Bound Evil

When the crystal-clear blade approached Emily’s neck, she knew she needed to dodge. The dagger she had interposed to block the strike was hopelessly ill-equipped to stop this blade. Only her sharp intuition saved her as she dropped towards the ground, lowering altitude enough for the transparent blade to swing overhead. Expecting the impact of metal on metal—or whatever that thing was made of—Emily braced herself, but instead, there was nothing. A shriek of tearing metal filled the air, and when Emily looked up, her dagger had been cut cleanly in two. The broken half was still mid-fall, on its way to the ground.

Even from her elevated position, a few meters in the air, Emily had to crane her neck to look up at the specter’s ‘face.’ It somehow felt mocking as it passed through the air beside her.

Emily’s face lost all emotion as she let the handle drop from her grip.

If steel couldn’t stop that blade, then there was no point in blocking it in the first place. She launched herself backward as gravity took hold of the specter at the zenith of its jump.

By the looks of things, the only advantage she had was the fact that she could fly.

That thought wasn’t comforting, especially when the creature landed and immediately prepared to launch itself again.

Emily grunted and gathered her blood quickly, shaping it into a crescent and launching it toward the approaching specter. It slashed at the arc and cleaved it in two, but not before Emily managed to detonate the blood.

This caused cracks in its sword arm but not much else. On the other hand, the specter’s blade was still on its way here, so Emily dove out of the way as it passed.

Unfortunately, the creature was fast—fast enough to use its backswing to clip Emily’s arm. Steel couldn’t stop this blade, and although her gown would one day be stronger than steel, she didn’t have the energy to spare right now. The Vital Shell had long since been depleted by the guards so the blade went straight through her unguarded wrist, bone and all.

Emily groaned as her hand fell to the ground.

The wound smarted like a bitch, but she couldn’t afford to focus on that at the moment. Concentrating, Emily had to time it just right.

Her blood was ripped from her abandoned hand before it even touched the ground, which Emily then used to form a blood bolt.

Because of the proximity, she had no problem aiming it at the specter's breastplate and firing. The force alone was enough to crack ribs—or in this case, ice—but the specter didn’t flinch, even as it tumbled out of the air and crashed to the ground. It picked itself up and prepared to jump again.

Which was exactly what Emily had been looking for. When it transferred its weight forward onto the front of its ragged boots, Emily released another crescent, but this time the specter had no time to react.

It managed to get its blade up to protect its head, but the remaining strike passed through its wrist. The ice there shattered and the hand holding the specter crashed to the ground.

Emily didn’t even try to hide her smirk as she held up her stub.

“Snap!”

The Prince looked down at its hand as though it didn’t understand what just happened but it seemed to register and Emily's laughter didn’t seem to help.

The scream that came from it shook Emily’s eardrums and in response its call. All the remaining guards rushed over to the specter–their bodies melting into his– causing ghostly flames to issue forth from its icy body.

The cracks along its body rapidly began to heal and Emily's laughter was cut short.

“Fuck this! Alex, you’d better be ready!”

The specter transferred its weight again and jumped, but this time it was ready. It smacked a third crescent blade out of the air with the flat side of its blade.

Emily created a net in front of herself, and without any way to stop itself while airborne, the specter crashed right into it. She then grabbed hold of the end of the net and swung it around, using its own force against it. Spinning the specter in circles, she sent it around herself, only to release it towards the ceiling. When it crashed there, she had the blood latch itself to the stone, holding the specter in place.

Dropping from the skies, Emily made a beeline for the door Alex had left through. No sooner had she crossed the threshold than she felt the specter get free.

The dash through the corridor felt like an eternity, even though it couldn’t have been more than a couple dozen meters. When she got to a right turn, she took it, and a large room opened up to her.

There was an intricate astrolabe the size of a building standing in the center and Alex knelt in front of it, standing in the dead center of what looked like the control ward.

“I need twenty seconds!” Alex shouted, not looking up from his work.

Runes were glowing in gold in the air around him as he maneuvered them around himself, but whatever he was doing looked difficult as sweat dripped from his forehead.

“You gotta be kidding me!” Emily snarled, at the sound of the specter crashing into the corner right behind her.

Turning to face the specter, she could see frost creeping across the floor at alarming rates. Each step slammed down, causing cracks and minute ice crystals to form on the tomb’s floors. Its power seemed endless, and in this place, it just might.

Emily searched the Prince’s hands and saw it had already regenerated, but it was also empty.

Good it looked like the specter hadn’t thought to pick up its scepter, that meant as long as she could keep it at a range she would have the advantage.

Instead of fixing her hand, Emily shaped some blood into a clawed replacement. Not a long-term solution, but it would have to do for now.

The specter charged into the room. Emily was at the midpoint between the door and Alex so there was very little room to maneuver.

If she moved it might attack Alex, and if she stayed she was at a disadvantage.

