Chapter 189

Aviumen (II)

They came like a storm, quaking the ground below, with deeply-bellowing roars; sand arose from beneath their feet, shaped into tipped weapons before speeding forward like bullets. Emma swung her warhammer with an unbridled roar, digging out a massive crater in the sand and conjuring up a veil of blood-shaded, deflecting several dozen sand-woven spears.

Kramer took care of the rest while Daniel, Sigmund, and Jamal sped by their sides, opening up to the flanks and closing in on the ranks of Aviumen. All of the latter wore shawls, their eyes shimmering in damning emerald, coats flapping behind them in the man-made wind.

Senna swiftly summoned out an army of weapons, sending them in waves, while Yuki tried his best to calm his nerves while focusing on Emma’s and Kramer’s health.

Cain, on the other hand, remained rooted, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and looking around the battlefield without actually attacking. The two sides met up rather quickly, some hundred feet away from the settlement -- at least on their end of things -- and despite being outnumbered, it hardly mattered. Even Emma and Kramer were plowing through Aviumen, not to mention the other damage dealers.

On the other hand, the rest of the sides showed some immediate struggle; after all, they had to bottleneck the tidal surge of Aviumen under the light of tarnished torches behind them. It was like attempting to stop a flood with a line of boulders. Even if immovable, the cracks still existed through which the water would move.

“Ey, kiddo, go help the guys on our left,” Cain said to Emma.

“Huh? Why?” Senna asked, glancing at the direction Cain pointed her toward.

“Because they’re struggling?”

“... fine,” she relented. “What about you? You haven’t attacked even once. Are you even getting XP?”

“Of course I am,” Cain chuckled. “And--and--I’m not even lifting a finger. Is this what it feels like to be carried?”

“The quest really must be lame if we’ve got time for you to be cracking jokes like this.”

“Hard or easy, I always have time to crack jokes.”

“Touche. Well, I’m off.” Senna said, withdrawing her weapons and sprinting to the side. With her assistance, the other group quickly regained the balance and managed to stabilize their front, even pushing out the battle a bit further.

As the quest indicated, they came in waves, but it was strangely easy despite the quest being labeled ‘B+’ when it came to difficulty. Even with the occasional splashing of the bosses, Cain and his group were practically yawning. At the very least, Cain mused, Yuki’s nerves had finally settled and the boy even looked to be slightly bored, occasionally tossing in some attacks of his own.

Some three-four hours into the battle, consisting of a lot of sitting around while waiting for the next wave to arrive, Cain abruptly stood up, his eyes glued to the distance. He swiftly fashioned a Skill and used it, ignoring the deepening darkness of the night and gazing deep into the horizon. There, rather than another swarm, he saw a singular Aviuman slowly walking forward, sand around him dancing like fireflies. Inspecting him, Cain realized that they might finally have to get serious.

//Eldur, the Third Prince Race: Aviumen

Level: 72

Health: 460,000

Traits: Coldblooded(S), Insightful(B+), Cunning(S-), Carefree(C+)

Skills: Sandweaving(SS+), The Prince’s Rage(B-), Blood of the Ancient Race (C-)

Note: The Third Prince of the Aviumen Kingdom, Eldur was often compared with his Eldest Brother, never quite living up to the expectations. Eventually, he left the Royal Palace and became the Border Guardian, slowly shedding his royal persona over the years. Now, he is more a warrior than a prince.//

A wave of sand arose to good thirty feet as the Prince rode in, stopping some sixty yards from the settlement, still perched top the self-sustaining whirl of sand. He was a tall man, good seven feet at least Cain presumed, draped in lightly-woven linen, wearing silver-dotted shawl over his face, a pair of sky-shining blue eyes peering from beyond.

Cain finally jumped off the ledge, kicking up sand from beneath his feet as he landed, locking the gaze with the pair of blue eyes. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, seemingly cut from the rest of the world.

“We all have a purpose,” the Prince suddenly spoke out in a heavily accented tone, though still some ways clearer than the people of the settlement. “And mine is to avenge. You seem estranged in this place; perhaps, better to leave than be embroiled in the fires of war.” Revenge?

“It’d be too bad of a look of we suddenly folded and started running, no?” Cain replied with a smile. “I’m afraid we’ll have to humor you for a while.”

“... very well,” the Prince said. “May the Goddess Asshka be kind to your Spirits.”

Eldur heaved his arms up and clocked his fingers into claws, the dunes of sand beneath him obeying the motions, heaving up alongside his arms into long and jagged tendrils of a blade. Emma and Kramer already charged to the front, the former charging the hammer with blood-infused Mana, causing the head to light up like a crimson star in the darkness, shining blood-dyed rays over the dusty sand.

