The third fight evolved into an unfortunate clash for Ewan. His enemy got lucky with her first strike; she took out his defense with her ice element.
He dashed around, dodging the icicles zooming at him, while the snowstorm raged in the area. The icicles stabbed the ground and froze the grass. They shattered into shards soon. He jumped, he dove, he flipped, he turned—he pushed his dexterity to its limits to avoid the ice spells.
The active area-of-effect spell combined with a single hit of this projectile spell could leave him at death’s doorstep on this battlefield, for the low-temperature problem of the earthen glass—his Varos—reared its ugly head against them. He upped the time he practiced his control over it after he chose this material, but it still wasn’t at a level where he could do so when the battle had most of his attention. He fought alone, and his enemies were Severynths with Astylinds after all.
“Ah!!” The female enemy Severynth screeched. “Just stop running, you bastard!!” She grinded her teeth and cast another spell at him, holding a white Novas coin for boosted Anima recovery.
Ewan’s chest ached and his throat burned as he heaved for air, optimizing his movement to decrease energy wastage. The cuts and the lacerations on his body shed blood by the second, and more so when he jerked around, especially his gouged stomach. The blood loss made him dizzy, he needed to stop them. But the overdose of healing potions had sent his body into a forced resistant state. No matter how many he chugged now, the wounds didn’t heal.
Her Ice Beaver cut his path of retreat, and her Ice Wolf supported her offenses. The death crisis chipped at his confidence in his decision to not use Frost here, and he didn’t have much left in him to support it after fighting several battles alone to begin with.
Not yet!
He wasn’t done yet, he hadn't lost sight of why he was fighting this war, why he was risking his life in a battle that didn’t concern him. It was because the peril he was in, it would pay off later—it would give him access to the inner circle of Drarith. Ewan just hoped they were watching; that he didn’t waste his blood for nothing.
Blood Rein!
It wasn’t working. So, he gave up on his reactive defense—Varos—and switched to an active one. The blood from his wounds gathered into a blob before him, and he controlled it against the icicles.
The pointy ice projectiles drummed on the blood dome that protected him. None of it reached inside. Finally, he exhaled a sigh of relief and took a breather. It wasn’t over, far from it, but the blood defense gave him a moment of respite. His heart thumped and thumped; it delivered the much-needed blood to his spasming muscles. He took off his drenched t-shirt and tied it around his stomach, blocking his largest wound. The stinging pain sent a wave of current in him—he flinched, and he grunted—but he endured it and tightened the knot. There was no time to cauterize the wound, so this had to do.
The lack of Astylinds already signed his defeat, his injuries just added the icing on top. He had no delusions about beating or killing this female Severynth—not as he was or without any external intervention. His spell arsenal and his Varos carried him through many battles. Good defense allowed him to chain his spells efficiently, and he killed or defeated his enemies with them. But he finally hit the bump with this woman. Her element that he also owned became his nemesis.
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“You got lucky, bitch,” he murmured.
Now, he had to think of how to retreat with his life intact. And he chose the Ice Beaver for it. It blocked his path to the backline whenever Ewan tried to run away. The lack of a working Varos and the relentless spells prevented him from attacking the beaver before, but his
Ewan took out a few Step-1 cores from his claw-ring and kept them in his left hand.
This’ll be a huge loss….
Boom!
He cast the spell and flung two armed cores at the beaver while the blood dome stood tall against the icicles again—the constant pitter-patter was numbing his ears. The fire-element cores were orange, and they gave off a deeper orange glow with the spell.
“How long are you going to keep this up, you numbfuck!” the female Severynth yelled.
“You really got a foul mouth, you fucking whore!” Ewan yelled back.
The Ice Beaver cried and created an ice wall against the glowing cores. And they erupted with a shockwave and a mushroom. The ice wall burst into shards and the beaver skidded back with burnt fur. The resulting fire melted the snow from the snowstorm, and the surge in Fire-Anima changed the field again.
Ewan raised his brows at the damage—it was much higher than he expected. The explosion proved his estimation of a Step-1 creature wrong.
And so, he grinned and licked the blood dripping down his forehead cut.
Boom!
“Take that, you pigfucking cunt!” He opened a gap in the blood dome while the previous attack kept the female Severynth stunned and hurled two armed cores at her. Then, he bolted away.
“I’ll kill you, you motherfucker!” She screamed as the cores exploded.
“Fuck you too!” Ewan yelled and raced through the path that his attack on the beaver had opened.
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Status: Injured | Hypovolemia
Step-0 [9th Awakening]
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 2.0
Spirit: 18.0
Anima: [Fire – 6.0 | Ice – 9.0 | Blood – 7.0]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [9th Awakening]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
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Blood Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 31,032
Crelith: 4,049