ACT IV
RESTLESS HOLIDAYS
“You’ll be the only one capable of fighting beside him, at least, until he fully masters his half-baked VoidZone.” Sierra had said these words to Delimira, and it became true to her, the moment Hans released the VoidZone for the first time. “A power that disconnects one from outside mana, it would have been dangerous if I was a mage or knight, but I don't run on mana like others.” A smirk etched on her face, “We are really compatible now, Hans,” she said, making her first move.
The smoke surrounding her acted violently, rotating like a tornado and with a poof, it disappeared along with Delimira.
“Where is she?” Hans and the Knight almost said in unison, staring at each other. Hans readily activated the ManaVision to the maximum, but he still couldn’t see her. “Damn it, just how much she is hiding —”
“No more than you, Hans.” a reply came, echoing from all sides. It was hard to pinpoint the source, “Where are you ?” Hans asked, his eyes moving left and right But Delimira answered, still hiding, “Our eyes are not compatible to see dead mana, at least not outside someone’s body. Watch and be amazed, Hans.”
“Show off —” Hans muttered, and then suddenly, the knight raised his sword to the left, “Clink,” he changed the stance quickly to the right, “Clank.” He said, his eyes also searching like Hans’s, “I admit, I didn’t expect this, but you are looking down on my experience, little wench. CLINK” he blocked again. Delimira was practically invisible, leaving no traceable tracks, yet the knight defended as he could see her. But Hans was on his own thought, “Oh! This is why she was confident,” Hans realised, “Can’t leave her own, focus, Hans, get your shit together.” Using VoidZone multiple times in succession was not a walk in the park for him yet, so he focussed once again, holding the world mana in his firm control.
Meanwhile, Delimira stayed true to her purpose. She was forcing the seventy-grade knight to remain rooted in one place. However, she knew if continued, her dead mana reserves would eventually run out. Hans was the focal point of this battle, and the knight also knew that, but whenever he tried to make a move on Hans, the invisible rapier poked her. It was not any significant damage to him, but getting hit by a child is not something a prideful knight like him could take lightly. “Darn this wench, I’ll kill you the most brutal way ---”
A skill similar to her own whirlpool spell hit Delimira. It was an omnidirectional skill, filled with the knight's Icy aura. It was a taxing skill even without the effect of Hans’s control over surrounding mana, so having the effect of VoidZone made it more burdensome. However, its push had unveiled Delimira. “A stealth skill. It's nothing much when you are still wet behind your ears.” He lunged at Delimira who was still trying to shake off the confusion.
His sword got covered with a blueish aura, changing its outer shape into a mace —
“I’m still here,” Hans interrupted as the mace swung and struck the empty air. Turning to Hans, the knight became furious. For the first time, he had to worry about his aura reserves and when he finally got the chance to strike the wench, poking him like an annoying bee. Hans had snatched her in front of him.
“Don’t you feel embarrassed? You carry Samson’s blood, and you are hiding behind a girl’s skirt,” he provoked Hans, but being incited by Delimira for a long time had made his skin thick. So this level of provocation was hard to work on him. “And what’s wrong with it?" Hans refuted, "I won’t mind hiding behind when the skirt is enough to deal with a knight like you —”
“Hans, fling me to him, now.” Delimira interrupted in an orderly tone, and Hans followed, “Yes ma'am.” He sent Delimra at the knight like a bullet, and the knight shouted, “Come here, you suicidal wench, come,” He was ready, filling his sword with the aura, ready to cleave the incoming opponent, and when Delimira was about to reach, he took the stance, his sword raised above, ”I’ll send you to hell —”
“THIS IS HELL. YOU CAN’T FALL BENEATH.” She declared, concentrating once more, putting her all in one last attack.
The rapiers became two, as she appeared in front of him, each in one hand but the second one was different, it was made from dead mana. The knight knew that the second one was not a physical weapon so he increased the aura output, yet that dead mana sword passed through his like air and struck his chest, giving him a fatal injury. Dead mana in a healthy body was a disastrous thing and he realised it soon as he could feel the mana poisoning.
