Chapter 24: Prudence's Gambit

Prudence's mind was racing. Cold sweat was running down her back. The Red Rider had birthed something new, something different. Would her spell still work? Would she need a new sample? There was every chance that this new creature had DNA entirely different from what Elaine had brought her. Not only that but this new beast was so much faster, so much more dangerous. Would the spell even help even if it still worked?

She could feel her mind spiraling downwards, the scenarios becoming worse and worse. She took a deep breath, trying to center herself. If she panicked, she would be useless and her efforts would be for naught. She had to approach this logically.

And as she did her nerves calmed.

The ritual spell had been meant to cripple the Red Rider but before the spell could even charge up the Red Rider had been dispatched. But rather than being the end, something else had been birthed from the Red Rider's corpse. And that was the correct turn of phrase: Had been birthed.

The sample she'd needed didn't use anything so crude as DNA. The sample worked through law of contagion. Objects that stayed in close proximity developed a bond over time. The easiest way for objects to develop this was to be part of the same entity but that wasn't necessarily the case. Rings or necklaces worn by a person would develop a bond with that person, allowing tracking spells to work despite one being a body and the other being an inanimate object. The smaller part could always be used to track down the larger.

In the end, the Ouroboros Drive they were being attacked by had been part of the Red Rider. There was always the chance that the Red Rider had been a dead husk and the Ouroboros Drive had only been inserted into it at the last moment but even then it had been this monster's core, it's heart for all intents and purposes. And that meant the Red Rider's body parts had to be able to link back to the creature Ophelia was currently fighting.

The much bigger question was whether the spell would still have the same impact. The ritual circle they'd found had been an insidious, vile spell, perfectly designed to be able to destroy an entire army not through direct damage but through misdirection. It was possible to counter the spell, to make it fizzle out, but it had been designed in such a way as to be nearly imperceptible until it was too late to stop.

As such, so long as Prudence had not only time to cast the spell but the spell had time enough to actually work it should still work. Hell, if the spell did exactly what the ritual circle promised, it would be more effective against this creature than it would have been against the Red Rider.

Prudence calmed down at that. Yes, they still had to distract the monster a while longer but if they managed that then Prudence still had an ace for them to use.

**

This cloak is fucking bullshit, Ophelia thought as the cloak of red haze blocked yet another one of her spells.

Whatever magic she cast at the monster, if the spell so much as touched the cloak it fizzled out. Her magic was strong enough to not completely shatter upon contact with the cloak but what remained was no match for the monster. Her shadow spikes shattered against the cloak. Tipping them with metal let them pass through the cloak but then they would shatter against the creature's body. Even her Darklight-repellant Paradox Flames couldn't singe the creature's skin after passing through the cloak. That wouldn't be a problem normally, as Ophelia's abilities allowed her to strike from every possible angle, but the entity was very good at twisting and spinning so that its cloak was always in the way.

The thing was just too damn fast. It also clearly respected Ophelia's blood knives, given that it tried its best to stay out of their reach. That made the fact that it was all but immune to magic even more aggravating as magic was usually Ophelia's go-to when something moved out of reach of her knives. She even tried to shoot the thing with her Gauss rifle but there was absolutely no hitting this thing with guns.

Ordinarily fast monsters wouldn't even dodge gunshots but would simply dodge the person firing the gun, turning gunfights against intelligent monsters into a game of predicting at your target rather than firing at the target. But this thing was so ludicrously fast that it could quite literally bend out of the way of speeding bullets. Even Ophelia's adamantium ammo, which acted a lot like a particularly devastating shotgun, couldn't hit the monster, its body twisting impossibly to lean out of the way of every single piece of metal.

At the same time the entity had a hard time hitting Ophelia. Oh, it could strike her fast enough that Ophelia couldn't dodge but it couldn't actually harm her. Its Darklight claws could cut through most things but Ophelia had the perfect counter to them. Her blood knives on their own wouldn't be able to stop the claws because of their Darklight film but a thin layer of Paradox Flames over her knives reduced the claws to just being obscenely sharp talons, which couldn't get past the knives themselves.

And so Ophelia and the beast were locked in a stalemate, neither of them losing but neither of them winning either. What few wounds Ophelia did manage to inflict were healed before she could land another strike and at the same time the Oculus forced her to keep moving as more than a couple seconds within its line of sight would cause it to send out a beam that she had little protection against.

What the fuck is Prudence doing, anyway?, Ophelia wondered as she danced out of the way of another red beam from the eye and sent out a massive shadow flare at both the beam and the beast casting it.

**

“Elaine?” Prudence asked.

