Siren was breathing heavily, blood dripped from the fingers of his injured arm. The black sword the elemental lord had sheared through his armor and despite the earth essence, it still cut deep enough to bleed. He was a soldier, flowing blood was the proof of life. So he gritted his teeth and raised his ax with his good hand.
The fight with the rest of the lesser elementals was winding down, Siren did not know who was winning. He assumed it was his people, the white light that the illuminators could attack with flashed every once in a while. Only a few more minutes and Siren would get some help. A few minutes was a long time.
“I am not like those useless sovereigns, I kill my prey before a saint can show up,” The elemental lord hissed.
Siren was confused by this, why would a priest be a problem. Dark was not an evil element, just creepy. He contemplated throwing his shield aside, the arm it was strapped to was injured, so he could not really use it. It still protected his left side, after a brief assessment he decided would be worth the penalty to his speed.
He charged in, it was better to be on the offense when facing an enemy like this. The elemental lord fought like an assassin, he would lose in psychological warfare, but had greater ability in direct combat.
The lord sneered as it parried Sirens sword, only to get kicked into the wall. Siren followed up, but the lord side stepped and slashed at Sirens ribs. The shield turned out to be a good idea as the sword rasped off it. Unfortunately his ax got wedged in the wall. Siren groaned inwardly, his peak tier three abilities made ridiculous situations like this possible. The wall was made of metal, normally cutting through two inches of it was not possible, but Siren was also the strongest person he knew.
He had to release his weapon and grab his shield with his good hand. Another strike slammed into the shield, taking another chunk out of it. The elemental lord’s oversized scimitar was surprisingly capable of carving the ironwood face of Sirens shield apart, despite scimitars being designed to cut though cloth armor.
“Don’t let them up the tunnel,” Those words were shouted by Kale, “Get them, every one will die if to many escape.”
No, Siren wanted to scream. He needed help, kill the lord first then his minions. Another blow staggered Siren and he was out of luck. He tripped over a weight from one of the pieces of equipment. Landing shield up he took another strike, before a heavy weight landed on the shield. Siren’s arms buckled and the shield was forced down into his chest.
He found himself staring up at the skull face of the elemental lord. It looked evil, no skin on the face, no hair, and void like eyes. The point of the sword artifact was hovering just above his nose. Siren tried to move the shield, but the lord had his foot on top of it, he tried arching his back, but whatever this elemental was made of it was heavier than a human.
“I don’t want to kill you, minus the earth affinity we are the same. Both soldiers serving a master,” The elemental lord paused for a moment, “unfortunately, we are soldiers on opposite sides, so we kill each other. Just tell me where the Lord of the Underworld is and you can go, you can even warn your friends and leave if serving the Lord of the Underworld is not to your taste.”
“Screw you,” Siren spat at him.
“I am not familiar with that saying, but I assume that means you will keep your silence,” The elemental lord sighed, he would kill as many people as he needed to in order to find his master, “To bad.”
He struck. The sword was fast, but there was something faster. Siren’s eyes widened as a flash of white light blinded him. Darkness was especially vulnerable to light, but Sirens dark kern made his eyes more resistant to changes in lighting. That meant he had a clear view as some one body checked the elemental lord.
“So, I thought the armor would make him heavier, weird,” Siren looked over and saw Luke of all people looking confused at the elemental lord while holding a glow stone.
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“Luke, what was that,” Siren groaned as he climbed to his feet.
“It was a body slam,” Luke’s confused expression was now directed at Siren, “So, is that not something they teach you at murder school.”
Siren was stuck halfway between confused, relieved and exasperated. On one hand he was alive on the other he was not sure how, did Luke also have a light kern. If so why was he holding a glow stone. Whatever the case, Siren was not in the right state to be picky about who helped him.
“No, Yes, that’s not what I meant, what was the light?” Siren asked.
“Its a secret, VIP only, you are just a ‘P’.” Luke said.
