Osuke, Nadeshiko, Akira, Nozomi, Kaori and Kazuya had arrived at the wall since the start of battle watching-waiting. And as soon as the guardian appeared, all their senses screamed of danger. They knew that this was no ordinary guardian, with one look at each other they decided to act together as a group and face it. Osuke and Nadeshiko activated shadow travel skill; simultaneously arriving at each side of guardian. Osuke attacked from above and Nadeshiko tried to cut the Guardian bottom-up.
~Clang~
Their daggers collided with the golden shield that suddenly manifested around the guardian exactly where they striked. Seemingly, unaffected by their sudden attack, it swung its spear in a diagonal fashion from Osuke to Nadeshiko. They had anticipated that their attack would fail but this was a tad bit too much. Such awareness and fine usage of skills was somewhat special. They both quickly used elemental energy to become incorporeal, vanish and appear near Akira, Nozomi, Kaori and Kazuya who had arrived at battlefield facing the guardian.
Seeing the higher ups taking action, a renewed sense of confidence and relief washed over the battlefield including commanders. They quickly backed away so as not to hinder or burden the group when facing guardian.
'It's a tough one'
They all had to agree to that. On cue the beast attacked at unfathomable speed. Only to be deflected by the ice sword formed by Kaori.
'Haa haaa ahhaha ha ha... this is going to be fun'
Kazuya shouted loudly and attacked the guardian from left flank with a fiery fist. Length of the ethereal spear blocked and redirected it. With a swift motion beast swung it's spear in a vertical arc.
'He he he...heee what a monster. That's some good spear play you have. I, Kazuya acknowledge you are strong.'
Every body else face palmed at his antics.
Akira and Nozomi were silently observing the whole situation trying to figure out it's attack patterns.
'Kaori, attack it with your weapon mastery. Engage it in close combat. Make it busy.'
To which she said don't command me you big brain sicko, all the while running towards guardian with spears, swords, lances, axes and hammers manifesting around her.
'Well she at least followed your command, Akira.'
Nozomi knew Akira and Kaori had history, so the rebuke was to be expected.
While Kaori and Kazuya were keeping the beast busy in close combat. Nadeshiko materialised near Akira.
'Dear, came up with a plan yet ?'
'Yeah, I do have a plan but I feel that this guardian is more than what it looks like.'
'Alright, but hurry we can't possibly hold it for a long time. It's not letting us chop at it's health.'
'For now, you and Osuke brat are going to take some chances and strike in between while those two tank the attacks. Let's see what more does it has more to show.'
With that Nadeshiko melted into shadow and drifted to attack the beast.
'What do you think, Nozomi ? Should we go all in or wait ?'
'I suggest we wait, I have the same feeling as you.'
Slowly, as the Guardian started getting overwhelmed by four attackers and it's heath slowly started to chip away. Frustrated, it activated the ultimate skill of it's spear.
With a wild boom every body was pushed away and a mist started to surround the guardian. They rushed to stop the usage of the skill but the guardian was no longer there. Even Osuke and Nadeshiko were not able to spot it. This surprised them.
'The Guardians never run away, stay on your toes', Akira shouted in urgency. True to his analysis, four similar looking Guardian formed from the mist holding the same spear.
'Oi oi oi where did these three new guardians come from ? You got to be shitting me right now.'
Osuke suddenly said, 'no everybody look closely, they all have similar wounds. It must be some sort of copy skill or illusion'.
'Osuke and Kazuya you take the left two, Nadeshiko and Kaori take the right.'
'Ok, boss.'
'Yes, dear.'
'Hmph.'
Everybody rushed to their roles.
'Nozomi, get ready it's time for us to join. We have to end them. You go to Nadeshiko and Kaori, use your skills to provide time for them to be able to get a sure shot with their damage dealing skills. I'll go to other two. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to Osuke. But I can't let you go to them, you would not be objective enough.'
Saying so Akira vanished. Nozomi looked towards Osuke once, before rushing to the fight. They instructed others on the plan as soon as they reached.
Akira being the illusionist cast: Illusion domain to trap one of them, while Osuke kept the other busy. Kazuya started preparing his special skill: Crimson Abyss.
Trapped in illusion the guardian beast copy was fighting illusionary Kazuya, swinging its spear with refined motion in air.
'How much longer, Kazuya? Osuke can't hold much longer.'
'Almost done.'
'It's ready send him to me.'
With skill ready to unleash he was rushed at by the guardian unaware of the danger till the last moment. When the illusion overlapped with reality, Kazuya unleashed a blasting abyss of 10,000 Celsius. Burning the layers of the physical manifestation, spitritual energy and matter, it was wiped out existence by the attack.
This exhausted Kazuya completely and his reserves that could be used finished. Finally, fatigue set in.
'Good job. You take rest now, let me handle the rest.'
Saying that and giving Kazuya a pat on the back. Akira went to support Osuke.
