Chapter 925 924: Stage Exit (2)
?Jahi PoV
A grunt escaped my lips as I cleaved down towards the golden haired Fiend's skull, my great sword slicing through the air as the red skinned prick danced to the side, allowing my blade to clang against the wet shore and send up a wave of sand and gravel around us, as well as a splash of that annoying blood that seeped out of his swords.
They were both long, curved, golden blades that had scarlet veins running throughout their surfaces, which led down into the cutting edge and weeped blood at a steady rate, supplying Ka'Vis with an ample amount of blood to utilize as he pleased, which was currently being utilized to annoy me to death as he tried to splash a large amount of it across my face.
When my barrier of golden light flared and evaporated the blood, Ka'Vis sneered and instead lunged forwards, capitalizing on the fact that my form was still in a recovering position from my prior swing so that he could chop both of his swords down towards my chest, trying to cut me into pieces once more.
His style relied heavily on flourishes and feints, things that would allow him to spread that blood as far and as wide as he could whilst also providing openings for him to exploit whenever he found them, and that made this a tedious - yet eyeopening - fight, one that would yield a large amount of experience for me to look back upon and improve myself with.
Ka'Vis was an irritating mix of Kat and Anput's most annoying styles of combat; feints and close quarters magic paired with adept footwork and high reflexes made it hard to block his blows and determine what was a feint and what wasn't.
This current attack wasn't a feint though, his forwards momentum and current inability to plant his feet firmly making me confident enough to lower my shoulder and bash forwards, catching him off guard as I slammed my plated shoulder into his chest and prevented his blades from slicing into my armor.
The force of my bash outweighed the force of his forwards momentum, causing him to suddenly come to a halt and actually begin moving backwards, which didn't do his internals any favors as he stumbled backwards, coughing and trying to drag in air.
Each exhale of his was laced with a boiling heat, and I could sense that the few cracks I had caused in his skeleton were now being healed - much like Ka'Min from earlier, it would appear that the man in front of me had an excellent internalized spell, one that I would love to get my hands on...
That was for later though, as I was currently in the midst of raising and cleaving my blade diagonally across his body, hoping to catch him in the midst of his own recovery phase and deal a significant amount of damage, but a single deep breath and flare of his mana allowed him to leap back, away from my heavy blade and far enough away that we both could take a breath without much worry.
"I can see why the Ensis is so~ enchanted with the Asmodia Family... such power, such vigor! Such determination and emotion behind each swing of your blade... You wear your heart on your sleeve, and it matters naught because you will not tolerate it being used against you... Fascinating. Truly fascinating..."
Chuckling, Ka'Vis glanced to the side and stiffened for a moment, something that caused me to peek to the side before returning my gaze to the gold haired man, not showing much of a reaction to what I saw.
Kat, Anput and Satanya were standing over a motionless Ka'Min, who was currently having Kat's Khopesh replace its spine as the Dogkin stabbed downwards and ensured its current position would remain as it was.
Motionless and not a threat.
Ka'Vis chuckled again - though it was strained and angry - as he looked back at me, his eyes burning as he said "It would seem that all of you are determined to take me off of the stage... how boring. Predictable. I regret to inform you though..."
He flashed forwards, lunging towards me with a higher speed than before as he tried to pierce my abdomen with his blades, which had become elongated by the blood coursing throughout their structures.
"I will NOT make a stage exit! Not when I have so many more parts to play! I refuse!"
Ignoring his hiss, I twisted my sword and used the flat of the blade to block his thrusts, catching both of his blooded swords and pushing against them as I funneled my Light Mana into the Celestial Gold surface, creating a dazzling and harsh glow that drew out another hiss from the Fiend.
Stepping forwards, I listened to the blood fizzle against my mana and stared at the man's contorted features closely, wondering what he had been like in life and if that version of him would recognize what currently stood in front of me... and I also had to wonder if he would recognize that older version of him.
