Alistair could not help but smile when he saw the demon trying to escape him with a smoke bomb. His conceptual awareness outlined the demon's body in the smoke, allowing Alistair to ambush him. With a quick teleportation, Alistair grabbed the demon by the scruff of his neck, transferring the stored kinetic energy into power to slam the demon into the floor before ramming the sharp edge of his shield into the demon's head, piercing his brain and putting a quick end to the fight.
Alistair could sense Riseth was still fighting her opponent and tried to link up with her before somebody could jump or interfere in her fight. He frowned a little, as they had only gotten four of the freebie fighters before being interrupted by a pair of slightly more competent fighters. Before he could reach Riseth, she had finished her fight, bringing their kill total to six and putting them in fourth place on the board.
Alistair presumed they would need to get a few more kills to guarantee they would stay on the board. He found Riseth hiding in a cellar, a few blocks from the marketplace, recovering her mana. As he linked up with her, he noticed that the explosions had become more sporadic, and the gunfire could only occasionally be heard in bursts in the distance. Alistair was already itching to get back out there as he wanted to secure the first place. Interestingly, even while underground, he could see the scoreboard, which had a name he recognized. Iatok, the glass cannon rabbit, had sniped several kills.
"That rabbit's luck is terrible," Alistair mused, still recalling the rabbit's energy signature, which would make tracking him relatively easy. He had a weak karmic link that gave him a rough direction due to the close proximity. Alistair presumed he had to be somewhere in the forest. After telling Riseth, she smirked.
"It's rabbit hunting season," she quipped as she got up from her chair and put it back in her storage.
Alistair picked up Riseth before they took to the air and turned invisible. He got the impression that Riseth was purposefully not upgrading her flight skills, as she seemed to enjoy being carried around by him. She noticed his scrutinizing glance and gave him a cheeky smile. They soared towards the forest, where distant gunshots echoed and tall pine-like trees crashed to the ground.
Drawing nearer, they observed the ongoing skirmish. The Rabbits engaged in combat with an Octopuskin, who skillfully wielded an array of magics with his many arms and erected barriers to fend off the Iatok's relentless assault. Aware of the need for stealth, they refrained from using Identify lest they reveal their presence. Alongside the Octopuskin stood a formidable Sharkkin, brandishing a massive battle axe in one hand while casting spells with the other claw.
The Shark was currently blocking a second rabbitkin using two guns, shooting in bursts, trying to find gaps in the shark's defense. It was clearly slower and gave Alistair the sense of a more well-rounded fighter. He was also quite sure it was a female, though it was hard to tell with beastkin. She had similar white fur and red eyes but had some black spots on her coat.
"How cute, Stabbit and Gunny. They make an even cuter pair than us. We should kill them." Riseth remarked jokingly over the link.
Alistair stifled a chuckle. "Alright, I think I can take out Iatok in one quick ambush, but I would need to be the first to act. Catching him otherwise might be a pain. I doubt he had enough time to prepare against me," he replied, his muscles tensing in preparation.
They did not have to wait long for an opportunity where Iatok unknowingly moved into a compromising position. Alistair blasted him with his bloodcurdling mental attack, causing Iatok to freeze in terror. Seizing the moment, Alistair teleported down and swiftly dispatched the Rabbitkin with his poleaxe, pinning him to the ground and delivering a fatal blow with a twist of his weapon.
"You kill stealing bastard!" The Octopuskin [Taizusthod Adxidor - lvl 47] yelled, turning his full attention to Alistair after not even a moment's hesitation.
"Sorry about that. But there is a score to consider. I would love to say it's not personal, but I'm not sure Iatok will see it the same way." Alistair mused aloud before pointing his poleaxe at the Octopuskin with an outstretched arm.
Riseth was flying above the group, charging her finisher in preparation, revealing her presence in the process. Alistair felt little threat from those left and was quite sure, when it came down to it, he could beat all of them by himself. He activated his boosting skill and dashed at the Octopuskin, who unleashed a barrage of arcane bolts that Alistair blocked with his barrier. Alistair wanted to teleport to close the gap, but his opponent maintained an arcane field around himself, preventing teleportation.
Both the Shark [Kuno - lvl 49] and female Rabbitkin [Gokhiri - 47] were in an uneasy standoff as Riseth hovered above the fight, ready to jump into action where needed.
"Help us beat the intruders, and we'll let you run off for somebody else to kill," Kuno growled at the Rabbitkin, who hesitated briefly before turning her guns on Riseth. "Deal."
Riseth teleported out of the line of fire, engaging the Rabbitkin as the Shark rushed to his ally's aid, chanting a spell and aiming to intercept Alistair as the shark grew in size. "Enlarge Person spell..." Alistair murmured, happy that the shark aimed for him rather than Riseth. His bloodcurdling aura still radiated, giving Taizusthod a hard time. Alistair returned the barrage by unleashing his own barrage of kinetic blasts while closing the distance. The way things were going, it would become a fight over who had more resources, and Alistair felt confident in winning despite Taizusthod's impressive mana pool.
"Get ready to blast the Shark with your finisher," Alistair said over the link as he ran past the Octopus. Taizusthod's large pupils dilated in surprise as Alistair clashed with Kuno instead of him. Alistair robbed the shark of momentum and transformed it into power to kick Kuno while tripping him with the hooked blade of his poleaxe. "Now!" Alistair yelled over the link as he sent the shark skidding over the ground for roughly two meters.
