Chapter 57: How A Succubs Fights

The resulting blast was enough to force the sound of a muffled explosion to echo through the nearby environments. At least, the first one was -- the second was more fierce and much louder. Fargo's body lurched despite being pinned by Katrin's surprise ensnarement as the second explosion resulted in splatter of blood which forced Katrins' grip free. The attack was utterly devastating. Unbeknownst to Katrin, Fargo had been rendered unconscious from the viscous rattling of his brain against his skull since the very first attack.

Fargo's face and Katrin's hands each shared the brunt of the brutal attack, but it was Fargo who suffered the most. His mana energy slowly faded away, his body going limp in the process. There was a reason why Katrin preferred not to use this particular type of Scribe casting -- it could backfire and hurt the user which was currently happening. The first blast made her palm go numb, the second caused her to lose feeling in her hand while the third blast exploded forth, igniting her hand and Fargo's face ablaze. The force from the final and most powerful blast was so powerful that Fargo's body was forced backwards, arcing through the air several feet before he landed hard on the street, face down.

She'd prepared herself for the pain, but she waved her hand to douse the flames, finally being forced to use mana to extinguish them. As she gazed down at her hand the fingers were almost mangled and reduced to blackened masses. Her palm was rife with deep cuts which flowed freely of blood.

Katrin's forehead was now beaded with sweat as she gazed upon the corpse of her foe, his hair and by extension his flesh was still burning which filled the air with the sickening scent of charred flesh.

"Shit! Ashe!" Glint shouted as he pressed his attack to keep Agni pinned down. Out of the corner of her eye Agni could see Ashe's thermal image moving towards Katrin who was completely distracted by both the pain and her focus on Fargo's crumpled body.

*Now! Use Extend!* Shula shouted.

Agni realized what Shula had in mind but she still had yet to use either ability she'd just acquired. She realized in a split second that the odds of her defeating her foes would drastically drop if Katrin was put down, thus she did the only thing she could do -- she took a gamble.

Pushing her senses to the limit, Agni focused her intent to activate 'Iron Fangs, Iron Claws'. Her hand was already in motion before the skill could even kick in, she would either face the pain of broken fingers or surprise her foe. She could feel her fingers as they grew more heavy, denser. This feeling extended to the fingers and fingernails on both hands as both her fingers and her nails turned a shiny sheen of black. Rather than attempt to avoid Glint's knives, Agni directed her strike at Glint's face -- particularly his eyeball. While Glint was prepared for dirty fighting, in fact Agni's telegraph of her intent was so obvious that he grinned to himself at her newbish behavior.

He underestimated the fact that Agni's fingers could snap the blade of his weapon. Not only did this occur as he moved to slash her, but her fingernails also extended at the last moment. Like pointed spears themselves, gouging Glint's eye and nearly piercing him completely had his reflexes not kicked in. He swayed at the last possible moment, but not before the piercing attack claimed vision in one of his eyes. He mentally prepared himself for the pain and in the process left Agni a nasty gift by jamming the broken dagger into her thigh as he tumbled backwards onto his ass.

As Glint looked around he felt cornered and his wilder reflexes kicked in. He prepared his second blade as he struggled to compensate for his eyesight. Pain washed over him, robbing him of his normally sharp senses in the process. He half expected her to finish him off, after all the critical blow damaged his health severely. Yet the attack did not come.

As he struggled to make sense of it all he finally realized what had happened. Agni used the surprise attack against him, and indeed she tried to kill him in a single strike but her intent was never Glint. He saw the true extent of Agni's ability, Extend, as the fingers from her right hand had grown several meters. Ashe had been impaled mid stride in several places, all of them fatal. Kidney, lung in several places and even close to his heart, Agni's attack was brutal, efficient and unexpected. By combining the two abilities she'd just acquired at the behest of Shula, Agni was able to expend mana to harden her fingertips and nails to the likeness of iron. Furthermore by using Extend she could cause parts of her body, namely fingers and her tail to lengthen. Because of her panic, as well as her desire to avoid losing the advantage, Agni had placed a significant amount of her remaining MP into this technique.

What would normally amount to centimeters of growth shot forth like piercing spears of flesh and easily pierced Ashe's leather armor in a plethora of positions. The strike was somewhat unwieldy to handle and only lasted for a few seconds before Agni felt too weak to maintain the weight of her body's new distribution, thus her fingertips began to retract like a tape measure. Her talon like nails removed both chunks of flesh and trails of blood as they came back to her with a snap.

The gash on Agni's leg was worth it, so much in fact that she began to chuckle to herself. Ashe's face was contorted in both surprise and pain as he struggled against the flow of blood that was both leaking from his body and simultaneously filling his lungs. With his last dregs of strength faltering, Ashe fell in a heap to the ground and breathed his last amidst the sound of raspy gurgles.

Agni gloated that the attack had fared so well. She felt that with the tables turned both she and Katrin would now be able to get away easily. The battle had been fierce. Six against two yet they had somehow managed to overcome the odds against stronger opponents and the numbers threat.

That's why she was completely caught off guard by what happened next.

*Agni! Agni!* Shula's voice rang clearly in Agni's mind, snapping her full attention on her remaining enemy. At first she believed he would attempt an attack while she was distracted, and she was right-- partially. Pain shot through her thigh as she shifted her position to face Glint, only to notice that his arm was extended, almost as if he's just--

Upon realizing what happened Agni turned to warn Katrin, but it was too late. Glint tossed his remaining daggers with all of his might, burying both to the hilt in Katrin's chest. One pierced her lung while the other her heart , forcing the brave young adventurer to her knees in the same blow.