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I focus Ether in my whole body in preparation for the impact. There is no reason to conserve it, since if I get seriously wounded then I won't stand a chance in the battle to come.
Ouch! The branches hit me all over and I land in some kind of a bush. As I try standing up I look myself over. The clothes are cut here and there, but nothing serious. Well, that went as well as it could. I don't seem to have any injuries and am able to return to the battle. I turn around and run to back to the river.
I arrive on the riverbank and see that the battle between maid and the werewolf hasn't finished. At least I assume that to be the case, since the maid is standing there and swinging some kind of short sword around. The sword seems to resemble japanese katana-swords, but smaller in size. I think those were called wakizashi. I don't see what she is defending from, but from time to time she swings her sword at something and sparks fly from that spot.
I watch this spectacle and realize that I was just a bait. The maid used me as a bait to lure the werewolf out. She concluded that I was an easy prey and waited for somebody to attack me, so that she could counter attack him when he revealed himself. This feeling is pretty unpleasant.
The maid turns around, but doesn't move around much. Is she on the defensive? I don't see the werewolf anywhere. Is he invisible? As if the maid had heard my thoughts, she stops and grabs the sword with her both hands. The blade starts to glow with red light. She starts spinning the sword around her head and the glowing red light starts getting longer. Circling around her a red spiral starts to appear. This spiral gets bigger and bigger, until it reaches trees. As it does, the part of the tree the spiral touches, just vanishes. The spiral still grows, and eventually enough of the tree is gone, so that it starts falling. The tree falls on the red spiral that the maid produced, but it doesn't reach the ground. Only some kind of powder or dust is left when it passes the spiral. Scary. When the radius of the spiral is around ten meters, the maid suddenly stops spinning the sword and the spiral vanishes.
Immediately after that she slashes the sword at the point directly behind her and sparks fly again. The werewolf is still there. With the previous tactic unsuccessful, maid decided to try something else. She stomps on the ground and a bluish bubble appears around her. This defence isn't left untouched. The scratches start immediately appearing on the bubble. The bubble breaks, only to be immediately replaced by a new one.
As I follow this process of bubble breaking from scratches and reappearing again, I start noticing the slight blur that emerges every time before the scratch appears. The speed of werewolf's attacks is increasing all the time and in a few seconds, there are multiple scratches appearing each moment. The maid stretches her hands forward to touch the bubble. The next moment, when the blur of a werewolf appears and he performs a slash with his claws, the spikes grow out of the bubble. With spikes pointing in all directions, this picture reminds me of a porcupine or a hedgehog.
The spikes disappear as suddenly as they appeared and the only thing left is the maid surrounded by a bubble. The werewolf is nowhere in sight. Did she miss? No. The attacks stopped. Her attack probably connected, but it wasn't lethal. Did the werewolf escape or is he still here?
The next moment I get an answer to my question. The bubble breaks and the werewolf is right in front of the maid, swinging his claw at her. Luckily she manages to dodge the swipe and jump back... Wait, wait, wait! Did I just say luckily? Am I rooting for her? What is wrong with me? She is the enemy. If she doesn't die, then I will. I can't root for her...
While I was getting worked up in my head, the situation on the opposite side of the river changed radically. The werewolf isn't invisible anymore. He is standing opposite of the maid with his hand covering a bloody waist. They weren't the only ones there. Diagonally across the maid and the werewolf was standing a mage in the purple mantle. They formed a triangle. Is this some kind of a staring contest?
Suddenly, as if by command, all three of them start acting. The maid takes out four daggers and throws two of them at mage and other two at the werewolf. The mage throws two pulsating purple balls: one at the werewolf and the other at the maid. At this time the werewolf simply vanishes. In reaction to this, the maid dashes at the mage circling around the purple ball. The mage jumps back, to avoid the daggers, but that did not help him. The daggers change their trajectory mid-flight and curve at him. Exactly at this moment, the second pair of daggers meets the purple ball at the place where werewolf was standing.
Bang!
