A wake carved through the pool of blood from the sheer speed of Blair as she flew away from the Blood Knight’s pursuit. He swerved around blood blades and spikes as he drew close enough to cleave through her again, but as before her body dropped as a splash of red blood and rose whole from the pool within the room.
Donny charged again but Blair’s thoughts were elsewhere. As she sailed away her vision scoured over the individual fights throughout the city. All seemed to be going well enough to plan so her sights turned to the battle that raged at the city walls, directing a portion of the vampires to break off and meet the paladin’s flanking attempt head on as she sparked another suicidal charge of lesser tier to puncture a gap in the accursed humans’ front lines for the stronger ones to take advantage of.
A shield of blood hardened before her, stopping the relentless pest’s sudden reckless charge Blair darted back as she returned her attention to this troublesome foe. Blood swirled in waves before her, condensing into an single sphere which writhed and surged forth as a high pressure stream.
Blood coated Donny’s shield as the blood jet stream shattered his Greater Bastion and cracked the layer of hardened blood, sending him cratering into the walls of the large hall. Thunderstomp blew away the tendrils that tried to snake their way around him again and he charged, but the sight of the surrounding blood flowing into his body, recovering his aura and mana caught Blair’s eye.
Immediately, a cascade of small serrated blades assaulted Donny, doing little but drawing blood from the knight whose regeneration outpaced the harm. Donny planted a firm step and closed the gap in an instant with Shield Charge, pivoting in shift immediately, sliding right next to the fleeing Blood Witch and rending through her torso, drawing a river of blood that flowed straight into him.
Blair sailed back as Donny raised an arm, ready to strike again. And Donny froze, his mind clouded almost too long, as his shield charge just barely allowed him to avoid the giant spear of blood. Donny assessed his circumstances in his simple state. She was able to curse him through immunity, meaning she had a mythic tier curse. But at no point did he notice her using such a spell.
The blood, he thought. If their was one avenue a curse could be delivered, it was through the wounds she inflicted, and perhaps even the blood he absorbed without a second thought. The thin streams of blood flowing into his blood fell dully back into the pool as he suppressed his Bloodthirst trait.
Perfect Rage still active, he thought with focused aggressive, and burst towards the door of the hall. Blood shot up all around the walls from the pool below and formed a cage around them. As Donny drew near, a scythe of blood cut deep into his neck and several more forced him away, the cage impenetrable lest he was willing to take more damage than he could afford. And Blair smiled.
“You’re not as foolish as you appear.” Currents gathered around the Blood Witch once more. “But you cannot avoid my vile blood.”
Donny’s body spasmed at her self deprecating words, stakes of blood impaled him from within. The hardened blood mangled his body into parts. A piece of his bloodless head floating in the air recovered in an instant, just in time to burst away from a second attack.
The Blood Witch resumed her attack more ferociously and insidiously than before, forcing Donny to expend more effort and aura dodging the constant assault that left not even a chance of reaching her now. Doubtless what she wanted, Donny knew. As a caster type, she almost certainly possessed more mana than he had aura. All she had to do was outlast him.
Blair’s domineering arrogance grew further as her attacks came closer and closer to assuring his demise, and her expression fell in shock. Frustration wracked her mind at the failure she perceived, failure of one among those most of all who should not have fallen so quickly.
With a thought, she sent all the vampires she kept in reserve throughout the city barrelling in towards the woman. She could not allow her to threaten the others, to tip the balance in these cursed invaders’ favor. And Donny cleaved through her torso again, forcing her to step through the blood and regenerate. In his battle craze, Donny smiled. The Blood Witch was not a fighter, and she was distracted. He charged forward, through the retaliation, piling on the pressure as Blair’s demeanor turned coldly serious.
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Ashley stepped out of a mass of pitch black darkness that faded away behind her, revealing a dust within butler’s attire flowing away with the wind. Not a single wound marred her body, her smile as carefree and mischievous as ever as she considered who would be the most amusing to help out next.
Her attention turned to the lunging vampire nobles as she gracefully dodging their vicious claws. Her scythe casually reaped the lives of several but they swarmed in greater and greater numbers still. With a giggle, she hopped back leading her undead pursuers deeper into the city.
