98 CRONE’S LAST STAND

The crone appeared almost no different from before; apart from the cosmetic makeover, and fact that the vibe around her had changed. If Sage had enough time, she would have used [Mystic Eyes] to take a closer look at the changes on a metaphysical level. Sadly, she was not given time as, immediately after shoving Isaac away, the crone turned to her and struck. Her speed was beyond Sage's, making it impossible for her to avoid her. Fortunately, in such a situation, she still had [Ghostwalk]…

… was what she thought, before the old bitch's fist made contact with her face. A sickening crunch echoed in her ear as she felt her jaw crack. The teeth on one side of her face came loose and flew out her mouth along with black blood. The impact sent her twirling in the air before landing several metres away on her arm. Fortunately, the fall was not hard enough to break another bone. 

It still hurt like hell though.

Not a moment after she made contact with the ground, the crone appeared above her with her foot raised. Recognising her current predicament, Sage's brain went into overload. The spell that the hideous witch had used on herself not only reinforced her body, it also rendered {Ghostwalk} inert; likely the spell was created with spectres in mind. Sage's intangibility no longer worked on the crone, and- because of [Space Lock]- {Blink}ing was impossible. Fortunately, she had access to defence spells. One such was thrown out immediately; [Force Wall]. This spell proved futile in stopping the crone's foot clamming down on her; however- and fortunately- it managed to stall long enough for her to roll out the withered witch's way.

Taking the momentary respite from the crone's attacks, Sage jumped up whilst simultaneously casting [Flight]; allowing her to manoeuvre out of the hag's range. The hunchback hag predictably refused to let up. She jumped after Sage and took a swing at her. In response, Sage erected another Wall between them. The barrier unsurprisingly shattered on the first hit, but by then Sage had already flown further from her grasp.

Now out of the hag's reach, it was her turn to attack. She pointed her finger at the crone and cast [Bone Lance]. The white spear materialised and shot towards the old bitch but, having returned to the ground, she managed to avoid the javelin easily before initiating another leap towards her. Sage was obviously not going to give her chance to get close. This time she went with [Thunderbolt], a spell of a lower Order, however its speed made it nigh-impossible to dodge once released. Her choice was proven right when the thick black bolt shot out of her hand and struck down the crone.

However, the old witch did not land on her back as expected. Although the bolt struck had struck her head-on and pushed her back towards the ground, her feet were the ones that made first contact with the ground; also, the rest of her looked unharmed.

The fuck is going on? Sage wondered after seeing this. What sort of spell had the crone used on herself?

She started to cast [Mystic Eyes], but found herself having to stop when the crone was once again pounced. This time though, instead of going back to the ground, Sage sensed the mana pattern of [Flight] erupt from the crone. The move was on a whole, not what Sage expected from the hag; as such, her plans for the next course of action were thrown in disarray. She barely managed to bring her arm up and block the hag's kick to her face. The impact of shin to forearm was followed by another sickening crunch as Sage was sent to the ground. 

She did not manage to land on her feet.

Fucking dammit! she cursed inwards as she moved out of the way to avoid the consequent double-stomp. I'm being fucking pummelled. Where the fuck is that bastard?

Just as she finished her thought, an obsidian broadsword flew out of nowhere and struck the hag; an act that managed to elicit a shrill cry from her. In the process, the crone's hideous face turned even more revolting as she angrily pulled the sword from her arm. Blood- the scarlet kind- spurted out both ends of the now unoccupied wound and fed the ground. 

Sadly, the injury did not appear to be much of a hinderance to the hag. In fact, her flesh was already stitching itself back together.

What the fuck!

After the surprise attack, the crone's attention shifted to Isaac. The hag descended and began to engage him, which allowed Sage get back on her feet and finally cast the spell she had been meaning to for a while.

The first thing that stood out to Sage after peering at the hag through [Mystic Eyes], was the thin layer of elemental swirls clinging to the crone's decrepit skin. Fire, water, earth, cold, light, dark, air; all the elements gathered around her in a protective barrier; they were the cause of her metallic lustre. The swirls not only protected the crone, but reinforced her body by absorbing parts of the surrounding elements and feeding them to her; the crone's healing arm appeared to be the result of this effect. With Isaac currently engaging in a fist fight with her, even though he had superior speed and strength, the fact that he was using {Chill} in tandem was a net gain for the crone. This effect was probably what had stopped the [Thunderbolt] earlier. By Sage's estimation, elemental spells that could punch through the hag's barrier had to be those of 6th Order and higher.

Still though, seeing the workings of the hag's spell, [Elemental Kin], Sage decided to rummage through the inn debris after the fight had concluded. 

However, that would come later; now, she had a twisted witch to bring down.

First off, she used [Dark Regeneration] to heal all injuries she had incurred. 

The great thing about [Mystic Eyes] was that it not only allowed one to see the nature of a spell or ability, it also allowed one to see the affinities, aptitudes and amount of mana one currently possessed. The crone's affinities were moderate, nothing worth noting except the fact that she had all of them. Her aptitude was one Sage had already seen with the more accurate {Index}. As for the amount of mana the hag currently had… by Sage's estimation, not enough to cast spells above the 1st Order. Once the duration of [Elemental Kin] was up, the hag would become a sitting duck.

However, whether the crone had a minute or five on the spell's effect, Sage was not willing wait that long to subdue her. A second was enough to change the course of a battle, tens of dozens of seconds was more than enough to end entire battles where those beyond the 6th Order were involved. The crone might be really old and nauseatingly hideous, but she was enough of a match that Sage could not take risks.

