"Are you trying to piss me off too? What was that for?" Maxim snapped with an absolutely disgusted look on her face. She was so mad at the sudden lull after Skullius' attack that her Genuine Incarnation collapsed, and she began to take eager steps towards Skullius.
Skullius raised both his hands in surrender.
"Hold on. I had my reasons for killing him. Goes way beyond wanting his Units," he defended himself. "Besides, look on the bright side, you won't have something else to distract you when we take on this high and mighty Mage."
"We?" Maxim snorted, beyond surprised by the audacity.
Clipping away at the tension, a surge of palpable excitement exploded from the third party in their midst, who, much like Maxim was completely unharmed after the devastating showcase. He looked to be minutes away from dragging Skullius off to a dark cave, and dissecting him, given the way he was staring in wonder.
"How did you do that? The way you controlled the mana... Those runes... You're not an Arma User, or even a Form User, are you? There's no way! No Form Using technique could achieve something like that! Tell me! How did you do it?"
Skullius looked a bit amused.
He allowed the remaining seconds from [Sword Quiescence] to run out, since he wasn't intending on taking the first step with these two opponents.
Tallo's rush had successfully doused the fiery instincts they all had going moments ago, and Skullius felt the same.
Awakening it when he wasn't sure he could win was unwise.
He had used the opening provided by his latest display to kill the braided man because... he could. He was hundred percent confident he could pull it off, since he knew a lot about the man.
As for these two; a woman with a Family Technique that turned anything flat, and could seemingly shut down the captured target's function, and then a Mage – likely a Prime Mage fresh from Apprenticeship, as far as Skullius could guess – who was also at the Master Stage.
It would be too reckless to attack. Unless of course, Skullius had Demion's Dance, which was probably still where Maxim and Tallo had been fighting, wiggling on the ground in a serpentine form.
Skullius gazed at Tallo, and smirked before repeating his answer to the Mage's previous inquiry.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he said, much to the curious man's frustration.
Maxim cut their exclusive interaction short. She faced Skullius, an eager gleam in her eyes.
"Unlike him, I've very interested in your Units. If he hadn't stalled me for the entire time you idiots were fighting here, I would have killed you all. And here you are, fattening yourself up with Units, and then having the gall to say we should cooperate."
Skullius smiled sheepishly.
He had been fattened himself up. He had almost forgotten that right now, he had earned back all the points he lost to the Mind Caster, and earned his own, thus left sitting comfortably at over 6,000 Glass Units!
Certainly, he must have looked appealing, especially with this numeric figure constantly displayed above him.
Skullius was about to retort, when he felt the presence of someone closing in on them at a mild pace. The three turned, and found that it was the short Swordsman.
His face had healed, and so had every part of his body that had been damaged by Skullius. Traces of heavy bleeding could be still seen however, and it wouldn't have been accurate to say he still retained the same confident snark from a while ago, dripping from his expression.
He was also pale, and didn't look to be able to recover his confrontational zeal any time soon – the sceptre sword, which he held weakly in his left hand, added to the observation.
'I knew, but still... I wanted to doubt that he'd survive that punch. He must have had some means to heal himself immediately after taking the hit,' Skullius assumed.
Maxim looked at the man with interest, and the Hybrid Luman discerned that she was likely about to kill him before anyone else did. This at least pointed to him that despite her threats, Maxim didn't take Skullius as lightly. Not after his latest display.
It made Skullius feel kind of proud.
The Hybrid Luman daringly drew his rock sword.
He wanted to reap the Swordsman too. For grudge's sake, of course. As for the consequences...
Well, the fires of confrontation were going to ignite back sooner or later.
In the next moment, Tallo smirked.
Something fast whipped towards the short Swordsman, and sped right through his head!
It had moved so quickly that its target didn't realised that he was already dead until a few seconds later, and as adverse fortune would have it, he was the first to see what had killed him.
It was lodged on one of the pillars a distance from the blackened, desolate land they were all standing in.
It was an arrow. A rather long one, with pristine white, feather fletching, and a shiny greyish body.
Skullius, and Maxim instantly went on guard despite the disappointment on their faces, which grew even more pronounced when the Glass Units the Swordsman were destroyed, this told by the illusion above his head.
"Looks like your fireworks drew THEM here even faster than my own," Tallo said.
He had sensed THEM just now. Just barely.
