Chapter 49: Afternoon

“Kianna.” called Anton as he tilted his head to the side to crack his neck “If we could get another 30 minutes, please.”

“Of course, Master!” replied the dark elf as she again set up the timer on her phone.

“Yes! This is about to get really good now!” smiled Fiona as she rubbed her hands together.

The Mica’s all grimaced angrily at her before quickly turning back to Anton.

“Okay!” exclaimed Kianna as she readied the timer “3... 2... 1 ... Go!”

Everything remained still for a moment as the Mica’s waited for Anton to make a move.

“Hm, I think I’ll start by thinning out the herd a bit...” mused Anton as he raised his left hand and leveled his open palm at the group of Mica’s.

The shinoccubi all took stances and braced themselves to be ready for whatever Anton was planning. They froze in shock as one of them was suddenly entrapped in a series of binding rings that seemed to just instantly exist around her. The ensnared Mica made a small sound as chains exploded out of the rings and wrapped around her torso so tightly that they crushed the very air out of her chest. More thin chains then wrapped around her limbs and neck before tightening to such extreme levels that they literally started ripping the shinoccubus apart. With a look of panic on her face the Mica clone dissolved into a shredded shadow before disappearing completely.

The rest of the transfixed Mica’s stared in horror at the now empty binding rings. Preoccupied as they were, they failed to respond as a light chain shot through the air and wrapped itself around the waist of a second Mica before turning into a locked shackle. The surprised Mica grunted as she was yanked backwards into the air by the rest of the chain and pulled towards Anton’s open left hand.

Catching the flying shinoccubi at the head and holding her up by the hair, Anton remained stoic as she began to scream in rage.

Immediately, the Mica went to slash at him with her tail, but Anton caught her at the base of her spade with his right hand and in one fluid motion, he pulled her spade down and then across her neck, slitting her throat clean open with a single slice.

Anton then dropped the now silenced Mica to the ground and as she landed on her knees and fell forward, her head and body split apart at the neck. The clone then dissolved back into a shredded shadow before disappearing completely.

A stunned silence passed as both the rest of the shinoccubi and the two dark elves all stared at the spot where the Mica clone had just disappeared.

“ ... Uh, you have 29 minutes left.” said Kianna as Fiona began to softly clap.

Anton angled his right hand out and away from his body as he pointed his open palm towards the ground. Focusing a ball of mana into existence at the center of his palm, he ignited the mana with his holy attribute and condensed it down into a physical manifestation that was the size and shape of a glowing hot tennis ball. Grabbing the ball of energy in his hand, he tossed it at the group of Mica’s.

Zipping through the air at a faster rate of speed than it could have reached if it were an actual, physical ball, the glowing orb made a sudden right turn and homed in on one of the Mica’s before striking her in the center of her chest. Before the surprised Mica could even react, the ball exploded and instantly incinerated her into nothing. The resulting cloud of fire caused the rest of the now panicking Mica’s to all scatter in opposite directions.

“Holy shit!” cried Fiona as the burst of flame burnt away “Run! Run little Mica’s! Run for your lives!”

Anton followed the same pattern as before and created another ball of mana at the center of his palm, but instead of throwing this new ball he moved his palm in an arc pattern in front of himself. As his hand moved across the span of the arc, the ball of mana was left hanging in the air at the low end of the arc and was quickly followed by another. Within the span of seconds, Anton had a dozen glowing balls of energy floating in front of him.

“Yes, you better run...” whispered Anton.

Both of Anton’s palms began to glow with a soft white celestial light. Rearing his arm back and rolling his shoulder, Anton pushed forward and slammed his open palm against one of the glowing balls of mana, which instantly set it alight and sent it flying out into the open air.

Having been imbued with a much heavier dose of his holy attribute, the mana had now become a large, blazing ball of holy fire. As it flew forward through the air it veered on its axis and curved to the side as it began targeting one of the fleeing Mica clones.

