His sword, now imbued with red sparks of electricity, quickly neared the neck of the creature. It was blinded and so didn't manage to dodge his slash. However, it was not strong enough. The sword cut into the skin of the mutated soldier but stopped after three centimeters. It was hurt, but the injury wasn't a mortal one. It staggered a little and swung with its hand at Mal, who only barely managed to block but was still pushed back. The monster was simply too strong.
It was now that Medea made her move, one that was unfortunately foreseen. The girl now had some basic experience with a sword, but that was not the same as having experience in battle. She was misguided in her attempt to run away. The monster, its back to her, suddenly twisted and wanted to sever her body in half. In the last moment, a hiss was heard and a sword thrown with great force bit into the attacking hand of the monster. It turned away only to be hit by another bolt to the face. Mal was now dashing toward the stands, unguarded and without a sword.
The abomination seemed to twist as if it were laughing and lunged at him with full speed. Its attempt was slowed down once a piece of ice formed on its leg, binding it to the ground. It easily broke, but another was formed and the monster was hit by an icicle to the back of its head. It did barely any damage, but it managed to stall the amalgamation enough for Mal to pick up another sword.
'Nice play Medea.'
He formulated a plan—one to escape, not to kill the thing—and he was ready to put it into play.
He lunged and threw another sword at the monster. This time, however, it deflected it. He picked up two more and rushed at the abomination with words of speed on his tongue. He felt the increase as the monster was on him. It slashed and swung its hand, and Mal just barely avoided certain death. He missed the vines of moss around these swords; it would be much easier to stall it in that way. He needed time to attack.
The two danced in a horrible waltz of death. Mal avoided the attacks just barely, and only because he sacrificed offensive strength for speed. He made a really daring thrust, one that was deflected and punished. The monster's sword cut toward his left arm and left a very ugly wound. Mal gasped in pain, and the monster seemed to twist happily again as if it enjoyed this spectacle. That was what he was aiming for, and in the moment of unguarded attention, he threw another sword from his left hand. This time it wasn't deflected and stuck deep into its left leg. He had it where he wanted it.
He didn't wait to bask in the shock of the enemy. He was already casting an incantation.
"Elektáta letrocomulis géhe irche Maledictus."
He practically screamed the last few words. He put all his will into this incantation. He imagined his death, Medea's death. He imagined a victory. He imagined his bed back in the real world. He turned it all into emotion and put it all in. With the scream "Méte!", he watched as the vile burst of electricity sprayed forward from both of his arms and connected itself with the two conductors: the swords he had managed to stick into the body of the abomination. The electricity managed to stall and paralyze the monster for some time. That time was all he needed.
"Now, Medea, run!"
As he screamed, the girl was already in motion. She sprinted toward the door and, with one look back at Mal, out of the room. That was all he could achieve now with the level of his core, and the rays of electro-fire ran dry. He had achieved the first part. Medea was safely out. Now it was time for the second part. It was time for him to somehow escape.
The monster wasn't looking so happy anymore. It twitched violently and looked at Mal with deep hatred because it had missed its prey. All because of the man in front of it. It was ready to channel its hatred. Mal watched as the broken sword of the monster ignited with a dark red flame.
'Fuck, I thought it would come at some point. It can shape to some degree.'
The flame slowly morphed into the form of how the sword probably looked when it was whole. Its reach increased, and so did its deadliness.
Mal opted once again for speed. His body was now overheating as he dashed to dodge the incoming onslaught of attacks. He had to put out perfect evasion after evasion, evaluate the situation constantly, and try to find some way for him to escape.
The two figures collided with one another. Mal was immediately forced to defend by the force of his enemy. He kept his distance and used the fact that an enraged monster won't fight its best. He sidestepped the blade by only a few centimeters and suddenly started to cast. With that, he made a daring decision and actively pushed forward. The enemy wanted to do the same, but before it could, a bubble of water appeared in the hand of the fighting warrior. He threw it with immense speed toward the enemy, who blocked it with the sword. When the water came into contact with the blazing sword of the abomination, it immediately turned into water vapor, heavily limiting the range of the creature. It dashed forward to defend itself from the man who was flying towards it with immense speed.
