Chapter 326: Blade Flyer (3)
"Yah!"
"Take this!"
Franc let out that cute little battle cry and thrust out her hand. Three lightning orbs, each the size of a fist, burst from her palm in a spray of sparks nasty enough to raise the hair on your neck, and dropped toward the Blade Flyer like falling thunderbolts. Right on their heels, one of Miho's tails shed a pure jade light as she wove dozens of vivid green wind-blades and hurled them after the beast.
Every last one of those strikes would have been fatal even to a Peak-Rank aberrant.
The three orbs fell in trails like lightning, and a massive bundle of wind-blades followed behind them. Onto a Blade Flyer already missing one wing — plummeting, with no way to dodge — they came down like a disaster. The thing tried to intercept, firing not a water cannon this time but a scatter of water-shot from its maw, and all it managed to knock down was three wind-blades. The three remaining lightning orbs and thirty-eight wind-blades drove into its body, not one of them wasted.
A sputtering crackle tore across the sea. The moment a lightning orb worth roughly a million TP touched the Blade Flyer, electricity discharged over its entire body, as if an arc flash had been magnified and spread hundreds of times over. A din like thousands of birds shrieking at once, a light that turned the sky briefly to noon — and into that glare, Miho's wind-blades arrived and began etching grooves into the beast's torso. Where a wind-blade opened a cut, lightning poured into the gap and seared it; when the lightning crisped the scales and their durability failed, the wind-blades sheared through that same spot, keen as razors. A fine combo.
Listening to the Blade Flyer's pain-choked scream — a sound like air hissing from a rupture — I began pouring Phase Power into the Gathering Clouds Sword. At the same time I spread a Space Wall wide and tall where it would fall, fifty layers deep, and only then did fear finally enter the thing's eyes.
Steam pouring off it as it fell, the Blade Flyer began to thrash with everything it had, a fish flung onto dry land, desperate to avoid the wall I'd laid beneath it. It flapped the one wing-fin still intact and sprayed scales in every direction from the spines along its back — but none of us was about to stand there and eat a wild, brainless barrage like that. Miho clamped her mouth shut and twisted the paths of any scales flying near her with wind. Franc, as if every trajectory were laid bare before her eyes, simply stood where no scale could reach and launched lightning orb after lightning orb without pause. Miho kept glancing at her and copying, rapid-firing green wind-blades of her own, and thanks to that the beast — already robbed of half its flight — couldn't properly dodge either of them. It was butchered all over as it fell.
It felt a little empty. For something supposedly on the same tier as the Grand Turtle, the pressure just wasn't there. No desperation in it, either. The thing churning near its heart was elemental, and yet it kept charging in body-first like a physical-reinforcement type. When it had leapt up all swagger, pectoral fins flapping, I'd tensed, thinking it might actually have something — and the tension had been a waste. It was sloppy. Phase Power more than four times the Grand Turtle's, and the performance fell short of the Grand Turtle. Individual differences exist, sure, but a Highest-Rank Variant might as well be a half-mythical monster. That was the whole point. I couldn't tell whether we were simply too strong, or whether that thing was weak.
Even as it fell under the barrage, it twisted and flapped its one remaining wing-fin, trying to slip the Space Wall — but it was so occupied with Miho and Franc that it had clearly forgotten I existed. I stabbed into the opening it showed me and fired a Sword Energy Bullet compressed to the limit, aimed at the root of the wing-fin that was still whole.
A clean snap. The bullet split the air and sheared the frantically working wing off at the base.
The four left pectoral fins that had served as its wing were cut away at the root, and the instant Franc's lightning orb burst there and cauterized the wound, the thing gaped its maw and screamed past the edge of hearing.
———— !!!!!
"...!"
Damn. Ultrasound? It can do sonic attacks, too.
The sound punched through my mana aura. Even Darky, wrapped around my body, couldn't stop it. It left me tingling head to toe and kicked up a headache. I was holding myself together with Mana Sieve, so it ended at a mild one — but Franc and Miho clutched their heads in agony. Franc especially looked ready to lose consciousness, and my heart dropped.
