OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 194: Road Block

Emir wore a serene smile on his face, like that of a child, an expression that contrasted sharply with the chaos around him.

He stood his ground, surrounded by monstrous creatures the size of trucks.

Many were even bigger.

His twin swords, caked in dark blood, remained as sharp and unyielding as the relics they were supposed to be.

To his left stood Lyra, her once-white hair stained with blood of all kinds, her gauntlet blades gleaming under the moonlight.

Between them was Emma, her tired eyes barely visible under her dirty blonde hair.

"EMIR! WHAT DO WE DO?! WE'RE SURROUNDED!"

He shrugged his shoulders and stepped in front of them.

"We're not surrounded... We can simply attack in every direction."

[Lyra now!]

"OBSIDIAN SHROUD!"

The battlefield, already dark, turned even darker as shadows emerged from the ground, swallowing them whole and blocking out the moon's light.

Emir and Lyra took no more than a second to reach the Fiends before them, ending their lives as they had countless times before.

Meanwhile, Emma continued casting spells.

Bolts of ice lanced out, piercing through the monsters' heads, dropping them dead.

Jake was some distance away, keeping the monsters distracted with his bullets.

He could no longer kill them as swiftly as before; now, he had to target their weak spots.

And it often took him a minute or two to bring down a single fiend.

This caused the bulk of the work to fall onto the trio on the front lines.

And work they did.

Their attacks never stopped.

Their weight was more than pulled.

Emir dodged a mighty jaw snatch from a massive alligator and then jumped over it, throwing one of his twin swords on its skull.

A moment passed, and he landed on it, pushing the sword deeper into its brain, instantly killing the monster.

Another alligator came from his side, its maw gaping wide, ready to bite.

Without a moment's hesitation, he threw his remaining sword into its open mouth, and it pierced through the beast, emerging from the other side.

ROAR!

Just as he reached down to retrieve his sword from the lifeless alligator beneath him, another one of its kin lunged from behind.

However, he didn't flinch, knowing that Lyra was close by.

She stepped in and sliced the massive beast's head off.

With the path now clear, Emir picked up his sword, thanking Lyra with a nod, and then hurried to retrieve his other one.

On the way, he was met by a massive bull with horns that were multiple times his size.

Similar to the many before it, Emir dodged its attack and jumped atop it, stabbing its eyes in the process.

Its roars of agony mixed in with the chorus of the other charging monsters, but it suddenly quietened as a spear of ice lay logged in its bloodied skull.

Emir glanced back at Emma for a moment, then hopped off its body, landing next to his sword, which was surrounded by more oncoming monsters.

After picking it up, he activated his Temporal Perception ability.

Time slowed down as streaks of fire, ice, and poison projectiles headed towards him.

Emir jumped up, doing a back flip midair as he conjured an Aetheric platform beneath him.

Pushing himself off it, he flew over their attacks and arrived in front of three salamander Fiends, all three looking to contain a different element.

Then both his left and right arms extended, throwing his twin swords away as they cut a hole through the salamanders.

The one remaining launched its tail at him, but he was too fast.

Emir was upon it before it even realized, and his fist now slammed down on its head, crushing

it.

A roar echoed as he dropped down with the monster.

After quickly picking up his swords, he turned around and quickly jumped back, dodging a wild tail swing from another of their kind.

Emir grabbed the dead salamander's tail next to him and took out the jagged teeth that

adorned it.

One by one, he threw them at his adversaries, but not before enchanting them with a bit of his Aether using his Weaver's Veil Aspect.

Like those before them, the monsters fell to the ground with a pleading roar.

But that mattered not to the horde, as they were soon replaced by towering canines, three-

headed dogs, each mouth sporting a different colored flame.

Those beasts died before they could even show their prowess.

As Emir constructed a single square in front of the middle heads, causing them to swallow

their own flame and kill themselves in a small, fiery explosion.

And his face, which remained carefree during the entire time spent in battle, twisted in

thought for a moment.

Before the monster died, he tried to materialize the Aether construct closer to the monster's mouth, but he failed...

'Is it because the Aether inside its body already belongs to it?'

His realization of what happened came fast as he stepped to the back, dodging a spike of earth

that whooshed in front of him.

The same spike lodged itself into a Fiend to his right that was charging at him.

'Thanks for that.'

He mused as he rushed towards the spike-thrower.

The monster before him was a hedgehog of sorts.

Its body was a mishmash of many, but the origin was still identified.

The many spikes protruding out of it spurted out at once, attacking Emir and all the monsters

around it.

Emir didn't need to use his Aetheric Shield as he simply hid behind another monster that did the work of protecting him.

He then grabbed the spikes stuck on his protector's dead body and threw them back towards the hedgehog, which was in the process of regenerating its weapons.

Not needing to confirm the monster's death, Emir turned around and grabbed a few of the

spikes around him.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

His arms never stopped as he threw one after the other.

While doing so, he looked at Emma for a moment, watching as Lyra hovered around her,

killing all that approached them.

Emir noticed a few monsters coming from their blindside, some tens of meters back.

Imbuing the spikes with his Aether, he paused for a moment and then used his Aerialis aspect

to strengthen his muscles.

He then threw them straight at the Fiends.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Skewering them to death.

In the battle, he realized something of great importance that related to his aspects.

He could only use two of them at the same time.

And if he used more than one in succession, he would need to pause for a slight moment,

allowing his Aether core and body to adjust to the change.

Emir didn't notice this before, as he simply used his abilities, not needing to lower his Aether

use to this degree.

Not even against the Tyrants he faced earlier today.

Letting out a sigh, he paused his thoughts and looked up, watching in slowed time as the paw

of a massive canine descended on him.