The vast quiet meadow is disturbed when a huge flat lump snow and ice falls from the sky and hits the flat grass fields, making a loud thud.
Bhest recovered first followed by others. His estimated that they go on a free fall for almost 2 minutes before hitting the solid ground.
"Status report?!" Bhest's call, a very first thing to do after the risky maneuver they did.
"No injuries on our part!" -Kolig.
"Same with us!" -An academic.
"We're ready to go Sir!" His fellow paladin shouts in behalf of others.
After learning that his team is safe and sound that Bhest finally focus the new surroundings they found themselves in.
"The Grand Ecstasy and Wanderer's report are spot on. This place is truly feels like endless." Bhest commented as he stare on the horizon.
Kolig resurfaced from the snow with a loud howl then clean himself snow lumps in her body.
"Infinite Meadow huh? You can't find a more suitiable name." Kolig's opinion.
"But isn't this place... So disturbingly empty? Only a sea of grass on sight." Yarkol then touch the grass, even taste a few of it. "Taste like a normal grass."
"Yeah... It makes me feel unease." Herma then get chills on her spine as the empty oddity gives her a very different fear.
"Oi Bhest. How we should do the exploration?"
"I assume your group have a specific goal in mind?" Bhest speak while he removes his coat as the temperature are more moderate now follow by others that put their winter protection back to their BoS.
"The leaders only told us to bring back anything special from this place. So whatever is fair game."
"I see. Then I suggest we follow Grand Ecstasy's path and walk to the direction facing the entrance of the tower."
"West? Well, that's our only guide. Just say if we going to mov- hmmm?"
Bhest and Kolig then notice something white and fluffy pop outs on the snow beneath them. Followed by more white objects.
"!!!"
Only when a lot of them got revealed that the two high ranking fighters feel dread.
"EXPO BUNNIES SPOTTED! SOLDIERS! PREPARE FOR COMBAT!" Bhest's booming command.
"WIELD YOUR ARMS WITH HASTE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Kolig's follow up.
The thing they afraid of are the Expo Bunnies, named by Claustrine due to its ability to quickly multiply itself once triggered. And following the report.
A horde of monster will surely follows the mountain of food.
The soldiers and adventurers got disorganized after the bunnies double in numbers in a instant, flooding their area instantly that the white snow got replaced by the white rabbits.
"THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" Herma's complaint as she quickly pull her wand on her BoS.
"AS IF ANYTHING INSIDE THIS TOWER MAKES SENSE!" Zasstal angr response while pulling her staff on her BoS
Kolig also armed himself by pulling his shovel.
"I can feel them shaking the ground. It's a huge horde." Kolig reports with worry.
"I didn't expected to meet them this early." Bhest gritted his teeth with annoyance.
From a distance, Yarkol sees a lump and smoke moving on their direction with incredible speed.
"Fhucks, Bounce Cows, Ribbon Lambs, and other unrecorded nightmares. It's a huge horde." Yarkol reported.
"Monsters are also spotted in East side!"
"Monsters spotted on West Side!"
"N-ort... S-South? Fuck it, WE'RE SURROUNDED!" Zasstol's blunt report.
"Any sightings of Taurachnia or Laffy?" Bhest asked Yarkol.
"Not ye-"
Yarkol got interrupted after the one they looking for drops from the sky and appears in front of them. Unlike before, the Taurachnia is already possessing its white hair and all of the 8 eyes are opened.
"Magic users! Focus on dealing with other monsters! Close combatants, come with me!'" Bhest commands and just ordered, the soldiers and adventurers who can use magic leave and prepare for the arrival of other monsters."
"Woooo... That one beast is nasty." Kolig's whistle as he observe the Taurachnia and it's hungered predacious stare.
"That beast is resistant to magic. Are you sure you want to face it?" Bhest's casual question.
"Hahhaha! My magic is just supplementary on my fighting style. Besides, that hair would surely fetch a huge price so I going to have to pluck enough to make a cloak!." Kolig smirks as he rest his shovel on his shoulder.
Bhest just accept Kolig's words and pull his dagger and buckler on his BoS.
And without wasting more time and to also prevent the Taurachnia on targeting others. Bhest gets its agro as the blessed warrior banished on his spot
And appears above to slam his buckler to the Taurachnia's head. The impact send a shockwave and shakes the monster's entire being.
"Damn! That's nasty attack young man!" Kolig's amusement then do his part by stabbing his shovel to the ground.
Bhest creates distance and observes the surrounding for any potential hurdles and sigh after seeing that the space is clear for their next move.
Then he looks on the Taurachnia that already summoned its cage to corner anything inside its arena.
"Do it Kolig."
"Aye captain."
