Adrian POV
Watching Trystan and Isis fight was teaching him a lot about fighting. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Adrian didn't fight, he just butchered his targets. They didn't get a chance to retaliate or to show their tricks or anything like that. All they could do once they were in range was die.
The Lesser Drakon that Isis and Trystan were fighting was a perfect example. Adrian had killed half a dozen of them with ease. He had never seen a living one up close, as the simple combination of Blindsight and Thousand Swords had been more than enough to kill them along with a few hundred other monsters. The only remarkable part of the monster had been that it had unlocked 14 different sword forms which was much greater than the average of five.
Trystan and Isis however could not simply slaughter them from a few hundred meters away with a single attack. The monster had more than enough defense to survive one of Trystans's kicks or Isis' spells. It couldn't hurt them either, Isis was well defended by Trystan, and the black filolial had enough defense that he could probably stand still and barely be injured.
All in all, it was a wonderful demonstration of what combat between beings who were in range of each other's strengths should look like.
It was probably why Adrian was seriously tempted to eviscerate the drakon. Every attack from the drakon that almost hit Trystan, or whenever the monster approached Isis while she chanted her next spell tempted him to just kill the thing and be done with it.
It was a foolish impulse. Combat practice was something necessary for them. They didn't have his advantages, Adrian would almost always have the edge in terms of versatility and raw stats, his allies would not. In fact if they faced people like Glass or L'arc, it would be wise to assume that they would be at a huge disadvantage stat-wise.
It didn't stop the heart attack he had every time Trystan was sent flying by an attack. The superhuman nature of the Filolial meant that an attack that would have turned an elephant into a puddle of blood and guts was something that he could just shrug off but it was still heart-stopping to see the bird go flying through the air before he regained his bearings and bounced back into battle.
Only the fact that he could see his filolials life force and the fact that he had access to some pretty miraculous levels of healing let him continue this sort of training.
Raphtalia was not as calm as he was. The girl had become attached to the filolials, Trystan in particular was very fond of her, and she flinched every time they were attacked and watched with tense anticipation no matter how trivial their enemy. Adrian feared that he might have been exacerbating her issues. She had lost her parents to battle, it would not surprise him if she had an immense aversion to it.
She kept on turning towards him, but didn't say anything. Adrian wondered if she was considering asking him to stop making the filolials fight. He knew that she liked them, she probably didn't like to see her friends fighting giant monsters. He kept a portion of his attention on her using Blindsight, she was right next to him, but most of his focus and his eyes were on his filolials. He felt bad about exposing her to battle like this, but they had to be his priority for the moment.
Isis was chanting even as she moved away from the monster, Trystan interrupted the snake-like monsters charge by slamming into it feet first, the scales where Trystan hit shattered and the organs and muscles beneath them turned into pulp.
The Drakon hissed in fury but backed away from Isis and turned its attention towards Trystan. It tried to bite the black filolial.
That was its' final mistake.
Isis took her chance and finished her long chant. She had an incredibly focused expression and through his mana sight he could see that she was collecting an incredible amount of power. She began to glow both in his normal sight and mana sight and he could feel the world around him shudder.
An instant later her whole body lit up with a corona of lightning that coalesced into a thin beam that slammed into the drakon while it was chasing Trystan.
The results were horrific. The beast died in an instant but its dead body continued to twitch as the lighting ravaged its' muscles, eventually, that stopped but only because its entire nervous system had been utterly ravaged and its muscles were basically vaporized or liquified. The smell was eye-watering and made him feel like throwing up.
But it was very effective.
He smiled at the two filolials as they approached him, Raphtalia looked relieved and a little sick, she alternated between staring at the filolials and the still smoking monster behind them. It was interesting to see the combination of awe and fear she held.
"Well done," he said, then turned his full attention towards Trystan, "Trystan I know that you are durable but you must stop taking unnecessary hits."
It had been the only real flaw that his inexperienced eyes had noticed. Thankfully the battle had been slow enough for him to analyze it easily.
The bird looked a little ashamed but nodded seriously enough and said, "Yes brother, I will. I promise."
It was good to see that he was willing to take the battle seriously. It had worried him a great deal to send the cheerful boy into battle. No matter the fact that he was a giant bird, he was still two days old. He had been worried about the filolials getting traumatized or not taking the battles seriously enough. Thankfully they took the problem seriously enough.