I was about to Space Leap over to help them when Miho, hurting herself, still stretched out a tail, wound it around Franc as she started to black out, raised a gale around her own body, and pulled them clear of the combat zone in a blink. Seeing her follow the manual Hwayeon and Franc had drilled into her, I let out a breath and leapt in at the flank of the flying fish, which had nearly reached the Space Wall.
In the gap when our attacks broke off, it had chosen not to try turning the fight around. It had chosen to run. I poured my anger into a shout.
The Blade Flyer flinched for a split second when it saw me appear beside it. I used that gap — fired Sword Energy Bullet Mk. II, converted what Phase Power I had left into Mana Riser Mk. II, drew it out long, and smashed it into the thing's forked tail.
A bursting crack. The enormous beam, like a sword of blue light, struck the beast's energy field and exploded, throwing up a vicious blue heat-haze. Every shimmer of that haze cut like a wire of sharp steel. The tail was shredded in an instant, as if it had been ground against broken glass.
———— !!!!!!!!
A tremendous volume of blood gushed from the severed face of the cut.
Half-severed, the tail sent it thrashing in pain, and it detonated ultrasound again. The headache came roaring back. I ground my teeth through it and swung the Gathering Clouds Sword once more. This fish bastard, lower than a dog — the tail fin comes off first, so it can't run.
A sharp metallic cut. The moment that second stroke left the tail dangling as if it might snap off any second, the Blade Flyer finally dropped onto the fifty-layer Space Wall.
A slow, grinding crunch. The instant it touched the wall — fifty meters thick — it began to sink through like an animal slipping into a bog. Dorsal spines, scales, bone: everything that met the wall burst and shattered from the point of contact. Its protective energy field must have broken long before. It was taking the Space Wall's damage raw. A gruesome chorus of cracks, sizzles, and crunches rolled out over the sea. The right wing-fin, already only a half-piece, was turning to rags, and the huge eyes burst, spraying blood and clear fluid. The upper and lower fins at the tail tore like sails in a typhoon, and the tail I'd cut twice — hanging on by a thread — finally ripped free of the body.
Ten seconds to pass through fifty meters of Space Wall, and what came out the other side was such a wreck I half expected it to die on the spot. Flesh seared by lightning was cooking white in patches, and from the body, densely sliced by wind-blades, a golden steam rose as if something were roasting. The scales that had boasted such a beautiful sea-color were cracked, dented, cut, and shattered all over, and every spine along the back was smashed. The tail had been severed and torn away from the start, and every fin still attached to the body had turned to tatters. The bones weren't sound, either. Where the two eyes had been, only traces remained — empty holes staring at nothing.
The severed tail, the size of a fair fishing boat, hit the sea first with a heavy boom and threw up an enormous spray. The Blade Flyer's main body followed, gulping and choking as it went under. It raised waves and foam so high and huge I wondered if a tsunami was forming — and even nearly dead, it still twisted, trying somehow to flee. But with its fins all frayed and its tail gone, escape was impossible.
Still, I didn't know how a moment's carelessness might turn things worse, so I unfolded a Space Leap at once, set down atop its head, drew the Mana Riser out along the Gathering Clouds Sword once more, and drove it with everything I had into where the brain lay.
A searing hiss. Then a boom, and a roaring collapse — something burst out of its body, a force-wave, an energy wave, and spray exploded outward. In the same instant a fierce current gathered, as if a rapid had formed, and slammed into me. The explosion itself didn't shock me. The seawater rapid created as the thing sank hard — that was the problem.
My body wanted to be thrown around. I braced on the Gathering Clouds Sword stabbed into its hard skull and shook the Mana Riser extended from the blade, churning through its brain. The Blade Flyer's brain wasn't particularly large. Under the Mana Riser it boiled and bubbled, then began to evaporate outright. As the beam tore through it, the beast thrashed like mad and rolled — but I held the sword where I'd driven it in and kept stirring, turning that smooth, wrinkle-free brain to pulp.
