Chen Mo snapped his fingers, conveniently forming them into a finger gun, and at the very tip of the index finger, a red ball of threads began materialising, thickening unnaturally out of thin air. It shot out as a barely visible beam, directly absorbed into Eryn's mind almost instantly, then disappeared just as quickly as it came.
"YOU! Argh! Argh..." Eryn's screaming abruptly ceased as she staggered back with wobbly, unsteady feet, both palms finding her head and clasping it like she was suffering from a terrible, splitting headache.
"Gurh... Urgh... Argh..." Eryn kept grunting in pain. Her voice intensified gradually with time, "Argh.... HARGH..."
Then, she screeched so loudly that Chen Mo thought her lungs had burst from the sheer force of it. Chen Mo held his ears shut tightly, so did Noah in the distance, as well as Mikkel standing in front of him.
Eryn lifted her head again, and she was enraged beyond words. Her eyes gleamed entirely red. No eyeballs, no sclera. Her face tightened to its absolute limit, and she was panting out visible steam.
She had lost half her mind to rage, in exchange for:
[Calculating...]
[Rage converted to power:] [+11 Strength!] [+2 Durability!] [+25 Agility!]
Mikkel in the distance didn't seem to worry at all. He sauntered forward with his confident smirk still firmly etched across his face, paying no mind to Eryn's shadow beneath him. Noah on the other hand, noticed a completely different aura around the enraged Eryn Jaeger.
"You fucked up, five grand." Eryn growled at the goth girl before her, sheathing both daggers before raising her hands slowly.
Her wrists crossed, and her fingers were outstretched, forming a near symmetrical gesture; the left hand became the shadow of the right.
Then, muttered quietly underneath Eryn's breath:
"Full-Release: Clone."
[AE depleted to zero!]
Mikkel still hadn't sensed the danger. He held his golden axe back with the clear intention to hurl it. Except, before he could even swing it forward, the axe was suddenly snatched out of his grip by two completely pitch-black daggers.
Those daggers held the golden axe like chopsticks, then skillfully and deliberately dropped it down Klein's Bridge. A large and thunderous splash of water exploded outwards as the axe sank into the river below.
The holders of those dark daggers were also a void-like figure. She had no colours, no elements of the third dimension, yet she still stood upright, and still clearly had a gender.
It was Eryn's shadow, and it had emerged out of walls and floors, manifested into physical reality as a void-like assassin silhouette.
"Tier 2!" Noah gathered his blazing runes in front of him, forming a precise, uniform circle, and at the same time draining far too much AE that his vision turned blurry and unfocused, "Arson!"
A fireball was summoned between the runes, then it rapidly charged and imploded into a beam of flames roaring straight towards Eryn's shadow clone.
Seeing as how Noah had decided to voluntarily take on, or more accurately valiantly distract, Eryn's shadow, Mikkel decided to continue his charge towards the red-eyed Eryn herself.
Noah's distraction wasn't helpful. The game doesn't tell him how much AE he has left, as that's strictly against the rules, but his mental state already confirmed his AE to be in a dangerously low position.
He didn't even realise that his Tier 2 wore off quicker than usual, and the beam of orange flames had scorched nothing but bare cobblestone.
The shadow had already evaded, and now appeared directly behind Noah, viciously slicing repeatedly without pause.
Noah's cape was torn completely to shreds, and the back of his magma chestplate was shattered into fragments within mere seconds.
Blood spilled from multiple openings as Noah collapsed onto his knees from the unbearable, overwhelming pain.
He couldn't even scream.
[HP -5!]
[HP -5!]
[HP -5!]
[...]
Noah was knocked out cold by the sheer pain alone. The shadow of Eryn didn't finish him off, as her attention was urgently needed elsewhere.
Mikkel had already reached Eryn herself and Chen Mo standing behind her.
Mikkel hopped forward with an agility that was completely illogical for his physique. He stepped onto a remnant from a carriage he had sliced down earlier to borrow its height, leaping high into the air before crashing straight down into the enraged Eryn.
Eryn didn't even bother drawing her daggers.
Instead of evading, Eryn grinded her molars, roared ferociously, then jumped up with a heavily charged punch.
They threw their attacks at the exact same time.
Both landed squarely on each other's face, echoing two distinct noises of bones cracking simultaneously to the calm, detached spectator, Chen Mo.
[HP -1] for Mikkel.
[HP -3] for Eryn due to the lack of a helmet.
The Lawless Executioner landed cleanly with precision, then straightened himself confidently.
The Shadow Daggerist should have staggered from the heavy jab, and she did, but pure adrenaline alone kept her upright on her feet. She still didn't draw her daggers, for reasons completely unknown.
