Chapter 116: Horde

The only reason she didn’t dodge away was the demon being at an identifiable level. She remembered too late that Walter had told her about how specialized those things can be as she was impacted by the whole weight of the beast, pushed backwards several meters until she decided to blink above it, kicking at its spine.

Two more flying beasts had appeared, making her disengage the monster on the ground, catching one of them with a punch to its teeth. None of them managed to get through her defenses as the veil closed again after the impact. Ilea ran over the ground, occasionally covering distances by flying when she tackled a monster barely held off by a female warrior pressed onto the ground, blood flowing from several cuts on her body.

Ilea punched the beast three times, something cracking in its chest until she spun around in the air, using both her momentum and strength to flight the thing as far away as she could. Blinking back to the woman, she healed her wounds, ignoring the words uttered by her. Seeing another two beasts approach through her sphere, she mentally apologized to the woman before the grabbed her and flew upwards, continuing to pump healing mana into her. Up and up they went, now already followed by three flying demons.

Ilea glanced over to see many of the demons going up towards Viscera. ‘That can’t be good.’ someone else apparently had a similar thought as a beam of red light impacted where the elevators would vanish upwards, sending rock and metal down onto the creatures. Ilea didn’t have time to see where the attack had come from as the woman currently held by her regained her senses.

“Good?” she received a thankful nod and turned around again, now flying downwards while avoiding the pursuers, two of them scratching at her veil.

“I can fly!” the woman said, Ilea nodding and letting go of her. Thin lines of black matter formed behind the warrior who flew downwards towards the dropped spear still lying where she had been. Ilea blinked away, dodging the thrown chunk of rock thrown towards her as she flew downwards, impacting a demon running towards a dome of light. Her knees impacted the creature and sent it into the ground before a series of punches rained onto it.

Three flying spikes impacted Ilea’s veil, one of them managing to get through and scratching against her armor. The beast below her used the distraction to punch at her, making her disengage again. Ilea ran towards the barrier, finding not Claire inside but three other people, one of them heavily injured. She found herself unable to blink inside so decided to dance around the barrier, smashing and throwing away the attackers.

Three demons ran at her at once when a black flame appeared around them, a mage flying by and winking at her. Ilea appeared next to him and caught the jumping demon trying to get to him. It clawed and bit at her while all her attacks were dwindling away its health, breaking bones and destroying organs with kinetic and magical force, each punch increasing in power thanks to her Ashen skills. The two landed, only one of them still alive. Ilea blinked back towards the still standing dome, now unchallenged by enemies and punched it to get the mage’s attention.

“I can heal!!” she shouted but the rune mage just shook his head with tears in his eyes before a series of spikes impacted Ilea again. ‘That fucker...’ she thought, looking towards the thing standing a hundred meters away, spikes growing from its back. She looked towards the mage next to her again but found the woman on the ground dead already. Her anger spiked as she ran towards the ranged beast, dodging the demon trying to tackle her.

She appeared next to the beast and punched deep into it, ripping out anything she got a good grip on until the thing fell lifeless to the ground. Looking back she found the dome not standing anymore, the demon with the mace like arm from before trying to get to the people inside. She flew back but before she could reach them a stream of red lightning impacted the creature’s chest, stopping its jump and pushing it into the ground. Ilea appeared behind it and punched it in its spine with an obsidian gauntlets, breaking it with the combined force of both attacks. The lighting stopped as she threw the lifeless body to the side, looking up to Trian.

The man was in his black armor, nodding to her in an exaggerated fashion. ‘Fucking idiot...’ she was happy to see him alive. He motioned in a specific direction and she followed, grabbing the two people who were still standing up, obviously injured. Her mana flowed into them as she flew behind Trian who she saw was aiming for a set of people having formed some sort of defense with walls of earth and metal, rune mages using their powers to enhance the defenses while ranged mages rained their spells onto the attackers, warriors and tanks defending the ground line. It was chaotic but they would have to work together to survive this.

Ilea landed in the middle and put the two people next to the other injured where two healers worked on them, nodding towards her. She would be more of a help fighting, that was for sure when she saw one of them creating a field of light healing ten people at once. Ilea flew upwards, checking her mana which was already down to around forty percent. There were people resting in the middle of the circle as two mages organized the gathered.

Ilea went for two attacking flying demons and caught them each in one hand before she flew downwards and smashed them into the ground right before a warrior with a massive ax. Nodding to the armored man, he lifted his weapon and smashed it into the ground, Ilea disappearing to engage a spindly monster with spikes as arms, running at the formation. The explosion of power behind her told of the demise of the two flying demons as she impacted the enemy, boned claws breaking through her defenses, scratching at her armor, Ilea using her higher weight to slam the monster to the ground, holding its back with her hands and head-butting it with her helmet while her wings and veil cut into the creature.

