Ashue stumbled a few steps while clutching the hole in her abdomen however she managed to stay on her feet regardless. Such a wound wasn’t particularly major to someone of her strength yet it wasn’t minor either as blood poured out - turning to look in confusion at the spear which pierced through her. She wasn’t the only one since everyone there did the same.
Nothing about the spear seemed particularly ‘special’ other than the materials it was made with being from very high-ranking prey. None of that explained how it managed to pierce through the powerful barrier; it was a barrier that could block a hit from Violet. That was something the well experienced Violet handler, Slate, was well aware of and yet it passed through the barrier.
Even the ancient Midas couldn’t see anything special about the spear except the excellence of its creator as well as some components. From a little waggling of her tongue she could pick up the fact it had been tempered in the blood of a Drake, the bones themselves seemingly having evolved in the hands of its user. While it had certainly been broken and repaired many times from the sight of the bindings interwoven into the bone - it had overcome that to evolve into an artefact of at least Divine rank from a sharpened sub-dragon bone.
<Such weapons like that are perhaps the most terrifying as well as the ones most likely to be remembered for ages to come. It proves that those who wield them are not only strong but have experienced hardships that could have destroyed them - yet overcame those very challenges to come out far stronger. The very same reason why little Alice’s [True Mercy] is considered the strongest weapon across all realms with no equal.>
Compared to Midas’ narrowed eyes, making her slim pupils hardly visible, Slate turned to the wounded Ashue with an accusatory voice.
“You said we wouldn’t meet anything we’d need to worry about!” <Slate>
Instead of arguing straight away the tortoise moved her left hand in front of herself while the right still held her injured stomach. Upon her left finger had a beautiful ornately carved wooden ring with a large purple gem - it didn’t just look pretty though. Putting her spirit sense into the ring Ashue soon pulled out a little bottle. Inside that bottle held a pill however before Ashue could use it Midas, ever the intrapreneur, prevented her by placing a hand on the bottle with a sly sultry smirk.
“Rather than usse that trassh I would recommend ussing thiss brand new product from my well resspected {Heavenly Sound Alchemist Division} (name pending) for you to try~!” <Midas>
Reaching her other hand into her breasts which changed three daggers for a [Healing Crystal] which she then pressed against Ashue’s neck. Ashue being Ashue smiled at the ‘gift’ while Slate kept watch on the surroundings; glancing towards the pair with curiosity. The shadow guards of the envoy were more obvious since they weren’t involved in the defence as it stood.
As a medicine personally made by Midas the wound of Ashue’s abdomen quickly healed up while the snake slithered away with a smirk.
“I’ll give you the invoice within 30 business days shashasha~.” <Midas>
“Thanks hohoho~!” <Ashue>
“Well if you're quite done getting solicited for all your worth by Midas explain how the hell you missed something this big!” <Slate>
The reason for Slate’s words was because Ashue - as a tortoise - wasn’t only talented in array formations but also divination. To summarise divination in the simplest form was an advanced sensory technique that could even either peer through the {The Heaven’s} eyes or read fate the red strings of fate at the highest levels. Issue was that one could only choose one or the other now that {The Heavens} & Munzumira had a falling out.
It had to be said the difference between the two was vast to begin with - fate presented possible choices while {The Heavens} presented only facts to the user. Midas considered siding with fate was dumb though since even gods would go insane when trying to peer too much while in contrast {The Heavens} left things quite simple and non-’you will go insane from peering into this information’. With that being the case the advisor of Violet would of course choose to side with {The Heavens} on account of them being Violet’s older (half-)sister.
Didn’t change the fact Ashue’s intelligence was in constant question.
“Eh this isn’t my fault; all I saw was that we would run into a goblin after running into some hostages of the goblin and cow!” <Ashue>
“How would a goblin be he- wait second we have a goblin, cow as well as someone who can’t be seen even by {The Heavens}? Someone who was able to pass through all forms of detection while even managing to pierce through your shield - also able to create a divine forest in the middle of a desert? Is that right?” <Slate>
Slate slowly turned to look towards Ashue who only replied with “nothing important” when asked about her divinations before. Seeing exactly how this was Midas herself only let down a sigh while keeping her eyes on the surroundings only to see a figure stood upon one of the tree’s in front of them - not even trying to hide from the group. The chuckle-sisters didn’t pay attention to that though as Ashue proudly nodded.
