Chương 275: But I don't think you'll be up to the task

Kite was under pressure. This was not very uncommon for one with his particular career choice, especially as an adventurer involved with something like task group Gauntlet. With many, many hours of practice, his combat meditation and the enchantments of his mantle, he usually thrived in the kind of situations where he could be akin to the eye of the storm; an implacable pillar which his allies could swerve and swirl around while he reached out and did what he could to tip battles in their favor.

So his current situation, with one silver-ranker in front of him and Dragonfly clashing with another nearby wasn't that unique. Even when adding in the archer that had appeared at the rooftop and kept pelting both him and his wife with arrows, things weren't completely out of hand.

But when combined with the fact that the masked man Kite had dueled twice before was very skilled at circumventing Kite's defenses and that all three of the opponents kept making attempts to maneuver towards the shielded opening where Vista and some other contestant still lay unconscious with what he suspected was intent to do them harm, things had passed from taxing to balancing on a much thinner edge than he would like. One on one he would probably defeat his foe most times, but reality was seldom so simple.

"Ward!" One disc of force appeared to protect Dragonfly's flank from another arrow that would have hit her mid-leap without his intervention. The other was conjured near himself when the arrow's shadowy double suddenly struck him from another angle, curving a few times to circumvent the protection even though Kite managed to shift the barriers around a few times to keep it interposed between him and the arrow even while he simultaneously exchanged blows, blocks and dodges with the man with the mask.

Kite was even a bit impressed with himself for managing those simultaneous decisions, as it had not gone as well during the last attempt, but there was little time for celebration as the briefest of lulls in the clash between Dragonfly and her illusionist opponent left an opening for the operative to send another stream of light towards the barriers Kite kept up to protect Vista.

It impacted the barriers with the usual disruptive force, making Kite expend even more mana to keep the protections intact; protections he would very much have liked to have available to better ward off those arrows. Making do with what was available, Kite instead sent the disc of Heaven-and-Void Warding out before him to keep the masked agent of Discord at a distance while he started an offensive series of thrusts with Unhindered Reach, the spear gifted him by Ardent at his wedding.

While part of its enchantment made it easier for him to fight closer to Dragonfly, even on its own Kite had found it very convenient to be able to strike through his own barriers unhindered. He was therefore able to make a rapid series of attacks - drilled into him by many hours spent practicing with Will - while constantly shifting his magical shield to help block his foe's approach. A few of them even landed, trading for the strikes of his opponent that had landed and the gnawing afflictions they had left behind.

"But is it enough?" he thought as his opponent finally managed to circumvent his cordon and go in for another strike, forcing Kite to shift to his actual shield and the shorter blades of Matra's descendants to ward off the other silver. Things were so strained, but it would have to do for a while longer. Through the bond in their armor, Kite could feel some of the other armband-bearers of the elevenfold unity making their way closer, but they had not made as much progress as he had hoped. Had something gone wrong?

Another attempt by the archer to break through the barriers protecting Vista and the other competitor ripped Kite's full attention back to the present, however. All of his spectral arms sent out their projected attacks in an attempt to intercept what he could, but only one rippling strike managed to hit the fast-moving arrows.

Kite liked to think that he'd gotten quite skilled at judging the timing and distance needed - only made possible through his silver rank - but this was simply beyond him, which in turn put more strain on his mana as he worked to replenish the defenses while simultaneously keeping himself between the agent of Discord and the opening.

Unfortunately though, the archer seemed to have caught wind of Kite's willingness to divert attention to defend it too, as another barrage soon followed the first while more of the clashing with the operative sent rippling, dispelling attacks and waves of death flowing across the arena floor to further destabilize the illusory pillar in the middle through which one could barely see anything anymore.

And more unfortunately, Kite being stretched thin led to his foe managing to speed up again and deliver one of those potent touch-attacks with that pale hand of his that sent icy death digging deeper into Kite's body. Gritting his teeth, he managed a downward chop with a gauntleted hand to break the contact, but not before also shrouding said hand in an empowered Chakra Implosion that ripped a great swathe of mana from his foe. The brief stun then let Kite slam his tower shield into the agent, shoving him away.

But the more intense exchange had also let the archer have free reign for a few seconds too many, and most of the protective barriers were now gone. It was also at that moment that Kite noticed movement inside the protected chamber as a silhouette shifted behind the few layers of protection that remained.

"Wander, who is-" he began before he realized that the rat that usually hid around the collar of his armor wasn't there any longer, probably having been killed by one of the area pulses of deathly energies his foe gave off every now and then. That meant that he had no easy way of knowing who now moved inside. While Kite hoped for some allies or even people of some of the sects showing up, it might just as well be reinforcements for his enemies. For ill or good, he also got his answer the moment after.

With a swift motion, a bright, slashing rift lit up inside the control chamber above, definitely some kind of attack.

"Not good. But I can't-" Then a similar rift suddenly appeared near the rim of the arena roof, Vista dashing out of it with his off-hand blade already swinging towards the archer. A wave of relief washed through Kite at the sight of the young master, unharmed, and that relief was soon most palpable too as the pressure of the arrows all but vanished as soon as the swordsman started bearing down on their foe.

"I will assume that there is an explanation for all this which I will be grateful for at a later time!" Vista shouted before refocusing on his foe, with the elusive archer having created some distance and started to send arrows his way instead. Blades flickering, the pair began a surprisingly intense ranged duel where arrows and elemental sword-projections were exchanged at a rising pace.

A duel wasn't where Vista's path excelled the most, but Kite trusted his erstwhile companion's natural talent with the blade to make up for the rest. More importantly, this allowed him to direct more of his focus towards the foe on the floor, especially as Wimmy's towering form seemed to be standing guard over the other competitor inside the control room. Their masked opponents seemed to be well aware of the shift in dynamics too, as they both went on the offensive again.

This time though, both seemed willing to coordinate their efforts as each of them suddenly directed attacks towards the less defensively oriented Dragonfly. While that might be a study in frustration in the long term, too intense an assault in short order might set even Kite's wife on the back foot. He managed to dispel one of the incoming strikes from the man with the tranquil aura, but this still left a couple of only half illusory ones land. Dragonfly bore it well, but was pushed back slightly.

Or at least, that was what it looked like. A certain glance and nudge of aura sent Kite's way was all the confirmation he needed to be ready. His wife's path was a rather simple and direct one, after all, and this was not the first time some opponents seemed prone to want to take advantage of that. Which meant that this was a scenario for which the pair had practiced.

The pressure on Dragonfly started mounting further even while Kite did his best to try to alleviate it, striking down attacks and dispelling illusions while his very aura and presence ate into the active magics of their foes. Still, with two slippery foes before him, even his path couldn't entirely pin them down so easily, and the opening the pair had been waiting for soon presented itself.

A swiftly attacking illusion fooled Dragonfly into making a heavy swing toward it, fire exploding from the head of her axe as it propelled the weapon into the kind of attack that might effectively end a less protected silver-ranker if it hit, but with an equal drawback in how open it left her. The moment the axe passed through the illusion and Dragonfly's balance was forced to shift to try to compensate for the forceful strike that met no resistance, both foes struck.

A blade of light that seemed to be able to turn everything it touched into a lie appeared in the hand of the illusionist as he struck just after switching places with one of his illusions, while the man with the tranquil aura suddenly rippled with corrupted power as slowness and care became speed and reckless force as he struck with his glowing, pale hand. Each struck Dragonfly, her mouth agape in surprise. Before it shifted into her signature fierce grin." Unbreakable moment!"" Wall!"

Light erupted from within Dragonfly to push against the attacks, turning the devastating magical strikes into something much more survivable. She was still injured, true, but this only stoked her inner flames all the more while the greatly reduced damage was turned into increased recovery. The man with the tranquil aura managed to sense the trap at the last second and therefore managed to sacrifice his tranquil domain for another burst of speed just before Kite's force walls appeared like a cage around them.

The barriers had barely been in place for more than a moment before fire suddenly completely filled the space within, proving that the slippery illusionist was probably in for quite a bad time as Kite also directed the attention of his vortices to lock the man in place. Unless he had some power or artifact to let him phase through the barriers, breaking them down was his only option. And Kite had a hunch that Dragonfly would be able to break him first.

This left Kite at last free to focus on the final man, whose eyes beneath the mask with the monstrous grin flickered left and right as he assessed the situation and how their earlier advantage had been subverted and turned upon them. Contrary to their earlier encounters, though, Kite was not as willing to simply let him retreat. If he could only keep him pinned until either Dragonfly finished the illusionist inside the cage Kite had created or friendly reinforcements arrived then…

Then the man's gaze flickered down to one of his hands currently hidden by his voluminous sleeves before a light suddenly burst from inside; a glow of distortion only barely controlled and directed to empower the man while eating and disharmonizing the magics of his foes. A light Kite recognized.

