Nightmare Realm Summoner

Vaxon ripped Glint in half.

Really, Alex should have seen it coming. He probably would have if he hadn’t been so drained from just having recovered from being split clean in two.

Vaxon had charged forward and Glint had countered by sending his razor-sharp cloak whistling out to delay him. That, theoretically, would have bought Alex enough time to dodge away and keep their game of cat and mouse going until Claire could get her hands on the energy core in the Disruptor.

It was a pretty good plan. After all, as fast as Vaxon was, Glint was faster. There was no way for the man to easily avoid the attack, and Glint’s silvered mirrors could do enough damage to kill Vaxon if he didn’t take a moment to block the strike.

Vaxon should have just raised his hands to before his neck like he had the previous time. That would have been the easiest way to avoid the strike, after all. He could have taken it on his arms, receiving minimal damage, but allowing their game to continue.

That had been what Alex was counting on.

He’d been right on the first part. Vaxon raised his arms before his face to protect his neck. The second bit was unfortunately where the rest of Alex’s plan fell apart. Vaxon turned his hands in the opposite direction, letting Glint carve deep into the metal of his gauntlets with his cloak.

Then his hands had tightened around the silvered weapon before Glint could pull it back.

With a roar, he’d given the cloak a violent yank. A normal cloak would have just come clean off. Unfortunately, this one was connected to Glint. Glasmir and cloak alike flew through the air.

Vaxon grabbed Glint by the neck mid-flight, before he could land on anything and try to reposition. Mirrored blades screeched as they cut deep into his gauntleted hands. Vaxon didn’t seem to notice. He spun his massive sword around and planted it into the white trunk at his feet . Then he grabbed onto Glint’s other leg with his newly-freed hand.

By the time Alex realized what was happening, it was too late.

The two halves of Glint’s body were already spinning down toward the ground, energy trailing away from them as he was called back into Alex’s Spatial Mirror.

Purple fluid dripped from the deep gauges in Vaxon’s gauntlets. It coated the surface of his palms and beaded at his fingers — Glint’s mirrors must have managed to cut a tube somewhere within him.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the man was anywhere near his breaking point. His gaze locked on Alex like the lens of a refocusing camera.

”Persistent. Still, you remain?” Vaxon ground out. He shifted his stance, the piston on his back still thumping away. Pink mist warped the air around him like waves of heat. He reached out and grabbed onto the hilt of his sword. Tongues of mist wrapped around the blade and coiled into the air like a translucent flame. ”You are persistent. Your death will serve as penitence.”

It sounded more like Vaxon was trying to convince himself of that last bit. The man’s words were more desperate than determined.

”Maybe not,” Alex said. ”I could be a friend of the family. You never know.”

Vaxon didn’t even bother gracing him with an answer. He drew the sword free from the branch with a grinding crunch and leveled it before him, holding the weapon with both hands. The whump of the piston on his back grew louder still.

It almost felt like someone was banging a drum right beside Alex’s ears. The incessant strike of air against his eardrums threatened to rip his balance from him, and only his System-empowered body let him remain standing.

Shit. Claire might have been able to somehow do it, but I’m definitely not going to be able to distract this guy with small talk.

Ah, fuck it. I just have to keep his attention for a little longer. If he looks back and sees Claire halfway up the Disruptor, he might just turn around and go for her instead. Then we’re completely fucked. There’s no way she’ll get the power source if this guy is breathing down her neck.

”Come at me, then,” Alex said, cracking his neck and lowering his weary body into a fighting stance. He didn’t have much magical energy left. There wasn’t enough death energy around him to call his monsters back and Encore wasn’t about to make enough of a difference. There was no delusion in Alex’s mind that he had a chance of actually killing Vaxon. Using Encore would just buy him a few seconds… and that wasn’t enough.

He was running out of options. That didn’t mean he was completely spent, though. There was still more he had left to call on.

