Explosive pops and clashing steel filled the alien red and purple forest filled with massive multicolored flowers and strange tangling vegetation. Brigid was fighting off her back foot, constantly releasing ear shattering booms from her hands, fists and blades fighting off multiple faction members all charging after her. Aerin and his group were all over her, minus their physically largest member who was ganging up on the highly skilled warrior with several weapons hanging off of him alongside an incredibly dexterous woman using only her fire engulfed hands and feet to fight.
The slimmer warrior with the red rune covered bo staff who'd openly wished death upon Brigid and her Patron was busy fighting off the short spear and shield user who conversely endorsed Brigid, as well as her hulking devil horned warrior Vinny slashing wildly with two massive greatswords in each hand. The Bo staffed Warrior's ability to maintain range was admittedly impressive, summoning walls of red liquid between his foes that appeared to repulse his body away from his attackers. His form was impeccable as well, even more so than I'd remembered when he fought Aerin in the Placement Tournament.
While his assistance was appreciated, my mind was already set on reaching Brigid. She'd been a constant thorn in my side at every turn, one that's prick somehow outweighed her rose like beauty.
Really? You're thinking about how hot she is right NOW?!
Korbin's admonishing of my ape-brained one track mind showed in countless moments before the integration played in my head, snapping me out of my stupor sprinting through the carnage of colorful manas flashing all around me. My head popped up over the crowd in time to watch as Brigid sliced through several shimmering strings extending from the same blonde woman who'd helped me fight Vinny earliest hands. Brigid's shoulders continued spinning through her slash, ripping a spinning heel kick to her fellow blondes skull, the Flow impacting her skull before a second surge exploded just outside of Brigid's heel. The blast caved in the string spindling blondes skull, which Brigid happily decapitated with a follow up slash.
"You BITCH!" A woman's enraged scream echoed from overhead, bringing my attention to a woman standing atop a branch extending from a rather unfittingly placed willow tree. Her green cloak flapped in the wind at her back, her green cowl covering her head. As did her back, standing with her bow drawn and trained on Brigid. She let loose a barrage of arrows as I sprinted through the crowd of bodies, trying to chase down Brigid who dodged and dashed away from arrows falling all around her.
Without warning, a mess of red vines emerged from the ground, surrounding Brigid and I in a 20 foot circumference as it rose quickly above the sun like a snow globe. One of the arrows arched over the quickly expanding red vegetation, landing harmlessly beside Brigid who glanced back at me with surprised look.
"So... here we are, finally alone." Brigid said through heaving breath after fighting a literal mob of superhumans and given this reprieve. She looked all around for just a moment allowing her hair to bounce with a perfect sway. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before gracefully spreading her eyelids apart to meet my gaze with piercing intensity that betrayed her relaxed demeanor.
"Why do I get the feeling 'alone' is a state you're all too familiar with?" I shot back, hoping to do some psychological harm for a change. Brigid shrugged, still wearing a shit-eating grin.
"Say what you will, it's a pretty way for us to go out. You must know they plan to nuke us any moment now..." Brigid said, strutting towards me wearing a wide grin on her face. She changed course and walked over to the massive wriggling red wall of foreign vegetation, pressing on it with her open palm.
"Well congratulations, Sparky. You're the first man to ever corner me, perhaps you'll get a medal from the wonder-kid Korbin." Brigid said, subtly testing if she could break free from the vines. With a loud sigh and a creased forehead Brigid crossed her arms over her chest. The air began subtly vibrating along the entire cage of thorns.
"You do realize I was the one chasing you, right? This is what I wan-" Brigid's figure darted across the 15 foot gap between us, my head barely leaning away from her blindingly quick dashing switch kick. An ear shattering boom rang out over my head as I ducked around her strike in a U-formation, Water Stepping sideways to get an angle on her. A heel kick came flying at my side the moment Brigid's foot hit the ground, forcing me to retreat rather than press for a counter attack.
Brigid twisted gracefully on her feet, landing an aerial cartwheel after missing her heel kick attempt and landing in a casual walk.
"You're fast, this might actually be fun." Brigid said, raising an eyebrow and looking me up and down.
"I was going to say the same thing, who'd you train under?" I asked, strafing to the side trying to buy some time to plan a strategy. Her speed is absolutely comparable to mine, but she's certainly not faster. Her form is just absolutely spotless, having yet to exhibit any wasted motion. Other than casually strolling around between bouts, that is.
"My father, for the most part. I just got to practice a lot, clearly more than you have, Sparky." Brigid replied through a toothy grin.