“That's all I need,” Hans shouted as he was waiting for this moment, “ Deli move.” Exploiting this opportunity, Hans stretched a quick mana path and shouted again, “Got you?” The knight quickly raised his defence, since due to the wound his movements became restricted and he knew his agility had fallen below to evade the incoming pallet. He was sure of his defences, and it would have worked. However, he miscalculated because it was not the regular SeedBullet.
The crying seed appeared but quickly got stopped by the knight. The knight’s aura managed to slow the bullet down to quite a degree, and he was physically strong enough to stop the projectile which lost its momentum. He clasped his fist tight, catching the seed in his firm grasp. A smile came to his face, “Is that all you got —”
“Didn’t your parents teach you not to take things from strangers, Mr knight soon about to die?”
His words were not even finished, and the knight felt something wobbling in his grasp. The fine threads came out of his fist and moved frantically, shaving away his skin and flesh while the knight cried in agony, trying to shake off the weird thing. “Fuck! What is this, you’ll pay for this, aagh.” The knight might have had immense pain resistance, but something shaving off his hand like a salami being prepared made him scared out of his wits. He was angry, losing an arm and fighting two children was shameful but it need to be done, he raised his sword above his left, “ Now, not even death can save you from me.” He said, severing his hand and engulfing himself in his icy aura.
The aura gradually increased, bright blue, shining bright like pearls flowing within it. layering over and over the knight's body. it was no wonder that this was the most powerful skill of grade seventy, but Hans was not gonna stick around to find out. For him to release a complete VoidZone, filled with all three traits - anti-mana field, invincible armour and Inectio, was something yet to realise, but there was no better place to grow than the pressure of a life and death battle.
The radius of his influence grew and showed the knight why VoidZone was among the most troublesome things to confront. Sustaining an injury and preparing the powerful skill has made him immobile, and the time Delimira bought him was enough to activate Inectio. His conjuring aura skill got negated in an instant as his own aura denied its use. If completed, the skill would have formed a gigantic serpent shape, but what was about to become a giant serpent turned into a metre-long snake made of snow.
The knight was startled, and Deli was not the one to miss the chance. She got ready and concentrated once again. This was really the last bit that she was saving for running away, but since she could see the glimmer of victory. It was not her style to not give her all.
Disappearing, she pierced the already wounded, severed side of the knight, digging her rapier half inside the chopped shoulder. No matter death squad or pain resistance, this was bound to hurt, and it did, the knight wailed in agony. He tried to bash her to the ground with his other hand, but she had already run away doing damage and appeared right beside Hans.
“Woah, you are a sadist, Deli.”
“Do you have time to joke around?" she poked the place where he was punched earlier, and Hans dropped to his knees, “Damn this hurts.” He turned his anger to his rooted opponent and in VoidZone’s complete form, the Inectio worked like a charm, sending the surrounding mana to the knight’s heart as his body loaded with aura and started clashing the foreign mana. It gave nothing but devastating pain to the knight.
“What’s happening?" Delimira asked raising him, "This was not that bad when Samwell came —”
“Because I couldn’t kill a king’s knight. I don’t wanna flag my grandparents as rebels. ” Hans responded. They both closed the distance with the withering knight, rolling like a baby who got his candy stolen. “Woosh,” his complete VoidZone got cancelled, “I couldn’t hold it even for a complete minute, so pathetic Hans”. Clicking his tongue, he approached the knight, “So how are you feeling, Soon to die, Mr Knight.”
The knight was not in any state to answer, VoidZone might have cancelled, but Hans was still forcing the outside mana into his heart and his body was fighting the invasion. Rubbing his stomach, Hans could still feel the pain from the punch before, “I’m a vengeful person, but I’m willing to let it go. So Mr knight, I’m giving you one last chance, tell me who sent you?” Hans slowed the invasion in his opponent’s heart, but the knight kept looking at him like he was not gonna say anything.
“Your eyes,” Hans pointed out, “I like the eyes filled with loyalty, let's notch up a bit. Frankly, I don’t care who sent you. He would come at me again anyway. Let me get some revenge for sending me fly.”
“Yes, that was quite the show,” Deli added fuel to the fire, gesturing how Hans flew through her hands "Swooo..." and it irritated Hans as she wanted. He turned to the knight with more menacing eyes, “This will hurt like a bitch.”
