Laurence ran his truesense over the ten man array as they completed their transformation. It was something he had never witnessed before, something that he could not help but think might be useful to him in the future. If he could even trim the array down to being a three person array then the power, and possible applications would be incredible. The scan was fruitful, albeit an odd result; the array itself was controlled by the person acting as the head, using nine incredibly complex array markers. What was odd about it was that the job the array markers performed was relatively simple. So simple, in fact, that Laurence could see the way to destabilise the array as long as his timing was good.
He watched as the array soldier began lumbering towards him and smiled. This soldier was strong, but he was its nemesis. Construction and deconstruction was his way. Since he had become a Saint of Destruction he had discovered that when it came to dismantling things his mind was horribly precise. Array weaknesses and item breaking points appeared clearly before his eyes, which meant that deconstructing the array before him, even inverting the array was as simple as breathing. Laurence stepped forwards and rolled on the ground, straight between the soldier’s legs. In the process he grabbed a shard of stone the size of his palm and scored three glyphs on it through trueforming. The first glyph was the magnification glyph, a mark that would magnify and purify the power sent into it from any source. Just this glyph alone would be considered a priceless treasure to arrayists. Anything that could make their arrays exponentially more powerful without an increase in material costs was worth its weight in gold. The second glyph was a glyph for channelling. This was another priceless glyph, because with it objects used in arrays and creations would take far longer to wear out. They would only use minimal power to activate their abilities and would take no more rather than taking as much as they could hold. The third and final glyph was the simplest, it was of mirroring, of inversion. As long as the array drew in power, it would magnify it and return it to its origin with many times the density.
Laurence's roll completed, and as he stood up he turned, arm pulled back in preparation to throw. His trueforming completed and the soldier turned around, the leader of the array becoming accustomed with his giant form and the power he was wielding. He raised his fist to crush Laurence, but before he could Laurence threw the stone into the forehead of the giant. Immediately the giant locked up, its pose frozen by the fact that control no longer lay with the Lupe at the head of the array. Coils of energy shot towards each of the Lupe within the array, pure white like bars of light. As the energy connected with the Lupe they began screaming. The bars of light burnt their way through the Lupe rather than returning peacefully and tore apart each of their mana reservoirs, rendering them powerless and mortally wounded.
They cried out for help, but it was too late. They were all already dead. As their bodies fell to the ground the stone floated in the air, the residual energy within it accumulating as it had nowhere to go. There was a crackle and the entire stone turned to dust, floating away with the lives of the people it had just been used to kill.
Turning around and scanning his horizon once more, Laurence searched for anything that could be attributed to Cleo. I'm an idiot! He thought as he turned too and fro. I knew I should have stayed by her side. If anything happens to her then I will never forgive myself... All he could see were explosions of dirt, storms of wind and a solitary pillar of flame. He turned slightly more and then stopped. A pillar of flame? “CLEO!” he yelled, sprinting towards where it had appeared.
As he got closer he could feel he was on the right track. The entire region he was walking into was noticeably hotter. After about twenty steps it felt like he was coming close to a volcano. The increased heat in an already deathly hot desert meant that for the most part Lupe would come nowhere near, but the Heaven ranked ones were an entirely different story. Rather than forcing them away it had instead attracted two, who were forcing Cleo into an uncompromising state.
Her face was bruised, her dress muddy and bloody, her hair matted and her shoulder bleeding with an open wound. Still she did not yield. Coils of fire rippled around her, transforming into wolves and lions, foxes and tigers that desperately tore away at the Heaven rankers attacks. Even now, Laurence felt she was radiant in her defiance.
He raised his hammer and pulled his body back, galvanising his mana into the tip of his weapon. More and more was pulled from him, to the point where he was almost empty of it, but he revolved his inner flame and used the stored mana within his ring in order to refuel himself. Eventually even that was eaten by his attack. He was down to a third of his mana after two refills when he stepped forward, threw his hammer and screamed “SAMAEL!” Immediately afterward he called out Inklight and wrapped it round his spear, pulling him along at high speed. The air tore apart and booms were produced as he travelled the hundred meters that separated them in an instant. The spear slammed into one of the Heaven rankers, tearing his chest and upper legs into nothing before Laurence allowed his hammer to dissipate. Retracting Inklight back into his arm he shot it out once more and coiled it round the Heaven ranker who was suddenly feeling far more pressure from Cleo than he had been.
The Lupe struggled to pull the chain of light off him but his moment of inattentiveness was enough for Cleo. Her animals of fire leapt upon the Lupe and began rending his skin apart as she stepped forwards and drew the knife Laurence had made oh so long ago. Since its conception the knife had gone through an upgrade and now rather than the simple shard of salamandrite weapon, it had Saintbeast leather wrapping its hilt, and had been quenched many times in the blood of Saints, binding it and strengthening it far beyond its original concept.
Swinging her arm, Cleo’s knife bit into the throat of the Lupe Heaven ranker. He desperately tried to lift his arms to stop the flow of blood as it made an exodus from his body, but her flames still held him down. She watched closely as the Lupe’s blood covered the blade completely and was cooked onto it, bathing it in Heaven ranked power. Layer after layer covered her weapon until there was no more blood within the Lupe to lose. Then and only then did she relax and fall into Laurence’s arms. He smiled and stroked her hair, feeling her relax slightly after the tension of desperately fighting for her life.
“Idiot,” she whispered into his chest. “You left me behind”.
“I'm so sorry, Cleo. I'm here now. Shall we find our friends?” The young woman in Laurence's arms nodded before separating herself from him.
“Let's find our friends and burn some hounds in the process”
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