Krey had stopped the lance but did still suffer some damage to her hand that she used to stop it, still, her old strength would not have allowed her to stop Welsh’s lance with her bare hands at all let alone with only minimal injury to her hand. Welsh could even notice the change in the atmosphere around her, it felt like she had changed into a completely different person. He pulled back slightly to observe, and Krey's allies began healing her once more. But after he killed those two Thackray started to win her fight, and Clide kept the others mostly suppressed for now. He lifted up his hand showing three fingers as he observed the new Krey in front of him. Three of his men surrounding Glomar the domain user moved out and went to pursue the final Ash user fighting Thackray. All the while he still observed Krey and came to an epiphany.
“You borrowed power from Drake Van Dresel didn’t you?” He said calmly, Drake Van Dresel led the Van Dresel faction not too long ago until his untimely death. Once Welsh's words reached Krey she involuntarily said “what” in shock at how he knew, and that quickly no less. Welsh could see it on her face, the look of utter surprise and slight fear.
Welsh had been able to recognize Drake Van Dresels Ash, he could read Ash like words on paper and so he could nearly instantly recognize the Ash of somebody like Drake who had such a unique footprint as long as he had seen their Ash beforehand.
“How would you know Drake, you bastard?” Krey hissed at him.
“We have… brief history… how do you think he died? Or did you really believe sickness killed him?” The look on Kreys face made him know she really did think Drake had died from sickness. “Oh, I am truly sorry Krey… Van Dresel, I honestly thought that you of all people who know of the true reason for his passing. In fact, I thought, at least partially, that's why you were here. Well no matter what, you will join him soon enough.” He said, and on cue as he had predicted Krey charged at him with fury. Welsh saw that Krey had gained Drake's Ash makeup so he could only assume she somehow got access to his powers through that chalice, and considering their relationship she should know about Drake's skills at least to some degree and Drake does well up close, so she would most likely charge at him while she thought he got distracted. Smart but well not smart enough to fool him. For being a last resort item given to Krey Van Dresel he honestly couldn’t help but be disappointed. He didn’t think the effects were bad, per se but he already fought Drake and killed him, there's no way a phony borrowed version could really pose any real threat to him. Though he might have to fight somewhat seriously to ensure victory now.
Welsh looked down at his lance as it twisted and churned into a new shape, a long polearm staff. While Welsh liked to use the lance the most in combat it wouldn’t work the best against Drake's skills. He propelled his staff forward to intercept Krey, she stuck her hand out and grabbed the polearm, the matter around it twisting resulting in the Ash getting jumbled up destroying the tip of the Ash polearm and anything near her hand. Lucky with a polearm this didn’t mean his weapon had become useless and only rather shorter, Welsh knew Krey could do that to destroy his weapon, but his long polearm could survive multiple of those attacks while maintaining a form still fit for fighting. He accelerated the polearm once more towards Krey with powerful force towards her left shoulder making contact and shattering her bone. Krey had gone to block that attack with the muscle memory of the body, but he had actually diverted it to her chest shattering multiple of her ribs, her mind couldn’t react fast enough to his switch of pace resulting in the body still trying to block his feint. The Drake he knew would’ve easily blocked that attack, it only had been a simple feint after all. This relic had been powerful but not enough to threaten him. He threw out another attack aiming for her right shoulder this time, Krey was getting closer, but Welsh had started drifting backward making closing the gap quite difficult combined with the strikes he threw out.
Welsh continued to thrust his polearm, mixing in real, fake, and feint attacks bruising and battering Krey, but Krey had got off a few more attacks onto his polearm making it only the length of a long sword now, but that still did its function of keeping Krey at a distance, but not for much longer. Welsh noticed her changing and she started to get more and more used to the new power she had obtained. It would only be a matter of time before she would be able to properly utilize Drake's power, still, it would never be to its full potential, Welsh knew that. Still though if she got close it might turn into a problem, he didn’t have the time to mess around with a strong opponent.