The man, however, never attacked. He used the situation to his advantage and flew past the confused and disoriented mutated monster toward the door. He passed it and quickly vanished outside.
__________
"We know now where the second rank is, that's good news. And it's not even as strong as I expected," Mal said as he caught up with Medea.
"Not that strong? It nearly killed us!"
"Yeah, but only because we weren't ready for it. If I go with Leo, we will be able to bring it down."
Mal was injured; his hand hurt, but he had somehow gotten used to the pain. He reminded himself how much he hated needles and couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the amount of pain he was now forced to withstand. But he was also happy. It was as he said—he didn't have any reason to lie to Medea, anyway. The monster actually wasn't as strong as he had expected. They would defeat it and claim the second-rank terror core for themselves.
They moved from running to walking now that they were a little further from the house and since he didn't observe the monster approaching them.
"You know what's interesting?" Medea proclaimed. "There actually isn't as much of the moss here as back at our camp."
Now that she mentioned it, he saw it too. There truly was less moss the closer you went to the direction of the cathedral. Or was it the direction of the tree? Mal didn't really know; it could be both. He somehow felt that this was important information, but he wasn't able to deduce anything of significance from it. He thought about it for a little while as they walked in silence, but then gave up. Their adventure was a great success.
When they returned, the others were already around the fire. Mal and Medea joined them and shared their adventures. Leo was horrified but also glad they were spared a long search. He still didn't want to bring Thade out for such a dangerous mission.
"So, are we going to kill it?" he asked.
"No. Not yet. It is not as strong as I expected, but it's also not that weak. We need to get more knots and get better as a team."
Two wooden sticks clashed against one another. They clashed again and again. Mal was going easy on her, but Medea was genuinely good at swordsmanship. He had been teaching her for two weeks now. They had both gotten much better, their injuries were gone, and Mal was ready for a fight.
Five wolves were standing in front of a building. Suddenly, a figure emerged and ran toward them. The wolves noticed him and started to sprint forward to tear the man alive. Three sparks of red electricity appeared in his left hand. At the same time, two bullets rained from the window of another building, killing one wolf and stalling another. That still left three wolves that were now running toward the man on the ground. Just before they reached him, two sparks shot forward and paralyzed two of the wolves. The remaining spark infused itself into the sword that the man was holding in his right hand. With one precise movement, he avoided the claws of the last moving wolf and cut its head off with a clean strike. Another shot was heard, this time killing another wolf. The man on the ground turned, blocked the attack of the nearby wolf that had just escaped paralysis, and stabbed his sword into its side. Electricity surged from his sword into the body of the creature, which screamed and fell to the ground dead. The last remaining monster wanted to jump on him, but it was quickly forced to back away by the raining bullets. It tried to dodge them and, in that second of diverted attention, was killed by the man on the ground as he thrust his sword into its side.
"I think we are ready," he proclaimed.
Another, much taller and physically imposing man walked out of the door of the house from whose windows he had been shooting.
"I feel like it, too."
When they returned to the base, their cohort was waiting for them, except for Medea, who was training with her sword again. They had slain at least thirty wolves in the past two weeks. It was a lot. They both now had fourteen knots around their cores and were feeling mightier than ever.
When they sat down to eat, knowing what would happen tomorrow, they weren't feeling anxious or stressed. They had good chances and they knew they would kill it. Tomorrow, one of them—they hadn't decided who yet—would ascend to the second rank.
"I will go with you," Medea said, coming from behind.
"I want to come. I am strong enough to help you."
Leo and Mal looked at each other.
"Are you sure?" the caring soldier asked.
"Yes, yes I am. I am as sure as I've ever been."
"Very well then, we depart tomorrow morning."