207 The Wild Highlands

After a long and eventless journey, the party were now located within the centre of the highlands. No man's land.

There positioning was as standard. Lucas, Marvin at the vanguard. Asai Trichia and Rosemi De Lumix mid, whilst Lucy and Mimi taking rear guard. As they had left human territory, Rosemi had decided to show proper respect to the elves by not engaging in open debauchery, riding upon her own mighty-horse.

"We have contact!" Lucas sharply announced. Approaching from the horizon was roughly a hundred elves dressed in black and silver brigandine armour. 

"Escorts from Vena perhaps?" Marvin added.

"Do you recognise the house crest?"

"Nah, these elves have way too many to remember them all." Asai nodded in agreement. Being unable to read the elven language also made it harder to identify the crests upon their flags. Just a tiny little indent or circle would indicant an entirely different house.

The party dismounted to show decorum, as the elves were entirely on foot themselves. This was of importance as the humans were indeed guests here.

As the elves approached. Rosemi and Asai stood by the fore, ready to enter dialogue. However, Asai noticed something odd, as they approached, their formation began to spread. Being the paranoid man that he was, he materialized his blade [Ruin] upon his left hip.

A sudden spark of silver radiance flew into their direction, a pre-emptive strike, aimed to puncture Rosemi's torso. The attack caught Rosemi off-guard, her hand immediately shot to her sword.

Asai, being more prepared had already unsheathed his blade, performing a quick-draw. The instant his sword clashed with the skill, the transfer of both kinetic energy and mana slammed through his limbs, through the katana and directly clashing with the elven attack.

The silver-lance shot off course and blasted the ground by the human's sides. Who were now drawing their blades and preparing for combat. Lucas and Lilly, both had ideas of running, but it didn't seem like Rosemi and Asai had any intention to do so. They knew not whether it was the pride of humanity at stake, or whether Asai truly was as bloodthirsty as the rumours made him out to be. Welcoming every battle.

Calming their nerves, they consumed a slow-releasing stamina potion. One that would slowly release its properties throughout the fight, at the cost of being unable to consume any other potion until its effects expire naturally.

Asai glanced down to his katana. The blade had shattered upon impact, just barely deflecting the astral projectile. The man didn't panic, he simply released the grip, allowing the broken blade to fall and dematerialize back into his [Inventory] where within half a second, it reappeared sheathed, upon his left hip once more.

[Ruin]

Level Requirement: 50

Requirements: Asai

Stats

[Reset] Blade condition resets upon sheathe

[Decimate] 80% of caster's normal attack to AOE zone

: Full Moon / Half Moon

"Thank you." Rosemi approached with her blade now drawn. Her eyes filled with conviction, blood lust apparent.

"Stay here with the party. I'll strike their backline." "Kill them first, ask questions later." Asai had decided, whilst he dipped into [Hide]

To the others, who were non-the-wiser Asai was still blankly standing there motionless. The clone stood in front of Rosemi, ready to use his body as a shield if any other projectiles flew by.

Asai charged onwards into enemy lines. He ignored what he considered to be the mobs and went straight for the elf who adorned the flashiest armour. Leaving [Ruin] sheathed, he held his two [Yomi & Yami] instantly dropping a 

[ANNIHILATION] upon the man, slamming him into the ground. The elf rolled and skidded across the grass before he stood. A large cut appeared upon his armour, the usual crimson liquid missing.

[???: Lvl 65]

Before his men could swarm his location, Asai activated [Sealing Square] the red ring sealing the two within. Now, half of the enemy force surrounded the ring, waiting for its duration to end and to help their leader. Whilst the other 50 continued advancing onto Rosemi's position.

Considering how his level 40 shadow clone had yet to perish, he believed the party to be fine.

A silvery aura covered the elf as his longsword pointed directly at Asai. Who responded by releasing his two golden fangs, allowing them to disappear before lowering his stance.

Again, the silver-lance shot forward, firing from the tip of the longsword, a smaller projectile flew towards Asai's torso. The human performed his quick-draw and cut the skill apart. This time, his blade remained functional. Glancing up, he saw how the mana that radiated from the man became thin and weak.

Asai shot a [Knife Throw] directly into the elf's eyes. Forcing him to block or dodge. When his vision returned he now found two targets dashing towards him. A second knife appeared and forced him into an awkward stance. With his experience and skill, he disregarded defence entirely and performed a large swing. Aiming to slice both targets from the mid-section. 

The two humans surprisingly didn't stop, allowing the elven longsword to cleanly butcher them both, as they landed their own attacks upon his arms. A worthy sacrifice, injuries that would heal with time, for the guaranteed death of this human. he thought.

[Psychic Phantom]!

Asai performed his bread and butter skill, vaulting with [Ruin] which greatly increased its range, its pin-point precision and penetration power. Slamming the skill filled with divinity from behind.

The elf who deigned to slice the human into two parts didn't live long enough to realize his own demise. His corpse instantly slumping into the ground.

Before Asai could understand why, the silver radiance continued to linger upon the two parts before flying back into the heavens, returning to the moon.

"That's new? That never happened during the war... Is Goddess Marea fucking with us?"

The elves outside of the ring were loudly shouting and swearing. "Perfect, time to test this baby out!"

His stance lowered. Katana reset. Golden divinity sparked all across his blade. He released [Sealing Square] as he shot out

[Decimate: Full Moon]

In a full circle around Asai, the golden brilliance shot forward and sliced apart the 50 elves horizontally. Their blades, weapons, armour and torsos failed to stop the skill from slicing through them and their allies behind.

Now suddenly finding themselves unable to stand, their faces in the mud, and their torsos quickly bleeding out. The dying elves peered up at the monster that casually strolled over their limbs.

[Phantom Menace] 

The four new clones sprang forward, attacking the remnants from the rear. Catching them in surprise and quickly slaughtering them.

By the end of the battle, the humans were entirely alright. Just covered in gore and blood.

[Mimi: Lvl 25->26] [Lucas: Lvl 31->32] [Lucy: Lvl 24->25] [Marvin: Lvl 29->30]

[Rosemi De lumix: Lvl 51->52]

[Asai Trichia: Lvl 80->80]

"..."

"Well that sucks ass."