Transcendent Gene
Chapter 198: Legacy Guardian [4]

Chapter 198: Legacy Guardian [4]

Boom!

Slamming the serpent tail away, Neriah blasted across the griffin’s back, following her path.

It wasn’t the first time she’d escaped the tail’s range, but she’d been pushed back every time.

Voom!

All of a sudden, the area around her opened up. A wall made of pure plasma appeared in an instant, blocking her path forward.

She was used to it. It appeared every time like clockwork.

Bang!

She leapt over the wall, immediately summoning two pistols.

’There and there.’

Her aim was locked where two cannons rose before they ever showed themselves.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets went flying, shooting down the barrels of those cannons before they could fire.

Boom! Boom!

The explosive rounds did their jobs, and when the cannons started preparing their lasers, they had no choice but to explode under the pressure of their own power.

Thud!

Neriah landed back on the ground past the plasma wall and charged forward.

Her eyes remained forward, but her focus was not the same. Until now, she was still facing obstacles she’d already seen.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two plasma walls rose and blocked off the sides of her path. An array of lasers appeared between them, zig-zagging on and off the ground to create a web of death she had to move through.

It was here that she’d been pushed back every single time. The lasers constantly moved towards her, giving her barely any time to find a path through them before her back was against a plasma wall.

She had to retreat back to the serpent tail twice already, but that was enough time for her to do what she could not in a single go.

Whoosh!

She was on the move after only stopping for a second to make sure the lasers were in the same patterns and orientations. She twisted, turned, ducked, slid, and jumped through the fifteen feet of laser webs before finally reaching the other side.

Bzzzzt!

The air vibrated around her.

’Shit.’

Electricity. She wouldn’t mistake the feeling.

The vibration only existed for a few moments. In that split second, the only thing she could do was jump.

Bzzzzt!

Soon enough, the air below her was filled with sparking lightning. As if countless tesla coils were shocking the air at the same time, arcs of lightning bounced from place to place, constantly rushing over the griffin’s back like they were being controlled by sprites.

Neriah gritted her teeth. She didn’t have mobility in the air. The only place she could go was directly back down into the electricity.

Her eyes glowed purple as the path in front of her expanded, telling her that she needed to keep pushing forward until she was at the base of its neck.

There was a lot of space between her and that point. She was barely approaching the halfway point, so she couldn’t allow herself to be pushed back again.

’Tch!’

She didn’t like doing it because manifesting heavy ammunition was difficult, but there was no other way.

From the black holes summoned at her arms, she pulled rocket launcher after rocket launcher.

Boom!

With one shot, the recoil threw her back several feet.

Boom!

The next did the same, as did the one after that.

The air was filled with the sound of wasted ammunition as Neriah flung herself almost thirty feet in the direction she wanted to go. Her shoulders felt like they were going to break in only a few more impacts. In the air, the force didn’t have anywhere to go but into her body.

She knew that using swords would be impossible for the next few minutes, but she had to cope.

Bang!

She hit the ground hard and rolled to her feet, just barely stopping herself from falling off the griffin.

Rumble!

She stumbled backwards as it moved its feet. It had been swaying from side to side throughout her rush as it tried to attack Gio, but its relatively stationary nature made her job much, much easier.

Even in this moment, she stumbled to safety before she could fall to the ground. She couldn’t necessarily see what Gio was doing other than a few flashes of blue light here and there, but the griffin’s bellows and the various substances she occasionally saw clouding the air let her know that he was working hard as well.

’No stopping.’

Back on her feet, Neriah continued her charge.

Plasma walls shot up all over, forcing her to follow a narrower and more convoluted path to her goal. The ground was covered in both electricity and lasers as weapons rose up all around her and blasted her from every direction.

Her perception and body control were tested to their limits, but she held on and pushed. She was burned again on her arm by a laser cannon that shot at her when she couldn’t move, but she didn’t let it end her this time.

Even as she accumulated wounds, she was always able to just barely avoid the worst-case scenarios.

Improving during battle was both the most difficult thing for Sequencer and also the thing they desired most.

The kind of "enlightenment" one gained by pushing oneself to the limits was a euphoric feeling that was chased by many. However, it had to come naturally. It was possible, but it could never be forced.

Neriah was in that mode. Neriah got faster and more precise with every step forward. Her energy became more concentrated and purposeful. Despite constantly summoning and creating new weapons to cope with her surroundings, she was not fatigued.

The space between her and the base of the griffin’s neck decreased until she saw more white feathers than she did golden fur.

Her feet skidded to a stop. She turned to look behind her.

There was no longer anything attacking her from the front.

Everything she’d avoided to reach this point, on the other hand, was now trained on her.

The sound of all of those whirring machines foreshadowed a very terrifying outpour that would soon land on her location.

Her head snapped back. She turned to the griffin’s back only a few feet in front of her.

On this beast’s back, there was a handle. A very obvious metal handle that was not colored or covered in fur. It shone in a dull silver color that stood out compared to anything around it.

The hatch was obvious. At the end of the day, this beast was made as a trial and not a gatekeeper. Once she’d made her way there, getting inside wasn’t her next challenge.

Neriah gripped the handle with all of her strength and ripped it open. There was an abyss below, but she still dropped without a second of waiting.

Booooooom!

A huge rush of energy flew over her head before she disappeared into the darkness. The outpour could only touch the edge of her hair.

And...

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Five rockets exploded in the sky.

Gio looked up at the source of the sound and saw them. With such a trajectory, she had either stopped to shoot upwards, or–

’–she’s falling.’

Though they never established one beforehand, Gio immediately understood her signal.

’Which also means my job changes.’

He shot into the air with great power behind his movements, flying around another breath attack made by the griffin.

’Perfect.’

Neriah was doing a much better job than he’d expected.

He no longer had to worry about anything other than supporting her.