Chapter 18: Battle in an Open Field

Chapter 18: Battle in an Open Field

Back with Emily, who continues to fight Tar. The fight is now in an open field.

Emily attacks Tar with her sword in her left hand and the clawed glove on her right hand. She begins swinging her sword quickly at Tar, who is doing all he can just to block and avoid getting hit.

Using his claws, Tar tries to swipe at Emily, but she blocks it with her sword, and then counters by clawing across Tar’s skin with her gloved hand, leaving him with lines of wounds. He winces in pain.

“Gahhh!!”

He jumps back and thrusts his tar-arms forward at Emily. One misses while Emily grabs onto the other one. The arm retracts back toward Tar, with Emily holding onto it. She sheathes her sword, and as the arm fully retracts, they punch each other in the face.

Emily recovers from the punch first, pulling out a dagger and leaping behind Tar while slicing his neck. At the same time, one of Tar’s fists punches her in her right arm with heavy force. She rolls away, holding onto her right arm tightly while Tar tries to stop the bleeding in his neck by pressing tightly against it with his hands.

“Damn you!!” he screams.

As he stops the bleeding, he turns around and glares at Emily. He opens his mouth wide, stretched as far as it can go.

“Tar Bubbles!”

Bubbles of black, sticky tar shoot out from his mouth like rapid fire from a semi-automatic gun. Avoiding a few, Emily tries to block one with her dagger, but it just knocks it out of her hand and covers it in tar. With no way to block, she starts running again.

As she runs, she stares at some of the tall grass around Tar.

“Worth a try,” she says with a shrug.

She rolls down to avoid the bubbles and then places her left hand on the ground, channeling her magic through the tall grass. Filled with her magic, the tall grass becomes razor-sharp and quickly extends like spikes, many of which pierce through Tar. He coughs up blood, having taken severe internal damage.

“Are there any limits to your channeling magic?” Tar asks in frustration, his voice signaling the pain he is in.

“Damn. Looks like the Grass Spikes didn’t get his heart,” Emily says to herself, completely ignoring Tar’s question.

Tar struggles for a moment, but breaks free of the grass spikes using his physical strength.

He snarls, “You’ve made me very angry! What you’ve done to me is unforgivable!”

He starts to secrete tar from his right arm and uses his left hand to begin forming the tar into a more specific shape. After completing it, the tar is hardened and is shaped like a javelin.

He grasps the javelin with his left hand and readies to throw it.

“Will you be ready for this!?” he shouts in anger.

Emily’s eyes widen, anxious about his next attack. “Oh crap!”

Tar screams, “Tar Javelin!!”

Emily quickly unsheathes her sword as Tar throws the javelin at her. She readies her sword, preparing to block it.

As the javelin closes in on Emily, she slashes it with her sword. The slash knocks the javelin away, but her sword is knocked from her hands too, landing in the grass behind her.

“That was too close,” she says with a few drops of sweat flowing down her face.

Suddenly, the Shadow Sword begins falling into the area from the sky and lands next to Emily. She stares at it with interest.

“What’s this?” she wonders.

“How did the Shadow Sword get here!!?” Tar screams, his eyes trembling in shock.

“Shadow Sword, you say?” Emily murmurs, intrigued. “Well, I think I will use it for myself.”

“No, you mustn’t!!”

Ignoring Tar’s command, Emily grabs the Shadow Sword. As soon as she touches it, she sees vivid visions of people running for their lives, chased by demons with swords. The people can’t get away, mercilessly slaughtered with swords while the demons smile and laugh without a care. When the vision ends, her iris color changes from blue to dark red.

She grins. “It looks like you will die here.”

Emily has taken hold of the Shadow Sword! What has it done to her personality?!

Chapter 18 END

To Be Continued in Chapter 19: Emily and the Shadow Sword