Chapter 250 – Between the Mud and the Lightning

  Nathan Evenhart:

  I leaped into the air, the mages wasting no time in chasing after me. The woman in her beastly water form surged forward like a furious current, too fast for any ventional attack to nd. I dashed through the sky, stepping on ptforms of wind I jured beh my feet, while lightning crackled around me like protective sentinels.

  "I don’t know how you’re wielding other elements, but it doesn’t matter," she said, her voice reverberating like rushing water. Her arm morphed into a massive hammer of water, and she swung it with devastating force. The impact struck me, sending me hurtling downward. But before I hit the ground, I created another wind ptform to cushion my fall. Using the momentum, I propelled myself bato the air, electricity c through me as I prepared a terattack.

  Before I could strike, a spear of fire streaked through the air and smmed into my back, burning me and sendiumbling untrolbly. Mid-flight, a spear of stoerialized and hurtled toward me. I tried to grab it, but as soon as I touched it, it exploded into dust and shards, blinding me momentarily.

  “Damn it!” I growled, but there was no time to recover. A shadow loomed behind me, and a kick of overwhelming strength ected with my spihe demi-human moved like a wild beast, her speed unmatched. I was sent flying like a projectile, spinning untrolbly until a hammer of ice jured by the mage struck me with pinpoint precision. The impact hurled me into the roof of a house, shattering it as I crashed through with a deafening explosion.

  “I should have seen that ing…” I coughed, spitting blood as I struggled to my feet. Pain seared through my body. But there was no time.

  Around me, glowing blue fireballs began to rain down, their light bright and ominous. I reized the spell instantly. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I muttered, throwing myself out of the house just before the fireballs detonated.

  The explosion roared in my ears, and the heat licked at my back even from a distance as the house colpsed into a bzing heap of debris. I rolled through the muddy ground, scrambling to my feet amidst the chaos, only to hear the relentless sounds of war and more threats verging from every dire.

  That was close, too close!

  “Surprise!” a voice called out. I whipped around to face the source. The water mage, her shimmering liquid armor, charged at me with a predatrin. I reacted quickly, firing bolts of lightning her way, but too te I noticed the water beh me moving. Like a serpent, it coiled around my ankle and tightened.

  Before I could ter, I was violently yao the side, smming into the wall of a house with bone-jarring force. Pain exploded through my back as the air was knocked from my lungs. Dazed, I tried to recover, but I barely had a moment to breathe before something massive came hurtling toward me: a devastating kick from the demi-human, aimed squarely at my face.

  I khat if that blow nded ly, it would end me. In a desperate move, I raised my arms, summoning a wind barrier at the very st moment. The impact tore through my defeh monstrous force, hurlihrough the air. Walls, furniture, and debris shattered as I crashed through them, breaking everything in my path.

  I finally nded inside a partially destroyed wooden structure, my body screaming in agony as I struggled to rise. But there was no reprieve. Walls of ice began t up around me, closing in rapidly to form a dome that trapped me inside.

  Through the shattered roof, I saw the glowing blue fireballs desding again like bzieors, their heat growing unbearable as they approached.

  "Shit!" I shouted, juring a wind barrier instinctively. The surge of energy shattered the ie around me, and I burst out in a vortex of lightning. But as soon as I escaped, atack greeted me. Stone walls rose rapidly, f a corridor that uone arrows like projectiles from a war mae.

  I sprihrough the deadly gau, dodging as best as I could, but a few arrows tore through my flesh, staining the ground with my blood. I leapt into the air, using wind to propel myself upward, desperate to escape the trap.

  Before I could gain altitude, I felt something rush at me from the left. A burst of speed preceded a devastating punch that struck me squarely, flinging me higher into the sky. My body spun untrolbly as fire and ice projectiles streaked toward me.

  I tered with bsts of thunder, creating chaotic explosions that helped me regain some bance, but the barrage was relentless. From the ground, spikes of stone shot up with frightening speed, aiming for my predicted nding spot.

  Meanwhile, the water beast bouhrough the air like a predator, ung itself with increasing ferocity. I watched as it approached, its glistening form cutting through the relentless rain. I eled lightning through my body and fired a bolt at it, but to my horror, the attack seemed iive. Its liquid armor absorbed the impact, dissipating the electricity as if it were nothing.

  Her armor is a stant circution of water. I suspect she’s reinf it with pure mana underh. I o focus the electricity on a specific point.

  The water mage surged closer, her armlowing as she closed the distance. I took a deep breath, fog. With a swift motion, I executed a kung fu strike enhanced by wind, geing a powerful gust that momentarily stabilized her in mid-air, just enough to line up my move.

  At that moment, the Cursed Bde returned, slig through the air and smming into her back with enough force to disrupt her stance. Wasting no time, I propelled myself with wind, closing the gap at devastating speed, and delivered a thunder-charged punch straight to her torso. The impact made her gasp in pain as her armor quivered uhe pressure. She shed out at me, but I blocked her strike in mid-air, grippiightly.

  Our csh turned into a freefall, with electricity surging through me as I focused on breaking her armor before we hit the ground.

  “Ahhh!” she screamed, a mix of pain and rage as the electricity coursed through her body. Taking advantage of her weakeate, I twisted and hurled her into a carriage, the impact reverberating through the street. Without missing a beat, I jured a wind bomb and u at her, creating an explosion that hindered her armor's regeion.

