Felghan grimaced. His blade which wanted so badly to plunge its way into Kiran found itself halted due to Lar’s fauchard.. If she had been a second or two late in coming to his aid, he would be dead.
He backed away right as Lar unleashed her fury upon him. Felghan’s feet motioned backward while her fauchard came for him at multiple angles swiping horizontally or vertically. It sliced through the air allowing for a comfortable distance to form between them. If Felghan was to strike his companion, he would have to get up close. She on the other hand had the advantage of a weapon that could keep some distance between them.
Kiran wanted to focus his efforts on Felghan entirely, but he was not the only person trying to kill them. Another foe or presence dwelled nearby sticking to the shadows. He tried to find them but struggled to do so.
A burst of light appeared above their heads. An orb cast by Yorais no doubt. Kiran tried to spot the other person who had tried to crush them with those trees earlier. Like previously, they remained unseen.
Yorais began to channel more of the mana that the arcane root provided for her. Jagged shards materialized into the air and began flying towards Felghan’s exposed backside.
Lar kept out of the way as they flew past her.
Dust and debris lifted into the air as the shards exploded into the ground and surrounding trees. As Felghan’s body successfully avoided each shard flying at him, the lingering foe who remained hidden would still not reveal themselves.
Until now.
Kiran instinctually cast a wide barrier at the backside of Yorais. The same nearly invisible arced attacks this individual used on them earlier came scarily fast. The barrier protected her but more of them came from different directions.
Yorais looked relieved that he protected her. She continued to focus on assisting Lar while he tried to spot their other opponent.
An obscured and blurry figure motioned past the trees repositioning themselves constantly. “I see him,” he said towards Abigail and Frederek. “Follow me!”
Both of them came as requested. He rushed past tree after tree after tree going in the direction of this person so eager to avoid a direct confrontation with them.
If we can get close to them, maybe we can take them out quickly. Someone who fought like this likely wasn’t the best in up-close encounters. Why else would they be fighting like this? They didn’t want a direct confrontation. They just wanted to strike their enemy from afar while hiding their presence.
I’ve got you now though. And I’m not going to lose you this time around.
He had spotted them from behind a particular tree. But when he ran around it preparing to strike them with his sword, no one was behind the tree as he expected. There was only a shadow being cast out from that orb a fair distance away from their current position.
What the—
His arms went up into the air instinctually. The weight of their opponent along with their sword became blocked by Kiran’s own sword. He enhanced the strength of his blade with the help of the arcane root.
Their body landed on the ground and they tried to kick him. Kiran avoided it and sent his sword lunging forward.
The tip hit something fleshy but not enough to do any serious damage. Their opponent pulled back as a hood obscured their face. Now that he had the opportunity to somewhat see who they were, their attire looked familiar to him at first glance. What stood out the most wasn’t their attire, however. It was the white hair that their hood didn’t completely hide. He recalled seeing a man with hair like that before.
He was one of the people whom he had seen by Lady Meredith’s side. Although he didn’t know who they were. He always assumed they were some kind of protector of some sort. Beyond that though, he didn’t know a thing about them.
They held up their curved sword preparing for any of them to attack him. He simply smirked and motioned his feet slowly across the ground. “My lady was far too kind to ever lend you a hand.”
“Shut up,” Abigail said lunging at him.
He blocked both of her swords and fought her ferocity back with his own. Kiran attempted to flank him only for him to block his own strikes while fending from Abigail’s attacks at the same time.
His manner of fighting was different than Felghan’s. His was less refined and fanciful. The chaotic nature of it kept them on their toes. But while chaos was an accurate term to describe it, it was a controlled form of chaos.
Kiran was somewhat impressed with how well he fought the three of them at the same time. He didn’t stick to the defense the entire time either. He pushed himself forward, only to pull away when required. He switched targets and sometimes went for all three of them at the same time. If they were to fight him individually, Kiran wasn’t sure any one of them could defeat him.
Luckily that’s not the case.
This fight did need to end soon though. But that wasn’t going to happen just yet.
As his body became tired, he felt his ability to counter his attacks became more difficult. His curved sword sliced the air to his right just inches away from Kiran’s head. His heart began to beat faster.
