Rangers Endgame

Chapter 105: Counterattack

The early light of dawn had begun to give way to a blue sky. The humid air rippled through the vibrant fields of the village outskirts, a quiet ambience to the rangers' hushed conversations.

Rangers, both warriors and conjurers, freelancers and clan members, took up their positions. Some nestled themselves within the edges of the nearby bamboo forest, while others, conjurers, carved trenches for their allies to hunker down in.

Fuyumi sat atop a stone away from the crowd, leaning back on one hand while absentmindedly examining her Armor Killer dagger with the other. It had already been about an hour since Sentinel Haruka announced that the assault team had commenced their attack. It'd been quiet since then, and there were no updates afterwards, so she could only assume things were going according to plan.

Glancing over, she saw a handful of freelancers coming out of the forest. Apparently, there was supposed to be another clan participating in the raid, but their bodies were recently discovered deep within the forest and were quickly reported to Sentinel Haruka.

'They must've just returned from burying them.' She assumed.

From what she overheard, there was a powerful conjurer with the deceased, one who could boost several rangers' strength and increase their durability to near-indestructible levels. But what really caught her attention was that, based on the report, they were all killed through brute force.

Her dagger shook slightly in her hand. To think there was someone strong enough to outright ignore near-indestructible defenses...it almost made her wish she hadn't been eavesdropping.

"No, my baby is still there!" A woman with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, likely one of the villagers judging from her attire, kicked and screamed to Fuyumi's right as a group of S-ranks pulled the woman back behind the perimeter. "Please, she’s still back there!"

"Miss, please stop struggling. It's not safe here." One of the S-ranks wearing heavy armor continued hauling her.

Fuyumi was snatched out of her thoughts when a beam of light flashed from Sotiri Village, expanding into a cone and plunging day into night. Her eyes widened as the distant horizon disappeared in the blast. Seconds later, the delayed sound of the explosion finally caught up to what she was seeing.

Like everyone around her, her hands shot to her ears to shield them against the excruciating roar of the blast. When the cone of light dissipated, the shockwave-induced tremors and blinding noise subsided.

Tears streamed from the woman's eyes as she wept silently, despair swallowing her completely at the sight of the blast as she was pulled toward the camps.

"What in the world was that?" A ranger to her left asked no one in particular as daylight faded back into the world.

"No idea." Another ranger twisted a finger in his ear.

"You think the assault team is in trouble?" A short Saberclaw ranger asked his lanky friend to her left.

"There's no way to know for sure." The man rubbed his eyes.

Fuyumi looked over at where Sentinel Haruka had posted up, atop a large boulder overlooking the fields and village. Gradually, everyone started regarding the Sentinel in hopes of guidance, but she didn't say a word. Shock had slipped through her stoic front.

Regaining her calm, she was about to say something into the artifact on her uniform when the device on her belt began to flicker red. Her eyes widened as she then turned to the rangers below.

"Everyone, we have incoming!" Her roar swept across the eastern perimeter.

As sudden as her words came, the ground began to tremble once more. Fuyumi staggered to her feet, using her elevation from the boulder to assess what was happening. Rangers all around her jumped to their feet, stumbling as they brandished their weapons for an unknown attack.

Then, pillars of raging light rocketed out of the earth, ripping through the perimeter that arced around the village and sending shockwaves through their ranks. Helpless teams of rangers vanished inside the pillars as the series of dark amber lights devoured their fortifications and thrust the area into chaos.

The chain of light pillars fast approached Fuyumi, and she looked down. Fissures tearing at the boulder snapped her out of her shock, and she leapt off just before another pillar hungrily consumed it. Landing with a roll, a cloud of dust spilled over the field, obscuring most of her vision.

Coughing and waving away the dust, she tried to get her bearings as human silhouettes began pouring out of holes in the ground left by the pillars of light. Manic shouts and clashing metal followed.

Fuyumi drew her second dagger and whipped around to the sound of twisting metal accompanied by the splash of blood. Her attention then snapped to the silhouette of a man on her right, where he was impaled by a spear conjuration. To her left, a woman figure deflected projectiles with her sword when a man cleaved into her shoulder with an axe from behind, the grotesque sounds of ripping flesh and fracturing bones drowning out her screams.

Like a rising tide, terror began to grasp at Fuyumi as she couldn't identify friend from foe. Tightening her grip around her daggers as if strangling her fear, she clung to her cool and examined her surroundings again. The Second Grades had been right under their noses, scheming a tactic to sow panic.

And it worked.

As she scanned the smoke, her eyes locked onto a dark shadow, a shapeless form moving with haunting deftness through the cloud like a silent reaper. It approached a silhouette she assumed was a ranger, and before they could react, their arm wheeled off their shoulder before a fountain of blood sprayed from their throat. It sped toward another silhouette, a woman by her feminine figure, and she raised her sword in desperation to protect herself. The shadow dipped low, and a raw cry scratched at the air as both her legs were sawed off. A wet crunch silenced her screams as her neck was torn out.

Fuyumi tracked the creature as each person it came into contact with lost an appendage and had their throat ripped out afterwards. She raised her daggers defensively, a chill running down her spine as the...thing raced towards her.

