Chapter 479: Lyrae

 

  The dragonbane eyed the injured drow hungrily. Oshnyr’s spiked tail shot out without hesitation. Holo Flickered above them in a blast of orange sparks and sliced through the tail with her scythe. Oshnyr roared and stumbled backwards in shock and pain.

  Holo landed in front of Elzri and flourished her scythe at the dragonbane. “We haven’t lost yet, Noir, so get up. Your family needs you at the wall.”

  Elzri glanced uncertainly at Oshnyr and then at his severed tail oozing black blood on the ground.

  “Don’t worry about this one.” Holo patted her scythe, “Lyrae and I will take care of him.”

  Elzri pushed himself up with his hands and uninjured leg. “My body, my mana—” he said between breaths, “Something’s wrong with it.”

  “The dragonbanes are creatures of void nature,” Holo answered without taking her eyes off Oshnyr. “They drain all manner of mana. Their mere presence will weaken you, especially because you’re a mage.”

  Elzri nodded in grim understanding. “When they attacked the wall with their flames I… I—”

  “I felt it too. They somehow managed to drain every mage in the area.”

  “The mages have almost all collapsed. The ones that haven’t are sick,” said Elzri.

  “The dragonbanes ripped all the mana out from within the mages’ bodies. I can only assume the effect was so powerful because there were so many dragonbanes draining them at once. I can only assume the reason you’re somewhat alright is because your mana reserves are much larger than the rest.”

  Elzri’s eyes widened with worry. “Elohnoir! Is she–?”

  “Loh is fine, for now. She wasn’t too close to the explosion. Your sister and she are at the Western Gate. Go to them.”

  Elzri didn’t need to hear another word. He channeled Yellow mana and took to the skies. Oshnyr growled as his prey flew away, but he didn’t give chase. He curled his tail around himself. The severed stump had stopped bleeding and begun to regenerate, albeit at a very slow pace.

  Oshnyr eyed Holo warily, no, he was eyeing her scythe. Holo pointed her orichalcum weapon at the beast and grinned, “What’s the matter big guy? First time covered in your own blood?”

  The dragonbane narrowed his jet-black eyes in a glare.

  “Oh, it is?” she laughed. Despite the carefree mirth in her voice, her mind was calculating her next move. The creature was massive, standing 15 meters tall and 10 meters wide, with hide more durable than the toughest armor. Beneath the smoky-translucent skin, she could see the rippling muscles underneath, tensed, ready to pounce.

  Holo’s element of surprise was gone. The dragonbane knew she was a threat and it was done watching. Oshnyr kicked off the ground, ripping the stone underneath his feet, and charged her.

  Orange sparks exploded where Holo had been as she Flickered behind him. She pulled her arm back for a swing. Oshnyr’s wing spikes stabbed backwards reflexively, the largest of which formed a long talon on each end of his wings. Holo rolled away, narrowly dodging the 2-meter-long talons. 

  She Flickered back, to a slab of stone left from the wreckage of a ruined house.

  Oshnyr slowly turned its head towards and pulled its lips back in a malicious sharp-toothed smile.

  Holo frowned. The beast’s senses were sharp. He hadn’t even been looking at her, but his wings had struck out within an instant.

  Her Orange true magic had a delay between each Flicker, that only grew the more consecutive Flickers she did. Relying on Flicker magic alone could prove deadly.

  As she thought to herself in silence, a jade boulder buried in the wreckage began to shake. Like an egg, the boulder cracked open and a stone golem emerged. It honed in on the small human woman atop the wreckage and marched towards her.

  Holo swung Lyrae behind her with a flick of the wrist and sliced the golem in half without glancing at it. Oshnyr cocked its head, mildly curious at the broken golem, before it charged her once again.

  Orange mana flowed into Holo’s legs. She activated the Black Amber agility spell and Flickered to the beast’s blind spot. Oshnyr lashed out with his wings, but Holo jumped to the wreckage, kicked off a stone slab, and flew straight to the back of his head. She aimed her scythe at his unprotected neck and swung down. Oshnyr’s body moved in a blur and his clawed hand appeared at the edge of her vision.

  It felt as if a comet hurled down from the sky right into her. Oshnyr’s fist smashed into her and sent her crashing into a far-off building. Her body ripped through the wooden house like a steel boulder and smashed into the house behind it.

  Oshnyr took to the sky and landed in front of the ruined house, skeptically. Holo stumbled out of the wreckage, battered and bloodied. Her right arm, which had taken the direct hit, was limp at her side, her broken radius bone sticking out from the skin.

  Oshnyr's shoulders shook with a deep rumble, akin to what his kind might consider a laugh. Holo realized unnervingly the dragonbane was happy that she was still alive, that the hunt wasn’t over.

  Holo cursed silently at herself. She had underestimated these creatures once again. First it was the wall, believing that she could overpower the dragonbanes’ resistance when all along it hadn’t been magical resistance but magical absorption. The wall had fallen because of her misjudgment.

