NOVEL NEXT Chapter 59 – Killing a Rank 1
Shion’s giant axe is truly oversized. It was heavy, but not as heavy when she used it in tandem with her gunlance during ‘shield’ form. With explosions caused by Kenji’s arrows covering her advances, Shion becomes a true killing machine in the battlefield.
Behind her, Kasumi is spreading death with countless amounts of small-caliber bullets. She could almost instantly kill any goblins as their skulls literally exploded whenever they got hit by her minigun. However, hobgoblins are more powerful. Her small-caliber rounds merely penetrated their skin and lodged themselves amongst their powerful flesh, it couldn’t even pierce the skull. A few lucky hits around the hobgoblin’s eye might kill them, but that’s about it.
This was because Shion uses low-grade materials to refine the gunpowder. She had no choice, she only possessed a limited amount of resources. Between high-quality rounds but fewer or low-quality rounds but more, it was clear which choice is more profitable in this situation.
Even if Kasumi have difficulties in killing hobgoblins, a giant axe would sever any into two if they get too close to the two of them.
Despite the large number of mid-stage and late-stage goblins and hobgoblins, they could not tire the two with their overwhelming number. In other words, they could not use attrition tactics to fight against Shion and Kasumi.
Firstly, Shion’s passive soul-path methods allow her to absorb the truesouls and soul fragments (if one’s truesoul is destroyed in the process of death due to various reasons, they become soul fragments) of anything that dies in her proximity. The soul fragments can be processed and used as soul resources for her to activate restorative or offensive methods. As long as something is dying near her, she can literally function as a perpetual motion machine.
Since Kasumi is Shion’s split soul and is currently connected with a Soul Link, she was able to do the same.
It is true that they cannot use soul-path methods openly due to the existence of faith-path cultivators amongst Hana’s entourage, but passive ones are like drinking while drowning. As long as they are not specifically able to detect soul-path methods, nobody would know.
“I’ve already collected 94-man worth of souls in this short amount of time. Despite the inefficiency, war is truly my best source of soul resources.” Shion smiled. At this moment, she and Kasumi probably have killed around five hundred greenskins. “Kasumi, don’t use up all the small-caliber rounds. We might be able to use them against [Dragon’s Shadow]’s underlings.” Shion sent forth a telepathic message towards her twin.
Minigun are highly effective in large scale war, but its ammunition expenditure is the worst. In less than five minutes, she has used up around several thousand small-caliber bullets that Shion personally refined through telepathic refinement. Unless supported by an ammunition factory, Shion would rather not use Devastator configuration often.
“Affirmative. Switching from Devastator to Flammenwerfer.” Kasumi slapped her gunlance as it began transforming while she’s under the cover of Shion. Empty ammo boxes are ejected while Kasumi extracted flammenwerfer fuel canisters from the mobile furnace on her back.
Within a few seconds, Kasumi seemed to paint the sea of green with orange-red ink. Although the flammenweref’s fuel isn't as effective as true napalm, the chemical fire is still hotter than typical rank 0 fire elementals.
The Fultheron chieftain who’s leading his constantly dwindling villagers frowned after he saw the snake-like flames who ignited the greenskin with sticky liquid fire. Yet, when he noticed that there’s only two humans who were making a ruckus, he decided to penetrate through the obstacles. The centaur-like fungoid instantly activated a method.
“Rank 1 poison-path magic spell, [Radiation Wave]!”
A radiation wave so concentrated that it refract light is produced by the rank 1 Fultheron. One of the few tumour-like spore pockets on his body dimmed significantly after activating the magic spell, evidence of the cost.
When the radiation wave hit the blocking greenskins, most instantly died due to genetic collapse while those who survived have their skin melted, internals fried, or having grave issues with their genetic stabilities.
The rank 1 Fultheron felt something was missing when the two humans did not activate any defensive methods or evasion maneuver when his attacks were approaching them rapidly. After the two humans took the brunt of his attack as if they were nothing, he was shocked.
Shion and Kasumi did not receive the expected damage. One is an Armored Soul Tribe (undead machinery) while the other is a metal slime. Radiation has no adverse effect towards the two.
At least radiation of this level.
“Even with shieldings, strong radiation waves will stun me for a brief second.” Shion assessed the damage. She wasn’t as unharmed as she reveals, radiation has some consequences on her because the electrical current of her body is slightly disrupted by the strong gamma wave of the radiation. But after the dormant nanomachines quickly reactivated and repaired what was needed, her internals had no problem whatsoever.
