Mach one was the fastest Greem had ever gone with the booster. And even then, it was always in a straight line, used to travel long distances. He'd never used it in combat… but that was about to change.
Immediately he spotted the Radiant knight and noted the perfect distance between them, he deemed the chance too good to pass up. He dismissed every stroke of fear and uncertainty and just executed the plan (one of many), psyching himself to not hold back at all.
The blasting thrust from the rocket pack and his perfectly positioned wings swept up everything in his path. His arms shielded his head as they and the feathery appendages broke the legs of every colt they smashed into and swept them and their riders up into the air.
Quickly powering down the booster after a single second, he flipped forward and twisted, reorienting himself and digging a long furrow into the earth with his right arm. He fired up the booster again simultaneously, arresting and reversing his momentum.
He shot forward, this time at a slower speed compared to before, seemingly to return to where he came from. That wasn't his actual goal. He zeroed in on the Radiant knight still ragdolling in the air and shifted himself in the man's direction, his gaze on the man's leg.
He grabbed the target limb as soon as he arrived and flapped his wings to reorient himself, making sure his head was pointed straight up. For the first time ever, he dumped as much wind and fire elementium into the combustion chamber of the booster and beat his wings strongly.
Calling it an explosion would not do it justice.
A deafening boom erupted and spread from his former position, the visible ripples upending the ground and dust and blasting the knights and colts away from it, the insides of those caught in the radius ruined by the massive shockwave.
More than a thousand meters in the sky, Greem flared his wings and came to a sudden stop, his grip on the Radiant knight's leg loosening. The older man sailed past him and went even higher, spinning and flipping like a store mannequin.
Greem glanced at his hands and how they were all in the process of healing, the knight's body-wide eruption of Radiant energy shattering the bones in them.
'No matter, I still have my legs.'
Looking to take advantage of his opponent's confusion, unfamiliarity with the shift in terrain, and lack of leverage, he dialed up the boosters and shot upward, meeting the knight with a raised knee to the face, the crack he expected failing to arrive.
The knight glowed a blinding white, his whole body wreathed in runic energy. It was going to take some doing now. Unless he had an attack that could bring it down in one move (a second grade attack), he was going to have to wear it down.
It was a good thing then, that body refiners were known for their unending stamina.
Not letting that minor setback phase him, Greem simply summoned Allerdyce and sent it forward to attack the runic forcefield, its superhot edges being the closest thing he had to a second grade attack.
He flew forward simultaneously and caught up to the knight, generating immense force by means of a spin and transferring it to the man's face with a kick.
He flew off with an explosive sound again, Greem and Allerdyce hot on his heels. Greem arrived first, his fist cocked back and filled to the brim with life force. It landed and blew the air in their vicinity back, the man spiraling even further.
His eyes narrowing at Allerdyce failing to catch up to their movements, he sent the flying flame sword in a wide arc and caught up to the blinding white knight again, his other arm delivering the same life force infused blow while the other healed from the blowback.
Even helpless, the knight could still fight back with his forcefield, the amplified reactionary force from the shield shattering every bone in the limbs that struck him. Still, the attacks served their purpose.
The second punch sent the knight right into the path of the waiting Allerdyce, their collision creating firework sized sparks and inducing the tiniest of flickers in the runic shield.
Greem smiled under his mask upon noticing this and beat his wings, the booster churning and adding its input. He reached the knight again and barreled into him, his hugged knees smashing into the latter's chest.
Again, Allerdyce was waiting for him and the cycle continued, the skies above the battlefield filled with sharp trails, louds booms, and fiery sparks so bright they were visible in the daylight.
Most of the fights below had fallen into a lull as the spectacle above drew the attention of the participants. For the knights, their distractions were brief as Willis unleashed a shout that somehow encompassed the whole battlefield and got their heads back in the game.
He also roared again and one of the dragons flew up to join Greem and the knight up there. Greem grew irritated at the sight. The shield was at its lowest, a few more hits and it would break.
The knight also wouldn't be able to recharge his reserves of runic energy amidst all the confusion and incessant attacks. It was going to be perfect. Too bad for him though. Willis' patience was growing thin.
Sending the knight careening once again, Greem twisted to look at the dragon slowly but surely climbing up the invisible ladder with its wings to meet them.
He didn't let his gaze linger and flew up, hitting the knight over and over and sending him higher and higher. The higher he got, the better the outcome of what he was about to attempt.
Once he reached a height where the earth below looked like a shot from skydiving videos, he recalled Allerdyce, a white red blur rushing into his palm and disappearing.
Noting how the dragon and the people below had become dots in the distance, he deemed it high enough and located the sorry knight and flew above him, ensuring they were both in line before diving forward with both arms held forward and fists clenched.
