“The challenge of totems. You attacked us, and I almost killed you there.” She smirked and took another step back, grabbing at her wrists carefully. “If it wasn't for the boy who showed up afterwards I would have killed you where you stood.”
“Yeah. I remember. Thanks for the reunion, now I guess you've chosen then,” Laurence replied before releasing his iron grip on the bead of void at the tip of his weapon. A burst of black light ripped through the air and shot straight at the woman.
“Yveth!” The man beside her yelled, but even as he spoke the light reached her flesh. The bones pierced into her wrist began to shatter and collapse as energy suffused her, and in response the void-light beam seemed to turn into salt and collapse in a line that lead from Laurence to the woman, Yveth.
“I'm fine,” She said as her nails elongated and more bone piercings that were embedded into her shattered. A thin mist of bone residue spread out and wrapped around her before adhering to her body like skin-tight armour. In that moment she was a bone deity, and Laurence could not underestimate her.
Energy thrummed off her, making the very air shake and writhe. Every-so-often dust would sprinkle down as her energy collided with the residual mana in the air and the result would collapse inertly on the floor. The world shook, and as Yveth readied her response to Laurence, the people in the room shook with it. Striding forwards, Yveth had been emboldened by the failure of Laurence's strike. The momentum was hers to use and abuse as she willed.
“I do remember you!” Laurence cried out suddenly, a grin spreading across his face. “Salt lady!” Switching his stance, Laurence smiled even wider. His wrist twisted and he flicked his hammer towards her, now she had entered melee range. There was no real form behind his movement, it was instinctual, but still the weapon carried an air of absolute destruction as he aimed for her chin.
This single strike, one so simple, had ended the lives of countless men and women he had fought with before, to the point where there was no longer a shred of killing intent behind it. It had evolved past killing intent and had begun to resemble something similar to Laurence's breathing. But despite this, despite the absence of intent, the inherent surprise behind it and the simple speed that was behind the strike, Yveth still managed to move her body back just enough to avoid the strike. The only mark left by the strike was a thin line of exposed flesh below her bone skin-suit carapace.
As her body arched back, avoiding the strike, her right arm shot forwards and the bone carapace shrank away from the left side of her body and transformed into a sharp blade that shot out of her right hand. She swung towards Laurence’s head, and he moved beyond her before shoving the haft of his hammer down in an attempt to catch the woman by her legs, but she rolled on the floor, passing him entirely. She rolled to her feet and with it her bone carapace flowed back over her body fully. As she stood, she turned round before throwing two bone blades out of her hands towards Laurence’s back.
Turning with Yveth, Laurence caught a glimpse of her throwing something at him, so he twisted his hammer in an attempt to stop her from hitting him. When he realised he would not make it in time, he reacted the only way he knew he could and transformed the air in front of him into hundreds of plates of metal. With a crack the bone blades began punching their way through each metal plate, shedding part of themself with each blade they pushed through until a puff of salt broke its way through the last layer.
Ignoring the salt as it rained down upon him, Laurence raised his arm and pulled a wall of stone out of the ground behind Yveth. She turned and pushed against it, expecting it to collapse below her Gi, but instead she was presented with a solid wall. She readied her body for a second time, but in tandem Laurence twisted his wrist and clenched his hand, compressing the thick wall until it was mere centimetres thick. Once more, as Yveth slammed her fist against the immensely dense wall before her, and ineffectually bounced off. She screamed in rage and more of her bone armour transformed into bone blades that slid out in line with her fingers. She slammed the blade into wall and cracked it, then struck a second time, shoving her blade through the wall that separated her from the exit of the time trap.
As Laurence began to squeeze his hand shut in order to trap the blades within the wall, he was blindsided by the man who had been following Yveth. The man landed on top of Laurence and began swinging wildly, the bone piercings affixed to his body fading and cracking under the drain. His fists smashed against Laurence’s face and arms as Laurence pulled ihs forearms up to defend his face from the repeated strikes that were being thrown at him. The flurry was fast, and jarring enough to stop him from channeling mana, but it did not rattle him so much that it would stop Laurence from thinking about how to get out of his predicament.
He arched his back and swung his right leg up, hooking it round the neck of the Avalonian man before pulling him to the ground and rolling him away. As he got up and distanced himself from the distracting foray, Laurence could only watch in fury while Yveth dashed through the exit, leaving the rubble of his impromptu wall strewn around them. He sprinted after her, hoping to catch up to her as she left the room and entered the more complex terrain of the damaged corridor, but was aghast when he saw the hallway beyond. For a moment there was a blurred figure running in the distance, bouncing and twisting through the debris like an acrobat. Once it reached the large boulder that obscured a large chunk of the path the figure stopped, and turned, revealing Yveth, who was standing atop the large boulder. She was gloating.
He exited the room, and watched as she raised a bone finger, held together by leather and metal. She smiled at Laurence and at the Avalonian man who had followed him out before saying “I have two of the keys. Find the last one, I’ll be waiting for you at the well. And don’t worry. I have all the time in the world.”
Crushing the finger bone, her and the Avalonian man both disappeared in a puff of salt and grating laughter, leaving Laurence to yell in rage at the now empty corridor.
No comments:
Post a Comment