Chapter 88: One Shall Walk, One Shall Fall


    Perhaps it was desperation, but I was forced to believe that the new weapon I was holding would turn the tide in my favour.


    With a p of my wings, I created some distance under this hole ridden ceiling.


    Below me, that damn prick had an annoyed look on his face as he wound up with more rocks in his hands, his aura enveloping them.


    Even before he could throw them, I rolled to the side then pped my wings to jerk my body the other way. Zigzagging back and forth, altering my altitude within these cramped spaces I made it as difficult as possible to get hit.


    Only, he did the obvious thing in retaliation: throw more rocks.


    Grabbing one handful after the next, heunched the projectiles one bundle after the next.


    My newly transformed wings rapidly got holes driven into them despite my best efforts to avoid the barrage. Dust and gravel rained down as the ceiling was also pockmarked from all the shots going out.


    Desperate times called for desperate measures.


    I fired off a set of icences in the slight gap between attacks, then as my sight filled with mana imbued pebbles flying towards me, I quickly pointed at one of the icences I had fired and channelled some mana into the stick in my hand, hoping this was how the thing was used.


    The whole world flickered around me then the everything looked different.


    I was further away from the ceiling, but at the same time closer to that bastard.


    The look of shock was so strong on him that I couldn''t help but grin as the remaining barrage of ice smashed into him and his surroundings.


    Despite the sess of that attack though, I couldn''t get conceited. There was no way that an attack of that level would''ve done much damage to him even if he didn''t get a chance to protect himself from it.


    I continued to fire off more shots of icences at him, relying entirely on [Sense Presence] to aim as the entire area filled up with ice dust.


    As weak as each hit was and the fact that he was probably managing to defend against most of my shots, the sheer weight of fire should chip away at his HP pool.


    Of course, that wasn''t something which couldst forever.


    There was a flicker of some sort of dark blur and the sound of an explosion. Then before I knew it, a sharp pain echoed from my right wing.


    The membrane of my right wing had arge hole in it.


    No, calling it a hole was understating just how bad it was. It was as if half of it was gone. Much of the bones and muscles that made up the structure had disappeared along with half of the membrane that caught the wind and mana allowing me to fly.


    With this difference in lift provided by my wings and learning from my previous mistake, I grit my teeth and mostly only pped my damaged wing to stabilize my flight before jerking my body again to avoid any followup attack.


    But such a thing didn''t happen. The reason was apparent. The impact that ass made to arrest his attack caused arge hole to appear in the ceiling. Through the thick cloud of dust, his body was tumbling down to the floor...along withrge pieces of the ceiling!


    In a panic, I shot out my aura and snagged the closest shadow before stretching it across the centre of the room and caught thoserge stone bs. They were heavy and I couldn''t say that I was used to using [Dark Magic] in this way, but it worked well enough and I was able to gently lower the stone bs to the ground without letting the floor crack.


    I breathed a sigh of relief. There were presences under this room, while some had moved since the beginning of the fight, many of them hadn''t. If the floor were to crumble, many of those would die. Letting that happen just wasn''t an option.


    Of course that bastard didn''t let an opportunity like this slip. ring at me in anger, he punched some of the debris I had set down and a shower of rock fragments flew towards me.


    Bearing with the pain, I ascended as fast as I could while letting go of that shadow.


    cing one hand on the pockmarked ceiling, I arrested my momentum and redirected my motion sideways to avoid the followup attack.


    Flipping on my back on my next roll, I fired off threesers at the bastard. While hastily aimed, it managed to strike true with one of them, leaving a scorched hole in his chest. Unfortunately the damage was far from his heart, but it gave me a bit of time to raise my altitude again and increase my distance from him while I tried toe up with a way to finish him off.


    More rocks came flying at me, forcing me to roll once again to avoid them.


    But because of my damaged wing, I was forced to roll to my right each time, leaving my manoeuvre predictable. Another volley of rocks came at me, this time I wasn''t in a posture to dodge them properly.