“Kasumi, slow down his charge.” Shion muttered when she noticed the thinning greenskin between her and the charging Fultheron. In front of a mounted cavalry, it isn’t wise to stand still like an idiot.
“Affirmative. Activating rank 0 lightning-path magic spell, [Piercing Sparks]!”
Unlike Shion who has no Mana Pool, Kasumi is a true blue magic caster who possessed and cultivated hers. She produced a blueish magic formation on her left hand. Then, the magic formation collapses onto itself as it turns into electric current that discharges towards the rank 1 Fultheron.
In this relatively moist environment, lightning-path methods are actually receiving minor augmentation. Kasumi’s late-stage rank 0 cultivation base in addition to the environmental advantage allows her to produce firepower that the rank 1 Fultheron could not ignore.
He has to either block it or evade, but evading allows the attack to hit his villagers. His decision making process did not think too much as he blocked the lightning strike with his wooden staff/spear.
That decision was a bad one.
Fultherons are covered in a layer of moist moss serving as bio armor to protect them from flame attacks. Moisture in the moss allows Kasumi’s lightning-path attack to spread to his whole body. Of course, her attack isn’t that strong to the point of making him paralyzed in that single attack, but it made some of his muscles spasm or twitch uncontrollably.
In a sense, Kasumi has successfully forced the rank 1 fultheron to slow down his charge, denying him of building up momentum.
When the chief slowed down, the fultheron behind him was forced to slow down as well. Not every single fultheron are able to clean up their path from the greenskin as quickly as the chief. They are not a clan of pure warriors, some of them are just villagers who received cultivation resource so that they could have greater strength. In terms of combat experience, they are lacking compared to the Hunters.
“Bastard.” The Fultheron chief cursed in his own primitive language as he regulated his biological energy to cleanse the effect of Kasumi’s method. He decided to activate another attack when the range between the two were closer but Shion is faster and more decisive.
“[Last Word]!”
Shion did not even make hand seals. It was instant activation while the Fultheron is still chanting his spell. In that moment, a wave of silence that marked the souls of spellcasters spread around the battlefield, centered around Shion. Its 10-meter range was augmented by [Quadruple Widen: Deafening Horizon] so that it’s original range is multiplied by a factor of 4.
Spell activation has several components: Spell Catalyst, Spell Formation, and Chanting.
They are all self explanatory, but each is unique. [Chanting] during a spell activation sequence refers to the process of ‘talking’ towards the dimensional laws through a magical language so that the world would obey the intent of the magic caster.
If, for example, during the process of talking, the magic casters stopped their chanting without safety precautions, they will experience [Magic Rebound] from the dimensional laws. No magic casters are safe from magic rebound, and it is far more impactful if one tries to activate more powerful methods. For those with master-level attainment or above, self-inflicted magic rebound are quite rare as they could activate their method with 100% success rate.
That’s right. Self-inflicted magic rebound are rare, but magic rebound caused by external effects are not uncommon, especially in the Land of Sand and Fire due to the large amount of antimages.
While some greenskin shaman whose souls are marked got instantly killed, the Fultheron chief merely spurted green-white fungus blood from his mouth as they suffered from magic rebound. Chanting a spell is usually in tandem with spell formation creation within one’s sea of consciousness. When Shion’s [Last Word] hit them, their sea of consciousness was also hit.
She incorporated soul-path profundity in [Last Word]. ‘Marking’ the souls of spellcasters is laying a soul rune-trap that would sprung during spell activation sequence. When activated, the soul mark will shock the soul and sea of consciousness, not only disrupting the spell activation, but also augmenting the damage from the magic rebound.
Unless the Fultheron chief could quickly recover his damaged sea of consciousness, he won’t be able to cast any spell for the time being.
Shion smirked.
As the former Great Archmage, she was extremely familiar with almost all the modern and ancient spell activation sequences. Due to her experience, being a spellbreaker or antimage is as natural as breathing. ‘He must be thinking about recovering his sea of consciousness while planning to break through my and Kasumi’s blockade. Considering the surviving fultheron are less than 200 left, it’ll be hard for me to kill them all unless they send themselves towards me.’
While Shion and Kasumi are trying to sabotage the Fultheron advances, their hands never stop killing greenskins. Due to the contrast of their strength and equipment, the goblins around Kasumi and Shion are mostly slaughtered either due to Kasumi’s Devastator or her Flammenwerfer. Only the hobgoblin are causing a hindrance, but even them could not survive one hit from Shion’s giant axe.
