Touch of Fate

Chapter 201: Crushing Confrontation

Figuring that his best bet was to follow the sounds of screams and explosions, Mike ran through the strangely deserted Tenundian encampment. Every now and then he would find himself face to face with a panicking soldier who was running from, or to something important, but even then they didn't even try to stop him.

[Weren't they supposed to retreat back here? Where is everyone?]

Deciding that solving the mystery could wait until after he'd confirmed the safety of his party members, he rushed headlong into the camp despite the obvious threat of a trap. Just in case, he pulled Audra out of his pocket and shoved her into his extradimensional sack. She squawked in protest, but he had a feeling that things were about to get dangerous.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the commotion, and he touched down next to the offending party with something along the lines of resignation.

"Lily, why are you almost naked again?" He asked, taking a moment to drop the unconscious shaman nearby. She had finally passed out after he'd started moving with greater haste.

The woman tilted her head in slight confusion while staring at him, before a look of realization passed across her features. "Ah! You're pretty eyes. Why are you wearing a mask?"

[Couldn't you think of a better nickname?]

Mike sighed while averting his gaze. She had evidently been in a serious fight, since all that was left of her clothes were a few tattered rags. "I'm trying to hide my identity. Anyway, hold still for a moment."

He placed an arm on her shoulder and applied a wave of Healing Magic to treat her injuries. She had suffered a few burns and some internal damage, but otherwise appeared to be rather hale. This was slightly confusing to him, since she had nearly died in the earthquake after a simple explosion.

Looking around the battlefield and the scars that had been left behind by whatever devastating conflict she had been involved in, Mike came to the conclusion that something was amiss. "Uh, Lily? How are you still in one piece after all this?"

She looked confused again for a second, before nodding. "I used Giant's Skin."

Mike waited, but that was apparently all she was willing to offer.

[Some kind of active skill that enhances defense, I'm guessing.] Deciding that he could look into it later, he used a quick application of Darkness Magic to create a form-fitting layer of cloth-like material in an effort to cover Lily's body. He was hoping to avoid having to deal with the distraction her continued nudity provided, but found that his solution only made things worse.

[Sigh...I guess I'll just use this as an opportunity to improve my willpower.]

He glanced over at the Marshal and the elven mage, who were holding their positions for the time being. Judging from their tense expressions, they were waiting on him to make the first move.

Mike felt inclined to do so.

In all honesty, he could simply call Red over, and pull back to the city. The dragon had finished destroying the Tenundian siege equipment, and was now in the middle of harrying the assault force with blasts of fire, but he could be easily redirected.

However, Mike was feeling a little angry. While the Tenundians hadn't actually succeeded in capturing one of his party members, they had nevertheless tried. That alone was unforgivable in his book.

"Well, Lily, why don't we have ourselves some revenge?" He asked while starting to channel mana into his hands, a few offensive spells on his mind.

The dark haired woman looked at him, "Why?"

He resisted the urge to facepalm. "Because they tried to kidnap you? Aren't you angry?"

She shrugged. "Not really. I want to head back home and test out my new creation. I need to make sure it does what it's supposed to."

Mike was at a loss for a second. Finally, he sighed. Her air headedness made him feel silly for being serious about this. "Ah, whatever. Let's just head back." He replied resignedly while reaching out to Red mentally.

"Like we'd let you. Stop them!" Kiertesan yelled to his elven companion.

Nurenal nodded and unleashed a spell he had been quietly chanting. A pinprick of light appeared next to Mike, and he only had a fraction of second to respond before it expanded into a coruscating sphere of eldritch energy. Luckily, that still gave him enough time to grab Lily, and wrap the pair of them in a mana shield.

As soon as the energy came in contact with the shield, it emitted a high-pitched whine and quickly began eating through it. Only thanks to his superhuman reflexes, was Mike able to jump away from the spell.

The two of them landed about 5m away, and watched as the sphere of crackling energy expanded rapidly for a second before disappearing entirely. Mike sagged slightly, as the drain on his mana reserves took hold. Whatever that spell was, it ate through his defenses at a staggering rate.

"I'm trusting you to take on the old guy, Lily! Give him hell." Mike yelled while channeling a stream of fire magic into her. By the time the fiery aura took hold, he was already moving, strafing to the right while chanting his most familiar spell.

As the fireball took shape, he hurled at Nurenal, hoping to interrupt whatever follow-up attack he was attempting. However, it quickly became apparent that he had underestimated the elf.

With one hand, and a few short words, he raised a shield of arcane energy, blocking the fireball in its entirety. As the resulting dust cloud was settling, Mike was attacked by a strange sensation.

He suddenly felt like he was trying to run through molasses, the air around him thickening into a gelatin-like consistency. Movement was still possible, but difficult. He tried to raise an arm to block the next attack, but it was like watching a video in slow motion.

"You seem to be the type to rely on evasion for defense." Nurenal commented drily while stepping out of the dust cloud, eight circles of barely contained arcane energy floating in the air around him. "As such, sealing your movements is the tactically proscribed method of dealing with you."

