TS5: Chapter 31 (Patreon)

If Thorn hadn't already been warned, he may have been caught off guard by the sudden rapid strike, potentially even losing his grip on his weapon. As it was, he allowed the blow to carry his halberd out and away from him, and using his body as a pivot, brought it around in a vicious circle, slamming it into the ground where the god beast had stood a moment before. After every shift, the god beast would pause ever so slightly, but whenever Thorn moved, it was as if the god beast had seen the attack coming. For a good two minutes, Thorn attacked, never once managing to hit the insect god beast.

"Your fighters need better training," Ursa called out to Guardian Adini with a loud laugh.

Ignoring the jibe, Thorn stepped forward and stabbed, watching carefully as the praying mantis god beast shifted towards him, neatly avoiding the stab and blocking the halberd. With a vicious hiss, he lunged forward, his arms stabbing towards Thorn, who used the handle of his halberd to block. When the butt end of his halberd passed through the god beast's body, Thorn stumbled forward, off balance. Appearing behind him with a shriek, the mantis god beast struck, stabbing both hands into Thorn's back.

"Watch out," Kitsek yelled, cradling his newly healed hand.

Yet even as the mantis' hands drew close, Thorn just grinned, his foot stomping into the ground to give him stability as he twisted his body, his large hand slamming into his opponent's side. Following through with the strike, Thorn drove him into the ground, lunging over top of him to press his full weight down on his opponent, who tried to struggle free. Yet no matter how he flailed his arms and legs, he remained pinned to the earth below as Thorn held him in place.

Though it would have been simple for Thorn to stab the mantis through with the halberd he held in his other hand, he instead punched down, smashing the god beast's jaw and teeth and knocking him senseless. Typically, a god beast wouldn't have been affected by a simple punch, but the blows Thorn unleashed were no simple punches. Powered by the enlightenment he had received after watching Guardian Petra's finger strike, it was as if the weight of the world fell with Thorn's fist, space folding around it to magnify its weight.

When the mantis fell limp, Thorn rose, grabbing him by his ankle and tossing him back to the god beast's side. Akira dashed over and climbed up his shoulder, one of her tails summoning a wisp of water that cleaned the greenish blood from his gauntlet.

"I guess that's one for us," he said with a smirk, staring straight at Numamir.

Walking back to the temple's side, he was greeted with cheers from the watching retainers who had come with them, and a pleased nod from Muras.

"One to one, I guess I'm up," Tolariah said, walking past Thorn.

"Good luck," he said, "and be careful."

"I'm always careful," she replied as she walked out to face the hawkish-looking woman Ursa sent forward.

"I am Galeri the Swift," the god-beast announced, holding a rapier in one hand and a short-handled axe in the other, as she stared at Tolariah. Holding her staff to her chest, Tolariah returned the greeting with a slight bow.

"I am Prime Ascendant Tolariah," she said, "of the Temple of Man."

Without further discussion, the two immediately began to fight. Galeri dashed forward, her rapier stabbing towards Tolariah's chest, while her axe unleashed a flurry of quick chops, producing half a dozen wind blades that circled around Tolariah to attack her from behind. Completely calm, Tolariah thrust out her staff, murmuring a spell under her breath. Light burst around her, swirling to form a thick golden shield that covered her back. As soon as the shield coalesced, she tapped her staff on the ground and thrust out her hand, a fierce aura radiating from it.

"Come forth," she yelled, and with the clarion sound of a trumpet, an angelic-looking figure appeared in front of her, seven feet tall and wielding a large broadsword.

The angel was armored from head to toe, and two large golden-feathered wings stretched from its back. With a shout that carried the sound of an angelic choir, the guardian angel lunged forward to meet Galeri's stab, blocking her blow with a swipe of its sword. The hawk god beast slipped to the side, intending to dart around the angel, only to find herself blocked by one of its wings. Forced to dash backwards as the guardian angel's massive sword cut through the air towards her, Galeri turned her attention to the angel, attacking from different angles with her axe and sword.

