Jonah
As soon as the shades get close to us, Raksha blows them away with a whirlwind. Rem's reaction is laughably, as his eyes widen enough to fall out of his skull. He immediately summons more of them, but they meet the same fate. While Raksha's busy with that, I start to heal Yukiji. I'm pretty sure I'll wind up being a supporting fighter in the future. I'm a lot better at this than I am at directly taking people on. To heal or enchant, you infuse your mana with the body of your target, and mine slips in easily, not meeting any resistance. A non-fatal wound can be healed in seconds, and I do exactly that.
"That's not fair," the jester growls, baring his teeth. "I was told you were nothing but weaklings. What the hell was that?"
Instead of answering, Raksha points two fingers at the devil, shooting a lightning bolt, which Rem barely dodges, and still winds up falling on his ass. "You talk too much."
"You're nothing like Risk," Obi says, suddenly standing up. This has to be rougher on him than Raksha and I, as he doesn't have enough mana to block out the pressure of Rem's malice. Still, he manages to approach Yukiji and stand in front of her. "That guy would've mopped the floor with us already."
"I'm far greater than him!" the devil cries, jumping to his feet and spreading his arms. "You think calling forth shades is all I've got? I'll show you-" In the middle of his rant, Raksha shoots him off his feet again, sending a gust at his knees.
"This is embarrassing," I say, taking a cautious step forward. Best not to take him too lightly, even if he is somewhat underwhelming. "You've never been in a fight before, have you?"
Releasing a roar, Rem throws his palm out toward me, and a spear-like bone flies out of it. I apply a bit of wind to it to knock it off-course, then take another step toward him, enjoying the nervous look he's giving me. "Guess not all of you are something to worry about."
Rem slams his fist on the ground angrily, and a pool of darkness opens beneath him. From that darkness, several ghouls start coming out, some bigger than any man. "Like I said; I can summon more than shades!"
I throw a swirl of fire at them, which gets enhanced by Raksha's wind. Rem starts screeching as the ghouls burn to a crisp, then tries to run away. Spreading my wings, I take after him, dodging the few skeletal lances he manages to aim properly. Is this guy for real? I set fire to the land before him, cutting off his escape route â if you can call it that â then knock him down with wind again.
"If you tell me what your goal is, I promise to let you live," I tell him.
"You're lying!"
"Worth a shot." Shrugging, I zap him with some lightning. Damn, it feels good to actually dominate a fight for once. I watch as the electricity shocks him for a minute, then cancel the spell, letting his twitching body hit the ground.
In a matter of moments, he jumps back to his feet, grinning. "Got'cha! I was playing possum!"
SHIT! He's got me!
I fly upwards immediately, glancing all around me to see what he did. Nothing seems to be happening? Don't tell me...
"Why, exactly, did you play possum?" I ask, levitating in an upside-down position.
"What do you mean?" The genuine confusion on his face is the most delightful thing I've seen in a while.
"You play possum to get your opponent to fall for a trap," I explain, now knowing for certain this monkey's never been in a real fight before. "So why'd you do it? What's the trap?"
Looking serious for a few moments, Rem clears his throat, then grins again. "Got'cha for real! I was just playing possum!"
"Oh, don't even try!" I send him flying again, and he gracefully lands on his face.
"How!?" the jester screams, slamming his fist on the ground. "How can you beat me!? I'm a devil! I am a royal! I am a son of Nyarlathotep himself! How can you beat me!? You are human! YOU ARE NOTHING!" The angrier his screams get, the less human his voice sounds.
"Kill him quickly!" Raksha yells at me from behind. "His power is growing!" Shit. He's right. Rem won't be harmless for long if he keeps that up.
"How do I do that!?" We need to get away. None of us have an ability to seal him. If Snow was here, we could freeze the fucker, but none of us are that good with ice.
"We will not lose to you!" Rem roars animalistically, standing again. His dark mana is oozing off of him, creating dozens of shades and ghouls behind him. "The Everdark will come, and the world shall belong to us once more! Think a bunch of pissants are all I can create!? Why don't I step it up a bit, then!?" Clapping three times, he separates three big chunks of his mana, and they start to take form in front of him. I recognize the first of them immediately, and groan at the sight of her.
"Back yet again," Ryan says, adding a witchy cackle. "Seems you can't get enough of me, boy!" She's no longer the shade she was last time, and is instead back in her human body. No fucking way. Did he just bring her back â just like that!? This idiot, who couldn't handle a stray kitten in a fight, can do something like this?
It may have taken me a moment, but now I recognize one of the others as Arrow, the assassin who was after us in the Labyrinth. Shit. She was a tough one. Can I take her this time? I've gotten better, but my combat experience can pretty much be surmised as, "getting lucky or getting creamed."
The third one is a mystery. It's a little boy, maybe around Snow's age. He's one of Yukiji's people, and I have no clue why he'd be summoned here.
"Go after them, my pets," Rem instructs, panting. He's hunched over and sweaty. Guess even that amount of mana doesn't make you a god. "Show them what you're made of."
Arrow is the first to attack, summoning a flaming arrow and aiming it at me. At the same time, Raksha and Ryan rush each other, blades of wind and shadow clashing. I dodge the arrow more easily than last time, thanks to my wings, and manage to catch a glimpse of Yukiji in the process. She's down on the ground, trembling as the boy approaches her. Shit. It's someone she knows.
"Obi!" I yell.
"You don't have to tell me!" he replies. The kid's not giving off any mana, just like the other two, so it's hard for me to gage how tough he is. Guess I'll have to leave it to Obi, since I can't beat Arrow without giving it my all. She's not above using cheap shots, so a moment of hesitation can cost me.
"I don't suppose you'd rather stay dead?" I ask. She replies by firing another arrow at me, following up with a bunch of others. No matter how much she shoots, she's not getting closer to landing a hit, but I still don't feel like I'm winning. There are absolutely no signs of her getting tired. Shots of fire, lightning and even ice fly past me left and right, a bit closer each time. I try to fly upward, but an arrow forces me to stop, and then another flies by my left side, which is where I was about to go. Fuck. She's learning my patterns.
Raksha isn't doing much better. Each attack he sends forward is blocked by a wall of shadows, and while Ryan is too weak to hurt him, the shades surrounding him are keeping him at bay long enough for her hits to get closer and closer, just like Arrow's.
The boy Obi is fighting seems to just be a physical fighter, but he's not tiring nearly as quickly as Obi. The kid's wielding a pair of daggers, just like Obi, and he's good â better than Yukiji, who herself is still on the ground, trembling with fear.
We're losing. We're not landing any attacks, any we're getting tired. Fuck. How did the tables turn so quickly? Is this how magic fights usually go? No amount of training can prepare you for this. A single hit can kill any of us, if it hits the right spot. Rem's just standing there, arms crossed, a cocky grin on his face.
Fuck this.
Instead of dodging the next hit, I fold my wings in and start to fall. Even Arrow's face fails to mask her surprise as I blast myself toward her with a gust of wind. She fires once more toward me, but I blast myself above the hit using a simple fire attack, not bothering to withstand the blast myself. Finally, to counterattack, I pump my fist toward her, planning to send a blast of lightning with enough mana in it to destroy her body completely.
However, instead of that, I create a fireball, which proves too slow to reach her, so Arrow simply jumps out of the way, then shoots at me again. I fly upwards, sprouting wings again, then start flying around her, looking for a way to attack.
Shit. I messed that last attack up. Alternating between attributes in the middle of a fight is gonna be a bitch. Lightning is the fastest of the basic elements, but I went and fucked up by using one of the slowest two. I can't afford to waste time on her. Raksha is now getting hit with blow after blow, unable to fight off both Ryan and the shades. He needs backup.
Am I going to have to use the dream world? I have no idea how much time I already lost to that spell. It's definitely the last resort. Still, at this rate...
Wait, no. There's something else I can do. "You've mentioned before that you don't believe you'll ever be free," I tell the woman, flying a bit closer.
"What of it?" the stoic assassin responds, cocking an arrow.
"You were absolutely right," I tell her, generating her biggest nightmare. "Just look at those chains around you."
Her eyes widen, and she allows her fear to take control. I use that fear and add my mana to it, weaving it into something physical. Shackles appear around Arrow's wrists, connected to the ground with a pair of chains. The chains start reeling her hands in, bringing her down to the ground. Is this also dream magic, or is it fear magic? Technically, I'm bringing her worst nightmares to the surface of her mind, then making them corporeal. It seems to be a thing of its own.
How did I learn to do this again? Oh, that's right; I was fighting Risk and Juno. Why were we fighting again? Was it in Rook? Wait, no. That can't be right. Risk fought us alone.
"Hey, Jo. Wanna play?"
I whirl around upon hearing the voice behind me, but there's no one there. "Who are you?" I ask. Another enemy? I didn't detect their presence at all. They know my name. I, however, know their voice. Where did I hear that voice before?
Suddenly, something pierces my shoulder. When I look at it, I see a metal arrow sticking out of it, and scream out in pain.
"You're stronger than before, but you're still inexperienced," I hear Arrow say as she gets closer. "I bear you no ill will, but my actions are not my own right now. You're about to die, kid."
Instead of letting her attack again, I punch the ground, using every bit of earth magic I've learned. Unlike the other attributes, this one doesn't let you create the element from your mana. Instead, you pour it into the earth, taking control of it. It's similar to enchantment in that manner, so it was the easiest attribute for me to master.
A ravine starts splitting between my legs, and I immediately jump to one side of it, glaring at Arrow. Punching the ground again, I make the ground she's standing on break off, resulting in her falling into the decently deep Ravine Her legs get stuck quickly, as it's not very wide, giving me the perfect opportunity to send another fireball at her. This one envelops her body completely, but she doesn't scream as she's burned to ash. Hard to tell if her silence is her own, or a result of corpses not feeling pain.
When I look at Raksha, I see that he's now got Ryan on the ropes. The shade and ghouls around him have been reduced to a mere dozen, all of whom are unable to stop him from casting spell after spell. Ryan manages to block or dodge most of them, but every fourth one or so lands. They're not powerful, but he's casting so many of them, it's overwhelming, even for an Apostle.
"No!" Rem screams behind me, and I see Obi cutting off his opponent's head with a bigger dagger than the ones he was using before. "You're all fucking useless! I'll have to do it myself!"
Already having seen what the idiot's capable of, I jump to the side, and one of his bone lances passed me by. I fall as soon as my feet are on the ground again, and I realize the arrow in my shoulder has disappeared. Shit. I'm bleeding pretty badly, and I don't think I have enough willpower to control my mana that well. I start to heal myself immediately, but the process is much slower. Not only am I tired from the fight, I've also disturbed my mana with the number of attributes I gave it.
In front of me, Ryan suddenly turns away from Raksha, and starts running toward me. She creates a spear made of shadow, a manic look on her pale face, then throws it at me with lethal accuracy. Shit. I can't switch from healing to shielding right now. I'm not good enough. "Say goodnight, kitten!"
I start flapping my wings, and manage to get myself off the ground. However, I only reach high enough for the spear to pierce my thigh, and so I'm knocked to the ground again, biting my lips to stop myself from screaming. Fight through the pain. You're more likely to live that way.
I start healing each wound on me with a different hand, and look up to see Ryan running toward me, boiling with rage. She doesn't get far before a metal arrow bursts out of her forehead, and her body hits the ground, dissolving into darkness on impact. Obi is standing next to Raksha, bow in hand. The two quickly start running toward me, and I feel Rem moving closer from behind. Biting down on my tongue, I cease the healing, giving myself enough time to attack again. The pain nearly forces me to scream, but I'm not giving in. Once I sense Rem is close behind, I slam my palm into the ground, turning the land behind me into sand. Very, very light sand, through which the demonic jester quickly starts falling, sinking to his knees in seconds.
"FUCK!" Rem screams, and I flip him off, healing my thigh once more.
"That's a win for humans, asshole."
"You think this is over!?" he growls, struggling to reach toward solid ground. "You ain't seen shit! There are eleven others of my caliber! You barely even beat me! Not only that, but you're fuckin' marked! Risk will hand you your asses! You have no idea what he'll do to you once he learns what happened to me! I sink beneath this with a smile on my fuckin' face, because I know you shitheads will be following me very soon!"
"You alright?" Obi asks me, inspecting my wounds as soon as he's kneeling next to me. Raksha is on my other side, using what little healing magic he's capable of to stop my blood from flowing out so quickly.
"We must hurry," he says as I finish fixing up my thigh. Well, I make the bleeding stop, at least. A whole lot of pain is still there. "I sense someone else coming."
Not a full second after he says that, the air becomes even colder than before, and a blizzard envelops all of us.
"What the fuck?" hisses Obi, putting my arm around his shoulders and helping me up. "Is this that cold spell we were talking about? Didn't you say it wouldn't be this strong?"
"It's not," Raksha tells him, diving under my other arm. "This spell was cast just now."
"But who cast it, then?"
"I did," a soft, melodic voice says from up ahead. I zero in on it immediately, and see a pale, ghostly woman standing there, her white hair gently swaying behind her, even in this blizzard. She's barely dressed at all, wearing a revealing, yet loose white dress. Her bright blue eyes are glowing, and I realize there's someone in front of her.
