Timeless Prominence

Rein froze for a single breath, and that was enough for a few of his comrades to die from a wooden splinter to the neck. Luckily enough, many of them had been trained by Master Yirn through Chenhr, and were able to either block or dodge the flying wood splinters.

The wood splinters themselves were not just pieces of the shattered caravan. They were being flung around by ‘invisible’ aurae hands that also augmented the toughness of the material. The fake bandits had to clash with each individual wood splinter before accidentally slicing through the air to dissect the invisible aurae tendrils connecting these splinters to the controlling advancer.

If Rein himself was an outer advancer, he might be able to see these tendrils directly. For now, they remained very much invisible to his eyes.

Remaining splinters spun in the air and adjusted their aim before once again accelerating toward Rein’s companions.

Rein finally overcame his shock and with his only inner realm, barely forced a bit of his aurae to the surface of his fingers to activate an air bomb.

The small metallic bomb with a glowing light green inscription flew forth, and exploded within a few heartbeats, breaking the control over the splinters from the hidden devil advancer.

This proved that their opponent was an outer advancer. An air aurae blast would not have much impact on a telekinetic advancer’s control. Against an outer advancer, though, the air aurae blast would disrupt the invisible aurae hands in the blast radius.

The wooden splinters dropped harmlessly down onto the forest path with dull clunks. Rein’s choice of action was no fluke. Early on in his training, Chenhr had ingrained in Rein the knowledge on how to combat higher-realmed advancers.

Outer advancers use their aurae to influence the environment, but the aurae tendrils that an outer advancer use to control the magics they wish to apply to their environment could be interfered with. Weaker advancers effectively needed to cooperate to disrupt these types of magic if they wished to survive against an outer advancer.

The hidden outer advancer was naturally ruffled after having his control broken.

Hmph!

An irked grunt echoed in the forest. The grunt, to Rein’s ears, seemed to be an omnipresent three-sixty surround blare around the caravan.

A tall black-hooded man stood up in the center of the shattered caravan, and with his elevated position casted a hulking presence.

Yet this hulking presence was not due to a robust body, but rather his height and ghastly body. Although the hooded cloak covered a majority of his body, this outer advancer’s lower face could still be seen.

And what Rein could perceive made him queasy with a sense of unease in his stomach. The black hooded man’s chin was white and pale, but Rein did not get the feeling that the man was malnourished. Instead, he was certain that the white and pale skin was tough as nails, like some kind of armored preserved corpse.

At this moment, Rein’s companions released a wave of arrows. The hooded man stood in front  of the wave completely dauntless. These arrows were not worthy of his attention.

The arrow shredded holes in his cloak, yet the only sound Rein heard was that of metal against rock, with no blood drawn. These arrows were less than a mosquito's bite against the fallen devil’s durable skin. Everyone instantly recognized that mortal steel would be useless against this powerful advancer, and thus ceased their actions.

The forest was mostly silent for a few heartbeats, and only the occasional groans from a few speared mercenaries could be heard. The hooded corpse-like man finally spoke with his grating voice. “Do you truly wish to become our enemy?”

This hooded corpse of a man was no idiot. He had long concluded that these organized ‘bandits’ weren’t normal. Thus, it made sense that Rein and their group knew--to some extent-- the stakeholders behind this fake merchant operation. His words were meant to serve as a warning.

Chenhr stepped forth from behind the shadow of a thick tree, with his bamboo fan armament unfurled.

There was no point hiding-- the others in the ‘bandit’ group were all mid-inner realm or lower. At that advancer stage, it was nigh impossible to force any aurae out of the body to use ‘Spear of Heaven’ armaments. Mortal weapons had already been shown to be useless against this foe.

As Chenhr slowly stepped forward, as pre-arranged, Rein and the bandits started shifting their hidden position inside the trees and bushes. Although they originally planned for a shell advancer, the group had also prepared certain tactics should they encounter a more powerful being.

The goal of this shifting of everyone’s position was to simply obscure Rein’s location, which had been temporarily revealed when he threw out the air blast bomb not long ago. This cacophony of movement would naturally counter an outer advancer’s perception of the surrounding. An outer advancer’s ability to interact with the environment through his aurae tendrils gave them a certain level of heightened awareness-- though, not to the same degree as a telekinetic advancer.

The hooded corpse-like man frowned-- he was fully aware of what the ‘bandits’ were doing. However, he did not take any action, for his focus was currently wholly on Chenhr, especially Chenhr’s armament.

Naturally, he was attempting to unravel some of the unique inscriptions on the surface of the fan in a bid to prepare himself.

Rein, in his new hidden position, keenly observed the confrontation. He was very much curious of Chenhr’s real strength. He had been taught that origin skills had certain absolute qualities that ignored the different advancer power realms.

For example, a fire-based origin skill would be unmatched in terms of the flame quality, and if a higher realm advancer were to attempt to use the quality of the flames in his own magics to contend against a lower realmed advancer with said origin skill… he would find himself on the backfoot.

It was for this reason that Rein was rather roused by Chenhr confidently stepping up to action.

