– Regular infantry man —
[Physique : 30]
[Mana : 1]
[Mind : 5]
[Defense : 25]
[Martial : 10]
[Firearms : 15]
[Arcane : 0]
[Steel plating : Defense + 30]
The elevator platform lowered.
Right around the midpoint, Hikari could still see their destination in the distance.
The ruins of a long abandoned city.
A blanket of red mist obscures the lands below.
As the platform lowered deeper into the mist, her vision was blurred.
She couldn't use her mana sense.
The mist itself appears to be a perpetual spell.
She looks around the platform.
There was little else to do but wait.
The troops stood quietly in apprehension.
She looks at the wagons.
Dried ration packs. Ammunition. Fresh water skins. Tentage equipment.
They will be down here for days.
Shovels. Cannons. Jars of sticky mixtures.
Temporary checkpoints were to be built.
A Silora priest stood in the middle where Hikari was.
The lowest rank. His role here is little more than to rekindle the lanterns.
Close to the elevator controls, a sorcerer in silvery robes.
A symbol of the spire city on his back.
The runes on the elevator respond to him.
"The order of the spire."
Hikari thought.
She sees them often when she visits Moradale.
They manage the spire constructs.
Study them. Many say that they worship them.
"Look sharp!"
The sergeant shouts.
The platform rumbles.
Hikari feels the mist thicken.
The barrier lanterns flicker.
They were near the bottom.
The elevator gate lowered.
The troops cautiously advanced.
They found a ransacked camp.
"Wait, where is the advance party?"
"Watch out."
A snaring of a ghoul.
The sergeant sees the teeth of a ghoul.
He raises his shield.
Stab.
A throwing dagger from above impales the ghoul into the ground.
Bang.
His wingman fires his musket at point blank into its face.
The ghoul still lives.
More men thrust their spears into the monster.
It was skewered. Yet it still moves.
The sergeant raises his sword and stabs through its chest.
The ghoul went silent.
The throwing dagger lifts itself into the air, returning to its owner.
He pushes his sword and yanks out a pulsing red crystal.
The men pulled out their spears with ease.
The ghoul's body began dissipating.
"High alert."
The men raised their shields. Their muskets and crossbows loaded.
Hikari stepped forward.
The light from her lanterns cleared the mist as she approached.
Damaged armour pieces.
Individual arms and legs on the ground.
Abandoned cannons. Pieces of the cannoneers themselves were found around the camp.
"Ignore them."
The sergeant calms his nervous men as they cautiously sweep the ransacked camp.
He turned and signaled to the engineer.
He nods.
The elevator gate closes.
A brief rumbling sound.
It began its ascend.
There will be a gap until the next batch of reinforcements arrive.
The men take positions on the half built walls.
The priest of Silora repairs the lanterns.
Hikari stood in the middle, overwatching them.
She stares into the distance.
The mist was thick.
She couldn't even make out the contours of the landscape.
"Let's try this."
She channels her mana down to her boots.
It works a little.
The range is nowhere near what she could do back in the wyvern peaks.
She could sense a bottomless crack right ahead of her.
The safe path swirls to the right and the left.
"Lucky, I tried."
She channeled more mana.
The mist reacts.
She feels it burn her.
It was not hot.
It just burns.
She powered down.
It was not like she couldn't use it.
The ground is not suitable.
The mist burns her.
But it can help her see cracks in the ground.
She pulsed again.
She shuffles her boot.
It was rough rocky terrain.
Not too much of a problem for her gigantic boots.
Good thing that the stone was sturdy enough to hold her weight.
She pulsed again.
Nothing more of interest.
She draws one of her daggers and floats it in front of her with her telekinesis.
She spins it up and down.
Moving it horizontally left and right.
Smooth movements just like she could do in the drill hall.
She juggles two daggers.
Still works.
The neutral forms could still work well in the mist.
She tries to channel her RazenHeir flames.
It burns her immediately.
