The Runic Alchemist

Broken Bay, Meridian Keystone, Einar.

They did not have a wall laden with heavy runic machines, but the island did not lack in defensive measures. The tall ridges of the stony island overlooking the ocean were mounted with heavy runic laser cannons, tornado creators, and powerful, burning multi-boulder throwers.

They were built to resist warships. What little they could not do, like shooting high above or quickly changing targets, was covered by the flying armada. The exploration crew ships fought battles almost every single day while exploring. To them, war came as naturally as eating and sleeping.

Still, the powerful water channelers and wind cannons of the Faerunians targeted the giant runic pillars standing tall in the ocean, keeping the barrier active. In the ocean, only the flying ships and their crew could counter them. But the Faerunians had five hundred ships, and they only had 200.

Split between four pillar targets, their effectiveness was further reduced. But the pillars were not that easy to damage. Damian had built in every defensive measure he could think of inside it. Multiple layers of inside barriers, blast protection, spell-cancelling, etc. With brute force alone, it would take hours to deal significant damage that would hinder its functionality. And that’s considering a transcendent pugilist-level physical powers.

But their opponent was not a normal one either. Vidalia and Sam described how powerful a legendary divine beast could truly be.

‘Damian managed to defeat one.. But Damian is Damian.’

To counter Vearon and its devastating attacks, Einar, Asher, and Shesha fought as one. Giving him time to launch powerful attacks could change the face of battle really quickly, so they kept him on his heels, interrupting, resisting, never letting him breathe. They were exhausting more mana this way, but the mana they could afford to spend.

The strategy was to stall long enough. How long was long enough? No one knew.

‘Two days ought to do it. If Damian doesn’t return in two days, escaping is the only solution.’

Strapped with Valkyr Frames on their back, Shesha and Einar chased behind Vearon and Asher, locked in a high-speed battle. Fighting in the air was not her strong suit, but with the Frames, it was made much easier.

Seeing an opening, Einar activated her Crimson Prison skill. Sensing hundreds of red-hot, piercing bands of red closing in on Vearon, the giant black-scaled, oily snake, shrank back to his human form and dodged most of the red bands while shattering some to pieces with his white trident as easily as breaking wood.

Einar gritted her teeth. She knew it wouldn’t have damaged much to the annoyingly hard black scales of his, but Vearon still showed caution facing unknown skills. The bastard was not just insanely powerful but also a very shrewd and experienced warrior.

Two giant golden hands closed in from two sides of Vearon with terrifying speed, while a flurry of dark purple poisonous swords rained down from high above. Einar still had some bands of the prison left; she controlled them to strike Vearon from a dead angle.

Cyan aura exploded within the fourth ranker, along with his trident. Vearon spun in a circle as he ascended. A large sea snake made entirely of aura and water, separated from Vearon and swallowed all the poisonous swords, swaying left and right as it rose higher. Her red bands were swallowed by it in the passing.

The golden pair of palms, Vearon stopped with his trident placed in between, overflowing with thick aura and mana. With the support of his trident, Vearon circled around and landed a powerful kick on the giant golden hand, shattering it into thousands of golden pieces. The other hand of Ashe tried to grab onto him, but Vearon released a powerful stream of high-pressure water and bored a hole through the palm. Breaking the fingers with his sharp trident.

Then he shifted the trajectory of his water cannon towards the barrier. It came so fast only because of the barrier that Einar and Shesha survived the sudden attack. The Frames were good, but not suitable for high-speed battle. She could not move as she wished. Her senses registered the attack, but the Frames were too slow to move.

Asher launched a terrifyingly powerful and massive blast of gold and red lasers straight at Vearon at an angle that missed the water cannons just slightly while slamming hard on the sea snake’s chest. Successfully pushing him back. The laser was more red than gold. In the span of just a few minutes, Einar had seen him launch golden, golden-orange, golden-white, and now a golden-red laser.

Asher’s skill was not fixed, she realized. He was still adjusting to his new powers and gradually raising the limits of his attacks. A normal person would never be able to spam such overwhelmingly powerful skills again and again, with such a terrifyingly large cost of mana attached to it.

Each time Asher used the skill, his body lost over 60% of his total mana. But the strangest thing was that his body recovered the mana at an insanely fast rate. It wasn’t the same before Damian’s towers were activated. It started afterwards. Einar felt a chill at the realization.

Asher’s metal body was built by Damian like a runic golem. And all his massive runic machines were powered by this mana gas released in the air. Asher was not a human or a golem but something in between. The intelligence and status of a human pathfinder, but the flesh of a powerful killer metal golem.

Einar stopped thinking and took advantage of the situation, sending multiple of her giant firebirds in pursuit of Vearon; they packed a terrifyingly powerful explosive potential. Enhanced even more by the runic armor she was wearing, made by Damian. Her long-range attacks were limited, and she didn’t want to strain her armor too much just for stalling.

Suddenly, in the midst of all the chaos, Einar heard a faint sound of glass breaking. She focused on the origin of sound, which came from the hundreds of warships attacking the barrier and flying sanctuary armada in an attempt to damage the barrier from the sea.

Nothing of note. She even felt a wave of weird energy, but decided to ignore it after informing the central.

Vearon had been swallowed by their attacks, but he transformed into a sea snake in the middle of it all, tanking the damage like it was nothing. Still, he was flying around the red laser, trying his best to dodge it, not daring to go near.

Near the giant snake’s disgusting, black, oily mouth, Einar noticed a radiant white energy orb condensing continuously.

Another attack? That was new.

Sesha had released a thick purple liquid through the invisible attacking barrier for a while, patiently shaping it into a large half dome that covered the hundred ships below. She showed the viciousness of her attack when biog palm-sized drops of liquid poison started dripping from the giant dome, boring holes into men, metal, and wooden ships alike.

A trick to force Vearon near them, but the king of Farunia barely spared a glance and continued on, dodging the laser while charging his attack. The white radiance was growing stronger and stronger. They had recived detailed information of the duel between Thaddeus Seablaze and Damian and knew the charging attack was a devastating one that had sent even Damian to the very edge of death.

Central could see everything, still Einar reported it and launched her own attacks without any conservation of mana or equipment.

‘We must stop this!’

If aimed at the barrier, it had the potential of breaking it. If Vearon and a few flying Faerunian pathfinders entered inside the barrier, it wouldn’t be the end of it all. But they will have a hard time facing his overwhelming attacks and the solid possibility of injuring themselves severely while fighting. And the runic tower powering the barrier will become an easy target from this side.

Einar channeled liquid mana into her runic armor, tightened her grip on her sacrium sword Crimson Talon, and activated one of the spells.

In seconds, a massive red figure of Einar herself holding her sword materialized in the ocean. The towering height of her mimicry self was over two hundred meters. She waited not for a single moment and swung her aura-clad giant sword wildly at the giant back snake. In her earpiece, she ordered all flying ships and distant runic machines to target Vearon, leaving everything.

Asher and Sesha understood the gravity of the situation as well. The poisonous dome changed the shape into a ferocious-looking, massive cannon. Einar understood the meaning and grabbed the massive cannon, placing it on her shoulder. Sesha had made the underside and places to hold less damaging; the mimicry shelf was covered in Einar’s aura, so the damage was minimal.

Asher went so far as to entirely leave the barrier and chase behind Vearon while a golden energy armor wrapped around his metal body. Einar shot large blobs of poison from the cannon straight towards Vearon.

But the slippery snake had suddenly exploded in speed and was dodging almost everything that would hinder his speed or interrupt his attack. Even so far as ignoring Asher, outside the barrier.