Versus the Bloodfallen 3 - Bloodburn

“Mhahahaha- AHAHAHAHA, gngngngngAHAHARHARHAR, MUAHAHAHA. AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA. HAHAhahahihihihihHAHAHAAAAAAA….pff….A-HAHAH…HahahihuuuhaaaaaaaaaaaaAHAHAHAHAHA… Th……HIHIHI……HARHARHARHARMHAHAMHAHA…hehehe…hi…haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” A long exhale followed by some more chuckles, her eyes fell on John. The facets of her gemstone like eyes stretched and tightened as she adjusted her focus. Then she laughed again, “Pff….hahahaha…you….”

Was that a complete word he just heard? If it was, it got no follow up. Gent was the one who finally broke the monotony. Despite his blood crazed state, he attacked Thana head on. His giant fist flew towards the girl that just killed his precious Guild Leader. Thana stopped it with one hand of her own as she just kept laughing. She wasn’t even looking at the guy. She was holding her hand out like she was putting it on a table or something. Not the slightest bit of strain as the rest of her body kept tensing in an intense laughing fit.

Besides the people John had brought with him, Herman’s friends, who were inching towards the exit (a very human and understandable reaction) the only thing moving were the drops of blood flying towards Thana. “Niezadowalający” that definitely was a word. John had no idea what it meant or what language it was, aside from it sounding Slavic in origin, but it was definitely a word. A word that was followed by Thana pushing the Goliath back with one hand and then making a very weird waving motion that started at the right side of her hip and ended over her left shoulder. The movement made much more sense as John saw the thousands of hovering drops melting into a flood of thorns that impaled the Goliath.

The crimson flood pulled back a moment later, drawing with it all of the tainted blood inside the victim it had just claimed. It flew towards Thana enveloping the extended hand and covering her naked body in an exterior layer of veins for a moment. Once all of her was covered the red tide pulled towards her back. All of it left her body, save for short claw-like aberrations at her fingertips which connected through blood lines along the sinew and then met at the wrist.

The rest of the blood met at her back, flowing together into a huge orb. The more of the crimson liquid flew at the orb, the smaller it seemed to be, changing into something different, not just a mass of the liquid that kept everyone alive but an actual core of power. When the last drop of her blood sunk into the orb Thana ceased her endless chuckling and reserved herself to just smiling, madly. The orb surged, the surface crystalised and broke into four segments, two small and two big, connected by a still semi-liquid mass but disconnected from Thana’s body.

A crystallised web of thick core veins, of such dark red, that it was almost black, thinner, semi-liquid or still completely bloody membranes spanning between, a vile design, mirrored perfectly along her spine, symmetric to the red pulse that went through it several times a second. Vile, vile and beautiful, the wings of a deadly butterfly. A butterfly that would drown the world in her blood, if the insane smile was anything to go by.

“Bloodburn.”

The thick veins caught fire on this single word. John wasn’t sure whether she had actually spoken English or if it was like Nathalia and his brain simply interpreted the correct meaning. The wings were still like a butterfly's, but now dark crimson fire defied the last bit of physical logic those might have had as it danced with the pulsations of Thana’s heartbeat. It danced and it sung, a sound like metallically over-tuned, shrill violins, as the wings flared up in quick succession, Thana cowered, one hand on the floor the other, left, raised. The blood claw started to swell, enveloping first her entire hand then her entire arm. Then she jumped at a speed John couldn’t follow. She wasn’t as quick as Nathalia, but she still was nothing but a pale blue and crimson red streak as she suddenly crashed into the remaining Bloodfallen and started ripping them apart without any care.

Absolutely no care John realised as she turned on the allies he had brought too. The mage, the one he had just talked with as they went down the stairs, suddenly missed an arm. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. This was worse than the worst case scenario. This was….

“What the hell are ya doing?” Rave ripped him out of his consternation as she grabbed him by the hand, “RUN!” that was simple enough. He could do that. They made way for the exit. As fast as they could. Thana was still happily massacring the Bloodfallen members, her own blood returning to her as she broke them one by one.

They had almost reached the stairs. Outside of this Illusion Barrier, they would be safe. They had to be. They could run, they could….

Thana came to a halt between them and the stairs. They stopped, she stopped, her mouth tried to form words again, but instead she coughed up blood, massive amounts of it. A moment of weakness. Nothing they could capitalise on. Copernicus, however, could. The Solar Cat jumped from his wristband form right at the Bloodmage, or whatever the hell she was. Unprepared as she was Thana actually was blinded by the cat as it landed, a clawing and not at all elegant fur ball, in her face. “FLEE!” Now he was the one handing out the basic advice.

They only had a small window of opportunity, so they quickly ran by. John was first, Aclysia second, Rave last. There was no particular reason for this order; it was just the one their panicked escape currently took. No time to worry about the others, no time to regret. Not now. That would come later.

Thana finally got a hold of that pesky feline in her face and ripped it off, looked at it for a second before sinking her flawless teeth into the sun made fur. There was a moment of disbelief. Thana ripped out a huge chunk of Copernicus with her teeth; she turned with burned lips at the trio behind as she dropped the heavily injured, possibly dead, light elemental without another care. “You stay.” She stated in a tone that was quickly changing from deep to high and back, the tone of a person unsure how to use their voice for anything but laughter.

They had everything against that. If fire harmed her then all John needed to do was give all of his mana to Salamander and hope for the best. An Inferno filled the tight space of the stairs as the trio desperately ran for their life, the steel door at the top still unlocked, a glimpse of daylight illuminating the ceiling. His mana was out. Rave made a yelping shout. “You are STAYING!” Thana half shouted, half laughed, her hand firmly grabbing Rave’s arm. “Keep running John!” Rave pointed her other hand at Thana’s face and unleashed a continuous blast of sunlight. Thana cackled as her freshly regenerated skin was burnt again, her hand stayed in place. “I can’t leave you behind!” John stated. “JUST RUN!” Rave sounded pleading; the attack didn’t stop. How, how did it not stop? Her Mana was not that extensive; he could see that in the Group Interface and the new part of Observe it died, it died down.

Then it flared up again. A huge chunk of her health vanished in response as she took a deep breath, collecting mana as the burning continued. John wasn’t running, he could leave all of these people Herman brought behind, he would feel bad, but John could live without him, he couldn’t do that with her, he loved her, he couldn’t leave her here. Rave knew that. “Aclysia I command you to take him out of here.” What a useless idea to get Aclysia to….The Artificial Spirit picked him up, threw him over her shoulder and started running without a word. ‘STOP!’ She didn’t, ‘Aclysia stop!’ she didn’t, ‘Obey me!’ ‘I am.’ The answer was filled with torment, ‘As per your order Rave gets to make one request that goes above any order you could give.’ His eyes widened. No, not like this. “STOP HER!” He yelled at his elementals, who obeyed even against their best interest.

Aclysia wasn’t even bothered. John had used up all his mana so Gnome couldn’t erect any barriers. The attacks of Salamander were useless against her Fire Resistance. Undine didn’t have the power to create a wave strong enough to rip down the metallic body and Sylph’s attack were unable to cut past Elemental Resistance 6. So, it came that John could do nothing but look as Rave kept drowning the stairs in superheated light and see as with every breath she took her life decreased. He saw her far behind as Aclysia reached the door. Rave collapsed, Thana, already regenerated, broke from the sunlight and slashed a clawed hand along his dying girlfriend's neck.