Arthur Leywin
I had activated my phase two of my Beast Will as I was traveling, knowing I was going to need it to win this fight. The runes appeared, and my hair turned white, and the mana seemed to be completely under my control.
I shot myself through the forest, heading in the direction of Jagrette, this was what I was here for, to fight the Vritra off. I can do it, Veer already told me I did, but I had help from Sylvie, I wasn't just fighting alone.
'Boy wonder' I heard someone's shrill voice say in front of me, but even with my mana enhanced vision and senses, I couldn't see a thing. 'Over here.' The voice said from behind me, and I spun around. 'Nope, in front of you.' I faced forward, and the talking stopped as she appeared before me.
Jagrette was tall, skinny, but extremely pale. She was wearing a sparkling black dress which I figured went with her obsession of beauty, at least that's what Veer told me, and the mask that hid her face from me.
'Arthur, I'm arriving now.' I received a mental message from Sylvie.
'Be careful.' I told her, wondering how she was going to be able to take down a Retainer by herself.
"Nothing to say, brat?" Jagrette spoke again, causing my heartbeat to quicken, I had Veer with me the last time I fought a Vritra, this was the first one on one fight I had with one, I'm nervous and scared for some reason.
"Jagrette, it looks like we both go what we wished." I spoke, Dawn's Ballad at my side, I knew her powers, I knew what to expect. I didn't need Sylvie, Veer had already told me what I had to do, no trees, only her and I.
"Yes, yes, I can't wait to play with you little pup." Jagrette's voice was so shrill, yet demanding, like she got what she wanted all the time. I needed to steady my breathing, there was no retreating now, and I don't want Veer to help me when he finishes up underground. "Little pup, may I ask where you brother is, he is my real mission, so after I finish playing with you, I'm going to go snatch him up."
"Why don't you guess?" I shrugged, not wanting her to travel towards Veer, and leave me here alone, where I can't help. "You are acting as if you can take me down so easily." I smirked at her. "But we both know you are not that strong."
"Ohhhh, really?!" She snarled at me. "You know, our mission was to capture the little brat you call a brother, but I suppose they would not be mad if I was to capture you as well, boy wonder, and turn you into my little pet."
"I'll pass." I gave her a look of disgust. "I don't think anyone in their right mind would want that." Unless Alacryans were into that, I can't say. I started to surround Dawn's Ballad with ice, Veer told me this element would be my friend in this fight.
"That's fine, it makes it more fun breaking the spirit of disobedient slaves." Jagrette took a step closer to me. "Let's see what the great Arthur Leywin can do."
Without saying another word, hands shot out of the tree trunks around me, I couldn't tell exactly how many. I activated "Absolute Zero" and had it spread throughout my body, knowing ice can deal with this, and as the hands that emitted this toxic mana signature got close to me, they froze.
I shot myself through them, dodging them when I had to, or letting them freeze in the air if I couldn't. A pool of mana opened on the floor of the forest, and hands shot out, trying to grip me, but I didn't allow that to happen.
I bobbed and weaved through the acid filled hands, not wanting to be hurt by them, appeared before her, and swung my sword at her throat. A mist started to come off of her body, which I could only assume was some form a poison to kill me, so I held my breath, not wanting it to get inside of me.
My sword connected with nothing as she dodged the attack, her hand came for my throat, and I activated "Static Void" spun around, and brought by sword to her chest, time resumed and I ended up behind her, having no clue if my attack hit or not.
I spun, and the Retainer was already reaching down for me, I swung my blade up, deflecting her mossy mana filled hands, then brought the blade back toward her ribs. Hands started to build up all around me, and I was unable to hold my breath anymore, I think she knew that.
My blade missed, and I activated "Static Void" once again to avoid being poisoned from the toxic mist I was in, and ended up behind a tree in the distance, gasping for her. I know her power, and I can track her using Realmheart.
The Retainer stepped toward a tree and spoke. "You can't run from me; I know where you are!" A hand shot out of the tree, forcing me to dodge, another one came at me and froze, and then I ended up facing the Retainer as she had half her body inside of a tree. "Let's see just how good you are."
The Retainer started to disappear and reappear all throughout the forest, passing through trees, I was in a defensive stance, waiting for her to attack, there wasn't much I could do since I can't travel through trees.
I felt her coming, I spun to face the direction she was coming from, and tendrils of hands started to surround me. I shot a cold aura out of me, freezing the tendrils further from me, then brought my blade up to deflect her hand away from me.
Hands reached up and tried to grab my ankles, but I activated "Static Void" once again, and got out of the way. As time resumed, Jagrette's real hands gripped my forearm, and I felt a burning sensation build in my body, something Veer told me about, and didn't really want to feel it.
'Arthur?' Sylvie's voice rang in my head, she probably felt my pain as I dropped Dawn's Ballad, and then caught it with my left hand, still being gripped by Jagrette.
