He threw the artifact at my feet, and I quickly enhanced my speed even more, pushing my blood at a speed that almost feels impossible, and shot away from the artifact as it activated, form a cage with no one it. I remember something like that being used in the novel on Arthur, but he had aether, I didn't, that for sure would have trapped me.
"Fool?" I said. "You wanted to separate us again and use that artifact on me." I clapped my hands. "What a plan? Truly, too bad I know what that is."
"That's imp---" He was cut off as I launched myself at him, the three of them should be able to stand up against a weakened Lyra, I have one responsibility, to kill this Retainer, even though he probably was a young Wraith, looking at the size of his horns.
I swung at his head, he ducked, swung his blade with all his might. I swatted it away with my own blade, then went to grab his throat, but he went to cut off my arm with his other blade, forcing me to stop. I didn't want to lose an arm, that would have been bad.
After dodging his second sword, I dropped to the ground, shot myself with wind mana before his swords could absorb it, and launched myself into his lower half, picking him off the ground, and tackling him into a tree with my enhanced strength using blood magic.
I gripped his hand holding the sword, conjured an ice dagger as I held him, and as it appeared, he couldn't absorb, and I drove the dagger through him, and jabbed it into the tree as hard as I could, holding his hand in place. The sword faded away, and the Retainer gritted his teeth as he went to stab me with his other sword, I fell to the ground, dodging his blade, then shot myself back up at him as he stood against the tree.
I grabbed his other arm as he swung at me once again, spun to the side, holding it still, and conjured another dagger in him, pushing into the tree, making him release his blade. I then conjured an ice sword in my left hand, I didn't need to worry about his swords absorbing mana anymore.
I drove my elven sword into his right leg, holding against the tree, then drove the ice sword into his leg leg, placing into the tree. He was unable to move, the Retainer was wide eyed, looking at me in horror.
I smiled up at him. "I thought you were going to take me down?" I looked around, Aya was on the ground, it looked like she was done, not injured, just no mana to keep going, which is bad, mana depletion is a serious thing, it hit me like a brick after my fight with Lucas.
"You damned Lesser!" He hissed at me.
"Who is the real Lesser though?" I conjured an ice sword in my right hand. "Me? Or you, the one pinned to a tree?" I drove my blade into his core, blood was already gushing everywhere, but now it was pouring onto the ground.
The Retainer leaned over, lifeless, unmoving, I killed him, and pinned him onto a tree. I turned back to the fight going on to my side, Arthur and Sylvie were struggling, but I shot an ice spear at the Retainer, and everyone froze.
I started to heal everyone, disrupting the core in Lyra so she couldn't use magic, I felt my tremble from tiredness from using so much mana, but I still had a quarter left. Using blood magic to disrupt cores is hard on me though, it doesn't matter, two Retainers are dead, that is all that matters, and another will be soon.
I conjured an ice sword, and Arthur spoke. "Veer, we can end her together." Ice was covering Dawn's Ballad, I slowly approached them. "How are you doing?"
"I am fine." I said, walking up next to him. "Sylvie, take Aya away, Arthur and I will handle her." Sylvie nodded, listening to me, and picked up Aya, and flew away, but that is when Arthur stumbled slightly. "Arthur?" I said questioningly, he was running low on mana as well.
"It seems like you are running low on mana, maybe I will take my leave now." Lyra said, and I tilted my head at her.
"You think I would allow that, imagine, three dead Retainers right here. Agrona would be so disappointed in you if you came back now, I should just do you a favor and kill you myself." I rested on hand on Arthur's shoulder. "I can kill her; you can stay back and rest."
"No, I have to keep going for your sake." I looked at my brother confused.
"My sake?"
"Too much killing, you have done too much of it already." Oh, he was worried about the Serpent, well, I already received more of its strength, but I feel fine, I am not laughing, I am just looking to kill a person from another continent who is trying to kill me, maybe I find that exciting, but there is nothing wrong with that. "As your older brother, I will assist you, as a Lance of Dicathen, I will assist you."
"Fine, I didn't care, I was just looking out for you." I shrugged at him. "But keep up then." I reinforced myself with more mana, made the speed my blood accelerated at faster, and got ready to strike.
The Retainer didn't know what to do, if she tried to launch herself away, I would just disrupt her core. If she fought us in the state she was in, it would be the end for her, I already gashed her a lot, she lost a lot of blood.
"I will not be taken down by a bunch of Lessers!" She roared summoning sound waves all around her, but I snapped my fingers, and they vanished, her eyes widened. "Damn you, damn you Blood Deviant!"
"If we can take her alive, it would be better." Arthur said, but I stepped toward her, ignoring him, getting ready to strike her down. "Veer! Don't! There are already two dead, if we take one alive as well, that would be a huge win for us!"
"I won't be taken alive by a bunch of Lessers!" Lyra roared at us, and when she spoke next, she surprised me. "Fall!" She said, and Arthur fell to a knee, but I stayed up right, using blood magic to counter the effects. "Fall! Fall! Fall!"
