Metallic bangs ring all around the ice cave. Freware strikes the yeti as hard as she can, but he blocks with his right arm, producing a loud bang noise. Kiaran comes up from behind, attempting to cut its head off, but it ducks and kicks Kiaran away. He blocked the strike with his scythe but was blown back nonetheless.
Freware tried to strike the yeti again, but it grabbed her staff before the blow could connect. It was about to punch her but Kiaran came running up and unleashed a series of quick blows that the yeti was forced to use both arms to block. Freware went for another strike while it was blocking, but it used magic to create a wall of ice to block the attack. It completely shattered at her attack.
"You're already tough enough, and now you're using magic!?"
"It can use magic, just keep hitting it, it has to run out of mana eventually!"
I was preoccupied, but I had my Mana Detection spell up and running on the yeti anyway so I knew how much mana it had left. This yeti's mana capacity was greater than mine, and I'm a mage. That spell it cast also used up hardly any mana at all. At this rate, this fight will go on for hours before the yeti runs out of mana. Not that I doubt Kiaran and Freware's abilities, but I don't think they can last in a fight this intense for that long.
Cesre and I are using magic to make sure the swarm of various monsters made of ice and snow don't interrupt Freware & Kiaran while they're fighting that yeti. They're all about the size of a small dog, so it's going well, but I'm not sure if the Freware & Kiaran duo are actually strong enough to take the yeti down.
Ugh, Aubrey, where the hell are you!? As a matter of fact, how did it get to this point in the first place?! I think back to what had happened.
Freware told us that this guy was yeti, and that they were supposed to be super rare. So rare in fact that, that she didn't have the slightest clue how strong they're supposed to be or how they fight. Kiaran tried to negotiate with him since he could talk, but the only information that we really got was he was working for Vincent because he liked to kill.
It was around this point that Kiaran yelled at the little dragon to go and get back up. I don't think that little dragon could understand the language Kiaran was speaking, but with a bit of body language, it clearly got the message and flew away. Olen tried to attack it, but it managed to dodge and fly out the exit in the ceiling.
Then he ordered a whole bunch of these snow and ice monsters which Cesre called winter sprites. As the fight dragged on, Cesre realized I didn't know what they were so she tried her best to explain it to me while she was fighting.
As I understand it, they're spiritual beings that make everything more winter-like wherever they go. Making things colder, and such. Apparently enough of them in one place can change the weather. The amount we're fighting now is enough to make this tiny cave feel like it's in the Emednes instead of near the Antisors.
Cesre lets out a huge wave of flame to deal with a bunch of the winter sprites, switching my attention back to the present. It's effective, but if I get anywhere near that I'm going to have a ptsd attack in the middle of the battle, and we can't have that. I quickly fly away to chop up some snow sprites with my wind blades on the other side of the cave.
They're really not any trouble. They're just amalgamations of ice and snow in the forms of various animals. They don't do much, but in a huge group like this, it will definitely interfere with Kiaran and Freware. With them trying their hardest like this, we can't afford for anything to get in their way. It would definitely help a whole lot more if we both could hit Olen with a barrage of spells, though!
Cesre and I are massacring the stupid things with ease, but there's far too many of them to switch our attention the the elephant in the room: Olen. Kiaran and Freware on the other hand, are struggling. No matter what attack they do, they can't seem to hurt him. The ice also seems to really be messing with their footing. Not to mention just how much the cold is hurting them. I'm fine, and Cesre's using some sort of fire spell to keep herself warm, but they're stuck fighting in the freezing cold.
There's also the issue of-
"Freware! Above you!" I yell as I tear apart several dozen more winter sprites.
Freware quickly dodges to her left, and dodges the three strikes of ice that the yeti just threw at her from above. While killing the winter sprites, I'm doing my best to keep my Mana Location spell active and my Mana Detection honed in on the yeti. This is extremely difficult though, because I have to switch between turning them both on and off as quickly as possible.
"Kiaran, below you!"
Kiaran jumps up, just before the ice below him suddenly changes into several sharp icicles, that surely would have impaled him had he not jumped. Freware and Kiaran both have fairly different body types, so I'm able to easily tell them apart with my Mana Location. Well, if they're this close that is. Much farther, and I wouldn't be able to tell due to the lack of detail.
I could probably use Mana Detection without that mechanism I developed, but it's way too difficult to do in the middle of a fight, even an easy one like the one with the winter sprites. So I have to turn the mechanism on to know what spell Olen's going to do, but I can't turn both of them on at the same time. The only solution I could think of is to switch which one's on and off really really quickly.
