"Ah, what a delectable morsel has fallen into my claws, Riseth Ryser, is it?" Eberus asked, barely able to contain his glee as his assassins tightened the circle around their prey. "I am Eberus, and I was hoping I would catch one of the infamous Ryser couple alone, and I have been hoping it would be you."
"Quite confident if you believe you already got anything other than a swift death at your claw," Riseth replied.
A deep, dark chuckle rumbled from Eberus, building into full-blown laughter. "Ah, forgive me," he sneered, his amusement barely contained. "I thought you were better at reading the situation. You can’t even begin to fathom the depths of my power. I spread misery on a scale you can’t comprehend, and I grow stronger with every ounce of suffering I create."
He took a step closer, his voice dripping with venomous intent. "I will kill you, slowly... painfully... degradingly. But considering you’re a succubus, I might be willing to grant the others a quicker end if you... entertain some of my men."
He was a terrible match-up for her to face, empowered by the very forces she tried to manipulate against him. She needed to stall for time—her connection with Alistair was strong, and she could sense his worry and fury, but she wasn't sure how long she could hold off this monster. His power was suffocating, he had so much energy it almost felt like he was a whole grade above her own.
"Talking to you is miserable enough," she spat, buying time as her mind raced for an edge. "But why us? Money? Fame?"
"Oh, no," he purred. "Nothing so banal. You have nothing to offer me as exquisite as desecrating you, crushing you under my heel as you writhe in agony and despair. And just long enough to see the look on your... what is it? Boyfriend? Husband? Please say, husband! That would make your death in front of him so much sweeter."
Riseth stayed quiet, not willing to give him the satisfaction as her lawyers managed to gather themselves as the enemies' focus was on her alone as she did her utmost to fight his mental onslaught, trying her best to turn it against him and his minions. They raised their rifles and miniguns as the other assassins approached, outnumbering them two to one while they were a handful of vulnerable individuals left in their backs, shivering and twitching on the ground or crying in utter panic, adding to their opponent's power. Fluffy let out a hiss, her plates spinning faster and faster as electric currents gathered and empowered.
Riseth, in turn, continued her best to hijack the hydra's power and turn it on his minions instead. Whenever she succeeded, they, unlike their master, crumpled under the weight of his misery-fueled aura. But she knew that wasn’t enough. It would delay the lesser enemies, but Eberus required her full attention. Vortex bolts materialized around her, and her veil of space magic shimmered to life just as a barrage of attacks came their way. Riseth deftly redirected them while her lawyers opened fire. Their shots hit home as she disrupted the assassins' defenses, shattering their barriers and weakening their protective skills.
Eberus launched himself at her with terrifying speed. Fluffy erupted forward in a blur of motion, releasing all the stored energy she had gathered. Her spinning plates slammed into him, tearing into his flesh. But Eberus let out an eerie laugh, his body relishing the pain as it rapidly healed, his wounds stitching together almost as quickly as they formed as the pain was shared between himself and Fluffy, who roared in agony, recoiling away from Eberus before refocusing.
Riseth and Eberus clashed; his claws met her space-warped bone blades. She sensed how he tried to inject pain through the contact but resisted as she and her weapon spirit pushed back the pain ejecting it at his minions. Using her Serpent's Waltz technique, she twisted out of one of his strikes with graceful precision, her blade extending as she manipulated space, pulling him toward her blade and ripping into his face with her blades space-warped edges. Flesh and scales peeled away, but Eberus only squealed in sick delight, his eyes locked onto her as if savoring every moment.
Riseth's bladed tail and concept restricted him for a brief moment as she unleashed her vortex bolts, hurling them at him, but highly concentrated blasts of dark energy shot from Eberus's body, colliding with her attacks and stopping them mid-flight by overpowering them with sheer energy. Though he had expended some of his energy, it showed just how bottomless and overwhelming the energy reservoir within him was, ever-growing, ever-present. Through her concept, she knew this wasn’t an illusion—he wasn’t bluffing or amplifying his aura to deceive her. His power was nearly endless, and to win, she would need to obliterate his entire body.
She immediately used her healing manipulation to disrupt his regeneration but struggled. To make things worse, Eberus shuddered in pleasure as part of his wounds regrew misshapen, and bone growths appeared over his body. His energy seemed to have partially recovered from her attack.
He lunged and tried to grasp her but she gracefully stepped back, turning ethereal, barely resisting his attempt to grasp her with his concept-infused claws. She was incredibly thankful for her training with Alistair, who had a much more suitable and difficult concept to overcome. She drew back, noticing that half her Lawyers were dying or dead, their power armor crushed, blood pooling beneath them while others struggled in close combat engagements in a confined space against the assassins. She couldn't help them, as even with Fluffy's assistance, she barely kept Eberus at bay. Fluffy powered through the pain and continued to try and tear the hydra apart, his incredibly tough scales protecting him from the worst while he seemed in his own little world, delighted at the pain he inflicted on Fluffy and himself and the fear he invoked in everyone on the battlefield.
As Riseth fought, she noticed a dark elf emerging from the nearby forest, flanked by even more Syndicate fighters advancing toward her. Her stomach churned with dread—she could not afford to be captured, not by him. She spun and twirled out of Eberus’ reach, narrowly dodging his claws using everything she had learned. But her heart sank further when his body enlarged, his neck split, and new heads began to sprout, revealing his true hydra form. Maws snapped at her, each head aiming to tear her apart.
