Surprisingly well

Author's note: Hey Lads, I think CHYOA is silencing notifications for things with mind control in it, so keep an eye out if there's no more notifications from me. Worst case scenario, check out our discord to see if I post a new chapter.

"Ah, wait, hold on! She surrenders!" Bell said quickly, raising his hammer and pointing to his partner with his stake. A moment passed as the enormous monstrosity nodded, both the human half and the wolf head bowing with uneven and jerky movements as though it were a puppet on strings. A skittering noise filled the stadium as the undead thing made its way to the stands, each chitinous limb piercing the arena and leaving deep holes into the stone. The fact that each hole was no less than 5 feet was a testament to just how heavy the monster was and the resilience of its insectoid limbs, each one harder than the ground. As it climbed away, the crowd parted to give it room as it lowered itself down, its limbs retracting back into its body as it stared into the coliseum with a blank expression. A breath later, they heard the usual harpy announcer with his commentary.

"Um... Competitor... Beast is the Beauty drops out. This match could be anyone's folks?" The harpy announcer said reluctantly, also unsure of the turn of events as Fenri gawked at the entire ordeal, clinging to the vain hope that it was all some trick to get her to lower her guard. It was only when she saw the limbs retract that she finally accepted reality.

“GET THE FUCK BACK HERE BUG-MUTT-BITCH!” She demanded, throwing one of her knives full speed at the monstrosity. As the knife flew towards the stands, an audible clang was heard as it was deflected away, the barrier sealing the arena off impermeable even to Fenri’s attacks. Looking over, Verdi could see his compatriot’s usual olive skin tinged beet red, her eyes filled with **** as she exposed her canines like a rabid dog. The sheer bloodlust and fury in her terrified the audience, each one assuming she hated them on a personal level while Verdi was shocked to see she was somehow angrier than when Tristiana was controlling her. Rather than try to break a barrier of a god, Verdi looked to Bell and waited for an answer to just why he’d dismissed his partner.

“Apologies, but I’d rather not risk having my art pieces damaged in a fight. I just took her out to fill a spot.” He said while bowing at the waist, doing his best to appease Fenri’s anger. Rather than sate her fury, the sight of Bell bowing at the waist only served to aggravate her further.

“FUCK YOU! BRING HER RIGHT FUCKING BACK HERE!” She demanded, far more interested in a fun fight than in winning the prizes. Verdi genuinely wanted to be shocked at Fenri’s short sightedness, but he knew her personality was that of a dog chasing its prey. It wasn’t interested in greater things like the world, peace, or ideology. It just wanted to sink its teeth into its prey and rip out their throat. Seeing her fury, Bell seemed flustered as he grabbed his hood and pulled it over his head to hide his face. Suddenly, he pulled his blindfold out and tried to put it on once more, only to shake his head and toss it back into his inventory.

“I-I’m really sorry, I didn’t have a partner… I don’t have many friends, so I thought this would be fine…” He apologized, his voice practically a high pitched squeak as his already diminutive stature shrunk. The once domineering air he once held was gone, the vampire visibly flustered by the crowd as he looked up at his art piece, silently longing for its return by his side to focus on the crowd’s gaze. All the while Fenri was cursing out the vampire, her verbal **** causing him to cower even further.

“Um… Fenri, I know we’re in a blood match against that guy and it he looks like he probably defiled Citrinas’ family cemetery to make his art, but maybe we should stick to killing him instead of shouting at him.” Verdi said, guilt wracking his heart as he watched Bell tear up under Fenri’s verbal onslaught. Rather than being intimidated by the supposed greatest necromancer in the world, Verdi felt a tinge of pity staring down a short, effeminate, and sad little man that had to make his own friends in the literal sense.

“If-if-if it’s any consolation… Um… I think I can beat both of you alone… So at the very least you won’t be leaving the coliseum discontent.” Despite the crowd continuing to cry for blood, the world seemed to go silent as Fenri’s eyes went wide, processing his words before looking to Verdi for confirmation that she heard what she thought she heard. He didn’t answer, unwilling to stoke her anger. It was in this world of silence that Verdi could hear Varrick’s voice, his tone that of a weary man speaking with equal parts fatigue and nostalgia.

