SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 402: The Fall of the Thal’zar [XVI]

Aubrelle did not see the rain.

Not directly at least.

The battlefield reached her from above, filtered through Pipin’s eyes as he circled high overhead. From that height, the open ground looked raw and unstable, lines of movement constantly shifting as rifts spat out new threats and fighters were forced to adapt or be overrun. She tracked it all without hesitation, her focus split cleanly between the sky he commanded and the ground her body crossed step by step.

Beneath her, the stag moved as one with her intent.

Its yellow hide was streaked with mud and blood, muscles coiling and releasing in powerful bursts as it charged and braced, antlers lowering to intercept anything that tried to close in. When Void Creatures pressed too close, it met them head-on, the impact forcing space open where none should have existed. Aubrelle stayed upright through it all, posture steady, hands firm on the reins, trusting the rhythm she had learned long ago.

Arthur never left her side.

He and the Morgain swordsmen formed a moving barrier around her, shields angled, blades cutting down anything that slipped past the stag’s reach. They spoke only when needed, short warnings, quick calls, nothing wasted. Steel flashed close enough that Aubrelle could feel the air shift, hear the weight of bodies hitting wet ground.

Above them, Pipin burned.

The blue phoenix cut through the storm without slowing, wings beating against the rain until the water never quite reached him. Every drop that came too close evaporated into mist, hissing away before it could touch his feathers. From his position, he released controlled waves of fire, not wild arcs but deliberate sweeps that carved through clusters of Void Creatures trying to mass or climb over one another.

Those that tried to reach him never made it.

They leapt, crawled, clawed upward along broken terrain and fallen bodies, only to be caught mid-motion and reduced to ash before they could gain height. Pipin adjusted constantly, responding to Aubrelle’s intent as much as to what he saw, fire falling where the pressure was about to spike rather than where it already had.

Through him, she felt the flow of the fight.

Where Trafalgar was advancing. Where Garrika had torn a gap open. Where a flank was about to buckle if it wasn’t reinforced. Aubrelle guided the stag accordingly, never charging blindly, never slowing unless the space ahead demanded it. Arthur reacted instantly to every shift, Morgain blades moving with practiced coordination to keep her path clear.

Even as the rain soaked her clothes and the ground threatened to pull the stag’s hooves out from under it, Aubrelle kept pace with the advance, Pipin’s fire clearing the way from above while steel and muscle held the ground below.

The Void pressed in from every direction.

The pressure thickened all at once.

A dense mass of Void Creatures surged forward, their movement tighter, more than the scattered waves before.

They advanced together, filling the open ground ahead and threatening to collapse the line if they were allowed to settle.

Trafalgar did not give them that time.

[Severance Step] pulled him forward in a curved blur, his body slipping through space and reappearing behind the first cluster. Maledicta carved downward, splitting a core before the creature even reacted. He was already moving again, reappearing once more, then again, cutting through the group from inside and tearing apart any attempt at coordination.

From his left hand, steel flickered into existence.

[Widow’s Whisper] formed and flew in one smooth motion, burying itself into a throat before dissolving. Another appeared immediately after, then another, each throw precise, each strike placed to cripple movement or silence an opening mouth before it could close the distance.

Trafalgar landed hard in the mud, rain splashing up around his boots.

Maledicta never stopped moving.

A Void Creature lunged from his blind side, too close for a wide swing. Nightpiercer appeared in his left hand as if it had always been there. He twisted his torso and drove the blade through the creature’s back, punching straight through and ripping free in the same motion. The body collapsed behind him, already forgotten as Nightpiercer vanished and Maledicta finished the next target.

Mana surged through him without resistance. Oathbinder eased the drain. Primordial Body kept his core full, heat and pressure rolling through his limbs as he pushed forward without slowing.

The remaining creatures tried to regroup.

Trafalgar stopped.

He set his stance.

[Morgain’s Final Crescent] gathered everything at once. Mana compressed along Maledicta’s edge, forming a dense inverted arc that cut through rain and air alike. The strike released in a single sweeping motion, tearing through the group in front of him and ripping bodies apart before regeneration could take hold.

When the arc faded, the ground ahead was empty.

The advance did not pause, but the effect rippled outward. Allies pressed harder. The line stabilized. The space he had cleared held.

Trafalgar felt the accumulation settle into him, subtle but constant, power layering deeper with every kill.

Rain kept falling, but the pressure ahead finally eased.

Through the haze of steam and drifting ash, Trafalgar spotted movement that didn’t belong to the Void. A familiar silhouette cut through the chaos, broad-shouldered and unmistakable even at a distance. Karon was advancing back toward the line, his brother close at his side, both of them battered but standing.

Behind them, blue light flared.

Watermages poured in with the reinforcements, spells already forming as they moved. Sheets of pressurized water slammed into advancing Void Creatures, freezing limbs in place, crushing bodies against the ground, dousing fires before they could spread. The rhythm of the battlefield shifted again, this time in their favor.

Trafalgar exhaled slowly.

He lowered Maledicta just a fraction.

"Good," he said under his breath. "I was about to give the order to go looking for him so we could regroup. Looks like that won’t be necessary."

The line held.

And for the first time since the rifts opened, the ground felt survivable again.