Master Kale, amidst the ruins of what once were hallowed grounds of learning, faced his new adversary with a grim look.
The spine-mace creature, having failed to incapacitate him with its initial sneak attack, begun launching more spines.
Around them, the academy and city was a maelstrom of destruction, with the sounds of battle echoing through the air.
Ever so frequently it was punctuated by the distant sonic booms of a titanic clash high above. The two powerhouses during it out far in the atmosphere.
With the silver aura still shimmering around him, Master Kale stood with a defiant stance. His hawk-like spear defended against each of the missiles that came his way. His constellation, in it’s hawk-shaped glory blazed brightly overhead, casting an ethereal glow. The constellation sent star dust down from it’s figure towards him, empowering him with a much higher tier of power and mana.
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This constellation was a trademark of Spirit Ascension level warrior’s cultivations. This connection to a higher tier of divine mana from the realm of the Elder Gods was what gave Spirit Ascension cultivators their ability to fly. It made them take a tiny small step into their realm and gave Demi-god-like powers. It was a major upgrade from the first three levels of the cultivation journey.
Despite the blood that stained his robes and the wounds that marred his body, Master Karl’s eyes burned with an unyielding sharp gleam. He was a warrior who had seen countless battles and this wasn’t his first defense against the Abyss.
But the abyssal forces that surrounded him were relentless. As he engaged the spine-mace creature, maneuvering with expert precision to pierce its bizarrely slender form, a new threat emerged.
From the blood-hued sky, due to the portal’s glow, six gargoyles with bodies hewn from stone and darkness, descended with fury towards Master Kale.
These new foes were each at the Spirit Ascension stage as well. They looked nearly identical to the ones found and fought against in the elemental plane’s trial, but they had eyes that were not the mindless, instinct-driven ones Lassim faced. No, they were glowing with a guided and controlled hunger for destruction.
Master Kale, now outnumbered and flanked, fought with desperation as his body slowly bled out. The previous sneak attack had punctured his liver and kidney.
He attacked with his spear in a deadly war dance; his form practiced and each movement refined. The spear’s tip glinted in the chaos with each attack, breaking off chunks of the gargoyles’ stone-like bodies.
Yet, with each strike, the creatures seemed to quickly regenerate. Fueled by a density of abyssal energy, their rocky forms knit back together. It looked like the growing of crystals, except it was obsidian-like stone and took mere seconds.
The academy’s elders, meanwhile, were fighting their own battles across the city.
Stretched thin and flagging under the relentless onslaught, they struggled to stem the tide of the invasion. Their barriers flickered and waned as more of the legion’s creatures poured through the still-open portal, each wave more ferocious than the last.
Thankfully, more cultivators from distant kingdoms and nearby areas were arriving to assist every moment.
Above them, the sky was a canvas of violence. The distant battle between Headmaster Ferrum and the slug-like lieutenant sent shockwaves through the air. The impacts of their conflict resonating outwards, creating sonic booms that reverberated through the besieged area.
Some creatures, too stupid and controlled by their hunger, tried to reach the space where the two Transcendent stage beings were fighting, only to be blasted to smithereens by the sheer power the duo launched at each other casually
On the ground, Master Kale’s situation grew increasingly dire. His silver aura flickered as his strength waned, the constellation above straining to maintain its brilliance.
The gargoyles, sensing his faltering energy, pressed their advantage. They attacked with their stone claws and struck at him with deadly precision.
Blood, bright against his silver glow, spurted from new wounds as the creatures found their marks.
Each blow drained more of his vitality. His movements becoming slower and more labored. Yet, his resolve never wavered; if anything, it burned brighter, fueled by the imminent threat to his home and his students.
"I won’t fall here! Come at me you rocks for brains!" Master Kale antagonized them as he continued fighting against 7 Spirit Ascension creatures by himself.
