Meera shot out more mirrors from her armor, which scattered all over the second floor. She took off six chakrams, held them between her fingers, and launched them at the mad researcher, whose eyes were covered with his open hand. She had aimed at his left hand, the one holding the Crystal of Darthin. But he turned, so most of her chakrams hit his sides.
One flew behind his back, and Meera teleported to that one. She was about to slash his back but didn’t want to touch the dark aura. She extended a hand and drilled a Mirror Shard Barrage into Edwyn’s back.
Again, he didn’t cry out until she recalled her chakrams, and they cut through his dark aura to cut up his real body. He used Shadow Step to appear on the cavern’s opposite side, but given his mass, it wasn’t much farther from where Meera was.
Onyx went for his legs straight away as Shade assaulted his head. Before Meera had even touched the ground, she Stepped to the mirrors on the second floor, which was behind his field of vision.
By now, all her chakrams had returned to her. She tossed them at his head, making more of his aura fizzle. She wasn’t doing any real damage. Her only goal was to get rid of this aura, which was his armor, and then she could kill him. She had almost done it before.
He turned around immediately and used a Phantom Strike on her, but she was gone to his other side long before his claws fell. He smashed through the floor, crushing the tunnel underneath, making the place darker, or it would have become darker if not for her ghost friends.
“Meera, we can’t keep this up for long,” Shade shouted.
She figured this would happen. She teleported to the farthest point in the cavern from Edwyn, which happened to be on the second floor. She raised both hands towards him and launched two mighty beams of Mirror Shard Barrage. A mix of light and mirror shards drilled into the Undead Wraith’s shadowy aura, destroying it, piece by piece.
This time, something happened. Edwyn was thrown against the second floor, and his dark aura armor fizzled at the point of impact. She saw it thinning around the edges. Her Mana fell considerably with each second.
Come on, just a little bit more.
Edwyn roared, and a beam of darkness exploded out of his hand and came straight for Meera. She had no option but to get out of the way. She could not tank that hit, even if she put up three Mirror Shields if Mirror Shield could even stop an attack like that.
She appeared on the first floor below the beam and started throwing chakram after chakram into his leg. She recalled the chakram as soon as it connected and had the next primed for launch by the time the first returned to her hand. She was like a chakram throwing machine.
Above her, the monster was still shooting his beam without realizing she was down here, nibbling away at his leg. Well, that is what happens when you have no pain perception. Should have thought of that mister torture scientist.
Meera spoke too soon. The lead researcher’s beam fizzled out, and he found her. He kicked at her, and she dodged, but mid-dodge, she teleported to his other leg and went to work. So, it seemed like she meant to do that.
Oh, I love Mirror Step.
He tried stomping this time, but that didn’t work either. Up top, Shade kept trying to dive bomb into his eyes, putting him off-balance. He smashed a hand down on the second floor to steady himself, but Cinders ran for him, shining bright as a star.
She didn’t stop to scare him away. She jumped on his hand and bit him. Edwyn cried out, and wherever her light touched, his dark aura evaporated. Her Light of the Dead was literally pushing the wraiths away.
“Cinders, let go!” Meera yelled.
She didn’t. Meera saw it happen before Edwyn raised his hand, turned it into a fist, and smashed Cinders into the second floor.
“No!” Shade cried and dived straight for her.
Meera teleported to the second floor to get a better look. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any mirrors close to where Cinders lay. It took too long for Meera to realize that the rat was a ghost, and being smashed against a stone floor should not have done anything to her. Shade made the same mistake and landed beside Cinders, who was mostly okay, aside from a hazy darkness encroaching on her light.
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“I’m okay,” Cinders said as Shade landed beside her.
Meera breathed a sigh of relief too soon.
“You damned animals!” Edwyn raised a hand and shot them both with the same beam of darkness he had shot at her.
Cinders and Shade had only a moment to look up as the darkness swallowed them.
“NO!” Meera roared. She jumped from mirror to mirror to get to them. Each moment that passed was too much for either of them to bear. When she was close, she extended a hand and erected a layer of three Mirror Shields, but they did nothing. The beam crushed them like they were nothing.
Meera threw all her chakrams in quick succession at the giant’s face. Only then did he stop. He faltered a step back, and Onyx pushed him back some more.
