Aric's breathing was ragged as he sprinted through the chaos. The fight with Leone had taken him far off course, leaving him deep in the outskirts of Ashwick.
"Maybe...I should've....just used that wind thingy to propel myself. Should I do a hoverboard? I feel like I should."
[Oh my god, are you seriously thinking about making a hoverboard right now?] Ivy said with a dumbfounded look.
"I'm just saying, it would've been way faster than running. Plus, imagine how cool I'd look zipping around on a magical hoverboard."
[You'd probably crash into a tree within five seconds. And what happens when you run out of mana mid-hover? Do you really want to faceplant into the ground at full speed?]
"First of all," Aric said while pointing at her,
"I have perfect control over my mana."
Ivy rolled her eyes and chuckled, [Barely.]
"Second of all...trees wouldn't be an issue because I'd just use wind to steer around them. Third—wait, why am I explaining this to you? You're supposed to be helping me navigate, not critiquing my life choices!"
Ivy did a meh pose, [If I helped you 24/7, I might as well fight for you. Besides, you're the one who's always overexplaining things.]
Aric kept running where the townhall supposedly is but instead, he saw Evelyn.
instead of seeing Evelyn victorious, she was locked in a desperate struggle against seven people. They were three bodies that laid dead on the makeshift ice wasteland along with a few human-shaped frozen shards.
But Evelyn wasn't winning. The remaining enemies attacked relentlessly and all of them were doing individual attacks at every angle. She was forced to dodge and weave frantically just to stay alive.
Her movements were growing sluggish as her body now had more injuries than ever and she had no way to recover.
All Aric could do was stare at her as his face started to drain of blood. The scene before him mirrored his premonition where the flames, the relentless assault and Evelyn struggling against them.
It was happening again, just like in his nightmare.
His subconscious screamed at him to move, to do something,
MOVE! MOVE ARIC! MOVE DAMMIT!
IF ANYONE SHOULD DIE IT'S YOU! MOVE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!
MOVE DAMMIT! MOVE!
Ivy then screamed in his head, [SNAP OUT OF IT! MOVE ARIC LAWSON! SHE WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!]
Aric's body moved before his mind could catch up. He took out his rifle and sprayed it everywhere to the enemies where some were shot in the hand, others in the leg. This now slowed the enemies enough where Aric grabbed Evelyn's hand and dashed to a near hut.
Aric threw smoke grenades and covered Evelyn's face with a mask as he knew she would not be used to it.
"Vayne!? What the fuck are you doing here!?"
"It's..." Aric panted as he gathered his breathe, "Aric remember?"
"Right, whatever! That doesn't really matter right now! What the fuck are you doing here? Where is Lady Seraphina? What happened to the townhall?"
Aric put his rifle upwards and just shot randomly to buy some time,
"I exploded it. It's uh...gone and as for Seraphina, she's busy fighting the leader."
"WHAT!?"
"Yes she's fighti-"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Evelyn shouted while her hands over her ears.
[Real smart, genius.] Ivy said sarcastically and rolling her eyes,
[You gave her a mask but forgot the earplugs. Great battlefield awareness.]
"Uhhh...sorry Evelyn." He now put his rifle down,
"But how are you losing, Evelyn? I thought you were supposed to be like really strong or something."
Evelyn looked at him like she was offended,
"You try fighting mages non-stop for FUCKING MINUTES with no chance to recover mana! I'm running on fumes right now, dammit! I have about 10% left. You need to buy me time while I gather some, at least until I hit half."
Aric glanced over at the enemies who were still disorganized,
"Sorry about that...How many minutes do you need?"
"Ten."
Aric's jaw dropped, "TEN MINUTES?! How am I supposed to fight SEVEN people when YOU barely could?!"
"I don't fucking know! Just buy me time if you want to win or wait until Lady Seraphina shows up. But judging by how you got here first, I'd say she's got a tougher fight than we do."
Aric frowned, "What about five minutes? What does that get you?"
"About 30%. Why?"
"Can you fight with 30%?"
"Hahaha. I've been fighting with nearly nothing for the last few minutes. 30 is good enough to fight them at least. And, judging by how ridiculously loud your weapon is which I assume means it is strong, we could win without Lady Seraphina."
"Mmmm, alright. Get your mana back."
With that, he stepped out of the hut just far enough to hurl a barrage of flashbangs directly into the enemy's direction. The sudden bursts of blinding light and deafening noise sent the group scrambling.
