The Lone Wanderer
Chapter 338: Faces

Rivers of fiends shot at Percy and Sol from every direction, the swarm flying soundlessly above the still water. The only sounds breaking the eerie silence of the lake were the crisp notes released by the beast’s powerful hops in the distance, as well as the girl’s rhythmic breaths.

‘We’re at a disadvantage!’ she said.

Percy nodded, having noticed the same. The mantis wielded the swarm like a mage would their mana. The only difference was that the beast wasn’t limited by the capacity of its core: it instead had an endless supply of fiends to order around. Many died blocking the spinning sickles, but more flew in to replace them.

The good news was that Percy and Sol weren’t as limited by their cores either. The Dance: incomplete as it was: worked by drawing ambient mana. And the air here was rich with soul mana, making their job easier. Even when their constructs shattered, or when they failed to fully absorb the silver flames floating beside them, the motes still dispersed in their immediate surroundings, raising the concentration of soul mana even more. One side possessed a single Green core, the other two Yellow ones boosted by a spell. But it looked closer to a battle between Blues: ignoring the absence of any domains, of course.

That said, the mantis was fast enough to maintain its distance, and the malleable curtain of fiends made it nigh impossible to breach its defences. On the other hand, it had an easier time reaching Sol with its own attacks, each powerful blow threatening her life.

With Percy’s help, she danced atop the lake: jumping, and pivoting, and weaving: to dodge the hungry fiends, whatever insidious formation their master forced them in. But they knew this wasn’t sustainable. Sooner or later, they’d make a mistake, and they might not live long enough to make a second one.

‘Hold on. There’s another card we’ve yet to play.’ Percy said.

Reaching into his storage, he summoned his solitary scythe, gripping it tightly with both hands. He’d already wasted nearly all of his fused mana to maintain it over the past couple of months, in case he needed it. And well… here it was.

It wasn’t like he needed his stash for any other purpose either. He would obviously have to replenish his reserves with soul mana before leaving Melodia, but he could use his host’s now that he had access to her cores. It was a higher grade too, so it should be plenty to break through the blockade of fiends on the way out.

In any case, he wouldn’t be able to repair the scythe again without teal mana, much less duplicate it, meaning that he would likely lose it after this battle. But that was fine. It should do a better job piercing through the wall of fiends than the flimsy sickles.

Three more rivers of otherworldly bugs flew at him, trying to box him in. He sidestepped one, ducking beneath the second. The mantis tried to steer them toward him of course, but there was a delay between its commands and the fiends’ response. This was the price the beast had to pay to harass them from afar.

The two streams collided violently against one another, the creatures spilling all over the place. Luckily, they lacked the density to harm Sol like this, the silver flames incinerating whatever lone stragglers approached her body. She and Percy were under no delusion that their boosting art or their heating enchantments would be able to block a direct attack, but they were more than enough to protect them from the aftermath.

Sadly, the third river was impossible to dodge completely. Caught in an awkward position between the first two attacks, and having to constantly keep their feet in motion to avoid sinking, Percy and Sol were about to get hit.

Calling over whatever sickles still lingered around them, Percy flung them against the incoming fiends, shredding a portion of the blast: just enough to buy his host a second or two. The swarm overwhelmed the weapons soon, but Sol was able to leap to safety by then.

Unfortunately, their manoeuvre just now had cost them over half of the sickles they’d accumulated since the start of the battle. And they needed as many as they could get to open a path for the Soul Harvester.

‘Help me replace them. We might only get one shot at this.’ he said, getting a nod back.

Pressing on its advantage, the beast continued to harass them. Percy and Sol dodged what they could, trying not to waste any more of their constructs. It wasn’t always possible, but they did manage to craft a few more over several minutes.

‘Good enough?’ Sol asked, clearly getting impatient.

Percy didn’t blame her for it either. The mantis had attacked them right after they’d spent hours fighting the jackals and the eels. Even the days leading up to this hadn’t exactly been a vacation. By now, their muscles burned, their stamina dwindling.

‘It’ll have to do.’

Switching tactics, they sprinted towards the creature. It probably hadn’t expected that, but it overcame its surprise soon enough, leaping backwards to maintain its distance. At the same time, it sent more fiends after them, trying to slow them down.

Dodging the attacks clumsily, the two shot their sickles at the beast, hurling the Soul Harvester right behind them. Another curtain fell from above to block their spells, stopping the smaller constructs in their tracks. Still, they’d weakened the barrier enough for the scythe to cleave right through it without issue.

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Powered by Percy’s willpower: Sol couldn’t pitch in, as this one had been crafted by his main body: the weapon picked up speed, flying right towards its target. The beast hopped several times in quick succession, trying to avoid the construct. It dodged the first blow, and even the second, but Percy’s latest attack wasn’t as easy to shake off.

Aided by his new spell, the scythe changed course repeatedly, almost as if it had a will of its own, carving a vengeful path towards the mantis.

Realizing it wouldn’t be dodging this one, the beast summoned more fiends to impede the weapon. It sort of worked: the hastily forged defences sapping much of the scythe’s momentum, but it still hit its mark.

A silver arc cleaved through the mantis, inflicting a serious wound on its soul. Unfortunately, it had just about managed to twist its body at the last second, ensuring the blow only severed one of its four legs.

