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MAZE - Chapter 982 - Contact
🕑 Added 2024-12-16 14:40:16 +0000 UTCBlade, the Harmony Guardians, and the three members of the Wandering Scale all had their weapons in hand. They were cornered at the end of the jail. To reach the exit, they would need to fight against the Soldiers of Strength standing in front of them. At the very least, these appeared to be the old models, as their skin was a bright shade of red instead of the muted pastel colors of the Version 2.0 soldiers.
It was a team of nine versus a team of five, with the humans having the lower numbers. But that didn’t mean much when they were fighting people bound to daemons. The human team consisted of three men and two women, one of whom was Frostbite. Strangely enough, the controller didn’t seem to have gone through the procedure. Her skin was a regular color, and there was no strange energy emanating from her.
The one thing Blade took issue with was the tattoos around Frostbite’s arm. They hadn’t been there the last time the two of them had seen each other. There was a good chance that the legacy had improved. It might have evolved, allowing her to cover herself with even more tattoos. Blade wasn’t sure about the specifics of that legacy. All she could remember was that it allowed Frostbite to use skills from the previous holders. Maybe those markings were just that old skills Frostbite was now able to use.
Before Blade could take more time to assess her opponent’s capabilities, Frostbite lunged toward her, large ice spikes growing from her hands. Both women had been part of the assault on the centaur homeland, and they knew the truth: the only one who could stop either of them was the other. The Soldiers of Strength wouldn’t be powerful enough to face off against Blade, and the Harmony Guardians wouldn’t be able to handle Frostbite.
They all understood this. But there was something else everybody knew: Frostbite didn’t care about her teammates. The Soldiers of Strength were durable enough to recover even if they were hit by her attacks by accident. And the surrounding prisoners? They could always get more.
Blade, on the other hand, cared deeply about ensuring her team and the prisoners didn’t become collateral damage. She knew that if things went south, her teammates or the prisoners could be seriously injured. All those factors left only one viable first move: Blade charging at Frostbite with all her strength and forcing her into the hallway outside the jail.
Blade activated a skill that turned her body into a ray of light and met Frostbite mid air, the impact too strong even for the controller, who focused on defense. In that single burst of light, they were gone, leaving behind the Alliance team and the four Soldiers of Strength.
Not missing a beat, Vash created a thin ten between the two groups. Using his legacy, he cast a buff that granted everyone a strength boost, similar to the one Vulcan could use as long as they passed by the stage he set. While it wasn’t as potent as the Title Blade, it was already enough to cause problems for the enemy.
The Soldiers of Strength didn’t realize what was happening and simply prepared to defend themselves, giving the Alliance team just enough time to get their buffs. Everyone’s clothing shifted to a shade of red, similar to that of their enemies.
Grimm began throwing small bombs that packed a strong punch in a very small area. He called these mini-explosives “Drunken Sirens” in homage to the many drunken hookups he’d had where he couldn’t even remember the names of the people involved.
Each blast barely inconvenienced the Soldiers of Strength, but the bright flashes of light were enough to distract them so the rest of the team could close the distance. Iris and Ivy went for their usual combo, attacking one of the men with a flurry of rapid strikes. Each blow dealt minimal damage, but the speed and frequency of their attacks began chipping away at the connection between this particular Soldier of Strength and his daemon.
The man tried to fight back, using a pair of daggers to block their attacks, but the weakened connection made it impossible for him to utilize the same level of power he’d wielded before. While the twins distracted him, Vash hovered overhead, beating his wings faster and faster. The sound of his maracas grew to a crescendo, flooding the entire jail.
Moments later, the humans began to feel as though the wind was physically pushing them back. It wasn’t real wind, but instead the auditory illusion created by Vash’s maracas, which sounded like tarps whipping wildly in a hurricane.
This was thanks to Vash’s performer skills, combined with a legacy ability called Ringmaster’s Wonderland. The skill allowed him to take small sensory effects and turn them into full physical manifestations, without requiring the actual elements to be present.
Meanwhile, Roan charged another soldier, a woman, head-on. He activated his Bestial Armor immediately, the image of a prehistoric honey badger manifesting around his body. It was much larger and considerably more vicious than its modern counterpart. His dual hatchets transformed into massive claws as he attacked his target with relentless ferocity.
However, with only one opponent to deal with, the Soldier of Strength managed to fight back more effectively. She took a boxing stance and used her gauntlets to block his attacks, countering with punches that sent Roan flying several meters back with each hit. Thanks to his Bestial Armor, he wasn’t taking much damage, but it was clear that if she used anything more than a simple punch, he’d be in trouble.
