Calm Eggplant Enjoying A Simple Life (Campione - Mash Kyrielight SI Chapter 7)
I fucking hate archers.
Okay, not Archer archers, but like normal archer archers.
"Stop moving, you fly. You're only prolonging your suffering." Skadi calmly said, distain in her voice and face, as she fired another hail of ice arrows.
I blocked with my shield easily. Didn't even feel it, but the problem was this ice bitch was on some trick shot train.
Snow near me pulse with energy, only a millisecond for me to react before arrows were fired from it. I jumped back, dodging it, but of course that just meant Skadi had another shot at me.
It seems part of her power, being connected to all the snow she conjured was that if she fired an arrow into one part of the snow, it would come out from any other part of the snow when she wanted.
I flinched my head to the side, getting a cut on the cheek. Okay, good!
Then I felt the ice and cold was spreading from the cut.
I instantly flooded myself with magical energy, letting the ice break and fall off of me.
"The fuck, I thought Campione's Magic Resistance made them immune to this shit." I said to myself.
"The Blizzard's Bite is all devouring, knave." Skadi called out, with that haughty look on her face, as if me surviving was disappointing for her. Blizzard's Bite, I felt the capitalization. Yeah, definitely an authority. "For normal mortals it would have eaten through their defenses and frost even the blood and magic in their vein, but I suppose Devil King are as persistent as cockroaches. Thus for you, I suppose the cold needs to be bone deep before you acknowledge it." She gave a cruel smile. "Don't worry, I will only freeze you and rip piece off bit by bit, till your patron comes to your rescue."
"Holy shit, lady." I couldn't help but say. "You need to chill and calm your fucking tits. Didn't anyone every tell you, no one likes a yandere?" I shouted back.
Inner Mash, now isn't the time to be thinking on Ritsuka and his interactions with Berserker Servants and whatever other crazy Servant that somehow wasn't a Berserker.
And Galahad is being reminded of... What the fuck is the Castle of Maidens? Castle Anthrax is real!?
"How dare you!? I'm not obsessed! And I definitely didn't make a group of female hunters because I was tired of failing to find a good husband!" Skadi fired larger and larger arrows.
I could still block them, or parry them away, but when they break the make the environment around me colder (which wasn't a big deal at the start), or hit another portion of snow and appear from somewhere else.
I stopped one arrow as tall as me, pushing me back, and having to dig in my heels to keep my footing. Only for the arrow I dodged to appear from some snow behind me.
Yeah, I'm not dealing with it missing me, only to land in the snow and come at me again.
I back flipped over the arrow, and as it passed I swung my shield breaking it to pieces. A cold wave spread from the shattered arrow.
I needed to go on the offensive.
"Come forth, O' Holy Spear." I called and summoned the lance.
I ran at Skadi, throwing the lance at her, while closing the distance.
Dozens of arrows have already been fired at that point, but I just let my inherited instincts take over, and focused on closing the distant.
Spin, smack the arrow shattering it. Jump parry an ice arrow into another. Dodge, and kick the arrow. Run, jump on an arrow, kicking it to shatter and dash from it to another.
Grab an arrow that missed me, to hit a few more, breaking other arrows before the one in my hand cracked and broke. Ignore the burning coldness in my hand from the arrow shattering.
Over and over I had to maneuvers to avoid the ice arrows, while breaking them, running almost parallel with my thrown lance. (Going to ignore how physics isn't suppose to work like that.)
I was close to Skadi as I had vanquished all of her attacks. I could see her eyes widening that I almost reached her.
Then she smirked and disappeared from where she was standing, reappearing further away, and firing a building-sized arrow at me. Of fucking course she can teleport through snow.
"Lord Camelot!" I fired my Noble Phantasm, blocking the arrow completely.
And rather than reflecting it back, I took the momentum and spun.
The timing is gonna need to be perfect.
I could hear the people still in the city crying out from the earthquake of the result of his fight s far, and the close. A few even close by in this area, some even crying. It sounded like a child.
I needed to end this.
Everything felt like moving in slow motion.
The lance was passing next to me. I was finishing my spin, arm pulled back.
The lance was passed me, but still in arm's reach.
"Cruentum Lancea!" I thrust my arm forward, punching the spear from the pommel.
The Noble Phantasm activated as the lance glowed and launched toward the goddess with a boom.
