Chapter 43
Four Against Four (Part 1)
Cold sweat dripped down the back of Erin’s head as she realized just how bad their situation was. Their plan might have been to distract The Four War Maidens into leaving Lune’s side, but this wasn’t what they had hoped for. Since their opponents had known about their infiltration, it meant that their enemies had quickly realized what the plan had been and acted according to it.
The plan of The Four War Maidens was most likely to send out most of their group to take out the ones causing a distraction quickly, so that the damage to the base itself could be minimized. Once that was done, they could all gather together to finish of the remaining members of the group that were aiming for Lune’s life.
This might have worked out otherwise for Erin and her friends, but the problem was that there were now three highly skilled killers chasing after the two members of their group that weren’t exactly strong fighters. While both Arkay and Lexton were capable of taking care of themselves, their abilities weren’t the best suited for one on one matches, especially when it came to the cat boy.
They needed to figure out how to send help to those two and fast, before it was too late.
“How did you know we were here?” Erin asked the crazed girl before her. “We got in here without raising any alarms. I thought that our infiltration was successful.”
“Oh, there’s no doubt about that! I’d say you guys did a really good job at sneaking in here!” Ray said with a slight giggle. “The thing is, though, that your plan apparently didn’t take us into account, did it? You see, one of my teammates, Blair, has a rather keen nose. When we were stopped at the gate, she picked up the smell of a cat for some reason. After sniffing around a bit more, she was able to figure out that there were more of you as well.”
“Then-! Does that mean she chased after that cat smell now!?” Ryle asked, increasingly worried over Arkay.
“I guess… It’s kind of hard to say without being there myself, you know?” the redheaded girl said with a shrug. “The other three went to hunt the infiltrators while I stayed here. However, Schwarz did say something about sensing some odd magic in the base, so I’m guessing Blair and Yin are now going after the cat, while she’s investigating that weird magic she sensed or something.”
Erin immediately realized what this meant. Two of their enemies had gone after Arkay by tracking his scent, while the third one had somehow sensed Lexton and gone after him.
“But does it really matter? I mean, you’re all going to die either way,” Ray said as a psychotic smile spread across her face. “I’m personally going to take my time killing you both by cutting you apart piece by piece. Oh, I can hardly wait to hear you two scream and beg for mercy! I’m sure your buddies are currently crying and pleading for death right now as well.”
“We’ll see about that, you one-eyed piece of crap!” Ryle yelled angrily as she got ready for battle.
“Ryle, wait! Don’t fight her!” Erin suddenly said. “Go help Arnie instead!”
“Huh!? What are you saying!? You’re gonna take her on by yourself!?” the blonde asked with wide eyes. “You can’t be serious! You might be tough, but this one’s on a whole different league!”
“Trust me, I know that my chances are very slim better than anybody,” the redhead said in a surprisingly calm tone. “However, how well do you think Arnie or Lex are going to do? Arnie is especially in trouble, as he’s facing two of these at the same time. So you go help those two out and I’ll see what I can do over here.”
“...Alright. I’ll do as you say,” Ryle replied, despite obviously being hesitant over it. Just as she turned around to leave, she added, “But don’t you dare get yourself killed, alright!? Once I’m done crushing the other three, I’ll come back with Arnie and Lex to stomp that bitch as well! So hold on until then, got it!?”
“Hey now… Am I being ignored here or something?” Ray asked in a deadpan tone as her smile vanished and an irritated look came to her face. Suddenly, she made an insanely fast dash towards Ryle, who could barely react to the crazed girl coming at her with her large halberd readied for a swing. “I’M GONNA KILL BOTH OF YOU HERE! RIGHT NOW!”
The blade of the halberd came down at the blonde, but was intercepted at the last moment by a sword blocking its path. Erin had just barely been able to pull out her new sword and put it in the path of the attack, saving her friend’s life.
“GET OUT OF HERE, RYLE!” the redheaded woman yelled as she tried to push back at Ray.
