“I think if Glen hadn’t stepped on the spirit,” Einen grinned slightly, “it wouldn’t have attacked us.”
Hadjar was about to answer him, but, apparently, the desert wasn’t particularly inclined to let him finish speaking.
Ramukhan, who was walking at the head of their column, raised his fist into the air and shouted something. In all honesty, it wasn’t particularly important what he’d said. Everyone was already tense like the strings of a Ron’Jah right now.
Tilis and Karissa, without saying a word, immediately threw their spells ahead of Ramukhan. Karissa, as always, used fire shadows in hooded robes, and Tilis brought down a flurry of water that resembled a hammer striking the swirling, revitalized sand.
A roar mixed with hissing filled the air, and a huge, white snake emerged from the sand right in front of them. Its head was the size of an adult male, and its eye sockets and mouth radiated blue light.
“Cover me,” Einen whispered and ducked into his shadow.
Hadjar cursed and unsheathed his sword.
Chapter 391
Emerging in front of the snake, Einen twisted his staff and a spear shot out of its pommel, accompanied by a screech of steel. Dressed all in white, the islander held his spear-staff behind his back and faced the snake with his side toward it. When it spotted its enemy, the snake completely burst out of the sand.
Its huge, white body writhed and coiled around Einen. The snake’s head, which was emitting a bluish light, leaned down and hissed at the warrior, revealing curved fangs. The creature was more than one hundred and fifty feet long and could easily swallow a horse. Its hissing made the white bandages that comprised Einen’s traditional battle garb flutter, as if it were being buffeted by the wind.
The snake’s lunge was so swift that its white head blurred into a barely perceptible line. With its prey still encircled, the snake’s head passed within inches of Einen’s chest as he managed to dodge.
The islander stabbed it swiftly with his spear-staff. Its force was concentrated at a single point, unlike a sword’s, so it caused almost no echo. That was both its strength and weakness. Hadjar’s strikes would hit a wide area. This way, some of the energy dissipated, but at the same time, forced his foes to use a larger, more energy-consuming way to defend themselves.
Einen preferred targeted attacks. Because they were focused on just one point, they contained more power, but defending against them was much easier. That was why the islander always attacked his enemies with a barrage of swift strikes.
“Boulder Storm!” Einen shouted in his native language.
He jumped and hovered in the air. From behind him, a hail of sharp stones rained down on the snake, caressing its white scales like a pouring rain. Sparks fell to the sand, melting it into small puddles of glass. The islander hadn’t actually used stones to attack, but hundreds of sharp thrusts of his spear-staff.
The snake twisted and, unable to break through the barrage, swung its tail, which was the size of a battering ram. It lashed out toward Einen’s back, but the islander was ready. Halting his attack, he swung his staff behind him and dropped into the shadows. The snake’s tail ended up hitting itself, which only made the reptile angrier.
No one from the squad interfered. They were confident in the islander’s ability to deal with a creature at the initial King Stage, and they didn’t think this was a trap.
Einen fought alone, trying to draw out a potential ambush that the rest of the squad would then counter. Hadjar kept his sword unsheathed, watching not only the fight, but his surroundings as well.
The islander emerged from the shadows. He whirled his staff around him, and with each swing he made, the shadows rose and thickened until they formed the upper body of a huge, 9ft ape. It struck its chest with its paws, opened its fang-filled mouth, and with another thrust of the spear-staff, charged the snake. It tried to dodge, but it couldn’t evade the much faster Spear Technique.
The ape’s fangs bit into the same spot where the ‘Boulder Storm’ Technique had just struck. The broken scales of the snake’s armor couldn’t resist the shadow-ape.
The snake threw its head back, hissed, and began to writhe wildly. Thick, odorous, green blood spilled onto the sand. The sand snake opened its mouth and exhaled a cloud of blue light. It stretched out around Einen like a ribbon. It melted the sand it touched. Its poison breath was almost as strong as ‘The Black Gates’ sect’s poison.
Hadjar was about to join the fight when the cloud froze and then dissipated, cut into small flakes. The advantage of Einen’s weapon over an ordinary spear was in its small shaft and long blade. It allowed him to not only stab and cut, but also slash. Something he seemed like he was going to take advantage of.
Assuming a stance Hadjar was unfamiliar with, Einen began to concentrate his energy around himself. It was as if a maelstrom of power the color of a stormy sea was whirling around his feet, rising higher and higher into the air. Then, grasping the base of his spear-staff, Einen made a terrifying slash.
At the same time, a whirlwind of power travelled up from his legs to his chest and arms. After merging with his spear-staff, the energy moved on. Expanding, compacting, and growing in size, it took the form of an exact copy of the islander’s weapon, only it was shimmering, filled with energy, and no less than fifteen feet long. It struck the unprotected part of the snake’s body. A fountain of green blood erupted, and the creature hissed in agony. It twisted and lunged desperately at the islander, but instead of its enemy’s flesh, it once again struck only air.
Einen, emerging from the shadows, ran up the snake’s body and pushed off, soaring into the sky. Once he was directly over the reptile’s head, he thrust out his spear-staff and cried:
“Grand Boulder Storm.”
He launched an attack that made even Hadjar shudder.
Compared to the original ‘Boulder Storm’ Technique, this version differed in the frequency of strikes and their speed. The thrusts were so numerous and so rapid that they looked like black streaks instead of the usual chunks of rock.
A moment later, the reptile, which had been caught by surprise, said goodbye not only to its life, but also its head. Einen had turned it into an unrecognizable, horrible mess of flesh, scales, sand, and blood.
Landing in the same spot where the fight had begun, the islander swung his weapon into position on his back once again. The green blood flew from the blade, forming a crescent around Einen.
“It seems like a good night’s rest doesn’t just benefit me,” Hadjar whispered to his friend.
The islander didn’t answer. Activating the mechanism on his weapon, he slipped the spear tip back into its hidden compartment and, drawing his dagger, went to retrieve the monster’s core. For some reason, Einen really needed snakes’ cores. He hadn’t explained why, and Hadjar was smart and tactful enough not to ask.
While his friend was busy with the snake, Hadjar walked over to Ramukhan. He and Einen sometimes didn’t need words to understand each other’s intentions. It wasn’t just its core that had made the islander so eager to deal with the snake on his own. He wasn’t foolish enough to play the role of bait for a potential ambush. The speed at which Einen had dealt with the creature hadn’t just been due to the islander’s power, which had certainly increased greatly since their last spar. There was a simple answer to this — the stone given to him by little Serra.