Even more than using her hearthstone form.
She stops abruptly.
"Yea, can't use that."
She holds a dagger in her hand.
Wyvern flame.
The dagger glows hot with searing heat.
It burns.
But usable.
"This flame is not good against flesh anyway."
She keeps her daggers.
Staring into her hand, she remembers the shard she found in the zeppelin hanger in Carla.
She looks around.
The troops were standing around idly waiting for reinforcements.
"Might as well try it."
She channels her mana.
Slowly. Her control has improved a lot.
She tries to remember the form.
It was not one she had practiced many times.
A flare of flames appeared.
It works.
She feels a brief burn but not enough to prevent her from casting it.
The troops took a glance at her before turning around.
A bit of fireworks might have loosened their apprehension.
"I'll practice more later."
She stands straight.
The mist is still opaque to her.
She can't rest properly with such a short detection range.
She sent a pulse through the earth.
She could sustain it.
The burn is not intense enough.
The detection is far more valuable than the burn.
She detects something.
A single ghoul.
She pulses again.
And again.
It was wandering in random directions.
She keeps still.
A single ghoul is not worth responding to.
She kept pulsing.
Movements.
More ghouls.
Pulse.
She could feel her range getting slightly better as she got used to the burn.
Pulse.
More ghouls.
Pulse.
"Ghoul!"
A sentry shouted as one appeared out of the mist.
A volley of crossbow bolts.
It pieces its skin.
The ghoul stumbles.
The grey salt tipped bolts were not enough to kill.
But it paralyzes it.
More movements.
Hikari draws her bow and fires.
It impales a ghoul to the ground.
"They're here."
She projects her voice.
The troops heard her.
The sergeant barks orders.
A shield wall was formed.
The ghouls appear out of the mist.
They crashed into the shield wall.
The troops anchor their shields between the half built wall segments.
Their heavy steel armour lets them hold their ground.
An array of throwing daggers flies over them, hovers in midair and slams down.
The ghouls were impaled.
Their bodies dissipated.
The next wave charges in.
Stab.
They were impaled from above.
Stab.
Stab.
Another wave charges in, squeezing themselves against the shield wall.
Stab.
Red crystals appear on the ground as their bodies disintegrate.
But the waves kept coming.
"Ghoul mothers?"
With the number of ghouls that were coming, there were definitely ghoul mothers nearby.
But Hikari couldn't detect them through the mist.
She doesn't know the terrain in front of her.
The infantry line was fully committed.
It will fall without her.
Stab.
Stab.
She repeated the same motion.
Ghouls were coming in from a wider and wider arc.
She was using all of her daggers.
Up.
Stab.
Up.
Stab.
A horde of ghouls moved around their flank.
Hikari shoves a cluster of throwing daggers towards them.
The sergeant barked orders.
The line falls back towards the cliffside.
Stab.
The sound of musket fire.
The throwing daggers kept flying.
The horde of ghouls was endless.
The men were running out of ammunition.
They use their spears.
The ghouls were closing in.
Hikari steps forward in front of the line.
Stomp.
She crushes a ghoul beneath her boot.
Stomp. Stomp.
Ghoul after ghoul was crushed below her.
With a swing of her leg, she sent a group of ghouls flying back into the mist.
Her daggers continued moving.
Up. Down and stab.
Up. Down and stab.
Some of them could no longer kill a ghoul in one hit.
But she keeps stabbing.
The ground over which they retreated over was filled up with red crystals again.
But the infantry line was crumbling behind her.
An infantry man can hold only one ghoul but not two.
Hikari could only keep killing.
The ghoul mothers appeared out of the mist into the lantern light.
They were expecting a meal.
But crossbow bolts, forged with grey salt, pierced their heads.
The giantess charges.
The ghouls the mothers spawn could not stop her.
Daggers spinning around her.
She leaps into the air, slamming down onto a ghoul mother.
Its core drops on the ground.