“Hans, language” Deli interrupted.
“Don’t act like my mother, Deli."
“Still,” she asked, “ Aren’t you going overboard with your vocab these days.”
“It comes naturally to me, I can’t help it.”
“Pluck, cough” the knight vomited the blood and started clenching his heart, “What is this? Aagh” he cried as he came to his senses, Hans’s inectio was not so powerful to kill him instantly as his father’s, so his control was gradually weakening. But Hans didn’t care and explained, “This is called Inectio, you should keep moving while fighting me, idiot. Didn’t you know, it's common knowledge to fight against someone with a VoidZone ability?”
“Fuck,” the one scouring Hans’s room said as he fell on his bottoms, holding the white robe of Parvin insignia. “We are dead, you shit captain, you didn’t tell us we are messing with a Royal Parvian.”
“What are you so afraid of?” the other one said, turning over the bed. But the one holding the robes almost shouted, “These are the royal robes, stupid. Last time, our master lost his body when he went up against one.”
“Our orders were to infiltrate Alastor’s home and search for a Parvian artefact. That's it. Don’t think of anything else. Our squad is the last in rank, so before they disband us…this is our only chance to redeem our status as the weakest squad. Find the artefact, and let's get out of here.”
“They will hunt us down even if Rudolf forgets or thinks it is a drag to pursue us.” The first one glanced at the Parvian insignia, “Sir, I don’t wanna die. it's better to be disbanded than die. I really don’t wanna see ‘The Sad Death’. That barbarian skins his enemy and makes shoes with it.”
“It's an overstatement," the other one said while he took a brief pause, he had an unfortunate encounter with Dijkstra once. That man slaughtered his whole group because they were loud and chased off the rabbit he was hunting. "He is a madman. If he really tracks us back to our home. Many of our innocents will die. Let's send a retreat signal. It's the captain's fault for withholding information. I’ll take the brunt.”
The one holding the robe, folded it neatly and put it back like it was a sort of sacred object. He never found anything said by his superiors to his liking, but now his vice captain's words of running back felt music to his ears.
Announcement
NEXT : NOW, WHAT DID I DO?
ACT IV
RESTLESS HOLIDAYS
“You’ll be the only one capable of fighting beside him, at least, until he fully masters his half-baked VoidZone.” Sierra had said these words to Delimira, and it became true to her, the moment Hans released the VoidZone for the first time. “A power that disconnects one from outside mana, it would have been dangerous if I was a mage or knight, but I don't run on mana like others.” A smirk etched on her face, “We are really compatible now, Hans,” she said, making her first move.
The smoke surrounding her acted violently, rotating like a tornado and with a poof, it disappeared along with Delimira.
“Where is she?” Hans and the Knight almost said in unison, staring at each other. Hans readily activated the ManaVision to the maximum, but he still couldn’t see her. “Damn it, just how much she is hiding —”
“No more than you, Hans.” a reply came, echoing from all sides. It was hard to pinpoint the source, “Where are you ?” Hans asked, his eyes moving left and right But Delimira answered, still hiding, “Our eyes are not compatible to see dead mana, at least not outside someone’s body. Watch and be amazed, Hans.”
“Show off —” Hans muttered, and then suddenly, the knight raised his sword to the left, “Clink,” he changed the stance quickly to the right, “Clank.” He said, his eyes also searching like Hans’s, “I admit, I didn’t expect this, but you are looking down on my experience, little wench. CLINK” he blocked again. Delimira was practically invisible, leaving no traceable tracks, yet the knight defended as he could see her. But Hans was on his own thought, “Oh! This is why she was confident,” Hans realised, “Can’t leave her own, focus, Hans, get your shit together.” Using VoidZone multiple times in succession was not a walk in the park for him yet, so he focussed once again, holding the world mana in his firm control.
Meanwhile, Delimira stayed true to her purpose. She was forcing the seventy-grade knight to remain rooted in one place. However, she knew if continued, her dead mana reserves would eventually run out. Hans was the focal point of this battle, and the knight also knew that, but whenever he tried to make a move on Hans, the invisible rapier poked her. It was not any significant damage to him, but getting hit by a child is not something a prideful knight like him could take lightly. “Darn this wench, I’ll kill you the most brutal way ---”
A skill similar to her own whirlpool spell hit Delimira. It was an omnidirectional skill, filled with the knight's Icy aura. It was a taxing skill even without the effect of Hans’s control over surrounding mana, so having the effect of VoidZone made it more burdensome. However, its push had unveiled Delimira. “A stealth skill. It's nothing much when you are still wet behind your ears.” He lunged at Delimira who was still trying to shake off the confusion.
