Chapter 271: Another Dead Ratchyr

In the meantime, while Aelric was still reeling from the disorienting aftereffects of Echo Shriek, the second leader detected what it perceived as an opening and moved to exploit it without hesitation.

Air surged outward as it beat its wings, propelling its enormous body towards the green-eyed youth with terrifying speed.

Its jaws gaped wide, revealing its reinforced incisors, which gleamed with an unnatural sheen as it activated Stour Gnaw once more. Dense Nether energy gathered around the teeth, transforming them into instruments of destruction capable of tearing through even formidable defences.

For a brief moment, it seemed as though Aelric was finally doomed. The two Ratchyr leaders had coordinated their abilities with considerable effectiveness, using one Impulse to disrupt his senses before allowing the other to deliver the finishing blow.

His movements had been compromised, his perception was still unreliable, and the approaching creature had already closed much of the distance separating them.

Under such circumstances, even a powerful practitioner could find themselves in an exceedingly unpleasant predicament.

Unfortunately for the Ratchyr, its assessment of the situation was premature.

Just as its jaws were about to snap shut around Aelric, the youth’s expression finally tightened perceptibly.

In an instant, he pivoted sharply, wrenching his body out of the creature’s path. The Ratchyr’s enormous jaws clamped together with a vicious crack, but not before the tips of its incisors scraped against his tunic, tearing a small hole in the fabric.

The attack had missed its intended target.

Before the creature could even comprehend what had happened, Aelric drove his elbow into its snout.

The impact landed with a dull, forceful thud. The Ratchyr’s head jerked backwards, and its enormous body lurched forward, carrying it past the youth without any semblance of control.

Aelric used the brief contact to propel himself backwards, putting some distance between them before landing on the cracked flagstones and steadying his footing.

His expression remained composed, although the faint tension around his mouth suggested that he was not entirely comfortable.

Lingering vibrations still churned within his stomach, and the world had yet to settle completely around him.

Indeed, Aelric had not fully recovered from Echo Shriek becuase as it turned out, the technique was irritatingly effective.

The only reason he had managed to react to the Ratchyr’s attack was that he had forcibly suppressed the disorientation through sheer willpower and the controlled circulation of Aether within his body.

Rather than allowing the disruptive vibrations to overwhelm his senses, he had concentrated on maintaining his awareness of the immediate threat, compelling his body to respond even while his perception remained compromised.

It was hardly a pleasant experience.

Aelric had endured far more dangerous situations during his six years in the Nether Lands, but that did not mean he particularly enjoyed having his senses scrambled by an oversized flying rodent.

There were limits to how much inconvenience one could reasonably tolerate before developing an appreciation for the simpler virtues of a quiet afternoon.

Unfortunately, the Nether Lands had never been particularly generous with quiet afternoons.

As a Rank Three Etheryean, Aelric possessed considerably greater soul tenacity and mental fortitude than most practitioners of the lower realms. His consciousness had undergone refinement through cultivation, strengthening his ability to resist disturbances that might otherwise overwhelm someone of lesser advancement.

Even Regaleon, whose determination and force of will stood above those of the others in their group, could not necessarily withstand the same assault as effectively as Aelric.

That was not to say the silver-haired Knight lacked resilience. Regaleon had repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to endure pain, exhaustion, and danger for the sake of his companions. His resolve was formidable, and few people could accuse him of surrendering easily when confronted with adversity.

However, determination alone could not entirely compensate for a difference in cultivation.

By the Rank Two Etheryean Realm, practitioners began refining their consciousness and strengthening their souls through the circulation and application of Aether.

This process sharpened their awareness, fortified their mental resistance, and improved their ability to maintain control over themselves when confronted with attacks that targeted their senses or consciousness.

Consequently, an assault that might leave an Awakener or even a Rank One Flesh Artificer utterly disoriented could amount to little more than an unpleasant distraction for an ordinary Rank Two Etheryean.

Naturally, the actual result depended on the strength of the attacker and the nature of the ability involved. Cultivation was not an absolute guarantee of immunity, and even a powerful practitioner could be affected by a sufficiently troublesome technique.

Nevertheless, the disparity remained significant.

Aelric’s cultivation allowed him to resist Echo Shriek far more effectively than someone of Regaleon’s current realm. Yet the fact that he was still experiencing its aftereffects demonstrated just how troublesome the ability could be.

Echo Shriek was not merely loud. Its true danger lay in its ability to disrupt sensory perception and interfere with the body’s capacity to maintain balance and interpret its surroundings.

The attack did not need to injure its target physically to create an opening; it merely needed to make the target uncertain about where they stood, what they could perceive, or how quickly they could react.

In that regard, it was particularly insidious.

The Ratchyrs might not possess overwhelming strength individually, but their Impulses complemented one another with vicious practicality.

Stour Gnaw provided them with devastating offensive capabilities and the means to consume certain Aether-based attacks, while Frenzied Slash allowed them to strike from a distance. Echo Shriek, meanwhile, disrupted the senses and created opportunities for their other abilities to land.

Together, these Impulses formed a combination far more dangerous than the sum of their individual parts.

The creatures were not merely relying on brute force. They were using their natural advantages to compensate for their limitations, coordinating their attacks in a manner that could overwhelm opponents who underestimated them.

Aelric had to acknowledge that much. He still considered the Ratchyrs troublesome vermin, but he was not foolish enough to mistake an unpleasant opponent for an incapable one...

