Failure. Or maybe not yet?
- Uh-oh! — Antwan yelled, and we all knew what ghost-weapon wounds meant for people with actual organs.
Blood streamed from Phoenix’s mouth and eye sockets, and with one failing hand he barely deflected a follow-up strike aimed to finish him off. Then he crashed to the floor, trembling in convulsions. Not quite death spasms yet... but close. If I didn’t drain that poison, he’d better start drafting a cute little epitaph for his tombstone.
Two enemies lunged at me, and I couldn’t help him. The ghosts worked together and fast — not letting me get the space I needed to whip the arcana properly. I was clearly boxed in.
I rolled to the side and slammed my head right into the damn table that had been lurking nearby — the same one where the bar patrons had been chilling a moment ago. Speaking of which — they’d all vanished, poof, like they were never here. Leaving us to deal with the ghost mess solo.
Then again, maybe better that they didn’t pick the other side…
Having thrown the whips, I elegantly merged them into one and sliced the air, aiming to sever the nasty ghost’s head. It lost its focus and got snagged by... the hairy claws that tore into it mid-air.
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The talons shredded the postmortem entity, turning the ghost’s silhouette into something resembling a torn bedsheet. But the lycan couldn’t rip apart all the soul-binding threads on his own, though he did plenty of damage to the enemy’s outer shell. I lashed the arcana again, turning it into a long, simple cord — and the strike landed square in the levitating scumbag’s gut, right where the lycan’s paw also rammed in, and together we finished the job.
- Headshot! — Blurted Antwan completely out of place, considering the ghost’s head was still where it belonged.
- Darling! — Mia’s terrified scream kicked my body into a whole different gear, obeying laws I hadn’t even drafted for myself yet. Hard to say how I dodged the blade hurled at me, but I did it!
And now, the last of the ghosts was left barehanded, with nothing but an unshakable, trembling desire to surrender. Despite the Obscurity will breaking its servant from within and demanding it keep fighting, this final phantom found the strength to resist — and dropped to its knees, raising its hands in a pleading gesture.
- .. don’t do thiiis!
As I twirled my deadly weapon, a simple puzzle began forming in my head
- one that could change the course of our entire crusade into the Our original plan was to reach the administrative headquarters that used to oversee the peaceful quarters of the City — now drowned in shadow — and summon the strigoi there. We were banking on the idea that he was monitoring key locations, since he probably didn’t have a crystal ball showing every corner of the Obscurity.
That’s where I’d been trying to get using a navmap loaded with the district’s pre-darkness layout — but the ever-shifting fabric of reality threw off that plan. I was basically winging it, trusting my legs more than anything.
But now... a new option flickered into view — something far more specific.
The fight was over, leaving behind a kneeling, surrendered ghost and poor Phoenix, shivering in delirium and turning blue right before my eyes.