The succession of these flashing lights, one green and then blue, was all the barbarian could see before the whole world whirled, wheeled, and finally hung upside-down.

Once Agravain had regained his wits, he saw that he had been thrown flat on his back, face upturned to the cloudless azure.

He had no time to wonder, as already the whistling sounds of these silver chains were cutting through the air again, this time louder, and more numerous.

Jumping onto his feet he saw that his foe had not only recovered from her stricken state but was now bolstered with allies.

Not the other girls from her group, no, for these still stood like unmoving statues at their respective crystals. And even then, Rania was still smashing her fists desperately on a blue crystal. So far her effort had only left several deep cracks on its surface. The one she was pouncing on and another of the same color blue were shining brilliantly, suffusing their surroundings with the hue, though not as blinding as before. On the opposite side of the area, two green crystals were likewise shining.

And so those who had come to Maria’s aid were not those girls, but inanimate objects.

Shields.

Large shields, heater-shaped, as tall as a man and twice as wide, their fronts crusted with blue gems. Upright they stood in great numbers. Not two, not three, but ten of them surrounded the girl, shielding her from every direction.

Through cracks in their formation, the barbarian could see a green light suffusing over the girl’s entire body. This light pulsated the same way the one from her locket had, only at a larger scale. Without being told the nature of this light, even he could guess that her body was healing: the posture was straightening, her limbs growing steady, her breaths less ragged. Although a look of terror still haunted her face, she was lucid now. And prepared.

“Now!” came a shout, the angel Hanael’s command rang clear and precise even with haste. “Green Two, Blue One, to White One, go!”

With practiced reflexes, two of the girls at the ground’s edge, one at the green crystal and the other at the blue one which Rania had cracked, at once opened their eyes and swiftly became animated after a long period of standing still. They abandoned their posts and ran with alacrity for the white crystal, their skirts fluttering in the breeze. In a heartbeat they joined their ally, again closing their eyes.

“What’s happening?” the barbarian roared, visibly confused.

Rania, who had been laboring on the blue crystal now abandoned, was equally confused, and had ceased her assault.

“Focus!” Jophiel cried shrilly. “Rania, keep hitting it! Agravain, stick to the plan, go for the girl!”

“What about the crystals?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?! The green ones heal, the blue ones generate shields! But they won’t heal as fast as you can hit her. Activate your rage bar!”

With a grunt, the barbarian charged for Maria behind the wall of shields. They did not seem so sturdy that he could not shatter with his club. But then again, those shields had managed to toss him a distance when they first appeared.

“Let them come! Must I chase you forever, girl?” the barbarian roared, feeling rage well up in his being.

His shoulder, struck by the explosive hook before, was even then regenerating rapidly.

As if to obey his rude command, the silver chains started moving. They slithered. But no hooks came for him this time. Instead, the chains wound across the shields, picking them up with their ever-elongating lengths. He could not be sure if there were only two of them anymore. There were an untold number of threads flowing from the girl’s trembling hands now. Though only two hooks as before hovered over the girl’s shoulders, watching, waiting.

While the rest rushed forth.

The shields he had thought inanimate now shot out, tethered to the chains.

He timed the club’s swing at the foremost one in the formation. It trembled violently under the impact and recoiled, yet remained intact. Knowing he could not take them lightly, he slammed once more with his full devastating might. This time it shuddered and the material yielded, the gems shattered and its structure snapped in half. But with its destruction there followed a forceful wave that exploded outward. Caught in this blast, the barbarian was flung backward off his feet.

This time prepared, he landed on his feet, squaring his shoulders against the chasing shields. Even in that short span, he could tell there were too few of them. A glance revealed several of them had headed for Rania, who was still absorbed in her task of destroying the crystal.

His nostrils were wide, the barbarian inhaled deeply, filling his broad chest with the invigorating morning air. A heaven-tumbling battle roar he loosed, rattling every heart and courage in the vicinity. A roar to bid the gentle morning breeze into wild-bettering gales, and wildly it blew, howling upon the scattering stones and even bringing a slight tremor to the rock-solid crystals.

