NOVEL WEB Chapter 212: Anima(Part 11)
"D-Damn it...!" Yelled the Water Mage who Kia was fighting, unleashing a barrage of water blasts towards her.
She swiftly raced forward and weaved through the space, evading the attacks while closing the distance, before lunging forward as she closed in on him, unleashing a rapid slash of one of her blade, inflicting a deep horizontal gash across the middle of his chest.
A sharp cry of pain rang out as blood streamed out of the wound, the hooded figure gritting his teeth as he began to charge up a Water Spell, before Kia swiftly cut him off with a powerful slam of her foot against the middle of his stomach, sending him flying back before his back collided against the wall of the barrier, a pained grimace on his face as he shakily tried to get back onto his feet.
"I'll give you one chance...surrender quietly and take this barrier down. Do that, and I'll spare you, I'll simply turn you in for questioning. But refuse to surrender, and I'll have no choice but to kill you, and it'll be nice and slow, and very painful. Personally, I'd prefer the latter, but it's your choice," Kia smirked maliciously, as she swung her blades across.
She was bluffing, she wasn't planning on killing him either way, since she wanted to avoid the possibility of getting a lecture from Jules. It wouldn't take her much trouble to restrain him without killing him, but she was enjoying toying with him.
"Sh-Shit...I'm not going to betray my comrades, you human bitch! And if I'm going to die, I can at least take you with me!" He exclaimed, drawing out a Spell Card.
Kia shot forward as fast as she could, unfurling a rapid slash of her left blade and slicing right through the hooded figure's wrist before he could activate the Spell, a sharp cry of pain ringing out before she slammed the bottom of the handle of her right blade against the side of his head, a loud thunk echoing out as she knocked him out upon impact.
She let out a quiet sigh as stepped back as he slumped against the barrier, a trickle of blood running down the side of his head.
"Looks like the barrier isn't fading, guess I have no choice but to wait till it wears off on its own or someone else deactivates it. This guy might have a Spell on him to deactivate it, but I can't just randomly activate whatever Spells he's carrying, that could be dangerous. And what was the Spell he was about to activate just now?
Based on what he said, he was trying to kill me along with himself since he thought he was about to die. If I hadn't cut his hand off in time, what would have happened? This is concerning, the others might be in more danger than they think," Frowned Kia worriedly, as she stared at the Spell Card clutched in the hooded figure's severed hand.
Meanwhile...
"Damn it, just die already!" Yelled the Fire Mage, unleashing a frantic barrage of fireballs at Nero, who zipped across the room, easily evading the attacks.
"This is bad, it's getting hotter and harder to breathe. I must end this quickly. [Shroud]."
"Damn it, not again!" Exclaimed the Fire Mage, as a thick cloud of dark mist erupted out, blanketing the entire room in a black, shadowy haze.
The Fire Mage's gaze darted about as he began to panic, blasting out flames all around himself in desperation.
He then tensed as he felt a presence behind him, starting to turn around before a sharp, blunt force struck the back of his head, knocking him out before he could react.
His arms slumped to his sides as he collapsed onto his knees, a thud echoing out as he hit the floor, slumping against the tiles as the dark mist began to dissipate.
Nero let out a slow exhale before pulling the sheet off the bed and slicing the fabric into ribbons, which he used to restrain the hooded figure, tying up his wrists and ankles firmly.
He then took a seat on the edge of the bed, relaxing his body and taking slow, shallow breaths. The air in the space had become quite thin, thanks to all the flames the Fire Mage had unleashed.
"I don't know how long I'll be stuck in here, or how long the air will last before it runs out completely. I could be here a while, I need to try and make the remaining air last as long as possible. It doesn't matter how strong I am...if I can't breathe, I'll die," Nero thought to himself, closing his eyes as he continued to breathe slowly.
Elsewhere in the building...
"You must realize that you can't beat me. Surrender while you can," Remarked Raven, right as the hooded figure whose hand he'd severed came charging towards him with a fierce roar, holding a dagger in his remaining hand.
The stump left around his wrist has closed up, meaning he possessed Recovery Magic, but not at a high enough level to regrow severed body parts.
He spewed out a burst of frosty air from his mouth as he closed in on Raven, who dispersed the attack with a swift, flame-coated swing of his hand, the heat emanating from his hand nullifying the cold of the blast.
The figure shakily leapt forward with a yell of exertion as he drove his dagger towards Raven's throat, before flinching as Raven swiftly reached out and grabbed his forearm, halting the thrust of his arm in its tracks.
"Alright, then, if you're so eager to die, I'll indulge you," Stated Raven, his eyes glowing with an increasing intensity before rapid beams of purple energy burst out of his eyes, striking the hooded figure's eyes and drilling through rapidly.
An excruciating scream of pain rang out as Raven's beams scorched through the figure's eyes, before going quiet as the beams burst into his brain, killing him instantly.
His body went limp, his shoulders slumping as wisps of black smoke billowed out of the charred holes left where his eyes used to be, before Raven tossed the figure's corpse away, a thud echoing out as it hit the wall of the barrier and slid down to the floor.
The other hooded figure flinched and stumbled back as Raven turned his attention to him, before opening firing out a deafening blast of sound towards Raven.
Raven swiftly snapped his jaws open and unleashed a powerful sonic screech, canceling out the attack before he shot forward with immense speed.
The hooded figure tensed before swinging his whip out towards Raven with a sharp flick of his wrist, the whip slicing through the air towards Raven's head rapidly.
Raven launched himself a couple of meters higher up into the air with a sharp flap of his wings, zipping up and over the swing of the whip, before swooping down towards the hooded figure.
The figure frantically opened his mouth as he began to charge up another Sound Spell, but he was too slow to react, as Raven closed in on him and swung his fist across rapidly, slamming it against the side of the hooded figure's face.
A sharp crunch rang out upon impact, the figure's mouth hanging open as Raven broke his lower jaw, several teeth flying out of his open mouth and hitting the floor with a clatter, flecks of blood spraying out of the figure's mouth as he yelled in pain.
A sharp wheeze rang out as Raven grabbed the man's shoulders and drove his knee up, slamming it against the middle of his torso.
Blood poured out of the hooded figure's mouth as Raven's knee dug agonizingly into his torso, deeply fracturing the lower half of his ribcage and rupturing some of his organs.
As he collapsed onto his knees with an agonized gasp, Raven grabbed his hood and lifted him back up, before unleashing a swift, powerful strike to the chin, knocking him out.
Raven extended out a tendrils and coiled it around the man's unconscious body, constricting tightly to restrain him, before detaching the tendril.
He then approached the barrier, clenching his fist and drawing it back, before driving it forward with all his strength, a deafening crash ringing out as his fist slammed against the barrier with immense force.
Ripples spread out across the barrier, cracks appearing across the wall of the room on the other side of the barrier...but the barrier itself was unscathed, not so much as a scratch on it.
"That impact felt weird...and since the wall outside got damaged, that means...this barrier can absorb a lot of impact, and if its hit with more force than it can absorb, that force gets dispersed right through it to the other side. Which means, no amount of physical force is going to break through it," Surmised Raven with a grimace.