265 Reconquest 4

[What the fuck is that!?]

[A elder of some kind… Oh, and it's kicking Dax's ass.]

Having received an emergency call for assistance, Lux, Phillipa, and Ifrit were currently rushing towards his location while observing his fight, or rather fight for survival against the abnormal elder through a satellite feed. As the 4 of them had been deployed some distance apart to cover more ground, there was a vast amount of distance they all had to cover in order for them to come to Dax's aid.

[Hey, Ifrit, are you seeing this? Dax is getting slapped around, it's not often you can get to witness something like that.]

Slightly enjoying the sight of Dax getting beat up, Lux reached out to Ifrit who had so far been quiet.

[Yeah, I'm attempting to analyse the elder's defensive formations so don't bother me with small talk.]

Acting unnaturally annoyed for the situation, Ifrit cut off their line of communication right when Dax was smashed through a rock by the elder, instead, they used IMI to indicate that they were going to launch an immediate attack in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure Dax was under.

(Don't you fucking dare die! We entered a contract, if you break that and leave me alone I'll drag your soul out of the nether just to beat the shit out of you Dax!)

Seeing how serious Ifrit took the entire situation Phillipa and Lux realized they both needed to get their shit together, after all, when they asked Dax for immediate assistance he didn't fuck around.

[Ifrit is going to open up with something big, after that, I'll engage from the north and most likely burn through my supply of drones in about 12 seconds.]

[Okay, I'll be ready to support you before then, I'll most likely launch a type 17 attack while taking over tasking of QRF and orbital artillery Dax has already called in, ping me when you need more drones.]

[Message received and understood, entering combat manoeuvres now.]

-

"HMM, NOT ONLY DURABLE BUT ALSO TENACIOUS��� REJOICE YOUNGLING, YOU'LL MAKE AN EXCELLENT PROCESSOR."

"Why… Thank you… But I think… I'll have to… Respectfully…. Decline that gracious… Offer."

Attempting to stall for time while his lung regenerated, Dax continued to appear calm, but things were starting to turn dire. For the last 10 minutes, the irregular elder had been kicking him around in a one sided beatdown, without bothering to finish him off for some reason. While Dax was happy that he was still alive, it didn't sit well with him that the elder, a race which had been so far observed to have an absolute disdain for all other life, for some reason wanted to take him alive.

In fact, it really didn't sit well with him, not in the slightest.

Before Dax had time to become more delusional from blood loss, help finally arrived.

As the elder was once more about to attack Dax, it was suddenly forced to parry a javelin made out of black mana crystals with one of its greatswords. But something unexpected happened as soon as the 5 metre long javelin hit the elder's sword, instead of reflecting the crystal seemed to shatter as if it had been made out of fragile glass, but as the countless fragments came into contact with the elder they suddenly stuck to its body, rapidly absorbing the ambient mana before they rapidly grew barbed torn like growths which borrowed into the elder's flesh, before starting to feed on the elder's own mana, creating even more torn growths.

"PESKY TRICKERY!"

Flaring in anger as its skin was pierced, the elder started ripping the crystal shards that were festering in its body out with its tentacles, doing even more damage as most of them had already grown thorns which ran quite deep.

(Don't mind if I do.)

Recognizing the spell Dax realized Ifrit's intent took the chance to open up the range, something which only made the elder even more furious, but before it could pursue Dax, more crystals javelins hit it, with their collective parasitic growth locking down the elder's movement. Before the elder could free itself from that trap, lightning suddenly struck from the clear sky, seemingly guided by the crystals which were now almost completely covering the elder, then as if guided by that initial lightning strike, multiple spheres made of lightning started flashing down from the still clear sky, seemingly guided by the initial strike the frankly absurd amount of electrical energy partly melted the ground the elder was standing on as the air inside a few kilometres heated up by a few degrees and the smell of burnt flesh spread hang densely in the air.

[Dax are you okay!?]

[Yeah, I'm fine… Don't tell me you were worried about me Ifrit?]

[Of course I am worried about you! We entered a contract remember!?]

Receiving an unexpected serious reply from Ifrit, Dax was taken back for a second before a slight smile formed on his face.

[How could I forget that?... Thanks for the backup, partner.]

[You two should kiss already.]

[[No thanks.]]

With backup finally arriving Dax finally had room to breathe, but letting his attention slip away from the elder was a mistake.

"ENOUGH PLAYING AROUND!"