    I folded my wings to reduce my profile, then kicking out my legs, I shattered the rocks that were on a direct course to hitting me.


    While that worked and I spread my wings to stabilize my flight once again, more holes appeared in the ceiling.


    I was starting to get really worried about the stability of this building.


    Thanks to the fact that it was obviously created with [Earth Magic], the entire structure was formed from a single block of stone, meaning that its structural integrity was iparable to a normal stone building. But that didn''t mean it didn''t have its limits either, and there was little doubt that with the way the fight has been going, we''d be hitting close to it sooner orter.


    Following up with those kicks, I fired off another volley of icences.


    More stones came my way at the same time, but with a simple wave of my wand of discement, I bypassed the projectiles by recing one of mynces.


    But as it wasn''t the first time I had done that, that prick managed to suppress his shock and reacted with arger stone thrown my way. This one was unlike any before. Not a pebble or even some gravel, but a stone asrge as my torso.


    That bastard really showed off his high [Strength] byunching that projectile with a single hand. Shock waves pushed aside and swirled the ice dust that was slowly settling on the ground.


    On the other hand, it wasn''t like I couldn''t predict such an act in the first ce. It was a matter of being prepared for a variety of counters, and my own chosen counter was simply to wave my wand once again, swapping ces with thatrge mana imbued stone and then following up with a concentrated barrage of icences.


    I pped my wings to gain more distance as I continued my focused bombardment. Ice fragments piled up on top of each other as the frozen dust spread out, misting the area around that pollock.


    Even if I couldn''t see it due to all the ice partictes, the sound alone made it obvious that this storm of ice wasn''t doing significant damage.


    But that wasn''t the point.


    Pushing [Multi-cast] to its limits, I quickly spread one of the pir''s shadows across the ground, walls, and the ceiling as a protective buffer, leaving only an opening around therge hole in the ceiling. I then generated and fired off a single, ultra-dense fireball before passing through my shadow wall.


    A sphere of super heated smaprised of pure carbon condensed to the size of a baseball wrapped in a thin but ultra dense membrane of pure oxygen flew like a bullet into the mass of chilled air before the payload was released.


    The rapid use of [Terranian Magic] then [ze Magic] followed up with [Tempest Magic] to create such a projectile immediately after such an intense barrage whileying a protectiveyer of shadows through the room put a significant burden on my mind and mana supply, but that was nothingpared to what happened next.


    There was a sh of pure white as the the boundaryyers between the parts of the orb were released and the materials were allowed to mix. The super heated carbon reacted to the more ambient temperature oxygen. The reaction, in turn caused greater expansion than what the solid piece of carbon tried tomit to, which in turn made the orb even hotter thoughpression. The imperfections of the orb caused uneven expansion, and parts of the orb pushed out, mixing with the surroundings, reacting to the dense and cold air, then causing further expansion.


    Part of that expansion pushed against the original core, causing it to further deform and more parts are ejected, mixing with the surrounding air, reacting, then expanding. The cycle repeats over and over until the whole sphere disperses and reacts with the chilled air around it.


    All of that happened within the measurements of milliseconds. At least that''s what I imagined, as I didn''t have the ability to actually witness such a thing, nor did I want to.


    All I knew for sure, was that even through the pitch ck magical shadows, enough light was forced through them that I was blinded, and the resulting shock wave caused my protective shadows to buckle and warp, along with making my ears bleed despite being behind the ck walls.


    Following all that, was a giant pressure wave and heat.


    The shadow walls that rebounded from the initial shock wave was pushed to their limits as the intense heat and pressure of super heated gasses. The roaring gasses as they ejected up into the sky caused tremors to pass through my body.


    Of course, I couldn''t hear any of it. My eardrums had ruptured from the initial shock wave and would take a bit of time to recover as I didn''t have the leisure to magically heal something so unimportant in the middle of battle.


    I blinked away the spots fro my vision, and the moment the pressure wave abated, I diffused the protective shadow barrier.


    What greeted me was, of course, a st of hot air to my face.


