A ball of condensed blue fire shot at the hostel's second-story window, detonating and sending bits of rubble into the air.
Sam had been aiming to catch the guy unawares, but he had receded deeper into the building to avoid the blast.
Jonathan remained fixed on the opening but spoke.
“Everyone remain together, I’ll block him if it comes to it.”
The first-story window exploded and the man sprinted towards Sam at breakneck speed.
“Shouting your plans out loud, really smart.”
Jonathan moved to intercept him, but he had been expecting that and dove under Jonathan's guard. Speedwise he was no faster than the average Aura user, but he carried a potent mix of Corruption, which he used to fuel a sudden burst of speed.
When the blade hit Mark's barrier, he had expected it to be a powerful attack –and it was– but what came after the initial strike was what gave him pause. Five distinct attacks followed the first, each with their own power behind them, arriving shortly after the last. The wounds from before were starting to make sense. The guy’s attack was fast, but he wasn’t that fast, this had to be an Aura manifestation. One attack with the power of six behind it.
Mark bore the brunt of the strike with a little effort, his ‘Absorb’ modifier helped counter this type of attack best.
The guy lost his vicious smile immediately and dove to the ground. Jonathan’s blade whipped past where his neck had been mere moments ago.
Sam released a series of icicles at his retreating form but none hit their mark before he moved out of range.
“Woah, okay. At least I’m now sure it was you guys who took down the guardian. You smell incredible.”
Mark grimaced, he sounded so certain, but Mark soon saw why.
In his attempt to block the guy, Jonathan had moved beyond Mark's construct, and with him, so had the mark. Jonathan’s Aura had stretched out into the surroundings, laced with the call of the system’s curse, ringing like a dinner bell and sending the nearby Corrupted mad with craving.
The guy backed off further and they couldn’t even attempt to stop him because it was at this time that other Corrupted arrived at the front door.
Daphne and Chloe moved beyond the construct to intercept and break the first wave. Ignoring the crash of limbs, Mark dumped almost sixty Mana into an [Animated mind] and set it to fire [Force bolts] at the incoming horde with a preference for flying targets.
At that point the man dove back in, trying to get around Jonathan and to the shield. The thing was, Jonathan wouldn’t fall for the same thing twice, employing his own skill he put on a burst of speed and moved into his path. Their blades sang with the shriek of metal on metal, and five echos sounded out in rapid succession. The next couple of attacks came out as though several hammers were colliding chaotically against an unmovable iron wall.
Jonathan had seamlessly employed duel-handed fighting into his combat style, sometimes blocking with a single blade, other times using the shorter one as a brace. Then, in what looked like an opening, Jonathan darted his short blade under the guy’s guard and speared it directly through his ribcage. Mark couldn’t be sure from this vantage point, but it looked close to his heart, if not directly through the organ.
The man buckled at once and Jonathan brought the crescent blade down to finish things. Ducking under the near-fatal swipe, the man brought his foot up and pushed off Joanthan's solar plexus, creating distance. Jonathan grunted but managed to retain a grip on his short blade. As though unaffected by the hole currently oozing black tar, the man rightened himself.
“Damn, what the hell are you made of!?”
Dodging back once more, he avoided a couple of [Force bolts] Mark had sent after him. Cursing, the man dove behind the barricades as Mark continued to lay down fire in that direction, sending bits of material and sand scattering into clouds of dust.
Jonathan remained at the forefront but spoke in a harsh whisper.
“Sam, get rid of the small fries, I’ll make use of the opening.”
Mark had to let up on his offensive in favor of blocking several Ghasts as they collided with his construct, gazes fixed on him.
Jonathan searched the area for his enemy and a moment later he got his response, diving out of the cloud he crashed into Jonathan. This time his intent was Jonathan himself, the two locked in another blade dance, however Corruption pumped into each of the guy's strikes. Attempting to overwhelm Jonathan with pure strength. Now if there was one thing Mark was sure of, it was that in a contest of might Jonathan would normally come out on top. And yet, there was no immediate winner. The guy seemed to have an almost endless supply of Corruption and he made use of it liberally. Every strike elicited a primal grunt from the man that morphed into a roar. Corruption lacquered his body so thick that it practically made up parts of his muscle mass, layering itself over his form like a second skin. Jonathan didn’t lose his edge though, and continued to counter the blows perfectly. This seemed to agitate the man more and he reached a clawed hand out for Jonathan's face, this turned out to be the opening Jonathan was looking for because the next instant Jonathan's blade sheathed itself in the guy's gut. His foot followed shortly after, planting a kick squarely in the creature’s chest. The combination of forces compounded, sending him flying through the wall of the hostel.
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Small bits of rock and frost had begun to orbit Sam as she built up the spell.