"Raphtalia," he said, waving his hand towards Trystan.
She nodded and scrambled up on top of Trystan with Isis and they began to move towards their next target. Adrian kept an eye on them with Blindsight but took went towards the smoking corpse and began to harvest it. It would not unlock any powers but he wasn't willing to leave it to rot.
Plus, any additional drops would see some use later on.
Adrian frowned as he tried to feel the flow. It was better than before, he could tell that something was there, but it was like trying to hold onto air. He could feel it but it just...slipped away.
He sighed, closed his eyes, and then tried again. Adrian took a deep breath, focusing on the point on his hand where Isis had inserted her magic, and then did his best to feel it.
One breath, as slow as he could make it. A second and then a third. He felt his senses focusing on the feeling of lightness. It was hard to describe like there was something crawling underneath his skin, it was odd but it felt good. Like it was making him stronger in some way.
But then the feeling started to fade.
Adrian opened his eyes and looked at Isis who had been waiting while nibbling on some grilled dragon meat, "Again," he said.
She nodded and then touched his forearm. Instantly he felt a spark flare through his body, starting at his arm and then spreading, he nodded and closed his eyes. Trying to remember the feeling as best he could.
Another series of deep breaths but this time he felt something more than before. It was like he suddenly had another sense. He tried to move this phantom limb but it didn't respond, it was eerie, like deciding to move your fingers only to find that they didn't respond.
Inhale and hold.
He focused all his will onto that pseudo-limb and as he exhaled he pushed.
"You did it!" came an excited voice.
His concentration shattered in an instant and he felt his control go haywire. The feeling of the limb faded like it had never been there and Adrian felt oddly empty as he opened his eyes and stared at his hands.
They were glowing for a moment. It was a short moment all told but with his stats, it was basically an eternity.
Adrian didn't fight the smile that wanted to emerge. Even Trystan's obnoxious interruption didn't change anything, he had finally started on the path to be able to do magic.
He looked towards the young lady who was the only reason he had gotten as far as he had, "Thank you Isis." he said, " I owe you one."
And he meant it. Isis did what she did intuitively, without any real thought behind the matter, that was impressive but it meant that this method she invented and Adrian modified was something she had worked hard to figure out.
Isis smiled brightly and immediately stopped berating her brother.
Adrian stared at the results of his late-night hunt with annoyance. His efficiency had risen yet again. He had gained more experience than ever before but in every other measure, he had gained less than before.
Fewer levels, less than two hundred new sword forms and practically no useful skills. All in all the Dragon Territory was proving to be a location with diminishing returns. He had not expected to reach this point after just two days but it was clear that he had overestimated the variety of monsters in this area. If his suspicions were right then it must have been because of the Dragons destroying all the other monsters in the area, cutting down on the species diversity.
The plants were still pretty varied but most of them had started to give him stat boosts after he had unlocked a lot of plant growth boosts, plant alchemy, poisons, herbology related swords and such. He had no problem with the stat boosts of course but the simple fact was that it was becoming more and more difficult to make a profit hunting here.
Considering that his party was at level 38 with Raphtalia a little lower at 35, it would probably be wise to head towards the coast. He needed to hunt down some aquatic monsters beyond the freshwater monsters he had hunted, some more swimming and underwater combat skills would be good to track down the hourglass at Cal Mira and hunt down some unique monsters underwater where he was likely to find a lot of interesting monsters.
Adrian sighed, annoyed, at how badly he had overestimated the usefulness of this area. He had assumed that just because it was rumoured to be full of powerful monsters he would have a good chance of reaching level 50 swiftly. Yet, here he was at level 43, barely able to level up once despite leveling solo for four hours. It was a horribly slow rate in comparison to his previous achievements. To be certain it probably exceeded anyone else on the planet but considering that he was going to fight an apocalypse for certain and potentially nations who wanted to control him while protecting three young children that he had dragged into this mess...well he had good reason to rush.
Adrian blinked in slight surprise as the camp he had set up for the filolials and Rapthalia came into view. They were talking, no, it was more like Isis and Trystan were teaming up against Raphtalia.
