Nosforatu
Forty minutes earlier
I was flying thought the rafters, dodging bullets, fireballs and the occasional lightning bolt. We were surrounded and outnumbered thirty to one. I only had Jiggles, Normal, Exotic, Cobalti, and Rubis actively fighting with me. The other evos that were brought for the tournament were locked inside their containment cages.
While that wasn't much help for me, I knew there was a creature of the cages that allowed for the evos inside to be immediately ejected from the pocket dimension. Unfortunately doing this also completely destroyed the pocket dimensions along with the cages.
"Watch out for those evos! They're coordinating!" A soldier yelled to the other below.
I glanced down and saw that Jiggle and his squad had followed my orders and attacked from tithe right flank which had the highest number of American soldiers. They were the biggest pains since they could fire at high speeds and keep me on the run while the splicers took time to cast spells. The splicers that were nearest to Jiggles and his group were now turning their attention to the group and throwing the carefully curated formations into disarray.
I took the disruption that Jiggles and his squad gave for a opportunity and dove down towards the closet bunch of splicers casting spells and sent tendrils of mana towards the spell sigils of the casting splicers and magic siphoned the mana from the sigils.
Six sigils shattered in front of me, the mana initially siphoned off the spell sigil getting absorbed into me. I landed in the center of the formation with a crash and channeled freeze attribute mana into my hands and feet. Ice spikes erupted from the ground, impaling seven splicers around me. Not a significant chunk of forces by any means but it finally got me on the ground and not running around being defensive.
"Don't let Kingston's fusion get a foothold! Keep him on the defensive!" A soldier yelled.
'Too late!' I thought as I saw my prize only a few yards in front of me. The containment cages for the Lycan Zee Jaeger, Scare-adorable, and Ogarai. I channeled mana towards the crystals that acted as focuses for the magic that stabilized the dimensions for each cage. The instant my mana touched the crystals I used my mana siphon ability to drain all the mana out of the crystals. Being made of pure manacite I got a large chunk of mana from each crystal before they shattered.
The moment the first crystal shattered it felt as if all time had come to a standstill one moment then sped up to three times their speed the next. I was pushed back several dozens yards by a three concussive waves that tore through every muscle fiber in my body. I crashed into a steel girder that supported the roof and felt several bones crack in my back and wings as I fell to the ground with a wet thud.
Thankfully I landed in a area of the center that had no enemies nearby, which afforded me a couple seconds to use the large chunk of mana that I got from those three manacite crystals to heal my wounds. Healing my wings however took a little longer than healing my other broken bones and shredded muscle fibers thanks to the number of small bones in my wings. The excess from this still was enough to put me in mana overload but I had no choice but to ignore it for the moment.
I looked over to where said evos were. The cages were practically dead center of the enemies formation, the explosions had either shredded or blown away any enemies that were within a fifty yard radius around the cages. Killing about a hundred or so splicers and double that of American soldiers. However that didn't make much of a dent in the total number of enemies inside the center.
A second later I saw explosions and electricity dot the area that where the most enemies were. The center devolved into chaos and insanity as the evos Chase meant to sell at Evo-cution joined the fray. Long forgotten or rather just out of sight and out of mind, I jumped up into the rafters and flew close to the ceiling. I used the shadows to stay unnoticed while I approached the center of the battle again. Or at least I thought I had gone unnoticed.
I was suddenly tackled from the side by evo. It wrapped long tentacles around my arms and wings, preventing me from flying and sending us both hurtling towards the ground. I crashed into a cluster of American soldiers near the backfires of the fighting. The moment the other soldiers nearby noticed what I was they quickly pointed their guns at me and fired. The life of the evo holding me down be dammed.
My body felt like it was on fire and just because I was still suffering from mana overload. Bullets ripped through my flesh and shattered bone, too consistent for me to have enough time to heal and fight back.
"KINGSTON IS HERE! WE HAVE HIM PINNED!" A soldier yelled to others nearby. Which was the dumbest thing he could have done.
Several flashes of lightning appeared overhead before crashing into the soldiers around me, blood, gore, and limbs flying everywhere as all the Lycan Zee Jaegers slaughtered the soldiers around me. Giving me enough time to heal.
