Chapter 118: Battle In Underground
The Director held out her hand.
Then blue light began to shine, growing brighter until it hurt to look at directly. Glittering fragments expanded from her palm, taking up massive space in the air. It was swirling, multiplying, and creating patterns that suggested something forming.
The fragments condensed rapidly, compressing into solid form, and then a massive spear materialized. It was easily eight feet long, spiral-shaped, with decorative gold wings and sword symbols running along its length.
The weapon crackled with blue light, and brushstroke-like shadows seemed to trail off it as if reality itself couldn’t quite contain its presence.
The Director grabbed it with ease, the spear settling into her grip like it had always been there.
The Director stared at each Phantasm Beast in turn while her masked face revealed nothing, and then she spoke softly. "Nibel Eater, Stellar Bone, and Butterfly Princess. It’s time to go back to sleep."
The Nibel Eater moved first as its arms slammed into the ground with earth-shaking force.
Frost spread from the impact point like a wave that rushed across the floor in all directions.
Over a dozen ice spikes erupted from below, each six feet tall as they rushed towards the Director.
While above six massive blocks of ice materialized from nothing, each was easily ten feet across, and all of them rushed downward like meteorites.
The Director moved with her body twisted, the spear spinning in her hands. Blue flames ignited along the weapon’s length, trailing off, and then she thrust upward. The spear pierced towards the meteor of ice before the flames exploded outward in a concentrated blast.
The first ice meteor shattered mid-descent, fragments spraying in all directions.
The Director then spun, the spear becoming a blur, and struck the second meteor. The impact detonated the blue flames, and the ice block exploded into powder.
Then the ice spikes reaching up from the ground tried to impale her, leading the Director to leap up and evade them. Once her feet touched down on one spike’s point, she balanced on the inch-wide surface before launching off it.
The third meteor came at her, and she met it mid-air with a horizontal slash that cleaved it cleanly in two, both halves tumbling past her.
Then once the Director landed on the ground, she continued moving. The fourth meteor crashed where she’d been a second before and formed a crater covered in ice.
She slid under the fifth, came up with the spear reversed, and drove it backward without looking. The blue flames detonated, and the meteor behind her shattered.
Then the sixth meteor came falling toward her as she planted the spear’s butt against the ground and leapt up, using the weapon as a pole. Her body flipped over the falling ice, and as she passed above it, blue flames erupted from her foot in a devastating kick.
The meteor exploded mid-air, and ice shards were raining harmlessly.
The Stellar Bone reacted while she was airborne.
Bone spikes burst from the ground in waves and created a forest of bones that pierced towards her. Each bone extended from the previous one, creating branching networks that rushed towards the Director.
Autumn leaf markings covered their surfaces, orange and red against white bone.
The Director landed against the side of one of the bone spikes while another rushed towards her chest from the left. She sidestepped, letting it pass inches from her body, and then another came from the right.
Her spear intercepted it, blue flames igniting on contact, and the bone exploded into fragments.
But then six, eight, ten, and more bones came rushing at her simultaneously, all targeting different parts of her body. She rushed through them like water, her body twisting in ways and evading out of the way.
When dodging wasn’t enough, the spear struck, and each impact was accompanied by explosive blue flames that shattered bone on contact.
A particularly massive bone spike erupted directly beneath her feet. She jumped, landed on its side before then running up its length as it continued extending upward.
At its peak, she leaped again and moved towards the three Phantasm Beasts.
The Butterfly Princess attacked during that moment of vulnerability.
Five figures appeared, four clones and the original, all glowing with golden light. Light swords materialized in their hands, blades of compressed radiance that hummed with power.
They struck simultaneously from five directions, their swings creating overlapping arcs of cutting light.
The Director’s eyes glowed through her mask, a sudden flash of blue that pierced through the material.
All five Butterfly Princess figures froze mid-swing. Their bodies went rigid, then collapsed, falling to the ground as if every connection between muscle and nerve had been severed. The clones dispersed into light particles while the original crashed onto the floor and trembled.
But the effect lasted only a second as the Butterfly Princess recovered, her body glowing brighter. She dashed sideways with impossible speed, moving so fast she left mirror images in the air.
Those images attacked independently, slashing with light swords at the Director, who swiftly began stepping out of the way of the slashes.
Before then, the Butterfly Prince appeared behind the Director at the speed of light with her form shining in pure radiance.
