A second beam of crimson fired from his other arm at the balcony, likewise expanding into a sphere at the end.
As the light faded, the monstrosity was no longer in the centre of the room, reappearing on the balcony instead.
As it struggled to its feet, the lack of constraints of the ceiling meant it no longer had anything holding it back. It caught on quickly and screeched in triumph before redirecting its attention at the human morsels.
Not needing any further prompts, Denzel grabbed both Noire and Arno by the arms and sprinted for the door, closely followed by his remaining five men not even pausing to look back.
Right before Noire passed through the veil of shadows, she pulled free of Denzel momentarily and turned back to give her loyal protector a few parting words.
“Leon! Don’t die. I’ll see you again once this is over.”
Seemingly satisfied with his thumbs up, the ebony haired noble blinked away a few tears from her amber eyes before putting on a brave front and rushing through the veil.
“My my, how noble of you to sacrifice yourself for the girl. And now, you’ve sent away your backup and the only person capable of healing your injuries. Tell me, how do you intend to win?”
“You’re still here? I thought you would have gone after Noire by now.”
“Uh uh uh. You’re still not listening boy. You won’t go far in life if you don’t clean out those ears of yours more often. I told you, I’m not due to capture the girl anytime soon, today I’m just here for the show. Annnnnd you still haven’t answered my question. That is quite rude you know.”
“Tch, entertainment huh? Well no one here but us, Hahahhaha I don’t have to hold back anymore. I ain’t gonna spoil the performance, so sit back, relax, and prepare to be amazed.”
“Ahahhaha, wonderful, WONDERFUL! I like you kid, now ON WITH THE SHOW!”
Two peal of a bell rang out and the Revenant sprang into action. Thunderous footfalls echoed throughout the chamber and the floor cracked beneath its feet as it charged the tiny figures of Leon and his puppet.
Taking a deep breath and allowing the beast to get just a bit closer, Leon stepped forth and met its charge head on with the most powerful lightning bolt he could muster.
A blinding flash reduced everything to simple shapes and shadows as he kept up the stream of lightning, blasting it straight into the foul creature’s open mouth and cooking it from the inside.
Geahart kept his body low as he charged the beast, skirting the edge of the lighting as he went. Once he was right beneath the monstrosity, he stabbed upwards with his sword, the faintly luminescent blade easily biting into the beast’s unprotected underbelly.
Giving the blade a vicious twist before yanking it out, Geahart leapt away from the counterattack and the Revenant’s two flailing paws found nothing but air.
The resulting screech of agony and frustration hurt Leon’s ears just to listen to it.
Tch, what a terrifying weapon. That screech is still draining my flux and every damn time it’s like it’s tearing into my soul.
This is not good.
Clicking his teeth in frustration, Leon switched tactics and launched a ball of searing white hot flames into the beast’s mouth. Its hide was fireproof, but what about its insides?
Forcing it to compress before imploding it all the way at the back, the resulting conflagration consumed the beast from within and its mind numbing screech ceased.
As an unexpected but most welcome surprise, its burning insides had the added benefit of cutting off the periodic lightning blasts sent Leon’s way and he was most grateful for that.
Rearing up on its hind legs in pain, the Revenant exposed its belly to Geahart’s every ready blade. A swift series of stabs and slashes rewarded its cooperation.
Swaying from side to side trying to get rid of the flames eating at it, the creature’s front paws flailed about randomly, one of them giving Geahart a glancing blow.
Despite bringing up both arms into an ‘X’ and bracing himself for the hit, the knight puppet was still sent skidding across the floor.
Stabbing his sword into the ground to pull to a halt, Geahart leapt back into the fray.
Hacking and slashing at everything he could and taking great pains to avoid being hit by any of the corrosive liquid that dripped copiously.
His actions netted him a good haul of shattered bone spikes and weeping gashes on the titan.
Twin interlocking bands manifested on the Revenant’s front legs, holding them in place and giving Geahart free reign to wreck as much havoc as he could.
Multiple fireballs continued to be lobbed into the monstrosities’ mouth, augmented by occasional bursts of lightning.
Together, the puppet and puppeteer worked to slowly whittle away at the beast’s defences.
The puppeteer’s strategy was simple, alternate and time their strikes to inflict maximum possible damage and avoid any fight ending injury.
Two tiny figures leaping in and out and a giant walking nightmare striking at everything in sight, all of this framed against a never ending lightshow of crimson flames and white lightning.
It truly was a macabre dance the likes of which only the most twisted individuals would be able to dream up.
Giving up trying to bat away the knight with its two limbs tied up, the Revenant focused instead on breaking through its restraints.
Muscles visibly flexing, it began exerting an inordinate amount of strength trying to pry its limbs apart.
And with a garbled cry from its still burning mouth, the twin bands shattered into tiny particles of light that slowly faded into nothingness.
Turning to regard the one responsible for such humiliation, it began growling at Leon, fully intending on smashing him to paste and devouring his remains.
It broke through? It actually broke through? What the hell, that was my strongest binding spell!