The dust from the building’s mortar had not even settled before the man stood back in the opening.
The transformation had run up his arms and neck, making him far removed from a normal human, reason seemed to have left him, and yet just when Mark thought he was going to attack he stilled.
Taking a ragged breath, the man's shoulders unbunched. After a moment corruption began to recede and a solemn tone entered his now bestial voice.
“I’m going to kill every one of you as painfully as I can.”
The Corrupted that had been held at bay til now suddenly swelled and surrounded them. Mark lost sight of the guy when he had to expand his shield to block the barrage of acid coming from some nearby Ghouls.
The next time Mark caught sight of him was on top of a nearby building.
His hands grasped at thin air, a dull purple energy collecting in his palms, and then, as though lobbing a baseball, he shot an orb of energy at them
Mark's eyes widened and he built up the shield in that area. The only thing he had seen that was similar to this was when Grace had channeled pure Corruption.
When it hit, Mark was sure. That same rebounding power shook his construct, but what made it so deadly was not the massive force behind the bolt. It was the Corruption itself, naturally eating its way through Mark’s Prana reserves. The energy attempted to invade the space and the people in it. Over the last couple of days Mark had managed to burn off a decent amount of his Cv, but it was still too high.
The energy leaking in now was not making things any better.
Seeing the attack had a strong effect, the man’s eyes lit up. He began firing bolt after bolt of condensed energy, all while cackling to himself. With each collision, the Corruption covering his body grew in size, bloating his figure with cysts and misshapen tumors.
The energy wasn’t only harming them, it seemed to empower the nearby Corrupted, closing wounds and enhancing their strength.
Mark kept the shield above them because he could feel Sam’s spell was ready. Whistling for them to retreat she slammed her foot into the ground. It sunk a good few inches into the earth and released a ripple throughout the tarmac. Cracks splintered through the space as though hit by an earthquake. She must have taken inspiration from the Crossbearer, because the next second lances of ice produced from the cracks in the ground. Jutting out and skewering anything within their proximity and then beyond, growing to huge proportions. The spell sent cracks running through the nearby buildings, collapsing a good few.
The structure the man was on was especially damaged, causing him to have to flee. He managed to jump away, but again Jonathan was waiting for this. He exploded into action, diving for the area where the guy was trying to land. Being that he was in midair, the man was unable to change his trajectory, he had his weapon at the ready, but it mattered little when he had no footing to ground himself. Jonathan's blade came for his neck, and that would have been that, if not for the explosion of lightning and thunderous blast of sizzling wind that followed. The shortwave vaporized a good portion of the ice caking the area, and when Mark managed to get his eyes on the situation, he could make out three forms.
The first was the man who was currently on the ground clutching his throat. Jonathan had managed to make a thin cut before he had to block the incoming attack, which is what he was still attempting to do. The third figure, was sword-locked in a contest of strength with Jonathan. This man looked slightly older and his blade arced with dark lightning. It only took a moment for Mark to realize the weapon itself was made from electricity. Those same yellow eyes stared at Jonathan, whose arm shook as an electric current tore through him.
The two were locked in a staring contest that ended abruptly when the man on the floor got up to attack.
The two broke it off and Jonathan retreated towards the group, the man let him in favor of staring down at the prone man.
“What the hell do you think you are doing Roland, I told you to call me if you found anyone strong, not when you were about to die. She’s going to be displeased with you. You’re lucky I felt a crest in this direction”
“Shit! Tristan, I'm sorry… I didn’t think they'd be- The rest were weak.”
“Be quiet! The crest she needed was felt heading away from here at incredible speeds we’re going to have to chase it down. This one is useless to the monarque, but we should attempt to capture it anyway, the others are on their way here.”
Mark had a lot of questions but right now was not the time, this guy felt much stronger than the one they had been fighting. Of course, had he not interfered they still would have won but the fact that an intelligent Corrupted gave them so much trouble was proof enough that they should be wary.
The man named Tristan had not glanced at them since arriving, but when he turned his head to take them in, his nose crinkled and the corners of his lips turned down.
The moans of nearby Corrupted were once more building up in the area.
No one tried to engage in conversation with Tristan, and he seemed all to be happy to let that continue, right up until he swung his blade out. Lightning bounced from the length of the thing and slapped into the ground, building forward until it looked like a flood of neon snakes coiling toward them.
Mark strengthened the shield as Sam reacted by pulling two columns of stone up from the ground to act as conductors. They managed to pull a good amount of momentum from the attack before crumbling. When it hit, it was the same result as those bolts. Corruption came rushing in, but the actual electricity found no openings. Power arced about the area, jumping off anything that grounded it. Without a word the second Corrupted man came for them, and his strength eclipsed the first.