On the evening of the day that the alarm started ringing, the army arrived. It was a ramshackle affair, with bright colours and insignias rippling through the crowd. Each represented the clan, sect or group that stood behind their representative, giving a face and a name to Yun’s discerning eye. There were over a hundred new names to add to the list of banned traders. It seemed that more and more groups were preparing themselves as they thought that the New-Hepahistians would soon fall.
He continued to scan over the crowd forming below the misty peaks of his home. Ten thousand strong, the would soon fall under the relentless pressure of their assault. The Righteous Eyes, The Church of Sae, Orrin’s Testament and hundreds of other names were standing in the plains below the mountain. They had long since learned the distance that they had to travel to activate the mountain’s first line of defenses. Occasionally they would accidentally step over new lines, but generally the troops would make sure to arrive before Yun and the other residents of the land could fully replace their broken arrays and shattered barricades. There were a million different things that Yun had to do as the leader of the clan and the caretaker of the Hephaistia homeworld which made him unavailable to repair the arrays on his own time. Instead he had to rely on the Saints and Heaven rankers of Misty Peaks, who were neither as skilled as he was, nor as far reaching.
Looking out into the crowd of jeering and chanting soldiers Yun swallowed the rage that he could feel bubbling within him. Unlike his brother, he always had control over his emotions. Even when he had been shaken by Laurence, just a few days before, he bounced back quickly. In his mind, as a leader, surprise was not an emotion he could recklessly feel. As he watched the crowd, he saw the waves of people part and a single man walked out in front of them all. There was a flicker in his eyes as he moved himself to the bottom of the mountain. Since he had become a Heaven ranker, Yun had begun learning about the complexities of space. His learning had gifted him with several key abilities, namely flight, a domain of power, and instant transmission. Instant transmission was by far his most powerful ability because it involved the compression of space to allow for instantaneous movement, which was how he easily traveled up and down the mountains in mere blinks of an eye.
It had taken Yun decades to master, and was now one of his most powerful and most well known abilities. The ability was even the origin of his epitaph; The Movement Immortal. Sauntering over to the invisible line that marked the activation point of all the defenses in the area, Yun glared at the tall man who had walked out of the crowd.
“Leave,” Yun growled.
The man smiled before placing a stone in the ground between them. The stone was simple, large and grey, but had an intricate sigil engraved into the center. The sigil glowed an unearthly yellow as it pulsed quietly, drawing both Yun's eye and his displeasure. His senses were telling him that the stone in front of him was his nemesis, but he did not understand why. It was not something he recognised, nor was it something recorded in the Book of Creation, which severely limited the options of what it could be.
“You know, the Hephaistia clan wasn't the only place to get special treasures did you?”
“Leave,” Yun repeated. Something was very wrong, he simply could not put his finger upon the issue.
“Oh Movement Immortal, laconic as ever. What am I to do with you?” The man smirked, before planting his palm onto the middle of the symbol on the stone. The same yellow light that exuded from the stone began traveling up his pale hands like tendrils or veins, only to be hidden underneath the sleeves of his shirt. “I should probably introduce myself shouldn't I? That would be the polite thing”. The man bowed, ending his contact with the stone, however the putrid colour of his glowing hand did not fade. “My name is Wilbur Wright, the Solutions Immortal, and I have been hunting for a method to suppress you for a very long time”.
Yun did not respond, he only glared and frowned at the man. The Solutions Immortal was not the first person to attempt to suppress him, but his ability to move to any place within his vision at will was such a huge advantage that the majority of poor who fought him scurried away with their tail between their legs, and those who did not simply died. Coupling that with his access to thousands of weapons and tools made most balk at the concept of fighting against him.
In response to the taunts of the man he simply summoned his needle and held it forward. As Yun's dreaded needle thrummed through the air, the jeers of the horde behind Wilbur were immediately cut short. The sheer killing intent behind Yun's simple swing was like an immense hammer upon the fragile minds and hearts of those men and women. A couple of the weaker minded soldiers immediately cried out and began gibbering in fits on the floor, their sanity blown away like dust in the wind. Through all of this Yun stood tall, domineering, like an Emperor as he looked out over his domain.
“I'll admit it, you're strong. Unfortunately my job is to find solutions to tricky problems,” Wilbur said, shielding the army from Yun's lethal intent. “You're not unique, mister leader of the New-Hepahistians. You're not the first Movement Immortal, in fact you're the third. After I'm done there will be need of a fourth”.
