The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Facing the three Grade Seven Exalts of the Greater Knight Exalt realms, Oscar crouched and made himself a smaller target in the meantime while he went through his current options. He didn't have his grade-three metal elemental shield to supplement his defense. Using the Guise here would be foolhardy for a long, drawn-out siege when the enemy's power was unknown, though with it, Oscar possessed the power to destroy scores of enemies. He felt Erden wriggling under his ragged brown robe and shook his head, rejecting Erden's intention to fight. He had to keep Erden hidden for emergencies and to conceal his identity from others.

'It wouldn't be funny if Susan yelled out my name in the middle of battle.' Oscar thought about the younger Exalt's enthusiasm and belief, but a slip of the tongue could have severe consequences. Interesting. Oscar cracked his knuckles and stayed silent in the air, waiting for his enemies to act. It was a strange yet familiar feeling, reminding him of days long ago when he fought alone without the power of the Guise and a Meld, just him and his anima.

'Going back to the basics.' His eyes sharpened, and his skin felt every change of the wind, every shifting of Ein. The three enemies, Sasha, Enver, and Colum, surrounded him amid the chaotic battles around them. Their movements aligned in timing and position, and their Eins rose to encompass Oscar like a fish in a bowl.

The laughing man, Enver, melded his forest-element snake anima into his wide sword and swung it around. The blade was split into ten distinct metal plates. Wooden snakes extended out from one metal plate and bit down onto the next plate, stretching far from each other to increase the range of his attacks. With a single tap, the plates retracted as the snakes slithered to smaller sizes until the plates formed a singular normal wide sword. He laughed maniacally and swung hard, the plates separating again to reach Oscar from afar.

The irritated woman, Sasha, melded her earth-element scissor anima into her strangely large scissor anima, the size of a human body. She sent forth a washing tide of mud and dirt while covering the entire area in sand. Atop floating rocks of her making, she dashed and leaped to the next, and so on and so forth, ramping up her speed from the assist of her gravity powers. Her now-craggily rock scissors swelled with dangerous Ein, and she chopped toward Oscar.

The calm and cautious Colum melded his darkness-element net anima into his slingshot armament, a lengthy pair of metallic cords attached to a pouch. From the Meld, the slingshot became black, and an orb of dark Ein formed on the pouch to be the projectile to be thrown. Colum whirled the slingshot around, his hands grasping the cords tightly, spinning it in a circular motion. The winds picked up from the building rotation of the slingshot, quickening to a dark blur. He released one of the cords and launched the orb of dark Ein forward with tremendous force.

'This one is first.' Oscar stabbed into the slingshotted orb of dark Ein with his golden drill. His spiraling sharp spell unraveled the orb, not to his benefit. The orb unwrapped into strings of darkness, a net of strange pulsing shadows, and expanded to entrap Oscar.

The dark net was stretchy, like a strange glue that refused to let go. Covered by bindings of darkness, he encased himself in Indestructible Gold, protecting himself from the blades of shadow that extended from Colum during his entrapment. His dark enemy wielded many tendrils of sharp darkness and continued to lash out at him, each very corrosive but not enough to break through his Eirin-empowered spell.

'How about this?' Oscar willed his golden dragon maw into form. Its Eirin gold fangs easily tore through the dark net and broke apart the blades of shadow, crunching on them despite the resulting corrosive smoke from its jaws. Before he could make his move, a blade of metal and wooden snakes sliced at him.

His Eirin quickly rushed out into golden rods that tore through the wooden snakes connecting the ten metal plates. However, they all hissed and reconnected instantly, but not before their detached limbs released strange pollen that mixed in with the sand around him. His mind slowed down to his fingertips as the pollen infected his body. It wasn't a sleeping toxin. Oscar was still wide awake, alert, and maintaining his five senses. But he couldn't move. Enver's cackles resounded through the thick sandstorm. Oscar stopped breathing and rotated his Ein to halt the toxin's effect. He freed himself in time to clasp his hands on the extended blade.

'Of course, the snakes can move.' Oscar grumbled internally. The wooden snakes between the plates lashed out and hissed, constricting his limbs. They tried to dig their fangs into him while Enver showered Oscar with a rain of bark, long and sharp as blades.

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Rotating the Reis, Oscar tensed and expanded his muscles. The mix of Eirin Shattering Wave and Ripple Shroud exploded and blew away the bark, the pollen, the sand, and the snakes. He raised his arms into a cross and blocked the mud waves that started clumping around him into a mound, wet mud oozing and dripping below.

