Chapter 673: Figthing the curse
Hera saw this new version of Reynara and got into a fighting stance. Every fiber of her body was yelling that this creature was a problem. In a way, it was similar to when she saw the curse inside her memory. She was staring at something that was clearly wrong. Something that was a stain in reality. Something that shouldn't exist, much less be here. Knowing that this thing, or a version of this thing, was inside of her made Hera feel nauseous to the point she had to struggle not to throw up. Helena, Shane, Bonnie, and Mylo were also having the same issues, but they all pushed through.
For a moment, no one moved. The ants were momentarily stunned after the death of the queen, the cursed Reynara stared at the people in front of her while Hera and her party stared back at this creature. Suddenly, everything started moving again. The ants spilled out of the nest, not in an ordeal fashion but in a frenzy of madness as if they had lost all semblance of order or rationality they had before. Mylo lunged forward, brandishing his staff to slam the curse's head. Helena waved her hands, making shadow tendrils emerge from the ground, trying to wrap around Reynara. Shane grabbed her sling and placed two bombs on it, aiming behind their enemy. Bonnie sent out a series of twelve elemental motes that spread out like a constellation. Hera and her entire court rushed forward, the Empress prepared a poison needle doing it in the same way she was trying to do when watching her memory in that moment of boundless power. This wasn't a conscious decision. She spent so long trying to replicate how magic worked when her attributes were much higher that she followed the same steps she was trying to follow then. Hera realized that when she was about to send out the poison needle, but to her surprise. This time the spell worked. The poison needle used the same amount of mana she expected, but it kept pulling more and more mana to itself from the environment and becoming ever denser.
'Evade!' the curse voice rang in the Empress' head, making Reynara turn to her and dodge the spell incoming towards her. However, by doing so, she was placed in the path of Mylo's staff, and half of Helena's spell was able to grab her and pull her down.
'Shut up!' Hera and her entire court yelled at once, pushing the curse to the back of their minds in hopes that it wouldn't be able to interfere again.
Shane's grenades exploded behind Reynara, creating a massive concave structure of ice, blocking any chance the curse had to run away from this fight. Unless they would be willing to climb about 20 meters up, exposing her back to the group. Bonnie started her next spell, sending energy blasts toward the motes she created that would change their element and trajectory. It looked a bit like lasers bouncing off mirrors, but despite the flair, the attacks were powerful, getting stronger with each mote it passed.
Five blasts exploded around Reynara, but when the dust settled, the creature didn't even seem to be injured. Mylo started hitting its head with his staff again and again, but each blow seemed to be less effective than the one before. In the end, the cursed creature's head wasn't even moving anymore as the staff slammed against it. Helena made one of her shadow tendrils reach out to Reynara's face, covering where its eyes and ears were in shadow. This was Helena's sense deprivation spells, but it was hard to tell if this would be working or not. Hera tried to use another poison needle, but the being put Mylo between it and the Empress to stop her from getting a clean shot at it. With a growl, Hera dashed forward to join in the melee. Nimbus, Lurize, and Daskka were right behind her, already preparing their attacks. The Royal Tutor even triggered his golden beetle form, trying to keep it at its maximum duration.
After all of this, the cursed Reynara finally moved to the offensive. She kicked Mylo, who blocked with his staff but was still pushed five meters back. Waving her hand, she made a spear of sand shoot out from the ground aiming at Helena, who evaded it by a hair. Unfortunately, Hera wasn't as lucky. The sand spear collapsed only to become an arrow aimed at the Empress. Even Armory had barely a second to warn everyone before the arrow pierced Hera's right leg.
She yelled, and Daskka started healing immediately, but the pain didn't stop her. The Empress stared the cursed Reynara in its black eyes, now covered in shadow, and prepared another poison needle. Instead of moving away, the being created a pair of arms from its back, arms holding a pure white bow. The one that Multrak gifted Reynara. It pulled the string, making a mana arrow that was covered in that purple goo, and shot it at Hera. Nimbus and Lurize worked together to parry the projectile, but even that small attack was enough to push both of them back.
Bonnie tossed a few more energy blasts and a couple of mana fists to hit Reynara just as Hera lunged with Core in her hand, aiming at the curse's chest. The creature grabbed the rapier by the blade, holding it a few centimeters before its skin. It smiled at the Empress with a cocky expression, but she was looking at it with the same smile.
