"G… This is so cold! Marc I can't move." Mei's body began to tremble, but it can't be shown through the ice layer. She slowly turned her head towards Marc.
"One moment" He answered as he tried to block the continuous attack from Barack's hand blades.
Marc saw an opportunity after Barack missed a heavy strike, he then held his sword blade downwards, slashed up from Barack's hip left to his right shoulder. Barack, not a novice, noticed this disadvantage and moved one step closer to Marc, using his left hand blace to block the sword and his right hand to strike Marc on his face.
Barack's blades are attached to his back arm wrist and concealed behind his long sleeves suit. So sadly if he attacks directly the blades cannot reach any target to hurt them, so the purposes of the blades are to block.
A normal punch won't do much to a swordsman who knows when to brace himself, but not Barack's punch.
"Magic Spell: Iron Fist."
They have to remember one thing, Barack is an A-Ranking mage after all.
clank
Sounds of metal clashing again, this time it was Marc's iron armor gauntlet clashing with Barack's iron fist; Marc instinctively raised his arm up to block his face, which worked but with the bad positioning and not enough time to brace. One punch from Barack was enough to send Marc back down three or four steps.
"Is there a problem with you and normal magic?" Marc flicked some dust off his gauntlet.
"That would be too easy." Barack answered, deactivating the iron gauntlet.
"I really don't want to do this." Marc held his sword tight again, with his eyes roaring in haste and his positioning doing the traditional Nebenhut sword stance. "We have a policy among us not to kill anyone, so please don't die from this, Barack Novendex."
Sweats began covering Marc's shoulders, back and head. His hands began to tremble, his sword began to scream.
"Longsword Move: Divine Slash."
"Marc?" Mei, just some step next to him called out in confusion. "Is that…"
His sword is covered by a black mis- no, dark roaring flames are raging in pain and bloodthirst on the blade of his otherwise normal longsword. As he slashes down towards Barack's direction, air molecules are being ripped in half, space and time corrupts on where the powerful slash passes through. Eventually the black fire jumped out of the sword and followed along the slash trajectory. Going directly towards Barack.
"Woah there, trump card already?" Barack kneeled down and braced himself.
"Elemental Spell: Quartet Guardian." From Barack's hand — water, fire, earth, air. Four primordial elements gathered around to make a square shield, with a quarter of the shield being water, another quarter being fire and so on with air and earth.
And just in any case that won't be enough.
"Magic Spell: Barrier"
One more layer of barrier, a bit weaker in front.
shriek
keeet
sizzles
When the two contact, they're like an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. The two struggled to remain their place in existance and fought desperately to gain control over the other. After a moment the two exploded, creating a big fog covering the air.
Marc almost fell down to the ground, he used his sword to stab the ground and hold on it to stay kneeled. While Barack is sweating, struggling to defend himself against the powerful slash.
"I wanted to say don't use that move again, but thank you." The heat from the black fire melted the ice that was captivating Mei. She then rushed to put up some fire magic to warm herself.
"cough"
Mei and Marc's eyes both look at the fog, there Barack is kneeling down and coughing aggressively. His skin has gone tan and covered in dust and sand from the explosion.
Two more temporarily out of the fight:
Marc Omal (out of energy/mana) and Barack Novendex (injured)
"Have you seen enough, Nea?" He asked as he switched from a kneeling pose to lying down on his back.
"Quite, thank you." The sleepy girl with glasses said; she abruptly appeared behind Marc and Mei without them knowing.
Marc and Mei turned their heads around in surprise. Only to see a short girl, around Mei's height, in the SSS white uniform cracking her bare hand knuckles.
Just a moment ago…
On the ground, Rina opens her eyes to see Mei and Marc hitting Barack to no avail, even when his back was turned — she knows this fight won't last long. She quietly looked over at Alize, her enemy archer, who was resting quietly and did not bother to get involved.
