by the flame, feuling it into an explosion. He cast a barrier to block most of it, but was knocked to the side a bit.

He positioned himself feet first and used another Air projectile as a platform to kick off of, the explosion pushing him further towards her.

She launched an uneven wall of stones at him but it only sped him up as he jumped between them again. He was almost through the field when he saw the glimmer of something right at the end of the cloud and realized it was a trap, following the volley of stones was a wall of perfectly clear water meant to trap him.

Grabbing one two of the stones flying by him, he barely slowed as he spun mid air to throw the first at the wall.

It left his hand with a thundercrack, followed by an explosion when it hit the water. The crater left in the wall wasn’t large enough for him to fit through, but it wasn't meant to as the second stone left his hand, approaching Iona full speed.

Her focus split for a single moment to conjure a barrier and block it, Gor using that moment to break through the wall without becoming trapped. With a final kick off the would-be prison, he rapidly closed the distance between them. Immediately after the wall of water, he felt the invisible mana of a celestial prison closing in on him, but his momentum took him from the field before it could close in.

‘She didn’t expect the water to stop me, she thought I would pull out a trump card to break through it. It was meant to slow me down enough for the celestial magic to ensnare me’

Now on top of her, he struck out so fast his fist caught fire, but she leaned left at the last moment. [Sleep Step]ing for just a moment to roundhouse kick her, she blocked with staff that released a Thrum with the force, vibrating in her hand while she was seemingly unbothered by the force.

‘Unique affinity number one is Kinetic affinity, that narrows it down from one of the hundred twenty seven staffs to just three. The other affinity will either be Tether or Snap, as they would never give Void affinity to someone like Iora. I hope it’s Tether, as it is notoriously hard to control. If it's Snap though, I’ll know what to expect because Fou has never hidden her Snap affinity or abilities from me.’

The quick realization over, he used the rebound of his kick to spin midair and draw his falchion, bringing it down on her. If she would absorb his kinetic energy, blunt force wouldn't work well.

He also didn’t want her to hold onto the energy he already gave her and if he was right…

Iora tried blasting his blade with the kinetic energy to shatter it, but he had already filled it with Sloth mana. Like a predator to prey, his mana annihilated it before the kinetic energy could do any damage.

He rained down swipes to try and catch her off guard, yet she was always one step ahead. Her staff was just barely able to enhance her faster than his skill could enhance him, but both of them were tapering off with what their Souls could handle

‘Fuck this is gonna hurt tomorrow.’

He steeled his will and pushed more Sloth mana into his body. He was starting to take minor damage with the amount that was getting channeled through himself, and realized that his would be no slog. He needed to end things, because there was no chance he would be able to maintain the strain he put on himself. While they both had similar upper limits to their strengths, Iora could split the weight between both her and the staff, while his soul had to bear the full brunt of his.

‘Well, if I can't maintain a consistent strain, then I'm going to pour every ounce of mana into every single action.’ He grinned manically at the thought. It had been so long since he had a genuine fight where he used all his trump cards, and now his blood was pumping.

He let out a roar as he activated [Stable Axis] from his Blade affinity to help process everything he was about to do, and [Sleep Step] to launch himself to the side.

Iora turned to face him, but he was already gone, above her now. He used [Sleep Step] again and again, bouncing around in a sphere, speeding up with each kick of his leg. He started to glow as the air around him caught fire when it touched his skin, letting out bright streaks of light that showed only his after image. Gor felt as Iora placed a tracking spell on him so she wouldn’t lose him.

The vibrations he sent through the air forced Iora to put up a barrier of Kinetic absorption at all times so her organs wouldn't rupture. They had been continuously moving up through the air, closer to the tall cave ceiling than to the crowds below, but Gor still saw as multiple people began layering protections for what they knew was inevitably going to be his finisher.

