"Source of surging water..." "Raging flames..."
"drown them in a devastating flood!" "scatter them like a maelstrom!"
"Mega Water!" "Mega Fire!"
Raging flames met flooding water in another explosion of steam. Noah breathed hard- it was like this woman had limitless stamina. He "just" needed to outlast the fucking artificial spirit, but he was already at his limit, magically speaking, and if she just kept pressing, he couldn't even recover by using the mana in the air.
But if he didn't have enough magic... he knew who did.
"Just what is that?" His fiery companion asked numbly. "For a moment, I thought she was somehow the bearer of Undine, but…"
"Can it wait?!" Noah shouted. "Burn, Salamander!"
It took a moment longer than he'd liked, but the comforting warmth of her fire wrapped around him, his soul lit ablaze.
"Right. I don't know what quackery this is, but this opponent is far beyond you. Her mastery of elemental power is a joke, but her power is far superior to your current level with my fire, and somehow, she was able to force herself into a Serene Mind state. A joke of a Serene Mind, but enough to dodge you nonetheless."
"So?" he asked, teeth grit as he heard her prepare to cast Mega Water again. This bitch wanted to drown them.
"Hmmm... well, this is a bit of a pickle. She can dodge your every move, and unfortunately, you aren't so superior to her in strength so that you can just overwhelm her and ignore her Serene Mind anyways..."
"Raging Flames, scatter them like a maelstrom!" He shouts, but if the way he's still almost swept off of his feet is any indication, his attacks are only getting weaker through the steam, while hers are getting stronger. "Come up with anything?!"
"I'm just puzzled by you not running away. You have no stakes in this fight- the man you're trying to protect is the same person you want to hand over to justice. You know, the one represented by this mermaid?" Salamander huffs, and Noah's bubbling hatred in his mind provides a response that is wordless and yet informative. "Fine then. First, make yourself as strong as you can with holy magic- I'm already doubting you can handle things with it, but maybe whoever's providing will decide to show up."
He drops to the ground as Salamander abruptly cuts off her power, and turns that into a roll out of the way of a noise that splits the air as a water bullet nearly tries to cave in his head. And then, he stills.
The mermaid right now is blinded by the steam and deafened from earlier. Silently, and pressed against a wall of the cave having made his silhouette as small and unassuming as he could, he murmured prayer after prayer. Strength, dexterity, agility, endurance, magic, mind... if he had it, he used it. Somehow, it failed to prove a drain on him as he'd previously assumed, even though he was basically hanging by a thread due to Salamander cutting off her power. Feeling testy, he decided to heal himself, just in time for the mermaid to finally spot him as the steam cleared.
Springing to his feet just as she grinned at having spotted him, he shouted. "What now?!"
"Now, hand over control."
"What?" he said, leaping backwards, only for Grandine to wink at him, the mermaid propelled forwards by a jet of water to bodily tackle him to the floor and causing him to drop his sword.
In the violence of the fight, the softness and being held in her arms startled him for a moment. She pulled herself back slightly, smiling at him. "Got you~" she sang. "Now, I'm gonna make you into my slave, so that you won't ever feel like harming a mermaid ever again." Her gel-coated hand slipped into his pants, and she quickly reached for his manhood.
Noah began thrashing, trying his damndest to get the mermaid off, but with an elegant move, she used his own strength against him, tugging forward his arm, forcing his head in her breasts, and holding it there.
"Are you just going to let yourself be raped again?! Summon me again, and let yourself go!" Salamander shouted at him.
Head filled with panic, the only thing left for him to do was to listen. Yanking his head away just as she was about to begin raping him, he shouted. "BURN, SALAMANDER!"
A moment later, his entire world was pain, his body catching fire as the mermaid shouted in dismay. The usual burn, not unlike soreness, was replaced with infernal heat, as though someone had gotten him close and personal with the lava from Salamander's volcano.
"You..." The mermaid breathed, frightened.
Despite that, his body stumbled back into standing. "I'll make this quick. since your body clearly can't handle me at full strength. Burn to ashes with this infernal breath!" Salamander roars, and in the next moment, everything is white as white flames engulf the cavern, turning the water to steam and the steam to nothing.
A moment later, and he can feel Salamander's power drain out of him once more. "I've done all I can. Any more and you'll burn to a crisp."
However, as the spots clear out of his vision, the only reason that his blood fails to run cold is that it's currently on fire and making him very aware of that fact.
A five-pointed (not six, like the stupid game animation implied) barrier stood tall and proud before him. As though Salamander had not just pulled out temperatures that turned the surrounding cave to lava.
