The Power That Ended Haishan II

Beidou had to keep moving.

She mustered even more strength and shot like a bullet towards the abyss mage, determined to kill it with her strongest attack. The hunter's beam scraped millimeters above her head as she ducked mid-run.

She once more exploded with speed towards the shielded enemy.

But it was ready for her. In the short meantime from when Beidou was sent flying away to when she launched at him, the mage had already weaved another spell.

Three enormous water bubbles took shape in front of them, and each flew on a different, chaotic trajectory towards the duo.

Beidou decided to sacrifice all defense by sending the dragons after two of the bubbles, while she swung at the remaining one with all her strength.

*BLAST!*

Water poured down again, but Beidou had not been slowed in the slightest. She quickly closed the distance to the mage while gathering electricity in her sword, then brought it down at once on its shield.

*CACKLE!*

*Crack!*

*Hiss*

The other mage was down, but the deadly beam swiped at them again.

The scary part was that from the moment it came into being, not even three seconds had passed.

Beidou strained her legs to once again jump away from it. If it hit them, she wouldn't be able to save Sai.

But it was much too fast. Noticing the inevitable hit, she gathered energy in her sword again and used it to deflect the blow.

They were sent flying once again, but this time Beidou had been ready. She transformed her momentum into angular momentum by spinning once, then transformed it back by stomping on the ground. She immediately dashed towards another direction, not decreasing or increasing the distance to the Ruin Hunter.

That gave her a little break away from the beam, and she used it to properly plan her next actions. She didn't know much about the ancient machine, after all.

As the beam swiped again, Beidou jumped over and away from it, still keeping her distance from the hunter.

At this point, the beam stopped. The immediate threat was over, even if not for long.

Sai finally managed to recover from all the jumping around, and tried being of help.

"The weak point of the Ruin Hunter is that yellow circle/eye of his!"

Beidou barely processed it when the machine attacked again. It turned its four arms into long blades, and flew at the duo.

Its enormous body seemed to be of little obstruction to its speed, as the pair was already on the reach of its blades.

Beidou created distance again, barely escaping the slashes. She jumped, ducked and dodged the blades with calculated moves. They kept at that stalemate for a while, with the blades having no way to hit the nimble woman.

But in the next moment, the stalemate was broken again, with the Ruin Hunter shooting bursts of bullets where it predicted that Beidou's position would be.

She was forced to choose one of the threats, and since a bullet could hit Sai by mistake, she chose the sharp blades.

Beidou dove into the machine's reach again, deflecting a slash, dodging two others and blocking the last. At this position, the machine couldn't see them well, much less shoot at them. It was also really close to the ground, as it needed to be in order to use its blades effectively.

And that was the opportunity Beidou was waiting for. She used her greatsword as leverage, lifting one of the hunter's blades and using it to block two others. She dashed forward and beneath the three blades. Instead of facing the thing's head as she expected, Beidou saw the last blade. It was spinning quickly like a drill, ready to butcher the pair.

Feeling her own heart beating wildly in her chest, Beidou made a big downwards swing with her greatsword, hitting the ground with indescribable force. She used it as both a leverage and a spring, pushing the sword down as hard as she could and jumping up. By some kind of miracle, the move launched the duo up in the air, narrowly dodging the spinning blade.

Using the remaining momentum of the leverage, Beidou completed the 360 front flip and launched her greatsword at the hunter.

It hit exactly in its eye, cracks forming on its defensive links. Unfortunately, the sword bounced off from the force, because it didn't strike with its tip but with its hilt instead.

Nonetheless, Beidou didn't flinch. She fell towards the machine with Sai still on her left shoulder.

Time seemed to be passing slowly for Sai, and he even felt weightless for a moment. Luckily for him, he didn't know what was happening in the fight, otherwise he might have gone completely crazy.

Beidou didn't hesitate. The instant she judged to have her target within reach, she swung her lightning-covered right fist. It struck with such force that it pierced any other defensive measures of the machine, and finally destroyed the yellow sphere that served as its core.

*BOOOOOOM!*

…

The fight was over. From beginning to end, it didn't last a single minute, but the duo faced death too many times to count.

Sai stood up with difficulty, his head still spinning a little.

"Holy… Did she really do all this?"

All around him were littered bodies, or at least what was left of them, and pieces of machinery. Smoke came out from everywhere he looked. It was a real battlefield, and it made him even more nauseous.

"Sh*t…"

Looking behind, he saw Beidou laid on the ground, breathing raggedly. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be wounded.

"Are you okay?" Sai approached her again.

"Yeah. I'm just- taking a little rest- heh." She smiled, but it was shaky and unstable.

"C'mon, I'll help you get up."

"Sure-"

Now, it was Sai's turn to carry her. He placed her arm over his shoulders and walked towards the glowing tree.

Beidou glanced at the body of one of the mages. Sai commented:

"That was insane, Beidou. You easily beat a whole army on your own while protecting me with one arm!"

"No."

"Hm?"

"Don't misunderstand. That guy right there was a high-level abyss mage, and that machine was at least on danger level B. I almost kicked the buckets a couple times…"

Sai shuddered again. He didn't perceive any semblance of her usual playfulness from her words. That had seriously been really hard to accomplish, even for her.

"Danger level B?" The term was new to him.

"Yeah. It would take like five teams of adventurers to beat it."

"Damn. How many adventurers are in a team, exactly?"

"4 or 5."

'It would take at least 20 adventurers to defeat a Ruin Hunter, then.' Sai didn't know if the adventurers were comparatively weak or if the hunter was comparatively strong.

In reality, Beidou had been a little optimistic with her estimation. No normal team of adventures could hope to destroy that monstrosity, or even damage it.

They slowly approached the north staircase.

"So… you can easily beat more than 20 adventurers in a fight?"

"Hahahah… who knows?"