Ready Or Not (4)
----------------------------------------
“GAAAAHGCK!”
A stifled scream pierced my ears.
Its point of origin was only a short distance away from me, but as things currently stood the meager space separating us seemed insurmountable.
After losing her entire forearm, the overwhelming pain from that single, deep cut forced Jytte into a slumped position. Her face abruptly clattered against the scarred wooden floor as she desperately clung to the site of her missing apparatus. Her fanged teeth sank into what little remained of our footing, a desperate attempt to hold back the ever-present scream that only seemed about two or three beats away from bursting out her chest.
A red liquid steadily began pooling around her body despite her best efforts to seal the wound. Given her unusual position, her bangs had flopped down to cover her usually cheery face but as she slowly gathered the strength to raise her head, I saw a familiar, transparent liquid gathering at the corners of her tortured gaze.
The strike she’d been dealt was one so swift that not even her absurdly heightened instincts could fully alert her in time.
Right now, that extra degree of sensitivity was backfiring on her. Having been subjected to such a cunning blow, her overly sensitive body was being forced to process the pain all at once, leaving her no choice but to push through the agony.
“My, what impressive reflexes. You actually managed to avoid it — I was aiming for your neck just now but you somehow managed to shift your body in time. Oh well, not like it matters now....” Mumbled Nephthys as she casually sauntered over to the wailing archer.
She raised a hand, once again allowing something flicker above her palm. Her grin widened as she slowly wound her arm back like a coiling spring, all but ready to deliver the final blow when -
“@#$%^&*)*&^%”
Three blades of water sliced through the floor, forcing Nephthys to leap back as the timber frame splintered, leaving a gaping hole open to the howling streets below.
“Damn it I underestimated her!” Myra cursed as she fluttered over to Jytte, still keeping her gaze half locked on the aggressor she had just driven back.
I followed behind her, only to see the woman flicking back her long bangs that had seemingly lost a few inches from Myra’s attack just now.
“I-I’ll be alright....” Groaned Jytte through a strained grimace.
A thick blanket of sweat was soaking through her armor and yet she still somehow found the strength to correct her posture — Now sitting upright.
"Hold still, this might hurt a bit," Myra commanded as she directed one of the small orbs of water floating around her toward the source of Jytte's agony. At a glance, it was nothing more than a bloody stump, but as soon as the fist-sized orb made contact, the deep red stain gradually turned snow-white. Jytte let out a series of groans that faded with each passing second, until the look of anguish completely disappeared from her face.
“I can’t use healing magic but this should help with your bleeding for now. I’ll do the same thing for your arm too. With Julia’s help we should be able to fix it if we’re lucky.”
Temporarily freezing the wound was only a stopgap measure but nonetheless, it was still far better than allowing her to carelessly spew her own blood like that.
After witnessing the effects of Myra’s spell, Nephthys’s lips curved into a slight frown. Considering the effort she’d just put in; she had probably been expecting more than a few muffled screams.
“Thanks Myra. I got careless at the end there....”
“Save your strength. I’ll do something about her in the meantime but we need to get you healed fast.” Myra urged with a flood of emotions in her voice. Despite their blatant effects on her, the grip of fear and anxiety was no excuse for inaction right now.
“Heh...Heh...don’t worry I think I’ve figured it out.....what she’s been doing this whole time I mean...” The shallow breaths coming from Jytte were certainly a cause for concern but she seemed determined to convey the information.
“Oh! Please do tell! So far nobody’s been able to figure out my little trick yet you know!” Bragged Nephthys as she raised her hands in a placating gesture.
Myra’s body froze up with a twitch. Obviously conflicted by her friend’s current wheezing condition and her blatant intent to convey crucial information. After some thinking, she decided to renounce herself to the latter.
Jytte swallowed a deep breath, then she spoke slowly.
“It’s a radical. She’s using vibrations.”
“V-vibrations?” Myra stuttered with her back still turned to us.
“Yeah....I’ve been hearing something strange ever since she showed up and I finally figured it out just now. She’s....keeping some of that long hair coiled around her palm like a thin wire, and when she gets ready to strike, she reinforces those thin threads with mana and transmits strong vibrations through them. That’s...how she’s been slicing...this place up...”
Jytte finished with a bloodstained cough on the ground, quite the cause for concern, but albeit one she managed to shrug off rather pompously.
Taking Jytte’s rather surprising analysis as fact turned out to be rather fruitful. That thin flicker of light that she’s been using since earlier had kept me wondering from the moment she first appeared, but now the trick to her attack pattern was becoming clear.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
That flicker from before must have come from the small strands of hair she was using.
Now that I knew what to look for the secret to her power came undone rather quickly. As soon as I adjusted my vision, the world went dark, allowing me to quickly scan her true form as well as pick up on the faint traces of mana she was steadily channeling into her palms.
“You are correct.” Replied Nephthys with a chuckle. “I see, that’s how you avoided my slash earlier, you heard it coming; how interesting.”
“If that’s the kind of power she has then it means she’s a gladiator. At best, her power should only go up to about mid-range, so as long as we keep our distance we’ll manage.” Myra spoke with a sense of clarity in her voice.
That classification — which was still alien to me — must have revealed quite a bit about this woman’s power.
