The fetters were nothing to Reisha, either because of his sheer size and strength, or simply because Zelamir had control of them and wasn’t trying to hinder his ally. Similarly, Eslaka ignored them. Anything that got too close turned to ash anyway, and the magic in the fetters wasn’t strong enough to resist her flames.
Velik, unfortunately, had neither of those advantages. He could only take some comfort in the fact that if he was captured, [Sun Eater] would quickly consume the mana in the ribbons. He’d be free in moments, but at the speed they were fighting at, that was more than enough time to get himself killed. He couldn’t afford to leave himself vulnerable while he let his ultimate skill deal with the hazard.
If I had a decarma for every time a room came to life and tried to restrain me…
He wasn’t the same hunter he’d been back then, though. That had been a desperate struggle for survival. Now, the fetters were a distraction, dangerous only because they might slow him down enough to let the giant dragon wielding elemental magic and casually carving through stone and metal land a solid hit on him.
The simple solution was to use Reisha’s massive body as a meat shield. Velik repositioned himself so that the majority of the fetters were on the opposite side of the dragon, and with Eslaka swooping back and forth, that eliminated almost all of their vectors of attack.
There was every chance that Zelamir was just trying to force Velik’s position, so he wasn’t terribly surprised when an entire wall collapsed to reveal a swirling mass of red slime in an enormous glass tank. The slime burst through the glass like it wasn’t even there, swallowing up the shards as it flowed outward.
It expanded into a towering wave that threatened to wash over Velik—given its coloring and consistency, he suspected it had some connection to the agents of corruption he’d already destroyed back home—but it just wasn’t fast enough to actually catch him.
What it did do was provide another battlefield hazard for Reisha to utilize, though it took Velik a moment to realize it wasn’t directed at him. The dragon backhanded Eslaka into the red slime wall, and her flames weren’t enough to burn it away. She was completely submerged, and once it had a captive, the slime shifted around to force her to the center. Then it started to compress.
Velik didn’t have time to watch it, not with Reisha free to focus his full attention on him now. A wave of cold washed over him even as he strafed to the side, Reisha’s long, serpentine neck easily keeping his mouth angled to bathe Velik in magic.
At the same time, Zelamir made his reappearance. Dashing through the air in his fox form and leaving silhouettes behind that launched themselves at Velik with each step, he circled the fight from a distance. All of the silhouettes were solid, laced with magic and capable of breaking skin with their teeth. They latched onto Velik, drawing blood for the second or two they survived before he ripped out their magic.
Velik honestly couldn’t tell if he was coming out ahead with the mana he stole compared to how much his regeneration drew on to patch him back up, but he was very much aware of the mental toll tracking so many things in one battle was taking on him. And that seemed to be Zelamir’s plan: to overwhelm him with an unending horde of threats until something finally stuck.
Abandoning all pretense of offense, Velik dodged and spun through the air, his manifested spears working completely independent of each other just to provide enough cover that he could slip through everything flying his way. Reisha pursued him, his massive wings propelling him through walls like they were paper screens as they demolished the whole floor.
The fox had vanished again, disappearing behind a veil of magic. With so much mana already floating in the air, it was hard to lock his new location down, and Velik had very little attention to spare to the task anyway. Every time he dared to take his eyes off Reisha, the dragon produced some new magic to harass Velik with.
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The freezing mist was just the start of it. Scorching flames rolled through the air, bolts of lightning danced across the sky, and bands of telekinesis twined around Velik’s body in an attempt to pin him down. In between that, bright flashes of light and deafening booms threatened to deprive him of his senses, and, just once, a massive spike of pure pain set his brain on fire. When [Sun Eater] ate that, his mana reserves spiked up by a full quarter.
Velik returned the favor by looping around a massive pillar of steel with veins of silver and gold running through it, then unloading a [Dread Lance] into Reisha’s flank. The divine beast roared in pain and anger, his scales blackened and cracked, but the attack didn’t slow him down. Claws sank into the pillar and great wings stretched to their full length in an attempt to shift direction, and suddenly Velik found himself staring directly at Reisha’s open mouth.
Power arced through Velik’s body almost by instinct, but Reisha was the faster. A brilliant white light struck him, hurtling him from the sky to slam into the ground below. Blearily, he realized he’d fallen through a massive hole in the floor and landed back in the burnt garden below Zelamir’s lab.
Then the red slime exploded into a fountain of pyre jelly and Eslaka rocketed out of the inferno to slam into Reisha’s ribs. The dragon and fire bird went rolling through the air, spinning over and over again as they tore into each other with bellows and screeches of rage.
With the pressure off, Velik reoriented on Zelamir. The fox beast had made too much of a nuisance of himself for Velik to leave him alone now that he had a chance to do something about it. If it was just Reisha, Velik thought he could outlast his enemy, but not with Zelamir constantly tripping him up.
He’d gotten Zelamir’s measure already, and he knew he only needed one good hit to slay the divine beast. There was just one problem. Where the hell did he sneak off to this time?
The damage to his lab had done nothing to curb Zelamir’s options when it came to finding places to hide. Even if there was nothing available, he was a master at creating illusions so detailed that Velik couldn’t pick them apart in the thick of combat. Now that he had a moment to breathe, however, it was a bit easier to see the hints of mana leading back to his prey.
There!
One of the few bushes to survive the conflagration shifted. It could have been the wind, except it moved the wrong way, like someone had brushed up against a branch as they slipped past it. The veil had covered a lot of details, but not that one. Velik swooped down, his spears leading the way.
Most of them missed. Maybe even all of them struck empty air, but they also made a barrier that Zelamir would have to bypass, and that limited his options. Just getting close enough could trigger [Sun Eater] to consume the invisibility effect, and just like he’d hoped, he caught a flash of color from the fox’s tail.
[Dread Lance] annihilated him. After how hard the fight had been prior to Eslaka breaking free, it was almost a bit anticlimactic. Velik would have thought Zelamir was faking the hit as some sort of ploy, except the LPS didn’t lie.
[You have gained 24661 essence.]
Just like that, the quest was over. Vengeance was his, and the monster who’d caused so many problems was dead. Velik didn’t even get a good view of the kill, having fired off his skill more on intuition and reflex than anything. All he’d seen was the patch of fur and a flash of light, then the smoking corpse of a man-sized fox was sprawled out in the ashes.
Much as he wanted to take a moment to just appreciate the abrupt end to his gods-given quest, the battle wasn’t over. Overhead, Reisha had seen the kill, and mana poured out of him in great waves, threatening to wash both Velik and Eslaka away.
Velik summoned a new spear to his hand and dashed into the air.