Around him, the defenders fought with a similar desperation. The academy’s once-proud edifices were continually crumbling under the assault. Statues of revered figures toppled, and classrooms, filled with centuries of history where generations of current day leaders were once taught, now burned or lay in ruin.
The very heart of the continent’s number one magical education was under threat of being extinguished by the abyssal legion’s unforgiving advance.
In the end, Master Kale, surrounded by enemies, made a stand that would be remembered.
His spear, a blur of motion, carved a swathe through his assailants. His every move an example of perfecting his years of combat and his defense a dedication to the next generation of the academy.
The fight was brutal, an epitome of the struggle between the continent’s guardians and the abyss’s endless hordes. A single man fought against a horde of enemies by himself.
Yet, it wasn’t enough.
A giant, beholder-type creature, appeared through the portal. It looked like a starfish with a giant eye in the middle of where its mouth would be.
It quickly rose into the air with a limber spinning and rotating motion. Its five limbs then began to undulate with an eeriness as they absorbed and channeled dark abyssal mana from the tips to the center where its eye was. Its deep red eye suddenly turned jet black as the mana covered it like a lens.
Then, without any other warning, a horrifying death beam shot out towards Master Kale’s location.
Master Kale, his energy reserves already taxed from the relentless battle, sensed the impending ray coming towards him.
With little time to react, he called forth the entirety of his remaining cultivation essence, a lifetime into a single defining defense.
From his already radiant silver glow, a giant hawk, composed entirely of gleaming steel, materializing in front of him in the direction of the beam. This Steel Hawk was his elemental spirit. It was his lifelong friend and the majestic being of power and grace that embodied the entire path of his cultivation journey.
In that fleeting moment, they communicated without words. Master Kale, with a nod of respect and affection to his lifelong companion, combined his strength with the steel hawk.
Together, they prepared to counter the destructive force barreling towards them. The air screeched from the intensity of their combined energies going all out, as they readied their defense against the dark beam.
As the beam struck, a cataclysmic explosion of light and dark energy erupted. Master Kale and his steel hawk, merged their figures in their final act of defiance which shone like a supernova against the encroaching darkness. Razor thin slices of metal energy sliced away at the incoming beam.
They fought valiantly to repel it with their combined force a spectacle the nearby Elders could only watch take place.
But the abyssal creature’s attack was too much. It was overwhelming. Despite their incredible effort, the beam penetrated their defenses.
The area around Master Kale was consumed in a blinding flash, the death beam vaporizing them instantly, leaving behind a void where they once stood. The gargoyles and the spine-mace creature also vaporized in the beam’s light.
The sudden loss of Master Kale, a pillar of the academy and a symbol of its strength, sent shockwaves through the battlefield.
The surrounding elders, witnessing the fall of their comrade, were engulfed in a mix of grief and fury. Their spells and attacks intensified in ferocity as they fought to avenge his sacrifice.
Elder Valeria roared in grief and activated her [Grand Aegis], a bit too late, but still, as ten various ice elemental creatures spawned and began to assist the other Elders whose situations were worsening. She had held back her trump card and now she regretted it.
High above, amidst the stratosphere where Headmaster Ferrum battled the lieutenant, a guttural howl of anguish and rage pierced the heavens. The Headmaster, feeling the life force of his fellow Elder extinguish, unleashed a torrent of power. His battle with the abyssal lieutenant turning even more frenzied and desperate.
His great axe swung with more vigor, each strike fueled by his surging wrath and sorrow.
The academy’s grounds, already a scene of devastation, trembled under the aftershocks of Master Kale’s demise. His loss was a grievous blow to the defenders.
Yet, this wasn’t new situation for Nexarians. They’d been fighting the forces of the Dragal’s invasions for millennia. While, yes, they were grief stricken, it only ignited a flame of their eternal resistance.
Each Elder and guardian channeled their grief into strength, fighting with a renewed purpose to protect the future that Master Kale and others had given their lives for.
The battle raged on. The sky, city and academy grounds alight with the clashes of the abyssal and Nexarian cultivator forces.