She saw a glint before something silver slashed through the cloud. It collided hard with her daggers, and for a moment, she feared her blades would shatter. The forceful impact sent her tumbling back.

By the time she righted herself, the creature was already on her. Raising her dagger again, she blocked a set of powerful claws that sent a painful jolt through her arm. The next thing she saw was rows of razor-sharp teeth flashing into being around her throat, preparing to close.

In the split second she had to react, she threw herself back in desperation just before its jaws slammed shut with a hollow snap. Landing on her hands to continue her momentum, she kicked the beast in its jaw as she backflipped away.

Sliding to a stop, she readied herself for another attack, but it never came. Instead, she got a good look at the creatu—the man.

Before her was a hunched man rubbing his chin where she'd struck him, two sets of three bloodstained claws attached to the leather gauntlets on his forearms. A steel grill lined with serrated blades was horrifically fused to his face, blood mixing with the dark essence of his radiance dripping from his elongated canines. Two claws were clamped to each foot, scything the soil with every movement. His wild dark hair was drenched in crimson, matching the rabid intensity of his bloodshot gaze.

He salivated, his body heaving in hungry anticipation. Fuyumi refused to let her guard down and shake off the lingering pain in her arm, afraid of giving him another opening.

The smoke cloud thinned, revealing multiple battles raging around them at once. Metal clashed and spells fired through the musty air of burning wood and soil. However, her eyes never left him as their fight happened to be more isolated than the rest.

Infusing her daggers, she waited. His metallic jaws lit ablaze with ashen amber in response as he dropped low, his claws digging into the soil. Her eyes narrowed as her fingers rewrapped around her handles in suspense. Then, he lunged forward with a swiftness that seemed almost inhuman.

Once again, his blurred form was on her in moments. Dipping his head, his foot arced above in a downward slash aimed for her shoulder. Knowing better than to block it head-on, she sidestepped to her left, letting the rear claws drive into the ground.

A small shockwave ripped through the ground, making her stumble. Reorienting himself seamlessly, he swiped upward with the claws on his forearm. Bringing her daggers up, she deflected the blow intended to cleave hip to shoulder. Though she redirected the blow, she still felt the slight shock go through her arm.

Twisting his body around again, his jaws opened around her calf. She jerked her upper body toward him, and her lower half followed just as they snapped shut, his canines still managing to lacerate her skin. As she side-flipped over him, she struck him deep in his exposed back with her Bloodhound Fang dagger. But he didn't howl in pain, didn't wince, didn't acknowledge it at all.

He whipped back around and snapped at her again. Startled, she snatched her arm away before she was down one appendage, her dagger still lodged in his back. He made no attempt to pull it out but instead followed up with a slash to her midsection.

Leaning back, she was just fast enough to avoid the lethal blow as the claws carved three gashes in her armor, the blades barely breaking skin underneath.

She unconsciously let her thoughts go, allowing her body to react on its own to deflect his swipes and narrowly escape his jaws. She couldn't help but wonder if this was a man at all, his primal yet nimble movements designed not only to kill, but to devour.

Though not consciously, she found a split-second opening in his feral onslaught. Her body moved to capitalize and axed her foot into the side of his knee with a crunch. Like before, he didn't so much as flinch, twisting his body diagonally to carve down on her shoulder with his rear claws.

Blocking with her Armor Killer dagger, his claws barely managed to bite into her flesh. Dragging her blade, she cleanly sawed through the claws, the talons still hooked in her shoulder.

He paid no heed to his missing claws and continued his relentless assault. But there was something different. His slashes and bites were becoming increasingly easier to dodge, and blocking no longer sent waves of pain through her. His movements were becoming sluggish, and his once rabid eyes were now bleary with fatigue.

'Seems like the Bloodhound Fang's siphon effect is working.' She thought, relieved.

He kicked her into a stalk of bamboo and went to bite down on her throat again. She leaned to her left, easily avoiding his fatal blow, as his infused teeth chomped down on the wood behind her, shattering it in two. Delivering a powerful elbow to the side of his jaw, staggering him, she slid to his flank and grabbed onto the dagger still in his back.

Like she'd done with the bloodhound many months ago, she pushed radiance into the handle and unleashed a constant jet of power out of the blade and through his body. His skeleton's silhouette flashed under his skin as his channels flooded with excess energy.

For the first time, the pain was too much for him, an animalistic shriek tearing at his throat as her radiance shredded his innards and rocketed out through his mouth. His grill ripped from his face and landed before her, seared flesh still hanging from it. She released her radiance and pulled the blade out, and he fell to the ground, finally motionless.

She toppled onto the ground as the adrenaline wore off. Tearing fabric from under her armor to bite down on, she reached for the talons still in her shoulder.

'One...two...' She agonizingly twisted the talons out of her and threw them away.

Fumbling around in her satchel, she pulled out one of the elixirs Aoi had given her and drank its contents. Its warmth spread throughout her body and soothed her injuries. The wounds in her shoulder closed, and the gashes on her leg were stitched back together until faint scars took their places.

Throwing away the vial and wiping her mouth, she stood and scanned the battlefield for her next fight.