Limits

Half of the forest began to move. There were at least a hundred Mordars advancing. Although I thought about leaving, my legs stayed rooted in place. Instead of backing away, I advanced. 'I can make five such balls of mist at the top of my condition. Four are left' I thought. Before I used them, I had to thin them out. With both hands in front of me, I willed the Flame Formation as well as the Power of Ice in both hands to appear. When enough power was accumulated for both, I clapped my hands.

"Boom"

A quiet explosions reverberated through the air, while producing loads of mist. The mist quickly enveloped me. I placed my mask on, and activated its Formation too.

I opened my eyes, and said "Time to reap some lives". A bow appeared in my hand, I notched the first arrow and shot it out. "Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...". One arrow after another flew through the air. My target area was large, after all the horde of Mordars wasn't easy to miss. I didn't have to take much time to aim, which increased my speed of releasing arrows to a continuous stream. The rain of arrows bombarded Mordars, killing a few and injuring many. These were not normal arrows either. These arrows were imbued with both of my Auras.

Mordars' screeches could be heard left and right. The injured Mordars began merging together. That was what I was waiting for. Four merged Mordars emerged, out of around fort altogether. 'These are stronger than the one I faced before. But I should be able to handle that' I thought, and stomped my leg onto the ground. I quickly accelerated towards them, leaving the dispersing mist behind.

The Mordars were not idiots though. They used those roots to create tremors underground. They thought it would disturb my movements, and slow down my advancements. They were wrong. 'I already fought against such thing. Do you think my Natural Path skill is that useless?' I thought, and disappeared while utilising my movement skill.

Not only was I had to locate now, I also moved in erratic and hard to predict patterns. The tremors didn't affect my balance or speed anymore, and with my mask, I was better able to calculate their behaviour. No branches or roots could stop me at that stage.

After a while, I underestimated the Mordars. The sheer amount of roots those Mordars produced, became a problem. Although I was hidden from their view, and used my Natural Path skill, they still managed to find me a few times. 'This is weird. They shouldn't be able to predict my movements. Although one or two roots could appear on my path, this is too frequent' I thought. There must've been a reason. I had to back up a few times, as the roots were about to encompass me.

I only needed to get close enough, for both of my elemental attacks to be in range. A while later, I received that opportunity. I didn't wait any longer, and condensed the ball of mist on my right hand, while preparing the ball of flame in my other hand. "WRAH!", I threw the condensed ball of mist as hard as I could.

There were no obstructions on its path, nothing to stop it, as the branches focused on me. The ball of mist arrived, and hit the two merged Mordars at the front. "SHING!". The two Mordars partially froze, but they didn't have to freeze completely. My aim was to freeze the eye section, where their core was. If the core froze, then the Mordar would die. With two of their comrades perishing, other Mordars including the merged ones, released loud shrills. The Mordars further back, which acted as a sort of support, began merging as well.

I quickly threw the ball of flame at the remaining merged Mordars, in hopes to take them out. The Mordars used their branches, and even roots to defend against my attack. "Boom!". Although a lot of branches and roots got blasted and burned, the two merged Mordars survived. This wasn't the end though. The Mordars further back were merging like crazy.

'This is bad' I thought. Around fifty Mordars merged together, which I didn't witness before. The result of that, was a huge vine like tree with only one big eye in the middle. "It ends here, Human", the huge Mordar spoke. I was shocked 'Mordars can speak… No, not all Mordars can. This Mordar is different... Interesting' I thought and formed another ball of mist in my hand. I didn't back away, but advanced forwards. I moved closer and closer. Because the smaller merged Mordars had their branches and roots burned, they had very little to defend themselves with. With a strong throw, I released another ball of mist at them.

But before my ball could arrive, a huge vine like branch slammed the ground in front of the other Mordars, and took the hit. "Shing!", a section of it froze immediately. That was it though, nothing else happened to that huge branch. Even worse, it vibrated slightly, and the ice atop it broke apart. "It's futile Human. Now that you saw our true Form, your own choice is death".

'This is bad… real bad' I thought, and quickly backed away. That thing was beyond my abilities. 'If I were to classify its strength, it would easily outdo most Humans who broke past their Half Step of Inner Limits'. That huge Mordar wasn't something a single Human could take on. I doubted that even Yater, Irwin or Nathan would be able to take care of that guy by themselves. Just as I zigzagged back to where I came from, the ground beneath me shattered. A long and thick roots emerged from underground. There was no time to think about it. I used the Blink Formation to its fullest, and appeared around forty metres away. "BOOOM!" The are I used to be at, caved in and trembled from the powerful smack from those roots.

