Hikari crushes the queen spider's carapace with her fist.
She grinds between her palm and sprinkles it over the salamander skin.
The shedding sinks into the viscous black moss.
The vicious black moss eats and absorbs it eagerly.
She sprinkles more.
Like her muscles, the salamander skin can be grown through absorbing nutrients.
She holds up a bright blue shard.
It was as thick as her fingers.
The crystal shards of the statute beast.
Hard enough to pierce a steam tank's armour through her telekinetic barrier.
She squeezes it.
It wouldn't budge.
She tries the hearthstone form.
Shatter.
Shatter.
She repeats the mana movements.
The shard refuses to crack.
Confused, she picks up a stone.
Shatter.
It shatters into tiny pieces.
She picks up the crystal shard again.
Shatter.
Shatter.
It still didn't budge.
She tries to dip it into the salamander skin.
It displaces some mass.
But otherwise nothing happens.
"Oh well."
She puts it away.
The stalagmite crystal is too tough for her to bend right now.
It'll probably sell for a decent price.
Her supplies had arrived.
Fresh wyvern skin sheets.
She had bulked again.
Not nearly as much as from the titan core but she had to readjust her armour again.
It felt tight, her boot soles and sock bottoms could still just about fit her.
Her armaments.
A fresh stock of throwing daggers.
Steel balls for her handcannon that she unloaded on the queen spider.
Her swords were still in good condition.
Slicing through spider carapace does not cause too much wear.
She wolfs down a ration pack and downs a tank of fresh water.
She was ready.
…
With the thrust of both of her legs, she leapt up the mine shaft.
The dreamy landscapes of the wyvern peaks filled her view again.
The full moon through the thick clouds.
The colossal round tower.
As the fog moves, she has a clear view.
Even she was intimidated by its sheer size.
A massive iron gate.
Its elaborate carvings had eroded into unintelligible shapes.
"Does anyone live there?"
She stood still above the mind shaft, looking out for any signs of the queen wyvern everyone had been talking about.
Nothing.
"Odd. A queen wyvern should have a presence."
She turned and looked around.
It was a break taking view.
A painter would have sold a kidney for it.
From her vantage point, she faintly saw the lights of the trading town where the RazenHeir camps were.
More and more camps were being set up around the train station.
A convoy of steam tanks rolling back into town.
"Hope Ria's doing well."
She looked further into the distance.
The flat plains of Herdial leading up to a massive stone structure.
The fortress of Escher.
She hears its name countless times from the merchants she escorted up and down the wyvern pass.
"Where's the mana vein?"
She saw a flock of wyverns in the distance.
They dove down into the ground in unison.
"The mana vein I just cleared."
She marches in the direction Rey pointed her in.
Diagonally left from the ancient tower.
It wasn't far from the mine shaft.
The titanic hole bored into the mountain was very hard to miss.
Hikari peered into the darkness.
Deeper than the previous vein.
There were far fewer leftover climbing equipment.
Before she forgets, she checks the surroundings for a hiding spot.
The uneven mountainous terrain offers plenty.
She dumps the cache of expensive gear and shovels some stone over it with her boot.
No one would bother searching here with the wyverns strafing them overhead.
She draws her pickaxe and begins her descent.
The hole felt massive.
Large protrusions of stone.
She felt as though she was dropping down a sandworm's mouth, using its teeth as landing spots.
Carefully, she dropped onto one of those large protrusions.
It easily had the width to fit both her boots.
It showed no signs of creaking.
Hikari leaves a flame mark.
The next tooth wasn't far.
She drops.
Thud.
The wave of dust pushed outwards as the giantess landed.
But the massive rock formation could hold the force of her fall.
She leaves a flame mark.
Drop. Drop.
Dozens of metres at a time.
A distance she could cover with a full jump back on the way up.
The blue glow got brighter and brighter as she neared the bottom.
She lands in the snow.
The freezing wind combs through her hair.
The snow was deep enough to cover her feet.
She looks around.
It was a garden from a painter's dream.
Fruits with a rainbow of brilliant colors hung from the thick wines, glistening in the icy background.
Even more vibrant than the ones she found in the first mana vein.
She drew her sword and advanced towards the mana vein across the cavern.
She had learnt to expect something lying in wait.
"No wyverns. Wonder what lies ahead."
As her boot shuffled through the snow, it hit something.
she unearthed a wyvern head.
"The neck is sliced clean."
The wyvern's body was not far.
It laid on its side.
A deep cut the full length of its body on the side.
"Even my claymore can't do that."
Her telekinesis clears away the snow.
More bodies.
One is charred.
It was bloated.
"Mana poisoning?"
More bodies.
Or parts of it.
Arms and legs still in their armour.
The runes were still visible.
Their mana had long dissipated.
"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.
Ivory vines crept up his body, surrounding, suffocating his face before melding into its flesh.
Hikari takes a stance.
The humanoid creature matches her stature.
More vines envelop its sword.
The vines harden.
Extending its sword's reach.
Hikari senses a sudden surge of mana.
She raises her guard.
Rooaaarrr!
The monster released a wave of aether flame, filling the entire cavern.
She felt the flames eat away at her barrier.
The area around her flared with aether fire.
The monstrosity lifts his massive claymore.
It charges her, stomping in the snow dragging its massive sword behind it.
Thud! It stops. It drags its massive sword over his head and slams the ground.
Hikari dodged to the side.
The sword pierced into the snow and got itself stuck.
As it tries to pull its sword out, Hikari steps on the tip of its oversized sword.
The monstrous out was staggered.
Hikari dashes.
Her sword flared with RazenHeir flame.
She swings with both hands.
She felt her sword slide paste armour.