"Fall..." I said simply, launching myself at her, swinging with all my might at her neck, and as she went to defend herself, my blade passed through her only wrist, and it fell to the ground, then spun and beheaded the Retainer in a split second.
Her head toppled to the ground, and rolled, I just watched, and then released my second phase, feeling tiredness wash over me, and my legs struggling to stay up after using so much mana. I fell to my butt as the Retainers body fell next to me.
"Well, looks like like we killed three Retainers today." I turned my head toward Arthur, he had burn marks on his body, most likely from Jagrette, but he was also sitting down now. "She didn't know anything that we needed to know."
"How could you know that even with your knowledge?" I shrugged and felt Sylvie and Aya coming back over. "Well, anyways, I am proud of you, Veer, you took down two Retainers and a large force."
I smiled at Arthur, feeling happy he said that. "Thanks." I laid down, trying to keep calm, and relax myself. Sylvie had Aya on her back. "Sylvie, thank you." I said, motioning towards Aya, I didn't want her to get severely hurt in this fight.
"Anything for you." She said, causing a smile to appear on my face. "But we should get out of here."
"We can't without the Retainer's bodies." Arthur said, pointing at Lyra.
I nodded, and slowly got to my feet. "And something else." Lyra didn't have horns, her Vritra blood wasn't even manifest, how humorous. "Arthur, I'll get Retainer Erie's horns, you get Jagrette and her horns, okay?"
"Yeah." Arthur went to get up, but fell back down, his auburn hair a complete mess like my ashy brown hair. "Actually, I don't think I can move much right now."
I grabbed Lyra's body and dragged it towards Sylvie. "It's fine, I'll handle it." I laid her next to Sylvie, and then grabbed her head, and placed it next to her body. "I'll go get Erie's and Jagrette's body, you stay here, I'll be fine."
Arthur nodded, and relaxed, propping himself up now against Sylvie. Aya was still out cold on her back, I walked away from them, towards Erie.
Wow, we really took down three Retainers today, however, I'm sure they will be replaced in not time. Agrona is doing things differently it looks like, he wants my powers, and I have to imagine that Erie was a young Wraith, there was no other explanation for it.
His powers didn't exactly counter mine, but they did the job, he just couldn't keep up. I arrived at his body on the tree, and removed the ice daggers I placed in his hands, and his body toppled over. I wasn't going to catch him, he was too big for me, I needed mana to do that, and I didn't want to waste what I had left on him.
I pushed his body to the side, removed my elven sword, then placed it in my mana ring, then removed the last ice sword, he fell to the ground. I bent over, grabbed his leg, and began to drag him over to Sylvie.
I wonder what is next for us, in the novel Arthur goes on a training, never mind, I know what is next, I think may be going to Epheotus to see Kezess. Actually, no, I won't be, there is zero chance that is happening.
I dropped his body onto the ground, bent over, conjured an ice dagger, and sliced Erie's horns off, storing them in my mana ring. "I'll take a nice stroll to where Jagrette's body is." I told Arthur and he reached his hand out to me.
"I'm coming with you, help me up." I grabbed his arm.
"You sure?"
"Yes, we shouldn't be too far apart, Sylvie, can you fly us over?" Arthur asked her, and she nodded of course. "Thanks."
We all got onto her, dragging both the bodies onto her back, and she took off slowly towards Jagrette's body. I was sitting behind Aya's body, she was breathing slowly now, steadier, her body taking in the aftereffects of the battle. I was surprised though, she managed to hold her own long enough to stay alive.
It only took a short flight, and when we landed, the Retainer's body was encased in ice. "I see her acidic magic was still pouring out of her."
"Yeah, I had to encase her in ice to keep it from spreading." Arthur said, and we slid off of Sylvie.
"After I disrupt her core, so the magic stops, I will slide an ice sword into her core." It is cool that even when she is dead, her body still uses mana for her.
"Good idea." I shot a small amount of fire towards the ice, melting it, and then activated "Blood Oath." I couldn't hold it for long, I was low on mana, so I disrupted her core as her body fell out of the block of ice.
I conjured an ice sword, and stuck it through her core, shattering it. "Sylvie, can you fly us all back halway? Or do you need to rest a little?" She did fight a Retainer by herself, so she might need some time, I knew I did, but I wasn't in a bad state like after my time with Cadell.
"I can make maybe a quarter of the way." She spoke as I withdrew the ice sword from Jagrette's core, and then cut her horns off of her head, and placed them along with Erie's in my mana ring.
"Okay, we can make the rest of the journey tomorrow." Arthur told her, then he took Jagrette's body and carried it up to Sylvie's back and placed it alongside the others. "Come on, Veer, let's get out of here, we won."
I went to step up on to Sylvie but froze as a presence appeared close by, could this be who I think it is. "No way." I smiled, feeling this powerful person, it had to be a Scythe, no one else had this aura to them.
"What is it?" Arthur said, not sensing what I did, but Sylvie did. She stood up right, in a battle position. "Sylv?" I stared in the direction she was coming from; I never felt this blood before, but I knew it was Seris, it had to be.