The Prince clasped his fingers together into fists and threw himself back, letting the sand cushion his fall as he erected a wall in front of him, blocking Emma’s strike. By then, Sigmund charged from the flank, his blade alight with starlight, piercing toward the Prince; the latter raised his right arm and forced it toward Sigmund, not even looking his way, the Prince’s eyes still locked with Cain’s. A tall and robust wave of sand came aroused from beneath and swallowed Sigmund, shooting him out in a wide arc, a yelp escaping into the night.

Jamal flanked from the other side while Daniel emerged from stealth behind the Prince, prompting the latter to shuffle his right foot in a mild circle before slamming his hand down, encasing himself into the raging storm of sand that easily repelled the attacks around him. Cain frowned, noticing something strange -- the Prince... hadn’t lost a single lick of Health yet.

“I only need be here for half an hourglass,” the Prince spoke out suddenly. “Withstand me, and I shall leave. You... cannot defeat me.”

“Hey, he sounds almost as cocky as you,” Emma said.

“Half an--wait, aren’t you invading the settlement? Why would you leave?” Cain asked.

“My Kingdom is invading; I am but a silent pawn, inclined against razing innocent settlements of those merely trying to survive. Now, withstand me.”

Ignoring the concept of aggro entirely, the Prince conjured up a massive arsenal of sandspears, missile-like in their shape, and launched them all in a grand barrage toward Cain, causing the latter to swallow a gulp. There were good sixty-seventy of them all headed toward him, some beelining and some arching toward his location.

Cain swiftly summoned a shield of sorts, using ‘Spatial Devourer’ skill that he’d kept despite the fact that he didn’t entirely like its makeup. He used it once again immediately after, consuming both charges and creating an impregnable field in front of him temporarily. However, that only took care for 24 spears, prompting him to swiftly concoct another skill, creating a domain of raging fires around him that ‘melted’ the sandspears on their way in.

By then, he’d already consumed a good deal of Mana; luckily, the ‘aggro’ system returned and the Prince focused back onto Emma who finally managed to land the first hit, shaving off some 1500 Health off the Prince’s bar. The battle quickly commenced as Daniel and Jamal managed to land some hits as well, with Sigmund angrily charging back into the fray, cursing at the top of his lungs, his voice raging throughout the world.

Senna also came back when she noticed the boss, the size of her army of weapons shielding the moon as they descended from the high sky toward the Prince, forcing the later to conjure up a dome of sand that partly reflected her strike. The Prince danced, the sand moving as though a part of him; as he flipped to the side, one leg extended, the sand weaved and ushered into an array as sharp as a blade that sliced across Emma’s cheeks, shaving some 600 Health in one go.

Yuki woke up quickly, forced to heal, and the rest, too, finally felt the sensation of their blood boiling. The instincts dulled over the hours of a boring battle began to awaken, like the slumbering dragons, with each passing minute ensuring more attacks landed on the Prince. However, it was strange; nobody managed to land a sequence of proper hits, a chain that actually dealt some decent damage. Noticing this, Cain realized that if they wanted to actually defeat the Prince before the half-baked timer ran out, he’d also have to join the fray directly.

Taking a deep breath, the winds around him awoke as he flew up above the Prince, conjuring up a Skill he’d made during the battle itself -- the sand that was fluidly moving in concert with the Prince’s movements suddenly appeared rigid and slow, as though struggling. Cain felt Mana eject out of him, leaving him gasping, as his clawed fingers trembled while he battled to retain the focus. He’d locked the space around the Prince, slowing the conjuring and augmenting of the elements considerably.

//Anti-Magic Zone (B)

Cast: Instant

Mana Cost: 250

Cooldown: 60s

Use: Create a zone in the targeted area that turns the elements not bound to you sluggish; cast times are increased by 60%, conjuring and augmenting of the elements by 80%, and Mana augmentation by 45%. Lasts for 8 seconds. Can be broken by a massive outpour of Mana. //

Though far from perfected, Cain noted the usefulness of the skill as he watched the Prince struggle to avoid a set of attacks that, within the mere 8 seconds of the zone, managed to shave almost double the Health the rest of the party damaged prior to the zone.

The zone vanished swiftly as the Prince raged, however, the glimmer in his eyes bursting out into the smoky tendrils as the sand spiraled into an explosion, knocking everyone around him back. The ring-shaped conjuring of the sand vanished as the Prince focused on Cain again, looking up into the sky before a swirl of sand commence beneath his feet, turning into a tornado-shaped spiral that lifted him up to Cain’s level. The latter smiled awkwardly for a moment, realizing he’d drawn the Prince’s ire once again, trumping the factor of aggro.

“Spellweaver... how is possible?” the Prince’s question startled Cain. “You are extinct.”

“Clearly not,” Cain replied.

“Good,” the Prince’s eyes squinted into a grin. “I was always curios of the tales -- are Spellweavers Divine’s chosen Elemental-bound? Show me, Conqueror. Show me the Might of the Divine’s Chosen!” Say--what now?!