“Who the fuck is the Necrolord?” Gilliam asked annoyed as he gave Cera the box with the anti-magic gem in it. This guy had soured the taste of freedom after days of torture, he would prefer to just leave it and go but...
He walked a few steps to the side of the rest of the group after gently pushing Petal to move to the other side.
“You will know soon enough. I’m sure you don’t wish to go through more pain, I suggest you come peacefully.” The man almost gargled back at them, speaking with a voice practically forced through his throat. He turned his walking path to match Gilliam’s, honing in on him specifically.
Rhyan took a defensive position and looked around quickly, stepping in to properly position himself between this knight and Cera.
“Well, tough.” Gilliam commented, not intending to go with him to see his lord. He briefly mused back on the mission he took on, just taking things with the premise of being entertained was... dumb, his last few days had proven that harshly.
“I didn’t have to bring you there unharmed.” The knight threatened as he stepped towards Gilliam.
Gilliam didn’t like this, he wanted to get out of this place, perhaps level it with the ground, though the latter would have to wait as there might be good information around. However, this man didn’t need to exist.
Not waiting more than needed, Gilliam pulled on his magic. He had enough pain and annoyance for a while and wanted this to be over with. Imagining that the armour was probably magical and very sturdy, penetrating or slicing attacks could be defended against. Pointing his open hand towards the knight a bright orange circle manifested and collapsed before a wide cone of fire bellowed out from his hand and engulfed the knight. Petal was too far to the right from Gilliam’s angle to get affected by this, something he considered when doing this.
Rhyan lifted his shield to cover himself and Cera from the heat radiating from the roaring fire.
Gilliam noticed something a second after this, around the knight there was a strange lack of fire. He stopped feeding the spell mana, which had the structure collapse and had the fire stop. As the flow of heat faded he could see that the fire that would have hit the knight... didn't. It was like a foot-wide barrier around him stopped dead in its tracks. Focusing on the knight he couldn’t sense any magic in the barrier sort, so there was something else going on. Briefly considering the darkness runes he didn’t see, or sense any absorbing effects, but there was a strange void surrounding the knight, like the chill around a piece of ice in the summer.
Now that he realised it and was thinking about it, the feeling was unmistakably similar to the field by the anti-magic crystal. This was a problem.
Petal didn’t wait for Gilliam to take his time and plan or think, as soon as the fire stopped and she saw the knight still there, she pounced on him. Pushing off from the ground with her tail she had somewhat jumped towards him at great speed. Using the momentum created by this jump she whipped her tail forward with incredible strength, enough to momentarily decelerate her pounce, transferring all the momentum to her tail.
The clawed hand on the end of her tail had put the claws together into a spear, aimed at the knight’s chest.
The knight seemed to realise the incoming attack, he lifted his blade and using the flat side of it at an angle he absorbed the pinpoint thrust and with a little bit of force put into it the claws were pushed aside. Petal came following right after, bringing her claws down on him. He dodged to the side, letting her hit the air. Using the momentum of her failed attack she spun around and with her hoofed foot and digitigrade legs, she delivered a powerful stomping kick. The kick landed but hit only armour, though this sent the knight back a few steps from the force alone, he seemed completely unharmed.
Gilliam’s moment of thinking was over, the solution was simple. He could use magic at a distance from the knight, just that magic seemingly destabilized close to him. Then he just needed to create physical or real objects and throw those at him, alternatively using the secondary effects of spells to affect his opponent. Typical examples are an ice spear, anything earth or rock-related, or just caving in things on him. All of those create or move physical objects and wouldn’t be affected by anything anti-magic.
Ice felt too light and fragile for his heavy armour, he tanked Petal’s kick without much effort so he needed momentum and weight, Earth it is.
Creating a magic circle between his hand and the ground, it collapsed instantly and in the pulling motion that followed he pulled out a large, elongated and sharp piece of stone, easily the size of a grown man. It turned its edge towards the knight before Gilliam made a pushing motion which had the boulder rocket forward. Though there was no communication between Gilliam and Petal, she still knew what was coming and crouched herself flat towards the floor, the rock passed above her with room to spare as the knight dodged to the side.
Gilliam had expected this and using the magical link to his projectile he steered it towards the location the knight dodged to.
As it was about to impact the knight again dodged to the other side, the mix of heavy momentum of the stone compared to the link breaking as it entered the knight’s field allowed the dodge to barely work. The dull side of the heavy spear scraped against the metal armour as the attack barely missed, leaving only a small scratch along the knight’s chest.
Gilliam cursed internally, he needed more spears.
The knight stepped in closer but Petal didn’t plan to let that happen. She swept her tail towards his legs, but the knight didn’t seem to care and let the attack connect. As her thin, but strong tail slammed into his legs they barely moved as the tail lost its centrifugal force, bending around the leg.
Not deterred she changed tactics, she already had her tail close to his legs, she grabbed hold with her clawed tail hand and jerked sideways. She was standing in the open, with no pillars or walls nearby, and her tail was not supported on the ground like an elbow either so the entire force fell on her body. He being much, much heavier than her, especially with that armour, had her attack fail. Rather than moving him, she moved herself to the side.
