Pain.
That was all Veronica felt at the moment as her body lay on the ground. Her mind disoriented and her ears ringing, as though a loud siren had been etched into her ear. Her arms burnt with a searing heat that threatened to melt her bones and part of her white dress was tattered.
Burnt and covered with soot.
A soft cry escaped from her lips as she tried to move her body. The pain only intensified. She managed to hold her body off the ground with her knees and arms but then she wretched, coughing out a violent burst of blood soaked the ground.
Her entire body screamed, protesting as she moved to stand.
Stay down! It said but she couldn't do that. Not right now. Not when the elk was now standing right in front of her and could attack at any moment. Not when she could still stand…still fight…still had a card to play.
She reached into the inside of her dress and pulled out a white long object. It was as thin as a branch, white as snow and had a smooth surface. The moment she had it wrapped around her fingers a cool energy filled her body. The burning heat she felt from her arms went down and the pain that wrecked her body cooled slightly.
'Let's not hold back' she thought to herself as she recalled the records of the object she was holding in her hand…
[Frost queen's wand (Rare)- When equipped +30 Mana. Wand forged by blacksmiths from Nielfhem. It has the ability to amplify magical ice attacks by at least five times]
She hadn't used this. At least not after her first run in with the Second Star Order eagle that had chased after her and the others on the first day of the apocalypse. Sometimes it still made her wonder how a creature that powerful had emerged a few hours after the descent of the Spirit Record- it was one of those questions that would never be answered.
'Never thought I'd be using it this early during the battle though' Veronica thought as she pointed her wand forward.
The elk charged and streak of red shot out. Veronica's mana stirred into the [Frost Queen's Wand] and a pillar of frost burst forth. The air around became unstable, one part of it being cold and the other being hot.
Red and white met and collided with a thunderous explosion that sent plumes of heat and steam into the air. The already thick fog grew thicker and spread, it covered the entire back line of the battle field.
…
Veronica wasn't the only one facing a crisis. A little further to the front of the great plume of white mist, a green shadow moved between the chaotic battlefield. It would be in one place for a moment, then it would move somewhere else. However, where ever it appeared, where ever it went, the evolvers would fall to the ground. Either cleaved through their torsos or their heads would roll into the air.
The green shadow moved from its position among the evolvers, leaving a trail of death in its wake. It glided above the ground honing in on to three other evolvers. One of them was a Mordecai and the other was Dulton…well there were two Dultons.
They were facing off against what looked like a group of crazed monkeys.
The two Dultons were holding a sword each. One of him moved forward to meet two of the monkeys while his other self stayed by Mordecai's side. Mordecai was crouched, his hands on the surface of the ground and his eyes closed.
A drop of sweat rolled down his eyebrows as he concentrated, trying to time the use of his skill well.
The Dulton facing the monkeys swung his sword forward. He sliced through the neck of one monkey and was about to move on to the other one when a sharp pain hit him in the back. Both Dultons hissed in pain.
'I hate this about the skill' he lamented internally
His skill
allowed him to create a perfect copy of himself for the cost of 10 mana points. And in the case that one of his selves was destroyed then the one remaining would assume the role of the original so in a sense it gave him two lives…in case something happened. The skill also had no cooldown time so as long as he had the mana, he could use it indefinitely…However, there was a drawback. He shared his senses with the clone. Sight, smell, touch, sound taste…pain, he shared all of them which meant one thing. If his clone experienced pain then he too would experience pain. If his clone experienced death then he too would experience death well some phantom version of it anyway which would still be disturbing.
So when his body double facing the monkeys was hit in the back by a stone, he also experienced it hence his reaction.
Two monkeys managed to slip past him- his clone, and were headed in his direction.
Dulton couldn't help but curse silently as he stood in front of Mordecai to protect him.
The monkeys ran on all fours, their tails swishing left and right respectively. Their bloodlust and murderous frenzy feeling the air with an ominous energy. For a moment Dulton felt goosebumps rise on the surface of his skin but he forced down those feelings.
'Fight, kill, evolve' he repeated in his head like a mantra, then he said to Mordecai without turning back:
"Get ready!"
One of the monkeys lunged at him its hands clawing forward and a high pitched screech escaping from its mouth. For a moment Dulton felt his ears ring, then the world suddenly tilted left and right, it seemed unstable.
"What the hell?" he muttered, his face turning grim. Then the monkey's claws landed on his chest. Its nails threatened to pierce through him deeply and they would have had be not jumped backwards at the last second.
His felt unsteady. On top of that he felt dizzy.
He shook his head to regain his bearings but the monkey screeched again and this time he felt it. The moment that high pitched screech entered his ears, he felt unsteady once more. And then it occurred to him…
Every screech pierced into his skull like a spike, twisting his sense of direction until the world swayed beneath his feet.
'But how?'
The other monkey meanwhile had managed to slip past him and was heading towards Mordecai when it suddenly stepped on the ground and magic circle shimmered to life beneath it. Its body then froze, held in place by an invisible force.
Then from the distance behind him, an arrow cut through the air with a whistling sound before it imbedded itself through its skull.
Clara drew another arrow and fired it forward. It struck the other monkey, that Dulton had been facing, in its shoulder.
The monkey screeched mournfully and stumbled backwards only for the tip of a sword to sprout out of its chest blood spilling to the ground. The other Dulton, though was experiencing the same feeling of disorientation, it wasn't to a high degree, so it had returned to help his other self who was clearly having trouble.
"You okay me?" the double asked with a mocking smirk.
"What took you so long" Dulton replied flatly no amused by his clone's antics, the world settled down once again when he regained his balance, shuffling to stand up straight. He felt the trickle of soul essence move into his soul just the green letters from the system flashed in his retina.
His body double was about to reply with a snide comment, when a green shadow appeared from his side. Before he knew it something sharp cut into his body. It passed through him from his left ribcage all the way out through his right.
The real Dulton felt as if his body had been shredded in half and he couldn't help but screamed out loud. His sense were overloaded and his body spasmed, the feeling of being cut in half and dying too much for him.
A magic circle appeared beneath the green shadow before it could move. It stood frozen by Mordecai's trap magic and finally the green reaper could now been seen by all.
It had two scythes for hands with green, curved and serrated blades for hands. Its torso was thin but its head was large with two great compounded eyes. Its lower body was made up of a large round abdomen from which six pairs of pincered legs emerged.
The green shadow that had been reaping lives like it had been picking fruit was a goddamn mutated preying mantis and the aura it gave off was a lot closer to the peak levels of the First Star Order.