The light sword is already swinging for the masked woman’s neck, but then the Director’s foot lashed backward, blue flames erupting from the kick.
The flames caught the Butterfly Princess mid-strike, detonating with force that threw the glowing figure backward through the air.
The Nibel Eater tried again, its body launching into the air and spinning like a drill. Ice wind spiraled around it, blue aura mixing with white frost. The creature became a spinning mass of ice as it rushed toward the Director in a massive streak of light.
The Director planted her spear and swung around it, her legs extending in a spinning kick. Blue flames ignited along her entire lower body, creating a wheel of explosive fire.
When the Nibel Eater’s drill met that wheel, the collision created a shockwave that cracked walls.
The Nibel Eater was thrown backward, its spiral disrupted, and it crashed into the floor. Then the Director rushed towards the Stellar Bone, who quickly reacted by creating a dome of bone.
Instantly, thick bones burst out from the ground before they began lying on each other and curled up in front.
The Directors didn’t slow down and only thrust forward once. Blue flames moved down to the tip of the spear, swirling in a small blue ball before the spear tip touched the dome.
The flames detonated inward rather than outward, focusing all their force into a single point. The dome exploded from within, bone fragments spraying in all directions.
The Stellar Bone was exposed, and its defensive technique was shattered. The spear rushed out and pierced into the Stellar Bone before it rose up into the air, being pulled by the Director, before she smashed it into the ground.
Then the Butterfly Princess recovered with butterflies and fireflies of orange light appearing around her.
The Director glanced to the side to see a swarm of fireflies that rushed towards her in waves.
The Director spun her spear in a full circle before blue flames erupted in a sphere around her, expanding outward rapidly. Every butterfly and firefly that touched the flames detonated, creating a cascade of explosions that lit the underground.
When the light cleared, the Director was unmarked before she rushed forward. The spear drove toward the Nibel Eater, still recovering from its failed drill attack.
The creature tried to dodge, but the Director’s foot came up, blue flames igniting. The kick caught its midsection, and the explosion threw it into the wall so hard that the wall cracked in spiderweb patterns.
Then the Stellar Bone, which had thick bone plating, grew over its wound and rushed towards her.
The Director’s eyes glowed again through her mask.
The Stellar Bone’s body disconnected mid-charge, with every nerve severed simultaneously and every muscle losing connection.
It crashed to the ground in a heap while the Director appeared near it with the butt of her spear, crashing down on its head.
Blue flames detonated on impact, and the Stellar Bone went limp.
The Butterfly Princess tried her light dash again, as the afterimages tried to slash the Director, who ducked, sidestepped, and stepped back. While the Butterfly Princess appeared at the back of the Director and swung the light sword.
But as the Director thrust her leg backwards, the Butterfly Princess vanished once more and appeared in front of the Director, light sword already swinging.
But then the Director’s hand shot up and caught the light blade. Blue flames erupted from her palm, consuming the weapon, and the Butterfly Princess’s eyes widened in shock.
The Director’s other hand drove forward, palm strike to the creature’s chest. Blue flames detonated point-blank, and the Butterfly Princess was launched backward, crashing through a wall and into the room beyond.
The Nibel Eater struggled upright, ice already forming around its body for another attack. The Director appeared beside it with speed that suggested teleportation of her own.
The spear’s shaft struck its head horizontally, the blow connected with blue flames wrapped around the weapon, and the Nibel Eater’s head snapped to the side.
It collapsed unconscious before hitting the ground.
The Butterfly Princess emerged from the wall, glowing brighter than ever, preparing for another assault. The Director hurled her spear that pierced through the air at a terrifying speed with blue flames trailing behind it.
The weapon struck the Butterfly Princess in the center of her chest, but did not pierce and simply exploded out with flames that sent the Butterfly Princess into unconsciousness.
Silence fell over the underground facility.
The Director walked calmly to where her spear had landed, bending to retrieve it and then nodding in satisfaction.
The Director moved to each unconscious Phantasm Beast in turn, positioning them in a line. Then she sat down cross-legged atop the Stellar Bone’s armored back, using it like a bench.
Her spear rested across her lap, blue flames extinguished but still crackling faintly with energy.
She tilted her masked head, looking to her left again at whatever invisible companion she’d been speaking to before. "There. Captured alive, as requested."