It was a very brief clash, yet Emery had almost lost a second arm to the woman. He stared at her carefully from a distance, wiping the blood away from his lips. Citro was no longer his neck.
He lost him a few minutes ago, but knowing the mongoose, it wasn't doing anything that would affect their chances of winning.
His wrist ached even more. She managed to make him flail it around as much as possible, instigating the already terrible wounds.
Above all that, a new wound had appeared in his left ribcage. At least two were broken, he surmised. The clothes that should have been around that area had been destroyed to pieces, exposing the bruised purple-ish skin in its stead.
His breathing paused at several intervals, but he still held the knife with as much deviance as before. The green energy still illuminated most of his figure, but it flickered, unwilling to give up.
Everything faded. His life force draining the most. He could see Elyn giving him short, worried glances from the side, distracting her from the encirclement she found herself in.
She could sense it. He didn't doubt that Citro could, too.
Emery tried his best to keep it under control or hide it in some way or form, but nothing worked at that point again.
"You're a bit tongue-tied. Why is that?" Amelia laughed.
When someone was pretty, it was quite easy to forget that she killed people for a living. That was the mistake he made the first time.
She already had an innate advantage over him in the form of her Class. He only widened that gap by looking down on her ability to take a life.
"I'm just thinking of how beautiful you are, really." he laughed, trying his best to buy time a little.
The woman realized and played along with him.
"That coming from such a man is truly an honour. Buuut… I'm a little insecure, though. So you'll have to forgive me for my next actions!"
She jumped forward, bringing her fist down faster than Emery could even follow. He rolled to the side.
A bad mistake. Small rocks pierced all his wounds so far, causing him to freeze and groan mid-movement.
Another mistake.
She spun around after the first attack and slammed down into the earth once more. This time, it hit.
"Ravaging Earth Fists!"
A massive cloud of dust rose into the earth, and a crater of a smaller scale than the one from before appeared as she hit Emery in the head.
He placed the green energy at the back of his head to brace the impact, but it was far from done yet.
Amelia grabbed him by the ankle, then spun him around rapidly, like one would see in a cartoon of some sort. She had a wide grin on her face, which he only caught through quick glimpses.
"Ravaging Slam!"
His body flew into the air like a rag doll, then fell as quickly back into the ground. A mouthful of blood erupted from Emery's mouth.
The job was basically done at this point. Amelia rubbed her palms in a satisfied manner, then walked over to where she'd dropped him.
"You know," she said, "I'm a very big advocator for peace and all that other stuff. But I'm also a very big advocator of having fun. My enjoyment precedes anything else, unfortunately for you. The apocalypse is so much better. Free food for those with power. Status for those with power. As long as you have power, you can have anything in the world at all!""
Emery blinked slowly, struggling to make heads or tails of what she just said. His mind was still numb from everything.
None of his limbs were broken yet since he used the energy to protect him at very critical moments. However, they felt broken.
The internal damage tore him up from the inside out. Blood poured out in a steady stream from his entire body.
If before, he was losing life force like a tap, then this could only be compared to a waterfall.
[Ding!]
[Would you like to commence healing with energy points!?]
A bit of sensibility returned just as he saw that, however.
It almost felt unnatural to see the system message now. He had been so used to stuff like that happening without any way to get out of it, but he could only manage.
Since when could energy points be used for healing? He remembered it happening the first time, but wasn't that just a one-off thing?
Clearly, it looked like that wasn't true.
Emery resisted the urge to get rid of the pain once and for all, but he wouldn't just yet. He used every last piece of common sense in him to plan his next moves carefully.
Citro was still underground. An appropriate moment would be just before that. He wouldn't be able to tell though.
That vague connection between the two didn't even allow that level of synergy. But he could still assume, though. And even if that plan didn't work out, he still had something on his mind.
His eyes landed on the bold, flashing letters in front of him.
[Free Summon now available!]
Hopefully, this would give him something related to escape or something. He just wanted to get back somewhere safe quickly.
Amelia caught his gaze, then smirked.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Oh, right, I doubt you can talk after I slammed the daylight out of you. Though you are stronger than I give you credit for. Your bones aren't all twisted and mangled, even after all that."
She was really far more annoying than she looked, but no matter.
He could feel it. It would all happen and come together anytime from now.
And it did… just not the way he expected.
BOOOOOM~!
A large explosion emerged from the distance, and an all too familiar beast stood. Its maw and fangs lay bare, revealing the building ball of fire that would soon hit the city once more.
Emery held his breath. Or at least he tried. His ribs attacked him before the new arrival did.
There it was, standing in full force.
The very same Class Five Threat that had caused all of this.