Tsaimath
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Chapter 252
🕑 Added 2020-02-21 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
My spell completed and a javelin-sized icicle was launched towards the rabid wolverine, cutting through the air with a whistling sound. It hit the wolverine just as it tried to launch itself at Sigmir, staggering it and giving her precious moments to brace herself. I started to construct the next spell, still not using anything fancy, mostly just throwing simple attacks into its direction. By now, it was an attack-pattern that I could sustain for hours without paying a lot of attention to the spells, allowing me to observe the monster, just in case there was something more to it.
Behind the wolverine, Rai tried to get at its joints in an attempt to cut through sinews and hamstring it. I wasn’t able to see what exactly happened, but he instantly jumped back after striking, creating distance.
Meanwhile, after being hindered twice by Adra and me, the wolverine seemed to only get more ferocious, its snarls making me shudder while its claws were scattering sparks as Sigmir used her shield to repel them. But even though she was able to block the attacks, Sigmir seemed to get pushed out of position, which, frankly, boggled my mind. Sigmir had crossed the first divide, she was ten level higher than the wolverine, she had a connection to Ylva and despite all those advantages, she was getting pushed back.
Again, attacks from Adra and me caused the wolverine to stagger, giving Sigmir time to correct her stance and get a hit into the wolverine, causing more blood to splatter.
“That’s not right.” Lenore muttered in my mind, watching the fight through my eyes.
“What do you mean?” I asked back, while beginning to cast another javelin.
“There’s not enough blood.” Lenore simply stated, while her impressions flowed over into my mind and I was able to understand what she meant. My icicle, Adra’s arrow and Sigmir’s axe-hits should have caused quite a bit of bleeding, especially the large, cleaving wounds caused by Sigmir’s axe. Yet, the amount of blood that tainted its fur was small, almost negligible.
“Take a look?” I asked in return and she brought her vision to the forefront, allowing us to take a look at the magic in the area. And what we saw was quite disgusting, it was as if a corrosive mist was constantly eating away at the surroundings, taking in the life-force of everything around it, while feeding the wolverine. In a way, it was like my blood-magic draining life-force and using it for the wielder while causing some of it to decay into miasma. But it wasn’t just taking blood, it was simply destroying, or devouring, everything around it.
“That’s…” Lenore began, but didn’t quite finish the thought.
“...bad. The faster we destroy it, the better.” I completed her idea.
In essence, the wolverine would be able to slowly drain Sigmir and Rai, while also destroying the forest around it, the vegetation that was flush with life-energy, about to begin its spring growth. If it was merely the destruction of the forest, I would be concerned and annoyed but not to the point that I’d feel threatened. No, what made me worry was that the regeneration of the beast might allow it to out-last Sigmir, simply by draining life from its surroundings. We had planned to slowly and carefully take the thing down, mindful of possible counter-attacks. That plan was out of the window.
“It’s draining life from everything around it. We need to destroy it, fast.” I called out, so that the others knew my plans.
Seeing no point in wasting the Icicle I had started, I simply let it fly, causing some extra damage in the wolverine, but it wasn’t a deep wound. Sure, it bled some and undoubtedly hurt, but it wouldn’t be fatal, even without its regeneration.
Sigmir, hearing my voice and the change of plans, gave the wolverine a massive shield-bash, letting her axe drop while reaching out to Ylva. The wolf turned into silver mist and returned to her Hallow, adding some strength to Sigmir. And Sigmir used that strength for another Shield-Bash, getting enough distance for her next move. While letting go of her shield, she reached around to her back, grabbing the Lok’Nar she had inherited from her father. It wasn’t magical like the axe she had earned in the Barrow Den but it was a massive weapon she was deeply accustomed to. And that showed, as she drew upon Ylva’s powers to increase her power, her body slightly changing and her attacks turning ferocious.
But I had my own part to play. With a thought to Lenore, our minds joined, spectral claws around my hands, a spectral beak changing my face and all my hair turning into black feathers. With our minds joined, I unleashed my Overload-Ability, allowing me to channel vast amounts of power and that was just what I did. There was almost no Ice in the area, and projecting runes instantly was just too wasteful, instead, I let Lenore take the lead, allowing her to use our body for spell-casting. That way, she could add her own magic to the fray, deadly winds sapping both the wolverine and the vegetation around it of life, depriving it of its food.
As for me, what I was planning didn’t need hands, my mind was enough. From the sheats hidden in my cloak, the weaver’s shuttles I had created way back, in Neyto, soared once again, my Ice Magic carrying them with relentless power. Each of my mental processes took over three of them, allowing me to use them as individual objects, instead of treating them as formations of blades. I had been forced to do that before, but right now, if I only focused on them with both mental processes, leaving our body to Lenore, I could fully control them.
Using the flight-distance from me to the wolverine to accelerate, each of the blades forming an arch at different angles, almost like two sets of claws coming from both sides, I struck. The two blades that I had angled the highest, just slightly offset from each other and the centerline were coming from above, trying to punch into its spine from both sides, hoping to cripple it. If I managed to sever its spine, the fight would be over, simple as that. I doubted it would be that simple, but it had a chance to work.
The next to blades, angled at forty-five degrees between the horizontal and vertical axis had a different objective, a much easier one. Those two were simply supposed to cut into its shoulders, trying to get at the sinews there, but even if I missed them, they would cause gaping flesh-wounds.
And finally, coming in on the horizontal and from both sides, only slightly displaced from each other, my last two blades were trying to cut into its stomach, hoping to savage its insides. Again, I doubted it would work but the blades would cause damage, without being slowed down too much, allowing me to let them to mostly continue on their course, by tightening the loop they were on and coming from the front.
My blades were only in the air for a second or two, before they all, almost simultaneously, reached their target. The two aimed for the spine deeply punched into the Wolverine, transferring all kinetic energy they had into my target, in a strong enough hit to knock it down. The two blades aiming for its shoulders surprised me, they punched through their target and, with an almost instinctive nudge from me, continued on and punched into its paws, causing additional damage before getting stuck in the ground beneath.
And finally, the blades aiming at the stomach, they cut gouges into the wolverine, before continuing on, now with all my focus on them.
I barely noticed Sigmir, Adra and Rai attacking the wolverine just as ruthless and reckless as I was, using the opening my blades had given them. But even with that opening, the wolverine wasn’t going down without a fight and it wanted to take Sigmir with it, maybe out of sheer spite.
Even bloodied and beaten as it was, it lurched forward, trying to smash into her and sink those vicious teeth into her soft flesh and that was something I just wouldn’t have. If anyone was nibbling on Sigmir, it would be me.
The two blades I was still controlling continued on their flight, their arc rapidly tightening even as they sped up, quickly completing a full circle around Sigmir. As I pumped as much Astral Power as I could manage into them, they started to shed a silvery light, slicing through the air on either side of Sigmir before both completed their flight, just as the wolverine had launched itself as Sigmir.
For the first time, I felt a bit of a counter-force from my magic, the impact strong enough to feel it though the connection. I lost control of my blades from the conflicting forces but the wolverine was far worse off, its massive body getting knocked over from the impact.
Sinking to my knees, I allowed the avatar-state between Lenore and me to fade, my breathing suddenly laboured. A quick glance to the bar that indicated my Astral Power told me what was going on, somehow, I had managed to blow though almost all of it with that last stunt.
But the blue message that told me I had killed a Gluttonous Wolverine made more than up for the weariness I was feeling.
