Aya Grephin
I was flying through the trees of the forest, I just made it out of Ashber, I could feel Arthur, Veer, and the dragon still talking, which was fine. I'll deal with my Retainer, and then go help someone else if I can.
My heartbeat was quick, from nerves and fear, I've never seen a Vritra before, not even the one they have locked up in the dungeon.
I am curious to see what they are capable of, the one I am fighting has sound magic, which means she could be an issue for me, but I'll make it work.
I already had my ears reinforced with more than enough mana to block any attack she might throw at me that affects my hearing.
I dodged a tree, and appeared before a suffering presence, almost making me fall to my knees. "I was hoping to fight one of the two young Lances, but I guess killing a Lance is just as good." The Retainer spoke, she was thin, wearing black armor, the mask she had on covered her face, however, her red hair was flowing beautifully behind her like it had a life of its own. "It's Lance Aya, I believe, it's nice to meet you."
"I wish I could say the same thing, Retainer." I made my voice sound a little more threatening.
"Hahah, you Lances think you are strong." The Retainer took a step up and bowed. "Anyways, let me introduce myself, I am Retainer Lyra Dreide of Central Dominion, I'll be the one you are up against."
"Well, Retainer Lyra, may I ask, what you are doing here? Is it to just kill us?" I was curious, I also was preparing my illusion spell.
She shook her head and her red hair flung back and forth. "Of course not, you, yes, we don't need you alive, however, the others don't need to die, but may, well, except the devil, we have been given orders to capture him alive."
"Why? Is his blood magic truly going to help you in any way?" Veer told me they would do experiments on him, but that wouldn't result in someone learning blood magic, it would just hurt Veer.
"I know of several plans in place for when we capture him." Lyra spoke very calmly, but still though, I was shaking, the Retainer's pressure on me was tremendous, and it shows me just how much stronger Veer is compared to me. "But I can't share them, I still have secrets to keep Lance."
"I see." I said, shaking my head slowly, feeling my bones quiver. "Then there is nothing else to talk about." I shot at her, using wind mana to reinforce myself and my blade.
The Retainer raised her arm and shot something at me, something I couldn't see, but could sense, it was sound magic. I jumped to the side, dodged the spell, and she was on me already, shooting something towards my head.
I shot into the air, dodging the attack, then activated my illusion spell, mist formed everywhere around her, I used my presence concealment spell on her, and hid in the trees, preparing. my next attempt to strike her down.
"Illusion magic, yes, that is a pretty annoying spell, I can see why you might be considered strong on this continent." The Retainer was looking directly towards me, even with my concealment spell active. "However." I felt the ground shake, like a vibration of some sorts, and my illusion spell cut out. "It seems my sound magic is on a whole different level than yours."
She must be able to use some sort of vibration spell to cancel out my spells, how annoying that is. I felt another ring of sound heading toward me, I sent a blade of wind at it, and my spell faded away, but hers kept on coming, forcing me to jump out of the way once again.
"Lance of Dicathen, yet so weak." The Retainer was standing in a small opening, staring at me as I got back up to my feet. "You want to see what a real mage can do." She raised her arm, and I could feel the mana in the air start to shift towards her.
I got to do something, I started to conjure and move the wind mana around me, forming blades, spears, other weapons of wind, that I could use against her. I'll admit, her sound magic is on a whole different level than mine, but that doesn't matter.
I could feel her power growing and growing, the spells around her forming one after another, so I released my spells of wind mana at her, hoping to cut through her, but as she released her sound magic towards my spells and me, all of them were gone in an instant.
I pushed myself out of the way, then turned the corner around the tree, and shot myself at the Retainer again. I have to fight up close or I'll never pull this off, I appeared before her, swinging my sword at the Retainer, the forest behind me, the trees, bushes, were all blown away by her spell that barely missed me.
The Retainer dodged my sword, sent a foot towards my gut, I spun away from her, swinging my blade towards her chest. A wave of sound magic came towards me, I stopped my attack, dodged her spell, and drove my blade at her core.
The Retainer only smiled as I got closer, and before I knew it, I was sent flying into the nearby trees from a blast of sound I didn't see coming. There was a giant thud when I hit the tree and landed on the ground.
"Where is the devil? I want to meet him." Lyra said, walking over to me as I got to my feet, preparing to keep fighting. I shot a blade of wind at her, and she shot some vibration spell at it, causing my spell to disappear like it never existed. "How rude."
I dodged a sound wave she shot at me, then shot another blade of wind, but it was stopped again. I can't use wind magic, I can't use illusions, no spell is even getting close to her. I have to fight her up close or I'll run out of mana before I even land a hit.