Siren saw that Luke was not concerned about the lord getting back to its feet. That meant he did not see it as a threat. While Siren was not willing to bet everything on this as young people were stupid, he did believe he had a chance to live now. Siren was more than capable of keeping the elemental lord’s attention long enough for Luke to behead him with one of Tristan’s daggers.
“So how are we going to deal with him?” Siren asked, “I assume you have a plan?”
“Beat what ever substitute he has for crap out of him,” Luke said, while cracking his neck, “Also there is no we old man, you had your chance.”
The elemental lord got back to his feet, he was less calm then before, “How can you do that, you’re not a hero, laws should be out of your reach.”
“My dad was a real piece of work,” Luke said.
The elemental glanced at Siren and back to Luke. Was that fear that he saw in its eyes, that couldn’t be right. It started yelling “Why do you stand between me and my master? We have no enmity with you.”
“You’re strong, your creepy, and your kind kill my kind,” Luke held up three fingers, “Also, you do realize you’re acting like a dog waiting for its owner to get home.”
The elemental lord had enough. It charged at Luke with it sword raised for an overhead chop. Siren stumbled foreword, Luke was about to die and he had a shield. He was to slow.
Luke stepped foreword just as the elemental lord reached him, into a long stance. It the same motion he back handed the flat of the scimitar with the metal plate on the back of his snakeskin gauntlet. His other hand shot out in a straight punch at the lords diaphragm. Then white light exploded from both hands and the elemental lord was launched backward.
This time Siren got a good look at it. It was not a part of light essence at all, Luke was using lightning. He remembered Luke going to the alchemist for some knives, but did he have his gauntlets treated as well. That idea was immediately shot down as Luke dashed to the elemental lord and kicked him. Lighting came from the toe of his boot and blasted the lord into the wall.
“Take this,” Luke tossed something at Siren.
He stared blankly at the scimitar that had given him so much grief. Now it was tossed aside like trash, it stabbed point first into the floor beside Siren. It was the last artifact that he needed to advance to tier four, “Uh thank you.”
Luke dashed to the elemental lord, it had its back against the wall, literally. So he punched it again, discharging electricity into its face. He almost felt bad for the creature, it was an assassin. If its abilities were quantified numerically most of its points would be in agility, memory, and stealth. Those were the things needed for espionage, great for assassins, but this was a brawl.
Next came a chop to its neck. Tristan’s knife only needed a single strike to decapitate the elemental. Normally that would not be lethal to an elemental, but this one was a combination of three different elementals. Separating the brain elemental would actually cripple its intelligence and it would need to regenerate a head to get the brain back.
The elemental lord saw the blow coming and chose to tackle Luke. It turned a decapitation into a deep cut, but it also weighed around three hundred pounds which was more than enough to knock Luke over. Now on the floor, they fought for control of the knife. The elemental was stronger, but it needed to keep track of Luke’s hands. If he got one free he would punch the elemental into the ceiling.
The lord had connected Luke’s lightning to the steel plates on his gloves, but it had forgotten about his steel toed boots. A flash of light and a moment later the elemental lords legs were blown off. Luke had managed to position both feet next to a knee while holding the elemental in place.
He used the distraction of the force leg amputation, to punch the elemental lord in the face. It was not a strong blow, but the lightning was more than enough. The lord slammed into a wall and slid down it.
Luke walked over to the crippled elemental, it looked back at him with hatred, “the Lord of the Underworld will kill you and your whole family.”
Luke shrugged, his family was dead, so what did he care. He cut the elementals head off, then proceeded to stab its brain, heart, and stomach to destroy its centers of power. He sighed that had been disappointing. He got lost in thought as he watched the body melt into a black puddle before vaporizing into more black smoke.
“I’m glad that’s over,” Siren said, not really believing the one sided beat down he had witnessed.
“Tar!” Luke said, holding up a finger like he had an epiphany.
“Huh?” Siren did not follow.
“He had tar, I beat the tar out of him!”