Chapter 425: Enough
Blake decided this time he would take no chances. If he was going to surrender and let Mason win the solo tournament, he sure as hell wasn't going to lose the 3s.
It was also the final matches and Blake had been playing this game entirely too cautiously for his own liking. It was the right call, no doubt, when you meant to beat enemies you didn't understand. But Blake knew what he was facing now.
And it was time to destroy his 'enemy' utterly. If he was being honest, it was also maybe a chance to show the players of Nassau what he was made of, and why he once ruled them. A healthy dose of respect and fear would serve him well in the future.
As the arena formed around him Seul-ki met his eyes and soon matched his expression. They'd already discussed the plan.
She put a hand to his wrist, boosting his True Making and mental stats with an extreme burst as he started channeling. Her mana wasn't going to be important later, because there wasn't going to be a later. Blake was going all out this time, holding nothing back, relying on no 'tricks' except power.
The boosts hit him like a drug, and he did his best not to moan in pleasure. He summoned a 'Jaguar' style killer with Duality of Ambition and a super-charged True Making, almost laughing with excitement when he saw the density and flexibility of the construct.
It snarled into existence, all angles and violence waiting to strike. Blake looked forward to a day when he had so much control without boosts, because who knew what kind of designs he might make with a bit of time?
Knowing every second counted, he'd kept the thing familiarly designed, just with a stronger body and a more brutal bite. It was Psionic and fast, designed primarily to hunt down Tommaso before turning on the others. Then he formed himself a good bundle of steel javelins.
The constructs would do their work without instruction. All Blake's attention would be on a game of 'Kill the Carl'.
No hard feelings, old man.
Blake actually liked the 'glassassin', but he was the only real threat and had to go down quickly. This time Blake wouldn't fly up or put himself on a pillar. He'd leave himself completely open to draw the man out, relying purely on his shields, reflexes, Navi, and yes luck, to catch the dangerous rogue before he struck. Annie, and Blake's other two Arcane constructs, would keep Rebecca plenty busy.
The timer ticked down. Seul-ki closed her eyes as she put a hand to Blake, ready to channel everything she had, as quickly as she could. They rose up in an empty arena much like a coliseum, with what looked like a large array of weapons, shields, and spikes along the walls. They might benefit Blake slightly if he had the time to get close and pick things off the wall. But he doubted he did.
The other players stood less than five hundred yards away in plain sight, staring.
Carl vanished. Tommaso circled. Becky charged.
Navi shot forward but Blake wasn't going to rely purely on his familiar this time. He opened Mental Influence, ready to activate it on any and maybe all the players as soon as they were in range.
"Now."
Energy coursed through Blake's bones like lightning as Seul-ki super-charged both him and Annie with a hand on their shoulders. Blake shuddered and started channeling another True Making, this time an Arcane Defender to stay close, and hopefully grab one of the two murderous Carls. Annie almost moaned in pleasure, then went utterly silent as she engaged her Void power.
"I'm ready," she said robotically, forming her axe and taking off at a sprint towards Becky.
This time Blake followed. If Carl wanted to appear and try and take the girl down, he was certainly welcome to try. Blake could have jogged behind his ally, certainly. Or he could have had a construct carry him.
But he was so utterly filled with power he floated at ground level, both halves of his Partitioned Mind ready, a dozen 'unconscious' triggers prepared to save him (and Annie) without thought.
Some kind of potion came hurling through the air from Tommaso, and Blake tossed it back with Telekinesis with hardly a thought. The Italian cursed and dodged aside, coming up with another throw before changing his mind and circling out of Blake's sight.
Blake's hidden jaguar sprinted and jumped to close the distance with incredible speed, and the man started screaming.
"Shit!" Becky yelled, turning to look but unable to do much else as Annie charged right at her.
'Little red' had also changed into a new, super-charged gear, easily outpacing Blake's calm float as she readied her axe for a monstrous swing. Becky growled and tried to match it, actually leaping at Annie with a two-handed hold on her mace. It was an almost ridiculous, if slightly awesome moment as time seemed to slow.
Navi blinked a warning, and one half of Blake's mind felt the arcane energy as Carl warped past them all, straight for Seul-ki.
Blake was waiting. He'd stayed in range, and now grabbed every single steel javelin sitting around the Korean like a circular trap ready to spring. He swiped the area with Mental Influence trying to detect Carl by finding his mind, and got a faint ping.
