Chapter 8

Of course, the very moment he made up his mind to form a plan was the exact moment Yuko decided to take a shot at him.

Ascion yelped, diving behind cover. He could feel the electricity crackling pass his feet, before he tucked and rolled, his mind racing for a solution.

Okay… before planning, let's see if I can get help. Fighting several hundred cannon fodder is nothing compared to fighting a single, powerful person.

The mage hastily dug out his phone, flicking it open to contact the Victoria Guards.

No signal… the Black Wings must be jamming it or something.

Alright, let's take things one at a time. My objective is to get us all out of here alive. For that, I need to analyse what I currently know about her, and what I can do to make her retreat.

Ascion hastily dodged a stray blast of electricity.

Okay, plan… First, she's superior to all three of us in terms of combat strength. This immediately rules out running as an option, since she'll just catch up and kill us. I almost couldn't react fast enough to her first strike, so she's definitely fast enough to stop us from escaping.

Second,she seems quite resilient, seeing as she withstood both Kaede's [Bomb Arrow] and Akio's lightning attack without sustaining any injuries. However, slashing and piercing type attacks seems to work, given how Kaede's arrows penetrated her flesh.

Third, she doesn't seem to bleed. I can still see Kaede's arrow stuck under her shoulder, but there's no blood whatsoever. She doesn't seem to be in pain either.

So, to sum it up: she's strong, fast, can tank moderately well, and doesn't seem to feel pain or bleed.

If possible, I would like to avoid having to kill her. I dislike killing, and there's a chance that she might be Akio's sister. Besides, I highly doubt that we can kill her anyways.

So, it's either we disable or force her to retreat. Let's try disable. That's one way to make her run.

Ascion risked a peek over his cover. Akio was keeping Yuko busy, and it looks like Kaede had decided to save her last two solid arrows, swapping to golden arrows of mana that shattered upon contact.

[Soul Arrow]. Creating arrows using mana, but at the cost of mass and solidity, which meant that these arrows have less impact and penetrative power. While useless against enemies too far above the user's level, it could still be used as a form of distraction.

Alright, to disable her, we either have to take away her mobility, or take away her ability to attack. This means disabling her legs, her arms, or her cannon. Any one of them would do.

It seems likely for Yuko to use her weapon to guard her body from any incoming attacks. This makes her cannon the most accessible to us. However, even if we did find a way to disable it, she could still wield it as a hammer. Alternatively, if we managed to destroy it, she could still fight barehanded.

If we target her legs, it could disable her mobility long enough for us to run away. But for that to work, we would have to disable her cannon as well, or she'll just snipe us down. Also, I'm not sure how fast she can move even with a pair of crippled legs, since she doesn't seem to feel pain.

If we target her arms, we could effectively lower her combat power and force her into a retreat. Even if she chooses to fight on, we might win the fight, since she wouldn't be able to swing or shoot her cannon properly. But then again, we would have the same problem as before; crippling her arms might not affect her at all.

… Ok, so, the plan will be to first disable her arms or legs. Secondary goal will be to disable or destroy her cannon, preferably destroy. Simple. Of course, it's best that she has nerves in her limbs that we can destroy, but if that fails, we'll have to find a way to tear her whole limb off.

Ascion leapt from his cover, charging towards Yuko. In the ten seconds he took to hammer out his plan, Kaede had joined the fray.

The archer wasn't in a good condition. Her bow wasn't built for close combat, and would likely snap if it took a direct blow from Yuko. Instead, Kaede was trying to back away from Yuko while peppering her with [Soul Arrows], dodging all of Yuko's swings desperately.

As Ascion watched on, Yuko flipped her cannon, firing at Akio while never taking her eyes off Kaede. The warrior, who had been attempting to distract Yuko to allow Kaede to get out of melee range, was forced back by the blast of electricity.

At the same time, Yuko took advantage of the recoil, swinging the butt of her cannon at Kaede almost twice as quickly as her previous attacks.

Caught off guard, Kaede hastily jerked herself back, losing balance. Yuko followed up with a roundhouse kick, catching the archer on the chest.

Having lost her balance from the dodge earlier, the kick caused Kaede to fall over backwards. Her hands flashed out, and the archer managed to catch herself before slamming painfully onto the ground.

Unfortunately, that was when Yuko completed her revolution, her cannon now swinging at the side of Kaede's chest.