Emerging from the crater Ifrit had just made for it, the elder was covered in burns which were already starting to regenerate, it seemed like all Ifrit archived with their spells was pissing it off. Freeing two of its arms by dropping one of its greatswords, the elder started collecting a ridiculous amount of mana in the palm of one of its newly freed hands before violently compressing it as a complex rune formation formed around the clenched fist before a strange sphere made almost entirely of mana emerged from it. Releasing that sphere it launched from its own power, seeking out Ifrit which was still over 5 kilometres away with extreme prejudice. 

"Oh shit!"

Sensing the immense mass of mana moving towards them at high speed, Ifrit's instincts told them that they couldn't simply deflect or block such an attack, they needed to avoid it. Surrounding themselves with mana, Ifrit created a barrier made out of crimson crystals in front of them, then another one, and another one, continuing until there was one barrier every metre all the way till 2 kilometres out. But of course, those barriers proved to be nothing more than wet tissue paper against the elder's spell, pricing and then shattering every single one without resistance before reaching Ifrit in an instant, then the 20 centimetre wide sphere detonated, or rather it evaporated.

Then something really strange happened.

It was like time suddenly froze within 100 metres of the detonation, nothing seemed to move, not even shadows or light as the area started darkening, first redshifting then fading to a black void from where not even light could escape followed by a bright flash.

[GRAVITATIONAL DISTURBANCE DETECTED. ERROR, MARGINS OUTSIDE MEASURABLE RANGE, ADVISING SCANNER RECALIBRATION.]

When the bright flash faded nothing remained, the affected area had been erased completely from existence as a blastwave finally travelled out from the epicentre, snapping 500 year old trees like they had been toothpicks within 3 kilometres of the blast. 

Of course, Ifrit who had been caught in the blast was completely annihilated down to the very last subatomic particle, or that's at least how it had looked to the elder.

"T-that was close…"

Ifrit had only just escaped the blastwave by utilizing an illusion created by the sphere's own destructive power, every single of the barriers they had erected had created small crystal shards which reflected light as they shattered and Ifrit had set them up so they looked like their own figure stuck in place, right up until detonation when they had in reality evaded with all their power.

While all that was going on the elder had of course not been idle, only a second after launching the first sphere it had started forming another one which it was planning on launching after Dax, but before the spell had been completed, the arm which was creating it had been severed by a single round of 10 millimetre hypersonic armour pricing fried by Phillipa from about 4 kilometres away.

"Oh no you fucking don't, not om my watch."

With the supply of mana unexpectedly severed, the elder's spell failed in a truly spectacular way as the sphere first exploded creating a fireball which spread out 100 metres in every direction, then it imploded back on itself, compressing almost everything which had been caught in the black back onto itself before completely disappearing.

[That was fucking spectacular!]

[Yeah it was! Feel free to praise me more~]

With a large smile on her face, Lux expressed her joy in a deep, Scottish accent for some reason as she closed in on the elder which had somehow survived that explosion, having only lost two arms which were already starting to regenerate.

With a zero point ultrasonic longsword in each hand, Lux seemed to move so fast she skipped frames, blinking from place to place as she used the entirety of the manatech armours capacity to enhance her body and increase her speed and relying on her insane reflexes to keep up with such moments.

"Die ugly!"

With her extremely high momentum, Lux only had time to get a few attacks off before she was past the elder, still, she made those strikes count and successfully severed another one of the elder's arms, as well as a large portion of the tentacles which sprouted from its back while still somehow having time to dig out a large part of its chest while she was at it.

"Need a hand!?"

Having timed his approach perfectly with Lux's, Dax appeared in front of the elder right after she had taken her cut. Although not with the same speed, the strikes Dax delivered with his sword, axe and countless spells came with a lot more weight behind them while still succeeding in destroying or at least disabling critical muscle groups all over the elder's body.

"INSOLENT CREATURES!!!"

[Philippa!]

[Already on it!~]

Before the elder could get a chance to strike back at Dax who remained within its range even after burning most of his momentum, Phillipa opened fire once more, but this time it was together with the numerous drones who had arrived as backup part of the quick reaction force Dax had called for. The destruction she caused was simply without comparison to any conventional weapon, but even doing the full intensity of the barrage, Dax was still fighting in CQC with the elder, seemingly the hail of bullets was somehow unable to hit him, or that's at least how Phillipa's expert marksmanship made it appear.

"IMPOSSIBLE!!!"

[Lux! Ifrit!]

[Incoming!]

[Already on it~✿]

While Ifrit launched another series of crystal javelins which disrupted the elder's movements, Phillipa covered Lux and Dax who both closed in for the kill at the same time, attacking from opposite sides they priced the elder's core at the same time.

"AAAAAAAARRHGZZG!!!"

Dying with a truly horrid scream, the elder's body immediately started dissolving as its core was destroyed, leaving Dax and Lux who immediately fell to their knees due to exhaustion.