Chapter 251 Volume IV - Chapter 96: An Ultimate Move
Gurdas' curses echoed in my ears. Countless beams of light tried to find us through the trees.
How many minutes had it been, five or ten...?
After we decided to flee, it didn't take us long to realize that we were being chased. They had reached us faster than we thought, and now we were doing the only thing we could do: we were running.
We were being pursued by an army of its own through the trees that were getting denser and denser. Even stopping for a second could end badly.
"How far to go, Rulhan?!"
"Fifteen kilometers more!"
Fifteen kilometers... If we keep running at this pace, we have almost twenty more minutes.
I clicked my tongue, running at the fastest speed we could for twenty or fewer minutes wasn't really a big deal, but avoiding those behind us while doing it was the hard part.
"Durv-"
My words were abruptly interrupted when the beams of light coming from behind us suddenly intensified unexpectedly.
My eyes widened, and without waiting a second, I called out to Sith in my mind and jumped into the air, all the while shouting.
"Watch out!"
I was swept off my feet, a momentary gust of wind supported me from beneath my body and I leaped into the air.
Gurdas, Rulhan, and Durvan threw themselves to the sides; they quickly took cover. Immediately afterward, a loud sound echoed through the forest, and then, for just a moment, an intense silence enveloped the entire forest. The flames that had appeared at the spot where we had just run broke the silence noisily, kicking up dust in a small mushroom cloud.
The sound of the explosion rang in my ears, and the dust and light made me want to close my eyes, but I couldn't risk completely obscuring my vision.
I activated Spiritual Ascension, and Sith reacted quickly. My usual teal crown and bracelets appeared, while darker particles began to leak from my body into the atmosphere. I now had access to enormous amounts of Sith's mana.
'Sith, you have the defense.'
'Leave it to me.'
First I slowed my fall with the current I created around my body, then I raised my hands in the midst of all this light and dust and directed the wind again.
The dust that was blown up by the explosion followed the wind current I had created. With it, it spread much more effectively than it normally would and dispersed at a slower rate, in order to slow down the enemy troops' approach to us a little. Meanwhile, the brilliant light began to fade rapidly.
I hurried down. The first thing I checked was the three dwarves who had fled with me.
Gurdas seemed to be fine, busy getting to his feet as I looked at him. However, Rulhan and Durvan were not so lucky. They hadn't completely avoided the explosion, their clothes were full of burns and they were having difficulty standing up for the time being. Still, they did not appear to be badly injured. Their armor had protected them.
'Aiden!'
With the warning echoing in my mind, I gripped my sword tightly, quickly turned around, and found a figure in front of me.
It was fast, but not so much that I couldn't react.
I shielded myself with my sword, while the wind currents generated by Sith supported me and blocked the attack.
When our swords touched, I felt a tremendous force on my wrists, a force I never expected, especially when Spiritual Ascension was active. Therefore I stepped back involuntarily, losing my balance even for a moment.
I gritted my teeth, and as my opponent took advantage of the opportunity and threatened to slice me in half, I used my Ice Thorns skill, and a layer of ice quickly spread from the bottom of my foot to the ground. Countless thorns shot out of the ground in an instant and aimed at my target.
I saw his eyes squint through his helmet and heard him click his tongue. His sword stopped for a moment, he slowed down and stepped back to avoid the ice thorns.
A few seconds too late and I would have been staring at a sword that had sliced through my shoulder, maybe killed instantly. Now, thanks to the Ice Thorns, I was fine, I had regained my balance.
I looked at the person in front of me, and there stood the tallest and most well-built dwarf I was ever likely to see.
He was easily over one meter and sixty centimeters tall. His broad frame was reminiscent of someone who had been working out, especially to build muscle. If it weren't for his face, which made him look slightly older, I might have mistaken him for an athlete who had just started high school.
So that's why he was able to put so much strength into his sword... I'm not sure how much difference there is between us in terms of overall fighting capability, but he can certainly deliver heavier attacks than I can.
The built dwarf took a short step, pointing his sword at me. With that, the other dwarves, who were approaching us from behind, came into my field of vision.
I clicked my tongue and spoke in a low voice, keeping my eyes on the built dwarf.
"Gurdas, Rulhan, Durvan... let's split up. We will move forward in hiding and meet at the point we have been told. We make it easier for the enemy to search for us by moving together. Don't worry about me, I'm quite confident of escaping with my artifacts."
We had to hurry, all three of them were aware that they had no time to object to what I was saying. So, as much as they didn't want to, they got up and started running in different directions.
The first thing I did was to try to build a wall of flame around me, just like I had done in the archive room.
The dwarf in front of me didn't stand still while this was happening. He stretched, and when the flames were just beginning to surround my body, he rushed at me.
This is what I wanted, I had to finish this quickly. Otherwise, it would only be a matter of time before I was surrounded.
I squinted my eyes, held out my hands to him through the flames, and focused. I called out to Sith, but we had no communication, our minds were connected, so he knew instantly what I wanted to do and acted on it.
At first, I imagined a small field surrounding the dwarf who was about to plunge his sword into my chest. However... Sith did the opposite. He imagined another larger field surrounding the small field I had imagined.
A huge amount of mana was suddenly drained from the huge pool of mana that Spiritual Ascension had provided me. I felt my vision blur for a moment, then a metallic taste appeared in my mouth. It was hard on my body to use such large quantities of mana in one go, but I gritted my teeth and then clenched my fist, which I had extended to the dwarf to support what I had imagined.
The dwarf's eyes, which were only halfway to me, first focused on my fist and then widened. His vision blurred for a moment, and then his body suddenly shrank. It literally contracted, collapsing in on itself as if under tremendous pressure.
As if the atmosphere itself had collapsed on him for a moment, a harsh sound echoed through the space, followed by a strong gust of wind, which was released where it had been.
He didn't even have time to scream, there was no way he could be alive.
The requirements for the wind to form were simple. An area of high pressure and an area of low pressure. The high pressure would create a force toward the low pressure, creating the wind.
Wind magic, on the other hand, did not follow this rule; the winds created using mana were the force itself. However, if one had at least D- rank mastery on wind magic, they could have a small amount of control over pressure fields.
Factors such as Spiritual Ascension, the One Who is Close to Spirits, the direct use of my soul as a catalyst for the processing of mana, and the fact that I was assisted by Sith who, unlike me, had much greater control over wind magic, allowed me to bypass this small 'control' by using enormous amounts of mana.
Now, with this knowledge, what would happen if I could, simultaneously with Sith, maximize the pressure difference between a small area enclosing an object or person and a larger area surrounding it from the outside?
The result was before my eyes. It was a success, even though I had used mana that would have exceeded even the amount that Spiritual Ascension provided. The atmosphere literally collapsed on the man, just as I had imagined. The winds created tremendous pressure from all sides, forcing him to squeeze into a small spot and killing him quickly.
I had been thinking about this for a long time as a kind of ultimate move, but I doubted I would be able to put it into practice. Now I had succeeded, even if I had pushed my body too hard.
I smiled, happy to be able to do what I had in mind.
I finally deactivated Spiritual Ascension and completed the construction of the wall of flames. After becoming invisible in the flames using the charm as usual, I ran into the forest without looking back.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel