Guy was always a nimble fighter, but his weakness lay in his tendency to pull punches.
Thankfully, that weakness was nowhere to be seen anymore. It was obvious that he wasn't in his right mind anymore, yet instead of falling into a fury of single-minded violence, he only became more controlled.
His weapons shifted constantly, even while he was in the middle of an attack. He changed stances and attacked from an ever-varying distance to prevent me from ever being able to read his next move.
I could identify many well-known martial styles, but when the elusive Soaring Pike style suddenly becomes the stalwart Mountain's Hammer, how was I supposed to use my knowledge to dodge?
I couldn't. His attacks kept getting through, and it seemed like the more we danced, the faster and more intense his strikes became.
At first, I could take the attacks to the face, and my Lightning Armour would deal with them for me. But then something changed.
He still couldn't do more than lightly scratch my mana, and yet I had begun to bleed. They were tiny scratches, not even worth pausing for. But they were there.
Somehow, Guy was manipulating his blood weapons at the moment of impact and finding a way to get the edge to phase through.
It was interesting. Guy wasn't clever enough for such a tactic, and even if he were the martial prodigy of the Vespertille clan, he was still too good at all the different weapons he was summoning.
It wasn't a question of skill, but of time. Sure, someone like me could learn a hundred weapons by the age of 18, but that didn't make me experienced.
And Guy, despite being only 16 and having barely any real-world practice, fought with the experience of a veteran.
For example, you can learn to employ the tip of a spear as a defensive tool to gain distance, and a prodigy would do so easily. However, it took experience to know how to use the entire weapon as a tool and how best to employ it in the face of a surprise attack.
Yet, when I stepped around his spear to sweep his legs out, he quickly shifted his grip and drove the pommel up into my head, then moved along with the momentum to lock it under my chin.
Before I knew it, he was using the length of the spear to try to choke me out.
He wasn't stronger. He wasn't faster. He wasn't more skilled. But somehow, he was more used to battle than me. It obviously had to do with the blood I made him drink, but if this was a Gift, which one could it possibly be?
I could track all his movements, but I couldn't counter them effectively. I could overpower him, but he instinctively moved to lessen whatever damage I dealt. I could force him back, but he always regained control of the battle.
Simply put, he was not the classmate I knew.
Guy's eyes had turned entirely red, and tears of blood poured endlessly. He had not spoken a word since his sudden shift in demeanour, and I had no doubt that his attacks were meant to kill, not subdue.
I loved it.
He was finally going all out. It would be an insult not to reciprocate.
He was too low down to headbutt, but he was about to understand that being so close to me was a serious hazard.
“Storm's Anvil!”
My armour shattered once more, and Guy flipped back, releasing his grip on the weapon.
I followed up by releasing a concentrated barrage of Mana Bullets on him, which he expertly evaded.
“You can see them, huh? Even your senses have been heightened then.”
I smirked and focused electric mana into my hand.
Before I even did anything, Guy had created a shield and begun throwing bloody needles at me.
“Already countering it? Alright… let's play at your pace then.”
I shifted my mana around a little, engulfing only my hands in lightning.
I snatched a bundle of needles out of the air, feeling the mana that formed them briefly before they dissipated.
“Ah, pretty smart. So you just do it like this?”
Mimicking the feel, I projected the mana in my hands outward, then shaped it into a coherent form.
“Haha, Rex would be proud.”
What I held was a pair of axes formed entirely of lightning.
“It's not as clean as yours. Should we check the power?”
Guy, possibly sensing the danger, suddenly rushed me with a katana. He was swift and fluid, as expected, but one swing from me and he was blown backward.
Lightning exploded in every direction, and even I was scorched a little. My hands went numb in an instant, forcing me to rely on footwork to evade the punishing counter-attack Guy aimed at me.
“Haha, pretty powerful, right? Looks like I messed it up a little, though. Let me try again.”
I stepped into his blade deliberately and closed my eyes.
Feel the flow of magic…
Guy didn't wait for me. I could feel the air moving as he came at me from another angle with a different weapon.
I jabbed him in the nose and tossed him by the throat. I needed a second to comprehend what was still lodged in my shoulder.
Mana? Yes, it's definitely formed by mana. But there's no spell attached here to properly anchor it. Raw mana with shape, using blood as a medium to remain stable.
“Ah. Hahahah! I got it!”
I opened my eyes wide and clapped my hands together as inspiration struck.
“A medium, huh? Well, I'm not going to bleed myself dry, so let's try this!”
Omni-Source Switch. I activated my Gift to instantly replace mana with aura. I then solidified the aura into my palm, stretching it out into a vaguely axe-like shape.
Creating weapons with aura was no easy task. Even I couldn't do it effectively. But if all I needed was a solid form to use as a base, this much should suffice.
I dodged and kicked Guy away as he came for me again. I then gave my shoddy weapon a few practice swings. Satisfied that it wouldn't dissipate, I switched aura back to mana again.
As I hoped, the aura in my hand wasn't replaced, as it was already a physical object outside my body.