"Heavens, not this again," he thought as memories of his encounter with the priestess inside the crumbling trial of the last gate rose to the surface. The power that the ring of hers had conveyed to her had been something quite potent, and Kite still remembered the months of convalescing after taking on the blast at the end. That was also all Kite had the time to think before his foe re-engaged with greater speed and ferocity.

A mental command had Kite use his armor's enchantments to increase his speed, as while he could hope that his new and improved protection could better mitigate those discordant magics, it was not something he wanted to blindly trust. His staff slammed the jagged blade of his foe to one side while Kite - wise from his last encounter - brought up Tower of the Unspeaking Chime to protect from the strike made with the ring-bearing hand.

At the same time, one of his spectral arms brought forth his spear to make a thrusting counterattack which forced his foe to dodge back briefly." Ward!"

Two barriers appeared in the small gap between them and Kite let the spear drop into his actual hands to continue the attack through the barriers, only to find them shattered and torn a moment later when his foe sped up again and tore through them with the distorted hand of his that already seemed to be slowly starting to turn into that glass-like substance Kite remembered all too well. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Unlike the priestess inside the trial, this foe was also a close combatant first and foremost, which showed clearly in how well he adapted to this new and costly way to increase his power. This led to Kite suffering a few glancing blows in the barrage of exchanges that followed, unable to completely keep up now that his foe could punch through his barriers with such ease.

To his relief, it seemed that his Regalia of the Elevenfold Unity could bear the discordant energies much better, the odd metal of the armor letting only a trickle of energies through where the strikes landed, but Kite still vowed to do everything in his power to avoid more solid blows. A shove of his shield created the distance to swing properly, and Kite's foe received a void-trailing swing of his staff that impacted the glowing arm with vicious force.

The unfurling spatial tears did their job in tearing through combat robes and flesh both, but most silvers could shrug off the damage of that one strike, even echoed as it was. But the strike was only part of something, as a plan had begun to form in Kite's mind. What followed in the next few exchanges was a shift in dynamics between the dueling pair.

Earlier, they had been on somewhat even ground when it came to skill and experience, but Kite's path that excelled in fighting other essence-users had ensured their earlier conflicts ended more in his favor. Now he instead found himself hard pressed as the status quo was broken, with the empowered agent of Discord having found a new path to victory in the short term while sacrificing a longer game that he would - barring outside interference - probably lose either way.

Deflecting the ringed hand with his staff, Kite was forced to sacrifice one of the arms of his mantle to turn a slash of the man's sword enough for his armor to handle the rest while managing a glancing strike with Void-Sunders-Firmament against the slowly crystallizing arm. Keeping up the offensive, his foe then sped up to circumvent Kite's actual shield and strike from the side, only to encounter a thrusting spear held by one of the other arms of Kite's mantle that forced him to seek another avenue of attack.

This led to both men soon locked against each other again, a burst of deathly energies washing over Kite in the temporary stalemate of opposing forces while Kite in turn landed another strike on his foe's ringed arm.

Sage, his astral gatherer familiar, manifested briefly to send a surge of healing into Kite before being subsumed again as Kite did not want to risk the eccentric being in the close-ranged bursts his opponent employed, but the assistance was needed as the necrotic afflictions of his foe started to outrun the improved healing of borrowing the lesser version of Dragonfly's inner fire. And not long after, his opponent found another opening to do something decisive.

With what sounded like a growl of frustration fueled by the stress of having his body gradually consumed, the masked agent clawed asunder one of Kite's barriers in a great burst of force that combined with a necrotic pulse at the same time to send Kite further on the defensive while simultaneously trapping him in the freshly reconjured tranquil domain that hindered even Kite's movements briefly.

With his foe appearing so close to him - too close to effective strike with a weapon - Kite had no choice but to go for a more desperate defense.

The Tower of the Unspeaking Chime appeared on his left arm, and with a grunt of effort Kite managed to clap his arms together so that he just barely managed to catch the ringed hand glowing with discordant energies between shield and gauntleted fist, but a push from his foe had one of the fingers of the caught limb come into contact with Kite's cheek, which instantly started crystallizing.

Even through his gradually worsening field of view from his left eye, Kite could see the half-desperation, half-triumph in the eyes of his masked foe. With his improved strength, it would be only a matter of seconds before the man would be able to push through Kite's grip, which was why the triumph started turning to surprise when Kite did not try to push the glowing arm away.

