Rangers Endgame

Chapter 140: Eye of the Storm

“Keep walking,” Yakeru said, just loud enough for the others to pick up the pace.

The group moved in hurried steps, wind picking up along with them. Yakeru didn't know what would happen if the eyes—whatever they belonged to—knew that he knew they were following them, so he kept moving for now.

He pulled his coat tighter, breath fogging. They slid down dips and heaved up inclines. No one said a word. They didn't have to.

Then the eyes came back.

Not one pair this time.

Two. Four. More to the left.

They hung at different heights, drifting in and out of reality as the wind surged like lanterns carried by something that didn't quite walk the way it should.

The group kept moving, faster this time. Trying to outpace the… whatever was following them. But it was futile.

The eyes didn't rush, didn't close in. Just observed. Like wolves that weren't wolves.

It grew increasingly impossible to ignore them as their numbers doubled. Then, a low howl rolled across the slope. Not quite animal, not quite human.

A horrible cross from both. Something that conjured gooseflesh across Yakeru's skin and flooded his veins with adrenaline.

The first attack came without warning.

A shape burst from the white—pale as the blizzard itself, its body more suggestion than substance. Yuto was already moving, shield drawn to absorb the brunt.

Claws met steel, and sparks snapped bright only to be swept away by the winds. Yuto readjusted his grip and twisted, his shield extending from the grooves into a sword as he pivoted to cleave downward.

The blade whipped through where its back leg was, but the creature disappeared into the snowy wind. Yakeru would've thought Yuto had killed it if not for its eyes lingering in the air for a time.

Risa flicked her wand, firing a spell to chase after the fleeing beast. But instead of striking it between the eyes, the two icy blue points swung apart, letting the projectile pass through it to explode against something behind it before joining back together.

“What in the…” she muttered, struggling to understand what she'd just seen. “Circle!” she roared.

Everyone snapped into formation around the conjurer. More shapes emerged, heaving into existence with every gust. Yakeru drew his katana, Fuyumi readying her daggers. Behind them, Takahiro's silhouette twirled a rapier out of its sheath, his face hardly visible, but his silence said it all.

Another blur whipped from Yakeru’s right, and he deflected with the flat of his blade. However, the obscurity of the creature allowed its claws to nick his shoulder before it melded back into the storm.

Fuyumi swerved, narrowly avoiding a sharp whistle where her neck used to be, and countered with an upward slash from Armor Killer. The serrated blade met air as the whirling winds took the creature.

From their shadows, Takahiro and Yuto weren’t faring any better. Yuto resorted to defending while the noble unleashed a flurry of rapid stabs that his opponents proceeded to ignore, raking gashes into his chest, his high-grade armor saving him.

A lull in the wind later, and the blizzard flickered.

Yakeru glimpsed a creature circling to his side. As the snowy air fluctuated, so did its form—raw flesh materializing over jutting bone. When the snow picked back up, its matter wisped and vanished, leaving behind the floating blue of its eyes.

He stalled for a moment, studying but still alert.

It lunged, and he barely parried its claws, the bony razors glancing off his armor. Their armor made up for their mistakes, but how long would that last against a tireless onslaught?

Another lag in the winds and the creature flickered again. The brief exposure forced its body back into being, squelching flesh dragging itself over its calcified form before reversing when the blizzard roared back in.

His eyes snapped wide as he whipped around. “Risa, can you clear the blizzard around us?”

Her familiar form turned in response. “It would be taxing in a storm like this, but yes.”

“Do it!”

She ignited her wand again. Radiant light shone from its tip, swelling into a fine point.

A shadow burst from the snow-infused air, but Yuto had already positioned himself between it and her, claws screeching against steel.

Then Risa released. The spell burst outward in every direction, displacing the surrounding white to fill the spherical pocket with color. Takahiro had accumulated three lacerations across his arm, while a line of red appeared on Fuyumi’s neck.

Pained hisses erupted from around them as the creatures fumbled backward. Raw muscles writhed and lashed over crackling calcification. Their bodies were wrong in a way that made the mind recoil: too much bone, too few muscles, but their strength said otherwise. Even when they took shape, their flailing kicked up clouds, making it difficult to get a good look at them.

“Now!” Yakeru shouted.

Yuto’s shield extended again as he severed the head of the creature that had attacked him. Risa conjured a new spell. This time, amber light spilled from the ground around them as flowers of pure radiance bloomed from the ground, forming a perimeter. As the creatures scurried back into the cover of the storm, their mangled feet caught on the petals.

The flowers detonated with deafening brilliance, painting the outer walls of the pocket harsh gold as blue gore sprayed from their corpses to stain the snow.

The blizzard rushed back in to fill the gap, and their sight was once again at the mercy of the wrathful storm.

“Move!” Yakeru urged.

Without hesitation, the others darted in their original direction. The conjurer’s counterattack granted them a moment to breathe, but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Yakeru caught two—no, three pairs of blue points in his periphery to his right, skittering. Hunting.

He turned his head, but this time, the light from their eyes didn’t wink out. Instead, they responded with challenging snarls.

Their group hurried, tether tugging and slackening as they abandoned their initial formation.

Shadows climbed out of the white void ahead of them and lunged. With no need to say it, Risa had already charged her wand and released it with a flick. A dome opened around them, catching the plummeting beasts midair to allow Takahiro to thrust forward with his infused blade. The sheer force punched craters through their gangly chests, sending them tumbling for Fuyumi to finish them in her passing, their heads rolling.

