The forest was on fire, and it was mostly not Gale's fault.
He ain't the one who came to attack, or cast that flame spell. It was that high gold. Gale merely defended it and redirected it to defend himself.
The man was dead. Gold ranker or not, he was mere charcoal now, burned along with the tree. The molten flame didn't even leave him much time to scream in agony as the fire took him. Still, it wasn't really a pleasant way to die, or kill someone, but under these circumstances, Gale would take anything.
The flames spread like wildfire around the surroundings, burning dry or live trees, respectively, as a pungent smell spread in the air. Nothing like the smell of natural burning. It had a dangerous vibe to it.
"Bastard!" the leader of the crew bellowed, shooting for Gale.
Gale recalled his spear as it materialised on his back again. He flew away to dodge the red demon-masked man. He was ready to avoid a direct collision and withdrew, but a slender figure engaged him, coming from up in the trees.
Eventually, they regrouped and surrounded Gale. Although a diminished number, they were still four of them, the strongest four of the gold rankers. One high gold, two mid gold and one low gold.
"Told you, it's a grave mistake," Gale said, turning his head around to scan the surroundings and his opponents. His eyes lingered on the only woman in the group—the one who could fly—she would be his target for now. After he dealt with her, he would have free rein over the sky. It would be a lot easier.
The four assassins brandished their weapon, and launched themselves at him, natural energy swirling around them with the boiling temperature. Gale put more fuel to the flame.
He shot a few rounds of fire crystal bombs at the assassin approaching him and flew away. A chain of bombardment reverberated in the surroundings, sadly only doing more damage to nature than the assassins. Still, it sent two of them flying, rendering Gale to have a direction to withdraw.
The lady assassin wasn't in the mood to let him go, not after he killed two of their numbers already. She chased after him, flaring her Qi, as skeletal bat wings appeared on her back. Her speed rose, easily contesting Gales, not to mention her movement while on the flight became better as well.
Gale wouldn't be able to lose her with sharp turns anymore. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one keeping her trump card. Gale had one of his own, though his one would be pretty devastating for her, her companions, and him.
Gale rose upwards, leaving behind the black smoke raised from the fire, the woman trailing right after him. He didn't stop his speed, or change direction, just flew upwards in the most direct way possible.
Goosebumps crawled upon his skin again as the woman swung her skeletal wings at him from behind.
Gale only managed to defend by using the Guardian Embelm's enhancement power to the fullest. Sadly, that wasn't his only problem, as they shot arrows in his direction, lethal and overwhelmingly fast, enough to damage a gold body.
Gale cursed under his breath and shoved the sharp wings aside with his spear. He lurched around to avoid the arrows, but he couldn't evade the lady assassin.
The woman was one clingy bitch, not leaving his trail for even a nick of a moment. Gale shot her a couple of fire crystal bombs, which once again bought him a neck of a moment to get out of her grasp.
He flew upwards towards the clouds, swirling his Qi, drawing in more and more, overflowing his system with energy to reach for the gathering clouds.
The temperature started to get chillier, and even the woman was having trouble flying upwards. Even the arrows lose most of their power to miss their aim.
At that very moment, Gale released his Trump card, reaching out to connect his Qi with natural energy.
Gale slowed down, even though he didn't intend too. He acknowledged this was as far as he could reach in his current ability. Well, it was well around 30000 feet alright.
The lady assassin tried to swoop him, noticing he was slowing down. Gale replied to her by gliding to the side and shoving a dropkick to her chest. Her figure was flung away, leaving Gale space to move up.
He settled himself in the air and reached out to connect with extrinsic Qi resonance.
"Oi, lady," Gale called after her, gasping for breath. There wasn't much breathable air in the surroundings, either. "Do you have a death grudge against me or what?"
The assassin didn't reply. Her arms transformed into two skeletal swords as she lurched at him again.
Gale dodged, spinning between her sword moves. "I'm only asking because… this is my first time doing what I am about to do next. I have no fine reason to do it, you know? I'm pretty sure one of us would be dead if I succeeded."
The woman continued in her relentless pursuit, swinging the long bone swords and pointy wings at him.
"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you," Gale muttered as he connected to the stormy cloud with everything he had. "Hopefully, you won't be in any position to say anything."
"Noisy," was the only word the woman uttered.
Then the gathering clouds dropped on them. Thunders clamoured and lightning flickered around them; thick smokey clouds swirled, bringing an apocalyptic vibe, enough to cause goosebumps on the residents of this town.
The woman stopped and scanned her surroundings. She lost Gale's figure in the thick swirling clouds. Thunder bellowed, shaking her heart, and finally, she found a figure in the middle of the storm.
His body was flickering with blue lightning, eyes glowing in the same glint as well. He eyed her, coldness boring into her figure.
The assassin's mind chilled. She could easily see her opponent had pulled something out of his depth, as he had to grit his teeth to keep everything in control.
"I'm not sorry," Gale said in a cold tone. Lightning sparked around him, threateningly, rendering the assassin to drop everything and flee. But it was too late.
She wasn't faster than lightning.
Gale threw all the power he received from tapping into the power of the storm as a frightening amount of lightning crashed into her, killing her instantly.
Her body turned into charred bits of ash instantly, as only her unique skeletal wings and other fate locks remained unhinged under the lightning.
Sadly, Gale had no time, energy, or way to put them into his collection.
Thunder boomed in the surroundings and Gale had to let go of his Intent of extrinsic Qi resonance, feeling the burn in his chest.
"Well, that went better than I imagined," he muttered.
But it appeared, he was too early to celebrate, as in the very next moment he lost control of his flight, free-falling from the sky.
The storm hadn't stopped, though. It started showering heavily the moment he dropped his dominion over it, but that wasn't his problem at that moment.
Gale tried to re-establish his intent on using the wind Qi. Thankfully, he had some Qi left in his body, just hard to grasp them when he was busy falling; when the lighting did a number on him, too.
On top of that, something hard and cold struck him from the top. It was harder than the raindrops. Icefall. No flakes of snow, but small chunks of ice were falling from the sky under the booming thunder.
Perhaps he influenced the icefall somehow, but this was good as well. At least the fire would be put off with this.
But Gale wouldn't have any of it, unless he landed safely.
20000 feet.
He clung onto Stormsong tightly, not letting it dematerialise, as that would make his situation even harder. He dropped all his power on the other fate lock and only focused on casting the wind Qi out.
14000 feet.
Gale barely managed to let out some strands of wind Qi, which barely did anything. Moreover, he was losing most of it before he could grasp it.
9000 feet.
Gale barely clinging to consciousness, when a chillness struck his head as his mind wide awoke, getting back his control over the Qi.
4000 feet.
Gale didn't release any wind Qi, but he wasn't that worried at all. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the mountains.
3000 feet.
It was showering rain properly now, though still with small chunks of ice mixed with them. Gale released the wind Qi as a sudden upward thrust downwards, rendering him through a tearing indignation, but he safely escaped a free-fall this way.
Gale slowed down as he flew down into the forest. He was about to swing his way to the north when abruptly an arrow came out of nowhere and struck him in his back.
This time there was no warming, no alert from his supernatural intuition. The arrow simply plunged into his back as Gale fell.
His vision blacked out for a few seconds as the chill came back to him, giving him the extra bit of lucidity needed to keep his clarity.
Gale wasn't sure what had happened, but he found, looking at himself as four fellows surrounded him. Three familiar, one with a long bow. One of them were hiding from the beginning. Gale could only swallow in regret now.
He was on the ground, on his knees, with the arrow struck at his body. Three of them walked over, closer to him as if preparing for the capital punishment.
"This is for the A'caen!"
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