BXBX NOVEL Chapter 52: Shut Up And Fight
Gryon fell to his knees as the sword was pulled out of his guts. In a precise move, Amira swung her blade and sliced his mask off his face with disdain for the very prospect of identity protection for the infidels.
Ember stirred on the floor. Her sword was still in her hand so she gripped it ready to move and attack again only to find the sharp tip of Amira\'s sword suddenly inches away from her face.
A quick flash of the weapon later and her mask was split and fell away causing her bright red hair to topple out, tangled/braided as it was. A perpetual frown on her face.
"Ember Lockheart-" Amira mumbled and then let out a light disparaging chuckle.
Despite how readily she had stabbed Gryon, their Order from Lord Herbert Larnak was to subdue and not to kill. Not entirely at least. There was something to be said about parading the Spear-heads of the Resistance and using them to squash any future dissidence.
Ember pursed her lips and kept quiet. Her sword-wielding hand twitched with a clear indication of itching to attack.
The Redhead was very aware of her situation. Having the attention of a Captain already doomed any of her moves to fail. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Carleine trapped and unable to move on account of the Enchanted bounds. Although she couldn\'t see him at the angle she was, she knew of Gryon\'s injuries and guessed he was only barely holding on to life.
\'Damn it!\' she swore in her mind witnessing firsthand just how quickly things had fallen apart.
Their structure had been poor from the very start. They never even had a proper exit strategy with a secret bunker or an underground tunnel, because somehow, they got relaxed in the thought of the mansion being a stronghold. That it being a hideout would forever remain hidden.
That those they had welcomed into their ranks as members of the Resistance would have the good judgment to keep their lips sealed.
The little opening she and her fellow Crew members had created for a possible yet difficult Escape was now nonexistent. The crowd of Elite Larnak Guards were back to closing in around them, cutting off any hope of another opening and grinning with the confidence they had in their Captain.
"Damn it!" Ember swore again. This time out loud.
Her sword-wielding hand twitched and her weapon made a slight sound against the ground.
"Don\'t bother. You won\'t get away." Amira said. Her confidence was as constant as ever.
Ember frowned with defiance and moved her free hand toward her hidden Spatial pouch but Amira\'a head shake was enough caution for her to stop.
"You\'re not faster than my blade, Miss Lockheart- I assure you."
"Ahhhhhhhhhh"
Gryon\'s tattoos glowed with the imbuement of Spiritual energy, his frame got larger, and with his injury leaking blood in the gallons he let out a battle cry as he bounded over to Amira.
\'I\'m not dead, yet!\' he yelled in his mind.
Two long and heavy strides later, he reached Amira in a second and slammed his body against hers with the intent to knock her away from Ember.
*Wham!*
"Mmphh"
Caught mostly by surprise, Amira let out a sound and even slid two feet before she slammed a fist into Gryon\'s face, sending him to the ground.
*Bam!*
*Thud*
He stirred and she stomped her feet against his head or at least she tried to.
*Whum*
Gryon caught the kick and let its force push him many feet away from Amira. He returned to his feet shakily, his clothes drenched with his blood, his skin turning a deathly white, the hue of his tattoos fading and only staying active by sheer willpower.
Ember took advantage of the freedom Gryon got her by thrusting her hand into her hidden Spatial pouch without the slightest care for the Guards around her.
She retrieved three flammable vials. The last of her supply and she tossed them all at Amira in point-blank range. Charged and ready to explode.
*BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*
The explosion was magnificent. Its heat spread so wide, that it encouraged the nearby Guards to put up coats of Spiritual energy to protect themselves.
As the flame burned so hot and so large, they enveloped Amira\'s entire body, Ember made her way toward Carleine. Protected from the searing heat by a well-timed coat of Spiritual energy, the Redhead ignored the pushback force of the explosion all so she could free her friend from her bounds.
*Swish* went the blade of Ember\'s sword and Carleine was free.
"Thank-" Carleine started to say before her eyes widened and she yelled out a warning,
"Look out!"
It was too late.