"...well." The mermaid breathes. "Were I anyone else, human, that blast would have surely killed me. Even now, I am quaking, knowing that if I let down this barrier, I will surely die." she pauses. "So I won't. Even though I really want to... even if I will not get to personally get revenge on the criminals who attacked my daughter... your life ends here." she huffs. "All I can do right now is maintain this barrier, but your attacks surely alerted the rest of the mermaids. They will be here any minute now." She smiles cruelly. "You cannot move past me to your destination, and I can see that you recognize the unmatched defense of the Aqua Pentagram."
"Salamander?" Noah mutters in response, even if breathing is agony.
"I can't do anything, anymore." she whispers. "I'm sorry."
Slowly, Noah sinks to his knees. His body is past its limits several times over, and as the enhancement spells fade, the only thing keeping him conscious is the amount of pain he's in from the burns coating his entire body.
He will die. He will die to a mermaid, who will rape him until he's nothing more than a shrivelled husk. He will- die now, if the approaching sound of footsteps is anything to go by.
...wait.
Foosteps?
Mermaids don't...
"Well, well, well. I am impressed, by the both of you." What greets him is the sound of malice and science, corrupted progress that turned insane from aeons spent in a cave.
Promestein is here.
Vital energy flows into his body, and he feels like he can breathe a little easier again. Though, if the way his throat still hurts and the smattering of burns on his body are any indication, Salamander's hellfire still has taken its toll on him, beyond what healing magic can realistically fix.
Magic and realistically - what an oxymoron.
"Here to help? At a price, I assume." Noah huffs, glancing at the scientist. What would she ask? His blood? To experiment with a weird drug? His semen?
"Not at all." Promestein smiles thinly at him. "I am simply here to observe. My Grandine is exceeding expectations- the Aqua Pentagram is a very difficult spell to cast for someone not of royal descent."
"So what, you've only come here to gloat?" His incredulous stare burrowed into her. He glanced at the barrier, but it seemed like it was all the mermaid could do to hold it up... and all that she needed, if reinforcements were coming.
Promestein shrugged. "Perhaps. After all, if even with the power of the spirit of fire you can't pierce through, then what use I have for you when the artificial spirits are easily replicated?"
Her cold tone pierced through him like an arrow. As his eyes widened, she smiled wider. "Of course, should you prove otherwise, it'll be more than incentive enough to continue working together, won't it?"
His brain wracked for an answer, but... he had nothing. His skill with fire was nowhere near hers with water, he wasn't a half-angel with a skill specific for piercing barriers, and the only dispelling spell he was aware of... how did it go again?
Hands clasped, he murmured a prayer to the winds of power for clarity of mind, feeling the ambient magic respond. Right...
And it was only the work of the second strongest existence in the world after Ilias. No biggie. "Recede inmundissimi spiritus!" He thrust his hand out towards the barrier, imagining his magic to project outward and lashing out at Grandine.
His vision went white as he suddenly felt like a hand was squeezing his heart like a stress ball, and by the time he recovered, Promestein was looking down at him.
"Well... I can't say that wouldn't have worked, had you actually had the magical power for it, but I can't help but finding myself unimpressed all the same at just how inefficient your chosen method was." She sighed. "You are disappointing me, Noah. Sure, it uses dimensional magic, but it's a big wall of water. Use your head a little."
Taking a deep breath, he grit his teeth, walking up to the barrier. Salamander remained silent, allowing him to concentrate as the mermaid offered him a shit eating grin. Placing his hand against the barrier, it felt like water, but slamming his fist into it (not at full strength, he was no idiot) revealed it to be as hardy as a wall.
Promestein's hint thankfully helped a little. He shouldn't try to act upon the person behind the barrier, but the barrier itself. And if it was "just" water... well, he had an idea or two. Elemental magic was dark in nature, in this world... as far as he'd seen, at least, and lightning, somehow, wasn't. Or at least, if it was Ilias' favorite spell, surely it could be cast using holy magic.
"ETA one minute, Noah." Promestein droned. "When you die, would you like to donate all of your organs to science?"
He grit his teeth. To him, holy energy and dark energy had felt completely identical... but then again, he only ever interacted with it using his five senses- most creatures in this world could apparently just perceive magic. Still, if he needed to use a holy spell, surely it would need a different incantation...
Introduce entropy, weaken the barrier, smite the water, cook the bitch. He could do it. "Heaven, part the clouds and rain down punishment on the wicked! Judgement-" he grit his teeth as he once more felt like his heart was being used as a stress ball, "Zap!" He amended the spell that he'd come up with on the spot, weakening the spell and reducing the magic required.
