Sofia flew up while Astelia stayed on the ground. Since Sofia had the unlife runes as a safety measure and Astelia did not, she was the one who would act as bait while the Vampire focused on defense.
I see him.
[Summoner - Lv.300+]
Scripture’s pawn, the masked ‘elf’. He was struggling, twisting in pain under his long cape and randomly teleporting around, his image flickering through the ruins.
Impossible to hit like that. I need to bait him into the Rot. Was all that Sofia had time to think before It noticed her; and before she had time to blink, the masked person was in front of her.
A clawed-hand on a pale arm shot out of the figure’s long black cloak. Sofia was not moving, so the attack harmlessly curved around her, the figure then disappeared again, teleporting somewhere else. It all happened so fast that Sofia did not even have the spare time to activate [Erredian Rot], let alone the light to spread it.
Astelia was right, he’s going to be impossible to hit without tricks. And I need to maintain contact for a few seconds to get all the mind parasites…
Good thing I have plenty of tricks.
Teleporting figure found Astelia and teleported near her a few times, but every time, Astelia managed to ride on the mana tracks of his teleportation right as he arrived, effectively exchanging places with him. Sofia tried to time the activation of her light spell and Rot with Astelia teleporting away, but it was hard to be confident not to hit her, and after his teleportations, the masked figure was only there for a fraction of a second before being gone again.
Sofia watched the deadly teleportation ballet going on in the ruins and when she was confident, having prepared multiple spells ready to activate in advance, unleashed the rot on Astelia’s position.
The rot hit the cloaked figure. The cloak stayed where it was, and an emaciated pale figure wearing rags and a mask appeared before Sofia once again, free of rot.
Using her recently acquired short distance teleportation [Summon Self], Sofia teleported a few meters back directly into a new pillar of light she just unleashed.
The teleporting figure rode along on the trail of Sofia’s teleportation, appearing closer to her than ever.
Using his instincts.
The light hit him, covering him in rot, but he was too close, within the space-curving bubble of [March of the Envoy], and his claws struck several times, shredding Sofia to bits, reducing her health to nearly zero before she could try anything else.
Small chunks of bloodless Sofia flesh and bones rained from the sky. Although her being still ‘alive’ was questionable to anyone but herself, she could still see through her mana senses, and knew she could still cast skills through her bloodlight veins if needed.
We only need to wait for the rot to empty his mana, but can Astelia survive that long?
I need to bait him around.
Sofia started summoning blood anywhere she could, as long as it was far from Astelia. Every time a big bubble of blood appeared, the rot-covered figure would teleport to it by instinct, giving Astelia some breathing room.
I’m running out of mana…
Health : 859 / 85 980
Stamina : 12 / 21 047
Mana : 29 684 / 417 100
From her spot on the ground, where the diced bits of her body were spread around, Sofia closely monitored the two teleporting mages.
He has to be almost out by now…
Suddenly, the mana of Astelia swelled and was propelled hundreds of meters in the sky.
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That’s her defensive trump-card.
So long as he doesn’t reach the fake moon she should be safe.
It seemed to work, as the teleporting figure kept teleporting around Astelia but never seemed to be able to appear anywhere nearby.
Sofia counted the seconds, she knew that Astelia’s defensive spell, [Mastermind within], lasted for exactly sixty seconds after activation. Whether the rot had finished emptying the pawn’s mana by then or not, Sofia had to do something, or Astelia would likely be dead the instant her defensive spell ended.
It’s good that he doesn’t realize I’m still alive.
Alright, get ready, Scribe.
I hope they’re also ready in there. We said six seconds, they can’t be a second late or it won’t work.
Ten seconds before the end of Astelia’s defensive spell, Sofia started channeling an explosive angel’s bolt through her bloodlight.
Six seconds; despite the lack of an intact head, a sharp pain assaulted Sofia’s brain. The Scribe was purposefully bypassing system rules to inflict soul damage to Sofia and thus to Pareth as well.
This was necessary to contact Pareth, who could not be joined in any other way, as he was currently in the Margin.
Three and a half seconds left; Sofia released the exploding bolt on the last bits of herself.
She reopened her eyes three seconds later, lying in the charred dirt, revived by the runes, and instantly summoned a huge mass of blood above her with almost all of her remaining mana, keeping exactly 50 points around for later.
Astelia’s defensive spell ended, leaving her vulnerable for a few seconds. Thankfully, the masked figure appeared atop of her, drawn in by the blood. It still had mana to teleport. But he was not the only one teleporting in this position at this instant.
Take your surprise birthday present!
Out of nowhere, a giant shockwave tore through the fabric of space itself; Pareth had teleported to Sofia, riding a small flying Dragon, itself holding a thin girl in its claws.
The sharp reflexes and insane speed of Saria in her Dragon form allowed her to instantly turn in the direction of the rot-covered individual, and just as the figure was about to teleport away once again, it was hit across the face by a resounding slap and pinned to the ground by a Dragon, a skeleton, and an Alith.
The [Slap of absolute shame] would only prevent the individual from moving for one second, but it was enough, Bookie was already out in his book form by himself, and, siphoning the last bits of mana from Sofia’s body, summoned Crowie in the palm of her hand.
Sofia did not have to do anything except release the long before channeled effect of [Saintess’ madness]. The skill, which was now level 2, had gained a new effect : she could spend one minute to channel a specific effect in advance, and on the next activation only, be certain to get this element instead of a random one.
Sofia’s arm moved by itself and sent Crowie flying for the pinned teleporter with the effect she had prepared in advance: Space - [Anchor] : For ten seconds, prevents teleportation.
Crowie hit the enemy and exploded.
No more teleportation.
Sofia jumped up. Despite Pareth, Saria and Alith all dogpiling onto the frail-looking and rot-covered summoner, the instant the effects of the slap ran out, he managed to send all three of them flying.
Even without teleportation, he was still over level 300, he lunged at Sofia.
For an instant, Sofia thought the battle was over. She had nothing left, the enemy was too strong despite everything. She could only throw herself at the attacking enemy and hope that even a short contact would be enough to get rid of all the mind parasites.
Her extended hand reached the summoner as his clawed hand reached her. She expected to die again, but to her surprise, her hand landed on the throat of the other one and she was unharmed. He stopped moving?!
Sofia was assaulted by a rain of notification informing her that the soul parasites were being killed by her blessing. Hundreds of them. She felt foreign mana around the summoner, following the trail, Sofia saw Astelia. She was in a bad state, overexerting herself, flaming blood flowing from her face. Yet, she was spending all the mana she had left to pin him in place with her specialization.
Pareth appeared near Sofia again, and his first reflex was to send a [Greater Heal] in Astelia’s direction.
Finally, after three seconds of an awkward standoff and as Saria and Alith just managed to return to the scene, Sofia got one last notification.
[You have been affected by : Soul Parasite. But your skills eliminated the intruder.]
The rot-covered man fell unceremoniously on the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
No kill or murder notice, thank the Lords.
Sofia immediately activated her ring from the second trial to suck all the mana around and get rid of the rot.
“Is it already over?” Saria asked.
“Yes, we got him,” Sofia answered.
“That’s scripture’s pawn?” Alith said as she walked up to the limp body.
But the first to reach Sofia and the man was Astelia, who teleported right there and fell on her knees near the collapsed man in rags.
She reached for the creepy mask and ripped it off of the man’s face, throwing it away behind her in the same movement. “Uncle Nyse!”
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