Kolig cast his magic and his mana spreads to the ground.
The once huge solid ground suddenly move like a fabric being manipulated with such accuracy that it flings and move the Expo Rabbits away and outside of the cage. Kolig then cancel his magic after the deed is done turning the ground back on its solid state.
"A-Amazing. So this is the power of a Hero rank adventurer?" Jhishna's awe as he saw the the once flat green ground deformed grotesquely.
"Now we can fight without worrying about those pesky rabbits." Kolig then pull his shovel and spin it skillfully before resting on his shoulder.
The Taurachnia makes a loud cry, a show of power to the fighters who challenged him that prepared to face the monsters and bring fruit for their struggle.
Just a deep hole above Bhest and Kolig's group are Gilmore, Niana and Kiana...
CLANG!
TING!
Barrages of sparks and loud tangs of metals are echoing as Gilmore and the White Queen exchange and blocks each other's strikes
Above the White Queen is Niana plumeting down with his feet aimed to drop kick to the White Anomaly. Gilmore move aside to avoid Niana's attack which landed creating a huge cloud of snow and impact crater on the bloodied freezing floor.
But only landed, not hit. The White Queen dodged the surprise attack and leaving Niana alone on the crater she created.
Niana is not done on her attack as she quickly leap sideways to the spot where the White Queen jumps away, creating shockwave and after reaching the anomaly. Niana then sends consecutive and precise punch and kicks. Each strike packing power on them that it causes strong gust of winds.
"Woo...." Kiana's amazement.
"We're not going to help her?" Gilmore's question who getting a few moment of rest to regain some stamina.
"Look at her Gil."
Gilmore look and see Niana having a confident smile as she fight the white queen.
"Give her the moment first. It's been a while since she went all out like that." Kiana smirks.
Niana continues to fight the white enigma while her thick mana spreads from her body and outside with such agressive manner.
Despite being a close combatant, Niana is really a magic user gifted with huge amount of mana, the downside being her mana is very volatile and abnormal.
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Her abnormal mana have a dangerous condition to it that when it used and expelled to cast any form of magic, the magic is guaranteed to go haywire causing an accident.
A simple fireball becomes powerful and uncontrollable orb of devastation, manipulating an element can lead to overmanipulating absurd amount of material, and magic that requires precise casting and control always lead to failure of varied severity despite how Niana practice the said magic. Such abnormal mana almost cause Niana to accidentally hurt her beloved twin, making her to bow to never expell her mana on its raw form.
So instead of using it to cast magic outward, Niana looks inward and study the way of the fighters. She went a grueling training and her hard work leads to her very own way of fighting.
Niana's huge mana is now used inward by being a great power source of her immense strenght like how fighters regulate their mana to enhance their body.
Every veteran fighters can also do the same. Cast magic while also empowering themselves but what makes Niana different from them is unlike others who need to allocate their mana properly at the right moment while also doing mana management.
Niana can just ignore such convention and just enchance the entirity of her body with excess mana while having more to spare. She never get worried that her mana went bankrupt quickly or some part of her body lacks mana coating and got exposed to lethal attacks.
In summary, Niana can just go all out to her heart's content like what she doing fighting the White Queen with such calm, confident smile.
The White Queen continues to dodge the constant attacks of Niana while also sending his counter slashes which Niana avoids. Their exchange sending powerful waves of wind shaking the knights watching the entire trade.
"T-This is the p-power of our kind diplomat lady?" One of the female knight's shock.
"I-I thought she's just a refined lady? Damn..." A male knight's adoration increased as he watch Niana fight with such confidence.
"But do you think it's kinda ironic that Lady Niana is fighting in such intense way while wearing such elegant clothing?" Another knight commented.
Niana leaps back and cool off a little bit, the White Queen is kind enough to give her the chance.
"She's amazing. I never been this excited to fight before." Niana speaks with elegant glee while fixing herself.
"Need help sis?" Kiana's casual question.
"I'm good dear sister. I don't know why but our kind opponent here seems honorable to fight us fair and square."
Niana gives a respectful nod to the White Queen who just give a blank subtle nod.
"Hey is that thing really a monster?" One of the knight's question after observing the White Queen for a while.
"Yeah i'm kinda curious too... She's more human-like compared to other beast in this savage place. Both in appearance and, behavior." A female knight agrees.
Gilmore meanwhile observes more than what the knights see. He slightly agree the uncanny human like behavior of the White Queen but he feel other things that makes him confused and uncertain on the opponent they're facing right now.
Which make him reach a conclusion that he needs to further test the White Queen.
"Niana, Kiana. Lets fight her together."
"Ehhhh?"
"We still need to join the others so lets end this quick."