Rina took the opportunity to get up and sneak in the basement trapdoor. There, she found who she needed to find.
"Rina!"
Esmeralda, in her teenage girl form, called out for her in the middle cell. The door wasn't locked but Esmeralda was tied up by a fresh iron chain on her neck onto the wall, it's not easy to bust it out without something sharp and fast.
Sharp and fast…
"Kid, do you trust me?" Rina asked, patting Esmeralda's head. In which she nods aggressively.
"Okay… lean your head forward a bit, and don't move or look back." Rina said, she then backed up a bit and changed her staff back into a bow again.
Esmeralda understood the situation, immediately leaned her head towards, straightening the chain as much as possible.
striek
She armed her arrow and began stretching the string backwards. Aiming directly at the chain.
"If this fails and hurts, don't tell Marc."
"No promises!"
woot
kirik
The arrow tip hit directly on the chain and not the gap between it. Enough force to break the thing, bringing freedom to Esmeralda.
"Okay, we have to go before they noti- woah there…"
Before Rina can lead Esmeralda outside, she already flung herself in Rina's arm and hugged her.
"They took me from Miss Chup's place…" Esmeralda began hiccuping.
All Rina can do is to stand there quietly and rub Esmeralda's hair.
"We know."
"They force me into transformation…"
"We know…" Rina began to rub Esmeralda's head slower and slower, comforting her.
…
That moment lasted not longer than three minutes, they know they have to get out one way or another. They're in the middle of a city, no one has intervened in the fight between the 8 of them yet. But a crowd has already surrounded the place, with the annoyed adventurers instructed by the Adventure Guild not to stoop in the SSS's business.
But in the midst of the battle, no one out of the eight think enough to care about what the public thinks.
Rina and Esmeralda stoop out of the basement to witness tragedy.
On the Pearl vs Don side of the battle field, Pearl's ears were bleeding while he's on the ground and Don was stomping on his back, no serious wound to be seen but Pearl can't seem to get up. Around them are a lot of rocks that seem to be wet, Pearl is fluent in earth and water magic so this might be an explanation, but so is Don in earth magic.
On the other side, Alize and Barack are sitting next to each other on the boulder while Nea casually dodges every Marc's blind wild sword swings, playing with him. Mei is on the side heavily breathing and unable to move on her knees.
Ready for combat on Marc's team:
Rina Wenswood (still have a wound on forehead)
Esmeralda (fine)
Marc Omal (on the edge of exhaustion)
Ready for combat on Barack's team:
Barack Novendex (bad bruises)
Alize Frostinellie (fine)
Don Leoniluos (several small head wounds and burnt)
Nea Vitones (fine)
"Tch…" Rina armed her bow again, trying to find a good target while no one was looking this direction.
If she shoots at Nea, who is moving constantly, she might hit Marc. If she used Bird's Eyes, there's no guarantee she'll have enough mana to use Wind Dance and escape from this bad positioning. Best bet are the other three, but then what? If she actually kills them, it's not good, if she missed or even injured them, the other would know her position and begin attacking. And she doesn't even know what Nea's capable of, but from the look of it, the girl beat up Marc and Mei at the same time.
"I'm so useless…" She mumbled as she dropped the bow and held Esmeralda's hand.
Suddenly, Alize stood up from the boulder she was sitting, charged a bow and shot it directly towards Nea and Marc.
Nea jumped up very high, over Marc's head to dodge the arrow behind her, the thing then pierced into Marc's shoulder, injuring his ability to swing his sword. While dropping down from the jump, Nea gives Marc one final kick in his upper arm, effectively concussing his ribs.
Marc dropped his sword to the ground and fell down, the only left standing is Mei.
"Mom!" Esmeralda yelled out.
Rage (Weak): A passive skill, once active will increase the dragon's overall stats except Luck 2 ranks (example: from F > D-Rank) while also decreasing Intelligence to the lowest rank possible. Ways to activate the skill is unknown, but it has something to do with family.