From the tip of Core, Hera was charging a poison needle using half a million mana. She let the spell fly, using the same version that made her curse warn its previous form about the danger. If even her own curse was worried about that spell, it would mean that it would deal some damage. The needle pierced Reynara's chest, and she yelled in a voice that wasn't known to anyone here. It was a mixture of the cry of a baby with the roar of a bear. The sound was so loud that Hera and Mylo, who were closer to the creature, were pushed back. With that cry, all the ants that were running in random directions stopped and turned to Reynara and started moving toward the top of the anthill. Hera and the others were lucky that, in their madness, the ants all left the nest entrance, but now it seemed like they were all coming back, and no one had the illusion that they would be on their side.
Seeing the ants coming, Mylo disengaged and rushed to the back. Without saying anything, Hera understood his idea was to hold off the incoming swarm and leave the rest of the fight to the others. Shane noticed that movement, too, and decided to pressure Reynara, sending more of the projectiles that exploded on contact, burning and freezing the cursed creature. Lurize went for an overhead swing just as the dust cleared, missing it by a hair, but Nimbus was already coming from the other side, slashing with both his tonfas in an X shape. The Sentinel's attack connected, and thanks to Hera, it was able to deal some damage. The poison used by the Empress wasn't made just to hurt the curse since she didn't know if poisons, in general, would work as they should. Instead, Hera used a version of a poison made by Kadhan, who could reduce the target's defenses and increase the pain they felt. Right now, she was even seeing how her spell was spreading inside the curse and replicating itself over and over, and pulling the surrounding environmental mana to it, becoming stronger with time. She never expected the magic to work like that, but it was a pleasant surprise.
Helena took advantage of the sandy hill and started pulling the shadows hidden between the particles, turning them into small spikes and blades that were jetting out from under Reynara. Once more, Hera's poison proved invaluable. If it wasn't for it, Helena's spells would barely do anything, but right now, the cursed being was slowly being stripped of its defenses. Ooze and Frost took advantage of the brief window of surprise created when Reynara was hit by the shadow attacks. The chakram went spinning, aiming at one of the arms holding the bow, while the glaive attacked the other, making the same spinning motion to get some momentum which was only increased thanks to the magnet attached to them. Helena tried removing more of its senses, but that hardly seemed to work, which was understandable. They had no idea how the curse perceived the world, and it might not even use one of the five senses people know about.
'Dao, the ants!' Scythe called, noticing how the ants were already starting to attack Mylo in the backline.
'Got it!' the sword replied and flew towards the back, already launching a chain lightning at the ones in the front of the pack. There were too many melee fighters facing Reynara, and she wasn't big enough for them all to fight together without being in the way of each other.
During all that time, Bonnie didn't stop using her energy bolts and magic fists. At every opening Hera and her court gave, one of those spells hit Reynara with a different element. Even so, unlike most of the monsters, and people, in this place, this wasn't enough. The cursed Reynara continued to attack, sending arrows at Helena and Bonnie with deadly precision. She wasn't able to kill any of them, but each projectile either pierced some non vital part of their body or left big gashes on their skin. Shane was also a target, but her proximity to Mylo made the fighter step in and block, or take, all attacks in her place. After one arrow was embedded into his shoulder, he yelled and slammed his staff to the side, creating an effective wall of flowers to stop the ants from getting closer, forming a funnel that forced a large chunk of them to fight the man himself before reaching anyone else. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to stop the entire army. They still had a large opening to the left of the battle.
'Lurize, can you take the ants?' Armory asked.
The Royal Tutor frowned, as best as he could using his wooden armored body, and nodded, breaking off from the cursed Reynara to fight the incoming swarm. He didn't like the idea of leaving Hera and Nimbus on their own, but he was too big and not agile enough to follow their rhythm. Despite wanting to be there to help, he knew that his presence would be more of a detriment to the fight than an asset. That didn't mean he couldn't do anything to help, and what Armory suggested was something that fell very comfortably in the position he would excel in. Being a large chunk of metal, or wood in this case, that could grab their enemy's attention and make them all focus on him. Daskka also decided to go help with that since they needed the bigger targets to cover more ground. In her silver snake form, the herald was able to rip apart the ants without much effort. The main issue that both of them quickly became aware of was that they couldn't stop ants from sneaking by. It didn't matter how big they were or how easily they would kill one of the creatures, each blow would leave an opening that one of the ants would use to pass by. Thankfully, there was one more member of the team blocking the army. Dao was acting like the last line of defense, throwing the occasional chain of lightning to burn some of the ants in the swarm but focusing on killing the ones that were able to enter the perimeter.