“Indeed!” <Ashue>
“THAT PARTY SOUNDS LIKE THE FUCKING HERO GANG YOU IDIOT - GET INTO THE AIR NOW - REMEMBER BLOCKING IS USELESS!” <Slate>
Hearing the urgency in Slate’s voice Midas of course leapt from the air while letting her silver wings unfold once more to keep her up. Knowing things weren’t going well she threw a hand of daggers to the figure in the distance - three knives piercing through the air with the middle being acid while the other two were [Midas Venom Essence Crystal Daggers]. The figure didn’t panic though as a barrier of holy qi formed around her causing all daggers to bounce off thus making the snake not happy despite her keeping her smile.
To add insult to injury the figure didn’t even seem to care as they seemed to just cross their arms despite the attack; Midas at least being able to tell it was humanoid.
In contrast Slate grabbed Ashue by her waist while leaping into the air before slashing downward her sword - fueling her sword with powerful sword intent. As should be expected the earth below shattered upon being hit by her sword yet from the ground jumped out 8 figures before they could be swallowed out. Through the haze created from the dirtt the eight figures threw their own spears, all exactly the same bone spear down to every repair, in an attempt to skewer from all sides.
The oni just clicked her tongue while swinging her sword once again yet she had to time her swing expertly or risk suffering the same fate as Ashue. Skillfully she managed to hit all the spears aside before becoming like a sponge - though she was curious at what would happen if 8 unstoppable objects hit each other she didn’t want that to happen in her body. Plus, despite the dirty murk, the samurai knew exactly who those figures were which raised another more troubling question for her.
“Weren’t there supposed to be nine clones?” <Slate>
With that thought she looked around; constantly jumping through the air thanks to Ahsue making barriers under the pair. She knew she stood no chance of seeing the prolific hunter yet it wasn’t as if her invisibility was like that of those shards of Atlas who could become akin to a part of the world itself. There would be traces in a dust storm like this.
Sure enough she did find traces only…
“BEHIND!” <Slate>
That line alone was enough for Midas to fold her wings in once more before throwing her other three knives to the area behind herself. What she got to see was her daggers simply stopping in midair before plummeting down to the ground helplessly - wind swirling around to prevent the dust from hitting the person who attempted to run Midas through. The invisibility she used slowly peeled back to reveal exactly the person Slate expected.
“Aw~ for a second I thought I would get to tag you yet I suppose I am still it fufufu~!” <???>
A voluptuous woman tapped her sword on her left shoulder while her right hand reached out only for the initial spear to fly out from below to snap into her hand. Said hand was bejewelled in many different precious rings with large gems - the right arm was adorned with a purple cloak with an insignia upon it. Anyone knowledgeable would recognise it as the flag of the vampire royal family which could be summarised as a red camellia-head on a violet background.
It wasn’t the only thing that was bright purple since the women's regal voluptuous yet wavy hair blew freely behind her despite being shaved on one side. Mostly everything else was hidden under the dirty mist yet some other things were visible - most noticeable were the animal parts upon her body. These being two purple fox ears on her head while an opulent tail waved behind her however fox wasn’t the only animal that made her up as two large wings came out from her shoulder blades. The inside of the wings were webbed like that of a bat yet purple fur’ like that of her tail grew on the backside.
The last thing revealed were a pair of grey eyes watching Midas with a deep seated hunger - a crimson glow around the edges along with a golden cross forming a pupil glowing.
“Well~ shall we continue our little game to entertain the empress then~?” <Eel>
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Eel! Eel! Eel! Eel! Eel!
Eels momentum manipulation is a genuinely terrifying power.
I know it's very unlikely for Eel to do it but does her momentum manipulation allow her to become a magic god?
No it's a non magic ability that
comes from one of the Violet's
it's more akin to Sohn-Tochter's ability to make anyone look like at chump or Midas' eyes.
Also I had some images of Eel in the works; just deciding on which to go with but I will say that the smug (lowkey punchable yet lovable) face is perfect. Still I have to admit I love the cowgoth even more than the Eel images and I think you guys won't mind having her replace Midas' slot. Only problem is that her hair is a pain in the ass to edit due to swapping colours half way down so I said I would do it... Sure I'll get around it.