[MA] 177. Unhidden Glee (Patreon)

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[A/N: Chapters this week: 1/3

Late chapters: 3

Next release: Thursday.]

The Supreme Leader's orders were clear: obliterate this race but avoid the Void-tainted youngling.

So, Failtusk picked the second greatest offender as her target.

The annoying bug was as strong as a D-rank, which irked any Guardian. Guardians had to haggle with the system and risk their lives for every bit of AP, yet some beings were beloved by the universe and grew stronger without system assistance.

Failtustk instantly resented the hairless pink tamassui with a passion and fueled her hatred further with the frustration of being forbidden from killing the Void-tainted.

She ran straight toward the G-rank.

At some point, she entered the Void-tainted's aura, but her armor wasn't for show. She had saved SC for centuries to afford it and gotten lucky in finding a seller. It had a Reality Anchoring enchantment, which used rare ingredients and was extremely expensive. It was worth it; the magic was so good it was also called the Aura Killer. Even some weak, early C-ranks without advance prospects were willing to pay a premium for a piece of Aura Killer equipment.

The hidden enchantments in her armor flared to life, and the Void-tainted's aura couldn't touch her.

When she got close enough to her target, she pulled two of her Triple Goldenford Daggers from their hidden sheaths and cut. Her stupid enemy tried to defend himself with his pathetic sword, which was cleanly sliced into two. Her dagger kept going until it found purchase on the enemy's left chest. The G-rank dodged enough for the wound not to be lethal, but he was already dead.

A tiny piece of her weapon's blade had broken inside the G-rank. It would keep drilling into his body and start growing by itself until it became the third blade of the Triple Goldenford Daggers. Meanwhile, it would also turn her Path-filled mana into a venom that would keep affecting the man.

The Goldenford Steel allowed her mana to stay connected to her as long as she was within twenty feet and could ignore even soul resistance from anyone weaker than C-rank. Therefore, her target couldn't use his own mana to pull the piece out, or he would freeze in place when his mana touched hers.

The fight would become even easier if he was stupid enough to enter a willpower battle with her.

The G-rank needed to stop to take the piece away from his body, but she would not give him the time—

The open wound in his chest spat the metal shard like a mouth would.

Failtusk growled in annoyance, but some lifeforms had enough control of their innards to stop the blade fragment and throw it out. She hadn't seen such capabilities in her target's race, but he was also the only G-rank with D-rank power around, so he had his secrets.

Yet he was weaponless, and her own blade had already repaired itself.

She would kill him the usual way.

A flurry of swings and thrusts later, he was bleeding from holes and cuts in his entire body. He was as slippery as a caot fish in the desert, dodging just enough to avoid lethal damage, but she was getting to him. She could tell from his haggard breathing and crouched posture that it was only a matter of time before he died. Better yet, without access to the Guardian System, no miraculous healing would be happening any time soon.

Failtusk cut, and fingers were removed.

She thrust, and an eye was taken.

She attacked, and the fool ended up having to hold the blood from his neck inside him with his hand—he wasn't a Guardian and could bleed. Instead of using mana to stop the bleeding, he seemed to be rationing his willpower. That meant he had little willpower remaining, and his exhaustion would be another factor to cause his downfall.

Failtusk smiled widely, baring her broken fangs to the tamassui-lookalike.

In a few extra strikes—

Her entire body screamed she was in danger, and she threw herself to the side just in time to avoid—

A spear pierced through her armor, entered her body close to her leg, picked her up, made its way inside her, and left from her shoulder. She was impaled from leg to shoulder like some sort of prey.

Then, aura took control of everything inside her armor.

She realized the Void-tainted Path's core Concept was related to the Laws of Spear, so any spear he held was considered part of himself and could be used to deploy his aura. Her armor only protected against external auras trying to get in; it didn't impede auras from manifesting inside it.

An instant before she was blown into oblivion, she relaxed for the first time in five hundred Standard years.

The horror of being one portal away from death and the terror of living under the tyranny of the Supreme Leader were over.

At long last, she could rest.

Forever.

= - = - =

Shen looked at the "strong" enemy he had killed in a single strike.

He hadn't used the Windstorm Spear Art. Instead, he thrust with the knowledge from his Path. The move was perfectly in sync with himself, and although he could tell it was lacking in potential growth, it was currently much more powerful than what he could show using his clan's best spear art.

But even the attack's supposed "lack of potential" was his mind playing tricks on him. The Windstorm Spear Art was ranked C- while the Feng Shen's Movement Art's rank had been limited to D+. That was expected; he was a peak D-rank, nothing more. His mind and understanding were limited to his existence. Even his stats, which had gone beyond the system's D+ tier, should still be far removed from C-.

