Interlude: Faerwyn

Faerwyn liked Leo. That was something she had decided upon first meeting him. He didn’t stare at her like the others did. She didn’t mean others as in the party who she saw as family. She meant the rest of the world. The constant leers, and gazes that constantly made her skin crawl.

Of course, she would tease, and she would flirt. That was what her race was good at, but deep inside she hated the attention. She had hated it ever since she was a child, ever since… she didn’t want to think about it.

The point was that Leo was so pure to her. When he looked at her she didn’t detect the darkness behind his eyes. She saw true kindness in them. Leo wasn’t a duplicitous person. She could tell from the emotional energies he constantly released.

That was what succubi and incubi did. They were true empaths. Constantly detecting the emotions of those around them and reacting to them. Their higher-than-average charisma only increased the effects of the responses. It took years for one of her people to master their racial traits so they wouldn’t be led by the empathic nature of their blood.

It always left her feeling raw and vulnerable when in the towns and cities, but Leo had been different. She liked Leo. More, she trusted Leo.

When she caught a glimpse of him running from Derzeri she didn’t concern herself. It wasn’t fear that she could smell coming off of him. It wasn’t terror that she tasted in the air. At least not his own.

No, coming from Leo was the succulent aroma of resolve. He had a plan. She trusted him. She smiled as none of the others seemed to doubt him either. She watched as Jeloqa launched herself at the dragon prince and started hammering into his side.

I can’t just stand around now, can I? A girl’s gotta do her part. She thought as she activated her skill.

Skill: Full Strike

Skill Rank: A

Investment: 30 / 45

Skill Description: By infusing 5% stamina into your attacks you can increase the armor-piercing effects by 60%. Attacks that deal damage cause a bleeding effect. Wounds require 30% more healing to mend.

Rank Up Effect: Increases armor piercing effects by 10% and healing required to mend the wound effect by 5%

She lunged forward stabbing at the large dragon’s flank. The blow barely left a scratch though as he swung his mighty tail knocking the pugilist away. Leo’s undead monsters were trying to distract the dragon but it didn’t have much effect as Derzeri lunged at Grenthar.

I just can’t do much at this angle! She thought testily. With a sigh she jumped into the air, powering her leap with another one of her skills, launching high into the air before preparing to descend. She could feel the cost to her stamina eating away at her remaining strength, but in a battle like this conserving strength didn’t matter.

Strike hard, strike fast, show no mercy! She had remembered her tutor instructing her when she had first picked up the spear. With a battle cry, she launched herself into a diving attack from above.

Her trident plunged deep into the shoulder of her foe as she activated another skill. This one caused her trident to release explosions inside the target as long as she had punctured its flesh. Derzeri roared in agony.

She leaped off of the dragon as he shuddered but was soon wrapped in Velixen’s emerald chains. The chains broke moments later as she saw Jeloqa retreating from Derzeri’s jaws. Leo’s large bird, he called it a golden eagle, dove across the dragon’s face flying away just as the dragon shot a brief flame at it.

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Faerwyn once again dove towards the dragon, her trident glowing. She was running out of stamina she knew. Only a few more attacks and she would be empty. A few more attacks and her party members would be dead. The dragon was glowing with a cruel light as his injuries had begun to heal faster than they could harm him.

Leo, please, if you are going to do something. Now is the time to do it, she thought. Faerwyn had lost sight of him, but she still sensed him. His scent of resolve had only grown stronger.

Just as she had made the plea a malevolent black light erupted from Derzeri, and magical coils wrapped around the dragon before reaching out toward her and her friends. As the dark coil clung to her she suddenly felt a flow of power being drained away from the dragon and entering her, restoring her.

A timer appeared in the corner of her vision. 10 seconds. Ten seconds of this absorption effect. The flow wasn’t much, but it was a sign that Leo was doing… something.

She still wasn’t truly aware of all that he could do yet. Not even a hair's breadth of a second had passed before another feeling pulsated inside of her. From the reactions of the group, she could see they all felt it.

From every pore of her being power was bursting forth. Almost drowning out her senses, and her sensibilities. Her skin vibrated with energy as she suddenly felt almost capable of butchering the dragon prince, and another timer appeared next to the first. 10 seconds.

Ten more seconds of this strength, and they just might be able to get in a crippling Derzeri, if not kill him outright. Yet before anyone could move a wholly new sensation came upon her.

If Faerwyn had thought that the power she had felt before was spectacular, then this feeling was nothing short of divine. This was no mortal power she felt, this was the true blessing of a god in making. It had to be. Dark Lord or not, if she survived this battle she would follow Leo into the depths of hell after tasting of this power just once.

It wasn’t just her either. All around the battlefield every one of her allies suddenly radiated with a dark fire so intense the heat alone almost burned away Derzeri’s scaly flesh. One more timer appeared in her vision, and it read 60 seconds.

One whole minute of godlike power. Derzeri never stood a chance. Perhaps if he had managed to kill any one of them prior to this point. If he had managed to kill Leo then the outcome of this battle was a certainty.

Yet, the arrogant prince ignorantly thought he was enough to stop the might of something like this. There is always a price for arrogance. The mighty will always fall when they ignore the wisdom of caution. Another lesson from her instructor.

She ignored her reveries, she was only wasting time. She needed to act. She used every skill she had. Stamina was meaningless to her now in the state she was in. Thrusting forward she was upon Derzeri before she even could reconcile the fact that she had moved, but already she was thrusting.

Her trident grew to triple its size while shining in an array of lights that formed an almost crystalline rainbow around the weapon.

Grenthar also seemed to double in size as his whole body grew red. It seemed that he too was making use of the unlimited power to use his most costly skills. His sword didn’t grow, but instead, he summoned sharp blades made out of the shields he could summon as he too began to hack into Derzeri.

Explosions of light ran up and down the dragon's body as arrows plunged deep into his flesh before detonating from within. Runes appeared all over the dragon's body in an instant as various traps activated ripping the dragon apart.

Derzeri was healing, but it had slowed to a crawl now. 5 seconds left. She read as she brought her trident out, and plunged it once more into the dragon's ribcage, more explosions rocked the body.

Massive chunks of the dragon's hide blew apart revealing craters in his body now that were too great to heal. The prince howled in pain, but he wasn’t able to handle the onslaught.

He might have been almost double their level after his transformation, but the sheer boost to their attributes gifted to them by Leo was more than enough to make up the difference.

From her peripheral, she could see his bear, Wuzzy digging into the dragon, burrowing into Derzeri’s body with ruthless efficiency, as well as a few of the other minions all partaking.

Grenthar and Jeloqa were matched blow for blow as they rained death and destruction on their foe's face and shoulders.

3 seconds left, the counter read. Derzeri wasn’t quite dead yet. She didn’t relent in her attacks. Too soon the first two counters had 1 second left while the last counter had almost 51. Despite that, she feared if they didn’t finish this fight in that 1 second then all of this would have been for naught.

Everyone else must have assumed the same as another final barrage began raining down on the dragon.

0 seconds left.