“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Ryle yelled back as she decided to take a faster route and jumped through a nearby window. Thanks to her learning how to use ki, she was able to strengthen her body enough to survive the fall without taking much damage.
However, this still hurt like hell, though, which the blonde made obvious by the colorful words she let out upon her landing.
“Hey! Hands up, you-!” a soldier that had been near the area Ryle had landed at yelled at her as he took aim with his gun, only to get his head smashed into the ground.
“Oh, shut the hell up!” Ryle cursed at the soldier. She shot one last glance at the window she had jumped through, before running towards the place Arkay was at. As she ran, she whispered, “Don’t you dare die now, Erin.”
Back with said redhead, she was staring down at her opponent, who seemed to be having some sort of a strange mental breakdown at the moment. Ray was scratching the left side of her face furiously while gritting her teeth. Her face was twisted in a horrible grimace of insanity and fury that would terrify even some of the most hardened of veterans.
“Hey hey hey… This shit isn’t funny at all, you know? What the hell did you just go and do, huh?” the psychotic girl said as her nails drew a bit of blood from her left cheek. “Here I was, actually being happy over losing a game of drawing sticks, as I thought I had gotten super lucky. I mean, I’d actually get to kill two opponents that looked to be decent! And then you go and pull this kind of crap? The hell is up with that?”
“...Is killing really that enjoyable for you?” Erin managed to ask, as nervous sweat dripped down the side of her face.
“Of course it is! It’s what I have always wanted to do!” Ray yelled angrily. “For as long as I can remember, all I’ve wanted was to be an awesome and strong warrior! That’s what the four of us set out to do! And what is it that warriors do? Kill people! We kill, kill, kill and kill some more! We burn villages and cities down to the ground and pain the ground red with blood! If I’m not supposed to enjoy all that THEN WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING!? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING FOR!?”
After hearing the insane rant, Erin felt something that she didn’t think was possible. Pity towards the crazed girl. Based on what Lexton had told her, The Four War Maidens had once been noble warriors that were turned into these monsters by Lune. It seemed like they no longer even understood themselves why they were doing the things they did.
“...I can’t give you any kind of a satisfying answer to your question,” Erin said as she got ready with her sword. “But one thing I can say is that I’m not letting you get past me. No matter what.”
“Oh? We’ll see if you can keep up that confidence once I’ve chopped of your limbs!” Ray said as she readied herself for battle as well.
Meanwhile, Lexton was engaged in combat with Schwarz. The kobold smashed one of his vials on the floor, causing a golem to form out of the liquid. The recently created monster immediately went to attack the white-haired woman, but was quickly stopped in its tracks. Schwarz usedher magic to freeze the liquid monstrosity with ease, turning it into an ice statue in just a couple of seconds.
“Don’t you have any idea who I am?” the spell caster asked with a sigh. “I am Schwarz of The Four War Maidens, also known as The Mistress Of Cold. I’ve frozen entire groups of people without so much as lifting a finger with just my magical abilities alone. Did you think your artificial pet was going to get anywhere near me?”
“Not really. I just expected it to take your attention,” Lexton answered. “And I’d say it accomplished that rather well.”
Before the white-haired woman could ask what he meant, an explosion from behind the frozen golem caused it to shatter into numerous sharp pieces that flew at her. While this didn’t really hurt Schwarz, some of the icy shards managed to cute her skin at a couple of places, leaving behind small cuts that were bleeding.
This caused the spell caster to get quite angry. Not only was a being that she considered lower than herself trying to fight back, but it had actually managed to damage her. This was an offence that she was not about to let slide.
“Why you impudent little maggot! How dare you cause me harm!?” Schwarz cursed as she prepared another spell, this time in the form of icicles that formed in the air, waiting to be launched at her target. “I’m going to make an example of you for the rest of your filthy kind by skinning you alive and hanging your dirty corpse from the city’s outer wall! Maybe then no more of you will dare to-!”