I’m starting to get sloppy. This has to end.
“Abigail!” he yelled out.
They both synchronized their attacks while Frederek prepared to assault them from behind.
However, as their weapons began to slice through their opponent all at the same time, what they cut through was just the air. The hooded figure began to fade as he wondered what the heck this was.
Abigail muttered several obscenities under her breath.
“What is it?” Kiran asked.
“We’ve got ourselves quite the annoying foe. He’s using shadow magic.”
“I wasn’t even aware such magic existed.”
“It’s not exactly common. Those who pursue it tend to go blind. If I were to wager a guess, he’s one such person.”
“Wait,” Frederek muttered, “you mean to tell me we’re fighting a cripple, so to speak, and still haven’t defeated him?”
Abigail let out a drawn-out sigh. “Leave the jokes for later big guy.”
He did recall thinking he might be blind when he first saw him. He hadn’t thought they were oblivious to their surroundings though or where people were. Given their experiences so far in fighting him, his blindness did little to hinder his abilities.
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Whatever he gains in exchange, has more than balanced out the cost of blindness.
He looked around the area full of trees. There was no sign of this person’s position nor rustling of his feet motioning around the ground. He also didn’t hear them catch their breath or anything like that. There was simply no sign of him whatsoever.
“How are you doing over there?” Kiran said telepathically.
He heard her grimace telepathically. “We could use your help right now!”
“We need to get back to them and hurry.”
The three of them swiftly ran towards their position. When they got close to the golden orb lighting all of the area, he saw Aphelia fighting their most troublesome opponent who chose to assist Felghan rather than remain out there to fight Kiran, Frederek, or Abigail.
Aphelia utilized her own unique ability to enhance the power of her sword. Light exuded off the blade’s surface protecting against his curved sword.
“This one’s using shadow magic,” Abigail muttered towards Yorais.
Without even thinking about it, the orb of light above them swelled in intensity. The shadows from the trees stretched even further out.
The hooded figure motioned away whilst keeping his hooded head down. They used the cover of the trees to shield them from the light that Yorais made even more bright. No wonder they wanted to fight more on the outside. They were more than capable of fighting up close even while presumably blind. But this light appeared to be a negation of their power or existence.
Such a negation would be fully exploited.
Yorais summoned more orbs of light. They began flying out throughout their perimeter causing even more shadows to form from the trees in multiple directions.
Multiple shadows stretched out from Kiran’s body each with different intensity due to the different distances the orbs took.
This particular foe of theirs tried to find a darker area to go to, but they struggled as more and more orbs began to light up their surroundings.
“What does a shadow fear?” Yorais said. “Why of course, the light itself. Those who have surrendered themselves to this dark art, are forever weak to this.”
When he looked over to Felghan, he appeared to be quite worn out and worried.
“Just give it up already,” Kiran said to him. “The two of you aren’t enough to stop us.”
“Is that so?” a voice called out.
The orbs of light all went out at once. If it weren’t for the sight enhancement potion he had drank earlier, he would be completely unable to see a thing.
However, he did see something, and it came straight for Yorais.
Kiran pushed her out of the way and felt something sharp and hot sliding across his left arm. The hot liquid ran down his arm as he protected himself from this person’s attacks. Luckily he hadn’t taken a major injury. Just a surface cut as far as he could tell judging by how little overall it hurt.
Abigail and Frederek immediately came to assist him while Yorais got back up.
“Create more light!” Abigail said.
“I can’t,” Yorais said trying to create more orbs. “Something is preventing me from creating them or any other light-based magic.”
Within this darkness, another presence swirled around. It remained above them, below them, beside them. This thing or presence was a shadow itself unique from all others around.
The source of it revealed itself. It came from their opponent. It was subtle, but he thought he could see it motioning from their feet.
Kiran managed to get his sword to go into them, but much like before, it only cut through the air. Their figure disappeared and an immediate far away attack came flying at him. He cast a barrier in front of himself, but it wasn’t quick enough to prevent all of the energy from hitting him. His body began to fall back, but Lar managed to press her back against his preventing him from falling.
