Ugly Bastard

“Oh, here it is.” Muttered Lily as she rounded the corner and saw two guards standing at attention but not reacting to her presence at all.

She walked up to the door, and it opened before she could knock. 

Brianna smiled at her peeking through the opened door, looking around the hall, making sure everything was clear while letting Lilly in.

“Hey. It took you long. We were getting worried. Is everything alright?” Asked Brianna as Lily walked through the door passing between the unconscious guards that Brianna manipulated with her puppeteer skill to make it look like they were fine.

“There were a few deviations in the plan that the Ugy voice asked my assistance with. Are you done here?” Answered Lily walking through the door.

“Yeah. We are finished. Girls are coming up...Oh, there they are.” Said Brianna, noticing the movement from the stairs.

“Lily! Hey, how’d it go?” Asked Samantha from the side. Lily turned her head, seeing Kate and Samantha walking up the stairs from the basement.

“Hey. Yeah it…” Started to answer Lily.

Brianna’s head swirled to the door that was still partly open, her expression changing instantly from serene to surprise. She grabbed Lily with her full force, almost crushing her hand with the grip, and moved away from the door with almost instantaneous movement, pulling Lilly with her. 

“LILY, WATCH OUT!” Screamed Ugy’s voice in her head just a split second later, but if not for Brianna's quick reaction, jerking the girl's body away from the door, it would have been too late.

The door that Lily was just about to close behind herself was slammed open with force that sent pieces and shards of sturdy wood flying in different directions as part of the door was simply obliterated.

Only when the shards whirled over her head, did Lily notice a new dot appearing in the minimap skill. She could swear there was no one close by just a split second before. She just checked it while walking through the door.

As experienced adventurers Samantha and Kate reacted almost instantly, dodging to the side and rolling away from the energy wave that passed through the door and wreaked chaos in the room that they were in.

“And what is it exactly that you were doing here?” Said the rough voice from the direction of the hall that Lily had just passed.

The bearded man with a piercing gaze and serious expression clad in flexible half-leather armor, adorned with O’Sullivan crest on the shoulder, walked into the room with a bloody sword in his hand. His voice was playful but his expression was anything but. 

The two puppet guards that Brianna controlled, now lay behind him on the floor in a pond of blood with their bodies cleanly sliced apart.

“Do tell me, ladies. I am very interested. What exactly was it that you were doing here?” Said the man now standing where Lily was just a second ago. 

“Fuck.” Said Samantha before breathing in a gulp of air as she activated her skill.

The man’s eyes squinted as his pupils slid into her direction, then they quickly flickered toward Kate and then, Brianna, Lily and Aster, as he assessed the situation and the enemies. His eyes moved so quickly it looked like they shuddered, stopping only when they stayed on the last girl. He found it peculiar that she was the only person not reacting to the exploding door and enemy’s appearance in any way.

Aster kept sitting in total concentration at the far end of the room where the path leading to the guard quarters was, as she kept humming a lullaby-like melody.

He felt a magic seeping out of her, so he was sure that she was in the middle of casting some kind of spell, most likely she was the reason no one in the guard quarters reacted after the loud noise of the door breaking.

The next moment Samantha disappeared from the spot. However, the man moved to intercept her even though he was still gazing at Aster, as if not even bothered by her. 

His actions, however, as everyone understood a split second later, had not come from arrogance. As if he had foresight, before Samantha even moved, the man muttered the word “Shackle” and sliced his empty hand through air, while casually moving his sword to meet Samantha’s sword. The clashing of their blades sent a loud ringing noise through the hall, followed by a short groan from behind Samantha.

Invisible force enveloped Kate, bounding her like steel shackles, pinning her to the ground before she managed to stand after dodging the shards of the exploded door. The jolt of pain shook her will and broke the spell that she was preparing to unleash, making her groan.

“Son of a bitch! He's a Protector Knight.” Hissed Kate, recognizing the skill that incapacitated her.