The moment the blade first pierced its brain, it went berserk in a way that actually deserved the word thrashing. The more the brain was churned, the more its movements shrank into fine convulsions, until unidentified fluid leaked from the gaping eye sockets and it slowly stopped.
Dead?
A moment later the Blade Flyer, gone limp as a corpse, began to rise slowly toward the surface. For a confirmation kill, I overlapped a Space Wall onto the heart inside its body — a heart bigger than I was. The heart, still twitching now and then, trembled, and burst. The instant it did, the Blade Flyer gave one brief heave of its huge body, and even that stopped at once. It went slack.
Dead.
Hmm. For a Highest-Rank Variant, that felt strangely hollow. But thinking about the ultrasound it had fired midway — if you weren't another Highest-Rank Variant, or something like me, that was a fairly dangerous ability. Franc really had seemed to black out for a moment, and Miho had fled in a panic, overwhelmed by the pain.
Then it struck me as strange that I was breathing underwater at all. I rolled the Mermaid's Pearl against my tongue and checked. A film had formed over my mouth and nostrils: water didn't come in, and only the oxygen held in the water passed through my nose and mouth. Fascinating.
Anyway, I ought to report that I'd caught it... oh. Right. The line had stayed open the whole time. I brought the hologram window I'd turned away back to the front, and found Hwayeon staring straight at me, eyes wide with shock and awe. I gave her a small smile and a wave. She closed her eyes, relief written across her face, and let out a quiet sigh.
Right after that, Franc and Miho — come back to themselves — dove into the sea and came toward me. Spatial Perception picked them up. At the same time, Phase Power began pouring out of the Blade Flyer's corpse beneath my feet in a flood.
"Ah! Miho, go up into the sky and wait!"
Seeing it, Franc waved Miho up into the sky and shooed her off, then rushed to me and poked at Darky, wrapped around my body.
"Darky, please come away from Seoha as well! Seoha must be the one to absorb the Blade Flyer's Phase Power!"
"Ah. Yessir!"
A film must have formed over my ears as well — Franc's voice reaching me as vibration was a strange feeling. So that was why Hwayeon had brightened so. Mermaid's Tears really were that useful. Anyway, before I could get a word out, Franc caught Darky, freshly peeled off me, and shot straight up into the sky where Miho was waiting.
It wouldn't have mattered if they'd stayed. The thing's Phase Power was over thirty-nine million — I couldn't absorb all of it alone anyway.
Perhaps because it was dead, the Blade Flyer's carcass began to rise toward the surface. Standing on it, I started cycling Mana Sieve, and Phase Power — a blue so vivid it was distinguishable even underwater — flowed into my body like moths drawn to a campfire.
A B-Class ability user's Phase Power ceiling is 39,990,000. Absorb all 39,520,000 this thing had carried, add it to the 18,920,000 I already held, and I'd blow past 39,990,000 without breaking a sweat. Whether I could step straight up into A-Class, though, was another question.
There were only six A-Class users in the entire world. Becoming A-Class was said to require heaven's own blessing — that much luck — and combat power to match, and innate talent besides. Unknown conditions on top of those. Look at Duke Aaron Tempest of Britain: he had two types. So one of the conditions for A-Class seemed to be possessing two ability types. Mine were Spatial Perception and Mana Sieve.
I only used physical reinforcement, elemental, and recovery through a special-type ability. I didn't actually possess all four types, so I didn't meet that condition, did I? But my growth ceiling was A+. It had said I could reach A-Class.
...Eh, whatever. I'll know if I just keep absorbing.
I settled my mind and stacked the Phase Power pushing relentlessly into me, layer upon layer. And then, at some point, I began to feel a knot forming in my chest... around my heart.
"Nn... what is this?"
An alien sensation, as if my heart were shifting position. I pressed a hand to my chest and frowned. The Phase Power flowing out of the Blade Flyer didn't scatter. It circled me, waiting its turn to enter, so even as I rose toward the surface, mine kept accumulating — and before I knew it, it had passed thirty million. And suddenly this knot. What's more, it only grew clearer with time.
