My eyes pierced towards the presence of that powerful being, the hairs on the back of my neck rose quickly, my instincts telling me that danger was coming. On reflex, I spun on a foot and threw the other at March, kicking him away as something crashed through the wall, crashing into me with full force in a grapple as we are both sent flying through the wall of the tower, landing hard on the ground as we separate from each other.
Kicking myself onto my feet, I spun myself and quickly found the one who crashed tackled me out of the tower. Standing there is a humanoid figure, closely resembling a human, wearing what appeared to be armour and holding a long sword. Our eyes met, a grin on its face as he raised his sword, pointing it at me.
“⎎⟟⋏⏃⌰⌰⊬, ⏃ ⍙⍜⍀⏁⊑⊬ ⍜⌿⌿⍜⋏⟒⋏⏁ ⟟⋏ ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⎅⊬⟟⋏☌ ⍙⍜⍀⌰⎅, ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⊑⟒⏃⎅ ⍙⟟⌰⌰ ⏚⟒ ⋔⊬ ⏁⍀⍜⌿⊑⊬!”
A mess of words come from the being, ones I don’t understand but I knew one thing. They carried meaning, intent. This is an intelligent being, one that is like us, that intended to kill us. I could see it, the way it looked at me, how it held its sword, that it wanted nothing more than to slice me, I didn’t understand how I knew, I just did.
I could hear the screams and yelling of others in the distance, my radio broken from being crash tackled through a wall unable to hear what’s happening. My sniper left behind in the tower, the only weapons I have is my handgun and knife on my waist. Looking at the being in front of me, I ignore the various System messages as my hand slowly reaches down to my waist.
As my hand grasps the handle of my handgun, the being moved, as if grabbing my weapon was the signal to the fight starting. It moved fast, my eyes barely keeping up with it as I quickly side stepped, dodging the sword strike as it cut the air, the sound piercing my ears. Drawing my handgun, I relied on my reflexes and leaned back, avoiding another horizontal strike.
Raising the gun, I fired directly into the beings chest. I watched in horror as the armour easily deflected the bullets with not even a scratch. Rolling to the side as another sword strike came, I raised my hand and fired again, this time directly at its head.
With speed that I couldn’t keep up with, it raised a hand and caught the bullets with such precision that I dropped the handgun. I knew it’s pointless to use it now, this being couldn’t be killed with it. I was too vulnerable at close range, I only had two spells I could use in this situation and gritting my teeth, I grabbed my knife, intending to take this to a melee fight.
Dodging another swing of the beings sword, I stabbed my knife towards its side but it’s armour deflects my knife strike once more, not even a dent on it as the momentum of my strike tips me off balance for a second, enough time for the being to turn and swing his sword up right at me. Recovering slightly, I jump back slightly, but the sword reaches me, cutting into my clothing and skin.
Taking a few steps back and checking my condition, I found that the sword strike had been shallow and only from my chest to shoulder. Looking at my health, it had dropped, more than I had thought it would.
[Health: 435/500]
The being closed the gap instantly, raising his sword and swinging it down with incredible speed as I raised my knife and met the sword, the strength of the beings swing transmitting through the knife, causing pain to rocket through my wrists as the sword cut through the knife. Letting go of the knife, I quickly stepped back multiple times, avoiding the sword.
I couldn’t run from this, we were in the base. If it headed towards the main camp, we would lose more than a tower; it would be a massacre of those who were there. Blinking the water out of my eyes, I cursed myself for taking up Sharpshooter, close combat like this is impossible for me and without my radio, no one knew I was here.
Without giving me time to think, the being approached once more. Quickly raising a hand, a thought of a technique came to mind and deciding to go all in since there wasn’t any other choice, I circulated magic around my hand as I clenched it, fire sparking around my fist. Dodging to the side, I threw my fist at the being’s head, connecting with it as it stumbled back, a pained expression on its face with a burn mark, but a big smile rose.