Alex extended his hands and clenched his teeth, drawing on every last scrap of energy he had to spend.

Then he used Armament Elegy.

Like the last time he’d activated the ability, a heavy force slammed into his back. But, unlike the last time, he was ready for it. Alex staggered but managed to hold his ground as silver flashed at his shoulders and a mirrored cloak spooled out from his shoulders to coil protectively around his back.

Sludge burst from his palms at the same time, bubbling up like a fountain. Jagged centipede legs burst from within the viscus, wormy liquid, slicing into place to form the links of his chainsword.

The base of the sword yawned open as a sharp-toothed maw opened upon it, a gray tongue lolling out from within it in preparation for the upcoming feast.

He wasn’t the only one that changed. Strands of darkness twisted across the white wood at his feet, painted there by the colorful mist churning through the skies of the Mirrorlands.

His shadow was changing as well. It squirmed as if possessed by some eldritch abomination, bubbling and expanding until it barely even looked like it had been cast by a human. The first time he’d used Armament Elegy, Spark hadn’t been dead. He had one more weapon this time around… though he didn’t know what it did.

Vaxon didn’t seem too impressed by his magic. The large man drove a sabaton down into the tree branch, shattering the wood beneath his weight, and charged forward.

Alex lunged to the side and his cloak coiled around him. He knew firsthand just how fast Vaxon was. Trying to sit around and wait for his attack was just asking to get killed. The best he could do was try and guess where the blow would be coming from and react before Vaxon even swung.

Alex’s cloak slammed into the trunk, digging deep into it a moment for stability before a ringing clang ripped through the air like a church bell being pelted by a boulder. A violent vibration ripped through his body and clacked his teeth together so hard that he could have sworn some of them broke.

He’d managed to block Vaxon’s strike — but the blow had been so strong it almost didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. He couldn’t afford to sit around and waste the brief moment he’d bought himself.

Fighting against the protests of his own body, Alex lunged past the cloak, which ripped itself free to buy him space to move. Vaxon stood over him, sword already raised to come crashing down once more.

Alex drove his chainsword forward and into Vaxon’s side. The weapon roared to life instantly, vibrating in his hand as it clawed into the metal armor-flesh covering the massive man’s body.

It didn’t do nearly as much damage as a blow from Glint would have, but it ate an inch into Vaxon before Alex was forced to fling himself out of the way. He hit the ground in a roll, grunting as gnarled knots of wood dug into his shoulders and back. His cloak reflexively shot out behind him to intercept the next strike.

Not a moment later, Vaxon’s blade slammed down onto the silvered metal with a brilliant crash. It carved along it, sliding off to the side and driving into the tree trunk an inch away from Alex’s face.

Purple liquid dripped from the large man, sizzling against the branch around Alex. Several droplets fell right on his leg. Spikes of pain pierced into him as they ate through his clothes and bit into his skin nearly instantly.

Alex didn’t give himself time to process it. He lunged upward with a yell, thrusting his Chainsword up —

Vaxon grabbed the blade with a hand. The weapon whirred, ripping through metal as it desperately strained to reach for flesh, but it found nothing to feed on. A sickening screech cut through the air as the man’s hand tightened on the weapon even as it cut into his palm.

Then he ripped it clean from Alex’s hands.

It was like taking a toy from a child. Despite Alex’s best efforts to keep a grip on it, Vaxon’s strength was a hundredfold what his was. His shoulder was nearly ripped from its socket from the effort of trying to keep a hold on the hilt.

Shit!

Vaxon’s features were expressionless as he lifted his sword once more, spinning it around in a deft motion so the blade was pointed straight down at Alex.

He tried to swap with his shadow, but he didn’t even have the magic left for that. Using Armament Elegy had completely drained him of every scrap he had left — which meant Princess’ passive energy wasn’t going to be healing him from another mortal wound.

”Ah, fuck,” Alex said.

The sword plunged down.