Both sides had already used their Full-Release AA, which was the ultimate form of AA. Thus, neither side had any AE left; it had now devolved into raw, brutal fisticuffs.
"HARGH!" Eryn cried out, anger extremely apparent, then lunged forward at the taller enemy without any hesitation or concern.
Noticing her increased agility due to Ragebaiter, the tattooed Nazi took a step back as his confidence finally began to falter slightly.
Eryn launched a relentless flurry of attacks, so fast that Chen Mo couldn't even register most of them.
Mikkel didn't deliberately block most of it. Instead, since his second law was still actively enforced, the enhanced bronze armour tanked the majority of the strikes effortlessly.
Nonetheless, the sheer momentum still sent Mikkel stumbling backwards.
However, Eryn was the one who kept receiving damage in return. Her knuckles bled more and more with each punch thrown against an unbreakable metal surface.
[HP -1]
[HP -1]
[HP -1]
[...]
Eryn had lost half her mind. She was only attacking relentlessly, and she wasn't even using her daggers to do so. Without any adequate defensive measures or intentions, it was easy for Mikkel to eventually find an opening.
While both of Eryn's arms were pulled back, ready to be thrown forward again, she left her entire torso completely exposed.
Mikkel struck it with his fist, reinforced heavily with the same bronze armour covering his body.
The lightweight, red-eyed assassin was knocked far back. Her feet dragged dust across the cobblestone bridge until she reached Chen Mo.
Mikkel stepped forward again, but then Eryn's shadow suddenly returned. The pitch-black feminine silhouette climbed onto Mikkel's back, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and squeezing hard.
"Argh!!" Mikkel's throat wasn't armoured.
Meanwhile, the physical, previously emerald-eyed, now red-eyed Eryn extended a palm at a speed Chen Mo couldn't react to at all.
That palm grasped his throat violently, without any care or gentleness whatsoever.
[HP -1] clearly showed how violent Eryn's sudden grip was.
She pulled the shorter goth girl closer, until her hot exhales blew directly upon Chen Mo's overgrown raven bangs.
Eryn growled the same three words again, "You fucked up."
Then, violently and without any restraint or care, she began the escape northwards with terrifying speed. She sprinted with everything she had, while dragging Chen Mo along by his throat.
Chen Mo's lower body repeatedly thudded against the cobblestone bridge, as well as the sharp fragments originating from the earlier clash, and this proved extremely costly for his HP.
[HP -2]
[HP -2]
[HP -5]
[...]
Only after the two had already left Mikkel's sight did he finally manage to pry off shadow Eryn from his shoulders, subsequently hurling her down the bridge with a frustrated snarl, "ARRRGHHH!!!"
None of Mikkel's earlier confidence could be seen now; it was completely replaced with irritation, denial, and especially anger.
Noah was knocked unconscious in the distance southwards, but Mikkel couldn't care less. He immediately sprinted northwards.
But then, he noticed something that made him abruptly halt his footsteps:
The Northaria military. An entire marching formation of B-rank enforcers had arrived, and of course they did; the massive commotion caused by three god-like figures clashing on this island was bound to attract attention.
Shit, I don't have the unique badge. Mikkel exclaimed inwardly as he clutched his left chest. Pinned there was a Northerner's badge from Eric Thompson the enforcer, and not the unique detective badge bestowed upon him by King Vostok.
The latter would have been the better badge to have right now, as it could be used as a pretext to fabricate a convincing story about how hired professional detectives were hunting the werewolf at Klein's Bridge.
Fuck, I need Noah. Mikkel stepped back slightly, then jogged southwards.
Meanwhile, the enraged Eryn was still dragging Chen Mo across the cobblestone bridge, but now in a different direction, and with far more stealth.
Eryn used rubble and broken carriages as cover, hopping from one to another to make her way gradually southwards, until she even overtook Mikkel without his knowledge.
That only happened because Mikkel had stopped to wake up Noah, who was still bleeding heavily on the ground.
Eryn and Chen Mo eventually returned to Southown completely undetected by the approaching Northern army.
They quickly found a narrow alleyway to hide in.
There, the red in Eryn's eyes finally faded away, but her heavy gasps for breath still indicated an unshakable, lingering rage.
Chen Mo, on the other hand, was bleeding all over due to the violent journey. Chen Mo checked his current HP: [HP: 33]
I didn't even participate much in the fight... Be gentler next time, please, Shadow Daggerist.
"Just so you know..." Eryn supported her weight with her knees. She spat with a glare from her fierce emerald eyes, shining through her dishevelled raven hair, "I'll never forgive you for this..."
Her shadow also returned. With her Full-Release AA wearing off, Eryn's shadow now had to obey the laws of physics again, and stick strictly to surfaces.