The hooded corpse-like man appeared cautious, constantly trying to look for clues as to what Chenhr’s strength laid in, as well as assessing his options.

Rein himself barely spotted a man’s head peeking over the top of one of the shattered wooden walls of the caravan. That was the fake merchant, supposedly a man of some import from a devil sect.

The hooded man suddenly leapt backwards and picked up this fake merchant like a slumped doll over his shoulder, and began running with some type of shadowy movement technique that made it seem as if he was blending into the environment. This outer advancer had chosen to retreat with the mission's target!

With Rein’s advancement, he could barely track this outer advancer’s movement. To his eyes, the fleeing devil advancer was but a flitting shadow. It would be impossible for him to react to it. He groaned inwardly at being denied a good show.

These ‘devilish’ cultivators were supposed to be bloodthirsty. “Twelve hells!” He swore under his breath. The original plan was for Chenhr to distract the hidden advancer, then kidnap the fake merchant in the ensuing chaos!

Well… that original plan was now completely moot.

Surprisingly, Chenhr appeared completely unperturbed. He took a stride before sprinting in the direction where the hooded corpse-man’s shadow was moving.

With another step, the yellow aurae that Chenhr used to suppress Rein previously, started blasting out from the soles of his feet.

Rein’s eyes twitched upon seeing this other presentation of Chenhr’s yellow aurae. This half-senior was propelling himself by heavily wasting his bountiful aurae!

Chenhr was now blasting himself forward at increasing speed, catching up to the jumping shadow of the corpse man a yard every single heartbeat. Every step Chenhr took created the sound of shattered gravel, compressing then throwing the ground soil behind his heels.

The moving shadow stopped in place, fully aware that he would not be able to escape so simply.

“Hmph.” His voice was raspy. “An origin skill. How careless of you to reveal your hidden card so easily. Have you no fear that you will be hunted?”

Chenhr paused for half-a-step, his gray hair flowing in the breeze. “I am… already hunted.” Then he opened his bamboo fan armament as he pressed forward yet again.

The hooded man still had the ‘royal’ fake merchant slung over his shoulder. This fake merchant definitely had some important identity, otherwise he would have been abandoned early on. However, he was very much deadweight in this situation, creating a favorable situation for Chenhr.

The hooded corpse-man could not put the deadweight down, for in doing so, Rein and bandits could ‘kidnap’ this fake merchant, who held valuable information.

Yet holding onto the body would be an impedance to the corpse-man’s impending conflict with Chenhr. The hooded corpse-man knew that Chenhr had an intimidating origin skill. He could also determine that the bamboo fan armament in Chenhr’s hand would make Chenhr a tough opponent even if Chenhr was not an outer advancer like he was.

Thus, he made, what was in his view, the only possible decision. He wrapped his pale and stone cold fingers around the fake merchant’s neck, and crushed the man’s throat so thoroughly that the fake merchant’s head became completely separated from his body.

Blood spurted everywhere as the fake merchant’s body now flopped limply onto the ground as the head, with an expression of disbelief, continued to rest in the hooded corpse-man’s hands.

But this was not the end. The corpse-man then further placed the detached blood-gushing head between his two hands, and his lips contorted as he flattened the skull, splattering brain matter, eyeball and fluids across his own black robes.

Rein grimaced. Luckily, he had seen such gruesome scenes before-- otherwise, he would probably have hunched over and vomited, completely revealing his hidden position.

Chenhr flicked his bamboo fan through the air as a green flash of aurae whipped towards the hooded corpse-man. This was none other than the skill that Chenhr had used to split waves and cut loose the caravan’s horses previously.

The hooded corpse-man squinted his eyes in focus as a translucent grayish aurae covered his whole body. He then raised his arms wide, causing two aurae man-sized gray aurae hands to stretch outwards from his own shoulders. He had to concentrate his aurae to form this more complex ability, thus making his aurae visible even to weaker advancers such as Rein.

As Chenhr’s green flash sped closer, the corpse-man then clapped his hands together,using his large aurae hands as a means to pinch the green flash in place.

The two aurae palms shook the firmament as they slammed together, and Rein barely kept his balance on the rumbling ground.

That display of strength was, however, completely meaningless. A blunt knife of no substance. For Chenhr’s green beam sped forward unhampered, striking the corpse-man’s right abdomen with a penetrating screech.

Under the black hood, the corpse-man’s lips opened with complete bewilderment. Chenhr had displayed no telekinetic abilities, thus the corpse-man had long suspected that Chenhr was definitely below his level of strength.

Sure, origin abilities are special, but there was one thing all advancers knew-- the biggest advantage of higher realm advancers is their incredibly large reserves of aurae compared to that of lower realm advancers’!.

And larger reserves of aurae inherently allowed an advancer to increase the aurae density of their magical abilities, decreasing the chance of another advancer’s ability to ‘interfere’ with an ability.

Other advantages of larger reserves of aurae included an advancer’s capability to use stronger abilities, last significantly longer in combat, and naturally, the qualities limited to higher advancer realms such as shell’s aurae-layered body magic, outer’s range control, and then telekinesis.

