The Strongest Of The Academy (2)
These earthen monstrosities that somewhat resembled human figures lumbered towards Ares with a steady pace, each step they took shaking the ground.
"Well, that is new" remarked Cyrus, changing his plans in real time and giving a new set of orders to Ares.
Carrying out such orders faithfully, the undead held his great sword with one hand and pulled out a bonespear with the other. Throwing it with impossible accuracy, strength, and speed the projectile cracked through the air and blew off the head of one of the constructs and the shoulder of another behind it.
The one that had its head blown off began to break apart, returning to the earth once more, while the one that was simply damaged slightly was repairing in real time as earth from the ground rose up and restored it completely.
Seeing such a sight Cyrus thought, "Of course they can repair non-lethal blows. And as I had guessed, a lethal blow must be in the area where the golden 'eyes' appear. But that is eerily similar to light in the eyes of the undead, did Luxman perhaps just bestow mere earth with souls? No, instead it should simply be a property of whatever that golden light is. Else everything I think I know about souls is somehow extremely flawed."
Meanwhile Ares let loose the rest of his spears, while also dodging rocks being shot from the wall at him, and took out another four of the constructs.
Alas, there was still seven left and if Ares did not engage them they would simply run down Cyrus.
Holding its sword with both hands once more, Ares strode forth and engaged the first group of the constructs. Empowering his body with the power of his soul, his eyes flickering vigorously all the while, he managed to decapitate two more with one clean stroke of his weapon.
The number advantage was nothing to be scoffed at, however, as the moment the attack was completed two more of the constructs struck out simultaneously with hulking rock limbs. At first the attacks were simply ignored, for an undead has such luxury, but with a quick order from his venerable master Ares removed one arm from his sword and blocked the attacks with it.
The force from the attack pushed Ares back, right into the path of several more projectiles from the now shrinking wall. Slashing them out of his path, Ares examined its arm that it had used to block which was now splintered into pieces. Shaking it vigorously the arm began to repair itself, presenting a sight which made it look like several small needles were stitching the bone back together which in this case was technically true.
Cyrus, who was now being forced to walk forward so as to not waste will due to the range, felt the greedy drain of his creation increase suddenly for a moment to carry out the swift self-repair.
"This level of drain is ridiculous, at least for the current me. If only this land was not so barren, perhaps something could be gained from plentiful fauna. These pitiful few trees are already mostly barren, what a shame."
While Ares was repairing his arm he was kiting the enemy as ordered but it soon became apparent that the constructs were also being given orders by their creator, for one of them suddenly broke off and charged towards Cyrus.
Having no other choice, Ares forced himself to quickly turn around and crush the break away's head, using his great sword like a hammer. Due to this, Ares was finally shot in the back by a rock from the wall that broke into his rib cage but was unable to penetrate fully.
Angered, or at least annoyed, Ares momentarily stopped listening to Cyrus' requests of conserving his power and unleashed his full force. His eyes shining through barren eye sockets, Ares bolted off like lightning and ran circles around the slow massive hulks of earth. Crushing each and every one of their heads, without even so much as taking a single hit in return, Ares stood triumphantly over their 'corpses' and gazed at Luxman in an almost mocking manner.
The side effect of all this was a now completely bereft of will Cyrus, who had to foot the bill for such a feat.
The sudden increase in demand of resources gave him a splitting headache, turning his field of vision slightly black with every step he took, thinking to himself "A field of battle with no means for the undead to naturally replenish itself, not exactly ideal. Noted."
Ares was now at the foot of the wall that Luxman had created and was more than content to just walk around it. Seeing this Luxman sighed, his very being almost visibly emanating his sorrow and loss as he jumped down from his wall and in a sonorous tone he said,
"Alas, every enemy is not able to be repelled successfully. At times the enemy is too great, too grand, and too evil. But every man and woman of the Empire is strong and valiant. They know that at times, the ultimate sacrifice must be made. Not so that they can live on, for their fate has long been sealed. No, they do it so that those who come after them may have a chance to succeed where they failed."
The moment the last syllable left his lips, the wall began to shudder and shake and with the sound of several loud impacts….it began break apart and fall.
Hundreds of pieces of rock toppled over and right onto Ares, who had been caught completely by surprise. Trying his best to not be defeated Ares stood still in the darkness created by the massive wall falling over him and held his great sword in two bony hands. Passing the weapon from one skeletal hand to the next, it began to spin rapidly as it created a maelstrom of destruction tearing anything that got near it to shreds.
The first dozen rocks that fell onto him were turned into dust upon contact. The next few dozen were done in as well but the problem lay therein the fact that there were hundreds more falling and there was no way for him to last for very long.
Attempting his best, burning through all of his soul capacity that he had, he raised his power to his limit so much so that his bones began to creak and groan under the sheer force that was being generated and outputted.
A snap rang out as one of the two bones making up his left arm snapped, which was followed by another series of snaps as his arms were immediately crushed thereafter. Ares was doomed to be crushed by the weight of the crumbling wall, which was exactly as how it played out.
As a last act of defiance, however, he used the last spurt of his power to kick out and detach one of his toe bones. Using it as a makeshift projectile weapon, he shot it through a small gap in the falling rocks and into the chest of Luxman who was caught completely off guard.
Staggering under the sudden grievous wound, Luxman held his right chest and looked on in muted disbelief.
Coughing up blood he said, "So confident of my victory I was, that I let such a last ditch effort work on me in the end. Oh, what pride and what arrogance I had…blinded so…But even then, I remain victorious."
Luxman looked directly at Cyrus, for perhaps the first time, and said to him, "Cyrus, you have fought well I should say. Even if I despise the means that you used, however you accomplished it, but well fought indeed. Now, I will end this."
Kicking the ground once more, a bit of earth was raised up. Just like at the start of the fight he sent several projectiles over to Cyrus who was barely able to stand properly let alone dodge.
Frustration and defiance written all over his face, Cyrus punched the first few projectiles with his bare hands thus turning them into a bloody mess.
"My hand is not empty yet, I have many more cards to play," thought Cyrus as a cold power began to flood his veins and his shadow began to show signs of trembling.
A voice from within interrupted him however and along with it a warm but vigorous power, "Enough, do not forget that we are still being watched. To use your full capabilities, are you doubting your own thoughts as to your origins?"
These words of wisdom stopped the dark Cyrus from continuing his reckless behavior, stopping the flow of demonic power completely.
Looking at the oncoming rock, completely out of options, the last thought that was on his mind was:
"Ah, how frustrating."