Chapter 64: Warrior Race

Chapter 64: Warrior Race

The Tarokians had all been frozen in shock in the aftermath of the unexpected assault on their village. They were stunned to see another Reincarnator here on Tarok, barely a year and a half after the last one had nearly exterminated them all.

The memories of the event still haunted them vividly.

Despite how much they hated admitting it, the accursed Reincarnator — Joren Kaelen, had been the only one that stopped Hai from being wiped out.

And now a Reincarnator had once again descended upon Tarok.

Fear had rippled through their hearts as they watched her hover above the crater.

But their fear had been overwhelmed by their hatred and rage as they watched the little girl murder their elder in cold blood.

The Reincarnator had warned them not to retaliate.

But would they give up so easily simply because a human child had ordered them to?

Of course not.

That would be preposterous.

Tarokians were a warrior race.

They had existed for thousands of years. They were feared and revered far and wide across the galaxy and parts of the universe.

Heart shard or not, they were fearsome.

Human or not, it made no difference. No matter the odds, no matter the cost, they would never surrender without a fight.

"ATTACK!!!" roared one of the veteran Tarokian warriors.

Arora's eyes widened in shock as the Tarokians immediately charged at her in a frenzy, flooding into the crater from all sides.

"W-what!?"

This was not an outcome she had expected. Her main reason for retaliating against the Tarokian elder was to act as a deterrent for the other Tarokians.

She wasn't certain she could face them all simultaneously. More importantly, she didn't want to.

She'd expected them to behave like humans and flee when confronted with a superior power. Instead, her actions had ignited their will to fight even more.

Gritting her teeth, she shot skyward, desperate to create distance between herself and the advancing horde.

In the next moment, half a dozen spears crashed into her — or more precisely, into Interitus as they were all erased upon contact. Just like before, the force of the attack had remained, the momentum sending Arora tumbling backward into the crater's expanding wall.

She flew slightly above the ground immediately after, just as her destructive field carved deeper into the earth beneath her.

Suddenly, her vision was clouded by a large foot descending upon her in an attempt to crush her skull.

The eyes of the Tarokian widened an instant later as his leg vanished below the knee.

ZING!!

Before he could even scream, Arora blasted through his skull, finishing him off quickly.

She launched herself upward again, narrowly weaving through a barrage of arrows and throwing axes as she created distance between her and her enemies.

She turned back to them after getting high enough, extending her arms downward as she condensed marble-sized beams.

'I gave you all a choice, and you chose this.'

Until now, she had held back out of consideration for Arbus. These were his people, despite everything they'd done to him. She didn't want him to hate her for this massacre.

But now she had no choice.

She would never let herself die again.

'Then so be it!!!' she thought angrily as she prepared to unleash pure devastation.

Just as the attack began to form, something wrapped around her ankle and yanked her downward violently.

CRASH!

Her body slammed into the crater floor with earth shattering force. She struggled to fly again as she glanced back to see a thick chain wrapped around her leg. And unlike everything else that had touched Interitus, the chain seemed largely unaffected, just like Arbus's bracelet.

She immediately surmised that it must be extremely powerful.

Rather than wasting time trying to destroy the chain, she pivoted and fired a concentrated beam of destruction toward its source.

The smile on the face of the female Tarokian holding onto the chain disappeared as she noticed the attack. A moment later, half of her body simply vanished

Arora kicked off the now loose chain as she dodged another spear by pure instinct.

She looked around at the faces of the Tarokians surrounding her. Their eyes were filled with hatred and determination. Their mouths hung open, most likely letting out battle cries.

She didn't really know, since she couldn't hear them.

This was one of the disadvantages of her Interitus defense. When it was activated completely, everything would be isolated from her.

Everything including sound, like she had discovered earlier that day.

Which meant she would be unable to hear an attack coming from her blind spots. She could only rely on sight since light could still penetrate her field.

Her recovered memories had increased her raw power, but her combat prowess and skills remained largely unchanged.

The only exception to this was her concentration. After all, she had learned to concentrate her entire being on a single emotion while she died.

But even that advantage wouldn't last long against so many enemies.

For now, their inability to harm her provided an edge. But if this relentless assault continued from every direction, her focus would eventually crack...

and she would die again.

Arora roared soundlessly in anger as she released a pulse of pure destruction, obliterating multiple Tarokians that had lunged at her with their insane speeds.

The wave expanded outward in all directions, erasing the screaming Tarokians that came too close, before it dissipated.

Wind rushed about the crater violently as it struggled to fill the void that had just been created.

Arora glanced around once again, her chest rising and falling, despite her not currently breathing.

For several moments, the battlefield was still as the now cautious Tarokians surrounded her hovering form in a wide circle. They were waiting for her to make a move.

They had now realised that close-range combat was suicide against her strange protective ability.

Fortunately for them, she lacked the skill of the previous Reincarnator. Her abilities were powerful but unrefined. Which meant that they actually had a chance to kill her.

They knew the elders would have already detected the disturbance by now. They were sure that Renegade reinforcements were coming. All they had to do was survive until help arrived.

"Vanguards, keep her from flying too high! She's slowing down!" a middle-aged Tarokian bellowed to the chain-wielders at the group's rear.

Arora couldn't hear the words they were saying, but she didn't need to. The intent was clear enough from their positioning and movements.

Her hatred for these creatures spiked to new heights.

'All I wanted was to be left alone. To leave with Arbus in peace. But they won't allow it.'

Just like the humans on Earth, they wanted her dead simply for existing.

As if responding to her boiling rage, more white streaks appeared in her brown hair as power surged through her once again.

She was stunned when she felt it. She didn't understand why it was happening, but she didn't care either. Her questions could wait for later.

She crouched low for an instant, then exploded upward with enough force to shatter the sound barrier.

The chain-users looked up in disbelief as they scrambled desperately to catch her, only for their weapons to fall short as she soared beyond their reach.

She came to a halt when she got high enough, as she looked down on them like a hunter watching prey. From this height, most weapons couldn't touch her, and she could easily track any that might pose a threat.

Their momentum wasn't a problem anymore either.

Dark energy began gathering in her palms as she prepared her next attack. This time, she wouldn't fragment her power into smaller projectiles.

This time, she would erase them all in a single, overwhelming strike.

The Tarokians below stared up in shock for a moment before panic set in. They scattered like insects, trying desperately to escape the crater.

She wasn't going to let them.

'DIE!'

Just as Arora prepared to unleash her devastating attack, something entered her peripheral vision. A strange crimson arrowhead had materialized behind her. Her eyes widened slightly as she noticed its shaft was stretching all the way here from impossibly far west.

Without hesitation, she redirected her charged attack toward the mysterious projectile.

ZING!!

To her disbelief, the beam passed harmlessly through the arrow, erasing nothing but empty air.

Suddenly, the projectile pulsed with ethereal yellow light before vanishing completely.

In that same instant, a tall red Mornan wearing casual clothes and a Renegade commander's coat materialized in its place.

THUD!

Before Arora could process what had happened, she found herself slammed against the crater floor, pinned beneath the newcomer's boot.

Her mind went blank with shock.

Then, her eyes widened in terror as she realized that this Mornan had effortlessly gotten through her Interitus. He had also completely deactivated it. She could feel the ground beneath her instead of sinking through it like before.

A moment later, she heard the Red Mornan speak in a worried and concerned tone.

"By the emperor.... was I too late?"