“Oh no.” As Verdi somehow narrowed down Varrick from within the crowd, Fenri spoke up, finally processing his words. Though Verdi was nigh immune to poison, the venom in her voice was enough to paralyze him, her words leaking through grit teeth and oozing with malice.

“We’re killing him. Hold back and I’m killing you first.” She said matter of factly before lowering her body in a sprinter’s stance. Taking a deep breath, she gathered as much strength into her legs before leaping forward at full speed, her movements less like a human’s and more like the beasts she hunted. Despite the debuff of the city, her abilities gained through Hunt seemed unaffected by the debuff as she reached Bell in seconds, her speed just as absurd as in Kolderia. If anything, she seemed faster, their time traversing the wilderness giving her ample targets to defeat and claim as trophies.

Despite her speed, Bell was unfazed, his right hand still pointing his hammer at her as he muttered something under his breath, despite Fenri being a mere 30 feet away from his position. Suddenly, Bell whipped his right arm back and raised his left arm, the stake in his left arm pointed directly at her heart. Releasing the stake, Bell’s entire body twisted as he swung his hammer, sparks filling the air around him as the stake disappeared from sight. A milisecond later, Fenri dove to the side, abandoning her momentem as Verdi felt a tinge of minor pain in his chest. It was only when he heard the sonic boom that he realized his chest pain was anything but minor.

“Beauty may have stolen our hearts, but it seems The Artist has stolen her’s! Another beautiful woman claimed before her time!” The harpy announcer shouted as Verdi coughed blood, looking down to find a fist sized hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be, his ears ringing from the shockwave accompanying Bell’s stake as it punched through his body. Turning around, he found the metal stake embedded in the arena’s walls, his heart, half his left lung, and a rib skewered to it. Freezing the wound, Verdi focused for a minute as he began reshaping the frozen blood. Maintaining his focus, he let his many arteries bleed out, harnessing additional blood and reshaping it into a set of tubes converging to a small orb in his chest. It was only when the frozen orb of ice pulsed to pump blood that the audience gagged, realizing he was far from dead.

“I spoke too soon folks! Beauty’s just as coldhearted as ever!” The announcer shouted without skipping a beat, already accustomed to Verdi’s insane will to live while the rest of the audience gawked at how quickly he’d reacted to a lethal attack. At the same time, Fenri finally reached Bell, the hero intending to face down the world’s greatest necromancer in close combat. Thrusting her right hand forward, she aimed to disembowel him with her bowie knife as the vampire took a step forward with his left foot, his left hand raised as he braced himself for her attack.

Rather than swing his hammer at her, he twisted his body and caught Fenri by the wrist. Despite being a fraction of Fenri’s speed, Bell’s masterful technique more than made up for their speed disparity as he swung his hammer upwards into her knife, redirecting her blade towards the heavens. Taking a deep breath, Bell stepped forward while pushing her wrist backwards, flawlessly redirecting Fenri’s attack back to her as her own knife pointed to her. Before she could respond, he pushed his torso against the pommel of her knife. In one fell swoop, Fenri was on the defensive as she tried to break free of Bell’s monster grip, her knife heading straight towards her heart while the rest of her body was flying forward from its own inertia.

“Inventory.” Just as her knife broke a single layer of skin, Fenri put her knife back into her inventory as they stood chest to chest, the duo maintaining eye contact for a microsecond before Bell cast his eyes downwards. Bell squeezed Fenri’s wrist tighter, her wrist fracturing as he raised his hammer skywards, intent on knocking her out with a blow to the jaw. Raising her head, she let the hammer graze her chin as she stabbed forward with her left hand, the knife cutting through his cloak as Bell opened his mouth.

“Inventory.” A stake spawned at the bottom of his hammer, his arm still outstretched above Fenri. As he swung his arm downwards, the stake accelerated straight to her heart as Fenri’s own blade made its way to Bell’s chest. As their attacks drew closer and closer, both of them leapt away at the same time, neither party willing to gamble their lives on a 50/50 clash. Sweat fell from both their bodies, the quick clash occurring in the span of less than a second.

“Hah… Hah… Hah…” Both of them panted from exertion, the pair probing the other for the slightest weakness they could exploit. Fenri was faster than Bell by miles, but she had a lot of minor wasted movements that were the result of her bestial fighting style focused solely on offense. Bell, on the other hand, was undoubtedly formally trained in combat and moved with techniques specialized in taking down humanoid opponents like her. It was this experience that left him the winner of their little clash, Fenri silently nursing a broken wrist as she murmured inventory. Though nothing spawned in their line of sight, Verdi could detect healing potions spawning directly in Fenri’s stomach as her broken wrist slowly healed itself. It was during this momentary reprieve that Bell raised his hand, hoping to get their attention.

