The Bent World (Formerly: Multiverse Revenge Story): Chapter 13 The First Strike

Chapter 13

The First Strike

We moved in the way a herd of foraging hippos might have.

The noise that we all generated, well the other children generated could be heard echoing throughout the forest. It was an eerie sound that sent shivers down my spine.

With each step, the smell of the elements became much easier to feel and experience with my enhanced senses.

I could tell we were getting close, especially when the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise upwards.

Finally, we got to an area where it was easy to see the faint purple lines of electricity and film being distorted in the space in front of us.

At least, I thought it was easy to notice.

Only once one of the guards came back with a clear gemstone and proceeded to hand the stone to Auntie did I realize there might be something off with my senses.

Taking the stone, Auntie grabbed it and then moved forward. The closer she moved, the brighter the light in the stone began to resonate.

Finally, Auntie seemed to find an external boundary of the portal as she reached her hand forward, then was stopped by the stone.

At that stopping point, Auntie then began walking around the portal opening, revealing it to be an ovular shape, which was apparent as it was of course, right there.

While moving around and tracing the exterior of the portal rift, auntie began dragging her toe along the ground. Marking the outline of the portal with a marking in the ground.

Of course, I found this act odd. This was why I looked right and left, only to realize that everyone was watching Auntie who was clearly the expert at these rifts.

Once she was done, she came back to us and then spoke.

“Okay, I’m about to open the rift. I will do this by channeling mana into this directioning stone. This will cause a purple film to form that is visible to the naked eye.” Auntie stated, while holding up the brightly glowing stone for all to see.

As she spoke, I began to wonder exactly what she meant by this, for the rift here was clearly visible. At least to my senses it was. I also remember seeing similar purple streaks of lighting at the profiling ceremony. One where Auntie swore there that the profiler was going to cause a rupture.

Though seeing the stone and realizing that the guards were apparently using that stone and its glowing light as a form of a makeshift compass was odd. It did seem to explain how we got turned around and were going in circles for a bit, as they tried to discern where the light was the brightest at.

For a moment, I was almost sad at the primitive method of detecting portals that were being used. But then after a moment, I realized that I might in fact be the outlier.

I tried to wrap my head around some of the assumptions that I had previously made about past events, but quickly found my thoughts brought back here to the present.

“Once that purple film gets bright enough, I will then cut a small hole into the rift, which will allow monsters from the other world to come over to our world. When they come over, you must not engage with them. Our team is made up of highly trained specialists. We will take care of the monsters in short order, and let you all know when to strike.”

There was a pause as Auntie then gestured with her head towards the portal.

At her movement the entire group of eight warrior maidens moved forward in a protective triangle that would be used to funnel monsters to us.

“Draw your weapons, but do not raise them until we say so.”

Shink.

With that command, I like all of the other children drew my largest blade and waited.

Auntie began to move forward but then paused herself before giving her last comment.

“Just a reminder, that the first few monsters through will have their bodies and powers temporarily increased. Do not be afraid when you see the monsters expand before your eyes. Ideally, we will have them disabled before you strike, but if they are still growing while you wait, just know that is to be expected.”

With that, there was a slight pause, before Auntie asked, “any questions?”

Silence.

Either everyone remembered the first lesson taught, or they were too stunned to speak. Either way the end result was the same, silence reigned causing Auntie to give a coy smile.

“Very good, we might make some proper war maidens from you all yet.”

Then with that, Auntie strode forward, and began channeling energy into the stone within her hands.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you the difference between this time and the time at the profiling ceremony. I’m assuming it had a lot to do with the volume of mana being released. At the profiling ceremony it was likely more of a flood of energy, while this one seemed to be a slow measured stream of energy that was slowly released.

With that slow release of energy, the glowing brightness of the rift began to intensify, causing a heated smell of sandalwood and that odd metallic smell to fill the air that much faster.

Whoa.

Everyone let out a gasp at the same time, apparently, they could now see the deeper shades of purple energy that formed the edge of the rift’s barrier.

The process was slow.

That or maybe Auntie was more delicate with her craft, for as soon as the barrier seemed to be visible to the others, that is when Auntie seemed to slow down her mana release to that of a trickle.

As more energy poured out, the shading of the rift only darkened slightly. With the shading darkened, she began to delicately cut the thin film over and over with the stone.

Then finally, after what felt like an hour, Auntie paused. Looking up at the guards, she nodded to them. They all nodded back, then it was go time.

Auntie made one final deep gash, that caused a burst and release of energy into our world.

