(I) Surface

-Captain Harry Irons, TacStrat 101, Phoenix Academy111 (I)

Surface

A crimson serpent emerged from within Shiv, drinking away his final wounds. It was practically half the size of his body now, and its interior glistened with crystallized injuries; ruptured organs, flayed skin, burst vessels, and too many lacerations to count. Such were the contents stored within the Woundeater, and it would be unleashed against the next viable target Shiv could find.

And he had a strong feeling he would be running into some viable targets very soon.

The air combusted around him, crowning him in a veil of force and fire. He sailed just a few meters above the ground, keeping his person concealed using Minor Illusion, Chameleon, and Creeping Void in tandem. He might have destroyed one observation post, but he was sure there were more, many more. And with how much noise he just made, Shiv was expecting trouble very, very soon.

When he flew over the ground, the kinetic energy he displaced cleaved deep into the earth, revealing the bones of things that were. Sometimes there were very literal bones, a sea of them, humans from the looks of it. And then there were the husks of old machines, massive automata. Shiv caught just a glimpse, but this place must have been something more than a wilderness a long time ago.

As he looked over the distant, rolling mountains, a mounting feeling that Shiv was heading into a storm built inside of him. And that feeling only grew as the last light of the sun faded, vanishing behind the towering shape of the distant Tidewall. Night fell immediately, but before the dark came, there was a glint of color from high above.

A glint of color that pierced through weary gray clouds. There were ten shapes approaching Shiv. They were golden, and they were moving fast. Perhaps not as fast as he, but they were closing fast enough that he could see the curving trail of force peeling around their forms.

More importantly, he thought he could feel them through his Chronomancy.

He saw four wings on each of the shapes. Two arms, two legs, long, sinuous necks, and a tail that ended in a spear-like tip. These were dragons. And for a moment, Shiv thought he was about to face another Lance of Dragon-Knights. But despite the adamantium barding they wore, there was something undisciplined in their movements, an animalistic taint. And somehow, he could instinctively tell he was facing beasts rather than true warriors.

Still, ten golden dragons didn't emerge from nowhere. If he had to guess, they were deployed for him specifically. And why not? Dragons probably didn't have an issue with the Light Curse. Maybe Sullain had them captured, or struck a pact with them somehow, or twisted their minds, or—

Before he could theorize further, each dragon pulsed with brilliant, gleaming mana.

Each of the dragons flashed. A shudder of power ran through them, and Shiv's Chronomancy trembled in return. His eyes widened. Their mana felt like it was operating on the exact same frequency as his. Then, each of their bodies flared a radiant gold, and they were promptly coated by a shell forged from the lore of time itself.

Shiv felt an aching pull in their direction as his Chronomancy rattled inside him, begging to be unleashed.

He reflexively activated Strider of the Unbending Path. Time stopped. The world ceased its movements; the wave of destruction following him went still. But the dragons were still moving, and they were coming right at him. Shiv clenched his fists and clutched his knife tighter. Not just dragons. Time dragons. The type the Recollector spoke about earlier.

Shiv wondered.

A flash of color blinked atop one of the dragons. A jet of searing green curved from the approaching beast and came for the Deathless. It was pure instinct that saved Shiv again. He spiked himself downward, and the stream of corrosive energy lashed across the land and cleaved clean through the ground behind him. It left a gap in the world that promptly detonated upward, projecting a blade of Necromantic energy high into the air. Soon, the blade expanded into a sizzling screen of acid that chewed at the very fabric of the world.

Shiv grimaced, and he immediately plunged downward, drilling deep into the soil as he continued underground.

Not only did they have a counter to his Chronomancy, they also apparently could see through his Stealth Skills. That shot landed exactly where he was a moment prior. How did they see through The Creeping Void? How did they tell? And how could they also perceive him with both his Minor Illusion and Chameleon Enchantments active?

Gold-01 declared as he recalibrated his Necro-Thrower. It would take a few seconds for the crystal to stabilize, but that shot was dead on. The Divination Matrix enchanted into his rider capsule painted the most likely path of his adversary. At the last moment, they dodged. He missed. They were damn fast. In a scant second, they went from sailing forward to drilling through the ground itself, cracking the earth open and vanishing beneath the soil.

Gold-01 said.

"Received, Gold-01," Gold-10 said. Gold-02 simply gave a grunt. They descended, plunging down toward the earth like falling spears. While the dragons glowed bright with Chronomancy, the rider capsules along their backs burst into animated fractals of twisting spells. Colors of rich soil came into shape as spell patterns were birthed from within the capsules. And then they rippled out, crashing over the land and alchemizing everything for approximately two kilometers.

What used to be earth turned into a rapidly evaporating slurry. It wasn't even mud. It was just liquefied dust and ash. Again and again, Gold-02 and Gold-10 channeled the spell, removing more sections from the earth and dissolving more substance. In seconds, vegetation, earth, soil, and stone faded. They continued concentrating on the spell, sweeping across the land as solid turned to gas.

And just then, Gold-01 caught sight of him. Immediately, his Divination Matrix pinpointed where he was based on the echolocation imprint they got from SC-Central earlier. Now, they had a trail—they just needed to solidify it.

Gold-01 issued another mental command, and Gold-08, their squadron scout, sent out a pulse of her own echolocation. Once more, they pinged the target, and the Divination imprint solidified.

