Chapter 96 Emblem

'Shit' the string that I had accidentally touched had just shown the soul where I was, not to mention that the string had somehow wrapped itself around my leg.

'Guh'

I grunted to myself, the string had tightened, the string drawing blood from my leg. It seemed like the string was not only meant to find my location but to also damage my leg if possible.

I could see the soul charging at me, he would be at my position in barely a second.

There was only a moment to think on whether I was going to cut the string and allow myself to move or attempt to block the attack.

Ultimately, there was really only one decision, to cut the string. If I blocked the attack and my leg was still wrapped there was no doubt that I would lose the leg. Between losing my leg and a wound the choice was obvious.

As fast as I could I dropped my dagger into a reverse grip and stabbed at the wire holding my leg.

SNAP

The wire snapped allowing my leg the freedom to move again but I wasn't fast enough. By the time the string had been cut the soul was right next to me, its scythe poised to cut my head off.

I didn't allow that, in the millisecond that I had to react I flexed my will, an aether enhanced barrier of ice separated the scythe from my neck.

CRACK

The ice cracked only a moment after being touched by the scythe but it had done its job, it bought me the time that I needed to counterattack.

Crouching down so that the scythe flew over my head I push with all the force that I could muster at the moment. My body was flung by the force, my dagger in front of me, aiming for the leg of the soul

CLANG

"Tsk" I clicked my tongue, my attack had done nothing to the soul, only creating a visible nick on the armor. Seeing that I could do nothing I disengaged, the soul following me closely. However the heavy fog under my control allowed me to cloak myself from his sight.

The soul was a perceptive one though, it followed my indents on the ground that I had created and the sound of my foot. It made it almost impossible for me to disengage for a second, the soul constantly harassing me with well placed daggers that he had picked up from his fallen comrades.

Wounds quickly piled up on my body as the daggers that he had thrown found their mark.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to dodge them at the speed they were coming though and because of that I didn't dodge, instead I directed them to less lethal spots on my body.

My stomach, my back, my arms and legs.

All of these places were filled with wounds. Although the daggers were thrown with much force they were not able to fully pierce my skin, only nicking them and causing blood to fall out.

Still the wounds added up as more and more blood fell from my body.

I knew I could not delay this as much as I wanted to, originally I wanted to delay the fight so that I could regenerate the lost aether that I had used at the beginning and also recover my stamina but it didn't seem like I could do that.

It was also a flawed plan, if I disengaged for that long the soul would also recover, the strain that I had put on his mental faculties gradually recovering as I did.

Gritting my teeth as another dagger drew blood I knew I needed to finish this quickly. I knew how I was going to kill him, even if his armor protected him, it did not protect his biggest weakness, his origin. Not that I could blame him, the origins of every creature was in some unique place.

Luckily for me his origin was to the left of his left eye. Though the origin was much smaller than I was used to seeing, I knew that given the chance I would be able to pierce it with a well placed attack.

That was easier said than done though, his strength and explosive speed was better than mine. The only advantage I had against him was my speed and ability to manipulate the fog into ice.

However there was no other options, this was the only way I could think to kill him in the limited amount of time I had to think.

…

CLANG

CLANG

My attacks were continuously blocked, each time I thought that I would be able to land the decisive blow on him, he would block with either his arm, covered in armor, or his scythe.

No matter the approach I tried, the soul would just block the attack.

However, over the many times that I had tried to attack him I had noticed something, the soul when he was attacking would take a couple moments to return the scythe he held to its ready position where he could block my attacks.

I could take advantage of that, though I would need to be precise the arm that held the scythe was on the side of where his origin is, meaning that his other arm could parry my attack.

'I just need to try' I thought with a vicious smile on my face.

I needed to bait out an attack, to do that I slightly retreated feigning exhaustion, the soul seeing this fell for it and attacked, the scythe he was holding falling down with power.

Right when the scythe was above my head, with everything that I had I exploded with force, rocketing upwards so that my hand could reach his face.

CLANG

My attack was blocked but that was not the end, I had planned for this. The force with which I had attacked knocked his arm away and I up into the air.

Creating an ice platform above my feet I pushed and held my dagger in two hands, falling to the origin of the soul with as much force as I could muster.

…

[You have killed a general level veiled guard]

[You have gained 1/100 fragments of the veiled legionary emblem]