Ngh...
It wasn't that I had no guess at all. But surely not. Was this where it meant to brand into me that I wasn't human?
I saw Hwayeon waving from the hologram window, so I unmuted, and her voice came through the Certifier adhered to my arm.
"Chairman. Your complexion does not look... well. Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Totally fine."
Had my face gone that stiff? Not wanting Hwayeon to worry, I grinned, drew a circle in the air with my finger, and looked up at the surface, which had drawn right overhead.
A moment later I broke the surface like a waterlogged dolphin float, bracing on the heaving bulk of the Blade Flyer, and let out a long, heavy sigh. The sky was a perfect match for how I felt. Dark, gloomy, sullen with storm clouds, as if it might dump thunder and lightning any second.
Having absorbed the Blade Flyer's Phase Power to the limit, mine now stood at 39,990,000. And...
A Phase Stone of 18,450,000 had formed in my heart.
Seawater streaming off me, I stood there in a daze at what had happened to my body — and Franc, floating in the sky, came shooting down with Darky in both hands.
"Seo—!"
And the moment she saw me, that bright face froze solid.
She must have seen the Phase Stone born in my heart. Miho didn't notice a thing. She shifted from fox to human and sprinted into my arms.
"Master~!"
"Hk— hey, hey, hey! Clothes!"
Startled by Miho throwing herself into my arms as bare as the day she was made, I yanked off my jacket and threw it over her. The whole thing was being broadcast on the hologram window, and she'd just flipped back to human without a stitch on!
"Huing? Ehehe. I forgot."
A casual jacket, soaked through — but aside from her waist and hips, Miho's figure was so plain and uncurved that nothing really showed. Lucky. She didn't even seem to mind the wet clothes.
"Master's shirt~. Uhehe."
She laughed, bright as anything, and looking at her, my worries suddenly felt small. A breath of laughter escaped me.
I watched her seven tails fan, then remembered the ultrasound, and asked while stroking her perked fox ears.
"Ears okay? You weren't scared?"
"Mm, it hurt a little and I got scared, but I'm okay now! But I couldn't help Master much..."
She said it with a wide smile, then immediately drooped. I comforted her.
"Nah. You helped a lot. If you and Franc hadn't pulled its attention, cutting the wings would've been hard. Things would've gotten messy in all sorts of ways."
I smiled and gently rubbed the fox ears folded back against her head. They shot upright, and she happily nuzzled her face into my chest. I stroked her head and looked at Franc — a question in my eyes, are you all right? — and Franc smiled, apologetic.
"I am all right as well. The ultrasound swept through my body and I locked up for a moment, but Miho protected me."
"Ah, so you weren't hurt. You looked like you were suffering from it, and my heart dropped for a second."
She had been attacked, though, so I triggered Healing Touch — fiddling with Miho's ears, and stroking Franc's head as well.
"But Darky, you can't block sonic attacks? My whole body was tingling."
"Ugh... I didn't know that was my weak spot either, boss... Sorry, boss. Snff, snff."
Cradled in Franc's arms, Darky put on a crying face and raised both hands in a pantomime of wiping tears.
"That so? Don't worry about it. Aberrants that use sonic attacks like this aren't common."
"Yes, boss! I'll train even harder and serve you proper from now on!"
I'd kept stroking her head through all of that, and Franc's face had gone a little red. She carefully pushed my hand away. A glance at the hologram window floating beside me — she was conscious of other people's eyes.
Maybe because I turned my gaze to the window, Hwayeon asked, sounding a little worried.
"How is your body? From what I have heard, it seems you took a sonic attack."
"It's nothing. Worse than the sonic attack was flinching when it charged in without a shred of fear — wondering if it had something it was counting on."
I said it with a snort of a laugh, and the expression on Vice Admiral Robert Phillips, standing behind Hwayeon, went oddly shifty. Relief that the Blade Flyer was dealt with — and somewhere in it, a look like he was sorry I was unharmed. His outer face was fine, of course. Fine. But my read on him said otherwise. Sorry I was safe. Whether that was actually true — well, I could read his mind once I got back.