Other than that, everything's going smoothly right now, but I really don't know how much longer Freware and Kiaran's stamina are going to last. We need them to keep the yeti occupied for us, so we can use our spells on it. As much as I hate to admit it, in a cramped space like this, without frontline fighters, mages are pretty much useless. Who cares if you can blow a continent apart if the enemy can smash your skull in before you can get the spell off?
Cesre and I really need to start supporting the fight with Olen at some point, but all of our attention is on making sure the winter sprites don't interfere. They keep just showing up, too! Where are they even coming from?! Cesre said that if we kill enough, they should eventually stop coming, but…
Alright, I have an idea.
"Guys! I'm going to stop warning you about his spells here in a second! Be ready!" I yell.
Mana Detection can only focus on one target at a time. That means for a brief moment, I'm going to have to look away from the yeti.
"Got it!" Kiaran yells, giving me the go ahead.
"Don't worry about it!" Freware does the same.
I switch Mana Detection from the yeti to the ice walls of the cave. I'm looking for- ah, I found it. Man, I'm happy that my theory was right.
I continue to move the target of Mana Detection along the walls of the ice cave, and the various pillars holding the ceiling up. What I notice, is that along the walls, are piles and piles of little, invisible bundles of mana. Piles about the size of the winter sprites.
Thanks to my experience with astral bodies, when Cesre said that winter sprites were spiritual life forms, I had an inkling that this may be the case.
"Cesre! They're all around the cave walls!" Admittedly, that was very vague, and without context there's no way anyone could have understood what I was talking about. Cesre gace me a look of recognition though, so I think she understood what I was trying to say.
A circle of fire suddenly appears around Cesre, getting the winter sprites attacking her to back off for a bit. She closes her eyes and begins to pray. She's speaking quietly and quickly, I don't know what she's saying. The winter sprites finally manage to push through her ring of fire, then start to attack her.
They bundle up near her feet and start to tear the cloth around her pants apart. They jump up to her and start hitting her in the chest and face with their ice. They start stabbing her and crawling into her clothes.
I presume the whole crawling into her clothes thing is to cool her down and induce frostbite, but I can't help but get a bit turned on watching it. Drop the whole stabbing me with ice thing, and I'd honestly let them all do that to me willingly. I'd enjoy that, actually.
I snap myself out of that as I pay attention to the fact they're attacking Cesre. Cesre doesn't seem to notice at all that she's being attacked though. She just continues to pray. Even when a winter sprite in the form of a snake slithers into her mouth and down her throat (I would definitely let one do that to me) she continues to force the air out of her lungs and make the movements with her mouth in spite of all the snow and ice in the way.
She isn't even phased at all. She doesn't change her pose, and her chants continue at the same rapid speed, although are much more muffled. She doesn't even shiver with all of the winter sprites crawling all over her body. I try to knock as much off of her as possible, but it's hard given I'm trying my best to not hit her.
She doesn't even appear to notice all the wind blades rushing past her. She just continues praying. I'm about to yell at her, and ask her just what she thinks she's doing, then-
A blast of scorching air quickly evaporates all the winter sprites on Cesre's body. A huge laser made of pure light with an aura of flame around it comes from around Cesre's body and hits the wall. It bounces off the wall, around the ice cave, hitting the wall over and over again.
It was only a moment until it hit every last inch of the outer walls of the ice cave. For a brief moment, it generated a huge wall of fire, all around the walls of the cave, then exploded out. The noise was deafening, for a brief moment the temperature of the cave rose to probably a good 200 degrees before cooling back down to freezing temperatures the next moment. All the ice in the cave instantly shattered, shaking everything and throwing everybody's fights off balance.
It happened faster than I could react to what was happening. I just stood there, while its destructive aftermath was slowly dawning on me. I had just one question. Since when was Cesre so powerful?!
Wait. Why didn't you do that earlier?! Like seriously, this entire fight would have been over by now if you had just done that from the beginning!
While I'm yelling at Cesre in my head, I notice that had completely shaken up the yeti fight. Kiaran, Freware, and Olen were just standing there, clearly with no idea of how to proceed. Honestly, I don't blame any of them.
"Winter sprites! Attack that mage!" Olen bellowed.
