Chương 284: Dense

"If at all possible, Glint, then please go faster!" Kite sent through their bond even as he was doing his best to hold onto the familiar's back as she swerved through the mountains and cliffs at impressive speed.

"This young mistress is doing her utmost, my bond," came the answer through the familiar link.

"To demand more of a lady is most uncouth of you. How you came to be married with such an attitude is beyond me." As if to punctuate her displeasure, Glint took a small swerve through one of the swathes of mist that was so common in these parts of the western mountains due to some magical phenomenon that Kite was unfamiliar with.

This little maneuver left both Kite and Little Crow - who rode along on Glint's back - quite wet and damp, and for a moment Kite became worried that they might have lost their targets until he once more caught sight of the crystal chariot ahead of them.

This also led to one of the vessel's occupants turning and sending another hail of giant throwing stars towards their pursuers, the huge conjurations ricocheting wildly between the towering cliffs and mountains around them only to be deflected by Kite's rotating set of barriers. Once more Kite felt a bit of frustration that his only way of reliably returning fire was through Sage, and a few beams of force would probably be too little and too late to make much of a difference at this distance.

Fortunately though, he wasn't alone in this endeavor.

"I've got a nice reserve loaded up now. Just give the word, Glint!" Little Crow shouted over the roaring winds before blurring and reappearing atop the draconic familiar's head right between her magnificent crystal antlers.

"And let me just say, your horns truly are stunning. You have truly become an expert at working them into your outfits! Love the accessories!"

"See, my bond. Now that is how a gentleman should act," came Glint's snide remark back at Kite, who could only sigh and ready himself as well, should their gambit pay off. It was only a few more seconds until they got their chance. Contrary to her words, Glint had managed to pick up a little speed to gain somewhat on their targets, and the moment the flying crystal chariot swerved into another bank of mist in its attempt to lose their pursuers, Glint called out to Little Crow.

"Now!" Even as she called out, Kite and Little Crow were greeted with the odd sight of the whole swathe of mist suddenly shifting and contracting inwards, turning hundreds of meters of vapors into a condensed globule of water around the chariot.

The momentum of the vessel was too great to be completely halted, but as it took the chariot a few seconds to clear a distance that it would otherwise have covered in moments, the pursuing form of Glint and her riders manage to catch up quite a lot; enough for them to come into range of Little Crow.

"Hah!" the assassin called as he, even while crouched atop Glint's head, started producing dozens of long, glowing needles that he threw towards their targets. His hands a blur even to Kite's senses, the thrown weapons created a stream of glowing projectiles that traced the chariot even as it started more evasive maneuvers. But not only was Little Crow an expert thrower at this rank, but each needle that missed also exploded as close to the chariot as possible which further messed up its trajectory.

The passengers of the vessel tried to return fire some more, but even the aims of the silver-rankers were messed up by the constant swerves and jinks.

This only kept up for about half a minute until Little Crow suddenly blurred and vanished again, only to appear atop the rim of the chariot ahead of them, opening his parasol with a flourish that sent another cascade of needles showering down on all of the vessel's occupants, who in turn wisely chose to abandon ship rather than be subject to such a concentrated series of detonation. The three silvers moved in different directions, with one conjuring wings while the two others dove towards the cliffsides below.

One of them landed with grace while the other crashed violently into the stone as Little Crow's detonations had sent the woman into an uncontrolled spin, and Kite wasted no time in leaping off Glint's back and angling his fall towards the pair.

"Glint, occupy the flyer. Call for help if you need it," he projected through their bond, his only reply a snort before Glint angled her serpentine body in pursuit of the airborne silver-ranker, globes of restraining water appearing in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Little Crow had already dived towards the two on the cliff slopes as well, floating down gently with his parasol while the other hand kept up the stream of needles.

Wanting to engage as quickly as possible, Kite started channeling mana into the alternate form of Leyline Warding. Normally, the panes of force would allow him to walk through the air quite well, but as Kite wanted to maintain his speed, he instead angled them to appear at a steep slant that created a kind of rail he could slide along even as he started up his series of projected attacks to disrupt the defenses of his targets.

