While Charlotte and Illococoo were dealing with Matilda, Michael and Loutiel were fighting as if they were long-time mortal enemies... Which they might be if either survived this day.
Michael had charged Loutiel while his body was still wrapped in Shadow Dance smoke, he was still slightly out of breath since his neck wound had only just healed, but that wasn't going to stop him from getting revenge.
"Hex! Shock!" Michael growls, extending his free hand inside the smoke and allowing the many ephemeral tendrils of orange lightning to scream towards his target. A small flash of smoke coats Loutiel's clothes, but don't seem to effect him as it should... Did he have magic resistance or a defensive artifact or something?
Loutiel easily dodges this however, wind picking up around him as he leaps back, looking almost as if he'd simply floated away from the attack. The Ether Shock spell smashes into the tree that had been behind him, blasting holes into its trunk.
While the white-haired storm-mage was in the air, he casually swipes his blade upwards towards the cloud of smoke concealing Michael, causing a large visible wind blade to shoot towards him.
Michael doesn't dodge, instead of using Blink Strike to appear midair behind Loutiel while attempting to skewer him. Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed the heavy winds around Loutiel, as the only real indication of it was the man's hair whipping around as if he'd stuck his hair out of a car window...
His strike veers off course as his body is sent flying through a nearby tree, he could feel a few of his ribs breaking from the impact, but they snap back together since Shadow Dance was still active. Michael shakes his head to fix his blurry vision and quickly gets to his feet.
"You should just give up, Michael. This is the end for you." Loutiel states matter-of-factly as he floats back onto the ground, looking no worse for wear. He flicks his sword and enters some sort of duelling stance, "Your strange magic and Gandalfr abilities won't be enough to win this. Even less so if you wish to protect your comrades." he says with a slight eye-smile that looks distinctly out of place on a battlefield.
Michael scowls and glances around at his friends who were doing their best to fight off the enemy soldiers, afterwards glaring back at Loutiel and having to force down his instinctual reaction to wring the man's throat. "You know, I never did like you, Loutiel. It doesn't surprise me that a creepy bastard like you would betray me, what, you just upset I never put out?" he sarcastically asks, causing Loutiel to raise a brow.
"I have no idea what that means... Nevertheless, I think we are done here." he states as he gestures his blade directly upwards, the clouds above them coalescing and darkening the area as rain begins to fall in large quantities.
"I'm not about to let you power up you fucking retard!" Michael shouts as performs the necessary footwork for the Blink spell. Loutiel anticipated an attack from behind, summoning a wind wall behind him with ease... But Michael appears at his left side instead, slashing at his neck.
Loutiel's eyes widen as he throws himself to the side, some of his hair getting cut from the strike as he dirties his white hair and outfit with mud. A growl rumbles from his throat at having his pride stung like this, so he swipes his blade down in Michael's direction, causing the sky to crackle.
*CRAAACK!*
Thunder erupts from the sky as a large arc of lightning comes slamming down towards Michael. It's so quick that he can barely react, only managing to raise Derflinger to intercept it. "OH, SHI-" he hears the sword utter before the spell hits, causing the area to flash with light.
Michael's arms almost buckle due to the sudden quick pressure forcing down on him, the lightning bolt striking Derflinger's blade and getting sucked into it... Mostly. Derflinger isn't able to absorb all of the energy at once, causing smaller tendrils of lightning to scatter around and into him, causing Michael's body to seize up as he tries to maintain control.
Luckily, the effects are not as strong as they would be due to his magic resistance. His clothes get scorched along with the plant life around him, but as soon as the lightning arrived, it dissipates, its energy used up and leaving Michael standing there smoking.
"Sword, you alright?" Michael asks, his eyes roaming the most rust-less blade that was currently glowing an ominous blue colour, sparks of electricity occasionally arcing across it.
"I think I hate you, Partner." the sword says, its voice sounding tired and warbling, as if it were speaking underwater.
"IMPRESSIVE! Let's see how you deal with another!" Loutiel excitedly exclaims, truly surprised that Michael had survived such an attack.
"NOT AGAIN!" Derflinger screams in what sounds like terror, but Michael wasn't about to let this albino douchebag berate him with spells and not fight back.
"DERFLINGER! USE THE MAGIC YOU ABSORBED OR SOMETHING!" Michael shouts, blinking in front of Loutiel and attempting to bisect the man in half.
Loutiel raises his weapon to block it, but it's only now that Derflinger decides to be useful... Kind of. Their blades clash and Derflinger releases his built-up magic in a burst, causing his blade to literally explode. Derflinger himself isn't harmed, but the release of magic is sudden enough to cause a shockwave that sounds eerily similar to the sound of thunder.
*CRACK!*
Both Michael and Loutiel are launched in opposite directions, Michael rolling to a halt a good distance away and while his opponent slams into an ice pillar that'd been summoned at some point that Michael wasn't really aware of, the sound of a bone-cracking ringing out in an oddly satisfying sound... At least, it was to Michael.
"Derflinger, that was dog-shit." Michael grouses as he gets to his feet and rolls his shoulder, preparing to go and finish Loutiel off.