I launched myself at her, swinging my sword in the process, she ducked, I landed behind her, swinging my sword at her ribs, the Retainer back stepped, I shot a blade of wind, she shot sound magic.
I dove at her feet, trying to stay low to the ground, swinging my sword at legs. The Retainer jumped over my blade as I swung at her, shooting a sound wave at my back as she flew above me, I pushed wind magic out of my side, changing my direction so her spell didn't hit me.
She landed back on the ground, and I was on her again, swinging my sword at her head, Lyra ducked with ease, I spun in the air, sending a foot towards her helmet, the Retainer caught my foot, and prepared herself to throw me.
However, before she could, I attempted to drive my blade into her ribcage, forcing her to drop me before I managed to cut her. I rolled to my feet, dodged a sound wave, dodged another, appeared near her, swung my sword at her head.
"Stop!" The Retainer said loudly this time, causing me to freeze mid attack like my body was stunned or something, then out of nowhere her foot collided with my side, causing me to spit up some blood, and I was driven into the ground.
The battle stopped as I got to my feet once again, wiping away the blood around my mouth. "Your sound magic is quite annoying." I admitted, preparing another illusion spell, I needed to be quick about it. I had to give her no time to disrupt the spell with her vibrations, so I need to charge her as soon as I activate my spell.
"If you kneel to me, and pledge your allegiance to Alacrya, I won't kill you." Lyra said to me, and I shook my head at the Retainer. "Sad, really, I would have liked to have an elf slave."
"Tch, I would never be someones slave." I activated my illusion spell and shot at the Retainer in the middle of the forest, swinging with all my might at her head as we fought inside a fake mist I create, I then added effects of soldiers screaming, women crying, but all this did was make her smile as she dodged my attack.
Before she could use a vibration spell though, I was on her again, concealing myself to the best of my ability, swinging and poking at the Retainer, hoping to deal a blow to her, she backed up as I continued to drive her back, every time I felt mana start to form, I made sure to shoot a blade of wind at her, I rather her disrupt that spell than my illusion one.
The Retainer swatted my sword away, I released it in midair, spun around and sent a wind covered fist right at her head. In shock, the Retainer's eyes widened just slightly as my fist collided with her helmet, sending her into the tree behind her.
I could see the crack on the mask she wore, but ignored it, continuing my attack, conjured a sword of wind in my hand, swinging it at her as she leaned up against a tree.
Lyra side stepped my attack, I cut through the tree, turned back as the mist around us contorted her vision, she started to build up mana, but I couldn't allow that, I drove the blade back at her, aimed for her core.
A wave of sound came at me, so I dropped the wind blade, knowing it was going to fade away, jumped out of the way of her attack, landed, pivoted my feet, and shot myself at her, bringing a small dagger of wind to her throat.
The Retainer grabbed my arm before it reached her, then like it came out of her body, shot sound in all directions, canceling out my spells, and hitting me directly, however, she held my arm still, and as I tried to gather myself, she sent another sound wave into me, and another, then dropped me to the ground below her.
I saw her hand pointed at my face, and a big attack forming. I had to move, or it would be the end of me, this wasn't good, I couldn't die to her here, Veer, Arthur, all trusted me to take her on, so I had to.
As the sound formed, I shot wind out of my feet, launching me into the air, conjuring blades and blades of wind to send at her, then started to conjure illusions of myself, a Veer special, I thought, all around the forest, hiding in the trees, behind them, in front of them, trying to confuse her.
As the Retainer's first attack hit the ground where I was just at, she aimed another vibration spell up at the wind blades coming for her, then I fell to the ground, and blended in with my illusions. I knew she could get rid of them, but hopefully, this gave me an element of surprise.
I shot out at her, grabbing the blade I dropped earlier, swinging it at her neck, trying to kill her with one shot. Lyra turned to where I came from, my illusions cut out as she sent a vibration spell out of every corner of her, but it didn't affect me coming for her.
Lyra back stepped, I swung again, she back stepped again, shot a sound wave at me, I jumped to the side, launched myself up at her, pointing my sword at her core, and as I got closer, the Retainer spoke. "Fall!" Her voice so demanding, causing me to go numb once again, and as my momentum took me towards her, Lyra grabbed my wrist, and threw me into a nearby tree with a great force, sending me through three trees, maybe more, I couldn't tell, because of the pain I was in.
As the debris settled after the attack, I got up, very, very slowly from the tree I was in, bent over, and spit a mouthful of blood out. "Dammit." I said out loud, knowing I couldn't do anything, she was just too strong. I formed a blade of wind in both of my hands, I lost my regular sword in the process of getting tossed like a rag doll and had no clue where it was.
"Seems like you still have some fight in you." Lyra, who was standing in the opening she threw me from said with a grin. "Let's continue then, Lance."