    But after that, when I managed to open my eyes, was a scene of carnage.


    Everything inside of the shadow barrier had been thrown around all over the ce, and entirely broken apart. There was very little that wasrger than grains of sand. There wasn''t even any signs of anything being melted, due to how quickly the intense heat had passed through.


    Although, despite all the damage, there was a conspicuous mound near the middle.


    Not taking any chances, in addition to the fact that [Sense Presence] had continued to get a hit at that spot, I fired off aser, much stronger than before, at the middle of that mound.


    The sand burst away as some of it vaporized upon contact with my thicker, stronger beam, at the cost of my hand.


    Momentster, there was a small explosion from under the sand along with a small shock wave that prated through my body. Yet unlike a normal shock wave, the vibrations continued for a second or two.


    It seemed like my eardrums really had burst, as there was nothing but a high pitched ringing in my head.


    It was times like this that made me really d I chose to be born as a vampire in this world. Losing my hearing, losing my hand, or even my whole arm, it was simply a matter of taking in some blood to regenerate it all. And in this world, I even had healing magic to fall back on if blood wasn''t avable.


    As troublesome as the detriments were, the benefits really more than made up for them.


    But what emerged as the sand dispersed and fell was a ckened figure, one with most of its left leg, along with its right arm missing to the point that there was a hole where the shoulder joint was supposed to be.


    The status screen updated as Alicia got line of sight on the bastard.


    681,223/2,737,554.


    My own was 601,828/1,892,501.


    My HP was still lower than his, but thanks to thatst two attacks, his had fallen to a pretty critical point. It should only take one or two more pushes to finish him off.


    At least I hoped.


    Pointing the stub of an arm at him I fired off another beam.


    But as if in anticipation of it, or more probably exactly for that reason, he rushed to the side with an explosion of shattered stone,pletely avoiding theser.


    Zigzagging back and forth, he closed the gap between us, asionally throwing handful of sand or whole stones he managed to find at me.


    I pped my wings as hard as I could, my flight skewing to the side due to the uneven lift caused by my damaged wing.


    Looking down, that prick moved faster than ever. I had trouble leading his movements and was forced to give up using [Light Magic] and instead started another bombardment of icences in the hopes that it would at least slow him down enough to get a proper shot off of something stronger.


    But even that wasn''t working well.


    Spread out barrages of ice fired rapidly as I rose up to create distance hadn''t manged to do much to slow him down at all.


    Instead, he just made aiming even harder by using the remaining pirs or puffs of rock and ice dust as cover. Even if I could sense his presence without issue, my uracy dropped significantly when I couldn''t see his exact location. It seemed like he figured that out already.


    Suddenly, out of nowhere, with a puff of rock dust, he rushed up towards me.


    I furiously pped my wings to avoid the speeding bullet, but losing my bnce due to the uneven lift from my wings, I flipped end over my axis instead.


    But perhaps fortunate in some small way, it seemed like the chaotic nature of my manoeuvre meant that he had problems aiming me as well.


    A sharp pain drove up from my right leg, then a dull impact hit my back.


    My frantic wing movements caused my left wing to catch on something.


    Most of my momentum had been killed from the impact, but that wasn''t the end of my immediate concerns.


    Even before I could do anything about my new situation, something started to painfully scorch my left wing.


    Considering how badly damaged the ceiling was, I was hesitant to violently pull my wing free and forced myself to look at what was going on.


    But what I saw did nothing but fill me with dread.


    My left wing was stuck in a crack made in the ceiling and I was hanging from that position. But that was hardly what made me want to panic.


    The source of the burning sensation was the sun.


    Whether inevitable or just in bad luck, but some time in thest little bit, the sun had crested over the surrounding trees and its damning rays were piercing through the myriad of holes in the ceiling.


    Regardless of if because of the stress of such a battle or the near constant pain that''s been wracking my body due to my injuries and my own attacks, but I had not realized when night had broken despite the holes that littered the ceiling.


    (This is bad.)


