Chapter 57: Three Down
Three Down
Falael clearly hadn’t held back in his attack, as not only had the Stellar Ray egulfed the Raptor, it went further, drilling into the Ravine wall for lord knows how long. And when it subsided, there was a deep hole whose edges were red hot and molten.
And yet, no one relaxed.
Because the Raptor’s body couldn’t be seen.
Aubrey’s pupils shrunk, and without hesitation, she drew her dagger and spun. Barely blocking a swipe frome the Raptor that had materialized behind her. Sadly, her strength was still inferior to that of Xander, so she was thrown back several meters.
This sight caused everyone’s expression to change. How had it survived?
However, upon closer inspection, it was clear that the Raptor had not come out unscathed.
One side of its body was completely charred, and one of its eyes was missing. It seemed to struggle to put its weight on both legs, making it lean on the unharmed side to compensate.
’... I’m not too sure, but I think it changed the properties of its barrier at the last moment, which allowed it to escape Curtis’s net and teleport before it got completely hit.’ Aubrey said tentatively.
’... Okay now that’s just bullshit. How?!?’ Falael complained. However, Xander didn’t comment as he suddenly had a bad feeling.
He saw the Raptor turn to Aubrey again, and the strange shimmering space around it condensed on its claws.
Xander didn’t hesitate.
Feather Steps.
Flowing Tide.
His body surged forward and appeared right in front of Aubrey just as the Raptor swung its claws.
Rippling blades of space shot out, and Xander created a Water Screen to block them... only for it to get cleaved through with ease.
His pupils constricted, and he immediately performed Bladed Net, creating a wall of slashes to face the attack.
The two met...
And blood spilled.
Xander’s eye twitched as several deep gashes appeared all over his body, and his blood spurred out obscenely.
’Xander!’ The other three yelled out in unison, and on his shoulders, Mary and Keir shifted, clearly intending to teach the Raptor a lesson.
’... Fuck. I only tanked that because of how durable my body is from all that training.’ He thought as the vision in one eye turned red from the blood falling i to it.
’Milord, your injuries are severe.’ Mary spoke immediately, and Xander could not disagree. While he had withstood the attacks by weakening the force first, they still cut into him deeply. The worst, though, was his right hand. Several tendons in his fingers had been sliced clean through, making it impossible for him to hold his sword with both hands.
Meanwhile, Aubrey, Curtis, and Falael were not happy by this development.
Not at all.
The Raptor was getting ready to retreat when over a dozen magic circles of Starlight appeared around it, cutting off any path of escape.
What followed was a terrifying bombardment, and the Raptor was immediately pressured as it struggled to teleport and dodge the onslaught of attacks. But that wasn’t all. Scores of ice chains with sharpened tips also materialized and chased after it, and mana arrows shot towards it with uncanny accuracy.
However, whether it was due to the pain the Raptor was in, or the fact that it had been fighting them for a while, now. It too had adapted somewhat. So even with Aubrey’s call outs, hitting it was a struggle, especially with its barrier.
’Yeah... that thing is a problem.’ Xander sighed as he dropped his right hand, not attempting to use it anymore as it was completely out of commission.
Keir let out an enraged sound, but Xander glanced at him and shook his head. Weirdly enough, despite the pain, Xander did not lose his rationality, nor did he panic.
Instead, he put his sword into his spatial storage and took out another weapon.
The handle was small, clearly intended to be one handed. The hilt featured a complex aesthetic of sweeping, curved steel bars and rings. The blade was thin and long, resembling a needle rather than a standard sword.
Well, it wasn’t. It was a rapier.
He gradually entered a stance as his damaged right hand went behind his back, while the one wielding the rapier was held at shoulder level with his palm facing downward. This was an aggressive rapier stance called the Seconda.
Xander did not immediately move as he watched his teammates.
While they were angry, they still maintained their tasks excellently. Curtis prevented the Raptor from escaping as he continuously blocked off any possible escape routes using Aubrey’s help. Falael kept up the pressure by constantly raining down attacks from different complex angles, often shooting beams of starlight where the Raptor was meant to appear after a teleportation. And Aubrey maintained her job of giving call outs while keeping the pressure on the creature with her arrows.
Their coordination was clean, and Xander judged that, given enough time, the Raptor would make a mistake, and it would be killed.