Instead, he only planted his stance more firmly and held on for dear life even though the tingling in his gauntleted fingers hinted at some of the discordant energies seeping through. Because that was when Piece of Heaven, Dragonfly's spare axe, dropped into the hands of two of his spectral arms. Kite did not hesitate, but immediately had the two arms of his mantle swing down with all the force he could muster as the head of the axe trailed the darkness of Void-Sunders-Firmament.

Those lingering tears in reality flickered and rippled with even more destructive potential than usual as a charge from Potential of Stolen Power was added to the special attack, and the eyes behind the mask that had previously looked so determined had widened in realization. He started to shift his own stance to contest Kite's hold, but it was already too late.

The edge of Piece of Heaven bit into his extended upper arm, the imperfect angle causing the heavy weapon to bite halfway through as it was somewhat hindered by the agent's combat robes, but the unfurling, empowered chaotic mass of spatial tears that unfurled from the axehead a moment later was more than sufficient to finish the job.

Chopping a limb off a silver-ranker was not a simple matter even for most special attacks of the same rank, but as Kite had already used the healing-hampering special attack multiple times to weaken the arm, it came off just above the elbow with a sound that was both the ripping of flesh and cracking of half-formed crystals. Whatever power the ring allowed the agent to tap into was severed along with the limb, causing the man to stagger backward as his aura wobbled precariously.

This left enough of an opening for Kite to give the still free-falling limb a slam with his staff that sent the severed appendage flying across the arena as if shot by a siege engine, followed by some spare barrier panels that remained of Leyline Warding floating over to surround it and prevent easy access.

The slight surge of triumph Kite felt at the successful move was further spurred as he felt the aura of the illusionist that had been caught in his force cage along with Dragonfly wink out while Vista seemed to have his clash with the archer in hand as their battle had moved further away on the arena roof.

Kite was just starting to move in and unleash an onslaught of mana-draining attacks to pin down his own foe and capitalize on the advantage he had created when a lot of unforeseen things happened at once; the worst and most alarming of those being the unfamiliar gold-ranked aura that was suddenly felt from above as a wisp of anger had slipped from its wielders control, along with the hundreds of threads of light that suddenly appeared throughout the whole arena before instantly starting to converge upon Kite and Dragonfly on the floor below.

From within a literal web of shadowy threads, Obsidian Crow Unseen on Skies of Night suddenly looked up from his meditations. Splitting his mind into dozens of places was barely a strain on the gold-ranker anymore, his skills only honed further after his long, grinding conflict of control against whoever was controlling those threads and lines of invisible light that - like him - tried to make the city their domain.

What had led to this reaction was not any increase in their unseen conflict over the information-superiority of Heavenward, but rather the opposite. For the first time in many months, Obsidian Crow felt only the inert remnants of his adversary's essence powers, easily snuffed out by his own web of shadows. And it wasn't just on one of their battlefronts either, but on all of them.

There had been a lot of back and forth before, of course, with both trying to lure the other to overextend in their odd conflict of attrition. This sudden development could mean a number of things, but the most probable ones were that their user had either just died - which honestly felt rather unlikely - or that they were on the move for some reason.

And while Obsidian Crow had hitherto been unable to pin down their location, probably as warded and protected as his own compound, them being on the move meant that he now had an excellent opportunity to hunt them down to get something - anything - from them, be it victory or at least more information. But that would also force him to move and give up the best opportunity to seize his first true advantage in the information war, as there was so much that his adversary must have been protecting.

Torn between two options as he both wanted to keep and eat the metaphorical biscuit, Obsidian Crow found himself wishing for some kind of potent cloning power to do both at once. But as that wasn't an option, he instead had to settle for the next best thing; to seek help. And fortunately, Obsidian Crow at least had a good idea of which ally of his would be perfect for the job. After all, what else were old friends for? To say that Black Wood Mask was furious did not begin to cut it.

From her network of light and threads, she had seen Fallen lose his grip on the advantage which he had previously set up for himself, the battle in the mostly empty mirage arena turning from three against two in their favor to two against two when one of the competitors - Vista, some inconsequential young master from the north - had suddenly cut his own challenge short to come to the aid of the Pathbreaker and his companion.

She had no idea how he had even known what was going on on the outside, but he had deftly engaged one of Fallen's fellow operatives in a running battle along the arena rooftop.