Almost like a balloon that had been blown too full of air and was cut apart.

As the air poured out, the smell was so intense and burning that it nearly caused my eyes to burn. For a moment I wanted to reach up into my mask and desperately wipe my eyes. Fortunately, I regained my composure just in time.

Tears formed in my eyes, but that was a minor inconvenience, as it was already time to act.

Burst.

Slice.

The sounds and smells of burning flesh could easily be smelled. As empowered swords and weapons cut through the monsters’ thick hides.

Like a well-oiled machine, the group of guardians shrunk in, poking, slicing, and disabling the monsters with quick and efficient thrusts.

Then the back two would use spears with giant hooks in them to grab the disabled creatures and pull them back. The main shaft and the tip of the spear would be expertly thrust into the neck, with a large, hooked blade going over and wrapping around the neck of the monster.

Then it was the guardians at the back of the lines job to hold the pinned monster in place as each student charged forward and hacked at the monster.

Smack.

Plop.

Of course, the fact that we were all six through eight made it so we weren’t able to apply much force behind our strikes. Well, the females weren’t able to provide much force behind their strikes.

As for me, I didn’t want to be seen as weak, that was why I cheated.

Not only did I use the sword forms that I had been practicing for months now, but I also made sure to strike at a particularly vital point thanks to my Telekinesis.

Using multiple arms of Intermediate Telekinesis I struck out.

One arm held the charred and bloody beast down. The others guided my blade down to strike faster and more precisely.

The effects of such preparation were immediate and apparent.

Splurt.

“SQUEAL!” The beast cried out in pain. As I was able to easily pierce the hide of the monster we were facing. Not only that, but my strike carved through the beast’s tough stomach muscles.

Almost immediately after my strike did blood and viscera spray outwards, as its intestines and other organs plopped out onto the ground.

Immediately, I was thankful for the full facemask and guard, as I could tell that a bit of the spray got me in the face and would likely have caused damage had I not been wearing my mask.

“Very good, now go back and wait in line to strike the other,” Auntie called out.

Hearing her commands I nodded, removed my sword, then went to the other line, where the second guard was holding down a second monster.

From there I waited my turn, as everyone raced forward and struck out wildly. Though most only seemed to make half hearted attempts as they all ran over to the first line, to give a deep jab or thrust to the now exposed organs of the first monster.

With everyone leaving the second line, I soon found my way at the front, where I once again used my Telekinesis to help empower my strike.

Slink.

“Raspy breathing.” The beast cried out, only to have its cry cut short. Once again, my blade cut through the tough outer layer of the monster. The only difference was that this time my blade cut into dense bone padding around the chest of the beast. Padding that shattered under the weight of my blow. As broken bone fragments burst out from the area surrounding my impact area.

“Whoa.” The other kids exhaled at the sight of my second major strike on a beast. They didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to, as their gasps of surprise were audible to everyone.

“Come on, back away so others can get their strikes as well.” Auntie shouted for me to move, but I was already moving out of the way before she spoke. Her chastisement of me was meant to make the other girls go faster.

Which they did.

Soon everyone went through both lines, giving one clear strike to the already exposed and vulnerable areas of the beasts. Then once everyone had a clearly damaging blow to the monsters, the guardians who had been pinning them into place flicked their wrists and quickly decapitated the beasts in seconds. Then using the oddly shaped spears they flicked the beasts’ bodies out of the way and reached forward to grab two more bodies that were being worked on by the guardians up ahead.

Like that, we worked as quickly as possible. Managing to get participation experience from one of every three monsters that left the rift.

Either we were just too slow, the monsters came through too quickly, or they were being whittled down too fast, but we were unable to keep up.

Still, we all struggled to the end.

I made it a point not to look tired in front of the other girls.

When they began stopping to gather their breaths, I just forced my way forward in the lines.

Then when it was clear that it was a lot easier to wait for me to make the first incision, they just let me cut through each line as I pleased.

So it went, until finally the residual energy of the rift began to wane, causing the creatures that appeared through the portal to begin to shrink in size.

As the creatures shrunk their bodies became that much easier to hack through.

One time I managed to pierce a monster in its heart, killing it instantly.

“Aim lower, and let others get a chance to gain experience,” the guardian who had been holding down my monster protested, before beheading the dead monster out of habit and then grabbing the next one.

Slink, pop.

Nodding at the comment, I once again aimed lower, but found my blade going straight through to the ground below.

