Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 1010: Enemy

The new enemy rode within a sphere, traveling down from atop the huge pillar of water. Then the sphere pulled back, joining into a huge wave of water where this new enemy was now riding. Hidden within the curl of a huge wave, surfing towards the Flaming Chariot. The other eight shot off at full speed in different directions, but the huge wave was breaking right towards the original Flaming Chariot and not the other eight Flying Wings. The man slid backwards, falling into the huge wave he was previously surfing on. Then he appeared on top of the wave, rising up to stand on top of the crest. Atop the wave his stance was as stable as if it was as unmoving as a mountain.

As he approached with such rapid speed, the Flaming Chariot was about to be overtaken. The person on the Chariot tilted backwards to try and ascend as the huge wave was getting shorter over time, taking it closer to the ground. The man on the wave thrust one hand forward and part of the water forming a wall to either side shot out and turned one of the Flying Wings and its occupant into an explosion of blood and debris. Then he waved his other hand and another of the Flying Wings to the left was smashed apart. He closed his fists and the tendril of water that had attacked circled around itself like a cocoon. At the center of each of those water spheres was a small spirit and when he clenched his fists, those spirits were destroyed by a Law force in the air.

He made two more attacks with his arms, sending out jets of water to destroy two more Flying Wings before the other four could ascend high enough to avoid the two huge water walls to either side. Then the man himself caught up to the Flaming Chariot that was trying to climb upwards. The wave under him shot upwards, propelling him to the height of the Chariot where he lifted his arm and chopped it downwards. An armlike swell of water reached up towards the Chariot and the person riding it spun backwards, flipping the Chariot upside down and pushing off of it to propel themselves towards the ground.

Unfortunately, the ground was currently covered in a layer of water. Most of it had all swept out to either side to form the huge walls, but there was still a layer of ankle deep water on the ground. The person used their Qi to solidify the water beneath their feet, letting them run atop the water without being surrounded by it. They took off running at their highest speed as the Chariot they were riding on was smashed into multiple pieces and sent flying in every direction. The man continued to ride atop his wave as it crashed down upon the running person. At the last moment, the running person spun around and released a wave of their own. A dense green cloud spread outwards from him, a gaseous wave in response to the liquid one crashing down atop them.

The cloud should have been dispersed by the wave of water, but it turned out not to be gas at all. The virulent miasma passed through the water, the two of them only interacting when the two law powers clashed. That wasnt enough to stop the water or the poison, each of them only losing some of the law energy that multiplied their strength. The law in the water had a more powerful wielder, but the law in the miasma was of a higher quality so they mostly canceled each other out. The wave of water smashed against the person wearing dark quilted armor and flattened them to the ground. The sounds of bones cracking was drowned out by the splash of water against the earth. The cloud of miasma flew through the man, tainting him with its energy even without the Law of Corruption to magnify its effects.

The spiky haired man was knocked back a step and he coughed up some blood, the tiny trickle falling from the side of his lips. The man frowned and wiped off the blood, then waved his hand towards the crumpled body in front of him. The surrounding water lifted upwards and then smashed down again, shattering the person and the soul within them to pieces. The spiky haired man swept forward upon his wave once again, pulling out a pill and eating it to fight the poison that had infected him. He turned to the right and lifted his arms, thrusting them both forward to cause the huge wall of water to shoot outwards, turning into a dozen jets of water that targeted the two Flying Wings moving in that direction. They dodged a few of the water shots, but the two huge walls were just made up of way too much water and they turned into hundreds of shots, breaking the Flying Wings and bombarding the two riders with constant attacks until they too were torn to shreds and had their souls crushed.

The man turned back around to face the last two of the Flying Wings, but while he was dealing with those to the right, these two had fled far away. The man swept to the side, joining his now much smaller wave with the huge wall on the left. He stepped into the water and a moment later his head popped out upon the top, standing on this bigger wave and pursuing the two people in dark quilted armor. The wall moved with him, slowly getting shorter as it used height to gain speed, chasing the last two. They had all split off into different directions earlier, which now put enough distance between them that the spiky haired man could only chase one of them at a time. The wall was extremely wide, but there was still a limit to the mans control. He chased after one of the Flying Wings and it took him quite some time before he could catch up and destroy them.

As he approached the last one, there was another ripple of a Formation Array and a large obscuring cloud appeared. From the cloud four more Flying Wings took off in different directions, and then a large platform appeared floating in mid-air with five people standing upon it. Their quilted armor started to glow and they all pointed one arm at each other before pointing the other towards the man who was moving quickly towards them atop his tsunami-like ride. A chain of energy shot from each of their hands, connecting them together as well as extending out to strike at the spiky haired man. He stomped his foot and the water down near the ground shot upwards, like a wave crashing against cliffs, it exploded upwards and smashed against the underside of the floating platform, knocking it out of balance and causing the aim of the five chains to go wide.

This group of five were still connected to each other and they pulled on the chains to repair their formation, swinging their other chains back towards the spiky haired man. This time they didnt target him directly, and instead targeted the area around him. The chains struck the water in the shape of a pentagram and energy flowed through the water to connect them. The formation they created destabilized the huge wave, causing part of it to crumble.

The man in control of the wave ignored what they were doing as he was busy punching at the air again, sending out columns of water to destroy the Flying Wings that were on their way to escape. The five that were flying away quickly became four, and then three. He spun in place and used both arms to sweep to his side and caused all the water to his right to rush forward rapidly, turning the three to two. The wave on his right swept around like a flanking force, swallowing up another one of the Flying Wings. Then it pulled back towards him, attacking the five with the energy chains from the back. The five of them pulled their chains back and sent them across to each other, connecting each of them to two others. Overlapping energy layers appeared around them, but it only served to help them live a few seconds longer before they too were destroyed.

It was only a few minutes later that the last Flying Wing and its rider fell victim to a much smaller but still terribly powerful wave. With the threat taken care of, the huge volume of water slowly carried the silver haired man back towards the Spire in the distance.