Vale wasted little ti in dispatching the last remaining Mutant.
[Piscari Ap has been slain.]
[ 4 Aether]
He didn’t waste ti watching its body sink. Instead, he rushed over and knelt next to Mias.
’Unconscious?!’
A sight he didn’t even know was possible lay before him.
Vale scooped Mias into his arms and, while keeping a careful eye on the wall of [Eclipse], walked back and found Ivory.
"Take him to Greed."
After handing Mias off, Vale returned to the Do and sat in his stone throne. His entire chest was covered in blood.
***
’This sucks...’
Xina grunted, then flapped her wings and shot to her feet.
’Is this how people feel when facing ?’
Xina’s abilities still worked. Whenever the Wretch closed in, it would freeze and suffer the lasting effects; however, it would also trap Xina’s Aether in its skin.
aning, each ti a crystal made contact with the beast, any bit of Aether within it was captured. And when she used [Frostbite], the effect it had compared to the Aether she expended wasn’t worth it.
She’d donned her current form to counter the effect, but it wasn’t enough.
She had two options at the mont...
Keep making sword crystals and eat away at her Aether until she died, or charge at the beast and see who outlasted the other.
Would Xina succumb to the Aether-absorbing properties of the mucus, or the Wretch to [Absolute Zero]?
Yet...
’I don’t particularly like either option!’
Xina had just gone through the most excruciating physical tornt in her life. Was she willing to make such potential sacrifices just after being saved?
Xina clicked her tongue, knowing very well the situation may devolve to such a point where making one of the two decisions would be necessary.
As the towering purple fish man cleaved downward, Xina summoned a thick shield of crystal which slowed down the attack just enough so she could dive away.
She had indeed managed to cause so non-incidental cracks to the thick bone broadsword, but it was only enough to break away the tip.
Sothing eventually started working against her, as with the weight being centered lower, its smashes beca more powerful and devastating to her shields — so powerful that one clean hit would be enough to stagger her, and two would kill. Especially considering those blows would imdiately be followed by an unavoidable date with a stone wall.
Xina sighed as she easily conflated her current situation with nearly every duel with Salo in the past.
Looking up, Xina flapped her wings forward, jumping back to create space.
"I really hate you..."
"Surely that wasn’t directed at , Ice Witch."
At the far end of the hall, the proud Queen of Ruin turned the corner and stood with her hand on her hip.
"We do have that agreent you never agreed to."
Xina ignored Salo in favor of dodging the Wretch as it jumped in the air and landed where she’d been standing monts ago.
"Don’t ignore . We’re allies, rember."
Xina clicked her tongue, then bellowed:
"Then stop talking and help."
She hated this. She hated receiving Salo’s help again. She hated being a fish out of water.
’Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it!’
A princess shouldn’t be subjected to such humiliation. A princess shouldn’t be receiving help from an enemy!
’I hate it all!’
Xina dodged again as Salo detached all thirty quills she could and made them revolve around her as she spectated the duel.
Salo joked, ignoring the woman whom she was supposed to vehently hate with all her heart.
"Tell , fish man, how do I deal with you?"
’I hate it!’
Xina wanted things to be simple again. In an odd way, she wished Salo would go against her previous words. That Salo would send twenty quills at the Wretch and ten at her, but she didn’t.
"I can absorb your Aether, but I have no idea if touching you is safe, mind telling , fish man?"
Xina gritted her teeth and summoned another crystal shield which was instantly shattered as she jumped to the side. When she landed, Xina shook her head.
She couldn’t waste ti mincing words or dwelling on the unnecessary.
"It rely traps Aether, not absorbs it. As long as you intake more Aether than it traps, you can!"
Salo smiled.
"Good to know."
No quip, no insult, no attack... as promised. Nor did Salo thank her.
All she did was acknowledge what she’d said.
Salo thrust her arm forth. At that sa mont, all thirty quills blitzed through the air.
The purple bastard tried to dodge, but its body was much too large to dodge the small quills which pricked every inch of its body. The quills attempted to wriggle their way under its skin. The mucus stopped that attempt.
However, Salo had managed to guide the quills to vital areas, injuring its tendons and lodging so quills in its joints, effectively immobilizing it.
For the first ti since being knocked down at the beginning of the fight, the Wretch found itself relegated to its knees.
It shuffled around to face Salo, who was closing in on it.
’Don’t.’ Xina’s crystal armor tore away, leaving just the bust and waist bits for protection. ’Don’t you dare look away from ! Face ! Face , bastard!’
An untamable anger boiled in her, spawned by the inexplicable disregard Salo had begun to show her.
Eyes blazing with fury, Xina kicked off the ground and whipped the purple banner off her wings, holding it like a whip as crystals ford on it.
Salo suddenly stopped her approach and, with the quills she’d managed to free, held up her arm signaling she was about to unleash another volley.
’Why won’t you look at !’
Xina controlled the fabric, making it snake around the Wretch’s neck before looping.
"Bastard!"
Xina jumped in the air and scread as she caught each end of the fabric and pulled.
The purple fish man shot Xina an angry over-the-shoulder look as Xina jumped in the air and pulled herself along until she had one foot planted on the back of its head and another on the crest of its spine.
Instantly, a wave of weakness took hold of Xina, all the Aether in the lower half of her body being sucked into the mucus. But as long as it didn’t grab her, she wouldn’t die.
And grab her it tried. But each ti it tried to sling its arm behind its head, Xina pulled tighter.
The beast would never reach her. Instead, it began clawing at the fabric, trying to free its throat to no avail.
Not to ntion [Absolute Zero] was intensely lethal at such a close distance...
’You should have never shown your back!’
Xina began to breathe laboriously, but with one last tug, the beast stopped its resistance.
But that didn’t an Xina stopped.
She tightened her grip and pulled. She pulled so hard the veins on her tiny biceps were bulging.
It was clear the Wretch had died, seeing as its Traits had deactivated.
But Xina was too emotional to care.
Feeling her strength return, Xina used it to create a wire that lined the fabric.
Finally, with one more tug, before the beast could sink into the ground, she decapitated the Wretch.
Xina rode the Wretch’s body to the ground, then stood where it disappeared as all around her Salo’s quills fell to the ground with muted clinks.
"You’re one scary woman, Ice Witch..."
Salo turned to walk away.
"I’m not sure if your assistance is needed. Reaper hasn’t said anything, so it might not be, but be prepared."
Salo began recalling her quills, but Xina stomped on eight of them, then bent over and picked them up.
Xina stared at Salo’s back, hatred still consuming her mind.
"You..."
Xina grit her teeth and took a stride toward the succubus, who had stopped and looked back.
"What is it, we don’t have ti to waste."
Xina held out her hand with an annoyed look on her face. Then the edge of a crystal grew from her palm, holding the quills.
Salo’s eyes widened.
"Oh?"
When the crystal finished forming, Xina clicked her tongue and threw it toward Salo.
"How unexpected."
Salo caught the crystal arm with her quills embedded inside and stuck it over the stump of her right shoulder.
If she controlled the quills while simultaneously running Aether through it, she not only had a functional right arm, but one that could detach and fly around while being controlled.
Of course, she couldn’t activate [Vitality Drain] while using it, but it was still a useful tool.
Salo turned and walked away while flexing her new arm.
’Why...’
Xina looked over the chipped bone sword which hadn’t followed its wielder.
’Why did I do that?!’
Sure, she was responsible for the loss of her arm, but she was responsible for the loss of her family, people, status, dignity, freedom... everything.
Xina hated it...
She hated the fact that her hatred was waning.
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