The spell caster’s rant came to an end as she noticed a strange smell. It was a very bitter and burning smell, which could have only come from a really strong chemical of some kind.
Realizing that this could be a poison gas that her opponent might have released into the air in order to kill her, Schwarz immediately covered her mouth and nose. Her eyes scanned the room before her for any signs of the kobold, but there was still dust and smoke from the earlier explosion blocking her vision. In order to counter this, the white-haired woman canceled her previous spell and instead released a cold burst of air that blew away the dust and smoke.
Once this was done, the sight before Schwarz made her eyes go wide. The back wall of the room now had a large hole in it, caused by some sort of an acid burning through it. Having used the smoke of the explosion to his advantage, Lexton had then thrown a vial of extremely powerful acid at the wall, which had then melted a hole there for him to escape through.
This served to anger Schwarz even more.
“You… YOU’RE RUNNING AWAY!?” the spell caster yelled in rage. “I can’t believe this! After all that big talk, you escape like a coward!? I didn’t have a high opinion of your kind before, but now I absolutely despise you! When I’m done with you, I’m setting off on my own crusade to wipe your filthy species off the face of the world!”
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Once done with her declaration, Schwarz stomped her way through the newly made hole, following after her opponent. The cold aura around her body was intensifying as her anger flared up her magical powers. She looked around at where she had ended up at and saw it was another section of the prison with another set of cells. Much to her disappointment and rising fury, though, Lexton was nowhere to be seen.
“Hiding like a coward? I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised,” the white-haired woman said as she prepared another spell. “Well, it won’t matter much. I’ll find you soon enough and then I’ll-”
The threat was quickly interrupted, as Schwarz failed to notice a rune on the wall next to her. This was a special one that imbued the powes of fire in an object. However, Lexton had made a few adjustments on it, causing it to be unstable, something he had learned back when he had been trained by his father. This gave him enough time to get away from what came after, but that wasn’t the case with Schwarz, who was engulfed in flames that blew out of the rune in an uncontrollable inferno.
“And that should take care of that,” Lexton said with a cocky smirk as he watched the roaring flames. “I honestly thought one of The Four War Maidens would have been a lot more dangerous opponent, but I suppose the stories I heard were exaggerated. Or maybe she just got a bit too careless.”
The kobold started to walk away, certain that his opponent was dead. However, he stopped in his tracks upon noticing something. For some reason, even with such flames raging out of control, he didn’t feel any of the heat. In fact, he didn’t even feel warm. Instead, he felt a bit cold.
Lexton’s eyes went wide upon realizing what this meant. He quickly pulled another vial out of his jacket and smashed it onto the floor before him, just in time to create a golem that could shield him from the freezing wave of ice magic that washed over the entire area. The flames were immediately extinguished and his newest golem was turned into a frozen statue like before as well.
Despite wanting nothing more than to run away from the intense cold, Lexton leaned his shivering body enough to peek out from behind his frozen golem to see what was going on. He had to shield and squint his eyes a bit, as there was a strong wind blowing towards him, carrying freezing coldness and bits of snow along. But even with this, he was able to make out what was causing the storm and it made his insides freeze with terror.
Schwarz was standing there, the flames having barely done anything to her. The cold aura had now practically become a blizzard that was now raging without any restraint. The floor and walls close to her were now covered in a sheet of ice that was slowly growing.
image [https://i.ibb.co/FKcxhN9/Ch-43-Pic-1.jpg]
The white-haired woman herself looked like some sort of a demonic witch as well. Her eyes were now glowing in a cold blue light and an expression of absolute hatred and fury was plastered on her face.
“I’ll commend you for one thing, filthy creature! No one has EVER managed to make me THIS ANGRY!” Schwarz roared like a raging beast. “Not only do you not know your place, you mock me, injure me, play tricks with me, but you also have audacity to try and engulf me in fire!? Were you something I’d find somewhat respectable, I might accept this! But this coming from a kobold!? YOU WILL NOT DIE FAST OR PAINLESSLY!”
