[Hrozun 24, 0100 A.R]
[Glacial Falls]

Current in-game time 4:02 PM

And just like so, with a single command from 4ster, a ginormous lance made entirely of Kopakian ice, shot down the woman as if divine retribution. Yuna was amazed and at the same time, disturbed by 4ster's sudden power-up. Whether it was a hidden skill or such, Yuna was concerned at the fact that the mage was capable of such destruction, even able to do such a thing towards someone like Vadodara who, for reasons, Yuna viewed as a demon lord of sorts.

Such a huge spell, however, came with a backlash as 4ster tightly held onto his staff which supported his gradually weakening body. The Saint state, while indeed giving immense power, came with an equally considerable drawback that set an equilibrium. Clutching his chest and having difficulties breathing, 4ster forced himself and ignored the pain before shooting a triumphant grin in Vadodara's direction, "Heh...serves you right." Weakly, the mage voiced those words.

With the giant ice lance piercing the floor and drilling through it at a rapid pace, it wasn't surprising that the entire floor itself that they were standing on, would also follow and collapse as fissures instantly appeared all over. Yuna, barely able to react, helplessly tried to run away from the falling floor but she wasn't fast enough and so she fell.

Seeing how everything was rapidly collapsing, 4ster, using what seconds left he had in his Saint state, focused his all on creating ice platforms that caught all of his companions so they wouldn't fall. Yuna was luckily saved by this and was pleasantly relieved to see the sudden appearance of a platform beneath her feet. A few seconds more and Yuna would've been turned into a pancake if it weren't for 4ster's interference.

The same could not be said for their opponent, however. Taking the full force of a few thousand metric tons of ice alone was considered deadly, an equally large amount of Winter magic in combination with the massive ice lance was more than enough to destroy anyone unlucky enough to take on 4ster's attack. Due to the ice lance's size, it gave rise to a massive tremor which caused numerous avalanches and landslides alongside rifts to appear outside.

To say that it was a strong attack was an understatement, for 4ster, as a mage, he finally knew why the Saints were so revered as he could see for himself the amount of devastation a single spell of a Saint can reap. Unfortunately, before he could contemplate or think about anything, the young man was taken aback by the strong gusts created by the ice lance as it finally collided with the ground sending a series of massive shockwaves to occur.

"Urghhh...hold on tight!" 4ster shouted while raising a wall of ice to protect himself, Yuna, and the others who were still unconscious by his side. Yuna meanwhile, held tightly onto the others so that they don't get whisked away by the harsh winds as the ice lance's collision eventually came to a halt albeit after a few minutes of rumbling.

•∆•

At the bottom of the pit, the violent tremors eventually died out signaling a stop to the falling chunks of the ceiling and wall. Even with such an explosion, the entire structure remained moderately intact and survived the impact, albeit sustaining a handful of cracks here and there, it can be considered a good thing. However, the same thing couldn't be said of a certain samurai who wiggled himself out of the rubble, pushing bits and pieces letting him escape being crushed under the pile.

"What the hell? Is the world ending or something? Shit, my day can't get any worse." Luckily for Muzui, he still retained his voice and had enough energy to let out a dry remark. Muzui himself had suffered some bruises and shallow cuts from the jagged edges of the stones which he had to push out of the way so he could survive. If it weren't for his level he would've died from suffocating minutes earlier, thankfully he didn't.

Wiping away some of the blood dripping from a cut on his forehead, the young man scanned his surroundings which were a mess to look at. The first thing to catch his attention was none other than the massive pillar of ice piercing the floor a few meters away from him, he was fortunate that he had been standing at a distance from that thing or it could've been the end for him.

"What hell's up with this thing?" Walking up to the pillar as he lazily scratched the side of his neck, Muzui was then greeted with a steep crater that encircled the pillar. The Samurai did not proceed any further and instead looked towards the center of the depression, there an arm was sticking out from beneath the pillar as the owner of the said arm had been crushed, "Bloody hell..." Blurted the swordsman as he trailed off.

"Do you think that's the end of her?" Looking at 4ster, Yuna asked with a hopeful stare. "Did that finally end her?" She continued.