The feat would be impossible for most below silver rank, but as he was nearing the peak of that very grade, Kite found the move risky but quite doable." Crystalline convergence!"" Dissolve the patterns of power!" One of his targets, the elven man who had conjured the chariot, had managed to leap clear of the worst of Little Crow's barrage before turning and casting a spell Kite's way that caused several huge and jagged pieces of crystal to form in the air around him before slamming together with brutal force.

Or at least they would have, had not a burst of dispelling force emanated from Kite which left a huge hole in the center of the crystal formation. The elf did not get the time to cast another spell before Kite crashed into him, trusting in his armored form and momentum to trump the robed man when it came to mass. This turned out to be the correct assumption as the elf's balance crumpled from the impact, the pair digging a furrow in the soil of the sloping mountainside with the elf firmly kept on the bottom.

Kite's tattoos then lit up as he started raining armored punches and stabs with Matra's descendants towards the prone man, some blows catching on mana shields or conjured crystals that moved to intercept while the majority of the mana-draining strikes struck home. The pair didn't stop there either as the slope of the mountain was enough for them to keep on tumbling downwards.

This soon dislodged even Kite from his vantage atop his foe, but the elf was a lot less steady on his feet as he started sliding down the slope while using every ounce of his silver-ranked balance to stay on his feet while trying to muster some kind of counterattack.

Not far away, the other target fared little better as the woman found herself constantly unbalanced by the onslaught of needles and teleporting strikes of Little Crow, who seemed almost leisurely as the slow fall effects of his parasol let him make the descent in graceful bounds that had him mostly floating down the slopes.

"We're pressuring them hard," Kite thought with some satisfaction.

"Soon, they should be-" No more had he begun the thought before several streams of water suddenly coalesced from the nearby mist banks, coming together in the blink of an eye to form a blank-masked woman.

While clad entirely in tight-fitting light armor that - along with the mask - hid her every feature, the whisper of the woman's gold-ranker aura was still enough to send shiver up Kite's spine as her appearance had put her right behind him with two long spikes of what looked like condensed and solidified venom already poised to launch at him.

This had all happened in but a moment though, with Kite feeling as if the world slowed down somewhat as his mind went into overdrive, only for the next moment the masked woman to be suddenly forced to throw herself to the side in a sudden evasive maneuver as a web of shadows had shot from the rocky slopes beneath in an attempt to ensnare her. The twin toxic spikes were shot out towards something Kite could not entirely see before a curved blade and dark claw struck them from the air with impressive detonations.

The weapons looked to be made of shadows so thoroughly condensed that they seemed made of glass, and their wielder appeared the moment after, his red mask as stark contrast to otherwise wholly black attire.

Obsidian Crow Unseen on Skies of Night wasted no further words as his web of shadows rose from every nearby mountainside, forcing the masked woman up into the air as the watery tendrils from before coalesced into globules around her body that seemed to carry her much like Glint used her own water manipulation to fly.

The woman wasn't done, however, water and toxins coming together in a mighty spray that sent a purple cloud of no doubt extremely unpleasant vapors spilling down the mountainside, but here Kite at least found himself with an answer." Wall!" His barriers appeared to box in both himself, Little Crow and their two opponents, Kite using every ounce of self control to make the walls fit as tightly together as possible.

While some of the vapors still started seeping in through the inevitable cracks, it was still much more manageable than being subjected to the purple cloud that turned the outside of the barriers completely opaque. The elf Kite was fighting looked on the verge of trying to shatter the sudden constraints, but an abrupt aura-lash from his companion made it quite clear that Little Crow's opponent wasn't too keen on being exposed herself to the spell of her gold-ranked ally.