The weaker version that he has cast aside when he became a Fiend.
"Your part is coming to a close, Ka'Vis. It was set when you challenged me. Surely you could recognize that? Being the accomplished actor you are... right?"
I flashed the man a smile as I continued pressing back, before snorting in amusement as he tried to pull his blades away, only to have my blade smash into his chest and crack a few ribs, while theLight Mana tore at his coat and began to shred his red flesh, drawing out a cry of agony and disbelief from the man's sculpted lips.
"You willingly picked a matchup that was ill favored for yourself, and you somehow believed the result would be different? You further cast aside your chances when you didn't capitalize on your advantages. Another rush at Kat would have worked; it would have been a mental blow at the very least to us."
As he staggered back, I grasped the other end of my blade and twisted myself, bringing the pommel straight up into his chin as I smacked the Fiend again, snapping his head to the side andopening a long gash across his jaw as he stumbled back another step, giving me the room to hoist my blade and take another swing.
"You're surprised that the role you willingly took ended up being exactly what you accepted? A stepping stone for us... a way for us to get stronger..."
He tried to take a deep breath and heal his injuries, but as soon as he tried, I lopped off his left arm and stopped the blade just short of his torso, drawing it back and stabbing it through his right shoulder a moment later, making the Fiend grunt as he suddenly lost control of both upper limbs.
A swift kick to the kneecap shattered it, and as he fell to the ground, staring up at me with myriad emotions flickering across his eyes, I asked "Did you truly expect a different outcome? If so... I question how you managed to survive this long."
Stabbing the blade into the dirt, I released the hilt and reached forwards, grabbing ahold of his neck and wrapping my fingers around it, bringing myself lower as I began to squeeze, the mana dancing between each digit searing and cutting into his flesh, burrowing inside his body and beginning to spread alongside the 'poison' of the Celestial Gold and Stygian Silver, slowly consuming him from within.
"It's good to know that you Fiends can fall easily enough... perhaps you were still far too weakened, perhaps you weren't even considered much in the grand scheme of things, but... a victory is a victory, isn't it? And besides... you targeted Kat not once, but twice, and both times you almost managed to succeed. That was a mistake. Not that you could have known that, of course, but... well, it doesn't matter."
I could feel his mana swirling around inside his body, trying to fight against my own and muster some sort of attack that would get me away from him, but it was too late; too many different things were stacking against him at this point, and while the individual strength of a Fiend might be higher than my own, having their weakness coursing through my veins was more than enough to even the battlefield.
The blood, the healing factor... they were excellent tools, wielded well enough in Ka'Minvis' hands, but at the end of the day, they were merely tools; the healing wasn't infallible, and the blood was predictable.
Their fighting styles were excellent as well, but everything had a counter, and once you steal away the advantage from someone who relies on feints, it only snowballs from there; unless they can retake the advantage or reset the fight altogether, pressing them back and overwhelming them becomes an easy task, and again...
I have a large amount of experience against Kat and Anput, both of whom are excellent fighters as well; fighting against someone else with that sort of fighting style isn't new or difficult for me anymore, at least not when they are merely at this level.
As I watched the light slowly fade from the eyes of the Fiend beneath me, I couldn't help but wonder if the Asmodia's - or Asmodeucian's - before me had ever felt this same way...
So utterly certain about this outcome that it didn't even feel worth celebrating at the moment; completely and utterly assured that you were going to win that winning didn't even feel like winning, but instead like taking a sip of a familiar wine.
You know what is coming, it feels nice, but it isn't surprising or exciting at all...
Giving the Fiend's neck another squeeze, I listened to the crack and gasp that ran through his body before it went limp, and the light faded entirely from his eyes.
It felt like I hadn't just killed a Fiend, but instead just some common monster or mortal, and that... was a curious feeling.
What made this go from something that appeared difficult to something that was so certain, and was that something I could control?
Was this a power, or was I just mentally in an interesting, unique place?
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