Chapter 637: Anrosh |
Opening
The first thing Anrosh did after Ryun vanished was to turn and run. Because of course she did, what else was she supposed to do when she got thrown into the jaws of the beast? No, that would’ve actually been preferable to what Ryun had done now. He had thrown her in the middle of an army, with no preparation, no heads up, nothing, and expected her to fight it.
Her escape went by unanswered for a few long seconds; the enemy had to have been as confused as she was; she just acted first. She jumped into what was obviously a newly formed canyon, created by the battle that happened here before her. The walls of the cut earth were still hot, some parts even molten still. She counted that her Ivory Ring of the Hidden Power would help her from being discovered immediately—it masked her advancement, but also her power usage. Though she knew that her enemy’s sensors would detect her quickly, she just needed to get as far away as she could.
A voice thundered behind, transmitted through speakers. “How dare you!”
She had suspected it before, but now she had it confirmed. Ryun had thrown her against the Herald himself. She couldn’t imagine what he was thinking.
She tuned out the rest of the Herald’s raging and focused on getting away. Qi flowed through her body and empowered her with {Glacial Onslaught}. With her increased strength she started leaping forward instead of relying on her speed. She didn’t get far. It didn’t take too long for the army in the sky above her to turn its focus on her.
Anrosh didn’t detect any attempts to locate her, but then again, her perception wasn’t nearly as sophisticated as Ryun’s, even with her newly advanced skills. She knew that she was located because a barrage of enemy fire descended down on top of her.
Light burned so brightly that even with the protection of her helmet, she couldn’t see anything. A sound like burning forest or perhaps a cascade of a large waterfall filled her ears. The lasers that were the Exalted Empire’s most commonly used weapon carved the canyon she was in deeper, shattering her footing and turning her last leap into a rolling ragdoll maneuver that sent her crashing against the stone wall that was in the process of coming down.
Boulders smashed into her and sent her down to the burning ground, but her armor protected her from damage, both that of her surroundings and the enemy.
The barrage from above didn’t stop, even as she stumbled and jumped trying to gain distance. Shard of the Lazik Demon shield to batter away the larger pieces of stone falling while the light rain kept pouring down onto her. In hindsight, trying to run through such a narrow wound in the ground was a mistake. She was sure that Ryun was laughing at her from somewhere; she knew that he was watching. She wanted to curse at him, but she didn’t have the time nor was she able to take enough of a breath in order to be able to speak—the air all around her was scorching hot enough and filled with all kinds of smoke and molten shit that it would probably burn her insides if she tried.
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The fact that the attack fire was tracking her as she ran meant that they could see her through all this noise; soon they would realize that they weren’t harming her and start throwing something else at her.
She had to change tactics.
Silently, she cursed Ryun again for throwing her into the fire once again, but then she forced herself to calm down. Ryun was her family, he would’ve never thrown her into danger for no reason or placed her in danger that he thought she had no chance of surviving. True, his criteria for what was too much danger were far different than those of anybody else, but she trusted him.
He expected her to fight an army, to fight the Herald of the Machine, and to win. Inside, she was terrified, her thoughts drifted to Kri and Nayra, but then she pushed them away and focused.
Anrosh used her |Perfect Split Thoughts: My Mind, Parallel|, Ryun had gotten a tome for her and attempted to teach her how to get his |Split Mind| version but she was unable to evolve in the same direction. Her skill split her thoughts, allowing her to think in parallel. As one side focused on moving her body and running, the other focused on a counterattack.
She triggered her Greater Qi Anchor spending two of her anchored techniques to instantly summon two of her avatars.
One {Avatar of Frost} jumped straight up, her parallel thoughts guiding it to craft a {Glacial Armor} around it while using {Glacial Shaping} to divert or soften most of the fire coming at her.
The second remained behind Anrosh as she continued running. An explosion surrounded it almost immediately, the consequence of the cold emanating from it meeting the scorching heat around it. It’s Qi churned, charging up a massive technique. Copies of her sword, Kagehime, formed around her second avatar, and then it too leapt up, after the first one.
Her first avatar carved the way, taking on most of the fire and was quickly overwhelmed, its Qi spent and lasers hitting the Qi formed body, tearing it apart. But it was enough. Her other avatar had managed to follow it high enough that it was above the canyon. Through her |Perfect Vibration Sense|, an evolution of her |Greater Echo Sense|, she was able to tell that there were enemy crafts just above her.
Her avatar unleashed its technique even as it was being targeted by lasers from all around. Swords made from Absolute Cold Qi crashed into the small enemy attack craft as an {Arctic Sword Storm} was unleashed. Her attack took down half a dozen of the enemies just before it was destroyed.
The fire on her location lessened as her avatars caused a distraction, allowing her enough room to get out of the canyon while avoiding getting targeted by everything above her. She pulled on something deep inside of her Soul, and it answered. A sensation of sorrow washed over her, memories of past hardship flashed before her eyes, but were quickly pushed aside as she felt something crawl over her skin and cover her entire body.
The Bearer of Chilling Sorrow pulsed inside her Soul and body. She felt the sharp thump of her Qi suddenly deepening. She felt her power increase, her attributes and her Qi growing more powerful.
She leapt out of the ground and landed up on the surface looking around. There were still too many enemy flying vessels everywhere, speckled in with their mechs.
The enemy had finally changed tactics. Suddenly, missiles were launched and started flying in her direction; thousands filled the air in a mere second.
Anrosh did several things all at once. She channeled her Absolute Cold Aura through Chilling Sorrow, expanding it in a massive sphere all around her, while she used her Master of Absolute Cold to exert her influence on her Qi and the Essence all around her. The battlefield was already filled with remnants of End-related Essences, and she tapped into those too.
In a moment, all the enemy missiles froze in the air before they reached her. She stretched further, targeting their vessels, but those were designed to work in the Void; it was far harder to disable them, though she knew that she was doing damage as their engines flared and they quickly moved out, running out of her range.
She grimaced, she knew that she couldn’t let them keep their range advantage. She was certain that they had weapons that could be used in the Void, and she had to assume those would be harder for her power to affect. She had to close the distance before they shifted gears.
She straightened, tightened her grip on her sword and hefted her shield, then she leapt forward.