Arthur was at least ten meters away from Axia leaving her enough time to cast the second tier spell Ice Shards to shred his face and any other exposed parts into a fine blend of blood and flesh. Even with his bursts of speed from using gusts of wind Arthur could not close the distance between him and his opponent.
The spell conjured at least twenty shards of ice the size of arrows in a few seconds that only waited a moment before they took off towards their target. Arthur, having no choice, hastily conjured a shield of earth to block the projectiles, but they were so numerous and powerful that he needed to replace it twice. And even with that he still was struck in his left shoulder three times, the shards didn’t pass his armor but the weight and speed behind them was enough to make his arm feel numb.
‘What the fuck was that!? She conjured so much ice in such a short amount of time! I would have needed at least forty seconds to conjure that many! It must have something to do with the words she said and those movements with her hands.’ Despite his shock Arthur did pay attention to how his opponent was fighting and planned to ask one of his teachers about it when he got the opportunity.
Arthur took off towards Axia after a moment to collect his thoughts. Axia on the other hand was panicking at how Arthur was able to shrug off such a dangerous attack. ‘How did he do that!? The only other person I have seen to do that was Lord Darius when he wanted to show us his immense power.’ Although it looked like Arthur was unaffected he was not. His left arm was still quite numb and the only reason he could still swing his sword was because he was using the strength in his right arm to do so even at the cost of tiring out his right arm.
Arthur did not lay off the attack, he swung his blade at Axia’s vitals forcing her to defend herself or suffer debilitating wounds that would leave her like Hegio. She used her hydromancy to try and force Arthur back and give her some room but Arthur would either use his own mana to disrupt her attempts to restrain him, or when she tried to conjure earth for geomancy he would just strike at it before it even fully formed.
Soon Axia could not keep us and like Hegio she felt the burning blade of the longsword pierce through her chest into her lungs. She fell to the floor and desperately tried to breathe only for the air to find its way out through the hole in her chest.
Arthur turned to Darius and pointed his burning longsword at him in a direct challenge. “Is this all your blood spawn have to offer!? I am quite disappointed!” Arthur shouted so that everyone in the room could hear his taunts to their leader. On the throne Arthru could tell by the look on his face that Darius was not pleased by the choice of words and sat up as he crushed one of the arms of his throne.
Arthur smiled slightly, recalling when he was angry while sparring with both Hambel and the off duty guards in the barracks in the north sector of Antium. When he did his opponent always took the opportunity to use it against him or wait for him to tire out before going for the final blow.
“I will show you disappointment, you sack of flesh!” Darius leapt from his throne towards Arthur and in a matter of seconds was right in front of him with a conjured mace made from earth. Arthur managed to block the strike but he felt like he was losing his grip on his sword as his arms felt numb. Darius was also very fast not leaving Arthur a chance to strike back leaving the flames on the blade practically useless at this point.
Arthur tried to conjure a shield of earth to block some of the attacks but they were broken before they could even fully form, Arthur could not keep up with Darius’s empowered physique. Soon Arthur no longer had the energy to block the mace, Darius took the opportunity to strike him from down low in the gut and send him flying a few meters through the air.
Arthur lost his grip on his sword and it slipped away and clanged on the floor just over a meter away, the flames quickly fading from the metallic blade. The strike left a deep mark on the armor plate that absorbed enough of the impact to keep him from dying, but Arthur felt as if all the air in his lungs was forced out in that one strike. “I hate to say this, but you would have made an excellent vampire Arthur. You defeated all three of my other children without as much as a scrape. It is such a shame that you need to die like this to keep this place hidden though.” Despite the sad tone he used Darius looked quite happy at Arthur clutching his chest while in such pain. He raised his mace above his head ready to crush the small annoyance like a bug.
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“I don’t think so.” A young feminine voice appeared behind Darius as he was about to finish off Arthur causing him to spin around with his mace ready to smash the face of whoever was foolish enough to get in his way. But his weapon found only empty air and instead he found a dagger sticking out of his back.
