His friend, the mejai, while determined, was simply too weak to be a threat.
The mejai in this realm are all so pathetic. Yet they strut around, thinking themselves masters of their art. What a joke.
The battle went on, with Vir losing ground with each encounter, disappearing into the shadows. Cirayus let him. Dance made things more interesting.
No. There’s another reason, isn’t there? he thought.
Another reason he let this battle drag on for so long. The boy showed ingenuity, adapting the moment his tactics failed him.
Cirayus found himself hoping… yearning that, given enough time, Vir would show him something interesting. A strategy that might have a flake of Ash’s chance of dealing some real damage.
Show me. Surprise me. Adapt! Overcome!
Cirayus thrust his poleax, as he’d done innumerable times in this bout. As expected, Vir sunk into the shadows, reappearing from behind.
With a sigh, Cirayus swiped, expecting the boy to dodge, but instinct forced him to pause.
The mejai held an orb—bigger and brighter than any she’d produced thus far.
Cirayus flared Giant Hide, and even leaned slightly into Spirit of the Ravager before she fired her Hail Burst. It proved unnecessary. While this attack was undoubtedly stronger than her previous spells, it was still far weaker than the Mejai of Realms’ spells that Giant Hide brushed off.
He turned his attention back to the boy, half-expecting him to have jumped away again.
Instead, Vir moved in… and stabbed his hand. Whatever prana-empowerment Vir applied to his blade broke through the armor of Giant Hide, skewering his palm.
For a split-second, the muscles in his hand relaxed, dropping the heavy polearm. Cirayus was already attacking, pinning Vir in place with Balancer while his greatsword descended with the weight of an executioner’s blade.
But the boy neither defended nor escaped into the shadows. He wrestled against the effects of Balancer of Scales… and sliced the polearm’s wooden shaft in two.
Cirayus grinned. “Good. Very good! You seek to disarm me. But did you forget? I have two more weapons. And if you think I need weapons to be lethal…”
Lightening his arm, he swung at Vir, canceling the weight that restricted his opponent while quadrupling the weight of his own arm at the moment of impact.
Vir wrenched his body, deflecting most of the blow, but the bit that hit him sent him tumbling to the ground.
“Maiya, now!” he shouted.
A flurry of Wind Blades ripped through the air, which Cirayus dodged handily.
“I’m afraid your attacks cannot hurt me, girl.”
“You’re right.” The crimson-haired teen stared back at him, undaunted. “But who said I was aiming for you?”
The cliffs bordering the forest were tall and vast and made of sandstone. Stone that easily broke apart.
Under the guise of fighting defensively, Vir and Maiya had lured the demon—and their unwanted mercenary pursuers—to this very spot.
Maiya’s spells cut deep into the rocks, destabilizing them. Their weight did the rest.
Boulders crashed with terrifying speed, quaking the earth, crushing all underneath. The mercenaries, and Cirayus alike.
The mercenaries stood no chance, but the demon could move at abhorrent speeds. If Vir could escape, so too could his four-armed enemy. He charged relentlessly, attacking Cirayus with every opportunity, preventing his opponent from fleeing.
Right until the shadow of the boulders eclipsed them. Without a moment to spare, he used the falling boulder’s own shadow to sink into the ground, dodging death by a hair’s breadth.
The demon was not so lucky. Boulder after boulder slammed into the giant, burying him under rubble.
Reappearing next to Maiya, Vir scooped her up in his arms and Leaped to her Acira. He never paused, nor did he ever look back. He simply propelled himself faster than he ever had, blurring past trees.
With every second, he expected the giant to catch up to them. To multiply their weight, sending them crashing to the ground.
The clearing finally came into view. Vir Leaped onto the Acira’s back, and it was only after the great beast flapped its wings and cleared the top of the tallest tree that he breathed easier.
“We… won?” Maiya asked in disbelief. “Vir, we won!”
Vir sighed in relief. “Well, we didn’t win. But we’re alive.”
He could hardly believe it. It almost seemed too good to be true. Too easy…
A red figure blurred, and Vir felt their Acira shudder under the force of impact.
“I’m afraid you have not,” Cirayus grinned, stepping lightly onto the back of their Acira. “And now, you have nowhere to run.”
60THE RAVAGER AND THE SHADOW
(PART THREE)
The moment Vir glimpsed red in the corner of his eye, he threw on his rucksack, grabbed Maiya, and jumped, not waiting for the inevitable attack that was bound to hit them.
Not a second after he’d Leaped off Maiya’s Acira, Cirayus’ enormous greatsword sliced across where they’d just been.
Balancer of Scales is cheating. It’s absolutely cheating! Vir thought as he plummeted to the forest, Maiya cradled in his arms like a princess. A somewhat panicky princess, though to her credit, Maiya never screamed.
Light Step broke his fall, and he gently set her down.
“I thought we had a chance,” Vir said through gritted teeth.
“After all that… Vir, what do we do?”
“You give up,” Cirayus said, landing in front of them with the weight of a feather. “Either way, this is where you die.”
Balancer of Scales crushed them with the weight of an anvil, flattening them against the ground. Once again, Vir charged Dance of the Shadow Demon, but before he could activate it, three Acira swooped down from the sky, screeching.
“Think again!” Badal roared, diving on the giant. Not even the four-armed demon could ignore the new threats, bracing himself for impact. To his credit, his suppression field stayed active, though it held no sway over Dance.
“Run, brother! We’ll keep him occupied.”
“No, stop!” Vir shouted at Badal, his face flat against the dirt. He couldn’t even turn his head. Such was the pressure from Balancer of Scales. “Don’t even think of fighting him!”
“If you really feel that way, then escape! We’ll leave as soon as you’re safe.”
There was no other choice. Vir and Maiya simply lacked the offensive ability to harm Cirayus. That remained true even with Badal’s support. Vir sunk into the shadows and retrieved Maiya, bringing her into the protection of the shadow realm while Cirayus fended off Badal.
Then he fled. He’d long ago mastered Dance of the Shadow Demon, leveraging every last drop of potential the ability had. When he used it in succession, he didn’t so much appear and disappear, but rather swam through the shadows, like a fish darting through an ocean of darkness.
The moment Vir’s arm left the shadows, he charged the ability, reactivating it. At any moment, only a limb or two was visible above the ground. The rest was safely tucked away inside the shadow realm.
Maiya, though terrified, kept her mouth shut, lest she give away their position to the giant.
Each Dance invocation put distance between them and their enemy. Though Vir spent several seconds within the shadows, to an outside observer, they’d simply disappear and reappear some twenty paces away.