"You dare boast about hurting the Star Shaper!" One of the Lycan Zee Jaegers exclaimed. I stood and growled low in my throat as the last of my injuries healed.
"Thine pests have gotten on mine last nerve!" I hissed and snapped my wings open. I held my arms out and started casting and offensive spell sigil while chanting. "Break unto all, shattering to totality, bleed mine enemies to sacrificial alters!"
A axiom spell sigil formed around the original offensive one. Two dozen small orbs made of bone formed in the air around my hands and stretched into needles. The needles then launched into the air impaled into the soldiers and splicers around me, not immediately killing most because of where they struck them. The secondary effect of the spell took effect then, the bone needles causing a rapid explosion of bone growth within the victims. Their bodies starting to expand and swell until the rapidly forming bones erupted from their bodies in the shape of jagged and sharp needles like a bloody sea urchin. Many of the spikes impaling other nearby splicers, soliders, or enemy evos as they grew. The jagged spikes grew so large that they even began to lift the victims of the spells off the ground and left them suspended.
"Disgusting!" I heard a Splicer exclaim.
"What sort of monsters casts a spell like that?!" Screamed another.
"ONE WHO IS TIRED OF THESE GAMES!" I roared then lunged forward. Leading the Lycan Zee Jaegers into the fray once again.
***
'There is truly no end to them…' I thought as I dropped the corpse of a unknown Splicer on the ground. I'd torn his throat out with my claws and let him bleed out, I'd lost count of how many soldiers, splicers, and evos I had killed in the last fifteen minutes but the count for all three had to be in the triple digits.
The center was unrecognizable now. The entire expo floor now reduced to a battlefield field filled with blood and corpses. Parts of the roof were now caved in front splicer spells missing their targets and taking down chunks of their ceiling supports. This brought on yet another problem to deal with. With sections of the roof gone military splicers from the enemy nation's air forces started supplying air support to the ground forces, making it next to impossible for me to strike from above.
I was under one of the few intact sections of the roof. There were dozens of flying mount evos circling overhead and taking pot shots with spells at Jiggles or any of the other evos that were set free from the containment cages. As long as they flew high enough none of the ground fairing evos could get close to them without leaving themselves open to attack. And with them low on mana it wouldn't end well for them if they got hit with high explosive spells.
"DAMN INSECTS!" A deep voice bellowed from somewhere behind me.
I turned in time and saw a torrent of flames burst through a wall at the far end of the ruined center. The flames melted and incinerate everything in its path, leaving a scorched path through the middle of the center.
A figure stepped out of the middle of the hole in the far wall. It was a little taller than I was but much bulkier and tough looking than me. It had four arms; two in the normal place and two more sticking out its back; its entire body was covered in a black mineral-like substance that reminded me of Ifrit's skin. On its third and fourth arm were two curved shield like growths that curved inward slightly. There were two long curved tusks made of crystal that bowed downward towards its gut.
"Nosforatu…?" The odd evo grumbled as he strode into destroyed center. I narrowed my eyes at the evo and and prepared to start casting a spell. The sound of footsteps running my way snatched my attention. I turned and three American soldiers and two divine Chinese splicers rushing around the rubble I was hiding behind.
"Light 'em up!" One of the Americans screamed and raised his gun to me.
In a explosive second the odd evo crossed the expanse of the center and appeared beside the soldier closest to me, all four of its hands were pointed at the enemies and a tsunami of violet flames engulfed the soldiers as well as good chunk of the rubble behind them. When the flames extinguished I saw that the soldiers and splicers hadn't been reduced to ash but rather burned to the point their skin had crystallized into statues. The odd evo stood to full height and turned to look at me.
"Nosforatu, didn't realized Chase had fused already." He said then glanced up at the flying evos overhead. "I am Ryfernus, crystal merged form of Sin and Pogs."
My eyes widened and I felt Chase's consciousness start to stir with interest inside the recesses of my mind. It made sense given that Chase had given practically every splicer in Sho'lajah a crystal genesis dagger, so it made sense that Sin would use the spell with Pogs or Twilight if things got too intense.
"Didn't Chase order you to meet up with Jane and Iris to look for Reagan?" I asked. Ryfernus nodded solemnly then scowled and looked towards the hole it had came through.