The archer hastily flexed her powerful arm muscles, throwing herself backwards. Though she managed to avoid a shattered rib cage, she was not fast enough to completely throw herself out of range.

With a loud, sickening crack, the metal cannon slammed into Kaede's leg.

A split second later, Ascion stabbed his staff at Yuko, causing her to jump back. Sadly, the damage was already done.

Kaede screamed in pain, her free hand clutching her broken leg. Even then, she maintained a death grip on her bow.

Ascion swung his staff at Yuko with an infuriated roar. This time, Yuko couldn't bring her cannon up in time to block. The wooden shaft of the staff slammed against the side of her head, snapping the staff in two.

As Yuko staggered from the stunning blow, Ascion grabbed Kaede and, with what little mana he had regained since the fight started, [Teleported] away. He reappeared beside Akio, grabbed him as well, and continued to [Teleport] towards the exit.

As soon as the trio exited the cave, Ascion collapsed onto his knees and threw up. His head was spinning, and he had a splitting headache to go along with that.

Odd. Since when was mana exhaustion accompanied by major headaches?

Pushing his conflicting thoughts aside, Ascion scrabbled at his pockets, pulling out a [Blue Potion]. Shakily, Ascion tipped the bottle back and swallowed the concoction.

Immediately, he felt his dizziness escalate as power flooded his system. He squashed down the nausea that came with drinking too much liquefied mana to the best of his ability. Once he could concentrate well enough, he stuffed his hand into his pocket dimension, grabbing his very last staff as well as his emergency first aid kit.

One of the upsides of coming from a family of Priests and Bishops: you know a lot about medicine. After all, you can't heal something you don't understand.

Despite being a neglected as a child, Ascion was allowed full access to his family's personal library. Combine that with the bullying he suffered from both his peers and siblings, it's easy to see why Ascion chose to spent countless hours in his family's library, where even his siblings knew not to cause trouble in.

Stumbling over and kneeling next to Kaede, he opened his first aid kit and dug out the painkillers. He swallowed one, alongside an anti-nausea pill, to keep his headache and nausea at bay, respectively.

Ascion then fished out an [Orange Potion] and fed Kaede several painkillers, propping her head up so that she can drink the potion.

"Enemy is approaching." Akio warned. The warrior had quickly recovered from the shock of the sudden teleportation, and he looked faintly concerned about Kaede's injury.

His mace was misshapen from how hard he was swinging it, but he still held onto it regardless. "I will hold her off. Take care of Kaede." He hesitated slightly, then asked, "Kaede, she will be fine, yes?"

Ascion blinked at the worry he could hear in the usually emotionless boy's tone, before nodding with a grim smile. "She will be."

Akio nodded, before he leapt back into the cave. Barely two seconds later, the sound of clashing metal rang out from the pitch-black tunnel.

Ascion turned his attention to Kaede's leg. Her left leg looked fine, but her right leg was a mess. Her shin bone was broken, the upper half of her bone jutting out of her skin. Blood poured from the wound, drenching Kaede's leg in red.

Ascion bit his lip. While he might be a Cleric, he wasn't skilled enough in healing magic to make the healing process quick and painless.

Tearing off a chunk of his sleeve, Ascion wadded up the fabric and held it out for Kaede to bite on. The archer understood immediately, clamping her teeth down on the gag.

Ascion took out a [Red Potion], setting it down next to him. Then, taking a deep breath, Ascion placed his hands on Kaede's leg and counted down.

"Three, two, one!" With a sharp jerk, Ascion forced Kaede's protruding leg bone back down under her skin.

Even with the painkillers, the pain was blinding. Kaede threw her head back and screamed through the gag, her body convulsing. Ascion gritted his teeth, holding the archer down until she stopped. Kaede was panting heavily, tears in her eyes, but she was otherwise alright.

Ascion prodded Kaede's leg to make sure that the bone had set properly. With a final tug to snap the bone back in place, Kaede jerking and wincing in discomfort, Ascion uncorked the [Red Potion] and poured it over the bleeding gash.

While healing potions – that is to say, the [Red], [Orange] and [White] potions – were made to be ingested orally, the [Red Potion] was barely strong enough for Adventurers of their level. Instead, most Adventurers above the level 30 use them as a cheap but powerful disinfectant.

As soon as the bottle was empty, Ascion tossed it aside and used [Heal]. Kaede's wound started to close, the muscles knitting together and new skin covering the raw flesh.