He stopped and tried to understand what they were saying, Blindsight didn't help here as he couldn't read lips and even if he could Trystan was in his filolial form and Raphtalia and Isis were not speaking English, but he could tell that Raphtalia was not feeling cornered.
The hug from Trystan confirmed his suspicions but also bought up the question of what they were talking about that Raphtalia seemed to be on the edge of crying. She was smiling and wasn't sad but she was unquestionably worried about something and the other two were comforting her.
Adrian smiled a little at their kindness, their trust in each other, tentative as it was, and crushed the swell of melancholy that threatened to swamp him.
He waited until they had calmed down and then used Dash to get close to the camp. He ensured that his footsteps were loud enough for them all to hear them. Demi-human and monster ears were more than good enough to casually hear his footsteps and Blindsight let him catch the scramble to prevent him from realizing what they had been doing.
He kept his smile up as he walked into camp, sat down near them, but far enough for them to feel comfortable, warped his sword into a smaller form and then looked to the three of them.
They still looked a little tense but the filolials had already started to relax. Raphtalia, however, looked even more worried than she had before. He would need to start this conversation, or at least allow her the opportunity to speak with him if she wanted to.
"Did something happen?" he asked, keeping his voice light, palms facing his party. With Raphtalia's growth she was much taller than him when he was seated so it would likely help her consider him as a little less intimidating...though the slaughter of thousands of monsters and the smell of blood as a result of that probably didn't help matters there.
All three of them exchanged looks before Isis looked away. Trystan, on the other hand, pushed Raphtalia forward with a wing and said, "Raphtalia wanted to say something to you big bro! You have to help her!"
Adrian sighed, a little frustrated, at Trystan's horrible explanation. Even worse Raphtalia looked at Trystan with betrayal in her eyes. This would probably not end well but he had to wonder about what help she needed.
Oh, he could imagine a fair share of problems but none of them should be something he could help with. Her parents were dead, village ravaged and she had been enslaved and tortured. Wait-did she want revenge? That was something he could manage fairly easily. He had a name, after all, he doubted if it would take more than a week to track the man down. Normally he would be a little creeped out by the idea of killing a man...but killing the piece of trash who had given her those scars would be an honour. Adrain still remembered the bruising, the cuts and the internal bleeding that he had seen through Blindsight. Anyone who did that to a child deserved to die slowly.
Raphtalia looked at him, uncertain, but determination won over her fears and she rushed out her sentence, "Please save Rifana from the fat man!"
Adrian blinked, looking to Trystan and Isis for a little help, he could guess whom she meant by the Fat Man, that must have been the slave trader or perhaps Rabier, if the man was fat but who the hell was Rifana. Adrian remembered a Keel who had been in Rabier's basement but Adrian had figured that the child would not be there right now given that he had been found in the cell after about two months or so. No child would survive for two months in Rabier's care.
Trystan, unfortunately, interpreted his look as a sceptical one, "Big brother you have to help!" Even Isis was nodding in support.
Adrian sighed and said, "I'll need a more detailed explanation."
He looked at Raphtalia's terrified face, "Raphtalia, please tell me exactly what you are talking about. If it is in my power to help I'll do my best okay?"
It was reckless to make a promise like that. He had no idea what had happened to the girl...but he could guess. There was only so much that the light novel could cover. It was entirely possible that there were far more children who had been tortured alongside Raphtalia.
The thought made his fury rise and Raphtalia's rambling explanation of her friend being beaten every single day after the 'fat man' bought them stoked it to an explosive extent.
Once she was done there was only once answer that he could give no matter how badly this disrupted his plans.
"We'll try to help her. I promise," he said, his voice cold, Adrian paid no mind to his tone. He needed more information. He saw Raphtalia smile at his words but ignored it for the moment. It would be cruel but he would not give her false hope.
"But," he continued, and watched her wither, " it will be difficult. We need to track her down, take out that man before he can trigger the seal or use her as a hostage and ensure that none of his supporters can track us down."
He wasn't telling her the main problems but he suspected that she knew it. She just didn't care to think about it.
"That's fine." said the ten-year-old in a teenaged body, her tone determined and for once it was without any fear.
She bowed deeply, "Thank you ." she said, and when she raised her head it was with a smile. There was no joy in it but it seemed that she was content.
