The timer drained, and soon enough it hit the one-thousand mark. By that point the Lupe who had survived were no longer willing to stick around. They fled. Even the temptation of strength was not strong enough to face the remaining Heaven rankers. Not only was their leader stuck on the dais and could not save them, he was also being held back by someone of the same rank as him. They were truly on their own, and no longer had the advantage of numbers.
Laurence and Cleo continued to search for Winoa and Jim as they walked towards the dais, but the closer to the middle of the valley they got the more sparse the area became. At first they could see Lupe and Zephyr clansmen battling, but soon they faded and all that could be found were the dead and the crippled. Hundreds of injured faded into hundreds more dead and dying until they reached the dais itself, where the only living souls were on top of the dais itself. On the far side of the platform, away from the combat was a group of hooded individuals, seemingly just watching the slaughter that had unfolded around them. They stood behind a figure who was also cloaked, but was taking each strike happening near them like it was nothing. Laurence assumed that this figure was Declan’s benefactor, the one he had mentioned in his speech.
Ignoring the dais, Laurence and Cleo began looking around the area for any sign of Winoa, but nothing showed up. Eventually they decided to simply travel towards the horde of Lupe still following Jim. Somehow he had amassed sixty people to follow him, though it seemed to be straining him. His face was pink with strain, but his swarm had done incredible work on their surroundings, making sure to butcher any injured Lupe they came across. It seemed that with each new Lupe they found to butcher Jim was under more strain. His control came with a price, and he seemed to have passed his upper limit.
“Jim!” Laurence shouted, “Are you okay?”
“Fine! I'm F-fine”. He walked over to Laurence and Cleo, quickly wiping something off his nose before they got too close. “I see you found her then! Was it fun?”
“It was too close for comfort honestly. I was having to face two Heaven rankers on my own. Law came just in time. He's my hero!” Cleo smiled, batting her eyelashes like a lovesick little girl before laughing at herself. “You look like you've bitten off a bit more than you can chew here”.
“You've no idea. I need to sort this out, but I can't just kill them all. The pain of sixty-odd thralls killing themselves at my behest would likely blow my neocortex to bits”.
“What,” said Laurence. He gave Jim a blank look. “I now understand what people feel like when I talk crafting jargon at them”.
“Thralls are people like the Lupe behind me, anyone I have under my power of Order. I don’t feel what they feel or anything like that, but I do have a connection to them. As for my neocortex, well that’s just part of my brain. I do too much with it and it goes pop. This would be bad, see?”
“I got it. Have you seen Winoa then?”
“No dice. I’ve been hunting around for faces I know to ease me off this, but you’re the first I’ve seen. Honestly, I thought I would have bumped into her by now, as I’ve been looking for Zephyr combat areas, but they’ve all been people I don’t know”.
“There’s no need to look anymore,” a voice said behind the mass of Lupe. “I’m here. Seemingly a little more worse for wear than you all, but here nonetheless”. Out from the crowd walked Winoa, but she was not the clean-cut, pristine young woman that they all knew well. Instead she was only wearing half her armour, her body was lathered in blood and dirt, her hair was shorn off on one side, and she had a bundle of Lupe heads over her shoulder wrapped together with a thin bag of ropes. “How are you all feeling?”
“Tired,” Law said, as he continued to look around. “I ended up killing I think three of their Heaven rankers, and around sixty men? I’m beginning to run low on fuel myself”.
“Agreed, my capture of this little arm of the Lupe seems to have helped out. Now would someone help me deal with them?” Jim ushered one of the Lupe over, forced him to bend over and then sat on his back. “It’s really quite tiring”.
Laurence, Cleo and Winoa walked over to the front of the Lupes that Jim was controlling and raised their weapons. “One at a time then,” said Cleo. Jim nodded and focussed on the Lupe. There was a fading of colour from within the Lupe and suddenly she slumped to the ground. She looked up ath Laurence and his friends before they crushed her skull, butchering her like an animal. Looking back up at Jim, they turned to the next Lupe.