"I don't know...I think it should..." 4ster replied still unsure as he peered down to check for any signs of the woman. A few moments of silence passed as no signs of movement can be seen or heard until the mage let out a sigh, "I think that's it...she was already half-dead earlier so I think–" as he was talking, the mage would instantly freeze as his blood went cold.

CRACK!

CRACK!

BOOM!

"Oi oi! What the hell!" Muzui, being close to the epicenter of the collapse, the samurai broke into a full sprint as soon as he saw the falling debris and ran as far from the falling pillar as his legs could take him. "Why does this keep happening to me!?"

4ster's eyes widened to a degree, his eyes almost fell off their sockets as he stared at the pillar of ice after hearing a creak, followed by an audible crunch. Fissures appeared across the pillar of ice in a matter of seconds before in just a blink, the entire thing exploded into pieces from the bottom up. The massive pillar of Kopakian ice was easily destroyed leaving Yuna and 4ster stunned, but their astonishment didn't last long as 4ster shot down a chunk of ice falling on them with a basic fireball.

However, shooting one wasn't enough, the mage was forced to push through his limits as dozens of ice chunks threatened to crush him and his friends. "Please...just a little bit more..." Extending his staff, 4ster shot more fireballs despite his already vulnerable state. Smoke emanated from his body due to his magic circuits overheating from overuse.

"4ster! Your body!" Holding unto the others who were unconscious, Yuna could only watch as she could not do anything to help 4ster who shot fireball after fireball trying to stop the ice chunks from reaching them. Yet, even with 4ster going past his limits, it was still too much for his exhausted body, and eventually, he ran out of magic to cast another spell. The last chunk of ice came collapsing unto them with 4ster staring at the looming shadow overhead with helpless bloodshot eyes.

"Get down!" As the ice chunk fell, a hand came and jerked 4ster away. The owner of the arm was none other than Yuna who dashed forward jumping unto the wall and then vaulting herself at the falling ice chunk. While airborne Yuna took something from within her pocket, it resembled a translucent green ball in her hand as Yuna threw the object at the falling ice chunk, creating a huge explosion that redirected the chunk's trajectory.

Yuna mentally sighed in relief as the chunk fell away from the others, she was thankful for Sylvia for giving her one of Newt's Eggs from way back. All she had to do was fill the egg with some magic until it reached critical mass before throwing it. It was surprisingly handy if used correctly. That said, it only had a limited throwing range before it exploded so Yuna had to get close just to use it.

While the girl was able to prevent the danger from reaching her companions, Yuna soon realized the state she was in. She was still in the state of free-falling and because she overshot her jump, she was a ways off from the landing on the platform, earning a worried shout from 4ster who dashed towards the end of the platform trying to reach her, "Yuna!"

Sadly Yuna was too far to reach and so the girl fell. The girl plummeted at an alarming speed towards the bottom of the large room and had nothing to stop her fall as she was too far from the walls to grab a foothold.

Seeing herself fall like this, was laughably familiar to the girl, when was it that she felt like this? Her falling down a steep fall wasn't something new to her. Ah, that's right, it was back when she took Tamaki dungeon diving with her, she remembered the scared face of the young lad as they fell at max speed. It made Yuna crack a small smile although she was probably going to turn into a human pancake soon, well at least she was able to prevent her companions from getting crushed.

Accepting her fate seeing how she could do nothing to stop her fall, she surrendered herself to gravity, she felt the breeze brush against her face as her hair danced wildly in the wind. Ah...I guess this is the end of the line. Sigh, I wanted to at least see the others again. The girl told herself mentally before closing her eyes.

"Goddddddddddddaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttt!!!!" Yuna's eyes instantly cracked open as she heard a familiar voice shouting somewhere beneath her as she fell. She cursed the lack of better light as she could barely make out a silhouette of a person running through the rubble, avoiding the falling debris.

Despite freefalling to her death, Yuna's face held a smile as she recognized the loud individual. Looks like Lady Luck hasn't abandoned her after all, she mentally thanked RNGesus for this wonderful timing. Forming a cup with her palms, Yuna shouted with all her might, "Muzuiiiiii!!! Over here, you dumbass!!!" She yelled, catching the attention of the samurai.

