Snippet #2666866

Aldred ignored the destroyed barrier, although he took a cursory look past it to see if anybody was there before turning his attention back to Zane and the Egyptian mummy.

"Okay, I guess its time for a fight! Ancient Shaman guy, time to get roasted. Fire Nova Barrage!"

Aldred's eyes narrowed at the Mummy Necromancer that Zane was shooting fireballs at, instantly assessing the threat. His body went from relaxed to tense, ready to move at a moment's notice to either dodge or attack, then his eyes widened slightly as he realised who it was. Oh.

"It's Menes Tutankhamon instead of Shaman guy, Zane." he corrected the boy idly, remembering what the exhibit had said. He'd read about it during one of his trips to the museum last week. Menes Tutankhamon, an Egyptian mage who had been thought to have died on his quest for immortality. Aldred remembered thinking that it would have been better to just stick to being a guard instead. People who looked for immortality always died sooner than those who didn't. If he had wanted to live so much, why look for it at all?

Turned out that Menes's had been one of the lucky few after all. If outliving all his loved ones, being stuck in a coffin alive and immobile and awaking in a completely different time dissimilar to his own time period could be considered lucky anyway.

Before Aldred could help Zane out, though, Menes attacked. Thick chains covered in writhing shadows headed his way, moving like live snakes as they tried to wrap around him from head to toe. More and more of the chains veered away from the others to target Aldred as he sidestepped them in a way that was almost like dancing, weaving his way away from the others with a look of concentration in his eyes as the chains tried to grab him, raising a gauntlet-covered hand to block a slash made by a sphinx. The rest where targetting Zane and Sillo, but Aldred couldn't help them - he needed to deal with this one first.

The sphinx growl turned from menacing to puzzled as it tried to pull back its paw for another strike but failed. Aldred looked up at it from where he had grabbed its paw with one hand and stood still as the sphinx struggled, trying to wretch its paw out of his grip or send Aldred flying.

It shouldn't have bothered. Aldred held it still as if it were a kitten trying to pull its paw away from a human's tight grip instead of an ancient Egyptian cat monster that reached up to his shoulders, a thoughtful look on his face. The look of rage on the sphinx's face was almost hilarious as it tried a different tactic - with a roar that masked the voice of Aldred muttering under his breath, it raised its other paw and slammed it down as if it were trying to squash the blonde human holding onto it into tiny pieces. Aldred's knees buckled from under him as the paw landed down on his outstretched arm with enough force to crack cement - and with a yell, he straightened up backwards into a throw with his grip tight onto the Sphinx's paws. Unable to attack or dodge away, the Sphinx had no choice but to fly backwards with a roar right into the chains that had been slithering towards Aldred's way.

The sphinx's roar abruptly cut off into a whimper of surprise and pain as the chains suddenly wrapped around the monster and pulled tight. Bound from head to toe like a badly wrapped present, the Sphinx toppled to the floor with a loud thud. Aldred was too busy beating his shadow into submission with a light-coated fist too (Zane's light-strobe helped too) see too much of what was going on, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the chains shadows glowing black as the Sphinx struggled desperately to escape its deadly embrace. The more it struggled the faster the shadows writhed as the chains wound around it tighter and tighter, layer upon layer upon layer until the Sphinx was trussed up in a giant metallic cocoon of living shadows, cutting the Sphinx off mid-yelp.

As Aldred gave the final punch, the shadows thicken and grew until all the chains were covered from view before going suddenly still. The shadows darkened into a solid sheen, and the cocoon started to shrink until it disappeared into nothingness.

That would not have been a nice way to go. Pausing for breath, Aldred took a moment to rest and regather his energy. The blonde teen had been moving constantly ever since the Gateways had started to go out of control, and it hadn't helped that he'd been playing a football match before it had begun. Although he had been forced to move for longer periods than this, in more deplorable situations (constantly fighting for his right to food and life every second until he couldn't stay conscious any more instead of Gateways and eldritch abominations on a daily basis, for example) that had been ages ago and made him appreciate the opportunity to regather his strength all the more. It didn't help that the light-magic had taken more mana out of him than he liked for such a small spell, either. He would have to practice it more in the future.

Note to self: practice elemental magic once this is over - what was that?

Something purple flashed his way. Aldred dodged to the side as he waved up a barrier instinctively, left arm thrown up as if he was trying to shield himself from harm, but the purple ooze flew through the barrier as if it weren't there and flashed through him. Aldred flinched as heat flashed through him. It faded in seconds, but the damage was done - Aldred whirled around with a snarl on his face as Zane sent fireballs towards the gloating Egyptian Mage, bringing his fists up and close together in both a guard and an offensive position, body tensed as he waited for anything to happen.

