Hungrily scarfing down as much blood as possible, the previously reputable-looking dragon looked like a monster with a child’s blood coating her lips. She licked both of them and almost completely lost control, wanting to bite down on the morsel in front of her to enjoy a proper meal, but held back at the sight of those enemies nearby.
She released a heavy breath from her nose to suppress that hunger and her pained heart, feeling the blood within her throat and stomach making the crystalline mass quiver and pant. She’d never felt this way before, and the unreal sensation left her close to delirious.
And then… Her body tried to break down that blood.
Pain overloaded her body, and she fell back, screaming. There was no heat, merely boundless mana and energy which felt unreal by any degree, a hole seared right through her stomach in mere seconds. From there, corroding and breaking everything around it. In less than a minute, that tiny hole grew to a missing chunk through her abdomen.
Her heart pulsed in pleasure; her body cried in agony. And yet, only a fraction of that blood had been converted…
Raccelline stepped away, moving towards Icy, who pounced forward with Rebecca to kill the dragon girl before anything happened. He didn’t really care about killing this dragon shapeshifted to that of a teenage girl, so long as she died here and now, the danger was averted.
She tried to flip over and crawl away, but the sheer power bursting within her body, frying her control of mana at the same time, it was a miracle she even retained the humanoid form.
And as Icy began to cast Light Blade, Rebecca nearing with her own dagger, the two froze in place and leapt back to the pillar. A blast of air cut a ring about the dying dragon girl, easily leaving a precise cut mark through the ground as well. If they approached, odds are that ‘wind’ killed them instantly.
“That’s not very nice, you shouldn’t damage others’ subordinates. Did your parents not teach you that? Ah, silly girl, you attacked first, then… I take it you’re here for the pillar? We’re happy to wait our turn in that case.”
He finally arrived, leaving that ‘subordinate’ to squirm and crawl on the floor in continued agony. She wouldn’t die from the ridiculous damage, but that pain would continue for some minutes at least.
The first thought was the possibility of Raccelline possessing poisoned blood or something similar. Either way, he was down a dragon for now.
Standing beside Icy, the child in question quietly held out a strand of red hair which he quickly swallowed. It took a handful of seconds to break down, proving its power, albeit nothing he couldn’t easily handle.
[Consumed Demonized Bloodwalker dragon bloodline! Assimilation progress 0%]
“You bitch,” Icy said in Draconic.
He didn’t believe that a dragon’s bloodline could be demonized, but this proved him wrong. And with that in mind, there was no way she could ever be allowed to go free. To think the first dragon he met had to die… Or be handed over as a test subject to the race as a whole.
Of course, no one else really understood what he said to her, and it was passed over as an insult for harming Raccelline.
At the same time, the nearby undergrowth rustled once more to reveal four more individuals appearing, this being the rest of Icy’s group. They rushed over upon seeing the demon and dragon girl, taking the fact that the latter squirmed and howled in pain without an ounce of worry. Instead, everyone cycled their mana rapidly and took stances to defend.
“We know you’re Mithril rank, do you honestly think we’ll just let our guards down after what she did?” Icy made up a reason for their antagonistic behaviour, also informing their opponent that he could see through that simpler charade.
His party backed away to the pillar, still on edge, and their opponent simply raised his hands innocently while occasionally looking down at his weeping subordinate. If she couldn’t handle the blood, then neither could he.
What a nice guinea pig she’d been.
This was the critical moment, the single method he knew of to kill a demon an entire tier above himself.
Only when both parties were in the pillar’s range, did he begin speaking the entire few pages of Draconic words. A thousand words to invoke a rarely used power of the pillar.
One normally used to remedy conflicts between two dragons in the subspace at the same time…
A thousand words is a lot, but to get a headstart, Icy used the pocket watch to condense an entire minute into a mere two seconds, already finishing a third of the casting before the demon even had a chance to react. But that still left hundreds of words, and by now, it was pretty damn clear that he wasn’t trying to activate the pillar.
“Requesting… Dangerous…” The barely breathing girl nearby spoke out two words, but barely actually said anything before howling once more. Still, their opponent understood enough.
Now things got bad.