  Moving swiftly, I grabbed her by the hair and unleashed a surge of electricity, dragging her face across the ground with each step. The resistance of her mana shield faltered, and with a final effort, I flung her into a bcksmith's shop. The thunderous crash shook the structure as I stood over her.

  "That water hammer really stung," I remarked sarcastically, watg as she struggled to recover.

  Before she could mount any response, I lunged, smmio the ground and raining down punch after pun her face. The sharp cracks of each impact echoed, every strike amplified by the lightning c through me. Her resistance waned, and the siing ch of her skull finally sighe end of her fight.

  Barely catg my breath, I felt the walls behind me explode with staggering force. There was no time to react as a devastating kick struck me, ung me across the battlefield. Pain radiated through every bone in my body as I crashed to a halt.

  Refog through the haze of agony, I saw the demi-human charging at me, fury etched into her face.

  "Time to die!" she bellowed, wielding a massive axe, while the ice mage appeared above, a freezing beam of energy aimed directly at me.

  My mind raced as I geed energy through my body, summoning a familiar spell. A whip of wind, crag with electricity, materialized in my hands. As the ice mage unched his attad the demi-human charged, I swung the Thunder Whip in a wide arc. The impact sent the ice mage flying backward, but the demi-human, far more resilient, caught the whip with her mud-covered hand, partially insuting the electricity.

  Before I could react, she yanked me toward her with inhuman strength, pulli high speed. Her punch came like a hammer, striking me square in the chest and ung me backward through the air. I crashed into a pile of debris, pain radiating through my body like a tidal wave, eaent amplifying the agony.

  "You're just a bastard full of tricks!" the demi-human snarled, charging toward me with brutal speed. She unleashed a kick that collided with my wind barrier. The explosive impact sent me skidding back, even with my defenses up.

  "How about this one?!" I retorted, summoning the Cursed Bde, which spun at high velocity toward her back. She turned with lightning-fast reflexes, catg the bde mid-air.

  "I've seen this trick before!" she sneered, her feral grin widening. But in that instant, the sword exploded in a burst of thunderous energy. Seizing the opening, I surged fathering every ounce of energy I could muster.

  Just as I closed in, something smmed into my side, stopping me abruptly. The earth mage had appeared with his magical drill, which burrowed into my abdomen, spinning viciously. I screamed in pain but mao grip the drill with both hands, preventing it from tearing through me pletely. Ag on instinct, I headbutted the mage with all my strength, f him to stagger back.

  "Fire Ray!" came the shout from the fire mage, followed by a bzing torrent aimed directly at my back. With no time to dodge, I spun around, using the earth mage as a shield. The fmes engulfed him entirely, but in the same moment, I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back.

  Looking over my shoulder, I saw the ice mage standing there, clutg a club that had pierced my flesh.

  "Shit!" I cursed, the pain tearing through me, but without wasting any time, I gathered a tration of energy and unleashed a massive electrical wave. The shockwave was so intehat it bsted the id earth mages away, their screams eg as they crashed to the ground.

  The fire mage, still standing, unleashed another wave of fmes in my dire. I jured a small tornado of wind, sug in the fire and shielding myself from the impact. With the opportunity created, I called the Cursed Bde bay hand and sprioward him at full speed.

  As I ran, the sound of the es’ footsteps closing in grew louder, but I pushed my body to its limit, surging with electricity. The fire mage jured a barrier of fmes, but I enveloped the sword in wind, cutting through the fiery shield like a bde through paper.

  "Damn it, he’s quick!" he yelled, realizing too te how close I was. In the final instant, I burst into a storm of electricity, increasing my speed expoially. With a swift motion, I drove the bde deep into his chest.

  "FUCK!" he screamed in agony, desperately trying to cast another spell, but I forced the sword deeper. The Cursed Bde's power instantly nullified his magic.

  "What...?" he stammered, his eyes wide with fusion and despair. Without hesitation, I delivered a punch to his face, shattering his nose and sending him sprawling backward.

  I o finish him off!

  "It won't be that easy to take us down!" the demi-human bellowed, her voice brimming with disdain and fidence. Before I could react, a massive wave of mud surged toward me, swift and uing. Instinctively, I tried to leap out of its path, but a stone spear shot out, pierg my shoulder with brutal force. The impact threw me off bance, and the mud wave ed me entirely.

  I was swept away in the viscous current, my body spinning untrolbly as I was hurled into debris. Each collisi muffled screams from me, quickly silenced as the mud filled my mouth and he weight ay of the sludge dragged me deeper, the pressure mounting as if I were being buried alive.

  Everything around me was darkness. I tried to explode with wind, attempting to disperse the mud, but the current was relentless. Stone spikes began to grow within that murky sea, pierg me as I was thrown bad forth. My skin burned from the cuts and the force of the impacts.

  With desperate effort, I focused a wind bomb beh my feet and propelled myself out of the muddy tide. My head broke the surface, and I gasped for air, coughing up mud and blood. But before I could even think about esg, I felt my body lo pce.

  The mud around me hardened like storansf into a solid trap.

  My eyes widened in panic. I was pletely immobilized, like a statue trapped in a stone mold. I tried to move, but there was no way to break free. Every attempt was futile against the cruel prison that now held me at the mery enemies.