Clearly, Olen was the first to adjust to the new situation. He honestly made the best call possible. Cesre's clearly a whole problem on her own, and I'm still wondering how she hasn't resolved this whole situation by now.
Right as I'm thinking that though, Freware gets an extremely painful looking blow right in the back of Olen's head. In the next moment, Kiaran cuts up through his chest, drawing a huge amount of blood. Olen was clearly not the only one quick to adjust to change.
Freware and Kiaran quickly turn the tide of the battle, and make it look more like a 2v1 beatdown, rather than the struggle it had been to survive just a moment ago. I'm actually starting to feel a bit bad for Olen…
My attention is quickly drawn away from that though, as I notice Cesre, on her knees in a daze, and with the remaining winter sprites charging her with full force. They all look hideous now, that flash heat from Cesre's spell melting them into ugly, deformed states. The winter sprites were never that big of a deal, but with that much of them and with Cesre in such a state, if she didn't get any help they would definitely kill her.
I didn't put any thought into it, as I-
"Kiaran! Freware! Brace yourselves!" I yell.
Kiaran and Freware both jump back from the yeti they had been previously abusing. Olen also appears to look pretty terrified at what's coming next. Even the winter sprites hesitate on attacking Cesre because of what I yelled. This buys me enough time to get the spell off without Cesre getting any more hurt. This wasn't intentional, but I'm going to claim that it was later.
"Gale blade!" I yell. I hope that gives everyone some inkling of what I had just casted.
A huge wind blade made of wind blades is summoned within the ice cave. It's a whole lot smaller and less powerful than the one I had used on the wyvern but it should do the trick here.
It tears through the cave, picking up sharp chunks of ice with it. It rips apart all the remaining winter sprites, drastically cooling the wind blades. That combined with the wind chill, probably drops the gale blade to sub zero temperatures, maybe even less than 10 below. That's not even mentioning that all the sharp ice it picked up and is moving at speeds that could easily cut apart flesh.
Absolutely none of that was intentional. I'm going to claim it was later, though. Also, note to self, different environments change the effects of "Gale blade." I'll have to keep that in mind in the future so that I can get the most use out of it.
As I'm thinking that, Kiaran, Freware, and Olen all get caught up in the frozen hell I created by complete accident. They all take defensive positions.
Kiaran prepares to attack all the wind blades and chunks of ice with his scythe. This goes surprisingly well for him. He does get cut up in all sorts of places though, and blood goes flying everywhere. I just know he isn't going to be able to fight the same after all of that.
Freware attempts to avoid it by being less offensive. She plants her feet in the ground, and stabs her staff into the ice, like she's about to weather some huge storm. Just before the Gale blade reaches her though- a wall of ice forms all around her?! Freware takes no damage.
The yeti puts its arms up, but it's useless. It's bruised everywhere and has cuts all over its body. It's even missing a hand. It's blown back, and like the wyvern, its injuries are only made even worse by my spell.
Alright! This fight is over! Now go and finish it! Looking at Kiaran and Freware though, they're just standing there? They're just shaking and not moving. Kiaran I can understand, but you Freware? You're completely fine! Go and smash the yeti's head in!
Damn it, do I need to be the one to do it? Yeah, a good lightning strike to the head should be enough to kill it. I start to run over to where the yeti fell over.
"Azariah wait- help me up." Cesre says. She's on her knees, continuing to cough up snow.
I rush over to her without thinking and help her up. I feel the air around me begin to warm up. Cesre's spell I'm assuming, but I can't help but get really nervous. Much warmer and I might freak out…
"Get me to Kiaran and Cesre. Now." She sounds exhausted, yet assertive. "I can use Beira's connection at a distance, but Florian's is harder…"
She leans on my shoulder and I wrap my arm around her waist. I'm about to start thinking some very gay things, but the situation requires that I focus. Cesre's being unusually serious, so I want to respond to that.
Freware does her best to walk over to Kiaran and use healing magic on him, although she does it excruciatingly slowly. I manage to cover the distance much quicker than her, and I'm helping Cesre walk. By the time Cesre and I group back up with them, Freware had only started healing all the cuts on Kiaran's body.
Getting right up next to them, I can see why they weren't rushing to kill Olen. Kiaran's injuries for one, but also they looked absolutely frigid cold. Every time they breathed, thick white clouds came out, they were shivering extensively, and frost was starting to cover their skin.
Cesre warmed up the air around us. To Kiaran and Freware, I'm sure it was a huge relief, but it's making me extremely nervous. Freware manages to heal the rest of Kiaran's wounds way faster than she was before Cesre made everything warmer.