I ran backwards and swayed around all of Guy's attacks even as I focused my mana. Just like before, an axe of lightning was created. But this time, it was attached to something. The solidified aura was now anchoring my explosive mana, preventing it from exploding on impact.
“Second test. It won't break this time.”
I grinned as I placed my trust in the weapon born of my body and blocked Guy's downward swing.
He had a glaive now, but it bounced right off my axe.
Despite the surprise, Guy didn't hesitate in shifting gears and trying to attack around my new weapon.
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He came at me with a pair of stilettos.
And I countered with two of my own.
He tried a greatsword.
I split it in two with my own.
He tried to gain distance with a chain and sickle.
I hooked his leg and dragged him back with my own.
Every weapon he tried, I imitated with my own method. Maybe he thought I would run low on mana, as he continued to drag the fight out.
But this was even more mana-conservative than Lightning Armour. With my capacity, I could go for hours without rest.
At some point, our fight had pulled us back towards the gate. Imperials were pouring in, and it became impossible to continue our duel without dragging others in.
Schwick.
To my shock, Guy swiftly cut open the throats of two men who were fighting one another. One from either of our sides.
The blood that poured forth then flew into his open mouth as though it were returning home.
“Domina?ia Sangeroas?.”
Guy spoke, his voice entirely alien to me. It was like the call of a royal authority that no mortal should deny.
In an instant, the two men who had been killed exploded. It was as though they held nothing but blood inside them, as the red torrent forced everyone away. The courtyard had been drenched in blood, and it only kept flowing.
A second later, it rose to engulf both of us in a globe of crimson.
Barely any light was able to pierce the membrane, and all the chaos outside grew muffled. I could see some of their silhouettes banging their weapons on the walls to get in, but to no avail.
Soon enough, the fighting resumed, as though our arena were just a strange obstacle to work around. It seemed I had been isolated.
“Tu, care ai trezit sangele str?mo?ului, arat?-?i valoarea.”
He said something incomprehensible and conjured another weapon. This time, it was a longsword, and it appeared far more detailed than the nondescript red weapons from before.
Not only that, but the walls began to bulge as additional weapons were birthed and hovered menacingly in the air.
“Hmm…”
I scratched my chin, trying to figure out what was going on all of a sudden.
“Hm. Nope. Don't care.”
Guy's eyes widened as I leapt through the air and brought a hammer down onto his blade. The enclosed space was engulfed in lightning, and weapons that flew to pierce my unprotected body were consequently sent flying back into the walls.
But the main sword he held remained firm. He tilted his blade and parried my strike with precision, causing my weight to be redirected to the side. He then rammed me with his shoulder and brought the sword up in an attempt to slice through my fingers.
Luckily, my weapons weren’t strictly necessary, so dropping them and falling back didn’t put me in a bad position.
I was starting to get used to this style of fighting. Summon a weapon to match my requirements, then discard it once it serves its purpose. Simple.But my opponent was only growing ever more proficient, and we already reached a point where I could no longer play around by copying him.
He was getting in increasingly dangerous strikes as he countered everything I threw at him. Even when I returned to my usual pugilism, I struggled to hold the upper hand for long.
“Alright, I’ll admit it.”
I found an opening and struck his chest with my palm, sending him backward.
“Whatever you’ve done, it’s made you even more skilled than me. At least, when it comes to conventional close combat.”
I cracked my knuckles with a smile.
“So, it looks like I don’t need to handicap myself anymore.”
A sudden barrage of crimson weaponry flew from every direction, each one homing in on me.
But not a single one reached me.
In the split second before impact, I recalled every bit of mana that was leaking out of me, focused it inward, and converted it into aura to reinforce my body.
It was the same method I used to deal with Rex’s triple fusion. Thunderheart Overcharge. I had experimented somewhat with it, but still hadn’t figured out how to get it to the level I spontaneously achieved during my last duel.
I could only achieve about a third of the power, and it lasted only five seconds.
Still, it was all I needed.
As the weapons met nothing but empty air, Guy reflexively assumed a ready stance. Considering he likely wasn’t even able to track my speed, it was impressive how on point his reflexes were.
Too bad for him, my entire body had become lightning itself. I was just a shifting blur of blue light within the space he created.
Not literally, of course. I couldn’t morph my soul like Rex. My body had just become so overloaded with mana that my skin had taken on a blinding radiance. In this state, I no longer had to rely on my mana circuits to contain my overwhelming power. I could store it instead in every part of me, in the same way aura would normally be stored within the muscles.
Mana circuits no longer bottlenecked the flow of magic in me. I could release everything at once.
Guy readied his sword, likely assuming I would be entering into a melee again.
But there was one thing people always seemed to forget about me.
“Volt Sphere.”
I was just as proficient in magic as anything else.
An orb of crackling electricity formed in my hand as I formed the necessary spell circle.
Guy caught on and began sending forth more flying weapons haphazardly in a desperate attempt to interrupt me. If only he hadn’t forgotten who I was, he might have acted in time.
Instead, I dropped the orb, and the moment it touched the ground, victory was mine.
The world fell silent, and light engulfed everything. The bloody dome was torn apart by the violent release of magical energy. The people outside ran for cover as my lightning broke through and scorched the ground. Tendrils of blue plasma melted clean through Solean steel as men were cut down as collateral.