A moment of annoyance turned to a change in tactics, she had moved herself sideways but rather than letting go, she pulled herself in, flinging herself at the knight. Landing on him with both her arms and legs, like an angry feline she landed as hard as she could with her legs as she tried to find holes or gaps in his armour to dig her claws in. Pulling her hands to the side, and raking her claws across the surface, she found nothing but metal, her claws sparked against the dark metal, briefly illuminating the area before the knight retaliated.
A set of runes snaking around his gauntlet pulsed a bright yellow as he back-handed Petal, though his swing looked strong it didn’t appear out of the ordinary. However, as soon as it connected to her body a powerful pulse of magic amplified the attack dramatically. The barrier around her shattered as the thundering sound of a war hammer against flesh sent her flying towards Gilliam. He didn’t have time to catch her magically and he didn’t have the strength to do it physically. Barely dodging out of the way he had to let Petal tank the attack as she slammed into the opposing stone wall. Her body made a sickening crack as she connected, breaking stones and supports as her body turned limp before falling to the floor.
She still drew breath and could barely move, she was badly injured.
Gilliam felt something in the back of his mind snap.
The knight took a few rushed steps towards Gilliam, building up speed to cover the distance as fast as possible. Gilliam didn’t have much time to react but he didn’t need it. He had been holding back before lest he hurt Petal in the fight or the bystanders; Rhyan and Cera. Right now none of that mattered.
Extending his hand towards the floor a magic circle blinked into existence before it collapsed and spread itself between himself and the knight. In the blink of an eye, the floor collapsed downwards, almost as if someone had taken a large chunk out of the ground and just shoved it further down. This caused the knight to pause momentarily, which gave Gilliam a longer moment to react than if he had let him run.
The knight only paused slightly before he activated some yellow runes on his boots, Gilliam identified these easily enough, he was going to jump the hole between them.
That was not a problem, he didn’t need that long.
Extending both his hands to his sides he manifested several circles around him, all connected to the floor. A split second later a second several similar spears to before rose out of the ground, through the magic circles. The circles didn’t disappear this time, but his motions sent thick spear after spear, rock after rock, boulder after boulder towards the knight. This used a tremendous amount of energy, of which he had plenty.
The knight dodged the ones he could, and attacked the others with a magical fist and sword, shattering or cleaving the ones he defended himself against. He did quite well but after a short moment of doing this, they started connecting.
One hit his side, seeming to tear a small gash in his armour, another took off a pauldron, and a third made a deep cut in his heavy armour.
A few more seconds of this and Gilliam would have won, but the knight had other plans. Rolling to the side he put a supporting pillar between himself and the incoming onslaught from Gilliam. The incoming attacks tore it apart fast enough but it gave the knight the time he needed.
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Extending a hand of his own out, a pitch black, almost smoke-like magic circle flashed in and out of existence as a pulse of blood escaped his body to feed it. Gilliam could only see certain things through the failing support pillar, and though he tried to affect it with his current attack it wasn’t fast enough.
As the knight’s spell had fed on its caster enough, it collapsed. It created what looked like a tentacled snake made of blood and shadow. It had a long body, tentacles sticking out almost like a fucked up centipede from hell. It instantly darted along the floor towards Rhyan and Cera.
Gilliam’s attack was hard-hitting and powerful, but it was not a nimble spell easy to redirect, its focus on heavy momentum and hard-landing stone worked against him now. He didn’t have time to redirect any of them before it had covered the distance.
Rhyan brought down his shield on the creature, slamming hard enough into the floor to leave a solid dent and broken stone beneath it, but the creature’s agility was too much and it avoided the slam. A quick reaction from the warrior had him turn around to stomp it, but again he missed as the creature pulled itself to the side with a few tentacles.
It headed towards Cera, who looked nothing short of extremely freaked out, considering what was going on before, being the target of this slithering thing didn’t make it better.
Rather than attacking her, it pounced off the floor onto the box she was holding. She instinctively let go of it, like one would do suddenly finding a spider on the thing you picked up, it fell to the floor but remained closed.
Before Rhyan could properly get in and affect it, the creature had undone the latch and opened it.
A wave of chill extended from it, like before it was like opening a door and being assaulted by sub-zero mountain air from outside. His barrier popped, the circles on the ground dissolved into nothing, and he again felt blocked off from his mana. The rocks in the air already didn’t change their trajectory, though most missed ones landed solidly in the knight’s left shoulder. It landed hard enough to make him swear out in pain, but not enough to take the arm.
Gilliam tried and tried, but his magic didn’t work, he was again just a normal guy.
Rhyan had realised what was going on. “Get the gem!” he shouted at Cera, who snapped out of her shock, trying to pounce on the crystal.
The creature was still fast, using some of its tentacles wrapped around the crystal it had plenty left for its swift and erratic movement. Slithering around their attempts to stop it, Rhyan tried to cover a larger area and just body-slam himself on it, but it was still too fast and darted off before Rhyan hit the floor.