“Main soul, we should kill the rank 1 Fultheron as soon as possible. I predict the increasing chance of an Ork or Troll making an appearance…” Kasumi suddenly reported.
“Our kill count is approaching 700. Your proposition makes sense.” Shion did not take her eyes off of the rank 1 Fultheron. She made some hand seals as she led Kasumi towards the village chief. “Cover me.”
Kasumi slapped her weapon once more, transforming it into a combat gunlance configuration where it can be used as a cannon and a lance. The innate vibration function immediately activates as she cleaves around the blocking greenskins.
“Rank 0 sound-path killer move,” Shion exerted her left hand. “[Triple Extreme Sound: Finger Whistle]!”
By flicking her fingers, she produced several sharp noises akin to whistles. Nobody can see the attack, but the goblins who are in the way got their heads separated as if a sword lacerated their body or decapitated their heads.
The rank 1 Fultheron raised his defenses, but due to the invisible nature of the attack, he can only cover his most important vitals. Some of his tumour-like spore pockets are being sliced and opened, they bleed green-glowing materials. When he lowered his arms, he saw Shion advancing while constantly flicking her fingers, decapitating anything that goes between her path.
The fultheron chief could feel the increasing threat that this human exerted. He instantly threw away his intent to recover his sea of consciousness as he brandished his spear-staff. Despite being primarily a magic caster, his physical strength is better than human due to his racial traits. He wouldn’t believe his strength is weaker than Shion.
In a few seconds, Shion and Kasumi slowly get closer to the Fultheron.
“Hehe. I can’t wait to devour your rank 1 soul.” Shion mentally commented at the Fultheron chief. Just as the distance between the two are less than 5 meters, she switched roles with Kasumi who was covering her back.
She used the giant axe’s surface area as a platform for Kasumi. Kasumi stepped on the axe while silently activating her lightning-path methods to affect terrestrial magnetism. In that instant, the axe, Kasumi, the gunlance in her hands and the mobile furnace on her back literally became weightless, lightning sparks covered them all. Then, Shion threw her like a projectile.
Whoosh! The Fultheron chief was unable to keep up with the duo’s combat tactics. Before he could react Kasumi canceled her anti-terrestrial magnetism methods as her mass returned. Her extreme speed was suddenly converted into extreme momentum. In that instant, Kasumi fixed her posture midair and thrusted the gunlance towards the Fultheron chief.
Lightning-path cultivators are truly experts at burst. Centimeters before the gunlance stabbed the fultheron’s abdomen where the horse-parth of his body merged with his human-torso, it was blocked by a layer of green-glow magical force shield.
Of course, the magical force shield broke as it could not handle the pure physical momentum, but it reduces the force of the attack by over 80%.
Even after cheating by gaining speed and momentum through anti-terrestrial magnetism, Kasumi could not instantly impale the Fultheron chief’s body in that attack. To ascend to rank 1, magic casters engrave a defensive spell formation on their person, allowing them to activate it instantly with a thought. Some defensive methods are permanently activated and possess special abilities, while the Fultheron chief’s is one that can be activated with a thought. Being ‘silenced’ by antimages could not stop the activation sequence as it was already done a long time ago.
The Fultheron chief felt lucky that he wasn’t killed in one shot as he still has more methods under his sleeves for retaliation.
Unfortunately, Kasumi did not want to dally.
She smirks as the gunlance lodged within the fultheron chief’s belly unleashes a HE shell.
Zero-distance ‘shelling’ is never encouraged by gunlance users, especially if one is using high explosive. Not only will the explosion force damage the gunlance, it can also harm the user themselves.
But, Kasumi has no worries. The HE Shell used in this instance is special. It is a Shaped-blast HE Shell, designed for situations like this. Originally, Shion did not prepare any shaped-blast HE shells, but after Xi Ling delivered a message from the future, she prepared some to fight against [Dragon’s Shadow].
Yes, it will damage the gunlance, but it isn’t to the point of unusable. At most, 10% of the structural integrity will be lost, but that’s about it. The dark mist within the gunlance will repair any micro-fractures, it is completely fine.
Boom! With a shaped explosion like ones used for building demolition, the rank 1 Fultheron have it’s horse-body and human torso separated. He did not die immediately, but Shion wasn’t just standing still after yeeting Kasumi like a catapult. She was constantly approaching the Fultheron.
