That's right… I had been wondering if maybe Zeph's crew wasn't working out.
At the base of the bell tower was an anchor, a structure with a long metal chain that wrapped around a support beam at the top and connected to the great brass bell. She'd seen it as she plummeted through the building.
For half a year we putzed around. Three months to some shitty port city to get new recruits, three months back to the same stale battleground.
She grabbed hold of two connecting links in the chain and put all her reinforced strength into pulling them apart.
Then another month, here in the city with my dear sister. A month playing doll, acting like I gave a shit.
One of the links snapped and the chain connected to the bell snapped upward, pulling Annora off her feet before she released it.
A blessing? Strain upon the city? The political pressure my sister faces? Who fucking cares?
The huge brass bell crashed into the base of the structure beside her, creating an explosion of debris that blew every door off its hinges and threatened to bring the building down around her. To Annora, it was like an irritating dust cloud. The real threat was the chain she had to sidestep lest it whip down upon her head and crush it with the force of the falling bell.
Ah, but now… Stein, I think I'll have to thank you later. First that woman, and now this situation… You've helped create such wonderful crucibles that I would never have found on my own.
In one hand she took the rung at the top of the bell, and in the other she grasped a random link of the chain. With weapon in hand she made her way out of the crumbling tower, followed by the sound of the bell scraping along the hardwood floor behind her.
I remember now… Those two, they mentioned The Heavens, didn't they? I should have pressed harder for answers. They may have known something… Well, can't focus on that now.
Annora felt a tinge of relief in the back of her mind as she registered the unknown mage sparing her sister.
This is for the best, sister. You were not made to endure this struggle, it is not in your nature.
She didn't have faith that she could control her improvised weapon enough to kill only the mage, so she settled with a provocation. She ripped off the last link in the chain and hurled it at the beastkin. The resulting thud against the man's skull was extremely satisfying.
"Oi, you and I have unfinished business, mage."
It wasn't the mage's annoyed sigh or his calm demeanor that persisted even as a trickle of blood ran down his face that set her on edge. It was his eyes, those constantly calm and cool eyes. She realized now why they set her on edge so much.
Hop had those very same eyes. Eyes that have seen untold death and destruction, eyes that weathered grief and sorrow and found the will to carry on. Eyes that would not lose their composure even in the face of death itself.
The man jumped away as she once again expanded her Area. On the edge of her vision she could see the blood mage once again ready themselves for combat, but Annora sensed a small tinge of hesitation.
I see. They're not sure whether sister will rejoin the fight, so they're holding off picking a target.
The beastkin seemed content to simply let the sisters have an exchange before resuming. It was, after all, his job to buy time.
Annora walked up to her sister, checking to make sure the wound in her shoulder wasn't too bad. As she approached her sister said, "Annora…"
Ah… That's right. The days when we would call each other by our shorthand names are long gone and dead. That means I don't need to have any reservations about following my own path, even if it causes her a considerable amount of anguish.
"Andora, leave."
"What?"
"I said leave. You're useless here."
"But… how can you hope to fight two against one? You'll… die."
"I do not need the help of the weak. You'd only continue to get in my way. Leave."
Andora struggled to find the words to argue, but it was clear that whatever the beastkin mage had said to her had crushed her spirit.
"Even if you could get up, the only benefit you'd bring would be an extra Area. Just leave, sister. And try not to hate me too much for wrecking your precious city…"
"What? What do you-" But Annora was already walking away, eyes locked on the most dangerous opponent.
"What do you intend to do with such a cumbersome weapon?" The beastkin asked, a small smile on his face. Indeed, Annora had no doubt she looked ridiculous, dragging around a bell as large as she was.
"I'll crush you," She spread her arms out wide, muscles in her right bulging as they lifted the massive bell up, "With the Weight of the World." She felt the force of gravity push down on her more than thrice as hard as before. Under the increased pressure the wood planks beneath her feet splintered. Simply breathing became much more arduous.
