By some accursed miracle, his might in his current state equaled hers. The only reason that sword in his hand hadn’t exploded, in her mind, had to be up to the armor and the purple flame enshrouding the blade. It was a nice sword, but not nearly possessed of the natural durability to withstand the strain it was put under every time she smashed one of her blades into it.

Despite every advantage she had on him, despite effectively having six additional, weaker limbs, he kept up. Even when she smashed four blades upon him and consolidated her braids into two bundles that equated two extra full-strength limbs, he just… Kept up an unending, breathless assault achievable only to one not limited by a human metabolism. More than a man, he fought like a hate-powered automaton.

Indeed, at this moment, he could be considered equal to her - at least… In raw capability. In terms of technique, he still lacked functionally everywhere other than the basics. It was different than before, there were fundamentals and tactics to be found behind his wild swings, but he was wide-open for her to read. Each swing, each motion carried with it all-consuming, murderous hatred, without exception or nuance, powered by every ounce of strength he possessed and leaving him wide-open both before and after each swing. Well, as wide-open as one who could swing several times each second could be.

It was wonderful.

“Just need a little while to truly get a good read…” she told herself as an excuse for the wild-eyed exhilaration which was truly driving her to stretch this out longer than it needed to be.

Fighting Von Wickten before had felt disgusting, almost pitiful, like fighting the Necrobeast, Ankylodragon, or Alkasnail, more than fighting a person… But now, it felt as though his motivations were pure. There was no denial, no willful refusal to understand, only the purest, most brilliant hate, a bright white murderous impulse that sharply contrasted the curseflame which burst from the gaps in his armor with every movement.

She had shattered at least eight truly high-quality swords against him, and that was just counting those she actually attached to the Butcher. It got to the point where she split off two of her braids and used them to manipulate her tablet just to pull more blades from storage. Immediately afterwards, she used the same two to load another shell into her arm-cannon.

Just as Victor felt the worst of his aches being washed away by a warm, numbing green tide, that old crow’s crooning wrenched his skull open again.

“Now boy, let me show you something you shan’t find in any Itrian scroll. Make these signs with your hands, form these glyphs, and command your servitor to temporarily attach itself to that woman-monster…”

A blistering sequence of mental images flashed through Victor’s head, rapidly enough that he felt a renewed trickle of blood come out of his nose. Nevertheless, they carved themselves into his brain all the same, and he saw no subterfuge in the logic behind the symbols. As far as he could tell, it was nothing more than a means of giving someone else the ability to also command Midnight Wolf. When he performed the sequence, Vic saw the construct break off from Adalbert’s side, still spitting up bolts of bonefire in his direction as it leapt over to Zelsys… Only to unravel when it did.

Zel felt the sudden formation of a mental connection to that bonewrought flaming beast, immediately knowing that she could now command it; she knew exactly what she wanted it to do, though she wasn’t certain if it could do such a thing. As such, she gave the command with the explicit condition to keep harassing Von Wickten if what she demanded wasn’t within the beast’s capabilities. To her satisfaction, it closed the distance and did exactly as she’d asked it to.

Having seen Midnight Wolf’s mode of movement, so defiant of gravity and momentum, Zelsys had wished to possess such an ability from the moment she witnessed the servitor in action. She hadn’t expected to get the opportunity so soon, having intended to challenge Victor with the creation of a dedicated construct as part of training at some point in the future. Midnight Wolf circled around her rear; its ribcage snapped open down the middle and it leapt up onto her back, its head twisting around to point backwards as a second articulated main thruster in addition to its tail, its fiery mane blasting out behind Zel’s head as her own. Its ribs clamped down around her chest in a way that would’ve been downright painful if her skin wasn’t reinforced. While its front legs were positioned at her side and articulated as necessary, its rear legs stretched out so their ends were just below her knees, slaving themselves to her legs.

Bonefire licked her skin and shrouded the lower part of her torso in a corset-like shape that extended upward between her breasts to her neck to form a collar which joined Midnight Wolf’s mane behind her head, and yet, it all registered only as a comfortable warmth, not even burning a single strand of hair.

SYMBIOSIS SIGN

SECOND KING’S MYSTIC WISDOM

MIDNIGHT WOLF: SERVITOR ARMOR

Scrambling to attack in a perceived window of opportunity, Von Wickten closed the distance in an instant, shredding the ground wherever he went. He zigzagged around Zelsys in an imitation of her own tactics and fired off Blaze Schneider after Blaze Schneider in her direction, forcing her to dodge as he closed in… And dodge she did, yet she barely moved from where she stood. Controlling the servitor at such a level would’ve been difficult at best even for Victor if he were in a pristine state; Zelsys was only able to do so thanks to her Inhuman Physiomechanics Skill Trait, the same trait which allowed her to control her braids as if they were just extra arms.

Between her own capabilities, Graze Pulse, her skin being imbued with Bronze, and Midnight Wolf providing what were effectively four small and two large thrusters, Von Wickten wasn’t just fighting uphill - he was trying to strike someone at the top of a cliff from its bottom, and unlike Zefaris, he had no means of cheating sightlines.