Before the Fultheron’s human-torso hit the ground, a giant axe hit the neck of the fultheron chief. Shion’s giant axe hit the ground with the axe’s blade stuck on the fultheron’s neck bone. “Rank 1 are so durable.” She commented. Her strength is several points weaker than Kasumi, but that wouldn't matter much in this situation. What couldn’ be solved with one hit can be done with two, five, or ten.
…
“WHAT! SHE KILLED THE RANK 1 FULTHERON THIS QUICKLY?” Li Xiao Bai was shocked.
In a battlefield filled with rank 0s, rank 1 existences stood out like a sore thumb. If the energy undulation of rank 0 is like a candle, then rank 1 is like a campfire. It’s not only about quantity, but also quality.
True, a rank 1 minor race would be weaker than an elite, superlative height of rank 0 human hunters, but the difference of energy quality allows them to pose a threat even to the most elite human. At the very least, it would take her several rounds to weaken the Fultheron but what Shion did was basically kill him in one exchange.
Keep in mind that according to their intel, Shion is still in the mid-stage of rank 0. Specifically, on 4-transparent stars. Her actual cultivation base is actually at 5-transparent stars, but Shion has Kasumi, who is at 7-transparent stars.
The appearance of the second Shion, who was her Soul Armament, truly made them surprised. The effect of two Shion working together is not 1+1 = 2, but 1+1=3, or even 1+1>4!.
Even now, the two Shion are slaughtering Fultheron as if they are merely hobgoblins. The combination between a sound-path antimage and a lightning-path magic caster who’s also a close range fighter is truly a sight to behold.
“Do you want to share your knowledge, Klauss?” Kobayashi Hana raised a question. Her slave army is currently fighting in the frontline under the cover of spells from Frozen Heart girls, allowing some of them to have a causal chat on the back.
“Verstanden, Herr-Kommandant. When the Fultheron is about to activate a magic spell, I believe she activated a type of [Area Silence] method. The magic rebound rendered the Fultheron unable to cast spells. Then, you know the rest.”
“Elaborate on the [Area Silence].” Li Xiao Bai was also curious, everyone present was closely listening to his words.
“Just like [Dimensional Anchor] is a type of anti-spatial manipulation method and has countless variations, [Area Silence] is a type of anti-spellcasting method. In my vatterland, rank 0 Area Silence with 10 meter range is already top tier.” Klauss paused. “This is my first time seeing a sound-path antimage showing her specialty, pardon my lack of knowledge. If my deduction isn’t wrong, then she must’ve an Area Silence with a 20 to 25-meter range.
During the process of cleaning up our basecamp, she sang a song with an extremely wide range. With those clues combined together, I suppose she also has an amplification method similar to Metamagic’s [Double Widen] to amplify her methods.”
All the mages present revealed a sour expression. They are aware that Shion is an antimage, but not one that is extremely powerful like this. It’s been around 200 to 250 years since the Great Archmage invented metamagic. Amplification methods based on it are quite common.
10 meters is considered as medium-range for rank 0 magic casters. For comparison, a vanilla [Fireball] spell model has a range of 10 meter. If launched at a target further than that, it will destabilize and usually have less accuracy and firepower until at 15 or 20 meter, the spell will completely collapse.
For rank 0 magic casters, their mastery upon a spell might allow them to augment or modify the spell model so that it destabilizes maybe at the 12 or 15-meter mark while collapsing at 25 or 30-meter mark, which was already a great progress.
If they fought against someone who can deny spellcasting in a 20-meter range… that would be giving their neck to Shion’s butcher blade.
Furthermore, she can use a type of [Double Widen]. In a clutch, doubling the range makes her extremely troublesome.
“However, according to my understanding of [Area Silence], the wider the range, the less effective it is. I am not sure how she could use a wide-area [Area Silence] that could affect even rank 1, but I believe the Fultheron chief is merely caught unprepared.” Klauss added.
He was implying that the Fultheron chief is affected by the magic rebound for a brief second. Before he could activate another spell, he got ‘burst’-ed by the two Shion, resulting in his death.
“I see.” Hana acknowledged. Nobody knows what’s on her mind. “Let’s not waste any more time then. Advance towards Fort Esela, we shouldn’t let Twin Helix take all the merits.”
After her urge, Thousand Flower members activated blessings towards the main army, turning the slow but ‘undying’ ent army into a meat grinder.