Thus, with nowhere else for the four to run, what had been a chase down the sloping mountainside turned into a two on two cage match with a very slanted floor. Spells of crystal and light started hammering into Kite's own pair of raised barriers while he made a steady advance while using the spear Ardent had gifted him to send a steady stream of dispelling attacks into his foe while utilizing the fact that he could strike out through his own defenses. Truly a useful wedding gift, that one.

Charging the final stretch, Kite brought up his own actual shield as one of the conjured crystals of his foe detonated to unleash a directed beam of searing light that punctured through the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding but was blocked by the Tower of the Unspeaking Chime before two quick strikes with his staff turned the remnants of the discs of force into a rippling, resonating wave that washed over his foe.

Crystals started cracking with loud chinks and pops, and Kite didn't wait to see the result before dashing the final distance, letting Immutable Echo drop into his hands for a powerful lunging swing while each of his spectral arms thrust out to project stabs of their own towards the now reeling foe.

As Kite had suspected, his foe was more a spell caster than a fighter, and while a silver-ranker was a silver-ranker when it came to strength and natural durability, casting spells often took more time than executing a special attack. This in turn made Kite try to take full advantage of his heavier armor and capacity for ceaseless attacks, making sure to time the stunning effects of Chakra Implosion to when he thought that the man was about to cast a spell in order to disrupt it.

It was a basic tactic that had been well drilled into him during his training and contracts with the task group, and it worked quite well this time too as what could have been a more drawn out chase and potential skirmish was turned into a magical beatdown.

Meanwhile and to his great relief, Kite could feel the auras of the two gold-rankers grow even more distant as Obsidian Crow drew the fighting away from the more vulnerable silver-rankers, because when golds clashed there was ever a great risk for collateral damage. The parts of the toxic cloud that had leaked into his force cage so far carried enough potency for Kite to feel that he didn't need to feel the rest up close as the venom ate into his life force.

"Well, it seems like it worked at least!" Little Crow called out happily with a lightness to his voice that wouldn't normally have been associated with someone being in a life-or-death battle. A swing of the assassin's parasol intercepted one of the twin axes of his foe while a long, glowing needle conjured in the other hand deflected a few lighter chops from the other before suddenly blowing up upon contact and sending the woman reeling while Little Crow himself was entirely unharmed.

"Thanks to your Senior's quick thinking," Kite agreed while sidestepping another attempted attack from his foe who in turn received a punch to the face in return for his troubles.

"But evaluate after we're done please, or Fortune might feel the need to challenge your boldness."

"Fortune means nothing in the face of Destruction's wrath!" came the shouted reply from Little Crow's foe, only for the assassin to block her fervent strike upon his enchanted parasol before the artifact lit up to unleash a cluster of exploding needles almost point blank. The silver-ranker was durable, but the resulting detonation ripped most of the left side of her torso into pieces.

"Huh. I suppose not," Little Crow agreed lightly, looking at the carnage.

"Would still throw my lot in with Fortune any day though." Having taken advantage of such an opening, Little Crow then joined Kite in pushing the crystal-conjuring elf to a much quicker and more brutal takedown than the man had anticipated, and in the end Kite managed to put a collar around the unconscious man who now only missed some peripheral extremities. In comparison to the now expired zealot of Destruction, the outcome seemed almost gentle.

"As I said, it worked out well!" Little Crow repeated once things had died down. Now that they had some time to spare, he also retrieved a paper talisman that after a short ritual created a swirling dome of repelling winds around them to take care of the still lingering cloud of venoms left behind by the enemy gold-ranker even as they started moving outward to assist Glint.

"I have to say, dear adopted cousin, that you make for excellent fellow bait." The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Given the message sent by your family, it would have been hard not to take up the offer. It seems like honored Obsidian Crow's hunch was correct too, perhaps even something we can punish in the long term," Kite agreed, only to flinch in surprise as the gold-ranker in question suddenly stepped out of the shadows next to them.

"Unfortunately nothing decisive," the gold-ranker with the red mask stated in his somber voice, having apparently heard the conversation.