“...Seriously, all because I’m a kobold? What’s the deal with people like you?” Lexton asked in a whisper, not wanting his likely executioner to get angered even further. “I don’t even see what you’re mad about. I’m the one freezing my ass off here.”
With slow steps, Schwarz began to move forward. As she did this, the frozen area surrounding her seemed to move along with her, covering more of the floor and walls in ice. Not wanting to wait around and see what she had planned for him, Lexton quickly got up and began to run away. This didn’t go unnoticed by the white-haired woman, who immediately prepared another spell to fire at him.
As Lexton was running for his life, avoiding the icicles flying through the air, he could hear screams from the cells around him. The prisoners inside were not protected from the intense cold brought on by Schwarz’s magic, and judging by the sounds of the screams intensifying and dying out, the unfortunate jailbirds were soon killed as soon as the spell caster came close to their cells. The kobold didn’t even want to imagine the terrifying fate of being frozen to death like that.
Looking at what he had on him, Lexton had to admit that he was not exactly confident in his chances at winning. While he had more than enough to take on your everyday soldiers and other simpler enemies, this foe was far beyond what he could do. He still had two regular golems and an exploding one. He also had a few bottles and vials of miscellaneous chemicals on him that could be used for different purposes, along with a gas mask to protect him from the toxic fumes. Besides that, he also had a simple pistol and could carve runes, if given enough time.
However, what he was facing was essentially a walking snowstorm that froze anything it touched. To make matters worse, it could also shoot icicles like missiles at him. This wasn’t something any simple tricks were going to beat. He would need a plan in order to win this.
Then it hit him. Lexton had an idea as to how he was going to win this. It would be risky and could possibly get him killed, but it was all he had.
Snapping back into action, the kobold deployed his two regular golems. Once the had grown, he pulled out one of the bottles he had and spilled its contents on his newly-made creatures. The liquid reacted with the the bodies of the golems and set them on fire. This didn’t seem to hinder them, as they simply moved towards Schwarz, who had taken notice of the new monstrosities.
“I see. You intend to protect your little pets from my ice magic by setting them ablaze, huh? Not a bad idea for your kind, but it’s not good enough for me,” the white-haired woman said as she stabbed her staff on the ground. Instantly, two large armored knights made of ice were formed that charged at the golems with swords held high. “Freezing my opponents isn’t the only thing I’m capable of.”
The newly created ice knights charged at the burning golems and a battle between the two sides quickly broke out. While an onlooker could have considered it an even battle, one with a more analyzing mind could see that the golems were losing. This was due to not just the better quality of Schwarz’s created servants, but also because of her ice magic empowering her knights further. The battle between these two sides was not going to last for long, after which the white-haired woman could go back to pursuing her target.
However, what she had failed to notice was that Lexton had created a third golem as well. This was one of the exploding ones and it had traveled along the ceiling towards her. Once it was close enough, it detonated, bringing down tons of rubble on top of the spell caster, who was buried underneath the falling debris.
Despite having seemingly won the battle, Lexton knew better than to let his guard down. His opponent might have been arrogant and overly-confident, but she was still a powerful and experienced warrior. This wasn’t going to be enough to take her down, but it would buy the kobold time for his next move, which he desperately needed.
Without waiting even a second to see how his opponent was doing, Lexton ran away to begin the next part of his plan. Almost as soon as he had left, the pile of rubble covering Schwarz blew away, revealing the white-haired woman with two new knights that she had summoned to protect her. Said knights soon disappeared, having taken too much damage from the debris, leaving their fuming master on her own.