"Call me Sparky…one more fucking time." I growled back, not willing to allow for this nickname to stick outside of these red, alien floral walls. Brigid took one step forward, immediately dashing diagonally twice swiping with both her curved swords. My body swayed away from the first slash, though the second was too close to evade, forcing me to parry the edge of her blade away with one of my own. The impact unleashed a blast of energy in the air, nearly pushing my blade from my hand. Brigid planted her lead leg to the side, launching forward for a stab to my abdomen.
The form resembled my own Lightning Strike without the man's influence, the familiarity allowing for my chains to instinctively wrap around her blade as I Water Stepped away from her stab. Spinning my hips, a spinning stomp to her straight knee halted Brigids attempt at escaping, giving me an opening to land a close-ranged elbow across her face. Brigid hardly flinched, catching my wrist and stepping her knee under the back of mine. In a blink, my body was tossed over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, bouncing across the red vegetation back to where I'd first stood when the walls came up.
"That hurt." Brigid said in a deadpan tone. Her confident demeanor quickly reshaped to sheer resentment glaring spitefully into my eyes. Suddenly, the arrow behind her sprouted into a towering Willow tree, which she leaped away from before giggling realizing it wasn't anything sentient.
"Well, guess this is my exit, see you real soon!" Brigid said, leaping her foot up onto the bark and kicking up to a branch. Her body launched from the tree, falling backwards back onto the floor with a loud thump. Looking back up at the tree, a foot was sticking straight out of the bark. Then, out stepped the same green caped archer that screamed angrily at Brigid earlier. She hopped out of the tree trunk, leaping up and throwing herself to a higher branch like a gymnast. She began loosing arrows all around the red walls of vines and foreign fruits, maintaining eye contact with Brigid as she fired.
"Remember me?" The woman asked, staring intently down at Brigid with her deep brown eyes.
"What, did I kill your friends or something? That's the name of the game, stupid." Brigid shot back, quickly clamoring to her feet and pointing both her toes at the woman and I.
"We cool?" I yelled up to the woman on the branch above, making sure I won't get shot with a fucking tree trying to eliminate Brigid. The woman smiled, aiming her bow into her tree.
"For now." The archer replied, firing her arrow into the trunk of her own tree. The arrow disappeared into the bark, as an arrow flew past Brigid's face from another tree at her side. Brigid let out a grunt reeling back after nearly being shot in the head. Not willing to waste the distraction, I sprinted around her charging a Lightning Strike. Two more arrows ripped past Brigid, whizzing past my face and chest. Lightning Mana rippled down my shoulder launching my twinblade at Brigid's back. In a blink, her shoulders twisted around to block my stab.
The muscles in my shoulder screamed straining under the sheer amount of momentum traveling back up through my chest, Flow Inversing into a leaping knee blasting into Brigid's jaw. She backflipped through the air, landing on a knee ready to leap back into melee. An arrow fell straight down before me, a thick towering tree instantly erecting from the dirt, blocking Brigid's path to me. Shuffling around the tree, several arrows flew from the trunk on the other side, one of which grazing Brigid as she dodged around the shots flying out from less than 7 feet away. All of the arrows pierced into the wall behind Brigid, expanding into horizontal trees bursting through the red vegatitation. The green cowled archer leapt out from the tree trunk, firing several arrows at Brigid as she exited.
Brigid weaved around two, catching the third and tossing it back before leaping through the new hole created in the red wall behind. My eyes glanced over my shoulder in time to watch as the archers own arrow turned into a tree midair, smashing into her chest. Hopping through the gap in the wall, Brigid's leaping roundhouse kick forced me to tuck and roll under her emerging from our floral battle arena. My head shot back around in time to watch Brigid's heel hurtling down towards my skull.
A bright violet flash the size of a golf ball blinked in front of her foot, which was left cut off at the ankle with no sign of the rest of it laying anywhere. Brigid stumbled under the lack of support having lost all of her toes on one foot, turning to face Derrick's glowing Halberd slashing towards her neck. Brigid's hand thrusted towards Derrick's face, an unprecedented amount of Flow building from her hip to her hand along the way. Another small flash of violet energy removed Brigid's hand from existence as Derricks' halberd sliced into her neck through her collarbone.