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :
ShinAmazake
Kingsprovince
JayJonnaJamison
Jack Allen
Faruk Ereng
...
"Derflinger?" Michael asks, the sword not responding as it usually would.
...
Michael shakes his head, seems like the sword knocked itself out or something... That or he'd broken it already. Regardless, he still had a fight to win.
A dexterous use of Blink has him standing over the still recovering Loutiel, his blade jabbing down at the man's chest. Loutiel's eyes widen as he leans as far as he can to the side, but Michael's blade pierces him still, though, non-fatally through the lung.
"AArrck!" Loutiel groans as the attack connects, his eyes flashing with fury as his blade glows. A blast of wind knocks them away from each other yet again, but this time Loutiel had managed to retain his senses, using his magic to float him up to around the top of the trees. He coughs and spits blood at the distant ground as he glares daggers at Michael, "You've faired well enough, Gandalfr! But I will not let you leave here alive!" he exclaims, jabbing his blade in Michael's direction and doing the best Darth Sidious reenactment he'd ever seen.
Many arcs of bright blue lightning shoot towards Michael as he dodges behind trees and ice pillars, occasionally using Blink when he gets trapped with little to no way out.
"JUST. BE. STILL. YOU LITTLE RAT!" Loutiel angrily shouts as he continues blasting heavy amounts of lightning at him.
"YEAH?" Michael loudly retorts as he uses Derflinger to block a stray tendril of lightning, the blade's magical absorption properties not having been affected by its unconsciousness. "YOU'RE THE RAT, YOU SHITTY ANIME CHARACTER! SO HERE, SNAKE BEATS RAT!" he shouts while casting Serpent Wards, summoning Rhasta's Snake Spirits directly under the floating man.
Immediately afterwards, the ten snakes begin shooting a barrage of flame darts at him, which he hastily starts blocking with some wind walls. This allows Michael to use Blink Strike behind the man, Loutiel tries to dodge but Derflinger's blade finds his back, cutting a deep swath into it, Mana Break activates and causes Loutiel's floating spell to dissipate, sending him falling to the ground below, directly next to the Serpent Wards.
Loutiel looks to be panicking now, his disrupting mana making it far more difficult to actually cast spells. He raises a weak-looking wind wall to block the continuous barrage of flame darts, but the impact of the attacks push him back, his feet leaving long grooves in the mud, his back hitting the ice pillar behind him.
Fortunately, for him it seems that his men had finally found a way past the ice barrier that the blue-haired girl has summoned. They begin firing at Michael, distracting him enough to allow Loutiel to escape.
He sprints past his soldiers and into the tree line, the wound on his back burning as he moves. Michael notices the man attempting to retreat and wants to finish him off, but is forced to stay here as the soldiers were quickly approaching the tent where Charlotte's mother and Tiffania were. He growls at the missed opportunity but shakes his head, deciding that his allies were more important right now.
The Serpent Wards begin picking off and drawing the attention of nearby soldiers, allowing Michael to go secure the area around the tent, his blade quickly finding the necks of many men who were eying the tent with malicious looks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elsewhere the battle between Charlotte and Matilda was starting to wrap up. Sylphid had many marks and wounds covering her scales, all due to Matilda changing her tactics from subduing them to eliminating them.
She hadn't actually wished to kill Tiffania's friends, but at this point it was life or death. Sure, her charge would be upset, maybe actually start to hate her, but mercy wasn't an option anymore.
Charlotte herself had acquired many new injures as well, her face was full of cuts and so was the rest of her body, some even still having stone fragments lodged in them. Still, she had dealt with worse, so her full concentration was on Matilda, and making sure she and Sylphid got out alive.
The golem Matilda was standing on staggers slightly as a blade of wind rips through what one might call its ankle, but it quickly recovers as the damage repairs itself. The distraction allows the duo to approach Matilda again for another strike however, the woman looks as if she was on her last legs, with torn robes and blood leaking from many of her wounds... Not to mention to beginnings of frostbite that'd started creeping up her limbs and digits.
When she sees the duo coming back around for another assault, she attempts to launch a barrage of stone spears at them but finds herself thoroughly drained of mana... So much so that her spears were looking more the sizes of swords or knives.
"That damned child! I won't last much longer like this!" she internally shouts, and decides to change her tactics. Before Charlotte and Sylphid reach her, she quickly sinks into the golem, disappearing from view.
Matilda safely hides away inside the golem, using the last of her magic to maintain it and form small holes so that she could still breathe within it.
Charlotte frowns at this, knowing that she wouldn't be able to breach deep enough to actually strike Matilda directly... She might be able to whittle down her magical reserves, but that'd take far too long, and she didn't have time to spare.
Suppressing her annoyance at the situation, she shakes her head and looks down at her familiar and mentally communicates, "Sylphid, return to camp, mother and the others still need help."
With that, the duo quickly flies away from the golem, and arrive back at the campsite, finding Michael and some strange orange snake things fighting off waves of soldiers. "Michael! We must leave!" she shouts from the back of Sylphid, and he nods in response.
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to : https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.
Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :
ShinAmazake
Kingsprovince
JayJonnaJamison
Jack Allen
Faruk Ereng
You may also Like
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT