Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Duel (III)

Black Wolf smiled cruelly as the vampiress used her Mirror Clones again.

"You haven't learned your lesson," he threatened.

Immediately, through his heightened senses and Find, he quickly located which one was the real one. Without delaying a moment, he charged at her using Dash, followed by Shred. This time, the demihuman planned to keep attacking with more Shreds, Bites, or other skills to not give her a break.

However, his plans didn't turn out as he had anticipated. When he reached her with Dash, she dodged by throwing herself back and dropping. He wanted to keep pressing, but her leg slammed into his stomach.

The objective of that kick wasn't to deal damage, but to take advantage of her enemy's speed to launch him forward. Although that didn't stop her from using Surprise Dagger, thus tearing his skin a bit with the dagger she had placed in her foot.

Blackwo was slow to react. He had been surprised by that maneuver that had sent him flying forward. Luckily for him, there was no tree to crash into anymore.

As soon as he reacted, he regained his balance with On All Fours. What the demihuman didn't expect was for him to fall into a Mirror Trap. It left him momentarily disoriented, though he soon recovered with Wolf Courage. He then got out of the trap with the only method he knew of, with brute force.

With Dash again, and his body covered in a membrane of energy, Black Wolf charged forward, to what seemed like nowhere. He was soon surprisingly out of the trap, as it was just an illusion.

Immediately, he looked around to locate his rival, who had disappeared. Since he hadn't thought to ask for it to be daytime, as he generally didn't care, the combat was taking place at night, which was in her favor. She was hiding in Darkness again.

"OWOOOOOOOOOOOOO," his Howl was heard again.

The vampiress appeared several meters from him. She was looking at him mockingly, sitting on a stone that had survived the destruction. Blackwo wasted no time. He pounced at her again with Dash.

"Always so predictable," she told herself.

Gjaki could have set some traps, but she knew that her enemy would get rid of them quickly. Tentacles wasn't very effective against such a physical enemy, especially if he was running. That's why she had used the Mirror one before, with the intention of gaining a few valuable seconds, Nonetheless, she had hoped it had lasted a little longer.

With the help of Blood Overload, she quickly jumped to the side. He was stopped short by Turnaround, and was going to rely on Dash again to reach her. However, the vampiress had circled him, thus forcing him to turn and cancel the skill.

Gjaki smiled as she met the angry gaze of her enemy, about to attack. At the same time, she executed Lethal Net.

In the absence of trees, she had used the stone to fix the adamantine threads. Then, while holding them, she had circled her enemy, at the same time that Live Thread was preventing them from touching him and exposing her plan. Finally, she had imbued them with Lethal Thread, and drawn them to her. They had surrounded, imprisoned and cut him.

She needed both hands to manage that makeshift web of sharp threads, so she Headbutted at him as he approached. Perhaps, it would have been better to bite him, but his defenses were still too powerful to easily pierce through with her fangs.

She also kicked him hard to the face, and added a dagger into it. The hit inflicted a deep cut on Black Wolf's cheek, and he screamed in rage and pain. A strong fluctuation of energy surrounded him and expanded outward. Again, it was Energy Wave.

Gjaki was pushed out, without her offering any resistance. She remembered from the game that it was best to let herself be carried away by it, as that tactic practically nullifying its damage. Since it was impossible for her to maintain the thread prison after the skill, it was her best choice.

A bruised wolfish demihuman gasped, while glaring at her. His wounds were closing and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, though it wasn't free. The healing of the numerous cuts implied a not inconsiderable consumption of energy.

"No more tricks. It's time to end this," he threatened, without hiding the anger in his voice.

He then rushed with Dash several times forward, and turned as many times with Turnaround, in a trajectory that circled the vampiress. She was looking at him without trying to escape, partly because it wasn't easy, and partly because she had been waiting for it.

That was a tactic that he had already used in the game, and that she had overcome by "cheating", according to her rival. However, she needed to be very focused. Now more than ever, any mistake was paid dearly, very dearly.

She also took a sip from another of the vials, one that contained a skill that could be very useful to her. If things went awry, she hoped not, she could perform Physical Assimilation to cast it, and escape from that prison.

"Now, you can't escape. No more tricks. There're no stones or trees to hide, nor can you cheat like in the game. Don't worry, I won't kill you, but maybe you'll wish you were dead," Black Wolf sentenced arrogantly.

He had finished the Ring, and he was convinced of his victory. In such small terrain, she couldn't escape.

"Desolation!" he shouted.

It was a skill as terrible as it was expensive. It fiercely struck the entire area around, with rapid, consecutive blows. It was virtually impossible to see where they came from, and in the game, with one exception, no one had been able to avoid them.

Of course, there was always the option to block or protect yourself from it with spells or skills, although they had to be powerful enough to counter it.

One of the peculiarities of the skill was that, once it hit, more attacks were concentrated in the same place, as long as there was an enemy that had been hit. It was a terrible skill against beings with weak defenses, like offensive mages, or lightly armored fighters, like Gjaki.

Perhaps, one option would have been to use a shield, though she wasn't sure if it had been enough. Anyway, it was useless to think about it, since she couldn't access her inventory. She had no choice but to try what seemed impossible, to dodge each of the attacks with barely time to see them arrive.