The resounding explosion blinds me and I miss the moment that the mage and the maid clash. As my vision returns, I see the maid with two daggers in her hands attacking the mage who is holding some kind of energy-shield up and backing down, but not letting any attacks through. He creates the spear out of some energy. Waiting for an opportunity to strike back, he continues backing down.
The maid continues slashing at the mage's defence. Seeing as this produces no result, I get the feeling that the maid is planning something. Whatever the plan is, the mage doesn't seem to care. Right after another slash with the dagger, he thrusts the spear forward, only to find that the maid has crouched down. With his defence down, the maid slashes at the mage. The attack goes through, but the result is not what one would expect. The mage, that was supposed to die, disappeared. Instead of that, behind the maid is standing a werewolf that is impaling her with his claw, who is in turn impaled by the maid's dagger. A surprising finale to this battle. As if to signal the ending of this fight, a purple pulsating ball drops on the two of them, engulfing them with the explosion. When the smoke clears, only the mage in the purple mantle is standing above the bodies of the maid and the werewolf.
He looks down to ascertain that the two are not a threat anymore and then he turns his gaze at me. He waves his hand and three purple balls emerge in front of him to start flying at me. Damn! I can't reach him from here. I missed my chance to attack and now my only option is to defend. Concentrate!
I close my eyes. Surprisingly, in my mind's eye I see the spheres, that are speeding at me. Wait! Does this mean... I try moving the spheres into the inventory and it succeeds. The mage seems to be puzzled. He creates five blue lances and sends them at me. Without any effort I move them into inventory. What is going on here?
The mage starts getting visibly nervous. He creates a whole array of different geometrical figures of different colours around himself. Spheres, squares, pyramids, lances, tridents, cones... All of them started flying at me. In my mind's eye all of them start glowing when they get closer to me. I don't know what is happening, but I'm glad it is. This way, there is actually a possibility of my victory.
I release on of the spears in my inventory towards the mage. Effortlessly it pierces him and he disappears. An illusion? Then where is the real one? In an answer to my question, a spear is speeding at me from behind. I move it into inventory and turn around. There are three mages standing there. More illusions. The real one is probably not there. How do I find the real one?
The mages start throwing spells at me and I start walking towards them, filling my inventory with projectiles at the same time. As I get closer to them, they appear in my mind's eye as well. The glow gets stronger and I begin to see a thread that goes from these illusions to the beach behind me. Is that where the mage actually is? I release two of the spears I stole at that location. The spears meet the glass-like barrier, but now I know where the mage actually is.
I run towards his location. Visually I don't see anything, but in my mind's eye I see a hollow sphere. Like before, I move this sphere into inventory. At the place that was empty a moment ago, a mage is now standing. There is no confidence in his eyes anymore, only surprise and fear. Fear? Is he afraid of me? That is a new feeling. Noticing my distraction he tries to attack me. While distracted, as if on autopilot, I move everything around him into inventory and send a spear back in retaliation.
The mage doesn't seem to believe what is happening. Face filled with surprise, impaled by his own spear, he drops on the ground. Still not properly understanding what has happened I move towards the fallen mage. Did I kill him? Is this round finally over? Did I finally do it?
In daze I walk towards the body of a mage that is in the pool oh his own blood.
— Wh... Ghe-ghe... — He coughs blood. — What are you?
— I don't gh-...
Dumbfounded I stare at the claw protruding from my chest.
— You got careless kid. — I hear a gnarling voice behind me. — Too bad, you were really close.
Turning my head I see a werewolf's face behind me. No! I came too far. It cannot end like this! There must be something that can be done! There must be something that I can do! Looking at the things I stored in the inventory, I take all the spears and tridents. All at once, I release them in every direction around me.
With my consciousness fading and vision getting dimmer, I survey the surroundings one last time. Spears, lances and tridens sticking in all directions. A mage lying on the ground in the pool of blood impaled by five spears. Lastly there is a werewolf. With so many spears and lances sticking out of him, the word pincushion comes to my mind.
— The victor has been decided. Round is over. Administering first aid for the victor...
Through the haze I feel something happening in my chest.
— Moving to regeneration chamber...
The last thing on my mind before my consciousness fades is that I actually won... I actually won. It's over, right? Right!?
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