Chapter 53 - A Dance with Death

Bella POV

“Not going to help your friend?” I asked the lizard woman as I slid out of the wall. She was just casually learning on the massive blade, ignoring the two different fights raging elsewhere on the floor.

“Neither of them want, or need my help. In fact, I’m just here to ensure that no one intervenes in Narhas’s battle,” the woman explained quietly. “I assume you have a similar goal, since you’re here instead of helping your master.”

“Master?” I scoffed as I floated slowly around my foe. “This isn’t the dark ages. She’s my boss, and friend,”

“Call her whatever you want, she’s your superior,” the lizard woman replied, gripping the hilt of her massive blade and hoisting it to her shoulder. “So, are we going to fight or what?”

“If you want,” I replied with a shrug, “you might have a little problem slicing with that thing. Considering I’m undead and all.”

The blade came off her shoulder and slammed down on the ground inches from my location. I’d barely managed to follow the blade’s movement, despite its massive size, and the tip ripped up the corner of my dress. “I’ve faced many wraiths before,” the lizard woman said with a smirk, “you won’t be any different.”

“Sword aura, huh? Been awhile since I’ve had to face someone of your caliber,” I mumbled inspecting the slice in my outfit.

“Unfortunate. You must not get any quality challengers around here then,” the woman said, slowly lifting her heavy blade again.

“Oh, we do. It’s just that aura users tend to be one trick ponies, and get crushed by Voss or Luther before they get anywhere close to here,” I quipped, subtly slipping further away from my foe. That turned out to be a smart choice because the massive greatsword whipped forward again, missing me by a couple inches.

“Are you trying to draw my ire, wrath?” the woman growled as she wound up again, I just slid further back.

“Am I trying to piss you off? Yes. Is it working?” the blade sliced through the air twice more. The second time I felt the sting of aura as it got just a tiny bit too close.

“I admit you are vexing, but I will not fall for your verbal barbs,” the lizard growled, as her aura flashed twice more. I quickly levitated out of reach of the sword and stared down at the woman.

“Seriously? Looks like it’s working to me,” I stared down at the lizard woman, who was flicking her tongue rapidly. “Does the Arachne Depths contractually require all their employees to have excess pride, or massive egos?”

“The mistress, and her daughters, represent the very best in the business. I am proud to follow them, and defend their good name,” the woman snarled.

“I take that as a yes,” I muttered.

“Insolence!” the lizard woman yelled as she swung her blade once again. I had a bad feeling about this one, so I dove towards the floor. It’s a good thing I did, because the sword aura flowed out of the blade, creating a wave that cut deeply into the walls and floors. “I’ll catch you, and wring what little life is left in that body of yours wraith!”

I couldn’t believe how quickly I’d managed to wind the woman up. Did they really never get challenged, or disrespected back home. I swooped down, slipped between two separate waves, and slid right up to the lizard woman. Just as my hands were about to slip into her chest there was a flash, as the aura surrounded her body. “I’m not that easy ghost.”

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I hovered there, so close that she couldn’t get a clean swing in on me, and stared. “For someone with so much pride, you would think that you’d bother doing just a tiny bit of research before challenging the Manor. Ghost, wraith, spectre… you have no idea what I actually am, do you?”

The lizard woman thrashed, and even managed to score a glancing blow on my arm. “You undead are all the same.”

“Oh no, we’re not,” I replied, sliding up until we were face to face. “Let me show you.”

I watched the woman’s eyes go wide as she pulled back, desperately trying to make enough room to bring her blade to bear. She didn’t get a chance.

The wail I let loose not only shattered the lizard woman’s shield, but threw her off her feet and shattered the surrounding floorboards. She slid across the floor, separated from her oversized blade, and lay still for a long moment.

“What was that?” she stammered, as she tried to push herself to her feet, blood pouring from her ears and nose.

I sighed. “How can you enter a dungeon without doing any research about it? It’s a good thing that Talia asked Voss and Luther to go easy on you, otherwise you’d never have gotten this far.”

“Lies!” Surprisingly enough, it seemed like she could still hear me. My wail should have blown out both of her eardrums.

“No lie. Talia did significant research on not just you, Maria, that drow Seraphine and her pet spider, and what tricks Narhas has been using lately. She made a half a dozen plans to deal with you all. Pity, we barely had to use any of them.” I clicked my tongue as I floated closer. “Did you know you rely heavily on the skirmishers on your floor to prevent anyone from getting right up in your face? Maybe you didn’t think that no one would notice, or that it wouldn’t be a problem?” I asked as I crouched down near her. “What do you think now?”

“You’re a monster,” Maria whispered.

“Oh no, not me,” I corrected, “Talia. Although her sisters may not have recognized her worth, we certainly recognize her abilities around here. She may not have any fancy combat tricks, like some of us, but that overactive mind of hers more than makes up for it.”

“Minotaur shit,” Maria managed to mumble, but it was quite apparent that between the sonic damage and blood loss she was going into shock.

I reached out and plunged my hand through her back, and gripped her heart. “There’ll be a monitor in the projection room, watch and see,” I replied quietly as she dissolved.

Once she was gone I shook the projected gore off my hand. Attacking someone’s vitals was effective, but it also left me feeling icky.

Across the way George had finished dealing with the oversized spider, and its handler, so all that was left was Narhas. It wouldn’t be long now.

—

Talia POV

I bounced over an open hatch and slid to a stop at the far side of the arena, just outside the range of Narhas’s mace. Even though my sister couldn’t fit down one of the traps in her true arachne form, it didn’t stop her from stepping in them, slowing her down and preventing her from rushing me.

“Why do you keep delaying? Your defeat is inevitable!” Narhas snarled as she struggled against another trap.

“Hmmm…. Just running you around. You were never one to concentrate on your personal fitness, and instead you rely upon imbuing yourself with magic to keep going,” I replied lightly.

Narhas paused for just a moment, and narrowed her eyes slightly, “How could you possibly know that?”

“I watched dozens of your matches. You’re really good at keeping your minions up, but wane when you need to fight an extended match,” I explained. “Also, you’re not as subtle when you cast as you think you are.”

“So that’s why you’ve been running me around, to exhaust me,” Narhas laughed. “That’s honestly pretty sad.”

I shrugged. “Maybe? But it’ll prevent you from using your full holy magic while we fight.” I glanced back at the floor, and caught sight of Maria dissipating. “And now you can’t rely upon your minions if things start going badly for you. Sorry.”

Narhas eyes went wide, and she glanced towards the now empty floor. “How?”

“It wasn’t that hard. Your minions are just as predictable as you are,” I explained. Narhas snarled, and once again turned to face me. “I think I’ve had enough of a warmup,” I said, raising my glaive, “how about we move on to the main event.”