The Neonate: 3

Fuck. This was bad.

My mind gave me that helpful thought in terms of an effective defensive tactic, as Tali ran towards me, closing a hundred feet in about a second. He swung a sigil inscribed sword which crackled with lightning straight for me the moment he closed. Thankfully, my senses weren’t dulled enough that I couldn’t remember my years of training, and that, combined with the speed sigil allowed me to very quickly pull up my blade in a parry. I then skid back on the backfoot as he lunged again, I barely parried it aside, and used the force and speed at my disposal, along with a small gout of flame to force Tali to take a step back, thankfully putting him slightly on the backfoot, thus making things in total, an impasse. He looked surprised, or as surprised as someone wearing a helmet could. I might have been reading too much into too little body language that he was giving off.

“I was expecting a few guards. That, and only one new magi on the field of battle tonight. But then again, our luck has already been shitty tonight.” he mused to himself as if I wasn’t there, before affixing his gaze firmly forward at me.

I could see individuals moving behind him now, through the area he’d punched through. A larger figure, who based on his horns, tusks, and body size, had to be one of the orcs who I heard so much about from people on the front. A much smaller individual, who was likely a gnome, strapped with dozens and dozens of small clockwork devices, he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the world around him as he shuffled forwards. Another individual who seemed to be a diabolos, with her red skin, horns and what appeared to be a forked tongue, walking forwards with a maul which had to be twice my height held on her shoulders like it was nothing. The final member among his, what only presumed to be backup, was another human, dressed in more traditional magi robes. He looked tired, more then anything. I wasn’t able to devote much more time to studying them or trying to figure out a plan for dealing with them before Tali’s voice called my attention back forwards.

“Another Sigilist? Very interesting. You don’t see people like us in the Kingdom very often.” another statement, like I wasn’t there, even though he was addressing me.

My mind was racing. Calling back to what he’d said first, curiosity taking over my mind for a brief moment. “You said one new magi on the field of battle tonight. Was that the display near the central line?” it had to be, right? Power like that didn’t come without magic, and I hadn’t heard anything about it. Lord Salazar must have kept it in the wings. He was a tactician at heart, that much I knew. So, the idea that he’d wait to deploy a strong ally until later in the conflict when they didn’t expect it didn’t seem all that unlikely.

“You aren’t stupid at least. Yes, it appears the Kingdom called in skilled backup for once.” Tali had begun pacing around me now, while I moved my sword to always be facing him. If he struck me in the back, I wasn’t sure my protection sigil would be enough to save me from him burning me like that. “An archmagi. They call him Caliban, he has a lot of name recognition the further east you go. He’s problematic, but currently, you’re worse. So, how about this. You scamper off, out of my way, I deal with everyone who saw you here. You lose nothing, and I don’t waste time. Seem fair?”

I grit my teeth the longer he talked about the proposal, when it was done, I shook my head, with anger building in my face. I kept my sword evenly leveled, before I gave the calmest reply I could bring myself to.

“Sorry. Not going to happen. I’ve been tasked with protecting this area, and I’m not going to run away like some coward in the dead of night.”

Tali sighed, which could only really be made out through a faint huff of air through his helmet. He moved into more of a combat stance.

“Have it your way.”

He made a hand motion, likely gesturing for his allies to join the fray. It was then that I had my first lucky break tonight. Moving out of where they’d been laying in wait, the guards moved from the towers, weapons drawn and shields ready as they moved to engage. Daruk and his men moved for the orc, who had already started transforming when Tali had made the gesture. This rendered him immobile and almost defenseless to preliminary strikes from the guards. The men in the other tower meanwhile, moved to try and strike down the mage before he could do anything. An arrow meant for a lethal blow instead struck him in the arm and as one of the other guardsmen moved to charge him in melee, he teleported instead, appearing about forty feet away, chanting already. The diabolos was already in motion, and the gnome was nowhere to be seen. Outside of the potential problem of the gnome, that just left me and Tali, who was already on the move, running past me. I dully wondered why he did that for a moment, just before a blast of flame and a small bolt of lightning along his path struck me head on. The protection sigil flared to life on my armor, forming a faint yellow sheen, leaving me smelling smoke, but not much else for now. The sigil wouldn’t take a lot of damage, but Tali’s tactic with his boots seemed to be more focused on mass damage rather then anything concentrated. I wheeled around, seeing where he went only being a few feet away, and that he was already mid lunge with with both of his swords. I barely had time to swing my enhanced sword to parry one, but the other struck my barrier, which crackled in response, knocking me back. He used this chance to kick more elemental energy into my barrier, further destabilizing it as he moved to attack again.

I needed an upper hand, or at the very least, some breathing room to recharge my barrier. I had maybe one more attack before the sigil was down, potentially for good.

