Prince of The Abyss

Aether chuckled, clenching his blade. "Eight against two isn't fair, you know? Why don't six of you leave?" The men laughed as they approached them from all sides. Aether and Elise moved towards the center of the circle, sitting back to back.

"Looks like we've had our luck, boys," one of the men said, who was probably their leader. But really, he couldn't figure out the difference between all of them, since they were all wearing the same clothes that covered most of their bodies.

"We've got two Readers with big bounties; tonight will be a feast." They screamed in excitement as they took their weapons out... To his surprise, they varied, from longblades to spears and daggers; it looked as if every last one of them had a different weapon, making it harder to adapt...

Which was probably why this was.

He frowned, waiting with Raven in his hand, as Elise summoned a flower, whose petals started to fall on the ground, preparing to be used in the battle.

...There was a long pause, where no one moved, only broken by the sudden scream of their leader, as they suddenly started rushing in.

'Damn it,' he thought, as he dodged a spear at the last moment, before it could reach his stomach; they were fast, not just any mercenaries... trying to keep his distance from the spear user, Aether tried backing away, but from behind, there was another, trying to cut him down with his blade. Ducking, he waited as the blade passed before getting up and grabbing his hand.

But as he was about to attack, a hammer came for his head. Cursing under his breath, he let go of the man's hand before dashing out, right into the spear user's reach, which he didn't notice.

The sharp spear pierced him, luckily not causing any major damage thanks to his mantle. It was good that he had armor... if he didn't, he wasn't so sure how winnable this battle would have been.

Elise also seemed to have summoned her armor, a beautiful light armor with petals as its design. 'How predictable,' he thought as he swung his blade at one of the men, who blocked it with his own.

Pressing against the blade, he had to let go of the fight, as he barely avoided an arrow going for his head. Turning his head towards the archer, he threw his chains at him, pulling on them, but before he could pull him close, the hammer man broke the chains.

Rolling his eyes, Aether turned around, seeing the spear user behind him with Eden. Stepping to the side, he summoned his chains, wrapping around the man's neck as he pulled on them, but as he did, the sword user dashed forward, cutting his leg.

Wincing in pain, he quickly pulled down with all his force, making the spear user fall to the ground, as he barely dodged another attack from the sword user. It was... very hard to deal with all of them. It was a nuisance.

And he knew Elise was feeling the same; after all, he had hardly seen any petals around her, meaning that the girl was far too preoccupied with her own fight to help him, maybe even to attack.

"Are you alright, Elise?" he said, as he dodged the hammer user, pushing him away with his foot, and dashing forward with his blade only to be stopped by an arrow.

"I'm fine," the girl replied, as petals flowed all around her, trying their best to stop the dagger user from approaching her. She had been forced to defend; whenever she tried to attack, she was always attacked.

And she wasn't someone with great footwork to be able to dodge so many attacks. While her petals helped, and with her manifestation increasing the number of petals and the strength of the new ones, she was able to keep up. With her essence slowly being drained, she was going to have to find a way to attack soon enough, if she wanted to even have a chance of surviving.

None of the men were dumb enough to step inside the sharp petals; after all, Elise's powers weren't unknown, and neither were Aether's. So they knew how to counter them. And, interestingly enough, pressure was the perfect counter for both of them.

If they didn't give the Readers enough time, they wouldn't be able to use all their powers.

And as the battle continued and they got weaker, they would fall to the pressure more easily; it was just a waiting game.

Aether gritted his teeth as he dodged attack after attack from all sides; he had no opening to strike back, was pushed back, and forced to constantly move. He needed to find one, to create one, but how, when so many people were on you, how were you ever supposed to find one?

'It's also not like they have a pattern on how they attack; whoever wants to attack, attacks; there's no first, second, or third.'

He needed to force something.

Taking a deep breath, he groaned as the spear scraped his side, but he ignored it, waiting for the blade user to strike. Once he noticed him winding up his attack, he dashed forward, blocking it with his hand and letting it pierce straight through, which hurt, but at the same time, now he had both time and space to attack.

Abyssal matter flowed onto Raven as he swung his blade into the man's neck, the Abyssal matter shaping into a sharp object, almost like a blade itself, helping the blade cut through completely.

As the man's body fell, Aether tried to get away, but before he could, the hammer user hit him right in the back, making him fly away. His back hit a tree, stretching his spine and making him scream in pain.

Coughing blood, he wiped it from his mouth as he smirked, looking up at the man, who was staring at their fallen comrade. "That's one; who's next?" he said, as he moved his head away, an arrow flying in and hitting the tree, just where his head had rested before.

'I guess I got my answer.'

Raven had been knocked away when he got hit, leaving him weaponless. It wasn't hard to get it back; he just had to summon it again, but that was time he was going to waste, and the archer was already winding up another attack, as the others were running to him.

He raised his hand, pulling it back, summoning Voidpiercer instantly, and throwing it in the direction of the archer. The archer stumbled, barely dodging the attack. But as he ran, chains wrapped around his foot, from the Abyssal matter he had put on the blade as he threw it.

The chains grew into spikes, piercing his foot deep. But that was the most he could do; from this distance, he would waste way too much essence on something like a maybe-lethal attack.

He had already wasted enough; if he continued, he was going to get low fast.

Getting on his feet, he felt his back screaming at him. He tried moving, but as the spear user came for him, he realized he wasn't going to be fast enough to dodge it... But he also wasn't going to let him stab him.

Using Erosion, he stepped to the side to also avoid the hammer user before slashing his leg with his blade, making him kneel. Looking at the spear user, he was taking his weapon out of the tree, which meant he had time.

Pushing the hammer user down, he gripped Raven hard as he swung the blade repeatedly on his back, breaking his armor bit by bit, until he managed to deliver a huge slash, just as the spear user attacked him.

Stepping back, he watched as the spear user checked on his fellow ally. Taking advantage, he ran towards the archer, who was still in agony because of the spikes. Seeing him approach, he fired an arrow that hit him in the shoulder, making him stop for a fraction of a second before continuing.

Reaching the archer, Aether stepped on his arm, making the bow fall from his hand, as he cut it off with Raven.

His scream caught the attention of the others, even those who were fighting with Elise, giving the girl an opening, as her petals suddenly headed towards the dagger user, slashing his arms and legs.

Taking his hand from the ground, Aether pushed it into his mouth before cutting his head off.

Inhaling deeply, he turned back, the pain coming harder as he slowly ran out of adrenaline... but he wasn't done.

The battle wasn't won just yet.

There were still six more that were alive, and only two of them were injured.

Even if there were fewer, and the pressure wouldn't be as much as before, at least for him, since Elise still had all four of her opponents to fight, both of them were weaker than they had been at the start.

Both had lost a lot of essence, and he was also probably more injured than anyone alive on the battlefield.

...But the battle was also not lost yet...