Crucifect dove toward Ashtoreth, enraged by so combination of being maid and being insulted.
Seeing that the distance between them was great enough for her to regenerate, she leveled her sword at him, then launched it with her [Mighty Strike], aiming for where one wing t his shoulder.
The counterforce snapped both her ankles and sent her tumbling back across the ground, away from him, but she was more ready for it now than she had been when she'd fought the golem. She got a claw into the soil and skidded to a halt, raising her chin to see a plu of violet fire wash over Crucifect's wing even though she hadn't dismissed her sword.
Red threads seed to glimr in the air before him like a net, then faded. Sohow he'd dispelled her sword. He'd drained so of her [Bloodfire] when he'd stricken her earlier, too. Perhaps he had an antimagic specialization?
She conjured her sword and re-knitted the bones in her ankles, but by then he was almost upon her. Crucifect skidded to halt as he approached her, having gathered too much montum in his rage, and she took the opportunity to launch her sword at the ground between them, then sprint toward it and leap into the air.
His jaws opened, flas gushing out into the air around them as he launched himself forward to snap them shut around her, but she pushed on her sword at the last mont, sailing over his head as his teeth closed, his flas scorching her.
She dove to land on his back, afflicted him with her [Energy Drain], then braced herself against his scales and pulled her sword toward her, against where his neck t his belly.
But even though his scales were weakest there, she could feel that her sword barely pierced his flesh, drawing only a few drops of blood. Still, it also afflicted him with her [Energy Drain].
Crucifet roared and shook himself a half-second after she landed, and though she kept her footing by pulling onto her sword and pressing herself into him, he conjured another constellation of searing motes of energy a mont later.
Ashtoreth waited, getting another [Energy Drain] off before the homing missiles darted toward her and she launched herself into the air to avoid them as they dissipated harmlessly across his back.
Five, she thought as she glided away from the dragon. Five applications of [Energy Drain], two of them with added strength because they were from [Mighty Blow] and [Mighty Strike].
It was the only way to fight a dragon that was 22 levels above her: she had to lower his stats, either to the point where she could kill him with one of her strongest abilities, or so much that she could kill him through his regeneration from [Health].
Below her, Crucifect breathed a pillar of fire onto her sword, breaking the magic that ford it and bursting it into a harmless cloud of violet hellfire that was quickly swallowed by his own, deep red flas. The he spun in place, spotted her in the air, and threw himself toward her by leaping off the ground with a powerful beat of his wings.
She folded her wings as he ca close, diving toward the ground as she conjured her sword again. He followed suit, moving quickly with his own racial flight ability.
He'd no doubt planned for her to dodge him in the way that she did, because as soon as she hit the ground she had to spring out of the way to avoid being crushed by Crucifect as he crashed down after her.
She ca to her feet, but still too close to him: his jaws snapped forward and she found herself beating her wings to leap back in a frantic dodge a mont later. These were followed by his claws, which lashed out at her in an effort to box her in while his throat began to glow with the deep red light of his flas.
She conjured her sword and used it to block the first strike from his claws, then dove in front of it and let it fall to the ground as she pushed against it and threw herself under Crucifect's jaws. She bounded across the dirt beneath him, reaching up to touch his belly and apply another [Energy Drain] as she headed for his rear.
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She saw the muscles of his back legs tense, his weight shifting, and drove a claw into the ground to halt her montum and hold her steady as she pulled her sword toward her hand. A split-second later he struck where she would have been with his hind legs, and a split-second after that she struck upward with a [Mighty Blow] that applied another [Energy Drain] and pierced his belly enough to draw blood—blood that she eagerly ignited into hellfire and drank.
Crucifect snarled and shifted his weight, rounding on her with his teeth bared and conjuring another dozen homing orbs of fire magic. Ashtoreth dropped her sword, launched herself to one side….
The next few seconds were nothing but frantic dodging, both with and without using the counterforce from her weapon. She touched him once more on one of his claws, applying another [Energy Drain] before having to yank herself backward and away from another claw, and then it was more hasty evasions, more fighting from instant to instant….
Her sword was too heavy to fight him with: it slowed her down too much while she held it. But that was fine: even only as a mobility ability, it was effective just for how much it clearly threw him off having to deal with her ability to throw herself around with the counterforce.
Even so, every mont that she stayed near the dragon was a mont where she was an instant away from death. If he'd still had his focus and his tail, she'd have been no match for him. A single glancing blow would have caused her to lose her balance, and then it all would have been over.
But his tail was necessary for balance. Without it, he couldn't manage the terrible grace and precision that dragons, despite their size, normally fought with. They were too arrogant to train to fight wounded, and so Crucifect's attacks were more enraged thrashing than calculated forms: an angry man screaming instead of a thoughtful man's debate.
His racial flight ant he was able to move himself around by pushing his center of gravity, positioning himself for more accurate blows, pushing him off the ground so that he was effectively lighter and could strike with lighting speed… but it wasn't enough. His tail had scabbed over, and he'd grow a new one if given enough ti… but she wasn't going to give him enough ti.
She touched him three more tis with her [Energy Drain], losing count of how many that made in total. She ate two of the largest hearts in her locket, the shiverhulk hearts, by conjuring them into a clawed hand and consuming them as fast as she could. She didn't have the ti to reach into her bag.
Finally Crucifect did what he should have done much earlier. He abandoned any hope of surpassing her in close-quarters combat, paused for a mont even though it ant absorbing another [Energy Drain], and then spun in place while releasing the brightest, hottest gout of firebreath that he had since they'd begun.
He lashed out at her with one claw to keep her from anchoring herself in the dirt and pulling her sword into her hand, and a mont later she watched as the blade was engulfed in flas, then dispelled.
The wall of fire ca upon her, and she beat her wings and leapt back as the flas grew and grew, engulfing the dragon and spreading outward. Crucifect rose into the air as he breathed downward and toward her, a pillar of bright fire searing her eyes where she saw it as she turned to run away.
The flas overtook her, and she grabbed a heart from her bag, consud it, and filled the air ahead of her with a gout of hellfire from her palm. Her flas did little to cancel out Crucifect's though, and the searing heat ca over her a mont later, burning her skin and depleting her [Bloodfire].
She ca free of the flas a mont later, conjuring her sword and needing to eat a second heart to replenish her resources. She glanced behind her, sure that Crucifect would be following his breath up with a new attack. But he wasn't.
Instead she saw Crucifect above her, his wings outspread, a shining star of deep red energy burning in between his claws.
And she saw past him, at where red draconic runes had been inscribed in the scorched earth around them.
She was standing in a giant magical circle. Crucifect's circle.
She planted her sword and launched herself outward, toward the edge, air rushing by her as she half-flew, half-bounded for safety.
"Ashtoreth!" It was Dazel's voice. It ca from the trees.
She looked around, couldn't spot him. Then she stepped clear of the circle just as the world was bathed in red light from an explosion behind her.
"Inside!" Dazel scread. "Go!"
Standing at the edge of the magical circle, she turned and saw that it was filled with spreading, red fire, a growing inferno.
"Inside!" Dazel scread.
She had only a mont to decide….
Ashtoreth sucked in a breath through her teeth, then pulled herself back into the circle.
Toward the oncoming flas.
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