Samantha’s eyes squinted with surprise. If Kate was right, the man’s class was a full evolution above her. An enemy full class above them, that explained his precognitive-like movements. He was just that much superior in speed, both with body movement and min work. He was in a different weight class in terms of ability. Far too much for her to take on.

“Where the hell did such a monster come from?” Thought Samantha with worry.

“Flicker slash? You are good.” Said the man. “The movement was almost instantaneous. However, you still give out…” The form of man flickered for a split second before disappearing. “...your intention the moment you activate it.” The end of his phrase, however, was finished as he was already standing further in the room, several steps behind Samantha, with his sword ready to pierce Kate, lying helpless on the floor.

A splash of blood was sent into the air as Samantha’s figure disappeared as if a shattered mirage, that quickly fell apart from the slash separating her at the shoulder.

The next moment Samantha appeared on her knee right in front of incapacitated Kate, holding the sword with one hand and stopping the man's sword from piercing her friend. Blood streamed down her other hand. 

An instant after the blades clashed, a healing spell slammed into her, quickly closing the deep wound on her shoulder.

“Amazing. You can increase your mind speed at such a young age. Even though for just a split second, but you timed it very well.” Commented the man. “An instant longer and I would have sliced your shoulder off, yet you risked taking a wound to see where I was going to attack next, before dodging away and not letting me slash your hand off to the end. You have determination and guts. But most of all…Experience. Both in solo fights and in team fights. It’s not often you get to see such confident reliance on teammates. So you all are not some put together specialists, but a long-time team. I wonder who’s so lucky to hire such capable leashed dogs.” Said the man as his eyes slipped to another corner of the room, where Brianna stood calmly in front of Lily, covering the healer from him with her body.

The man seemed to be casual as he spoke, however he was intentionally dragging it out as he quickly analyzed the situation in his head.

“Damn quick heal. Both her reaction and cast speed are as astonishing as this swordsman girl. If I don’t finish the swordsman in an instant, with that kind of heal cast speed the healer can make this fight drag for quite some time. I hoped to finish this before the guests would be alarmed. My presence here tonight wasn’t supposed to be known to anyone. It can turn out ugly for the master if I am found here tonight.  But these bitches are quite good. Luckily I managed to incapacitate the mage. It would have been ugly if she were to start blasting magic left and right.

Now what should I do? The shackle skill still has a few dozen seconds to wear off, before releasing the mage. Do I go after the healer or try to kill the Swordsman girl? However, that calm young girl protecting healer gives me the creeps. She’s dangerous. Also, that other girl that keeps singing is also not normal. She’s probably the one that casting spells on everyone in guard quarters. Sleeping spell, huh? But to keep casting so calmly with me here… Is she confident or stupid? What to do?” The man quickly analyzed the situation in his thoughts, while speaking mockingly to Samantha with a calm demeanor. 

He kept pressing his sword against hers, trying to overpower Samantha’s one-handed hold. But even with one hand still wounded she kept her position not letting him even an inch closer to her shackled friend, although sweating heavily from the effort she put into it.

“Very interesting. No wonder someone was so gutsy to send you lot here, to do some sneaking. But you girls were unlucky. Whoever was it that sent you, most likely did not think you would meet me as your opponent.”

“Who the hell is this cocky bastard?” Muttered Lily.

“Damn. This is bad. He is Margrave O’Sullivan’s right-hand man and the captain of the O’Sullivan private battalion.” Whispered Brianna. “He is the same level as Margrave.”

According to their plan, they were supposed to sneak in and clean the armory, while putting everyone to sleep in the guard quarters with Aster’s sleeping spell. If anyone returned for a shift change, they would have let them into the room, then put them to sleep as well. At some point someone was bound to raise the alarm that no one returned to change shifts, but they would have enough time to sneak away. It all was supposed to go without them engaging anyone overly powerful.