Which was still great news: between the amputated limb and the agonizing soul pain, the beast nearly sank in the lake. In the end, that didn’t happen, as the creature managed to hop away in time. However, it was clearly weaker and slower than before. It didn’t even have enough strength to send a ripple through the surface anymore.

‘Its soul is more fragile than the other beasts!’ Sol noted, some hope finding its way into her eyes. She clearly hadn’t expected their attack to deal so much damage.

Then again, it wasn’t that strange. The beast had probably spent its life living by the lake. It collaborated with the fiends, and it had never encountered any Melodians, so it didn’t really need a stronger soul.

‘If only we could take advantage of that.’ Percy smiled bitterly.

The Soul Harvester hadn’t survived the attack. By the time it even reached the creature, the fiends had mostly gnawed it down. As soon as the monster regained its bearing, it made sure to finish the job, leaving Percy and Sol without a proper weapon.

Just seconds later, the mantis resumed its onslaught, its composite eyes burning with hatred. It hopped closer to them, directing the swarm with maddened fury, trying to exact its revenge on the insolent Melodian who dared to injure it.

Realizing they had lost their only chance, Percy hesitated. He was tempted to activate Metatron’s Decree, to save his host's life. He must’ve done a bad job controlling his emotions though, since she seemed to notice what he was thinking.

‘Don’t. I know you want to protect me, but I can’t just let the others die. You don’t have to risk your life though. Grab some of my mana to refill your wisp and leave this place.’

He could tell through their connection she’d already made her mind up, her soul burning with resolve.

‘Like hell I’ll leave you here!’ he spat back.

Fighting the mantis to protect Latt was something they’d decided together. They’d promised Doh to survive too. Not to mention how Rei and the others had given their lives to get them this far. Or the countless people back home waiting anxiously for their success. If the girl had decided to stay and fight, there was no way he’d run away on his own.

Having come to a consensus, the two threw everything they had into the fight. And something strange happened, once more.

Burning brightly beside them, the silver wisps absorbed the mana even faster. Within mere fractions of a second, they grew to the size of grapefruit, before shooting into their body on their own. The cold flames slammed violently against their soul, every last drop spilling into their channels without fail. The immense pressure tore their pathways apart, but the flood of mana rushed to repair them just as quickly.

The wisps pierced through their cores, as images flashed in front of their eyes. Visions of the harrowing battles they had fought. Of Mi’s last stand to protect his daughter. Of Rei’s decision to give her life for the girl’s second core. Of each and every hunter that had fallen since the start of the expedition. Next, the silver flames escaped from the opposite side of their body, having shrunk to the size of peas. They then began sucking the mana once more, soon returning to their previous glory, starting the cycle anew.

Percy and Sol felt their body swell with strength.

They sped through the battlefield like a comet, dozens of silver wisps of varying sizes following them closely like shooting stars. There were even more of them now than before. They grew faster too, entering their body one after the other, filling their cores with mana.

Catching a glimpse of the flames, Percy noticed something else. Vague shapes had appeared inside them. Mouths, noses and eyes. Faces of people he recognized. Of Sol’s father, and her teammates. They cried shrilly as they sucked in the mana around them.

Mourning their unjust deaths, perhaps? Or were they laughing? Celebrating their reunion with Sol? Their chance to fight by her side once more?

He didn’t know.

He couldn’t even tell if these people had truly returned from the underworld to help them, or if it was just their memories lingering on his host’s soul. Either way, he vowed to honour their wishes.

The mantis shot more rivers at them. Percy and Sol danced around them with unprecedented ease. They sank the Parting Gifts against the torrents, the silver flames igniting the curved edges, incinerating hordes of fiends in their wake.

They forged more sickles. Dozens of them, swirling around them like an endless hurricane. Flinging them at the beast, they watched the silver crescents slice and burn holes into its defences, soon shredding the wall into nothing. Several made it through, spinning towards the mantis in a rain of death.

It jumped out of the way, before bolting off. It must’ve realized there was no surviving this time. Giving up on its meal, it tried to escape. Unfortunately for it, it was much slower on three legs. Percy and Sol were much faster too.

Shooting behind the creature, they noticed their footfalls now sent ripples through the lake’s surface, each step leaving a crisp sound. The notes blended with the shrill cries of the burning faces, as well as Sol’s rhythmic breaths and her racing heartbeat, filling the previously silent lake with a strange melody.

It was raw.

And it was final, promising a swift end to whomever heard it.

The mantis commanded its minions to attack again. To stop them. The swarm certainly tried to do just that, but it was useless.

Percy and Sol easily circled the violent torrents, their burning weapons cutting the fiends’ numbers down sharply. And they kept closing the distance to their mark, their elegant steps growing more frequent as the savage tune neared its crescendo.

Before long, they were upon the mantis.

Turning around, it suddenly leapt at them, going for one last attack in its desperation. But its telegraphed move was easy to predict, now that the fiends no longer obscured its soul. And its body was laughably slow, to Percy’s current perception.

Pivoting at the last stretch, he evaded the bug’s mandibles, right as his sickle hooked around its neck. Drawing one final arc on the beast’s soul: a silver line thinner than a sheet of paper, really: he skidded behind the creature, letting its lifeless body sink into the water behind him.

[Congratulations! You have mastered a new spell: Dance of the Savage Gods: Masterful!]