Beneath her flesh, Kaede's bone healed, the two halves reattaching itself. A quick application of [Heal] on Kaede's other leg revealed minor fractures that were easily mended as well.

As soon as the healing was done, Ascion slumped, overcome with exhaustion. He still had a little over a quarter of his mana from the [Blue Potion] he drank earlier, but taking in and expelling more mana than he was used to had tired him out.

At least I'm much better off than I thought I would be. Though I still have this bloody unusual headache, it seems like the pill I took earlier is staving off the nausea. Just barely.

Ascion stumbled to his feet, leaning on his staff. "Kaede, can you stand?"

The archer spat out the gag and took a shaky breath, before slapping herself across the face. With her mind pulled away from the numbing effects of the painkillers and the dull ache in her leg, she took Ascion's proffered hand and got to her feet. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Alright, here's the plan. Akio and I will distract and disarm her. While we do so, try to take out her arm. Shoulder shots don't work, go for the upper arm."

"That's fine, just stop her movements for a second."

That was when Akio was sent flying out of the cave with a loud clang of metal on metal. He landed harshly on the stone floor, letting out a soft grunt.

Without missing a beat, Ascion grabbed Akio by his armour's shoulder straps and hauled him out of the way just as a blast of electricity zapped the area Akio was previously lying on.

"Stop the enemy's movements for one second, alright?" Ascion nodded, and Kaede took off, slinging her bow on her back as she started to climb the steep cliff face.

She avoided using her legs, considering her recent injuries. Instead, she used only her hands to pull herself up till she was perched on a small outcropping barely large enough for her to sit on, maybe five meters up.

"Akio?" Ascion asked tentatively as the warrior got to his feet, both boys backing away from the cave entrance.

"Hm?"

"You got the plan?"

"Hold sis- the enemy, in place. For one second."

"That, and disarm her if possible. Where's your mace?"

"Broken."

Ascion sighed. "This is gonna suck, isn't it?"

Akio didn't reply as Yuko shot another blast of electricity from the cave before darting out herself, her cannon swinging at Akio's chest.

Ascion had a feeling that even if Yuko hadn't chosen that moment to attack, Akio wouldn't have replied anyway.

In any case, the mage circled around his opponent as Yuko started to assault Akio, the white-haired boy redirecting the blows as much as he could.

"Yo!" The mage yelled, jabbing his staff forward. Yuko spun around, using her hand to push the tip of the staff away while her cannon spun, blocking the stream of [Energy Bolts] Ascion was now pelting her with.

While Yuko was occupied by Ascion's attack, Akio shot forward, punching at the girl's head. Having both her hands occupied, Yuko kicked out instead, knocking away Akio's fist.

Akio used that momentum to spin into a sweeping kick. Yuko jumped over the attack, her own leg lashing out while in mid-air and catching Akio in the head right as he was getting up, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Before Yuko could land, Ascion pelted her with multiple [Energy Bolts]. She crossed her arms, taking the attacks without flinching, ignoring the damage she took. Ascion then reinforced his staff with as much magic as he could and swung it at the girl, intending to send her flying up.

What happened instead was Ascion's staff snapping under the girl's weight.

The mage hastily leapt back, Yuko's downward swing missing him by mere inches. A sudden wave of nausea caused him to flop his landing, and Ascion fell on his rear painfully. Then he yelped in pain as what remained of his staff exploded in his hand.

What the- the nausea I understand. I've been using way more mana than I'm used to, and I didn't expect the effects of the anti-nausea pill to last long, anyway. But my staff exploding? Since when could I expel enough mana to cause a power overload?!

Ascion pushed himself to his feet, brushing the splinters off his hands (thank the Goddess for gloves) as he watched Akio attack the girl, keeping her away from the mage.

Curling his fingers into fists, Ascion reinforced his body with magic before jumping into the fray.

This is bad. Yuko must be quite heavy if she could snap my reinforced staff with just her weight. I doubt we can immobilize her by getting her up in the air. Also, Akio has lost his mace and I have lost my last staff. In other words, we're both weaponless while our enemy still has a giant cannon.

Ascion continued his stream of thoughts as he weaved in and out of Yuko's heavy strikes, lashing out with fast punches to distract the white-haired girl.

Looks like my body conditioning is paying off- no, focus! If we can't launch her into the air, then we would have to hold her in place, most likely by pinning her to a surface.