However, no one expected that one of the most dangerous men in O’Sullivan's service would be the one to come for a check. This man’s level was a grade above Samantha’s, Kate’s or Lily’s. Fighting a monster like him was way out of their calculation. Margrave was supposed to be the most powerful man in the mansion this evening and even then, they timed their sneaking around actions so that he would be preoccupied and not notice them.

“What the hell was he even doing here? He was supposed to take command of the County Citadel while Margrave attended a party at the family mansion. It’s forbidden for Margrave to leave a Citadel without anyone of equally high level substituting him in the command position when he’s away.” Thought Brianna. 

“Fuck. This guy is seriously bad news. You said there will not be anyone above Sam in level among the guards.” Thought Lily in her head.

“That’s not just any guard. It’s a Margrave’s God damn substitute officer. These bastards left the Citadel without a high-level warrior just to heighten the safety of today's venue. They broke the fucking Royal law! Forts and Citadels are never to be left without a commander. No matter how careless the nobles could be, this is still a danger region. Doing something like that in a monster infested region is a capital punishment crime. How the hell was I to know that these people have simply gone mad? This move is simply too stupid to be accounted for in any sane plan. If the Royal family were ever to find out that Citadel was left without an officer just for this party…” 

“Yeah. Yeah. Enough excuses. You’d better use this time to think up a plan of how to get us out of this situation. The breaking door noise was quite loud. Someone will rush to investigate it soon.” Thought Lily. 

“This is bad.” Thought Samantha, closely watching the man silently. She felt glad that the man was a blabbermouth, giving her time to heal while blabbering. She already felt the pain quickly disappearing from her shoulder, thanks to Lily’s healing spell. 

“Hold on? This quick? This is no basic heal speed of cure! This was at least intermediate or even advanced healing spell. Did her sister just quickcast a high level spell? How the hell did she do it?” Samantha was surprised but had no time to question it. She hoped that Lily would at least stop blood, but to heal her wound entirely was joyful surprise. She would leave this question for another time. She had no time for it right now. The man was blabbermouth, however, this leisure-like behavior of his wasn’t to their benefit either. 

“To get back into the dream realm we all have to be put to sleep by Dryad before Brianna can transfer us. But if this fight drags on, even more enemies will arrive. We won't have any opportunity to get out that way. Once Aster stops chanting the sleeping spell, the guards would soon start waking up. With the clatter of swords it would take a disciplined guard just a short time to understand the situation and rush here. Soon they are going to be outnumbered.” Samantha glanced at Brianna and their eyes met. A second later they both nodded as unspoken understanding passed between them.

To end this quickly they had to take him by surprise. The best way to do it was to use the fact that Brianna was a high level monster, which the man still had no idea about. He could not take into account the spider silk manipulation skill, that was one of the deadliest skills when you were caught by it unprepared. One of the reasons why he cut his own men down before rushing into this room was because he did not understand why they let the enemies in when he saw from the distance how Lily entered the restricted area unobstructed by them. 

He most likely theorized it to be some mind manipulation spell and had no quick way to disperse it. If he knew what it really was, he would have simply cut the strings, sparing the lives of his men. So Brianna’s true identity was still not exposed. Now Samantha just needed to distract him enough for Brianna to weave a trap. A dozen seconds. She had to hold on for just a dozen seconds, but was she capable with just Lily’s assistance? With Dany’s speed and Kate’s barriers and AOE, they would have been able to drag it far longer within these close quarters. But the man clearly knew what he was doing when he instantly sealed off Kate’s movements.

Samantha changed the angle of her sword, parrying the man’s sword to the side and swiped with her leg, trying to kick at his ankle. Her kick missed as the man stepped away, but she was already in motion for an upper slash with her sword.

The man dodged to the side letting Samantha’s sword pass by and countered with a pierce to her head, pointing his blade right to her face, that she barely dodged and sent another slash at him from a bad posture to merely stall him until she regained her balance.