Lightning shot out of his hand, pouring into the barrier. He was practically frying himself here as well, being in contact with it, but he needed feedback, he needed to feel and guide the lightning.
Through a web of holy lightning, he felt in profound contact with the entirety of the wall. The process in his mind was already occurring, it just needed to happen faster.
Dive deeper. He visualized every individual part of the wall.
Dive deeper. He visualized the singular drop of water that composed it.
Dive deeper. He visualized the molecules that composed the drops of water.
He cracked his eyes open barely, staring with a grin at the mermaid. "Promestein, surely you know this, but... with lightning one can turn water into fire."
With that, the last he saw of the mermaid was her confused expression turning to horror as water split into hydrogen and oxygen, the lightning sparks more than enough to set the oxygen on fire, which then turned the hydrogen into more combustible. What was even better was that somehow, her technique still held, shielding him from the veritable firestorm he unleashed.
Promestein clapped politely as his knees proceeded to give out from under him. "Good showing, Noah. Knew I kept you around for something."
"You... didn't..." he breathed hard.
"Didn't I?" She asked, faux-surprised. "Well, it seems as good a time to start as any now, since I doubt you'll be escaping the mermaids on your own."
"...you did good, Noah." Salamander breathed, though it sounded a little hollow.
Picking him up off the floor, she snapped her fingers, making his broadsword and the mermaid's body disappear as she bent down and picked him up. A burst of speed later, and Noah allowed his eyes to roll back into his head as Promestein carried him out of the tunnel.
Grandine awakens. It is what she happens when her name is called; usually, she spends most of her time in sleep mode to save energy. The mermaid she has been bonded to is a ruthless warrior... though, as long as she shares at least some semen, Grandine doesn't care much for what happens to the prey.
They aren't practicing anymore, however, which surprises her. She checks her schedule to see if she somehow missed some memo or slept too long... she didn't.
New thing, then?
Grandine watches the fight with a sort of detachment. She's there, but at the same time... she isn't.
Agonizing heat that she protects her mermaid animist from rolls off the human, and by her calculations, the human should be keeling over any time now.
...except, that assessment stopped working about three successful blows ago. Grandine makes a note to notify Mistress Promestein of the faulty programming, as she starts to feel something she didn't expect. Worry.
Most of her energy and all of her animist's energy is used just to survive the human dragonkin's breath attack, conjuring up the Water Barrier.
And yet, it still greedily sucks up the mana in the air like an all-consuming force. After a sudden burst of healing- Mistress Promestein? What?- The creature stalks the outside of the barrier, its figure aglow in the aftermath of the inferno.
Grandine doesn't believe she has ever felt true fear from her summoner. Right now... right now, Grandine is feeling fear for herself. Especially since, despite the impossibility of it, it feels like the creature is looking right at her.
"Recede Inimmundis Spiritus!" it growls, and Grandine's heart feels a jolt, as though it was forcibly restarted. What was that?
No, no distractions. Gotta keep up the water barrier.
Lightning, thin and frail, tries to snake its way through the barrier, but it can't really do anything when the two halves, outside and inside, are spatially isolated from one another.
But then, it does something else. It attacks the barrier itself, trails of lightning transforming on an alchemical level, and Grandine feels her grip slip as the barrier is suddenly air and fire, not water-
A firestorm, not as potent but much more pervasive than the previous one, consumes Grandine's world.
Mistress Promestein had made it so that the artificial spirits felt everything that their owners felt, to accelerate the synchronization process and to provide "a natural incentive to keep their owner alive". Up until that moment, Grandine had not realized what this meant.
Now, Grandine was deeply familiar with new things. The feeling of fearing for your life, the feeling of asking yourself what your daughters will do when you are gone, the feeling of being burnt alive as the very air in your lungs was set on fire-
Grandine hears her recall command, and while she's still in a stupor, her body reacts regardless, un-fusing from the charred husk of a mermaid in order to let herself be analyzed by her Mistress.
"Hmmm. Some valuable data was gathered. It appears I was overzealous in giving your particular batch emotions... But you served your purpose well enough, and it would be a waste to throw you away. It seems your particular emotions are... well in tune with those of my next subject. You two should get along well. AS Model Grandine, turn off."
As always, she follows the command.
Prior to today, however, she had never quite feared oblivion as much as she does right now.
You know you're doing something wrong when the battle junkie spirit asks you why you're fighting.
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