Deeply shaken by the roar, Maria let out a scared whimper. And without a second thought, the shields that were coming down on Rania’s unguarded back suddenly wheeled towards the barbarian, joining the rest of their kind in a mad rush. Even the hooks hung back no more. And so all the shields and all the hooks came for him at once.

Having exerted himself to draw the attacks away from the maid, the barbarian couldn't react to the attacks from all directions at once. Savagely the shields tackled him, slamming their hard surface like giant bulls upon the unbalanced fighter. They pinned him in place, then the thunder-crackling hooks struck home, piercing the flesh of the arm he raised to block the strike.

The impact of the explosion was terrible enough to repel the nine shields pinning against the man.

But unlike before, Agravain’s vigor and toughness had been emboldened by his Rage. Searing through raw flesh as the maddening pain might be, it was nothing he couldn’t bear, once sufficiently enraged.

Now freed from the shield wall, Agravain bounced away. With a wide swing he shattered one and pushed several back. Another metallic arc he described in the air and one more shield lay broken.

The blast wave that came with each one’s destruction was something he could grow used to, something he could learn to deal with.

He braced himself as soon as one shuddered.

He adapted not in the way of a clever man observing and reasoning, but like a ferocious beast who develops new instincts through perilous experiences, by ingraining reflexes in the very movements of his sinews, getting more and more bedded in with the hostile environment.

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That the number of his foes had not much dwindled did not escape his notice. Every time a blue light flashed, more of them materialized next to Maria and rushed at him to join the ranks of their brethren.

Some of them headed towards Rania, but he could not afford a moment to let out another battle cry amidst the constant swinging of his arms, his elbowing and bracing for the impact each time a shield shuddered.

Rania would have to hold her own. Or die trying.

Yet their effort needn’t be futile. The tide of battle truly turned again when at last the awaited jangling sounds of shattered glass graced the ground.

Agravain allowed himself a glance. The maid was running away from the remains of the broken blue crystal, already headed for the next one, though ragged, bruised and chased by the shields.

“One down!” Jophiel announced. “We can do this yet! Keep steady on and pressure the girl as soon as you can, your Rage is still over sixty percent!”

By then there were only three of the shields still harassing the man. One of the hooks he had crushed with such force that bent it out of shape. The accuracy of their explosive strikes had also greatly diminished without as much harassment to hamper the barbarian’s movements.

In a moment he crushed another shield. Without wasting time on the remaining, the barbarian stormed out of their feeble encirclement, slipping under a sweeping hook, and soon were in the open field, at least out free.

Without a moment's waste, he headed straight for his main opponent, who now stood without a personal guard.

At his heels, hooks and shields gave chase, but none could reach him before he gained the girl. Another shield materialized as soon as he did, but this too, he rent apart with a decisive blow. By then having learned the patterns, he neatly sidestepped the subsequent blast wave, rotating his body to minimize even what little time it could afford the girl to escape.

To give his foe some credit, she did not drop her weapons this time. Nevertheless, the barbarian struck without an ounce of reservation. The assault flung Maria off her feet like a ragdoll. She gave a cry, but even before her body hit the ground, a green light enveloped her body.

Jophiel let out a sound of triumph, “Finish her now! We are close!”

So close.

But then, a light flashed, enshrouding the ground in red.

And it was just then that the hooks giving pursuit finally arrived. The twin bolts of lightning embed deep in his turned back. Even before he could give a grunt of surprise, they exploded. The scent of scorched flesh and boiled blood filled the air. His vision was painted red. The barbarian’s absurd vitality managed to keep him from a mortal wound, but a mark of vulnerability had been left nonetheless. The man fell on his knee, leaned on his club for support with a throaty grunt.

It was a strike as never before, he was instantly aware.

A few times during his struggle with the shields he had been struck by the hooks, but those had been nothing like this.

And in the moment, the disembodied voice rang through his mind.

Buffs applied to duelist’s attributes:

Player Character#4, Maria

Red prayer x1: +5 to final magical damage

And elsewhere there came Hanael’s commanding tone, “Red One, Blue One, Green Two, to White One now! Gold One, status report!”

Even as the barbarian leaped to his feet, his foe had retreated, taking the remaining shields and the hooks with her, for now abandoning further offensive attempts.

