"Ahahahahahahahahah! See the difference you insects? See what you were actually worth? See how much of a dirtbag you really were? I will show it to you, whether you want to, or not!"
Malay's crazed laughter, a cut above her usual hysterical ones, echoed clearly, even though the clatter of rain was deafening. It seemed to reverberate, reflecting against the buildings, against the ground, against the lamp posts, ringing in the ears of the three remaining people constantly, haunting them like a nightmare.
All of them were bloodied and beaten, but none of them wanted leave their teammates behind. Their family, with whom they had worked for many years.
As the stare contest between the unhinged woman and the three resolute fighters continued, the rain changed.
Yaleena, who was waiting for the effect of the rage potion to go away and the backlash to kick in, felt impatient and frustrated. She didn't know whether her teammates upwards had made it or not.
Two of the five were already down. Sephir from the massive AoE spell, and Barn in a most cruel fashion. Pure chains of Malay's Mana tore him to pieces, limb by limb. His puply remains littered the partially destroyed street, the blood already washed off by the apparently never ending stream of rainwater.
Suddenly, Yaleena noticed something. Due to her sensitivity to water element, the one she excelled in, she could instantly sense the change in the nature of the raindrops. They
were no longer ordinary, but the part of a spell!
Her water barrier removed the water component of the drop, leaving behind the wind blades, which bore through the already injured skin, slicing away bits and pieces of flesh and skin as if cutting veggies into super small bits.
"Ugh!" uttering a stifled cry, she realised the gravity of the situation and desperately called out to her friends, "AVOID THE RAIN!!!! DON'T WASTE TIME!! GOOOO!!"
In an attempt to mitigate the damage, Yaleena tried summoning a water dome around her friends, but the attention seeker didn't take that happily.
"Taking your eyes off your enemy in the battlefield eh? Absolutely unforgivable. Ok, I'll make sure you will see the ones you wanted to protect to perish with your very own eyes!"
Without a moment's notice, she fired off a more powerful version of the spell Sephir had used to near-destroy Gruffold's Nahem.
"
A supercondensed glowing orb appeared over her hand and a dazzling beam of white flames chased after Marcun and Reinard. It was over in a moment, not even ashes remained. Erasing everything without a trace, it continued on it's path.
Yaleena stood there, not able to process the situation. Her clothes, hair and skin had already started charring, but she was too busy to care. A thousand thoughts ran in her mind.
[Wh-what just happened... wa-was it supposed to end like t-this... yeah... it was our duty to sacrifce our lives to beat the lackeys of the system related people... but...we failed to beat them...]
She tried to guilt-trip herself, think about her failure in completing the mission, to prevent her untrustworthy mind from thinking about the people who just died. Hands clapped to her mouth, she collapsed .
Yaleena wanted to shout in despair to let the pain out, but no voice came out. She wanted to cry her eyes out, but felt strangely parched inside. Her desire to live flared up like never before. A thought, more powerful than the contempt, more prominent than the sorrow, more potent than anything.
[I don't wanna die...]
The barrier around her grew exponentially stronger. This time, not even the wind blades could touch her.
Malay was intensely happy to see the very thing she wanted to.
Opening her mouth to taunt Yaleena with her annoying voice, she finally noticed something. A stinging pain, spreading downwards her body.
"Iyaaaaahhhh!"
She was attacked with a pain in her forehead of such intensity that he felt she would downright faint. Looking at her her feet, she noticed the water around them was red. They were red too, and red droplets were spreading outwards.
Being an expert in Ervass, she managed to understand the situation.
The raindrops were a part of a magic spell. Her powerful aura had worn off. Sending out such a powerful attack at the drop of a hat had led to a huge mana consumption. The rage potion's effect had worn off, leaving her practically defenceless and tired.
That was what Yaleena was waiting for, but it came too late. However, it came true, and that meant Malay was going to be a victim of
Slowly, the seriousness of the situation started to sink into Malay's bones. Eyes filled with panic due to the imminent disaster, she tried to think up a solution. Yaleena couldn't help but chuckle upon seeing her nemesis panicking.
Seeing that there's no respite, Malay ran towards Yaleena's barrier, determined to enter it. Of course, it was futile. But it pinpointed that she was scared, truly scared. And she was even more surprised seeing Yaleena unharmed.
"YOU BITCH!! LET ME IN!!!"
She desperately cried out to Yaleena, who was taken aback by the shamelessness of the former.
"Sure."
Snapping her fingers, she made an opening the size of Malay to enter. Malay didn't care of anything, just desperately dragged her injured body inside. Too foolish of her...
Just as she went inside, Yaleena stepped forward and punched Malay right in the face.
The moment it connected, Malay's nose started to bleed.
"AAAGH!"
"This is for Mira."
Balling her fist once again, Yaleena twisted her upper body to land an extra powerful punch on Malay. This one managed to break a couple teeth. Malay looked at her with a scornful gaze as blood trickled down her lips.
"ERGH!"
"This is for Barn."
After punching her a couple more times, she lifted Malay off her feet holding the scruff of her neck. Without a word, she threw her right out of the barrier.
The raindrops started their job. Even though Malay's ass was whooped thoroughly, she could still shriek.
"Naaaahhhh! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!! DON'T FUCK WITH ME!! GRUFFOLD! END THIS RIGHT NOW!! RIGHT NOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW.....?!...."
Her larynx was cut out. Bleeding through her mouth, flailing her arms trying to shield herself from the drops of unforgiving death, she kept on struggling. It took only a few seconds for her body to be converted into a mess of bits and pieces.
And the irony, the rain stopped right after, leaving behind a completely destroyed city.
"HAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHA!! Serves you right bitch!"
A voice filled with contempt managed to laugh maniaclly it out before the only survivor passed out.