Zhīzhū’s body flew backwards, in sync with Adrastos’ lunge. Her hand reached into her cleavage as she moved away, her hand returning with two vials. One was thrown towards Adrastos while the remaining one stayed within her hand. A flirtatious smirk spread across her face as her eyelashes flickered coyly. Though her heart was cold, her voice was warm. “Enjoy the gift, darling.”
Adrastos didn’t expect to hit her, but he certainly wasn’t expecting her to match his movement perfectly. He didn’t know what the vial would do. How did it work? Break on contact? Cause some sort of toxin to spread? Explosion perhaps? The magician side-stepped slightly, barely managing to miss the vial thrown at him as it passed centimeters from his chest. He was grateful for the training he did to become a warrior. Adrastos used the momentum to spin, extending his scythe to give him the extra two meters of length, swinging it toward Zhīzhū. A black construct, a shadowy raven, flew from the scythe. The raven was part of the weapon’s passive and always appeared when he swung his weapon for the first time in combat. “All I want is your head at my feet,” he hissed.
Disappointment was hidden within the depths of Zhīzhū’s eyes as Adrastos sidestepped the vial. “Still not willing to accept my affection?” With a wave of her hand a complex combination of light and sound magic covered her. A metallic claw, shaped around her finger, seemed to be the source of her spell. As this magic manifested, she split into three copies of herself. One went to the left, the other went to the right, while the last kept retreating.
Adrastos, with his knowledge of spells, would be able to sense that the strength of the magic manifested was much stronger than what he simply saw before him. There was more to her spell than what met the eyes. A playful expression, like a cat facing a mouse, covered the three women’s faces. They moved in tandem, and the sounds emitted from each of them were all realistic. “Yield to me, boy. It will never be my head at your feet. Relax… Make me your mistress.” The three women pointed to the same spot on the ground, behind Adrastos, as another spell was uttered. Strength magic flowed forth, and the clicking of a mechanism being activated resounded through the room.
The floors began to move, opening a two meter wide chasm in front of the chair. This chasm was not lit, though the light from the room shone upon this new addition to the room. Spider webs, as thick as cord, littered the sides of the chasm. The liquid from the vial dripped down the side of the walls. As it did so, the webs began to sway.
"I could say the same, but there's no reason if we aren't going to get anywhere by playing the same game," he said. He had thought about manipulating her, using her, but it would be a losing game. "Besides… I know about black widows." Adrastos watched her three clones carefully. He staggered as the ground shook beneath him and the chasm opened behind him. The magician clicked his tongue. Should he attack the chasm? Or ignore it and focus on the caster? “Eringo Umbra.”
Three shadowy clones of Adrastos rose from the darkness. “I won’t be anyone’s slave, not even yours.” The shadow raven swooped down toward one of Zhīzhū’s forms while one clone charged forward. The other two split up to attack the others. Each shadow clone would do a simple horizontal swing at their target. His silver eyes kept watch of the chasm in his peripheral, watching as the webs swayed. He didn’t know there was a secret chasm she could open at her leisure. Adrastos knew he needed to be careful so he didn’t fall victim to any traps she may have in the room.
Just as the shadows approached the three Zhīzhūs the webs in the chasm moved. A one meter large spider darted out of the webs, climbing up towards the top. The creature’s mandibles were long and sharp. Its legs, even longer, scurried with a frightening speed. Though it moved quickly, there was something strange about its movements - instead of directly heading towards Adrastos, the spider made its way to the spilled contents of the shattered vial - the opposite side of the chasm.
Right as the creature made its presence known, Adrastos’ three clones struck out at the three forms of Zhīzhū. Each of those three forms disappeared.
With all of this happening at once, there was a sudden appearance of a dagger weilding Zhīzhū behind Adrastos mid-swing.
Hearing the scuttling of a creature behind him, Adrastos turned. The magician jumped back but not before the knife grazed his forearm. Putting some distance between her, Adrastos swung his scythe horizontally toward the chasm. An arc of shadow extended from the blade and flew outward. The shadow raven swooped past Adrastos to fly right behind the arc. He also directed the clones toward Zhīzhū. Whether or not Zhīzhū dodged the arc, the explosion radius should still hit the chasm. She’d also need to deal with the construct behind it and the three shadow clones. If the shadow clones got close, one would use Echetus’ Punishment to temporarily cloud her vision while the other two would swing their scythes around her and pull, trapping her between the blades.