He cranked the meter that represented his Telekinetic force, and a dozen, three foot lengths of sharpened steel lifted and flew like drones at his target.
Carl #2, and certainly the real Carl, popped into existence a second later. Not three feet from Blake.
He pulled back his vicious dagger for a deadly thrust, swirling with a simultaneous Color Spray. It was a good attack. Well planned and executed.
Carl's blade struck Blake's Shield and shredded right through it, the weapon coming for his heart with just enough distance to pierce. Or at least it would have, if Blake's trigger hadn't launched him back three feet to float harmlessly away.
The huge, blue hand of Blake's Defender grabbed Carl's shoulder, sizzling with arcane energy and a little burnt cloth before the man warped. Blake spun with Mental Influence like a scanner, ignoring everything except finding his target. Navi was whipping back and searching, too, but Blake found him first.
He blinked and stared at himself through Carl's eyes using a function of his Mental Influence, and knew instantly where the rogue was. He turned and put a hand to his demonic necklace, activating it right on target.
Carl twitched as if to move, and then screamed.
Becky's Aegis didn't work well against mental magic. Blake walked forward as he saw the man flickering, still holding the tightening necklace as he activated a Mind Control.
With Seul-ki's power still coursing through him, he flooded the man's mind with psionic power. He followed the destructive charge that was the demonic magic with his own, more careful work, like a hunter after he’d sent in the dogs.
Even without a boost, the average human without defences was no match for Blake's growing power. Nevermind a human whose mind was currently being ripped apart by crude, demonic brain surgery.
Carl's consciousness opened like a broken infantry line. The last remnants of his basic defence turned and ran in terror, and Blake stepped right through. There was nothing now but the unarmored back of his enemy...
* * *
Rebecca had taken quite enough damage, thank you.
No, really, she thought. Thank you.
Between Annie's axe and Blake's other constructs, her Reflective power was filled to bursting. Her aegis had hardly been touched, and she decided enough was enough.
Channeling damn near half her mana, she hid behind her Familial Shield, shaking with the effort of controlling so much force. Annie's axe bounced off the metal with another brutal clang, then Becky stood, and released.
A blue bomb erupted from Rebecca's chest, blasting outward and hitting her opponents with absolutely no cover, at point blank range. The two constructs exploded into shrapnel, flying away in a dozen pieces a good hundred yards. Annie did her best impression of a little red bird.
Her dangerous axe launched like the world's worst boomerang, blasted from her hand as the girl flipped and launched a good thirty feet. She hit the ground and tumbled away like a crash test dummy and didn’t move. Incredibly, no trumpet blared.
Becky didn't have time to feel bad. She turned to Tommaso and considered moving her Aegis before she heard a trumpet and that awful construct sprayed with blood.
She shut it from her mind, trying not to be enraged with Blake, knowing this was the game and they all had to play. Instead she transformed her shield into its mace form and charged the son of a bitch.
Except…said son of a bitch was standing perfectly at ease, as if waiting for her. Rebecca blinked in confusion as she slowed, trying to understand.
"I'm sorry, my dear," Blake said. "I didn't think Mason would forgive me easily if I went rooting around in your mind. But Carl…well, Mason’s a bit old fashioned. The rules are different for men. And he is terribly dangerous."
Intuition more than anything caused Rebecca to turn and lift her mace. The familiar, soft pop of Carl's arcane warp came from beside her. The older man attacked almost frantically with a deadly stab.
Rebecca managed to stop his arm with the shaft of her mace against his bicep, but he vanished the thing and appeared it in his other hand, stabbing from another direction.
Rebecca's shield screamed in warning. Carl’s blade cut into her forcefield with an awful hiss, the energy draining faster than anything she'd ever seen. His face was a sweaty mask of terror, his eyes wide and covered in red veins.
He started screaming as he stabbed, and Becky soon found herself unable or maybe unwilling to smash him down, too slow to get away, too surprised to think of anything else.
Eventually she fell with a sharp pain in her chest. Carl stepped away with his hands on his temples, shaking his head and repeating 'no' again and again. But he sounded awfully far away.
"I'm afraid so," Blake said, giving a ghastly smile. Becky tried and failed to catch her breath, knowing it wasn't real, it was just temporary, it was just a game.
The last thing she saw was a dozen spears skewer Carl like a pin cushion. The trumpet blared twice just as she closed her eyes.