It's Yukiji, and the woman has an icicle to the girl's throat.
"Don't hurt her," I say right away. "Don't hurt her, and I'll release Rem."
"That fool brought his fate upon himself," the woman says coldly, pulling Yukiji up by her hair until she's dangling her in the air, all with a single arm. "You may let the ground keep him. I am merely here to insure you do not interfere with my conquest."
"Your conquest?" Obi inquires, his voice strained for some reason. He must've gotten hurt in his fight, even if it was against a kid. "What about the others?"
Blowing in our direction, the woman makes the blizzard grow more intense, and our teeth start to chatter as ice covers the ground between us. "I seek only to make this kingdom a place for the devils of the ice faction to live in. The ideals of Nyarlathotep do not interest me. Leave my kingdom at once." Her words are threatening, but her tone of voice is anything but. Her whole demeanor is calm and aloof, as if she's haggling at a camel market.
"We will," I reply. "But let her go, please." I can't let Yukiji die. Please. I'm begging you. Don't kill her.
Yukiji releases a high-pitched screech, surprising all of us, even the snow woman. In that brief instant, her mana makes itself visible, which is the first time something of the sort has happened. With tears streaming down her face, Yukiji continues to wail, but isn't fighting back. The woman behind her shows faint hints of surprise, and lets her go. The snow around us starts to ease up, and the ground beneath us thaws out. What's going on? Is she retreating? With the amount of power she has, and the state we're in, she could effortlessly kill us. Is she really not involved with the other devils?
"You are a rare one," I hear the snow devil say, the blizzard around her ceasing. "Erasure magic is one of the rarest of arcane magic attributes. To think that a weak human would possess it... The thought brings with it some anxiety, I confess." What's she talking about? Erasure magic? But Yukiji's magic is invisibility!
Invisibility... Or erasing her presence completely. Shit. This makes her a bigger threat to them than I initially thought. They might come directly after her now.
"I shall return in an hour," the snow woman says, her body dispersing into another blizzard. "If you are not gone by then, you are dead."
The cold doesn't disappear with her, and I start moving toward Yukiji.
"Take it easy," Obi tells me, struggling to keep up. "We're all beaten to shit. No need to push ourselves. We need to get the hell out of here, then find someplace to rest and heal. Don't hurt yourself even more."
"The monkey is correct," adds Raksha, following it up with an anguished groan. "I have sustained significant damage as well. I believe taking us someplace else is the best I can manage right now."
"Hey, guys," Obi says, looking around. "Where the hell is Dex?"
What? Oh my God, he's right! Dex was here with us! Where was he in the fight!? I don't see or sense him anywhere, even now!
"Someone else is here," Raksha concludes, and then a devil bursts out of the ground beneath us. Obi pushes me off himself and onto Raksha, resulting in us crumpling to the ground together, faces inches apart. When I look back, I see Obi slashing the devil across the throat, a pool of darkness surrounding them. Before dying, the devil takes a hold of the spy, dragging him into the darkness.
"Obi," I groan, reaching for him. He tries to give me his hand, but we're too far apart. "Portal," I manage to say. That's exactly what Risk's portals look like. He's not dying; He's just being teleported, and he needs to know that.
"I sure as fuck hope it's somewhere warmer!" Obi yells as the darkness envelops him and the devil fully, and then their presences are gone. I stand up and start limping toward Yukiji, who seems to have reeled her newfound power in. She's now wiping her eyes clean, not even looking at me as I kneel down next to her and put my arm around her head, holding her close. She leans in, crying into my shirt.
"Jonah," Raksha says, managing to walk over to us and kneel down with me, "I need you to link with me. I cannot summon a whirlwind alone."
The devil that took Obi is probably dead, but Rem is still very much kicking underground. He might manage to escape if he recovers enough mana in time. Also, that snow devil is going to be coming after us if we don't move it. Where does she want us to go, exactly? It's not like we can just leave the kingdom. That one city may have been devoured, but we still need to try to talk to their king. Getting as many kingdoms as possible to band together and fight the devils â that's the only thing we can do against them. We don't have armies to contend with the devils. The best we can do is take them down one at a time, like we just did.
Taking Raksha's hand, I allow his mana to flow into me, giving him the dominant side. Since we've been around each other for a while, the mana between us quickly takes on attributes of both, making us both stronger. Then, in an instant, all my power is drained from me, and Raksha lifts us toward the sky with a swirling wind. While we travel, all I can do is hold Yukiji and hope the others are okay, especially Obi.