Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse
Chapter 312: Two versus Two

Gan Salin ran close to the ground, keeping his body low. A hail of green spheres flew at him but he danced right through. He cut to the right, narrowly dodging a fast-falling feather, then focused on the metal claw he wore and jutted it forward.

“FIVE STAR GRASP!”

The eagler struck back with a claw of his own. Nail met blade. Both fighters pressed on, and both were eventually pushed back.

“I got this!” Salin exclaimed in joy.

“You got nothing!” Fesh Wui retorted. “Die for me!”

He flapped his wings thrice. With each flap, a few sharp feathers broke off and flew at Salin like needles, while the wings quickly grew new ones back out.

However, Gan Salin had seen this attack too many times already. He predicted the feather trajectories and curved reality to pass through them, suddenly appearing over the eagler’s head. He smashed down. His gauntlet’s blades, each half a foot long and wickedly sharp, aimed for the top of the eagler’s head and missed, barely scraping the skin as the opponent flew away.

Salin tsked. “Stop running!” he commanded.

“I’m a bird, idiot! I can do whatever I want!”

Fesh Wui circled Salin from above, where the canine couldn’t reach. He no longer shot feathers. Instead, his wing flaps produced hurricanes, which angled down to crash on Gan Salin. He ran away to dodge but the hurricanes followed—soon, there were four of them, carving the white stone floor as they chased the canine.

“This is unfair!” he exclaimed. “I can’t fly!”

“That’s your problem! Wind Way!”

A cyan gust of wind was unleashed from the eagler’s body, turning through the air to join the hurricanes. Salin was now running away from five attacks, one of which was partially invisible.

Suddenly, he disappeared. He didn’t teleport—as he didn’t know how—but he warped reality to change his position, suddenly falling at the eagler from below. Four more bodies appeared, each a mirror image of Salin approaching the opponent from different directions. Only one body was real, but telling them apart was not easy.

The eagler cawed. A sphere of wind erupted from his body, slowing down Salin and all his clones while Fesh Wui folded his wings and fell like a bullet, quickly spreading them again to regain his altitude a hundred feet away.

Gan Salin, who remained floating in mid-air, was now targetless. He tsked as the hurricanes and cyan gust flew at him. Once again, he had to tug at his Dao hard to twist reality, reappearing on the ground. “Shit,” he muttered, panting, “I can’t catch this guy. I’m stronger than him, but he’s too fast!”

High in the sky, Fesh Wui laughed. More attacks flew towards Gan Salin, who kept evading.

Close by, Nauja summoned wind arrow after arrow and shot them at the elef. Ten of them flew out every second. Yet, the elef took them all. Green shields appeared around her, absorbing the impact and changing the arrow trajectories. These shields were slanted, too, needing minimal energy to redirect the blows.

“Damn it!” Nauja shouted with growing despair. “Just die already!”

She was stronger than the elef. Shooting arrows was much easier than redirecting them. In a protracted battle, she would win.

Unfortunately, the elef was only trying to buy time. The eagler was pressuring Gan Salin; unless she did something, things looked grim. However, if she tried to shoot at the eagler, she would be leaving herself open to the elef’s attacks.

It was infuriating because both Nauja and Gan Salin were stronger than the opposing duo, and they were also more used to working together. It was just that the eagler was too fast for Gan Salin and could fly, while the elef’s defensive strength was a terrible match-up for Nauja’s strong but straight-forward arrows.

“Nauja!” Gan Salin shouted. “Careful!”

She turned to find him running straight towards her, with four hurricanes and a suspicious gust of wind in tow. “Wha—” She cut herself off and jumped away, letting the sharp winds pass her by. As she landed, a green aura pressed her down, and the eagler’s sharp attacks all flew at her.

“Why did you run at me, idiot!?” she shouted, pushing against the floor to run away. Needle-like feathers pierced into the white stone tiles around her, while the green aura made her feel nauseated and weak.