She paid none of it any mind. She had developed this projection only yesterday, following her frustration at being unable to push that woman down into the tracks. Her usual projection would have no effect here, so there was no point employing it.
Besides, she would need the extra weight anchoring her down if she was to properly use her current weapon.
***
What does this woman imagine she can do with that bell? Surely she does not truly believe she can employ it as a weapon?
Pat had only made the remark about the bell being a weapon as a snide joke. Lleig, his current employer, had told him about the woman's monstrous strength, but Pat still could not imagine the woman being able to swing the the thing. Especially not in the state she must be in.
She took a point-blank blow from Burst. I'm amazed she's even still alive.
Most of the opponents he'd used that spell on point blank had been reduced to a blood splatter when they collided with whatever was in their path. The idea that someone could just get up from such a blow and continue fighting was laughable.
He'd traveled the length and width of the continent and seen and killed numerous warriors who had boasted of their strength. None of them had lived up to their boasts.
Then she lifted it and held it aloft as she spread her arms out wide, and Pat recognized the tone of voice that indicated an intonation. Then she actually threw the damn thing.
It sailed in a slow arc overhead before it came down upon him. What might have been a deadly threat to others he saw as a minor inconvenience. He simply moved aside as the slow-moving object fell on top of where he had been standing. What he didn't anticipate was the level of damage the bell did.
The bell that must have weighed more than a ton obliterated the rooftop under it and made it through the second floor as well. He lost his balance as the building shook violently under him, and he almost didn't move in time to avoid the dwarf's Area as she renewed her pursuit.
What a monster. But she seems slower now.
As soon as Pat jumped away from her Area the dwarf stopped her advance. She planted her feet and gave the chain of the bell a mighty pull.
There's no way that can-
Pat's thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt as the woman ripped the bell out of the building from several meters away. His immediate thought was, 'That's not possible,' but the hardened veteran within him killed that train of thought as soon as it popped up.
I just witnessed it, so there's no point obsessing over the absurdity of it. What matters is how it works and how to counter it.
Looking closer he realized the hardwood around the dwarf's feet was deeply impacted, even broken.
I see. 'Weight,' huh? What an unorthodox way of fighting. She's more a beast than a person.
Pat looked past the woman, looking for the baroness, but found that the noble had disappeared while he'd been distracted by the bell. It was unfortunate. The easiest way to end this would be to threaten the baroness while she was within the beast's Area, using her as a hostage to cow the bell swinging dwarf.
He focused his attention back on the beast and saw her swinging the bell in a circle around herself, no doubt preparing to launch it at him again, with more velocity this time. It was fascinating, the way the beast used her increased weight to resist the outward momentum of the bell's centrifugal force. Still, he knew his associate's patience was likely just about used up.
A third crack resounded through the air, and he saw the blood bullet graze the beast's shoulder. The beast paid it no mind whatsoever.
Was her aim thrown off by the spinning? I didn't think one of the battle-crazed would be so green. What a miscalculation.
Before he had time to launch an attack of his own, the beast made her move. She let slip the chain she'd been holding onto, but instead of launching it straight at him she retained her grip on half the length of the chain and sent the bell tumbling his direction in a sideways arc. But because of the dense urban environment, that arc had an obstacle in front of its path.
The weighty brass bell absolutely demolished the residence directly beside the building Pat was standing atop, sending an explosion of debris sailing toward him through the air.
"Kh!" I didn't expect her to completely disregard the state of the city!
Pat knew neither he nor any of the others in the scarred one's employ cared about collateral damage. In Pat's case, it was because he intended to get out of the country before the consequences could catch up with him. But this woman was an ally of the baroness. For her to so flippantly cause havoc on a scale larger than his group was unexpected enough that it actually shook him.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
He quickly dashed away from the cascade of rubble that rained down towards him. He wasn't like that beast, falling debris was liable to seriously injure him. He barely managed to roll off the roof before rubble fell down upon it.
