Chapter 108
It was an easier battlefield for Riley than it was for Tobias. That, however, was changing by the moment.
Mired in the bushes, each bolt flung presented a consequence from dodging. Tobias was bleeding, covered in cuts from thorns, sticks, and branches, and bruised from colliding with tree stumps.
"That imp was a good servant, and you deprived me of him!" Sprazrael seethed, pointing his pitchfork in the direction of each rustling bush.
Already, there was a circle of destruction spread out fifty feet in each direction.
"You'll be joining him soon!" Tobias taunted, hiding behind a rock obscured by a bush. Two bolts hit, one after another, cleaving the stone with a deafening crack as Tobias pulled at a veil and attempted to reposition.
Riley popped up behind the fiend, dropping her veil and emerging from behind a small boulder.
Holy Inferno
A white bolt of pure celestial flame shot from between her ears, sailing across the frosted roadway striking the devil in the back. He screamed, going down to one knee as his flesh cooked and sizzled, dissolving in the purifying flame.
Tobias charged, breaking from cover, sword up for a quick strike, going for form two. A sickening laugh poured from the fiend like cackling cancer as his back knitted together, and he rose, only to stab at Tobias, discharging a bolt of frost from his pitchfork.
Tobias did not cross his blade with the prongs, instead deflecting the edge of the shaft, pushing it from his path of travel, sliding into a roll, and swiping at the legs of the fiend. The blade bit in, cutting a chunk of flesh, allowing black blood to pour down around his hooves, eating into the road like acid. The fumes rose and hit Tobias' lungs, causing him to cough as the wound knitted closed around his retreating sword.
Seizing on the distraction, Riley conjured her power.
Flame Wall/Holy Inferno- Combo!
The devil began to cook in the hellish flame, buying Tobias time to retreat back and reform his strategy.
Screaming, writhing in agony, with staggering steps like a golem, he jerked back as Riley felt a huge surge of magic. Again, the devil's flesh healed, even as Tobias rose and peppered him with celestial firebolts.
Every hole closed as fast as it burned through.
"Feeble, useless, I am no stranger to pain! By all means, exhaust yourselves... It will only make my victory more sweet!" Sprazrael taunted.
"By the Dead Gods, nothing is working! He heals too fast!" Tobias.
The smoking blue devil cackled in defiant fury.
"We keep up the pressure!" Riley replied, projecting back, unable to keep the desperation away from her tone.
"Don't panic in the fight, think and survive! Adapt!" Memories of Cid's relentless training echoed through her mind.
Plant Whisperer
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Three vines grew up out of the ground, only to be cut down by frost bolts, freezing in place like ice sculptures. Tobias drew his sword into the ready position while the devil was distracted, only to charge. The blade erupted into flame as he brought it down, colliding with the tines. It was a battle between fire and ice; frost formed around the tip of the blade only to flash into steam just as fast.
Riley saw their mana bar dropping precipitously as they struggled, and the devil grinned. Twisting the pitchfork, Tobias, instead of letting go, rolled with it, only to pull back at the exact moment he was in the perfect position to run Sprazrael through. The blade hissed and popped, cooking whatever was inside before exploding out of the devil's back.
The fiend hissed and, with the blade still sticking clean out his back, slammed his fist into Tobias with supernatural strength. His head snapped to one side, and his jaw gave way while he skipped rudely across the ground.
Unconsciousness claimed him before his body slammed into a tree with a terrible crack, ragdolling. Unconcerned, Sprazrael pulled the sword from his gut and tossed it to the side, turning all of his attention onto Riley while she cast Healing Halo. The spell spread out from around her, slamming into Tobias, keeping him alive, to the sound of dozens of sickening pops.
His unconscious form heaved in a deep breath, confirming that he was still alive as much as she still felt him distantly through her bond.
A headache hit her, along with a stiff wave of vertigo, her mana bar blinking. "What's your plan?" She stalled.
"To kill you. You won't be the first Rangers I've ended. High minded, arrogant fools. The rest you don't need to know. You could run, though, or beg and make it more diverting. That may inspire in me some mercy," he grinned malevolently with a shrug, toying with her before firing a bolt to her left and right.
The ground turned to ice around her as she looked back toward Tobias while her instincts screamed for her to flee.
"I'm not leaving him! Are you sure you don't want to monologue?" She cried, stalling for dear life, rebelling against her own deeply held programming, all as the mana drain made her sick. She barely had five percent of her power bar left, and even if she could run, where? Nothing had worked, and there was only enough energy for one more cast.
"I have to do it... I have to do it...I don't have any other choice," she chanted like a mantra.
Mana Vampire
The devil laughed and charged, only for Riley to cast it again and again, desperation seizing her heart as she felt something within reach out and connect with the fiend, the spell burning a pathway open between the two of them.
There was a sense of a vast ocean of mana at the fiend's command forming within her mind and, with it, a rising avarice as a dark whisper echoed up from her soul.
Hungry...
Mana Vampire X 2
Hungry!
Power slammed into her as she found a near uncocious rhythm. Thoughts flowed like waves rising to peaks only to recede back into a greater whole of being.
Hungry!
I have to save him!
I love him!
I won't be the monster!
She flowed from one cast to another.
Plant Whisperer, Holy Inferno, Fire Bolt, Flame Wall, Mana Vampire
The magic erupted out of her in a relentless cascade, slamming into an already beleaguered blue devil.
Desperately, she could feel him reaching for his healing magics, only for her to yank the mana away, a part of her soul greedily lapping up the energy.
Holy Inferno, Fire Bolt, Flame Wall, Mana Vampire
The mystical being began to desiccate, deflating like they were little more than a balloon, burning blue skin melting off of bones, screaming and writhing in terror and agony.
"How?" They managed to say, as their horns fell to the ground while they swept their claws back over their head, only to fall and seize.
With one final shudder, Riley felt the soul let go of its body, the death sending out a strange wave of backlash through her as something in her mind screamed before a wave of blackness drifted over her like a blanket.
The last thing she saw was the prompt:
You have consumed the essence of Sprazrael, Elite Blue Devil. You have defeated Sprazrael, Elite Blue Devil.
There was no sensation of time where she found herself as her eyes opened, only to see three mirrors before her.
She was reflected in the center, save that the jackrabbit was a celestial with bright white fur and angelic, spectral wings. A halo, cocked slightly, rested above their head. To the right was a human girl, no older than twenty-five years of age, who seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. On the left was a beast made of living shadow, its yellow eyes glowing with menace, portending doom with every inch of its body. The human girl waved while the jackrabbit winked, only for the erkrandir to tilt its head curiously.
Life is a balance. It takes all to make a life. Fear not. She heard a booming voice around her before her eyes snapped open, and she was in Tobias' lap.
He was resting against the tree that he had impacted, looking sick from the pain and trauma he had been through, save for a large smile on his face. He looked down and pet her ears back, "I told you, you were a ranger."
"I'm just so damn glad you're alive." She replied, pressing tightly against him.