Yuko suddenly swung her cannon in a tight circle, forcing both boys to jump back. As Ascion returned to fighting, Akio quickly unbuckled his armour, leaving only his gauntlets and greaves before he went back to helping Ascion.

I could try to fashion ropes with my mana to strap her down while Akio pins her, but I don't have enough mana to form ropes that strong, not without a staff to amplify my power.

It was then Ascion's gaze landed on Yuko's cannon. I wonder…

Ascion teleported, appearing behind Akio. He grabbed the warrior before teleporting again, this time straight up, and grabbed onto a tiny handhold on the side of the cliff.

Ascion grunted at the weight, but he quickly started to talk. "Akio, let's aim for the cannon. If we destroy it, we could use the pieces as makeshift weapons."

As soon as Akio gave a grunt of affirmation, Ascion teleported again, and both boys appeared directly behind Yuko just as she fired at the spot they were at.

Akio rushed in first, Ascion right behind him. The mage was already outlining a rough action plan. The first step: find a way to destroy the cannon. In order to do that...

"Akio, aim high!"

Akio continued running without acknowledging Ascion's shout, so he wasn't sure if the warrior had heard him right, but his worries were put to rest when Akio clasped his hands together and swung his arms in an overhead blow.

Yuko brought her weapon up and, like the last few times, redirected his blow to the side with a spin of her weapon. However, Akio had expected this, and instead of staggering, he spun with the momentum, attacking again.

Yuko redirected the attack, flicking it aside. She almost didn't make it, however, and her counter was weak. Akio easily recovered and took another swing.

This time, Yuko was forced to stop moving, instead raising her cannon to block the hit. At that moment, Ascion moved in.

He ducked under the cannon Yuko held aloft. Then, gathering a large portion of his remaining mana into his hand, he lashed out at the belly of the weapon. The spear of mana couldn't pierce through weapon, but the energy itself transferred through the metal, the shockwaves exploding into the inner workings of the cannon.

The moment Yuko realize where Ascion was, she attempted to push her cannon down to crush his skull. Akio quickly noticed her intentions, and he gripped the cannon to hold it in place.

Seeing that he still had several seconds before Yuko manages to squash his head, Ascion quickly took ahold of the mana he had just expelled into the cannon, using it to check for ways to blow it up or, failing which, take it apart.

Are those… Coolant cells? And that's a mana storage core. There seems to be a conversion and firing mechanism as well… what's with this over complicated weapon design? Coolant cells, mana storage, those are usually unnecessary, even in such a large cannon...

Whatever. More complicated means more ways to break it.

Focusing his mana, Ascion gathered the dispersing energy back into a single spot, adding more of his mana in to stabilize it. Moving the reformed [Energy Bolt] to the coolant cells, Ascion detonated it and backed off, right before Yuko kicked at him.

In the few precious seconds Ascion took to do that, Akio strained to hold Yuko in place. The moment he saw Yuko raise her leg, Akio shoved at the gun so that Yuko would stumble.

Following that, from her position on the side of the cliff, Kaede let loose her arrow.

Caught off guard, Yuko was unable to deflect the projectile in time. Despite that, she was able to twist aside at the last second, causing the arrowhead to slash deeply across her bicep. For anybody else, a cut that deep would have rendered the entire arm useless from the nerve damage, blood loss and pain.

However, her arm was still entirely mobile, the severed artificial muscle fibres merely spewing a wave of sparks before the broken circuitry was sealed.

Aiming the cannon at the boys, Yuko pulled the trigger as Akio leapt in front of Ascion, hands brought up in a cross block.

Kaede gritted her teeth in frustration as she slung her bow on her back, shifting from her position on the cliff face. No sniper should stay in the same spot after a shot, after all.

I missed. I hesitated and missed.

That was her foremost thought as she slid down the cliff, making her way to her next sniping spot on a dead tree.

I could have fired before Akio had let go of her. I could have shot her arm out without hitting Akio. It would've worked, but I hesitated and missed.

She shimmied up the tree, effortlessly avoiding the brittle branches and perched herself on a sturdy one.

I only have one arrow left…

An explosion. Kaede unslung her bow and nocked her last arrow. Her fingers were numb from all the shooting she did, and her muscles were screaming in pain as she pulled the bowstring back into a full draw, but she kept it in place.

I take too long to draw my arrow. I have to be ready to shoot at any time, even if it hurts. Her eyes narrowed as she ignored the pain in her arms. This time, I will not hesitate. I will not miss.