"What?!" Skadi's eyes widened this time in fear, as she made a giant shield. It looked like part of a castle wall. Is she mimicking me?
The ice shield cracked and broke as the sacred lance blew through it, and the Heretic God gave out a cry of pain. Dust and snow blew up form the impact and the wind.
I grinned. I got her.
I ran forward now letting the goddess take a chance to regain her bearing.
"Damn... you!" She cried out.
As the dust and snow settled to show the goddess was injured. I frowned though, as it was an anime injury. Yes, being cut heavily in the side would be fatal to most people, but not a goddess.
"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" Skadi cried out, as the wind of the blizzard around us raged stronger. Arrows formed in all manner of shapes and sizes. She was vunrable, if I dash, she'd be in range to grab her.
My eyes widened in terror when I looked at a larger scale of what's happening around me.
Some of the people still in the buildings around us were shaking from the close. Those closer looked like they were beginning to freeze over. I looked to the nearest building and there was a child crying for her mom.
Oh come the fuck on!
My mind moved a mile a minute. I can't block all those arrows, as she's throwing them around indiscriminately. Even if I did I still need to deal with the cold.
What would Mash do?
Inner Mash shouted that she'd protect everyone.
Right! Her Skills.
"I am the knight of the shield! I swear to be the bulwark to the wicked's malice and wrath." This Skill doesn't exactly work the same as in the game mechanic. "My allies need not fear the enemy's strike. The innocent will never feel the black-hearted's blade." So let's translate the game mechanic into real life. "All blows come and try to take my head," I grinned, challenging Skadi's blizzard itself. "Shield of Rousing Resolution."
Around Round Shield glowed, like it's activating its Noble Phantasm, then the magic circle formula that normally glowed over it, appeared and began spinning.
I immediately felt the cold hit me a hundred times worse.
"Lord Camelot!" I added my Noble Phantasm on top of that.
I instantly took out the Masamune sword I was gifted by the HCC, and drew on my nerfed Authority letting it fill the blade to the brim. The sword started shining, flaring across the blizzard's wind, like a lighthouse in the dark.
I didn't need an incantation for this, but I cast both my Authority and a spell to guide the effect further.
"Let the Sun God's light overcome and engulf all! Let those under the light's gaze never know the cold's bite. Prabhakara!"
I placed the shield on my back, kneeled on one leg and stabbed the glowing blazing sword into the ground.
All the arrowed changed direction, all wind, snow and cold converged onto me.
The sword light and heat kept shining, kept pushing against the cold.
But my spell meant I was target focus of the cold, even if I was closest to the blade.
It was salvation to all the mundane people still around, even ones caught up in this angry goddess's ice storm. The light gently thawing and warming those frozen by Skadi's Authority. It warmed up those cold, breathing life into their dwindling forms.
I smiled as I felt the effect of my spell save the people around, and unfortunate enough to be caught in this fight.
Then the arrows hit. Kneeling made my shield cover all of me, making me a small target. Add in the Noble Phantasm, and I was easily able to withstand all the attacks.
However it seems, once again, the temperature is not accounted for!
Pain hit me deep in my bones, like the worst cold I've ever had. It felt like every breath was like needles and sharps running through my lungs.
I could have focused the effect of my Surya Authority on me, but the civilians still needed it more.
I just kept pushing myself to hold on, over and over. Inner Mash shouting for me to not give up.
Finally, agonizingly, after who knows how long, the arrows were over, and the cold wind simmer down.
My breathe come out in fogs. Frost cover all of me, I almost looked like an ice statue. My eyes blinking cracked the ice frozen over my eyelashes.
I was so cold, I couldn't feel my skin.
"How arrogant." Skadi said with contempt calmness. She had healed herself from her injury, and was now flying above me. "To dare pay attention to the lives of others, when you battle with me."
Oh fuck you and your godly pride, ice bitch.
"Artemis is suppose to be a protector of children!" I bit back venomously.
I figured out what other aspect is a part of her, from when she talked about a group of hunters. It explained at least the bow using.
Skadi looked around seeing the civilian still in the area, even if it was mostly a rural town and mostly evacuated.
She saw the lone child that her parents finally found and ran up to hug and warm her.
A deeper frown came on Skadi's face.