Instead of parrying, her opponent bent back, letting her blade pass by him extremely dangerously close and at the same time kicked out with his leg, landing a solid hit at the lower part of Samantha’s ribs and solar plexus.

Ignoring the pain of cracked bones and squeezed out of her breath, Samantha flickered away from him saving herself from his follow-up slash that could have beheaded her. The moment she appeared a step out of his sword reach she was hit by another healing spell from Lily, that quickly mended her damaged rib, erasing pain and lighting her breathing difficulty.

The man was about to flicker after her, but his extreme keen senses warned him of danger as he felt the smallest vibration under his feet. He changed his movement from attack to dodging and only then noticed that the lullaby-like humming of the woman behind him stopped.

The floor where he was standing just a moment ago bent and sprang up in a form of twine, that made catching motion, and would have locked his feet in place allowing the sword woman to slice him apart if he did not move away in time.

Samantha’s sword slashed through an empty air, missing the man when he did not fall for the leg trap and parried his counter to the side, once again barely quick enough to block him at the nick of time. 

His eyes quickly moved to the side, noticing that the singing woman had disappeared from her spot with only a ripple like wave spreading on the wooden floor where she sat before.

It surprised him greatly, but he had no time to think for over a split second as their battle took place at too fast a speed to allow him even a second of delay in motion. Every moment the swords would clash, and every moment someone was close to being cut.

They exchanged several more supersonic quick slashes, sending sparks in all directions and every time Samantha was the one to barely come out alive, getting a few light cuts here and there, that Lily would quickly heal.

His movements were faster, his senses were superhuman keen and his dynamic vision was quicker than hers. If not for Aster's occasional assists from under his feet that made the man wary and occupied part of his attention, she would have already been cut down. 

Here and there the wooden floor would either become soft like sludge, trying to sink him like a bog or shoot out like spikes trying to pierce through his feet. 

Every wooden surface in the room could be used as Aster's tool and weapon. Chair legs sprang at him from behind like snakes, just to get cut apart without him even looking in their direction. Wooden door pieces that were sent all around the room like shrapnel from the explosion when he broke the door, now would suddenly spring up from the floor and shoot at him like shurikens. Ceiling beams would split and swipe at him like spears, holding him off when Samantha was about to be gauged.

But the worst of all was that he could not pinpoint the location of that singing woman. It seemed as if she literally dispersed in the wooden floor. What kind of skill was that? He never met a person with such a system before.

It looked like he underestimated these women and now lost too much time. The shackles skill on the mage was about to wear off. Fighting two opponents was already dragging out too much above what he expected. If a third were to be added to the mess, it would complicate the fight further. 

He was obviously superior in this fight, although they managed to surprise him a few times with unusual moves and good cooperation, he was gradually getting the hang of their capabilities and started to see through their movement. It was just a matter of a few more seconds to lure them into trap and cut them one by one, however if the mage were to join now it could drag the thing further. So the mage had to be dealt with.

In the middle of another super quick exchange of blows his sword suddenly illuminated as it was instantly filled with energy and as he dodged another slash of Samantha’s sword he swiped his sword in vertical motion, sending a straight-line-like energy wave that cut through the room from floor to ceiling.

Samantha dodged it to the side, surprised that he used such a wide and obvious movement that would be easily dodged by her, but just as the sharp wave passed her by she understood that when he used this skill, Kate was lying on the floor right behind her. 

This skill was not aimed at her! It was aimed at Kate! Fear struck her as she looked in the direction of her friend but the next moment she got the same surprise as the man, when she saw her friend's body move away from the wave, as if dragged to the side.

Samantha recovered from her surprise an instant quicker than her opponent, realizing that Brianna saved Kate by pulling her body away from the energy beam with her puppeteer strings. 

She turned to Brianna, meeting eyes with her and saw her nodding lightly in a signal. Next moment Samantha charged her own sword and slashed at the man, sending a similar wave of sharp energy that cut everything on its path. It looked like she aimed at his opening but at the same time it left her open, so if he managed to dodge, he would be able to use it to cut her down.

