A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"Stand still, you freak!" Meilin screeched as she swung her hook swords upwards, unleashing a devastating arc of crimson. Her eyes flared with anger and hatred. Her arrogance fueling the fire of her frustration.

Naturally, Erik had no intention of doing that. Although Meilin was much faster than most Arcanists—through whatever process created confessors—she still couldn't match up to the Runebound Erik... Especially since Erik kept creating obstacles for her.

"After all the things I'd heard, I'd not expected you to be a coward!" she hissed and taunted as she continued trying to catch up to Erik.

Erik sighed dramatically as he actually felt himself a little stung by that comment. "I'd really love to fight you, but sometimes the greater good requires sacrifice, you know?" He truly sounded like a martyr making the ultimate sacrifice, causing Meilin to scoff angrily.

"Don't look at me like that!" Erik chuckled. "Not only am I not at full power right now, but I can't risk you dying on me!"

Meilin scoffed only louder and also decided to change strategies. "Whatever," she growled and halted in her steps, before a smirk spread on her lips. "You may not be willing to fight me fairly, but there's one target here that won't run away from me!"

Before he could respond, she whipped around and sprinted to where most of her subordinates were attacking the barrier. Along the way, several crimson magic circles appeared around her, and her swords started glowing red once more.

"Crap," Erik grumbled in an annoyed tone as he watched her leave. Obviously, he'd expected her to go for the barrier eventually; he just hoped it would have taken her a little longer.

Since he couldn't afford for her to start wailing on the barrier along with her subordinates, he could only charge after her. Of course, in chasing her, he had the same advantage as he had when their roles were reversed. Though he couldn't use his spatial displacement anymore, he still had both his natural speed and his lightning flash.

Boom. Lightning struck, and Erik disappeared from view. In his place, a flash of lightning zoomed across the ground, barreling straight for Meilin. Yet, just as it looked like he was going to get a free hit on her, she glanced over her shoulder with a vile grin.

Erik rematerialized behind her with hammer raised, but Meilin turned around in a flash of crimson, sword and spell firing and slicing before he was even fully back into form. Erik watched it happen somberly, but without surprise. Obviously, she'd expected this, and obviously, this would get him in trouble.

But his best choice had still been to follow her and deal with the consequences. Fortunately, he'd prepared for this. While his right hand swung his hammer one-handed, his left was already casting another thundersnow barrier. The moment his left hand rematerialized, the barrier soon followed to block the storm of bloody shards raining from her magic circles.

Or at least, most of it.

At the same time, he completely ignored the two glowing hook swords aiming for his chest in favour of targeting her side with his thundersnow-blast-charged hammer.

Time slowed down. Their eyes crossed. Erik's gaze was sombre, Meilin's filled with excitement and hatred. Their attacks slowly approached each other.

Boom

Their attacks hit; time sped up once more. Erik's hammer and thundersnow blast exploded against a hastily conjured barrier of swirling crimson shards, quickly crushing it before smashing against Meilin's side and sending her flying like a rag doll. Meilin screeched in pain, but didn't appear severely hurt.

At the same time, what few shards were not blocked by Erik's crackling thundersnow barrier were deflected by his armour without much issue. This time, no shards found their way into the gaps of his armour.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the crimson sword arcs. Without anything to block them, they exploded against Erik's armoured chest with significant force and lethality. Yet… not enough to harm him. Or so it appeared at first.

Though the power behind this attack pushed him back a little, they didn't pierce or dent his armour… but they didn't need to. Before he could do anything about it, the crimson arcs splattered all over his armour and started seeping into the gaps and grooves.

Erik quickly realised the sword arcs she fired weren't simply made of Frostvein-infused aetherium, but of a viscous, blood-like fluid filled with tiny, lethally sharp shards similar to the ones she used in her other spells.

Snarling, he staggered when the fluid touched his skin, and the millions of tiny shards began cutting into his flesh. He grabbed his chest and bent over a little from pain. Power flared, his armour lit up. "Master!" Eira cried out in somewhat of a panic. "I—"

"Not your fault, just help me deal with it!" Erik immediately growled, interrupting her.

Eira quickly fell quiet and did as he said, mobilising her sigils and runes to halt the fluid. With a pained grimace on his face, Erik poured more power into his thundersnow armour—the fusion of his ice armour and lightning enhancement—which he didn't really ever turn off in combat anymore. Icy-lightning crackled across his body and armour, clashing with the fluid.

The Frostvein fluid proved a hardy substance, but their combined power managed to wipe it out in no more than a few seconds. Yet, blood was already seeping out of Erik's armour from the countless tiny cuts across his body.

Eira and his natural recovery immediately started working on the wounds, but they once again glowed crimson, draining Erik's strength and slowing the healing process.

Panting lightly, Erik straightened his body and glared in the direction he'd punted Meilin just now. What he saw made his nose twitch in annoyance. Meilin stood there clutching her side, appearing none the worse for wear. Yet, Erik was sure he'd broken at least a rib with his hammerblow.

Unfortunately, Meilin appeared fine, and, wearing an evil smirk, her eyes shining with glee at his suffering. Her body glowed the same crimson as his wounds did.

'She can heal broken bones that quickly?' he thought sombrely. 'It looks like her stamina is recovering as well… This is going to be tricky.'

Across from him, Meilin soon stopped clutching her side and flourished her hook swords. She grinned maliciously, "Shall we go on…?"