In the meantime, the two leaders had already recovered from their brief exchange with him.

Both spread their wings before launching another coordinated assault, and this time, neither intended to give their opponent the opportunity to concentrate on a single threat.

They activated their Impulses simultaneously.

Crimson claw strikes tore through the air as Frenzied Slash unleashed successive arcs of concentrated Nether, while Echo Shriek battered Aelric’s hearing with another piercing assault. The overlapping attacks filled the chamber with violent vibrations and flashes of red light, forcing the green-eyed youth to give ground across the fractured flagstones.

Aelric parried one claw strike with a crescent of blue Aether, then twisted aside to evade another that sliced past his shoulder. The movement aggravated the lingering disorientation in his senses, but he maintained his balance through careful footwork, refusing to allow the Ratchyrs to dictate the rhythm of the encounter entirely.

He retaliated by directing another blue crescent towards the nearest leader.

The attack hurtled through the air with a sharp whistle, its luminous edge cutting through the dust as it approached the creature’s head.

The Ratchyr responded exactly as he expected.

It opened its jaws and swallowed the crescent between its reinforced incisors, consuming the Aether as though it were nothing more than a particularly appetizing morsel delivered directly to its mouth.

However, this time, Aelric was prepared.

The instant the Ratchyr snapped its jaws around the blue light, Aelric loosened his grip on his longsword and opened his free hand.

Then suddenly, thin threads of Aether shimmered into existence.

They were so delicate that they were almost imperceptible to the naked eye, appearing only as faint distortions in the air when they caught the light at the proper angle.

Even the other members of the group, whose senses had been sharpened through their cultivation realm, would have struggled to detect them amid the chaos of the battlefield. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

The threads extended from Aelric’s fingers towards the hilt of his longsword, wrapping around the weapon with extraordinary precision.

They were Aether Threads, conduits through which he could extend his influence beyond his immediate physical reach. By linking his will to an object through these threads, he could manipulate its movements without needing to maintain direct contact with it.

The technique required considerable control, as even a minor lapse in concentration could disrupt the delicate connection between practitioner and weapon.

Aelric, however, handled the process with the ease of someone performing a familiar task.

In the next instant, his longsword began to hover in the air.

The weapon rose from his hand and suspended itself beside him, its blade angled towards the Ratchyr as though it possessed a consciousness of its own. It rotated slowly before darting sideways with sudden, unnatural speed, responding to the slightest shift in Aelric’s intent.

An invisible swordsman might as well have taken possession of it.

The Ratchyr had already swallowed the crescent, but its jaws were still closing when the floating longsword veered beneath its head.

The blade moved like a shooting star, trailing blue light behind it as it hurtled towards the beast.

The moment it entered striking range, Aelric flicked two fingers and the sword responded immediately.

Its trajectory changed, and the blade surged upwards, cutting across the Ratchyr’s exposed throat before the creature could react.

Black blood sprayed through the air.

The leader released a piercing, agonized shriek, its wings beating wildly as it lost control of its flight. It attempted to regain its balance, but the injury had already compromised its movements. The creature crashed onto the flagstones with a heavy impact, scattering dust and loose fragments of stone around its body.

It then struggled to rise but Aelric gave it no opportunity.

His fingers moved through a sequence of precise gestures, forming hand seals that guided the Aether Threads. The longsword responded to each movement, turning in midair before darting towards the weakened Ratchyr.

The creature recognized the danger. With its remaining strength, it opened its jaws and attempted to clamp down on the approaching blade, hoping to destroy the weapon as it had destroyed the earlier crescent strikes.

Aelric’s expression did not change. Instead, he tightened his fist..

For a brief moment, the Aether Threads quivered as though responding to an unseen command. Then he slowly opened his hand, and blue energy began flowing from his body, travelling along the threads in a controlled stream.

The delicate strands acted as conduits, directing the Aether towards the hovering longsword. As the energy reached the weapon, the blade began to glow with an increasingly intense blue radiance.

The Ratchyr’s reinforced incisors closed around the sword. A sharp metallic creak rang out as its jaws attempted to crush the weapon, but the creature had already made a fatal miscalculation.

The next instant, the blade began vibrating incessantly.

The sound was subtle at first, resembling a faint hum that gradually grew sharper as Aelric continued to channel Aether through the threads. The energy accumulated along the weapon’s edge, concentrating until the blue light became almost blinding.

Then, without any further warning, the accumulated Aether detonated and a violent burst of blue energy erupted at point-blank range.

The Ratchyr’s head exploded beneath the concentrated force, scattering black blood, shattered bone, and fragments of flesh across the surrounding flagstones.

The blast reverberated through the ruined temple, and the creature’s enormous body collapsed with a heavy thud, its wings sprawling uselessly across the stone as though someone had suddenly severed the strings supporting a grotesque puppet.

For a moment, the nearby sounds of battle seemed almost subdued by the violence of the impact.

Then the lesser Ratchyrs resumed their shrieking, and the clash of weapons once again filled the chamber.

Aelric paid them little attention.

The longsword hovered above the fallen leader, its blue radiance gradually diminishing as the excess Aether dissipated. With another subtle gesture, he guided the weapon along a curved path through the air, directing it back towards himself.

The sword settled neatly into his waiting hand.

Aelric closed his fingers around the hilt, lowered the blade, and finally exhaled. One Rank Two leader had fallen but the battle was still far from over because there was still one left...