Remember to aim for the soft spots between each plate of their body. Is everyone ready? She asked the others whom she noticed were already in position for their respective strikes. At your command, everyone, including Ysevel, responded in unison. I could feel my heart begin to respond to the need for increased amounts of air as it began to race behind my ribcage. Perspiration, even in the cold, snowy weather, began to form on my brow, as I felt my grip tighten around the hilt of my blade.
The silence, the calm before the storm, was deafening as the sound of my heart pushing blood through my veins boomed in my ears..
Go, my mother commanded.
Just as she did, we all fell into a single, coordinated attack, absolutely blindsiding the group of about twenty creatures and one, traitorous shit-nugget. I launched myself off a stone platform I'd created, barrelling straight into one of the creatures.
After infusing an ample amount of mana into my blade, I cut between the plates just like my mother had directed us to. My sword bit into leathery skin, muscle, sinew and then bone; severing the limb from the creature I attacked.
Multiple limbs from the other's targets flew in a similar manner, spilling tar-black blood onto the snow beneath our feet. Another one fell to my blade in the span of time it took my mother to kill three of her own targets. While they were decently spread out, she moved like a bolt of lightning between them; a visual blur for any un-enhanced eyes.
The creature that stood next to Irun, however, was nothing like anything I'd ever seen. I saw its scarlet eyes staring at me inquisitively as it tilted its plumed head, but it still followed every movement I made with terrifying accuracy like it was learning my attacks. After striking down yet another one of the creatures, I noticed it turned its attention to my mother. The distorted, bigger version of Irun, however, took longer than I expected to recognize me.
But now matter how much he'd changed, he couldn't hide what I knew to be fear in his eyes when he looked at me.
I didn't issue any verbal challenge, I didn't even want to exchange words with him. My only duty, having sunk deeply into the knuckle down mindset, told me to keep killing the lesser creatures, as the final two would certainly pose more of a problem.
The only problem was that I had miscalculated just how powerful the rest these fuckers actually were.
When we began our attack, we had caught them off-guard and entirely unaware of our presence. By the time we'd reduced their numbers to a little more than half, they realized they were being attacked and immediately sprung into action; drawing curved, jagged swords from their backs and hips and launching attacks of their own.
While I was taken aback at the speed of their attacks, I was glad to see that Ysevel held her own quite well with a sword; deflecting, sidestepping, and dodging attacks while implementing some of her own mixed in with spells and advanced sword techniques. I had always thought she would be more of a long-range attacker, but her skills were remarkable to say the least.
I'm glad I don't have to worry about keeping her safe, I thought, shielding the comment from the others as I sliced into yet another creature's neck.
The Plumed One, or Plume for short, said something in a language that sounded like mud and rock mashing together; lifting his muscular arm and directing it at Haldir, Vyra, and Derion. Each one of these creatures could stand and fight toe-to-toe with each of my companions, but I didn't have the mental capacity to focus on their fights as well as my own.
Because he was coming right for me.
A jagged blade swung down from my right, and I did my best to deflect it and immediately riposte with a quick thrust aimed for his throat. He ducked under it, trying to sweep me off my feet as I could feel the presence of dark mana surrounding his limbs. It didn't feel like he had been able to infuse it into his muscles, but his kick was swift nevertheless.
I used minimal movement to avoid the blow, aiming another series of blows at him, which he expertly deflected and eventually countered with a swing aimed for my liver and spine in quick succession. I deflected the first and parried the second behind my back, then used the resulting momentum to redirect his blade away from me just before trying to get an uppercut beneath his armpit.
Snow kicked up in a trail behind my blade as I swung, creating a beautiful arc of ice. Even though he side stepped my attack flawlessly, I immediately aimed another swing at his clavicle in hopes of cutting the fucker's head off. Unfortunately, Irun pulled his head to the side just in time for it to miss, using his pauldron to redirect my attack and elbowing me in the ribs.
I'm so glad this armor is as strong as it is. That might have broken a rib or two if it hadn't been so well-crafted, I thought, feeling myself become airborne and moving away from him.
A pair of the dark things came sprinting towards me at an incredible speed, barely allowing me enough time to react. However, the training I had been subjected to with my mother, her team, and Anwill had made me more efficient at taking on multiple opponents at once.
No other choice, huh? Guess it's time to try that out, I thought, trying not to let my emotions seep through into my actions.
The first came with a thrust aimed at my gut, which I deflected away from me, causing it to stumble briefly. I used the momentum of my sword to parry the other attack aimed for my neck. I allowed my third-stage to show for only a brief moment, as I cast a Flamebolt beneath its chin, bursting its charred brain-matter out the other side.
The brainless corpse fell to the ground with a wet and sizzling thud, while the other turned and swung desperately to try to break my defenses. I condensed an obscene amount of mana to the edge of my sword and, with a single swing of my blade, sundering it in half with a calculated efficiency I'd learned from facing off against my mother and her teammates.
As a third creature moved in toward me, Irun held his hand up and shot a blast of dark mana at it, knocking it into a nearby tree. Snow fell from the shaken branches and covered the either unconscious or dead creature beneath it. I turned my head away from where the creature had fallen, and looked at Irun in earnest.
His red hair had become even darker, while his muscles and overall build had grown exponentially since the last time I saw him. His armor, too, was complimentary of his build, as it wasn't full-plate armor, but more akin to a berserker's; with a pair of heavy, rounded pauldrons and armored plates protecting most of his torso. His greaves had much lighter armor than the rest of his build, though I suspect that was to aid with mobility rather than offer protection.
It felt, strangely enough, that even with all of the changes he had undergone, it still felt like the old him was in there somewhere, though amply corrupted by whatever havoc the dark mana had wreaked on his core.
"You've gotten stronger," I said almost proudly. "I've always been stronger than you. Although, looking back, that was never very difficult to be, was it?" he asked with a hungry grin on his face. After looking at me, really looking at me, he noticed I had also changed.
"You didn't have white hair or pointy ears before. What gives?" he asked, his voice a much deeper baritone than before as he began to circle me. "Why should I tell you? So you can run back to your master with your other severed arm and tell him what you've discovered?" I answered his question with my own, albeit a sarcastic one, as I began to counteract his circling.