Hello Scrolls and Nazarins, returning to the fights in my fanfic The One Who Came Back.
Two fights reach their climax. Evileye receives unexpected help and Gargaran resurfaces.
With you
The One Who Came Back
Chapter 87: Lost Time/Move
North Gate
The vampire was tired; she had been pierced more times than she could remember, and never had so many wounds bothered her.
Before embracing vampirism, such damage would have required treatment with a lot of animal blood, far from her companions. Now, a few sips of human blood would suffice—unless the injuries had been inflicted by a silver weapon.
The Needle of Time was certainly a weapon used to combat vampires, who had superior speed; this sword served to balance the fight.
Evileye tried to predict where the next strike would come from. Perhaps she could protect herself completely inside a crystal dome, but she would be isolating herself, and that would only serve to buy time. Even so, the boy never took his eyes off her; any magical circle, and he would stab her.
Turbulence sat on a table, jovially swinging his legs as he watched the mage suffer, thinking whether he should tear her clothes in the next attack.
Behind the sadistic boy, a frightened girl looked directly at Evileye. Their gazes finally met. She still hid behind the pillar, seemingly more terrified of her companion than of anything else at the moment. Then, she finally had the courage to mouth two words.
Words Evileye didn't understand.
"Be atrocious? Flee after? Kill fierce? What is she trying to say? How do you fight someone who stops time? I can't teleport; if I try to fly, he'll stab me before I leave the ground. I can't attack. How do I fight someone so…" At that moment, it was as if a light bulb had gone off inside Evileye's head and a choir of angels had sung.
The boy with the sword decided his fun was over; he needed to open the gates to start the attack. Even though only a minute had passed since the girls appeared, he had a job to do.
"No time to waste," he laughed to himself.
Turbulence of Time: that was the title he chose after winning his sword and seeing what it could do. It seemed like a fitting name, and he loved using those powers.
Magical weapons were incredible! There was no need to cast a spell or wait for magical circles; their use was instantaneous.
For years, he used them for small pranks, then for evildoings and harassment. The palace girls who ignored him were his main victims.
Evileye stood up and faced the boy. As if synchronized, both attacked.
Being in the Temporal Flow, Turbulence approached the mage, wanting to recharge one last time before killing her.
The girl was in front of him, her arm extended as if she wanted to punch someone. When the sword pierced her stomach again, he felt his throat crush.
"Gooooot yoooouuuu youuuu b-baaastaaaard," the vampire spoke as if she were in slow motion.
When the frightened girl had said those two words, the vampire finally remembered her studies from almost two hundred years ago. Time spells were rare and all above level 10. Definitely, the boy wasn't a level 10 mage, and even though his weapon was legendary, it wasn't on that level either, so he was doing something else.
"Be swift": the two words the girl mouthed. That was enough for Evileye to realize the boy was just moving at such a high speed that he disappeared.
With effort, she had to concentrate all her vampiric power to accelerate herself. Perhaps her lady, being a superior vampire, would have immediately realized that the boy was merely moving very fast.
This was something she needed to practice: accelerating her senses and body to be almost invisible. She had never done something like this, not at this speed. Everything around her seemed frozen. Even though she wasn't as fast as the weapon made Turbulence, for a fraction of a moment, she managed to match him. Now she seemed to drag herself as she removed her mask, revealing her crimson eyes.
"I HAVE TO DIE!" the boy screamed inside as he saw the vampire's eyes and teeth, realizing how much he would suffer.
He knew that, even though the pain was immediate, any damage he received in the flow, the effects would only hit him when he left the spell, as everything was happening in a split second. So, he needed to die as quickly as possible.
He tried to breathe, but his throat was crushed, preventing any attempt to stop the spell. The other option was to release the blade, but when he thought about it, he felt another hand on his and the pressure that crushed his fingers against the weapon's hilt.
"Yooouuuu aaareeeeee miiiiiiiine!"
A person can live on average four minutes without breathing. For Turbulence, it seemed like an eternity. Evileye made very good use of that time to deal with the boy.
The theocracy girl didn't know if her words had helped. To her, it simply seemed that Turbulence had disappeared from there and reappeared in the middle of a blood explosion with the mage. The boy's body was in tatters from the neck to the waist, peeled down to the bones.
"By the Six! What did she do?" whispered the theocrat.
"You! Girl from the Theocracy! Do you have a potion?" Evileye asked, hiding her face behind the mask.
"H-H-Here, my lady!" the girl stammered, running to give her the potion.
"Not for me, for her." Evileye pointed at Godia while sitting next to the body. "Why did you help me?"
"I-I also need h-help. The Theocracy has fallen, they can't protect me anymore, they are also a target. I have to h-hide far from them."
"You betrayed your friend."
"H-Hewasn'tm-myfriend!" the girl quickly said, instinctively trying to hide the body.
Evileye had already seen this in women rescued from slavery dens.