Meanwhile, the arc of darkness would hit the chasm and cause an explosion of shadow ten meters wide and two meters tall. Anything still lingering in that chasm, if close enough, would be harmed by the explosion itself or be crushed by falling debris.
Zhīzhū clenched her teeth as she charged through the first attack. She would not be mired by a mere web of her opponent’s making, instead showing her capability in scheming by moving against convention. The explosion from the arc of darkness had far-reaching effects, engulfing not just her and the spider behind her, but Adrastos’ shadow puppets as well. Though Adrastos may have believed she would dodge the attack, that was not the choice she made. Her Borg soaked the force, nearly bursting from the impact. The explosion that came afterwards was to her surprise.
To the spider’s credit, a quick shot of web flew out and attempted to slow the attack down. This proved somewhat effective, however some remaining shadow magic crippled its two front legs. The creature cried out in fear, scuttling backwards from the damage. Zhīzhū was not relying on that creature, however, to be the driving force in this fight. It had already served its purpose in distracting her opponent, whom she had already closed the distance on.
Zhīzhū’s clawed hand pointed towards Adrastos as a sound emitted from her hand. The frequency visibly shook the air as it headed towards him - this spell was just as powerful as Adrastos’ last attack towards her, though it seemed the frequencies were intended to disorient him more than attack his organs.
The clones were tougher than your typical clone. Even though the shadow puppets were damaged by his own spell, they could still be useful as they executed the same moves as before while she was busy attacking Adrastos. The raven swooped directly down from the air, aiming for Zhīzhū’s head. Adrastos gracefully spun as he sidestepped, using the ripples in the air to tell him where the attack was headed and how big of an area it took. She didn’t seem like she was taking this seriously, or at least wasn’t going for him with the intent to kill. “Stop toying with me.” At the end of his small spin, Adrastos sprinted toward the woman. He jumped into the air and smashed downward with the scythe.
Zhīzhū witnessed Adrastos moving, swinging his scythe at her from above. The sound of his constructs approaching her from behind entered her ears. The fact they were still alive bewildered her, though she only had a few moments to spare. The woman pulled three small balls from a concealed location. With a flick of her armored finger against a small piece of flint built into those small balls, the three became lit. Her hand moved with a practiced tempo, throwing them at the three clones.
Zhīzhū clicked her tongue as she drew a dagger to defend against the scythe. The strength behind it, however, was more than she could handle. Her spell-casting hand was preoccupied dealing with the clones, so the remaining hand could only delay. The dagger was quickly knocked from her grasp, falling to the floor as she fell backwards. A numb feeling covered her off-hand, though no lasting harm befell her. “But dear, you’ve always been my toy. Or do you think… That you’ve escaped my poison?” Zhīzhū gave a pointed look towards the cut along Adrastos’ forearm from earlier.
Losing the clones didn’t mean anything to the dark magician, but being called her toy annoyed him. Adrastos glanced at the cut along his forearm. The blood still dripped from the wound. He didn’t feel any odd reactions to a poison. However, just because he practiced as a doctor, that didn’t mean he knew about poisons. If he was poisoned, what effects did the poison have? A slow death? Temporary paralysis? Adrastos narrowed his eyes. “You think that will stop me from killing you? Do you want me to beg on my hands and knees for some antidote?” He stepped closer. “Hate to break it to you, sweetheart,” he said with a sneer, “but you’re going to need more than poison to get me to bow down to you.”
Zhīzhū giggled in response, a mocking tone tinging her voice as her clawed hand made its way back to the forefront. “Little boy, it turns out that a child twice bitten knows fear… But this time your hesitation cost you an opportunity. You’ve been fooled!” As she spoke, life magic erupted from her hand as she threw some seeds to the ground and jumped into the air and backwards, towards the chasm. At the same time, she retrieved the vial from her bosom once more, breaking it above her and covering herself in the tonic.
The magic hit the seeds, causing them to quickly grow into vines - these vines were quite sharp, shining with the coating of a strange substance. As these plant-like tentacles extended, one covered the gap of the chasm while keeping the thorns away from Zhīzhū. The remaining three shot forward to Adrastos, approaching from the left, the right, and above. They looked like they were attempting to bind, poison and pierce him if he did nothing in response.