'Old man you are late.'
'Oi brat it looks like you don't want my help, handle it yourself then.'
'Stop joking old man, I am almost out of it.'
With that Akira let out a sigh and decided to engage it in close combat using the swordsmanship skill he developed:- Mirage Walking. This particular way of fighting depended on his mastery and understanding of how his illusions could transport the enemy one second to a dead deep quicksand desert and other to a lush green forest. While this had low energy cost, it did not have a decisive way of cutting through guardian's defences. It was more of skill designed for torture & fight sentinel enemies and not the beings made out of spiritual energy itself. Thus, Akira was just fighting to buy time for Osuke to recover and prepare high damage dealing piercing attack.
Meanwhile,
Nozomi had arrived. She instructed Nadeshiko and Kaori about the plan. But Nozomi did not have any skill to seperate the two guardian beasts. So, they had to rely on her mastery over different elements. She decided to stall and deal with the one Nadeshiko was fighting. She knew that Kaori had tremendous stamina and she wasn't using a lot of it to engage the beast. While Nadeshiko's skills required more out of her.
Thereafter, Nozomi whistled between using earth manifestation to form an armor around her. Then used compressed fire to form a spear, compressed air as propulsion behind her boots and on propulsion points at the back of the armor. With that she arrived between Nadeshiko-the guardian beast in split second, swinging her spear with full force powered by wind, momentum of movement and explosive fire.
Seeing that, Nadeshiko backed out and started to prepare to release her Shadow Realm.
Nozomi battled the beast with ferocity, her spear play was not as good as guardian but she made up for it using her mastery over elements especially water element, she used for recovery. Swung from above the guardian's spear hit fire spear which only partly blocked the force, as Nozomi was struck in a slash manner from her left shoulder to centre of chest. She quickly exploded her spear while forming earth wall in front of her. As a result she and guardian both were reeled backwards. Nozomi healed her injuries once more but this time she also used the combination of water and earth magic to quickly grow explosive seeds of carnivore plants. She threw them at Guardian as bombs which exploded with corrosive gas on being sliced by it's spear.
Suddenly, the crimson black around guardian was ushered into utter darkness and that was it for the guardian. Nadeshiko had finally manifested her Shadow Realm and sliced the guardian out of existence.
Seeing this, Nozomi quickly rushed to the other guardian where Kaori was fighting only to see her in Ice Empress form utterly exhausted and the guardian fading.
Kaori had defeated the last of the the copies that came from the guardian's spear.
Nozomi let out a sigh and said, 'you took way too much risk doing that but good job'. Kaori smiled shyly, then utterly collapsed into Nozomi's arms.
At other end, as soon as the last copy died the Guardian screamed in a shrill voice and its spear lost the ethereal glow. Osuke knew this was the moment, the time of vulnerability for the Guardian. Akira backed away and Osuke employed his deadliest skill called :Dark will Manifestation.
He transformed into a dark gooey mass and attacked the guardian shifting between his human form and a slime like creature. Multiple strong attacks continues to attack the beast as its existence was wiped out. The matter and energy dissolved under the corrosive Nature of dark matter. Such was the nature of Osuke's attack. Killing the Guardian, he let out a horrifying scream and passed out.
'This skill of his is amazing but is a double edged sword. He still cannot maintain his consciousness after it is deactivated. And now, he is passed out on battle field. Way to go brat increasing my work.'
Shaking his head in resignation, he picked Osuke over his shoulder like some dirty rag and started walking towards the estate of Autumn to see his grandchild.
...
The battle was over but it's after effects could be seen scattered in the cries of nature, people, loved ones and soldiers. Those that were consumed had suffered through a bad fate. Those that remained had to suffer through gruesome fatigue. But everybody had one common gleam in their eyes. They had overcome a hard wave, they had WON.
...
Nozomi, Nadeshiko, Akira with Osuke over his shoulder reached the Estate. Beniko and Aki came rushing over to greet them. But when they saw Osuke, their face paled giving way to anger, sorrow, worry and grief. The aura around the estate suddenly flared up giving it a bright crimson hue, just then Naoto appeared behind both Beniko and Aki. He patted on their heads and said, 'Don't worry he is fine. He's just passed due to that skill of his.'
Hearing this Beniko relaxed, walked over to her father and kicked him in the shin.
'Don't carry him like a piece of rag.'
She took Osuke into her arms and carried him to their room. Akira wiped his imaginary tears while saying, 'look dear, our daughter doesn't love us anymore. I am so sad'. Seeing his antics everybody laughed and Aki said,'welcome home, all of you' with a cheerful smile. To which everybody awed and responded with hugs crushing him.
Internally, Aki vowed that he would convince his mom and dad in any way possible to start his training. Also to give him access to archives. He wished to grow strong. He knew his own and his loved ones' survival might depend on it someday.
"This world was not a safe place for development, rather it was far from it. And only now he had realised, it would do him good to treat it such."