Aldrin blocked Ayame’s slash just when Iris came in from his other side. Her fist crashed toward his face, but he swiftly brought his blade up to intercept which resulted in the weapon’s edge piercing through her hand, sending a spray of blood into the air.
“Gh!” Iris growled, but her eyes burned with even more determination instead of how she should’ve felt – like a person who should make a run for her life.
She didn’t pull back; instead, she gripped the metal to twist Aldrin’s blade out of position. This created an opening for Ayame, who lunged forward and drove her wakizashi toward his back.
The blade found its mark, sinking into Aldrin’s flesh. However, his armor absorbed the majority of the strike, reducing what could’ve been a fatal blow to a mere flesh wound. He staggered forward and grit his teeth against the pain.
Before they could follow up with another attack, he slashed in a wide horizontal arc around him, forcing the two women to jump back.
Iris reached into a pouch on her belt to retrieve a small vial of red liquid – a healing potion concocted by Aurora. She downed it in one gulp and felt the pain in her hand dull as the wound began to close, though not completely. Her fingers still trembled, and blood seeped through the hastily repaired skin.
A healing potion could never hope to replace a proper Healer-classed person and their healing spells, it was only used to treat lesser wounds or to make the person who drank it survive until a healer arrived to help them.
Aldrin’s hand went to his belt to retrieve his own potion, but before he could drink it, Ayame dashed forward and aimed for his exposed arm, refusing to let him drink the concoction. “[Flash Step]!” she intoned, making her form turn into a mere smear as she accelerated.
Shallan wasn’t intent on sitting the fight out either, as she followed up Ayame’s attack by unleashing another gale. “[Zephyr Push]!” she shouted, sending a gust of wind to throw Aldrin off balance as he was forced to jump out of the projectile’s path.
“Damn you!” he snarled while raising his blade to defend himself from Ayame’s assault. Her strikes came in rapid succession, each one testing the limits of his defense.
Iris’s injured hand was trembling but functional, and she refused to waste even a single additional second before she threw herself back into the fray and circled her prey. Her movements were slightly slower now due to her injury limiting her usual agility, but her eyes burned with wrath; she no longer wanted to kill him merely because he was her enemy, but she also wanted to pay him back for her injury.
Revenge had always been a very strong motivator for the black-haired woman ever since she delivered her father’s punishment with her two hands.
Aldrin was pushed further back as Shallan continued to support with bursts of wind, disrupting his footing and throwing off his counterattacks. Despite his skill and high level, he was beginning to falter under their relentless teamwork.
“Someone seems to be outmatched, and it’s not the three of us. You better hope those reinforcements of yours arrive within a few seconds or you’re going to have the rare opportunity of greeting the Goddess.” Ayame taunted with her crazed grin widening as her blade clashed against his once more.
“You wish!” he barked, parrying another strike and lunging forward with a counterattack that forced Ayame to step back.
However, Iris took advantage of the opening. She lunged forward and Aldrin turned to face her just in time and his blade was already descending in a defensive arc.
The edge met her in the middle of her stomach and then it pierced through her armor and flesh alike in a brutal, sickening motion.
Blood erupted from Iris’ wound, but she didn’t falter even for a split second for this was her plan all along. She grabbed onto the hand that held the blade and pulled it deeper into her chest as her eyes locked onto Aldrin’s.
The messed-up sight of the woman made him shake involuntarily. “What now?” Iris asked with a manic grin while blood flew out of her mouth through her gritted teeth.
“Y-y-you’re crazy!” Aldrin cried as a violent tremble overwhelmed his body while he tried to pull the sword out of her, but she refused to relent.
“… So I’ve been told…” Iris chuckled as blood pooled under her.
“[Phantom Slash]!” Ayame shouted, making her wakizashi glow with an ethereal light as she struck. The blade sliced cleanly across Aldrin’s neck by accessing the smallest surface of his gear where the armor was the weakest, severing his vital arteries in the process.
Aldrin’s eyes widened in shock as his blade slipped from his grip. Blood sprayed from the wound and strength left his body at a rapid pace, making him collapse to his knees.
