Tiber slammed into the ground with a thunderclap, realizing how little of their own plan he'd manage to keep to as soon as he saw that smirking bastard. The earth buckled and heaved with his arrival, his heavy boots throwing off long tongues of electricity. Slowly raising his head to lock eyes with the Hero. Realizing how much he'd grown under that simple push, remembering the man he'd been in his conviction that he once could've become a Saint.
Lucian himself had said it, but Tiber had lost his will to continue on so petty a path as hired murder, even for a good cause, and his potential went with it. But now? Legs bent to lessen the shock, he became fluid, springing like a cat directly for Aurelius. Rapist, murderer, a man who hurt others for the simple fun of it, killing fifty slaves in a fortnight to become something of a 'legend' among Tiber's countrymen. As if that were funny.
Tiberius Scarr was a killer, he had done many foul things, but never had he regarded himself even near so vile a bastard as Aurelius.
Tiber could not help himself, and even if he died, leaving a single bruise on that preening cunt would be more significant an act that he had perhaps ever achieved in all his life.
“BLUR!” Tiber shot forward, strings of shadow dancing around him. “OVERWHELM!” Longsword still held in his right, a wide headed hammer appeared in his left to slam against Aurelius' arrogant chin, sending him skyward. “ECLIPSE!” His blade barely seemed to move, a razor's edge of silver energy coalescing in a storm of crescents raining onto the Hero's body and tossing him around. No damage just yet, but he'd push himself and go further – buying time. Tyr would arrive and save the children, Tiber had faith that they would not be left alone, and that what his surrogate son and adopted nephew was doing was righteous to.
“So much for all that damn talking...” Sigi cursed, erupting from beneath the ground, completely dry despite the spray of water following in her wake. Landing on her feet and pivoting hard on her hips, swinging with all of her enhanced might to strike the one they called Caspian. He hadn't been ready for the sudden eruption, barely able to get his saber in the way of her heavy jorunn as it struck his guard and sent him flying. Weaklings, all of them were weaklings, no matter how many times they managed to resurrect they'd never be anything but.
Flickering fire-lights and the cracking whips of mana emissions burst all around – the mages present realizing they were being attacked, somewhat belated. But their inability to die had made them arrogant, there were no replacements anywhere near enough to reinforce their chosen position if only Sigi could whittle their numbers down.
Dodging a deflected spell from the opening salvo, she dove and rolled towards where the children were kept. All of them still for the time being, caught in Bergen's magic perhaps. With a stomp, a dome of hard earth covered them, allowing her to take position alongside Samson and stand vigil in observation of the erratic engagement.
“Watch my back Sam, I can crack this ward!” Sigi cried.
His response came in the form of fist striking breastplate, a loud clang and wide stance in anticipation of whatever target made itself apparent. It was loud, so very loud, and the taste of mana on the air was ripe in this place.
Alex came in hot, propelling herself through the air on a glide spell, missing Morden by mere centimeters. Swinging her wicked ranseur about in an arc to catch his projection at her back without turning. While his magic was impressive, especially in its quickness, it was a frail thing indeed to someone capable of wide spread control fields. Blade wards or a divination apprentice would make a mockery of him. A quick series of blinks through the space in a bid to outrun her field was met with a finger of electricity that settled on his back, drawing all the rest to him in a combustion that tore the top half from his bottom, killing him instantly in a fragmentation grenade of charred flesh. Her only regret that he'd not had the time to scream before being taken.
Weaklings.
One down.
“Duck!” Mikhail cried. Arcing ripples in the air nearly striking her, taking a few locks of hair with it. The auramancer made herself known, a warped mask of a face. Heavy and hot of breath, splaying her clawed gauntlets and padding dexterously towards Alexis.
Two heavy arrows slammed into Shine's chest courtesy of the ever silent and steely eyed Fennic, stopped her wild charge – but it wasn't enough to put her down just yet. Alex didn't spare a glance back, leaping forward to meet her opponent at a more advantageous position. Zoning her out in a span where the much longer reach of her polearm would throw Shine onto the back foot, not allowing her time to manifest her aura.
Lina was at her back, rattling off lancing streams of water. Using her rapier like a conductor's baton and displaying that teamwork paladins were so known for. She would strike, forcing Shine to defend, and Alex would ensure that she was not given the chance to properly counter. She had been training with her spears for years now under the watchful gaze of two tutors, confident that there were few who could equal her when her enchantments were up. Arcane Armor deflected what attacks the woman did manage to make, Alex's insane speed pushing Shine into a fighting retreat.
“You can't win!” For all the wounds patterning the woman's lightly armored body, Shine didn't flinch in the slightest, only growing more confident the longer the fight went on. She might not be able to push forward for a proper combination, that which she was best at, but auramancy was a poorly understood school and few were ready to fight it. It was the projection of raw mana not unlike that of a kineticist but offering far more control. Telekinesis, if the kinesis in question was the near undetectable wavering in the air that bypassed a great many detection spells. Not just for offense, she could keep a hard barrier around herself at all times to ensure any attacks aimed for her vitals left little more than a cut, slipping off her second skin.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I dunno. I think we're doing quite well, all told,” Alex grunted in reply, slipping dexterously under her guard, spear collapsing until it resembled a bladed scepter, driving it up and toward the woman's spine. The satisfying, slick feeling of blood running over her hands to signify a proper strike. These Fingers weren't so impressive after all, even with those gifts of theirs, Alexis had advanced but they had remained so very stagnant. “Sigi! Get the children out of here!”