And to make matters worse, their ally from the church of Deceit had then gone and let himself be caught in a trap along with the berserking girl, where her disciple instead of cutting his losses and retreating had instead suddenly made use of one of the artifacts which Porcelain Mask's people had wrought, inspired by the remnants of the ancient one which her people had made sure ended up in the hands of Young Master Valor a few years back in the attempt to rob Porcelain Mask of her influence through killing her puppet King.

Black Wood Mask had no idea when Fallen had even received such an artifact, but her upcoming lesson with the man would be the harshest he had ever endured for the risk he was taking with their grand endeavor.

At least its power should have been enough to let Fallen prevail over that Pathbreaker and remove a thorn from their side, but even that assumption had just come crumbling down on her as that little meddling outcast had just severed Fallen's arm, ring and all, removing the advantage and opening himself up for capture more than ever.

"Curse it all," Black Wood Mask inwardly swore as she rose from her seat in her secluded gardens. In a flash, she travelled along her network to appear on the rooftop of the mirage arena. She could already guess that the Crow bastard who had ceaselessly hounded her during these last few months would experience quite the enjoyable few minutes where she could not direct more than a sliver of attention towards maintaining her network.

It might cost them a few lesser projects, and while she would at the moment very much like to have simply sacrificed Fallen and been done with it, he knew too much and that Pathbreaker had proven too good at taking alive agents that should instead have perished. Still, the indignity of it all threatened to overwhelm her, but Black Wood Mask managed to regain control of herself after a mere sliver of her anger slipped out.

While it was enough to give the Pathbreaker and his ally a moment of forewarning, the outcast already looking towards her position, it would matter little. While Black Wood Mask wasn't a dedicated combatant, she was still an experienced gold-ranker about to make a move against a silver, proven as hundreds of the threads in her network manifested in the arena before starting to shift. Some targeted Fallen in order to retrieve him and make her retreat, but most?

Most went to extinguish that annoying little outcast that should have been taken care of so long ago. Then, she would have words with her so-called peer in the council whose 'gift' had encouraged her disciple to take such a risk.

Oh, Porcelain Mask would regret this, of that she was certa- Then Black Wood Mask found that her next step did not take her over the edge of the mirage arena roof to drop below as she had intended, but instead found her stepping down upon a stark white stone floor in a hall with equidistant, equally white pillars that seemed to stretch out into infinity in every direction.

The horizon as well as the sky were simply dark beyond black, as if gazing up into true nothingness, but there was something else that broke the monotony of the landscape; a pair of piercing blue eyes.

"A slip of discipline revealed fury like that of a beacon to anyone looking," said a human man who was garbed with the same contrasts of black and white as the landscape. He sat meditating a few sets of pillars away, floating in the air in a relaxed position.

"And, Fortune be praised, I happened to do just that."

"And why would the leader of the Silent Horizon Sect be so occupied with as trifling a matter as this? Surely there are more pressing conflicts for you to weigh in on," Black Wood Mask replied with feigned calm even as she started preparing her spells in the back of her mind. She did, of course, recognize Ardent Horizon Seeker, as would anyone who had spent enough time in the capital keeping an eye on the important players.

But her question was genuine though, as she saw no reason for the man to care enough to be on the lookout for things such as her movements.

"A friend asked me to assist him as he had other opportunities that needed to be seen to," Ardent replied calmly.

"But in all honesty, had I sensed these actions of yours by mere chance, I would have done the very same."

"Is that so?"

"It is. Not only can I sense your aura mask, the potency and quality of which raises all kinds of questions. But it is also a matter of whom you choose to strike down," the sect leader replied calmly.

"What? You've allied yourself with the outcasts?"

"Perhaps you could say that, in a sense," Ardent replied, his somber features actually hinting at a smile.

"But the specifics won't be of much use to you now that you are here in my Halls of Emptiness."

"I wouldn't be so sure, 'honored Sect Leader'," Black Wood Mask drolled sarcastically, her own aura rising to meet the other gold-ranker's as threads of light started appearing in the air around her.

"It's just a dueling power with a pompous name, no? Those always have ways to get out."

"Oh, it does. I'll even tell you," Ardent replied, the look in his eyes sending a chill down Black Wood Mask's spine.

"Suppress my aura for a dozen heartbeats, and you'll be free." Then it was like the nothingness above deepened with the weight of infinity as Ardent Horizon Seeker pushed against her aura in earnest while glowing white formations like beautiful calligraphy spread out like wings from behind him, rapidly expanding far out into the somber subspace.

"But I don't think you'll be up to the task."