Galeri lived up to her name, her movements swift and smooth and infused with an elusive quality that made it almost impossible to hit her. It only took a moment for Thorn to realize that she was tracking the wind currents, using them to determine where her opponent moved, and preempting the guardian angel's attacks. Behind the guardian angel, Tolariah was beginning to cast another spell, trying to lock on to her opponent to deliver a punishing blow, but Galeri seemed to be aware of this, and never stopped moving, dashing this way and that, often coming to a sudden and bizarre stop as if she had wings of her own that were acting as brakes.

Galeri was incredibly comfortable riding the wind that was whipped up by the fierce fight, and it wasn't long before she started to take the upper hand in the battle against the guardian angel. Her axe found a chink in the angel's leg armor, and with a dozen rapid strikes, she forced the guardian angel down to its knees. Letting out a shout, the angel attempted to force her back with a wide swing, but she jumped above it, her feet brushing against the angel's blade as she borrowed the momentum to stab towards its eye. Just as the attack was going to land, however, she was forced to abandon it as Tolariah finally unleashed the spell she had been charging. A blazing beam of light erupted from the angel, cutting through the air where Galeri had been floating. Even as the spell fired, however, Thorn drew a sharp breath.

"Oh no."

He had seen the small smile on Galeri's lips and the glimmer of triumph in her eyes as she darted past the angel, using the moment when it was releasing its attack to pass by it and attack Tolariah. As swift as a fierce wind, Galeri stabbed towards Tolariah, piercing through the shield that rotated to defend the priestess. As the shield cracked apart, Galeri launched her second attack, using her axe in an attempt to cut through Tolariah's raised arm.

The axe blade bit into Tolariah's robe, blocked by the defenses it carried, as Tolariah thrust her other hand forward, her palm hitting Galeri's stomach. With a heavy thud, the two of them each fell back a dozen steps. A drop of blood dripped from the wound Galeri's axe had caused, but the god beast was clutching her ribs as if they were broken as she stared in savage fury at Tolariah.

"It looks as if I still need to improve," Tolariah said, running a finger along the cut on her arm.

Golden light glimmered, binding up her wound and restoring her skin to its normal smoothness.

"This is why I hate fighting you saints," Galeri said, spitting on the ground. "You're all cheaters."

"You have your abilities, I have mine," Tolariah said calmly. "It's not my fault that you lack the ability to cast healing spells."

The guardian angel had retreated and now stood in front of Tolariah, its sword lifted as it guarded against Galeri's next attack.

"You're more skilled than I realized," Tolariah said, "so why don't we up the intensity a little bit?"

Bowing her head as if she was praying, Tolariah murmured something under her breath and tapped the angel's wing with her staff. Galeri sensed a swell of mana and charged forward, hoping to disrupt her. But Tolariah was already finished, and as she moved the head of her staff to the side, a second guardian angel appeared, a mirror copy of the first.

"That's an impressive ability," Velin said, as they watched Galeri engage with the two guardian angels.

"I wonder how many of them she can create," Mina said. "You know, it sort of reminds me of Thorn's ability. With the golems, I mean."

"It does seem like that," Corvo said, "though they seem a little bit more autonomous than just earth golems."

"That's the sacred art of the Artaith family, DivineProtector," said Vesna, who was standing nearby. "From what I understand, according to the rumors, it's possible for a practitioner in the ninth tier to summon nine of them, each one a high eighth tier fighter."

"Wow. So Tolariah is a walking army," Thorn said, his eyebrows rising. "That makes me wonder what Guardian Artaith is capable of summoning."

"There's no limit that I know of,” Vesna replied. "It's an incredibly powerful skill, but requires a significant amount of light element to pull off, so the efficiency goes down outside the Temple of Man. But this elemental art is the reason that the Artaith family is in charge of the defense of the Temple of Man."

In front of the stone door, Galeri and Tolariah continued to fight. Galeri's attacks grew faster and more powerful as the minutes ticked by, and it wasn't long before one of the angels had fallen under her blade. Instead of re-summoning it, Tolariah began to cast more spells, trying to use her stored light element carefully. Yet Galeri seemed to brush past them without trouble.

"If Tolariah can't deal with her speed, it's going to be next to impossible for her to win," Thorn said. "But it's clear that she knows that. So I wonder what she's waiting for."

