OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 181: And Showing Up To Their Funeral

Emir maneuvered his bike in the wake of Jake and Emma, their trio pushing deeper into the ruin.

They weaved through obstacles, navigating sharp turns as the landscape around them

transformed further into a panorama of destruction, with shattered buildings and debris strewn in every direction.

And as they arrived at a cluster of partially demolished residential buildings, their movement slowed to a stop, and the team dismounted from their bikes.

Emir parked his own vehicle beside theirs, his senses on high alert as he joined their ranks.

The environment seemed to vibrate with tension, a palpable unease fueled by the lurking presence of monsters.

"Stay alert, everyone; we've reached our marked location." Jake reminded the team, gripping his machine guns tightly, akimbo style.

'I can finally use my abilities-.'

Emir complied with a chuckle.

They moved forward as a cohesive unit, scanning their surroundings for any signs of danger.

The faint sounds of growls, distant roars, and gunshots echoed through the ruins, never letting up.

And suddenly, a group of grotesque, monstrous animals emerged from the rubble, a distance away from them, their glowing eyes fixated on the intruders.

The monsters rushed at them with surprising speed, firing off all sorts of acid, fire, and ice from their mouths, but the team was prepared.

"SHIELD OF FLAMES!"

Emma took the lead, conjuring a shield of pure fire to protect the group from incoming attacks, melting them in the process.

Jake, knowing that the shield wouldn't last long, immediately inscribed runes on the ground, causing her shield to further glow with Aether, protecting them from all attacks, even the monsters' claws and fangs, with ease.

Confirming his work was over, Jake then began firing his pre-inscribed machine guns.

Each shot found its mark, taking down the weaker monsters.

Meanwhile, Emir, with his Aetherstorm launcher safely stowed in his rucksack, rushed forward, jumping over the fiery barrier with a small leap.

And as he reached the other side, his fingers danced along the hilt of his new twin swords. "Aetheric Blades."

His weapons hummed with Aether, ready to be unleashed upon his adversaries.

But before he closed the distance to the fiends ahead, his movements shifted.

Raising his right hand, he deftly adjusted his grip on the sword, his index finger releasing its hold.

With unerring accuracy, he aimed his finger at the approaching fiends.

"Aether Blast, 20 Percent."

In response to his chant, a tempest of Aether erupted, a cyclone of raw power that obliterated everything in its furious path.

Debris scattered, monstrous forms shattered, and the very air quivered with the release of such an overwhelming attack.

Emir's actions left no quarter for stragglers, propelling himself forward to stand amid the wreckage he had wrought.

And despite the towering height of the surviving Fiends, his gaze remained steady.

If not relaxed, in front of their massive forms, which cast eerie shadows against the crumbling structures.

Then, with a calculated jump, he ascended to their level.

A horizontal arc of his daggers was all it took-a swift swing-and the colossal feline before him crumbled to the ground, its earth-shaking collapse reverberating through the ruin.

Emir then conjured a platform-shaped Aetheric construct and used it to jump towards the remaining monsters.

While doing so, he looked back for a moment and watched as fire danced and icy winds swirled, engulfing the S-rank monsters in a cyclone of destruction.

The creatures seemed to be no match against the combined onslaught of Emma and Jake.

Smiling at that sight, he returned his attention to the monsters before him.

There were three Fiends, unlike any that he had met before, as the previous ones he had slain looked to be a random assortment of mismatched animals.

But these...

These were just...

'Massive fucking trees!'

'...Holy shit, I forgot that they experimented on plants too...'

'They didn't leave any stone unturned, eh?'

Their bodies were a seamless fusion of rugged stone and gnarled wood.

At their core were massive tree trunks, their bark resembling the texture of ancient, weathered stone.

The trunk stretched upwards, branches spreading out like a colossal canopy above. These branches looked like no ordinary limbs; they writhed and flexed, each thick bough pulsating with life.

Emerald-green eyes glowed within the depths of their massive wooden visage.

And as they moved towards him, these virearths left a trail of living growth in their wake.

The ground rumbled and heaved as thick, sinewy roots burst forth towards Emir, stretching like a forest of fingers, ready to ensnare him.

'Slow.'

But they were no match for him and his speed, as he whizzed past the hundreds of roots that spurted out of his surroundings.

"Plate."

With another platform under him, he jumped up, avoiding the massive nails of wood that flew

in his direction, each nail almost matching him in size.

"Plate."

Turning upside down, he pushed himself off the third platform, flying directly towards the

first Virearth's core.

He twisted his body while in the air, using the momentum of his movements into a downward swing of his swords that plunged into the monster's bark, splitting it into two halves.

As it let out a groan of defeat, he jumped off its remains and attached himself to a building, lining up the two monsters in front of him.

"Aetheric Shield." He chanted as he shifted his stance, preparing for his next move.

"Flash Step."

Leaving those words behind, he disappeared from where he just was, and two holes sized approximately close to his body appeared in both of the monsters' cores.

Emir quickly changed his once spear-like posture, with both of his daggers in front of his

head, and turned his body around as his feet crashed into the building's walls.

Both monsters collapsed to the ground, causing the building he was on to shake as if experiencing a heavy earthquake.

Chuckling, he jumped off the collapsing building and leaped from one to the next until he

reached his companions.

They had yet to clean up the S-rank monsters that surrounded them, but Emir didn't step in to help; he wanted to see what his captain and vice-captain to be were capable of.

And that they showed, Jake kept supporting Emma with his runes, as he was a long way from being effective in combat as an Arcanist, while Emma continued to spew out every spell from

her arsenal.

Causing a storm of fire, and ice to form, each of her spells flowing into the next.

While Jake continued to supply her with more Aether as he kept drawing down runes and firing

with his twin machine guns.

'Not bad...'

Emir thought as he finally jumped down, right behind Emma's barrier.

They both looked at him in surprise for a moment before focusing back on the fight.

"Emir! Did you kill the fiends?!" Jake bellowed while shooting down more monsters that

rushed them.

"Yeah. You don't need to worry about them, but since it's taking you so long to clean up here,

I've got to ask... Do you guys want my help with this?"

"ICE BOLT!" Emma roared as ice spewed out of her hands, cutting down the monsters.

"We are not dumb, Emir! We know that you want to split up, and we can take care of this with no problem; you already cleared out the Fiends so you can go; we'll be safe!"

Emir simply showed a smile and ran towards where he threw Aria away while bellowing over

the gunfire:

"Alright! Good luck and don't die; I don't want to lose any of my subordinates, understood?"

"Yes sir!" They collectively bellowed.

He nodded without looking back, running directly towards the monster's nest.