"Huh!? Ya wanna go!?" Muzui angrily shot beside him upon hearing the taunting voice. It might've been his reflex upon hearing the voice, but as soon as he heard the familiar voice, he shot toward the source and saw a silhouette falling from above. Caught off guard by the suddenness of it all, Muzui face contorted to a difficult to explain expression as he tried to process things, eventually, he ran towards the spot where Yuna was falling, abandoning his escape to catch her.

Ki soon built up within the samurai's legs as Muzui squatted, further compressing all of that Ki into his legs before shooting into the air like a grasshopper. With his great agility, he used the falling debris as stepping stones to get closer to Yuna. "Fancy meeting your annoying face here you chopping-board!" with a snarky grin, Muzui reached out his arm as Yuna grabbed hold of him.

"Awww, did you miss me?" Sticking out her tongue, Yuna paid back with a shit-eating grin of her own.

"We're about to do the 'top', you better not get scared," said Muzui.

"Break a leg," she shot back as the two of them spun in place before Muzui threw Yuna towards the wall, letting Yuna get a foothold on the wall before she shot straight back at him pushing the both of them off course from turning into pancakes.

With great speed, the duo skidded across the floor like a stone across the water, bouncing a couple of times before coming to a full stop. "Haahh...shit...that was a lousy throw," even after all of that, Yuna still had the energy to shoot a snarky remark at Muzui who was strewn across the opposite side of her laying on his back.

"Yeah, that's 'cause you're a lousy teammate." Answered back the samurai whose snark attitude didn't waver even after facing possible death. "That was a lame tackle, if it was I would've done it better." He chuckled.

"I doubt it, you're too stupid for that," dusting herself as she stood up, Yuna offered Muzui a hand as the two shared eye contact. There was a silent pause between the two as their snarky remark died down for but a moment before they continued once again as the falling debris around them also came to a halt.

"How did you manage to get yourself in here?" A while later, Yuna asked Muzui a question as the two stood on top of all the rubble.

"After my team and I got stranded, we all fell into a chasm and found an entrance which lead me here." Muzui summarized the story to save time. "How about you?"

"We came to save Zhiang and Rashia and the others after seeing a flash of light appear in the sky followed by an explosion. So I and a few others rushed in to see what was going on and ended up facing Vadodara," as soon as Muzui heard about the name Vadodara, his expression turned serious.

Muzui curiously asked Yuna, "Where are Zhiang and the others? Are they safe?"

"Don't worry, Zhiang and Rashia are fine, but for the others..." The girl trailed off and went silent, with the silence being Muzui's only answer to his question.

"So did you guys fight 'her'? Did you guys win?" He continued the conversation as Yuna gazed at him and before explaining everything that transpired, she told him how they managed to injure Vadodara yet it wasn't enough but thanks to a strange power-up, 4ster was able to land a good hit on the woman resulting in the large pillar of ice that they could see in front of them. However, it seems that 4ster's attack wasn't enough to bring the woman down.

"So you guys weren't able to beat her then..." As Muzui spoke his head shifted, eyes landing on the crater behind him as they both felt an overwhelming presence.

ROAR!!!

Like thunder, a boisterous animalistic cry echoed through the whole structure, momentarily stunning Muzui and Yuna with a continuous ringing in their ears as the two flinched at the emerging presence. The voice held so much rage-no, to call it just 'rage' was a mere understatement. Primal wrath was a better portrayal.

WOOSH!

Following the roar was a slash attack which devastated a portion of the structure almost but not quite hitting Muzui as the attack missed him by a mere hairsbreadth. The attack left a meter-wide trail beside the samurai who was left in disbelief at the sight of the destruction left in the attack's wake.

"Watch out!" Still taken aback by the attack, Muzui was too fixated to notice the open hand about to grasp his head. Luckily for the young man, Yuna was able to react and kicked him out of the way.

"What the hell!?" He shouted in astonishment as a piece of large rock behind them was easily destroyed with a swing of Vadodara's hand. As their eyes adjusted, they could make out the outline of a person with the person's left arm gone limp and some pieces of flesh missing from the woman's torso revealing bits of bone.

