Aerial Combat

"High Above the Sky: Weak souls bound by gravity can only reclaim their freedom from the sky. Whenever you touch any point of leverage originating from the ground, your sorcery power will stagnate and become unusable for 3 seconds; when you are not touching any point of leverage, all your sorcery spirit effects will gain an additional 100% effectiveness for 3 seconds." "Affix Identification Reward: A small amount of space faction experience, a small amount of sorcery power." "Limited Affix Privilege: In the next dream bubble, you will trigger the positive effect of High Above the Sky." Within the first five minutes of entering this dream bubble, Yaxiu's group of four had directly figured out this affix, since all their sorcery spirits had drooped as if suffocating the moment they arrived. Yet once the battle officially began, they discovered the situation was completely different from what they had imagined! Swish! Yaxiu activated the miracle 'Heart Pen'. The Heart Sword moved like dancing dragons and snakes, laying down a crisscrossing lattice of ink marks in the air. Yet the Lance Sanctuary flapped its gold and silver dual wings, pulling up sharply to vault over the defensive net of ink marks. Even though Yaxiu immediately dodged and tried to intercept, the Lance Sanctuary executed an exquisite backward aerial loop. The tip of its spear drew a crescent arc, striking Yaxiu's Sanctuary like a comet! Thud! With each sorcery spirit's effect enhanced by 100%, the power of a miracle was amplified at least threefold! The sorcery power Yaxiu used to maintain his Sanctuary drained at terrifying speed, plummeting past the perilous 30% threshold! In contrast, the Lance Sanctuary had barely taken any damage from Yaxiu—be it from Heart Sword, Heart Pen, or Rage Sword. Relying on its aerial mobility, it dodged every single one of Yaxiu's attacks; even in melee, Yaxiu couldn't so much as touch its Sanctuary! Yaxiu urgently needed backup, but the others were faring no better: Sword Princess was pitted against the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon. The beast had a Sanctuary-like fuzz over its skin; the faster it moved, the harder this fuzz became, and its various resistances skyrocketed. Unless she struck a vulnerable spot, Sword Princess's burst damage amounted to giving it a back massage. The Witch was tangled with the Swordsmanship Sanctuary. Her Water-Born Lines were cut apart instantly, and she was barely holding on. Weise was the only one who hadn't taken a beating, but if her focus wavered for even an instant, she would immediately suffer an ambush from the Void Realm creatures. In truth, based on the enemy lineup, Sword Princess should have fought the Swordsmanship Sanctuary, the Witch should have restricted the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon, and Yaxiu and Weise should have tied down the Lance Sanctuary until Sword Princess and the Witch defeated their targets and came to assist. However, because the 'High Above the Sky' affix restricted the battlefield to the air, none of their tactics could be executed—or rather, they tried to implement them, but the Void Realm creatures dismantled their formation on pure mobility alone. Yaxiu and the others were simply terrible at aerial combat. Accelerated turns, loops, aileron rolls, barrel rolls, zoom climbs, split-S turns, cobra maneuvers... To Yaxiu and his companions, who only knew how to fly straight ahead and weren't even accustomed to an inverted perspective, the flight maneuvers of the Void Realm creatures were dizzying just to watch. If nothing else, everyone had a pair of wings, yet the Void Realm Sanctuaries flew noticeably faster than them—they had truly mastered fluid dynamics. After figuring out the first affix, Yaxiu and the others had felt fairly confident. Wasn't it just aerial combat? Just turning a two-dimensional battlefield into three dimensions? How hard could it be? Very hard, as it turned out. Even Sword Princess, who had prepped beforehand, found the difficulty vastly higher than she had imagined. To put it into perspective, she had assumed this affix merely made 'enemies skilled in aerial combat stronger.' Instead, 'anyone who couldn't master aerial combat became useless,' rendered obsolete by the temporary patch! Yaxiu felt as if they weren't fighting same-tier opponents at all, but like easy bots thrown into ranked matches against Diamond-tier players. There wasn't much disparity between the two sides in other aspects; if this had been a ground battle, Yaxiu's team certainly could have won. But their shortcoming in aerial combat was getting them utterly wrecked. They wanted to match matchups by counter-arts, but they weren't the ones choosing lanes—the Void Realm creatures were, and their own mobility gave them no room to swap lanes. The only exception was Weise. Her aerial combat skills were decent; the Void Realm creatures had initially tried to eliminate the seemingly weakest Weise first, but when they couldn't take her down quickly, they switched targets. Yet Weise was not adept at combat in the first place, and could at most lend a hand to rescue her teammates. "We can't go on like this!" Yaxiu flew at top speed to shake off the Lance Sanctuary. "Our sorcery power will run dry sooner or later! Can any of you finish your opponents?!" "Ugh..." Diya dodged the Swordsmanship Sanctuary's pursuit with deep frustration, her threads barely able to hinder the enemy. "Give me a little more time! As long as I trigger the aging effect a few more times, he's dead!" Diya had equipped the 'Gold Relic: Flowing Gold River Water'. Its effect was: 'Your attacks continuously inject Flowing Gold River Water into the target. For the duration, the target's sorcery power consumption is doubled, with a 5% chance to trigger the Aging effect, inflicting a 20% loss of their current sorcery power and slowing their reaction time by 20%.' This relic required a sustained effect. Since Yaxiu and Sonia relied mostly on burst damage, it naturally didn't suit them. Diya's threads possessed crowd control and entanglement effects, making the relic a perfect fit for her. And indeed, in the previous dream bubbles, as long as Diya attached her threads to an enemy, they quickly triggered the Aging effect and lost their combat capability. Thanks to the immense boost of this gold relic, Diya had indisputably become the main damage dealer of this Void Realm exploration. But in aerial combat, she had no say in choosing her matchup. Forced to fight the Swordsmanship Sanctuary that countered her, her threads couldn't stay attached for long; up to now, she had only triggered Aging once and remained thoroughly suppressed. Dammit! When she got this relic, the Witch sisters had been thrilled, thinking they could look cool for once tonight. She had eagerly anticipated a tough fight against a powerful foe where everyone struggled, only for her to coolly dispatch her enemy, return to rescue Yaxiu from mortal peril, after which Yaxiu would naturally be captivated by her coolness and unable to resist hugging her, while Sword Princess remained pinned down by Void Realm creatures, helpless to intervene and forced to watch the Witch's absolute victory... Though it truly was a grueling fight right now, she couldn't break the deadlock at all! And on top of that, her opponent just happened to be the Swordsmanship Sanctuary that countered her. Diya was beginning to wonder if the Void Realm was hinting at something. "I can't either," Sonia said as she dodged a pounce from the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon. The bloody waves of 'Blood Moon Shattered Lake' swept across its belly, producing a harsh metallic clatter without even breaking the skin. Sonia's relic tonight was the 'Silver Relic: Moon Shadow Governs Life', with the effect: 'Each attack grants 1 stack of Sanctuary Damage Reduction Blessing, lasting 30 seconds, up to a maximum of 10 stacks.' In other words, for the same cost of sorcery power, Sonia's Sanctuary could mitigate far more damage, which was why she could go toe-to-toe with the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon in the first place. The best time to strike the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon was when it halted, but the beast darted far away after each pass, circled high above, and then dove back down, far outstripping Sonia in speed. Most infuriatingly, after Sonia had used Meteor Tribulation to heavily damage its wing the first time, it began firing steel feathers before every dive to bait out Meteor Tribulation. It wasn't that the country girl's Meteor Tribulation couldn't parry and counter ranged attacks—the technique worked by tracing the trajectory back to the source. The problem was that the Chariot Dragon itself was in high-speed motion, meaning by the time Sonia struck back, it was no longer in the same spot. Without Meteor Tribulation landing, the Chariot Dragon's Sanctuary-like fuzz could withstand all of Sonia's slashes. At high speeds, Sonia couldn't even shave off its hair; her sword light ripples landed on it like someone petting a dog. "Focus fire to break the deadlock," Yaxiu said. "Two people focus on one target, while the other person and Weise find a way to tie down the other two—" "I have an uncertain idea," Weise said suddenly. "I need you to fly close to the ground and give me time to test a few possibilities. Of course, I don't mind tying them down either. I'll follow the leader's orders." "Then test the possibilities," Yaxiu decided immediately. Honestly, even if two people focused fire, taking down a target quickly would still be difficult—Void Realm creatures weren't Lalafell; did anyone think they wouldn't fly away when hit? On the ground, you could surround and box them in, but in the air, three-dimensional mobility allowed them to slip away at will. "But the focus-fire plan must proceed at the same time; we can't drag this out any longer. Sword Princess, you and the Witch—" "Leader, is your sorcery power reserve still enough?" Weise asked. "You'll have to tie down two enemies." "I'll tie them down. Spectator, you and the Witch focus fire," Sonia said immediately. "I have Moon Shadow Governs Life; my Sanctuary is sturdier than yours." Time was running out. Yaxiu nodded. "Alright! Weise, keep an eye on Sword Princess's side and prioritize assisting her if danger strikes! Down!" The four immediately plunged downward into the steel jungle. This dream bubble's country seemed to resemble the Blood Moon Country, with towering skyscrapers and the din of a city, though after Yaxiu and the others had fought for so long, the people on the ground had already scattered. Once their altitude dropped, Yaxiu and his companions grew even more cautious—touching any point of leverage would cause their sorcery power to stagnate, not only dissipating their Sanctuary but causing them to plummet from the sky. Points of leverage naturally included building walls, balconies, and railings; anything traceable back to the ground would trigger the negative effect of 'High Above the Sky'. The Void Realm creatures pursued them downward. Compared to Yaxiu and his team, they appeared