Trails of light darted beneath me. They carved through the pavement, scorched the lawns of grass, left iridescent arcs that intersected to form a familiar diagram. A gigantic octagon fifty meters across, a geometric inscription of raw arcana force. Its perimeter engulfed Cirrus within, along with Saber and several adjacent houses.
My bones creaked as I readied the spell. My legs bent under its immaterial weight. And Saber, who stood next to me, staggered for a moment as the spell's pressure bore down upon her too.
A flash of panic glinted in Cirrus's eyes. He dashed away, attempting to escape the glowing octagon. But it was no use. The activation of this spell is instant.
The snap of a finger was all it took.
The ground beneath us fractured and cratered. The houses nearby imploded like origami in a clenched palm. Trees compressed into masses of splinters.
Within fifty meters, unrelenting pressure crushed the suburban landscape into a spatter of indiscriminate destruction.
And yet, Cirrus stood.
Not completely unharmed. As he turned back to face me, I saw a trickle of blood from his nose. And a smirk on his lips.
Before my shock wore off, he dashed behind me. I'd have missed it if I blinked. I instinctively leaped away. He smiled without making an attack.
And then I felt it. A warm trickle down my abdomen. I looked down.
My stomach had been sliced wide open. Blood spilled out, incessant.
I only felt a dull, distant pain, coupled with a numbness that now spread across my body.
…What just happened? When did he attack – had I completely missed it? Was his weapon poisoned?
"You're hesitating," I heard Cirrus say.
A blur flashed across my vision, accompanied by the scream of steel and a splash of blood.
My shoulder. Before I realized it, Cirrus's blade had sank into my shoulder.
"Sophia!" I heard Saber's shout from right behind. In the corner of my vision was her sword, intercepting Cirrus's oversized weapon as that behemoth extended past my back. Saber had blocked the overhead blow from behind me, or at least the brunt of it. If she hadn't, my entire arm would've been chopped off.
My mind was going blank. Cirrus's speed. His durability. He made Headmaster Fink look like a joke in comparison.
A clash of blades rang at my side as Saber and Cirrus swung. It startled me back into my senses, if only a little. I had to fight.
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I fell back and fired my railgun at Cirrus. Hal rushed towards us from across the street, his arms morphing into thick, branching, grasping roots. They grew out and reached for Cirrus, but he diced through them with a flurry of slashes.
As he turned back to Saber, a near-invisible projectile darted into his unguarded flank.
It wasn't even a projectile, so to speak. Just a distortion, a tremor in the air, scarcely visible. The tremor had entered his body, thumping and vibrating like a second heartbeat.
Jack's Vacuum Wave.
Jack himself jumped in, finally, thrusting his dagger at Cirrus. Strong as Cirrus was, he couldn't defend against everyone at once. Jack's stab made it through the guard of Cirrus's sword, and scratched him as he tried to dodge.
A scratch was all it took.
Soon as the dagger's steel drew blood, something inside Cirrus popped. For the first time, I heard him grunt in pain.
Vacuum Palm had two parts. The first was the direct hit. The second was Resonance. Vacuum Palm embedded its latent energy into the target. Any melee attack from Jack would trigger it, releasing shockwaves that ripped the target apart from the inside out.
Cirrus staggered. Saber took the chance to circle around and thrust her swordpoint into the soft spots behind his knees. He returned with cross-slashes that cleaved through both Saber and Jack. And though he stood his ground, he let out a quick cough, sputtering blood.
Whatever damage we had done, it was catching up to him.
But he dealt us wounds in equal measure. Jack had suffered gaping cuts, and Saber's armor had been battered, and her blood leaked through. Hal, who fought at a distance, had only wooden stumps left of his transformed arms.
My own head grew light, whether from blood loss or the poison. Even with all four of us against Cirrus, I wondered if we could outlast him.
In a single arcing swing, Cirrus swept back Saber and Jack. He leaped back to disengage.
"Busybodies, all of you," he spat. "Your precious little paladin can live another day."
"You're not running away," I snapped. I aligned my railgun's sights to his skull.
"Running away? Oh no. I'm just taking what I need, and I shall bother you no more."
He pointed a finger at Saber.
"Final ability," he said.
"Oh no you don't –" I fired a Frost Missile at him, but he blocked it with his other hand.
"Greater Theft," Cirrus declared.
His pointing finger curled inward. Something, like a wisp of vapor, flew from Saber to him. Before I could fire a second shot, he had faded into thin air.
Invisibility again? As if the same trick would still work. I activated the metal detector on my railgun. A flash of cobalt light lit up down the road, then turned around a corner. There he was.
I fired several more shots from my railgun, then a Cold Grenade. The shots found purchase, I'd have estimated, but the Cold Grenade caught nothing within its radius. Did I misaim? Had he dodged it?
And with that, my metal-sense expired. It'd take a minute before I could use it again. Drat.
"He went that way," I told my team. "Should we chase?"
Saber stared at me. Or rather, past me. I checked what was missing on her. She still held her sword in her hand. And her armor, far as I could tell, still had all its pieces. Did Cirrus steal her Twin Shadows, her magical dagger? Its speed-boosting special ability would've been indispensable if we were to pursue him. I wouldn't be surprised if he took it as an act of self-preservation, if he had intel on what it did.
But I saw it. The dagger rested against Saber's hip, secured by her belt.
"Sophia," Saber called out to me, her words soft, her breath shallow. "I…I can't see anymore."