Using her legs to pin it down she started to deliver blows with her obsidian gauntlets, wrecking the enemy below her, its piercing weapons ineffective against her armor. She looked up to find another bull like creature charging at her but the elder who had reacted at first appeared above it, red flame around her axes as they impacted the monster, making it smash into the ground and skid towards Ilea. The elder looked at her and nodded before she vanished again, intercepting a flying demon two hundred meters away.

Ilea couldn’t help but smile as she blinked away as well, helping out a warrior defending against three heavy hitting monsters. Ice lances impacted their chests but were ineffective. Ilea appeared before one of the demons and kicked at its knees, breaking bone, blinking behind it and ripping away the bone plate covering its neck before another spike of ice dug into the creature and ending its life. She blinked backwards, avoiding another one’s blow as she repeated the same tactic, her teamwork with the mage somewhere above quite effective.

She stopped after that and walked to towards the enchanted and growing defensive line, using Meditation to regain as much resources as she could. The poison had worn off a while ago but she had to rest to avoid an early demise. Other warriors and mages had gathered around three people playing music and touching people. Ilea joined them and her mind focused more than ever as she heard the music, her will to fight and win strengthening immensely.

“You can heal on your own...” the woman in front of her said and walked to the next person, touching their chest and Ilea saw the small cuts on him heal slowly. She didn’t dare stay longer than a couple minutes, going back into the fight. Red lightning could be seen a couple hundred meters away as she saw Trian fly away from a group of pursuers. Abandoning the group, Ilea flew towards the man just when his magical energy ran out and he crashed into the ground, his lightning wings vanishing in the process.

A bone mace was about to hit him when Ilea jumped in to grab the man and fly away, the mace impacting only stone. She tried healing him but found it impossible. “What’s wrong sparky? Ran out of juice?” she asked as she flew back to the only recognizable defensible position in the near vicinity.

“Curses, and some of them block my drains… damn creatures.” the man said when a series of explosions resounded behind them, scattering the monsters as the two landed, Ilea ripping out the bone that was stuck in Trian.

“Didn’t you learn from Kyrian...” she scolded as she healed the slowly closing wounds caused by the enemy. “Where are the others?”

“I have no idea… thanks.” he said as he got up again, both of them meditating. The explosions didn’t stop, ripping through the demons who had pursued them, a mage flying above and then towards the exit of the Haven where more and more of the creatures made their way out.

“What the hell is happening?” Ilea asked, looking around at the carnage.

“I have no fucking clue… this isn’t the tournament I expected.” Trian answered.

“Ready?” she asked and the man nodded.

“Let’s find the others.” he said and flew off, Ilea following behind.

Claire held onto the power in her runes, blocking the horde of advancing creatures trying to get higher up and towards Viscera. “How long rune mage?” the man who had fetched and got her up here asked. A group of Hand members preparing their spells and auras behind her.

“Not long, a minute at most.” she said as the group readied themselves.

“What about the people down there?” someone asked “There’s hundreds of demons...” their voice was shaky.

“There are tens of thousands above as well...” another voice chimed in “I’m more worried about them, they’re not seasoned warriors.” suddenly a ranger appeared from behind as Claire looked at the wounded woman, collapsing as a healer ran towards her.

“Th...they are in the c… city...” she managed to say before she gasped, the healing power flowing through her.

“They’re breaking through!” a mage said as one of the demons used its magical power to infest Claire’s barrier with its energy.

“Your minute is up.” she said as warriors ran past her, spells fired towards the small corridor, her explosive runes placed in the corridor beyond ripping through the creatures.

“Three more over there!” Trian shouted as the two joined the three warriors fighting off a horde of demons, Ilea impacting five of them with all her speed as a stream of lightning impacted the other side of the enemies.

“How are your resources looking? Start meditating…” Ilea shouted, holding off a demon while punching another one below her. Trian flew around the group, his attacks drawing the monsters towards him as Ilea finished off one after the other. A minute later the warriors joined back in, their stamina recovered enough to help.

“There’s a group of survivors that way, go.” Trian shouted when all of them looked towards a specific location. A ripple formed in the air a couple hundred meters away as a complicated looking set of runes came to life, much bigger than anything from before. Reality itself ripped apart right before their eyes as a tear in space was forcefully opened up.