“☌⍜⍜⎅, ⌇⍜ ⊬⍜⎍ ☊⏃⋏ ⎎⟟☌⊑⏁, ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⍙⍜⋏'⏁ ⏚⟒ ⏚⍜⍀⟟⋏☌!”
As he spoke, a pitch black aura sprung up around him, covering his sword as well. I knew that it was finally starting to be serious. Clenching my other hand, I ignored the sound of screaming and Husks in the distance as I breathed out and circulated mana to the other hand. I intended to use fire, but my instincts screamed at me to use another element…ice.
Ice covered my other fist just as the being instantly appeared in front of me, swinging his sword as I twisted my back, avoiding the strike narrowly as a beam of black energy flew off the sword's edge. Raising a foot, I stomped down hard on its sword arm and punched out with both fists, connecting the ice fist on his face and using all my strength punched the fire fist into its chest, opening a hole in the armour and smashing my fist into its chest.
It goes flying a few metres before landing on its feet, looking down in shock at its chest before looking back at me, obvious joy and excitement in its eyes. I hadn’t held back and through the armour I could see a large dent in its body coupled with a scorch mark.
I felt something with one fist covered in fire and the other in ice. Like there is room to add the opposing element to each list, combining the two…but something felt wrong, the ice element is too weak. I tried to think of what might be wrong, but the being wouldn’t be that kind.
Tearing off its armour, revealing a torso filled with scars. It appeared to be male and as he readied his sword, I knew that one way or another, one of us would die and the other would likely be seriously injured. I couldn’t run, if I did then it would simply destroy our base. With no chance of being randomly found because of the rain, I breathed out and steeled myself.
He moved, faster than before, slashing wildly at me as I clumsily dodged, unable to move against him, losing any resemblance of being able to fight back. Slashes appeared all over my body, results from my reflexes allowing me to dodge.
The thought of calling out to Rebecca came to mind, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know where I am in relation to where she is and if I caused her to panic she may lose the edge in a fight, which could mean her death if she’s facing a being like me.
A plan came to mind as he swung his sword. Dodging the strike, I lashed out and grabbed his wrist, using ice magic to try and freeze it as I lash out my fire fist without holding back, ignoring the feeling coming from deep within. As I threw my fist, he dodged, parried or striked back, the pair of us punching hard into each other, my health going down by twenty for each hit that struck me.
[Health: 235/500]
Gritting my teeth, I pushed more mana towards my fist, the flame scorching hot. I tried to fill in that missing part I felt, and as my fist kept connecting, ice slowly filled the parts where the fire wasn’t, slowly combining with it, but something felt off.
Throwing my fist once more, he sent a fist of his own at the hand holding his wrist, both our hits connect as I let go and he goes flying due to the fist I slammed on his jaw. I felt my body starting to become exhausted, shallow cuts and bruises covered all the exposed parts of my body. My fist trembled, not being able to control my own strength caused my fists to be numb from punching out.
My thoughts turned to the moment the ice tried to combine with the fire on my right fist. There is something there, a stronger form of the technique that I had read about and used to cover my fists. Merging two elements into one…I don’t know how to do it, but I feel that if my ice element was as strong as my fire, but to do that…
The being raised his sword and charged at me, slower this time due to the damage it had taken. Burning scorch marks covered his body and as I’m about to raise my hands, I had footsteps behind me, hurried ones, a loud voice ringing out.
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“MADAM MIDNIGHT, DUCK!”
No hesitating, I did as the voice said and ducked and rolled as someone else stepped past me, the sound of a fist slamming into flesh sounding out. Standing up quickly, I watched as Geode and the being separated, with Geode coming to my side and the being looking annoyed but on guard, not moving towards us.
“Madam Midnight, are you okay?”
“Yes I’m fine. Where is your unit?”
“I don’t know, I separated from them, everything's a mess right now. I only know there are casualties, but we’re pushing them back.”
I knew that even with Geode here, finishing this being wouldn’t be easy, this thing’s strength matches Rebecca’s so it’s at least at the level of a Lvl 3. An idea came to mind as I looked at Geode.
“Can you hold him off for a minute?”