"So....English is your language huh? I hope you don't mind, but this is my unique trait. My ability to learn all that my enemy knows with a special spell that cannot be blocked."

He knows everything I know - That bastard! Aldred raised his hands defensively as purple fire exploded around Menes with intent to harm and finished off the remaining sphinxes, a scowl on his face as he readied himself for an attack, priming a light spell just in case any more shadow magic was used. That means he knows all of our spells and memories!

He's going down.

Aldred had no time to do more than scowl in anger before Menes casted spells that were designed to incapacitate them their way, a gloating smirk on his lips. As he heard the name of the spell, Aldred's scowl darkened - it seemed as if Menes wasn't lying after all. Strength Tap was designed to take down strong opponents such as giants or trolls by turning it against them. Even after the toll that constant running and fighting took on him, the spell would probably cause all of his bones to break while draining his strength away at the same time. And even if Aldred was good enough that any healing magic he casted would cost less mana than it would to others, it'd still take a lot out of his reserves, waste precious time and mana and would still be excruciatingly painful despite the spell doing its best to deaden the pain.

In short, it was an extremely bad idea for Aldred to get hit by the spell.

There has to be something I can do. A look of concentration flashed across Aldred's eyes as he cycled through his options. Calm. Dodge, block - he knows everything I do, something unexpected then. Or... eyes casting around for inspiration, they fell onto Sillo and widened as an idea crossed Aldred's mind. Or swap.

"Sillos!" Aldred yelled to his friend, voice filled with urgency and adrenaline, thrill at the situation outweighed by the need to deal with the situation at hand. He began to sprint towards Sillo, heart thumping in his ears as the spell began to change direction to follow him, slow but unstopping like a glacier. Menes was nothing if not efficient. Steering a clear path away from Zane and pumping his legs even faster to leave a greater distance between him and Strength Tap, Aldred yelled "SWAP!"

Exchange places to deal with the other's spell before dealing with the mage who had invaded their privacy. The spells had been tailored to make them taste defeat, but what if the spell hit another person? Aldred could deal with Dimensional Swords better than he could something that would turn his strength against him, much like how Sillo could deal with Strength Tap better than homing swords that could cut through any dimension.

"Speed boost."

Strength Tap was left miles behind him as Aldred suddenly speed up like a roadrunner. Legs moving so fast he was almost a blur, Aldred zoomed towards and past Sillo towards the other spell. He skidded to a stop in front of the dimensional swords, the spell targeted at him yards behind him as he summoned swords of his own and thrust them out in front of him, glaring with narrowed eyes at the Dimensional Swords in front of him. The spell took the shape of swords made out of glowing hard light, all of them different types and shapes. As one, the swords edges pointed at him as if they wanted to shish-kabab him and moved, stabbing down towards Aldred to run him through.

Using the shortswords he had summoned, Aldred deflected and dodged them all, moving speedily and gracefully through the swords while his mind worked on how to disable the spell.

Swords made out of hard light. Constantly homing in on me. Won't stop attacking. Aldred did a sideways somersault to dodge a few flying daggers and landed with a crouch, his mind clear and rational despite the precarious situation he was in. The broadsword missed his head by inches as it flew above him before swooping back around in an effort to gut him while he parried a katana. With his free hand, Aldred slammed the other shortsword he was holding onto the broadsword hard enough to make cracks. With a small shudder, the cracks spread through the sword before it shattered in a burst of sparkling light, the gleam fading after a few seconds. At the sight, Aldred's eyes gleamed. Breakable.

Moving systematically, Aldred destroyed the swords left like a well-oiled dismantling machine. There were a few close calls, but Aldred didn't stop slashing and hacking and smashing until all the swords were gone. Pausing and panting for breath, Aldred took the moment to pull himself together, eyes flickering up to Zane destroying Menes. Kid can handle it, he thought somewhat tiredly, hands gripping his knees. He was physically athletic, yes, but being in constant melee combat could take a bit out of a person. He did a good job getting out of the water anyway.

Sure enough, Zane handled it. Aldred tried not to grin at the sight and sound of the Egyptian Mage meeting his demise.

That fact became easier when Rose - who obviously took great fun at making a motif out of her namesake - turned up. Eyes narrowing at her, Aldred straightened up, his face and body posture hiding its tenseness behind serene calm as he took in what she had to say.