Yuto sped in front of Risa to cleave another in two, but the winds raced again to erase their pocket of safety. The beast twisted back into shadows as the cover of snow wrapped around it, Yuto’s blade passing through it. The last thing Yakeru saw was the thing’s claws plunging deep into Yuto’s thigh as he choked on a cry.

Yakeru rushed to assist, but it was already gone by the time he got there.

Hit and run tactics.

“On your feet. We can’t give them any leeway.” Yakeru pulled him up by the arm.

“Incoming!” Fuyumi warned from somewhere to his left.

Two more shadows clashed with Fuyumi. A tug on her tether, and she retreated with her companions.

Every step competed with gravity as the mountain tilted against them. Yuto intercepted another attacker, but three more came from their flank. Risa ejected another pulse before they were overwhelmed. Color returned, and the air stilled as exposure warped the creatures into shape. Takahiro fired off three thrusts so fast it looked simultaneous, their chest cavities rupturing into blue viscera.

The rangers were already moving again by the time the blizzard swallowed the pocket. Risa heaved, not from exhaustion, but her plummeting reserves. A pair of eyes darted, and Yakeru reacted, bringing his sword up and parrying its claws. Infusing his blade, he pivoted and twisted, shearing through the sharpened bone.

A terrible howl of agony later, and the creature retreated into the storm, only for four new pairs of eyes to take its place.

“Go!” he roared.

From behind them, the blue dots in the storm multiplied.

“I can…” Risa gulped down freezing air to form words. “I think I have enough for one more.”

“Don’t. If you collapse, the tether will drag us with you.” Yakeru reasoned, keeping an eye on her silhouette.

She smacked his arm.

More lights bloomed into existence before them. Only these weren’t icy blue, but rather the warmth of orange. Then came the shapes. At first, he thought it could've been another trick of the storm—a darker smudge in the white. But as they stumbled closer, details resolved.

Rooftops hunching under the weight of snow, iron gates rattling in the winds, figures patrolling the outskirts.

“There!” Takahiro announced as he helped Yuto keep up.

They drew closer to the village, but the eyes gained on them. A creature burst from behind Yakeru, and he sidestepped, its claws severing his tether. Fuyumi looked back at him, likely feeling the sudden loss of taut, but Yakeru shouted, “Keep going!”

Her shadow hesitated before running forward again.

Another creature lunged, but with his new freedom of movement, he channeled Blitz Step. He swerved around its flank as its claws plunged into the snow. It didn’t retreat, but stayed there for a moment, as if processing what had happened.

The blizzard hesitated again, and the creature’s flesh whipped over its intangible form. Frigid air parted with a silvery whine as his blade whisked, sending the beast’s head flying. Wrathful white enveloped him once more.

Several more eyes appeared between him and the village, and a focused calm rested on his features. The beasts surged as he stooped down and blurred again. He weaved through the feral onslaught with casual ease.

A whistle to his right, and he deflected. Snow displaced on his left, and he evaded.

He rapidly approached the village at breakneck speed.

Another pause in the wind, and a creature he hadn’t seen the first time materialized before him. He didn't panic; he simply answered with a defensive posture. Its claws smashed into the blade, jarring his bones.

As they wrestled, he glimpsed another pair of eyes circling to his side. With an infused leg, he snapped out behind him to intercept its ambush, its already-mangled throat crunching against his heel.

The blizzard swept in, and the creature he struggled with faded back into incorporeality. He stepped through the beast harmlessly, avoiding a sneak attack from its brethren.

The storm wavered again, the two creatures taking shape. With a spin, he thrust backward, skewering both through their torsos.

A volley of wrathful howls against a backdrop of sloshing flesh and shifting bone ripped in his ears behind him as more creatures rushed him.

A peevish breath left his lips, and he called upon his radiance once more. Energy threaded through precise muscle clusters and tendons.

Then, with his legs primed, he tugged his muscles.

The ground recoiled, and both creatures’ top halves exploded into geysers of blue as his blade flickered free.

The mountain was gone the next instant as Phantom Step snatched him from the plain of existence. The air split into a sharp cry, the snowfield blurring into a pale, endless streak, as pressure folded on itself.

The jolt of speed carried him the remaining distance, soaring through the open gates and sliding to a stop, still standing upright.

He flicked his sword, blood arcing.

Just as he guided the blade home with a click, the world caught up, the delayed thunderclap racing to match his composure with a grandeur of powdered javelins. The shockwave tore through the village and crackled across unseen peaks.

The guards, spears already raised, startled back while Risa, Yuto, and Takahiro jumped at his abrupt arrival. Fuyumi simply breathed, a trace of relief in the ghostly air flowing from her lips.

Coat whipping, Yakeru glanced over his shoulder, just beyond the gate, where the storm thickened—as if marked with an invisible boundary. Within it, the horde of eyes gathered, pacing, burning with frustration.

None of them crossed the threshold.

Yuto wiped his mouth after drinking a green substance from a vial, the skin on his injured leg knitting back together. “Why aren’t they—”

“The village artifact prevents too much snow from accumulating in the air,” one guard explained, lowering his weapon. “And they know their only advantage is the storm.”

The second guard went to check on Yakeru, but the ranger held up a hand to signal he was fine. Although fresh pain fired through his lower half with each step after using Phantom Step, the fact that he was still standing meant his body was acclimating.

“Please follow me, rangers,” the second guard instructed. “The village chief is this way.”