Gathering your bearings you noticed that all your buffs had been Dispelled in the initial barrage of anti-air fire that brought you down from the skies. Spectral Armor, Heightened Senses, Wallrun, they were all gone.
With a quick flick of her wrist, Thena's feet were surrounded by a ghostly blue glow again, making your feet able to run over walls.
"
200 Mana remaining," You heard Rose's voice in your head. It sounded strange, different somehow. As if she was talking to you through a walkie-talkie, yet her lips never moved and her voice never materialized in the real world. Its like she spoke directly in your head, even though she was well over a dozen meters away, much farther than any Avatar spell allowed.
The Manticore was toppling over its own head across the ground, over and over, as it neared Rain, Circi and Kaznachey, threatening to flatten them all. Such a 4 meter tall creature must have weighted several tons and there was barely any hope of adjusting its trajectory, as it rolled toward you in a ball of flailing claws, teeth and poisonous stinger on its tail.
Circi leaped into the air, creating a small gust of wind and noticed in slow motion, how the Manticore rolled in a ball, just a few centimeters below your face, its razor sharp claws just nearly scraping your skin and cutting off a loose strand of your orange hair. And as you did a near perfect backflip over its flailing carcass, you saw Kaznachey practically explode in place, as the woman jumped so hard and so suddenly, it cratered the stone floor beneath her feet.
She wasn't retreating, she launched herself right at you. And as the Manticore rolled through below your bodies and you landed on the ground on all six spider-legs, there was a moment, a fraction of a second where you were absorbing the momentum of the landing, your spider-legs bouncing you back, to prevent you from hitting the floor.
At that fraction of a second, you couldn't dodge, and that's when Kaznachey whipped her left hand forward and all the electricity accumulating over her body - shot forth. A deafening thunderclap rocket the pit as a blinding flash of lighting struck you dead center, making every muscle in your body contort. Pain. Nothing but pain filled your world for a moment, and when you opened your eyes next, Kaznachey had already landed and launched herself at you.
You blinked and saw in slow motion how the woman leaped right at you, covering the 2 meter distance between you, how her face was filled with the anticipation of the kill, her blue eyes reflecting bloodlust, like a shark that smelled blood in the water. Her searing red blade racing toward your neck in a horizontal wide arc. It was already inches away from your head, she's about to behead you.
(Circi suffered -40 HP damage, 92 HP remaining.)
The crystal covered Manticore finally lost its momentum and came to a grinding halt, flipping on its back, then rolling back to its stomach, but its mass and size didn't allow it quick maneuverability, and Thena's Chakram struck. Two strikes across its wide exposed belly - where the orange glowing ribs showed amidst the rotting flesh, then one strike across its front-left knee and two more across the crystal covered side.
The Manticore shrieked in outrage, then hunched over, standing on all fours and vomited under its feet, filling the ground its black as tar liquid, with sparkling tiny Amethysts mixed in. It looks like the attack on its belly did the most damage. There was no skin there, no stone Amethysts to shield its inner organs. But now that the creature flopped back on its feet and stood on all fours, it hunched low to the ground, almost completely hiding its belly.
(The Amethyst Manticore suffered, -80 HP, -40 HP, -10 HP, -10 HP)
And while the Manticore was preoccupied with retching its guts, you suddenly saw a teal blue chain of the Kusarigama, covered in tiny ice crystals, flying at the Manticores tail. The blade was too fast to track, but you saw the chain, as it whipped out and wrapped several times around the monsters tail, leaving behind immediate and ugly signs of frostbite, before Rose suddenly and violently yanked the chain back, and the blade sliced off the creatures tail clean, about a meter below its Amethyst covered stinger.
Purple blood gushed out in droves, as if a massive artery was sliced open, spraying in every direction and leaving hot smoldering puddles of unnerving dark liquid on the ground, as the Manticore wailed, uncontrollably thrashing in place, and the top of its tail fell to the ground, clattering loudly.
(The Amethyst Manticore suffered -300 HP damage, its stinger has been sliced off.)
(The Amethyst Manticore suffered Frostbite for 1 turn, making its movements more sluggish)
A thin layer of teal frost covered the creatures body, making it shiver. Its eyes went wild, it shrieked in a gut wrenching and horrid voice that made your hair stand on end, as if it was the cry from hell itself, as if every person who ever lived and died, screamed at the same time.