It was a shame that it was all too likely that the girl would be dead long before they got there. Still, as the three children went to sleep and he took the first watch he opened up his Cartographers Sword and accessed the Map skill.
It didn't show him exactly where Idol had his territory but it was easy enough to guess where the Demi-human dominated locations were given that he knew where the Seatto region was. They would have to travel there and then refine their directions.
It grated on him to abandon his plans for Cal Mira but it seemed that he was far less pragmatic that he wanted to be. Risking his future for a slight chance of saving a little girl.
How pathetic that he was actually satisfied with this course of action. He was far too sentimental and in this world, it could very well get him killed.
It was truly fascinating to see the night sky with his sensory enhancements. To any human back in his world the difference between night and day was obvious, even with the advent of electricity, the darkness could never be chased away entirely but with his Infrared and Ultraviolet Vision-based powers the night was just as bright as day. It honestly didn't look like what the movies portrayed, it was that he could simply see and describe a lot more colours than normal and Adrian loved it.
With Blindsight to watch over the area to ensure his safety he could relax a little while meditating and experimenting with his new skills. He had unlocked a fair number of them and while he was aware of the ones which were useful in direct combat this was the first chance he had gotten to test out some of the more subtle powers. It was truly remarkable just how versatile the Sword was, he had considered it before, but it was clear that this thing was not meant to be used in battle. Or at least its' primary function was not combat. He had gained more than ten times as many crafting, sensory or miscellaneous skills like Plant Modification or Analysis than he had combat powers and that spoke louder than the words in a light novel.
He needed to figure out what the actual purpose of the Legendary Heroes actually was, fighting the waves was probably just one aspect of the job but given the abilities, it granted it was very, very unlikely that it was the only one. It was quite unfortunate that his best source of information was probably Fitoria and he had precisely zero intention of seeking her out, no matter that raising Isis and Trystan would earn him some points with her.
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he stood up on the large wooden platform and stretched a little. He balanced himself carefully and made sure that his actions weren't too abrupt, the wooden carrier was a lot better desgined than his pathetic initial designs and had more than ten projected swords being used to move it but they were nearly five hundred meters in the air and while Adrian was certain that he could use Dash to easily get them all to the ground safely it would be a very rude wake up call if the disk toppled, especially since the three of them had just fallen asleep no more than an hour ago.
Isis and Trystan were both quite tired after running for a few hours. The two filolials had been the first two parts of his plan for moving to Rabier's domain as fast as possible. First, it had been Isis in her Filolial form who had carried him, Raphtalia and Trystan, in his human form. Then Trystan had swapped with her and carried them and now it was Adrian's turn to use the carrier to transport them. It wasn't anywhere near his top speed but it was an effective system to transport the group as a whole. Ideally, they could just keep on moving continuously but Adrian was certain that they would need to take a break sooner or later.
Adrian turned his attention to Raphtalia as she started to stir, the child had not been able to rest very well since she had made her request to save her friend and since Isis and Trystan had fallen asleep first, coiled up with each other, Raphtalia, for once, wasn't snuggled up with Trystan in his filolial form. It seemed that her nightmares had returned because of that. He sighed and sat down next to her, the layers of cloth and cushion making it quite comfortable, and began to stroke her head, making sure not to touch her ears. It took some time but she began to calm down.
He flared Blindsight, expanding the range by feeding it a bit of SP and Magic Power, he hadn't expected much, a monster that was targeting them or one that he might have to be a little careful for at most, which was why when he saw a group of three apparently non-existing things fighting a Drakon he almost stood up.
Adrian carefully ran through his sensory suite, his carrier almost stopping before he set it to moving a bit slower, he didn't want to warn anyone but found that none of his skills could actually find anything odd about the scenario. Normally, that would mean that he would have considered it okay and checked other places but with the Drakon moving in an attack pattern, the soil being dislodged and trees and the ground getting cracked open by both the Drakon and its opposition...well his skills telling him that nothing was there just made him more suspicious.
He swallowed the thrill of fear as the distortions, which he remembered having detected right after he left the capital, killed the Drakon with some difficultly. It seemed that while he could not spot them he could find the drops of blood the spilt after an injury. He had no information on them but one thing was certain. They were after him and they had chosen to hide their presence. They were his enemies.
