Chapter Thirty-Six

Red jumped into the air and spun, slashing out with his wrath-fire arm blades, as a massive earth spike tried to gore him. When he first made contact with the spike, there was some minor resistance, but Stimulation coursed through the blade and exploded with violet flame. The entirety of the spike was reduced to nothing but ash and rubble.

Landing in a kneel, Red squinted into the distance. A familiar pair of eyes stared back at him with a wide grin, mocking him. There you are!

The ever-waiting flame within him bared its fangs, and his entire body became that of a living weapon. The wrath-fire expanded past his shoulder to his back and down his legs. He switched to a two-handed grip and leapt forward into the depths of the enemies.

He was only about half as far as the tether would allow him, but it was already past the three ranks of warriors. They meant nothing.

No, the mages needed to die. If he couldn’t take the earth mage down, then he would make the rest of the mages pay for his crimes.

“Die!” a mage screamed, shooting forth a ball of fire.

“Not a chance.” Red cut through the attack and took two quick steps forward, bringing his arm blades across the mage’s neck while simultaneously deflecting another magical attack with a condensed shield of blood Essence.

Crouching forward, Red felt the ground groan under him. It filled the air with a crunching wide, and then he stepped off. The force in which he accelerated exploded him forward, leaving behind a perfectly circular crater in his wake.

A multilayered wall of ice and earth waited for him, but his will would not be defied. Bloodred Blitz!

Two additional copies of his sword appeared and started to spin, ahead of him, quickly making short work of the wall. He slashed across the surface of the wall, bisecting it with the help of his copy-swords.

Backpedaling away from the teetering wall, the offending mage awaited him. They tripped over their feet and fell onto their back, staring up at him with horror. With two fast steps, Red closed the distance and stabbed forward with his sword -

Only to have to stop midway. He evaded another massive earth spike. And then another, and another, and another.

“Where are you?!” he roared, his body spinning in a flurry of blades as he cut through the attack. Dodging wasn’t an option. There was a lull in the assault, and he quickly lurched forward towards a shimmer a short distance away -

And roared in fury as the tether halted his forward moment, snapping him back several feet like a rubberband. He slammed his right hand forward, sending spike after bloodred spike into the shimmering dilapidation of space in front of him.

His effort was fruitless. Spikes continued to assault him from all directions, and he started to feel pressured as the ground turned to mush beneath him. The ground writhed as it sucked him under and attempted to pierce through him.

I won’t allow it!

His wrath-fire flowed through his feet and hardened the ground, allowing him to leap away from the bombardment of earthen attacks. He quickly landed, immediately dodging an earthen pillar aimed for his back.

If it weren’t for his perception making him aware of the movement around him, he would’ve been sent back to his sheath long ago. But, lo and behold, he still managed to remain in the enemy’s backline. Their focus was wrenched from their forward assault.

More than once, arrows and other magical attacks spattered around him as he dodged the Arcanist’s relentless assault. Many had come close, but his constant movement made aiming hard.

Having said that, ice started to cake on the ground. His footholds became less sturdy and maneuvering became far more stressful. Gouts of flame that covered a large area came from his blindside accompanied by blades of wind from the other.

Despite the worsening circumstances, he still grinned madly throughout the entirety of the fight. His cheek-to-cheek smile struck fear in the hearts of those that he neared, but after the involvement of that earthen Arcanist - may he be damned to suffer eternity in Halla’s Maw - the only thing he’d been able to do was play defensive.

His entire assault only claimed one life, but he’d done well in buying time. Suddenly, the assault from the earthen mage halted, but the reason was made apparent quickly.

“Red, come back!” Sabrina’s voice echoed across the battlefield, demanding he return.

Artois’s light magic didn’t fair well against the Arcanist, and Red’s suspicions were almost one-hundred percent confirmed by how much the Gold aura struggled to hold back the Arcanist. Blades of light cut through the Arcanist’s attack, but it wasn’t fast enough.

A massive boulder fell from the sky, a quarter the size of the encampment. No way that holds.

Red allowed his form to dissipate. The second he reappeared, Sabrina gripped his hilt within her off-hand. She instantly connected an Essence connection with Red as his Stimulation loop pulsted again.

Sabrina’s eyes widened as she hesitated, watching as the boulder came ever-closer. Clenching her teeth, she leaped forward and activated all the enchantments on her broadsword at once. Two of the six enchantments wrapped her in a barrier as the other four cut through the air.

Four times.

Eight times.

Sixteen times.

Sabrina’s attack intersected more times than Red could perceive, eight lights intersecting another eight lines. She released her control over the attack, and then followed up with a mighty stab forwardard. She expended the majority of her Essence, funneling it into Red to fuel a powerful followup to her lattice.

As her attack ascended up to meet the boulder, the air shook from its passing, wisps of Essence trailing behind the mighty attack. Then, all too soon, the attacks clashed.

