The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

The air in the room instantly changed from Oscar's use of Guise, as if everything was drawn to him, nothing escaping his presence.

"That power…." The red-haired man's white eyes nearly popped from their sockets. Oscar's current appearance had a drastic effect on his smiling expressions. He shouted to the others, "Go all out! Release your Reis! But keep him alive! I need answers!"

The three others stomped, veins wriggling along their heads, the typical signs of exertion. They must have used their Reis Cores already. Oscar couldn't see their movements in the Prinstyct as they fast approached with their animas and Ein. One formed the Meld and brandished a strange scissor-like weapon with deadly sharp edges. The other approached with their beast animas, a snake and an eagle. Spells of earth, darkness, and light swelled up in his vision, but Oscar simply walked forward with Erden, fear not being in his thoughts.

Erden roared and combined his brambled wings with his antlers, expanding into a large wall of antlers. From his Eirin, the flames and metal coated every inch of the structure, and Erden rushed ahead, their spells becoming like pebbles knocking against pure metal, useless and ineffective. Oscar dodged several of Gail's long-ranged attacks and ran into the thick of the battle, his Guise protecting him from the flux of Ein.

The three immediately converged on him, Eirin laced in their every move and spell. Oscar formed a drill on his right hand and a golden dragon's maw on his left, the shield resonating with the spells to enhance their already Eirin-enhanced capabilities. The three were well-coordinated, the years of their experience together showing in how they filled each other's gaps and struck in tandem like a well-sung chorus.

Such movements would have tripped a man fighting along, but Oscar was not alone, not in the real sense. As Erden used his flames to deter Arinn and Gail from interfering, Oscar used the invisible Reis movements to dodge and attack. He switched with Demon constantly, his vision shifting back and forth from the inner world to the outside every second. He caught the slippery user of darkness, the most irritating due to poison and deception, and impaled his neck, covering himself in his enemy's blood. The dark snake anima dissipated into nothing before it could coil around Oscar's neck.

He turned his attention to the other and used his Basilisk Eyes for a moment to stall him. The grade-two spell had little effect but enough for Oscar to move, swiping his golden dragon maw onto the earth eagle anima's sturdy body, cracking it apart, metal breaking the earth. He switched again to dodge the scissors and shot a rain of golden rods to undo the earth user's defenses.

Switching back, Demon faced the light user, his Meld making his scissors ethereal, attacking in flashes of light. He sped up and deflected the scissor anima, a clean cut destroying his drill. The light user tried to escape, but Demon stomped on his foot and punched out with Shattering Wave, breaking them apart into nothing. He didn't need to do anything else as Erden stomped on the earth user, the antlers along his hoof extending down to puncture the man, and burned him into a charred crisp.

Oscar regained his control and dodged Arinn's flames and Gail's winds. However, he focused on the man who never moved during this battle. He had been observing Oscar the entire time with his unreadable white eyes.

"Oscar! You've gotten so much stronger!" Gail shouted happily. "It would have been disappointing if you died so easily."

Ignoring her, he continued staring at the man, who seemed to mumble a couple of things to himself.

"Are you a remnant of the other Voltens? Or have you learned Reis on your own? That Guise is amazing, and you utilized all the other techniques of Reis to a shocking degree of mastery. But the main part that confuses me is how you never once had a flicker of pain across your face. Do you not feel the Reis knocking on your heart like a needle stabbing into it?" The man asked, not seeming to care about Oscar's strength or his fallen comrades.

"Are you a Volten?" Oscar asked, glancing at the men. "These men had a very shallow understanding, only using the Vis and invisible movements. But you have some knowledge. They were also only Grade Fives and Six."

"I guess introductions are in order. I am Wolem Volten. Nice to meet you, Mr. Oscar Terr." Wolem introduced himself. "Indeed, they were Greater Knight Exalts but still trash who could never reach the heights of Reis. But are you alright with talking? Your Guise must have its limits. How much longer can you keep it up before descending into darkness?"

"Good enough to handle the rest of you. I thought I said to come all together, but you ruined the chance yourself." Oscar raised his hand, releasing a rain of golden rods. Arinn and Gail blocked them with their spells while Wolem simply smiled and withstood the blow. The golden rods failed to get past his thick skin.

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"Indeed. You must be kept alive, both of you. Precious specimens." Wolem laughed, Eirin streaming from his body to cover him. A vague shape of a trident formed on his back, a part of the Guise, the inflammation of his spirit, and he held up two tridents, an anima and an armament, and melded them together. A new trident shone in his hand, the tri-pronged blades extending from the top and the bottom as a dual-headed trident.

"Guise and Meld. Along with a Grade Seven anima. Not bad." Oscar said, glancing at Gail and Arinn.

Gail merged her invisible thin blade anima into the sword protruding from her arm. The winds picked up around her, whipping her sky-blue hair around. The blade became long and thin, reaching down to her feet, invisible to the point only the light refracting off of it gave clues to its existence.

