Vir, if I’m a crazy blood cultist by the time you get back… I swear it wasn’t my fault!
21SHREDDER SHREDDER
Vir sailed toward the Shredder with Haste already active. Based on experience, this wasn’t an enemy he could hope to match without his full arsenal of magic. The world slowed around him as both body and mind accelerated. The swaying of the short grass stilled, and the pitch of all sounds lowered.
While an odd sensation, it was quickly growing familiar. Though not familiar enough, apparently—the Shredder matched his speed and then exceeded it.
I’m still slower than that thing? Vir thought in panic. Haste had sped up his movements and thoughts to twice their normal capacity, yet the Shredder matched him with pure physique alone. Of course, prana being severalfold denser within its domain didn’t hurt, and were it not for the barrier Vir erected near his skin, his blood would have burst from the pressure.
It became clear there was a world of difference between a newly gained Talent and one that had been honed for a lifetime. The Shredder had been born with its innate speed, having years—perhaps even decades—to grow used to it. Vir had had a single day.
Claw slashes and vicious bites threatened Vir continuously, forcing him to evade. The ones he couldn’t dodge, he blocked, his seric katar clanging with each strike. Though unlike their first battle, Vir evaded at least some of its blows. He considered that progress.
Still, the fight was only slightly less one-sided than before, with Vir now leveraging Prana Vision to give him details of the beast’s weak points—its head and its belly. The former was more predictable, but its thick skull and heavy Prana Armor made it a poor target. The latter was surprising.
Vir expected a heart within its chest, only to find the organ deep within its belly, where both its armor and Prana Armor were thickest at the center, tapering off to its flanks, which were protected by its clawed limbs.
Feinting his katar, Vir forced the Shredder to block with its claws, which gave him an opening. Squatting low, Vir Blinked, ripping upward with a devastatingly fast uppercut. Fast and powerful. Bringing the full brunt of his momentum to bear against the Shredder’s Prana Armor, he hoped to penetrate its thick armor—both the Prana Armor and its regular hide. The blade cut deep into the layer of black prana that coated the beast’s body, but it slowed, and finally stopped, having barely broken through.
The strike put Vir in a disadvantageous position, making him vulnerable to the Shredder’s counterattack. He dodged the maw and parried both claws, but the tail blade swooped in like a scythe, forcing him to block with his bracer.
Clang!
The grating of metal on metal was followed by a gouge that marred his precious seric armor, forcing him to remember a certain warrior’s words—weapons and armor were meant to be used, not collected like fine jewelry. Even so, the damage stung.
I need more speed if I don’t want worse, Vir thought, narrowly avoiding a bladed claw.
Luckily, he had something that could give him exactly that. While he’d never attempted to use Haste and Blink together, there was no reason the combination shouldn’t work.
Vir pulled prana from his legs—finding, to his surprise—that his blood responded the same as it always had. It was only then that he realized Haste had accelerated his blood flow and heart rate to match his speed. It had to, to provide enough blood to his muscles that worked overtime. Vir wondered if there were any side effects to this state, and for how long he could keep it up before his body shut down.
Shelving those thoughts aside, Vir allowed the supersaturated Prana Dam lining his skin to lapse, flooding his legs with prana and power. Willing himself to move at speeds that defied the imagination, he Blinked.
The Shredder, which had been lobbing attacks at Vir with total confidence, froze, confused.
Vir’s seric katar smashed into the beast’s torso. Empower and Prana Blade augmented the strike, which contained the full force of Vir’s offensive power.
The blade drove through the Shredder’s Prana Armor, splitting it… and came to a stop without penetrating the Shredder’s actual armor.
Vir’s instincts blared, and he charged Blink again.
Come on. Come on…
A tail blade whipped around for an opportunistic counterstrike, and Vir knew he wouldn’t make it. He aborted the Talent, surging the accumulated prana into his legs to activate Leap instead.
The tail blade blurred by, barely an inch from Vir’s nose.
Blink’s sheer speed would have allowed him to escape with time to spare, but it took somewhat longer to charge; its activation was more of a two-stage process.
Something to keep in mind from now on, Vir thought, wondering how he’d beat this beast without it. He’d hoped improving his speed would’ve been enough to send the abomination to its grave, but clearly, he’d underestimated it.
He had to be smarter about how he fought, and unfortunately, his greatest advantage was currently too risky to use—there was only one shadow in range large enough to slip through—his own.
The moment Vir disappeared into the shadows, he’d lose his only exit. The Shredder’s shadow wasn’t quite enough to allow his whole body to pass through, and there wasn’t anything even remotely large enough nearby. While he hadn’t personally confirmed what happened when the Shadow Realm eventually kicked him out, Cirayus had. Apparently, it happened to more Iksana ghael than the clan cared to admit, and the results were always gruesome. Amputated limbs or bisected torsos usually spelled instant death for those unfortunate demons.
Needing time to devise a new plan, Vir backed away. The Shredder followed to the edge of its domain, and not one step farther. Perhaps out of fear of the other Domain Lords—the name Vir had given the rulers of these lairs—who eyed the battle with a wary eye. Whatever the reason, Vir took it.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Vir deactivated Haste, allowing the world around him to speed back up to normal.
Vir turned his thoughts to how Cirayus would approach this battle. The demon wielded godly power, true, but he also fought with his mind.
What would that guy do? Vir thought, eyeing the four-armed giant who stood with arms crossed some forty paces away. He’d have his enemies fight amongst themselves.
Vir’s eyes lingered on the other Domain Lords, then gave up on that idea. They wouldn’t leave their territory without good reason, and Vir had none.
Shifting his thought process, he considered his own strengths and weaknesses. He was neither as fast nor as strong as the Shredder, then again, he’d never preferred fighting opponents head-on. Sometimes there was little choice, but whenever there was, he liked to strike from the shadows, leveraging the element of surprise, only partially because his abilities were optimized for such attacks. It was just a smarter, safer way to fight.
It wasn’t like the Shredder had no weaknesses. Its flanks had comparatively little in the way of armor, both of prana and hide. Just that getting to it was difficult.
If only I could use Dance of the Shadow Demon, this would be so easy, Vir thought frustratedly.