"NOW!!" Korbin's command rang out from afar, accompanied by a bombardment of arrows and multicolored fireballs, water walls and scarlet red blades of mana all focused on Brigid and Derricks' vicinity. My feet barely got under me in time to sprint away from the thunderous blasts, namely Korbin's massive fireball tearing through the red foliage floor. After multiple rounds of blasts, the barrage of ranged attacks subsided, leaving only a massive crater in the ground where Derrick and Brigid fought.
"THE DEVIL'S FAVORITE IS DEAD!" The man with a red Bo staff who fired off the red blades of mana at Brigid cheered standing over Brigid's companion, Vinny. Everyone except his own team members looked at each other hesitantly, realizing our temporary alliance had officially run its course. The Bo staff wielder continued, apparently disappointed in our lack of enthusiasm.
"Why the long faces? From here on out, it'll be a clean f-ugh" the man's words were cut short by his own blood rushing up through his mouth. A massive blade slowly ripped through his spin from the back, as Brigid's hulking teammate Vinny stood with his greatsword pierced through the man like a kabob. Vinny lifted the man's wriggling body into the air high above his head.
"The flames of my queen's ambition shall burn forevermore." Vinny growled proudly, his entire body erupting into a blaze of raging fire that shot through his horned helmet's eye holes. His blood blade erecting from his wrists stump erupted into burning red flames, which she stabbed through the staff wielders groin before ripping his body in half vertically. Blood sprayed across the red grass, lifting back into the air and clumping into a floating oblong ball of blood dancing in front of Vinny as Serena emerged from behind him.
"Which is more than I can say for my sorry excuse for a cousin here." Serena snickered, pointing at the staff wielders two mangled half's lying in a pool of blood on the red grass.
"Traitorous witch, you will bleed for that!" Screamed an enraged woman in red leather armor and a tattered cape flailing behind her. The red leathered woman threw several shurikens from her hip, all flying towards Serena. The massive twisting glob of blood hurtled through the air, blocking off most of the shurikens that fell out of the crimson bubble after impact. One of them slipped past, grazing Serena's shoulder blade. Vinny turned to meet the angered Shurikan throwing woman, only to be cut off by Cassi's boot slamming into his face, knocking him away from Serena.
Arrows from another female archer came flying in behind Serena, a few smacking into the massive flower at her back. The angry red leathered rogue charged forward, throwing another shuriken from one hand while keeping the other open and extended out in front of her. Serena blocked her Shuriken with the bubble of blood, bringing it closer to her body as she dodged to the side. One of the rogue's shurikens returned to her hand from behind Serena, grazing her again. Just as it hit her palm however, the second archer's arrows sunk into the rogue's neck and temple. The rogue shakily looked across the way at the archer, who didn't notice and was instead still firing arrows at Serena. The rogue collapsed to the ground face first, pushing the arrows deeper into her corpse's neck.
With the incidental death of the red leathered rogue commenced an absolute free for all, with many fighters finding themselves alongside contestants from other factions after the fall of Brigid. Aerin's team stayed huddled together, the tall lanky member immediately slicing his blades across the back and neck of a medium armored fighter with a small circular shield on his forearm. Aerin's sister, Nina, unleashed a flurry of blindingly fast cuts and stabs into the man's abdomen with her two curved daggers, every slash doubling as the air itself appeared to mirror her attacks ripping into the poor fellow. His armor was almost instantly shredded, his innards falling from his belly as he fell dead to the floor. Aerin himself was nowhere to be found however, implying he might've already been eliminated.
Fuck it, they got to go n-
My plans on focusing the Aerin team were cut short by a singing pain across my back. Dashing forward, my blades slashed behind me wildly expecting to have an opponent pressed closer. 10 feet away stood Veronica, a cloud of mist emitting from the end of her golden trident.
"Finally, I get an excuse to smack you around, Sparky." Veronica chuckled, glaring at me with murderous intent.
"The fuck did you just s-, no, no that Sparky shit dies with you, damnit." I shot back, immediately dashing toward Veronica. Mist blasted toward my face like a fire hydrant, forcing me to dodge diagonally around it. Veronica's trident lurched forward trying to stab me as I ran past. Oddly enough, wrapping my chains between at least one of her 3 sharp prongs proved relatively easy leaping over her stab. Ripping my twinblades hilts over my shoulder yanked the Trident from her hands, which I tossed away from me to ensure she won't be getting it back.
Veronica's snobby smile quickly contorted into mortal fear as my blade slid through her neck after a shuffling Water Step. A bright orange light appeared at the corner of my eye, forcing me to kick off Veronica's chest while she was busy gagging on her own blood. A fiery fist flew past my face, followed by a second flaming jab that landed across my jaw. My feet shuffled under me to create space from my assailant, the unarmed woman I'd seen fighting earlier apparently decided to give Veronica back up.