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Half a dozen Mantis and Hornet models harassed the hunchbacked Mentalist relentlessly, as Jean’s mind raced with endless conflicting plans. The strain on his mind was a danger, but bearable, the same legendary tier Greater Mindfray that Shin’s lamassu possessed, if Jean guessed correctly. Too long under such an attack and his mind would crumbled, but it was bearable.
The threat of mental confusion loomed over the fight but one would not recognize as much in Jean’s indifferent eyes. He could rely on sixth sense and Substitution to escape whenever it happened, but that would only trade one mythic skill for another. He needed to force his opponent to use more than himself and at a faster rate.
In that regard, the constant base attacks from his puppets had a point. The Mentalist flew in a different way than Yen did. Smoother and more precise, likely the result of it being the upgraded version. Puppetry, even wielding six at once, would consume less mana than mythic tier Fly, and occasionally the hunchback was pushed enough that he had to cease Mindfray in spots. The less strain on his mind, the better it was for Jean.
“There’s no point…” Dudley spoke up in his evasive flight. “I-I can tell which thoughts are the strongest. The m-most real… You will run out of mana before me.”
The wooden mouths of his three Hornets clacked open, shooting a barrage of needles at the Mentalist as the Mantises continued their attack in the line of fire. Dudley hesitated only a split second before erected a Mana Barrier around himself, the mythic tier defensive skill easily shielding him from all threats.
But Jean did not relent. His Hornets puts some distance between them as the Mantis slashed away fruitlessly at the perfect sphere. “You c-can’t win… Why even try-” Dudley’s eyes went wide as a large wooden bug teleported within his barrier, and exploded.
Dudley soared away unharmed, but he had to cancel his barrier in order to escape the blast of Jean’s Firefly model, a kamikaze type puppet with only the epic tier spells of Blink and Combustion, but highly effective countermeasures for such skills like barrier or ward.
Dudley’s head jolted as a rapid cannon exploded violently on him, more powerfully than the firefly puppet before. The smoke cleared in moments allowing the hunchback to see a new type beside Jean, a four legged animal with a long wide snout like the barrel of a cannon. The Anteater model as Jean named it, and it served one purpose, to fire a powerful attack at the enemy.
It was the only puppet among his arsenal equipped with a legendary tier attack, courtesy of some of the plunder they obtained in the capital’s vault, though such ammo was extremely limited. Before Dudley could speak, a firefly blinked by his side again, forcing him once more to discard a mythic tier skill after a single use.
Dudley’s face tensed as he found deeper thoughts in Jean, the true intentions of the puppetmaster. Wearing down his mana was merely a feint. In truth, he sought a killing blow. With that, Dudley cast a magical slash at the man, an infallible blade that soared with extreme speed and carved the air and ground in its path.
And Jean jolted to the side, just barely avoiding it. Tied around his back like a vest was a winged insectoid puppet, the Dragonfly model, allowing him via Puppetry to move far faster than he himself could, enabling him to dodge such lethal blows without the more costly Substitution.
“He tricked me!” Dudley disregard himself in a panic. The invader’s true intention was the wear down his mana, and he had achieved exactly that with the last exchange.
Dudley started to turn, and another cannonball crashed into his barrier and another firefly blinked right beside. Dudley dismissed his barrier as he soared away, but the explosion never came. The firefly retreated away as the Mantis’ flurry of blades resumed.
Fear and panic spread deeper and deeper into Dudley’s expression as he read Jean’s mind. The puppetmaster’s thoughts constantly switched between attrition and opportunity, each just as real as the other, and the hunchback could not glean his true intentions.
“Calm yourself.” Dudley startled slightly at Blair’s sudden words within his mind. “Maintain your initial strategy. The puppetmaster’s attacks are mere bluffs. He can win no other way than a battle of attrition, so do not let him.”
“Y-yes!” Dudley yelled out loud. Blair was the smartest of them all and she was always right. He let his trust fall with her, vowing to let the invader’s tricks fool him no more. “Y-you are mad! I knew it! You must be, a single mistake will lead to your death. N-no one can remain sane in this pit of mad… ness…”
Dudley stared at Jean, the apathetic eyes of informed indifference staring back in the pitch of battle, and in the depths of his mind Dudley found the truth. The man before him was entirely and unremarkably the same as he was before the tower. None of this inexplicable madness that tormented Dudley’s mind so unbearably had sparked the slightest trace of a change. Dudley sailed around the blades and weaponry of the puppets as he remained speechless within the eyes and mind of the puppetmaster, and panic crept in once more.