Gold-01 had hunted Krakens before. They were creatures that took away their adversary's sight and muffled their hearing. Creeping Void was a treacherous skill to face, but ultimately, it didn't stop tactile movements, and sounds could still travel through it.

Absolute stealth was impossible. There were limitations to every skill, and understanding how they worked was the first part of overcoming them.

Gold-10 declared. But before Gold-10 and Gold-02 could pursue the enemy on their own, Gold-01 sent out another telepathic command.

A few more acknowledgements came, and Gold-01 continued watching their adversary. The enemy was painted a bright violet now, the Divination signature glowing so bright that Gold-01 could see them even with his eyes closed. So why couldn't Gold-01 shake the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong? He watched as members of his squadron shot down across the land.

Spells formed over their capsules, and their dragons let out primal roars. The first cracks spread across their temporal shells. Gold-01 prepared himself.

"What kind of Geomancy bullshit is this?" Shiv growled to himself. For a few moments, he was drilling through the earth. Then, suddenly, it practically dissolved around him, turning fluid one second and then to dust in the next. His temporal shell was cracking. If he had to guess, he only had maybe three seconds of halted time left.

He cast a quick glance upward and saw the dragons gliding down through the air. They were still slower than him—made even more so by his ever-building speed. Furthermore, he moved through halted time far more easily than they did. They were grinding against the temporal friction caused by their dense shells of Chronomancy, and so he confirmed they were a Tier below him in terms of Reflexes

However, their temporal shells weren't as damaged as his. That made them slightly superior Chronomancers.

Shiv realized. Even if he was so much faster than they, once his Chronomancy shattered, he would basically be frozen in place, giving them however long they had to attack him. Considering how fast and far their Necromancy could hit, Shiv needed to keep moving.

He clutched his knife tight as he came up with a desperate plan. With a loud shout, he threw his blade as far as he could. It exploded across the land, spearing through the base of a nearby mountain and punching clean through the stone. A puff of dust burst free but froze in the air. A crack formed but didn't develop any further.

The damage wouldn't fully progress until time resumed.

In the same second, Shiv cast himself four seconds back in time. He jolted out of place. His armor broke apart. Only a few pieces clung to his body. But just then, he triggered his spatial anchor. And for the second time, he blinked across the world. The first was done by reverting his position back to a temporal anchor. Now, he projected himself using his knife’s spatial Enchantment and materialized in a cramped space filled with jagged stone, falling soil, and creeping vines.

He found himself holding the blade again as he finished his spatial teleportation. But to his surprise, he found his Skysplitter embedded in something, halted by a wall of metal. The blade had pierced through, but the mountain had sapped enough kinetic energy from it that it didn't tear into the reinforced hook of metal entirely. And he quickly understood why.

Shiv couldn't help but laugh as the final fragments of his temporal armor broke off him. Time resumed. Three seconds passed as Shiv tore at what he believed to be an observation bunker.

He didn't do anything clever to find this place. He just got lucky. And judging from the muffled sounds thundering outside, the dragons might have lost track of him as well. With a final flex of force, Shiv tore into the observation post just in time to see eight skeletal armored figures turning, trying to get their crossbows, longbows, and blades up to protect themselves.

"Found you," Shiv growled. And then he spiked his Inertial Overdrive twenty times in quick succession before detonating his sheath.

Their armor crumpled first. Their flesh sprayed between the cracks. The bunker deformed and swelled like a steel balloon. As the observation post fell silent, Shiv observed the crushed bodies of the ones he'd just killed. They, too, wore the visages of death, but the metal of the armor seemed darker. They were definitely still organic, though, judging from the gore seeping out from them. Facing him was a firing port as well, overlooking a stretch of tumbling hills.

There were more mountains in the distance, but Shiv wasn’t exactly sure where he was anymore. He needed to figure out his position. But more importantly, he needed to shake these dragons—or kill them.

Then, a thought came to him.

But Gold-01 didn't say anything. Gold-01 was focusing, trying to figure out what just happened. The violet imprint of the target pulsed in and out of existence at several points, but they weren't there. And the Divination Matrix wasn't sure where he was either. Just then, their temporal shell came close to shattering, and Gold-01 gave his command.

Time resumed. The wing regrouped at Gold-01's command. They rose higher into the air, trying to cover more ground, to take in more of the horizon. And Gold-07 spotted something there. Gold-07 pinged the rest of the group. They saw a massive series of cracks spreading along the sides of a nearby mountain just as a wave of displaced force slammed into it.

Gold-07 called out.

Just as he finished speaking, the mountain exploded from within. In the same instant, they received a telepathic message from SC-Central.

A bitter feeling filled Gold-01’s gut. Was this Heroic adversary toying with them? How did he break contact? And how did he know exactly where 109 was? Through an eruption of stone, dust, and other debris, the mangled remains of 109's observation post sailed high through the air. It looked deformed. Swollen like a bomb had gone off inside. The metal was ballooned outward, and part of it was torn wide open.

Gold-04 cried out.

Gold-01 replied. He narrowed his eyes.

Gold-03 acknowledged and flew close to the now falling observation post. A Divination spell formed over 03’s capsule, and a pulse of violet light splashed through the deformed bunker. Nine badly crushed bodies were highlighted through the walls of the destroyed observation—

Gold-01 felt his stomach drop.

But it was too late. Gold-03 tried to turn and fly away. But she was too slow.

A blur rammed into her, and her dragon went tumbling in circles through the air.