"Hmmm... You got the point. It's disrespectful to make them wait and not give assisstance." Niana agrees as she increase her mana output to further enhance her body.
"Okay okay if that's the concensus then..."
Kiana suddenly unleash a volley of daggers which the White Queen parried equally as fast. The daggers now scattered on the snow.
"Lets go and show her our strenght." Kiana speak with overflowing confidence while arming the space between her fingers with daggers.
Followed by Kiana lunging towards the White Queen. She attacks ferociously by slashing the Queen. The Queen defends herself by parrying the hail of blades, sending them flying on every direction but each set of dagger being disarmed on Kiana's hands are easily replaced by another batch she pulled inside her BoS like she have infinite supply of daggers to waste.
"Damn! She's kinda good!" Kiana comment.
The White Queen catch a glimpse of something bright flying towards him in incredible speed. She have no choce but to avoid the projectile who turned out to be the very same Kiana's dagger, thrown by Niana with absurd power that it create a swooshing sound and disturbs the air on its path.
Niana continues to pick the daggers scattered to the snow and throw to the White Queen who got her hands full by Kiana's constant barrage of slashes and Gilmore now joining the fray by abusing the bare chances of the White Queen being open for attacks.
The three high ranking combatants fighting with such synchrosity that it doesn't even give time for the White Queen to counter-attack.
Gilmore makes a quick slash making a cross.
Kiana continues her elegant attack patterns, overwhelming the White Queen and creating a pincer attack, the Queen blocks Gilmore's sword with her tail sword while her arms are used to parry the daggers of Kiana with her tough skin.
But it only leads her open to Niana's ranged dagger throws, directly hitting her to the head and sending the Queen tumbling to the snow several meters away from everyone else.
"Nice shot!" Kiana's excitement.
Kiana, Niana and Gilmore regroups as they watch the White Queen and wait for the extent of the damage it gets.
But their hope is snuffed out quickly when the White Queen stand up and act like nothing happened at all. She just look at three with her usual indiference.
"She's one tough nut to crack. I admit that." Kiana's admittance.
"Sorry. It seems I didn't put enough force." Niana apologize with grace.
"No problem. What's important is we finally "marked" her. It's just a matter of time." Kiana's reassurance.
Kiana, Niana and Gilmore focus their gaze on the White Queen but they are calm as they see the distance between them quiet reassuring. Only...
*Swosh.*
The three are alerted when the White Queen disappears on their sight from a distance and.
*CLANG!*
Gilmore just find himself blocking the downward swing of the White Queen aimed towards Kiana. His hands and weapons are shaking and Gilmore's teeth are gritting as he use his full strenght to prevent the Queen on successfully pushing her blade.
"Huh?! That fast?!" Kiana gasp.
"AAAAAAA!"
And Gilmore finally push back and throw the Queen away. The White Queen almost do a follow up attack but.
Kiana prevents her attempt by throwing a hail of blades forcing the Queen to dodge and create distance between her and the opponents. But it's not enough as the Queen just dodge the thrown daggers. This make Gilmore do something to throw away the opponent and create distance again.
Gilmore drops his sword and aim his palm facing the White Queen.
A concentrated and powerful burst of wind unleashed on Gilmore's hands. It doesn't do damage but still manage to do its purpose.
To push the dangerous opponent away from him.
"D-did you see it?" Gilmore's afraid question.
"No. Not at all." Niana's equally scared answer.
"She suddenly closed that distance the moment we lower our guard. She's more dangerous than we thought." Gilmore grasp her arm shaking as it still feel the strenght of the attack he just blocked.
Niana, Gilmore and Kiana prepares for the worst and that moment happens when the White Queen dissapeared on their sight again and leaves a cloud of snow.
Niana feel a gust of wind on her right side and she instinctly made a straight punch. Her powerful punch hit the face of the White Queen who got sent flying again but as she flies, it fades mid air.
"Shit!" Kiana screams.
The three panicly hightened their senses to find the Queen and its angle of attack.
The three can only see a faint white line on their attempt to track the enemy. The same line who surrounds them as the White Queen moves with absurd speed.
Gilmore sees the faint white line rushing towards him within a fraction of a second and.
*Clang!*
He parried the attempt of slashing his side.
"NGHHH!"
The White Queen makes more fast follow up slashes, all of it gets parried and blocked by Gilmore but for each hit. Gilmore is noticebly getting more tired and struggling to continue to hold on.
"Gilmore!"
Niana protects Gilmore and attempted to push away the White Queen. Niana dash forward and tries to hit the White Queen to no avail as all of her punch and kicks are being evaded with ease.
Gilmore use the chance to escape and refresh.
"She's so fast!" Niana's shout as she struggled to land her hits.