'I'm fine, Sylv, focus on your battle.' I thought to her as I swung at her arm, making her release me. I then conjured fire in the air, and sent it into the nearby trees, burning them.
With all of Veer's information, I speculate that she can only absorb life from healthy trees, not ones that are dying. I spun as I missed her arm, brought my icy aura blade to her chest, and sliced through her armor, drawing a little blood.
"You little!" Jagrette shouted, then a bunch of tendrils of hands came running at me, getting closer and closer through my ice barrier. A hand reached for my throat, but I sliced upwards, not letting her have the chance to grip me.
She backed away, making her way to the nearest tree, I shot in between her and tree, and conjured a stone spear, shooting it at her head, but it was reduced to ashes by her acidic magic. I started to conjure fire up in the air, not releasing it yet, saving it for the right time.
If I wasn't fighting in this fight, looking at the battlefield would have been scary, vines frozen, covered in ice, trees on fire, and acid in places, it was like a nightmare.
I dodged her hand, brought my sword up, she deflected the attack, I spun and sent a kick into her stomach knocking her backwards. I then released the fire I conjured in the air, and brought hell down on her, forcing her to either retreat or come to me.
She picked the latter one, I shot at her, meeting halfway as my fire spell collided with the ground, causing it to shake slightly. My sword clashed with her acidic mana that surrounded her hands, and I entered into the poisonous mist she had around her holding my breath.
I held my sword up against the Retainers armor on her armor as her mana ate away at my sword, but I kept on pushing down on her, that is when Jagrette spoke to me, with her creepy doll mask looking down at me. "You're better than I suspected, but I should have known the boy wonder had some skill."
A hand gripped my ankle, and I fell to knee as acid ate away at my mana barrier, I had reinforcing my skin. It hurt tremendously, I held my sword up high still, not letting her arm go, so that she could not try and grab me.
I moved to the side so that Jagrette's momentum carried her past me, I sliced the tendril off of me, releasing the acidic feeling being placed upon me, conjured a bolt of electricity in my left hand hand, added some wind, and ice, then shot it at the Retainer.
It collided with her back, pushing through the Retainer's defense mechanism, and knocking her to the ground. I activated "Static Void" again, appearing before the Retainer, and coalesced as much mana as I could to my sword, and brought it down on her.
I appeared behind her, hearing the cracking of something, I turned around and faced her, holding her face, looking down, was Jagrette. I knew she cared about not showing her face to others, so let's make her a little angry.
The mask broke, crumbled to pieces, and the Retainer stared at them on the ground, in shock, anger, and in horror. I took a step back, fearing what she might do in anger toward me, but this was what I wanted.
I would have been scared fighting her alone, but with the knowledge I had, and time to prepare, I knew I could win this battle. "My mask!" She hissed; the green aura that surrounded her body intensified. "I need it, I need it, I need it!" She roared in anger, then looked up at me, which made my entire body shiver.
Staring at me was a scary looking Vritra, she looked half dead with her sunken cheeks, dark lips, and her eyes were hollow with darkness. All I thought was move, move, move Arthur, ignore the pain currently going on in you, and just move to her.
I shot at the Retainer, swinging Dawn's Ballad at the corrosive mana surrounding her, her hand came up, blocked the attack, and as she reached for my chest, I sent a current of electricity into her.
However, this did nothing to the Retainer, she just ignored it, either not feeling it, or not caring. It didn't matter though, I was still able to dodge the attack by shooting wind in the opposite direction, then returning to her, swinging with all my might at her neck.
She rose her arm, trying to defend herself as I attempted to kill her, and as my blade connected, I could feel the energy I was emitting was enough to cut through such a powerful being, which I knew she was.
The green aura I was seeing latched onto my sword, and I quickly pulled away. I then shot myself out of the mist I was in, and gasped for air, not being able to hold my breath that long. The sight of the Retainer looking at me was quite scary, but it wasn't anything I wasn't prepared for.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you, I was told I didn't have to, but I want to now, putting a lady through this disgrace, is unacceptable." As Jagrette spoke I could see green aura building up in the trees around me, she was getting ready to strike me down.
"Let's see you try." I said, getting ready to launch myself at her. I started conjuring more fire and lightning in the atmosphere, I wasn't going to let her heal, this was going to end with one of us dying right here.
"Ohh, I will, I will kill right here." Jagrette spoke in such a harsh tone, even now it made me shiver from head to toe. I think it's time to use the spell Veer and I came up with to defeat her.
I released the fire I had in the atmosphere and had it spread on the ground, forming a perimeter around us, making sure she couldn't get to the tree line, meaning it was only me and her inside the ring of fire.
To secure it, I added electricity into the fire, so that any acidic spell going toward it would be burned and zapped to dust. I spun my sword in my hand and got into a fighting stance. I wasn't able to hold this spell forever, so I needed to do as much damage as I could.
"Damn you!" Jagrette said angrily as tendrils rose from the ground and came at me. "I am going to kill you slowly!"