The Ein within made it feel like being buried in a swamp. Oscar drew upon his connection to Erden and locked into the fire element. Since they could not see him, he had the leeway to use it. His flames erupted and burned the dense Ein mud into clay, and Oscar had the freedom to move his arms and fire golden rods everywhere, destroying the encasement of mud. Before him came Sasha, chopping her scissors at him. He plunged his golden drill toward him and caught her attack, the metal scrapping violently against the hold of the scissors.

'The metal is turning to earth?' Oscar saw the golden drill slowly turning into weak, brittle dirt from where the scissors touched. He retreated and studied his drill closer. Through some exertion of Ein, his drill returned to its clean golden sheen.

"Did I not say to be careful? This man took on all of our attacks and tricks one after the other, not a scratch on him." Colum stared at Oscar, his face growing tenser with the passing seconds.

"It's also strange. My melded scissors should have turned his drill to earth faster. Yet they barely converted a third." Sasha no longer appeared irritated. Her head lowered as her eyes stared dead ahead at Oscar, studying him.

"Just keep forcing him to breathe. My pollen will make him succumb, and he'll feel the pain of our attacks while being a helpless, immobile dunce." Enver laughed voraciously.

'He's quite twisted.' Oscar never lost his nerves, cracking his shoulders to relieve the tension. He used Ein Awaken in bursts to recover as much as he could and to focus his spells better. But even with Erden's Ein supplementing his, their reserves outstripped his.

'It's time to move onto the offensive.' Oscar flickered across with invisible Reis movements and neared Enver. Suddenly, a black orb rushed toward his head and exploded, expanding into a vortex, a dark hole that swallowed everything in an area. Oscar frowned and knew his real target must be the cautious Colum, who was ready for surprise attacks.

"Thanks, Colum!" Enver backed away, slashing his wide blade wildly in retreat.

"His movements can't be read. You're lucky I prepared to counter anything. Don't rely too heavily on your Prinstyct and wear him down." Colum threw one orb after another, some unfurling into nets, others exploding in devouring darkness, and the rest speeding in normal form.

Oscar flew away to dodge, impeded by Sasha's boulders, which slowed his movements through a strange gravity coursing between them. Like Avril's roots, Enver's vines tugged at his feet, and the wide-extended blade slashed down on him. Oscar fought off his restraints, blocked their killing blows, and avoided their dangerous spells and effects.

The center of all of their coordination was Colum. Oscar sidestepped Sasha's scissors and knocked away her flying boulders. He continued to fight through their combination of restraints and impediments while parrying their attacks with ease. Irritatingly, Colum constantly positioned himself at the back, no matter where his two teammates maneuvered. Oscar admired Colum for his leadership and understanding of the battle but also clenched his fists, swearing to put down his dangerous enemy for everyone else's sake.

Oscar shuffled around, using invisible Reis movements to zip from one location to the next, forcing his enemy to halt and await his next unpredictable move. Colum protected himself with a barrier of thin darkness. Oscar breathed in and went in for the kill, riding atop his deer anima, not Erden.

He formed a Quartet of Golden Drills, attracting their attention and their prompt retaliation. Oscar smirked under his helmet and flew around the mass of spells and Ein, aiming not for any of them. Instead, his target was the empty air before them. Even with their defensive spells, the force of his Quartet Drill and Shattering Wave forced them apart.

Their formation was broken, and Oscar lunged into the opening, arriving before Colum and skewering him despite the blades of shadows and barrier surrounding his target. Oscar pulled out his bloody gilded drill and turned to the next one, Enver. Without Colum's aid and Sasha blown elsewhere, Enver was easy prey. A golden maw chomped through the protection of trees, a fierce Ripple Shroud knocking away the blade and pollen.

Two down.

Oscar turned his helmet-covered face to Sasha, who didn't run away, swinging her scissors at him. Her gravity-manipulating boulders released tremendous Ein to slack his movements. However, he defied her blockage and bashed her scissors away. Despite her earth-defensive spell covering her body, Oscar riddled her stone form with golden rods, spilling red blood to drip down her stone body. She fell to the iron wall of Drakken Port along with her other comrades.

'That took too much.' Oscar was exhausted, not to the point of being unable to fight but still reeling from the amount of Ein he had to use. Three grade-seven Exolsias with full Meld powers was a troublesome group without Erden. He raised his hands and fired an endless stream of golden rods, each rod exploding with bits of Shattering Wave, and destroyed the Ercanal-Five.

As the barrier restored itself before the Ercanal tampered with it, Oscar glanced around the rest of the battle in deep thought. He couldn't slack on his individual power. What if he became separated from Erden? He also began to wonder. What were his new limits if he used the Guise and Erden along with dual elements? Oscar wanted to find out, but first!

"Follow me! We're going to help the others." Oscar rallied the remaining defenders of this location and pointed to the next Ercanal-Five.

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