  And now she had underestimated how quickly such a large creature could move. It may have been a short burst of speed, but the beast was fast enough to keep up with her agility magic.

  Oshnyr licked his lips at the scent of her blood and stalked forward.

  Holo glanced at her left hand, it was dripping blood and twitching ever so often, but she still had some movement in it.

  Oh… that’s good, she thought in a daze. 

  Oshnyr lifted his tail, now fully regenerated, black spikes protruding from its end. The tail swayed above him, poised to strike.

  Holo looked at him and lifted her right shoulder, her limp right arm rising slightly. Crackling and squelching sounds reverberated through her body as her flesh knitted itself together. With a pop, her bone sank back into her right arm, and her skin healed without a trace.

  She flexed her fingers and tested their movement. “Hm, that’s better.”

  Oshnyr stared at her in surprise, its black eyes uncertain of what to make of it.

  Holo smiled tauntingly, “What? Did you think you were the only one?”

  The dragonbane shook his head and growled. He pounced with outstretched claws and an open maw of sharp, ebon fangs. Holo Flickered forward, right in front of him, and planted her fist in his chest mid-air. A resounding bone-cracking noise echoed across the neighborhood; Oshnyr’s body flew backwards and crashed into a house.

  Holo shook her wrist, then clenched her fist open and closed a few times. “Not bad, big guy, not bad.”

  Oshnyr shook himself free from the wreckage and touched the small, slightly caved-in, bloody imprint on his sternum. Like his tail, the wound on his chest was refusing to heal properly. He glanced at Holo cautiously, slowly reevaluating his prey.

  She cocked her head to the side, her eyes wide open and cold, “Is that fear I see?”

  Oshnyr pulled his snout back with a snarl and roared angrily. He charged and tried to flatten her. Holo Flickered to the side, but he lashed out with his tail. She sidestepped and Flickered once more, above him. His wings flapped open, too large to dodge, struck true. Holo flew back, but managed to land on her feet.

  Oshnyr didn’t let up and he barrelled towards her in a storm of claws and fangs. This time Holo was prepared. She weaved through his attacks, Flickering back and forth as his claws ripped through the ground and the homes all around them. She could feel her Orange mana seep away from her body the longer she was near him, but every time she Flickered away, Oshnyr was already there.

  She realized in dismay that his senses were growing sharper, he was beginning to discern where her body would appear next. The Flicker magic began to take its toll and she could feel her spells waning. Her next Flicker took a moment too long and Oshnyr’s tail smacked her into the ground, knocking the wind out of her.

  She gasped for breath and rolled to the side. Orange mana surged in her body and she Flickered outwards, right into Oshnyr’s waiting claws. Her eyes widened in surprise and she twisted her body to dodge. His foreclaw caught her legs and she spun out from the impact and crashed into the ground.

  She groaned and opened her eyes blearily.

  The dragonbane took a deep breath and his chest swelled. Holo felt as if her organs were being cut up from the inside as her mana was ripped out of her. A white light sparked at the core of the beast’s ebon eyes. His jaw unlocked and he opened his mouth wide. A black and white flame burned at the back of his throat, growing with intensity.

  Holo grimaced in pain and stretched out her trembling hand. “...Heed my call… Lyrae.”

  The raven-black scythe burst from a distant wreckage and flew towards her in a blinding spin. Oshnyr barely turned his head when Lyrae flew between his legs and sliced through his hamstrings. He screeched a deep rumbling sound in pain and fell to his knees. Holo snatched Lyrae from the air and jumped up with a flip. She slashed her scythe outwards and the glass-like blade sliced through Oshnyr’s neck.

  Black blood splashed across the ground. The void flames in Oshnyr’s throat sputtered out of existence and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud, clutching at his throat.

  Holo landed softly on her feet. Her wounds disappeared as her flesh stitched itself back together in a matter of seconds. She rolled her shoulders and sighed in relief. “Now then,” she lifted Lyrae, “Where were we?”

  Oshnyr scrambled backwards as best he could, but his slashed legs couldn’t hold up his weight. 

   “Are you afraid to die, youngling?” Holo asked coldly.

  Without waiting for an answer, she swung Lyrae down. A deep roar resounded in the sky above them and a second figure crashed into the ground between them. Holo jumped back and cursed the timing.

  The dragonbane, Eldrak, stood over his sibling protectively and roared.

  “I didn’t think such heartless monsters cared about their own kind,” Holo muttered. 

  Oshnyr slowly staggered back on all-fours next to his brother. Black blood had stopped seeping from his wounds, yet his injuries still weren’t healing properly. He tried his best to growl, but only a raspy sound came out. 

  The two dragonbanes eyed Holo cautiously and began to circle around her.

  Holo gripped Lyrae and smiled defiantly.