This time, even more than before, he pushed the booster to its limits and the world blurred, his fists smashing into the back of the knight and folding him like a newspaper, both of them rocketing back to earth like meteors.
The ground rapidly enlarged in their sights, the air around them straining and rippling with barely restrained heat. They arrived, the knights below them stumped at the falling object that appeared out of nowhere.
Heat and debris, chunks of rocky ground and splintered trees, just up and erupted, a massive mushroom cloud of these combined effects rising up and obscuring everything, the shockwave that followed right after blowing everything in a two hundred meters away in an impressive display.
While the knights who were upended and blasted away by the shockwave—those that survived anyway—were pushing their dead comrades and colts off themselves, six presences made themselves known on the battlefield.
They rushed to the site of the collision, their forms only perceivable as black red blurs to the impotent eye. Five of them broke off from the group and separated, landing in the midst of the knights still gathering themselves at various points surrounding the site.
They were revealed to be tall men encased head to toe in pitch black armor, the only other color on them being the long and crimson hair-like ornaments extending from the back of their helmets and waving in the wind.
As though their minds were linked or they were programmed as one, the men unsheathed their pitch black longswords at the same time and started slaughtering the knights, bringing the war back into full swing.
Meanwhile, the last blur, the reddest and brightest of them all, vanished into the dispersing mushroom cloud and stopped right in the center, revealing itself to be Mary.
She crouched down near Greem at the bottom of the deep and wide crater, helping him up and dragging him away from the Radiant knight she could still sense life from, however faint.
'He's still alive after all that?'
"Don't worry. He's not going anywhere. Every bone in his body is broken," Greem said with a calm voice and forced himself to stand on his feet, his whole body emitting cracking sounds.
Mary stopped and looked at him in alarm, and he responded by holding out his arms and spinning around. "Don't worry. I'm fine. See?"
The vampire fought to keep her lips from twitching. 'Show off,' she thought, her cheeks immediately reddening when he pulled off his dirt caked shirt shirt and shook his head like a dog, his hair whipping about in a frenzy and flinging away stubborn dust particles.
"We need to hurry. You grab him and remove his armor while I fake being super injured. No need to invite more suspicion," he said, flashing her a smile while he kicked off his boots and pulled his pants down.
"Are you sure they'll buy that?"
"Doesn't matter," Greem said and scooped up dirt from the crater and rubbed it on himself, doing so a few times until he looked the part. "After today, I'll get what I want from them, and they can go fuck themselves."
Mary remembered the plan and his insane idea to break away from the clan. A part of her, more than she wanted, was scared of the repercussions of such a course of action.
Lord Sarubo was a Sixth Grade being. The breadth of his power was something they couldn't even begin to comprehend. She didn't want to draw his ire or attention in any way or form.
On the other hand though, she hated the clan for making her pay for killing Anderson, and couldn't stand being near any of the higher ups.
"Don't worry," Greem rubbed a tattered shirt and pants on the ground, "We'll be fine. If push comes to shove, we'll just run to another plane."
Run to another plane.
Mary wanted to toss the silver bracer she just removed at her insane boyfriend's head. What did he think this was? How could he be saying things like that? Even he had to understand the implications behind his words, right?
She heard him chuckle and the thump of boots on the ground. His ruse must be complete. Good, she was also done. She stood up and turned around, catching the sight of him stretching his hand towards the gathered pile of armor and belongings.
They each lifted off the ground and rushed to meet his palm, where they all disappeared. He then drew close to the dying knight, stuck a device to his chest and covered it with the latter's wool undershirt.
He'd explained what it did to her. It would scan whatever it was attached to and give him everything it knew about a topic he specified. Just another bit of his craziness.
Once he was done, he summoned a long steel chain and bundled up the weakened knight, passing the end to her and throwing his arm around her shoulder. "Come on. We need to keep up appearances."
Outside the cloud of rapidly settling dust, the five men in pitch black armor had finished securing the surroundings and formed a circle around the crash site, waiting for their mistress to return.
To the onlookers, the stationary men moved in unison all of a sudden and converged at one spot. It wasn't hard to see why when a crimson haired spitfire emerged from the haze with a man twice her size leaning on her for support.
She tossed the chain to one of them and pointed her right index finger up, waving it in a circle. The black knights perfectly interpreted her orders and formed a protective ring around her and her lover.
At various locations on the battlefield, most of the Adepts trained their eyes on the group, their interest specifically on Greem and his disheveled appearance. He had actually done it. He had faced a Radiant knight and not only survived, he'd emerged as the victor.
It didn't matter if he was injured. That fact that he was still alive spoke volumes about his prowess and how they would fare if they were to find themselves pitted against him.
Many gazes turned sour and contemplative and the uncomfortable truths went unsaid.
****
Author's note:
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