And then, the crack of thunder dominated the town.
Having dispersed the built-up mana before it reached a boiling point, I avoided any negative side effects and stood confidently over Guy, who was collapsed on his knees.
He clearly lost consciousness, as only the whites of his eyes were visible, and his body was badly burned. But he would survive thanks to his regeneration.
I exhaled calmly, and without a word, I strolled past the stunned combatants and left Farrowgate.
This was the most I was willing to do. Any more and I would be too exhausted to join in whatever Alma still had waiting in the wings.
It looked like the others were about to resume their own fight, but then, the sound of a horn echoed out from beyond the wall. It was our signal to fall back.
The Soleans were visibly confused. It was only natural. We had taken the western wall and practically claimed the courtyard, yet we suddenly turned tail and ran.
Surely, we should push as far as possible, right? Then again, our numbers were pretty pathetic. There would only be more losses if we spread out across the town, only to be trapped inside and snuffed out.
At least, that was the only reason I had come up with to explain the strategy.
I chuckled to myself as I let the warm rays of the midday sun wash over me. I may not have known what tomorrow would bring, but I was excited to find out.
***
[Rex’s POV]
Skrake and I emerged from the sewers, and just as described, we came out into a small, enclosed room.
“This is the fake.”
Skrake confidently strolled right through a wall. Her echolocation had immediately determined there was no substance to it.
I followed through, nearly tripping on the stacked-up barrels that had been strategically placed on the other side.
“Who goes the—”
I flinched at the unexpected voice, but Skrake moved to seize his throat before anyone could be alerted.
The trembling man was brought face to face with the strigae, her unsettling eyes curving upwards as a ravenous grin emerged.
“Shhh, my sweet.”
Her talons wormed their way into his throat and plucked out his tongue as he thrashed and attempted to scream.
“It will be quick.”
She suddenly snapped his head back and wasted no time digging her fangs in and draining him dry.
I watched silently, wanting to ensure she was doing her job correctly. Though I could not deny that my mouth had begun to water.
This would be concerning under normal circumstances, but I could conveniently attribute it to Pyressa and Noodle's influence.
“Would you like a bite?”
Skrake pulled back, her feathers and face stained with blood, and she held out the severed tongue.
My teeth began to itch, and a hopeful shiver ran through me like lightning.
But I suppressed it.
No matter how bestial I had to become, I must never forget my humanity.
“It's all yours.”
I moved away to check outside the door.
“You already knew that man was here, didn't you?”
Skrake giggled at my question, but said nothing as she gleefully began splashing blood around the warehouse.
“Don't pull that kind of joke again. We can't be attracting too much attention.”
“Yes, sire.”
Her tone dripped with open mockery.
Something had changed her in the past few minutes, but I had no clue what the cause was. She was more giddy than usual, and her usual faux-noble act had been mostly dropped.
Even her posture had become hunched and predatory.
It may just be how she always behaved before a hunt, but somehow I felt there was more to it. Something primal within her had been stirred, like how a placid dog could become riled up when an alpha wolf was present.
This was not factored into my plans, but if there was one saving grace, it was that she still seemed hesitant to defy me in my current form.
And I didn't blame her.
My body was more bone than flesh. I loomed over her with a wiry, yet hardy build, and my crimson wings concealed the deadly blades that my hands had morphed into. A scorpion-like tail trailed behind me, at its tip was a pair of long spikes, and at the end of those were two hollow points.
“Jones? What's taking you so—”
Another man came towards the warehouse, but he froze, his body stood rigid, and then he dropped dead.
My tail retracted silently, the bone segments connected by a writhing mass of worm-like tendrils.
I had penetrated his neck, deposited Pyressa's tainted mana, then sucked out the man's blood until I felt his pulse stop.
Clean, efficient, and tasty.
Oh, so tasty.
It was nowhere near enough to sate me. The flesh would make for a better meal. I could harvest it and store it for later.
But blood is the best nectar! I should find more. So many heartbeats. So close. So frightened.
A buffet laid out for me! But perhaps an appetiser would be better? Tough meat. Tough meat with a belly of blood. Cut them wide and drink, drink, dri—
“Cough… L-let go, s-sweety.”
My senses returned, and I found myself crouched in the rafters, looking down at Skrake, who was being throttled by my tail.
Realisation hit me, and I released my hold on her.
“Kehehe… Am I really the one who needs watching, I wonder?”
Skrake rubbed her throat and laughed, but the way she avoided looking at me directly showed how she truly felt.
That exchange made me certain. I did not have the luxury of time.
“Keep focused. Just do your job.”
My words caused Skrake to cower and emit a low whine from her throat. She was like a small animal showing her submission.
I told myself this was for the best and began my ascent up the hill, where a well-lit mansion sat overlooking the town.
The battle below seemed to be at its peak, as the imperials breached the gate. I noted a strange red orb in the courtyard with flashing blue lights inside, though it wasn't something I had time to investigate.
Before they could wrap things up, I needed to create a scene powerful enough to sap their spirits completely.
Rex/Pyressa/Noodle Fusion