The intricate lattice slammed into the boulder, and both attacks came to a stand-still, hovering far above the encampment. The Essence lattice attempted to cut through the boulder, but it was powerfully imbued by the Arcanist. It refused to give in to the attack.

But, that was all about to change.

Sabrina gripped Red even tighter, her knuckles white in her intensity, then she opened herself up. She demanded power from him, and he was happy to oblige.

Loosening the tight grip he’d had over the Essence within, he let it pour out. Wrath-fire covered her arm and spine instantly, and two flaming wings exploded outward. The power oozed over his blade, the fiery length matching that of her broadsword.

With all the might she could bring to bear, she stabbed forward.

Red’s power merged with the lattice. It concerned him for a moment, thinking that the power would be too much for them, but he remained in control without causing any backlash to Sabrina.

Then he punched through the lattice and into the rock, his power multiplied by many magnitudes. The wrath-flame poured into the innards of the boulder, boring a hole straight through its center. Wrath-flame exploded from the otherside, cracks riddling the surface of the rock as it started to crumble.

As the attack continued, all of the wrath-flame he’d released was consumed to overcome the Arcanist’s Platinum-powered attack. He didn’t care. Sabrina blurred as she cut large chunks of the boulder away as she fell back to the ground.

Landing with a roll into a hop, Sabrina skid to a halt, raising her armored forearms over her head as fragments of rock rained down from overhead. The veteran warrior gave Red a long look, her eyes narrowed in contemplation.

She came to a conclusion, strapping the blade to her back. I’ll go out there with you. We won’t last if we don’t do something about the Arcanist.

The goal is to survive until reinforcements arrive, Red responded. Why don’t we just pressure them where we can?

So, you just want to let the Arcanist get away with murdering Melony? Her will was adamantite. She would go after the mage, one way or another, and reap righteous vengeance down upon all that. In her eyes, they were all at fault.

My, oh my, Sabrina. I don’t think I’ve seen you so unhinged, Red teased her. She’d rubbed him wrong a couple of times, and he doubted he’d get the chance later.

He caught her eye roll but didn’t press any further. There were more important things to focus on.

“Warriors, to me!” She rallied the inactive force, eight warriors quickly forming a single file line. They awaited her command eagerly, ready to do more than wait for the enemies to reach them and breach their defenses. “We take the fight to them!”

She raised her broadsword as Red formed next to her. After a few short seconds, the blades adorned his body and crimson covered his right arm, a copy of his blade gripped within that arm.

Grinning at the slowly approaching enemy lines from within the archway, he laughed excitedly. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”

Compared to last time, he now had allies behind him, following in his wake once he left the security of the wall. Cutting forward, he stopped to the first line. He made short work of the earthen barrier that hid the warriors from the fire of his mages and archers. His eyes skipped past the panicked warriors to the earth mage a row back.

It glared back at him.

After his first attempt, they seemed far more prepared for his advance.

Arrows whizzed past him as he jumped forward, quickly tilting away from a barrier of ice directly in front of him and kicking off of a barrier of earth behind him. Two silver warriors from Artois’s party rushed forward, lashing out with quick cuts that felled the walls.

They nodded at Red, and he continued his advance.

Deeper in he went, the warrior party fanning out behind him in teams of two. At some point, Artois had joined the fray. Watching the man flit back and forth between enemies rapidly, his flashing attacks blasted brightly across the battlefield.

He’s fast!

Red grinned excitedly as Sabrina rushed past him, Felicity and Koronor quick on her heels. Red didn't linger any longer, throwing himself forward with steps that carried him past the second row of barricades into the third row.

This was where the majority of the mages resided, and similarly to last time, dozens of projectiles and elemental attacks flew toward him. He wasn’t about to get trapped into defending against them all. Not again.

The violet blades on his arm glowed dimly, a deep violet accumulating across the arm blades. When he swiped, he cut a clear path forward. There were dozens of mages, but he had trained on the earthen ones.

They were the backbone of the assault. Without them, they could no longer hide from the defense fire. He went so far as to completely ignore the other mages when he passed by, much to their confusion.

As he stepped forward to cross the distance to the first mage, he felt the ground began to rise up around his legs. Not fast enough!

Leaping in a long arc, he flew through the air in a flurry of bladed appendages. There was no way for the mage to escape as he descended. Red relished when his blades cut into the Silver aura earth mage’s chest, plunging a hardened blade of crimson into their heart.

The liquid drained of the mage’s body in only moments, the corpse dropping to the ground with a large thump. Red smacked his lips, training his eyes on the second.

This night is turning out to be more fun than I’d anticipated. He stepped forward, an afterimage taking his place as he advanced on the next earth mage.

By the time this was over, Red wanted the Arcanist to know he was after them. He wanted them to know that his hatred ran deep, and their people would suffer greatly until he got what he wanted.