The splintered piece of teleported wood materialized out of thin air, moving at the speed of a bullet. Shin barely tilted his head. The jagged timber grazed his cheek, followed instantly by a massive, roaring surge of displaced wind. Had he been a fraction of a second slower, his head would have been torn cleanly from his shoulders.
Before he could even exhale, the air around him fractured. Dozens of massive logs and sharpened branches appeared from every conceivable angle, all hurtling toward him at terminal velocity.
Shin tightened his grip on his sword, preparing to weather the storm, but a sudden, brilliant green hexagonal shield flared to life around him. The wood slammed into the barrier, shattering into harmless sawdust. It was a delayed protection spell Bom Soo Ahn had layered onto him just before Jocelyn's oppressive Vim pushed her out of the immediate area.
Shin didn't waste the opening. His Golden Vim soared, roaring like a furnace as he hoisted his sword high above his head and widened his stance.
"Bronze Garden!" he bellowed his golden vim waning around him.The silver steel of his blade abruptly shifted, taking on a heavy, dull brown hue. He swung. The sheer weight and velocity of his blade created a localized gravitational pull, dragging the incoming projectiles into his parry zone. He began slicing at anything that came close, his movements blurring into an impenetrable dome of defensive strikes.
Across the swamp, Mord floated calmly, an open, leather-bound book hovering in front of him."Priscor," Mord chanted softly. He reached forward and ripped a page from the book. The moment the paper left the binding, it morphed into solid matter—iron stakes, heavy stone crops, and reinforced metal platforms. He ripped out page after page, feeding an endless supply of ammunition into the air.
Jocelyn didn't even need to look. Her two hands still clamped together as, she teleported the manifested objects, sending a continuous, unrelenting barrage of shrapnel straight at Shin.
Shin didn't yield an inch. His blade hummed, deflecting iron and stone in a shower of sparks.
"Overclock," Shin whispered.
Instantly, the chaotic world around him dragged to a crawl. The falling sawdust hung suspended in the air. The incoming iron stakes drifted toward him like leaves on a gentle stream. Shin shifted from his defensive stance into a low, aggressive charge. Golden Vim exploding as he dashes straight for Jocelyn, slicing through the slow-moving debris, platforms and chunks of wood.
But before his blade could reach her, the world lurched.Shin was violently teleported high into the artificial sky. He twisted mid-air, only to find himself face-to-face with a massive, intact tree trunk hurling toward him. Even in his Overclocked state, where everything was slowed, this log was moving at a terrifying speed.
He swung his blade in desperation, carving and dicing the massive wood into a dozen chunks. But the physics of the teleportation held true—the severed pieces continued their trajectory, accelerating even faster. The heavy chunks of timber slammed into his chest and shoulders, knocking the breath from his lungs and sending him plummeting.
Before his back could even hit the swamp floor, he was teleported again.
He appeared flat on the mud, directly underneath the largest, heaviest section of the falling tree. The wood crushed down upon him with the force of a falling building. The ground cratered. Then, everything began to move at normal speed Shin overclock deactivating again.
Jocelyn landed lightly on a nearby branch, smirking.Mord floated up beside her. "Did that get him? Is he now a pulp?"
"No," Jocelyn said casually. A sudden, violent burst of Grey Vim erupted from underneath the monument of wood. The sheer force of the aura shattered the timber into thousands of splinters, revealing Shin. He was battered, his clothes torn, and blood leaking freely from his head and arms, but he was standing. He leaned heavily on his sword.
The flower symbol in his golden eye was gone. Now, his dim, grey eye flared to life, bearing a swirling blue and black yin-yang symbol.
"Finish him," Mord ordered. Jocelyn nodded and raised her hand, but suddenly gasped, her knees buckling. She collapsed onto the branch, her arms trembling. A translucent, green mist in the shape of a person phased right through her torso and drifted down toward Shin. It was Bom Soo Ahn, projecting herself in a spiritual form.
"Ugh... another trap," Jocelyn groaned, her arms still tightly clasped together to maintain her healing. "I think this one is trying to paralyze me, Mord!"
"Hold steady," Mord commanded, immediately casting a barrage of restorative and cleansing spells over her to fight the paralysis.
Down below, Soo's spirit form giggled as she floated around Shin, wrapping her spectral arms around his battered shoulders. "Hmm, look at you. Quite bruised. Let me heal you up." A warm, soothing green light erupted from her form, stitching Shin's wounds closed.
Shin spat a glob of blood onto the mud. "Those teleportations... they weren't leaving any spatial traces, no petals or feathers." he muttered, his eyes locked on Jocelyn. "Like the objects just instantly existed there. And that sudden fury of Vim from her is completely different. Did you notice anything else? Shin asks Bom Soo Ahn as she heals him. What do you think I can do to counter this?"
"I didn't really see anything. Bom Soo replies solemnly, "I just arrived,"Bom Soo Ahn grunted, the strain of her spirit form showing. "Best you start preparing. She seems to be finding her feet again. Another barrage will be coming."
Shin immediately gripped his sword with both hands. "Silver Realm!" he shouted, dropping low into his specialized tracking stance, his grey vim flaring at a new peak.
As quickly as he cast his technique,
Jocelyn's teleportation barrage restarted.