"If I had to guess," Velin mused, "it would be the same trap that she set the first time."

Sure enough, Galeri soon succeeded in cutting down the second angel, leaving the way towards Tolariah free. Though Tolariah remained calm, there was a certain tension around her eyes that spoke to the intense pressure that she was under. After cutting the head from the second angel, Galeri let out a savage laugh and pointed her rapier at Tolariah.

"I'm coming for your head next, so watch out and try to survive," the god beast said, wind swirling around her.

"The result will be the same no matter what," Tolariah replied, trying to keep her voice even.

"Truer words have never been spoken," Galeri snapped, her form blurring and mixing with the wind that surged through the valley.

Even though Thorn was keeping tabs on the god beast with his mental sense, he nearly lost sight of her. She moved through the wind, invisible to the eyes and impossible to hear over the sound of the rushing air. Tolariah rapidly cast two shields that swirled around her, forming a barrier in an attempt to ward Galeri away. But at the last moment, she suddenly jerked, her face turning up towards the sky as Galeri plummeted down from above. The entire fight, Tolariah had been trying to lock on to her opponent with no success. But now, a fierce look in her eyes, she stretched out her staff and spoke a divine command. Her voice echoed in the valley as it fought against the wind.

Too late, Galeri realized the trap that she had fallen into. Tolariah used herself as the target of her spell, calling down a thick blast of holy light that poured from the sky like a waterfall directly onto her. Caught in between the origin of the beam and Tolariah, who was its target, Galeri found herself unable to escape. She had already committed to her attack, putting everything into the axe strike, as she attempted to split Tolariah from head to toe. Yet as fast as she was, the light was faster, and it struck down with vengeance, burning her flesh and igniting her hair.

With a shriek of pain, Galeri brought her axe down on Tolariah, who at the last possible moment lunged to the side. The tip of her axe caught Tolariah's shoulder, tearing a gash in it, even as Tolariah tumbled away. Caught in the full blast of the spell, Galeri was badly injured and stumbled backwards, retreating as quickly as she could to her side of the battlefield.

Across from her, Tolariah struggled to her feet, using her staff as a crutch as she pushed herself up. Seeing Galeri half-stumbling, half-crawling away, she lifted her staff, clearly intending to finish the job. But before she could, Guardian Adini appeared in front of her, pressing down the head of her staff.

"It's enough," he said. "You've won the fight."

"Preposterous," Ursa's voice rumbled as he stormed forward to stand in front of Galeri. "Both of them are wounded."

"That may be, but one is significantly more wounded than the other," Guardian Adini said, gesturing to Galeri, who still had not managed to get to her feet.

Her body was covered in horrific burns, and though Thorn knew given time she would simply shrug them off thanks to the incredible recovery ability granted all god-beasts, it was clear that she could barely muster up the energy to stay conscious. Tolariah had not gotten off without injury either. One of her arms hung limply at her side, her shoulder smashed where the force of Galeri's strike had hammered into her. A scattering of burns covered the rest of her body from the spell she had summoned. Even as everyone looked at her, her wounds began to heal as life force from the healing spell she cast swirled around her. Should the fight continue, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that Tolariah would be the victor, but Ursa didn't want to accept it, and with a growl, he took another step forward, his foot crushing the earth under him. Realizing that he was going to try to overturn the result, Guardian Adini's expression grew hard, and his hand dropped to the wand sheathed at his waist.

"I didn't realize that you were so honorless," he snapped, causing Ursa to let out a bellowing laugh.

"Honor's for the weak," Ursa said. "The strong take what they want, and what I want is for the god beasts to enter first, as we always have."

His face set and pale, Guardian Adini took a step forward. This was the first time in hundreds of years that the Saints had actually managed to win the opening competition, and he wasn't about to let it go without a fight. Though the first fight had been lost by a member of his clan, that shame was completely washed away by the fact that they had actually won the following two fights. Yet Thorn could clearly see the nervousness the Guardian's body carried. Ursa was tremendously powerful, and because they were in the endless battlefield, there was no limit to the amount of strength he could reveal. Taking a deep breath, Thorn gripped his halberd tightly, ready to launch an attack if it came down to it.