LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 100TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: ? | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
The hands holding Rowan and the Scouts released them, and Rowan unleashed an angry roar as he immediately began running toward the monstrosity. He had taken a shield from one of the guards in the hallway, and wielded his longsword in the other hand.
The second guard and the two Scouts from Seraph’s Hold who had been trapped inside the doorway rushed the creature as well.
“We’ve got this,” Rowan shouted. “Handle her!”
Rowan swung his sword in a mighty arc, and the blade crashed down onto the monster’s outstretched arm.
His strike did a little damage, but he felt the tiny bones in his own hand shatter from the reverberation, causing him to drop the sword.
He ducked under a wide swipe by the giant’s other arm, and slammed his shield into the monster’s elbow.
Mounted atop the red meat and bloody bones, the King’s mouth opened and let out a chilling shriek that caused everyone in the room to freeze for just an instant.
Except for Carmina, who was also staring straight at Kaela.
“Let the boys play with him,” Carmina said. “I can’t wait to taste what pumps through that big heart of yours.”
As soon as the hands let her free, Kaela rushed forward, leaping up the five stairs and onto the dais in a flash.
Carmina watched with a smile on her face as Kaela reached for her Phantom Blade. It materialized in her hand, and she swung as hard as she could.
But Carmina wasn’t going down as easily as Alek did, and she dodged neatly out of the way, avoiding the strike altogether.
She raised an arm in the air and closed her hand in a fist.
Kaela watched as a giant globule of blood rose from the floor, formed a spear, and slammed into her stomach. Hard.
She had tried to jump to the side, but the spear simply followed her.
Kaela was slammed backward.
While she struggled to regain her balance, a barrage of blood spears followed, and she watched her health drop precipitously from the attack.
Kaela coughed up blood and spat it out, watching as hers joined the massive pool covering everything else in the room. She growled with fury and pushed off of the floor, Phantom Blade in hand.
Carmina parried a strike from Kaela’s blade with the scepter.
They engaged in a deadly dance of strike and parry, and as hard as Kaela was fighting, the smile never left Carmina’s face.
The melee broke for a moment and Carmina spoke through that infuriating smile.
“I knew you would be formidable,” she said. “They said the legends of your prowess were certainly exaggerated, but I never doubted you.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Kaela said through pursed lips.
She phased into the aether and ran quickly behind Carmina.
When she reappeared, she swiped downward, cutting Carmina’s right arm off just past the shoulder.
Then, Kaela watched as blood rose from the floor and reattached her arm. More blood flowed around Carmina’s body, filling in all the nicks and cuts Kaela had inflicted, healing the blood mage completely.
Carmina made a fist with the reattached arm and punched Kaela in the face.
“What the fuck?” Kaela asked.
“I know! I’m impressive,” Carmina said.
The abomination caught one of the Scouts and threw him across the room. The Scout landed in a pool of blood just feet away from Kaela.
Carmina had just conjured another blood spear, and as Kaela phased into the aether to avoid being struck, she realized it wasn’t meant for her. It was going straight for the Scout.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Kaela reached out to try and stop the spear.
She normally couldn’t interact with object from the real world in this space, but this was a conjured item, and she thought maybe if she…
Her hand closed around the spear’s shaft, and she felt the spell start to unravel.
But as the vibrant red blood filled her hand, standing out in the otherwise gray backdrop of the aether plane, banshees flocked to her.
“Yes, bring us more!” one of them whispered into her mind.
Blood dripped from Kaela’s hand onto the floor of the space, and the banshees swarmed to it.
This could be useful…
The spear still hit the Scout, but with considerably less force. He leapt back up and rejoined the fight against the monstrosity.
This time, when Kaela phased back to reality, she had a smile on her face.
Carmina tilted her head for a moment and then resumed her onslaught. As the fight raged on, the scepter vs sword melee was punctuated by spears of blood that would come for Kaela every few minutes.
Kaela noticed that the frequency of the spears was changing, however, with longer periods in between them.
Each time she sensed one coming for her, she activated Phantom Step, and instead of avoiding the spear, she tried to catch it with both hands, wearing the spell down and pulling the blood into the realm.
The banshees were ecstatic. And while Kaela had been wondering what her relationship with them was growing into, right now, in the middle of this fight, where Kaela was actually outmatched by an opponent for the first time she could remember, she was thankful they were on her side. Or at least they seemed to be.
