I liked the feeling of flesh squelching through my fingers. The hot breath of my enemy near me. The cries of pain, and confusion. I wouldn't get that same excitement from a distance. I'd have to save archery for the more stealthy kills when I didn't have time to have fun.
The looks of horror on the faces of the elves as their distance was turned against them was priceless. I drew the bow over, and over again. Launching their death at them repeatedly without pause. If they could see my face through the darkness, and the fox mask they would see a terrifying smile. I was drinking in their fear.
Thoroughly enjoying it. They didn't stand a chance. I had to constantly launch arrows from this bow while I had it outside of my spatial storage or the darkness it possessed would overwhelm my resistance to the corrosive effects of darkness. Even my mask's defense was starting to have trouble with the corrosive darkness. Regardless of what I wanted I would have to dismiss the bow fairly soon just to spare my poor mask of being dissolved completely.
Once I ran out of visible guards I focused on my spatial senses. Then I started launching attacks at the guards who were trying to get to me from inside the building. I was willing to go after the nobles that were waking up to the all out attack I'd launched at them. The ones that fled my attack were allowed to leave. Anyone who raised a weapon was attacked, and killed.
I was beginning to think that this whole fight was almost boring when the weapon my soul weapon wanted to devour approached me rapidly. The weapon came down on me like an executioners ax. I blocked the deadly halberd with ease. I slapped it aside with the front edge of my bow. I damaged my bow in the process.
I would be able to repair it later if I didn't use it anymore tonight. I made the bow disappear into my spatial storage, and switched to the gauntlets. My mask was damaged, but it was already absorbing my ambient mana to repair itself. The cracks in the mask were sealing up at a rate that was visible to the naked eye. The mask didn't have any combat properties so I asked Bryce to focus on imbuing it with self repair properties.
Bryce wasn't able to do much more then etch the rune patterns I gave him. He was working on creating his own runic patterns, and inscriptions, but a large number of them did just as much elemental damage to the wielder as it did to the enemy. Thus the dangerous darkness bow I liked to use. I rushed toward the enemy in front of me. Slapping aside another attack as I channeled poison down to the clawed tips of my gauntlets fingers.
I sent the nasty corrosive acidic poison that the spider queen granted me to the tips of my clawed fingers. He was in for quite the shock once he realized what my claws could do. His halberd came down on me again. I knocked it aside with a backhanded strike. The strike was stronger then I expected.
Sending a wave of pain down my arm. The elf that was wielding it wasn't half bad either. He'd taken the time to learn how to wield this weapon properly. The power the blade possessed added to his own. The synergy between wielder, and blade was quite impressive.
He actually gave me quite a bit of trouble. It required almost my full focus to deal with his rapid strikes. His aim, and skill was slowly pushing me to the limits of my speed. I had been holding back my strength at the beginning of my clash with him to keep it exciting. I slammed his halberd down with my full strength.
Following the trajectory of his powerful strike down. Adding my own strength to it so that when the blade struck the ground it was buried deep. I stepped on the pole just beyond the sharp of the dual sided blade. Which was unusual for a halberd. They were meant to be used similar to a spear.
The sword tip giving them a little more flex so that they could deal more devastating slashing attacks then a regular spear. Giving them the attack power of a sword, and the range of a spear. It was a difficult weapon to use properly, and while I could use a halberd effectively I wasn't anywhere near his level. I stepped into his personal space where I would be protected from the reach of the blade. Even if he could strike me he wouldn't be able to do much damage with the shaft of the weapon.
The shaft of the halberd shifted beneath my feet. I sensed danger, and leapt away without hesitation. I landed on the ground well clear of the range of the halberd only to realize the weapon had shrunk down to the size of a short sword. All that reach was gone in an instant, and what replaced it was pure lethal speed. I was surprised to see the same lethal aggression I preferred to use suddenly turned against me.
This elf was good at mimicking styles. He was flexible, and could change the way he fought in a split second. Despite my massive strength advantage I found myself being pushed back as if I were nothing more then an unskilled child. My corrosive poison was doing damage to the blade rapidly. The elf had realized the danger my claws posed, and his own mana was repairing the blade nearly as fast as I could damage it.
This would turn into a battle of stamina, and wills if I wasn't careful. I refused to allow him to force me into a simple battle of skill. I hadn't used all my abilities yet, and he didn't know that yet. I started to allow him to get more hits in as if I were slowly losing out in this battle. I was collecting small bruises, and cuts quicker then I would like.