    The natural enemy of vampires wasing out.


    The more we fought, the more we risked being exposed to our worst enemy.


    In theory I could survive it, but the pain would be intolerable. I wasn''t wearing my robes. I was frankly close to being naked due to what that damn prick had done to me.


    It would leave me vulnerable though. If he could bear through the pain better than I could, then I wouldn''t likely be able to avoid hisst ditch attacks and be cut down.


    It was only an if, but the risks were way too high.


    A flicker to my side and that pollock was rushing towards me again.


    Unable to do it carefully, I simply yanked my wing out of the crevice and kicked against the ceiling.


    More cracks formed and fragments even fell, but I managed to get out of the way before taking a direct hit again.


    But while I managed that much, that bastard had no concern regarding my main worry, and kicked off the ceiling as well, much harder than I had.


    A new hole burst open as chunks of stone flew away.


    Due to the fragmented nature of the ceiling, he didn''t get nearly as much momentum from the act as usual and it wasn''t difficult to avoid his followup by just a single p of my wings.


    But the real issue was the terrible condition of the ceiling, and all the sunlight that was assaulting the inside of this room.


    Between the two of us, I was the one who suffered more from those pseudo god rays as my manoeuvres required precision, while that prick''s was all just brute force.


    Having to weave between the rays of light or else trying to fly with the constant distractions of sudden and unexpected pain wasn''t going to work for me at all.


    Pushing out my aura once again, I stretched my own shadow and made a protectiveyer of shade across the entire ceiling, then the walls and floor for good measure.


    Suddenly I felt a powerful undtion in my supernatural shadow. Corresponding with that, a presence was charging towards me from that location at an rming speed.


    I pped my wings, but the speed at which he was approaching was faster than even before. It was clear that I wouldn''t be able to get away in time.


    If that was the case, there was only one way for me to get away.


    With a flick of my wrist and allowing a bit of mana to flow through my hand, I swapped ces with one of the pirs a little distance away. Or rather, a part of the pir, as the wand in my left hand couldn''t swap me with the entire object.


    Desperate times called for desperate measures, but it didn''t feel good seeing that support pir copse due to my own actions.


    The state of this room, from its ceiling, walls, and the floor, had grown to quite a brutal scene.


    The ceiling was close to copsing and the floor had cracks and craters all over the ce. I could feel it through the shadows themselves, though the evidence was quite apparent even before I covered all the surfaces with them.


    But it looked like that pollock read right through me and had chosen to take advantage of my methods. He kicked off once again from the wall he mmed into. Or rather, he kicked off of my shadow much harder than he had been doing before, flying off at an even higher speed than ever.


    No matter how much my shadows were meant to avoid doing further damage to the room''s structure, it couldn''t withstand the force of that bastard''s kicks and they undted and warped, only mildly dampening the incredible destructive force that was used just to propel his body.


    Of course, that meant that the walls were damaged by his movements anyways, and the best I could do was to support the remaining structure by filling in the gaps with my shadow.


    And on top of that, the added speed meant that no matter how fast I tried to fly, the restrictiveness of this room meant that I couldn''t gain enough speed to effectively evade, forcing me to use my trump card over and over.


    With another flick of the wrist, I swapped ces with a piece of another support pir.


    That bastard''s actions and my reactions that were forced by him were running entirely counter to what I had wanted.


    He kicked off the shadow walls once again, causing massive damage to the stone walls behind it, and cannonballed towards me faster than I could evade. That in turn forced me to teleport again, sometimes using falling pir pieces, but otherwise using lightly damaged pirs and ruining them as therger fragments kept getting destroyed by that bastard''s attacks.


    Over and over, our exchanges caused mounting damage to the room.


    I tried toe up with a solution, but the rapid exchanges left me with little leeway to think as I was being pressed harder and harder into a corner.


    Until I simply gave up.


    (Fuck it.)


    As long as the floor didn''t copse, the rest just didn''t matter as long as I won.


    [Sorry Alicia, this is going to hurt a lot.]