With a look of terror on her face, the Mica clone raced across the field and began to dart back and forth as she tried to escape from the now growing ball of flame. Tripping she tumbled, rolled and came to a stop sitting on her butt and facing the looming inferno. At the very last second, she vanished as she teleported herself to safety. As the fireball struck the ground it rolled over in on itself and exploded forward. The blast of holy fire was so intense that it ripped up the ground itself, creating a massive cloud of dust and leaving a vitrified scar that was over ten feet wide, four feet deep and nearly thirty feet long.

“Whoa!” cried the dark elves as they both shielded their eyes from the brightness of the explosion.

Anton wasted no time on observing the blast and instead began to slam his palms at more of the mana balls, igniting them and sending them flying at the stunned Mica’s that were scattered across the field.

As the balls of fire began to soar through the air they each bent in their trajectories and targeted one Mica or another. The panicked shinoccubi raced, danced and teleported across the open terrain as they all tried to dodge the swarming fireballs and subsequent explosions. As each fireball exploded, it left behind a ravaged stretch of land and clouds of dust and debris.

In a panic, the real Mica raced through a cloud of dust before ducking down into one of the lightly smoldering trenches left by an exploded fireball. Safe for the moment she began to hyperventilate as she worked to catch her breath. As she peeked over the edge of the trench to survey the land around her a loud whizzing sound drew her attention upwards. Her eyes widened to their fullest as the cloud of dust above her was suddenly split apart by the wake of an orange glowing chain that was sailing at high speed through the air and heading straight for her. Leaping out of the trench at a run she stumbled over the broken terrain and fell into a rolling cartwheel that turned into a series of back-flips before righting herself on her feet and running at full speed. As she raced to and fro across the field she now had to dodge the still raining fireballs while keeping herself at least one step ahead of the chain that stayed on her heels as it zigzagged behind her.

It wasn’t long before her fatigue set in and her speed began to wane. Realizing her plight she teleported forward to give herself some space and dropped into a combat stance as she turned to face the chain. Still soaring forward at full speed, the chain quickly closed the distance between them. At the very last second before the chain found its mark, a Mica clone appeared in front of the real Mica and was immediately wrapped in the chains coils before they turned into a set of shackles that locked around her body.

“Hm, clever...” mused Anton as he pulled the chain back into his left palm.

Reaching out, he grabbed one of the few remaining balls of mana in his right hand and raising his open palm upwards, he let the imbued fireball absorb more of the holy light from his hand. The small fireball began to slowly spin as it grew in size, and as it reached a high enough speed, two falchion-like blades erupted from its sides and began to whistle angrily as they cut through the air.

With a flick of his wrist, Anton sent the bladed ball of fire flying forwards so it could effortlessly cut through the ensnared Mica clone that was being pulled towards him.

The clone was sliced in half at the chest just below her bosom. The cut was clean and instantly separated her torso into two whilst slicing off both of her arms at the elbows, and half of her tail. Gasping in shock, the clones eyes went dull looking as she fell apart and dissolved back into a broken shadow.

The still sailing, bladed fireball then left a trail of flames as it cut a trench through the ground behind the clone before finally exploding into a pillar of fire.

Ignoring the blazing inferno, Anton began to scan the field of destruction for the real Mica. He was surprised as the two remaining clones suddenly appeared right in front of him and both reached for the key at his chest in unison.

Unperturbed, Anton leveled his open palms at the clones faces and blasted them both with holy fire, which instantly incinerated their heads.

Stepping through the dissolving clones, he cocked an eyebrow as he continued looking around for the real Mica.

“Fuck! This is just unfair!” exclaimed Fiona as she shook her head “They’re all gone now!”

“Master is so amazing...” whispered Kianna as she struggled to keep her clenched hands from reaching down to her loins “He’s just so amazing!”

Anton shifted his lower jaw back and forth in a thoughtful manner as he looked out over the seemingly empty, smoldering field.

Chuckling to himself, he began to stride out into the largest remaining patch of tall grass. Turning to the dark elves, he raised his left hand in front of himself and made a show of readying his fingers to be snapped.

Their eyes going wide, both of the dark elves became fixated on his raised hand. Though they had seen him preform this ability with his right hand in the past, they suddenly realized that they had never actually seen him do this with his left.