“Um, if you two would like… You can both surrender right now… I’m going to get serious now… I don’t want to cause an international incident by killing a hero…” He requested, his nervousness increasing as he returned to staring at the ground in front of him. Verdi groaned, the vampire’s genuine offer of mercy viewed as nothing but another insult to Fenri as the hero straightened her back and pointed her knife to the necromancer.

“Shut the fuck up and hit me with your best shot!” Fenri roared as a strange sense of dread ran down Verdi’s back. Daria said Bell was famous for his necromancy ability, yet he was able to match Fenri blow for blow in close combat. As Bell raised his hammer, he focused closely on the gem embedded within the bottom, peering into his pocket dimension. As he stared into his art exhibits, he visibly calmed down as he took a deep breath,

“Command Run Program 41-8.” It took him 3.3 seconds to say that simple phrase. In that span of time, the world went silent as Verdi’s vision grew dark, strength leaving his body as he felt a strange fizzy sensation on his tongue. He felt cold. Dreadfully so. His lungs stung as a bout of dizziness **** him to his knees. The strangest part, however, was the fact that his senses were in disarray. He could detect Fenri’s positioning through the soundwaves traveling in the ground, but he couldn’t detect them through the air. He didn’t even need to look to see that Fenri was on the ground clutching her throat in pain as he saw a thin white powder fall from her body.

At first he assumed the white powder to be a mere illusion from the reflection of sweat, only to realize Fenri’s body was coated in the strange white crystalline powder. It was only when Verdi saw Fenri’s sweat boil that he realized what had happened. Fenri was coated in salt. All her sweat boiled off, and she was currently **** to **** just like him.

“Crazy bastard made a perfect vacuum in the entire fucking arena.” Verdi thought, his remaining lung rupturing at the same time as his revelation, the air he inhaled leaking into his chest. The water Fenri had left him was of no use, boiling off from Bell’s spell while his blood did the same, his access to fluids outright sealing off his magic. Ironically, having his heart torn out had saved him as he reached to his open chest cavity.

Grabbing his pre-frozen heart, he tore it out and reshaped it into a long needle, focusing all his senses on it as he sent it upwards to the heavens. 5 meters. 10 meters. 15 meters. 20 meters. 40 meters, he could feel slight soundwaves of the cheering crowd at Bell’s spell. It was at that moment Verdi could properly grasp just how terrifying of a mage Bell was.

Wind magic was unlike ice magic in that the mage had to accurately calculate the number of atoms in the air and redirect them to a different vector. 1 mole equals 6.022*10^23 atoms. One cubic meter had about 41.6 moles at standard temperature. If you factored in that Olskroya was significantly hotter than standard temperatures, that the sandstone reflecting the heat skewed values, and the other minor nuances of the coliseum, calculating such a spell would be no longer in the realm of humans and into the realm of supercomputers.

“Think later. Get out now.” Verdi thought, forming a bubble at the end of his needle and capturing as much air as he could. His sight grew darker as Fenri pulled a knife from her inventory and threw it upwards while imbuing it with spirit power, maximizing the weight. Just before the blade left her hand, she mouthed “inventory” and tied a length of piano wire around it, sending herself flying upwards. Verdi, on the other hand, was busy retracting his ice needle while clutching it for dear life.

“Bell’s wind spell is repelling all air in a 40 meter radius. Even the air trapped in my ice bubble. As long as his spell is active, I can pull myself up with this air bubble.” Verdi thought, his tactic on par with a cartoon as he pulled himself up with what appeared to be a crimson balloon. As long as his ice maintained an airtight barrier and Bell’s spell was active, he could pull himself out of the vacuum. The second he escaped the vacuum, he refroze himself a new heart while taking in a deep breath of air, his body already regenerating from its most of its injuries. The only ones he couldn’t regenerate from was the severe frostbite he had coating his body. Looking to Fenri, he saw that she was also gasping for air, her reinforced body allowing her to at the very least escape the severe injuries Verdi had.