    [Do it! I believe in you Scarlet!]


    Those words of hers made warmth spread through my chest and a smile crept onto my face.


    Giving up my previous strategies, I stopped bothering with preserving as many pirs as I could and instead every time I swapped with something to dodge that damn fool''s attack, I just swapped with a fresh pir instead.


    [Master!]


    Suddenly a new voice rang in my mind.


    My smile grewrger as I felt a familiar presence finally arriving.


    I didn''t know why it took her so long to get here, but her timing was impable.


    [Tear down the east wall of this room, then when the ceiling copses, I want you to knock all the falling fragments outside of the room!]


    [Understood!]


    [And one more thing!]


    [Yes Master?]


    [Don''t cover for me. I need to do this myself!]


    [U...understood Master!]


    While there was some hesitation, since she acknowledged my order, I wasn''t worry of her risking herself nor doing the one thing I needed her to avoid.


    I felt the eastern wall break away rapidly while I dodged a few more of that bastard''s one dimensional attacks.


    To make things look convincing, I pretended to falter here and there, as if I was distracted by something.


    Or rather, the act itself nearly cost me quite a lot of HP as he got terrifying close to raking me with his mana condensed ws...


    "Ku!"


    Is what I thought, but suddenly there was pain across where my wings joined my back right as I was motioning to teleport while confirming that the eastern wall had fully copsed as per my orders.


    The world flickered and I was at the spot of the next pir, but when I tried to grit through the pain and p my wings, nothing happened.


    I turned my head over my shoulder but couldn''t see anything. No matter how much I tried to move, I couldn''t see my wing behind me.


    It seemed like they were torn off my back in their entirety.


    But I didn''t have time to think about that as the next attack was already approaching, so I teleported once again, leaving the sound of stone being crushed behind me.


    The trap was ready anyways. I could feelrge parts of the ceiling being supported by nothing but my shadows.


    I only had onest thing to do.


    Turning to the approaching vampire cannonball, I thrust out the stump of a right arm and fired off aser powerful enough to turn half of the remaining arm into ash.


    It looked like he was wary enough of such an attempt and that bastard twisted his body midair, somehow managing to avoid most of the beam and only got a light graze across his chest. The damage of the attack being done to me far outweighing the damage to him.


    He smirked at me, but I didn''t falter. I didn''t expect that to work in the first ce. I had overused that card already and wasn''t surprised that he would be able toe up with a way to deal with any cheap trick I coulde up with using mysers.


    Kicking off the pir fragment I was standing on, that prick''s grin instantly turned into a look of surprise, just as I wanted it.


    Letting go of the wand, I extended my ws on my left hand and drove them into the bicep of his still functioning left arm. I closed my fist, taking hold of his arm''s fragments and pulled him closer to me.


    His mouth opened in pain and I could feel the vibrations of his roar on my cheeks, but I didn''t heed that at all.


    Instead, I opened my own mouth and drove my fangs into his cor bone. I aimed for his neck, but his violent iling ended up making me miss my target. But it was good enough for me.


    The two of us, as I grappled him the only way I could in this position, fell to the ground as I retracted my shadows from every surface but the ground.


    Heat and pain wracked my body as the full force of the sun sted our bodies.


    I felt like I was on fire, but despite that I didn''t lessen my grip on that bastard in the slightest despite how much he struggled.


    He iled his disfigured arm uselessly at me, he fruitlessly craned his neck to bite me, and while he wed at me with his free leg, aside from tearing apart my own legs, he managed nothing but expose more of his body to the harsh sunlight as Iy on top of him.


    His cracked and ckened body burned asyer afteryer turned into charcoal then ash.


    The prick''s resistance grew weaker and weaker as I did everything I could to bear with the feeling of being burned alive.


    Eventually all movement stopped, but I didn''t want to take any risks, so I turned onto my back andy there bearing with the continued pain until all traces of that bastard had turned to ash and a nostalgic sound echoed through my head.


    Finally, I covered my body with a shadow and breathed a sigh of relief.