Thankfully, Roan wasn’t completely alone. Skyler supported him from a distance, throwing a series of wind and sound-based spells at the soldier. These forced the woman to pull back some of her punches, so she wouldn’t take too much damage from the projectiles.
The fact that Vash’s buffs were disrupting the Soldiers of Strength’s connections to their daemons was putting the humans on the back foot.
Even then, Flint was in trouble. He was the only one fighting against the Soldier of Strength, essentially by himself. His power armor could bridge the gap between their power, but still, he was the weaker one. The dwarf went in for a punch, the pistons in his arm triggering to make the attack even more deadly, but the man he was fighting simply blocked the attack completely before bringing his mace down toward Flint's head.
The attack had left him too exposed, and the dwarf had no chance of dodging it completely. He shifted just enough so that the blow scraped along his shoulder, which was somewhat protected by his power armor.
Neria, being the only healer in this group, was making sure blows the team received were quickly healed, but that also meant she failed to notice the attack aimed at Flint. At the very last second, she tried to create a barrier to increase his defenses, but it was not fast enough.
Still, between the two, they were able to turn a deadly strike into something that just hit the dwarf's shoulder and made it pop out of its socket. His power armor instantly triggered and, with a painful crack, put the limb back in place, as it was one of its functions.
Vash spread the smell of popcorn and cotton candy through the area, both of which affected their speed, one as a buff and the other as a debuff. That was another use of Ringmaster’s Wonderland, and being a performer, he could combine his own skills with those special effects.
Even then, the Soldiers of Strength had recovered from their initial surprise. Now they were able to fight back properly. The man facing the twins ignored some of their attacks, taking the damage in order to get an opening to strike at the elves. The two of them were able to respond in time to a few of the attacks, but not all. The man’s dagger cut their arms, and Ivy was stabbed in the stomach. It was not a deep wound, but it was enough to slow her down, making the synchronization with her twin less effective.
With Iris slowing down, Grimm had to double his efforts with his explosives. But the main problem was that he could only do so much without harming his teammates. He did try to attack the other Soldiers of Strength, but from his angle, it was too risky to do that.
The woman fighting Roan noticed how her attacks were not doing as much as she hoped and started speeding things up, even if she had to attack at the lower height that she was used to. But she was fast enough to deliver a flurry of jabs and hooks that bounced off Roan’s armor, causing it to flicker. Skyler continued to try to help by using some spells from the back. Unfortunately, all her magic was doing was interrupting the connection of the Soldier of Strength. There was no damage being done, and the attacks moved too quickly for her to be able to change the trajectory in any significant way.
As for Neria, she had chosen to keep Flint out of the battle for a while, or at least her priority was in keeping him from taking any more damage. Other than that, most of her attention was still on the others. At this point, the fight was not exactly a difficult one, but it was not exactly an easy one either. What was most important right now was staying alive.
Her gaze flickered quickly between Flint and Iris, sending barriers to one and healing to the other. Unfortunately, this meant the rest of the team was left hanging out to dry.
In the corridor, Blade and Frostbite were facing each other, but their battle was much less intense so far. In fact, they were just staring at each other, measuring their movements and trying to figure out a way to start the battle with an edge. High-level battles would generally happen like that.
The two adversaries stared at each other until they found an opening to strike. It would be different if they were facing a monster or a large group, but in a one-on-one duel, patience and experience were king.
"I do have to thank you. If it wasn't for the legacy you gave me, none of this would have worked," Frostbite tried to get into Blade's head.
"I'm not surprised. You are not intelligent enough to do something like this without it falling into your lap," Blade replied, her hand already on the hilt of her sword, but it was still sheathed.
"Name-calling? Really? I thought you were better than that."
"And I thought you were not a monster. Guess that is why you did not care about getting a skill from a wendigo."
"It is just a skill. It does not matter where it came from. It matters how you use it," Frostbite replied.
"Is it not the same for the centaur that is back there? You were just using them because it helps?"
Frostbite shrugged. "He had his use. I will admit that I am not that fond of his current state. We should have just gotten rid of it a long time ago."
"Then why don't you? Why do you keep that thing alive?"
"It is not up to me, and apparently there are still some things we can learn from it. I just do not know what," Frostbite's eyes shifted to the back of the jail.
In that brief moment of distraction, Blade unsheathed her weapon and triggered a powerful radiant slash aimed at the woman in front of her. Before the energy blades even reached the target, the human was already moving forward, almost colliding with the skill.
Even then, Frostbite was able to respond. Her fists grew as ice formed around her hands, and she slammed them both against the incoming attack.
Once Frostbite and Blade clashed, the entire facility started to shake.
