“The fanatical and the desperate are the worst enemies to face in a battle. They no longer have anything to lose, for the most part, and thus do not fear any consequences that might happen to them.” - Reinhardt Edelstein, Captain of the Free Lances Mercenary Company, circa 14 FP.

“We could keep this up for a good while, you know, your majesty,” said Aideen mockingly as she caught the charging madman on the throat with her staff during another of his charges, the impact forceful enough to sever his head from his body between the forces involved and the staff’s anti-magic enchantments preventing his from just healing the injury.

Since the mad king of Vitalica was clearly not a trained or skilled mage, he lacked flexibility in the way he used the ridiculous amount of mana that the ritual stuffed in his body. While he might have indeed achieved part of his goal – the man was practically immortal due to the insane amount of Life affinity mana in him, which would prevent him from dying to even the worst injuries – the ritual had not given the man the corresponding skill or experience to make use of his power

In essence, the mad king was like a very rich man who had no idea on how to use their money. In comparison both Aideen and Kino had fought often in their lives – far more in Aideen’s case, but even Kino was experienced and well-trained – and had experience to draw back upon. To fight an enemy that had nothing but power without the skill to use it was trivial for them.

In fact, Kino probably only took that first hit since she was caught off-guard by the mad king’s inhuman speed.

Given their respective abilities, Aideen primarily focused on the defense as her adamant staff was the one thing they had that could stop the mad king’s strikes by blocking them head-on. She also had better reaction speed and physical capabilities compared to Kino as she used her own substantial magic to enhance her body beyond its natural limitations.

On the other hand, Kino’s void affinity magic was highly effective at both dismembering the mad king and preventing him from just healing the injuries after the blade had passed through his body. Kino’s discs of void magic not only prevented any attempt of healing the wound from passing through them but were also wide enough that any part she severed would be completely separated from the main body cleanly.

Even with their advantages, however, the two of them knew that they were essentially fighting on borrowed time. The mad king became more and more proficient with the use of the mana he had as the fight went on, and the two had to struggle in order to keep up with him. If the two of them were not Unliving, they likely would have perished after only a few minutes, Aideen thought.

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Due to their Unliving nature, however, while they could not inflict any permanent harm to the mad king, the same applied to the mad king as well. He could not inflict any permanent harm upon them either, as any damage he caused would just be healed back by Aideen within mere moments. As such, the battle deteriorated into a bloody stalemate.

The mad king even gained enough control of the Life mana within him to recreate the life siphoning effect of the ritual, and it was a powerful one due to the amount of mana contained in his body, if much shorter ranged. He found himself stymied instead, however, when he realized that there was no life within the Unliving for him to siphon away.

Life mana was notorious in its lack of offensive capability, and it seemed that despite the ritual’s unexpected effect, that character of the affinity had not changed much at all.

On their side, Aideen and Kino also got more creative as they fought the mad king. Aideen made use of the vials of Dragonfire Brew she still kept with her. Since the mad king moved so quickly and violently, Aideen could only use the brief moments when their opponent was incapacitated after Kino dismembered him to quickly stuff several of the vials into his wounds before they healed up.

When the wounds did heal up, they inevitably wrapped around and crushed the fragile vials, which led to explosive results that just caused a larger wound to form instead. Not even such explosions – from within the body, no less – were effective at harming the mad king, but they further delayed him as Aideen and Kino never stopped assaulting him with their weapons and magic.

Since the two of them learned that the mad king reacted the slowest after losing his head, Kino went for decapitations as often as she could, while similarly Aideen would aim to crush the mad king’s neck of head with her staff. Not even direct decapitations slowed the madman for more than a few extra seconds or so, but every moment bought that way was a moment they had to fight for otherwise.

All the while the mad king spewed all sorts of vitriol from his mouth, at first keeping his composure and language as one might have expected of a king. Before too long, however, Aideen and Kino had clearly frustrated the man enough to the point that he began swearing like a sailor instead. Aideen honestly could sympathize, as she was well aware that she could truly be an infuriating opponent to fight against for just about anyone, but that was the limit of what she would give to the mad king.

Because while they fought the man also descended into a rant about how his ascension to godhood was his right and that all the people devoured by the ritual – which had been kickstarted using the missing children Aideen heard about in town, incidentally – should be proud to be able to be fuel for his glorious ascension to greatness.

It was clear that the man had succumbed to his madness well before the ritual even took place.