Kara [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczMV4Wi3KvQeed_l9SolZB2DRkf0r5f1CdcvbBjYmzU7taQDERYAfWLA0LqgvxHrwOB590hvQcL3QKhbLuTtnkEiAcuAwB0BLlHI9NbXz0pHxHxPpJalvTa2SiZtWmqKF9QUGqrPQ2ERRKfYaFJMfZ-I=w613-h919-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Kara was happy with Phoenix’s new display of determination. It helped reassure her that Champion had seen what she had initially failed to: that when it came down to it, Phoenix would stand and fight for those who couldn’t.
Now it was her turn to stand against the enemy that could likely annihilate the city. The upgrades the city had managed to complete along the walls would help, thanks to the assistance of the Starfall voxen, but they wouldn’t be able to stop an Obsidian Caster left unopposed. Which meant she had a quest to fulfill.
Running into the Obsidian Caste barrier surrounding the flying vessel, which looked like a half-formed green butterfly at a glance, had been a surprise at first. Mainly because she had expected it to be the same Ruby Caste as the vessel itself, not the same as the Caster within.
The barrier seemed to be on the weaker end of Obsidian, however. That was good for her, considering on the grand scale of Obsidian Caste she was relatively young, and also on the lower end of combatants. While the lower Caste tiers were generally broken into ten levels within a Caste before reaching the next tier, there was no tier after Obsidian. There was also no level cap.
They fundamentally changed upon reaching Obsidian and could still grow, but it was about as fast as continents shifting. While that made little difference on a planet that only had sapient life for about ten thousand years, Kara had no idea what lay beyond their reality. She only knew that not a single Obsidian Caster on Makera was willing to go anywhere near the main command vessel of the Soul Reapers that floated beyond the boundary of the gods’ influence.
She cast one of her Overwhelm Boons on herself, and after a few more punches with fist, foot, and tail, Kara watched with a smile as the barrier shattered like glass. Now, she could try taking out the vessel before the other Obsidian bothered to show up, hoping that they had underestimated her.
“Now that’s what I like to see!” a voice boomed out, and she turned to see a large felion man grinning broadly at her. Felions were one of the Wayfarer-forged species on Makera, so it was a surprise to see one here, but the anthropomorphic lion-like man was definitely similar. His golden mane was similar to her own hair, but his other-worldly garb made it clear he was a Soul Reaper. The black-plated armor was iconic to them, but he was missing the usual glossy helmet that turned them into faceless enemies.
“You like seeing your defenses shattered?” she shouted back, not stopping her movement toward the canon-like turrets on one of the vessel’s dividing rings.
He was running after her then, or rather, surfing after her as a stream of conjured water aided his movement, “I like seeing my test beaten to know there’s an opponent worthy of my time,” the broad man retorted with a laugh.
Despite the pressure on her aura pushing it back to protect the weaker monsters that she could sense falling from the vessel, Kara found herself grinning, “Water may flow fast, but light moves faster,” she said before disappearing in a stream of light.
Conjuring her weapon to smash into the first turret, it was too slow to fire at her as it exploded in a shower of metal shrapnel and plant bits. The weapon that had once looked like a blossom with large pistil canons was now burning mulch.
“Is that an actual morning star?” the Soul Reaper called out, and she was slightly dismayed to see him so close to her already, still smiling, “I’ll admit I don’t see many going for that one. People are much more attached to swords or rifles.”
She responded by swinging the golden metal rod that held a spiky miniature sun on the end of it toward him. The molten sphere flung outward on a chain of light, smashing into the armored chest plate. The spikes pierced right through the armor as the force of the blow sent him hurtling back.
“I find it works well in overwhelming pesky armor,” she retorted, whipping the orb back to her and using the momentum to swing it in an arc down upon the next turret. Another flash of fire and light exploded upwards as the weapon impacted and channeled her mana into destruction.
A column of water swirled around the burning cannons as she dodged an annoying shot from another of the vessel’s defenses and frowned at the poor match-up. Being able to douse her flames would make things harder but not impossible.
“Sun, Overwhelm, Light, and Courage Aspects for a Sunlight Champion, eh? I guess the morning star is rather fitting then,” the felion said from beside her, and she was surprised that he had managed to get back so quickly after that last blow.
She could only assume the Soul Reaper had some means to analyze her, similar to the vessel Presley controlled. “Knowing what I am won’t save you,” she replied, whirling the orb of plasma back towards the man.
“Perhaps not, but it makes me more confident about my victory. You’re not the first Sun I’ve extinguished.”
His body turned into pure water just as the flail was about to strike him. As it began to pass through him, she triggered it to explode early –right inside his center. She grimaced as whatever liquid substance he was comprised of seemed to swallow the combusting flames, and he gave a loud and exaggerated burp.
Stolen novel; please report.
The Paladin moved back, reconjuring the sphere of plasma that served as the head of her morning star, and watched to see how long the enemy could hold that annoying form. She hated slimes, and this guy was no better.
The man’s form solidified a few moments later and he clicked his tongue at her, “I’m disappointed that you bonded your soul to a deity of this world, however. Such a waste.”
Kara almost didn’t notice the Familiar that had arrived behind her until her senses picked up the bullets of Water magic speeding toward her. A deceptively small frog did well to blend into the plant-like ship but triggering the spell gave its location away. Fanning her tails out, they glittered with sparkling sunlight as they formed a reflective shield between her and the onslaught.