He dashed away from the edge of the Area that was once again pushing toward him. He'd rolled off the roof away from her and the building broke his line of sight, but he could infer her general location from the Area.
Only suddenly her Area wasn't there. He kept running, trying to gain distance. If he let her creep up on him and expanded it again before he managed to Move away he'd have no chance against her absurd strength.
He heard crashing in the direction the beast had been and decided to leap up to another rooftop to gain a view of the situation. He could see several buildings away the beast chased his associate, swinging the iron chain around like some sort of whip. She'd evidently ripped a good length of it off the bell, trading the raw power of the bell for the speed of her iron whip.
As he watched his associate frantically avoided the iron chain while also doing her best to stay away from the beast, lest she expand an Area, he felt a twinge of rage. He pushed it down. He still had a job to do.
Let's see how you handle an actual attack.
Below him on the street a dozen poles stuck out along the roadside, unlit lamps meant to provide light in the dead of night. As one they all ripped themselves free of their anchors, forced into motion by the might of magic. Pat cast a secondary spell and the poles shed themselves of all their imperfections, becoming perfect javelins for him to bend to his will.
As he worked he saw his associate frantically launch blood bullet after blood bullet at the beast. One of them struck the abdomen, but the paltry projectile wasn't enough to take down such a monster. It was like hunting a bear with a sling.
He leveled his staff at the beast and started pouring magic into the poles, building up a terrible amount of force. "Launch," He commanded, and they each rushed forward with enough momentum to make the blood mage's paltry projectile seem as though it had been launched from a slingshot.
The javelins closed the distance between Pat and their target in a fraction of a second. Seven of them tumbled through the air instead of flying straight, a sign of his poor craftsmanship. That didn't affect their lethality, however.
Of the 12 javelins, one pierced clean through a leg and three collided with the beast lopsided. Two struck her across the abdomen and the third would have shattered her skull had she not somehow raised her left arm to block it. The remainder shot off into the distance behind her.
The impact of the three lopsided projectiles knocked the beast off her feet and sent her over the edge of the roof she stood upon, once again breaking his line of sight. He saw the arm she'd blocked with bent at an angle that signified a clear break of the bone within.
This time he took a more aggressive approach, moving along the buildings in a counter-clockwise motion around a generous approximation of the range the beast could deploy her Area. He circled the area and looked for the beast as he created more javelins using the posts along his route.
In the end, he didn't need to find her. The beast redeployed her Area before he could locate her, but it was further from the place he'd expected her to be than anticipated. He quickly moved to a rooftop just outside the Area to get a vantage point.
His associate also moved in, but with far more caution than before. Her reckless defense had likely left her drained, and Pat suspected it wasn't mana she was low on.
Looking down he saw the beast, once again swinging the bell in a circle. As soon as he crested the rooftop she locked eyes with him, and he saw the primal rage that burned within those eyes. He also noticed her spinning was leaving a circle of splattered blood around her. Her leg was bleeding heavily from where he pierced it, yet she paid it no mind.
The beast swung the bell by the small amount of chain left on it. It seemed the chain she'd used as a whip wasn't the entirety of it. She'd left this small bit for a final gambit. Pat could have fired his javelins whenever he wished, yet he held off. It would be annoying if he timed it wrong and they were intersected by the swinging bell.
Her intent is clear as day, she'll aim for me. When she releases that hunk of metal is the moment I skewer her and bring this to a close.
The beast released the bell, which soared toward him in a high arc. "Lau-!" Pat cut off his own incantation as he saw the woman lift off the ground, dragged up into the air by the bell she'd thrown.
How the hell? Oh, I see. She released her weight amplification as soon as it was no longer needed to maintain the centrifugal force, letting her ride along with the bell's momentum. It won't matter, I'll just just shoot her out of the air!
He aimed his javelins up, still intent on skewering her before he dodged the bell. But when he fixed the beast in the looking glass he found his aim blocked.