“And they escape the Zone of Silence! Give it up for them folks!” The harpy announcer said as Bell looked upwards, pointing his hammer to them and speaking.

“Command Run Program 41-9.” It took him 2.2 seconds to say that, but it took Verdi less than a half second to predict Bell’s next move as he felt a violent gust of wind pressing down on them. There wasn’t even time to react as Verdi hit the ground at near terminal velocity, an audible crunch being heard as chunks of frozen flesh shattered and fell from his body. Fenri, on the other hand, landed on her legs, her landing causing a dust cloud to fill the area as she shattered the sandstone arena.

“Oh, that’s gotta leave a mark!” The harpy announcer said as Verdi checked his body, silently cursing the extent of his injuries. Every bone in his body was broken, he could feel every organ except his heart was ruptured, and several of his teeth had fallen out from the impact. His limbs were bent in strange angles while his bones were sticking out of his body like a porcupine. Had his lungs not been destroyed, he would have sighed as he froze his wounds and began forcing his bones back into place.

SQUISH

CRUNCH

SPLORT

“OH WHAT THE FUCK!?”

“GOD FUCKING-STOP THAT YOU FREAKY BITCH!”

“FUCK, IS THIS FREAK RELATED TO EVANGELINE OR SOMETHING?”

“Nope, he’s just an interesting person I met, but I can understand the confusion. I should ask him if he’s sworn to a patron. Veyorga would LOVE someone with pain as great as him..”

“GAH, WHEN THE FUCK DID THE COLLECTOR GET HERE!?”

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

“OH GODS HELP ME!”

“I DON’T WANNA LIVE! I DON’T WANNA LIVE!”

“STAY BACK!”

“GUARDS! GUARDS!”

“Evangeline, please do not cause a panic by seducing the fans! They’re here for blood, not love!” The harpy announcer chided, the crowd near the angel dispersing as she appeared in the stands. She was wearing her usual toga, the fine white robes complimenting her porcelain skin as she had them clasped over her lap. Her attendant sat next to her, visibly embarrassed as he wore a large shirt that said “Go Verdi!” in handwritten ink letters while holding a bouquet of flowers in his arms. As if to remind everyone of the main event, Verdi grunted, his attempt at first aid only harming him in the long term.

“Don’t worry dearies! I’ve got my eye on someone, but I’ll be back when I’ve secured my love!” Evangeline said cheerily, mesmerized by Verdi’s show as she panted from the stands, stimulated by the battle.

Frozen blood latched onto his exposed bone and dragged it back into place before annealing itself to the segmented portions in a crude glue. The lacerated flesh was stapled shut Verdi held up his hand, all 5 fingers twisted and bent at anywhere between 190 to 350 degrees. Placing them into his toothless mouth, he snapped them forward back into position before freezing the bones back into place. He finished by grabbing his fallen teeth off the ground and putting them back into his mouth, the impact knocking out most of his front teeth and one of his molars. Sadly, his rush job at first aid was far from perfect

Rather than having a full recovery that healing magic would confer, Verdi’s entire body looked like a beaten and battered ragdoll forcibly stitched together. Considering most of his body was in fact frozen in such a manner, it was an apt description. He was standing because his limbs were quite literally frozen together. The second he moved the ice crystals would scrape and cut at his flesh in the best of conditions. At worst, they’d rupture and send him falling to the ground. Upon seeing Verdi stand back up after his near **** experience, Bell looked away and threw up.

“That’s not very nice of him.” Fenri said as Verdi nodded, still trying to fix his teeth as Bell dry heaved, his stomach’s contents emptied. Since his jaw was still broken, Verdi could only nod as he tried to freeze his jaw back into one piece.

“Oh god, please, please just surrender. Raise your han… Um… Say someth… Um… Use your magic to make two pillars and I’ll stop attacking you.” Bell offered, correcting himself repeatedly as he saw Verdi was quite literally just held together by ice magic. As horrific as Verdi appeared with the missing chunks of flesh, exposed bone, and missing heart, he wasn’t worried of **** in the slightest. Even without his monstrous regeneration or decentralized vitals, he would still be alive. The only time he’d surrender is if his body took a lethal blow that would kill a human, such as decapitation. Anything that could be halted with ice magic would be fixed and he’d continue fighting.