“Yeah?” Elaine replied instantly.

“The ritual spell is nearly done. When I give the order, activate your Higher form and tag in for Ophelia.”

“Understood,” Elaine said.

She had no idea what exactly Prudence had cooked up but she trusted the angel. And so she kept herself ready, watching Ophelia going toe to toe with the monster.

In a way it was humbling, seeing her fighting this monster to a complete standstill, but Elaine could tell that Ophelia wasn't actually winning. All she was doing was buying time. No matter how much she leaned on her powers, she couldn't make any damage stick. Eventually Ophelia would tire, just as Evelyn had. And even if Elaine went back there the best she could hope for was to get locked in a war of attrition. Except she couldn't win a war of attrition because her Higher form exhausted her too quickly.

And just as she thought that she realized that the monster was playing Ophelia. Except she couldn't shout a warning because distracting Ophelia would get her killed.

**

Ophelia only realized that the monster had outsmarted her when it was already too late. Ophelia knew she was only stalling this monster. That was the point. Keep the thing busy while Prudence got her ace in the hole ready. But with all the frustration over her inability to pierce its cloak Ophelia had forgotten one thing: Spatial awareness. The thing had been leading her, inch by inch, to where the Red Rider's sword was stuck in the asphalt. The entity wasn't particularly big or bulky so once she had eliminated the Darklight around its claws, blocking the claws themselves hadn't been too terribly difficult. But with a sword thrice as big as the thing she was fighting that would be a different story. She would have to scramble just to get out of the way of its swings, especially considering its insane speed, which would likely translate to swinging that giant sword insanely fast.

The worst part was that she couldn't do anything about this. She was already fighting at 100%. Pushing the beast back was simply not an option. She was about to request backup when the creature unleashed a sudden burst of speed. But it didn't charge at her. Instead it rushed towards the sword. Ophelia sent an enormous ball of Paradox Flame at the sword, trying to coat it in flames to make it impossible to approach, and a few cadets were firing at the monster but none of it mattered. The beast twisted impossibly to avoid whatever bullets did come close and wrapped itself tightly in its red cloak to fend off the flames and then it was on the sword, clinging to it like a monkey to a tree branch.

Ophelia rushed the monster, trying to get it off the weapon before it could begin to swing it but it was already too late. The entity yanked the sword out of the ground and swung it at Ophelia, who had to throw herself flat on the ground to avoid getting cut in two. She used the shadow created by the sword passing over her to escape the beast and only a heartbeat later the beast struck a downward blow against the spot where she'd dropped.

She observed it for a moment from the shadows underneath a tree. Taken out of context it would have looked quite amusing, the image of a six foot tall humanoid swinging a blade thrice its size, its body getting dragged along for the ride on every swing, but the ridiculous image belied an almost unfathomably dangerous reality. The thing could cover an enormous area with a weapon that could carve through shield bubbles even before the coating of Darklight that enabled it to cut through even the few things that would have been able to stop the blade. The obscene speed at which it could swing that giant sword made it even worse. Add to that its near immunity to magic thanks to that blasted cloak and this entity was far more dangerous than the Red Rider had been.

Ophelia was still thinking of how to fight this thing now when she heard Elaine's voice:

“Ophelia, tag out!”

**

“Now, go!” Prudence said, her tone firm.

Even without the command Elaine would have known it was coming. The energy that had gradually been building up in the area had reached a crescendo and all the energy had flown into the entity they were fighting. Just as Prudence had promised the power had homed in on the entity, guided by law of contagion, bypassing its blasted magic-resistant cloak altogether and finding purchase deep within its body. Elaine didn't know what that spell did, exactly, but by the sheer amount of power it had contained Elaine knew it had to be huge. At the same time, she could tell it wasn't a mere offensive spell or the thing would have already popped like a zit.

“Mind telling me what it does?” Elaine asked as she activated her Higher form.

Power radiated out of Elaine's core, flowing into her limbs and her armor, growing jagged crystal claws over her hands and feet and making her hair grow out in an instant. Intricate little braided streaks dotted her otherwise wild and fluffy mane of hair and it fluttered behind her as her magic drew in as much carbon as it could from her surroundings, forming crystal swords that floated behind her back in the shape of wings.

The power made her stronger, faster and more durable and though there was no way these crystal wings could grant her flight, they did nevertheless.

“Ophelia, tag out!” she called as she took off.

**

As Prudence watched Elaine take off to bail her girlfriend out of trouble she began to explain to her the true horror of the spell she'd found. There were many types of nasty offensive spells but this was not one of them. It was an insidious little hex, quite unassuming at first, which was why Elaine hadn't seen any immediate effect.

