Nightmare Realm Summoner

“Her armor is basically impenetrable,” Alex said hurriedly as Evelyn sprinted toward them. “Her Soul Manifestation must be using the metal controlling ability to somehow absorb impact when it gets hit.”

“I hate packaged meals,” Claire said. She snapped her whip in the air at her side. “Partial Soul Manifestation. Hollow Court.”

Inky grey magic bloomed through the air above Claire as the haunted, noble-looking ghost of an old woman shimmered into being. Brilliant blood-red roses blew from her lips in a thick wave. They crashed down toward Evelyn in a torrent.

The other woman’s eyes widened and she raised her shield, sending a hail of blades slashing out at the petals in an attempt to ward them off. But it was pointless. There were just too many of them. Claire’s magic swept past Evelyn, leaving bundles of the glowing red petals clumped on her in almost crystalline growths.

Evelyn only slowed for a few steps, quickly realizing that the attack hadn’t actually injured her. She closed the distance between herself and Alex in a blur, clearly aiming to simply run straight at him like a runaway train and let her army of weapons finish the job in her wake.

Claire’s black wings exploded out from her back. She grabbed Alex around the waist with one hand. Then her wings snapped down. She launched into the air, sailing well over Evelyn’s charge and carrying them both out of the path of the cloud of sand weapons.

They landed on the other side of the arena and spun as one. Evelyn was already sprinting in their direction again. Alex got the feeling this was probably at least somewhat similar to how bull-fighters must have felt. But bulls didn’t tend to have an entire horde of deadly weapons swinging themselves around — and they certainly weren’t more armored than a damn tank.

Princess charged at Evelyn from the side, ignoring the blades as they carved through her body. A sword carved through one of her masks. The second one was shattered just moments later. Before she could even get close enough to Evelyn to do any real damage, her final mask shattered.

She collapsed to the ground in a puddle of goop. Magical energy flew through the air to pour back into Alex. His teeth clenched. As simple as Evelyn’s magic was, it was terrifyingly effective. There weren’t really a whole bunch of responses against a giant wall of spinning blades. Alex was starting to see why villains like sticking them in dungeons so much.

Still… that’s almost entirely useless against my Soul Manifestation. I can get past it no problem. The problem is I don’t have a single way to actually damage her. Maybe if I landed a really good hit with my anchor… but I can’t both use my Soul Manifestation and and swing the anchor at the same time. I’d have to use one or the other.

Shit.

“Can you crack her open?” Alex asked, his mind spinning as he tried to come up with another strategy. “I can get close, but…”

“We won’t have a second chance,” Claire said. Her eyes narrowed as Evelyn drew closer. Even though the armored woman was sprinting, compared to some of the other people Alex and Claire had gone up against, Evelyn wasn’t really all that fast at all. “She’s expecting this to be a drawn out fight. She wants to just slowly chip away at us with those weapons until we trip up.”

“Given the fact she’s basically immortal in that armor, I can see why she’d use the strategy,” Alex grumbled.

“I can break through her defenses,” Claire said. Her grip tightened on her whip. “She probably won’t expect it. But her control over metal means she can almost certainly re-form her armor the moment it breaks. You’ll have a second. Don’t count on any more.”

“A second is enough,” Alex said, drawing on his own magic again and lowering his stance. The edges of Evelyn sword cloud was only seconds away. “Do it.”

Claire’s wings shot donw. Wind buffeted Alex as she launched forward. Evelyn’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at the clearly suicidal move, but it didn’t catch her off guard. Weapons shot out for Claire, slicing through her body in flashes of sand.

A dozen lines crisscrossed Claire’s body. Her arms and legs split apart like finely-diced cucumbers, and her torso wasn’t far behind it. Evelyn’s gaze had already turned toward Alex, her course adjusting, when it struck her that the pieces of Claire’s body hadn’t hit the ground.

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The blood spraying out from Claire’s wounds reversed. Her body yanked itself back together and her hand flicked out. Her whip snapped. A blindingly fast line of black thorn cut out to wind around Evelyn, catching on three different flower bundles all at once.

There was a deafening explosion.

Claire crumpled, unable to hold her body together any longer. She fell to the ground in a pile of chunks with a series of sickening squelches.