“I was in a bad match-up!” Salin shouted from somewhere far away. “Let’s work together!”

She cursed, diving into a roll and finishing with her bow drawn. She pointed at the direction his shout came from, aimed better, and fired. An arrow of wind crossed the sky to fly directly towards the eagler, who hastily spun around himself to dodge. Salin was next to him already, sending out a flurry of blows using four mirror image bodies. The eagler cawed and tried to defend. The ground cracked as the elef scion pointed her trunk at him and unleashed a reverse rain of green spheres, spreading them across the four bodies, all of which dispersed into thin air. None of them was real.

A triumphant cry resounded: “Behind you, idiot!”

Gan Salin jumped on the elef’s back, where she couldn’t block him. He brandished his claws and struck down, cleaving ribbons of fat off her back. An explosion of life energy sent him flying, landing in a roll. The elef was panting and bleeding profusely, but at the end of the day, she was nine feet tall and just as wide, possessing the durability of a defensive peak E-Grade. His short few attacks were far from enough to take her down.

But they could enrage her.

The elef raised her trunk to the sky and trumpeted. Maybe she wasn’t the strongest, maybe nobody bothered to remember her name often, but she remained a proud scion of the Animal Kingdom!

The green aura on her body expanded to cover the ground. A sinking feeling overtook both Gan Salin and Nauja. They felt their bodies breaking down, their hearts struggling with every beat, their brains turning lazy. The ground drew at them, tempting them to fall to their knees and die, like they were faced with an overwhelming threat. The elef had turned their very instincts against them. At the same time, the eagler rushed them like the wind.

Nauja gritted her teeth to keep herself upright, fighting the death urges to nock another arrow.

Gan Salin laughed and said, “Bitch please. I have no instincts. I’m insane!”

He stormed forward as if unaffected, meeting the eagler mid-air and exchanging a flurry of blows. He came out ahead. The eagler flew back while bleeding from wounds that the elef’s aura quickly healed, and Gan Salin kept running to fall on the elef again.

Or, at least, he tried. At the last moment, the elef changed her aura. The green Dao turned a vivid red. It became pain.

Nauja screamed. Suddenly, her body felt as if every muscle was pierced by needles, every tendon pulled until it tore. Her nocked arrow dispersed, and only the many years of muscle memory let her hold on to her bow. At the same time, Gan Salin screamed, too. His charge was imbalanced, and the elef slammed her trunk into him hard enough to send him flying into Nauja, dropping both to the ground.

Nauja tried to speak but was unable to. All she could do was gasp. The pain was too much.

The elef’s eyes were bloodshot. Her deep voice rumbled over the battlefield: “A healer benefits from extended battle, you fools. I have finally gathered enough injuries to activate my ultimate skill. All the pain you have inflicted on us…receive it tenfold.”

She was panting. Clearly, whatever skill this was took a lot out of her, but to great effect. Nauja strained to even observe the enemies properly. She knew she had to be on guard, she knew she was in a battle to the death, but it was just too difficult. Nothing could have prepared her for this.

Finally, utilizing every scrap of willpower she possessed, she managed to focus her eyesight. She saw that the elef and eagler both stood half a mile away. She didn’t know how they’d gotten that far—had she rolled back, or had they retreated? Empty space stretched between them, colored crimson, though other battles took place far to their left and right. Gan Salin lied behind her.

“That’s it!” the eagler cawed in excitement. “Hold them there, and I will finish them off!” He took to the sky, summoning a deep cyan sphere around him. Nauja also cultivated the Dao of Wind. She could feel him charging up a single, massive attack.

But she was powerless. She could not move. The pain was overwhelming, the worst she’d ever felt. Her knuckles were white around her bow, and she suspected that she couldn’t let go if she wanted to. All she could do was wait for the attack to arrive and exterminate her.

Suddenly, however, she heard a light tapping sound. A foot entered her field of vision. Then another. Slowly, one tortured step at a time, Gan Salin walked before her and stood hunched, his entire body shaking. She couldn’t see his face, but she was sure it was completely pale.

