Chapter 463 The Dragon's Heist: Desperate Struggle
BAM! Arad lunged forth, flapping his wings to accelerate toward Meimei. He swung his claw down and aimed a blinding fast blow at her face.
Time seemed too slow for the wizard, her brain racing to finish constructing a barrier before Arad's claw ripped her brain out, but her body was slower than she thought and was unable to finish the magic in time.
^I'm dead...^ She gasped, almost giving up.
CRACK! CLANG! The dungeon's door burst open, and a golden flash rushed in, deflecting Arad's claw to the side with a great sword.
Alphonse, the paladin general glared at Arad as he smacked his claws aside, "Why are you attacking them?"
Without uttering a reply, Arad swung his second claw at Alphonse.
Alphonse shouted, parrying Arad's claw swinging at his face with a burning divine smite. CLAP! With a blast, Arad jumped to the other side of the room, dodging the holy magic.
BAM! Eris jumped into the room, her eyes darting around, "Arad! What's going on?" She cried.
"Someone is controlling him!" Meimei cried, "We don't know how to wake him up!"
Eris stared at her, "How?" She gasped, but at that moment, she could see Arad's claw approaching her eye.
"HA!" Eris cried, conjuring her spear and deflecting Arad's claw. With a burst of plasma beneath her feet, she flew away.
^Wait? Did I react? Am I getting faster, or is he slower?^ She thought and turned toward Alphonse, "Holy guy, bait him!"
"Don't go ordering me around, bloodsucking fiend," Alphonse smiled, lifting his sword up in a wrath stance. "Arad. I'm going to blast your skull open," BAM! He lunged forth, swinging down [Divine Cleaver]
Arad pulled the adamantine sword from his stomach, blocking the downward divine cleaver and deflecting it to the side. In the same motion, he swung forth toward the general's face.
Alphonse smiled. ^What a monster.^ CLANG! With a fist, he punched Arad's sword away and changed the direction of his greatsword, coming in with a horizontal divine cleaver.
Arad lifted his fist up, mimicking the general's moves. Thwack! He punched the divine cleaver away, covering his fist with the void.
As Alphonse gasped, Arad spun a right at his face. CLACK! The general blocked with his blade, but that wasn't the end. Arad kept spinning, his right-wing coming for a hit, followed by a tail swing, the left wing, and then a backhand left that sent Alphonse bouncing on the ground.
[Divine Cleaver] While falling, Alphonse threw his blade at Arad with a blinding smite, cutting his left arm on the spot.
Arad stopped moving, staring at his severed arm. The wound sizzled with holy magic, preventing him from regenerating with blood.
"It hurt, doesn't it?" Alphonse said with a smile, his wounds healing with ease. "I will cut your limbs and leave you as a torso until we find a way to lift the mind control."
Arad stared at his arm and opened his mouth.
Everyone gasped and started shaking as he bit the stem of his severed arm, spitting the flesh burned by holy magic on the ground. CLACK! Now with a fresh wound without any holy magic, Arad's blood regeneration kicked in immediately, regrowing his arm in the blink of an eye.
Eris already knew, but that was the moment everyone realized how bad this situation was. Jogan and Meimei started shaking and Gura and Gug stared in silence. Sweat dripped from Alphonse's head, "What in the gods is he?"
"Snap out of it!" Eris shouted, "He's weaker than I remember! He should have already killed us, but he can't!"
^That's right, I know something was off about him.^ She thought, ^His movements are fast but sluggish. There is a lag between each attack and the other, and the moves he makes are extremely predictable. He even lacks his usual explosive acceleration.
"Whoever is controlling him, he can't make full use of Arad's body. I say he's two-thirds of his usual power!" She shouted ^He didn't even use his expansion so I think he can't even use magic.^
"Overwhelm him with multiple attacks! I might be able to wake him up if I got a bite to his neck!" She cried. Eris is Arad's spawn, She can become a vampire lord by killing and sucking his blood, or him making her one. The catch is that when a spawn bites their master with the intent to kill them and become a lord, that rattles their bones and brain to the core. She's counting on that to wake him up.
Eris lifted her hands, conjuring five plasma spears, and hurled them at Arad. "And don't critically injure him again! We don't want him transforming!"
"Transforming into what?" Meimei cried, unable to believe Arad had a third phase.
"You only need to know that we'll all die if that happens. It's several times stronger than this form." Eris replied.
Alphonse knew Arad was a vampire, so he thought it had something to do with that, and he certainly didn't want to face someone as aggressive as Arad in a vampire lord form. "I understand!" He shouted.
