Solar Ascension-Chapter 146: Outmatched

The deer’s glowing antlers was the first to reach the restrained Ayla cleanly through her before pulling it back, leaving its ability to take effect.

The deer-like Eclipsed’s ability was simple, by imbuding its antlers with enough umbra energy and attacking with it, even the smallest of cuts from it left a mark which acted as a beacon.

With that beacon, if the prey somehow escaped, the Eclipsed could always teleport it back or teleport to wherever it was.

But right now, that seemed unnecessary, after all, the stab cleanly gone through the prey, there was no possible way for it to survive much less, escape...

Right?

As if to ensure that their truly was done, the gorilla slammed both fists towards her figure. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

BOOM!

The attack shook the ground causing a rumble inside the cube, but something was strange.

From killing other Eclipsed and solar knights that ventured in this rift, the gorilla-like Eclipsed was extremely familiar with how a corpse was supposed to feel against its fists.

At the very least, it should’ve felt some type of warm liquid against its fist but it felt none.

The gorilla-like Eclipsed slowly lifted its fists from the crater it had created. There was no blood, or body. Just shadows dispersing like smoke.

Ayla had switched herself for a clone, just before the tier 4 Eclipsed could restrain her, and she had used its own shadows to keep herself hidden without its notice.

The shadow cube barrier around them suddenly started rumbling and it started falling apart, piece by piece.

The two Eclipsed turned around only to come to face with a horror of a sight. Their prey, was now standing close to the tier 4 Eclipsed, and in her hands was a familiar head.

The head of the tier 4 Eclipsed with dark liquid dripping from it. Even its body hadn’t realized that the head was missing just yet because it was still upright.

For the first time since ’that man’ entered this rift, the two Eclipsed felt fear again.

Not compared to that man’s presence, but this was still a primal fear coming from within their souls.

The Eclipsed couldn’t move and it almost felt as if they were in front of a bigger and more dangerous predator.

The deer-like Eclipsed suddenly tried teleporting away, but before it could, its perspective tilted violently as something yanked it upward.

When the cube finally shattered completely, dissolving into loose strands of umbra, the outside forest came back into view.

Ayla stood there, completely unharmed, and expressionless, save for the fact that her eyes were now producing an eerie glow.

One of her hands was buried in the deer-like Eclipsed’s skull, with her fingers gripping tightly around the base of its glowing antlers.

Its head had been completely disconnected from its body that now lay a bit of a distance away.

Astra looked at the spectacle with a raised brow, of course she expected the kid to be strong and come out of the cube unharmed.

But it seemed as if she hadn’t even put in effort against a tier 4 Eclipsed capable of using umbra energy, basically making it tier 5.

Didn’t that mean that the kid was at Ascended rank?

Ayla dropped the head to the floor, letting it roll towards the body, just as she had for the tier 4 Eclipsed before finally towards the gorilla-like Eclipsed.

The creature was now backed into a corner and it felt as if it was before that man again, the one responsible for their evolution into fiends.

But unlike with that man, the Eclipsed bared its fangs against this threat just as any cornered prey would.

Its thoughts were simple, if it could somehow hold this monster off for a short while, then it might be able to escape.

And that’s exactly what it did....or at least tried to.

A heavy pressure fell all around them, targeted specifically at Ayla, hoping to keep her restrained.

But it was all for naught.

The tree around the three cracked and crumbled from the pressure, but both Astra and Ayla, who was specifically being targeted, were completely unharmed.

It wasn’t that the Eclipsed’s attacks hadn’t worked, with was just that the two had some type of barrier around them that prevented the attack from reaching them.

The Eclipsed then let out a roar, seeing that its attack wasn’t working before lunging towards her, aiming to turn her to paste, after all, that had always worked out, hadn’t it?

Well, not this time, before the creature could reach her, Ayla’s entire form suddenly turned into a pool of shadows, causing the gorilla to go straight through before she regained her normal form.

"The old man was right," she placed a hand on her chin referring to the ability she just used, "it is easier to deal with them like this."

Ayla then slowly lifted her head, her grey eyes immediately locking with Astra’s violet ones and she recalled that she wasn’t alone.

"Done," She calmly said, hoping that Astra hadn’t noticed anything....which was highly unlikely.

"Don’t give me that," Astra said with a frown on her face, "what the hell did you just do?"

"Um... An ability from my solar tech," Ayla said, clearly very bad at lying.

"Right...your Solar tech," Astra nodded and Ayla’s eyes lit up a bit before she added, "as if! What the hell are you and that blind bat hiding?"

"..."

Ayla chose to remain silent, since that would probably work out, besides, if she didn’t answer, then Astra would just ask the headmistress and Ayla very much preferred if she did.

Astra let out a sigh, seeing the kid wasn’t saying anything before saying, "fine, I’ll just ask the blind bat directly."

Ayla nodded as they started walking towards the exit of the rift, just behind them, the lupine creature from earlier was pinned to a tree with a shadow spike before it slowly dissolved into the shadows.

***

"I sent it to my pets," Ayla finally answered as she and Astra exited the rift and walked towards her jeep.

"Pets?" Astra asked, a bit unsure of what she meant.

"Hmm," Ayla nodded with no intention of elaborating causing Astra to just sigh, step into the jeep with her and started driving towards Solara Prime.

Astra’s driving, as usual, completely disregarded both road safety laws and the laws of physics.

But even through all the bumps, thumps and Eclipsed crushed, Ayla sat still without a bit of change in her expression which made Astra smile a bit.

Soon enough, the barrier was in sight and the duo entered the outer perimeter where the road took a complete change from an abandoned wasteland to one with grass, flowers and signs of life that wasn’t of the Eclipsed.

Ayla leaned on the car’s window, looking at the butterflies landing on the flowers at the side of the road for a short while before turning her head forward.

The guards at the gate didn’t hesitate this time, the moment they spotted Astra’s jeep approaching, they immediately started rolling it open.

Least, the crazy woman tried driving through it...which wouldn’t be impossible for her, after all, she was a monster.

It seemed their decision was a smart one, after all, the woman didn’t slow down a bit and just zoomed into the city.

"Aren’t we going to ask for ID?" One of the newer guards asked a bit confused that they just let someone through without any type of check.

"If you want to ask Ascended Dawn for her ID," another guard started, pointing towards the direction Astra drive to, "then be my guest."

The new guard’s face paled a bit after she realized who just zoomed by them, of course she knew who Ascended Dawn was, she was the craziest Solar Knight in Aureum.

***

Astra and Ayla, on the other hand, were now in the city’s plaza, going by foot.

Ayla noticed that this was where she first spotted Nox, and at that time, he seemed pretty scared.

But she later understood that it was because of the pressure she released, which, for some reason, had greater effect on him.

Though, he had finally learnt to controll it.

His energy, on the other hand, just felt warm and smelled sweet to her...well, except when he had that mask on, and his energy seemed suppressed.

Ayla didn’t like that mask.

She was so lost in thoughts that she hadn’t even realized that they were in the administration building, not until Astra kicked the door open and called out,

"You have a lot of explaining to do, blind bat," Astra said the moment she walked in, "what the hell is this kid?"