“I can, do you have something planned?”
“Yes, but it’s a long shot, I don’t even know if it’ll work.”
“If this thing is giving you, a Lvl 3, trouble then I don’t know if I can hold it for too long. But I’ll give it a go.” Geode raises his fists, a pair of gauntlets on them. He breathes and rushes forward as I close my eyes, sinking myself into my Mana World.
I had half of my mana left, and arriving above my Mana Islands, I quickly looked at the Ice Island and arrived at the middle. Without wasting time, I sunk myself into the same feeling that the Fire Island had, drawing mana towards the Ice Island. The island changed rapidly as the ice expanded to cover a quarter of the lake. As snow started to fall from above, sculptures of ice started to rise from the ice, featureless but in various forms.
I didn’t have the time and quickly imaging it, I found myself above my mana realm once more, but this time I noticed a new island, the Fire and Ice islands both linked to it, somewhat transparent. In the middle of the island, which is just plain, lifeless ground, is fire and ice both swirling around each other. My thoughts turned to what happened before as many ideas came to mind of what this meant.
Exiting my Mana World, I ignored the plethora of System messages as I quickly looked towards Geode, who at that moment was sent flying away, rolling off to the side. Looking at the being, I found myself slightly surprised to see that Geode had managed to deal damage to it. Berserker, Geode’s Class, deals more damage the more he is injured and seeing the damage done I could only guess how badly hurt Geode is.
Breathing out, I flexed my fingers for a moment as I considered how to use this potential new element. Staring at the being, I used Expose and found that its skin is indeed not some exoskeleton and focusing on both fists, I gently and steadily motivated my mana, filling in the spots that I had felt earlier. A sense of power filled my fists, far stronger than what I felt before as my mana emptied out, before filling quarter of the way, meaning Rebecca had used half her mana as well.
Apologising to her, I locked onto the being and opened my mouth. The sight of the spirits hadn’t escaped me, they had been watching with concern all around us, not daring to approach, but now I needed their help.
“!sruo fo ymene siht hsiuqnav yam I taht os em rewopmE .edia ym ot emoc ,dlrow siht fo stiripS 'O”
Immediately the spirits floated over to me, over a dozen, resting on my shoulders. The being didn’t seem to be able to see them as it started to walk in a half circle around me, as if looking for an opening. The spirits on my shoulders started to glow as my fatigue swept away, the wounds all over my body starting to slowly heal, strength that wasn’t my own entering my body, empowering it further.
The being, perhaps sensing this, grinned widely as the aura around it grew heavy, its bruised muscles bulging slightly. I raise my fists, a swirl of fire and ice on them, forming a blue fire, both hot and cold. Breathing out, this time I’m the one who approached the being, who swung his sword wide.
Dodging it, I slammed my right fist into its open chest before punching down with my left into its jaw. Blue fire that both froze and burnt sprung up, its effects obvious at a glance as the skin froze and the first thawed it, a continuous cycle, causing the skin and muscle to disintegrate fast. The being quickly stabbed the sword forward and dodging it cuts into my side, sending pain up my side as I punched out.
It dodged and gained ground, swinging its sword, a blade made from energy flying out directly at me. Raising my arms, I blocked the blow, but it cut into my arms. Gritting my teeth, I was aware that my movements were sloppy, that my dodging is barely worthy of being called dodging. This being, while strong, may actually be below me in overall strength, but it kept pace with my sloppy skills.
Both of us charge at each other, dodging its attacks I struck out and this time the being dodged my attacks, but not all of them. Trading strikes, my wounds accumulated as my fist met its flesh, but neither of us could deal a finishing blow. I heard the wet sound of footsteps coming from behind the being and without giving it a chance to react to them, I slammed my fist into its nose while backing up a few steps myself.
Geode, from out of nowhere, grabs the being from behind in a full nelson.
“Madam Midnight! Now, I can’t hold him for long!”