Taking a deep breath, trying to ignore my heart pounding in my chest, I spun my sword around in my hand and swung HARD at Tali, using everything my minor strength sigil could give me along with my speed, flaring up my flame sigil to force him to move back. Not a hard move for him to make, however, I changed tactics last moment, striking the ground full force (thankfully not harming my weapon due to the sigils inherently apart of it and generally good make) and releasing the pent up flames in his direction, forcing him further back to avoid being burned. While he sidestepped, I was pulling up my sword and running forward at the same time, exerting myself and overstepping slightly in the process, but it didn’t matter. I lunged, bringing down the sword near his breastplate. His protection sigil flared in turn, but I kept pushing, seeing the sparks building up. The goal I had with this change of tactics was to apply pressure, but in a dull sense of hindsight, I realized that was a bad idea for a multitude of reasons. Tali had more fighting experience then I did, and that meant, among many, many advantages he had, he was adaptable, and had a far wider arsenal then I did. A rune I didn’t recognize flared on his helmet, as he moved to headbutt me while I was in close quarters. I was in no place to dodge, after having put most of my immediate energy into the lunge which had done little to him. The blow connected.

I immediately felt the effects, that being a splitting headache which pounded in my skull. The sigil on his helmet faded after I stopped making contact. What the hell sort of sigil was that, and why would he have it on himself?

I didn’t have very much time to contemplate that, as he sprung towards me, more energy flying towards me. My protection sigil took the blow, but faded, and allowed some through. My hair got singed along with my cloths, at the very least however, neither of those things ignited. I dove backwards the moment I realized that my only means of protecting myself from a stray blow was gone, however the flaw in my plan was realized when another small burst of flames and lightning struck me in the side, scorching my armor and dulling my senses for a moment as he appeared beside my now prone body, swords raised. My headache was slowly petering off now, the pounding in my skull now only a slight drone of pain, giving me the faculty to pull up my sword to intersect his pair at the last moment, only made possible by the speed sigil. The moment we crossed blades, I saw his and mine glow, as I had, in my haste, forgotten about our energy runes. I quickly, using as much force as I could draw from the strength sigil, pushed his blades away, but the energy still hit me in partial force on my left side. Not enough to inflict an injury I couldn’t heal, but it was going to hinder me if I needed to use my left arm for anything in the immediate future. My flames sigil managed to strike him with a gout of orange and red heat which was absorbed by his own protection sigil, causing the barrier to crackle slightly but having very little other effect otherwise. The more pressure I put on that, the better chance I had of getting out of this alive. My only saving grace thus far is that he seemed to have better defensive or more utility based sigils, with his offensive ones being enough to disorient and speed up his striking power, but very little besides that. I just needed to injure him to the point where he’d want to flee. A lot easier in my head then it was in practice, being singed, hurt on my left, and having the faint pain in my head, facing down an enemy who didn’t even look slightly exerted.

I scrambled to my feet right after my successful strike, spinning my blade around just in time to block and knock away another twin pronged swing, parrying both short swords in quick succession, forcing the energy blasts to the left and right sides of me, narrowly avoiding them myself, lightning and flames arcing around us in a dangerous light show. I, in turn, directed my small flame blast directly towards his breastplate, absorbed by the sigil once more, but I was doing damage to it, slowly but surely. I was also, more importantly, getting into a groove of the fight now. Sidestep. Parry. Knock aside. Swing. Hit breastplate. Repeat.

He, however, seemed to be getting into a similar state, his attacks getting closer and closer to me. He was also getting faster, more unpredictable, and generally harder to block. He landed one strike to my already injured left side, sending me slightly recoiling from the lightning which conducted through the blow, only for a follow up strike to follow HARD to my right, the flames acting more as a concussive force which send me planting into the nearby wall, then sprawling to the left as a slight conscious effort on my part to try and avoid a follow up strike within the next two seconds or so. I put about ten feet between us with that move, and I struggled to move. I’d broken something. By the time he got close, I was about up to my knees, wobbling slightly as I moved to stand, back to the wall.

“I warned you. This is such a waste, I hope you know that. One in a million, they say, and you waste it for a Kingdom which doesn’t care less.”

He sighed again, as my thoughts were racing. Solutions. I looked, seeing his protection sigil still faintly glowing. That meant it was actively being used, not passively. He was having it up all the time, so he didn’t run the risk of my blows getting through at all. It also meant he was exerting energy…drawing from his well, and likely his other sigils with each blow, and with how protection worked…they’d all be equal. I had one plan, and it had to work. I pretended to be in more pain then I was, doubling over to the ground, as Tali stepped forward to jab his blades towards my chest. I’d, in reality, grabbed my real target in this maneuver, a handful of a multitude of small rocks, maybe ten to twelve. Just before he strikes me, I pivoted upwards, and chucked them all at him.

His protection sigil shattered, and I lunged.