Hikari raises her fist, smashing down on the stack of carapace of the queen spider, grounding them into smaller pieces. She then sprinkled the pieces of carapace onto her black salamander armour.
The living armour gradually absorbs the shards of carapace into them whole, forming a layer of carapace armour inside it. From her battle with the queen spider, it took ten point blank shots to blast open the back of its head with its handcannon. It was much lighter than steel for the same thickness.
Once the carapace layer was done, she turned to the mine carts carrying supplies for her.
Rubber Parts for her boot soles, cotton parts for her socks, and more wyvern skin sheets for her armour.
She slotted a fresh stock of throwing daggers, hoisted her handcannon, sword of the RazenHeir predecessor and two steel swords.
She checked her backpack. Several packs of dried rations and vials of mana and energy mixes.
She was ready.
She emerged from the warehouse. The miners were assembling a drill at Rey's supervision. He turned briefly for a nod.
Hikari nodded back before taking her position in the middle platform.
With the thrust of both of her legs, she leapt up the mine shaft, appearing through the opening at the top.
The dreamy landscapes of the wyvern peaks filled her view again.
The colossal round tower was now right in her face. Even she was intimidated by its sheer size.
The fog cleared for a brief moment, revealing a massive iron gate. Its elaborate carvings had eroded into unintelligible shapes.
"What would I eat if I lived there? Perhaps there's another mana vein below with that delicious fruit"
She stood still above the mind shaft, looking out for any signs of the queen wyvern everyone had been talking about.
Nothing.
"Odd. An ancient creature such as a queen wyvern should have an overwhelming presence. Have I been underground for too long?"
She turned and looked around.
It was a break taking view. A painter would have sold a kidney for the chance to stand where she was.
From her vantage point, she faintly saw the trading town, the steam rising out of the chimneys of trains, the blur of tent cloths and wooden palisades, the rugged stone buildings.
The lands beyond. The golden plains of Herdial shimmering in the sunlight.
"Focus. Now where is that mana vein?"
She saw a flock of wyverns flying in the distance. They don't seem to be headed for the forward camp nor the reason post nor the plains beyond.
Instead they dove down into the ground. Moments later, another flock emerged from the same spot.
"The mana vein I just cleared. Looks like they got their food source back. Guess there won't be as many wyverns to hunt after this."
She spotted another massive hole and leapt towards it.
A thud as her boots landed on the stone outside the hole.
Hikari checked herself, astonished that she could now make the distance in just one leap.
She began her descent, creating a spiraling staircase on the way down. The sunlight gradually dissipates, replaced by the bright blue light from the mana vein.
The freezing wind combs through her hair as her boot lands on the soft snow.
It was a garden from a painter's dream. A myriad of brilliant colors hung from the thick wines, glistening in the icy background.
She drew her sword and advanced towards the mana vein across the cavern.
"No wyverns are coming in here either. Wonder what lies ahead."
As her boot shuffled through the snow, it hit something. Tilting her boot back, she unearthed a wyvern head out of the snow.
"The neck is sliced clean."
She uncovered more wyvern parts, cleanly chopped into pieces, not a sign of sinew sticking out of an arm violently ripped out of its torso.
"Grrr….."
An eerie mana rose from the center of the cavern. the sound of metal scratching the stone below.
A grotesque Humanoid creature emerged from below the snow. Blood red vines crept up his body, surrounding its massive claymore, suffocating his face before melding into its flesh. its black long hair is the only remaining sign of its humanity.
"He did good work dicing up that wyvern. Should we hire him for as a chef?"
Rooaaarrr! A wave of dark energy arced towards Hikari leaving burn marks on her armour and in the snow.
"Guess not"
The monstrosity lifts his massive claymore that matched the one Hikari had in both length and weight.
Hikari dodged to the side. The impact of the sword knocked up a blanket of snow, getting itself stuck in the stone below.
"Looks like at least I get a new claymore."
As the monstrosity raises its sword, Hikari slides her sword against the top edge, using its own strength to boost her own momentum as it tries to pull its sword out of the ground.
Her sword whiffed. Surprised, she did a twirl as she flew past him, the monstrosity dodging her blade again.
She thrust her boots into the snow, braking and turning.
The claymore swung overhead in a diagonal arc. Hikari watched the trajectory of the blade.
She stood still, the blade did not crash down on her. Instead it changed course, lowering itself and then converged on her in a horizontal slash.
She jumped to avoid the swing. In midair, she drew her hand cannon. The steel ball pierced the monster's head.
A splatter of vicious dark red liquid.
