Chapter 140

Fwhip, Snap, Fwhip, fireballs flinged away from Wranvyre’s remaining hand one after the other as he dodged and weaved around the lunging centipedal tentacles, each fireball punching a cylinder through the thing’s body, the other side of the room visible through the holes. With every fireball shot another immediately formed on his fingertips to replace it.

It didn’t matter, the thing came on and Wranvyre was forced to retreat, backing up as he continued to fire fireball after fireball through its body, dozens and dozens until he was panting and sweating under the magical strain and the steps of the creature left a trail of disintegrated black mist behind it.

The house cat yowled and came on, furious as only a cat could be, increasingly eager to kill its prey. But each dark centipede that grabbed for the Lord was countered with a fireball that lanced down its length, obliterating it. It wasn’t long before the mass of darkness was contracting, once several feet taller than the lord it began to falter and shrink down as it shed mass in a misted trail.

The cat snarled in frustration as its body disintegrated around it, losing mass until it was at chest height with the lord, even its cat head half turned to mist, only one star-filled eye remaining.

The small but deadly fireballs were faltering, but at last, the cat thing died with one final hiss, its one eye staring hatred at the Lord, the last of its body torn apart by the tiny compressed fireballs.

Wranvyre was left breathing raggedly, chest rising up and down like a bellows, sweat pouring down his face from too much magical exertion.

But he’d won.

He turned on the bear.

“Th-this is-! Where did you find such a leveler Rose!”

With a snarl he raised his hand and a fireball sputtered to life above his index and fired into the chest of the teddy bear.

“S-stop!” cried Opal from where she lay, clutching her front.

Fwhip. Another fireball skewered the teddy bear.

“S-stop you fucking asshole! Stop killing him!”

The Lord flatly ignored her, it was as if he hadn’t heard her at all.

Opal clenched her fists at her sides.

“Stop ignoring me you snake faced multi headed dick hydra!”

The Lamia snapped around, his face a picture of fury.

“Will you shut up!!”

The fireball intended for Rain shot out for Opal’s head. Ready for it, the goblin sunk into the floor.

“If you think you can fool me into removing my Skill again with the same trickery you are beyond wrong. I-”

CRUNCH.

Wranvyre blinked at the sound and turned slowly to stare at the giant bear.

It was surrounded with a halo of fractured light, the air splintered around its body like shattered glass.

Another crunch filled the air and the arm of the bear moved an inch, the air seeming to break around it, the magic that kept it in place misting away.

“What kind of illusionary trick is this? h-how are you-?”

CRUNCH. The air broke further, sheets of some invisible structure breaking apart, breaking down into nothing, something pushing through the magic through sheer unbelievable brute force.

The arm moved, and then so did the whole upper body of the bear, the air splintering and shattering around it, whisping into white mist as it broke down under the pressure, a column of hissing steam rising from the black bear’s fur as it shed the magic in sheets of misting transparency. One more sharp motion and the upper half of the bear was fully freed from its imprisonment, mist angrily boiling off its body half hiding it from sight.

Wranvyre backed away as the bear was freed, raising his remaining hand in uncertainty and forming a fireball. But then his eyes dropped down, down to Rose. The teenager was still trapped and entirely frozen and remained wrapped around the bear, as was the bear’s legs, its hips wreathed in fractured air like a corona of shattered glass.

“Impressive that you freed yourself, I have never seen that before. It seems I may have over exerted myself and left my Skill to weaken. But, assassin, you are still trapped as sure as if you were wrapped in chain. My own daughter is your shackle, an irony worthy of a play.”

The bear didn’t seem to hear him, its breath coming in ragged gasps as the pool of blood below it only grew larger.

“ ... Not that it matters, you are on the threshold of death itself.”

The Lord seemed nearly as worn down as the bear and his hand shook badly as held it up, fireballs forming on his fingertips.

“To tell the truth I’m not even sure what you are anymore. But no matter, you will die here and Rose will never again oppose me. No, she won’t even dare a thought against me once I insert her heart pin.”

The fireball on his index finger snaped forward like a bolt of straightened lightning and lanced through the bear’s head. It fell backwards, its upper body going limp, only remaining upright because its lower half was still frozen and locked in place by Rose’s motionless tail.

The next fireball Fwhipped from Wranvyre’s middle finger as it formed, striking the bear in its guts and causing it to convulse.

“Die, die now! DIE!” screamed the Lord, his body shaking with magical exertion as he fired into the bear over and over and over. The next set of fireballs formed on his digits and he laughed with a wild light in his eyes.

But before he could move to punch more holes in the bear Opal lunged from the shadows, somehow no longer slowed by her injury, her momentum carrying her forward into a mad staggering charge. She held no talons however, and no darkness was whisping over her body. She was unarmed because she didn’t need to be armed. The goblin charged at the Lamia’s long tail which lay curled around the room’s furniture and lunged at it, rolling with the bloodied tip, flipping head over heels as she carried it across the floor, once, twice, three times, then sprung forward, arms outstretched as she flung the tail forward and straight into the waiting open wolf paw hanging from the ragged remains of one of the teddy bear’s arms.