[What the hell are you doing?!] Ivy said as she looked baffled,
[Flashbangs? Really? This isn't game you know!]
Oh, shut up. It works, doesn't it?
[Yeah, but only because these guys are idiots. You're literally giving away our position every time you throw one of those things.]
Well, unless you've got a better idea, I'm sticking with what works. Aric said while lobbing another flashbang for good measure.
"WHAT IS THIS MAGIC!? I CAN'T SEE" one of the mages yell.
"It's called flashback you doofus!" Aric replied while now aiming for the mages,
"Anyways, see you fuckers!" as he now shot a male mage to the head.
Instantly it was a headshot and the male mage died, Damn. That easy? Guess I was fighting monsters all this while.
[I told you.]
Yeah yeah, thank you Ivy.
But the next shot Aric took ricocheted off a female mage's barrier.
Tch, another one?
The female mage, Phileo, had been putting up active barriers to protect herself and counter Evelyn earlier.
One of the few mages capable of going toe-to-toe with her.
"I don't know what that was but that tickled." Phileo said as her eyes started to adjust back from the flashbang.
She spotted Aric who was running away now and hiding near a tree.
"Found you."
Aric sighed hearing that, Damn it, I need to do blue lighting rounds again.
Ivy warned Aric as she look at another screen,
[You need to be careful. Your mana is currently around 70%. It's not dangerous but you used quite abit in that fight.]
He conjured gusts of wind to whip snow into the air to obscure Phileo's line of sight. Knowing this would slow her down for a few second, he quickly condensed his mana for the blue lighting rounds.
He took aim and shot Phileo from her last known location but the bullet miss its mark.
Damn it, she moved. Where the f-
Aric's battle senses tingled at him but Phileo was no Leone. She struck Aric without a single word which caught him off guard. The punch was strong enough to knock him unconscious for a second.
When he came to, he found himself grabbed by an ice whip and thrown into a stone wall.
GAH!
Phileo grabbed him by the throat and began freezing him.
"GHHH!"
"I don't know what happened to big bro Leone but you're dead Vayne."
Aric grabbed her arm and look her in the eyes,
"I'll send you where I sent Leone."
He then manifested electricity through his palm and shocked her. But the current arched back into his own body too.
BZZZZT! BZZZZT! BZZZZZZZZZT!
The shock forced them both to recoil and let each other go. The pain spasming through their limbs as Aric dropped to one knee but quickly channeled healing magic into his own body.
While Phileo convulsed on the ground and attempted to use her ice magic to stabilised herself.
[Hey, next time you feel like committing suicide, could you maybe—I don't know, NOT shock yourself too!?] Ivy scolded in his head.
Hey at least it worked right? Aric thought back while standing up now,
Thank the heavens for healing magic though haha!
But the battle wasn't over as Aric barely dodged the beams of fire shot out by two mages. Aric kept dodging it and hid behind a large stone.
"Hey that's rude!" as he lobbed a smoke grenade to cover their line of sight.
Aric manifested four M67 fragmentation grenades—each no larger than a baseball but holding enough explosive power to kill them.
"Time to show you boys a little freedom!" as Aric now ducked and cover his ears.
Through the mist, a mage squinted and spotted small metal spheres at his feet.
"Hah." he scoffed, nudging one with his boot. "What is this, some kind of toy? You think smoke and little balls are going to—"
BOOM.
The explosion tore through the fog. Shrapnel screamed in every direction and killing the mage who was nudging the grenade.
Ivy let out a low whistle, [Yikes.]
Guess he wasn't a fan of freedom.
[I don't think they even know what they are dealing with.]
Aric now reloaded his rifle with all bullets converted into lightning rounds.
I can't just shoot at them without risking them having barriers. I need to change the ground...
If I reshape the ice into walls or spikes... I can trap and isolate them. But there's still five of them along with that crazy woman...
Ivy,how much mana would I need to convert the ice into tall walls to trap them for Evelyn? I've got about a minute left before she's ready.
Ivy put down her pom poms, [If you're planning to reshape the terrain using magic? Around 20%, give or take. But if you want to trap each one individually? Make that 30% and that's if nobody interrupts you.]
Aric nodded and placed his hand on the frozen ground. Mana surged from his palm, spreading across the ice as the earth began to tremble.
Jagged walls of ice erupted from the ground and boxed in two of the mages before they could react. A third tried to escape but a wall shot up in front of him, forcing him back into a narrow corridor Aric had just formed.
