NO! Why are they here? Why is my mother here? She is out of the Stasis Domain. Seeing her all banged up and laying in a pile of dust meant that she had been there for a while. Father, he clearly fought back. His jaw was obviously broken and eyes blackened, not only that but his breathing was irregular in his unconscious state meaning some of his ribs had been broken. And the culprit to such atrocities stood before me. Oh, the rage that seethed through the very fiber of my being.
“Hmmm, it seems you have calmed a little. If you are wandering how I got your mother out of that poor excuse of a Domain? I smashed it of course. It’s a skill I developed myself.” He smiled to himself, “Your mother was already unconscious, however your father,” he chuckled, “Your father was… fun. He actually thought he stood a chance.”
That’s it! No more words, this monster has outlived his welcome. He shall not receive any mercy. As the thoughts crossed my mind, I decided to close the distance between us by throwing myself into a sprint. Throwing my hands into a Void Space I pulled out my trusted black blade and thrusted straight at his chest only for me to fall right through his image. What? Where is he?
I can use my abilities now so that’s good. Quickly I concentrate my mana as fast I can and disperse it into the air to form a Domain. As the air changed from black to blue mist, the barrier of the domain was set up. However at the completion of the Domain, before I could feed it skills and set spawns, the mist did a visual shatter like we were in a glass bowl and it was just smashed with a hammer. Ah, his ability.
No Domain, fine, I’ll just have to creative with Mana Manipulation. Bending down into a 7kneel and flex all the muscles in my back and wings. Winding myself and springing upward into the sky and quickly I observe my surroundings. It was at that point that I felt the blunt force on the back of my head that blurred my vision.
I fell a few feet, but my sight cleared and I gained control over myself once again. I did a quick turn only to see Janus smile as he dissipated into an ominous red mist. I don’t like the look of that red mist. From the red cloud I hear, “Haha, do you know this skill? It has a few specializations, you might really appreciate my specialization.”
I only remember three branches of Hazy Aura. I don’t know if he got special treatment and more options but I do remember Death being an option. I have no love for dying, so I’ll try not to get caught up in his mist… that sound very… weird.
As I pondered on a strategy, I noticed he got really close, really fast. Actually, a little too close for comfort. The mist was so very close, that I could see the individual particles. If I breathed in, I would’ve inhaled some that glowing mist. Suddenly the mist retreated a few feet and slowly made its way back toward me. A moment later I realized that his almost intangible form was affected by the beat of my wings, air flow.
Air flow? Oh, I have an idea. When he got within a certain range, I beat my wings with all my might, torpedoing me backwards while pushing him back with a mighty gust of wind. While traveling backwards, I tucked in my wings and dived toward the ground. Coming a few feet from the ground, I spread my wings and nearly halted my descent toward the ground. Slowly I set my feet upon the ground and looked at the descending mist.
Janus’ misty form started to take shape when the cloud reached about fifteen feet of the ground. As Janus gained more and more shape, his steady drop gained momentum. Fully materialized his feet had touched the ground. I guess due to the lack of wings, he couldn’t find his way to the ground very quickly. Be it as it may, his skill specialization is very concerning, but I got an advantage, and judging by his cool determination, he has faced this same dilemma before.
It looked like he had a strategy. That had me just a tad bit worried. With a smirk he rushed at me at full speed, pulling out a curved, red bladed sword from his Void Space. I rose up my sword in a defensive pose and received his strike. When the swords collided, there was a loud clashing sound, but my sword was getting pushed closer to me. Man, he was strong.
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Our swords were grinding against each other and it took a while, but I finally was able to deflect his blow to the left. Before he could take another swing I lunged forward and gashed his leg wide open. Jumping backwards I saw that he had not the faintest grimace. He dashed forward and right before the swords reconnected, he turned into his red foggy form. If it wasn’t for my reflex to spread my wings and helped me narrowly escape his touch.
Some of the red mist clouded together to form a smiling face before dissipating back into the red fog. Since the fog is slow moving, I have a little time. I concentrated my mana into the palm of my hand, half of my full supply. When I had a nice bowling ball sized, shining, blue orb, I slammed the orb into the soot covered ground.
This arena is still in the Void, soooo… I shall use my skill, Order to Arms! The pale yellow ground, blackened with soot turned royal purple and spewed the same colored fog. The fog spanned out thirty feet in each direction, making it sixty feet in diameter. The red fog kept at bay as if was waiting to see what I was up to. Out of the thick purple fog, fifty columns rose and figures formed out them.
Skeletons stepped out of the pillars of smoke lifeless until the smoke poured into their eye sockets. Shrouded in purple smoke, they had ragged, torn up silver armor. Each had black blades with silver hilts, much like my own.
The floor is still heavily saturated in my mana. Judging from the red mists clouding together, he still intends to watch. Perfect.
I chose ten of the fifty and pumped them to the brim with the left over mana. The skeletal structure stretched and thickened to about and a time and half more than the normal skeletons. It was very obvious, or at least in my viewpoint, that it was more powerful than the normal skeletons. Hmm, I will call these Sergeants, and the normal will be called Privates. I will use these Sergeants to lead the Privates.
Yes, I will use the higher ranked to carry commands down the chain, leaving the higher ups with more authority and decisions to call themselves.
It would be easier to fight organized combat this way. Still, ten would take a lot focus I could use on the battle. I stuff two of the already full Sergeants and overload the mana capacity. So imbued with power, the two skeletons’ purple smoke shroud condensed into bluish
skin, giving off a certain haze. I will call them Captains.
I know that I could handle coordinating with two Captains and let them delegate commands. With my preparations done, I put my full focus onto Janus. His form had solidified and he just stared at me and my army. Well it was less of an army and more like a Company or two… The 1st Captain is in charge of Alpha Company, the 2nd will be in charge of Bravo.
Everyone was still standing on the mana saturated ground, so I quickly created a temporary mana network and sacrificed my Hazy Aura to Alpha Company and Slow Time to Bravo Company.
“That’s why they wouldn’t answer my calls. You have taken the reigns as Commander of the Ancient Void Army. Well, this is my first time seeing them but according to the scrolls from long ago, you are supposed to be able to call forth a massive Army. It looks like you haven’t mastered it yet.” He did a creepy chuckle, “It was supposed to be me! I assassinated the previous commander! The scrolls said kill the commander, get control. I only needed to arrive back here. But that stupid traitor put a seal on my powers.”
“Looks like I beat you to the punch. So your beef is with me, let my parents go!”
He shook his head, “I’m sorry, I need them dead, along with you. I am letting no one leave.” Energy powered out of him and made thickened the air. It then exploded out trapping everyone in the Arena in a dome of red energy. Red fog covered the ground and out of the fog came a horde of gargoyles that took to the air and slew of giant lizards.
Two Armies faced each other in this ancient arena made into a new battle zone.