Anyway. Hwayeon, in the command room with the commanders, gave a wry smile at that, then looked at the panel table and spoke.
"There is no stopping you. In any case, congratulations on the successful subjugation of the Blade Flyer. The moment I saw you cut off the Blade Flyer's breath, I raised the fleet's speed as high as it would go — but I expect it will still take about two days to reach you."
"Two whole days? Hmm. I'll head that way with the Blade Flyer's carcass. That should cut the time until we meet."
"Understood. I will pass that along."
Perhaps because other people were around, Hwayeon had kept to formal speech the whole time. She turned and asked Vice Admiral Robert Phillips to make full speed for the green dot — the flying-fish tracker I was carrying. Watching that, I muted the call, then stroked Franc's head as she looked at my chest — at where my heart was — with worried eyes.
"It's fine. I didn't expect this, but nothing changes just because it happened."
"Yes..."
"Whyyy? Did something happen?"
Miho, stuck to my chest, perked up with curiosity at the exchange, so Franc smiled softly and stroked her head.
"It's nothing. More importantly, thank you for earlier. If it hadn't been for you, Miho, it could have been serious."
"Uhihit."
Embarrassed, she giggled and flapped her fox ears. I gave her backside a pat and looked up at the sky.
The wind was strengthening — a long, thin howl. The waves were roughening, the storm clouds darkening. The air against my skin was humid enough for droplets to bead. Rain, or heavy seas. Soon.
I'd have to ask Miho to move the carcass. She handled water and wind; she could treat that buoyant body like a ship. Just as I was about to ask her, Darky — caught in Franc's hand — squirmed free, climbed onto my shoulder, hugged my neck, and started feeling around with a hehehe of a laugh. I was about to recoil at the creepy feeling when Darky spoke, sounding rapt.
"Boss, you've gotten even cooler somehow."
"Dummy! Master was cool from the start!"
"Airhead. I'm sayin' the boss got even cooler. You not gettin' it?"
"Uh... uh?"
Darky didn't like the vacant look on her face, stretched out a hand, and smacked her smooth forehead — slap, slap. At the crisp sound Miho's fox ears shot up, and she shook her head wildly, resisting the attack.
"Auu~ don't hit me! Stupid dirty-water blob!"
"You're the dummy! Dummy-disease only gets fixed if you get hit, so you need a few more!"
"I said I'm not a dummy!!"
I've gotten cooler? So Darky had felt the change in my body. I watched the two of them bicker, and suddenly wondered whether I could move the Blade Flyer's carcass with Space Leaping. Come to think of it — how much mass could my Space Leap actually move? I ought to check whether something this big could be shifted at all. If not, I'd ask Miho then.
"We've got work to do, so quit fighting. Miho, fly up into the sky with Franc."
"Mmm. Blehh!"
"Stickin' your tongue out is a grade-schooler's taunt. From now on, you're Grade-Schooler Miho."
"Hmph! Bleh, bleh!"
Whatever Darky said, Miho covered her ears, flicked her tongue, hugged Franc around the waist, and flew off. Darky seemed to have taken psychological damage from the bleh attack, groping at my neck in a creepy sulk and huffing, so I grabbed the slime, stuffed them in a pocket, seized a fin-wing torn to shreds like a ragged mop, and tried a Space Leap of ten meters.
A hollow rush — the scenery shifted for an instant — and Phase Power drained out of me in a long pull, enough to fire a mana cannon. Space Leap worked, but it ate a lot. Around 190,000, roughly. Moving on my own, or taking one or two of my lovers along, had barely been a burden... Consumption must scale with the volume being moved.
Counting the Phase Stone formed in my heart, I had 58,000,000 Phase Power — and still, thirty Space Leaps of a hundred meters looked like they'd empty me.
"Hmm. I'll have to alternate rest and travel."
I beckoned Franc and Miho over, gripped the Blade Flyer's wing again, and began chaining Space Leaps in the direction the aircraft carrier was coming from.