Isaac and the hag kept slogging each other with their fists. The lack of clothes gave the crone better mobility, which enabled her to dodge most of the knight swings; especially the ones targeted at vital areas. As for Isaac, although his mobility was not as high, his obsidian armour managed to block most of her punches while leaving only small dents.

Watching the two exchange blows back and forth, Sage decided to add a wrench to their performance. She cast [Summon Undead], bringing forth a death knight, which she ordered to assist Isaac in attacking the crone. Next off, she pointed at the knight and reinforced him with [Major Strengthen Undead]. Under normal circumstances, it was a bad idea to cast a reinforcement spell on an ally when they were in close proximity to the enemy; however, the 7th Order spell only worked on undead, so even if it missed and landed on the crone instead, there would be no effect.

Sage's luck was in full swing this time, because the spell caught Isaac despite his erratic movements. Also, the death knight arrived and began attacking the crone, forcing her to back off; a sword was not something she could block with her bare body. The death knight's attack allowed Isaac to gain a moment's rest from the crone's assault. Instead of joining the death knight to continue the attack, he looked to the side and went to grab his fallen sword before jumping back into the fray. However, the old bat's combat prowess was unbelievably good. By the time the knight returned to the fight, the death knight had already been dismantled and was in the midst of dematerialising back to the Deadlands. 

There are more where that one came from. 

Sage summoned another death knight and ordered it to assist Isaac. This time, Isaac's upper-hand was even more obvious. Both his speed and strength vastly outclassed the hag's. The crone managed to dodge the first of the knight's attack, but that left her open to a kick in the side. There followed a sickening crunch, similar to when she had attacked Sage, as she was sent flying several metres away. This time, she did not land on her feet.

The recently summoned death knight arrived where the hag had landed and thrust its sword downwards. Unfortunately, the hag rolled out of the sword's way before swiping the summoned undead off its feet. The previous undead knight had been handled by disarming it and decapitating it with its own weapon. This time, the crone grabbed the sword from the undead's hand and slashed at its leg, breaching the undead's greaves and leaving a gash deep enough that the leg was only held in place by thin strips of rotting flesh. Then the hag brought up her stolen sword; just in time to fend off Isaac's attack.

Sage snarled when she saw the hag's actions; they were more well thought-out then they initially appeared. When a summoned death knight was killed, its weapon dissipated along with it. By taking the undead's sword and merely incapacitating it instead, the crone ensured that its weapon not only remain for the undead's duration in the Main Plane, it also prevented Sage from summoning another helper from the Deadlands.

Unfortunately for the witch, her ploy made little difference at this stage of the battle. With Isaac having been strengthened by a 7th Order spell, even if the crone had better techniques, she failed to stop him. After a few clashes with their weapons, the former Guard Captain managed to find a gap in the hag's defence and struck, hacking her sword arm off. The hag shrieked in pain as blood sputtered from the stump; her voice was cut off a second later when an armoured boot made contact with her chest. Again she was sent skittering on her back. Isaac followed with his ebony blady raised high, ready to bring it down and end her life.

"STOP!" Sage hurriedly shouted.

The sword was mere centimetres from the hag's face when she issued the command. Isaac involuntarily froze, unable to move any further. His head craned in her direction; a frown present on his face. Clearly, he did not appreciate her interference. Sage chose to ignore his glare and hurriedly bound the crone to the ground with [Nether Chains]. Then she walked over to the witch's side, snatched the sword from Isaac and plunged it into her remaining arm. 

Her actions caused the crone to release another pained screech. Hearing the hag's agonised scream, Sage felt the fire in her chest simmer down. Its sensation morphed from an unbearable heat to a pleasant flutter, the kind that made the corners of her lips quirk upwards. This was what she had wanted since discovering the finger in her soup. To savour more of the feeling, she stabbed another part of the hag's arm.

Unfortunately, with every successive stab, the crone appeared to adjust. With each subsequent jab her scream's amplitude decreased until- after the seventh stab- they vanished. She was not silent though. Her shrieks had morphed to cackles; her painfilled eyes turned to mock-filled ones.

"Is that all ye can do?" she managed get out between shrill laughs and bloody hiccups. "Ye not versed in this are ye, necromancer girl?"

Sage frowned while she stared down the now blood-coated hag. The spell she was using had dissipated, meaning she could no longer heal despite the fact that Isaac still had not cancelled {Chill}. 

The enjoyment of the ordeal was gone though. Revenge that had the target laughing in the end was the lamest kind of revenge. The whole point of revenge was to obtain satisfaction through inflicting suffering; if one did it for any other reason or obtained a different result, then it was not worth. At this point it was better to end things.

"Fuck you bitch!" she hissed and flung the blade away.

The cannibal crone did not deserve a quick death!

With her mind made up, Sage raised her foot and stomped down with all the force she could muster. Her foot landed on the crone's face, square on her ugly warty nose. The old bitch's cackles were cut off as blood exploded all over her face. Seeing this, Sage did not relent. She raised her foot and stomped down again, then again. This act was repeated multiple times; she lost count. At one point she felt the crone's face cave in. Still, she continued unrelentingly, stomping on the hag's squishy remains.

It was a long while before she finished venting. By then the crone's face had been flattened beyond recognition, her blood and brain matter scattered on the ground.