Chapter 104
A cold fall wind blew across the impromptu battlefield, kicking up wisps of ashes from the greater pile as a tense standoff was underway.
The imp flicked a claw forward and fired towards Riley. Riley flopped again, dodging a bolt of entropic energy that flew, just missing her ears.
The imp paused at that and waited, hunched over with its claws hanging up front.
Tobias watched with his sword in a ready position, wrestling with the emotions surging across his connection from Riley. Holding herself back with gritted teeth, an anger and focus boiled deep within, obliterating all concerns of fatigue or exhaustion regardless of the time they had been awake or the lateness of the hour.
"Get control," Tobias projected, fighting for the same middle of peace himself.
As if some hidden signal was sent, the imp charged, exploding across the short distance with a burst of speed. Tobias juked back, and Riley went to cast. Her instincts kicked, breaking her focus, as the Imp appeared in front of her, swiping at her face with his claws, missing her by a scant few inches. She rolled out of the way, only to kick off in a wide arcing run, with the demonic being just behind.
"Riley, try to work towards me," Tobias urged, pulling at her side of the power.
"Working on it!" She cried as she felt her heart rate spin up, preparing herself for the tight turn, planting her forepaws and then kicking to the left before digging into the soft earth, forcing her direction into a tight arc. Flattening her ears, with the creature snapping just a foot or more behind, she dashed under Tobias' legs, grateful for his wide stance just as he let loose a bolt of righteous flame.
"Cheating! Cheating!" The infernal cried, throwing itself to the right, hard, as they shoulder-checked the ground at speed, rolling into an ugly tumbling spin, barely missing the bolt. Sliding across the dirt, they dug their claws into the ground, slowing their motion only to leave long, deep furrows, and came to a stop with a hiss.
"This is between us, human! Abandon her, and you may yet live to see another sunrise. I will allow this, yes..." They bargained. Riley, meanwhile, took up a closer position, stepping out from behind Tobias, panting.
"No deal. You come after her; you come after me," The sorcerer declared, gripping his sword with both hands.
The imp's eyes flitted to Riley, then back to Tobias before hissing again. "You delay my victory, so I will delay your death, making you scream for it before it comes!"
Launching again, with a fresh burst of speed, it closed the distance with preternatural grace, leaping into the air only to conjure a thin, rapier, swiping at Tobias. Moving with practiced grace, Tobias drew his blade up, deflecting the rapier, only for the imp to swipe with its left front claw. Four symmetrical lines of blood began to leak from his neck as the imp landed on the ground, pausing to lick its claws clean.
"Hmm... Blood. I like your tas..."
Riley interrupted, pulling at their shared power, casting in rapid and practiced succession.
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Holy Inferno
Fire Bolt
The bolt sailed true. Riley felt a strange tinge of power wrap around the infernal. The imp's wrist glowed green, highlighting a bronze bangle tightly gripped around its wrist that so perfectly blended in with its hide as to be camouflaged. The bolt hit and dissipated against an opaque shield that flashed into existence only to vanish as quick as it came, inspiring more hellish laughter, pricking at her pride, and fueling her barely constrained rage.
"Just die already!" Riley screamed.
"No!" The Imp replied joyfully, weaving and flipping into another attack with his rapier. The flurry and rapidity of the strikes overwhelming Tobias, keeping him on the defensive.
"Riley! Drain him, damn it! Do it now!" he screamed, deflecting and dodging against a relentless assault, all as tiny cuts began to appear on unexposed skin, causing blood to drip.
A sense of queasy unease settled upon her, only to be broken by her concern as Riley cast, not on the imp but his bangle.
Mana Vampire
Riley felt a surge of power hit her, all as the green light faintly glowing on the Imp's wrist flickered, then died.
"What?" It exclaimed, growing distracted. Its eyes fell towards the bangle in shock, granting Tobias an opening. His blade caught the Imp at the edge of the jaw, slicing up through his left eye.
Black blood flew as it hissed, leaping away on three limbs, cursing all the while.
"Cheater! Cheater!"
Righteous Flame/Fire Bolt
A cold and sinister chuckle seeped from Riley. White celestial light flew true.
The imp attempted to collect itself, blood dripping, mimicking the pitter patter sound of raindrops as the bolts impacted, filling the air with the sound of sizzling, burning flesh mixed with the scent of brimstone as it shrieked and burned.
"It hurts!" they screamed, as their voice melted into a strange chortling wail. The fire danced across his skin while it rolled uselessly on the ground.
Skin blackened to shiny charcoal, the imp clawed across the ground, only for nails to rip out from cooked flesh, whimpering in agony, trying to escape the fight they had started.
Tobias stalked forward, blade up for the kill. The imp rolled away, skin tearing into deep red gashes across its back, inspiring screams of pain as a bottle appeared in the imp's mangled and burned claw.
Enduring the pain with garishly white teeth glinting out from their burned flesh, they downed a healing potion. Blackened skin turned supple and scarred, while flesh knitted and drew tight across the imp's face in fresh, terrible burn scars, while their singular, milky white eye glowered with special hatred.
Sniffing the air, they reached up and pulled their rapier again, leaping out of the way to the sound of stretching and straining freshly scarred skin with a hiss.
Their head turned as they craned what was left of their ears towards the party.
"He's blind," Tobias muttered quietly under his breath, astounded that the creature could still be alive after the sheer amount of damage it had endured.
"Can still hear, still smell you and your wretched celestial filth!"
With superhuman resolve, hatred, and ability, the creature launched forward into an acrobatic display of claws and strikes from their tiny rapier, only to juke back and pant, exhausted.
Riley's anger wrestled with a strange form of pity rising in her heart.
"The only thing to do is end it," She said within.
Mana Vampire
Chaotic magic flooded into Riley as she cast, as something in her soul responded, lapping up the power, begging, screaming, and pleading for more.
"I..." She whispered, but her own instincts drove her on, holding the cast, draining it down. The abused creature gripped the sides of its head and began to seize.
Tobias' sword exploded into celestial flame as he stalked forward and drove his sword deep through the creature's chest. "
I... will... not be the last..." They chuckled strangely before gurgling and immolating into ash, with only the strange bronze bracelet left behind, resting now atop a pile of ashes.
Tobias collapsed down to his knees, panting, running a hand across the wounds in his neck. "Riley... Heal me, please."
She dashed over and pressed up against him.
Healing Halo.
The wounds knitted as the cold wind blew across the battlefield.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
"I think you got the worst of it," she replied as each of their gaze fell upon the bracelet.