"Got ambushed. Americans and their guns!" Ryfernus replied bitterly. I sighed then looked to the sky.
"Well it seems fortunate thou art here. Distract those flying evos." I told Ryfernus. He smiled a wide toothy grin then looked up at the sky.
"Distract them? I'll obliterate them!" Ryfernus trumpeted then jumped into the air. Jets of flames burst from the soles of his feet and sent him soaring towards the closest of the flying evos.
The sky lit up in a dazzling explosion of flames and gore as Ryfernus slammed into the evo and rider. All the evos and riders turned their attention to Ryfernus and quickly flew to intercept him before he fell to the ground. Unfortunately for them they didn't realize that the jets of flames erupting from hks feet allowed him to fly.
I turned my attention to the shaped evos that were gathering in a large group in the center of the ruined center. There was no cover overhead which showed how much they trusted Chase or cared for Jiggles orders. I snapped open my wings and flew close to the ground to stay unnoticed by the enemies attacking Ryfernus.
As I approached the hoard of evos I started channeling attributeless mana throughout my body. The first of the evos; a Ogarai; noticed me and trumpeted triumphantly like they'd already won the battle. I flew over the center of the board then flew up higher, releasing waves of mana over the group that rained down on them. Restoring their depleted mana reserves.
"Evos of Sho'lajah! Raise thine claws, thine, fangs, thine weapons against the enemies of the great creator! The great leader's enemies will fall this night!" I yelled to the small army below. My words were met by a chorus of roars and screams that echoed throughout the night.
By this point the splicers and evo mounts noticed what I was doing, even if they didn't understand it. A detachment broke off from the main force that was trying to kill Ryfernus; and failing miserably; to attack me and the evos.
Jiggles and his squad were the first to attack, jumping into the air and using flames to propel themselves in the air like Ryfernus had earlier. They met the flying evos with blood axes raised. The Scare-adorables sprayed clouds of psychotropic gas at our flanks to keep enemies from attacking us from behind while the the Lycan Zee Jaegers dashed along the ground picking off any enemy evo and rider that flew too close.
'I've only seen splicers lately…where are the Ameri…'
My thought was cut short as a deafening boom that made my ears felt like they were liquefying. The very next instant my world went dark. There was nothing, no sound, sight, feeling or smells. This feeling of nonexistence lasted only a few moments before my body was racked with pain.
I was on the ground, several bones broken and part of my skull still regenerating. I pushed myself up as my skull closed and the muscles of my face grew back. I growled low in my throat as I tried to figure out what had happened. But in the deepest recesses of my mind Chase's consciousness had already figured put what happened.
'Sniper…fucking Americans…' I realized.
One of Jiggles squad crouched next to me; Exotic if I was correct; but my attention wasn't on him. I searched for where the sniper had fired from using my enhanced hearing. While I couldn't find the sniper I did find the Americans. They'd regrouped outside the center, at least another couple hundred of them in the courtyard of the center.
"Deal with the flying evos! I have some annoying gnats to kill!" I ordered Exotic who had been still talking. He quickly shut up and rushed off to complete my orders.
Keeping an ear out for the sniper I snapped my wings open and quickly took to the skies. I rapidly flew high above the clouds, using one for cover as I started casting a axiom spell sigil. A yellow shield surrounded my body with a flash before disappearing. The spell was a modified version of the spell took stop projectiles, only this one stopped blades as well.
Now protected I narrowed my eyes on the contingent of American's in the courtyard and nosedived towards them. The Americans were arranged in cells of twenty, each cell had four rows of five soldiers in them. There was a small squad of three at the front of this formation, I recognized the leader, or rather Chase's consciousness recognized him.
I snapped my wings open to break out of my nosedive and gracefully landed on the edge of the half ruined roof of the center, just above the door to the center. I felt rage and condemnation radiating from Chase's consciousness in the deeper recesses of my psyche.
The Americans predictably shot at me the moment I landed on the roof. Though they quickly realized how useless that was when their bullets stopped a few feet in front of me and levitated uselessly in mid-air before dropping down to the concrete below. I chuffed at the attempt then zeroed in on the one soldier that Chase's consciousness cursed.
"Logan Kingston!"
[1] The new type name of Jiggles after his evolution