She had charred the side that contained the lust mage, after all. But she didn’t really care about winning that bet, her objective being raising some competition so the other three mages felt pressured to fight the meat monster harder.
Five of the monster arms extended, a cape of furry hair growing on them. Velvet recognized the similarities with Nereus’ magic.
She was far away from it, and, since the Predator Paradigm was made for close combat, the monster’s target were the three other mages. Velvet used that time to pull on the chain, rolling it loosely on her hand.
It was broken, but even then, it had restrained a demon for a long while. If she got hold of the other parts, and combined them with her chaining charm…
The other parts were close to where Udulluay and the demon were fighting. The skin parts of the demon where Udulluay’s feathers had melted were growing lumps. One of those lumps erupted, breaking the skin, a rain of bloody feathers falling out, and a small owl head poking out, its body following and flying away.
A second lump started showing signs of eruption.
Velvet looked at the newborn Udulluay, a crawling sensation running through her back. She almost made an oath to never touch an Udulluay again.
Still, since the demon was much bigger than Udulluay, a few births didn’t diminish its size that much. But it looked busy trying to fight back…
Velvet looked at the other parts of the chain, then at the meat monster, who was fighting the three mages with its newborn claws. No one could afford to pay attention to her.
She applied some magic to the chain that she was holding. As an artifact, one didn’t need to be of the same Paradigm to use it, being a mage was enough.
The chain curled and moved to her will, so she made one end curl itself on a pillar, and the other end curled on her waist. That way, if something unexpected happened, she could drag herself back with ease.
She started slowly moving towards the broken cage, paying attention to both fights with every step. She had seen the demon crushing mages just using its body, so she had no intention of trying her luck.
The cage was immense, even after getting mangled, and the longest piece of chain was dangling from its edges. It had broken in more than two pieces, so Velvet grabbed the one closest to her and applied magic to it, slowly untangling it.
She paid special attention to the parts stuck to the cage’s broken bars, not wanting to make any noise.
Velvet was recollecting the third piece, when she noticed that the demon glimpsed at her. Almost imperceptibly, and it went back to fighting Udulluay at the same moment, but she already knew how that demon worked.
It had waited until the auction mage was just in front of it to kill him and escape, after all.
So Velvet grabbed a handful of chains and wrapped them around the cage, putting it between her and the demon, who launched itself towards her right at that moment.
Its body broke through the cage with ease, making another hole on it, and was met with one of the chaining charms, suddenly stopping on its tracks.
Crack. One of the translucent chains broke, together with the spell, the demon becoming free again and keeping its charge, being followed closely by Udulluay.
So such an opponent is only held back by two seconds… Velvet had used the first chain to lift herself to the ceiling, letting the demon take the ones she had wrapped on the cage. Of course, our difference in power is abysmal, so once I become stronger, the chains will follow me.
Wrapping another chain to a second pillar, her eyes met the demon’s again. It opened the broken thing that was a mouth a few seconds ago, speaking again in that strange language. The sounds came twisted and difficult to understand, the curse barely taking effect this time.
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“Hyde, do you know what it keeps saying?”
“You’re better not knowing the exact meaning, only that it raises the dead.”
Udulluay used that moment to claw one of the demon’s eyes out, and another Udulluay clawed the other. Velvet managed to count ten Udulluays in total, but most of them were pulling out the sleeping mages from the room.
Taking advantage of the demon’s blindness, she moved down from the ceiling to the floor, her sights now on the meat monster.
The three mages had fared well on their own, half monster done for, so Velvet was fine with just supporting them.
“Five to two.” One of the mages said when Velvet approached them.
“As in you three or individual?”
“Just me.” The mage sounded proud.
“Good job! I'm so proud of you!” She used the most cheerful and annoying tone she could make, while rolling the chains.
Having an idea, she put the remaining chaining charm on the chains, planning to use it on the demon.
Noticing her intentions, and having previously been victim of both types of chains, the demon rolled on the ground, getting rid of the feathers growing in it, before using a spell that started inflating its body, a green liquid dripping from its wounds.
Once it fell on the ground, a hissing corrosive noise sounded, the floor melting.
Like the demon, Velvet also noticed its intentions.
I prefer death to captivity. And you all are coming with me.
Changing her mind, she ran towards the meat monster, who got ready to attack her, using Vibora’s snakes.
Velvet didn’t waste time defending herself, letting them bite her arms, taking deep breaths, all while the demon kept expanding, even when, together with the green corrosive liquid, feathers kept growing.
She saw the other mages also running away, not bothering trying to stop it. The demon hit its growing limit, a few cracks appearing.
Velvet’s body hit the meat monster at that same moment, and used the chaining charm, feeling the bloody meat getting chained and falling on top of her, and she took a deep last breath.
A muffled explosion, way more potent than Velvet’s figurines, sounded, the meat on top of her vibrating.
Keep calm, the more scared I get, the faster I’ll run out of oxygen. She told herself, while the monster tried to break free from the chains, causing the blood, bones and pieces of dirty clothes to scrap against her.
The sizzling noise of corroding meat got to her, and even when the monster was too dead to feel pain, its reanimated nerves still reacted, shaking its body.
Udulluay knows I am alive, right? No, don’t think like that. I need to wait until the monster is fully dead, and then use the chains to tear a hole in its body.
My paper figurines… the ones outside are broken, and I cannot explode the ones with me that close.
I can make a tiny hole with the chains, make one of them go out and explode the outer part of the monster’s body, clearing it from the poison.
The monster stopped its struggle at that moment, the poison finally killing it.
I can hold out twenty seconds more, I don’t want the risk of the poison on the ceiling falling on me when I get out.
Velvet started moving the chains, searching the points where the bodies were from different mages, making a hole on it. She made it perpendicular, so that poison wouldn’t fall on her.
She pushed up, making a bit of room for the figurine to move on the tunnel, causing sloshing sounds to be made.
Don’t breathe, I’ll puke if I do. She had already tasted some things when the monster fell on her, so she pressed the burning need to breathe away.
Slowly, too slowly, the figurine was crawling out, until Velvet felt it start to melt.
Boom! The meat pile shook again, losing half its current size.
Another one. Feeling dizzy already, Velvet called back the chains, putting another figurine in the tunnel.
You only need to do half the path, hurry, hurry. The seconds became eternal, Velvet almost exploded the figure before time, but it finally arrived at the designated position, exploding.
Unable to keep on holding, Velvet pushed the remaining meat away with the chains, taking a deep, deserved breath, coughing and spitting the things that got in her mouth.
The air smelled awful, of burning feathers and meat, the remaining gas of the poison burned at her throat, and her whole person was covered in blood and entrails, but, even then, it was the best air she had ever breathed.