“I will grant you a quick death if you surrender now.” His voice was simultaneously close and far away at the same time. He tried to figure out where exactly it came from, but that was just the thing. It came from everywhere at the same time. “If you insist on continuing this encounter, I will make you suffer. Now that I am well aware of your abilities and capabilities, I will not be defeated. My shadow that has now surrounded you all will only grow stronger.”
Kiran thought of a solution to provide them with light. They could set the forest on fire, but it was far too risky. If they were caught in the blaze, that would be a nightmare to deal with. Perhaps they could use magic to protect them from the fire, but he thought against it the more he thought about it.
For now, at least, all he could do was protect himself from further attacks. Their opponent took advantage of the completely dark forest sending long-distance magical attacks at them.
Lar and Aphelia kept fighting Felghan in the meantime as he tried to think of a solution. Before he could think of one himself, someone else came up with one instead.
“Cover your ears!” Yorais said suddenly.
Kiran did as she said without hesitation. The sound of this environment became muffled.
Then like lighting coursing through the sky, a horrendously thunderous noise began to enter into his ears. Even with them closed, he could barely tolerate the intensity of this noise.
It took all of his power to not go to his knees and bury his head in the dirt quite literally. His mouth widened as Yorais maintained a spell that assaulted all of their ears. Not even Felghan was capable of fighting. He found even himself covering his ears due to how loud it was.
Amidst this recoiling sound, the shadow that covered them fled entirely. An immensely bright orb began to shine above them once more while more orbs flew through the forest lighting it all up.
The shadow from a figure behind a tree appeared nearby. When the noise went away, Kiran ran towards the shadow.
This foe of theirs lay on the ground shaking uncontrollably. He could see his pale eyes as he muttered something unintelligible beneath his breath.
Yorais approached peering at the once mighty foe who had been brought to his knees. “Light isn’t a shadow’s only weakness, especially a blind one at that. Remove their sense of hearing and it’s all over.”
Abigail appeared ready to shove both of her swords into his body. Kiran held up his hands preventing her from going through with it.
“What?” she said. “You’re not thinking of sparing him, are you?”
“He’s not a threat anymore. Felghan doesn’t appear to be either.” Felghan was pathetically holding up his sword as it appeared he struggled to maintain his balance. Unlike them, he hadn’t covered his ears quickly enough.
Kiran grabbed some rope he had been carrying. He tied this shadowy foe of theirs around a tree as tight as he could. After that, they all approached Felghan who pathetically swung his sword around.
“Stay away!” he said awkwardly. Since he wasn’t able to hear very well or hear at all, the way he spoke was quite strange sounding.
Abigail sauntered up to him, punched him in the face causing him to fall down onto his back, and then she planted a foot on top of him. She looked over her shoulder right at him. “Don’t deny me this Kiran. Let me get a little taste of his blood.”
He held up his hand once more whilst shaking his head. “I know, I know. You’re eager to spill blood. But I would prefer us to not have to just kill everyone we encounter, especially when they’re not able to fight us anymore.”
Both of them were useless now. Sure, in the future they could recover or make further attempts, but that was assuming of course that they got out of their restraints before they made it back to them.
They tied Felghan around a tree as tightly as possible. They did it in such a way that even if they put all of their efforts into breaking free, they’d not have enough time to do so before they accomplished their goals.
Kiran eyed Yorais who appeared pleased with their success here. “So, shadow magic’s a thing, eh?”
“It’s relatively uncommon and unpracticed. Going blind is practically a prerequisite and your body becomes intolerant of the sun.” Her words only affirmed what Abigail had briefly mentioned earlier to him. “It’s best to be avoided, I assure you.”
If blindness was the price to pay for using shadow magic, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. He could see how someone like this would pursue it though since the sun did not shine in this domain. But that was going to change if they had anything to do about it.
“These two have delayed us for long enough,” Kiran said. “Let us continue on our way to that cave.”
Luckily their horses hadn’t been injured earlier, except the one he had been riding earlier. They still had enough horses and room on them to allow them all to travel together in such a manner rather than being forced to walk the rest of the way there.
He fully knew, however, that these two wouldn’t be the only obstacles on their way to that altar that they were so desperate to reach. And he feared that they may have to kill.