Her punches came flying at me in bunches as she all out blitzed me nonstop. Behind her, Veronica desperately poured a health potion down her wounded throat, sitting hunched over on her knees catching her breath. The fiery pugilist's attacks were exceptionally fast, though the Flow and overall complexity of her combos were shallow at best. My forearms slammed into her wrists and the pit of her elbow with each strike, easily cutting off each punches Flow.
"You…don't tire easy…do you?" I asked between blocks and dodges, the pugilists unyielding attacks increasing in furiosity in response. Not seeing reason to continue the fight while Veronica licked her wounds, I let my blade replace my forearm for my next two parries cutting deep into the pugilists' dark metal gauntlets. The pugilists eyes widened looking down at her blood spurting arms while my knee snuck behind hers. Behind her, Veronica's feet danced across the red foliage charging back into the fight.
An uncharged Flow Strike slammed one of my blades through the fiery pugilist's chest, pushing her back while my knee kicked under her leg. The pugilistic woman flew over my hip, crashing back first into Veronica's three-pronged trident. Two slashes across her neck as she sat propped on Veronica's weapon for a moment provided the death notification, sliding around her corpse and wrapping my chain around Veronica's neck from behind. My body lunged forward away from her, lifting Veronica by the neck like a heavy bag of trash. Veronica's hand gripped onto my wrist, a puff of singing hot mist suddenly engulfing my arm and burning my skin.
My hands released Veronica to free my hand, dropping her to her knees behind me. Tapping my foot in front me, the bottom of my boot blasted back into Veronica's face, smacking her onto her back with her legs bent under her. Veronica began lifting herself from the ground again, only for several arrows to pierce into her back from two directions. Veronica's hate filled eyes locked onto mine as a tree erected upside down from her chest, launching her into the air as it ripped her apart.
Another arrow whizzed past my face from a tree in front of me, forcing a retreat from any earthly bark in sight now realizing that the green capes archer wasn't dead yet. Looking up back, another arrow flew overhead as the outline of a woman stepped into the face of a tree trunk.
Energy surged from my innermost stomach up into my shoulders, Lightning Bolt blasting out of the ends of my Twinblades towards the arrow that quickly morphed into a tree. The archer's head barely peaked out of the bark when the bolt of lightning blasted into her skull, causing her to convulse unnaturally as she fell face first onto the ground. Her bow crashed in front of her face, her hand quickly shooting up to grab it as she regained control over her facilities. My grappling hook slapped the archer's forehead, bouncing off before quickly reeling back with her bow hooked on its prong.
"Stop!" An effeminate voice screamed from my side, as another archer in green cloth wear sprinted toward me, firing arrows one by one at a rather slow rate. An Identify on her and the downed archer quickly gave merit as to why she appeared so much slower.
[Human (Level 6)]
[Human (Level 9)]
Yikes, she's way behind.
Not seeing a reason to terrorize the panicked archer, my feet glided across the red foliage piercing my blade through the weaker archer's throat. With a twist and rip from her neck, the *ding* indicating her elimination freed me up to chase after the unarmed archer who was sprinting toward one of her trees.
Tough break, lady.
An uncharged Lightning Bolt surged into the fleeing archer's spine, giving me time to dash behind her, piercing both of my blades through her ribcage and spine.
*ding*
"TOM!" Cassi's pleading cry from behind immediately prompted me to sprint her direction, spotting Vinny, Lonni, and a bloodstained iron armored tank of a man trading blows with one another. My eyes scanned the remaining fighters dashing between clashing swords and volleying mana attacks, spotting Korbin letting loose another fireball now aiming for Aerin's group. They were occupied by what I could only assume was Veronica's remaining allies, one being the water mage throwing crashing waves around. Behind her stood a much shorter woman wearing baby blue silk garments, pumping a stream of water from her hands into the water mage.
Among the 6 fighters caught in the fireballs blast, the water mage and her assumed healer came out the least damaged, as the lankier wind warrior wielding two long curved swords fell motionless with his body engulfed in flames. Korbin pointed toward Cassi before jogging her direction, reaffirming I ought to assist her and Lonni for the time being.
