My vision faded in and out alongside my erratic heartbeat as I laid there on the ground, shrouded in rubble and completely covered in bruises, gashes and swelling, to the point that I was completely certain no one would recognize me without taking one long, deep look at my current appearance.
All of my common gear was tattered and somewhat broken, my body was in completely agony, my mind was a mess and the world just didn’t really exist at the moment, but there was one thing that was for certain; I wasn’t dead, and I wasn’t unconscious, just yet anyways. There were moments where I wanted to slip into that abyssal embrace of unconsciousness as I laid there, but I fought past it as the rushing of blood almost overwhelmed my hearing, or the way my heartbeat actually did make noise seemingly inside and outside of my body.
That spurred me on as a primal fear grasped me from within, a fear that if I let myself sink into that insidious embrace of the void I would actually find myself back in the real void, where I had been given time to reflect on my previous life with no real idea of what was to
Come.
I didn’t want to return to it - I didn’t want to die again - so I did everything I could as I fought to stay awake, and eventually I managed to do just that, my body still in such a hellish, fiery state that I couldn’t justify closing my eyes and passing out, but I could also feel that heat fading very faintly as the spells layered on me continued to work.
I was being healed slowly, and I needed to get up and ensure that everyone was alright, that the attack of this ’Bloodletter’ wouldn’t result in something that would make me wish I was dead; the idea of seeing Anput or Leone’s mangled bodies scared me deeply, and I knew that Jahi was likely injured, but I could take relief in knowing she still lived.
After all, I lived right now too, so therefore she was still alive, and that was the most important thing right now; the next was me slowly and agonizingly sitting up from the brick ground and ensuring that everyone was okay, and that we weren’t in any more pressing danger.
That attack just had to have taken a lot out of the Fiend, no matter how strong they claimed to be; that was just too strong, too potent, and it used far too much energy to be something that a normal Fiend could manage whenever they wanted to use it.
With that thought - that hope - fueling my mind, I first began to layer a dozen more varied healing spells on myself as I mended my broken bones, knit back my muscles and stuck the tissues back to one another as well as to ensure my organs were healed as well.
Breathing was painful, and I had a few other sharp pains in very noticeable areas that suggested vast internal damage, so I used a few different spells that targeted specific areas of the body to accelerate my healing as much as possible, and in the midst of the healing I decided to ignore the sensical thought of remaining still and instead began to move about as I got up and looked for the Fiend.Maybe someone else would have recovered by now - or were in the process of recovering at the moment - but just in case they weren’t, I needed to ensure that my three lovers and I were safe before anything else, and the source of our uncertain safety was still right where I had last seen them.
Kneeling in the middle of what had once been this square, the Bloodletter was barely a familiar sight at all with how much damage it had taken as well, though considering the damage they had done to everything in this area and how we had almost died, I think that power it showed was worth this damage it took, from a purely logical standpoint. Additionally, it would seem that the Bloodletter also had some sort of control over the blood it had spilled thanks to that attack; somehow, despite destroying everything around it and dealing an insane amount of damage to everything, the blood of all of its targets remained. Nothing had been evaporated or lost during that explosion of energy - or at least not enough that I could notice a difference - since there were currently rivers of crimson liquid trickling back slowly towards the Fiend.
Tendrils of blood lifted up into the air and pierced into the Fiend’s body to rejuvenate it as it knelt there, looking like an absolute mess that was only recognizable because it was red and gold.
Three of its arms were mangled to hell and back, looking more like an abominations attempt at creating a flesh puppet only to realize that there were indeed bones beneath the meat; they hung uselessly at its side, and the muscle and sinews that made up the limbs were untangled and cut in a myriad of places.
Another two arms were broken and extremely burnt, the red energy likely sapping away all of the nutrients and liquid inside of the two limbs and leaving them as dried out husks that looked ready to snap with how brittle the skin and muscle looked, which left a single arm that seemed usable, and that arm was propped against the ground as the Bloodletter held itself in place.
A high risk, high damage attack that left the user vulnerable to death if they were undefended seemed far too risky to warrant use, and yet I understood the theory behind it, especially since I could see the amount of death it had wrought; it wasn’t just the square that was gone, but instead a few more streets alongside the square that just... had been filled with people.
Many dozens, if not hundreds of unlucky civilians had perished from that, and the amount of people who were already dead likely matched most of that number too, so... no bodies to bury, no way to know who had perished and who hadn’t... alongside the damage done to the city itself...
It was a miracle that we had managed to reach the edge of the ’deadly’ range for our caliber of fighter, and the damage we had taken was still pretty severe - I was only standing thanks to the healing spells that had already been working on me at the time of the attack, and now I was able to take that a step further...
So I scooped up my charred, but still sharp and intact short sword as I began to stumble over towards the Bloodletter, watching as the blood of its victims burrowed into its skin and slowly healed it back to its prior state, all while we were unconscious or otherwise indisposed. Caked in dust and drenched with sweat, the Bloodletter heaved in breaths as it screwed its eyes shut and just existed, letting the blood it had spilled heal its internal damages whilst remaining as still as possible to ensure it was as quick as possible, but in doing so it made it all too easy to creep forwards painstakingly quiet and stare at it from up close. ṟαℕǑBÈṩ
That skin was cracked and dry, the muscles were shriveled and the skin tone was pallid, the stench of charred flesh and boiling blood wafted off of its body, and it was by far still twice my size, if not more.
I masked my desires as best I could, treating this not like revenge or a way to vent my anger at being smacked aside not once but twice, but instead like a task or chore that needed to be done; something I felt nothing for, or at least nothing palpable for.
There was no anger or bloodlust yearning to slip out of my body to alert this Fiend of my presence, no mana leaking out or any noticeable scent or sounds that might clue it in on my approach; nothing at all, and I even made sure to orient myself so that the little amount of sunlight that was cutting through the dense dust cloud around us wouldn’t enter its vision should it open its eyes.
I tried to make everything as perfect as possible, and by the time I got close the Fiend was stirring slightly, its body still in the process of healing but not in a state that required perfect
Stillness.
That was the time to strike, so in a single strike that contained all of my power, all of my energy and mana, all of my everything, I sheathed my blade in ice, activated the helixes and stabbed straight into the Fiend’s back, right where its heart would be and allowing my frost to begin doing the rest as I sank the Fiend bone blade into the Bloodletter’s flesh with the same ease I had done earlier against mortals.
Letting out a choked gasp, the Bloodletter coughed as its healing was interrupted and tried to spin around, but by that point I had twisted the blade and started heaving the sword to the side, cutting the Fiend’s back open and drawing a roar of agony from its lips.
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