The only question was if they had reported back to their masters and if so what their masters were doing.
Adrian shook his head and kept his carrier moving, carefully trying not to move faster or slower than before. They were a threat but they were not a threat at this exact instant. Hell, given how long it had taken them to kill the Drakon, Trystan and Isis could probably kill them all but that was never the danger of spies. Adrian needed to interrogate them, he needed to know what they had sent off about him and who they served.
Then he needed to kill them before they got reinforcements. If he was lucky they would have not sent their reports in yet. Though he doubted that fact. Adrian felt his fear and anger rise, no one from Melromarc would be happy about their pet Hero slipping off the leash and then ally with Demi-humans and monsters, Adrian was fairly certain that they would kill him but he doubted that they would be so kind with his children.
His determination crystallized and his mind turned to plan. They needed to be introogated and killed, their masters determined and hunted down it was the only path forward.
Adrian looked at the accursed Sword that was leashing him to this world and said, " You had better be good enough,"
He wasn't sure if the glow on the gem was acquiescence or an insult.
Waking up three young children after they had spend hours working hard was difficult. Waking them up to tell them that you wanted them to move away from battle so that retreat was easier was much harder, espcially when they wanted to help.
Well, Raphtalia didn't seem to want to help but it seemed that she felt obligated to do so.
"Isis," he explained with a sigh, " we don't have much time for this. We've gained a small lead on them because they are injured and tired but that won't last. Please listen to me I'm doing to so that I can retreat more easily. It will keep me safer than any other option."
For once Isis looked like the child she was, her face was scrunched up and she looked to be on the brink of tears, " ...At least let me help you! I won't get in the way and Trystan can take Raphtalia to safety."
Trystan looked mutinous at her words but didn't say anything. It was remarkable just how easy it was to read the boy in his human form. Raphtalia looked back and forth, nor saying anything, looking scared and worried. He felt like a monster for making these children worry and it underscored his previous thoughts, he had dragged them into his orbit and potentially ruined their lives. His frown and fury deepened as he realized that if these spies had already made their reports then none of them would ever be safe, his plan of letting Raphtalia live life free from the chaos would be impossible.
Adrian hesitated but had to admit that while she wasn't as strong as him she should be able to take on their enemies with ease, plus he could carry her while using Dash, it was far from impossible. In fact, Adrian could see a few advantages, she was his magic expert, or at least as close to it as anyone in his party could get to.
Yet, she was still young, lacked his advantages and hadn't even classed up yet. Stat boosts from the monster and filolial series or not she was not experienced and she was still less than a week old. He didn't want to have her witness torture and execution.
Adrian snorted at his foolish thoughts. Wasn't he the man who was asking them to kill monsters for him? To fight an apocalypse for him? Hadn't he raised them, named them with the expectation that they would be powerful enough to match Fitoria who was basically a God in her own right?
He looked at her eyes and made his decision.
"Thank you Isis" he said, kneeling and giving her a hug.
Blindsight let him know that she was smiling. He was glad to see that she had relaxed but realizing just how small she was just solidified his decision.
Adrian felt a small sense of satisfaction as his party members left the range of his Blindsight.He knew that Isis was still angry with him but she was willing to obey even if she didn't agree. He would have to make it up to the girl, she had only wanted to help him.
That satisfaction faded as he considered what he was about to do. Adrian was going to cripple, enslave, interrogate and then kill three people. No matter how he sugercoated it or justified it; that was a simple fact. It made him feel a little sick to realize just how far he was willing to go for the sake of his survival and that of the people he cared for but at the same time, the logical part of him couldn't help but conclude that this was inevitable. After all, in this world, he was a high profile entity he could not avoid taking decisions that would alter the lives of many. Hell, even his decision to focus on going home above all could very well get millions killed, in such a place in his situation being unwilling to kill would be a massive handicap. A weakness he could not afford.
In this case, if he didn't get rid of these spies then it would place him at an unbearable level of risk. The thoughts of getting his throat slit in the night when he was resting or leaving his party behind to train and return to find their corpses and a trap kept flashing in his mind, a grim reminder of why he had to kill these people.
