«rp» Fate's Eye [7/7] ~arc 3~

"Sadly, no." The noble who named herself Roswaal shrugged. "All the rooms up until here had nothing of importance."

"Is that.... so." Marcus muttered. "Is there a way to get these people out of this place?"

"About that...." Roswaal seemed to think for a second. "My Karifer here can take them, I think. He can hide their presences, and find their way."

"Would he be sufficient to take care of all these people?" The doctor asked. Roswaal narrowed her eyes at him.

"I am a vampire." Karifer spoke up for the first time. "Adding on to that, an exit is nearby. I can take them to safety."

"We can accompany them until they escape, if that is what you want." Roswaal said. "But tell me.... who are you? And you as well, too." The woman asked to Marcus and the doctor.

 

“I’m just a guy. I don’t really know what you want other than my name. Some paunched asshole managed to knock me out and get me down in a cell, the guards fell for the easiest trick in the world, and now I’m here, searching for my weapons and a way out.”

 

The greatsword shatters harmlessly against the witchfiend's body. It shifts annoyedly, and shrieks. From that, James was finally able to spot its head, with its multiple glowing eyes and a horn producing forward.

"This..... is bad." Tyrinel muttered next to James. "I have never seen such a witchfiend before. But it is extremely strong.... almost impossible for us to kill with just the three of us.

Diabel landed next to the two. "That creature can snap up and capture us if we go too close. If we can't kill it, we have to avoid it, to get to there....."

The knight pointed towards the side of the cave, next to the centipede's moving body. A small corridor only wide enough for one person to go through at a time— and to get there, they had to get past the monster somehow.

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What makes you say that?



The fireball hits against the grey dragon's head, making it growl and shake its head.

"Rathius, you idiot!" Kayde shouted from across the room. "Fire doesn't affect a dragon, goddamn it!"

Rathius could barely see in his vision Kayde exchanging blows with his clone. And even further away, Carol was fighting as well, her hands and sword moving so fast they were in a blur. The clone was skilled just as she was; they were exchanging blows at the same speed and strength.

 

"You worry about your fight, and then I'll worry about mine. Got that!"

Rathius stabs the dragon in its claws multiple times, not to deep, or else he'll hit himself.

 

As Archibaud darted towards the taller elf with fire magic, two chunks of earth shot out from the walls as to crush him. He leapt and dodged the attack, but was hit by a trail of fire from straight ahead. He blocked it with the scythe, but he was still knocked backwards.

Archi. I have a plan. Izanami said. There's no way to counter the earth, but if you keep blocking the fire, I can absorb the heat mana from them.

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To Angela's surprise, the arrows sunk into the woman's body and disappeared. She rushed forward, and punched at Angela. The seraph grabbed the woman's fist, holding her attack back.

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"Hm. I gueeeess I am interested about that man you have talked about. May I hear of your name and your encounter more, perhaaaaps? As I said before, we are cuuuurrently attacking this place. The more information we have the better."

"And you?" The noble turned to the doctor.

".....I am just a local physicist in the Capital. I was assisting this man here in treating some of the people who were injured."

"......is that so?" Roswaal said. The doctor lowered his chin and glared at the woman, who returned a similar look.

 

I hold her fist tight, kicking her elbow
I shout "El Fula" releasing the magic in the hand that hold her fist

 

"Would the slave trader just suck it out of us? Well it's not like I have any better ideas" I positon myself next to fire user so that the earth users only way to hit me is to also hit the fire user

 

"I think you're a bit more than just a local physicist, buddy."
I address the doctor.

 

The dragon roared in pain and retreated its leg, and Rathius crawled out quickly. The dragon raised its head and released another shower of fire all over Rathius.


"....I know that..." Kayde muttered, gritting his teeth. His opponent was himself, which was as worse as it could get. Just as he was hard on defense with the shield, the opponent was also hard to deal an attack. The opponent was an exact copy of himself; the exact same skill, same defence, completely ordinal. Kayde's strength was reading an enemy's patterns and abilities to plan an counter. With an enemy so plain and similar to him, there was nothing he could do.

Blocking his clone's attacks, Kayde looked at Carol and her clone. The two were completely equal in power; they were moving so fast, Kayde could barely keep up. He didn't know if the clones ever tired; if they didn't, the three of them were bound to lose if it went on to an overtime battle.

Come on, think! That's the only thing you are good at! Kayde thought to himself. What is different from us, to our clones?
***

 

Rathius held his shield above him, protecting him against the fire.
While the dragon was still breathing fire, he tries to stand up and jump towards the dragon's head, bashing it once he's close enough.

 

"And how exactly do we do that?"

 

"Hngh!" The woman grunted as Angela kicked her elbow, and she staggered to the side.

"El Fula!!" Angela shouted the incantation, shooting out the middle-tier magic onto the ability user's hand. But——

"That move was nice." In the next moment, Angela felt the woman's boot connect at her abdomen. The seraph released the woman's hand and created a distance between them, while holding the place where she was kicked and grimacing in pain.

