On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Thirty

Reaching the edges of our Territory we could see the huge grey troll, swinging massive fists at everything that crossed its path, punching craters in walls and even the ground. With one meaty thwack it struck a metal streetlight pole, bending it over at a thirty degree angle. Roaring at the pole that didn’t fall he grasped it, stony grey muscles bulging, and tore it free, the base coming out attached to a plug of concrete. Hurling it away into a nearby wall which caved in under the force of impact, the troll looked around with bloodshot yellow eyes. It was then it saw us, and opening a yawning mouth filled with slab-like teeth it bellowed again, charging our way.

“Well at least this one isn’t armed…” I said dryly, drawing my spear.

“I would-would imagine those fists count as weapons.” Shaeula retorted. “If you are hit by them you will surely-surely die.” With that she invoked her blessing, lucky winds blowing around me.

“Yeah, well I’d really like to avoid that.” In fact, the fear of death was rising within me again, but I swallowed it down. This is a managed risk. Trolls are stupid, so I can always flee again if I can’t take it down. Besides, I have luck on my side…

Drawing upon the wind energy I had accumulated it was time to test it. Racing forwards I used my greater speed and agility to duck under the troll’s swinging arms, using a few threads of wind energy to lower wind resistance around me, speeding my movements significantly. Score one for battle shounen anime, using wind this way works.

As the troll howled in rage and swung back towards me Shaeula and the Kamaitachi barraged it with their own blades of wind, doing little damage to its rocky skin but confusing and distracting it. As it was torn on which way to face I stabbed out with my spear, aiming for the back of one knee. This time though I wrapped the blade of my spear in a whirling cyclone of verdant wind energy, forming a spinning drill. The impact sent a shudder through my arms, and for a brief second the troll’s skin held out, before it parted in a gush of acrid blood. The troll roared, falling to one knee as the windy drill ripped through, punching a great hole through the limb.

“My drill is the drill that shall pierce the heavens!” I shouted, drawing a withering glare from Shaeula. You just don’t get the reference, every man dreams of shouting that one time…

Unable to support its own weight the troll’s leg tore, and it toppled to one side, thrashing about. One fist flew past my head, barely missing me, and I shuddered reflexively. Damn, getting cocky will be the death of me….

Leaping back I threw my spear, again wrapped in a drill of glowing green air. The troll batted a fist at it from its half-sitting position, catching the blade. As it did so several fingers flew off, cut apart by the slicing winds that were whirling like a chainsaw. It works kind of like the Rasenshuriken from Naruto, all slicing wind. It’s definitely effective…

The blade had pierced deep through the troll’s palm, and as the winds cycled it was shredded, after a few seconds exploding apart, drawing another roaring bellow, this one filled with pain and frustration.

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“Impressive. Your-your mastery of winds exceeds mine already.” Shaeula said, amazed. “It is rather-rather frustrating indeed though. I cannot help but feel shamed by my own lack-lack of skills.”

I reassured the pouting Shaeula as I dodged around the troll, retrieving my spear by channelling aether to bring it back towards me. “Well like I said, understanding things is kind of my speciality. I remember seeing videos of a compressed air cutter that would slice through thick steel like it was butter.”

“Videos?” Shaeula asked, and then she shook her head. “It does not-not matter. I will be asking you more-more about this later.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be happy to explain how you can use your wind more effectively.” It would be a big help to me if Shaeula was stronger, as she could already handle more wind energy than me, so if she could use it better she would be a real asset in battle. In fact my wind energy was almost depleted, so I had perhaps one more strike left in me. It was time to make it count.

“Cover me please!” I shouted, backing away from the troll, who was dragging himself along the ground towards me, howling in rage, leaving a trail of smoking acid blood behind. They responded by barraging the troll with blades of wind and the wind serpent-weasels, which latched on to his injured leg and arm, tearing deeply into exposed flesh.

“Here goes then.” I raced around behind the troll as it struggled, and with my final burst of wind energy I lashed out, using the spear as a blade, razor-sharp high-pressure winds wreathing the edge. There was a meaty-sounding thunk and the troll gasped in surprise. Blood gouted from its slashed neck and after a few seconds the weight of the huge head could not be supported anymore and the head tore free, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

For a brief moment the head stared at me, before it dissipated into ether, which I absorbed quickly.

You have gained in strength. Your Level has increased from Eight to Nine.

In addition to the Level-up we also received a very impressive amount of ether. As I was absorbed in this Shaeula came up to me, a complicated look in her eyes. “Well done-done. Defeating a troll is not-not a trivial task. It is again making me feel inferior.”

I ruffled her fur again. She was pretty cute when she was pouting. But I’m still not a furry! Definitely not!

“I was just lucky, that’s all. Maybe your blessing helped? In any case, killing trolls gives a ton of ether, it almost makes me want to find some more. But I’m out of wind energy and I don’t want to provoke Grulgor, so we had best not for now. At least not until we’ve finished the upgrade.”