However, the moment he improved as a whole, so would his Path and the potential of his every movement.

Shen felt both elated at the possibilities this opened for his future spear art and disappointed at the enemy.

If only the gnoll had resisted a little more!

Although he could theorize new spear moves, he needed to put them to the strenuous test. The Zephyr-Gale Footwork had been close enough to his new footwork for him to extrapolate his movement art with precision. But even then, he had moved around a lot while testing things and created only basic moves. His new spear art would require much more testing because the one he currently used utilized only the Concept of Windstorm, which was way, way distant from Zephyr. Unfortunately, he had just been shown that he needed real data to let him change his perspective on his spear art; he couldn't accurately estimate its power.

Then again, Shen's single thrust had already given him some valuable data.

When he looked at the other strong gnoll, still floating midair on the other side of the portal, he found an enemy that could be beaten with less than half the qi expenditure he had expected.

He smiled, but he didn't rush to meet that enemy. He was still alert for any new gnoll trap. His aura couldn't go through the portal like common attacks, so he couldn't truly analyze the gnoll.

Shen would keep killing any invaders and only invade back if it didn't look like any D-rank was Earthbound.

He rushed again, but not to kill anyone this time.

He got beside the fallen human elites.

"Buy ten healing and stamina crystals," he said, then realized the survivors had no visible piece of equipment. So, he also cared for their nakedness. "And nine simple unisex G robes."

The items took two full seconds to materialize; the system was getting slow. Shen threw two crystals—a healing and a stamina one—and a robe on each fallen human, then crushed the remaining two crystals on himself.

| Purchased: Minor Healing Crystal x10 | -90,000 AP

| Purchased: Minor Refreshing Crystal x10 | -45,000 AP

| Purchased: Equipment (G) x9 | -810 AP

| Rising Star Rule Triggered: +100% AP cost when gifting Guardian Store items to others

| Gifted: Minor Healing Crystal x9 | -81,000 AP

| Gifted: Minor Refreshing Crystal x9 | -40,500 AP

| Gifted: Equipment (G) x9 | -810 AP

| Remaining AP: 1,836,712

The nine people became perfectly healthy in a moment.

Shen's relief in seeing both Alicia and Sai alive was quickly replaced by a frown. He recognized Marcia's helper, Vicenzo, and three other elites from the War Camp, but what were Scott Moore, Alexandra King, and Mark Williams doing there?

The health and stamina injection was enough for Sai and Alexandra King to wake up. The others remained unconscious.

The two of them sat up, showing confusion and grogginess for all of half an instant. Then, they felt his aura and put up mana cocoons to decrease the discomfort.

Not that it helped against Shen's improved aura.

"Why the hell is this not working anymore?" Alexandra complained to herself. She increased the cocoon's thickness five times, which seemed to help, as her discomfort visibly decreased.

"Take everyone to safety," he ordered them.

Alexandra's neck snapped as she quickly turned to look at him. She had dealt with his aura and was holding the robe to cover her body but hadn't checked her surroundings yet.

She froze for a moment, then exploded in rage. "You motherfucker! You almost got us killed! Hell, you got a fuckton of people killed! How dare you—"

He willed it, and her mouth was locked shut by his aura.

"Later," he demanded. "More enemies are coming from the rift. I believe I can deal with them, but it's better if everyone is as safe as possible. Sai, your family should be safe; no gnoll got anywhere close to the underground area. Take Alicia and Vicenzo to Marzia and protect the three of them." Shen looked at another of the unconscious people and sighed. "Take Mark Williams with you, too."

Alexandra, who had been shooting daggers at him, stood up and grunted against his orders. She stopped in front of Mark.

Shen shrugged. "I wanted to help keep him safe, but have it your way. You and Sai are to take everyone at least five miles away from here, then Sai is to do as I commanded."

He didn't wait for an answer; he turned and moved, only stopping when he was a few dozen yards away from the portal.

Once there, he floated.

Shen was his Path, and his Path contained both a Concept from the Laws of Wind that allowed him to float and another from the Laws of Spear that made him break boundaries. He shouldn't be able to fly—and he couldn't break that rule—but he managed to use his aura to float faster and with slightly better maneuverability than should have been possible.

He stopped in front of the strong gnoll—who had the most impressive armor Shen had ever seen—and waited.

Shen's mere presence was a message; he dared the gnolls to step this side of the portal.

The thousands of D-ranks were around five seconds away from Earth. He took the opportunity to also start overhauling his spear art. He could create many theories to test when an opportunity presented itself.

Shen waited.