Its frenzied eyes zeroed on Thena and the creature rushed right at her. The 5 meter distance between you was reduced in a heartbeat and you saw its massive jaws snapping and opening wide, right next to your face, threatening to bite off your head.
As its giant maw opened, you saw black as tar bile drip through its fangs, with toxic purple diamonds sparkling and spilling out together with its spit and clatter across the stone floor.
"
Destroy the Ark, copy!" Squiggles' voice clearly rang in your head, even though he never opened his jaws in the real world.
Among the sea of moving feet and bodies, you saw the glitter of the Red Orb, sitting in a shallow socket om the ground, in the middle of the chamber. Ducking low and moving his legs incredibly fast, Squiggles skedaddled right through the crowd of Witchers and Parasites, as the two armies clashed, prompting several Parasites to be kicked and launched into the air, as they flailed and screamed horribly before falling back into the orange sea of its brethren.
Without wasting a moment, Squiggles rammed his way through, came to a screeching halt before the Orb, kicked it up to have it fly at his eye level, and in a single spin, he summoned the Purple Flacion and hit the Orb with it horizontally, as if he was playing baseball.
A profound shriek of a dozen voices filled the air, all screaming in a sudden and indescribable agony, as the Orb shattered in two perfect halves, releasing a gust of scarlet fire and a the bodies of 12 massive Parasites. Rotting rat creatures, disfigured moles and worms with dozens of legs, each one reaching up to 5 meters in height alone.
And as they emerged out of the broken Orb, their bodies split in half, horizintally, right at the waist. Blood, gore and viscerra spilled out in droves, flooding the ground, as the creatures wailed and finally, grew silent.
The Red Orb had grown dark, its halves now a dull gray, resembling a simple glass ornament.
"AAAAAAAAHAHA!! AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Squiggles laughed in glee, his eyes filled with bloodlust, as he raised his 4 mandibles up to the sky:
"BOW, MORTALS, FOR I'M YOUR NEW MASTER!!!"
His outburst drew the attention of a nearby Witcher who spun around and almost took Squiggles' head off, but stayed his hand at the last moment. Staring in astonishment at the hellish spider, the Witcher blinked several times, as if his eyes were deceiving him. Soon you realized the source of his hesitation.
Looking at the spiders soul with Heightened Senses, made Squiggles seem like a Witcher. The golden thread linking his soul to Rain's, was almost visible. But this link was different.
There was no - one soul, dominating control of the body, over the other. It seems both souls were linked, and were on equal footing.
Rain and Squiggles existing both in the real world, at the same time, and still linked by the Glasgow Synergy. You've never seen a type of link like this before.
There was no time limit on Squiggles' manifestation, no spell like Avatar that was needed to be cast and re-cast. Squiggles simply existed in the real world now, while still maintaining a Synergy with Rain. And albeit with a delay, the Witcher seemed to recognize it, although it did little to quell his fear or astonishment.
Off to the side, the moss-covered Manticore screeched, reeling and jumping in place to face Twilight, as the mage tried to circle around. The Manticore must have realized your intent at stabbing it in the backside and it intentionally spinned in place with a jump, its just right in front of you now. You saw a suddenly movement toward you and reacted on reflex, without even realizing what was moving in your direction.
Only a moment later, as you jumped sideways, you saw the Manticores jagged teeth bite empty air, where your head and upper torso had been a second ago. Its maw passing within an inch of your face. As soon as you landed on your feet, you were forced to immediately bent backwards, almost falling on your back and whipping out one arm to smash it onto the ground, as the Manticores poisonous tail flashed over you, striking like a whip and hitting empty air, where your face had just been.
Landing onto the ground, you spun on your back, simultaneously slashing the creatures front paw and hurling yourself away from it, in a leaping motion, you were rewarded by a spray of spawn-colored blood and a pained screech from the creature.
A mere month ago, you could not imagine yourself having this level of reflex or martial technique, and a growing feeling began to emerge in the pit of your stomach, that if you hadn't trained so hard in martial arts with Larsen, you likely wouldn't have been able to dodge these attacks, some of which would have been likely lethal.
