Nerf Space Plz

As the two groups-Adventurers and Vampires-prepared to face off against each other, team deathmatch style, Endyr's focus was captured by the strange orb on the pedestal-or was it closer to an eye? Regardless of its true nature, Endyr couldn't help but feel a strange desire towards it. Somewhere deep in her bones, she knew that she needed that orb, and Endyr was helpless in the face of such subconscious attraction. 

The Vampire that was handling the Crystal Mana looked over and frowned, annoyance flickering through his eyes. But fear was absent: he clearly didn't view the intruders as a threat. With a dismissive glance, he focused on the crystal ball again. Seeing this, Aryll's lips curled as she shared a look with Kulkiri. Getting the message, he evaporated into mist and dashed towards the sitting Vampire. Behind him, the other Adventurers picked their targets and lunged forward. 

As Endyr was distracted by the orb, she missed her matchup and was left as the spare wheel. Looking between the fights, she decided to help Kulkiri since her instincts pegged him as the biggest threat. She dashed forward, weaving between the sparks and swings of the others as she neared the blue-haired Vampire. 

He had watched Kulkiri approach with an indifferent gaze, only lazily raising his hand when Kulkiri got close. With a bored motion, the Vampire clenched his fist and turned it clockwise. And with this simple motion, the world in front of him twisted. 

Kulkiri materialised in a flash, hurling himself backwards to avoid the attack. In Endyr's eyes, the space before her rippled and folded like a wave before straightening out again. While the attack was silent and seemingly without consequences, a cold sweat dripped down her body. The Vampire had just folded space, and would have crushed both her and Kulkiri is they had been in range.

'That Vampire has a Space Affinity?!' she screamed internally as she rapidly revaluated her plan. Space users were incredibly rare, more so than Gravity, Life, Death and Soul but less than Time and Sky. It was a simple but deadly Element, one that made its users hard to kill or trap. The most common spells were collapsing a pocket of space, teleportation, severing a line of space to cut everything in sight and redirecting attacks to a null space. Their attacks were unblockable, and their defences almost unbreakable unless one could completely overwhelm the Space Mana they used. 

The difficulty of killing this Vampire had just skyrocketed, and the worst part was that Endyr had no real way to bypass the Vampire's defences. She could try and overload his mind with more taboo information, but she didn't know if the Mana she used to transform the information would bypass the Space Deflection Shield. She bit her lip furiously as her mind went through everything she knew about Space Mana and its weaknesses. But while Endyr was content to try and figure stuff out, Kulkiri was less patient. 

He rushed forward, silver blades gleaming with Mana as he lunged straight at the Vampire. Before Endyr could shout a warning, his figure blurred and began to disappear. Under her shocked eyes, Kulkiri completely faded away from her sight, both normal and Mana enhanced. Her surprise was mirrored by the Vampire, as a look of surprise flashed across his features before a tinge of solemnness rooted itself within his eyes. He raised both hands and grabbed at the air in front of him, clenching tightly as he pulled in opposite directions. With the sound of ripping fabric, the space around him rippled and began to change colour. Within three seconds, reality had become saturated and warped. 

'Did he just peel back the Veil?' Endyr thought numbly, shocked by the feat. While she could pierce the Veil, it was only mentally. Actively ripping a hole to the Spirit World while being in the Material World was a feat she had only heard of in the history books. This Vampire was not nearly as simple as she had assumed: even amongst Space users, such a Skill would undoubtedly be rare. He was likely a prodigy amongst his generation, which made sense considering what he was tasked with.

Once the Spirit World permeated the Material one, the colours rapidly reconfigured themselves into different shapes. Doing so revealed a blob of faint white Mana that was moving towards the Vampire. With a cold smile, the Vampire clenched his fist and threw it at the blob of white Mana. A loud cracking sound resounded as the first accelerated into a blur and struck the blob. Glass seemed to shatter, as Kulkiri figure outlined itself in mid-air, hunched dover and clutching his stomach. 

As the Vampire pointed at him and prepared to click his fingers, Endyr hurriedly created a Water Beam and send it at him. The Beam seemed to strike an invisible hole, as it vanished into thin air once it got within arm's reach of the Vampire, but the motion successfully distracted him from Kulkiri. As the Vampire faced Endyr with boredom still lingering in his gaze, she clenched her jaw and condensed half a dozen Water Blades that floated around her head. With a thought, she sent them flying towards the Vampire at different angles, trying to find a gap in his shield.

With practised motions, the Vampire spread his arms out wide. Endyr sensed a fluctuation in the Mana surrounding him, as all six Water Blades vanished just like the previous Beam. The Vampire smirked at her faintly as he lowered his arms and made a finger gun at her. Endyr's instincts screamed for her to dodge, as she practically threw herself to the right. Where where was standing a mere second ago, the ground just disappeared, leaving a smooth crater. 