Now Schwarz was absolutely furious, over what had happened to her. The way she saw it, this had been nothing but a complete embarrassment for her and she considered herself lucky that there was no one around to witness her in such a state. Once she was done with the kobold responsible for all this, she was going to first kill everyone in the building to make certain that her shame wouldn’t be shared with anyone else, before exterminating a local kobold population to appease her fury. Only then would she allow her anger to calm down.
With fury resonating in every step she took, Schwarz began to stomp after Lexton, hoping to find him as fast as possible. It took some time, but the spell caster eventually heard sounds that revealed the location of her enemy. It was the sound of something burning, which immediately caught her attention.
“Trying to beat me with fire again? I see that you don’t learn all too well,” Schwarz mumbled as she headed towards the sound of the burning fire, soon coming up to room. “I’ll simply put out any flames you create, before I deal with you.”
Using a magical gust of cold wind to break down the door, the white-haired woman stepped in, ready to launch more icicles to skewer the kobold. However, much to her surprise, there was no one in the room. Instead, some of the furniture had just been collected into piles and set on fire, like a collection of bonfires.
Not wanting to waste her magical powers in simply putting out irrelevant fires, Schwarz left the room in search of Lexton. As she looked around the building, all she kept finding these small fires here and there. This served to confuse and further agitate the spell caster. For some reason, it didn’t look like the kobold was trying to burn down the whole building. He seemed to be only setting fires randomly around the place.
It seemed like the only thing he was accomplishing besides possibly burning the place down was that the temperature was rising rapidly. This was something that Schwarz disliked greatly, as she was more accustomed to colder temperatures.
“Does he think he can somehow disable my ice magic through petty tricks like this?” the white-haired woman said as she wiped sweat off her brow. “Idiotic… This just makes me want to kill him even more…”
Schwarz continued to look for the kobold, until finally seeing him go around a corner. A wicked smile came to her face, as she thought about the things she was going to do to him as punishment for everything he had put her through.
Following Lexton to another room that had smoke coming out of it, the spell caster blasted the door off its hinges and walked in. With her knowledge of the building’s layout, she knew that the kobold had backed himself to a corner. There was only one way in here and she was not about to let him get past her.
“Finally caught up to you… You bastard…” Schwarz said while panting heavily with sweat dripping down her face. The heat had taken more from her than she had realized. “Now you have nowhere to run! Just surrender and I might kill you quickly!”
In response to her threat, Lexton fired his pistol from the cover of the flames, keeping himself hidden from the sight of the white-haired woman. Schwarz had anticipated something like this and had deployed a basic magical barrier around herself before entering the room. While it wouldn’t have deflected any major impacts, it was more than enough to handle simple bullets.
Seeing as her prey was not going to go down without a fight, the spell caster summoned more of her ice knights and sent them out to hunt down the kobold. However, the icy warriors suddenly melted after taking only a couple of steps forward, much to the shock and anger of Schwarz.
“This… This cannot be!” the white-haired woman growled as she looked on in disbelief as her summoned warriors disappeared into this air. “To think that I would be driven to such a point! ME! Schwarz of The Four War Maidens! This is not possible!”
Gathering as much magical energy as she could, Schwarz sent out a blast of cold air that was powerful enough to put out the surrounding fires. The temperature immediately dropped to a freezing level, leaving only thick smoke as a sign that the flames had ever been there.
The spell caster was now completely spent in stamina and was forced to lean against her staff for support. Her breathing was heavy and her body was covered in sweat. If she were to be attacked now, she wouldn’t be able to do much to defend herself. Stamina was important to both ki and magic users. If you were low on stamina, you would have trouble in performing spells correctly, even if you had plenty of magical energy left.
This was an opportunity Lexton was going to seize, as he aimed his pistol at the worn out War Maiden. Unfortunately for the kobold, he was dealing with someone who had years of experience on battle fields, so his attempt at finishing this battle didn’t go unnoticed at all.
Before he could fire his pistol, Lexton had to avoid getting impaled by an icicle sent flying at him by Schwarz, who used what little magic she could still muster to launch one more attack. The kobold barely managed to avoid the frozen projectile, but it managed to cut his side, leaving large wound there.