I hear a yell. Olen standing back up again and yelling its head off. He looks in absolutely horrible condition. I'm extremely surprised that he's still conscious, let alone standing up. He just keeps yelling and- his wounds are slowly healing?!
"Crap, even healing magic?!" Freware yells.
As soon as Freware yells that Kiaran goes running right towards the yeti. Right as he does this, I put my Mana Detection spell on Olen, and then-
"Get back!" I yell.
Kiaran clearly understood that, because right as I shouted, he came to a complete stop, and jumped back to the best of his ability. Right as he did that, a huge burst of ice and cold air blasted out from the yeti. I doubt that it would have killed him, but getting hit by that from point blank range definitely would have taken Kiaran out of the fight.
Right after that, Olen prepares another spell. It pulls up the ice around it, forming a sort of dome shield. Between that and the healing magic, he goes through his mana extremely quickly.
"I'll finish this. I can melt all the ice in this entire cave in just a few seconds, now that the winter sprites are gone." Cesre says. Excuse me?
"You can't, I won't be able to handle that." I hurry up and say, even if I hate myself for saying it. Getting in everyone's way just because of a little trauma makes me feel really disgusting.
"Sorry, Azariah, I really am, but you're just going to have to put up with it." Cesre says. I know she's right, but…
"I nearly died from heat alone down here once. If you make it much hotter, I'll actually have a panic attack." I told no lies. That makes it fine, right? Right? No, of course not.
Everybody's expression became much more grim when I said that. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I'll apologize as soon as I get the chance. Why do I have to be such a problem?
"Alright then. I'll try one of Adad's spells instead. If he comes out of there, I need all of you to cover me."
Everybody nods at this. Kiaran and Freware stand in front of Cesre and take up fighting positions with their scythe and staff respectively. I stand behind Cesre, and prepare a huge sleuth of wind blades. Given Olen was able to tank Freware's sheer strength and the sharpness of Kiaran's scythe, I'm not entirely sure how much they'll help, but I will prepare them anyway.
I keep my Mana Detection spell on Olen, and-
"It's going to explode! Get back!" I yell.
I prepare the spell to fly, and fly backwards as fast as I can, hoping that the others manage to dodge the blast as well. The dome of ice that Olen created suddenly explodes into a million pieces, sending cold air and pieces of sharp ice flying.
I managed to fly away unharmed, so I switch my attention to the others. Kiaran managed to run away. I assume he chopped whatever pieces of ice that came his way. As for Cesre and Freware… Freware looks like she just grabbed Cesre with one arm and ran. Freware has a couple cuts on her body, but Cesre looks fine.
Just as I manage to confirm that, Olen runs straight towards the two of them. It used to look like it was actually having some kind of fun fighting Kiaran and Freware, but now it just looks desperate. I guess he figured that as long as Cesre's alive his life is in danger.
It runs right towards Freware and Cesre. Kiaran tries to chase the yeti down but he's too fast. I fly towards him, and fire wind blades at it. And miss every single shot.
Freware, with Cesre in one arm and her staff in the other, tries to attack Olen. Olen uses his mana to create some sort of staff made out of ice and catches her staff with it. The ice spreads around her staff, freezing it in place.
Olen's about to go in for a punch, before Freware throws Cesre away with one arm, grabs her staff with her new free arm, and uses her strength to force both staffs down into the floor. They're both forced down with such strength that when they hit the floor, the floor and Olen's staff both shatter on impact. Even Olen looks surprised.
"Freware! Out of the way!" The air around Cesre just started going static. I don't need to use Mana Detection on her to figure out what's going to happen next.
Freware jumps out of the way, and Olen desperately tries to rush towards Cesre. I'm reminded of when that wyvern was pushing itself to its limits just to keep me from getting a lightning strike off. Lucidna also said that if she were to push her connection with Adad to its limits, she could probably destroy the entire Figment Library. Didn't Jody sing about Adad destroying an entire floating city with one attack, too? Man, how awesome…
For a brief moment, a flash of light and a thundering boom takes full attention from all of my senses. For that brief moment, lightning might have well been all there ever was. As fast as it appeared though, it vanished, leaving behind only a thundering echo and the shaking of my insides. The aftermath of the very symbol of power.
