Hao Ren admitted that he had underestimated the vengeful spirit; not because of its combat ability mind you, but its bizarre nature.
He found that the enemy was not something quantifiable, and it was beyond anything that he had ever faced before!
Hao Ren did not consider himself a battlefield veteran, but he had been in a couple of hard fought battles, especially one on a bizarre battlefield with so many races: it had elven magic, demonic powers, human technology, and even gnomish "ingenuity", but he had yet to meet anything close to a natural phenomenon!
A seemingly endless veil of white mist had descended upon them from every direction. The pungent smell of burnt rubber was strong and pieces of blue crystalline rained from above as the gun was fired. But the damage dealt paled to the scale of the predicament that they were in.
Blurry silhouettes were appearing by the dozens in the thick mist, and the shadows let out shrieks and screeches as they darted around the group. From time to time a few of the shadows charged forth. Becky's sword was blazing bright now, and she gave one of the charging shadows an upward slash. The hit connected only for the shadow to reform somewhere not too far away. "Is this a vengeful spirit?!"
"It's one of their 'phenomenons'!" Nangong Sanba shouted at the top of his lungs. The snowstorm around them had gathered strength, first turning into a blizzard, then into a snow tornado. The screeches and howls faded against the raging storm. "The spirits are shapeless! You don't know if you are fighting the real thing. Until it is despatched into another world, anything you face, may or may not be it!"
Hao Ren's shield too started crackling, the energy field in the air was strong enough to activate the shield. He realised that the spirit's attack too was shapeless. The blizzard around them, the energy field in the air, the shadows, the lightning in the distance... All these are the spirits. It seems like it's mode of attack was to create a hostile dimension for its enemies, and let them perish within.
Lily swung her claws towards the shadows that were charging in her direction, and the werehusky was getting frustrated by the moment. The enemies were formless, and she wasn't sure if her attacks even connected. Her precious tail bristled as the storm grew.
Nangong Wuyue was holding up a mist barrier, but it was an arduous task to maintain it. "The water element here is unnatural! It's difficult to maintain the barrier!"
"Any ideas?!" Hao Ren turned towards Nangong Sanba, "We cannot fight this battle of attrition!"
"That's the only way!" Nangong Sanba and Vivian shouted back. Vivian then explained by they could only hold on. "The spirits can't die, but they will sooner or later exhaust their energies. Only then we can sent them back to where they came from. Just take out everything it throws at us until it cannot conjure up anything more. We'll win then!"
"F*ck me! I hate that the most!" Hao Ren grumbled. The storm around him however paid no heed to his feelings and it was closing it like a thick wall, threatening to crush anything within. The party was now insignificant dots within the eye of the storm. Seeing the situation as it is, Hao Ren finally pulled out a new toy from his Dimensional Pocket.
It was a silver box, with Aerym words saying 'Handle with care' on it. Hao Ren pulled open the lid, and within the box were a bunch of matchbox-sized cubes. Each and every cube had red, white and black buttons on them.
Nangong Sanba was still shooting his quarrel towards the shadows in the distance, acting like he was the main DPS class. He noticed Hao Ren taking something out and turned to ask, "What's that thingmajing?"
Hao Ren threw one of the cubes towards Nangong Sanba. "Take off that ring, and press red, white and black in sequence, then think of the girls that you've slept before, ask her to give you strength, and toss that cube as hard as you can!"
Nangong Sanba had long decided it was prudent to listen to the pros, and just followed what Hao Ren had instructed. Pulling the ring out and pressing the buttons in quick succession, he stood there for a moment recalling something. Hao Ren yelled as he saw Nangong Sanba just standing there. "Throw the bloody thing!"
"HEEYAHH!" Nangong Sanba threw the cube with all his might, and yelled. "I haven't even finish recalling...."
A sharp noise, almost like metal sheets being torn apart blocked out his voice. The cube had exploded in midair, releasing a flash of white light before a semi-translucent sphere formed suddenly around it. As quickly as it formed, the sphere retracted, taking the entire space with it. Within a mere second, nothing was left there.
Nangong Sanba gawked at the carnage. "F*ck.... what is THAT?"
"Graviton grenades." Hao Ren said as he grabbed a bunch and passed them to Lily and Becky. "Throw them further away. Don't come looking for me if you lose a limb."
Nangong Sanba sprang in horror, cold sweat drenched his forehead. "What kind of techno sorcery is this.... Wait a minute, can you not spout nonsense while you are giving instructions for things like this?"
Hao Ren flipped a bird at Nangong Sanba's direction. "Most people would only need a second or two to recall their wife's name... the time it took you to recall one... I should have just left the warning out."
Lily was excited with her new toy and started tossing the grenades with gusto. The shadows and lightning clouds in the distance simply vanished under the onslaught as grenade after grenade was lobbed at them. The battle had turned from slashing swords and lightning bolts to almost like a snowball fight. Lily and Vivian was tossing grenades left right centre, and by then, almost half the cache was used up...
Nangong Sanba was still mumbling. "I... my first love was almost seventy years back.... It just took me a while to recall..."
The cacophony of piercing shrieks thundered the area, and the shadows and storm conjured by the spirit had almost dissipated. The area around them was in shambles. The unorthodox lunatics once again showed their strength, and even the vengeful spirit now realised that the bunch was not your usual prey. It started to retreat, and within the storm died down.
All the bizarre scenery before them too vanished.
Hao Ren did not suspect anything as he never faced a vengeful spirit before this. Vivian however was shocked. "It ran? The spirit actually ran?!"
"Won't they run?" Lily too was curiousl.
"They won't. They don't know fear." Vivian scouted around the dark snowfield around them. Realising something was amiss, she went. "Wait a minute... it did not run... it was being 'recalled' back.... There's probably some kind of mechanism here that is controlling the spirit's core. It will automatically recall the spirit once it is weakened to a certain level."
As Vivian finished. A ball of white flame lit up not too far away. A calm female voice came from the flames. "You're correct. There is an accursed magical contraption nearby. It is the spirit's cage and protection. You lot just ruined my two days worth of effort."
Hao Ren drew his weapon towards the source of the voice. He was however sure that the voice was not that of a spirit. The spirit can't talk after all. Vivian's nose wrinkled. Caution lined her face. "A demon hunter?"
Hao Ren felt something stirred in his chest pocket. Lil Pea suddenly popped out of the pocket. The little rascal was silent all these while, but she must've detected something now.
The ball of white flame distorted for a bit, before a white haired girl walked out from it. "Yes, you're right. A demon hunter. You can call me White Flame."
"White Fail? What sort of defeatist name is that?" Hao Ren exclaimed.
"...."
"Stop your nonsense!" Vivian hissed as she gave him a stiff punch on the back.