Combined with the continuous attacks from the Ruby Caste turrets she still hadn’t destroyed yet, it was almost distracting enough for her to miss the tidal wave being conjured by the Soul Reaper. Almost. The shadow and surge of mana gave him away.
The most disconcerting thing about the wall of water wasn’t its size, however, it was that it was an opaque crimson color and she suddenly had to reassess what she thought she had been fighting. He wasn’t just a Water Mage, he was a Bloodmancer…
That explained his quickened recovery against her normally overwhelming attacks. It also made him an even worse matchup for her than she had originally suspected. She would need to not just overwhelm his armor but also his heightened healing, which was already normally in the realm of insanity for an Obsidian Caster.
Despite being killable, Obsidian Caste attributes alone made them incredibly difficult to destroy before they could escape or naturally repair the damage. Add in abilities and it often took multiple Obsidian Casters to actually take one out completely. Kara was alone though, and running wasn’t an option for her.
Dodging was still an option.
She moved again, becoming one with the light to flicker further down the vessel’s body as the wave of blood crashed down into it.
“You are quite fast,” the strange felion laughed, “You’d probably be surprised by how many noble champions try to take that attack. As though getting hit gives merit to their strength and determination.”
“Sounds like you often battle idiots,” she retorted, surprisingly enjoying the banter as they tried to kill one another, “Makes me wonder why someone who thinks they’re so smart and strong likes risking their life to wipe out weaker planets.”
“You’re also not the first to try to get me to monologue my secrets,” he said with a grin as he ducked under a beam of searing plasma while she dodged a column of water.
“Well, if you’re so certain I’m going to die, then where’s the harm?” she asked, triggering another ability as she pulled her morning star back. Instead of one, nine chains of light –each with its own miniature sun– were launched as she swung downwards, blanketing the area in explosions.
The vessel groaned at the impact, tilting dangerously, and she grimaced when she realized they were above the city now. She would need to be more cautious about a stray attack taking out a building.
The scream of the nearby Firebird crashing into one of the towering skyscrapers dashed any vague hope she had held of preventing any damage to the city. Now she could only pray that there would be a city left at all once this battle was over.
Kara gave a slight grunt as she felt something wrap around her furred ankle and needles pierce into her skin, feeling the Bane being delivered by the frog Familiar’s long tongue. She grabbed hold of the tongue with her free hand rather than try to kick it off, yanking the small creature toward her as she triggered her Overwhelm Boon once more and brought her morning star down directly upon it.
“Oh, come on!” the Soul Reaper yelled out from a distance behind her as she felt the Familiar’s aura vanish, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get suitable lily pads on this planet to resummon Oscar?”
“Could just go find another planet to plunder,” she pointed out, giving him a merciless feral grin. “You’re the one who decided to risk death by attacking us.”
“To die would be an awfully big adventure,” the felion replied, leaping towards her in a burst of speed, “But that’s not really much of a risk when I’ll just come back.”
The golden voxen wasn’t sure if it was his words that made her blood run cold or if it was the clawed hand that punctured her chest through the armor she wore. She did know that it was very quickly draining her life and she swung her mace around once more to land a clean blow directly into the man’s lion-like head, ripping it right off his massive shoulders.
At least that would shut his mouth for a bit while she thought through the implications of her enemy being immortal like Phoenix was. Were all the Soul Reapers like that or just this one? She didn’t think it was a Wayfarer thing in particular because they had stories of Wayfarers that had died before but maybe the Soul Reapers liked collecting immortals?
She kicked off the felion body to remove the hand from her chest as the body had already begun to regenerate the missing head. Taking the slight reprieve she began to silently incant the activation for one of her longer cooldown abilities that she rarely needed to use.
It wasn’t guaranteed to stop the Soul Reaper permanently, but it would at least buy her time to help with the battle taking place below and make sure Phoenix wasn’t dead yet. There was a chance that the Obsidian Caster could die to it, even with his regeneration, but she doubted someone who didn’t fear death would succumb to her test of courage.
A blinding orb of light appeared around the disoriented body of the headless felion and sucked him into the dimensional space that would pit him against his greatest fears. The light level of the sphere outside dimmed considerably, which gave her hope. It meant he was afraid. It meant she had time.
Moving as fast as light cost her a moderate amount of mana and had a decent enough cooldown that she couldn’t use it constantly in battle, but her passive still allowed her to fly within the sunlight. She used that now to move and let her aura wash over the vessel’s many openings as monsters attempted to keep raining down upon the city.
Once she reached the front of the massive vessel, she opted to fly down to sweep past the enemies on the ground. She was hoping the gliding wings would take the giant partially organic structure beyond the boundary of the city walls so she could ensure it wouldn’t destroy more buildings before she made it unable to fly. The last thing she wanted to do was cause even more collateral damage than was already being wrought.
A particularly glittery explosion of blue mana and golden flames caught her attention as she flew around the city while waiting for the Obsidian Caster to potentially reemerge from her singular dimensional spell. A grin crept across her face as she realized who the impressive explosion belonged to, but it was quickly replaced by a frown as the Wayfarer fell through the air, completely exhausted.
Dumb heroes and their martyr complexes…