CH254 Contingency #Omege_Parasite

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Udara spurred her warhorse, chasing after Josiah and his fleeing guard squad.

One of the guardsmen, an archer, suddenly turned and loosed an arrow. It struck true, bringing down Udara's horse and sending both rider and beast tumbling to the ground.

Udara rolled and vaulted back to her feet with lithe grace, breaking into a run after the squad.

Fen surged past her, icy mana already building in his throat.

[Ice Wave]!

The wolf unleashed a crescent of frost, not aimed at any one horse but at the ground beneath their hooves.

The wave struck, freezing the earth. The mounts slid helplessly, toppling over in a crashing mess of hooves and armour—returning the favour on Udara's behalf with chilling interest.

"Go! After him!" Udara shouted to Fen, while she veered towards the guardsmen scrambling up after their tumble.

Bark!

Fen darted away to pursue Josiah. The archer was already nocking another arrow, ready to shoot the wolf down—until Udara made her move.

[Shadow Dash]!

Her figure blurred, melting into a nearby rock's shadow and reappearing beside the group in a sudden burst.

The spearman reacted first, thrusting forward with a sharp jab. Udara caught the shaft just behind the steel head, twisting her body underarm with a sharp spin, she wrenched the weapon from his hands and disarmed him in one smooth motion.

Following through, she swung the spear sideways and smashed the blunt end against the archer's skull—just as he was about to loose at Fen.

Discarding the cumbersome polearm, she faced a sword-wielding guard rushing in. She sidestepped, caught his weapon arm, and smashed her forehead into his nose. In the same breath, she tore his sword free.

Udara moved quickly driving the man's own sword into his gut.

The man staggered, but before Udara could reclaim the blade, another guard charged her from behind him. With no time to spare, she thrust-kicked the stabbed swordsman into the oncoming foe, buying herself a heartbeat of space.

It was only an instant. Behind her, the disarmed spearman had drawn a dagger and lunged.

[A.N: Chivalry is dead. There is no such thing as knightly honour on the battlefield.]

Udara's hands flashed to the shortswords at her waist. She spun, parrying the dagger overhead with one blade while her body twisted into a sidestep. Her second sword swept low, cutting into the man's exposed flank and nicking his liver. The wound sent a jolt of shock through his body, freezing his movements.

Not wasting the chance, Udara followed with a clean slash across his throat, dropping him where he stood.

"Damn you!"

The final guard shoved his comrade's corpse off himself and charged forward, thrusting for Udara's back.

Once again, she slipped aside with a crescent sidestep, his blade whistling past her. From that same motion, she backhanded her shortsword into the guard's neck.

Pivoting with a reverse crescent step, Udara turned to face him. Her second blade flowed with the turn, elegant yet fatal, slicing clean through his neck. His head toppled, and she pulled her first sword free with ease.

Udara exhaled foul air, then turned—only to see the archer, who should have been finished earlier, staggering back to his feet.

Without hesitation, she drove both swords into his torso. With a cruel twist, she shredded through vital organs—heart, liver, lungs. The man was dead many times over before he collapsed.

Wrenching her blades free, Udara snatched up his bow and an arrow. She raised it quickly, sighting Josiah fleeing with Fen hot on his heels, and loosed without bothering to aim.

[Shadow Dash]!

Even before the arrow landed, she sank into a nearby shadow, pushing her movement art to its limit in pursuit.

The arrow flew towards Josiah, missing his rear by a hair's breadth, but struck his horse in the spine.

The beast screamed and reared violently, hurling Josiah from the saddle.

The Kellerman heir rolled to cushion his fall, springing back to his feet. Yet before he could flee again, Fen was upon him.

Left with no choice, Josiah turned to fight.

He was, interestingly, an Inscription Master. Rune scrolls lined his belt, and he tore one open at once. A flash of light flared as a shimmering barrier enveloped him, blocking Fen's raking paw swipe (slap).

Caw!

Josiah's hand went to another scroll, no doubt an attack rune—but an eagle's piercing cry shook his mind with vertigo.

[Shadow Scream]!

[Dream Dive]!

Senu plummeted from above, her form phasing into an alternate space. She dove straight through the barrier, bypassing it from the alternate space and reappeared inside. Her talons shredded the glowing rune generating the barrier.

The shield collapsed instantly—though Josiah managed to tear his second scroll just in time.

[Musk Feathers]!

His rune flared, attacking Senu, but her body suddenly exploded into scattering illusionary feathers as her real form flashed away, evading the blast.

[Ice Ball]!

Fen, after confirming Senu was safe, hurled a dense sphere of ice. It smashed into Josiah like a cannonball.

The Kellerman heir was blasted off his feet, slamming into a tree.

He went limp, unconscious in an instant.

Josiah's limp body sprawled across the dirt like a discarded starfish.

Fen and Senu stood over him in celebratory poses, like hunters proudly showing off their prey.

From the shadow of a tree, Udara stepped out. She shook her head with a faint smile at the antics of the two (arguably) adolescent beasts.

She knelt to bind Josiah when the sound of pounding hooves reached her ears. Her body tensed, blades half-raised—only to relax the next heartbeat. The arrivals were allies.

Colonel Hoist and Major Jaeger rode up, having neutralised their own foes. Relief flickered across their faces, followed by surprise as they took in the scene before them.

Their young master's guard and beast companions had already finished the mission.

"Josiah Kellerman captured," Colonel Hoist declared firmly. "This war is over."

-

But Josiah's capture was not the only calamity to fall upon the Kellerman family.

Moments earlier, Alex's contingency prompt reached its destination.

Contingency #Omega_Parasite activated

Deep within a mine tunnel, a chest that had slumbered in plain sight flared to life. Strange runes—of a script unknown to most of Pangea—etched themselves across its surface.

Alex's Greater Runes.

The chest snapped open. A mammalian crystalline heart floated free.

Ambient mana surged into it at once. A rune formation ignited upon its surface, accelerating the flow. The more mana it consumed, the faster the formation spun, pulling in ever more. The heart fed like a ravenous beast, insatiable, unstoppable.

Half an hour later, the pull of mana had reached a torrential scale, visible even to the magically inert. Those inside the mine fled in panic. None had ever heard of, much less witnessed, such a phenomenon.

BOOM!!

Tunnels collapsed one after another. Rock walls caved in until the entire mine collapsed into ruin.

And still, the crystal heart drank. It devoured every last trace of ambient mana within the mine and its surroundings.

At last, when not a spark of mana remained, a Greater Rune flared into being before the heart. Like a mirage, the crystal organ sank into the fabric of space itself—vanishing.

And with it disappeared the Kellerman fief's most prized treasure.

The singular, most important Spiritual Stone mine in their domain.

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