With a grin on his face, Anton snapped his fingers.

As the sound of the snap reverberated through the air, the tall grass around Anton was bent and crushed to the ground in a wave of motion that began from right where he stood and spread outwards into a massive circle that spanned nearly a hundred feet.

“ ... What the fuck?” breathed Fiona as her eyes widened at the sight “What did he just do?”

Kianna shook her head thoughtfully for a moment before she spoke.

“ ... He makes things float by getting rid of the gravity, right?” she mused as she watched the circle of flattened grass spread out to the side as Anton began to nonchalantly walk in that direction “Maybe he can make things fall by adding more?”

“ ... Oh, this guy is just full of bullshit!” exclaimed Fiona “He just made a fucking Crop Circle!”

“ ... Yeah!” giggled Kianna as she nodded her head in agreement “He did!”

As the dark elves watched, Anton continued to casually walk around until he noticed what appeared to be an odd lump in the flattened grass. Veering in his path so as to head towards the strange anomaly, he began to laugh humorously as the lump started to slowly move away from him as he got closer to it, but would stop moving as soon as he did.

Crouching down, he picked up a tiny pebble from the ground and tossed it at the lump. As soon as the pebble left the area closest to him it picked up speed and hit the lump with a surprisingly loud thud.

“OW! Fuck!” cried out the lump as it was struck with the pebble.

Anton laughed again and began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index finger. Without even looking, he raised his left hand and shot out a light chain towards the lump.

The lump quickly rolled to the side and dodged the chain as it struck the ground. Suddenly taking the appearance of a person made of water, the odd being rose up on its hands and knees and began to frantically crawl towards the edge of the circle. As it crossed over into the non flattened grass, the strange water person quickly got to its feet and began to run away from Anton before suddenly disappearing completely.

The dark elves were both startled as the water person suddenly appeared in front of them.

“H-how, m-much, time, do I have left!” cried out the water person as it planted its hands on its knees and began to hyperventilate.

“What the Hell!” cried out Fiona as she leaned away from the odd alien-like being “Who the Hell are you!?”

“Mica!?” asked Kianna “Is that you!?”

“Wha!? Yeah!” cried the water person as it looked back and forth between them.

As the dark elves watched in amazement, color seemed to fill the bubble of water that made up the being and an exhausted looking Mica quickly appeared in front of them.

“ ... How much time! ... Is left!” cried Mica between breaths “ ... Till I win!”

“Um!” mumbled Kianna as she looked at her phone “... 21 minutes.”

“ ... What!?” cried Mica as her face became panicked “Are you serious!?”

“Wha, y-yeah!” stammered Kianna as a look of concern spread across her face “Mica, I’m sorry! But it’s only been 9 minutes!”

“That! ... Can’t be! Right!” exclaimed Mica.

“Yeah, it is! And most of that was actually you hiding in the grass.” exclaimed Fiona “Mr. Armageddon over there killed all the other Mica’s like right away. And has just been walking around since then.”

Mica went to speak but stopped short as a rapid whistling sound filled the air and she was suddenly interrupted by a small twirling item flying in from her side and striking her neck as she was leaned forward.

The dark elves eyes widened and their jaws fell open as they registered the still spinning, shiny ring of metal that had looped itself around Mica’s exposed neck.

“Oh no...” whispered Kianna as the manabinder came to rest against Mica’s collarbone.

“Oh shit ... You are so fucked now!” exclaimed Fiona as she shook her head and smiled.

“ ... No! No! No!” cried Mica as she reached up and frantically pulled on the locked manabinder with both her hands.

“Did you really just take your eyes off your enemy in the middle of a fight!?” called Anton as he was nonchalantly making his way towards them.

“No! No! No! No! Not again!” cried Mica as she quickly backed away from the dark elves while still pulling on the manabinder “Not this again!”

Tripping over her own feet, she fell over on her butt and began to scramble backwards before getting back upright and running away towards the large tree.

“Well this just went from exciting to sad...” muttered Fiona as she watched the fleeing shinoccubus.

Mica had reached the tree at nearly the same time that Anton came up to the dark elves.