“Is that all?” the tentacles advanced against the rain of feathers, their corrupted flesh seeming to mock the silver light.
“Is this the legendary Hunter?”
Zhao’s feathers began to fall, their gleam growing dimmer with each passing second. The Hunter of Yano finally seemed cornered, his legendary prowess failing at last.
“Before I kill you,” the tentacles pressed their attack while the male drained more mana from the area, creating a vacuum of power, “which Yano noble do you think paid for this mission?”
Zhao cut through three more tentacles, his feathers increasingly scattered. Silent Flight finally vanished, he had to save mana to use it when it would truly give him an opportunity.
“Do you really know?” Zhao breathed heavily, surrounded by both male and aberration. “Or they don’t trust you enough to tell you?”
“Silence!” more tentacles attacked. Zhao’s last feathers flew to intercept them with desperate precision.
Adrian smiled, his fused face contorting grotesquely. “It’s over, Hunter. Your precious feathers are scattered exactly where we wanted them. One last recall would be a useless waste of your already diminished mana from that angle.”
“Then I’ll have to use something more efficient.”
Zhao’s hands glowed as he adopted a stance Adrian recognized.
“Bird of Prey Talons?” Adrian burst into laughter while Zhao launched forward. “Your last card is your Bronze-rank short-range ability? No more mana I see…”
But Zhao disappeared, one final flash of Silent Flight. The Shadow Stalker male, now with almost no tentacles, barely had time to register the movement before the manifested claws tore through it.
The male died, but…
The victory was brief.
Zhao fell to his knees.
The claws vanished while his poorly positioned feathers lay useless around him, their silver light barely visible in the darkness.
“Pathetic,” Adrian’s tentacles rose and surrounded him for the final blow. “In the end, you couldn’t even find out who ordered all this before running out of mana… I’ll tell you only because you’re already dead.”
Zhao braced one leg to stand, his breathing labored and heavy.
“You know what’s funny?” Adrian moved his tentacles almost lazily while watching Zhao struggle to rise. “This mission… the nobles called it ‘asset recovery.’ As if their nephews and children were objects.”
“Luna and Klein’s group,” the tentacles oscillated hypnotically. “Alive preferably. They’d pay ten times more if we brought them as hostages instead of simply eliminating them.”
“The Blackburns?” Zhao coughed, his eyes studying the tentacles surrounding him. “Or perhaps the March family?”
“Higher,” Adrian released a distorted laugh. “Much higher. First Minister Silvercliff himself.”
That made Zhao pause in his attempt to stand. The First Minister of Yano… if true, this was bigger than he had imagined.
“Though,” the tentacles drew closer, “money stopped mattering to me long ago. Do you know what would be more valuable than gold, Hunter?”
Zhao managed to get both feet under him, though his body trembled with the effort of standing.
“Seeing your face when I kill your supposedly precious students. One by one. Slowly.” Adrian’s eyes glowed with sickly malice. “Destroy your facade. The great protector of Yano, powerless while I destroy everything he swore to defend.”
“My students…” Zhao finally straightened, though the effort seemed to be tearing him apart, “are not ‘supposedly’ precious, they are precious.”
“Oh, are they?!” Adrian expanded his tentacles in a theatrical gesture. “The noble Hunter, the dedicated professor. How many have you sent to die in missions like my Marcus’s? How many children have you sacrificed for the ‘good of Yano’?”
“The difference,” Zhao stepped forward, “is that I’m not the one pushing them, not the one giving orders and I’m not pretending to care… I truly care.”
“Care?” the tentacles tensed.
“I hope that’s true! But don’t think I’m stupid… I won’t take you alive so you can recover mana and pierce me with your hateful feathers, I’ll just give you my word. When I’m done with you, I’ll take my time with them. Especially with that little fungus who tried to trick me with his shadow stalker illusion ploy.”
Zhao took another step, his legs threatening to give way beneath him.
“What’s wrong, Hunter?” Adrian mocked. “Are your legs shaking? Or is it truly the guilt of knowing they’ll die for your failure?”
“You’re wrong about something, Adrian,” Zhao stood completely straight, though the effort was visible in every line of his body.
“Oh? What am I wrong about?”
“My students won’t wait to be eliminated and they don’t just matter to me,” Zhao’s eyes gleamed with something that made Adrian hesitate for a moment. “They’re the only reason to stand one last time.”
Zhao’s trembling hands rose, preparing for the final effort of recalling his scattered feathers.
“Really?” Adrian burst into laughter that made his tentacles vibrate. “This is your grand finale? Calling your feathers when you have no mana left? You’ll burst your veins for nothing… But if you want to suffer for free, go ahead.”
Zhao stepped forward, his entire body shaking with the effort of staying upright.
“Pathetic,” Adrian’s tentacles undulated with anticipation. “You’ll really do it… The great Hunter of Yano, dying like a sentimental old fool.”
Another step. Zhao’s legs barely supported him now.
“You know what?” the tentacles began to tense. “I’ll give you the killing blow now because you make me feel too much pity. It’s the least I can do to honor the legend and not feel I hunted you in vain.”
Zhao staggered forward, his arms extended in a gesture that seemed more plea than threat.
“You disappoint me, Hunter,” all tentacles rose simultaneously. “I expected a more… dignified end.”
Zhao lunged forward with one final, enormous effort.
Adrian’s attack was brutal, dozens of tentacles piercing Zhao’s body from every possible angle. The impact’s force raised dust and debris.
“Huh?”
Where there should have been flesh and bone, the tentacles found only air…
And then he heard it, quick, precise footsteps, behind him.
Adrian turned his monstrous head just in time to see Zhao, running behind him. His eyes blazed with iron determination while his hands completed the recall gesture.
The silver feathers responded.
All of them.
Every feather that had been “forced” into specific safe angles for Adrian during the battle returned to its master, but now from the opposite side, tearing through Adrian’s aberrant form on their way. Dozens of them, cutting tentacles, piercing corrupted flesh, destroying everything in their path.
“Im… impossible,” Adrian choked on his own purple blood. “Silent Flight… but you had no mana…”
“Never used it,” Zhao caught the last returning feather. “Since the last Silent Flight, I was already behind you.”
“But… how…”
“Another illusion,” Zhao stepped toward the dying creature. “I told you, my students wouldn’t wait for you to come for them… I also told you, didn’t I?”
The tentacles began to fall, lifeless.
“The Hunter of Yano…” Adrian released a broken laugh while his body began to collapse.
Ren emerged from the shadows where he had been controlling the professor’s illusion at a mirror angle with the mantis plates, “always saves something for the end… He doesn’t disappoint, after all.”
The aberration that had been Adrian Ravencroft collapsed, its form twisting as the forced fusion finally came undone.