Arinn summoned his salamander anima, spewing hot flames from its back and drooling out magma. He melded it into his salamander beast companion, who hurried over to his side. It grew in size and became a demon of flames, not a semblance of skin shown under the inferno churning around it.

"Three Grade Sevens, three Melds, and one Volten Reis user." Oscar would grin if faced with this challenge, but his thoughts were still stuck on Avril. His one exhale went out with the full force of his Ein, Reis, and Eirin, causing the room to shake. He pointed at Gail, hatred spewing from his gaze, and said in a cold, unsettling voice, "I'll start with you. How dare you poison my wife?"

"How sweet!" Gail was about to say more, but Oscar was tired of hearing her irritating voice.

From a single step, his feet seemed to teleport him across in a burst of speed unlike any he had used before. He snapped his head toward Wolem, who somehow caught him in the middle of it, lightning crackling along his trident. Oscar blocked the trident and found himself being forced back by a combination of Shattering Wave and the trident extending to the other end of the room.

Lightning expanded from the tip and struck Oscar with thunderous booms, encompassing everything on his side and swallowing him in the explosion. Erden wanted to move, but the salamander beast went through his antlers. It no longer had a corporeal form, ignoring all of the obstacles in its way. When it neared Erden, it wriggled and writhed until it exploded, imploding into flames that engulfed Erden. Arinn didn't stop and bombarded him more with fire spells. Lightning and fire took up their sides of the room and died down moments later.

"Is that all? Oscar? Oscar? Are you there?" Gail said like a child wanting to see more. She didn't let up and sent forth great tornadoes and typhoons to Oscar and Erden. Furthermore, her melded blade slashed ahead, an invisible stroke along the room. However, something cut cleanly along the walls of the room while Wolem and Arinn ducked.

"Is it over?" Arinn rose to his feet and dusted off his clothes. Embers collected by his side and reformed his melded salamander beast.

"If so, it'll be disappointing. To come this far from Ashen Grove to die here. However, he shouldn't be dead. I know how he is. Aren't you alive, Oscar?" Gail called out.

"Is that it? Is this everything you all could muster? One meld makes her attacks completely invisible, even the spells of wind when used along her blade. Another extends his trident, but I feel there's more to see. And lastly, the beast becomes a walking explosion." Oscar stepped out of the wreckage, his clothes singed by lightning and cut by winds. Pieces of gold metal flaked off his metal. However, he was not severely injured except for the wound on his left shoulder.

Erden exited from the wreckage on flames, not wounded or burned as the fires flowed along his body. Arinn seemed to be in shock at Erden's state and grimaced.

"Amazing. You counteracted my Shattering Wave with your own." Wolem took up a stance with his trident and thrust, the trident extending out again like rubber.

Oscar dodged and vanished, reappearing by Gail, who blurred over to his back with a spell, stretching her hand out and gripping. Winds locked Oscar in place as she flung him up and down with the waves of her hand, letting her sharp winds tear him apart as he crashed from the floor to the ceiling.

Erden bolted with the rush of flames powering his antler wings. He bulldozed Wolem, who blocked with a powerful Edureisclad and lightning shield, and Erden felt him use Flowing Mountain to redirect the blow. His other wing extended out like claws, reaching out to Arinn.

With Ripple Shroud and Shattering Wave, Oscar blew apart her winds and chased her down. She slashed repeatedly with her melded blade, all of her wind spells becoming invisible. He felt the vortex of a tornado pulling him apart, was halted by a prison of wind, and was surrounded by several powerful streams of wind that could easily puncture through a person.

None of it mattered. Oscar broke through all of them with his golden maw and drill, blocked many with his elemental armament, and used the full force of Eirin to chase her down with overwhelming force. As he neared, she blinked again out of his sight, but he had already switched with Demon and tripped her up. Only the thought of annihilation passed through Oscar and Demon as Demon punched out at her. Fierce winds swayed his arm elsewhere, and Gail smiled with beads of sweat along her forehead. But it was futile.

"We said you were first." Demon unleashed an Eirin Omnireus, using the Reis from her powerful winds, which knocked on his body. The sheer force was immense and encompassed everything around his fist, including Gail, who was a few steps to the side.

Her expression broke for the first time as her smile faded, turning into shock. Her broken body was blown to the other side of the room, crashing into the wall. Nothing but a bloody, barely recognizable figure moved shakingly, unable to tear away from the wall. Oscar switched back and shot a Silver Star at her.

Gail watched the projectile in the air and gave a final wide smile on her torn face. "You are interesting!" The Silver Star shot into her forehead, and she slumped forward, bleeding out onto the rubble trapping her legs.

"One down. Now it's your turn, Wolem Volten." Oscar was not one to waste a moment and met Wolem in battle, wanting to see how a Volten fared against him.

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