He wave an arm forward, and beams of blue-white light fired from the circles, spearing towards Mike with lethal intent.

[Well this is a bit troubling.] He had the time to think before the battlemage's assault struck home.

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Kiertesan jumped back to avoid the woman's heel drop, but was nearly blown away by the resulting shockwave. The ground he had been occupying exploded under the force of the impact, sending a rain of debris in every direction.

[Well, this is a pain.] He thought to himself as he watched the statuesque woman pull her leg out of the ground, which had been embedded up to the knee, the flames coating her body incinerating the few patches of grass which had survived the conflict up to this point.

She was overwhelmingly strong, even without the Dragonknight's enhancement magic. With it, her every blow had enough lethal force to crush even the most durable fighters. In terms of strength alone, she was well into the realm of a mid-Tier 4 warrior. His only saving grace was her almost complete lack of fighting skills.

Her attacks would shatter every bone in his body if they hit, but her swings were awkward, straightforward, and full of unnecessary movements. Assuming he didn't lose his focus, there shouldn't be any problem avoiding the knockout punch, so to speak. Kiertesan had never been the most talented fighter, but decades on the battlefield had given him the opportunity to advance to the mid-Tier 3. This wasn't the first time he'd faced a more powerful opponent in combat, and he had overcome every one of them in the past, albeit with the assistance of his comrades.

[That said, I watched Nurenal hit her with a full powered Arcane Bullet, and it didn't even leave a scratch. Evidently this monster's strength is matched by her durability.]

After considering his options, the Marshal decided that the only real course of action open to him was to play it safe until Nurenal could assist. He would need the mage's help to bring her down. Hopefully he would be able to incapacitate the Dragonknight long enough to allow the pair of them to focus on the woman.

While he was thinking, she stopped and gave him a look of mild confusion. "Hm. It's hard to hit you."

"Well, I certainly don't want to get hit by one of your attacks." He replied sarcastically while using the free time to reload his pistol. The single-shot weapon had proven useless in the face of the woman's ridiculous defense, but he figured it was better than nothing.

[Hopefully the reinforcements get here soon. I'm getting far too old for this.]

"I guess I have to try harder. Pretty Eyes asked me to." She said distractedly while taking up a combat stance, something she hadn't done before.

Alarm bells started going off in Kiertesan's head, as she stepped forward in a sudden blur, cratering the ground in the process. Moving entirely by instinct, he dived to his right as a devastating punch cut through the air he had been occupying a second ago. A blast of air accompanied the strike, which carried enough force to collapse a tent nearly 10m away.

"Hm, missed again. Have to try harder." She murmured while turning to face him, once again taking up the stance he recognized as belonging to a boxing style of hand-to-hand combat.

[That was justa jab? Seriously?]

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Mike coughed a few time as he felt the holes in his torso starting to close. The beams had seared through his body with ease. If it wasn't for his regenerative abilities, that attack would have definitely been lethal. He was glad he'd shoved Audra into the extradimensional sack while traveling over to the encampment, despite her protestations.

[Ow. That one hurt, but it looks like it was worth it.]

A spike of darkness had punched through Nurenal's chest from behind, emerging from his shadow while the mage was distracted with thoughts of victory. As Mike loosened his will, it dissolved, leaving a gaping hole slightly to the left of his right shoulder. It seemed he'd managed to lean away from a truly lethal blow at the last second.

Nurenal fell to one knee with an agonized gasp. After glancing down at his wound, the mage pulled a vial of red liquid from a belt pouch, before downing it.

[Some kind of healing potion? Do they really have that sort of thing? Anyway, that does remind me]

As the air surrounding him returned to normal, he took a moment to pull a scroll from his bag while starting another chant. He was still maintaining Lily's enhancement spell, and was therefore limited to casting only a single spell at a time. He was grateful that Red's summoning spell had finally reached the point that the System no longer classified it as a separate casting.

Not wanting to give the elf a chance to recover, he activated the scroll and directed the resulting fireball at his still kneeling form. At the same time, he finished his chant.

"[Summon Monster]!" He announced as three magic circles appeared on the ground in front of him. At the moment he was merely looking for something to occupy his enemy while he lined up a more devastating blow. As such, he mentally envisioned creatures who could move quickly, while still providing enough of a threat to keep Nurenal's attention.

With the fireball's explosion as a backdrop, three blue-grey birds, the size of large dogs, popped into existence. They had long and graceful plumage which gave them an elegant appearance, however their curving beaks and wickedly sharp talons betrayed their predatory nature.

A quick Appraise told him a little more.

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Summoned Gale Hawk

Race: Gale Hawk

Age: N/A

Class: Gale Hawk

Title: None

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[I think these were supposed to be a type of air elemental. Anyway, let's see what they are capable of.]

With a quick mental message, he had them start flying, waiting for his signal to attack. Mike turned his attention back to Nurenal, who had survived the fireball without difficulty, a transparent shield of arcane energy slowly becoming visible as the dust settled once more.

"Looks like I was a bit careless." The elf muttered calmly. "I will strive to avoid that from this point on."