The devil advancer’s choice of action was a common one that advancers used when dealing with weaker advancer that had unique ability-- overwhelm them with the superior aurae reserves and strength that a higher realmed advancer had.

Yet Chenhr’s green flash was significantly more aurae-dense, for the corpse-man was unable to stop or even deflect it even when he concentrated much of his strength in his two aurae hands.

Chenhr’s origin ability was to gather and concentrate aurae within himself to untold volumes!

The corpse-man peeled back his robe through one of the holes created back when he took the mortal arrows, revealing that his grayish aurae skin-thick armor had a closing hole, out of which leaked blackish-red blood. He examined his injury in utter disbelief, having yet to comprehend the nature of Chenhr’s origin skill.

However, that was not the full extent of Chenhr’s strike. The very next heartbeat, an air blast wrecked the corpse-man’s right abdomen, similar yet much stronger than one of the bombs Rein had on him. It was none other than an after-effect of Chenhr’s green flash attack, which ignited after the green flash entered the corpse-man’s abdomen.

The corpse-man grunted in pain as he wrapped his own right hand in an inch -thick grayish aurae and clutched at his right abdomen, dropping onto a knee.

Another heartbeat and the corpse-man stood back up. Enveloped within his grayish aurae hand was a greenish gleam, no doubt, a remnant invasion he had to forcefully drag out from his body.

With a wave of his hand, he threw this dangerous green remnant into the ground to his side.

“Ridiculous…!”

His tone contained both anger and disbelief, that somehow, an advancer below outer realm could create such a dense and invasive attack-- even if it was done through an inscripted armament manipulated under the nature of an origin skill.

With impatience, he formed a fist with his pale and stoney hand, and punched the ground. From the point of contact, strings of grayish aurae instantly reached out to the dead bodies of the mercenaries surrounding the shattered merchant caravan.

Nearly all the bodies stood up in a jerky and clunky manner. However, a few of the bodies suddenly started coughing and spitting out grayish fluid.

“God damn it!” One of these gasping mercenaries complained. “We were so fucking close to living through this!”

Rein had an epiphany. The devilish corpse-man definitely tried to raise these corpses of dead mercenaries for combat. Some of these mercenaries were likely pretending to be dead to try to save themselves, but this ruse was revealed once the corpse-man’s aurae spell failed on them.

This matched some of Rein’s accrued knowledge over the past six months. Raising corpses required interfering with the dead bodies in the environment and was thus a spell of an outer advancer.

Anyhow, it is quite difficult to bypass a normal, alive person’s own inherent body aurae protection, not to mention, corpses that have decayed too long are impossible to raise.

Regardless, now was the time for Rein to take action. Chenhr, oddly, appeared to have the main advantage against the corpse-man. All Rein needed to do was to prevent these mindless wights that did not know pain, from bodying Chenhr.

Boom!

An air bomb blast ripped the skin off one of the wights, revealing the underlying muscles. The wight was blasted backwards and stunned to the ground. Yet after a few breathes, it crawled back up onto its feet, and dauntlessly charged towards Chenhr.

Meanwhile, Chenhr had engaged the corpse-man in a melee combat. The corpse-man knew that as an outer advancer, his aurae tendrils would in theory, give him an advantage if he fought from range.

But that was not possible. Chenhr’s odd origin skill, when blasted out from the soles of his feet, gave him a speed surpassing that of the corpse-man's.

That yellowish aurae had transformed again. This time, Chenhr had his whole body wrapped in an enveloping yellow cloud. It was no simple skin thick aurae armor, but rather one that constantly radiated and spewed a yellowish drowning tide of aurae outwards in all directions.

The core-staged corpse-man formed aurae blades with his pointed hands, repetitively attempting to pierce through Chenhr’s thick yellow aurae cloud. Unfortunately for him, the cloud was dense beyond belief, a quality that to the corpse-man’s knowledge, should not be produced by any advancer below the telekinetic realm.

Each time his own grayish aurae blades entered the cloud, they would barely hold their form, dissipating into nothingness. Meanwhile, his own body was being repetitively pierced with dense green flashes that shot forth from every wave of Chenhr’s fan.

The corpse-man realized he had miscalculated-- Chenhr’s ability must have the function of creating incredibly dense aurae forms. If he stuck to the age-old trick of relying on superior aurae reserves of a high-realmed advancer, he would fall quickly. Yet, he was unable to come up with a viable method. The aurae cloud surrounding Chenhr broke down all magics that he attempted to land on Chenhr! The corpses that could be used to pile on Chenhr were also being thrown around by elemental aurae bomb blasts.

In desperation, he zigzagged his way towards the wights that Rein had been nonstop blasting backwards with the wind-inscripted bombs, while dodging numerous green flashes and baring through the pain of receiving an occasional hit.

His eyes grew crazed upon seeing Rein slowly but surely wrecking the wights that he had raised as a better idea occurred to him. Rein instantly sensed that he was now in trouble upon seeing the glint in the corpse-man’s eyes-- the corpse-man had decided to target him instead!