He quickly removed the small weapon from his back and tossed it to the side as the wound began to slowly heal at a speed visible to the eye. When he turned back he found that Arthur instead of being right next to him was instead laying against a wall. “So we have an illusionist now do we?” Darius looked around the room for anything that might betray the hidden enemies location such as a shimmer in the light. “Well I don’t think you will be able to stop me if you stay hidden with your magic!” Darius shouted out to the room of now frightened cultists.
“Now who said anything about me stopping you.” Darius was a bit confused by the illusionist statement, or at least he was until several of the windows shattered and men and women in full plate armor depicting a sword with golden flames pointing upwards with a pair of white wings on the hilt. The paladins had arrived to bring a swift end to the cult and its leader.
Each of the paladin's weapons were burning with a bright golden flame, a symbol of their faith in Solarius and the trust he had in them to fulfil his will. The leader of the paladins, a man by the name of Aulus Gallus, was at the front of the line and swiftly approached Darius taking note of the corpses of the blood spawn as he passed. ‘It looks like young Arthur of Dom Badaher has some skill to take on two vampires on his own. Perhaps I should keep an eye on him.’
“We finally meet Darius. I have heard so much about you and your operations.” Aulus began walking towards the lone vampire with his own burning mace and shield forged from steel and consecrated in the holy city itself.
“It's Lord Darius to you weak mortals!” Darius shouted trying to hide the fear he felt at the sight of the paladins. ‘I could probably escape this place on my own. What's another 18 years, I can always start again.’ Darius was more than willing to leave his followers to their doom, if they couldn’t escape on their own then they aren’t worthy of his attention anyways.
‘The only problem is the illusionist girl, she could be watching me I would never even know. But that is a problem for later, for now I need to deal with the lead paladin and then I can escape in the ensuing chaos.’ Darius smiled as he came up with his plan leaving Aulus thinking that it was due to blind arrogance and pride.
‘Pride goes before the fall, little vampire.’ The two quickly engaged in combat with Aulus blocking the first strike with his shield. At first it appeared that the two were matched in power and skill but as the fight went on Darius slowly began losing ground and was soon forced to be on the defensive. The only reason Darius was so powerful was not from his skill in the mace or magic that he acquired with his long life, but due to the overwhelming physical and magical power he naturally had as a vampire.
Darius, like his blood spawn, had never faced a real challenge for a long time. He was always sure that whoever he was facing was weaker than he was, leaving him unprepared for when someone was easily able to match him with skill alone. Darius could see that he was on the losing end so he attempted to conjure a matching earth shield to block some of Aulus’s strikes but they only lasted a few strikes due to the short cast time and the power behind each strike.
One strike slipped through and shattered the bones in his left arm, then his right arm and then his chest. Darius fell to the floor writhing in agony with all the broken bones, he could of course recover from them but it would take both time and energy he did not have. “Titia, bring Arthur over here. I think he deserves to be the one to kill this vile creature of the night.”
Titia the illusionist appeared next to Arthur who’s jaw had dropped watching Aulus utterly destroy Darius. His skill and technique had clearly been developed after many battles, any excessive movements deemed as unnecessary and removed. Unlike Darius’s which was a result of simply overwhelming his opponents with sheer speed and power.
Titia helped Arthur stand and walk over to Aulus. Aulus handed Arthur’s sword back to him and took a step back from the now crippled vampire. “Without your assistance we never could have found the hiding place of this vile beast, that in my opinion makes the death of the vampire lord your to take if you so wish.” Aulus spoke to Arthur like a grandfather talking with his grandson.
“Thank you sir paladin.” Arthur smiled and took the handle in his right hand in a back handed grip and walked over to Darius standing with his blade ready to stab. “Looks like I made the right decision.”
“You little bastard! This will not be the end of me! I will hunt you down and anyone you care about until you are nothing but a-” Arthur stabbed Darius through the gut and retracted the blade before doing it again and again until a familiar sight appeared before him.
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+ 150 Exp
+ 150 Exp
+ 400 Exp
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