The monstrosity was engulfed in RazenHeir flame.
Gahhh!!! It roars in pain.
Hikari turns.
The monstrosity shriveled in pain.
It's vines morphing.
But it pulled out its claymore and swung in a wide arc at her.
Startled, Hikari dodges backwards.
Despite being engulfed in flames, monstrosity chased Hikari, swinging its massive blade wildly.
Hikari dodged.
A skilled warrior.
Its swing was so fast that Hikari could not find a window to parry.
She could not strike as it recovers between swings.
The window was small.
The gap was wide enough that she risked charging right into its swing.
She kept dodging patiently.
Her guard up all the time.
Gradually, the vines smother the RazenHeir flames.
Its swing got stuck in the ground.
Now was her chance.
A thrust from her flaming sword.
A splatter of vicious dark red liquid.
It pierces its neck.
She felt the Runium tip cutting flesh.
She drags the sword forcefully.
A burst of RazenHeir flame illuminates the cavern,
Briefly overshadowing the glow of the mana vein.
A surge of mana.
Hikari leaps back.
Flames scatter in all directions.
Hikari backed off as far as she could.
Back against the cavern wall where the aether flame dissipates the most.
The monster paused.
Flesh grew from its neck, reforming its faceless head.
Its head bloomed into a bright pink flower.
Balls of aether flame flew towards Hikari.
Hikari ran along the cavern wall.
The pink flower expands its petals.
The aether flames chased her.
She drew her handcannon and aimed as she ran.
A piercing steel ball strikes the flower, knocking off an arc.
The flower closes.
The monstrosity staggers.
It shrieks and waves its head.
Hikari stopped, aimed her handcannon at its head silently.
She stood absolutely still to maximize the power of her shot.
The creature recovered and re-opened its petals for a barrage of aether fire.
Hikari stood her ground.
A steel ball leaves the barrel faster than the speed of sound.
In a sudden but silent explosion, the petals splatter.
The barrel melts.
She keeps her hand cannon.
The volley of Aether flame hits Hikari's directly.
Her salamander skin reacts as the aether fire burns its mana.
She brushes it off and charges the burning monstrosity.
It was still alive despite having its head blown off.
It's claymore pulls up a blanket of snow as it pulls it out of the ground.
Hikari's sword pierce into its flesh and hits something hard.
Incinerate.
The monstrosity's body flared up in RazenHeir flames.
But it did not stop.
The monstrosity swings its claymore.
Hikari drags her sword through its flesh to meet it.
A deafening crash.
Hikari feels the outer crust of her sword being smashed to bits.
The Runium core held.
Her wrists felt the sudden force of the swing.
But she blocked the swing before it could gain its full momentum.
The monster staggers.
Hikari swings.
Her shorter sword could manage more swings before her foe could recover its stance.
The vines could not keep up.
Hikari strips away the layer of contorted flesh.
The tip of her sword scratched the hard layer of armour underneath.
She could feel its strength weaken.
Its swings got easier to parry.
A glowing crystal in its chest.
Hikari parries its sword and plunges her sword into the middle.
Incinerate.
Incinerate.
The RazenHeir flames burned brighter and brighter.
Incinerate.
Incinerate.
She could feel the burn of her own flames.
A sudden surge of mana coming from within the monstrosity.
She lets go of the sword and backs off with a thrust from both her legs.
Her back hits the frozen cavern wall.
She braces.
A blast of aether flame.
It incinerates surroundings.
But Hikari blocked it.
She lowers her guard.
Scorch marks all over her wyvern skin.
The sword of the previous RazenHeir had shattered in three pieces as it got caught in the epicenter of the blast.
The monstrosity shed some of its outer mass.
It regenerates its limbs.
The pieces of its armour reassembled themselves on its body.
"A knight?"
Her foe had taken on the appearance of one.
It had gotten smaller in mass.
She stared into its helmet.
There was no one alive behind it.
She could not see the white of a living person's eye behind the slits.
The air around it swirled.
A sword crystalized in its hand.
It was of pure ice.
Hikari draws her second sword.
It was a good one that served her for a long time.
Made of steel with runes etched into its blade.
She reinforces it with mana.
The cheap steel sword might not hold up against a stronger foe.
She takes a stance.
One foot forward. Hand behind her back.
They circle each other.
The dead knight gradually closes the distance.
Hikari stopped her breath.
She had stopped into its range.
The dead knight steps forward and swings.
It hits her sword.
The arc of its swing was meant to test her blade.
Hikari held.
Her sword chills as it hits the pure ice.
She feels the biting cold.
Hikari counters.
The dead knight steps back and blocks.
Hikari pulls back.
Pressing will leave her open to a counter.
The dead knight stares at her silently.
It pointed the tip of its sword towards her and lunged.
Hikari lunged too.
In that short exchange, she found that her reach was longer.
The dead knight feints.
It steps to the side to avoid the tip of Hikari's sword which would hit it first if it tries to exchange lunges.
It gets into a thrusting position to pierce Hikari's chest from an angle.
Hikari steps forward and swings.
The feint had cost it a tempo.
It has to back off.
Hikari presses.
Thrusting her sword forward in a step.
The dead knight parries.
It was briefly staggered by the weight of its larger opponent.
Hikari backs off, avoiding a counter.
It was not a large enough window to press.
The dead knight steps forward to test her sword again.
Their swords clashed.
The dead knight backs off and returns to its stance.
They stared each other down.
A surge of mana from the dead knight.
Hikari raises her barrier.
Bzzzz…! Sparks.
An mana explosion.
The knight's armour collapses into pieces.
Hikari holds her guard until the mana fully dissipates.
The knight was no more than a pile of scrapes.