The Moonweaver Chronicles Part 10

A flash silver was all I saw before a blade sliced right through Rin's book. I hadn't even noticed her opening it. The book had been split down the center, right in half, the halves floating in what seemed like slow motion in my shocked state, they broke apart and the book dissolved before my eyes.

"I call on you, oh bearer of serpents, OPHIUCHUS!" Stiff red leaves suddenly poured into the image of a man with a serpent wrapped around one of his legs, his torso and then the opposite arm. The serpents eyes glowed red as it breathed flames that seemed to completely ignore the trees, incinerating the area right in front of the man.

The red marks slowly began to glow less brightly, part of me wanted to help her but I was curious about the particular technique she was using. "Elemental shift, earth" The serpents eyes began to glow brown and the brown symbols on her began to dull. "Cataclysm." Suddenly the earth shifted around us, spikes began to appear suddenly and I can only imagine that most of them, at the very least were aimed at the ones surrounding us who were hidden in the trees.

She grabbed me and we were suddenly moving at high speeds as we left the area. She took us to the center of a small clearing and asked me, "They didn't touch you did they?" She checked me for wounds, knowing my weakness. "The fact that those creatures fought so little means that we are facing an illusionist, or a small group of people. They intentionally exaggerated their numbers to make us too afraid to come after them, a dirty but ultimately foolish trick."

"Now now now, my lady, I do take offence at this. Those were indeed living creatures you just slaughtered." A creature in a red cloak and a top hat came from the heavily forested area, I couldn't really tell what he was. "You are rather astute to determine that much from so little. You really are a fascinating creature, join our group and your life will be spared, how about it?" His voice was really sickening. Did he really give those creatures life and intentionally put them in a situation where that life would get extinguished meaninglessly?

"OPHIUCHUS! Elemental shift, air" Suddenly the man and the serpent reformed next to her, its eyes glowed an unnatural white, "Vacuum bead barrage" I couldn't quite follow the attack but suddenly the man was filled with holes, he exploded almost instantaneously afterwards.

"Now now now, that's not a way to behave is it? So unbecoming..." Five more of him popped up around the spot where the man had originally been standing, they looked exactly like him. "My brand of magic allows me to create an infinite number of living dolls to act in my stead and attack you. You may be able to defeat some of us but we will ultimately overwhelm you." He said this as if it was a joke before concluding, "Last chance to join up, we will annihilate you."

"You're going to hear a scream in a minute, Try to pinpoint it and strike at the location." I nodded in understanding. "Elemental shift, omni." The serpents eyes began to glow so brightly I couldn't look near it. I shielded my eyes as her next words left her lips. "PORTENT!"

A scream rang out, it was abject horror and I didn't really want to know what horrified the owner of the scream that much. I used my lightning enhanced reflexes to leap in the location, gripping the target by the throat. The man had indeed modelled the figures after himself.

"Not your lucky day, next time, maybe you shouldn't announce the nature of your ability. You might have had some more luck wearing us down if you hadn't blurted it out so recklessly." I whispered in his ear. I waves a hand over the targets eyes, "Sensory darkness." He became completely detached from his senses and his voice, as an added afterthought. I had no intention of listening to his fear this time. I dragged him over to Rin, almost in offering, my tail wagging somewhat happily to bring her what she came here seeking.

"We aren't done yet." Somewhat demoralizing, I had been kind of proud of my acquisition. "He said that he is indeed part of a group, which means there are at least two more out there like him."

Two more figures decided to greet us, that was almost anti-climatically quick, it seems they had no intention of dragging this out. Though perhaps they just didn't want us to recover our energy. I surmised Rin's power could be measured, for one reason or another, by those symbols on her body. If that's the case, she was running low on power after that last attack. Prolonging the battle would be disadvantageous and it looked like I was going to have to intervene.

I looked at our opponents, one was wielding some kind of sword. There wasn't much to it, not even a hilt or a guard. It'd be a bad idea to get into a close fight, his opponent seemed to be wielding a large phallic shaped object. It took both of his hands and I theorized that this weapon probably had a slow speed of attack given its size. All we needed to do was utilize the weaknesses of the weapons and we could easily overtake them, even if Rin was in a weakened state. In other words... I thought, as I began channelling lightning energy to my legs.

"WHOEVER STRIKES FIRST WINS!" I shouted as I lept towards the one with the crossbow, the swordsman had disappeared but I was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to strike me at this speed, I could definitely dodge him with my lightning enhanced reflexes.

Exactly as predicted, he shot at me, I hit the ground and jumped in a direction that would allow me to dodge him and attack him from the side. I was on him like a bolt of lightning, I pulled my arm back to deliver a punch before a slight movement caught my eye. No... a miniature version of his weapon appeared out of the side, it was pointed right at me, I was too invested in the attack to back off fast enough to dodge it. I heard him laugh as I quickly moved my other arm to defend against the attack and tried to jump back way too slow.

I took pretty bad damage to my arm and lost most of its mobility. Anti-demon weapons are a pain to get hit with. I probably lucked out, the miniature version of the weapon fired much smaller bullets. Still, the limit of this weapon was clearly that he wouldn't be able to fire it behind him. I charged my energy quickly and lept behind him, I would end this in one strike and give us the advantage, we could win this.

Another device appeared from his back, giving me an all too late insight into how exactly this creature functions. The device he carried with him was clearly a farce, he was the weapon. I lept back again but my left arm took a second dose of whatever ammunition it was firing at me. My left arm was useless and I got a clear view of Rin trying to slither away from her opponent, attempting to gain some distance between them.

"Not your lucky day" He was behind me, crap, I tensed up and prepared to meet my maker. There was no time to build enough energy to dodge. The sound of him firing into me from dozens of sources simultaneously met my ears and strangely enough I didn't feel anything, an idea struck me as I noticed the swordsman falling, seemingly having been shot from an unknown force.

I gathered all of my energy as quickly as possible, exploiting the momentary pause of shock this man seemed to feel from having somehow inexplicably shot his partner, missing a target at point blank range. A massive fireball exploded right in front of me, propelling us backwards at high speed into a tree. The momentum was too great, he couldn't fire his body or weapon or whatever at me. We hit the tree at what felt like breakneck speed.

Normally the fire wouldn't have hurt but in my weakened state and with how much those bullets weakened my defences, it actually burned me. At least Rin was safe, I was an acceptable loss if it came to that. I only wish that we had gotten to spend more time together.