She's using the bell as a shield!?
In that instant, Pat's mind froze. Seeing the Area bear down on him not from the side, but above was a completely different threat than before. No matter which way he dashed, he doubted he would be able to outdistance the Area before the weight of that bell's gravity brought its sphere of influence down on him. Killing the user wasn't an option, he had nothing that could penetrate a one-ton brass bell on hand.
With no other option, he instinctually whipped his staff down, targeting a faraway building in the looking glass. He didn't have time to approximate distance, he simply chose one he knew would be outside the Area's reach.
"Move," He intoned, and disappeared as though he had never stood upon that roof to begin with. The poles that had been suspended in the air clattered against the shingles like puppets with their strings cut. Less than a second later the Area encapsulated the roof, and another second later the bell smashed through it. The beast tried to leap off the bell at the last instant to mitigate the pull of gravity, but it wasn't enough to stop her from puncturing a second, smaller hole in the roof beside the massive cavity the bell left behind.
Several buildings away, Pat collapsed to one knee, clutching his forehead with his free hand. Move was the most potent spell in his arsenal, but the mana cost associated with instantaneous matter transmission was enormous. He had more than a dozen conditions balancing the cost of it down, but even still using it twice in one day resulted in him being completely drained. He only used it when he was absolutely sure he could land (what should have been) a killing blow or as a last ditch escape card.
Damn it, to think she actually cornered me enough to make me use my escape card. Well, it doesn't matter I guess. She's done.
He saw the Area flicker and fade, a surefire sign that the caster had either lost consciousness or died. Pat couldn't help but chuckle softly. She'd taken every attack they'd thrown at her in stride, but gravity was ultimately the straw that broke the camel's back.
If I'd have known that would be it I wouldn't have bothered Moving.
He was content to watch from afar as his associate moved in to finish the job. But even as she leaped across roofs to close the distance, another Area enveloped her before she could make it to the building Pat had Moved from.
Pat could see the look of abject horror on his associate's face as she landed on a rooftop and tried to run away from the origin of the Area, but she didn't get far. Pat watched as the blood mage's eyes shriveled and blood vessels burst over every inch of skin. She made it only a few steps before collapsing on the rooftop, dead.
Yeah, that's what I figured would happen.
Using blood as ammunition was an inherently stupid thing to do, especially for a combatant. Blood loss meant a massive decrease in performance, from muscle weakness to confusion. His associate had tried to mitigate blood loss in the early fight by controlling that blood remotely then returning it to her body. However, as she'd found herself pressed harder by the beast, she'd begun to throw blood around rather sloppily.
Pat was willing to bet no warrior or mage could have kept eluding the beast in that condition, which meant she was using magic to create new blood for herself to offset the loss. Mana and matter were intrinsically linked, and it stood to reason that you could create fresh blood to supplement lost fluid in an ill advised gambit to increase efficiency. But because efficiency was the goal, the fool didn't commit enough mana to cement the blood in reality. Pat vaguely wondered how it felt to have the blood within your veins simply dissipate. He highly doubted it was a pleasant way to go.
He watched as the baroness climbed up to the rooftop, still maintaining her Area. She looked around warily until she spotted him, then assumed a cautious stance.
Heh. I guess we'll just have to call this one a tie, baroness and beast.
He had completed his objective. The beast likely wouldn't be in fighting condition for several hours at least. And the baroness had saved the life of her sister. In all honesty, he didn't mind neutral outcomes. Less likely for someone to come hunting for your head later.
***
Andora watched as the beastkin disappeared off the rooftops. She doubted he'd be back. She had no idea how he'd managed to get a spell of instantaneous transportation to function, but the fact that he could use it even once without exhausting his mana was incredible.
She looked down at the slightly shriveled corpse of the blood mage and sighed. It was the first time she'd taken a life, and she didn't know how to feel. The woman was a fanatic and an enemy, but she'd still had a life of her own. Maybe even a family.