Vinny's body was still a towering mass of metal and fire scorching under his armors when I arrived at the battle of 'giants', while the second enemy tank was a heavily armored fighter who's garments and metal were stained with blood swinging around a spear wrapped in sharp, jagged barbed wire down to his hands. His own blood from his exposed fingers poking from his gauntlets dripped down his wrist as he swung his spear recklessly to whoever came close. Lonni on the other hand, maintained at least 3 feet away from either tank at all times, periodically slamming his flail into one of them from behind his dark metal shield.
Meanwhile Cassi would glide along the red foliage, blasting heavy strikes on one of the tanks with her Bo staff as she passed. The same orbs of water mana that circulated along her limbs clumped at the end of her staff with each powerful strike, the Flow amplifying exponentially as a result. Vinny's charging shoulder bash into the blood-soaked tank gave me my window to butt into their violent melee.
Sliding behind Vinny's legs, my lead blade drove through the back of his calf, being sure it wouldn't slide free easily. Vinny dropped down to a knee, the second tank's blood dripping barbed spear shooting over his shoulder hurtling for my chest. Twisting my shoulders and stepping to the side, the spear glided by my chest as I side stepped around Vinny's kneeling body. The blood soaked tank growled angrily swinging his spear back wildly towards my head, his Flow giving away his attack long before his momentum shifted.
Weaving under his slashing barbed spear, my second blade shot through the back of the bloody tank's front knee, piercing through until the blade's edge smacked into his knee's armor from the inside. The tank tried ripping his leg free, sending a spray of blood from his knee. Gripping onto the chain, all of my focus centered into surging as much Lightning Mana through my twinblades as possible. Both tanks began convulsing in unison as the strain of mana being spent slowly drained the energy deep in my gut.
"TURN IT OFF!" Cassi's frantic screech cut my concentration off entirely, the surging lightning energy dissipating from both the tanks at my sides. Cassi's staff smashed into the blood soaked tank's skull, while Lonni's flail blasted into Vinny's, breaking off one of his helmets' devilish horns.
Ignoring the aching hollowness in my belly, my hand ripped back on the center of my chains pulling both staggering tanks' legs out from them while freeing my twinblades. Vinny's helmet rolled free from his head on impact, revealing a pale, scar covered face with no hair on his head. Seeing Vinny as the clear problem number one, my blades flourished across his face and neck before he could clamor back to his feet. Blood sprayed across the red vegetation underfoot, painting an outline where he hovered on his hands and knees trying to struggle to his feet.
After over a dozen slashes and vicious knees to his face, Vinny finally fell lifeless to the floor. Turning to face the bloody tank I assumed to be at least close to death, my eyes shot wide open seeing him fighting off Cassi and Lonni with more vigor than before, regardless of the countless blows he continued to sustain without flinching.
How the hell are you alive?
[Human (Level 7)]
If memory serves me right, Vinny was at least level 8 when I'd Identify'd him before being teleported here. Meaning this blood warrior, who'd shown no signs of any boosting skills like Vinny already had, managed to outlive that monster. My feet had just begun launching me toward the bloody tank, when a stream of red liquid spinning back into his wound caught my eye. Another thin stream rolled down his leg, the line disappearing amongst the red plant life.
Peering to the side, the faintest glimpse of someone's eyes glimmered in the light between a cluster of tall red grass. Planting my foot down hard, my body shot towards the red brush. A small cloaked figure in red cloth stumbled backwards from the brush, a long stream of blood collapsing from her palm.
"N-no, no no please, please we'll give you anyt-" not willing to allow her pleas to poke at my heartstrings, my blade quickly pierced into her belly, ripping up to her neck before piercing straight through to her spinal cord.
*ding*
My head began wrapping around to see how Lonni and Cassi were fairing, when Korbin's frantic voice rushed past me.
"Heads up!"
Turning back, the damned weapon fanatic with seemingly infinite fighter knowledge barreled through the air, a halberd primed overhead for a slash directly onto me. The blade cut across the edge of my robes dodging to the side, the highly trained warrior leaving his weapon discarded in the ground brandishing two daggers.
"You're really fucking annoying, you know that?" I snickered, retreat stepping from his lunging diagonal slashes. The warrior was beyond skilled, and was definitely the same asshole we were dealing with before this event even started. Meaning their group was here, and that they were associated with someone from the tournament's top 10 finalists.
But, who are they here with?
The clearly aspiring weapon master threw one of his daggers toward my face, snapping me from my momentary lapse in focus to duck under. The moment my head leaned down, the world became dimmer, feeling the weapon master's knee blast into my face, breaking my nose. His hand slipped behind my neck, nearly identically to how Korbin would before taking my back and locking me in a chokehold.
