Mid-leap, one of the SED Agents was knocked out of the air by something traveling so fast I could barely make it out. It was only thanks to the playback of the scene by my core ring that I was able to just barely perceive a single arrow coated in flowing purple Mana, before it promptly pierced the side of the unlucky Agent.
Wisp on overwatch had gotten one of them.
The force of the arrow was great enough that the SED operative was blown off of their feet, flying to slam against a nearby tree in the plaza. Somehow, her shot was accurate enough to lodge itself straight in the throat of the ambusher. The arrow pinned the black-cloaked figure like it was a captured insect. They writhed for only a moment, clutching uselessly at the shaft in their trachea before they fell still.
By the time Crook, Sylvia, and I had met the surviving SED members blade to blade, it was now four versus three instead of the five they’d arrived with. Curtly, the leader that had been speaking to me earlier gestured with their free hand not occupied holding back Crook’s stave at another one of their cohorts. They broke away from trying to circle around behind me to dash off in the direction of Wisp on her rooftop, dodging arrows coated in violet Mana all the while. The sound of the projectiles cracking into the stone of the plaza echoed like gunshots in the night.
Three versus three, now. Evenly matched.
Thanks, Wisp.
Sylvia and her chosen opponent both shimmered out of sight in duel of illusionary Skills for their own battle, out of sight from the rest of us. Odd, hidden clashes started erupting out of mid-air all over the plaza, the two apparent stealth specialists clashing only briefly just out of phase. Meanwhile, Crook and the leader had begun trading blows in a much more straightforward duel than I was expecting, her stave clashing against the fucking broadsword that the leader had drawn from nowhere. The two brutish weapons were creating shockwaves that rolled over the rest of us from the apparent strength behind both weapons.
I had no idea Crook was this strong. Thank fuck I’d brought her along.
But I only vaguely noticed any of this, and only thanks to the observational abilities of Ringed Mind. I was too busy trying to fight off someone who was very, very obviously stronger than I was.
And failing.
I cursed mentally, desperately dodging out of the way of a strike from the SED member’s bizarre weapon. I’d never seen or fought against anything like it before in my time on Vereden. To my eyes, it looked like someone had attached a mini scythe to a length of fine chain, and then weighted the other end with the head of a small, spiked mace. My opponent was wielding the strange weapon with such preternatural skill that I was certain they had gone the route of specialization in it. They had to have an advanced proficiency talent in using this thing, whatever it was.
In a way, their fighting style almost reminded me of the way Azarus tended to throw around his hammer and shield. Right now, I was feeling like a complete moron for never asking to spar with him when he was using his chains. It had just never come up, with as focused as he’d been on teaching me conventional weapon forms.
How the hell was I supposed to know I would encounter another chain wielder? How popular could the damn things be?
I promised myself I would bug him for the practice.
If I ever saw him again.
Even with Sylvan Vigor jacked up as high as I could manage, I was only barely managing to keep the bladed edge of the flying scythe from taking my head off. I had no doubt it could do that, either. As I parried one wide, scything throw from the operative, the tumbling edge of the blade briefly touched the wood of the bench from earlier.
The solid wooden structure was cut neatly in half when my opponent reeled the blade back in. I only scarcely caught the sight of that, though, as I was too busy being knocked off of my feet from the mace head of the chain impacting my stomach, thrown underhanded by the SED operative. If I hadn’t been wearing a sleeveless vest of leather armor under my civilian clothes, I would have been disemboweled right then and there. As it was, I could see feel the spikes of the mace penetrate deep enough through the hard leather to prick the skin of my stomach before it was withdrawn.
I tumbled through the air from the force of the blow, only able to stop myself from flying into the garden by stabbing one of my daggers down into the stone of the plaza below. The flagstones crumbled under the enchanted force of my Oninite blade, but still slowed me enough that I was able to land on my hands and knees. Instantly, I raised both my head and my right hand, still clutching the dagger not buried in the stone beneath, and pointed two fingers in the direction of the chain-wielding assassin.
Snarling, I fired off a barrage of three Poisonthorn Shots at them.
The SED operative stopped spinning the chain of their weapon for another throw and caught the hand of the scythe. Holding the blade flat before them, a pane of inky black shadows, so similar to the Skill that had held me earlier, span up in front of them. Almost contemptuously, my opponent blocked all three of my poisonous thorns, neither the point nor the corrosive acid coating them managing to pierce the solid darkness.
But in the brief moment that their sight had been blocked by their shield, I had pushed off against the flagstones as hard as I possibly could, straight at the chain-wielding maniac. The stone under my feet cracked in a noise not dissimilar to the shots that Wisp had been landing earlier, as I flew through the air, daggers poised to strike at the operative like the fangs of a serpent.
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I saw my opponent tense in surprise in the split second before I closed in on them as they snapped the chain of their weapon in a guarding position. The length of chain gleamed oddly, looking to grow sturdier.
My Oninite blades crashed into the strangely sturdy links in an explosion of sparks. In an instant, the length of chain somehow flowed around the blades of my daggers, trapping them in place. Above me, I could see the scythe blade at the end of their long weapon angle down at me in a killing blow. For some reason, I got the impression that the opposing agent was smirking at me.
I grinned viciously in response, and activated the entire reason I had gotten so close to them.
Grinding Crimson Sunder.
The blades of my daggers erupted into a swirling mire of blood-red screeching thorns. The chain around both of my daggers burst into an explosion of sundered links from the grinding force of my synergized Skill, falling in fragments all around me. At the same time, I depressed the activation switch on the dagger I was aiming.