With the precious seconds bought by the two’s confusion, the whole group already slated a whole selection of skills which they trained up in the past year, with Mala already doing everything in her power to enhance their abilities further. And yet, none of them felt even slightly capable of opposing the sheer force of mana which approached them…
Yet, their opponent kept their elven ruse up. Which meant he actually hadn’t completely figured out that they knew? Was he that confident in his camouflage?
It didn’t matter though, their only focus was to hold off the rapidly approaching elf who aimed straight for Icy. He didn’t even put the rest of them in his eyes. Not at first, that is.
A mind palace suddenly descended on the field, sending the demon elf stumbling for a moment, clearly, he had yet to transform his simple mind into a palace, making this suppression so much more effective. At the same time, Mala realised this and began using rapid, homing psychic spells to pressure the elf.
He immediately realised that the wizard on their side wasn’t so easy to deal with, as she not only used a variety of buffing spells, but then switched to a psychic one. From random guesses alone, he figured she knew four structures, enough to make her a talented wizard by the barest requirements…
Her death would only benefit his cause as well as the elves at large, a double whammy at the least. But he scowled at the pressure gnawing away at his mind, it was impertinent and required constant mana to remove, a waste given his power compared to the group.
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For a moment, he stood still and suddenly kicked out with a small spin, as though he was trying to kick away a ball coming straight for him. “Bit cocky to think that’d work on me,” he spoke out, dissatisfied that he just barely missed the head of the invisible girl beside him. It was a shame he noticed her too late.
But it sent her scurrying, and this time he made sure to greatly improve his eyes as well with another skill. The dragon on the floor behind him was useless here, even unable to provide information on how long he had left.
No matter, he took off once more, ignoring the mana cost of everything so long as it killed the group.
Arrows pelted him, somehow precisely able to keep up with his speed at all times, and requiring annoying defensive skills to avoid taking damage. Every last arrow happened to aim for a spot not protected by his robes or underarmour, and he almost wanted to head over to kill the archer straight off.
His mind blanked for a moment, Mala switched to throwing an Empowered Psychic Bomb near him. Korridan took full advantage of the moment to slam into him, imparting a rhino-like momentum to send their opponent flying back to the arena’s edge.
Darak routinely provided divine spells which applied an additional power to everyone’s attacks, penetrating through most defences rather effectively. However, the more important aspect was the effect it had on ‘enemies’.
To be precise, enemies of Manus, of which demons gladly fell into. The instant Korridan’s shield pushed back the demon, it penetrated through and began to sear into him. He peeled off the mysterious divine power attacking his body, and ignored it, too focused on killing the dragon to really care about the cause.
Maybe a minute? Take out a team of five synergised fighters in a minute? Maybe if he was Starlite rank, that’d be easy… But at his level, the five could put up a fight.
“You useless trash, stop wandering the forest and get here right now!” For a few seconds, as he shouted at the dozen or so subordinates that should also be here, he began to wonder what his dragon meant by ‘request’. She never told him about some extra features of the pillar…
But the way all of them immediately took action, as though his identity as an official held no sway over them…
So. They already knew.
Even if they didn’t, whatever dangerous thing they requested help from could surely see through the bestowed power. His thoughts turned simple. Just kill them first in that case!
His form changed slightly. Two horns, thin but with one side curved like a knife’s blade, revealed themselves along with the appearance of black eyes and a crystal heart similar to the two dragons. Heart pulsing at the sight of blood, and horns changing colour to that of a pink diamond but further glowing, the uses of such things depended entirely on a demon’s bloodline. And lastly, those black eyes.
An iris suddenly formed, a simple white ring which stood out immensely from the surrounding black. The ‘aspects’ of demons were more often simply used to dehumanise them, although the words about its heart were actually true.
“Not at all surprised,” he let out a sigh, blaming himself for wasting time in this critical moment. Drawing a weapon for himself, a large greataxe of almost two metres in length with a ridiculous head that matched Korridan’s bulky body in size alone.
With such strength, only Korridan stood a chance of surviving a direct hit.
No one waited in the meantime, Rebecca continued to harass him while invisible. While Mithril rank, his senses weren’t the best and he required her to be close by to notice her. With some throwing daggers as well, he blocked the bothersome attacks whilst mana pooled in his arms for a heavy swing.
