Chapter 114 - Friction
Scarlett downed her last mana potion and let the empty flask fall to the floor.
[Mana: 1668/4698]
That was all she had left to work with.
She looked across the room to where the ghost of Abelard Withersworth was floating. His form had turned more and more transparent as she’d continued her attacks, but he wasn’t out of play yet. Nor had he stopped bringing more and more of his dolls alive, forcing her to expend more and more mana to attack him so that he would sacrifice the dolls with his counterattacks.
For the time being, they had reached a strange balance of sorts. The dolls were being removed at roughly the same pace that they joined the fight, though Scarlett’s attack had also become less aggressive in order to save mana. She was relying on Leon’s barriers blocking Abelard’s attack where possible. The knight was still in the middle of his own fight with the blonde doll. He had dealt a decent amount of damage to one of its arms, but with him having to focus on protecting the others in addition to the doll, Scarlett feared he was stretched too thin.
It was better than the alternative, though.
And if she removed Abelard from the fight, it would put things to an end quickly.
She conjured a set of three Aqua Mines in front of one of the newly awakened dolls that was dashing towards Fynn. The mines burst just in time to strike two of its weak points. It barely lost balance for the blink of an eye, but it was enough for Fynn to step forward, dodging under its attack, and then slam a powerful fist right into its midriff.
The blow sent the doll skidding across the floor, but the next moment, another doll came leaping at the young man. He ducked back, preparing himself to deal with it along with a third doll that he had been fighting just before.
“Go, my dears! Teach these fools the consequences of their actions!” Abelard’s voice echoed across the chamber once more, and another pair of dolls came alive. There were a little less than half of them left now, lining the walls. Scarlett had tried preemptively dealing with a couple of them, but that had just led to Abelard animating even more of them in response, so it was best to let things pass as they should.
She looked at Leon for a brief moment, waiting for him to erect another barrier. Unfortunately, he seemed especially preoccupied dodging the doll’s attacks as its arms moved in a flurry of blows that seemingly had no end.
She pressed her lips together. She needed to cut down the dolls’ numbers before the others were overrun.