Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The activation of the Territory had also caught Grim off guard, but as soon as its bold, white boundary crossed him and the Stark Troops, he immediately lathered a massive amount of Nitros over his body to shield himself. He managed to save his ice chair from melting or shattering from the Territory’s pressure, which was a rather impressive feat.

Grim didn’t spare a glance to the Troops behind him or the guardian beasts they were surrounding protectively. (They had been put to sleep.) The Unlimited Star knew they would respond to the danger on their own, and they did.

Only a moment after Grim shielded himself, the Troops – in one shockingly synchronised motion – leaned forward and crossed their arms before their bodies. At once, Null Life and mana gushed from their Granted Armament to create sleek outlines of striking blue around them.

This was one of the Starmations imbued into the suits of armour the Troops wore, Tranquil Instance. It was designed to protect those without Territories from being harmed by them using the principle Skullius had learned several times over now – that Nitros could not bind Null Life Essence.

After the glare of staggeringly powerful Nitros came the rapid formation of the GeoScape which forced Grim to amplify the power of his own Nitros to defend. It manifested in an instant, a choking cloud of ash that blew against him and the Troops from the centre of the Territory. Then the ground vanished, only to be replaced by… a tranquil sea that accommodated all without forcing them to sink. The sky above became a net of interlocking orange-blue runes that looked like puzzle pieces, casting sparks below like rain. Well, they might have been intended to be rain, actually, though they gathered above the surface of the water instead of fizzling out.

And then there was singing.

Somewhere close to the centre of the Territory, Grim heard sonorous voices crying in beautiful song. They were loud. Too loud. They caused his coating of Nitros to waver all the more.

’Well, that’s not good…’ he thought while slouching back into his chair. ’But you can handle it, can’t you, Yu?’

At the centre of the Territory, Yuyui was experiencing a frightening ordeal. Despite her protective Nitros, purple arrows had somehow managed to brand themselves to her armour, pointing at her limbs and head. They had brute-forced their way onto her, ignoring her defenses and…

’I didn’t know it could be used this way!’ she thought, inspired and shocked, even when the song coming from above and around forced her Nitros inward in order to ensure she would be struck point-black by whatever Primary attack functions awaited in the Territory.

She felt inspired when the purple arrows imbued terrifying strain against her armour and flesh, generating kinetic energy in the direction their heads pointed. Blood rushed to Yuyui’s hands, feet and head, and she was completely immobilised. All possible energy she could have conjured to move was simply added in five different directions towards her limbs.

She might have been torn limb from limb in the next few seconds.

This state of paralysis was abused by Franceesta. The beastly woman had already been storming towards Yuyui, cutting through the clouds of ash as she sped with a fiendish grin when the Territory was erected. Her large arm was cocked back, and she delightedly forced its fist into Yuyui’s face.

The figures of fire swirling about, living, feminine, and with long tongues of flame as hair and beams of light for eyes reached a crescendo in their song at the moment of impact.

Yuyui remained stuck in place. Franceesta hammered her again, a hard blow to the temple, and a shockwave scrolled outward, so fierce it might have decimated a whole city of Advancement Stage experts. Yet Yuyui remained frozen, locked in place by the arrows. They ’moved’ all the energy generated by the blows towards her limbs!

Franceesta laughed right when Yuyui spat a blob of blood.

"That’s good! That’s damn good! You’re a tough doll!" she cried as she cocked back her arm again for another blow. There was a large lizard with reddish-brown scales and gleaming green eyes wrapped around it to the fist. Some of its scales seemed to overlap and cover the freakishly large woman’s arm. "You better do something before I smash in that pretty face!"

The other three ladies looked on with distaste as the third blow was delivered; another brutish shockwave shuddered outward, blowing away the smoke, as the flame sirens hovering in the skies in the thousands sang.

The skin on Yuyui’s face had peeled and bruised. Even with her Nitros over her, Franceesta’s blows reached her – a curious fact. They were not natural punches, of course, and many an expert had been killed in one shot simply because they judged them to be ordinary. But Yuyui had known even before the Territory was cast.

She had the guidance field, and as soon as it told her that Franceesta wasn’t a Form User, a muscle-bound brute who only knew to fling punches, she had been wary.

As it turned out, Franceesta was a…

"No wonder your blows are no different to thrown cushions. A Summoner like you wouldn’t have decent innate physical powers, would you?" Yuyui said with a bloody grin.

A vein throbbed on Franceesta’s temple.

"Oh yeah?"

"HELL YEAH!" Yuyui cried, and suddenly she was gone.

"Look out!" Porria, who owned the Territory cried to Franceesta. The beastly woman’s first instinct was to turn behind her, but that turned out to be a tragic lapse of judgement. Her opponent had only moved so fast that she flickered out of existence, but remained in the exact same spot.

And when Franceesta’s eyes turned to a false location, Yuyui saw the chunk of meat wide open and ready to be brutalised.

Only Nigerra managed to see what followed and immediately deduced how it was done. In fractions of a blink, Franceesta’s scaly plate armour was fragmenting after bearing the force of a horrible blow, she, a Transcendent Stager had failed to see. Then she was flying up like a leaking spear at speeds that flirted with light!

She bore through the sky and shattered it, ejected from the Territory.

And Yuyui hurried to make use of the slot she had been forced out from. She propped up a finger and called…

"Nos Aggrante!"

And the Territory shattered in a beautiful explosion.