Seeing her dodge, the Vampire adjusted him aim and tried again. Like a sick circus act, Endyr was forced to duck and weave as pieces of the room vanished around her. After more than a dozen of such actions, the attacks suddenly stopped. Breathing heavily, Endyr looked up to see that Kulkiri had recovered and was inches away from impaling the Vampire through the heart from behind. However, he had hit an invisible wall that repelled his attack and alerted his target. 

Eyes widening at the realization of how close he came to dying, fury burned in his eyes as he clapped his hands together aggressively. A massive shockwave formed and carried Kulkiri straight into the wall as he crumpled like a puppet that had just been cut from its strings. The Vampire advanced on his unconscious form, intent on finishing the job this time, but Endyr was faster. Pouring so much Mana into her muscles that they creaked and visibly bulged, she ran at the Vampire with a blade of water.

She struck an invisible wall and felt every bone in her front shatter on impact.

In a prepared motion, the Vampire spun on the spot as a smirk of derision formed on his face. He had been luring Endyr into rushing forward to save her comrade! During their previous little spat, he realized that her reaction speed was quite high, and that he would need to be closer to land a strike. As such, he acted like he was focusing on Kulkiri when in fact his target was always her. The fury on his face was just an act: a senior Vampire like him would never be that impulsive.

And know, both his opponents were disabled and within finishing range. He made two finger guns and pointed one at Endyr and the other at Kulkiri, ready to put an end to them. The other Vampires seemed to be locked in a stalemate, but their victory was only a matter of time. They had both near inexhaustible stamina and Nether, while the Humans had neither. 'Perhaps I should just finish them off after' he thought to himself. 

Just as he was about to pull the "trigger" though, he noticed something. At his feet, Endyr crumpled body was squirming and shifting. Under his shocked eyes, the blood that had pooled out of Endyr's body began to recede and flow back in. The sound of bones snapping reached his ears as the shattered skeleton began to reconstruct itself at a speed visible to the naked eye. As the Vampire looked on in frozen surprise, a portion of the blood suddenly shot out as a spike!

The Vampire instinctively recoiled, but the blood spike shattered on the invisible wall before it could make contact with him. Before the Vampire could readjust his footing though, Endyr shot up in a bloody blur as she supercharged her body with Mana and lunged. Her skin ruptured and her eyes turned so bloodshot it didn't look far off as she once again crashed in the barrier. Only this time, the barrier also received damage.

What looked like plain space began to take on a tarnished red hue, which quickly spread to form a pane protecting the Vampire. This was his Space Shield, outlined by Endyr's Mana. Unlike when he stopped her Water blades, it only protected his front and back, not his sides like a bubble. Seeing his weak spots had been discovered, the Vampire flung his arms out and tried to summon the bubble again. Before he could though, a blade of silver made its way under his ribs.

The Vampire widened his eyes and coughed blood. He turned slightly to see a pair of orange eyes staring at him from behind a mask. It was Kulkiri, but his body was still lying against the wall! 'No, there's two of them!' the Vampire realised. Just as he did, the Kulkiri against the wall dissipated into mist before vanishing. 'Some sort of illusion?!'

Before the Vampire could say anything, the silver blade lit up like the sun. He screamed an animalistic screech of pure agony as the flesh on that side of his body began peeling immediately. He struck out at Kulkiri in an uncoordinated flurry, desperate to shake the blade loose. Seizing the chance, Endyr stepped to the side and plunged her hand into the Vampire side. Impaled by a blade on one side and a hand on the other, the Vampire could only stare in despair and pain and Endyr flooded his body with her Mana, holding nothing back. 

His screams turned silent as he helpless gaped, before exploding in a violent burst. Unprepared for such an end, Endyr was scattered in guts and blood, gagging violently at the slimy sensation. On the other side, Kulkiri fell to his knees, unbothered by the gore but heaving for breath and clutching his ribs. 

Endyr looked up to see the other Vampires had frozen in shock at the sight of their leader's death. Seizing the opportunity, Johan unleashed a flurry of strikes that turned the distracted Vampire into poorly made sushi. His death was the trigger for the end, and the Vampires turned to flee. Most made it down a hallway, but two more were slain once they turned their backs. 

As Aryll and the others rushed over, Endyr's vision began to turn black as she struggled to stay upright. Though the fight had ended quickly, she knew that it had come down to the wire. If she hadn't unlocked a Dhampir Bloodline previously, she wouldn't have been able to manipulate ehr blood or regenerate like that. Thus, Kulkiri wouldn't have been able to find the areas not covered by the shield. But now that she had used her Blood Affinity, she became aware of a deep and primal thirst bubbling up within her. 

'Fuck...Space is...too fucking OP'