The Beginning After the End - A Second Legacy

Chapter 21 - Scars

Remington Leywin

{I'll trust your judgment.}

There shouldn't be much to worry about after the Domain goes up, Uto's main capability is conjuring after all.

"Alea! We need to destroy his horns!" I yelled, while launching flaming orbs of condensed stone towards the retainer in an effort to slow his movements. With my mind split between a multitude of tasks, I began to reach the limits of my own concentration.

Unfortunately, stopping the bleeding was not one of those tasks. No, all my control over blood was being focused on a fail safe in case we couldn't best him.

Through my repeated attacks and evasion, I protected Alea and myself from spikes with complex barriers. For the most part Sylv protected herself with her own multi-layer barrier.

Occasionally, I would misjudge an evasion or mistime a barrier and it would lead to me obtaining a new wound. Alea also had the same issue every so often.

Alea rushed Uto but feigned a strike as she retrieved my scythe using a vine. "Remi!"

She tossed the scythe causing it to spiral through the air. I caught by the end of the pole using its momentum to windmill it and myself. Concentrating fire attribute mana, I launched a slash out from the blade. The bright slash tore through spikes before fizzling out, never reaching its intended target.

[Almost done.]

Alea attempted to hold down Uto with her vines but failed as he severed the vines with his own hands. He motioned upwards as a spike shot out of the ground beneath Alea, she barely managed to step back, just before a second spike branched out aimed for her core. She was unable to cast her mist form fast enough as the spike impaled her midsection. My throat constricted as I worried for her core.

Alea broke the spike in two before losing her balance. Acting quick I used a wind spell to launch her towards me.

'Not exactly the most gentle method but it was quick.'

As I caught her I quickly inspected her core, before placing her in the barrier with Sylv. Alea did what she could to halt the bleeding as I turned back to Uto.

'Man, this is gonna suck.'

Uto rushed at me, slashing with his arms. Blocking his slash with the butt of my scythe, I used the momentum to sidestep his second swing. Swinging down with my scythe I cast rubble into the air as Uto jumped back.

Using his backpedaling to my advantage, I launched myself towards Uto using wind mana. Meeting him before he could stop his momentum we exchanged blows, yet neither of us gained ground. Anytime I would try to build momentum with my scythe Uto would stop it with a specially placed spike. Likewise, anytime he attempted to overwhelm me, I would respond with a wave of concentrated fire mana.

He prepared to summon spikes but failed to realize the placement of his foot. I conjured an explosive blast of fire attribute mana on his good leg which caused his balance to falter. Using the same explosive blast on the back of my scythe, I propelled the scythe into an underhand swing, conjuring an ice lance as a follow up. The retainer twisted midair, resulting in his left eye being damaged as opposed to his horns. My conjured ice lance missed, as he summersaulted backwards,

'Eye for an eye, I suppose'

[Alright, I'm ready.]

{One last chain}

Closing the distance after Uto's retreat I used another explosive blast with a horizontal right hand swing. The instant momentum shredded through his summoned spikes. I carried the momentum with my body as I spun with the arc of the scythe. Following up with diagonal right hand swing, Uto just managed to step back out of range. I twisted the scythe so the blade did a 180 as a second explosive blast propelled the scythe back towards Uto. Using his own spikes he launched himself backwards narrowly being missed by my scythe, once more.