This is insane, a spell using nine goddamned Ceph crystals can’t even hold it down.
What does it take to stop this guy?
Mouth set in a grim line, Leon threw himself to the side before lightning arced from his fingertips and blasted the creature yet again.
His eyes widened in surprise before narrowing at what he saw, the beast was already standing and every wound on it was rapidly healing.
I remember this, it can sacrifice its own biomass to heal itself.
The only way to kill it is to blast it until nothing remains. Haah, easier said than done.
Pushing his body to stand once more, Leon stood back for a moment to give himself a breather.
Geahart still running on automatic charged the beast yet again, trying to cut away as much as possible before the inevitable counterattack.
An unholy screech issued forth from the beast, this one far louder and more damaging then any of the previous ones. The puppeteer was forced to his knees with his palms pressed against his bleeding ears as his world exploded in pain.
Every single cell screaming in agony and his head feeling like it was going to split any moment now, Leon let out an anguished cry that was drowned out by the cacophony.
Dimly he was away of his puppet being blasted back from the sheer force of the screech.
But, he was in too much distress to worry about his puppet at the moment.
Before, when abomination screeched and leeched away his flux, it was a gradual thing, almost imperceptible unless he was looking for it.
Now however, he could feel the energy itself being torn from his body.
It was as though a piece of himself was being diced to tiny pieces and each one extricated from him in the most torturous way available.
His brief burst of power earlier only afforded him so much and switching to a nine crystal set up only drastically increased flux consumption in exchange for access to stronger spells.
A nine crystal set up was dangerously unstable and the only temporary workaround in existence was to throw an insane amount of flux at a stabiliser that wouldn’t hold fore
ver.
The toll exacted was enormous indeed and Geahart was still draining his reserves to function.
Now that he was being drained further by the Revenant, he was in very real danger of having his life itself sucked away.
Vision darkening around the edges, the puppeteer went for one last gambit.
The fingers on his right hand violently twitching, it was a miracle he was able to alter his sagent one last time.
Eyes burning with anger, the glow in them seemed to get just a little brighter as he pushed every bit of flux he still had left into his glove before it could be sucked away.
F-f-fine y-you bastard. Y-you want my flux so badly? T-take it!
The crystals on his sagent lit up to blinding intensity.
Screwing his eyes shut, Leon rapidly pulled his right arm away from his ear and pointed it at the Revenant.
With a wordless scream, the crystals shattered and a brilliant stream of flux energy lanced towards the revenant.
The nightmarish screech was cut off midway as the beam impacted it at full force.
Eating through the beast’s stomach, it disintegrated everything in its path before exiting through the back.
The supercharged beam of pure flux energy pushing beyond the balcony of the Vitae tower and towards Arthuria Lake. The line extending for miles.
A solid hole burned clean through, as the beast began to fall, the beam maintained its destructive power and continued to erase everything that fell on it.
The end result was the Revenant had a giant ‘U’ shaped valley carved into it.
Crashing to the ground with a thunderous bang, its black blood began pooling around it as all motion ceased.
Leon gasped in exhaustion once the beam faded away.
His right arm flopped uselessly to the side, all feeling to it lost. And, of his glove, eight of the nine crystals had shattered, leaving only one weakly glowing crystal, the sagent itself sparking periodically.
His ability to cast spells was shot completely and his control over Geahart now was tenuous at best.
…Not that it would have mattered much.
Leon fell backwards and lay on his back, trying to force the air back into his burning lungs. His puppet lay crumpled on the ground several feet away from him.
He was now well and truly out of flux, Geahart would not be operational even if he had a control glove in perfect condition.
If he had any strength left he would be laughing hysterically at the moment. It had taken him everything he had to do it but he had won against a nightmare made flesh.
As it was a large smile did slip onto his face… only to freeze a moment later.
The disgusting squelch of flesh being forcibly mashed together reached his damaged ears. Soft as it was, there was no mistaking it. The sound of shuffling followed suit.
Exerting great effort to raise his head to get a better view of what was happening, Leon’s face fell as he allowed his head to drop.
“You’re kidding me. That thing is still alive?”
Grunting in pain, he pulled himself back to his feet.
Right arm still unusable, he drew his only remaining combat knife with his left and readied himself for the coming onslaught.
He didn’t know what else he could do now to stop the damn thing.
With his flux reserves completely dry, any chance of spell casting and using Geahart to pull a last minute save was gone with the wind.
Noire, Arno and the mercenaries had already evacuated the tower and Libra was off who knows where, backup was completely out of the equation.
With one arm nothing but dead weight and pain wracking most of his body, all he left was a bloody kitchen knife to use against something clearly designed with the intention of annihilating entire armies.
Those weren’t good odds.
Swaying unsteadily, he did his best to get into a ready position.
Sucking in a deep breath he awaited the beast to finish reassembling itself.
Broken flesh knitted itself back together and bones grinded as the Revenant replaced its lost parts. Teeth grew out by the thousands and a new layer of bone armour sprouted from the creatures back.
As the nearly bisected being pulled itself together, two sickly green vine like tentacles grew out of its sides.