But Alex didn’t let the moment she’d bought go to waste. He drove his palms together, twisting them.

The gate in his soul slammed open.

“Partial Soul Manifestation. Edict of the Shattered King.”

Wavering red-purple light exploded out as the Mirrorlands transposed over the world around Alex. He was already running, racing straight toward Evelyn until the edges of his domain had transposed over her. Smoke still rose from her armor, but through it, Alex could see charred skin.

Claire had pulled it off.

Now it was his turn.

Glint raced forward, leaping at Evelyn.

Alex teleported at the same time, activating Armament Elegy. Black strands raced down his right arm, transforming into the whirring chainsword by the time he’d appeared behind Evelyn. He swept his hand down—

A flash of pain cut through him.

An axe thunked into the ground at his side. Alex stared down at it.

His sword arm split from his body, falling to splatter to the sand. Magical energy flowed into him as he felt Glint die, having been cut apart despite his attempts to avoid it.

A second sword drove into Alex’s back, and a spear slammed into his side. He wheezed, stumbling.

“Sorry,” Evelyn said, turning toward him. Smoke rose from her blackened, damaged armor even as it started to bend itself back into shape. “That was a good try. You almost got me. But my magic fights on its own. I’ve heard my class is a little bit adjacent to an Evoker. The metal follows my will, not my commands.”

Alex’s lips worked, but there were at least two different weapons lodged in his lungs, and he didn’t quite have the air to muster up words yet. His body gurgled.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” Evelyn said. She grinned. “Good fight.”

A cough pushed its way from his lips, sending black liquid splattering out onto the sand. He slipped forward, sliding along the sword pinning him to the ground and toward Evelyn.

Then strands of black liquid twisted up from his severed arm, driving into his shoulder. Then, with a squelch, his arm tore up from the sand and slammed back into its proper place.

Evelyn’s eyes widened. She lurched back.

Alex pushed himself farther along the blade, driving his palm into the closing gap in Evelyn’s armor. There was a wet snick. She went stiff, her eyes wide behind the cracked visor of her helm. Loud screeches echoed through the air as Alex poured magic out of his palm and into the growing network of glass blades carving Evelyn apart.

Her armor stood strong. The razor-sharp glass couldn’t do anything to cut through it. Unfortunately, that was considerably less useful when the blades were coming from within.

Blood bubbled up at Evelyn’s lips. She took a staggering step back. Alex let her. Instead of following, he reached down to the iron blade pinning him to the ground. He grabbed onto it from the front, letting it dig into his palm, and tore it free of his chest in a spray of black liquid.

Then he grabbed the spear and pulled it free as well.

“Both… of you?” Evelyn wheezed. “Are you fucking kidding?”

The damage to Alex’s body pulled itself back together. Magical energy burned away at an alarming rate. Healing all the damage he’d taken wasn’t simple — but Alex wasn’t going to need the power for much longer. He bent down, pressing his hand to the cracks in Evelyn’s visor.

Three blades carved through Alex’s chest and something heavy lodged itself in his skull with enough force to rock his head forward, but he didn’t pay the wounds any mind. A torrent glass blades drove out from his palm. They met flesh with a wet thunk.

Evelyn slumped back into the sand.

All the weapons collapsed back into nothing but dust.

Alex staggered, his breathing coming out in ragged gasps. Darkness tugged at the corners of his vision. He felt the final scraps of his magic drain as Princess’ power worked to keep him alive. It wasn’t enough. He could feel himself fading from the sheer number of fatal wounds he’d taken.

Pain beat against his mind. His teeth clenched as Alex fruitlessly fought the darkness back.

Its advance continued. He was going to die.

But he’d made it a second longer than Evelyn. He really hoped that the arena wouldn’t count this as a tie. They’d worked too damn hard for a victory to end up getting snatched away because of a technicality—

The world shifted.

Alex suddenly found himself standing out side the gate.

The pain was gone. His wounds had vanished. All that remained was the adrenaline pounding in his chest and his hands clenched at his sides.

But there was something new. A weight in his pocket that hand’t been there before he’d entered the arena.

A grin split his lips.

It was a Denarius.

Apparently, the arena had decided that the fight hadn’t ended in a tie at all.

They’d won.