With a grunt of exertion, I was able to pull my blade free from the back of its leg, just as soon as a hand with thick, stubby fingers tried to reach me. I leapt away, feeling the displaced air rush past my face. In the short time I had to reassess my situation, I'd noticed Kalia was putting in the work with her blade coated in mana, riding up the creature in a spiraling slash that traced from its feet to the base of its neck.
You'll have to do this repeatedly. The more encapsulating the damage, the less time they have to regenerate, she sent me and the others, but it gave me an idea that I traced back to my time in Codrean.
It made me chuckle in realization.
I coated my blade in a Pyrus spell, just like I had when I fought the ochelon in the cave, and waited for an opportunity to attack it. As the pair of balled fists tried to crush me, I slashed at the base of its left wrist as I dashed away, searing the wound and preventing the skin from growing back. The obcasus roared angrily, belching out a stream of pure Leech mana from the large mouth on its stomach.
I managed to dodge it with relative ease, but Irun and Athar, who were directly behind me, were forced to reinforce the barrier they'd put up around Balgrim and Ed. The beam of Leech mana crashed into their barrier, causing them to grit their teeth as they poured more mana into it. Once it dissipated, I could see them both breathing heavily. "Watch where you're pointing that thing, asshole!" Athar's alternate voice shouted at the obcasus I was fighting.
It halted mid swing and turned to look at them with the corners of its mouth turning upward in excitement, just like it had done to me that night. "Fuck, that's not good," I heard Irun mutter, though the barrier slightly muffled his voice.
An increasing amount of Leech mana began to gather in a sphere just before its mouth, causing the very air around me to reverberate with a pulsating sound as it readied its attack. Mom and the others seemed to notice the orb growing as well, and stared at it for a heartbeat with widened eyes.
Shit, what do I do? I thought, unsure of whether I could slice through it without using Wraith mana, sensing a loose blow that wasn't even aimed at me from Mom's opponent. I hope this works, I gritted my teeth, drawing a copious amount of mana and releasing my Whip of Doom technique. So do I, Ysevel sent, having understood what I wanted to do.
The jade tendril wrapped around my target's left ankle, and I pulled with as much strength as I could muster, even going so far as to use a mixture of wind and earth mana to help push me along. I could feel that the sphere of mana was nearing completion through the mana and reverberations in the air around me.
I gave one final push off the ground, and leaped into the air, dragging its leg behind me, and right into the path of the other obcasus' blow. The sweeping, balled fist from my mom's target slammed into my opponent's ankle, causing it to fall backward and release the mana sphere directly above us, creating a pillar of power that careened toward the ceiling. With a thunderous boom, it blew a hole directly through it, revealing a part of the chasm we'd come down from just above us.
Massive stone slabs fell around us, prompting Ysevel and I to reposition ourselves to avoid getting crushed as they, as well as flailing attacks from the obcasus I'd tripped as it scrambled to get to its feet. "That was close," Ysevel breathed with a sigh of relief. "Sorry, I didn't know what else to do," I said, dashing out of the way of another attack from behind me.
"Look out!" Irun shouted as my target was about to slam its fist down. Heeding his advice, I stepped out of the way, but I realized the burn I'd left from my attack still hadn't healed. "Feathers, skin, or fur; let them burn," I muttered in realization, recalling a sing-song memory trick Roburn had taught me years ago to help me remember which spells to use.
Everyone, use fire on them! They can't heal from fire damage, I sent the others, getting a chuckle from my mother. "I was avoiding it with the lack of air-flow in here, but with that fresh hole in the ceiling…" she trailed off, immediately pouring an immense amount of mana into her blade before leaping off one of the nearby pillars to reach her target's nape.
I was forced to jump over another blow as the downed obcasus swiped wildly at me, but I could still see my mom forcefully driving her blade into its nape and pouring even more mana into the creature, burning it from the inside. As the beast reared in agony, I could see charred insides begin to pour out of its mouth like molten metal, and the sickly green hue of its mana-infused mouth began to dim.
I couldn't watch the rest, since I had my own target to deal with, but I had a plan. The creature got to its feet, and as it turned to face me again, I decided to use my Flamebolt spell, one that I'd created during my third-stage exam back in Caegwen. I drew more mana and began to condense it in my left hand, while carefully observing what the creature's next move would be.
Without much warning, it lurched at me with its maw wide open, like it was trying to eat me. Under normal circumstances, I might have felt a sense of fear of being eaten, but I felt a grin sneak onto my face as I waited for the maw to get closer. The heat from my spell had also grown white-hot, and I could feel it warming my exposed cheek, but I held my ground.
"Thoma!" I heard Ed shout just before the maw engulfed me, but with a burst off the ground, I raised my left hand, using my Flamebolt to punch a hole right through it, and came out the other end mostly unscathed. The Leech mana that it had gathered in its maw clung to my armor, but the farther away I moved from it, the more it dissipated.
Did that kill it? I thought as I stared into the meter-wide hole I'd left in its body. I don't think so, look, Kalia sent. Through our connection, I could tell she was talking about the large hand that covered its mouth, pouring its squirming skin into it to try to seal the wound. I gathered more mana into my left hand and used the mana in the air to send me barrelling toward it at a speed that might have rivaled my mother's.
I slammed the orb directly into the creature's side just below its shoulder and poured as much mana into it as I could. The portions of skin I'd landed on desperately tried to latch onto me, writhing and wriggling their way up my boots and legs. "Haven't had enough yet? Good!" I shouted, pouring more mana into it than I ever had in my life.
I could feel my connection to the Ethereal beginning to grow exponentially stronger, as if the mana was becoming a part of me, rather than simply channeling it. I continued to push mana into my spell, and I could feel the mana inside the creature's body just as well as I could my own; tendrils lashing out and charring everything they could reach.
Finally, the creature stopped moving.
Its body, steaming with a thick, black smoke, had finally ceased its writhing, and I let out a sigh of relief, but I knew that relief wouldn't last. As I turned to get a look at the others, Kalia was already done with killing hers; its body a macabre tapestry of seared cuts and missing limbs. Devyr and Ysevel had teamed up to take theirs down together, just as they had with so many other targets.
Each move was almost surgical, for lack of a better word. As their paths crossed each time, they kept up a steady stream of attacks on each of their targets, never once allowing them a moment to react. It took me a second to realize what they were doing, but it started to make sense.
The two of them raced up the titanic creatures' bodies, the streaks of burning, violet mana and cuts they left behind made it look like they'd covered their targets in a fishing net of pure, unadulterated violence. As one, their targets fell to the floor, prompting the mana in their maws and eye sockets to dim and fizzle out into nothing but black, dripping ichor.
To say I was merely impressed by their display of coordination and skill would be the understatement of the year.
Ysevel leapt off the back of her obcasus and flicked the remaining tissue from her blade with a single swipe, then resheathed it with a single, smooth motion and a satisfying click. "That's the last of them, I think," she said, walking over toward me while glancing around the area. "Yeah, that should be it, but we need to check on Balgrim. I don't think we can get through these doors without his help," I noted, tilting my head toward the sealed doors to my left as I resheathed my blade.
"How's he holding up?" she asked vaguely with a subtle head gesture, but I knew she was talking about Ed. I observed him closely for a moment, but when all I could see in his eyes was pure awe at what we had just accomplished, I figured he was unhurt. "He's fine, but let's regroup and figure out what to do about that thing," I said, glancing up at the large orb in the center of the room.
If I'm right, he'll have answers for us once we get him back on his feet, I sent her, prompting her to raise her eyebrows and widen her eyes as she breathed in through her nose. Let's hope you are, she replied with a determined look.