"So I am." Skadi looked at me, contempt still there, but her haughtiness was returning upon seeing my state. "I suppose with how much of my cold is within you, we can do as you wish and take this unpleasant exchange elsewhere."
Before I could react or say anything, I felt Skadi's cold wind rushing in again, and pull at me. I tried to stay in place, but I was being transported whether I wanted to or not. I screamed as the cold within me was dragging me far away.
Then everything was silent, only my screams remained, before I forcibly closed my mouth, clicking my teeth in the process.
"Welcome," Skadi said from a throne that appeared out of nowhere, and she was still floating above me. "To my Wind Rat Star Palace."
I could feel it. This place was another Authority. A palace high up. We were on top of a mountain?
"I suppose I don't need this here." She dismissed her bow as she now held a staff. "After all, you're now in my home."
Her appearance changed here and there. Her features softened, less Nordic and more eastern. Her clothes lost their fur becoming more elegant and flowing. Her staff was like a wizard staff, yet the head was angled to seem like it could stab someone.
"And here, I have no need to fight." Skadi said the word, and suddenly the cold within me intensified.
I cried out now flooding my insides with my Authority. My body seemed to glow, yet my right arm was starting to stiffen. Freezing from the inside out, appearing white, braces, gauntlets and all like a statue.
So I started circulating Surya's Light inside my veins, nerves and muscles. Pain returning with numbness running through my arm, but at least I could feel and move it again.
"Adaptive, aren't you?" Skadi smiled in amusement. So assured of herself.
But then again, this place feels like her blizzard times a thousand. It's the seat of her power.
"But I wonder how long you can hold out?" She said as the cold began hitting my from different parts. My other arm, my legs, my neck.
I had to run my Od and my Authority through my body circulating the magic energy and flaring my Magic Resistance to keep the cold from overtaking me and staying alive.
Damn, I really messed up, thinking I can tank her.
"Wind Rat Star Palace. Rat, the Chinese Constellation equivalent of Sagittarius." My brain was running a mile a minute, trying to make connections and referencing legends. "You're Tengliu? Wouldn't this be your husband's palace?"
"What belongs to my husband belongs to me." Skadi stated, distain on her lips. "Do not bother wasting your time planning to fight me, Usurper. In my palace my will is law, and even should you manage by some miracle to escape, we are high up the mountains of Kunlun. This high up there is nothing but ice and snow. There no escaping me, cur." She said with a dreadful smile.
"We're up a mountain?" I found myself smiling.
Skadi frowned and I found myself being smacked around by icicles flying at me from everywhere, as I had to defend myself with my bare hands, punching said ice shard away. Of course, everytime I hit them, they exploded and the cold suffused me.
"Wipe that smile off your face, it annoys me." Skadi sneered.
Yet even as I coughed, I couldn't stop smiling.
"You know, I think I'm starting to get you." I called up on all my magic energy, my Magic Core, no it would be a Divine Core now, pumping energy into me to dangerous levels, that I could pushed the cold almost completely away.
"You still dare defy me!" Skadi 'stood up' from her throne.
"Lord Camelot." I said plainly letting ephemeral castle take the brunt of the hits. The cold still came, but that wasn't an issue.
"That shield is only as strong as your will, right?" Skadi said. "Mortals seldom hold on before winter's breath."
"Yeah no one wants to stay alive and listen to a femcel cry about how dry her pussy has been for centuries." I shouted back.
Skadi's eyes widened in rage, as she screamed and launched her blizzard at me.
Yet I knew exactly how to get out of here.
And I even know a poem for this.
"One August night it spewed out fire, lava, rocks - volcanic. The Pompeiians were all afraid and ran about in panic. The city was destroyed that night, with heat and bangs and crashes, and buried under hundreds of tons of volcanic ashes." I took my shield from my back, and slammed it face first into the ground, and rode on top of it. I tucked my legs in, and held on to larger handle rings with everything I've got. "So as the god Vulcan would say,"
I grinned as understanding entered the Heretic God's eyes.
The ground under my shield started to fizz and let out steam.
It heated up, becoming redder and redder from the flames and fire born in the heart of the mountain stone.
"Welcome to Pompeii!"
The top of the mountain we're on, erupted with volcanic might.
The explosion took out the palace, and launched me into the sky to fall down the mountain.
"HAHAHAHAHA! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" And I couldn't stop screaming in laughter.