Olen was a mess. The entire right side of his body was just gone. It was like some giant cookie cutter took off all the flesh from its right shoulder all the way down to its waist. His heart was probably even gone. Blood and chunks of flesh were everywhere, pretty much dying all the ice behind Olen red and black.
He fell to his knees and started vomiting blood. Blood and what I assumed were his intestines started to fall out of what remained of his torso. I had to look away, or else I would have vomited on the spot. I only saw it for a brief moment, but I knew what I saw in that brief moment would be burned into my memory forever. It was way too horrible not to.
"Damn it! All of you keep attacking it! It's still regenerating!" I hear Freware yell.
What? That can't be. It couldn't possibly keep healing itself after an attack like that. There's no way, right?
I still refuse to look at it, so I turn Mana Location on. Cesre's running away from the Olen, the right choice for a mage like her. Kiaran's continuing to run towards the fight. As for Freware, she keeps chasing what's left of Olen as he desperately tries to run away from her. I can't tell much more, because of some sort of mana interference, although I don't know who else is using mana right now
Switching to Mana Detection, I notice that Olen is actually using healing magic to restore his lost flesh. How?! Seriously, how?! How the hell are you not dead?!
I pay attention to how he's using the mana, to see if I can find some kind of trick it's using. It's piling a whole bunch of mana onto the missing flesh and just creating it and fusing it onto its body. The way Freware healed Kiaran's injuries was putting a small amount of mana over the wound and having them heal on their own.
The main difference is that the yeti's technique uses an absurd amount of mana compared to the normal technique. So why does Olen do that? There has to be some sort of trade off that makes the higher mana cost more while. What is it?
I switch off the part of Mana Detection that puts images of the spells in my head when it detects them. With what I'm looking for, that mechanism in its current state would only get in the way.
I focus harder, enough so that I can sense the yeti's soul and its astral body. I have to shut my eyes and plug my ears to focus this hard. Anything that takes my attention away from this, no matter how minor, will completely break Mana Detection when I use it with this precision, even the mechanism I use to automate it.
Olen pours the mana out from his soul, and his astral body absorbs it. The astral body then puts the mana onto his flesh and creates more of it out of mana. Why is the astral body involved? My understanding of healing magic isn't great, but I don't think that the astral body needs to be involved.
Then I notice it. A small spell on its soul, something the yeti probably put there itself. A connection with its own astral body, that activates on its own whenever the yeti takes a fatal amount of damage. Something similar to my "Thrill on Death's Edge" except this one reacts to damage alone, whereas mine reacts to the situation overall.
That spell takes mana from its soul automatically, and the astral body tries to repair the physical body on its own. Meaning, as long as the yeti's spirit doesn't break, it will heal no matter what injury we give it. As long as it doesn't run out of mana, it's basically immortal… that's the trade off. An absurd amount of mana, for a spell that pretty much makes you immortal. Thinking of it like that, the cost is more than worth it.
So how do we get around that? The answer that first comes to mind is keep hurting him until he runs out of mana. Right now, it's somewhere around 50% to 70% mana capacity, but it's so durable as is, our fighters might run out of strength before they can pull that off.
The next option that comes to mind is attacking its soul directly, but I don't think anyone here is capable of that so it's basically a non-option.
According to Cthothis, the soul leaves the body immediately after death. That means that if we can find a way to kill Olen instantly, he should stay dead because the spell won't activate. Looking at its soul and astral body, it doesn't look like it has any countermeasures against that. That's probably why he seems so terrified of Cesre. But that also might be difficult, given how durable he is as is.
So our options are whittle down his mana by hitting him again and again with fatal injuries, or find a way to kill him instantly. Neither are going to be easy. With that, I stop focusing. Alright, now I have to relay that to-
Olen allows himself to get hit by Freware's staff. It returns a blow directly to Freware's head, which sends her flying. She tumbles for a while before hitting a pillar of ice. She's left there sitting, with blood pouring from her head. She makes no attempt to get up.
Kiaran tries to attack faster to make up for the loss of Freware, but Olen prepares a whole bunch of mana. Something that makes my Mana Detection spell go off like wildfire.
"Kiaran! Get back!" I yell. He does his best to backstep away from Olen.
Olen releases a flurry of icy attacks that don't seem to let up. Kiaran tries his best to dodge and deflect any attacks that come his way, but he can only do so much. By the time it ends, he's backed up far enough from Olen to not be able to do any damage, and also has several worryingly huge wounds on his body. Frost has also started to form on his body, causing him to shiver again.