Suddenly, a powerful shockwave came from his right. The very edges of the portal shook, and his aura slipped through now-failing limiters.

The gnoll's aura slipped back.

= - = - =

Liya watched her charge, but it was the Observers who received the brunt of her attention.

They knew now: the Cultivator's Association would never allow such talent to slip through their fingers. There was no hiding what was happening here—or so they thought—and the Association would investigate when they got word of it. Well, Liya could hide that information, using her identity as a mentor in charge of a first-class talent, and she would do it when the time came.

But now wasn't the time.

Now, she was waiting for the excuse to kill as many Observers as possible.

The moment they showed even the slightest aggressiveness, she would be within her right to—

The orc was the first, as she had expected. He merely started moving toward her charge, and she deployed her domain:

Unforgotten Inequitable Annihilation.

Like any domain, hers had multiple layers and mixed feelings, thoughts, and Laws.

At its center was a sense of righteous wrath that sought to destroy all who wronged her or her people, or stood in her Path for revenge.

The Dreamer was dead, yet her rage for them and their actions hadn't dimmed. She would never forget, never forgive. The Dreamer had already paid, but one day, so would whoever had supported them.

Then, she would bring down the entirety of the Alliance for allowing her people to be almost extinct and for having rules to protect the Dreamer despite their actions.

She would make them all pay the ultimate price for their inequity—starting with the orc before her.

He was the incarnation of everything she hated in the Alliance, of the injustice it flaunted under the guise of fairness and necessary concessions to maintain unity. An entire weak race didn't matter if it would keep a strong race less upset. Politics and favors owed among a select few cause the death of countless.

She ensured her domain stood exactly half an inch away from Feng Shen's aura. It wouldn't do for him to feel true power after his advance. It might give him purpose to keep growing or show him his insignificance and hinder his Path.

But outside his aura, her domain covered the entire world and beyond, all the way to the moon. She didn't limit her domain other than with Shen's aura because it took away some focus she might need in the incoming battle. She believed she was much stronger than any of those Observers, but she took all her enemies seriously. She couldn't guarantee their annihilation otherwise, and she had learned from the Dreamer's mistake—never leave a job half-finished.

Absolute darkness filled every inch of her domain.

The Laws of Darkness in her domain abhorred both the light that shined on injustices and whoever saw said unfairness yet did nothing. The drow had survived the D-rank rift dwellers by hiding in the shadows—and in the shadows, they had learned how to fight.

Liya was home.

The C-rank orc had no domain to counter hers. He stopped one step away from where he had started. Quick considerations went through his head, and she smiled when he resumed running toward Feng Shen.

She could guess the orc's reasoning. Her domain might give him an advantage, but he was a peak C-rank himself. The bubble she had used to talk to Marzia in the tutorial had withstood less than a minute after being battered by weak attacks—power displays in the tutorial couldn't go past a certain threshold. If he gave it his all, Liya wouldn't be strong enough to stop him in time.

Even if he died after killing the boy, so be it. All Observers knew they might need to sacrifice themselves for their race. They were selected by their heightened perception, shrewdness, loyalty, and disposability. Killing a peak D-rank the cost of a peak C-rank might not pay out in the long run, but if it did pay out, the new race—and in this case, the Cultivators' Association—would be without a future peak C-rank. A peak C-rank that would be much more powerful than the Observers. It was even possible they were nipping a future B-rank from the bud!

Therefore, the orc saw a low risk for many potential gains.

The fact that Liya allowed his Path-filled mana to let him see through her Darkness with ease emboldened him and the others even more.

Yes, others.

They were followed by all Observers save the wisp. They wanted the credit so whoever they cared for back home would be handsomely rewarded by their race.

Liya took her armor and spear from her Inventory and repositioned herself, hidden by the true extent of her Darkness. She left a Shadow Clone where she had been to bolster their courage. The clone wouldn't hold against close scrutiny, but she bet the Observers wouldn't care for analyzing her once more—every Observer had already spent enough time measuring each other.

They approached her charge as she would've done if she were in their place, hiding their power until they were a few feet away from Shen's aura. If they crossed it, he would detect their aggressiveness, and so would the system that all but ignored Observers unless they committed a crime.

The system wouldn't kill them, only tag them as criminals. Depending on how long the Bounty Hunters took to arrive, they might even escape. Therefore, they held back up to the last second.

After getting that close, they flared the Laws of their Paths and rushed full speed ahead.

Liya willed it, and the Laws of Annihilation descended upon them.

They resisted, and the world shook. Liya ignored the shockwave and put her spear and C+++ stats to good use.

It had been long since she had wielded Bloodseeker in combat, and the spear sung with unhidden glee.

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