far more at ease; even the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon moved as gracefully as a ballerina dancing on eggshells. It was precisely for this reason that Yaxiu had chosen the open sky as the battlefield earlier—the tall buildings posed a far greater threat to them than the Void Realm creatures. As the gap between the Swordsmanship Sanctuary and the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon narrowed, Sonia executed a looping slash, flying in to assault the Swordsmanship Sanctuary. At the same moment, Diya accelerated, flicking her ten fingers to wrap threads around the Lance Sanctuary's body! When the Lance Sanctuary attempted to sever the threads, Yaxiu pulled up in a climb maneuver, his Heart Sword intercepting the spear to buy Diya time to trigger the effect of Flowing Gold River Water. The Void Realm creatures were not teammates; they merely acted on instinct to execute the optimal combat strategy. Now that Sonia was willing to fight one against two, the Swordsmanship Sanctuary and the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon naturally didn't mind ganging up on her. Yet after several exchanges, even though Sonia had the 'Moon Shadow Governs Life' relic reinforcing her defense, her sorcery power drained like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate. Unlike on the ground, where she could use terrain to minimize her exposure when facing multiple foes, the attack angles in aerial combat were endless. She simply couldn't block them all! Furthermore, the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon and the Swordsmanship Sanctuary developed an uncanny coordination; whenever she defended against one, the other seized the chance to strike from her blind spot, maintaining an airtight suppression. Sonia suddenly understood how the Fishcleaver Dragon had felt—back in the Sea of Knowledge, she and Yaxiu had bullied and toyed with it in the exact same way. What goes around comes around; the Void Realm is an endless cycle... But I'm no stepping stone like a Fishcleaver Dragon! Sonia lowered her altitude once more, weaving perilously through the buildings. Now the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon and Swordsmanship Sanctuary had to watch their maneuvers as well; in some tight spaces, the Chariot Dragon even had to fold its wings. Their coordination fell out of rhythm, and the pressure on Sonia lifted noticeably. Just then, Sonia heard sounds of combat nearby. Glancing over, she saw Yaxiu and the others tangled in a skirmish among the buildings behind her. She immediately shifted course toward a street corner, but at that moment the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon pressed down from above, forcing her to dive lower and accelerate— Crack! A neon sign reading 'Mimosa' appeared right before her eyes. It was too late to evade! The moment she slammed into the sign, her sorcery power stagnated, her Sanctuary dissolved, and her void wings shattered. She crashed through the sign's glass and plummeted. The effect of 'High Above the Sky' lasted three seconds. Before Sonia's sorcery power could recover, the Chariot Dragon's wing-blades were already before her eyes, a colossal shadow blotting out her vision. She was doomed! Perhaps from hitting her head, Sonia's mind went completely blank. But out of the corner of her eye, seeing Yaxiu turn and fly toward her, a strange radiance sparkled in her ruby-red eyes— BOOM! With a deafening crash, the Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon shot past above Sonia and slammed into the ground like a derailed train. The Swordsmanship Sanctuary also fell with broken wings, splattering into mush with a wet smack. "Just in time," Weise's voice sounded from above. "The second affix is: falling structures cause a powerful negative effect." Weise flew down in front of Sonia, caught the president of the Paw-Stretching Club as she leaped up, and pulled her into a climb. Smiling, she explained, "The Blade-Winged Chariot Dragon isn't affected by sorcery power stagnation, so why did it dive from the air instead of choosing the more efficient method of bouncing off the ground? Bouncing is far superior in both speed and destructive force compared to diving. The reason, sure enough, was that the Chariot Dragon feared the buildings themselves." As Weise explained, a stream of information flowed into the sorcerers' minds. "Overturned Tower: The dust bathed in the shadow of the tower shall bear witness to the collapse of all things. Any target struck by a collapsing structure will fall into a 10-second stun." "Affix Identification Reward: A small amount of space faction experience, a small amount of sorcery power." "Limited Affix Privilege: In the next dream bubble, you can trigger the Overturned Tower effect once." "Thank you." Having escaped death by a hair's breadth, Sonia couldn't help but sigh in relief. "If it weren't for you, I'd probably have had to wait another ten-odd days before entering the Void Realm again." "Don't mention it. Aren't we friends who help each other out?" "Well..." Sonia said, feeling rather embarrassed. "My sorcery power has recovered. You don't have to hold me so tightly." One of Weise's arms was wrapped around her back, and the other around her waist, practically pressing her into her own body. Moreover, Weise was staring intently into the country girl's eyes, their noses practically touching—a personal distance that left the country girl blushing with embarrassment. "My apologies," Weise said politely, releasing her grip. "You're a truly fascinating person."