Emily sighed markedly. She couldn’t directly block this creature, on account of that wicked blade, but she could send him away.

Emily triggered the wave method and cupped her hand over the back of her neck. She couldn’t be sure it would help, but everyone else had done it so maybe.

External grey source suddenly rushed into her bridge like a torrent, no, more. This felt like a tidal wave, as the lay line’s energy flooded her bones with power. The source traveled down Emily’s arm and into her hand.

At the same time, Emily made the two required gestures for the lift spell and directed the outcome at the approaching specter. This time she set it to a horizontal path and released it.

The spell that came out was just like the others, if not a fair bit stronger.

It launched the incoming specter back with such force that its chest plate folded as its arms trailed behind it.

The specter was sent back down the tunnel they had come from and crashed into the back wall, embedding it in the stone.

Cracks spread all across its body as the impact bounced through its frame.

Then Emily tried something she’d never done before: she attempted to sustain the spell. Instead of just creating a burst of force, she needed to hold the specter in place. Emily was pretty sure this would require another rune, but she had to work with what she had. So, instead of closing off the spell like usual, she pulled in another wave of energy from outside and directed it to her hand again.

Lo and behold, it worked. Just as the specter began extracting itself from the wall, it was pushed right back into the hole it had gouged just seconds earlier.

Emily smiled as she held her hand up in front of her. This worked until the fifth pull, that's when she realized the specter was adjusting.

It suddenly sunk its sword into the stone and used it as a crutch. Which was just ridiculous, that thing had cut through steel, what was a little stone?

Then, it braced itself onto its one knee and climbed to its feet. Enduring the pressure entirely with its body.

“Oh, now you’re just fucking with me!” Emily growled.

The specter took its first uncertain step, and then the next. It closed the distance rapidly. She tried to call to her blood, but it was slow to respond.

Was it because she was focused on the spell?

The specter was getting nearer now and Emily kept cycling source through her bridge, but it was no longer enough to stop this thing.

Emily snarled and took her free hand away from her bridge to make a second lift spell. When the next wave of source invaded her bones, it was far larger than she could handle, but she had to. Emily split the stream in two and led one down each of her arms. When the second spell engaged, Emily suddenly wavered.

The two separate spells wrestled for dominance in her mind, but luckily she was used to multitasking with her gift and held onto both spells.

The second one she aimed downward as she had with the Blightstingers.

The moment her fingers pointed down one of the Prince's knees buckled and he fell into a kneeling position in front of her.

It hadn’t been her intention, but oh how the tables had turned.

There was a groaning of metal and ice as the specter forced its head up at Emily. They were within arms reach by this point, but neither could move a muscle.

Or at least that’s what Emily had hoped. But when the specter's blade began to inch toward Emily's chest she snarled.

“Alex!”

All she could hear from behind her was Alex’s own struggles as he wrestled with the ward.

The blade was getting closer and Emily’s blood finally responded; as the pool of crimson lying at her feet began to coil up the almost immobile specter.

Blood wrapped around its legs and torso, winding up its arms and then pulling down hard on the blade. But to Emily’s dismay, it continued to progress with the strength of a titan.

The tip pressed against her gown, directly over her heart, and without much pressure, it punctured the armor. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there, causing Emily to groan as the crystal cut through flesh and cartilage. She could feel it, as it breached her chest cavity and proceeded to her heart. It did not even stop as it pierced that too, spearing the organ.

As horrible as that felt, it was always the exit wound that hurt the most.

Emily grunted in agony as the blade but through the bone and sinew and protruded from her back.

She couldn’t even draw a deep breath as it had gotten her a lung simultaneously.

All the while Emily never lost track of her spells or her blood.

Vitality was burning out of her as her heart refused to die, still beating irregularly around the blade obstructing it.

This had to end, now.

Emily pushed herself onto the sword and had the blood that was wrapped around the Prince’s torso shattered the ice around his jugular.

To her surprise instead of a title stone she saw a decayed neck, so wither and blue, it may as well have been jerky. But if there was an artery, Emily wasn’t going to say no.

She reached forward sunk her teeth into its neck and pulled. The ice burned Emily’s face, but she bit down on the Prince's neck and the largest hit of frosty life force rushed into her. It felt like she had just brushed her teeth twenty times as power entered her veins.

The specter tried to pull back but it couldn’t move in this position, and it even tried to pull the sword through Emily's side, but though the blade cut through her heat, the blood in her body prevented the hilt from completely leaving her body.

Emily drank greedily, ignoring the fresh pain and pulling in power almost as fast as she was losing it.

The room shuddered and Emily distinctly heard the sound of electricity arcing through the open air before a shockwave of power issued out behind her.

It didn’t hurt, or even jolt her, but suddenly the dying specter in her arms went ridged and collapsed.

Alex had done it, he'd shut down the tomb's wards.

Blood points: 158