Old Man Bo’s beast form was simple-minded, but he still trusted Hannah enough to hand over his twin hammers without hesitation.
Hannah immediately used her Dormant Ability and drastically increased their weight. The hammers became so heavy that she couldn’t even lift them herself, so she simply left them where they were and waited for Bo to pick them up again.
Bo reached down and grabbed one of them, his expression changing almost immediately.
"Uhhh, this feels much better."
Hannah nodded.
"Come on."
She reduced the weight of her armour and shield until they were as light as feathers, then climbed onto Bo’s back and held onto his fur tightly.
"Let’s go destroy those weather-altering devices."
Bo didn’t respond, he didn’t move either. Hannah glanced at his face and immediately realised what was wrong.
"Let’s destroy the ding-sound things."
Before she had even finished speaking, Bo’s body shot forward.
The snow exploded beneath his feet as he accelerated, his massive frame tearing through the open ground before leaping straight towards the Eidolons guarding the nearest device.
The creatures barely had time to react.
Bo crashed into them with enough force to send several of them flying, while Hannah held tightly onto his back and watched the white pillar ahead.
The blue orb pulsed. A wave of energy spread from it and disappeared into the raging storm behind them.
"I don’t see any runes, where’s the power coming from?," Hannah muttered.
Bo had already reached the device.
One Eidolon swung a spiked club at him, but Bo caught the weapon with one of his hammers. Hannah leaned forward and slammed her shield into its face, sending it tumbling across the snow.
Old man Bo glanced back at her, but she shrugged and said plainly. "I’m not a big fan".
Another Eidolon charged from the side.
Bo twisted his body and smashed his shoulder into it, knocking it away before Hannah pointed towards the pillar.
"There!"
Bo swung his hammer.
The massive weapon struck the white pillar with a deafening crack, sending fragments of stone flying through the air. The blue orb flickered violently but remained intact.
Hannah frowned.
"Again."
Bo swung the other hammer, this time, the pillar cracked down the middle. The orb released a violent pulse of blue light before shattering into pieces.
For a brief moment, nothing happened, Then the section of blizzard directly ahead of them began to weaken.
Snow continued falling, but the wall of white that had previously blocked their vision began thinning until the battlefield beyond it became slightly clearer.
Hannah’s eyes widened.
"It worked."
Bo looked towards the clearing storm, then he looked at the destroyed device. His grin returned.
"Hahaha, triumphant against the ding-sound things."
Hannah nodded.
"There should be more of them around the battlefield."
Bo tightened his grip around his remaining hammer.
"Then we smash them all."
Hannah held onto his back again, but just as Bo was about to charge forward, she suddenly screamed.
"WAIT..."
Hannah quickly jumped off his back and walked towards the destroyed device. The small pillar where the blue orb had been positioned was covered in strange runes, but that wasn’t what caught Hannah’s attention.
She knelt down and picked up the remains of the blue orb.
It didn’t look like an orb anymore.
The fragments she had gathered were translucent and blue, and when she placed them together in her palm, Hannah realised they looked more like pieces of a massive scale. Even combined, they were large enough to cover her entire palm.
"What’s that?"
Old Man Bo’s beast form leaned over her shoulder, his face coming so close that Hannah immediately pushed his head away.
"I think it’s from some type of creature, but I’ve never seen scales this big before. Not even when we fought the tribe of Serpenoids."
Old Man Bo’s beast form stared at the fragmented blue scale in her palm. He scrutinised it for several seconds, turning his head slightly as though trying to understand what he was looking at.
Eventually, he shrugged.
"What does it matter where it comes from? We smash and smash until they all die."
Hannah’s face froze.
She stared at him for a moment before letting out a helpless sigh. There was clearly no point trying to have a proper conversation with Bo while his Dormant Ability was active.
She carefully stored the fragmented blue scale away.
She would show it to the real Old Man Bo once his Dormant Ability deactivated on its own.
The two of them shot away, with Hannah hugging his back tightly.
... ...
Andrea’s fist slammed into the jaw of an Eidolon, the impact snapping its head violently to the side before she grabbed it by the neck and threw its body directly towards Yuri.
Yuri didn’t even look.
The moment her fingers closed around the hilt of her blade, her body flashed forward. The Eidolon’s body split cleanly in half before it could even touch the ground, the two halves sliding past Yuri as she continued moving.
Andrea straightened and drew her own blade, raising it above her shoulder.
They were at the front of the battlefield.
Hundreds of Eidolons were rushing towards them through the blizzard, their silhouettes appearing and disappearing inside the white storm. Unlike the creatures they had fought earlier, these Eidolons weren’t moving like an organised force. They charged without hesitation, swinging their weapons wildly and crashing into one another as they fought their way towards the two women.
They almost seemed possessed.
Andrea swung her blade.
Two Eidolons were cut apart in the same motion, but a third suddenly appeared through the gap between their bodies, its spiked club already descending towards her head.
Andrea raised her arm.
The club smashed against her armour and forced her sideways, her boots carving through the snow as she caught herself.
Before the Eidolon could swing again, Yuri flashed past her. The katana sliced through its throat.
Another Eidolon immediately charged Andrea from behind.
She turned at the last moment and drove her elbow into its chest. Her blade came around in a short arc and tore through its stomach before she kicked the body away.
More were already coming.
Yuri suddenly flashed in front of Andrea, her blade moving several times in the space of a breath. Eidolons surrounding them fell apart almost simultaneously, dark blood spraying through the snow.
Yuri landed beside her and glanced towards the storm.
"There’s something wrong with this storm. It appears to be coming from the wrong direction."
Andrea’s eyes shifted towards the blizzard, she barely had time to consider it before another group of Eidolons charged.
Her body shot forward.
Her blade swept through two of them in a single swing, cutting through their bodies before she stepped over the remains and continued forward.
"The Chief is probably scheming something again," Andrea said, her eyes remaining fixed on the battlefield ahead. "But the fact they’re here means they left their most powerful siege weapon behind."