The hex was a time spell, one that slowed down its targets. That alone would have been scary enough but capable mages could dispel a slowing effect if they noticed it. And complete time freeze effects were nearly impossible to cast against a capable mage as their aura would block them every time.

And so what this spell did was quite unique. It did slow its target down, by a barely noticeable amount, to the point where it would take an expert time mage to even notice any tampering. Hell, Prudence wasn't even sure that Jeanne, one of the most capable time mages in all of Heaven, would have noticed this hex if it had been cast at her.

But as time went on the hex would continue to grow stronger and stronger, slowing the target down farther and farther, but doing it so gradually that most would write off the effect as simple exhaustion, especially in a hectic battle. Eventually, by the time the target would have noticed the problem they would already be so severely affected that they could no longer fight back against it.

Caulder had clearly intended the spell to slow down the entirety of the camp defenders so that the Red Rider could use its Oculus to wipe out the entire group at once, scouring the entire army arrayed against it in one fell swoop. It would have been cruel and devastating and effective.

Prudence had instead intended to use the spell to counteract the Red Rider's obscene regeneration, slowing it down far enough to where the Ouroboros Drive could be carved out of the creature and dealt with properly. But now, when faced with a creature that was simply too fast and too dangerous for anyone to approach, the spell was almost more effective than before.

All Elaine had to do was keep the creature busy until the effect became severe enough for it to be dispatched.

**

Not the trump card I had been hoping for, Elaine thought as she dashed at the entity, her swords trailing behind her, ready to skewer the beast wherever it decided to dodge, but I'll take it.

The thing swung its enormous sword through an arc and hit seven swords out of the sky, cutting them in half. The sharpness, armor-piercing and sheer strength required to carve through crystal swords in a single swing was proof if proof was needed that this sword was incredibly dangerous but Elaine hadn't left anything up to chance. She'd begun to dodge before the creature had even started its swing and even with seven blades carved apart it couldn't dodge all of the remaining ones. Yes, she lost the telekinetic connection with any sword that touched the red cloak but the blades had enough force and inertia left by that point to inflict damage nonetheless.

Even better, the swords that had been hacked apart weren't out of the fight. They took a bit of time to mend but Elaine was able to harass the beast with the remaining blades well enough to get them fixed back up.

She had observed the beast long enough that she could tell the entity had indeed been slowed down. If Prudence hadn't told her she wouldn't have noticed it but it was a hair slower than before. Its swings came a little slower than expected and it wasn't able to dodge quite as fluidly. Elaine found herself reflexively slowing down as well, hoping to avoid tipping the creature off until it was too late for the thing to counteract the hex.

Again and again she attacked it, avoiding its swing and striking it with the swords it hadn't been able to carve apart. And with every other pass she could see the wounds creeping closed a little slower than before.

But the clearest sign that the hex was working was the red cloak. The red haze had condensed until it looked nearly solid but now that it was slowing down she could see that it wasn't a solid mass at all. Instead it consisted of individual particles that swirled so quickly that the cloak appeared solid. Or at least it had appeared solid until the creature had been slowed down far enough. Now she could clearly see gaps forming in its defenses and the slower the creature became the wider the gaps became. Each gap made it that much easier for Elaine to hurt it as she now had spots where her swords could strike without falling out of her telekinetic control, allowing her to attack that much more, that much faster.

The Oculus over its shoulder, likewise, was affected by the hex. It didn't dissolve or become less powerful but it took longer and longer to find a target until, eventually, it just couldn't keep Elaine in its vision long enough to attack no matter how much the creature tried.

It clearly noticed that something was amiss then but by that point it was oozing out of a dozen wounds. They closed up quickly in relation to its movements but it wasn't moving fast any longer. Its crazy acrobatics had stopped long ago and eventually the creature had dropped the sword, its movements too sluggish to create the inertia necessary to swing the giant weapon.

And when she finally had the creature at that point Elaine walked up to the creature, right between its claws that were trying to carve her apart, drew the Tormented Sword, and carved the entity in two from top to bottom. When the two halves fell she stabbed whatever internal organs kept pulsing until the red haze, or the few globs of floating red power that remained of it, dissipated for good. When its final protections against magic were no more, Elaine summoned a ball of plasma and vaporized the creature's remains.

And then she collapsed.

ChrisLensman

This whole ordeal was the longest uninterrupted fight scene I've ever written and also the longest uninterrupted fight scene I'll ever write. Starting next week we're back to our regularly scheduled degeneracy.