"She managed to elude me and slip away, but this encounter did indeed provide valuable confirmation that our opposition still have golds among them, perhaps even new ones as I haven't felt any traces of this one in the kingdom before. It also tells us that they are trying to trap key members of their opposition - your guild among them - with bait like these small-fry," he finished, gesturing back towards the two silvers Kite and Little Crow had taken down.

The third one with the wings soon joined them on the ground as Glint had kept him occupied enough for Obsidian Crow to easily reach up with his shadow threads and yank the man from the skies where he too was promptly collared.

"Thank you again for both your warning and intervention, honored Senior," Kite intoned, giving the man a bow.

"You seem to be doing well even after the incidents at the capital."

"While troublesome, it also gave us information, as did this encounter," the gold-ranker replied while tying up the captives and readying them for transport.

"They might also step more carefully around you now that our cooperation has been confirmed again."

"Indeed, but I still worry for the guild members if we are more of a target," Kite mused fretfully, once more feeling quite inadequate compared to the somber gold-ranker. When he thought of everything he wanted to accomplish…

"In that regard, my employer has directed me to be of some additional assistance," Obsidian Crow said, bringing Kite out of his musings.

"But it is something best discussed in a more secure setting. Come, let us return with this trash. Overall, I would call this little outing a decent success."

"Bye Daddy!"

"Dada! Play wiv me!"

"Sorry, Father, I'll get her. Good luck at work."

"Can we do the ritual again today, Dad? I'm sure I'll be ready today?" Jarvan LanCaire could only smile and wave as he wove through his still rather decent swarm of children that remained with them in their compound next to Fertility's temple in Gilded. It was odd to not have any babies at home any more, the youngest pair of twins already four years old. Or was it five?

"Farewell, everyone! Work calls so I must hurry. Preparations for the surge are never-ending, so I might be home late today!" His statements were met by a chorus of disappointed noises from those among the children who had gathered to say farewell to their father, and Jarvan gave them one last wave before he turned to open the door that would take him through part of the temple itself and out onto Gilded's streets.

However, that was before his aura senses suddenly recognized the presence behind him, causing Jarvan to whip around as his eyes opened slightly in surprise at the powerful presence whose approach had been basically undetected even to him. His blood ran cold as he took in the arrival behind him, having known that this day would eventually come. But wasn't it too soon?"

"A delivery from the great Resplendent Gleam of Imagination to Fantina LanCaire! Aura signature detected in the vicinity. Awaiting correct aura signature," the beetle-like construct with long antennae made from varied and colorful metals spoke, its voice polite and slightly echoing. Given the silence and look of utter shock in his children's eyes, they had not yet managed to process the sudden appearance that had to them no doubt looked like instant teleportation.

Purity's puny pecker, Jarvan himself probably wouldn't have been able to follow its descent either, its sudden presence feeling like a dreaded clarion call that reminded him of all that he had missed out on.

"Conrad?"

"Yes, Father?" one of Jarvan's older sons asked, stunned as he was unable to take his eyes off the messenger construct.

"Please get your mother. And hurry," Jarvan finished, knowing full well what would come next and hoping to everything that was holy that the construct wouldn't take offence.

"Wow!"

"Pwetty!"

"Daddy, can I ride it?"

"No!"

"I'm gonna ride it!" A conjured gauntlet swept up the more eager and impulsive of Jarvan's offspring, but even with his silver rank he was only one man against a dozen, and it was through the great providence of Fortune, Mercy - or anyone else who would accept the honor, really - that the beetle-like construct simply remained still through it all.

This meant that when Fantina arrived only a half a minute later, she found the delivery construct swarmed with her more enthusiastic and eager children, the lack of averse reaction emboldening both them and their older siblings to make their own approach.

"By the Goddess, what is going on here?" Fantina called with that certain tone that could have any one of her children, no matter their age or rank, stop dead in their tracks at a hundred meters distance. Jarvan, busy trying to fling his children off the powerful creation, also froze on sheer instinct, but the construct itself just turned around - much to the delight of those riding it - and called to Fantina.