Without hesitation, I charged and slammed my fists over and over into it. It tried to fight back, trying to loosen the grip that Geode held over it, but I kept punching at its chest. The blue flames freezing and burning it over and over, soon its insides were exposed and forming a sword with my hand, I striked at its beating heart, easily stabbing into it as its blood sprayed me.
Jumping backwards, I allowed the fatigue to wash over me as I watched the beings eyes go from shock, to annoyance to lifeless. Geode lets go of it as its body slams into the ground. Approaching it, I raised a leg and without mercy I stomped down on its head with all of my strength, crushing it completely.
Looking at Geode as I pant heavily, I saw that he wasn’t in good condition. Large sword slashes covered his body, his face pale as he staggered there for a moment. Before I could say anything, he looked at my torso, eyes wide.
“Madam, are you okay?” Not sure what he meant, I looked down and hissed at the sight. The sword the being had used is impaled in my stomach, blood seeping out. Gritting my teeth as the pain revealed itself, I fell to my knees as the pain and fatigue mixed, making me feel weak.
Without warning, Geode picked me up and, not refusing his help, I leaned against his shoulder and stood on my feet.
“Hold tight, Madam, the medics are in the base.”
Coughing into my hand, I looked at my health to see it had plummeted to eighty and I was losing a point of health every twenty seconds. The fact I’m not receiving healing from Rebecca either meant I wasn’t in critical health range or…
Shaking my thoughts away, I let Geode drag me towards the base, ignoring his bleeding wounds. Calling out, I had some of the spirits help him, healing him slightly, at least enough to stop the bleeding. Either he ignored this, or wasn’t aware that his injuries had stopped bleeding, but he kept moving and soon we arrived at the edge of the base.
It didn’t take long for a group of people standing guard to see us, their eyes wide from shock of seeing me like this. Quickly, they moved out of the way while a few ran into the base, calling for help. My vision became blurry as my wound kept bleeding out, I knew my consciousness would give out soon without treatment. I became aware we were being led somewhere, soon a few people surrounded me, some of them yelling.
My hearing becomes muffled, the voices all becoming mixed together. My health, the only clear thing to me, reached fourty. If I closed my eyes, I could peacefully sleep…I felt a sharp pain on my cheek and blinking, my vision became slightly better as the vision of someone in front of me came into focus, their hand raised, as if they just slapped me.
“Madam Midnight, you need to stay awake! Don’t fall asleep, your injuries are too severe! Quickly, get to healing the stab wound. We need to slowly heal it while pulling the sword out, she can’t afford to lose anymore blood!”
A faint green glow came from behind me as my vision blurred once more. Slowly my health started to go up as I felt more hands touching places of my body where I had been slashed, something nice and soft being wiped against them, warm water touching my skin. The relief of the pain from all of this brought the sleepiness back, my eyes slowly closed.
A sharp, piercing pain once again flared up on the other cheek as I opened my eyes suddenly, the same person with their other hand raised coming into focus. They looked at me with a sternness that made me feel like they were a teacher and I was in trouble…
“Midnight! You can’t fall asleep! Isabelle, get on the radio and get one of the Vice-Leaders here!”
“I’m trying! The frontlin-”. My senses become dulled, the new voice becoming muffled as my eyes start to close once more. I wanted nothing more than to sleep, to allow that darkness to take me into its comfortable bosom. Just as I felt like sleep had arrived, another spike of stinging pain woke me up once more, but this time the person didn’t come into focus.
“Shit, we’re losing her. Get me a healing potion! Yes, I know they won’t restore blood, bu-”. The voice sounded urgent, my mind saying that perhaps I shouldn’t fall asleep…but I just felt so comfortable. Just as I started to close my eyes, a stinging pain came from my torso, causing my eyes to fly open as I saw the sword slowly be pulled out.
The pain increased as the sword was slowly removed, pain shooting through my body, acting as a catalyst to cause the rest of my wound to scream in pain. My senses sharpened, my vision returning as I heard the voices all around me, voices rushing around, commands being given. I felt something in my hand and as they removed the sword, the pain caused me to squeeze down on whatever was in my hand as I screamed in pain, my body trembling as I am slowly healed.