“Ease up, now that the surge bonus is gone, the monsters are going back to their natural states, meaning their hides and attributes will be much easier to deal with,” Auntie stated, coming forward to both provide a moment of knowledge, while allowing everyone a chance to rest and reset.

Now we were at the point where we could keep up with the monsters that were coming from the rift.

“If you look, you will see that the rift is slowly fading in its intensity, this means that it will soon close on its own. After which time, we will all get a rift completion bonus, signifying that we are done.” Auntie added.

I could feel my muscles burning, but not as badly as the first two times I had experienced this type of energy dispersion. Either my body was getting better at being able to deal with these fluctuations, or my contribution to this portal wasn’t as much as the others. Or maybe the energy I received was dispersed between myself and all of the other people who were here. Either way, while I did feel a faint thrumming of energy swell inside of me, I was able to use most of that energy with each subsequent Telekinetically infused strike.

“Everyone keep your guard up,” Auntie stated, raising her hand to direct our attention towards the slowly closing portal. “Sometimes a powerful monster chooses this as their chance to come through. While they will not receive any bonuses, they are often more powerful than their predecessors.”

SQUEAL!

Then just as predicted, the roar of one last monster roared out, causing a burst of energy to be released that plowed into the first few guardians. Guardians who had been tired from constantly wearing down wave after wave of monster and therefore were not fully prepared for the level of power being unleashed by this monster.

“An ability user, kill it quickly.!” Auntie cried out. “That is a burst attack and wood or nature magic of some kind.”

Hearing her call out what was just used, I remember telling her how I smelled sandalwood earlier, a scent of nature or wood magic.

Her remembering that right now was impressive.

Mentally I reached out to the beast and began applying a Telekinetic grip on the monster that clasped around its neck and began pushing it back with force.

While it was able to marginally resist my powers, it was enough to help the vanguard gain control over the situation and begin attacking the monster immediately.

As I was focusing, I could smell the intense burning scent of sandalwood coming to life right around me.

It took my mind a moment to first register the smell, and then register what it meant, but the moment my mind understood the risk, I reacted on instinct.

The scent was coming from the center of a group of us, the group of vulnerable kids in the back. That was when acting more on instinct than anything, I lunged forward and shoved many of the dazed and confused girls away.

Simultaneously, I used the resistance force of my shove against them to then push myself backwards, and not a moment too soon.

For the next second, a giant three foot in diameter spike of wood jettisoned upward from the ground and would have impaled anyone who was in its way.

Then to add even more terror to the attack, the three foot in diameter stick of wood that comprised the world’s largest toothpick suddenly exploded with giant spike like tree branches that reached out for us.

The girls that I had pushed, looked on in horror from the ground, as the branches sprang to life just over their heads.

“Kill it, now!” Auntie cried out.

Squeak-SQUEAL!

At that command, the guards at the front of the formation sprang to life, cutting and carving the boss monster up faster than any of the others.

Pop.

There was an audible pop in the air, as the pressure that had been building up due to magical tension suddenly dissipated.

In that next moment the world seemed to pause as everyone just stared at the giant pillar of wooden spikes that reached out everywhere. Then the next second, the magic that had been supporting such a violent creation disappeared, causing the tree to wither away into dust particles. Only a giant circular hole in the ground remained to show that a killer tree had once been there.

Seeing the giant circle still in the ground, I came to one conclusion.

Magic was crazy.

Whoosh.

Then a moment later, a second burst of energy erupted from the opened rift, as its final burst of energy rushed out, covering all of us with burst of ambient energy. Before the final rays of the burst healed up the last vestiges of the rift. Only a few faint traces of purple lightning bolts remained, the last testament to a rift between worlds existing right there.

Silence.

There was a moment of silence as everyone just stared on in shock.

The girls who were still on the ground stared at me, but eventually they began to rise to their feet.

“Remember no talking, it would be a shame to kick you all from the group, before our next foray in three days’ time.” Auntie began.

Just like that, Auntie had regained control over the entire group.

What followed next was a quick animal dissection lesson. We were shown how to find edible strips of meat, where power cores were.

Apparently, these cores could be used once a warrior was fully awakened. These power cores that looked more like calcified kidney stones could be used to help power spells through earlier stages of comprehension. They could be swallowed to help increase mana reserves immediately or processed and synthesized into compounds that could be consumed or sold for money or profits.

While we were all just watching as children, we were unable to claim these stones. As this was part of the rewards used to ensure our guardians would come back for future runs.

Then to make sure we all learned our lessons for the day, Auntie ended with, “all right, I think that is enough for today. Are there any questions before we break?”