"A delivery from the great Resplendent Gleam of Imagination! Your aura signature has been deemed a match. Accept delivery?"

"I will, if you'd please just let me remove my offspring from you first, honored messenger," Fantina replied. The construct didn't seem to object, and having been properly chastised, the children were actually somewhat cooperative this time.

"I thought you were in a great hurry to get to the office, Husband," Fantina remarked to the still slightly fidgeting Jarvan.

"By all means, don't let my little reward from a little business keep you." Jarvan, on his part, did look a bit torn; as parts of him didn't want to see what the beetle had to offer as it would be an all-too-stark reminder of what he himself could have been part of. But pure curiosity almost always won out in the end.

"Now now, dear Wife, let's not be hasty," he said quickly.

"This does concern the whole family. Surely you wouldn't want us to miss out on celebrating your accomplishment?"

"Well, if you put it that way…" Fantina said, giving Jarvan a quick kiss to acknowledge that she understood what these words cost him in terms of pure sense of missing out. She then turned to the construct, no longer accosted by the children, and spoke.

"Please, messenger. I accept your gift." The beetle construct then turned and opened its carapace, revealing a rather wide, flat wooden casing inside. At first, Jarvan mistook it for something akin to a picture frame until it proved to open much like a lockbox. Inside, row after row of necklaces lay on blue satin, and his magical perception immediately revealed two of them to be silver-ranked items while the others - fifty in total - were iron. To the side, a note rested with a brief message in neat script.

"A gift that was a challenge in its own right, given the connections you asked me to weave. Thank you for this opportunity, as well as your assistance." There was no signature, but there was also little doubt as to who had penned the note.

"They are beautiful," Jarvan breathed, reaching in to brush the detailed work of the metal. Outwardly, each of the medallions looked the same - like the stylized letters of L and C woven together - even though the two silver-ranked ones carried a slightly different sheen.

"Fifty-two of them. So they are for…?"

"Of course, Husband," Fantina replied with a smile as she reached in and took one of the silver-ranked medallions, hanging it around his neck.

"Do you really think I would let such an opportunity for the family pass me by?" WWJS: [Item] Crest of LanCaire Necklace Silver rank - Growth, Epic Soulbound [Effect] Instinctively feel the direction and vague sense of distance to every other worn Crest. Focusing on a particular one will cause the input of this particular Crest to stand out more clearly. [Effect] Pay a cost of moderate to extreme mana to conjure a barrier around the wearer.

This barrier can then be detonated through mental command to unleash a shockwave of kinetic force to push back nearby creatures and inflict them with the [Slowing pulse] affliction. Durability of the barrier and the force of the detonation scales with the amount of mana paid. This effect has a cooldown of 24 hours. Others wearing a Crest of LanCaire are immune to this effect.

[Slowing pulse] (Affliction, magic] - Afflicted creature suffers a brief but potent reduction to its [Speed] attribute, with the effect gradually fading over time.

"This is…" Jarvan breathed, taking in the enchantments as he didn't hesitate for a second in binding the gifted necklace to him.

"Something to let us keep in touch, at least in a sense, no matter where we are. And a way for a mother to give at least a little modicum of protection to her wayward children when they need it the most," Fantina said with a smile as she too donned her own medallion.

"The others are iron but can grow to silver as well, while ours are already fully ascended. Given the number of them I wanted, Gleam simply couldn't stretch her resources to make them go up to gold, but I felt that any of our children who got that far should be quite a lot safer by their own power anyway-" Fantina's words were interrupted, however, as Jarvan embraced her before catching her mouth in a deep, sincere kiss with the practice of someone who had spent well over three decades perfecting the craft.

Most of their nearby children threw out 'ooooohs' or made general sounds of feigned disgust, but they were used to it, and more than a few of them were already eyeing the rest of the necklaces remaining in the flat box.