How is he walking in this pain? she asked herself, unable to form the words. How is he even standing?

“Hey, Nauja,” Salin said, not turning around. His voice was the most strained she’d ever heard. His pain was clear. It made her heart bleed. “I will protect you,” he continued. “Shoot them down, please. I cannot reach that far.”

She tried to respond but couldn’t. If she opened her mouth right now, only screams would emerge. She couldn’t shoot them. She couldn’t form wind arrows, let alone aim! Even if she could, there was no way she could finish them from this distance.

“I know it’s hard,” Salin continued, his voice a mix of pain and tenderness. “But you can do it. You have the Sun Piercing Arrow—it’s so beautiful and strong. Focus and shoot it. Please.”

I can’t! she wanted to shout. I can’t!

The Sun Piercing Arrow was a skill that took a lot of concentration to pull off. She still only had it at the first tier—she was a novice. There was no way to use it without absolute focus.

But she couldn’t speak to tell him that. He didn’t know. Or rather, he did, but it looked like he didn’t remember. He simply stood there, back hunched, legs shaking, shielding her from any attack that could come her way.

“Sit back down!” the elef roared, pointing her trunk at him and releasing a trio of green spheres.

Gan Salin ignored them. “I know you can’t speak,” he said softly. “That’s okay. Just shoot. I believe in you.”

Nauja watched with horror as the green spheres drilled into his body. She saw him go still then shiver. She saw his skin tingle and swim as if the bone underneath was wiggling.

She had been impacted by those spheres herself before, and she remembered the disgust all too vividly. If it was coupled with this red aura…only a madman could take it. Gan Salin remained standing. He did not shout or scream. He simply waited, believing in her.

Tears threatened to well up in her eyes. She couldn’t shoot. Run! she wanted to scream. Run!

“Idiot!” the eagler shouted, still gathering energy to unleash his attack. “Sit down already!” Pausing for a second, he flapped his wings, shooting out a dozen needle-like feathers.

They took time to cross the half-mile distance. Salin certainly saw them coming. Yet, he did not move; if he did, the feathers would hit Nauja.

As it was, they hit him instead. Nauja watched as the dozen needles pierced into his body, spurting out blood. She saw him shake but not fall. This time, he did scream. His fists clenched harder, and he wobbled, but he remained upright.

“Never!” he shouted, letting more of his insanity shine through.

No! Nauja realized. It’s not insanity. This is… He’s fully conscious! It’s pure willpower! The tears in her eyes, which she had desperately fought down before, resurfaced. This man was protecting her with his body while she couldn’t move. He believed in her.

And she couldn’t shoot.

Idiot, she thought, letting the tears flow. Barbarians never cried, but she couldn’t hold them back anymore. Idiot. Just run. Leave me.

But Salin wasn’t moving. He stood there, hurt but proud, shielding her over his own excruciating pain.

She didn’t know what expression he wore, but it must have been terrifying. Her sharp eyesight noticed the eagler and elef exchange wary glances. “Whatever!” the eagler shouted, charing up his attack even harder. It was now a large sphere housing dozens of sharp gusts, each blowing with enough force to uproot trees. “There is no way you can stand this too!”

“I can’t,” Salin replied, his voice so weak that even Nauja could barely hear him. “But I don’t have to. She will save me.”

I can’t shoot! she tried to shout, but it was helpless. She opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs, forgoing her dignity in the hopes that he would understand and run, but even then, he did not budge.

“It’s okay,” was all he said. “I believe in you.”

Nauja was crying and screaming. Why!? she roared in her mind. Why are you doing this?

“Wanna know why?” he asked as if he’d read her thoughts. He coughed blood once before continuing. “Once, I was insane. I still am. But now, I possess something greater—loyalty. Jack taught me that. Brock helped me realize it. I don’t care about survival. With my friend behind my back, no matter how many attacks fly at me…” She still couldn't see his face, but she saw the blood-soaked, salty tears land on the white stone floor as he shouted, “I WILL NEVER STEP AWAY!”

