Ignia

After cleaning up a... small issue, it was revealed that there was an incessant form of matter that was sentiently attempting to harm Cobalt and Arch. This would simply not stand, yet there was a bigger threat than the monstrosities themselves.

They couldn't heal wounds.

No form of magic or medicine cleansed Arch of his scars, and he was slowly taking damage... whether from bleed or soemthing it was a problem, a problem they couldn't afford to escalate. They can't risk getting hit more should it worsen the damage, they barely had enough time as it was... but should the damage even get slightly stronger Arch would surely perish.

Cobalt understood the situation he was in, these beasts that were deployed are obviously something special... he had never seen anything like them and they were sent after the horde of mindless soldiers. It was Cobalt's duty to liberate them, and so it began.

It was a habit of his, to end fights quickly, but he couldn't put himself or Arch at risk, his only option was to use Nebula Fantasm's rifle form and pray to hold off his opponents. There was 20ish total, all different colors or shape.... each had their own sorts of rotten fauna atop themselves, and all of them were mindlessly charging towards Cobalt and Arch.

Arch staggered as he tried to lift his blades once more, the fight had not ended within him and he still thirsted for Combat... Cobalt forced him down, he would not risk his friend in such a simple engagement... it would be such a waste, after all... he was a powerful ally in this war, to loose Arch now would be an insult to Arch... he would have to shut it and swallow his pride for a moment.

The infested beings came within range of Cobalt's Rifle, bullets flew through them along with tons of shrapnel and yet they kept charging, bullets did damage... but it didn't wound the enemy as Cobalt hoped, he theorized they were single cell organisms from this interaction and concluded that the next best solution is to beat them down with magic.

All forms of magic circles flew around Coablt, low rank spells churned and twisted as he prepared to launch them.

The closest form, a large one doused in red spores, was hit square in the face with a large beam of light, a blue one next to him was obliterated by a vat of icicles. The mindless beasts cared less, without fear they charged ceaselessly at the spell caster... a much more difficult fight than a bunch of scared foot soldiers, these ones actually fight.

A small one flanked Cobalt, and despite catching a lance of flame managed to ram into Cobalts sides, Arch barely managed to stab the small beast and pin it down with the last of his strength... but Cobalt was still staggered from the blow, the spells crackled and sizzled out of the air as pain racked his body.

It felt different, different than normal pain.

Either way, with no other options, Cobalt unleashed his favorite aspect of Violent Blood magic. Vulpihiliac Detonation, the large dark red circled sent an ominous chill down even Arch's spine and as it came to finish, there was catastrophic failure.

Instead of targeting all of the beasts attacking him, Cobalt had accidentally targeting all of the corpses.

Fat and Blood cracked every surrounding surface, the detonation was so violent it sent ripples through the atmosphere and split away nearby clouds, yet there was no explosion or shrapnel, no. It was a power too strong to send flying organs or dirt away, the material evaporated and flung only powdered remains of the field.

It didn't harm Cobalt or Arch, but it didn't help them either... in fact it worsened the situation, Cobalt's battle lens were soaked and he was blinded. The black bindings that acted as his vision were no longer operational in their function, instead they now limited Cobalt.

The beasts were still alive, and after recovering from the fruitless detonation became active once more, mercilessly slamming against Cobalt who didn't put up any fight. Without sight there was little he could do but endure it, crossing his arms against his face... he Tuckered up and readied himself for the onslaught.

Arch was powerless to help as he found himself stumbling away from a particularly large specimen, his blades help him up like crutches as his health continued to drain away... sapping at his energy. There was absolutely no way Arch could fight, and so he began hastily limping away from the behemoth. Luckily event without much speed he could out maneuver the dumb beast, and he managed to dodge a few blows.

Unfortunately for Cobalt, that wasn't the case... he couldn't get the grim off of his device, and he couldn't take it off... it was nearly bolted to his head...the system couldn't help him either as the gore interfered with the process, Cobalt helplessly swung at any noise he heard... and while he found success sometimes, he couldn't risk losing an arm and as such his punches were barely strong enough to hurt a bug.

That wouldn't cut it against the infested creatures, their exterior was soft and mushy...even though you could put your finger right through them, it wouldn't matter to such beasts. They seemingly didn't feel pain nor showed any intelligence, a perfect matchup for Cobalt... but it had gone so horribly wrong.

Cobalt couldn't help but wonder two things...

How could he prevent this in the future?

and...

Why is Melody taking so long...