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Fluffy struck back fiercely, sinking her fangs into one of the necks and injecting it with venom. This time, it seemed to have an effect—Eberus let out a guttural growl. But before Riseth could press the advantage, black and green flames erupted from one of his four maws, washing over Fluffy. The fire clung to her like a living thing, burning with agonizing intensity, yet leaving her scales unscathed. The flames inflicted not just physical pain but a deeper, more sinister torment, as if the sensation of burning was searing directly into her soul.
Fluffy’s protective metal plates blocked most of the inferno, retaliating with sharpened edges that struck Eberus again, but she was weakening. The constant barrage of pain took its toll, and Riseth could feel Fluffy growing wary and drained.
Where is Alistair? How large is this teleport restriction? She cursed internally, fear threatening to overwhelm her despite her best efforts to quell it and fight against his mental intrusion. Her mental fortress skill was cracking, and more enemies were approaching. She wouldn't give up. She would kill them all if she had to, twisting just a moment too late as one of the jaws snapped shut around her left leg. She sensed the paralysis creeping up her leg and cut it off in one smooth motion, using her healing skills to stem the bleeding; she would need to use her tail and wings to balance herself from here. The enemies opened fire, and she redirected their spells and attacks toward the growing hydra, which shrugged the attacks off as if it were nothing.
A dark, rumbling chuckle escaped the Hydra. "Ah, what a shame—no more running for you."
Eberus oozed malicious glee as he stomped forward, savoring his looming victory. Riseth's heart pounded, but a sudden pulse through her resonance gave her a split-second warning. A moment later, Eberus’ heads snapped upward, sensing the danger above—too late to stop it.
With a thunderous impact, Alistair descended from the sky like a meteor, crashing into the hydra with devastating force. He had descended from Orbit; his mass and density and speed increased through his concepts, which were further empowered by concentrated kinetic energy and the Death from Above skill, turning him into a living weapon, focusing as much of the energy as he could on the hydra itself. The sheer force of the impact caused Eberus to literally explode in a shower of gore. The multi-ton transport craft that was mercifully on the edge of the impact site was flung away alongside the remaining assassins outside the craft, who had nearly overwhelmed the last of her lawyers; the ship crashed into the distance and was torn apart by the shockwave and impact as it rolled through the field.
Thanks to Alistair's warning, Riseth reacted instinctively in the final moment before impact. She swiftly stored Fluffy and turned herself ethereal, narrowly escaping the devastating blast as the battlefield erupted in a surge of kinetic energy, transforming the landscape into a glowing crater of destruction.
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Alistair could feel the agony of their people and the tortured captives reverberating through the battlefield. He couldn't hold back any longer—not if he wanted to prevent the hydra from slaughtering them all. The grimace on his face deepened as he realized the collateral damage he had caused in his attack, knowing some innocent lives had been lost as the transport craft was flung away and broke apart. But there was no time for guilt, no room for hesitation—he had to press his advantage or risk losing everything. His attack had damaged the array sufficiently for the rest of their forces to help Riseth kill what was left of the attackers and save those injured by his stunt.
With a surge of power, he unleashed the stored energy from his Battle Sphere skill, blasting apart eight body parts writhing on the ground before sending two empowered kinetic strikes toward two of the larger remnants of the hydra's body. The strikes tore through its flesh, obliterating what remained intact and preventing it from regenerating or reconnecting.
His telekinesis propelled him forward at blinding speed toward one of the flying heads, the hydra’s eyes locking onto him as it attempted to cast a spell. But Alistair was faster. A blazing edge appeared on his weapon, ignited by his fury, and he hacked down with brutal precision. The head split apart under his strike, its regenerative abilities seared away by the blaze, ensuring it wouldn’t reform but he exploded it with a rapidly charged kinetic strike for good measure.
As he turned, he watched how, even with time dilation, the two remaining heads rapidly reformed a body each; even larger chunks of his body were warping and growing new bodies, drawing on a seemingly endless pool of misery. He rushed the closer one while charging another kinetic strike, summoning King, who rushed the other body, sending rapid instructions to King to use his curses to restrain the regeneration of the hydra. They had, despite initial hesitation, developed an anti-regeneration curse involving decay, as regenerating opponents were far too common not to prepare for. He cursed, wishing more of the body had been obliterated, but with a body as large and resilient as this hydra, that would be too much to hope for.
He managed to obliterate one more head and another large chunk of hydra flesh when he watched a humanoid figure stepping out of one of the last large chunks of flesh, dressed in a horrifying suit that was clearly made of people and beastkin. King's cursed energy enveloped the man, but the endless well of energy fought against the cursed energy as black lightning seemed to crackle as they sought to overpower the other. With King being on the losing side against the seemingly endless well of misery, the hydra was drawing on.
Just what had this man done to accumulate so much emotional energy? He didn't even want to think of that as he pressed his own bloodcurdling presence down on the man and used his telekinesis to rapidly engage the hydra, who glared at him with a frown on his face.
He tried to send a message to Riseth, but the damn concept of isolation permeated everything.
He did his best to send his thoughts to Riseth through their resonance, which seemed to bypass the isolation, as yelling would have been drowned out as well. "Riseth, you need to help king overpower his defenses. I'll hack that bastard to pieces,"
He received a confirmative and relieved signal back and sensed her approach. He watched the humanoid hydra hiss at him, taking a stance as he prepared for Alistair's attack. From the battlefield Riseth rushed towards them, her leg visibly regrew, and with her flight unimpaired, she entered the fray in no time flat and extended her magic to rip the tight control over his defense from the Hydra's claws. They would end this here and now for good, one way or the other; one side would be dead at the end of this.