Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends - Chapter 371: Selia and Ryun

Chapter 371: Selia and Ryun

Presence of the Eternal Hunters

Selia saw Eratemus fly away with his dragon, and she saw him start his return as another army of monsters and Generals appeared, one just as large as the one that they had nearly defeated. She had about half of her Qi reserve left, but her techniques were far less Qi intense and the rest of her power relied on her Class. She knew that Ryun was near depleting his core, and with that army coming down on them, they were going to need everything.

She saw a group of Generals split off and head to the battle in the sky, a towering General that she remembered from the Tournament City raised his limbs and the tendrils on its end curled into a point. A moment later he fired at her from a great distance. Selia quickly used her Mind Construct perk, burning through three of its six daily uses. From her imagination, she created three layered shields in front of her. With a thought she copied them with [True Copy Construct] and repeat ability. She filled the space between her and the attack with nine shields, then cast Construct Durability and after that she used Greater Reinforce on the last three shields.

Two black beams as wide as she was tall hit the first shield and obliterated it. The second followed quickly after as well as the third and fourth. Selia’s eyes widened as she felt them collapse, her mind was firing at speeds fast enough to take all the information in, but her even with all her stats she wasn’t fast enough to move out of the way. Her platform started moving, but the beam punched through another four shields and hit the last one.

It held for just a split moment, long enough for her to cast another with her Ethereal Construct. She shaped a new shield directly from her imagination, the beams hit and cracked it, but it held for a moment more. Then it too exploded into pieces, and the edge of the beam hit her and her arm was obliterated in an instant. She tumbled from her flight disk and fell. The pain made her foggy, and she felt her other side take a part of it, clearing up her confusion nearly instantly. She crafted another disk and caught herself in the air. She splashed a quick acting health potion over the stump of her arm, and the skin closed over her elbow—there would be time to regrow it later.

She looked ahead, but she already knew what was happening. Ryun had attacked the General the moment he fired on her. She saw the General taking a step back as Ryun fired a dozen of his {Twilight Cutting Flicker} at it. It didn’t fall apart into pieces, instead shallow cuts opened up on its body that closed down just as fast.

Selia focused and sent spears flying in the General’s direction. They hit and barely penetrated the skin, but she still detonated them. Green flames exploded over it, forcing it back again. Then attacks from the new army came in a wave. Everything fired on her and Ryun, and she was forced to defend and attack at the same time. And while there was a lot of them, with every moment more of them came in their range, and that only made them stronger.

Ryun depleted his Qi by attacking the General, his Avatar leapt into the newly arrived forces then unleashed a powerful {Final End} making a small dent in their numbers as it depleted its own supply and dissolved into nothing. Selia and him had wrecked the first army, the remnants were running away now, trying to rejoin the newly arrived forces as the Sects pursued them.

But the arrival of a fresh force was not going to go well for them, the sects had been fighting for a while, most were probably spent. Ryun and Selia came to the same conclusion, they moved forward, ahead of their forces and jumped into the enemy front line. Mid jump, Ryun consumed the Essence inside his core to fully replenish his Qi.

The General recovered and turned his attention on Selia in the sky again. She defended and moved out of the way. Their bond told her when the General prepared an attack as Ryun focused his sense on it. He landed in the middle of the enemy army, and fired from his technique orbs, cutting down hundreds around him.

Then, before he could react, something hit him faster than anything before had. His armor was sliced through, and his body cut in half, a second cut took him across the shoulder as he pushed himself from the ground with his front two feet. He lost a hand instead of his head and quickly regenerated. His sense told him that there was a disturbance around him, but he could barely catch it. Spears fell from the sky all around him as he quickly pushed most of his stats into vitality and focused on his skill to regenerate. His body flowed out of the remainder of his body as the spears hit the ground around him and many detonated, filling everything around him with Selia’s burning Qi. His sense and now his eyes saw the disturbance and he channeled his Qi.

The {Field of Twilight’s Calm} spread around him, his intent focused on deleting kinetic energy. The fast-moving enemy hit his field and slowed, but not stopped, it was still a blur. Ryun threw out his Field of a Thousand Cuts. The monster blurred through Ryun’s technique and the space tore. He sensed hits, and the blur veered off, its attack glancing of Ryun’s back, and still opening up a cut half a meter deep. Ryun attacked with his orbs, firing after the monster. He hit, and it crashed into the ground.

He grimaced, then threw what was left of his armor in his storage as he healed and pulled out another copy of it. A buzzing sound filled Ryun’s ears and he turned to see the monster that had attacked him. It was smaller than he was in his Evolved Form, but only just. It had four insect like wings that moved so fast that they were distorting space around them. Its head was an oval, covered in pustules, with no eyes, or not any that Ryun’s sight could see. Around at the back of its head were tendrils that moved on their own as if they were snakes. Its body was elongated, and asymmetrical. It had two arms, both ending in wickedly long and obviously sharp scythes, like those of a mantis. It had a dozen legs, all sticking out at different angles from the bottom of its body. It was covered in chitin that was rough to his senses. It was a General.

It tilted its head, and disappeared, moving too fast for Ryun’s eyes to follow. His |Divided Mind|worked overtime, thinking about what to do. His sense could detect it and would probably be far more effective if he narrowed it down, but that would leave Selia without being able to sense the monsters that were flying around her, the attacks of the General that she was even now evading. Through their bond he knew that she could see it, |True Sight| and |Target Tracking| would help, but she couldn’t look down for long enough without stopping her attacks. And they were surrounded by the swarm of monsters now, A dome of fliers was above them.

