It worked—the blade that had been as long as a greatsword now came barely past his katar. But what it lost in length, it more than made up for in power. It was dense. So dense, it seemed to suck in the very light around it.
More. If Vir hoped to survive here, he’d need power. A lot more. Yet his body was at its current limit; spinning prana faster wasn’t an option.
Parai’s Technique.
Parai’s Prana Channeling boosted his prana efficiency, allowing him to do more with less. In the Human Realm, it’d also augmented his power, allowing him to Leap farther and Empower harder.
Here, where prana was so abundant, Vir wondered if it’d give him an even more significant advantage. Why shouldn’t it? Prana Channeling routed his blood in pathways that sent exactly the right amount of prana to the correct muscles.
Normally, he’d just scatter prana into his muscles, but Empower’s strength and Leap’s distance depended on each muscle having just the right amount of energy. Muscles worked in harmony with each other, and when one received too much, it reduced the Talent’s overall effect.
Now that his body had mostly acclimatized, Prana Channeling wasn’t hard to use, made even easier by the hours he’d spent training.
Vir activated Empower in his arm as he slashed, this time channeling prana according to Parai’s technique. As expected, it used a fraction of the prana as before…
It also knocked him flat on his face, such was the momentum it carried.
“Vir, I know you’re excited, but I don’t think faceplanting is an efficient method to kill those Ash Beasts,” Cirayus said, looking like he was about to laugh. “Seven minutes remain.”
“Hilarious,” Vir replied, wiping the ash from his face. “Watch this.”
Vir turned, Leaping back to the Ash Biter. Prana Blade fired, wreathing his katar in prana so dense, he could see it with his regular vision, taking the appearance of black flames that oozed off of his seric blade.
Empower activated mid-swing, giving his thrust an explosive burst of momentum.
The Prana Blade met the Biter’s armor. For a brief moment, prana fought prana equally, before offense overpowered defense, breaking through. Once past, the katar split flesh like water, and this time, Vir did bisect it.
The beasts that had closed in immediately halted, reevaluating their chances.
Why didn’t they attack all at once, though? Vir had been vulnerable fighting the Biter. He’d remained on guard, of course, but he was sure a beast would’ve attacked while he was distracted.
Whatever it was, he wasn’t complaining. Vir Leaped to the other Ash Biter, destroying it with the same thrust, which also carried his immense speed behind it.
His blade didn’t simply bisect the beast. It impaled it, taking it along for the ride. Only when Vir had bounded seventy paces away and come to a stop did the corpse fall off the blade, crumpling in a cloud of ash dust.
“Any takers?” Vir shouted, Leaping back into the fray and skewering a small, bipedal beast along the way. A Raptor. Balar 5. Not only was it smaller, its prana signature was also less dense than the Ash Biter’s, and Vir doubted he’d have any trouble with the Raptor and its brethren.
Only their numbers gave him pause. In packs, their rank could soar to eighty, but its dozen brethren routed, clearly thinking themselves outmatched, and ran for their lives.
Vir wasn’t about to let them. Leaping, he impaled, bisected, and crushed, preparing his next Leap even as he swung his blade.
At first, it took a second to kill one of them. By the time he’d lopped off the head of the last one, he’d cut that in half.
“Five minutes,” Cirayus called, and Vir swore he could hear a trace of surprise in his voice.
“You don’t need to suppress the others while I fight, you know?” Vir replied, somewhat irritated. The reason the beasts hadn’t swarmed him became obvious with a glance at the compacted ash.
Cirayus had been pinning the beasts in place.
“This is tough enough, lad. You’ll be fighting them on your own soon enough. Less than five minutes to go. You sure you want to be chatting me up right now?”
“Five is more than I need,” Vir said, facing his next opponents.
Next up were the Greater Zards. He’d fought their lesser brethren in the mines near Avi, but their larger brethren were in another league. Where Lesser Zards might’ve been Balar 1 individually, Greaters could get up to Balar 50, and there were two to greet him.
Vir Leaped in, but the beasts matched his speed, dodging his blow by a hair. Something blasted out of their mouths, and Vir slashed in reflex, his blade finding something fleshy and wet.
A tongue!
He severed it, sending the Zard writhing in agony. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to use the same tactic on its friend. The other Zard’s tongue wrapped around his ankle, slamming him into the ash face-first.
Vir inhaled a cloud of ash, setting him coughing. His eyes watered and his nose stung, but he’d been in worse situations before. Closing his eyes, he relied on Prana Vision.
The tongue’s stopping me from getting away! Vir struggled as the other, tongue-less Zard launched itself at him, clawed paw ready to maul.
There wasn’t enough time to bring his blade to bear, nor could he break free of the Zard that held him in place.
Break… free? Vir dumped as much prana into his leg as his body could handle, not bothering with Parai’s technique. High Jump hardly needed it.
He shot straight up, until the Zard’s long tongue stopped him. It was never designed to bear such strain, though, and Vir felt a sharp tug as it ripped.
Owing to the tongue that held him, High Jump only took Vir a few paces in the air. Performing a midair somersault, he fell katar-first, bringing his executioner’s blade down on the Zard’s smooth hide.
There was no defending against such force. Its head sheared clean off, and when Vir righted himself, he found the other Zard already twenty paces away, fleeing as fast as its legs allowed.
A single Leap followed by Prana Blade, Prana Channeling, and Empower, ended the beast.
“Three minutes,” Cirayus called.
Only five Ash Wolves remained—the others having left at some point.
Immediately, Vir knew they’d be his toughest opponents yet. From the way Ash prana oozed off their hides, to the piercing gaze of their glowing blue eyes, everything about the pack screamed danger.
“Uh, Cirayus? What’s the Balar Rank on these? Do you know?”
“Hmm. I feel like I’ve heard that term before…” Cirayus said, scratching his head.
“Nevermind.”
Vir searched his memory, thinking back to the bestiary at Balindam. If he recalled properly, it’d put Ash Wolves in the twenty to forty range, but there was something he was forgetting. Something crucial.
“What I can tell you,” Cirayus said, “is that they’re many times more lethal as a pack. You’d best not underestimate them.”
Ah, right! That was it. Balar 20 to 40… individually. Two hundred fifty to four hundred as a pack of five.
“B-bring it!” Vir roared.