The monster paused. Then more flesh grew from its neck, reforming its faceless head.
The dark energy built up, arcing in random directions.
"Sorry about your hair"
Hikari dodged the dark energy arc. A bolt pierced through her wyvern skin, into the spider carapace layer below.
The barrage of dark energy petered out. The monstrosity, fully regenerated, turned to face her.
Hikari bent her knees and dashed straight at it in a burst of speed. The tip of her sword pointing at its heart. The monstrosity turned the broad side of its sword facing her and raised it to guard its chest.
Hikari changed her stance at the last moment, crashing one knee against the claymore, and sliced its head clean off with her searing sword.
With a telekinetic blast, she pushed the blood gushing from its neck away, splattering it against the icy wall at the end of the cavern.
Amazingly, the monstrosity regained its balance, pushing Hikari away, using that brief window to ready a swing.
A steel ball hits its sword arm, staggering it. Hikari kicked the claymore with her boot before it could gain momentum, staggering it and leaving it wide open.
Maintaining her sword's swinging motion, she unleashed a quick series of slashes with her searing sword, ripping out its flesh bit by bit.
The searing blade melts through the flesh, maintaining the sword's momentum.
The monstrosity fell on its knees, its flesh burning. Hikari makes some distance, with a sudden dash, the tip of her blade pierced right through its chest appearing on the other side.
The monstrosity fell limb.
As Hikari was about to pull her sword out, a sudden surge of dark energy came from its chest.
Hikari dashed backwards on reflex, her back touching the icy wall of the cavern. An explosion of dark energy.
Hikari raised both arms and bent her knees in a guard. She felt a sting on her arm as the energy rips into her armour through to her skin.
Dusting herself off, she watched as the monstrosity's scattered flesh reassembled itself into a floating dark crystal.
The reformed monstrosity pulled her sword out of its chest. The handle fell onto the snow as most of the sword had disintegrated.
"I think that sword belonged to a previous Razenheir. Ria is not going to be happy about this. "
The reformed monstrosity approached, the dark crystal pulsating in its chest. A pair of glass swords began crystalizing in each of its twisted hands.
Hikari's eyes lit up. "Now that's a nice pair of swords."
The creatures closed its distance, Hikari drew her pair of steel swords to meet it, reinforcing them with her mana.
A deafening clank as their swords locked.
The creature constantly switched between synchronized and staggered attacks. Its tempo seemed to shift ever so slightly between bouts and sometimes abruptly.
Hikari kept up. Her steel swords rattled on every clash.
"I don't hate cheap swords. Unless they hit the expensive one and shatter."
Hikari kept up. Matching each of its blows.
The creature constantly bombarded her from all angles, using every technique, feints, changing the angle of its blade. Hikari parried every single one.
The creature backed off, screeching at Hikari in frustration.
Hikari placed one arm over her elbow and stretched.
"Finally a decent sparring partner. I doubt I can bring you home though."
Hikari went on the attack.
The creature put up its guard.
Hikari raises both blades overhead for a double downwards swing. The creature blocks it with one blade, slanting it just before the blades clash. But the sheer force of Hikari's swing breaks the parry, staggering it.
Hikari's blades swung around behind her, converging on the creature from each side. The creature blocks, a deafening clank, the creature is pushed back, wobbling.
The dual blades came crashing down on it again. It dodged to the side with a twirl, its blades coming around.
Hikari stopped both of its blades cold with one blade and swung the other at it.
The creature struggled to dodge, the tip of Hikari's sword making a shallow cut across its torso.
It backed off. The flesh on its torso squirming, slowly closing up its wound.
Hikari guards.
The creature let out a roar. The dark crystal on its chest surges with dark energy. The creature points both blades into the dark crystal and stabs itself. It screeches in pain as it drags its blades back out, pulsating in dark energy. The arcs of energy eviscerating the surrounding vegetation.
"No hope of bringing back these two swords now."
Hikari answered. Every single rune on her twin swords lid up. The pure white runes harden the sword, the purple runes set the steel ablaze with searing heat.
The creature channels its energy. The swords flare up in dark energy. It swings both swords in a full crescent.
The cross slashes of dark energy barrels towards Hikari.
Hikari guards. The blast of energy hits her guard, vaporizing the snow on either side of her.
A pair of brilliant slashes flew the other direction. The creature's body was incinerated while. The dark crystal it was carrying hovered in the air.
Gradually, its energy dissipated. Dropping on the ground.
Hikari looked at the broken pieces of its sword on the ground. She shrugged, took out a ration pack and munched.