"Who do you need to hide from?" Evileye asked.
"The Sorcerer King," answered the Thousand-Mile Astrologer. "He knows I saw his power in Katze. He will come after me."
"Tch. Just what I needed," Evileye muttered. "You're sleepy," she said, her eyes glowing crimson. She had to put the girl to sleep until she decided what to do.
"I-I am, I haven't slept in months. Thank you for asking..." the girl replied absentmindedly as she finished giving the potion.
'FUCK! I have to practice that too,' Evileye thought. "Alright, you're under the protection of the Blue Roses. I'll try to find asylum for you in the Holy Kingdom... if we survive," the vampire said, hoping to recover with the little blood the boy had to offer.
West Gate
The Monk was trying to recover from the blow he had taken. Spitting blood, he made a decision: now was not the time to hold back.
"Martial Art! ASURA!"
Cedran took his stance to defend himself. He knew almost all the names of martial arts, from the most common ones like Fortress to those exotic ones like Puma Ambush, whatever that did. But that name, that one he had never heard.
Brutt was raised and trained in a community far to the south. The monks there taught a different fighting style and a different philosophy of life. Despite their teachings, he left the place when he was young; the desire to see the world drove him. He became an adventurer, fell into disgrace, and recovered. Now he served a leader of a new religion, something that intrigued him, though it was still similar to the philosophy he had learned.
The martial art he used combined three other arts at once, and he had been taught since childhood to only use it to defend himself and as a last resort. It increased his strength, endurance, and speed.
With impressive speed, he attacked Cedran. Cedran raised his tower shield before being struck, then came the side blow. He moved the shield to that side, but another punch came from the opposite side. Using the smaller shield, he defended himself. The blows started coming faster and faster: left, right, from below, from above.
The Warrior of Innumerable Barriers was living up to his name, until he blocked two punches at once, but a third one got through and hit him.
"What was that?"
New blows and more punches came, the speed of these fists so fast that, to Cedran, it seemed as if he were being attacked by a man with six arms.
This attack lasted until a punch landed directly on his jaw, and Cedran took advantage of the larger opening to strike Brutt, throwing him against a building under construction.
The monk emerged from there carrying a massive beam on his shoulder. It must have been about ten meters long and fifty centimeters wide; he was really strong.
"Come at me," Cedran said, smiling after spitting out a tooth.
Brutt used the beam to strike sideways, but it was blocked. He spun and tried to hit the shield warrior's legs, but again without success; his speed was exhausted.
The only option left was his strength. So, he aimed the beam right at Cedran's midsection and charged with all his might. The man used his shield to deflect the blow.
The beam hit the gate behind him, creating a square hole in the solid wood. The monk quickly pulled it out, spun it overhead, and once again tried to strike like a battering ram toward the stomach, but it was completely blocked.
"Third time's the charm," Brutt muttered.
One last attempt, that was all he had left. With all his strength, he tried to strike Cedran's head, but at the last moment, he lowered the tip of the beam, attempting a low blow.
The shield warrior noticed the maneuver and quickly lowered his protection, deflecting the blow to the ground.
With the momentum, the beam dug into the earth. Brutt ended up slipping and getting pinned under the weight of the wood, powerless.
Looking at his exhausted opponent, Cedran spoke.
"If you were fighting my colleague, you'd be dead already. Even so, you never stood a chance; no one has ever been able to move me."
Brutt then lifted his face with a smile.
"Maybe not me, but she can."
Cedran looked up just in time to see the Heavy Warrior falling from the top of the building. He protected himself with his shield before realizing that he wasn't the target.
Iron Vil struck the tip of the beam with a force never before used. On the opposite side, the other end shot up so fast that it was impossible to defend.
Someone once said: "Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world."
Cedran wasn't the world, but the logic applied. He was struck in the groin with such force that he flew over the wall, hurled far away, landing a few mille behind enemy lines.
This fight was over.
Gargaran approached Brutt, pushed the beam that had been split by the force of the blow, as well as the monk's shoulder.
"Hey, you alive?"
"No, let me rest in peace," he replied humorously.
The warrior grabbed the crushed shoulder and pushed it back up, with the sound of breaking branches, putting it back in place.
"Ow! Take it easy with the pain."
"Stop whining," she said, tossing one of her potions on the wound, which began to heal.
"What do we do now?" Brutt wanted to know.
Gargaran picked up a rock and threw it through the hole in the gate, resulting in a scream of pain and death from the other side. The sound of hurried footsteps was heard until it faded into the distance.
"Let's hope they stay scared," she said, lying down in the middle of the street.
...
Author's Note
The fights come to an end, if anyone thought Evileye's fight would be easier, I considered her lack of experience as a vampire, Shalltear would have killed the boy before he touched her.
Gargaran and Brutt won because they were experienced warriors and knew how to anticipate their colleague.
Next week the other two fights will end.