The eagler’s wind sphere opened at the front. The gusts trapped inside crowded at the entrance and squeezed out, all launched at Gan Salin and Nauja behind him with tremendous force, about to tear them to pieces. “Sack of Aeolus!” the eagler shouted.

Nauja was frozen. Time had almost stopped around her. The attack came painfully slowly, though she still couldn’t move.

How? she asked herself. How can he do that?

It was excruciating pain piled on excruciating pain. It was the fear of death. Yet, he stood there, ignoring it all to protect her.

Maybe she couldn’t shoot. But, faced with his burning resolve, how could she not try!?

Let us die together, she thought with sweet bitterness, fighting against the pain to nock another arrow. She did not stand up, but she shakily tried to aim at the opponents. Every movement burned. Her body protested, warning her that she could die, and the pain flared. Yet, she carried on, because how could a proud barbarian let her friend die before her?

She was Nauja. A barbarian from the Tri Lake tribe of Trial Planet. A cultivator following the Dao of Wind, who abandoned her home forever to travel the world. Even now, at death’s doorstep, she did not regret that. She had met such wonderful people. Had seen such wonderful sights. She would rather die than stagnate, because she was wind.

Ever forward. Never looking back. The world was full of pain, tribulations, and resistance, but they only fueled her, making her stronger instead of spent. She danced through life with laughter, opening her palms wide and reaping what she could. Just like the wind.

Just like the Sun Piercing Arrow.

It was like her eyes opened for the first time. The Dao was there, beckoning her. She realized the truth, realized why the Sun Piercing Arrow refused to evolve beyond the first tier. Because it wasn’t her skill. Not yet.

But it could be.

System notifications rang in her ears. The ecstasy of the Dao filled her completely, momentarily overtaking even the torturous pain. She fell into absolute concentration. Time froze and everything became crystal clear. Her aim was true.

She pulled back her arrow and let it loose, gifting it with all her insights to carry.

The arrow left the bow—its home. It shot forth, grinding against the air, enduring all the forces that pushed it down and made it weaker. It absorbed them to enhance itself, become stronger and wiser. It found joy in advancing. This was more than just an arrow; it had a soul of its own, an evergreen Dao, a fluttering mane of truth. The natural laws made it grow weaker with distance, but at the same time, it pulled the ambient Dao along, wearing it as a mantle of power. With every foot it traveled, it grew. Its power spiked out of proportion.

This lone arrow rammed into the eagler’s winds and parted them like curtains, dispersing them in all directions. It carried on, its trajectory unchanged, its spent energy quickly refueling from the vast reserves of the world itself. The eagler widened his eyes. The elef crossed her arms.

The arrow reached them both. It easily pierced into the elef’s body and emerged from the other side, its mantle of wind razing her insides. It then exploded as it passed below the eagler, releasing a storm of power that echoed across the entire Integration Starship. The eagler was blown hundreds of feet into the air, then fell to the ground with the sound of breaking bones. The elef collapsed at roughly the same time with all her organs pierced.

The pain stopped. The red aura disappeared, and the world turned calm. Nauja felt more exhausted than she ever had before. She was completely spent, but also extremely joyous. She let herself slump to the ground, opening her arms as wide as her smile.

Gan Salin fell to the ground beside her, also with his arms wide. He was still bleeding from the feather wounds, but his regeneration could handle those.

“See?” he said with a grin that Nauja couldn’t see, but she knew it was the stupid, confident kind. “I told you you could do it.”

“Fuck you,” she muttered, unable to hold her smile.

“Promise?”

They both laughed. Though the battle still raged around them, they had a moment to rest—once they recovered a bit, they would try to help the main army.

In the battle of two warriors versus the two scions… Gan Salin and Nauja won!