My Servant System

The flames began to dwindle around the limp Fiend, its magic slowly but surely draining away from itself as it's blood seeped out of its neck and into the sands, dying the grains red instead of gold.

Anput twisted her katana one last time before yanking it free, allowing a geyser of blood to squirt into the air as the wound was finally opened fully, before she grasped the hilt of her weapon in both hands and chopped towards the Fiend's neck, attempting to sever its head from its shoulders and end this once and for all.

Ka'Volan gargled on its own vitae and tried to do something, anything at all to dodge or block this attack, the fiery Fiend showing its fear and desperation as that blade inched ever closer to its neck, but there was little it was capable of with a severely damaged spinal cord and a myriad of internal injuries plaguing most of its major organs.

If it was a mortal, it would have died already from these extreme wounds, but it wasn't a mortal; it was anything but 'mortal' - it wasn't anything like us, not really - and it made that clearer than some of the crystals of sand around us that had been glassed thanks to the heat when its entire body shimmered and pulsed with power.

Explosive power - as had been its signature so far this short yet eventful fight - coursed through its body and set off warning signs in all of our minds, and as soon as she noticed that Anput leapt far away and began to raise defenses around herself, which was then cocooned in flames of Leone's own creation to further protect her from whatever was to come.

She wasn't even a moment too soon since Ka'Volan's flesh rippled and pulsed as its power continued to mount within its coil, the Fiend charging something up and preparing itself for whatever was about to come.

"This is why I despise Fiends... the tricks that they all tend to have that makes them unique and gives them their arrogance. So dull and boring."

The Sultana clicked her tongue once more as she continued to observe this next phase of the fight, and she didn't even flinch or show any signs of surprise when the Fiend just... exploded.

Its body burst open and unleashed a wave of scorching hot yellowish white flames across the basin, bathing the area in an unimaginable heat that damaged even the mana array that had been bolstered during this fight, cracking parts of it and making the warriors and mages behind it blanch as fear's clawed grip wrapped around their hearts and gave it a painful squeeze.

Flesh and blood rained down around the area from the Fiend's bombastic exit, covering the area in sizzling meat and bubbling blood, but not even a moment after that a being stood tall amidst the flames, one that was composed entirely of the fire, fueling the fire.

"Oh I will burn this pathetic desert and turn it into a wasteland of glass and dust... You Caninekin are going to be boiled and crisped before I dine on your corpses one by one..."

Ka'Volan spread its fiery wings and raised its arms, channeling its magic into the air and controlling the scorching ocean around itself to erupt into pillars, which spun around like a vortex around the Fiend as it brought them towards the small earthen shell that Anput was hiding under.

The vortex of flames that encased Anput's shell flared to match the Fiend's flames, before swiftly surpassing them in heat and power as the fire went from yellow to white, and then began to shimmer blue as Leone empowered it even more, the Vampire combatting fire with fire and doing so in a way that the Fiend couldn't find victory in.

Consuming the oxygen in the air and sucking it away from the weaker tornadoes, before she went on the offensive and sent her vortex towards the Fiend, who had begun to back step as it realized just how outclassed it was in terms of mastery over its flames.

It might have more magic than Leone, and the fires might still be burning thanks to its anger, but now that anger was being dulled by the anxiety that had wormed its way into the Fiend's mind as it watched that vortex inch ever closer to its elemental body.

"This is also... not terribly surprising, but I have to admit seeing a scion of the Empress have such abilities at this tender age is rather... conflicting. I am grateful that we have mutual ideologies and respect for one another, which has led to a fruitful partnership between our countries, but seeing this only reminds me of the difference between the Empire and the Sultanate. Though I have always been aware of the gap in power between us."

The Sultana's words were a tad melancholic as she watched the Fiend continue to backpedal away from Leone, while Anput cracked herself free from her shell and summoned a new weapon for herself, one that allowed her to split the Fiend's attention and begin peeling away its layers of protection.

A heavy spear flew through the air and sunk into the mana body of the Fiend, before crashing into the sands behind it as it tore a giant hole into Ka'Volan's body, which was regenerated swiftly as the mana swirled back into place, but that was enough to distract the Fiend for just a single second and loosen its grasp on its own defenses.

As the bluish tornado crept ever closer, the Fiend tried to flap its wings and take to the skies in hopes of escaping the heavy damage that would come from being consumed by Leone's fire, but just as it tried to do so a wall of stone jutted out of the sands and rose into the air around it, blocking its path backwards.

It still tried to rise upwards, hoping that its speed could make a difference in this set encounter between it and them, but sadly yet another slab of rock joined the first, this one jutting out of the previous one to block the Fiend's ascent.

Trapped with its back against the wall and a roof above its head, the Fiend turned towards the tornado and tried to overwhelm it by sending a myriad of its own fires into it, hoping to destabilize Leone's spell and create an opening for itself, and its desperation fueled its anger as it screamed "NO! I WILL NOT DIE LIKE THIS!", but it was trapped between a rock and a fiery demise.

The unique mana of a Ka Fiend flooded the air as its rage fueled its last stand, that heavy, violent mana weighing on our shoulders even up here, trickling into our minds and filling us with a small amount of anger, trying to get us to join in the fray and cause chaos wherever we went, but it was a minute impulse that was easily stamped out.

Anput erected another slab of stone and further entrapped the Fiend, while Leone directed her flames to begin consuming the Fiend, the Vampire's ashen hair glimmering orange and red as she concentrated her everything on killing this Fiend and ridding the world of its stain.

Letting out another scream of anguished rage, Ka'Volan beat its wings and tried to rush into the tornado, hoping to push through the heat and push past the threat to its life so that it could escape, but the instant it did so it found itself trapped with the now blue flames.

Its screams continued as it was burned by a hotter flame, and the air was filled with a stifling heat as it was consumed entirely by Leone's hungry mana, the Vampire giving it her all as she drained most of her Core to deal with this threat, earning herself a large amount of the credit for this kill.

When the screams began to die down, she maintained the flames and continued scorching the desert around us with that boiling heat, the air itself blistering our skin somewhat and causing the mana array protecting Khisba to bubble as it was subjected to an intense wave of heat.

She kept that tornado up even as she began to glass the area around us, the Vampire ensuring that the Fiend was truly dead and not simply playing dead, drawing those seconds out into a hellish eternity as she flexed her arcane might and let loose.

I had to cover myself in thick sheets of ice to endure this heat, my body feeling far too hot for me to function properly and causing my insides to bubble, which hurt far more than most things ever could; even the Sultana was donning a thin cloak of mana as she watched the tornado continue to spin, but as it began to dwindle and flicker out of existence, all of us just had to remain silent as we looked towards the swaying Vampire, wondering just how she had managed to cast such an insane spell.