“I can't!” Sigi called back through the mess of people running all over. Their numbers becoming a disadvantage, all coming in at once after Tiber had lost the plot in his impulsive engagement of Aurelius. “They won't move... They must be under some kind of charm or anchor, I can't even lift them!”
Shit, Alex frowned, turning to pull her spearhead from Shine's back before realizing that the woman's hand was holding the haft. She'd clearly struck bone, the spine, how wasn't she...?
“Alex, watch out!”
Alex turned, a creeping feeling along her back with the extended blades of a gauntlet prised to open her throat. Reflecting as balefully in the cold moonlight as those crescent moons creasing Shine's sadistic eyes. Alex tried to pull away, but auramancy was not so simple as shooting blades, it was the outward projection of magical force. Able to freely control bands of energy at will, in this case being a cage the rough shape of Alex's body holding her in place.
All she could do is tilt her head to the side, saving her throat but feeling hot lancing agony as her face was made a mess. Gouging it and sending her vision into red, screaming and falling back – releasing her hold on her ranseur.
Lina pounced, met on the other side by Okami as they went high and low. It was a dirty attack but Alex was in a position that didn't leave much in the way of consideration for honorable engagement. Baited into believing her wards would hold at so close a range with an auramancer, who'd merely projected an aura inside the effective radius, displaying that nuance of control. Still one armed, Okami dropped into a crouch before shooting up. His knee meeting Shine's barrier with full force. Lina swung her rapier in a wide arc inappropriate for such a refined weapon, slamming the flat end against the woman's knee.
Shine did not move, barely reacting at all. All of her focus was on Alex at the moment and neither attack had done much of anything. Even Lina's desperate attempt to freeze her limbs and stop her hand continuously cutting at Alex's face under those wild cackles did nothing but slow her for the briefest moment. The woman was using implants that bolstered her shock resistance and allowed her to modulate her internal temperatures. The bangles on her biceps actively targeted the chill settling onto her limbs and lit up with scarlet runes.
As they had prepared, so too had the Fingers. And so it became clear, possibly, why they'd allow these high profile targets to go fighting out in the desert, so they could be observed.
All Shine had ever liked was fighting. The rush of steel whistling through the air, cutting and being cut herself. She didn't care who it was for, the cause and motivation were irrelevant. There didn't need to be one, and this was much more preferable to getting banned from the arenas again for excessive brutality. Feeling the soft flesh of so beautiful a woman, a nobleman's daughter made the world's most exciting filet.
Shine let Alexis Goldmane keep the eyes, better to leave this mark on her so she could remember it forever. See it. The fool of a pompous noble prick that had foregone a helmet and made herself such an easy target. Laughing as she played with the wet folds of lacerated cheek before growing bored again, kicking the woman away. There were four people on her now and they didn't seem interested in letting her have her fun.
Never would. It was always 'no, not my friend!'. Shine cackled.
They shouldn't have tried to match her to begin with. It was odd, really. Perhaps a spot of hypocrisy, but Shine couldn't use a helmet herself. The more metal on her body, the more warped and deformed her aura would become. A common weakness with kineticists, she didn't know how the Raven did it, but a helmet would make her far weaker than wearing armor anywhere else on her body. That was typically why mages gravitated away from body shrouding plate and opted for robes that wouldn't disperse or interfere with their mana projection. It was just worse for all things related to the arcane. In the exact opposite of this standard, more raw elemental emissions suffered little to no such inconvenience, and still most of these mages ran about with no helmet on.
She released the neck this 'princess' of theirs, disappointed in how easy it had been. The woman was a shocking talent but she was naive and inexperienced. A mana skin derivative offset from her body, appropriate for a duel where mages wouldn't typically close into range of the membrane. It looked simple to the naked eye, but the ability to condense raw mana into tangible form lacking any affinity to be offset was the natural bane of evocation specialists.
Alex crumpled to the dirt, screaming and clutching at her face, Magnus replaced Lina as the latter dragged her body from the field and toward the position of Sigi and Samson.
“Alex!” Sigi rushed over, or tried to. Samson grabbed her, tugging her out of the way of the returned Morden. Or rather three of them. Narrowly avoiding a sweeping blow from two scimitars and another that tried to leap on her in what must've been an attempt at a grapple. She caught the man by his neck with a look of disgust and squeezed until the magic holding the tangible reflection turned to dust.
Everything had devolved far faster than they'd expected, and as it would appear some of those 'pillars' riddled with compartments of replacement bodies were around here somewhere. Dropped down from on high, a troubling development.
That was the issue when the Fingers had a near unlimited attempts at engagements and ambushes. Lina watched from her huddled position over Alex as Magnus matched the auramancer. 'Matched' being the operative word, perhaps, considering he was completely unable to break her guard. The woman was playing carefully, adjusting her approach to an opponent that fought very similar to herself and writhing like a snake, in and out of his attempts to silence her with a single blow.
Mages... It was always 'I need to do this or that' and never enough surrendering to their instincts. Fighting with raw force or practiced dueling convention rather than blending the arcane with the martial. A spin and a lateral blow from Shine's heel sent Magnus spiraling off into the distance.
“And here I was thinking we'd be having some fun today,” Shine laughed mockingly, “Guess I was wrong.”
Okami kept pace with her much better, rapidly wheeling his legs around in whirling kicks, arm clutched close to his chest to keep his gravity centered. But he wasn't used to this form. It wasn't shape shifting in the traditional sense. Besides his maintaining of his strength, he was like a toddler in the body of an adult. Unused to his human senses, not noticing Caspian who had not been properly contained. The man reappearing at his back and skewering him straight through with his ringed saber, dropping the wolf made man to the ground.