The air thickened with the hum of raw Aura as Kael's men surged forward, a wave of dark-clad figures intent on overwhelming the lone woman. Aira, a moment ago still a picture of calm at the dining table, was now a coiled spring of lethal grace. Her sword, drawn in a blur of motion, shimmered faintly in the Aura-lamp light, a silent promise of the grim work to come.
"Hmmm...guess I'm killing them again." The thought was a cool, detached assessment, devoid of emotion, a mantra whispered across countless cycles. Aira did not flinch.
Her hand, already closed around the hilt beneath the table, moved with practiced, liquid grace. The long, slender sword, its blade a muted gleam even in the Aura-lamp light, slid from its sheath with a whisper that was almost imperceptible amidst the thudding boots and the rising snarls of Kael's men.
The first two attackers, hulking brutes with crude, Aura-enhanced gauntlets, reached the edge of the dining table simultaneously. Their intent was simple: overwhelm, crush. But Aira was already gone. To the normal eye, she simply vanished from her spot.
To her, the world seemed to seize, every detail sharpening into crystalline clarity as if plunged into a viscous fluid. The ornate carvings on the chairs, the subtle patterns in the velvet drapes, even the individual dust motes suspended in the air – all froze, crystalline and still.
It was as if she had stopped time, but in reality it was an incredible speed against time. An ability making her arguably the strongest human in Eldoria. The ability was called– Blur.
Her own movements, by contrast, were shockingly fast, a blur through solidified time. She moved like a whisper through this suspended reality, appearing behind the first attacker before his punch even reached its intended space.
With a flick of her wrist, her blade traced a lethal arc across the back of his neck, a strike so fast and precise that the man collapsed before his own momentum could carry him another step, his eyes still wide with uncomprehending aggression.
As he fell, another Ascendant stepped forward, his eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint. With a guttural cry, he thrust his hands forward, and from his palms erupted twin fireballs, searing orbs of raw, ignited Aura.
They shot across the dining hall with surprising speed, leaving trails of superheated air in their wake, aimed squarely at Aira's chest. In her perception, these projectiles were leisurely, almost gentle spheres of light, their fiery edges rippling slowly.
She didn't dodge; she shifted. Her body, a streak of accelerated motion, merely leaned, a micro-adjustment of her weight, and the fireballs whistled past, scorching the elegant wallpaper behind her before impacting the distant wall with a concussive burst that sent plaster dust flying and sent tremors through the ancient mansion.
Before the wielder of the fire could recover, Aira closed the distance in a breath. Her blade, a phantom in her hands, found the precise point where his Aura manifested in his arm.
A swift, brutal cut, severing the connection, and the man gasped, his fiery Aura sputtering and dying as he crumpled to the floor, leaving behind only the acrid scent of sulfur and burnt cloth.
A growl of frustration ripped from the throat of another thug. This one was different. As Aira turned, she saw his body beginning to contort. Muscles swelled, tearing through his combat gear with rending sounds. His frame enlarged, growing taller, broader, his skin darkening as if hardened by earth itself.
In seconds, he was a hulking behemoth, easily twice his original size, radiating an intimidating aura of raw, physical might. His massive fists, now the size of boulders, were clenched, ready to shatter anything in their path.
"Come on, little bird!" the enlarged Ascendant roared, his voice deepened by his transformation, resonating like a bass drum. He lumbered forward, each ponderous step shaking the very foundations of the mansion. He wasn't fast, but his reach was immense, his raw power formidable.
Aira, however, saw not an unstoppable giant, but a slower, larger target. She circled him, her movements a dizzying blur, a silver phantom dancing around the lumbering brute. The enlarged thug swung a colossal fist, creating a miniature sonic boom that cracked the air. Aira flowed beneath it, her sword darting in.
She aimed not for bone or muscle, but for the joints, the tendons, the crucial points where the Aura flowed to sustain the enlargement. A quick slash to the back of his knee, a lightning-fast thrust to his shoulder joint, severing a key Aura conduit. Each strike was calculated, designed to disrupt his Aura flow and mobility rather than inflict a mortal wound immediately.
The giant roared in pain, his formidable form beginning to waver, his massive limbs starting to shrink, twitching spasmodically as his Aura flickered.
Another thug, seeing his enlarged comrade struggling, unleashed a focused blast of pure Aura energy, a shimmering, colorless beam of force that left a searing trail in the air. It tore through the air towards Aira but Aira's heightened speed allowed her to perceive the subtle shimmering of Aura before it solidified into a beam, giving her a fraction of a second's warning.
She wasn't simply faster; she was operating on a different temporal plane, reacting before the attack fully materialized.
She sidestepped, a mere shift of her weight, and the beam scorched the polished floor where she had been standing, leaving a smoking, black line across the pristine wood.
From the shattered doorway, Kael watched, his sneer twisting into a furious snarl. He had seen this dance countless times, this infuriating mastery of the Melanthos. He had seen Aira cut down men twice as strong, twice as numerous, for the past eight years.
His own men, despite their Ascendant abilities, were falling like wheat before a scythe, their varied powers proving useless against her impossible speed.
"Fools! Don't engage her directly! Create space! Flank her!" Kael roared, his voice echoing off the high ceilings, but his words were largely drowned out by the clash of steel and dying Aura.
He knew the futility of his orders; once Aira entered this state, she was an unstoppable force of nature, a blur of kinetic energy and surgical precision.
Aira wasn't merely defending; she was systematically dismantling, her movements so fluid and fast that the individual clashes blurred into an uninterrupted flow of lethal grace. Each time a thug fell, his Aura flickering out like a snuffed candle, Aira's movements seemed to grow even swifter, her focus sharper.
She was efficiency personified, a blade of retribution in motion, already calculating her next three moves before her current one landed.
A new threat emerged. Two more Ascendants, working in tandem, tried to pin her. One raised a hand, manifesting a shimmering force field of pure Aura, attempting to box her in. The other, with a grunt of effort, began to telekinetically wrench chunks of debris from the shattered doorframe, hurling them at her with crushing force.
Aira simply used the force field as a momentary trampoline. A quick, powerful push off its shimmering surface sent her rebounding over the debris, propelling her towards the man creating the shield. Her sword slashed down, slicing through the Aura conduit that maintained the force field.
The shield shimmered, flickered, and then dissolved, leaving the man exposed. A swift counter-strike, and he was down. The second thug, mid-throw, found Aira already upon him. Her blade was too fast to parry, too precise to block. A quick, brutal disarm, followed by a disabling strike, and he too joined the fallen, his Aura sputtering.
The dining room became a maelstrom of shattered furniture, extinguished Aura-lamps, and falling bodies. Aira moved through it all, a ghost in the chaos, her sword singing its grim, familiar song of inevitable victory.
She was killing them again, as she always did and as the last remaining thugs pressed their assault, their faces a mix of desperation and awe, Aira prepared for the next, precise strike, the familiar, weary rhythm of battle claiming her once more.
"What a hassle...."