Her arrow glowed with power as she took aim at her target.

As Yuko pulled the trigger, the mechanism in her cannon drew her mana, converting the magical energy into electrical energy before being stored in the core.

As the energy in the core grew, so did its temperature. The coolant would usually kick in at this point, circulating liquid around the core so as to keep the temperature levels in check.

However, Ascion had destroyed the pipes. The coolant could not flow properly, emptying uselessly into the machinery.

As such, the core continued to heat up as more and more energy was pumped into it. The wiring around the core instantly melted from the intense heat, and the firing mechanism deformed. When the cannon was ready to fire, there was no way to expel the energy properly.

The cannon exploded.

Akio grimaced at the loud bang as pieces of metal bounced off his hardened skin. Apart from the ones that were obviously glowing red hot - those stung quite a bit - none of them hurt him more than the sound did.

Ascion grinned as his plan succeeded. With no time to waste, he immediately scanned the debris for something he could use. As long as it is magically conductive, anything the vague shape of a staff would do.

And, as he had felt earlier, virtually the entire cannon was magically conductive.

Just as he located such a piece, a humming sound caught the attention of both boys.

In a flash, Akio had scooped up one of the bigger chunks of metal – a large and curved rectangular piece that looked like it had been a part of the cannon's barrel – and instinctively swung it up to guard.

Not a moment too late, as an energy dagger sparked off the metal, leaving a thin line across the surface.

As they watched, the thrown dagger returned to Yuko's hand as another one pulled itself out of Yuko's back. It floated down into the girl's other hand, the energy blade seemingly small in her grip.

There's something decidedly familiar about those daggers. Ascion decided. He would have to ponder more on it later, preferably when he wasn't fighting for his life.

The mage twirled his new makeshift staff, immensely glad that it wasn't one of the red hot pieces. He couldn't spare any mana to cast cooling magic, not if he wanted to carry out the rest of his plan properly.

With nary a word, Yuko threw the two daggers in her hands at Akio. The warrior spun his new shield, batting aside the projectiles before he blocked a lunge from Yuko, diverting her stab to the side.

Almost immediately after she landed, Yuko shot forward again. Daggers flew from her hands – geez, how many does she have? – belting out at Akio one after another.

In response, Akio pushed his fingers through the edge of the plate, curling them around the new grip. He used his new, now vaguely briefcase-shaped weapon to bat away the daggers.

Holding his weapon with one hand, Akio had freed his left hand for other maneuvers. His empty hand shot forward, catching Yuko by the wrist as she tried to stab him.

Just as he tried to attack, however, Yuko jumped to the side. Akio was pulled off balance and his swing went wide, but he kept his grip on Yuko.

As Akio tried to unbalance Yuko, Ascion charged at her, bring his staff down in an overhead blow. The staff glowed with power, a simple blue orb of mana perched on the tip.

The binding magic Ascion intended to use was an original spell he had created. It was a simple ball of mana that, when released, would latch onto the first thing it touches and sprout numerous ropes. These ropes would then curl around any nearby object before anchoring themselves into the ground, pulling the target down.

Of course, against a superior opponent like Yuko, Ascion had no doubt that the girl could tear apart the ropes effortlessly, but it should hold her long enough.

As he moved to attack, Ascion's sharp mind noticed something amiss.

I'm too close. She should have reacted by now.

Something's wrong. She reacted easily to my attacks before, she knows I'm behind her. Why isn't she reacting now?

It's a trap.

Ascion sent the last of his mana into his legs and leaped backwards, twisting his body to dodge the anticipated attack. He switched his intended overhead blow into a forward jab, shooting the spell at Yuko's back and praying that it wouldn't unravel too early or too late.

Out of Yuko's back, ten energy blades rocketed out, spearing the area behind her as she continued to fight Akio.

Four of them stabbed Ascion.

The mage screamed in pain as the daggers dug into his flesh. Dimly, he realized that his last minute dodge had carried him just barely out of range so that the daggers didn't pierce all the way through.

The daggers froze in the air about a meter away from the girl, but Ascion continued to fly back. He felt the daggers slide out of his body before he collided with the ground. Rolling to a stop, Ascion was painfully aware of the blood pooling around him.

With his mana spent, Ascion knew he couldn't even try to heal himself. Falling unconscious, he wondered if he would ever wake up again.

Happy New Year everybody!

Yay cliffhangers.

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