(The Moss-covered Manticore suffered -150 HP damage, its magic is disabled for 2 turns total.)
The next second a giant bipedal orange wolf collided with the Manticore, slashing it across the face with its massive, 1 meter long claws, over and over in a merciless, savage blood-frenzy. The Manticores face was quickly turning into a mess of red meat, sliced through so deep and so many times, it was quickly becoming unrecognizable.
Viktoria's Parasite - Guillotine was rending the flesh from the bone with each strike, leaving behind what could only be described as a zombie-like abomination, its skin flailed off and head reduced to a mass of exposed muscle and bone that bled everywhere, covering the wolf in a spray of arterial blood.
It was one of the most horrifying things you ever got to see in your life.
(The Moss-covered Manticore suffered -400 HP damage)
The Manticore shrieked, whipping its tail at the wolf and leaping back. A sharp metalic sound rang through the air, as Viktoria jumped up and deflected the stringer with her flaming scythe, a second before it struck her parasite.
Landing on all fours, some 5 meters away, the Manticore breathed heavily, its massacred face bleeding across the stone floor in a waterfall of blood. It clenched its jappeg, dirty teeth and hunched over, collecting itself into a ball. The bright green moss and glowing mushrooms atop its back suddenly started to vibrate with a strange audible sound, akin to flour being put through a sieve. The mushrooms started growing larger in width, their strange hole-filled form glowing brighter and stronger.
Rogue wrote:"I don't remember casting Avatar?" Rogue says.
"We didn't" Rolo's voice calmly rang in your head, even as he materialized next to you, watching as a wall of Witchers clashed with several hundred parasites that kept leaping and falling into the pit from above. The battlefield in the distance quickly turned into a mass of bodies and snapping teeth. The Witchers formed a half circle around the Parasites and didn't move an inch, even as the creatures began to bite into them, tearing into their flesh.
You're not sure if one of them gave the command, or they just came to a collective decision without using words, but the 49 Witcher survivors seemed desperate to shield you from the Horde, so you could face Kaznachey and his Manticores undisturbed. How long the Witcher's can hold off the assault of the Horde, however, remained unknown. 5 minutes at most, you imagined, if that. The Horde just kept pouring into the cave, there was no end to them. And the Witchers below would get tired, at some point. They would run out of Mana.
Concentrating you drew the sign for the Heightened Senses spell in the air with your index and middle fingers put together, and took in the battlefield. What you saw, stunned you.
The entire snow covered floor was riddled with dozens upon hundreds of Pentagrams, of every known spell. Single fire and Area of Effect. Ranging from level 2 and up to level 4. Everything you could imagine, was carved into the stone floor here and ready to fire within a split second notice. You imagined that even if you tried, you would exhaust your Mana and there still would be unused Pentagrams left on the floor.
Off to the side, where the beheaded Griffons laid, you saw a Magic Calibration stone, peaking out from one of the saddlebags.
And at the front lines, where the Witcher's were battling the Parasite horde, you sensed that several of them carried Mana and Health potions. Both potions toxic and not without side-effects, but could spell the difference between life and death, if used at the right moment.
You recalled their effects:
Potion of Wicked Regeneration
-----------------------------
A scarlet red looking potion that suspiciously smells of iron.
Restores 40 HP immediately, but temporarily reduces Sanity by 20.
Potion of Forsaken Mana
-----------------------
A blue looking potion with a very strong and horrid odor.
Restores 40 Mana immediately, but temporarily reduces Sanity by 20.
(-20 HP for Sinners)
Potion of Twisted Souls
-----------------------
A sickly orange looking potion that shines in the dark.
Restores 40 Sanity immediately, but consumes 20 HP.
A brief self reflection revealed you only have 1 Sanity left, out of 60 Maximum. You imagined everyone had 1 Sanity left, after breaking Kaznachey's Curse.
What would happen exactly, if your Sanity was reduced to zero again, now that a Parallel Glasgow Synergy was established, you didn't know. But something told you, it would be extremely unpleasant to find out.
"SUPPORT CIRCI!!!" Lightning's piercing shout cut through the air, as the girl galloped atop a giant and very long orange cat, toward the woman in a blue dress. Kaznachey was about to behead Circi, and Lightning was slowly realizing that she wouldn't make it in time to stop it from happening.
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