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The Bolt impacted and exploded on Kuno's shoulder before he could erect a barrier for himself. Alistair sensed Taizusthod's attempt to interfere but cast his own dispelling aura with a somatic hand sign counter spelling the attempt. As he turned to face Taizusthod, he was shot in the back by the Rabbit, the kinetic bullets proving more helpful than harmful. Alistair smirked as a new kinetic sphere started to orbit around him.
"What the fuck?!" Taizusthod gurgled as whips of lightning appeared on four of the octopus appendages, lashing out at Alistair, who blocked two of them with his barrier, deciding to let the other two through for practice. He gritted his teeth as thunderclaps rang out, and electric currents burned through his system as he tried to convert the energy of the lightning strikes.
Shockingly, Kuno was not immediately done for as he tried to tear himself free despite the less-than-optimal placement of the tear in reality. Blood was gushing out of his gills, and despite having already lost one of his arms, the Shark pulled himself from the brink. Alistair would have none of that as he shot out a deceleration splash blast, halting the shark's process and compounding the damage he took from the tear.
In the meantime, Riseth was performing a lethal dance with Gokhiri. She lashed out with her warping space blades while the rabbit shot at her from point blank. The rabbit made a flip, kicking off Riseth's arm and unloading a salvo that bent around her Veil of space. She barely missed the rabbitkin as the salvo was sent back. Gokhiri rolled off the forest floor, dirt staining her white fur, as Riseth teleported back in front of her, nicking the rabbitkin with the extending bone blades, warping the wound, cracking ribs as blood started to flow from the crushed wound. Gokhiri jumped back further just as the rift collapsed, and Kuno stumbled out of the attack. Riseth did not hesitate to teleport next to the worn-out shark, plunging both of her bone blades into blood-soaked gills, killing Kuno instantly.
Before the body could even crash into the forest floor, a stream of bullets hit Riseth's automatic barrier as she turned her full attention back to Gokhiri with a toothy grin.
"Fucking Demon!" Gokhiri yelped in terror.
"Pretty much." Riseth retorted with a laugh before teleporting next to Gokhiri, who only managed to parry with one of her guns, which was warped and ripped out of her paw. Gokhiri cursed under her breath, trying to gain some distance from Riseth to little avail. Gokhiri was slightly faster than Riseth, but Riseth could teleport, and she did not have the means to stop her. Riseth inflicted wounds faster than Gokhiri could heal them. Eventually, Riseth manipulated the space around the Rabbitkin, who jumped back just to be pushed forward instead as the extending bone blades plunged into her chest. Riseth twisted the blades and pulled them in opposite directions, killing Gokhiri.
Alistair had stopped taking the lightning whips as it was too resource-intensive, and there were still a few fights left if they wanted to get the number one spot on the leaderboard. After Riseth finished Gokhiri, they moved to second place; noticeably, the formerly second-placed team had been eliminated. Alistair knew this because their names had been greyed out. Taizusthod Seemed to have lost a lot of his bravado once he realized it was now a 2v1, and Alistair showed no signs of slowing down. The bloodcurdling presence had started to wear on the Octopuskin as his movements grew more hesitant, and Alistair felt he was close to smashing through the barriers separating them. Alistair put all the stored kinetic energy into his next swing, shattering Taizusthod's barriers and cutting through his body as green blood gushed from the wound.
Taizusthod let out a gurgle as blood flowed out of his beaked mouth, staggering back as he raised another barrier. Alistair held a lot of respect for Taizusthod because he was the strongest spellcaster Alistair had faced so far. His opponent's control and mental capabilities were nothing to scoff at. Alistair was sure a lot of people had bet on the octopus to win his bout, but Taizusthod had been unlucky to be matched against him. Alistair continued to push his counterspells through his weapon while pressuring Taizusthod with both blasts and relentless swings of his poleaxe. The Octopus had already lost two limbs, and the new gash on its chest slowed him down further. Alistair could attempt to pool his power to break through and kill his opponents, but it would be resource-intensive, however it looked like his best option. Taizusthod was too fast on the uptake and still had a large pool of mana to resist, so wasting too much time wasn't an option. The octopus had already been playing for time, hoping Kuno would jump back in the fight.
"Why don't you jump me and end this?" Taizusthod spat as blood splattered on the back side of his barrier.
"It's hard finding a good opponent like you. I prefer fighting you mano a mano. I don't want to hear that I only won because my partner helped me out." Alistair retorted.
Alistair activated his Cold Rage skill and felt the power flowing through his veins. Before Taizusthod could respond, Alistair lashed out with his bloodcurdling presence and increased the amount of Qi he channeled through his Temporal Combat Reflexes skill threefold as time slowed down to crawl. Alistair could see the individual hexagons splinter and embed themself in Taizusthod's body as he shattered the barrier with a horizontal swing, hacking off another of his opponent's appendages. But Alistair was not done, as he used the slowed-down flow of time to cut up his opponent piece by piece. When time returned to normal, Taizusthod fell over body parts separating and a large green pool of blood spreading over the forest floor.
"That makes Ten. We need to take out the number one guy, and we got this in the bag," Alistair declared as he felt the strain of releasing his boosting skills wash over his body.
When he looked, he found that the first-placed team was down to one person. In the first place was a guy called Zalgrun, who wasn't the only one who had lost a party member. Most teams were down to either one person or completely defeated. Zalgrun was one kill ahead of them with 11. Riseth had a similarly conflicted face as she looked at the score.
"We've essentially lost the energy we recovered, but we can't let him rack up any more kills. Let's hunt down any stragglers until we find and stop him from increasing his score." Riseth suggested with a determined expression.