But the mage shattered the ice with a barrage of sound magic. Aric winced as his ears rang, causing him to let go of the ground.
UGH! How many seconds left before Evelyn is supposed to come out?
[Around 30 seconds. Just spam the stupid flashbangs! And maybe throw in some grenades too.]
Aric listened to Ivy, manifested protective glasses over his face and hurled a series of flashbangs. He hurled about 20 flashbangs in rapid succession that could've blinded a medieval child.
Aric casually tossed a few more grenades into the chaos for good measure. The blasts tore through the already disoriented mages, leaving many injured.
Evelyn got her mana back and came out from the hut, "Looks like I got more than 30%."
Mana coiled visibly around her arms like frost smoke as she stepped forward. She clasped her hands together and unleashed a torrent of freezing energy that surged across the battlefield.
"Good job holding out there!"
The mages fought back with their own magic. Phileo recovered from the shock and immediately notice that Evelyn was back now.
She slammed her foot into the frost-covered ground and a wave jagged ice came forward, tearing across the battlefield toward Evelyn like a frozen tsunami.
Aric reacted instinctively and raised his hand to fire a beam of pure flame. The flames collided with the ice wave and slowed the charge towards Evelyn.
Aric stood his ground and kept the beam steady, "Ugh...come on!"
Evelyn seeing the wave slowed down, put her palms together and said, "Winter's Cage."
Evelyn was officially nothing more than Seraphina's second-in-command. She never went to magic school, nor was she ever taught by anyone else. Seraphina had been her only teacher when she came to work for the Arkwright at just 22 years old.
She was now 42 and while she didn't have the refinement for a proper barrier yet, she had many abilities thanks to her raw talent. Winter's Cage unleashed sub-zero air onto enemies of her choosing.
It was specific enough not to target Aric but even he could tell just how cold it was.
The enemies were immobilized as frost crept up their bodies, freezing them alive. Those who resisted suffered excruciating pain as their cells ruptured under the extreme cold and unfortunately for them, they resisted.
Sure, they might've had fire to try to slow it down, but when you have Evelyn freezing you to death and Aric taking aim at your head...
Well, you're as good as dead.
Aric shot each mage with two bullets. The first shot shattered the frozen barrier around the enemy's head, deactivating whatever magical barrier they had left. The second was to kill them by headshot.
Headshot after headshot, the enemies fell one by one. Aric didn't realize it but he was showing them mercy. His shots were swift, clean—far kinder than letting them die slowly in Evelyn's cage.
Evelyn stood there, staring at the bodies encased in ice,
"Hah...hah...hah...Fuck..." Evelyn collapsed onto the icy floor and laid flat on her back. She used all her mana in that one attack again and was basically empty now. Her control of mana wasn't the most optimised.
She began gathering back her lost mana from nature. Aric walked towards her and sat beside her,
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you opened some kind of barrier thingy."
Evelyn chuckled, "I'm not strong enough for that. Thank you by the way for coming to me."
Aric just looked at her and remembered his premonition of Evelyn's death. The image flashed back in his mind where Evelyn's was pierced and they took out her heart forcefully. He was glad that didn't happen now.
Aric formed a small smile, "Don't mention it."
Evelyn then sat up while still gathering her mana, "Let's uh… go back to the town hall after I recovered abit. We can meet Her Grace there probably."
Aric deconstruct his weapon, "Did Penelope, Borin, and all the people of Ashwick get out?"
"They should've. They left the moment I heard gunshots from the town hall. I assume they came from you. Anyways, what is that weapon called?"
"It's an assault rifle. Something I used back on Earth."
"Your Earth weapons are unique to say the least. But how did you use lightning? I saw them coming out from that rifle of yours."
"And also fire to melt through that ice wave. Having more than one element is something rare in this world you know."
Aric raised his hand and did a mini flame, "I have creation magic, remember? So I just imagined it. Plus, I didn't want their attacks to disrupt you."
Evelyn patted his back, "Well, your magic is really powerful you know? Your aura..."
She trailed off, studying him more closely. His green aura pulsed brighter than before now.
"Huh. You're... actually kind of...eh...never mind."
Aric narrowed his eyes. "What? What were you about to say? Don't pull that 'never mind' crap on me now!"
"It's nothing!" she said quickly, waving him off with a grin.
"It's nothing okay? Just...thank you, Aric. For saving my ass."