The muscles in his legs began tearing, blood shooting out in geysers with enough pressure to cut someone in half, but that was okay. His body would make blood as quickly as he lost it. Still, he decided it was time to finish things, as he could barely see the blur he assumed was Iora. He felt tether magic form on him multiple times, trying to tie him to a wall and steal his momentum, but he was too far along at this point to be stopped.

Like an executioner from above, he put both hands on the handle of his blade and swung downwards on her while kicking off perfectly from above, activating [Mountain Cut] as he passed by. He heard himself laugh manically.

She managed to block with the staff, absorbing the kinetic force from an attack no barrier would withstand. Still, a cutting wind sliced down into her body. Not deeply, but Gor finally drew blood.

It wasn’t over though. From below, he kicked off again, this time at a slight angle, slicing diagonally. Again, she blocked, again, she was cut anyway.

[Mountain Cut] after [Mountain Cut], Gor sliced into her, tearing her pitiful robe to shreds.

The manic laughter grew louder.

Each hit from his blade rang out like a gong, the thrumming of her staff growing worse with each passing. The ringing of a bell shaking her just a little bit worse each time.

Blood flowed freely from both of them by this point, but it never dropped. Instead, it permeated the air around them. At the speeds they both were moving, the droplets never had the chance to fall before they collided with the attacks from one or the other.

The mist of blood surrounding them grew worse, but he ignored it. It was irrelevant.

His blade was held together only by the Sloth mana within it, stopping any vibrations from penetrating more than surface level. Still, with every hit, the smallest of shavings was knocked off in the form of sparks. His clothes had long since caught fire from the friction in the air and were some charred tatters somewhere off to the side.

One last time he struck upwards at her, unerringly blocked yet still cutting. He twisted himself around to launch back downwards, his screaming laughter marking the psychotic joy he took from the situation, yet this time his legs did not respond. Instead, he flew past the point where he would have kicked off his [Sleep Step] and finally slammed into the ceiling.

‘When did that get so close?’ he thought, letting out another quiet giggle. He was halfway buried into the rock, yet that didn’t bother him. His legs were rapidly regenerating, rapidly even for his own perception, and he stared down at Iora with an expectant, excited gaze at the prospect of continuing the fight.

Iora didn’t intend to let him. He watched as fixed that hateful gaze on him, and used all the kinetic energy stored up in the staff, swinging it upwards at him with the force of a mountain as she let out a roar of her own.

As the staff hit the arc of its swing, a white beam as bright as a thunderbolt shot out of it.

Iora’s eyes cleared up immediately and, realizing that she had gone too far, widened significantly. Not only had she not wanted to kill Gor, if that beam hit the roof of the cave, the entire thing was going to collapse on the very village she was meant to protect.

Uncaring of her realization, Gor slammed his fist into the wall to give himself some downwards momentum, as his legs had still not yet been repaired. Despite the beam not yet hitting the roof, boulders of stone still rained down as the force of Gor’s fist cracked it for hundreds of feet in all directions.

Gor met the beam head on, making no moves to dodge, as he brought his blade down for one final [Mountain Cut].

He activated [Sleep Step] multiple times across his body to avoid being thrown backwards as every single ounce of mana being produced by his Sloth affinity rushed through his body and into his blade.

Rivers of sparks flew around his head as the beam slowly tore the surface of his falchion apart.

‘More!’ he screamed in his head ‘MORE!’ he demanded of his Sloth affinity. The beast inside him, already awoken after its long rest, rumbled its laughter in sync with his own as it raced out from his chest, down his arms, into his blade and even further. Gor felt several notifications go off in his head as a formless gray figure exploded from his blade. The beam that was pressing into him was quickly devoured by the figure that rapidly took shape.

The spiked skull was the first thing to become defined, followed by the sleek scaled body, four clawed legs, sharp bat-like wings, and long gray tail.

His new [Sloth Beast Manifest] took shape into his spirit animal, and the gray dragon of his Soul devoured the beam of Kinetic energy hungrily.