’The issue is that we don’t have that time.’ There were only three minutes left before they had to retreat. Even if they wanted to go past the 10 minute timer, Xander was fairly certain that Mia would teleport them back regardless of how close they were to accomplishing their goal.
’So what can I do?’ Even though he asked himself that, he already had an answer, and it was his previous intention before.
Matching the frequency of space itself.
But the question from before still stood. How did one go about doing something like that?
Well, after he got hit by those spatial blades, he believed he’d gotten an answer.
’Space is everywhere.’ He recalled as he took a step forward, aggravating his wounds and causing more blood to spill, but he ignored it.
’However, it isn’t static.’ Xander often recalled an example physicists used when talking about space and gravity.
If space was a flat fabric, then something with a large amount of mass, like a planet, would cause this fabric to bend inwards. So if something with smaller mass appeared near this bent fabric, it would fall in towards the planet.
This was gravity.
That’s not what Xander was getting at, though. That memory just reminded him that space isn’t static. It, too has its own vibration. Like a background universal frequency. It also reminded him of the string theory which states that everything is made up of countless vibrating strings.
But even with this realization, being able to grasp the frequency of space itself should have been impossible.
Should have.
Xander took a breath, and he entered that state. Unifying his body’s frequency into a single, perfect state.
However, what he didn’t want was the efficiency. Rather, he chased after something else. The surrounding vibrations.
They became clear to him in this state, allowing him to more easily grasp and match the frequencies of different things. But that still wasn’t what he was after.
Slowly, he filtered everything out.
The sounds and frequencies from the battle, the air, the ground beneath his feet. All of it slowly disappeared in his mind. But that wasn’t all.
He closed his eyes and shut off the rest of his senses. Sight, smell, hearing, all of it. He couldn’t even hear his own breathing or his heartbeat. In a moment, he entered a world of utter silence and stillness.
But... it wasn’t still.
With everything truly and utterly silent, he sensed it. The hum.
It was so subtle, so inconspicuous, that were it not for the fact that absolutely everything else was quiet, Xander would have never noticed it.
But he did.
And it was terrifying.
This hum was everywhere. No matter what direction he sensed, it was there, and it felt... old, sacred, almost. Like it was something he shouldn’t even be considering to interact with. But he was undeterred.
Instinctively, he knew that if he tried to match the frequency with his rapier, it would shatter. This frequency wasn’t just any vibration, after all, it was the fundamental background of everything. The foundation on which the universe existed.
So he did something else. While his body’s frequency was united, he made the blade match it as well, unifying them into one.
There was a moment where he remained still. Then he acted.
Even though he couldn’t feel it, he instantly felt a massive chunk of his mana disappear as he forced his blade to match the frequency of space itself. But there was no visual effect or sound. Instead, it went eerily silent, and if his eyes were open, Xander would see the air around his blade warp. Not because of heat, but because the molecules didn’t know how to react to something vibrating at the frequency of space itself.
Then, he thrust forward.
There is no resistance, no "clash", no sound of cutting wind. The rapier doesn’t push atoms aside, it slips into the gaps of existence itself.
Despite not being near the Raptor, it’s as though distance between the weapon and the creature were meaningless.
The others did not notice anything, but the Raptor which was already attuned to space noticed it immediately, but it was too late.
A line simply appeared.
From where Xander’s rapier remained outstretched, all the way to, and through the Raptor, and into the distance.
Everything seemed to come to a standstill, and the three stopped their actions as they watched, confused and startled.
When they stared at that black line, they felt their vision blur. Because they didn’t actually look at anything. It was simply nothingness, as the space had been removed in that path. It did not reflect light. It was simply an opening to something empty beyond.
Then the Raptor fell, a thin hole in its skull, its one eye wide open. It didn’t even know how it died. But regardless.
Void Raptor, eliminated.
There was a moment of silence, then the different spells dissolved into nothing, the three letting out a relieved sigh. But the relief was short lived when they heard a panicked cry from Keir.
Turning to the side, their pupils constricted simultaneously.
Xander was still standing, arm still outstretched in a thrusting motion. However, the only thing that remained of the rapier was its hilt, the blade having disintegrated. But that’s not what was alarming.
Blood came out of Xander’s nose, eyes, ears, and mouth, his gaze dull and unfocused.
"Xander!" Mary had returned to her humanoid form as she immediately began to inspect his condition, and her shout snapped the rest out of their stupor, prompting them to rush towards him.