Without thinking, my head weaved under his grip while grasping onto his elbow with my lead hand, completely dropping my blade. Dropping my weight down, the weapon master's arm jerked his head hard and bending him over. My blade shot up toward his neck with the same form I'd rip a counter uppercut to Korbin for trying this day-one bullshit. The blade ripped through both of his palms, his hands fully down to my hilts holding my blades a hair from his throat.
The weapon master's superior strength quickly shined through, as his hands quickly began pushing my own down to the floor. Seeing my second blade dangling from its chain below, my heel smacked into its hilt wrapping it behind the weapon master's leg. All at once, my grip on my blade released Water Stepping around his leg. Snatching the dangling blade, a Flow Strike drove the blade up through his liver before the aspiring weapon master could turn to face me.
Before the valiant weapon master could counter attack, a gust of wind blew past us, a thin burst of air slicing through the weapon master's neck. His head flew from his body, followed by another gust of wind flying past me.
Shit.
A blood curdling whip and pop sounded overhead as I fully dropped to my belly, hoping to avoid sharing the weapon master's fate. Scrambling back to my feet, my eyes locked onto Cassi and Korbin, fending off Aerin's group with Lonni lying motionless on the flower forest floor. A faint whistling drew my attention to the sky, barely spotting a white blur before Water Steeping to the side. Aerin crashed into the ground, sliding on his feet across the red foliage.
"This is not an act of resentment, but a necessary action. I hope you understand there's no malice in what I'm about to do." Aerin warned, holding his two Katanas out in front of him in a fighter's stance.
"Good, I'd hate for you to be a sore loser later." I shot back, assuming my fluidic fighter's stance. Aerin's body leaned forward, until his eyes shot to the side. Aerin spun around, slashing across the belly of a blue and black robed rogue holding two daggers backwards in either hand. The rogue sunk into the ground, leaving a shadow of his form running across the ground toward me. Without thinking, my blade pierced into the shadow as it passed by.
"UGH"
The shadow of the warrior manifested into their human form, my twinblade buried in their chest as they struggled to breath.
"I w-…helping you s-stupid f-" my second blade pierced through their neck, hoping to end my supposed comrades suffering.
*ding*
Doubt it.
Looking up, a wave of water crashed down around Aerin from behind, causing him to fall onto his back. Behind him emerged the same water mage that inadvertently blocked a few blood daggers flying at me earlier. Behind her still tailed a second water caster, shooting a stream of water into the mages back. The water mage shot her hands into the air, the water rising and forming into a tight flat block falling down onto Aerin. The wind warrior's feet rose from the floor, his body immediately dashing to the side narrowly avoiding the block of water that thumped onto the ground. Within a few seconds, the second water caster screeched in pain holding the bloody mess where her arm had been at the elbow.
A flash of white light dashed past the two water casters, both of them reacting immediately gripping their chest and stomach. Another smack in the air cut a perfect horizontal line across the water casters, bisecting both of them. A sharp pain shot through my side finding myself bouncing across the red foliage. My hands pushed myself off the floor, turning around into Aerin's hovering boot that stomped me down onto my back. Aerin's Flow cycled into his shoulder priming a downward stab with his sword.
As Aerin's sword extended towards my neck, his eyes shot up before retreating backwards, avoiding Korbin's downward slam with his battle axe. Kicking up to my feet, heavy footfalls from behind caused me to whip around, finding Cassi retreating from two of Aerin's teammates. His sister, Nina, dashed toward Cassi's back in a blink of an eye, her skull bouncing off the back of my spinning heel on approach. Her head slammed into the ground, her hands lifting herself back up to her feet in one movement before retreating back with her fellow wind warrior holding an insanely large two handed curved blade.
Korbin's back bumped into mine as Aerin backed him into Cassi and I. Behind Nina stood a shorter member of their squad dressed in white robes with thin blue silk hanging loosely from her hips and cape. The smaller woman had her hand placed on Nina's head, glowing a light blue hue from her palm.
"Okay, 3 on 4 isn't so bad." Cassi said, keeping her eyes trained on their towering tank of a wind warrior circling us. I chuckled, summoning another mana potion hoping the forced period between them had passed. The subtle refilling in the deepest pit of my gut indicated I'd indeed been patient enough.
"Tom, what exactly is funny right now?" Cassi asked, while Korbin joined in on my chuckling. I leaned into Cassi's ear while keeping my eyes locked onto Nina, who was walking back towards us from seemingly being healed.
"Nothing, I just figured we were the front runners here."