His sword got covered with a blueish aura, changing its outer shape into a mace —
“I’m still here,” Hans interrupted as the mace swung and struck the empty air. Turning to Hans, the knight became furious. For the first time, he had to worry about his aura reserves and when he finally got the chance to strike the wench, poking him like an annoying bee. Hans had snatched her in front of him.
“Don’t you feel embarrassed? You carry Samson’s blood, and you are hiding behind a girl’s skirt,” he provoked Hans, but being incited by Delimira for a long time had made his skin thick. So this level of provocation was hard to work on him. “And what’s wrong with it?" Hans refuted, "I won’t mind hiding behind when the skirt is enough to deal with a knight like you —”
“Hans, fling me to him, now.” Delimira interrupted in an orderly tone, and Hans followed, “Yes ma'am.” He sent Delimra at the knight like a bullet, and the knight shouted, “Come here, you suicidal wench, come,” He was ready, filling his sword with the aura, ready to cleave the incoming opponent, and when Delimira was about to reach, he took the stance, his sword raised above, ”I’ll send you to hell —”
“THIS IS HELL. YOU CAN’T FALL BENEATH.” She declared, concentrating once more, putting her all in one last attack.
The rapiers became two, as she appeared in front of him, each in one hand but the second one was different, it was made from dead mana. The knight knew that the second one was not a physical weapon so he increased the aura output, yet that dead mana sword passed through his like air and struck his chest, giving him a fatal injury. Dead mana in a healthy body was a disastrous thing and he realised it soon as he could feel the mana poisoning.
“That's all I need,” Hans shouted as he was waiting for this moment, “ Deli move.” Exploiting this opportunity, Hans stretched a quick mana path and shouted again, “Got you?” The knight quickly raised his defence, since due to the wound his movements became restricted and he knew his agility had fallen below to evade the incoming pallet. He was sure of his defences, and it would have worked. However, he miscalculated because it was not the regular SeedBullet.
The crying seed appeared but quickly got stopped by the knight. The knight’s aura managed to slow the bullet down to quite a degree, and he was physically strong enough to stop the projectile which lost its momentum. He clasped his fist tight, catching the seed in his firm grasp. A smile came to his face, “Is that all you got —”
“Didn’t your parents teach you not to take things from strangers, Mr knight soon about to die?”
His words were not even finished, and the knight felt something wobbling in his grasp. The fine threads came out of his fist and moved frantically, shaving away his skin and flesh while the knight cried in agony, trying to shake off the weird thing. “Fuck! What is this, you’ll pay for this, aagh.” The knight might have had immense pain resistance, but something shaving off his hand like a salami being prepared made him scared out of his wits. He was angry, losing an arm and fighting two children was shameful but it need to be done, he raised his sword above his left, “ Now, not even death can save you from me.” He said, severing his hand and engulfing himself in his icy aura.
The aura gradually increased, bright blue, shining bright like pearls flowing within it. layering over and over the knight's body. it was no wonder that this was the most powerful skill of grade seventy, but Hans was not gonna stick around to find out. For him to release a complete VoidZone, filled with all three traits - anti-mana field, invincible armour and Inectio, was something yet to realise, but there was no better place to grow than the pressure of a life and death battle.
The radius of his influence grew and showed the knight why VoidZone was among the most troublesome things to confront. Sustaining an injury and preparing the powerful skill has made him immobile, and the time Delimira bought him was enough to activate Inectio. His conjuring aura skill got negated in an instant as his own aura denied its use. If completed, the skill would have formed a gigantic serpent shape, but what was about to become a giant serpent turned into a metre-long snake made of snow.
The knight was startled, and Deli was not the one to miss the chance. She got ready and concentrated once again. This was really the last bit that she was saving for running away, but since she could see the glimmer of victory. It was not her style to not give her all.