Each deceptively thin and waving in the wind non-threateningly, Leon knew that it was anything but, given what he’d already seen.
True to form, it suddenly whipped through the air with a loud crack and a series of blade like protrusions emerged.
They looked to be made of bone although he lacked the ability to verify it, given it was lathered with large amounts of the same brackish liquid that coated its skin. The floor sizzled where droplets fell off it.
Soon enough it was whole once more, restored to all its horrendous glory.
Thick corrosive saliva dripped from its ever open maw and it stomped its feet twice causing the tower to shake yet again.
Electricity cackled along its bone spines and its three appendages whipped through the air ready to put the hurt on Leon.
Only… it simply stood there. Watching. Observing. Waiting. Leon was most perplexed at this, in all honesty he was expecting to have been thoroughly flattened by now.
He didn’t have to wait long for a reason though.
“My my, that was most impressive indeed. Truth be told, I was expecting you to pull out a massive lightning bolt or fire storm to bring down my pet. Or maybe your toy would be able to use that oaf’s sword beam thingy again.”
Demented laughter filled the air as he laughed at a joke only he understood.
“Then you go pull out a giant laser beam… OF DEATH. AHAHAHAHA! Magnificent! Truly magnificent! But… what will you do now? Your dear friends have abandoned you, one arm useless and unless I’m mistaken your sagent broken. All you have left is one tiny little butter knife against my Revenant. Tell me boy, do you have any tricks left up your sleeve? Well?”
“Tch.”
“I see… pity. I’ll admit you did far better than I thought you would, but I expected more from the apprentice of the Equalizer.”
“What?”
“Oh my, you mean he never told you? I guess he’s still the same as before, always keeping his secrets close to himself. Hmm hmm, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you more about your dear master Libra.”
Laughter suffused the level once more as Leon looked to the sky in confusion.
Equalizer? Libra? What the hell?
“See, Libra and I go way back. We used to be such a kickass team too. The two of us, ah, we were legends on the battlefield. I gained the title ‘Scarlet Nightmare’ and he ‘Equalizer’.”
“What the, LIES! There’s no way Libra would ever be partners with a monster like you!”
“Oh silly child, you have so much to learn indeed. With a monster like me? I was never able to beat him you know, ever. For every man I cut down, he would have dismembered five more. It’s the main reason for his title too. See I gained my title due to my preference for painting everything a pretty red with blood.”
The voice trailed off into silence, evidently he was lost in fond remembrance of times long past.
“And?”
“Hmm oh sorry. Anyways, as I was saying, that was how I got my title. For him though, he loved battle more than I loved painting. But it wasn’t enough for him to pick a fight with anyone he saw, oh no. His favourite past time was seeking out lost causes in this world of endless war.”
A sense of dread began welling up in Leon as the voice went on.
“Hehe, then he would join the losing side and completely annihilate the opposition, until both sides were equal before letting them settle things the old fashioned way.”
“‘Equalizer’ is a play on his name really. You know Libra and all that, his full name roughly translates into ‘the hammer of the balancing scales’. Word got out and people began calling him Equalizer for short. You might know of him as Equinox though.”
&n
bsp; Leon’s blood ran cold at that statement.
A long buried memory dredged itself to the surface.
It was from a simpler time, one from before the tragedy that led to him travelling with Libra.
It was a time when he was still just a wide-eyed innocent child who believed in the inherent goodness of people.
And it was also the start of two years of anguish.
A little boy sat huddled against the wall, listening to the grown-ups around him speak.
He didn’t know what was going on, only that his father hadn’t returned yet.
Not knowing what else to do, he just sat back and listened.
Some of what the big men were saying he didn’t really understand.
He knew most of it though, just like his father taught him. He was a good boy, he paid attention and listened when his dad told him to learn.
Maybe, maybe when he returned, he would treat him to ice cream. The little boy always liked the cold treat, and his father would reward him for keeping up with his lessons.
Surely he would.
“Poor bastard didn’t make it. That damned Equinox got him. Bugger was just trying to collect some herbs when the damned thing cut him in half. At least… at least he didn’t suffer. If nothing else, it was quick.”
“Aye I hear you. What do we do with the kid now? With Father Shakir gone, who’s going to look after him now?”
“Ah? What about the demon? We should just burn it at the stake, the things cursed I tell you. Father Shakir was a good man, but he was a fool for trusting in the foul spawn of darkness. Either way we should get rid of it!”
“SHHHH! Not so loud! It was his wish that the child be taken care of, do you want to disgrace his memory that badly? What happened was an unfortunate accident, no one could have predicted it.”
“Yeah? An accident or a curse? I’m telling you, the demon’s curse killed the good father, and if we don’t get rid of it now we’ll be next. I’ll ‘take care’ of it right here.”
“Put that knife away you imbecile! We will not dishonour Father Shakir’s wishes, it’ll go into the orphanage. We will not do anything to it understand? Poor bastard has enough to deal with as it is.”
Opening Moves (The Lion Knight Book 1) Page 24