She ordered her team to gather their things, and within a few minutes, they were already making their way down the trail, as they had done so many times before. "Go home and get some rest, old friend. You've earned it," Velgar said without looking at her, eyes locked into the general position of the next portal. "Stay sa-..." she cut herself off, as the portal immediately opened, spawning three, armored and weapon-bearing creatures.
Without hesitation, she drew her sword, and performed the same dash maneuver she had earlier, though this time, her sword found no purchase in the creature's skin. With scales like plate armor, standing approximately a head taller than her, and with a piercing, violet gaze, the lanky creature held its own, as the commander tried to push her blade into its gullet.
"What are you?" she asked, briefly looking him up and down. The creature grunted, furrowing its brow, and launched her backwards into a nearby tree. "Commander!" Eirene shouted out. "Don't you fucking dare come closer. None of you," she shot back. Go back to Myrdin and report what you're seeing here to Anwill, she mentally sent to the rest of her strike team.
Go, she commanded.
Hesitating ever so slightly, her strike team trusted her judgment, and proceeded to support their bodies with mana, speeding them along the well-worn trail that led through the forest of Erberos. The commander, no longer sensing their presence, stood back up.
Do not interfere, no matter what happens. I'm going to go all-out on these fuckers to see what they're made of, and you would all just get in the way, she transmitted to Velgar.
Her razor sharp focus must have told him all he needed to know, because he didn't, rather couldn't, respond. "You there, in the middle," she pointed her gently-curved sword at the one who had sent her flying. The creature heard her speak, and turned to face her.
Are they intelligent? she asked herself.
"Do you understand speech, or are you just some hyper-strong creature I've never seen before?" she asked, a slight tinge of worry that it actually did understand her seeped into her mind. "I do, though I cannot speak for the others," a voice like rocks tumbling down a mountain emanated from the creature.
There was no movement of its mouth. Mental transmission, maybe? the commander thought.
"How do you know our tongue?" she asked. "That is for me to know, and for you to not survive long enough to ever find out," the creature said. Immediately as it finished its sentence, it appeared in front of the commander, nearly catching her by surprise.
If I hadn't reached the fifth stage of mana manipulation, I might never have reacted to the fluctuation of mana in time, she thought, feeling her sword bite into her opponent's.
Again, she was sent flying backwards through a tree or two before finally crashing into the ground. How the actual fuck is it so strong? she asked herself, gritting her teeth through the pain that resonated through her entire being. "Ah, I'm going to take an extra long bath after this bullshit," she said, cracking her neck as she regained her posture.
Her eyes glowed more intensely as she drew an exuberant amount of mana from the Ethereal. Even though she didn't necessarily need to draw additional mana from the realm, she did so anyway; bringing her body to the upper limits, though careful to not risk collapse.
With a deep breath, she lurched forward, the world turning into naught but a green and brown blur around her as she approached her target.
Even being at the fifth stage, I'll never get used to this feeling, she thought as she sped towards her target.
Bringing her blade up to strike, a cone of displaced air began to form around it due to its speed, aiming for the creature beside the one who had sent her flying. Her blade, moving at the intense speed that it was, severed multiple, suspended raindrops along the way.
Not as smart as the big bad, huh? she thought as her sword found the gap between its heavy scales, separating its head from its body.
Before the blood could even spurt out, her sword was already decapitating the second of the trio, with just enough space between the folds of the scales for her sword to spread and slice into. As her sword sang, both headless bodies were shaken by the sounds of the sonic booms it had left behind.
She dashed toward the third, the one who had sent her flying earlier, who somehow managed to get its jagged blade up in time to block at least one of the strikes. Its parry was successful, though it failed to even notice the other fifteen cuts she had already unleashed upon his body.
Such precision, it thought, feeling the commander's blade slice between the scales, reaching skin, flesh, and sinew in every location at the same time.
My body won't move. Has she already cut me off from my basic motor functions? it thought, feeling pain finally begin to register in its brain, as streaks of crackling mana followed the commander's movements.
She reappeared behind him, her face darkened, revealing only her glowing eyes and hair reflecting minimal light. "You're not going to like this next part," she said as if she were already looking down at him.
"Kneel," she commanded, kicking the back of its leg down into the ground.
The creature's body hadn't yet registered that it was unable to move, even though its brain was slowly becoming aware of that fact, as well as the pain that followed it. The world lurched back into motion, as the commander reduced her mana output, appearing in front of the creature with her sword at a gap in the scales on its throat, the blood from the other two creatures finally catching up to the rest of reality as the creature slammed into the same tree it had sent the commander into earlier.
"I judged you too leniently," the creature coughed, all of the intricate, disabling cuts finally registering all at once. "Who is your master? Who created you? Why are you here?" the commander asked, wasting no time, knowing this creature's life was ebbing away.
"More… will come. You will… pay," it gurgled, succumbing to its wounds as its sharp chin dug into its own chest.
Shit, I killed it too fast, she thought, swinging her blade swiftly to flick the black blood off.
"Commander!" Velgar shouted, stepping out of his hiding spot. The commander inhaled deeply, a sense of relief coming over her that no one appeared to be hurt. "I'm fine, Velgar," she said, lifting a hand up to halt his approach. She watched as the blood dripped from the creature out of every possible crack she could see.
"You're coming with me, upgrade," she said darkly, looking down at the space in the scales near its nape. Within a second of her decapitating the creature, a dark explosion of mana rang out, almost like a signal. "What the fuck did you do?" she asked the lifeless creature, obviously not expecting an answer.
Far above her in the canopy, however, a featherless, winged creature watched.