Blair wrought all manner of blades and spikes at the evasive vermin pursuing her, all pretense of control gone from her face now tensed in graceful frustration. Gordon had died, a shock she could not deny, but fortunately he had rendered his opponent unable to fight, unable to put her king in further danger.
The losses of Bernadette and Dudley stung but they were replaceable. Blanche less so but at least she had incapacitated the Dragoon who posses the one type of skill that could threaten the king. She had served some purpose, which is more than she could say for that fool of a prince.
Ramsay was the cornerstone of their plans, and his loss would be severely felt. But she forced herself not to lose her temper and focus further. He was unique before, but with the chance the possibility of recreating him was likely. They need only find a new one, or a player who could make the same. Virgil may not like the second option but they had little choice, and she would take his burden and ire if needed.
The dangerous woman was still kept away by the vampires. Blair had wondered if she had overreacted and thought too highly of her threat but now she could see her gut feeling from right. The problem facing them was that nearly all of the invaders were still alive, even if some were just barely, and the paladin army was starting to gain the upper hand. The presence of specialized healers meant that they could survive longer in pitch combat than even the regenerating undead.
They were supposed to have killed the party by now, the first victors reinforcing the others to overwhelm them, then slay the champion alongside their king. The paladin threat before them would be crushed with their addition. But now there was only Pierre and herself remaining.
“The others are dead. End your fight now and finish their duties.”
She delivered an order with harsher tone than usual to the irresponsible magician and assumed her vampire form, darting away from the chasing knight with raw physicality to reduce the strain on her mana. But the accursed warrior pressed only hard enough to force her resources without leaving himself open. Mythic skills might be able to affect others through Immunity but not by much. Her curses were slow to spread and she no longer had the time to wait him out.
She withdrew every drop of blood within the room aside from the solid cage lining the walls and dome, and attack more aggressively than ever before. The sheer relentlessness of the blood cascade forced Donny on the backfoot but he avoided and blocked it all the same. A cluster of black mist struck him cast from her hands, a weakening curse, but Greater Spellbreak dismissed the legendary tier magic with ease, and the Blood Witch did not try again.
Still, her attacks drew closer and closer to drawing blood, and she only needed the slightest graze to rob the knight of his own once more. And before that certain death, Donny’s focus sharpened, honed further and further as he feinted, thrashed, and defended with all his might.
Ripples stirred within the flowing and hardened surges of blood, and shards of light shattered off him as blood turned to liquid, coating his body and armor and hardening like steel. Bloodbind had become Bloodgild, and the layer of protection it gave him was enough to hold firm against the faster and thinner attacks of the witch.
Donny burst forward without hesitation. Wielding the witch’s blood in this way did not subject him to her curses and allowed him to become more bold in his fight. But as he drew near, the armor of blood covering him melted from its hardened state, and impaled him once more.
Donny flourished his axe on primal instinct, severing off a large chunk of his head that regenerated instantly once more, along with the gear bound to him, the three parts of his armor, helm, torso, and legs, and his axe and shield. He kicked off the air away from a scythe of blood and darted away, forced once again on the defensive.
A smile spread from Blair’s lips, disdainful and invigorated at the sight of victory. “All blood is mine to wield as I please! Blame your hubris for daring to trespass the realm of the king!”
And Donny smiled back, his of vicious zeal. Pouches of blood appeared in the air before him as he fled, drawn from his spatial bag, and his axe cleaved through in a flash. Tendrils of the fresh blood flowed straight into his body, restoring his aura and mana without consequence.
Blair’s expression turned to a frown once much as she gathered another current of blood, but then flicked away without warning, worry and tension seeping through. As she held the knight at bay as best she could, her focus turned to the battle raging at the gate. An organized push from the paladin’s threatened to collapse her army. She gave orders and made sacrifices of what was needed quickly. In Nostravania’s current state, she could not allow them to break through, no matter the cost.
“Don’t look away from a fight.” Blair flickered away from the axe that came with Donny’s taunt. More blood pouches took her place in the opening, giving him even more energy to use.
“Half of your party lies dead.” Blair sneered. “If you still have your wits, you should aid what’s left of them.”