Iris stumbled back while clutching her chest as blood poured from her wound with the sword still embedded in her. Shallan rushed to her side, “Iris!” she called and caught the woman before she fell.
“You dumbass… who told you to catch him with your body? We would’ve won without your sacrificial play.” Ayame grumbled with dissatisfaction as she brought out a second healing potion for the woman to drink.
“Heh…” Iris laughed while spitting a mouthful of blood, “I’ve always been bad with time constraints… Knowing that more enemies were on their way… I felt very agitated so I… decided to end things in the swiftest manner possible…”
“Sigh… You’re truly like a wild beast. I can’t help but wonder if he will be able to tame you one day.”
…
“Unreasonably Arrogant Redhead With Big Mommy Milkers! Shoot your load, I can take it!” Blackjack shouted while wrestling with their opponent.
“I sincerely hope you can’t.” Selene spat while eagerly doing as instructed – she lit the both of them on flames with a Pyromancer spell of hers.
“Ahahaha! This feeling makes me remember when my wife boiled my balls in a cauldron!” Blackjack screamed as his skin and flesh were getting burned off of his bones, but he’d lived through worse.
Child of Agony was reserved for tormented children, and while Blackjack didn’t have access to that class, it was only because he didn’t meet his wife when he was a child. During his adulthood, he’d gained a pain tolerance that rivaled Quinlan’s and Iris’.
His enemy was screaming for his life in his hands, but he also had a respectable tolerance for pain. “Chopster, your turn!” Blackjack shouted, and Cedric rushed in to deliver the finishing blow.
…
“What the hell is this unfair class?!” The enemy shouted as her spear was unable to pierce through Aurora’s shield.
“Hehehe! Daddy always said my class would be broken, I just needed to level up a bit. And now that I’m above level 20, together with Daddy’s new present, I don’t even run out of mana when I spam my AoE buffs and shields!” Aurora declared haughtily.
“How much of a daddy’s little girl can you be?! Aren’t you like 60? Have you no shame whatsoever?” The spear wielder hissed with fury as she did her best to fight against the combined onslaught of Lucille, Lyra, Abudha, and the magic arrows of Seraphiel, since due to Aurora’s potent shields, her heals were not needed.
Aurora looked like a 25-year-old woman, so due to her relatively high level, their enemy thought her to be a seasoned combatant who was much older than she seemed. “Haaah?!” Aurora roared furiously before screaming viciously, “Kill this bitch!! End her miserable life! Tear her heart through her soggy little grandma tits! Only Daddy can speak like that to me, and only while spanking me because I did something bad!”
Her allies listened to her furious commands, as Abudha’s palm strike into her ribs gave Lucille the opening she needed to cleave the woman in half with her mean axe.
“Hmph!” Aurora snorted as she watched her enemy fall into two separate bloody heaps.
“You need help…” Lucille giggled bemusedly once she turned her attention to her sister-wife, eliciting an “I know…” sigh from the platinum haired plump beauty. With that being said, she had no plans to change whatsoever.
…
“Liora, please reattach my limb…” The rogue asked painedly while crawling on the ground toward the healer.
Their battle was brutal, resulting in multiple injuries which mostly happened because the man had an ability that ignored Kaelira’s taunt-oriented spells, and he kept attacking their weaker members without the tanker having the speed to properly protect them.
“This fight was brutal… If Kai was still our leader, his first and only order for us would’ve been to halt the enemy while he escapes.” The archer mumbled with a white face due to all the blood loss she suffered while reaching to the ground to collect her severed fingers. Stay updated via empire
“Damn right! Miss Kaelira, you’re an amazing leader.” The trapper nodded eagerly.
“Is that so…”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it, he was a counter to you. Our next battle will go much more seamlessly, especially if Shallan joins us.”
The rogue then spoke up while Liora busied herself with regenerating the damaged tissues around her severed leg, “And hey, if you’re still feeling guilty, you can make up to me by detailing all the juicy info you can when Lord Quinlan finally takes you. All his wives refuse to elaborate to me about details of paramount importance like his size and bed endurance…”
…
While the ascendants were in the middle of their battles, Quinlan reappeared in front of the armored vehicle to finish what he started.