Lexton fell to the floor, clutching his bleeding side in pain. He began to crawl away, hoping to find cover in the smoke and burnt furniture, but was stopped by an armored boot stepping down on his back. The kobold knew without looking who was using his as a makeshift carpet.
“You’ve really done something worth recognizing… I have NEVER been this angry before,” Schwarz said coldly as she began to push her magical energy into Lexton’s body, causing him to cry out in pain as he felt his body start growing colder. “I have had my fair share of difficult people to deal with, people who insulted my very character. Yet out of all of them YOU are easily the one that angered me the most. Prepare yourself, as your end won’t be easy!”
In one swift move, the spell caster used her foot to turn the kobold on his back before stepping down on his chest. She was about to continue her torture session, but then she noticed something that confused her. For some reason, Lexton was wearing a gas mask over his face. Before she could ask why he had it on, she began to notice other things. This time in regards to herself.
Her head was hazy and it felt like the whole room was spinning around her. Her chest was also hurting, almost like it was being stabbed with a large needle. She was also finding it difficult to breathe.
Suddenly, all strength seemed to leave her body as she fell to the floor. Her vision was getting blurry and it was starting to get difficult to stay awake. Through clouded vision, she watched as Lexton got up while fighting against the pain on his side. The kobold was soon standing over her with his pistol aimed at her head.
Was she going to die here? Was this truly the end for Schwarz of The Four War Maidens? To be killed by a kobold of all things? These were the questions that were plaguing the white-haired woman’s mind as she laid on the floor, awaiting for her end to come.
She began to think back to simpler times. Back when she had first began training in the use of magic and how she eventually met her friends. Ray, Blair and Yin, who became practically sisters to her. The comrades that she had made a vow with to become great warriors that would protect the peace of the world. The ones she had gone on all sorts of adventures, helping those in need.
Even kobolds.
“...How did we come here? What happened?” Schwarz managed to ask in a whisper as she closed her eyes and let darkness wash over her.
A single shot ran through the air, ending one of The Four War Maidens.
image [https://i.ibb.co/yYqTHnX/Ch-43-Pic-2.jpg]
Lexton looked down at his now dead opponent, wondering what had happened at the end. For some reason, it seemed like she had returned back to the way she used to be, before Lune had corrupted her mind. Despite this, the kobold still took the shot, as he couldn’t risk such an opponent coming after them at a later time. Even if he didn’t she was most likely going to lose her life from the trap he had laid out on her.
What Lexton had done was poison his opponent. Except, this wasn’t anything that he had carried on him. It was a poison that exists in the air people breather every day, carbon dioxide, which was also made from the fires that the kobold had set everywhere.
The plan was to use the carbon dioxide from the fire to poison Schwarz. Thanks to the being in an enclosed space, the concentration of the gas had become dangerously high, making it potentially lethal to stay in the area for too long. Had she realized what was happening, she could have left the building, thus avoiding the danger and completely ruining Lexton’s plan.
However, he had gambled on her arrogant personality. The kobold theorized that someone like Schwarz, who looked down on kobolds wouldn’t allow herself to be humiliated by retreating from one. This, along with infuriating her through his tricks, had ensured that she wasn’t going to turn around and leave, which had been the key to his victory. Lexton himself could risk staying in the area for as long as he needed, due to the gas mask he had. It had a built in oxygen tank that allowed him to breathe without issues until the very end of the battle.
With his foe now vanquished, Lexton looked down at his side where the wound was. Ironically, Schwarz had saved his life by using her magic in an attempt to freeze him, as it had slowed down his bleeding. Had she not done so, the kobold could have faced a death by loss of blood.
With painful and weary steps, Lexton began to make his way out of the burning building. It wouldn’t be long until soldiers came swarming the place and he needed to get out while he still could.
Not only that, but he knew that there was still work to be done.