If the two of them had anything to compare the scene to, it would've been to a zombie movie as Vadodara's body resembled a half-dead being held alive by pure primal rage.

"She's still alive!?" Muzui exclaims in disbelief.

"Shit. What are we going to do now?" Yuna asks the samurai.

Taking a deep breath and regaining his composure, Muzui revealed a shit-eating grin as he already knew the answer. "I don't need to remind you who we are." Without saying another word, the young man charges forward while drawing his blade. "Cover me!" He shot at Yuna as Muzui slashed at the woman who blocked with her hand.

As the two clashed evenly, Muzui could only grin as even with such grievous injuries inflicted on Vadodara, the woman still held well against the young man with only a single functioning arm. Yuna watched the fight with awe, stuck in place by the splendor of the two's battle, the sound of each clash reminded her of something important.

Throughout their battle with Vadodara, ever since the beginning, Yuna realized how much she had been playing such a passive role that she almost forgot the most important thing when it comes to battle. Yuna had been too caught up with not getting into the way of 4ster and his friends, she nearly missed who she really was.

"Ah...fuck it." Yuna drew her rapier and charged forward like an arrow, she released a barrage of slashes and thrusts, joining Muzui as she finally let loose. "Save some for me, I also have a bone to pick with her."

"Just don't go slowing me down now," said Muzui as the two of them attacked simultaneously.

Their enemy, Vadodara, after taking the full brunt of 4ster's spell, was reduced to a mere berserk-like state as the woman attacked like a wild beast. Not a single ounce of skill nor mastery from her earlier state was shown through their battle as they exchanged blow for blow. However, thanks to their strategic thinking and unbelievable synergy with each other, Yuna and Muzui proved to be able to stand their ground while pushing back the berserk Vadodara.

Yuna went for a thrust causing the woman to try and intercept with her arm however this proved to be a mistake on Vadodara's part as Yuna quickly kicked her elbow disarming her. This then led to an opportunity for Muzui who struck with a downward slash. With a pained wail, Vadodara thrashed about swinging her arm shooting shockwaves that cut boulders across the area.

But even these were not able to slow down the duo who were relentless with their attacks against the woman. Vadodara would also let out a roar hoping to stun the two to no avail as instead of slowing them down, the frequency of their attacks seemed to increase with each blow they made.

Eventually, Vadodara was the only one defending as every counterattack she made was met with an even fiercer counter. Now it wasn't just because of Vadodara's injuries that she's not able to return any attacks but it was also thanks to the lightning-quick chain combos the two were performing as if they were only one person.

There was not a single, and NOT a single beat was being missed by the two. Whenever Muzui attacks, Yuna follows in just the right moment to attack, leaving Vadodara no openings. Even in her berserk state, Vadodara was not entirely stupid, she still used some tactics of her own which were useless against the two with their perfect synergy.

However, halfway through their assault, Muzui made a mistake with his step as the ground he stepped on made him slip slightly, giving Vadodara an opening. The woman swung her arm as magic built up at the tip of her hand, she should be able to decapitate the young man if it weren't for Yuna who stopped the woman's swing by kicking her from behind her leg making Vadodara bend a knee.

"[Twilight Breathing: Horizon's Edge]" Vadodara barely had time to react as bent her body back to avoid Muzui's rapid swing. But due to her awkward positioning, Yuna pierced Vadodara on her shoulder due to her lagging behind.

Managing to break free, Vadodara looked at the two with wary eyes. Throughout their fight, she could tell the two of them were evolving at a frightening rate, but perhaps the most concerning one, however, was none other than Yuna who did not lose a single step. It was like the girl was a phantom, a shadow, or to simply put, she was like a dress worn by Muzui, swaying and fluttering gracefully in the wind.

Yuna's eyes were like an abyss of endless anticipation, each move Vadodara made seemed–is anticipated, her breathing, her habits, and maybe even her thoughts were being read by the girl as they fought. Vadodara was far more than impressed, she was slightly terrified of the girl's potential as they fought longer.

[Transcendence Level: 256 / 500]

[Transcendence Level: 345 / 500]

[Transcendence Level: 489 / 500]

[Transcendence Level: 500 / 500]

[Transcendence Level: 557 /