They were cloaked hiddenly, but his sensory capabilities which extended past the range of only mana, caught their figures which had surrounded the trio half a minute ago.
Skullius frowned.
[Graceless Hunter] had only hinted towards the fact that there were indeed enemies around them, hard to notice even with his powerful senses.
[Primal Caution] also issued severe warnings of danger looming around him, but it was unclear.
'What am I about to face this time?' Skullius thought, recalling that after facing the Beckoned Retriever, he had begun to pray for contenders as opponents instead.
Well, that thought had become debatable with time, but now, he was back to wondering if this was going to be a simple 'running unto Cluster beasts'.
He never forgot, after all.
This was a purple Cluster.
Maxim smacked her lips aggressively.
The new arrivals began to revealing themselves, and Skullius groaned.
Beckoned Retrievers.
About two dozen of them appeared from all around, edging into the charred zone the trio were standing in. They were bigger than the one he had faced off in the creepy forest, and more terrifying than that, was the fact that most of them had four tails, or more.
To add paper, paraffin, charcoal, and blend to the furnace, there were riders atop these beasts.
The moment Skullius noticed them, his face turned grave.
After Cluster diving countless times in the past two months, Skullius could recognise creatures' Tiers without the need of the guidance field, particularly double digit Tiered monsters.
The riders, all were.
They were humanoid. Somewhat. Maybe? A plethora of weapons covered their bodies.
They had so much dark, soft fur around their bodies, that it was hard to tell what they looked like underneath. Furry arms? Were those legs? A torso, and a full head of fur, in the most literal sense of the phrase?
It was honestly bizarre.
Skullius leaned in close to Maxim, and whispered.
"You know what these four-legged creatures are, right? You sure you still don't want to team up?" he asked.
Surprisingly, Maxim didn't reply with another forced threat. She looked to be greatly annoyed at the sight of the black, jaguar-like beasts that were the rides for the fuzzy bears, spelling aloud that she had run into them before.
The pink-haired woman harrumphed.
"And you?" Skullius asked Tallo.
"I haven't met any of these since coming here. If you're that apprehensive of them, then maybe their worth the time," was the Mage's reply.
"Worth the time my foot."
The beasts and their riders stood, surrounding Skullius and crew in a perfect circle.
They didn't move an inch even after that, and only stood staring (?), at the group.
It was when they had gotten this close, that the trio noticed that something was in each of the mouths of the Retrievers. Large chunks of crystalline amber rocks could be seen.
Maxim, and Tallo recognised the colour, and texture of the rocks to match those of the large, egg-shaped amber mass surrounded by what looked like offerings, which had been standing proudly where they had appeared after being drawn by the Draw Bubble.
What was this about?
What was that rock anyway?
Was it a bad thing that Skullius had turn it to dust?
Skullius was prepared to pounce, but he didn't forget his experience with the clouds, and thus he kept a keen focus above for the slightest trace of mana convergence. Tallo, and Maxim seemed prepared too, not daring to underestimate the situation enough to ignore it.
Then...
Tp. Tp. Tp.
The sound of heavy, grating footsteps pounded on the ground, increasing the tension further.
Another Retriever emerged, its size quite a fair bit larger than the rest, and its dark fur riddled with white stripes all the way to its six, long tails.
Atop it sat a rider.
Skullius whispered to the duo as if it had become the most natural thing to do.
"I do not like this."
Disregarding the fact that none of the three could discern his presence, or his power as casually as they could with the rest, his appearance had already spoiled the fact he was a menace.
Unlike the other dark furred riders, he had a more modest amount of lustrous silver fur on his body. Most of it was covered by the whitish grey, baggy outfit he wore, which looked strangely traditional – a loose, long sleeved top with a very low neckline which exposed his furry chest, and thick pants with three deep maroon sashes tied around its waist.
There was nothing at its feet, but this allowed one to appreciate the evenness of the skin tone of the rider. Its face, which could be seen, surrounded by thick, silver furs that united beard, and hair into one, two dark eyes without pupil, or iris gleamed darkly, and a thin lipped mouth, matched its feet – tonally.
The rider disembarked from his beast, and took slow steps towards the trio fearlessly.
The group turned tense.
But things got worse when the silver furred beast opened his mouth.
"Distant kin... Are you the ones we were told to slaughter?"
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