But Donny’s widened grin in response sent a chill down her spine. Whether he knew she was lying or simply did not care, she didn’t know, but distress and haste crept further into her mind. The wretched knight was iron willed and far too mad. His supply of blood had changed things. At this rate, he may yet be able to outlast her instead. Were she to focus entirely on him, that would change, but she had to spare what she could on the city’s defense.
“You’ll lose if you don’t advance.”
In a flight of rage she sent a boring spear of blood towards him that he evaded with ease as though he knew what she would do. Blair cursed at herself for falling for such a cheap taunt. She refused to advance. She could not. How would she be able to stand at the side of her king were she to fall even further behind.
“Scared?”
“You know nothing of fear!”
Another flurry of attacks was pulled from her, but her success was lessening. Her focus was strained too many ways and her stress rising. Whatever skill the blood knight was using pulled just slightly on her desire to kill him, which compounded with his timely taunts. The fight had strayed too far out of her control and her mana running low.
Blood congealed around her and raged out as she unleashed a storm of red that sundered stone floor and walls around them. A flurry of blades sliced through Donny’s flesh and Blair smiled, but it was short lived. She found no blood in his body the moment contact was made, only just now realized the traces of blood on his armor and unhealed wounds at his neck. He had bled himself dry during their exchange to avoid his own blood turning against him.
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Before she could react, Donny struck one of the broken stones lingering in the air with his shield, Knockback sending it soaring at a speed that forced her to dodge on reflex. And the knight burst before her. Blades of blood assaulting her from all sides but the remains of his blood hardened around him, just enough to bear the attacks as his axe cleaved off her head.
As her head glided through the air in the serenity of slowed time, Blair began to realize the choice before her. Images of her most beloved she would serve her whole life scrolled through her mind and it was no choice at all. With the last of her mana, she sent the vampire army into a frenzy against the paladins, and with a few last words, her head fell to the ground and remained still.
The blood that stabbed and impale Donny and the hardened blood surrounding the dome collapsed into a pool. Donny confirmed his victory through her status laid bare and ending his Focused Rage. But with the first step he took, his fell face first into the dark red pool.
The curses within his body had accumulated too greatly, with the last risk he took, and he could not recover any more more lest the still cursed blood of this arena push him truly over the edge. Unfettered kept him alive, but he could not move, trapped in the dome as he forced himself to remain conscious, lest his Bloodthirst trait start again, and the curses truly consume him.
---
“End things now, hm?” Pierre weaved through a violent forest eccentric nonchalance. “Easier said than done.”
A root shot out at him from the giant tree at his side and passed straight through his intangible form. The branches, roots and grass around him mindlessly attacked as though the forest was alive and hated him. He glanced up at the Pagan hovering in the sky above, draped in shieldfeathered wings next to the valkyrie.
She had kept a large distance between them ever since it became a duel of single combat, no doubt wary of his Shuffle skill. Her main skillset, as far as he could tell, was of two. One caused the forest to rampage with no more control than to simple designate a target, and the other were the faster and slyer attacks she cast herself. Still, it both were all within his realm of Foresight, and no amount of clever tricks could defeat his Phantasm and Greater Blink.
That said, he was in somewhat of impasse himself. The mythic tier valkyrie at her side had an attack that could wound him through phantasm, a rather powerful one at that, and he doubted he had seen all of what it could do. Even if she exhausted her mana, the summon would remain, which was trouble he’d rather deal with sooner.
Pierre soared up out of the canopy and phased out of the forest, bounding towards the stoic druid. Flowers bloomed from the treetops as they had before, and spat an endless volley of seeds. They were slow, far too slow to be a problem, but she used them calculatingly, cornering him just enough to force a blink away from a ghastly blade of mana.
The valkyrie slashed at him in careful measure, most forcing him to expend more mana as he drew nearer. Pierre readied his fingers to snap, and a stone pillar from a portal above slammed against the valkyrie's shield that moved in the blink of an eye to protect Kamala.
Piercing vines shot up from below and Pierre snapped his fingers truly this time. The vines slammed against Kamala’s wings, failing to pierce through but that was not Pierre’s goal. The valkyrie’s spear thrust faster than he could move, but a portal opened before him, and the spear passed through the angel instant.