Iora barely had enough time to layer barriers over herself as it crashed into her, pushing her down further as she felt her body slow from the impact.

The ram from its head slid off her and, despite being pushed down, she did repel it.

The first time.

In a fashion similar to Gors final gambit, the dragon flapped its wings and quickly swung back around, making another pass at her with its claws.

The blood cloud around them was so thick by this point that Iora could never see where it was coming until it was right in front of her. Despite the fact that it was a hundred feet long, it silently glided through the mist until it was right on top of her.

It bit at her, clawed her, and even whipped her with its tail at one point, yet still she survived.

The strain on her soul became worse, yet still she endured.

With each passing, the dragon became more translucent, pouring more mana into her body. While it became weaker with each swing, she noticed that the mana still rushed into her. The mana still slowed her body.

She could still form barriers and cast Spells, but her body stopped responding. After the fiftieth hit taken, she was practically frozen in place as she could move no longer. She could not even give a reaction of surprise, as her look of hatred froze in place.

Still, the dragon continued to attack her through the cloud, each pass pushing more mana into her. Once there was finally no chance of her moving, it flapped its wings to clear the mist of blood in front of her, and forced her to watch as it charged up an ultimate attack, waves of gray Sloth mana billowing out of it as a humming reverberated from deep within its chest.

She fired bullets of stone towards it, but they slowed the closer they got to the dragon. Exploding projectiles of fire were held stable in their casing as it used sloth mana to freeze them in place. Whips of water splashed harmlessly against its body when she lost control of them after they entered its aura. Her fear built as nothing she did seemed to affect it, until finally the humming stopped.

Unmoving, she watched as the dragon opened its mouth and fired a concentrated beam of sloth mana at her. It penetrated deep into her body, soaking into her organs and bones. Her heart stopped pumping, blood freezing in her veins. She had to use a Soul spell from the staff to project her mind from her body as even her thought process was hitting the limit of what it could compensate for. She watched as her body was frozen in time, not even taking damage as the decay from her cells not receiving oxygen was put to a stop as well.

Using [Formless Avatar] she could still cast magic, but even the power of her Shamanic staff could not break her free from the prison of Sloth mana.

The dragons blast rapidly drained it of all its resources, becoming more translucent the more mana it fired into Iora. Once it was barely holding itself together, it canceled the beam, flew up to Gor’s almost-unconscious body, and grabbed him from the air. He had hardly fallen a single foot from the point where he had originally summoned it, a testament to the speeds at which it was both flying and the speed at which Iora was blocking it.

Gently, it dove down towards the ground, dropping faster than the red mist could fall, before throwing its wings out just above the barrier the people below had set up. It placed him gently atop the barrier, and finally dissipated into nothingness.

Gor watched, half awake, as chunks of blood and meat fell down towards him from the air.

‘Huh… thats a lot of chunks. Did I cut Iora a lot?’ he thought absently ‘Ah, no, wait. Those are probably the chunks from blowing my legs up so many times.’

The thought caused another giggle to resound from him.

The rain of blood and chunks finally reached him, coating his bare body. When the last of the blood had finally fallen down, it revealed the frozen form of Iora. Around her, she had several tons of rock that Gor had knocked from the ceiling. Even if she couldn’t move, she still wouldn't allow for it to crush the entire village. While it was true that the barriers might withstand it, Iora couldn’t risk that.

Gor watched as she slowly moved them back up into the ceiling, meticulously putting them into their places and sealing the cracks between them. When she was done, she sat there unmoving.

After all, she was still locked down from all the mana his new Skill had pumped into her.

He let out one more giggle, before darkness finally began closing in on the edges of his vision. Gor felt as his body fell downwards, the barrier finally lowering and allowing the blood to coat the entire town. He felt as people caught him and lowered him gently.

‘Your turn, Fou’ he thought as he passed into unconsciousness.