Right. At. Their. Head.
The collapsible spear exploded into its full length in an instant, as I tried to lance through their skull with just the power of the springs in my weapon.
Somehow, the SED operative was able to react in time to dodge the incoming point of my spear. They jerked their head backward just in time to avoid taking the full blade to the face. Instead, the crimson-coated edge just barely scraped along the swirling illusionary surface of their concealing spell mask. It was disrupted along the line of the blade, briefly revealing their face to the world.
In response, the operative rocketed their head back forward in a headbutt that I didn’t see coming, closing the short distance that was between our two bodies. In the split second before their skull impacted my own, I was able to see I had carved a bloody line over one furious brown eye, set into a pale feminine face.
That was all I saw, though, because in the next instant, I was seeing stars. I stumbled back, activating Thorn Cloak almost instinctually as I did so. It was a good thing I did, as I felt the spiked end of my opponents severed chain mace swing around behind me and strike my back. The spikes pierced the mass of thorns, but not the surface of my armor this time. I skipped back in order to get some distance between us, as my sight started to clear.
When I could see again, I noticed that the surface of the operative’s illusionary mask had regenerated from my strike. But now their posture was much warier that they’d found out I could actually hurt them. They were holding the handle of their severed scythe in their left hand, while they swung the shorter length of chain attached to the mace head in the other, gearing up for another throw.
Shit.
That had been an almost last-gasp gambit from me. I didn’t know what else to do, now that this apparent woman was wise to some of my best tricks. I wasn’t going to be able to get them with the extension of my daggers anymore, and they were going to be wary of my blades now that they knew I had weapon enhancement Skills. I could hurt them with Grinding Crimson Sunder, and hell, I could probably get them with The Scintillant Blade too. But the problem now was they still had range on me with that chain mace, and my spear wasn’t longer than that chain. I couldn’t rely on backup either, as both Crook and Sylvia were still preoccupied with their own opponents.
Damnit, this was probably the worst combat matchup I’d ever had on Vereden. Conceptually, I was too similar in ability to this woman, and I couldn’t beat her with pure Skill. In pure instinct and skill, she seemed superior to me as well.
Fuck it.
I was just going to have to grit my teeth and do my best.
I sheathed my left dagger and extended my right, gripping it in a spear stance instead of bothering with daggers anymore. The chain may be longer than my shorter spear, but it was still better for this situation. Maybe I could get them with Shadow Thorn too, if I set it up right? Guess I'd have to find out.
I took a deep breath, and prepared to charge.
I needn’t have bothered.
Appearing as if out of nowhere, a familiar Gnoll woman shimmered into view in a flying kick to the side of the SED operative I’d been failing against.
Dusk, somehow miraculously coming to my rescue.
Impossibly, I saw the woman try to react to the sneak attack, but not fast enough for once. The kick impacted their side, and they went flying to slam against the nearby trunk of a tree in the plaza. In particular, I saw their head bounce hard off the bark. They tried to struggle back to their feet from the hard impact, only to slump back against it, looking to have lost consciousness.
I let out a slow breath before flicking my eyes over at taciturn Gnoll that had saved me. I nearly had to do a double-take at the sight of her.
Bizarrely, while she was still wearing her face-concealing mask, she was not wearing the normal Order armor. Instead, she had an almost incongruously stereotypical maid uniform on. The long black skirt and blouse were overlaid by a frilly white apron, upon which I could see dust and dirt stains.
I stared at her dumbly for a moment, forgetting the entire confrontation still ongoing. I nearly wanted to cry laughing at how out of place the Gnoll woman looked. After a single split-second, though, I snapped out of it.
Something else had grabbed my attention. Multiple things, in fact.
The first was that the SED leader had disengaged from Crook, and had backed off while the other operative fighting Sylvia shimmered into view next to them, regrouping. Because someone else had joined them, too.
The agent that had been sent off in the direction of Wisp.
They had returned, and their body was dripping with freshly stained blood.
My own ran cold at the sight of it, the implication slowly sinking in while Crook and Sylvia joined Dusk and I. Crook noticed the same thing I did, and snarled like a wild animal, taking a tense step forward. She was blocked by the extended arm of Dusk, however. I’m not sure she even noticed. “What did you do?!” She shouted in the silence of the plaza, at the blood-drenched SED operative.
They didn’t answer. Instead, the leader did for them. “No more than you, Nocturne,” They said, their disdain somehow translating through the voice modulating effect of their illusionary mask. “An eye…for an eye.”
Crook tensed further, her grip on her stave tightening enough for the wood to creak. Before she could do anything, though, Dusk finally spoke since her sudden entrance. “Enough,” She said lowly, causing Crook to turn her head slightly. I broke out of my shock caused by the apparent death of Wisp to look at her. “We need to go. Now.”
“Why?!” Crook questioned furiously. “We can’t just let them get away with this!”
But it wasn’t Dusk who answered, or even the SED leader.
Instead, it was a familiar voice, coming from the entrance to the plaza.
“Oh, possibly because of me,” A cool, refined female voice rang out, accompanied by the sound of marching armor-clad boots.
I…knew that voice. The owner was the entire reason this confrontation even happened.
Turning my head, I saw her.
Rhiannon.
Accompanied by what looked like an entire platoon of classers from a group I hadn’t seen since we’d taken Helstein.
The Order of Solstice’s Flame.