“He’ll surrender when he’s dead!” Fenri shouted before raising her arms behind her head, returning to the battle now that Bell was no longer vomiting. “Inventory!” A pair of obsidian blades formed in both hands as she took a step forward, tensing every muscle in her body as she threw them, both spinning blades aimed right for the necromancer’s eyes. Rather than block or dodge the attack, Bell once again raised his hammer, this time pointing the bottom of it to Verdi and Fenri as the Dimensional Marble embedded to the base of it stared back at them, the undead gallery far too small for them to see at their distance. After 2 seconds passed, he returned to pointing the stone head of his hammer to the duo as he stared into his Dimensional Marble.

“Defense Program 1 East.” 1.3 seconds. That was all it took to say that as the arena shifted, her knives sent flying away as a gust of wind blew the knives off course, sending them careening to the arena walls and harmlessly falling to the ground. Clicking her tongue, Fenri darted about like a wild animal, lobbing knives in every direction as Bell countered each one, using a number of advanced wind spells to deflect each attack in rapid succession.

Verdi could only gawk in disbelief at the necromancer’s absurd cast time, his knowledge of magic incapable of comprehending how the vampire was doing such a thing. Casting formulaic magic required one to calculate a number of formulas to reach a proper answer. A professional mage like Citrinas had a 15 second cast time in optimal conditions, while somewhat professional mages live Verdi had cast times of 45 seconds to a minute.

Bell had a cast time 2-7 seconds for the most complex wind spells Verdi had seen.

It was an impossibility. Even if Bell had the formulas prewritten and stored in his pocket dimension, they’d be useless due to his previous vacuum spell altering the conditions of the environment. He had to have adjusted for temperature fluctuation from the vacuum, the dispersal from his past spell, the dust in the air, there were so many factors that even Citrinas would have trouble. Then there was the fact that his pocket dimension didn’t have any sentient undeads. The only thing that he held were his art pieces and the massive building of fingers.

“Defense Program 1 East!” Fenri shouted abruptly, hoping that copying Bell’s commands would confuse him. Sadly, it did no such thing as Bell stated a different command, pushing Fenri away several feet as a gust of wind appeared from nowhere.

“The finger building! That’s how he’s doing it!” Verdi thought, an idea forming in his head as he coughed blood, laughing slightly at how long he’d taken to realize Bell’s strategy. It was insane. It was brilliant. Rather than be aggravated at someone cheating to cast formulaic magic, Verdi felt a tinge of respect for the vampire’s ingenuity. This was a man of vision. As he laughed, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him as Fenri snatched him, dragging him along as the air grew thinner once more.

“What’d you learn?” Fenri asked, keeping the question short and sweet as she looked at Verdi expectantly. Whenever he broke out laughing, he usually had some massive revelation to turn the tables. The fact that he looked like a frozen clot and was laughing was proof he had a plan.

“How he’s casting.” Verdi slurred out, his teeth and jaw still a bit loose from his improvised first aid. Instantly, Fenri flashed a smile, throwing a knife upwards and spawning piano wire around it, throwing the two of them skywards as Verdi copied her smile. If anyone saw the mass of fingers and Bell’s analytical ability, they could deduce the same thing, but he was quite proud that his homeworld had something like this.

“And?” Fenri asked as Verdi took a deep breath to answer her. They were still in the middle of a fight, so he had to keep his answer as focused as possible. No time to elaborate or give a long explanation, just a simple five word answer.

“VOICE ACTIVATED UNDEAD FINGER COMPUTER!” He said triumphantly as Fenri blinked several times in confusion, stared at him, and waited for an answer she could comprehend. He wanted to tell her about how logic gates worked, how a finger extended or lowered could be interpreted as a 1 or a 0, how Bell probably had a legion of undead independently inputting data based on what they saw from his Dimensional marble, and that they recognized his voice and his voice alone. He wanted to talk about how these 1s and 0s constituted binary, and how they could be used to calculate problems, and how the legion of fingers allowed him to calculate formulas nearly instantly with the processing power of a supercomputer. Sadly, the fact that Bell was already preparing to execute another program meant that he didn’t have the time to elaborate the specifics of computers.

“Gimme water!” Verdi demanded, several barrels spawning midair as he looked to Bell. There was no doubt the vampire had other tricks in play, but at least Verdi would be able to seal off a majority of his spells assuming his trick would work.