Shaeula shook her head free, ignoring the snickers of her sickle-weasel behind her. “A wise-wise decision. No good will come of poking a hornet’s nest-nest. Perhaps now-now is the time to clear out the lair of those foul spiders?”

I considered that. If I was to draw in a bit more wind energy to top up, it might be worth a shot. My upgrading plans were going to take a lot of ether, so clearing out the nest in the metro station would certainly help, as each of the enemies there gave a decent chunk of ether.

“All right, that sounds like a good plan. If you can gather some of your weaselkin with bows and slings we can use them as ranged support. We three will do all the real fighting though.”

We proceeded to the station at the edge of our expansion, only to be oppressed by the greater gloom as we neared it. The area outside the entrance was covered in thick spider-webs, forming a great barrier. Smaller spiders were scuttling across it, and we could hear the chitinous rattle of larger creatures hidden from view.

“Well this took a turn for the worse…” I observed, bringing agreement from Shaeula.

“Quite-quite. It looks like whatever rules this Territory has been strengthening it. We need-need to clear this now-now, before it becomes a threat!”

“Right. Well in that case…” Drawing on my aether I formed an image. As my aether depleted I had to convert ether, the enemy Territory resisting me. After I had consumed nearly five hundred ether, an amount that pained my heart, my image was fully formed, and a swirling lance of fire ripped through the webs, engulfing them in flame.

Ether flowed into me, replacing some of what was expended, and out of the fiery hell came scuttling several hybrid-faced spiders and the big scorpions, shells ablaze.

“Fire at will.” I ordered, and Shaeula and the Kamaitachi began to attack with wind, whilst the dozen weaselkin behind us slung stones or shot arrows. Enemies were falling before us, unable to respond, and ether was quickly being amassed. I darted amidst the flames, using little bursts of wind to deflect the inferno, using my spear to take down whichever enemy was in front of me. The fight continued for nearly an hour, until the blaze had died down, leaving piles of hideous insectoid corpses lying charred amidst the blackened ruins of the web maze.

Breathing in deeply, taking in lungfuls of hot air that tasted of ashes, I had another thought. Oxygen is a part of air right, so if I could raise the concentration of oxygen in my blood, that should give me a huge boost to my physical abilities?

The idea was tempting, but a mistake could well be fatal, so I decided to put it on the back-burner until after some testing. Turning to my allies I ordered us all forwards, into the heart of the metro station dungeon. There was a brief sense of disorientation as we crossed the threshold, and we were then in a gloomy stone tunnel, sloping downwards into the inky darkness, the walls covered in thick spider webs where large spiders lurked, hissing at us, venomous spittle running from many open maws to stain the floor.

“Delightful place you have-have taken me to.” Shaeula complained. “You know-know how to treat a lady.”

“Yes, I guess this is a bit much for a princess.” I allowed. “Still, once this lair is cleared out, we’ll redecorate. In my Territory we’ll only have nice places.” Using aether I created some balls of glowing light that hovered around us in the air, shedding a dull light through the tunnel.

“Admirable sentiments indeed-indeed.” she agreed, lashing out with blades of wind and decapitating several dog-sized spiders as they crawled closer. “But that will not-not be easy. Whoever is at the centre of this maze-maze will be strong, maybe as strong as us. We should-should proceed with care.”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.” My spear thrust into a dog-sized scorpion, piercing the shell and spilling its stinking guts. “If I’m to die, I definitely don’t want it to be here, who knows what the insect monsters would do to my corpse…”

“Such-such a pleasant image…” Shaeula muttered behind me, as she swept the area with a burst of wind, slamming chitinous bodies into the bare stony walls, shattering them.

As we continued to push forwards we encountered very few of the more powerful monsters. Those we did find we triple-teamed to quickly defeat, and after some time we reached a blockage, another thick wall of webs anchored across a series of maw-like stalactites and stalagmites, each as thick as a human leg. Within the webs a dozen of the spiders with the human eyes lurked, as well as something larger and darker, a huge ball-like creature with dozens of stubby legs. As we approached the ball split open, revealing a huge toothy mouth big enough to swallow a person whole.

“Well, this looks more challenging…” I said, readying my spear once more. Leaping forwards my spear was wreathed in glittering wind energy, which pierced through one of the spiders’ torsos, the cyclonic winds blowing it apart in a welter of stinking gore. As I spun to the next target flames spewed from the arachnids’ mouths, consuming my swirling winds, driving me back, heat stinging my exposed flesh, the smell of burning hair filling my nose.

Damn, fire beats wind. I need to remember that…

As one spider that was reaching for me with bladed forelimbs fell, head sliced apart by winds from the sickle-weasel, I could see in the dim light formed by my aether-balls that a group of scorpion-beasts was forming up behind the web, and amidst them was the shape of something larger and stranger…

This is going to be a tough one. Oh well, with the rate of growth of this small Territory I can’t just leave it be… Clutching my spear tighter in my sweating hands I thought of my next move…