Meera took that moment to tend to her fallen friends and gasped as her eyes teared up. “Shade, Cinders...”
Both their lights were out, and darkness was eating at their ghostly forms. She knew what it was. The same had happened to her when his beam had hit her.
“T-This is…bad…I feel m-myself…fading,” Shade said with much difficulty.
Meera gasped. “No…”
“Looks like…we…don’t have…long,” Cinders added.
“So, we d-don’t…get to e-e-escape…this cave.” Shade’s whole form flickered.
“No, I made you a promise to get you out of here, and I will. Please just hold on.”
“M-Meera, it hurts…too much,” Cinders said, and Meera could swear she was tears in her eyes.
Shit. Shit. Shit. My Vitalize won’t work for them. Shit. What do I do? She was about ready to pull her hair out when she yelled, “Onyx, get up here. Push the darkness away with your light.”
“B-But…” He was busy running between Edwyn’s legs, trying to trip him up.
“I know you’re deathly scared of them, but they are our friends, and you must help them. We will get out of here together.”
“O-Okay,” he didn’t sound sure, but he broke off from the giant, dashed up the stairs, and came to a slow stop close to Meera.
“I know you can do this. You mowed down a horde of wraiths to save me. Now, they need your help. You can’t fail them and let your fear win.”
He moved a little closer and nodded. “I-I will do my best.” His light shone brighter as he moved closer. “But he’s coming.”
“I’ll take care of him.”
Meera turned her attention to the giant undead, the so-called researcher. She took off two chakrams and, using a bit of her Mana, fused them into one, creating another Level 2 chakram. She reached around and took off the one she had created earlier. With one in each hand, she ran towards the edge, towards the monster.
Edwyn laughed triumphantly and came for her. As Meera jumped off the edge, she threw both chakrams at him. She was not prepared for what she saw. She was not using Druvis Power, but still, the chakrams blasted out of her hands. Their speed must’ve been double the regular-sized ones.
The chakrams delivered Meera’s fury to the undead monster. As they collided against his aura, it was shaved in half, much to Edwyn’s shock. His eyes were so widened they threatened to pop from his rotted head.
Before she landed, she jumped to one of her big chakrams, which was sailing on by. She tossed it back at Edwyn, who had the good sense to use Shadow Step to get out of the way this time. Meera jumped to it again and waited for him to return, and as soon as he did, she threw it at him again.
He vanished into a big cloud of smoke again, but this time, he didn’t return, and she realized he had gone into hiding by activating Shroud of Shadows. So, she activated hers as well and saw him towering over her, hand extended in her face.
He blasted her with the same dark beam whose effects Shade and Cinders were fighting against right now. She Stepped away just barely, appeared on his other side, and threw the chakram at his leg.
By the time he noticed, it was too late; his dark aura had taken another dive. He turned and brought his beam with him, scarring the earth black leaving dark vapor to pollute the air. Meera jumped away with ease. He shut off his beam, and Meera threw her chakram at him, propelled by a Mirror Shard Barrage.
The two hit like a gong ringing a great temple bell. Edwyn’s whole form shuddered. Keeping an eye on her Mana, she jumped to her other big chakram, which was wedged in the wall to Edwyn’s right. She pulled it off and jumped close to him, where he could not dodge as quickly. She went to work on him, cutting his aura to bits.
He used Shadow Step to avoid her, but as always, she was ready. She recalled her second big chakram in anticipation. He popped out on the second floor, huffing, but she was on him in an instant. She cut into his dark aura. She stepped behind him when he tried to stomp on her, then returned to his front and continued her assault.
Edwyn shrieked. “How are you doing this?”
“Simple. You’re too slow. As it turns out, it’s the same in this world as the one I come from. The faster you are, the deadlier you are.”
Thank you, Mom, for forcing me to go to the Taekwondo lessons.
Edwyn used Shadow Step to move down below again. Meera didn’t follow right away. She threw a chakram at him first, which he side-stepped.
Meera smirked and used Mirror Step and caught her chakram mid-air. Then threw both chakrams at his arm—the one holding the Crystal of Darthin.
The first one killed his dark aura entirely and wedged itself in his arm. Edwyn cried and flinched, which threw off her second’s aim but somehow made it better. The second hit the first, which severed his arm clean off.
The arm holding the Crystal fell to the painful cries of a mad researcher.