'If I'm hit by that, I don't think I can come out of it unscathed' I thought. The distance between us increased, but not by much. The roots continued chasing me, while I utilised my Art of Stealth and the Blink Formation as soon as it was available for the next use. Suddenly, the ruts dug themselves back into the ground. The huge Mordar was planning something. I extended both of my hands, and released the elements. This time I made them stronger, until I clapped my hands to make a lot of mist. The mist was much bigger compared to before, and my left hand hurt quite a lot from the explosion.

I didn't stay in the mist. Instead, I changed my direction, and ran away. I thought the roots will aim for the mist, but that huge Mordar planned something else. Instead of attacking that mist, the roots extended further past the mist, then resurfaced. The amount of those roots, was staggering. They created a tall wall of vine like roots, which blocked my way of escape. The wall alone spanned for a few hundred metres.

Although I could use the Blink Formation to get past them, the problem was their reach. Those roots extended at least thirty to forty metres into the air. Even if I blinked past them, the huge Mordar only had to slam them down. In other words, my Blink Formation would need to take me around seventy-eighty metres in distance. 'Suly said forty metres was already stretching it. Seventy would surely break it. It might not even take me that far, or break on the spot due to overcharge.

The branches were now catching up too. I had to run, and I had to run fast. 'The best choice is to go around it' I thought, and headed towards one end of the root wall. I was struggling. I was close to being hit many times, but the worst part was something else. The roots that acted as a wall, they simply moved with me. I couldn't get to the other side, even if I wanted to go around them. The huge Mordar trapped me in like a mouse. 'If that's the result of fifty Mordars merging... What would happen if all Mordars merged? What would that produce?' I asked myself.

Around fifty produced a monster. In that case double, triple or quadruple, would produce something out of legends. 'The Primal Limits. Yater and Irwin said that the North had at least two such existences' I thought, while avoiding death. The keyword was "at least". In other words, North could house even five or six such existences. 'This uncovered some stuff already. If Mordars have such an ability, Eterians can use it easily' I thought. So far, Eterians tried to overtake the population, not exterminate it. But if their plans changed, we would face more of such things… If not worse.

I searched for a way out, but the wall of roots was simply too big. I had to use everything and anything at my disposal. My Auras, my Power of Ice, the Flame Formation on my glove and even my skills in the Arts. 'Speed! I need speed!' I thought, as I tried to get faster.

It was useless though. One of the branches finally caught up to me. It didn't come from above, the branch swept sideways towards me. The only path of escape, was up. I jumped as much as I could, and evaded that branch. This was just the beginning. Three more branches flew my way. Two from above, one from the side again in a sweeping motion. I didn't give up, I couldn't give up. "Like hell this is the end!" I shouted while releasing my daggers.

I poured my Auras into the daggers, and released them upwards "Art of Hidden Weapons: Double Aura Carnage!". The daggers flew through the air, like ten beams of light. "Swosh! Boom! Boom! Booom!...". My daggers clashed with the two branches, punching out five holes in each of them. An Aura deep inside me awakened, just before my daggers hit. This allowed my daggers to pass though those branches and slow them down. "This is not the end!" I shouted while releasing a new Form. A Form I created on the spot.

"Art of Hidden Weapons: Aura Rotary Form!". My body spun around, while the daggers created a sort of domain of blades around me. Due to my spin, the speed of my daggers increased. It increased so much, the two branches were ripped to shreds. 'I did it!' I thought, but I celebrated too quickly. The last branch arrived. I didn't have time to do anything anymore. I had no way of escaping. In that split second moment, I made a decision. I activated the Formation on my chest piece.

"BOOOM!".

I was blasted away with a force strong enough to instantly kill me. I didn't die though. My armour took the hit, although not fully. The strength behind that blow was staggering, which resulted in my Formation breaking. I landed a few hundred metres away, pain stretching through my body. "It's futile... Human. No matter what you do... The result will be the same". The Mordar was surely talkative. I picked myself up, and quickly drank one of the best medicines I had. The Greater Medical Extract.

This was the same medicine, I gave to Suly. The effects were… surprising. The Medicine took away all the pain, but that wouldn't be much. It actually restored all my energy. I was back at the top of my condition. 'Only one more left. Even with my third Aura awakened, this thing didn't suffer much from it' I thought. My Unyielding Aura already dissipated, and I had to fulfil certain conditions to awaken it again. This was something, I still couldn't do.

I was out of ideas though. I had no useful poison with me. I didn't have Yellow Dust anymore. My skills were useless against it, and I couldn't even escape. Although I was at the top of my condition again, the situation was really hopeless.