So, Adrian prepared. He had made sure to keep the distortions moving after them, forcing them to expend stamina and then he had boosted the speed of his carrier leaving them in the dust before slowing it down later. He had taken to the skies, moving nearly five kilometres up in the air before going back down behind the distortions after he had slowed down the carrier ensuring that he had gotten to see their maximum speed. They didn't speak to each other nor did they stop but he could tell that they were getting slower. Still, they were determined to track him. It made his path forward quite clear. These people would not give up and given that they had not spoken a word to him, negotiations were unlikely to succeed.
For now all he could do was wait. He was nearly a kilometre in the air, using Glide and Dash to stay in position. His normal low-quality clothing replaced with the best of his Drop Items and he had his tactics and sword forms at the ready. Adrian had nearly twenty of each type of potion and medicine and was ready for anything from poison to fire blasts. He was as well preapred as he could be.
It did nothing to stop the rapid beating of his heart. The fear kept his mind sharp and constantly tempted him to simply blast these bastards into oblivion. If a mere Drakon could actually hurt them then he could kill them with ease, he knew that and yet he was feeling hesitant about this whole thing.
It was necessary but Adrian still felt a little sick while thinking about his plan. He hated the fact that if everything went right then at the end of it he would be a torturer, a killer and a slaver. It made his fury towards the scum in this world feel a little hollow if he was willing to go this far just because it was pragmatic.
Then they entered the range of his Blindsight, a flare of power, and he confirmed what he already knew about them. Another moment and he inhaled a deep breath, taking in the cold air of the sky around him. Once he exhaled he closed his eyes and let Blindsight track them until they were within optimum range.
Another breath and he pushed away his doubts. For better or for worse, this was his best option.
"Thousand Swords," he muttered, feeling the SP drain as he forced the creation of hundreds of ethereal blades, making them drop rapidly. Less than a tenth of their number started to move towards his targets. The rest simply scattered themselves uniformly around their projected location.
As Adrian used Dash to move from his position he pulled out an SP potion and drank it. It was a bit of overkill but he would prefer having 100% at his disposal.
To the credit of his hunters, they did their best to scatter and dodge the projectiles. It wasn't their fault that they were simply too slow to manage even that. The distortions managed to destroy three or four swords each but there were dozens targeting them and eventually, they were pinned down.
Well, two of them were pinned, the last had actually managed to set up a pink coloured barrier that looked like it was made out of fire. It had actually managed to destroy his attack. Though it had felt a little...off. Adrian had gotten a feeling like rather than blocking his sword it had instead attacked the construct instead. Tricky. It was a good solution to his high attack power. Adrian felt his respect for his enemies rise.
He discarded the idea of taking them all alive. One would do. They were more skilled than he had anticipated.
A thought from him and fifteen Sword Projections emerged from around him. Another moment and the closest swords embedded in the ground around the distortions began to change form. Adrian smiled as he whispered, " Change Sword. Explosive Sword. Lighting Sword. Wind burst Sword…."
Every single weapon that could be used as an elemental explosive slowly started to emerge and Adrian started to feel his confidence rise.
Then, he saw the people behind the distortion for the first time as they suddenly became visible to his eyes, though not to his skills, and felt shock pass through him as he realized that they were all rabbit beastmen.
Each of the three targets began to glow pale pink as if the flames were beginning to consume them, just as the explosions started. He could tell that only the man who had survived his first attack unscathed had managed to fully power up the defence. Which had to be why while he managed to block the entire series of explosions. The other two died instantly. The massive series of elemental explosions utterly ravaging their bodies.
He managed to see them via Blindsight and his other senses for the first time and it shocked him just how intact their body was. Their defences had failed to save their lives but Adrian knew just how powerful he was right now, the fact that their bodies weren't torn to shreds meant that either their defence stat or their ability could boost their defence to absurd levels.
Adrian completely dismissed any plans of keeping any of them alive at this point. Their demi-human nature, skills and equipment were unique enough that he was certain that they were not from any faction in Melromarc. Siltvelt felt like the most likely option but he would have to leave them be for now. Adrian had no intention of fighting people who likely had managed to replicate some of the functions of the Legendary Shield while holding back when he was this weak.
If they survived his attacks he would consider interrogation but he would not hold back intentionally anymore.