Olen runs towards Cesre now. Cesre fires three honing lasers at the Olen, which all explode on impact. Huge chunks of flesh are blown up, and he screams his head off, but he doesn't stop running at Cesre.
When he gets right up in front of her, several balls of glowing light surround Cesre. They all combine into some sort of fire laser that sheers Olen' skin and fur off through heat alone. He powers through it and delivers an uppercut right in Cesre's chest, sending her flying into the air. When she lands, she lands on her arm, and it bends in a way that it really isn't supposed to. Cesre's scream fills the ice cave.
Kiaran rushes over to me, and gets in front of me. We watch as the flesh that Cesre burnt off slowly starts to heal. It's quite disgusting.
"Azariah, please tell me you have some sort of plan in mind…" Kiaran says to me.
I do my best to relay all of the information that I got out of Mana Detection to him as quickly as possible.
"So I have to kill him instantly, or I have to get rid of all his mana, and keep fighting him even after that… how much mana does he have left?"
"I don't quite know. At the very best, a little less than half left. It's probably more than that though."
Kiaran looks absolutely despondent. "Azariah, I'm not going to be able to do that in this condition, even with you helping me. It took the four of us just to get him down to half? I'm also injured, and our only healer is out cold…"
"Is there any way you can kill him instantly? Something that Pitiful's men taught you?"
"If they taught me something like that, I would have used it already. Maybe if I had Freware's help, I could maybe pull something like that off, but by myself he's just too strong…"
Damn it, I believe Kiaran, so just what are we meant to do?
"Azariah. The exit is right there. I won't blame you if you run off without us."
I understand where Kiaran's coming from, I really do, but there's no way I could do that. I'd hate myself for the rest of my life. There's no way I could live with myself if I did that.
"I can't. My conscience won't let me."
"I understand that, but we don't have any options here. Get to Cesre and force her to cast spells? Can she even do that? I saw the blow Olen landed against Freware, it was a really bad hit. She might be dead, and even if she isn't, she's not getting up from that any time soon. Do we try to stall for time, and hope and pray that Aubrey and Inell get here to save us?"
Everything that Kiaran's saying is right. I don't think that Cesre is in any condition to fight, even if she is a mage. Even if she is alive, there's no way Freware's fighting after a blow like that. It's just Kiaran and I. We have to find a way to beat the yeti with just the two of us.
"I've just about done everything I can. What about you? Do you have any other spells you made with Ctothis? Another one of those "Gale Blades'' up your sleeve?"
Kiaran's looking at me really desperately. What should I do? If I use a "Gale Blade" right now, I might actually kill Cesre. I can't use any spells from Florian. Have Kiaran hold Olen off while I pelt it with lightning bolts? That's far too risky. What about my connection with Ctothis, then?
"Ctothis… other than "Mana Location" and "Mana Detection," there isn't much I can do with her… I can separate my astral body from my physical one, but that's useless. Other than that there's just-" I freeze. Oh no. Am I going to have to use that?
"What is it?! What did you just think of?!" Kiaran yells at me. He looks extremely desperate. Like I just gave him a straw and he's holding onto it with all his might.
"Thrill on Death's Edge" I say.
Kiaran looks noticeably more upset when I say that name. I do my best to explain what it is and how it works and as my explanation goes on, Kiaran just looks more and more horrified. I explain everything I can about it. The lack of pain, the suppressed emotions, enhanced senses, and the fact I need to be near death to cast it.
By the end of it he looks like he's about to cry.
"And that's it? There's nothing else?" He asks me.
"No. That's it." I say.
Kiaran stops looking me in the eye. He looks horrible. Like he's about to force himself to do something he knows he's going to regret. He looks at me in the eyes again. No, he forces himself to look me in the eyes. He's crying.
"Azariah… I'm sorry. If I get out of here… I promise… I promise I'll do whatever I can to make it up to you." He says, choking on his own tears.
"Huh?" Is all I can say before he uses his scythe to cut a huge gash in my torso, down from my left shoulder to my waist.
I fall to my knees instantly, as the blood spills out. Pain becomes my entire world. Nothing has hurt more. Even in my past life, where I died, that hurt less. Dying hurt me less than this.
Then I feel the pain disappear, and time seems to slow down. I become aware of everything happening throughout my body as well as everything happening around me. My senses feel like they've all been boosted ten times over.
So this is how it is. Slowly bleeding out, I'm faced with an immortal opponent. Gee, I can't wait to see how this goes~