“Looks like your talent isn’t so bad, you're adapting quickly, I commend you,” Welsh said as he started to adapt himself, formulating a new plan on how to end this quickly. Krey didn’t respond and instead continued to use her body to brunt Welsh’s attacks while in an attempt to get closer, almost every bone in her body shattered or cracked. Drake specialized in close-quarters combat, but Krey didn’t, she liked to fight from a distance using throwing weapons while restricting her opponents. This made it extremely difficult for her to adapt to the new fighting style even though she would be considered very talented. So her plan had been simple, she knew she got Drakes's powers, but she didn’t get his mind so her mind was not used to the speed of Drake's body and couldn’t utilize it properly, therefore, she decided to shock her body and mind by taking Welsh’s attacks without restraint to get her mind to work in overdrive, hopefully catching up with Drake's body, giving her access to Drakes powers without as much of a handicap while that won’t be enough to defeat Welsh, especially if what he said about Drake had been true, but she didn’t need to beat him only buy enough time for the clock to run out. Her original plan had been to have her three elite allies distract Welsh by feinting attacks at the domain user, but two of them were butchered by him in an instant. Luckily from her peripheral vision, she could see the last one still in combat with the lantern user, but he looked like he was having a hard time. The lantern user looked to be a formidable foe perhaps about as strong as her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t help him; all she could do was continue to attack Welsh.
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She charged towards him once more this time her left hip bone shattered into hundreds of tiny sharp pieces ripping into her flesh in every direction like sharp little needles causing excruciating pain, beyond anything she had experienced before this fight, but now a common feeling as every attack he had made against her brought as much pain as that one if not more. She could only barely manage to keep going, she wanted to ball up and scream in agony but she knew that would end in her death which kept her going. If she stopped now she would die plain and simple.
She charged again this time her brain had been working in overdrive, her adrenaline pumping through her veins screaming at her. Her hand reached his polearm and she activated Drake's skill twisting the matter in front of her, twisting apart his weapon, this would make it smaller than even a basic sword. However, instead of pulling his polearm back preserving as much of it as he could, it continued forward towards her hand. Krey knew his plan but could only wince in anticipation. Once the skill was activated her hand got enveloped in an Ash bubble protective sheath to prevent damage to the hand while performing the skill. Drake could probably easily maneuver out of this bubble or deactivate but since this would be Krey’s first time, the time between the polearm going from the front of her hand to clashing into them wouldn’t be enough time for her to use that action of Drake’s skill since she had no experience doing so. So instead she put more power into the skill to try to disintegrate the polearm before it could reach its target, her hand.
But Welsh knew the skill's weakness, Drake spun matter in front of him in a circular spiral so attacking where the matter spun wouldn’t matter how fast he could attack, unless he could attack faster than light then maybe it could be possible, regardless to pull off his plan he didn’t need that kind of speed. Since the skill spun in a spiral it must have a center point where all the matter ends up, this center point would be mostly static so as long as he pierced that center point he needed speed would be greatly reduced to the point not only did it become possible for Welsh it could be done with relative ease. His polearm pierced through Krey’s spiral and made contact with her hand piercing through it, the polearm angled upward going towards her head. Krey couldn’t help but think the man in front of her had gone completely insane.
But she knew why he would pull such a desperate measure. His time had been running out, so he decided to take a risk to finish the fight once and for all. And the speed and position of the attack would make one assume his risk had succeeded. Krey had no way of extending her hand after it got skewered onto his polearm, and that would be her only real method of attack with this form, however, Welsh didn’t know of the final quality of this artifact. It could be deactivated at any time. Though after it got deactivated she wouldnt be able to reactivate it.
Welsh had timed his attack perfectly his polearm would pierce her skill killing her instantly right as his time would run out, however, Krey did deactivate her artifact, seemingly useless as it would put her in a weaker state, but regaining her old powers gave her the advantage in this situation. Activating her puppet master skills she poured her Ash into the skill pulling Welsh’s hand away, her body completely freezing as she did from her side effect.
This made her completely powerless to what would happen next if her last ditch effort wasn’t enough to stop the attack then she would be dead. She looked at the polearm as it made its way closer to her head without giving her any other opportunity to protect herself. Welsh lost his original appearance to her but now resembled her death. His completely blank expression as he was nearing the process of killing another his eyes looking as if they were looking somewhere else much more distant. Like he didn’t even acknowledge his current position. Then it happened his polearm touched her forehead, the touch felt unreal she couldn’t believe it, would she really die here? Her vision was obscured by the wooden appearance of the unreally large polearm. Then suddenly open ocean filled her vision. Followed by the red of her own blood pouring from her head. Welsh didn’t kill her, she had survived, barely. She could see many bodies start to float down into the Abyss one of them Orson among many of her allies.
“ORSON,” she yelled and pushed her already broken body to move to save Orson. Her remaining allies followed her some in an attempt to stop her, others in an attempt to support her, and some to save their own sinking friends. None of them were fast enough to stop or help her though, she scooped up Orson and immediately checked on his condition. She checked his pulse… Orson was dead.