With the vines as cover, Zhīzhū threw a small bomb into the air, using the angle of the vine approaching from above to cover the movement. Her plan was to strike Adrastos with this hidden attack, hopefully within the gap of an attack towards the vines.
Little boy? Fear? He wasn't afraid of her. Adrastos jumped backwards, watching the vines stretch toward him. On top of that, there was a bomb thrown in the air. The dark mage felt pressured, but not to the point of panicking for his life. He took a deep breath. Adrastos swung twice in quick succession. These swings allowed him to notice the bomb but it was too late to actually do anything to react as he saw it explode.
The flames would engulf the magician’s torso, though the weapon equip of his dark metal vessel would prevent his borg from coming to his defense. The blazing heat would set his clothes aflame, harming the underlying flesh beneath in the process.
Zhīzhū withdrew another dagger, throwing it towards Adrastos even as she used another spell to re-form a vine into a spear. Both objects flew at the man with the scythe. The dagger’s trajectory was aiming for his right leg while the vine was aiming for his heart. Zhīzhū did not trust the flames to finish her opponent alone. She slowly licked her lips as she imagined the death of this man who would not submit.
Adrastos staggered. The heat of the flames burned his eyes and nostrils, but the pain of his flesh burning was more excruciating. He was able to fight through the pain and deflect the vine, but in doing so, he’d miss the knife. The blade sunk into his thigh and Adrastos fell to the floor. Panic began to set in. Pain and panic. Rage. Regret. The dark magician screamed, unable to think as his emotions clouded his ability to take control of the situation, to put out the fire and fight back. He always cursed his emotions for getting in the way, but now they were about to kill him.
“No…” Adrastos clutched his scythe tightly and grinded his teeth together. “I will not lose…” For him to win, Adrastos needed to rid himself of these human emotions, cure himself of pain and fear. Eventually, the fire no longer burned his body. He could feel his emotions being eaten away, his past, his inner struggles. The pain turned to numbness until nothing remained. He inhaled deeply.
You are ready… Now… Repeat after me...
“Lost in the mist of darkness,” Adrastos chanted as if listening to some inner voice, “remain oblivious of what lurks within shadow for all eternity!” He stood to his feet slowly with the flames still eating his body. “Obscure, Erebus!” Black rukh swarmed the area, but instantly Adrastos flew into the air behind Zhīzhū. The flames had been extinguished thanks to the sudden burst of flight, exposing his new form. Adrastos had maintained his long white hair, but his pale white skin took a more ashen grey tone. On his chest, a red symbol was carved into his flesh: a circle with three lines equally spaced. He wore obsidian gauntlets with spikes and claws that go up to his elbows, an obsidian belt that held up a long tattered cloth, and obsidian metal from his ankles to his knees. The scythe had a chain attached to the bottom. However, the most striking change was in his eyes, once cool silver now raging crimson. “Game over,” he whispered in Zhīzhū’s ears before immediately swinging his scythe to beheading her on the spot.
Zhīzhū’s heart went cold as Adrastos rose from the flames. Her eyes hardly had any time to adjust to the sudden developments. As the man’s voice entered her ears, a chill shot through her spine. His voice was dead - emotionless, like that of a grim reaper. Her head flew off her shoulders, tumbling in the air and granting her one last look upon his visage. Ah, she weakly thought, his gaze is merciless… The sight of Adrastos’ dead eyes, like the depths of a black pool, gazing past her was the final thing she saw before all went dark.
The dark king watched as her body crumpled to the floor and her head fly through the air. He grabbed the head, his trophy, by the hair and made his way over to the throne. Placing the head on the arm rest, he sat down. He now had what he wanted: his djinn equip and the Kou Alchemists under his control. Nox walked in, slowly at first, as if wary of what he would see, but upon seeing Adrastos in the throne, he bowed his head. Adrastos couldn’t read his expression behind the mask he wore, but he didn’t really care. “Did you bring it?” Nox nodded as he showed the scroll the dark king obtained from the dungeon. Adrastos smiled a dead smile. “Bring it here,” Adrastos said while deactivating his djinn equip. “It’s time I learned the truth.”