However, it passed through without harm as the valkyrie took intangible form. Pierre swung his cane without pause and nearly bisected the angel fully, failed only as he was forced to blink away from its rapid flurry of thrusts. An golden light enveloped the valkyrie, healing its wounds as summon and summoner rejoined, and created distance again, flying closer to the forest now.
Pierre sailed around the seedfire with a smile. A gate opened above and he caught the two living players that fell through by their necks. Mana flowed from their listless bodies into his hands until the life left their eyes as well.
“I’m willing to play this game of attrition as long as you can.”
A larger gate opened at his words, and dozens more fell down. But rather than catch them, Pierre held out his hand and snapped his fingers. The players teleported right besides Kamala and before she could react, they exploded with tremendous power, tightly contained around her.
“But I do prefer to put on a show. Oh?” Pierre’s showman’s smile turned to a look of pleasant interest at Kamala’s unmarred form, and the valkyrie’s mangled body fading away to golden dust.
Kamala dove down into the cover of the forest, but Pierre was in no rush. The summon was a safety net of sorts and not one she could rely on again as he doubted she possessed the mana to summon another. He followed after him, backing into the forest which came alive again the moment he entered.
Through the roots and vines he pursued the Pagan with ease. Silver vines trailed him from behind drawing ever closer but he would reach her first. Kamala wrapped herself in her shieldsaint wings as silver roots speared towards her from all sides and the same did for the space just in front of Pierre.
Suddenly his expression turned to shock as he swung his cane at Dante appearing in front, morphing back from a fly. His expression bored and all knowing as his two arms chopped at Pierre, hands infused with Corrosive and the Stigma markings of spatial interference lined over his body.
Pierre clicked his teeth in his mind. He was a bit too slow in his attack. The charlatan’s palm would cleave through his arm before he could take his head. The silver roots were meant to trap him if he switched with either of the two, but he could not remain as he was.
Dante and Kamala switched places as Pierre changes his target to the wing covered pagan, and a portal opened in the path of his cane, its exit right beside his own head. Tricked for a second time, he brooded. The charlatan had staggered his portal for exactly this situation.
Pierre’s mind was fast but so was the situation before him, one that was outside his complete control. He was far too out of the loop. How the charlatan survived, what other tricks they had up their sleeves. He needed to wipe the stage clear and start again. There was no issue. He could restore his mana and wear them down once more. With those thoughts taking place in a flash, he blinked away, and the explosion of half a dozen trick mines rumbled the air.
Pierre screamed in pain as vines of silver finally found root in his body and spread through in an instant. His vampiric form was forced out so the roots would not kill him, but the silver obstructed his abilities more the higher tier they were and the vines themselves greedily sapped his mana.
“Life’s all about staying three steps ahead.” Dante walked calmly to the magician writhing in agony on the ground, the bored look in his eyes still remaining. “You don’t have the heart of a strategist.”
Dante raised a foot above Pierre’s head and the magician thrust his draining hand out to grab it, only to recoil as the corrosive mana ate away at him in an instant. Before he could react in more than a sharp curse, Dante was already kneeling before him from a different direction, and with a heavy hand shattered his head over the stone.
“Like I said…” The words came out almost as a sigh, as if he were truly disappointed in his opponent. Pierre’s flesh trembled as regeneration was stunted and soon his body fell still as the vines robbed the last of his mana, and with it his life.
“We do not have time for a break.” Kamala unfurled her wings with stoic poise despite the urgent intent of her words.
“Karla and Yen first, probably.” Dante mused as he rose to a stand “Maybe Mujin. I’ll use a flash if I find anyone that needs healing.”
Without the need for further discussion the two took off in separate directions to reinforce the others. As Kamala flew, her thoughts lingered on Dante. After the momentary shock at his ‘demise’, she had understood his general intentions from the skills he left out in his status, only needing a short while more to deduce the rest and set the stage for him.
But in return, he must have trusted that she’d do so. With how they had managed to trap the sly magician so soundly at the mere improvisation of a plan, she wondered just how much of his occasional idiocy was real. But he was far from the only unusual one among them, so she put it to the back of her mind for now and focused on finding the others, who may not have been so fortunate in their fights, a certain amazon reckless beyond all sense foremost in her thoughts.