Two Flights

...

"Derflinger?" Michael asks, the sword not responding as it usually would.

...

Michael shakes his head, seems like the sword knocked itself out or something... That or he'd broken it already. Regardless, he still had a fight to win.

A dexterous use of Blink has him standing over the still recovering Loutiel, his blade jabbing down at the man's chest. Loutiel's eyes widen as he leans as far as he can to the side, but Michael's blade pierces him still, though, non-fatally through the lung.

"AArrck!" Loutiel groans as the attack connects, his eyes flashing with fury as his blade glows. A blast of wind knocks them away from each other yet again, but this time Loutiel had managed to retain his senses, using his magic to float him up to around the top of the trees. He coughs and spits blood at the distant ground as he glares daggers at Michael, "You've faired well enough, Gandalfr! But I will not let you leave here alive!" he exclaims, jabbing his blade in Michael's direction and doing the best Darth Sidious reenactment he'd ever seen.

Many arcs of bright blue lightning shoot towards Michael as he dodges behind trees and ice pillars, occasionally using Blink when he gets trapped with little to no way out.

"JUST. BE. STILL. YOU LITTLE RAT!" Loutiel angrily shouts as he continues blasting heavy amounts of lightning at him.

"YEAH?" Michael loudly retorts as he uses Derflinger to block a stray tendril of lightning, the blade's magical absorption properties not having been affected by its unconsciousness. "YOU'RE THE RAT, YOU SHITTY ANIME CHARACTER! SO HERE, SNAKE BEATS RAT!" he shouts while casting Serpent Wards, summoning Rhasta's Snake Spirits directly under the floating man.

Immediately afterwards, the ten snakes begin shooting a barrage of flame darts at him, which he hastily starts blocking with some wind walls. This allows Michael to use Blink Strike behind the man, Loutiel tries to dodge but Derflinger's blade finds his back, cutting a deep swath into it, Mana Break activates and causes Loutiel's floating spell to dissipate, sending him falling to the ground below, directly next to the Serpent Wards.

Loutiel looks to be panicking now, his disrupting mana making it far more difficult to actually cast spells. He raises a weak-looking wind wall to block the continuous barrage of flame darts, but the impact of the attacks push him back, his feet leaving long grooves in the mud, his back hitting the ice pillar behind him.

Fortunately, for him it seems that his men had finally found a way past the ice barrier that the blue-haired girl has summoned. They begin firing at Michael, distracting him enough to allow Loutiel to escape.

He sprints past his soldiers and into the tree line, the wound on his back burning as he moves. Michael notices the man attempting to retreat and wants to finish him off, but is forced to stay here as the soldiers were quickly approaching the tent where Charlotte's mother and Tiffania were. He growls at the missed opportunity but shakes his head, deciding that his allies were more important right now.

The Serpent Wards begin picking off and drawing the attention of nearby soldiers, allowing Michael to go secure the area around the tent, his blade quickly finding the necks of many men who were eying the tent with malicious looks.

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Elsewhere the battle between Charlotte and Matilda was starting to wrap up. Sylphid had many marks and wounds covering her scales, all due to Matilda changing her tactics from subduing them to eliminating them.

She hadn't actually wished to kill Tiffania's friends, but at this point it was life or death. Sure, her charge would be upset, maybe actually start to hate her, but mercy wasn't an option anymore.

Charlotte herself had acquired many new injures as well, her face was full of cuts and so was the rest of her body, some even still having stone fragments lodged in them. Still, she had dealt with worse, so her full concentration was on Matilda, and making sure she and Sylphid got out alive.

The golem Matilda was standing on staggers slightly as a blade of wind rips through what one might call its ankle, but it quickly recovers as the damage repairs itself. The distraction allows the duo to approach Matilda again for another strike however, the woman looks as if she was on her last legs, with torn robes and blood leaking from many of her wounds... Not to mention to beginnings of frostbite that'd started creeping up her limbs and digits.

When she sees the duo coming back around for another assault, she attempts to launch a barrage of stone spears at them but finds herself thoroughly drained of mana... So much so that her spears were looking more the sizes of swords or knives.

"That damned child! I won't last much longer like this!" she internally shouts, and decides to change her tactics. Before Charlotte and Sylphid reach her, she quickly sinks into the golem, disappearing from view.

Matilda safely hides away inside the golem, using the last of her magic to maintain it and form small holes so that she could still breathe within it.

Charlotte frowns at this, knowing that she wouldn't be able to breach deep enough to actually strike Matilda directly... She might be able to whittle down her magical reserves, but that'd take far too long, and she didn't have time to spare.

Suppressing her annoyance at the situation, she shakes her head and looks down at her familiar and mentally communicates, "Sylphid, return to camp, mother and the others still need help."

With that, the duo quickly flies away from the golem, and arrive back at the campsite, finding Michael and some strange orange snake things fighting off waves of soldiers. "Michael! We must leave!" she shouts from the back of Sylphid, and he nods in response.