The demi-human who had survived was still a distortion to his Blindsight but Adrian could see him quite clearly with his eyes. The rabbit man was well built and very well armoured. It was a surprise to see such heavy armour on what he had assumed to be a spy, perhaps this one was meant to be the one who would take part in combat, maybe the visual blocker had failed because one of the others was the caster. Adrian focused his Blindsight on a smaller area, hoping to pick up even the smallest movements.
The rabbit man tried to move, but that just gave Adrian an opening as the man had dropped his pink aura to do so, Adrian didn't wait or hesitate. Five massive sword beams, each at near full power and fairly large diameter cut through the forest. It utterly annihilated a tree that had been in the way but when it slammed into the man it was like the beam was being...negated at the point of contact with the pink flame-like aura. The parts of the beam that didn't hit him went on to slam into the ground and cut through soil and the underlying bedrock with ease. Adrian kept up the attack for four seconds and while that was enough to dig a hole nearly a hundred meters deep behind the man, it didn't do a thing to him.
No, wait, Adrian could see that his armour was cracked. Not badly, nowhere near the damage it should have taken but enough to confirm that his attacks weren't being negated completely. Highly resistant but not invincible.
A potent combination of fear and determination flared within his body. This man was no assassin. He was a warrior. You don't send out solo warriors with such absurd skills out to spy on an enemy unless you want to kill him urgently and this is your only choice. Adrian couldn't imagine why a man with enough defence to actually tank his attack would come here without back up and it made him rather nervous. What if these three were only a Vanguard or a scouting force? Or if their invisibility and sensory resistance were particularlyproblematic?
Had he sent his party to their deaths? Or was he surrounded and wasn't even aware of it?
His thoughts vanished as he saw the rabbit man struggle to his feet and then stumble. Adrian felt his eyes narrowing. A trap? Or was it genuine? He forced the thought away and launched another attack. This time he used all of his projections, narrowed the beams and then Dashed away.
Adrian smiled as he saw the man buckle, his armour began to melt, as even the resisted attack managed to penetrate enough to start doing damage. Then he blinked as most of the man became visible in Blindsight. Adrian focused for a moment and then noted that every point except for where the beams were striking him was visible.
It was a little puzzling but he had his suspicions. So he changed his Sword form and prepared to use a massive fire blast. If his guess was right then the man had concentrated his defences to survive the attack, it seemed that it was these same defences that had blocked his perception skills.
Of course, this was when he caught sight of Trystan running onto the battlefield Isis on his back, chanting with a huge concentration of wind in her hands. Worse Raphtalia was there as well, holding on for dear life as Trystan ran as quickly as possible.
Adrian immediately unleashed his attack and then projected ten swords around him. When Adrian and Trystan were about five hundred meters from the fight he blasted the rabbit man who was immediately torn apart.
The firestorm was immense and he heard the rabbit scream. It was horrifying and the man must have been in agony. The beams that he had set up before and the new ones then worked together as the demi-humans focus slipped. Adrian winced when he realized that he had not left even a trace of his enemy.
It was almost shocking how easily his attacks had annihilated his enemy. Adrian frowned as he realized that the man's defences were pathetic.The only thing in his favour had been the pink barrier and once he had begun to crack that, Adrian's victory had been inevitable.
He sighed once he realized that he had badly overestimated his enemy. Then he turned towards the two filolials and felt an increasing amount of anger. These two idiots had interrupted a potentially dangerous situation. They could have gotten killed if the enemy was stronger.
"Isis, Trystan." he said, feeling an odd combination of fury and relief as he saw that they were okay, " What exactly are you two doing here?"
It was very satisfying to see the two filolials flinch.
"It was me!" said the only other living person in the clearing, " I wanted to come and help," she admitted, fear on her face but determination in her tone.
Adrian just stared at the three children who had chosen to risk battle for his sake and shook his head. He tried to ignore the feeling of warmth rising within him, that was foolish emotion, these three had been absolute idiots.
He sighed as he dismissed the various swords around the battlefield, feeling their presence slip from the back of his mind, though he kept Blindsightup.
" Let's keep moving." he said, trying to decide what he should tell these brats, and how much of the fault was his own, " but don't think that you've gotten out of this."
