NOVEL NEXT 2.79: Done
With arcs of electricity crackling around him, Henry reached the center faster than his opponent, and with another Lightning Dash, he was right up in Tevarius' face. His Octominds, freshly empowered with pulse of Thaumaturgy, were ready for the task he'd set for them. For the first time ever, he was about to witness what an Aspect-empowered Octomind was capable of. Already, he could sense them in his own mind, suddenly much more prominent. If they hadn't been so intimately tied to his mind, Henry would have worried, because this time it really did feel like there were other people in his mind. Eight minds sharing his goals, thoughts, and capabilities.
And Thaumaturgy is still only C-rank…
Shock was all over Tevarius' eyes, but he still managed to slow down and expertly position himself to impale Henry through the head, but with a mental flick, all of Henry's Octominds activated the same skill. Even the one that had been watching over Maurice put its weight behind Henry, and the result was stark.
Four thick, intensely purple nimbuses instantly materialized around the man's hands and feet, completely killing his momentum. While Henry's usual skill looked more like purple smoke that could still allow you to see through its magic, the Octominds' group-telekinesis looked almost solid, and to Henry's mild shock, he could barely detect any backlash, either. There was some, of course. The man was a mid B-rank, and if Henry had been the sole mind who'd tried to stop him, he'd be nursing a pretty nasty headache right now. But the empowered Octominds barely flinched.
After a couple of panicked, failed tries, Tevarius roared and channeled more of his Aspects into the attempt. With a flare of blood-red magic, he finally managed to wrench his left arm away from the restraining magic, but that was too little and certainly too late.
Tevarius flinched away, trying to dodge as Henry's arm reached out for his midsection, but he had nowhere to go. Before he could manage to break out another limb from Henry's Octominds, the first arm made contact, and a flashing, intense crackle of Fury-empowered lightning cursed into the man's body.
The lord seized and screamed as Lightning Discharge scoured him, burning his skin and causing his flailing and spasming to grow more intense, but Henry wasn't done. As soon as the flow of electricity slowed, Henry channeled a bit of Hunger into the tiny, sharp suckers of his arm. Lacing them with a cocktail of numbing and paralyzing venoms, he bit down and felt the venom trickle into Tevarius's blood stream while a couple of notifications popped up that he quickly dismissed.
Tevarius's movement slowed, the venom taking effect quickly, but Henry didn't expect it to last long. As soon as he sensed the boost to his Octominds weaken, he let his Octominds release Telekinesis right as he wrapped an arm around the bone-spear. At the same time, he whipped another as hard and as fast as he could, catching the man as he limply fell back down to the ground, sending him crashing against the glowing, translucent wall of the arena.
The crowd roared, and Henry spared his outside clone a second of his attention as he rolled the mysterious bone-spear in his arm before it disappeared into his Maw. Through his clone, he quickly found Maurice and Stormsong chattering, and further above them he saw Sev and Tevarius' entourage, watching, dismayed while the crowd clamored around them.
None of them could see him, as far as he could tell, considering his upgraded Invisibility. The boy's face was especially pale. Somehow, he looked more emotionally beat up than he did after he'd faced both Henry and Maurice.
Henry turned his attention back to the fight. A few paces away, Tevarius was struggling up to his feet, dazed and freely bleeding out of the corner of his right eye. All around his midsection and chest, round, reddish spots with a bleeding center were showing. The punctures where Henry had pumped him full of venom. Unfortunately, his venoms—even though they'd been empowered with an Aspect—were not enough to keep the man down for long. While the effect of toxins was mild and quickly fading, fatigue was much more of a pressing issue to the man, especially considering the cost attached to the skill he'd been empowering himself with, which was now part of Henry's own arsenal.
Crimson Surge (D) - Level 1: Burn the raw vitality of your body to greatly empower your might and speed.
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Clearly, that skill came with a few drawbacks, Henry thought as he whipped two arms out. Two arm-shaped blue crescents flew toward the man, forcing him out of his daze. Tevarius stumbled to the side in a haphazard dodge, only for four more echo strikes to find him and hammer him back into the ground as Henry floated closer. Tevarius rolled to the side, still trying to get back up. Reaching out with an arm, Henry pumped more venom into the man, then spoke into his mind.
"[Your son is watching. Stay down.]"
Tevarius grit his teeth and again, the red hue flicked around his body as he screamed and jumped up, rushing toward Henry with an arm wound back. Spittle and blood flew out of his mouth as he quickly closed the short distance separating them, but that wasn't what Henry found alarming. No, it was the intense, gray ghostly spear that had appeared in the man's arm. As he watched it close in on him, Henry raised two arms and channeled his own defensive Aspect into Trickster's Fortitude.
The ghostly spear pierced his skin and detonated in an explosion of ethereal shrapnel, but unlike the last time, Henry's arms weren't reduced to minced-meat.
Tevarius stared at the remaining motes of the destroyed spear, then at the already closing wound on Henry's arms, mouth open. Henry made use of the lull and took the man's feet from under him. Wrapping an arm around the man's leg, Henry lifted him off the ground, then slammed down. Three times he repeated the motion, hard enough that a small crater had formed under the man, and when he was done, he threw the lord against the wall again.
"Surrender. You lost."
A pained groan escaped from the man's throat as he tried to roll on his side. As he struggled, down there against the dirt, Henry pushed away the thought of finishing him off. He didn't need to. He didn't want to. The man could not be a threat to him, and as for his friends, Henry would see what should be done with Zerathstra. A set of strongly worded oaths could do, or maybe exile or any other solution, but right now, he didn't feel like killing this person. No matter how convenient it might be. He wasn't executing a man in front of his family. Not unless he was really forced to, and as long as oaths could hold.
But what if he breaks them anyway?
Henry shook his head. He'd have to see with the ape. Breaking an oath was supposed to be a big deal. It was supposed to come with great penalties to one's personal power, but what if it was weak enough for Tevarius to cause some trouble to Stormsong if she opted to stay around?
Henry would make sure to have some extremely solid guarantees, and he'd go from there.
Tevarius finally managed to put his knees under him once more, and a few seconds later he was back up to his feet, though it seemed he was barely holding on.
"I… will not. Surrender… to you. I would rather… die."
The defiant glare refused to let up. Even though one of his eyes was swollen shut and caked with blood. As if he hadn't heard anything Henry had said, the man was trying to raise his hands again, so Henry shoved him down against the ground with Telekinesis.
"You'd rather be dead than be present for your son? What's your pride going to do for him when he needs you? Huh?"
Henry floated above the bloodied, broken lord, and before he could try again to get back up, Henry slammed an arm down against his chest. "I'm letting you live, coward. Your son is watching. And while I am a monster, I'm not your kind of monster," the kraken hissed, ignoring the two hands that feebly and useless trying to push his arm away. "Surrender willingly, or I'm knocking you out."
The more this "fight" went on, the worse Henry's stomach was churning. He was done here. This fight was done, but while the man might be too addled or stubborn to drop the gauntlet, there were still judges around. Henry glanced up toward the podium at the edge of the ring.
"Can you guys call this fight?"
The two judges turned to each other, mumbling, but before they could reach a decision, someone fell from the sky and landed nimbly as if he'd just taken a stair-step down. Zerathstra landed at the edge of the arena, right in front of the two judges who briskly bowed.
The ape looked down at the immobilized lord, then looked up at Henry. "I'll take it from here."