The man disappeared from the spot with flicker movement an instant before the energy passed through him, but instead of using the flicker move to attack, he surprisingly moved away to the further corner of the room creating distance between himself and all the women.  

The moment that mage was dragged through the room away from his slashing wave all his senses ringed an alarm, sending warning from all sides. It was a perfect chance to cut down the swordsman but he would rather trust his instinct. Something was off and until he found out what he’d rather let the chance go than get himself in the trap.

The moment he appeared in the corner holding the whole room and all the opponents in his scope of vision the world slowed down in his perception to almost a crawling speed.

His pupils dilated to almost a pin point size as they gazed at the oversaturated picture in front of him. Previously he was taking in too many signals to differentiate properly what every sense was trying to tell him.

However as he forced his brain's calculation pace to quicken for what was just a short moment in real time, for him it made the time slow. He was not good enough to stay in that state for more than a few seconds even though he talked big in front of Samantha just a minute ago, however this was enough to allow his brain to finally separate all the signals that his body was sending to his subconsciousness and assess the situation.

As the time of his brain quickening was coming to an end, slowly starting to accelerate the world to its normal speed, he finally saw them. 

Small shimmers of the lights, that his eyes could perceive thanks to oversaturation of light in his eyes, were strangely arranged throughout the room in a half-moon pattern.

Barely visible needle points were directed right in the spot where he was previously standing. If he moved just now to attack the swordsman girl, he would have gauged himself on these needles.

No. Not needles. Strings, he concluded as his eyes slid through the room noticing the long shimmering lines spread all around the air as if glued in void space and stretched right to the palms of the woman that stood protectively in front of the healer. So that’s why she stood unmoving this entire time. He now understood the creepy feeling he got from her. The stings were all around her, attacking her would have incapacitated him instantly.

“Strings. What kind of skill is that?” He thought.

“First a system allowing the woman to swim through the floor, now spider-silk-like threads manipulator. What the hell kind of bunch are these women?” He contemplated silently.

As the time returned to normal he saw that the mage had finally broken out of the shackles, slowly standing up from the floor gazing at him in anger.

The one minute he bought himself was up.

Even though he and Samantha several times passed a hair thread distance away from death, it only lasted slightly more than one minute from the moment they engaged in combat. In this time the room was completely ruined, with furniture and walls slashed and cut.

Samantha’s dress has been cut and stained with blood in several places, while she was breathing hard from the strain of trying to keep up with his superior speed.

“Huuuf.” Breathe out the man with a deep sigh. “I really hoped to dispose of you bitches silently before anyone knew that I was here. But it looks like it won’t be possible to do it without a commotion anyway. So…No use of holding back. Let’s go all out.” He said as his eyes squinted in a firm gaze.

“SHOCKWAVE!” Roared the man punching empty air with his left hand and a powerful blast exploded from his fist, sending spherical shockwave through the room.

Thunderclap sounded in the room shaking the walls, floor and ceiling. The windows in the hall outside have shattered and blew outwards as if from an explosion.

Kate reacted quickly spreading two shield like barriers in front of the group protecting everyone from the impact that could have shattered everyone’s innards. However the strings that Brianna weaved around the room were blown away with their magic dispersed. 

A grunt sounded from the floor and Aster,  with a scrunched in pain face, jumped out of the wooden floor at the back of the group protecting herself behind Kate’s shield as well.

The world stopped in Lily’s eyes. 

The whole fight Ugy helped Lily by accelerating her mind, allowing her quickcast intermediate and even advanced heals as if she used basic spells heals, so this effect did not surprise her. What did surprise her that Ugy stopped the world entirely. 

Just a minute ago he explained that overdoing it, would have a toll on her mind and tire her very quickly. He had to do it in short moments and only slowing world to several times, so that she would not lose counciousness before the fight concluded. This however was exactly what he said he wanted to avoid. He was overdoing it. Why?