CRACK! Arad disappeared into thin air, pulling the adamantine sword from his stomach and swinging at Eris's head.
^This isn't a problem now, I can predict his pattern and react.^ CLANG! With a swing from her plasma spear, she deflected Arad's strike to the side. "Wake up!" Swinging a fist at his face. From her knuckles, a burst of plasma washed over Arad's head.
The sword disappeared from Arad's hand, getting sucked back into his stomach.
^He's going to switch!^ Eris predicted that he would attack with the other hand, but the moment she turned her eyes to stare at his left palm, she jumped back in fear seeing what he pulled.
By a hair strand, Arad's swing missed her.
Eris glared at the gleaming silver knife in his hand with sweat dripping from her forehead. ^That thing, it's dangerous.^
"Don't let it hit you!" Eris screamed and Alphonse swung his greatsword at Arad's back.
Alphonse's sword burst with light as he swung, aiming at Arad's wings with a furious swing.
Arad turned around, blocking with the knife and Alphonse smiled. ^She's right, he isn't thinking. I wouldn't block my greatsword with a small knife.^
CLANG! The knife was forced out of Arad's hand and Alphonse kicked it into the corner of the room, "You don't know what weapon you're holding, you only understand attack and defense." CRACK! With a powerful kick, he sent Arad flying.
"Attack, weapon fails to hit, you pull another from your storage and try again. If the attack was blocked and depending on the impact felt, you decide whether to attack, counter, or deflect and counter with another weapon." Alphonse stared at Arad with a grin.
"You aren't directly controlled. The bastard behind this created a set of rules and integrated them into a necrotic spell that attaches to the soul." He laughed, "I know what kind of bastard can do this, Baelnorn. An elf bound to mission in a form resembling that of a lich, but remaining mostly intact. I've faced and killed two of them in my days, and I know their tricks."
"If you know then wake him up!" Meimei shouted swinging her staff and blasting Arad away with a force blast.
Alphonse stared at Arad, focusing on his the necrotic magic in his body. "I can sense two souls in him. Arad's soul is locked tight and cannot be reached, but the other one is only masked below several layers and it oozes with curses." Alphonse lifted his sword.
"A second soul? Curses?" Meimei scratched her head, "We need to hit him with a curse to wake that second soul, and hopefully that's enough to break the necrotic bind."
"We're up against a lich, such complex spells are expected." Jogan jumped forth, "I have a curse if we really need it,"
[Blood...]
The moment Jogan started channeling a curse, an evil smile crossed Arad's face as he lunged at a blinding speed.
Alphonse and Eris both swung at Arad to stop him, but he didn't care, taking their hits to the back and rushing as fast as he could toward Jogan.
Jogan gasped, blood gushing from his mouth as Arad ripped a chunk of his torso.
^He's hard-wired to prioritize anyone using curses.^ Alphonse gasped, ^We confirmed the spell's weakness, but at what cost?^ BAM! He lunged to heal Jogan while Eris tried to distract Arad with a barrage of plasma spears.
Alphonse turned his head to the wall, staring at the dying Amolis as he healed Jogan.
"Wake up! Let her out. That's our only chance of stopping Arad!" He shouted.
****
DING! Amolis opened his eyes, alone in a cold, dark room. "Where am I?" He mumbled as he sat.
"Sadly, it's not hell," A woman's voice replied from the darkness as a lightning spark emerged.
Amolis sighed, "This voice, the fuck you want?"
"That's not nice of you." The voice giggled as it took the vague shape of a woman made of pure black lightning. "And I came to help you."
"I don't need the help of a devil, even more. If it's you," Amolis growled.
"Hehe," She laughed, "You're heartless, bloodless, and your friends are courageless."
"Even if I died, they will win. I could feel him coming. General Alphonse will handle him," Amolis smiled, "Let me die. I'm not attached to living anyway,"
"You think the general can beat that monster? You must be dreaming," She approached Amolis, walking behind him. "Your words might hold true if the general was alone or with other paladins. With the rest of your scrawny friends holding him back, he can't unleash the full might of his holy magic."
She put her hand on Amolis's head, "Let me take control. I promise that I won't kill anyone, not even that monster Arad."
"You aren't taking control, not even for a second. You fiend." Amolis growled, "Get back to hell and let me die in peace,"
"How about this? Let's write a contract." She giggled, combing his hair with her hands, causing it to spike.
****
"Wake up! Let her out. That's our only chance of stopping Arad!" He shouted.
A voice boomed in the room.
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