What Hera expected to be a quick fight, due to the difference in numbers, became a race against time instead. Aside from her court and her, Helena, Shane, and Bonnie didn't stop attacking Reynara. But the now cursed huntress was much sturdier than anyone expected. Not to mention that she seemed to possess some sort of regeneration skill that would slowly but steadily recover her injuries. To make matters worse, as time went by, Reynara seemed to get more comfortable with her new body, becoming more flexible and creating more arms from the purple goo that was the curse. Helena was already injured but kept going even after three arrows hit her stomach. Bonnie also took a lot of hits, but since she was staying further back, she managed to dodge most attacks. Mylo was covered in blood and cuts that came mostly from the ants he stopped while fighting. Seeing him stand felt like a miracle considering how much blood he already lost. Hera wasn't in that better of a shape. She dislocated her shoulder more than just a couple of times during the fight and got hit by various arrows in her arms and legs. There was even a hole in her body that probably took out one of her kidneys. Shane was the only one who didn't seem like she was fighting for her life, and that was all thanks to Mylo blocking most of the attacks aimed at her.
'I think we need something big to make this work!' Nimbus called as he pushed two of the now six arms Reynara had away with his tonfas.
'I don't actually have anything big. Unless you have a spare weapon somewhere,' Hera replied, using Core to pierce one of the arms holding the bow again in hopes of stopping it from firing more arrows at those behind her.
"Does anyone have a spare weapon?!" Nimbus called, not wanting to ask about a big spell since that could let the curse know what his plan was.
'To the left!' Armory yelled at Hera, making the Empress dodge an attack that she couldn't see. Right by where her foot was previously located, there was a simple-looking dagger with a wooden handle and one blue gemstone in the blade that appeared in the sand. Hera glanced to the entrance of the ant nest, where Alex had just emerged from. This was one of her weapons, the stronger one she had. An epic dagger she bought before they started traveling with the Royal Explorers. It was hard to tell if that dagger was actually aimed at Hera or not, but either way, the assassin gave her what she needed.
Hera didn't think twice and grabbed the blade, swiping Core to her offhand.
'I need an opening!' Hera called.
Right away, Nimbus pushed forward, using his wings to cover Reynara's eyes and letting three of her arms grab him as he was blocked by another two. He was right in front of her, letting the Empress move to the right. With only one arm and two legs to be a problem, Hera used Core to attack, making the last arm stop her weapon before, from Reynara's right side, Hera plunged the dagger into her and triggered her [Weapon Break] skill, together with her [All In].
The blast was massive, shards of metal flew out of Reynara, creating a large hole on the opposite side of her body. The piercing attack continued, moving beyond the huntress and shattering the ice barrier behind. Her form collapsed but was still moving, trying to keep it together. Four of the arms were gone, but now she looked like a creature with no torso. Everything from under her shoulders to her waist was gone. Hera jumped back, recalling Nimbus to his weapon form to free him from the remaining arms. At that moment, Shane picked a golden grenade from her pouch and, using her slingshot, fired at Reynara. The blast wasn't an explosion. Instead, a massive pillar of light came crashing down from the heavens. It was a specialty ammo the explorer had, enchanted with light mana, and made it to be a pillar of pure sunlight that was supposed to burn everything inside it.
Taking advantage of that, Helena pulled all the shadows that were under the sand, now much stronger due to the incredibly bright light coming from above, and pushed it upward, forming a set of blades like that of a garbage disposal inside a sink. The spells clashed, pushing each other to their extremes. The burning sunlight tried to break through anything in its path, and the dark shadows became even darker as the light illuminated the jungle. When both spells were finally over, there was nothing left. No curse to continue, no Reynara, nothing. In the place where the creature was fending off the entire group for almost twenty minutes, there was just a sheet of glass in the place where the sand was burned to a crisp.
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