“Confident, are we? I’m sure you’re not dumb enough to think you have some sort of an advantage just because you figured out my little secret. You’d best prepare yourselves, you’ll all be taking that secret to your graves.”
Her words sent a chill through the area. Threats like that weren’t meant to be taken lightly, especially not under these circumstances. Myra understood that, as soon as Nephthys unleashed yet another sickening wave of animosity, she immediately conjured a dome shaped bubble of water around us.
“Defensive spells aren’t really my thing, but there’s no better way to guard against her attacks right now.”
“Myra, buy me some time, I’ve got one last trick up my sleeve. ” Huffed Jytte as she slowly walked back a few paces, leaning down to snatch something off the floor.
Even with her back completely exposed, she didn’t show a hint of hesitation about turning away in the middle of a fight like this.
“Fine, just don’t overdo it.”
“I’ll manage....Sorry but could you help me out, Liam? As you can see, I’m a bit handicapped here.” asked Jytte as she winced a smile at me.
I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not—It couldn’t have been— given the circumstances, and yet the strained smile on her face told me otherwise.
With a small nod, I conveyed my approval before replying earnestly.
“I can, but I have an idea too. I think I know where you should hit her.”
“What? You...know what her weakness is?”
“I think so. Would you like to test it out?” I asked, my gaze shifting towards the specter idly peering at us.
“Well, we don’t have much of a choice right now. Unless we defeat her or somehow slow her down, we won’t be able to retreat.” She replied with a twitch of her ears, then formed a small grin on her lips. “By the looks of things.... the folks downstairs.... have already scattered so I think I can.... afford to be a little reckless here. Alright Liam, what’s your plan?”
The idea was quite simple but I still tried to condense it nonetheless. Around ten seconds was all it took for me to skimp over the details given the foe we were about to face. She wasn’t keen on simply waiting around any longer.
Without warning, Nephthys clasped her palms together with a crackling sound. As if snapping a whip at a wild horse, she twirled her hands and lunged forward like a predator. Gashes appeared on either side of her as she darted at us, flickering strands of death glistening in her palms.
The droplets surrounding Myra suddenly hardened like spikes in response before flying off like a hail of darts, each of the pronged projectiles, though swift, failed to meet their target.
With a zigzag motion, Nephthys skillfully weaved through their trajectories with a casual grace, her movements almost playful as she danced out of reach. She slammed her dominant foot on the floor and lunged forward with the intent to kill.
Her hands quickly overlapped once she was in range, giving us no time to make out anything but a flicker before the makeshift dome of water abruptly splattered in all directions. She didn’t intend to halt her charge there, but as soon as she took another step forward a shard of ice shaped like a spear ruthlessly slammed into her torso, flinging her body back a few feet with a sickening thud.
She skidded to an abrupt stop, her bare feet sliding to a halt at the opposite end of the room.
Her upper body was hunched backwards, but somehow, she was still standing. An impact like that should have at least shattered a few bones, but that alone wouldn’t be enough to kill something like this. An odd sound creaked from her waist as her torso abruptly sprung back into place.
Then, she pried the crumbling shard from her throat before gently swiping away the blood trickling down her lips.
“That one was close huh, little pixie. Or was it Faerie? Anyway, I'm sure you’ve realized this but I’m in no rush to kill you since I'm full right now. We can keep this up for as long as you want, you’ll run out of mana eventually.”
Her words were bitter, but true. In a case like this there was no point in prolonging the battle, the most efficient thing to do here was to kill her as quickly as possible.
“Still....not enough huh......” Myra muttered; her voice strained. I could tell just by looking at her that she couldn’t keep this up for very long, her mana reserves had plummeted from what they once were. To think using an aberrant would end up burning through her reserves this fast.
“I’m ready Myra!” Jytte boldly affirmed as she slung the heavy quiver across her one good shoulder.
“Back from the dead I see? But what could you possible intend to do like that I wonder?” Nephthys quizzed, clearly amused by the state of my companion.
“Just you wait....” Jytte muttered softly, a quiet rage was still managing to flicker through the lens of those dim eyes. Without a doubt, she was serious.
“Myra, follow Liam’s lead. Just trust me on this!”
Startled, the Faerie whipped her head around in shock. There must have been something she wanted to say but Jytte’s sheer determination overwhelmed her.
“......Alright. What’s the plan?”
Up until now, the majority of their attacks could only push Nephthys back at best. She herself knew that, so there was very little regard for caution on her part.
Immortality wasn’t an idea I subscribed to — The idea that any living creature could simply go on living forever was ludicrous.
However, there were exceptions to this rule, albeit minor ones.
There were ways to extend one’s life significantly, but nothing to the extent of the immortality people often coveted. In the case of this woman, Nephthys, she had seemingly evolved from her status as an irregular to become something even more formidable. A human who managed to claw their way back to life by possessing a corpse or in other words, what people called a ‘revenant’.
It was only possible to this extent thanks to the laws of this new world. Her existence, though realized, wasn’t exactly welcome here. After all her very presence went against the natural order.
Since she was possessing a corpse, the false sense of security being granted by her pseudo immortal body was a major crutch supporting her fighting style. With that being the case, the answer I was about to give was sure to shatter all the false paradigms she’s been relying on.