The ability user, rubbing her elbow, smiled. "I haven't introduced myself, haven't I? I am the Eight Finger's faithful slave, Elenor." She said with a slight tone of sarcasm. "My ability name is; «Resident of Darkness»."

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It's a chance. Before he notices, we might get enough mana to somehow turn the table upside down for us.

"....!" The tall elf crouches, and in the next moment, six pillars of fire erupt from around her. They turned their directions towards Archibaud, who spun his scythe to make a shield which blocked him from the raging inferno. Even as he grimaced as fire burnt his hands, the black scythe slowly absorbed in mana.

"Hngh!" Archibaud swung the scythe at the elf, who dodged to the side extremely fast. Elves were naturally superior to most species; enhanced with the ability user's mana, their speed could match Archibaud's completely without effort.

Just when the taller elf dodged, numerous spikes of earth shot out towards Archibaud from all sides. He leapt up to the ceiling, but felt a few graze against his legs, making shallow cuts.

 

What is my gear again?

 

"A former warrior, or something on that line, peeerhaps?" Roswaal cocked her head.

"....An ex-mercenary. It is a past I have left behind, mind you." The doctor said.

Roswaal nodded. "Alright, I understaaaand." She turned to the butler. "Lead us to that exit, Karifer. Take these civilians away from this place; that is our first priority." The man bowed silently; he continued to lead them forward.

***

Karifer returned from the staircase leading up; his black suit was tainted slightly with blood. "Lady Roswaal. The path is clear." He said calmly.

Roswaal nodded towards the butler. "Good. Karifer, you lead them out; get Royal Guards to take these people under care. And—" The woman whispered something into the vampire's ear, to which he nodded and bowed. "Good, now go. We will watch out backs."

Roswaal turned to Marcus and the doctor. "I urge you two to stay here, with me, hm? Our team lacks in members who can do healing magic; I am not capable of those either." She said to the doctor, who nodded, then turned to Marcus. "And you, may I hear of the exact events that lead up to your capture; and anything that might be of help to us?"

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Bow, quiver, short sword, light leather armour. +wind magic.

 

I leap to the earth users trying to take care of him

 

"Don't fuck with the fat man. I figure that might be useful information. As for my capture, I noticed some cloaked people in a sort of raid on the town. I came to check it out, and they started battling some guards. I shot some, then they came to me, and I killed about half a dozen more. Their bodies burned afterwards, but I chased the alive ones. They went down into a silent secret passage, and they caught me off guard, and knocked me out. They took my weapons, but did an awful job at searching my pelts, so I managed to bust out with the two hidden daggers I saved."

 

I try ignore the pain, putting the arrows at once in the string
"Such a fitting name." I say, more to myself than to her, imagining the dark corridors of the underground facility
I aim for her knees and prepare for an upcoming attack from behind

 

The dragon's head lurched back, and it lost balance. Rathius's skin was lightly burned from the fire; every movement caused him slight pain. Grimacing, he landed in front of the staggering grey dragon. He looked up, readying his shield———

"Gah....!?" Rathius's vision was filled with sparks as immense pain erupted from his chest. Looking down, he saw the tip of a curved blade producing from his chest.

"Checkmate." A voice muttered from the side of Rathius's head; Juhel. He drew the knife out, and Rathius fell onto his knees.

Rathius saw at the corner of his darkening vision the ability user smiling. "It wouldn't do me good if you and your copy were in different forms. Go on; you have no choice but to transform now, do you?"

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"I don't know; I've been trying for the past ten minutes." Diabel muttered frustratedly. He turned to Tyrinel. "Perhaps you might have some ideas on that witchfiend?"

The older man frowned. "I have no knowledge of that witchfiend." Tyrinel said. "But everything about it is unnatural. This place certainly is not its habitat; neither does it look like it is being controlled by the Eight Fingers; it would be impossible to bend such a creature to one's will without breaking its horn— which, as you can see, is still intact."

"Horn?" James asked.

"Every witchfiend has a horn. It's their nature to come to fear and respect the one who have managed to break their horn; in most cases, that witchfiend becomes subjective to that person." Tyrinel explained. "And adding onto what I have said, that centipede is way too powerful to be a naturally-existing witchfiend. There is a thick stench of miasma coming out from that monster which shouldn't exist naturally. Something strengthened that thing."

"What are you trying to say?" James didn't understand.

Tyrinel turned a grave expression to James and Diabel. "I only know of two forces which can do such things. One is the Witch of Envy, who was defeated 400 years ago and sealed across an enormous desert. The another, as you can guess, is...."

"....The Sin of Gluttony, which you have fought two days ago." Diabel said.

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*her*


The young elf turned her expressionless eyes towards Archibaud as he swung his scythe. A huge chunk of earth rose in front of her, blocking the scythe's attack. She jumped forward and kicked at Archibaud.

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"Aaaany clue on any of the enemy's ability users? Perhaps you have encountered some."

 

"...No. The only really powerful ones I've met was the fat man, and some guy that was really big, but he was just big, nothing too special."

 

I grab her leg with one hand and cut it off with the scythe