The only question was how she could make use of their hunger to help her win.
Back in the throne room, it was a battle of attrition. Kaela may have had plenty of Stamina to keep the physical fight up for hours, but she had no way to replenish her health.
Meanwhile Carmina’s fuel for healing was everywhere throughout the room. In the carpet, even soaked deep into the stone itself.
Kaela glanced around the enormous audience hall. The blood from the walls and the columns was gone. As she dodged and parried blow after blow, she noticed that the blood from the far reaches of the room was also gone.
“Maybe it’s not such an unlimited supply after all…”
Rowan’s fellow member of the royal guard fell to a strike from the abomination. The guard had tried to stab a dagger into the heart of the monster, but when he did, the knife just buried itself down to the hilt.
Then the monster grabbed the guard’s head and squished it like a grape. Rowan and the Scouts kept their distance after that.
What they had learned was that any time they did any damage, the thing would just join back together. Rowan had cut off one of its legs, only to watch the leg stand up on its own and attach itself back to its body.
That was when Rowan and the Scouts decided that tanking it while Kaela continued her fight was the only answer. As long as they kept it engaged, Kaela would be free to do her thing.
Back on the dais, Kaela activated Phantom Step again, but when she came back, her body froze in place. Carmina stood facing her, pointing the scepter straight at Kaela’s chest.
Carmina was chanting something in a low tone, and Kaela felt her heart pump once and then stop.
Kaela was also finding it hard to breathe suddenly. She felt her veins tightening through her entire body.
What the hell is going on?
She tried swinging her sword, but she was suddenly so weak she barely had enough strength to hold it up.
Kaela felt her mind working to untangle whatever magic this was, but it was slow going.
Carmina laughed aloud.
“See, Little Princess, while you were gone, I have consumed a lot of your family’s blood.”
She kept twisting the scepter in the air, turning it and pulling. Kaela felt like a marionette on strings. She dropped to her knees when Carmina pushed the scepter downward.
As much as Kaela tried to undo whatever was controlling her, it wasn’t working.
“And the more of their royal blood I consumed, the more control I had over them.”
Kaela wouldn’t normally stay still while someone did a villain monologue, but she was hoping the lull in battle would allow for her out-of-combat regeneration to begin.
There also wasn’t much she could do, since her body seemed to be ignoring her attempts to move it.
All the while, her mind was working hard to untwist and untangle the fine tendrils of blood magic that had her locked down in an iron grip.
“Of course I saved your mother for last,” Carmina continued. She took a few steps to her left, then jumped and splashed down in a large pool of blood.
“This is her right here.”
She reached down and dipped a finger in the pool, then made eye contact with Kaela as she put it in her mouth and closed her eyes as if she was savoring a delicacy.
Bump bump…
Kaela felt a rush of blood through her body.
“I held them in place just like I am with you right now,” Carmina continued, thinking she had all the time in the world.
“I made them sit on that bench right there and watch all of it. They were utterly helpless against my will.”
Bump bump…
Kaela’s heart forced blood through the constricted veins. Her fingers and toes were starting to tingle.
Rowan and the Scouts continued their fight in the background, allowing the monster to chase them through the wooden benches and around the back of the spacious audience hall.
“Yes,” Carmina continued, licking her finger once again, “your mother is delectable. Your brother was first, you know. I made the King watch while I hollowed out his eyes and popped them into my mouth. He screamed like a baby. Tsk, tsk. So much for the fearless Prince.”
Bump bump…
Another pulse forced through her body, and as the blood mage’s hold on Kaela’s heart loosened, she finally started to breathe again.
Bump bump…
As Carmina continued talking, Kaela realized how she had removed the spell’s hold on her. The blood that ran through the royal family’s veins was not the same as Kaela’s.
She stayed perfectly still until Carmina turned, and engaged Phantom Step. She came out with Phantom Blade in her hands and sliced Carmina’s head cleanly off.
“Heal from that, you bitch!” Kaela yelled.
Except the abomination continued chasing Rowan and the Scouts. And Kaela was at her wit’s end as she watched Carmina’s head attach itself once again.
But when she spun around to look at Kaela, the expression on Carmina’s face wasn’t one of smugness. It was fear.
“Wait. How did you break my spell? That’s not possible…”