Apart from small areas of her uniform smoldering from the flames still burning behind her, and the fringes of her hair that looked singed, Amira looked perfectly healthy and perfectly pissed as she dashed out with her sword thrust angrily at Ember. No restraint in sight.
The eyes of the redhead went wide, frozen in place by shock, and being completely outmatched by the speed of the Fourth Order Captain.
The sword was an inch away from making contact when a thin circular Magical barrier appeared to prevent any further progress. The barrier followed up by pushing Amira back and not letting up until the Captain struck it with her fist coated with Spiritual energy.
*Bam*
*Bang*
As the barrier shattered, Amira let her senses out and sought the source of the spell. With the scarcity of Arcanists in Verdelen City, she could guess who it was already and was not surprised when she laid her eyes on Daria\'s beautiful and slightly haughty face.
"You!"
"Yes. Me." Daria said standing atop her movement spell.
Amira\'s brows furrowed in confusion at how and why Daria was here but when she opened her mouth to ask, Daria whispered rapid mysterious words underneath her breath and formed seals with her fingers to conjure multiple magical barriers that converged and aimed to push the Captain as far away as possible from the Crew.
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
Amira shattered multiple barriers in quick succession however, caught on a wrong footing with just a smidge of surprise at Daria\'s arrival, she still got hit and was sent sliding many feet away.
*Bam!*
"Nghhh- Don\'t interfere." Amira issued a warning, before leaping to the side to avoid getting hit by yet another barrier.
"I already did," Daria said before she infused more Spiritual energy into her spell casting. Increasing the strength of her barriers as well as their speed.
With her teeth gritted in annoyance, Amira immediately gathered herself and pushed her surprise/confusion aside to deal with the barriers Daria kept dishing out.
"I always suspected where your alliances lay," Amira said with a smirk.
"Shut up and fight." Daria retorted with a smirk of her own.
"You call this fighting? Chucking out barriers from a distance?" Amira asked with a snigger.
Daria let out a mocking chuckle.
"Get close and land a hit first before mocking my Arcane Arts."
*Whum*
Another barrier toss...
*Bang*
... Quickly followed by its destruction.
Meanwhile,
Saved from what had looked like certain death, Ember rallied with Carleine and together they approached Gryon to give him support while he tried his hardest not to succumb to his injury.
With Daria\'s sudden arrival keeping Amira busy, the Elite Guards were spurred into action to pick up the slack their Captain had left behind. No longer could they afford to stand aside.
Alas, before the closest to the Crew could take action, they were swarmed by a cloud of Grey Eldritch energy that caused them to shiver.
*Sksh*
*Sksh*
In their midst, still dressed in a Larnak Military uniform, Evian swung his sword, catching two by surprise, reaping their lives, and swallowing their souls in quick succession.
"What the-?" a closeby comrade started to say only to be forced to stop as a sword blade stabbed through his mouth, shutting him up before a slash to the neck finally claimed his life.
"You Scum!"
With three dead, the Guards were finally alert to the presence of an intruder in their midst.
They let out Spiritual energy to ward off the unnatural deathly cold creeping up on them and converged on Evian with their weapons.
Evian sunk into the ground out of sight and when he emerged, he announced his return with an Eldritch arrow. The arrow hit a ready coat of Spiritual energy and dissipated into a harmless mist.
Evian wasn\'t deterred. He called up his Decadence to view his Soul Point balance;
[Decadence: Corrupted Wraith: 1600/600 Soul Points]
With a grin at his current Soul Point balance and knowing he would at least have enough to heal himself in case of injury, Evian called out the decadence store. There was a spell he had had his eye on for a while and now seemed as good a time as any to get it.
[-1000 Soul Points]
Evian spent two seconds assimilating every bit of information of the spell he just purchased and when he opened his eyes, he raised his hands and summoned Eldritch energy that took the form of three barbed Spears that he sent towards the collection of Guards.
The targetted three were confident in their coats of Spiritual energy.
\'We know all your tricks!\' they thought. Foolishly ignoring that, purely by look alone, Spears were clearly different from Arrows.
The Spears hit, did not dissipate into mist as expected, and pushed against the protective coats until they sunk into their targets, injecting them with the energy of the dead.
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