Together, they acted, their bonded deepened with how they covered each other. How they fought in unison, as one. It was now singing in both of their minds, approaching what they had when they had accomplished their great work, then pushing beyond even that. The intensity of combat, of fighting pushed them farther. This was where they belonged. He charged his Qi, in an instant, his intent deep and unyielding. He narrowed down his aura.

The monster blurred in his direction and Ryun unleashed a {Final End}. A sphere of pitch black expanded out of him, consuming every Essence in its way. The ground beneath him disappeared, the air followed, and then it hit the monster. It changed direction, then passed through the edge of his attack and out before crashing into the ground and splattering the monsters in its path.

Ryun shaped platforms beneath him and turned. He saw the General’s wings, they were damaged, but still whole, its legs were eaten through. Yet it still lived, even after he had burned nearly a third of his Qi to destroy everything. It was easier to focus his intent on everything than just on its body, he didn’t know what kind of Essence that chitin it was covered with was. It turned in his direction and flew even faster. Ryun dashed away with |Pouncing Rush| but still it savaged the armor over his side, opening up a wound.

He grimaced and shaped techniques, firing everything he had to stop and kill it. A slow song built inside him as the bond of the Twin Aspects of Death pulsed.

Selia evaded the attacks from the General, all the way keeping the monster both in the air and the ground away from Ryun. Every now and then, she would get the chance to look down and see the monster buzzing around him for long enough to send spears flying in its way. She hit it at one such moment, and immediately exploded the spear that bounced of its chitin. It rocked the General for long enough that Ryun managed to trap it in a field that robbed it of its kinetic energy, then jump on it and bring it to the ground.

Before she could see how it ended, another attack from the ground forced her to look away. Through the bond she knew that the monster cut Ryun’s stomach open then wiggled its way out of his jaws and claws. She evaded in the air, and a flying monster got passed her perimeter of spears. It slammed into her, carrying her away from her platform.

She pulled back her fist, then slammed it in its side with a {Pulsing Impact}, its body exploded in gore, her stats were too high for such a weak monster. And then as she created another platform the General had her in its sights. The bond was singing in her ears now, it was a song of woe, of sorrow and sadness. It was… familiar to her. It wanted something from them, but they were not what it was looking for.

She remembered the dream-memory she had. Of a being that wanted a friend, that split itself in half. She and Ryun were not that, they lived in a world much different, and they already had each other, they had others too. Erdania, their sect, people around them. And yet, there was something else in the bond. It was not connection of the mind alone, what Ryun had given her was so much more. She was starting to understand now, they were starting to understand. As the bond deepened, she realized that a part of Ryun’s mind was holding it together from overwhelming them. So many things were happening, there were both experiencing so much.

Her eyes saw the General starting its attack, they saw a dragon swooping in on it, carrying an undead covered in objects that thrummed with power. She watched its attack miss her as the fire from the dragon made it stumble. She was fighting still on pure instinct now, almost without guiding her actions. Her spears multiplied as she cast abilities, perks, and techniques, she used her will to move them and fill them with techniques that penetrated deep within the monsters.

On the ground Ryun was getting cut up, the General too fast for him to follow without sacrificing their sense of the entire battle. They understood these things as clarity blossomed. They had not been given a simple perk. They had taken into themselves pieces of something greater. They became that something greater, and the Eternal Hunters were not what the two of them before taking their power for themselves were. The Eternal Hunters were two pieces of one whole. And now, so where Ryun and Selia.

The perk was pushing inside of them, expanding, taking over… everything, and they let it.

Their auras pulsed once, the mixing of colors deepened, what was once red and blue creating something else became a true color.

Inside their minds and bodies, the song reached a crescendo.

Presence of the Eternal Hunters

There was once a pale being with great power, who was very lonely. All things had to meet them, so they shunned them. And so, they took their scythe and split themselves in half. So that they would always have a friend.

Sometimes, things that were split apart, could be put back together. Perhaps not always in a way. The Twin Aspect of True Death was not what it once was. Ryun had changed the Hunter, and Selia had changed the Scythe. They were not two pieces of one whole, yet they had taken into them pieces that were.

It happened in an instant, and it was as if the entire world opened up for them.

The General blurred around Ryun, cutting at his armor and body. And then, they were one in more than just the mind. They stopped for a moment, and then sprang into action.

They focused on Ryun’s armor; it was created by Bright Star, and it was part of Ryun, therefore it was part of them.

Greater Reinforce

Improve

The General hit the armor and scratched it instead of cutting through. With |True Sight| and |Target Tracking| the Hunter’s eyes could see it clearly now.

Mind Construct

A box with thick walls, reminiscent of their old Void Walls, sprang into being around them and the General, trapping one half and the monster inside. Qi moved through the Hunter half’s channels as they pushed the stats into that body’s wisdom. A technique that had the name of {Goddess of Sanguine Flame}, the name was unimportant, it could change. What mattered was the intent of the technique. Perhaps the name {God of Oblivion} was more apt, they hadn’t decided yet. Oblivion pulsed through their body, it skyrocketed his wisdom, it strengthened the intent.

A moment later a fully charged {Final End} exploded out of them. The General was trapped inside the prison of their make, the blast of Oblivion hit the General and it consumed it whole.

At the same time, up in the sky, they pointed their hand to the side without looking. {Twilight Flickering Cut} shot out of two of the Scythe’s fingers, a thin bar of green and black flame, not as fast as oblivion, but just as powerful. They swiped across the sky and cut hundreds of monsters down.

The prison on the ground cracked as the Hunter left it. Together, they turned on the other General and its battle against the dragon. With their sense they felt more Generals coming, but now, they were one. They were not afraid.