“We have to stop that...” Trian said and Ilea was flying at her top speed before he had even finished talking, overtaking the man in a moment. The tear was trembling but still getting wider and higher. Below it Ilea could make out a tall creature with clawed hands and spread arms, fin like extensions could be seen on its back before it flew into the tear in space.

“Focus on destroying the runes!” Trian shouted from behind, Ilea flying towards the crack when they saw something come out from the other side.

“I think we might be too late!” she shouted backwards, massive clawed limbs coming out of the tear, followed by an flood of water. The tear spread more, seemingly pushed open by the sheer strength of whatever was trying to get out. A head slowly moved out of the crack, similar looking like a crocodile but there were no eyes and it was about a hundred times bigger.

“What the hell is that?” Ilea shouted as more of the creature moved out, the flood of water reaching them at that point. The whole backside of the creature was just a set of wiggling tentacles as it flowed out of the crack completely, somehow levitating in the air. It opened its eyes to reveal not teeth but a black abyss when a pressure hit Ilea right before she wanted to slow down.

‘ding’ ‘You have felt the pulse of a mighty being. You are paralyzed for ten seconds.’

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the General skill: Veteran - lvl 1

You have experienced the shouts and spells of beings completely out of your range of imagination. You will not survive but at least you won’t be completely immobilized while you get eaten. Good luck warrior.

‘Can’t have fucking learned that with the last one...’ Ilea thought as she watched the abyss getting closer, unable to move her body or use her skills. ‘Fucking BULLSHIT!’ she shouted when a figure clad in flame smashed its two flaming axes into the monster’s head, the impact sending a shock wave outwards as the monster moved its arm towards the warrior, the female elder looking towards Ilea with a big grin on her face right before she was blown back by the wave of force coming from the creature’s mouth, apparently unable to teleport away as she was shot into the ground, skidding to a halt a hundred meters further back.

Ilea was still paralyzed as she continued to fly towards now not the creature but the crack in space. ‘Are you fucking kidding me...’ she thought as she entered the tear, water flowing into her mouth as she drifted deeper into the dark. ‘This isn’t good.’ she thought, using her Meditation, Mental and Fear Resistances to stop herself from panicking immediately. The sound of battle stopped immediately upon her arrival but the sound behind her made her nearly lose it, reminded of the last of the water leaving the tub after a finished bath.

‘Yea, bad.’ she thought as power flowed through her again, her Spherical perception spreading and preparing for impact but there was only one thing in the near vicinity. She held the remaining air within her lungs as she blinked towards Trian who had succumbed to the same fate. Looking backwards she found no tear and the flow of the water didn’t indicate any exit nearby. Nonetheless she swum with the still paralyzed man towards the supposed opening but found nothing. With her enhanced body she could search for a little longer but a feeling of fear and panic slowly settled in her stomach, only kept at bay by her skills.

The darkness around her didn’t respond and her air was slowly dwindling. ‘Focus Ilea...’ she thought and hoped to whatever deity was watching that they had come out the right way up, using all her power and even wings to swim upwards. A minute later the darkness was replaced by a dark blue, giving her at least a little bit of hope. Trian was coughing by now, the last of his air leaving him, Ilea covering his mouth with her own, pushing some of her own into him. The two worked together now to get up as quickly as they could, realizing their angle had been less than optimal.

Ilea used her healing power to heal both Trian and herself form the fast pressure release that managed to damage even their powerful bodies. Finally the two broke out of the water and coughed and breathed for a minute until their wings spread and got them higher above the water. Dark clouds were hanging above the still ocean with no end in sight in every direction. A set of three moons were shining down on them.

“Where the hell are we...” Ilea asked after a while, not quite expecting an answer out of the man.

Trian coughed again. “Wherever the demons are from I assume.”

“How do we get out?” Ilea asked. Trian just looked at her, neither were smiling anymore.

“Do you think there is land anywhere?”

“Probably… I might be able to use my third tier skill to get out but I can’t take you with me...” Trian had a complicated expression on his face but ultimately nodded.

“If you want to use it, then I suggest you do it as soon as possible.” he said.

“And leave you behind? No.” she said and looked around.

“Let’s go then, the less time we waste, the earlier we’re back. More and more I hate myself for not taking that underwater fighting course...” Ilea answered.

“If we can get back...” Trian said, following behind as the two flew higher and in a random direction.

“You saw the thing going into the crack… whatever, whoever that was found a way to get in. Means there must be a way to get out. Plus I have enough food with me to last us a while, we’ll figure something out. I hope… otherwise I’ll go out and try to get help.” Ilea said and chuckled. ‘Not the first time I was ripped out of a reality...’