The White Queen accepts the challenge and fights Niana. The two engaged in powerful close combat brawl as Niana gives mana-enhanced punch and kick. Her output are in 100% which causes Niana's attack to create shockwaves, disturbing the snow below.
Yet the White Queen not only dodges but also tank the few hits Niana landed at her while successfully damaging Niana with her. Her tail sword swing hits Niana's side which she failed to block.
"Augh!"
Niana resisted yet she feel the power contained on the attack only metigated by the dense mana protecting her body.
The two continues to exchange blows. Their attacks cause violent gusts of winds and shockwaves for every attack landed on each other.
The knights are afraid on the battle they watching as on their view, what they witnessing are just flurry of movement and gust of wind and snow blocking their view.
But Gilmore is seeing a different scene. On her view, he see Niana being bloodied and bruise while the White Queen barely even recieve any injuries after tanking the devastating blows.
"Niana!" Gilmore is worried so after refreshing his tempo, he tries to join the battle only for him to get interrupted.
"Gilmore! Back away!" Kiana's scream.
"But Niana is in danger!"
"Don't worry! It's our victory now!"
"Huh?!"
The battle goes in abrupt halt when Niana and White Queen stops attacking each other, the thing that freeze them is the small red magic circle etched on the White Queen's cheek.
The magic circle have a design of daggers forming a circle with the tip of the blade poing on a single spot in the middle.
The bull's eye.
"Hehehe. It's finally activated." Niana's hurted yet smug words.
"Niana. Get out of there now."
Niana followed her sister and she leaves the area near the White Queen.
Kiana then unleash her mana which make the red Magic Circle glow.
"Mark successfully connected."
Kiana proceeds to pull a bunch of daggers on her BoS coat while being covered on her mana. Her daggers also coated with the same mana as she look on the White Queen with pride.
Then Kiana throws her daggers hard above her.
"Huh?" Gilmore is confused on her action.
Only for her confusion turn shock when the daggers thrown in the air by Kiana suddenly make a sharp turn and fly towards the White Queen.
The White Queen is clearly taken by surprise as she barely even managed to dodge and block the daggers.
"We're not done yet!"
Kiana then throws another set of daggers.
And another...
And another...
The daggers flying like group of falcons ready to dive on their prey which turned out to be the marked White Queen.
The White Queen tries to run away, but swift daggers followed her, matching her speed.
The White Queen dodges the daggers but it just turn back and try to hit her head again.
She deflect the daggers and stop the momentum but it doesn't matter. Kiana just send another batch anyway from what looks like infinite supply.
"U-unbelievable..." Gilmore's disbelief as he watch the once dominant White Queen back on her defensive stance, trying to block the hundreds of daggers thrown at her.
"You still manage to defend yourself? How about this!"
Kiana then agressively grab and pull her coat placed on her shoulder then swipes it on the space in front of her. A row of hundred duggers got flinged out on the coat and now all flying towards the White Queen.
Kiana continues to wave her coat, sending hundreds of daggers, overwhelming the White Queen even further.
"A-amazing..." Gilmore's disbelief.
"I know right? That's my sister magic for you."
"H-how does that even work?"
"Her magic is really just the mark which make anything she linked and got thrown to track the target. What makes it dangerous is the daggers, each are specially linked on Kiana's mana."
"Specially linked? You mean those daggers are custom made?"
"Affirmative."
Gilmore continues to watch the brutal hail of blades Kiana is doing and he notices something unnerving.
"Miss Niana... How many daggers she have exactly?"
"Hmmm... Last time I count, it's 10,000."
"10,000?! With that amount of daggers, it's guaranteed to flood the opponent!"
"That's the plan, that's why marking her is key factor on her strategy. And you know another thing that makes it even more lethal?"
Niana picks few daggers placed on the snow, fidget it with her finger and...
Throw one towards the White Queen, the tracking ability still on effect and with Niana's power. The dagger becomes a devastating sonic projectile that push the White Queen who tried to block it.
"Everyone can join." Niana then continues to make more full power dagger throws, each one hitting the White Queen hidden in the hail of blades and pushing it with powerful bang.
The White Queen struggle as the flood of daggers thrown by Kiana makes her unable to focus on the main target. She can resist the dagger spam but the most dangerous is the supersonic daggers thrown by Niana which she unable to see and anticipate due to it's speed and being distracted by the slight slower daggers blocking her view. Each supersonic dagger hits the White Queen with such strenght that it makes loud thuds and push her.
"What a disgusting ability. Yet." Gilmore mumble to himself.
Despite the amazing showcase of power from the twins, Gilmore still have lingering doubt about the the White Queen which despite being overwhelmed by thousand daggers, still maintain her calm and collected demeanor.