“Lily, listen to me!” Said Ugy in an urgent voice. “I want you to cast strongest heal you can.”

“Huh? Why?” Asked Lily but instantly started to chanting in her head a High Heal that normally needed minutes to charge.

“Look at his eyes.” Said Ugy as he felt Lily’s magic starting charging for a big spell as he asked.

Lily looked at the eyes of the man in the frozen picture in front of her and noticed the strangeness there. 

White streaks of light passed through the black pupils of the man as if glowing cracks. And even in the frozen world she saw these white streak slowly moving and widening, soon painting his entire pupil into glowing white light.

The moment Lily saw it she felt dread spread through her mind. Only thanks to her trained as mage mind, she managed to hold herself in hands and did not break the chant.

She wanted to ask what the hell was that but could not stop chanting.

“This is Divine energy. Noah and I have dealed with this thing before. And it is bad. Very bad. I did not think the man had it in him. But right now we are seriously fucked. This is worst possible move he could unleash, and with the power you all posses it is impossible to guard against it.”

Lily had a though but as if reading her mind Ugy answered without her needing to say it aloud in her head.

“No. Listen Lily, this is no longer a matter of level or your strength. Once Divine power is used, no matter how small or light, only the power of equal standard may contest with it. And none of you has reached anywhere close to having it. Right now no magic barrier, sword or wall will save you all from the attack he is preparing. Once he slashes with it…one of you will die.” Said Ugy.

Once again Lily though of something while continuing her chant and once again Ugy answered as if reading her thoughts.

“I know that High Heal would not save from mortal wound. That’s why rather than healing after he uses the skill, we MUST stop him from unleashing it at all cost.”

Lily sent another thought.

“Yes, I have an idea how to stop him and for that I need you to cast this High Healing spell on him and entrust the rest to me.” Said Ugy.

Another quick though flashed through Lily mind.

“No. I am not sure… This is but a theory I came up with, just yesterday and it never been tested.…If I am right…It will stop him, if not… one or several of you will die here.”

Lily added another quick thought.

“Yes. Several. From the looks of it he is not able to send it out as an energy wave like he did before. It seems that he is charging his sword with it instead. I think that he will flicker toward you all and cut through the barrier like a knife through butter in close quarters. If we are unlucky the barrier will not consume all Divine energy entirely and he will have enough to strike once more. So he may kill at least two of you before he runs out of it.  The best way to prevent it, is to stop him from approaching you all.”

Lily though something again and Ugy stalled a bit before answering.

“I’ll do my best!” Said Ugy. “But I need one more thing from you. No matter what, don’t gaze anywhere but at him. Only at him. Make sure you hold only him in your eyes.”

Another of Lily’s thoughts passed through her mind.

“Alright. You’re ready?” Asked Ugy. “Good! Cast it!”

Lily finished her chant just as world started to accelerate around her. In that slowly moving picture she saw the man in front of them preparing to jump toward them with a flicker, just as Ugy predicted. The sword of the man now had a strange weak white glow that seemed to shine from within the metal. 

Just from looking at that sword now, Lily felt incredible fear, as if her senses screamed that this thing was too unnatural. Too sharp to guard against. Ugy was right. That sword would end them, no matter how hard Kate's barrier or Samantha's sword was. Lily had to stop the man, so she locked her eyes on him as Ugy told her.

At that moment she opened her mouth.

“Degenerate!” Said Ugy right before Lily

“High Heal!” Shouted Lily, her words as if continuation of Ugy’s words

The man’s eyes instantly moved toward the healer as the sense of unparalleled dread spread through his mind. His senses went haywire with alarm. Never before he felt such danger and a moment later his whole view was filled with black as deepest night fire.

“AMATERATSU!” said Ugy’s voice in Lily’s head as Obsidian-collored flame burst in the room in front of Lily’s eyes.