"Oh no, back with those grubby little hands," Fantina called, managing to free herself from her adoring husband long enough to gently flick away the first attempts.

"You'll have to wait until iron rank before you can wear them. And you remember what you have to do to get there, don't you?"

"Eat our vegetables…" came the reply in despondent unison from the gathered children, the older among them still joining in out of pure habit even though they knew the truth of it.

"And with fifty for the children, we are well and truly prepared for the next wave of kids," Fantina added with a smile while Jarvan started inwardly sweating.

"Well, of course, dear. It's just… You never know how long that might take. Gold rank… Such a mysterious path to reach those vaunted heights…."

"Oh, I know, dear Husband. But since I married such a powerful, talented and handsome man, I am sure that he'll be able to figure it out in short order. Now, off you go to work, dear. As you said, that surge won't prepare for itself. And while you're at it, perhaps you can start making arrangements for these to be delivered to all of the children out there in the field?"

Victory Carved in Storm and Stone looked upon Vista who in turn stood gazing out over the magnificent compound of the Iron Howl Sect and its surrounding city. When she saw the outcast, she saw a determined warrior with a strong path and singular dedication. Someone possessing great skills and even greater potential, especially for an outcast. Someone who could thrive in a horde of monsters, dancing on the edge and making it look easy.

And someone who, despite all that, somehow managed to also be the densest and most unobservant man in the world when it came to certain other matters. Vista saw her, of that Storm had no doubt, and he definitely respected her as a warrior. When the sect elders had approached her discreetly and made some suggestions that Storm might utilize certain other assets to get this diamond in the rough to join the sect, she had been all for it, especially as she had also had several other plans of her own.

And all of them had failed spectacularly. The 'surrounded-by-a-sudden-surge-of-monsters-and-needing-to-be-saved technique'? Failed. The 'surrounding-him-with-a-sudden-surge-of-monsters-and-needing-to-save-him technique'? Failed even more, especially thanks to that damned familiar of his that even now regarded Storm with some suspicion. The carefully arranged hot springs incident? No. That was not something to ever be remembered again.

Storm would rather let the rains scour her body in the future than return to the scene of that particular loss. She-"Something on your mind, Inner Disciple Storm?" Vista asked, derailing her train of thought as he had apparently finished taking in the scene of the sect in the sunrise.

"Just… remembering the bygone year," Storm said a bit too quickly, but Vista didn't seem to notice.

"Is there really nothing we - or I - can do to make you reconsider?"

"My apologies, but not at this time," Vista said again with the same finality.

"I need to return home before the surge arrives."

"But surely, there will be better hunting around here-""Bastion is my home, Inner Disciple," Vista said, interrupting her but without any anger in his voice.

"And I shall remain its guardian, as I have been for most of my adult life. But I will admit that the year spent here in the sect has taught me much and been a lot more pleasant and worthwhile than I thought. Some of the sect's practices recently in regards to your rivals are most concerning, but I can truly understand why it has been able to produce a warrior of your caliber. I shall miss our hunts together."

His words were spoken with complete honest praise, and the distinct lack of any further meaning in them only made Storm's heart flutter in a way that it shouldn't be able to for a silver-ranker of her power. She did consider dropping all pretense and just throwing him over one shoulder to have it done and over with, but that was unfortunately when Vista took one gracious leap up onto his familiar's back, the cerberus already raring to be on their way.

"But if the heavens are willing, I might return in the future, at least to visit," the outcast mused as if more to himself than to Storm.

"Take care, Inner Disciple Storm. Your sect might be a complicated matter, but know that you have my respect. May your path take you to the heavens and beyond." Before she could say anything else, they were off. Storm considered running alongside them for a bit, but even she could see the futility of such a gesture.

"Just you wait, oh dense one. I did not receive my name for being a quitter," she murmured to herself before turning and returning to her sect. If she had his respect now, surely even his heart might skip a beat if he returned one day only to witness how far she had climbed. And they did say that gold rank made one even more stunning to behold…