Andora shook off those thoughts and focused on the present. She hopped over roofs until she arrived at the one Annora had crashed through.
She made her way down through the rubble until she found the great brass bell, its once beautiful curves and features twisted and malformed through abuse. She looked around until she found her sister not far away, buried under a small pile of rubble.
Once she dug Annora's limp form out from the rubble she checked for a pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found it. The nice clothes Andora had lent her sister were tattered almost beyond recognition, and through the holes in the fabric she could see extensive bruising across her entire body, not to mention the still bleeding holes where she'd been pierced by blood bullets and a pole.
She didn't know healing magic, but she'd been trained in rudimentary first aid. She placed her finger against one of the open wounds and intoned, "Fire."
"GAH!" Annora bolted upright, and Andora barely dodged out of the way of a muscled arm instinctually reaching out to try and grab her neck. Andora backed off and waited for sanity to return to her sister's eyes.
After several moments, Annora shook her head and looked at Andora, "Oh, hey. What happened?"
"You survived, if barely. Could you not attack me this time when I try to treat your wounds?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Andora moved close and started cauterizing more open wounds that still bled.
"Did you do it?" Annora asked between pained grunts.
"Yeah. An extra Area was all you really needed, huh?" It amazed Andora that Annora had figured out the weakness of an enemy she wasn't even fighting, while it was all Andora could do to hold that same enemy off. She'd almost missed the clue in her sister's words. In truth, she'd only realized the intent behind them when she'd seen the blood mage start firing shot after shot, trying to keep Annora away as Andora watched from the shadows.
"Mm-hm."
"'The only benefit you'd bring would be an extra Area,' huh? You're lucky I picked up on that little tidbit. But really, couldn't you have won without wrecking my fucking city?" She jabbed Annora in one of the deeply purple bruises across her chest, causing her to gasp in agony.
"Peace, sister. I had no choice…"
"Yeah, sure you didn't."
For several minutes they sat there, the silence only broken by Annora's grunting as Andora treated her wounds. Finally, Annora said, "You must have hated me, when I left without saying so much as goodbye."
Andora avoided meeting her sister's eyes, "That's what you think? If only I were coldhearted enough to have thought that, maybe I'd be a better ruler of this city. No, I was afraid we were the ones who pushed you away."
"Mm. I'd be lying if I told you the words said around that final dinner didn't still hurt… But that wasn't why I left."
"Yeah, I think I see that now. You never were much like the rest of us, but you never expressed yourself enough for anyone to see just how different you were. I suppose there just wasn't any other way things could have ended…"
"Even so, I should have at least said goodbye. I'm sorry."
"Yeah, well don't expect an apology from me. Not after you wrecked so much of my beautiful city."
"Heh."
Once none of Annora's wounds bled anymore they made their way outside, Annora's arm over Andora's shoulder for support. They made their way back towards the manor and found that the conflict had been settled.
Orelio lay sprawled out on the grass, and Andora thought he was unconscious until he gave a small wave. Vanderburst was tending to Albatos who seemed wounded, and the dwarf brothers were looking over the elf's condition, musing to themselves how he'd look with an eyepatch.
"You two seem to have managed fine," Annora said, addressing her husbands.
They turned to her as one and quickly rushed over. They relieve Andora of the task of supporting Annora before Bodelee responds, "They sent a mop, really. I was already done with 'em by the time Lin even got there."
"Where's the kid?" Annora asked.
"Ran off after Lleig," Orelio said from the ground.
"What? Why'd he do that?" Andora asked, "In case you hadn't noticed, we're supposed to be evacuating."
"Sounds marvelous," Albatos said as Vanderburst treated his eye, "Somebody go get the brat so we can all get the hell out of here."
"I'll go," Andora said, "If I get the chance to punish that piece of shit who hurt my people, all the better for it."
"Lee, go with her," Annora said.
"Aye."