And once he had enough… An innate ability activated, his arms now coated in a transparent sheen, gripped the greataxe and swung down, aiming not for a person, but the apparition of a Mind palace around them. It cleaved the illusion in half, destroying the descension and almost leaving Icy staggered.
If this descension wasn’t fuelled by his bloodline, the damage would’ve been so much worse.
Battlescourge, it had the name for a reason. Able to fight any power head-on with its own nasty one.
The axe blade engulfed in that transparent coating and slashed out, sending a crescent of it hurtling towards the group. Korridan blocked it, his shield growing substantially heavier where that attack hit.
They blocked everything possible, not understanding how they were standing up against a far stronger foe. Obviously, Darak’s spells dealt with broken bones and random wounds from ‘minor’ attacks… But then why were they all in great shape?
Icy reached the 800 word mark, needing barely another 30 seconds to complete the spell. With his spirit merged, it was easy to move about as needed, staying behind the group and noticing that the pillar clearly heard the request. He cursed the creators that thought such a long passage was a good idea for this.
“Why the fuck can’t I kill you? And… WHERE ARE YOU TRASH?” To have to call out those subordinates twice, after this was over, he would wring their necks personally.
He already tried baiting out the group and sending multiple arcs to stall the defender and kill that dragon, yet for some reason, both always seemed ready for that move. And that wizard, how was she switching between all for primary elements, enhancement spells, spatial spells, and then psychic ones on top of that?!
She alone presented more trouble than the invisible girl and archer combined, not that their attacks for his vitals weren’t a massive pain for the past minute. There was also that young girl, and she used a surprisingly durable blade, without a handle, to actually push back some of his attacks, but never actually retaliated.
It finally struck him.
He was the one in danger here… Not them. He was the one running out of time.
With more time, he would either win or draw, but‒ But! He was too inactive these past years; his senses dulled. “This will not be my tomb,” he spoke with conviction formed from realisation.
Mana surged, almost pushing back Rebecca who was about to distract him once more. His whole body glowed with that transparent coating, and it rapidly flowed into the axe like it held a will of its own. There was no hesitation as most of his MP was drained in moments, and he began to swing crazily.
Two, four, eight, sixteen. The crescent blades formed of his strange power multiplied over and over, flying out like a storm of wind blades, each with a will of their own and diverting around the group rapidly with a single goal of survival.
To kill his lack of time.
Mala and Darak were prepared from the moment his mana surged, casting their strongest protective spells instantly, two barriers appeared, one focused on Icy and the second on their entire group. Korridan’s body turned a dark black, like the metal of a dreyer, and his shield gained a very similar coating, an extension of his innate ability.
The six humans all withdrew a glass tube of some potion and smashed it against their chests, smearing the fluid where possible and allowing it to seep in.
Rebecca took advantage of her distance from the demon elf, using his wild slashes to slip in and leave a cut across his neck. It was minor, but the blood loss would weaken his physical body slightly. At the same time, Jaren switched his arrows and fired rapidly at the flying arcs, not a single one could be allowed to touch Icy now.
He could not block them, but diversions were easy. Raccelline single-handedly slashed at any nearby, cutting through three of them, as the two barriers easily soaked up another eight. And that left Korridan to block the final five.
A heavy throw chucked the large greatsword he was wielding towards a few, breaking two attacks to bits as his shield was propped up in front of Icy. Jaren redirected two of the outer arcing crescents towards the same place, allowing his strengthened body to withstand the impact of all three…
Korridan frowned at his shield, too heavy to lift, and rolled to the side with an arm raised, poised to block while down on one knee.
Icy didn’t miss what also happened either, and from the moment all those blades of strange power fired off, he threw as much mana into the pocket watch one more time while winding it up to half a minute.
But he’d still been too slow.
Time slowed as he finished the request, a beam of light fired off from the pillar’s top to acknowledge the full passage being spoken. But he could barely look as the demon stood merely a metre away.
The moment he finished those wild swings, which released masses of his innate ability’s power, the demon leapt straight for him, ignoring the danger of entering the fray with such low mana. A weak transparent coating remained on the axe blade as it swung down, meeting the troublesome defender’s blocking arm.
Sorry, did Icy think ‘block’?
It merely slowed the weighty greataxe, his arm amputated cleanly as it continued downward.