Chapter 847 847 - Frostvein
Erik surged forward as the confessor started reappearing just in front of him. It was like her body slowly reformed through the effort of dark-blue sparks in the air. At first, she still looked confident, but as soon as her partially solid eyes noticed the charging Erik, shock and disbelief flashed across her face.
She started to struggle, but her body remained stuck in place as spatial energy continued to rebuild her after teleportation.
Focused, Erik kept a close eye on the spatial energy. By adjusting his speed accordingly, he arrived to swing his hammer at the exact same moment as the confessor fully materialised.
"Fuc—"
Crack
Boom
It all happened quickly. As soon as the confessor fully re-materialised, Erik's hammer was practically on top of her. At the last moment, with the beginnings of a curse on her lips, she just barely managed to defend herself.
With extreme skill and speed, she conjured an icy-red magic circle that created a barrier of icy crimson shards. It was a hasty spell that barely contained a fraction of her power, but it was enough to avert a likely instant defeat.
Though the confessor's bodies were more powerful than regular Arcanists, they still didn't reach Runebound levels. Whether she'd have survived a full-power blow from Erik's hammer while entirely defenceless was questionable.
When his hammer crashed against the crimson shards, it managed to obstruct him for just long enough that his target could readjust and brace herself. When the barrier shattered and the confessor was about to utter the final syllable in her curse, she was hit.
One hand joined her shoulder in forming a physical defence, but she could do little against the full force of Erik's raw physical power. Her body was helplessly punted away while uttering a pained roar. Her body twisted in mid-air. Her hand seemed fine, but her arm was clearly blown from its socket.
Unwilling to forgo the advantage, Erik spends no time waiting. He charged after her, focused grin upon his lips. A thundersnow blast charged on his weapon.
"Meilin is your name? You should try to get a grip!" he laughed as he approached her rapidly, ash and dirt exploding under his armoured, hock-jointed feet. "I'm not going to give you a break, but it's more exciting if you fight back!"
Enkare Nkai's forces had been keeping a close eye on this army from the moment they arrived in Djibouti, and the name of their leader wasn't a strange utterance. Thus, Erik knew her name.
Meilin snarled furiously, trying desperately to get her airborne body under control before Erik could attack again. At first, it didn't look like she'd succeed before Erik's hammer hit home once more, but at the last moment, she roared with defiant anger. "I'm not going down that easily!"
Crimson light flashed along with several emergency magic circles, and a storm of bloodred shards exploded out of her body to pepper the approaching Erik. He snarled as bloody cuts were drawn all across the exposed parts of his fur. Even his armour received scratches and one or two deep grooves, proving the danger of those shards.
Yet, Erik wasn't deterred… at least at first. As soon as she noticed she'd drawn blood, Meilin's scowl turned into a vicious grin. The cuts on Erik's body started glowing softly, and Meilin's wounded arm did the same as she clutched it tightly.
Erik frowned, then felt a sudden bout of weakness assault his senses. He groaned and stumbled a little, his hammer wavering. It didn't take him more than a moment to adjust to the feeling, but it was enough for Meilin.
Laughing cruelly, she used this moment to get her body under control. Planting both feet on the ground, she quickly created distance between them. Seeing his easy victory was stolen from him, Erik slowly came to a halt as well. He wasn't in a hurry to defeat her will right now.
With a calm annoyance, he lifted his arm and looked at the soft glow coming from beneath one of the joints in his armour—a weak point—where one of the shards had managed to pierce through. Then he glanced over at Meilin, who scowled at him as she popped her arm back in its socket.
Bruises and broken skin from Erik's powerful blow were evident on the woman's otherwise pristine skin, yet seemed to recover far too quickly, even for a confessor.
He felt his own minor wounds close rapidly, as they always did, but still slower than he'd have expected, and the minor feeling of weakness persisted.
"Frostvein affinity," Elora muttered through their bond, a frown on her brow. Though she wasn't in his dimension right now, she was close enough to watch him through the barrier. "A dangerous affinity. Life-leeching properties are common. You'll be fine with shallow cuts, but deep ones won't heal for hours and will restore her continuously. Be careful."
"Figures…" Erik muttered with a soft sigh. Since Elora had made sure to drill as much information about dangerous affinities into him as possible, he knew that Frostvein was a fourth rank-affinity—something all confessors seemed to have in common—and a fusion of blood and Glintfrost; his mother's affinity, and a fusion of Frost and Metalwind.
He focused back on Meilin with a confident grin. "Well, it's not like I was planning on being severely wounded," he chuckled as he sent powerful waves of Elorium into the shallow cuts to increase their recovery rate.
Meilin narrowed her eyes after fully recovering and quickly realised Erik wasn't surprised by her ability. Yet, she didn't care about that now. "Why the fuck am I still here?!" she seethed, tightly clutching her twin hook swords. "Not even spatial suppression should have been able to stop me!"
In her eyes, Erik saw Meilin's faith in her Primarch clash with her current reality, and it made him chuckle a little. "Why the surprise? I know you didn't think Imogene is the only one capable of creating sigils, and I'm sure your friends have told you about my spatial affinity."
Just as he said that, some dark blue lines sparked through the barrier they were in, which were surprisingly mirrored on Erik's fur and armour in the form of runes. Meanwhile, he hoisted his hammer on top of his shoulder and grinned at her. Since he wasn't in a hurry, he didn't mind having a little conversation.