Yun did not reply, he simply thrust out with his needle. The metal spike whistled through the air before skewering Wilbur in the gut.
Or it would have, had Wilbur not simply stepped to the side.
Immediately Yun leapt back away from Wilbur, concern and a very small amount of anger flashing across his face before his calm imperial demeanour returned. The point of his needle never once shifted away from Wilbur’s center of mass. He had discovered the problem, and it was truly a trap just designed just for him. Tentatively he tried to connect with his world and found he had not been severed, however in his mind's eye he could see a mesh that completely blocked the tunnel between his world and the tower. Fortunately for him it only seemed to block living things from traveling through, as a pair of vambraces appeared in his free hand after a moment's thought.
“I don't know what you think you can do, but it's pretty obvious that you've realised you're in trouble now. Can you feel space stagnate?” Wilbur cackled as he pulled a pair of t-shaped batons from the bandoleer around his hips. In response Yun quickly put the vambraces on his forearms. “I'm surprised you can access a pocket dimension this close to the stone though, normally it's not possible within a hundred meters. Either way, you've probably realised this stone I placed down is special. I was pretty happy when I found it, I mean it did take about three years of hunting. You see, most Immortals are hard to kill, but the Movement Immortals are legendary for the lengths people have taken in order to kill one. I found the easiest way; the point sealing stone. It's a naturally forming stone that locks down space when you channel mana into it. The older the stone, the larger it is. The larger the stone, the more space you can seal. This one has a range that covers your misty mountains entirely. There's no way for you to escape this time”.
“You talk too much,” Yun said as he channeled mana into the vambraces on his arms. Pushing more and more mana into them, a simple, thin suit of armour faded into existence around him, sheathing his body in metal but leaving his mouth unguarded. There was a tipping point within Yun's process and moments after the armour solidified he cut off the mana supply. Putting any more into the suit would be a waste.
Wilbur raised an eyebrow at the knight now standing imposingly before him. “I only talk lots when I'm gloating,” he replied with a grin. “And right now it's hard not to”. As he finished speaking Wilbur swung his fists. He punched out at Yun with his batons on the side of his arms, much like Yun's vambraces. Yun thrust out with his needle, continuing to aim for Wilbur’s solar plexus. They crossed each other and Yun's blade cut into the Solutions Immortal, before sliding off into the air as he span his body in order for the strike to not skewer him. Simultaneously Wilbur’s fist was blocked by Yun, only for the baton to twist and strike Yun's head from over his guard. A fracture formed upon Yun's helm and they separated, with Wilbur twisting to the left and Yun stumbling to the right.
“How does it feel to have your teleportation locked away? To be unable to shrink distances? How does it feel to be as sluggish as everyone else?” They both took two steps back and glared at each other, Yun once again ignoring the insults peppered at him. “Why don't you attack me? Does this scare you that much?”
Feeling a rumble under his feet, Yun smiled. “I'm waiting”.
“Waiting for what?”
Yun pointed at the army before him. “Fire,” he said, his voice echoing through the hearts of those in front of him despite being barely more than a whisper.
Ten arrays lit up on the mountainside, glowing a deep red that portrayed the element they were aligned with. There was a soft hum before twisting coils of flame shot out into the crowd, exploding upon contact with anything and leaving searing, marks that bit deep into the flesh and bone. Screams followed each slavo as a second and third soon followed suit behind the original set of flaming corkscrews.
“Attack!” Wilbur shouted, as his army was being riddled with flame, before jumping back at Yun, his batons spinning at high speeds as he attacked both high and low upon Yun's chest.
With a flick of his wrist, Yun deflected both strikes before leaving a new flesh wound upon Wilbur’s right forearm. Wilbur stepped back and Yun thrust out with his blade. The blade caught upon Wilbur’s shirt and tore it as it traveled down, leaving a centimeter deep cut from his shoulder to his hip. In response, Wilbur struck out with his right fist and let go of his baton. Yun raised his blade and blocked the baton, which gave Wilbur the chance to twist round Yun and knock him to the side while retrieving his baton. Immediately they both got back into their combat stances and faced off. With the suppression of the stone they were evenly matched; this would be a long fight.
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