“I don’t suppose we can settle this with another game… Maybe checkers or something?” I said slowly, trying to laugh as I caught my breath again.
She laughed almost seductively. “Oh as fun as that sounds I’m afraid even if I won, you would still put up a fight to come join my guild, isn’t that right?”
I sighed. ‘Yeah… Probably…’
Her body started to grow until the shackle burst and her clothes stretched out even more. “See, the thing about these shackles is that the enchantment is rather weak, so you know, you actually need all four of them to suppress magic as strong as mine.” She bent over and picked it up, touching her amulate to send the swords back to storage. “How ironic do you think it would be if I used this to crush you now?”
My chest tightened and I started to lose control of my breathing. It was the same as when I fought the minotaur. Suddenly I had complete tunnel vision. Even if all the grass suddenly turned blue I probably wouldn’t have noticed. My panic turned to the kind of rush you could only feel near death, and my lungs and breathing went numb until I couldn’t even feel whether or not I was inhaling or exhaling.
‘Ok… I’ll lay it all down right here.’ “Plutia…” Invoking her name I felt our energies connect and I cast Bless on myself, increasing my speed and strength, and lightening my weapons. ‘I guess I really can use tier 3 divine magic now…’
I paired it with regeneration, to mend any wounds I might take and spend the rest of my accumulated devine energy. Each miracle would last for the next two minutes. So long as I didn’t break bones or rupture organs, I had a chance.
I couldn’t say why my divinity had increased whether it was because I beat down the bandits without killing them, or because I saved little Mochi from their hands. In the end, though that didn’t really matter. ‘I have to win…’
There was no greater reason behind it this time. The assassin probably wouldn’t bother with Mochi if I lost, and she wouldn’t kill me either… But still, the thought resounded in my mind. ‘I have to win…’
I was all out of divine power, Using it all up at once. With the effects of blessing, I could wield the great blade even with a single hand, pulling my longsword out in my off-hand. ‘I might look ridiculous fighting like this, but if I pull it off…’
Finally, I used my magic to enhance my strength further. The sheer force of the magic around me was starting to become so thick I could see the pressure in the air changing and starting to push against my eyes from inside my body.
“How interesting. You are capable of fighting with the big dogs after all… Unfortunately for you, I’m a wolf.”
A great dark void surrounded her as her skin turned black and she grew in size again, now over 2 feet taller than her original form. Her tail grew larger, and spikes protruded out of the end. Air currents began to gather around her like whirling tornados, and the shadows around her became bladed, slicing the grass that touched them.
It gave me chills, but it was too late for me not to fight. Just like before… There was never a thought of turning back… Furthermore, I was on a timer.
“Mochi! Give me an earth wall as high as you can go, right underneath me!” ‘Air currents like those move in a circular fashion and will be strongest close to the source. I’ll have to go over them.
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Before I knew it I was dozens of feet in the air, and when she reached her limit I used my own earth magic to push myself even further if only a little. Looking down at them from so high was almost frightening… No, I was definitely afraid… knowing what I was going to do next. But that only made me want to do it even more.
Leaping from the pillar I jumped past the bladed winds and began falling straight towards her, parrying shadows with my two blades, I created a ball of water right below me to break my fall, slowing me down as I passed through it, and then I landed.
It happened so fast that I wasn’t even 100% sure what happened. I blocked her magic with my blades, and I cut her… The scent of someone's blood filled my nose.
My regeneration healed my body enough to move after the fall, but I still felt all of the pain. As I stood up I heard an evil laugh echoing like shadows and suddenly felt a thousand tiny cuts appear all over my skin, and the shackle I had placed around her ankle firmly clasped around my neck.
‘No… How…’
All the terrifying magic surrounding me dispersed as she snapped her fingers. “You almost got me there. It’s been a long time since anyone drew my blood.”
At the sound of her voice, I leveraged all my weight into a swing and managed to cut her again, even deeper. ‘The shackles only block magic, not divine power… I still have my blessings!’
She jumped back and her amused tone finally dropped, replaced with something more bitter. “Now you’re just being a PAIN!”
She summoned another windstorm around me, slicing me to shreds over and over, but my regeneration continued to heal me, combining with the effects of Mochi’s strange blessing and becoming vastly more powerful. ‘Over half my time is up already…’
It took me a moment to mentally deal with the pain, but after I got used to it I somehow managed to steady my footing. ‘Just one more spell…’ My hands were black up to my wrists, and my nose and ears were starting to bleed from mana exhaustion but with how deep my second slash landed I knew I was close to winning. ‘Just one more, to disrupt the air current.’
I didn’t have any mana left though. Ironic as it may have been, I felt a sting in my back as a windlance pierced through the storm. My regeneration healed me, but the disruption in the wind current was exactly what I needed. It was enough for me to burst through it and strike at her one more time in a blurring flash.
As she drew her swords again I thrust my own into her leg. She dodged my blade, but I swung it again, crashing into her even through her block and staggering her. I lowered my stance and thrust the sword forward again, digging the tip into the ground and hitting her in the face with the crossguard before letting go of it so that it would fall into my storage. ‘One shackle only limits how fast I can use storage, but I can still use it… Even if I can’t use anything else right now…’
I pulled my ax back out and spun around with both hands going into a heavy blow that cracked the ax’s shaft but staggered her again. Throwing it away I pulled my dagger and jumped to the side, grabbing her sword with my bare hand to move it out of the way while I stabbed her elbow.
I ducked under her other blade, taking her feet out from under her with a sweeping kick, using my dagger in her arm to leverage a throw and send her to the ground.
Finally, I pulled the spearhead I had broken off my old spear and aimed to stick it right through her stomach before backing away, but my whole body felt cold all of a sudden. I looked down to see her second blade sticking through my side, entering my left hip, and coming out under my ribs on the other side.
‘That’s… Going to take a bit more… Than a tier 2 regeneration miracle… No matter how strong it is…’ My whole body felt weak, but I still had enough energy to finish my final move… Only, the delay gave her the opportunity to recover, and soon her second sword was pierced through my shoulder. Before I knew it I was the one on the ground. My blessing was keeping me alive, but it couldn’t heal severe damage to internal organs, neither could it replace or remove blood.
She was breathing heavily as she stood up and towered over me. “Are you ready to come with me quietly now?” She said slowly, her breath echoing with a shaky laugh as her dark blood killed the grass that it touched.
She pulled her swords out, staggering back to try and regain her bearings, turning around and laughing as she swept back her hair. I gasped for air. The wounds were sealed on the outside, but my lungs had filled with blood. ‘Just one more… Time…’ As she pulled my sword from her leg I brought my great blade out from storage and thrust it forward with all my might.
My weakness caught up to me, and as the blessing of the sword wore off, its weight made me nearly drop it, lowering my thrust from her back to her leg, and severing it, my blade sliding in between the bones at her knee. ‘No. I missed… The blessing’s wearing out… I can’t heal myself anymore, I used up all my magic… Even if I didn’t this collor…’
My vision started to go black. She turned around, slowly moving her fingers down the side of my face.
‘How… How is she not phased at all? I really did lose this one, didn’t I… It wasn’t even close…’
“You’re still fighting? How cute, You really are a sucker for pain aren’t you.” A wind lance pierced her shoulder, causing more blood to start flowing down her arm, but she ignored that as well. “How interesting.”
Blood trickled down from her arm to her finger and then into my mouth. I wanted to spit it out, but I had lost all feeling and was too tired to move. Gritting my teeth I bit at her, like a rabid dog on its last legs, but then everything went black.
‘I’ve always said it from the beginning… If you’re an adventurer… And you ever lose a fight… You deserve to die…’