As they were about to deal with the second Lupe of the pack there was an explosion behind them. They turned and looked at the stage only to see Declan and Algar’s fight had reached a fever pitch. Both Immortals had been injured through the fighting, but Algar looked far more worse for wear. Two of his swords had completely shattered, and the last two that were in his hands were not in perfect condition either. Gashes in his armour showed skin and muscle, even bone exposed to the air, and his nose had been completely crushed by a strike. He still stood strong but he was flagging.
Declan was in far better shape. His claws had been broken, or cut apart, but his injuries were, while far more numerous, much lighter than any that were on Algar’s body. The verdant mana within them both was waning, and neither seemed to have enough to restore their bodies to perfect form, but both had enough to attack.
Algar raised his swords and began slamming his blades into the air in front of him. Strike after strike created a sonic boom, which tore out into the valley. Even Jim was knocked over by the blast, but everyone soon stabilised themselves and looked on in awe. The blade-lights produced by each weapon were thick and vibrant, but took a lot out of Algar. Once he shot off twenty he slumped to the ground, holding himself up with his swords. He looked up and watched as Declan faced the strikes head-on, The Lupe pulled his fists back and punched out at the first blade-light. His fist shadow grew, until all that was taking the strikes was the massive image of a Lupe fist, but it met the blade and both the light and the shadow shattered apart. He struck out a second time and the same happened. Then a third. A fourth. A fifth. With each strike that he performed he slowed down the strikes but they did not increase in density. He was trying to save up his power because they could both tell that this would likely be their last engage. Hundreds of thousands of strikes had been thrown out by both men, and now their combat plans were coming home to roost.
Soon enough twenty punches were thrown out, each one colliding with a beam of sword-light and mutually shattering. Shockwaves spread out again and again, knocking everyone off their feet and landing them in the filth, but Declan kept punching. His fists slammed out a single extra time before he too flagged, his shoulders slumped and he fell to one knee. Algar grinned, revealing a bloody, toothy smile as he saw the Lupe fall, before grabbing his sword and swinging three more times. He stood up and began sprinting towards Declan, following his blade-lights, swords ready to deal the killing blow.
Declan rolled to the side, dodging the first strike by a hair’s breadth. The second strike grazed his back as he kept rolling, and the third sailed over his head, clipping his tail as he rolled in front of Algar. Algar swung his blade down at the Lupe, but before he had a chance to touch Declan, the Lupe Immortal had grabbed his legs and pulled him over, standing up from his roll in the process. His sweat and blood slid down his arms and into his palms, but his grip on Algar’s ankle did not falter. The lupe lifted the small man and began smashing him into the ground wherever he could. Every single time his strike landed he roared out, his fur becoming a deeper and deeper shade of red as Algar’s blood splashed all over him. The shockwaves continued to rock the entire valley as Declan slammed Algar’s body into the ground time after time. Louder his roars became until they were near deafening, it was like he was berserk, wild with bloodlust and pride.
Laurence looked on, an unsettling sensation spreading over him as he watched Algar being beaten into dirt. We can’t stay here... Algar is going to lose! “Guys... We have to run. We have to get out of here”. He turned to Cleo, “Are you ready to get out of here quickly?”
“Of course I...” another shockwave rippled through them all, knocking them back off their feet.
“Oh no...” Jim said. They all turned to look at him and his mass of Lupe thralls, only to see the Lupes clutching their heads. “I feel faint guys....” He stumbled as the Lupe stood up. “They’re breaking free and wow it hurts... I think I might collapse”. His eyes glazed over and his body began to sag, blood began dripping from his nose, he began to shake and the muscles in his jaw clamped tight. Winoa grabbed him and pulled him onto her shoulders before pulling away from the Lupe who were waking from their mind controlled slumber. The four turned and began sprinting away in the direction of the cavern they had been staying.
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