“Keep pressing!” Jophiel blared in his head. “Don’t let this drag out any longer, she’ll only get stronger at this rate!”

That much was obvious, not just the fact the red crystal, if left intact, would only further empower the girl’s magical attack, but also how the fight had dragged on for far too long, to the many detriments for their side.

And then there were the White and the Gold Crystal, both had yet to activate. He could not guess their functions, but there could be no doubt that they would only make his life harder in time.

The only option was to forge ahead, pressing every inch to tip the scales of this gradually growing lopsided battle.

A quick glance showed that Rania was alive still, though fatigue seemed to have caught up with her, flanked as she was by two of the shields without any prospect of breaking out towards the rest of the crystals. Before Maria were two others of the solid shapes, a deadly hook, and another bent but still capable of inflicting death. The rate at which the shields generated had been halved. But with the red crystal now poised to pulsate at intervals, he had not a second to waste.

Again the raging barbarian was charging, club swinging.

At once he demolished one of the shields that rushed out, simultaneously dodging a lunging hook.

The two green crystals had restored the girl to full health. She seemed vigorous and lethal now, as opposed to the barbarian who she had steadily whittled down.

No inferior was the rapid regeneration of Agravain’s body in his rage, but it would be meaningless if he could not end the fight soon. His only blessing was that till then, true to Jophiel’s words, his assaults would outpace her mounting defense--the intervals between the blue and green crystals activated effects.

It was close, so close.

He could feel his assaults tiding over the hanging balance at last.

All the shields shattered, the hooks batted away. He was once more upon the girl. He struck. The green light flashed.

Nor did he have the time to pay attention to anything other than inching towards the finishing blow.

But Hanael’s voice reached the edge of his hearing and consciousness.

She was not giving any new commands, instead, it sounded like a taunt. Like idle chatter at such an inappropriate time.

“It’s time you admit it, Jophiel,” Hanael’s laugh reached to high heavens, “You may excel at long-term strategies, thanks to your domain, but your tactical awareness is just terrible.”

“Shut,” Jophiel cursed curtly “As if using stationary supports is such a mindblowing tactic! But laugh while you still can!”

“It’s exquisite compared to what you’re capable of doing,” Hanael did not let off. “There’s the truth, and nothing you do will stop me from rubbing it in. You’re without finesse, no capability to adapt to the situation. You’re a brick in real-time combat!”

“Save that for when you’ve won! Agravain,” Jophiel’s voice turned shrill, “what the hell are you doing? Take her now! Get her!”

“I’m trying!” the barbarian bellowed.

Maria had completely switched over to running now, not even hitting and running. Seeming satisfied with leaving Rania to struggle with the shields, she was using the hooks to pull her out of Agravain’s reach, evidently wanting to buy time. Still, it was only by a hair’s breadth that he had been missing, and any second now...

“You’re blind as a bat!” Hanael laughed savagely, “Can’t you see? The victory is already mine. At long last, long last! Your fate is sealed.”

And as she said this, a white light covered the entire ruin.

“Gold One, to White One now!”

What followed the white light was a chain of effects.

These were not immediately obvious, but the barbarian could see a gleam of triumph in the chain-wielding girl’s eyes, and also one of relief. Whatever their plan was, its final phase had come at last.

It didn’t change a thing, however.

All he could do, would do, was charge ahead regardless, hoping to finally land a blow.

The metal club whirled towards the defenseless girl, or at least defenseless till the last moment. For ere the studded head landed a shield emerged between the weapon and the victim. It shattered, blasting both away from each other.

At this point, the barbarian had not noticed the odd occurrence. But what came next bred the first hint of suspicion.

Unfazed, the barbarian commenced another charge. He was closer now.

And again, a shield inserted itself in front of his weapon just at the last moment.

And the area was flashing red.

Flashing.

Flashing and flashing.

Like bathing in the warning light of a fire alarm.

Buffs applied to duelist’s attributes:

Player Character#4, Maria

Red prayer x2: +10 to final magical damage

Red prayer x3: +15 to final magical damage

Red prayer x4: +20 to final magical damage

Red prayer x5: +25 to final magical damage

...