Disappearing, she pierced the already wounded, severed side of the knight, digging her rapier half inside the chopped shoulder. No matter death squad or pain resistance, this was bound to hurt, and it did, the knight wailed in agony. He tried to bash her to the ground with his other hand, but she had already run away doing damage and appeared right beside Hans.
“Woah, you are a sadist, Deli.”
“Do you have time to joke around?" she poked the place where he was punched earlier, and Hans dropped to his knees, “Damn this hurts.” He turned his anger to his rooted opponent and in VoidZone’s complete form, the Inectio worked like a charm, sending the surrounding mana to the knight’s heart as his body loaded with aura and started clashing the foreign mana. It gave nothing but devastating pain to the knight.
“What’s happening?" Delimira asked raising him, "This was not that bad when Samwell came —”
“Because I couldn’t kill a king’s knight. I don’t wanna flag my grandparents as rebels. ” Hans responded. They both closed the distance with the withering knight, rolling like a baby who got his candy stolen. “Woosh,” his complete VoidZone got cancelled, “I couldn’t hold it even for a complete minute, so pathetic Hans”. Clicking his tongue, he approached the knight, “So how are you feeling, Soon to die, Mr Knight.”
The knight was not in any state to answer, VoidZone might have cancelled, but Hans was still forcing the outside mana into his heart and his body was fighting the invasion. Rubbing his stomach, Hans could still feel the pain from the punch before, “I’m a vengeful person, but I’m willing to let it go. So Mr knight, I’m giving you one last chance, tell me who sent you?” Hans slowed the invasion in his opponent’s heart, but the knight kept looking at him like he was not gonna say anything.
“Your eyes,” Hans pointed out, “I like the eyes filled with loyalty, let's notch up a bit. Frankly, I don’t care who sent you. He would come at me again anyway. Let me get some revenge for sending me fly.”
“Yes, that was quite the show,” Deli added fuel to the fire, gesturing how Hans flew through her hands "Swooo..." and it irritated Hans as she wanted. He turned to the knight with more menacing eyes, “This will hurt like a bitch.”
“Hans, language” Deli interrupted.
“Don’t act like my mother, Deli."
“Still,” she asked, “ Aren’t you going overboard with your vocab these days.”
“It comes naturally to me, I can’t help it.”
“Pluck, cough” the knight vomited the blood and started clenching his heart, “What is this? Aagh” he cried as he came to his senses, Hans’s inectio was not so powerful to kill him instantly as his father’s, so his control was gradually weakening. But Hans didn’t care and explained, “This is called Inectio, you should keep moving while fighting me, idiot. Didn’t you know, it's common knowledge to fight against someone with a VoidZone ability?”
“Fuck,” the one scouring Hans’s room said as he fell on his bottoms, holding the white robe of Parvin insignia. “We are dead, you shit captain, you didn’t tell us we are messing with a Royal Parvian.”
“What are you so afraid of?” the other one said, turning over the bed. But the one holding the robes almost shouted, “These are the royal robes, stupid. Last time, our master lost his body when he went up against one.”
“Our orders were to infiltrate Alastor’s home and search for a Parvian artefact. That's it. Don’t think of anything else. Our squad is the last in rank, so before they disband us…this is our only chance to redeem our status as the weakest squad. Find the artefact, and let's get out of here.”
“They will hunt us down even if Rudolf forgets or thinks it is a drag to pursue us.” The first one glanced at the Parvian insignia, “Sir, I don’t wanna die. it's better to be disbanded than die. I really don’t wanna see ‘The Sad Death’. That barbarian skins his enemy and makes shoes with it.”
“It's an overstatement," the other one said while he took a brief pause, he had an unfortunate encounter with Dijkstra once. That man slaughtered his whole group because they were loud and chased off the rabbit he was hunting. "He is a madman. If he really tracks us back to our home. Many of our innocents will die. Let's send a retreat signal. It's the captain's fault for withholding information. I’ll take the brunt.”
The one holding the robe, folded it neatly and put it back like it was a sort of sacred object. He never found anything said by his superiors to his liking, but now his vice captain's words of running back felt music to his ears.
Announcement
NEXT : NOW, WHAT DID I DO?