Slithering towards its creator like an erratic shadow with a treasure, it made it there in record time. Stopping a step away from its master it lifted the crystal in the air for the knight to simply pick up. Using his left arm, as the right held his sword, it sounded like he winced behind his helmet as he took the anti-magic device in his hand.
“Now.” He got up properly, the little creature disintegrating into nothing as soon as the crystal left its tendrils. “I think I’ll take one of your legs before we go to the Lord.”
His voice was still gargling and forced, but it sounded like it came through a smile.
He took his time and walked towards Gilliam, not seeming to care much for the others.
Before he had covered the way, Gilliam looked around, he needed a weapon, something. No, he wasn’t good enough a fighter to stave off this man, he needed Petal to get that gem, but she was barely conscious, and he couldn’t heal her or feed her mana... He had plenty of mana gems in his coat’s extradimensional pockets, and in his ring, but both relied on magic...
He had so many ideas, so many things he could do, but they all relied on his magic. His non-working magic.
The knight took his time and walked around the hole he made to deter him, not needing to jump over it, though one thing caught Gilliam’s eye.
The glowing runes on his shoes hadn’t stopped. The anti-magic gem should have destabilized them much like his barrier, he didn’t understand.
“Why... isn’t your magic affected?” Gilliam muttered somewhat to himself towards the knight, who seemed to hear him.
“That’s something you can ask the Necrolord when you meet him.” He replied as he kept closing the distance, resting his sword on his shoulder.
As the knight came closer he lifted the sword. “I’ll be taking that leg, now.”
Gilliam was readying himself so he could dodge in time, but he didn’t have high hopes as the knight had already proven himself to be extremely fast when parrying the barrage of rocks earlier.
The sword came down, Gilliam tried to dodge but the sword met a large shield instead. Rhyan had closed the distance and managed to bring his shield into the mix. The thundering sound of metal against metal rang in their ears as the powerful blow was stopped.
Getting properly to his feet, as it seemed that Rhyan had to throw himself into the mix to reach in time, he took a stance between his fellow armoured man and Gilliam.
“So all I need to do is to get the crystal, right?” He confirmed, locking his eyes to the dark slits in the knight's helmet.
“Yes.” Gilliam confirmed as he took a few steps backwards, giving Rhyan some room.
The knight didn’t say anything, rather he started attacking Rhyan. His left arm looked damaged, it was still there and he could use it, but based on how it dangled after his movements it might have been out of its socket, or at least hurt somehow. Swing after swing, thrust after thrust. The attacks came fast and hard, all of them felt like they would easily cleave a bull in two, but Rhyan expertly defended each one, parrying them sideways, letting them slide off his shield. Rather than taking the full force into his shield and arms, he redirected the force to the sides, making his job at least a bit easier. The room echoed with the metallic sound of each parry.
Gilliam wanted to help, but he had nothing to aid with. Without a weapon, he would be creamed sideways if he even stepped into that.
“Enough.” The knight commented, seeming to not want this anymore. He stomped against Rhyan’s shield with the glowing boot.
Rhyan seemed to understand what was going on, moments before the boot contacted his shield he let it go and sidestepped. The thunderous stomp sent the shield skipping across the floor and slamming into a support column, doing surprisingly little damage to it. In the same moment as he stepped aside he had shoved both his hands into his bag of tools and taken something out. Lifting something he activated a small cylinder which flashed with an absurdly strong flash, like looking into a massive camera flash based on a flood light.
This blinded Gilliam as well, but he barely managed to see Rhyan also crush something in his other hand.
Though Gilliam couldn’t see anything, nor could probably anyone else, he heard the knight’s footsteps before he heard Rhyan blowing something. A second later the knight’s voice grunted and let out a pained and dissatisfied series of sounds. This was followed by him letting out a surprised sound before muffling a tiny swear.
“I got it, I got it!” Cera’s voice called out as it almost seemed to disappear in the distance of the room.
“Come back here you little fuck.” The knight commented as he started running towards Cera’s voice.
Gilliam’s vision was slowly coming back, though he still had a massive bright spot in the middle of his focus.
“Put it in the box!” Gilliam shouted, but right after he heard the shattering and crushing of wood, moving his eyes around he could see that the knight had already considered this and stepped on the box more than once, shattering it completely, the padded pillow inside being torn up by the sharp points of the broken wood.
Gilliam pondered for the briefest of moments, if the crystal still worked fine after it was broken, it would just make more of them, so why protect it that much in a super padded box? It also looked very uncut and rough, a raw crystal, meaning that it wasn’t made neater or better looking but rather cared for in its current form.
“Cera, shatter it!” Gilliam called out to his furred companion who was keeping her distance from the armored knight.
It didn't take a second after the order was given until he heard a similar sound to glass shattering against a stone floor. There was a pulse of the metaphorical biting cold, more powerful than before, but then it faded and the warmth returned. The locks in his mind were gone, the dam before his lake of mana had fallen.
He felt the connection to his magic restored.