Chapter 1012 1011: Brief Second Wind

Chapter 1012 Chapter 1011: Brief Second Wind

The flames began to dwindle around the limp Fiend, its magic slowly but surely draining away from itself as it's blood seeped out of its neck and into the sands, dying the grains red instead of gold.

Anput twisted her katana one last time before yanking it free, allowing a geyser of blood to squirt into the air as the wound was finally opened fully, before she grasped the hilt of her weapon in both hands and chopped towards the Fiend's neck, attempting to sever its head from its shoulders and end this once and for all.

Ka'Volan gargled on its own vitae and tried to do something, anything at all to dodge or block this attack, the fiery Fiend showing its fear and desperation as that blade inched ever closer to its neck, but there was little it was capable of with a severely damaged spinal cord and a myriad of internal injuries plaguing most of its major organs.

If it was a mortal, it would have died already from these extreme wounds, but it wasn't a mortal; it was anything but 'mortal' - it wasn't anything like us, not really - and it made that clearer than some of the crystals of sand around us that had been glassed thanks to the heat when its entire body shimmered and pulsed with power.

Explosive power - as had been its signature so far this short yet eventful fight - coursed through its body and set off warning signs in all of our minds, and as soon as she noticed that Anput leapt far away and began to raise defenses around herself, which was then cocooned in flames of Leone's own creation to further protect her from whatever was to come.

She wasn't even a moment too soon since Ka'Volan's flesh rippled and pulsed as its power continued to mount within its coil, the Fiend charging something up and preparing itself for whatever was about to come.

"This is why I despise Fiends... the tricks that they all tend to have that makes them unique and gives them their arrogance. So dull and boring."

The Sultana clicked her tongue once more as she continued to observe this next phase of the fight, and she didn't even flinch or show any signs of surprise when the Fiend just... exploded.

Its body burst open and unleashed a wave of scorching hot yellowish white flames across the basin, bathing the area in an unimaginable heat that damaged even the mana array that had been bolstered during this fight, cracking parts of it and making the warriors and mages behind it blanch as fear's clawed grip wrapped around their hearts and gave it a painful squeeze.

It still tried to rise upwards, hoping that its speed could make a difference in this set encounter between it and them, but sadly yet another slab of rock joined the first, this one jutting out of the previous one to block the Fiend's ascent.

Trapped with its back against the wall and a roof above its head, the Fiend turned towards the tornado and tried to overwhelm it by sending a myriad of its own fires into it, hoping to destabilize Leone's spell and create an opening for itself, and its desperation fueled its anger as it screamed "NO! I WILL NOT DIE LIKE THIS!", but it was trapped between a rock and a fiery demise.

The unique mana of a Ka Fiend flooded the air as its rage fueled its last stand, that heavy, violent mana weighing on our shoulders even up here, trickling into our minds and filling us with a small amount of anger, trying to get us to join in the fray and cause chaos wherever we went, but it was a minute impulse that was easily stamped out.

Anput erected another slab of stone and further entrapped the Fiend, while Leone directed her flames to begin consuming the Fiend, the Vampire's ashen hair glimmering orange and red as she concentrated her everything on killing this Fiend and ridding the world of its stain.

Letting out another scream of anguished rage, Ka'Volan beat its wings and tried to rush into the tornado, hoping to push through the heat and push past the threat to its life so that it could escape, but the instant it did so it found itself trapped with the now blue flames.

Its screams continued as it was burned by a hotter flame, and the air was filled with a stifling heat as it was consumed entirely by Leone's hungry mana, the Vampire giving it her all as she drained most of her Core to deal with this threat, earning herself a large amount of the credit for this kill.

When the screams began to die down, she maintained the flames and continued scorching the desert around us with that boiling heat, the air itself blistering our skin somewhat and causing the mana array protecting Khisba to bubble as it was subjected to an intense wave of heat.

She kept that tornado up even as she began to glass the area around us, the Vampire ensuring that the Fiend was truly dead and not simply playing dead, drawing those seconds out into a hellish eternity as she flexed her arcane might and let loose.

I had to cover myself in thick sheets of ice to endure this heat, my body feeling far too hot for me to function properly and causing my insides to bubble, which hurt far more than most things ever could; even the Sultana was donning a thin cloak of mana as she watched the tornado continue to spin, but as it began to dwindle and flicker out of existence, all of us just had to remain silent as we looked towards the swaying Vampire, wondering just how she had managed to cast such an insane spell.