I should've felt fear.
Instead my mind was buoyed in pleasant waters as I watched the fae blush and giggle. It was a woman of a light green. Almost entirely naked except for a few leaves to protect her dignity.
Her eyes radiated a bloody red and the portion she carved out of the World was chaos incarnate.
Though the World seed ecstatic to see her.
Strange.
She turned to Umoa and gave him a pout. "Human! You insult . You know the damp and mud and spring are horrible for sothing as delicate as ."
"You'll be fine, Asinin," Umoa grunted. "Besides, none of the other courts have what I need at the mont. I'm not planning on sacrificing my arm for a performance."
"Performance is half the fun!"
"I'm sure you think so," Umoa said.
"I do!"
Umoa rolled his eyes and the woman chuckled. It sounded slightly manic. She turned to face us as though she'd deigned to finally acknowledge our presence. Her smile was beaming. "Are these the ones you want to play with? Oh Umoa, you shouldn't have!"
Fucking ntal manipulation.
Sohow it made her examining us like a butcher sizing up a premium corpse seem endearing.
"Don't harm the children in any way. That includes ntally and emotionally," Umoa said.
That seed to take the wind out of Asinin's sails, making her slump forward and glare at the witch. "What?! You'd tempt only to deny? So of my kind would consider that a grave insult, human."
Umoa shrugged. "I guess I'll have to renege my gift then. A sha."
The woman's eyes widened and literally started sparkling.
"You got a gift? Tell! Tell, tell, tell."
"You'll find out after we're done here," Umoa shot down. "For now I have a few mages for you to entertain."
The woman raised a brow and closed her eyes. "Hmmm, fire. That's boring. Minerals is a strange one, but still boring."
She opened her eyes and turned to the glass mage.
"Glass but not glass. The way glass affects the world, through reflection or action or perception. Interesting, I wonder what you did to earn that connection? It's a sha that your spells aren't as creative."
"What are you?" the mage slurred. "People don't feel like this."
She could sense it too? That explained why she didn't ignore this developnt to continue fighting then. I should've though. I should've taken the opportunity to end the mage while I could.
That was...why wasn't I doing that? I felt calm. So calm and placid that I didn't seem to care about revenge or grief. Like my mind was floating in a cloud of fuzz. I considered sending mana into my mind but why would I do that?
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This felt nice.
The green woman tittered. "It's always so fun to et the ignorant! Hello! I'm Asinin, and thank you for noticing my splendid aura. It's the pride of the sumr court. All the rest are too busy with their silly gas to put any effort into what matters!"
Ignorance? I could fix ignorance.
I went to speak but found that I couldn't.
The fae turned to with a sharp smile. "No need to spoil the mystery, little sister. It's ever so much fun for them to figure it out on their own."
I heard a thump and turned to find Xae collapsed in the mud.
"Heh, spirits are too cocky," Asinin snickered. "Sha. I would've loved to chat with her."
How was she doing this? I could feel nothing. Nothing besides the chaos from her form.
She humd and took a step towards the glass mage. A single step that sohow sent her right in front of the woman. The mage flinched back but was caught by the nose and forced to face the fae.
She tilted her head this way and that, then scrunched her brow. "Bleh, your personality tastes like onions. I hate onions."
In one motion, Asinin tore off the woman's head.
I could hear her spine snap free and the sounds of viscera tearing. The rest of her body fell with the loss. Asinin looked over the head in her hands and smiled.
"Co on! Don't be boring, I have so much to teach you when we get back ho!"
There was a beat of confusion.
Until the head spoke.
"What in the motherfucking shit did—"
"Hush now," the fae giggled. "It's nothing dramatic, just easier to move you around this way. What do you need that silly body for anyway?"
She turned to Umoa with that sa innocent smile. "Sorry friend! The other two are too boring, I don't want to deal with them. Tell that witch lady with the scars that I said hello! And don't you dare throw away that gift! See you later!"
Then she disappeared.
Just gone.
I heard Umoa sigh. "Too unreliable," he grumbled, then turned to . "Grab that friend of yours. I'm not useful in fights and I doubt you can take on two proper mages."
I stared at him before pointing my blade in his direction.
He rolled his eyes.
"I'm here to help you, girl. I thought that was obvious."
"Fucking why?"
"Just grab your friend and lets go," he grumbled.
I stared. Eventually I got my body moving, walking over to grab Xae.
I didn't enjoy the sll, but there was a charm to charred at that I couldn't help but appreciate. Fire was destruction after all, or more accurately consumption. In its purest form, it was ant to take until nothing remained to sustain it. So while utilizing the fla to cook and keep warm was all fine and dandy, it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do.
Chaos contained in the gilded cage of convienance.
I wasn't an arsonist, but a reminder every now and again wasn't remiss.
So would consider it natural.
Which, of course, was why I was grinning at the elk-man brought low and the charred corpses surrounding him.
He'd been glaring at since I burnt away the muscles of his right leg.
"Don't be a sore loser now, it doesn't suite you!" I chuckled. "You tried to play the ga and you lost. No sha in that. I admire that you'd even think of sothing like this, most would ignore my proclivities in favour of a long life."
He wheezed, not managing to muster any words from his lungs.
Made enough sense. I did cast a rather nasty spell to deal with those particular organs. The fact he was still breathing was a testant to the wonders of essence.
Not nearly enough to bridge the gap between us, but still impressive in its own way.
I stepped forward and kneeled to match Loklan at eye level. Approximately. A few feet away of course, I wasn't keen on dying because of carelessness. "You know, I honestly do admire you. There are so many silly people touting their virtues, only to cower once it's their turn at the crucible. You saw a monster and decided to do what hunters do best."
His wheezes got deeper, struggling to keep himself conscious.
"Sha that reality doesn't work out like the stories, isn't it? Maybe then the world would be a descent place for the smaller folk."
The snap of a twig caused to glance at Kogan. He walked over to a nearby tree to lean on as he enjoyed his pipe instead of interrupting. Good man.
"I'd like to let you go, I really would," I sighed. "But you knew that one of us would end up the corpse at the end of this. Unfortunate. Goodbye, Loklan."
I snapped my finger for flair and caste Cremation.
The man didn't scream, but only because he couldn't. He writhed in pain and let out a kind of whistle instead. Slowly, the fla dug through the remaining skin and muscles, wafting the new scent I had blessed him with into my nose.
Anatomy laid bare for just a mont. Imperfect, but that was the way with fire. Contrary to the spell's na, the elk-man didn't burn to ashes. Wasn't designed to, that would be a waste of mana.
So I knew he was dead when the fire petered off his body.
I let out a sigh and stood to my feet, looking over to Kogan. "Let's go find your friend now, shall we?"
Kogan scoffed and pushed off his tree.
"Whatever you say, freak."
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