My Servant System

I held back a smile as I dashed to the side, the shouts of the angry Foxkin causing real damage to the building behind me as she gave chase, growing more and more infuriated with each passing second that I remained out of her grasp.

"[Insolent]! [Insolent]! [INSOLENT]!"

Waves of compressed and mana infused sound slammed into the brick wall, exploding and tearing out chunks of the building instead of my flesh, which was what Deacon Renama wanted to happen as she glared at me, those emerald eyes carrying a murderous promise as she heard me chuckle as I avoided those blasts.

Situated in front of her and facing the street away from the plaza, I could see Satanya and Luci entrenched in a battle against a dozen or so Cultists, each of which somehow having above average mana output and the ability to utilize incantations, which was starting to surprise me less and less despite it being a rather 'lost' form of magic...

The two Demoness' were putting up quite the fight against a large amount of opponents out for their blood, using their speed to their advantage as they avoided the various attacks sent their way and searched for openings, which they exploited as best they could as they hoped to return to aid me.

Though... I didn't want aid as I leaned away from the crashing slash of the silver axe that this Foxkin woman so expertly wielded, her lips pulled into a snarl as she watched me yet again dodge her attack; I wanted to continue to fighting this crazed woman as long as I could, because...

Slashing quickly at the Foxkin, I smirked again as she raised her axe and blocked the blow, those extra limbs from her other incantation proving to be quite useful as she stopped me from slashing through her thin arm and revealing the bone beneath.

Honestly, this was such a fun fight compared to most others, the difference in strengths not mattering thanks to her techniques and magic as she shouted "[Insolent]!" once more, trying to blast me at point blank range.

Leaning my head to the side, I felt it scrape against my cheek, making the Foxkin grin at me as she saw my blood trickle down the side of my face, finally having landed a blow of her own.

"Congrats Miss Hypocrite~! You sorta kinda evened the score out with that~! But..!"

Lowering my shoulder, I slammed it against her axe and pushed her back, before slashing at her again with the tip of my great sword and cutting off portions of her robe, scoring thin gashes across her silver plate armor below.

While I didn't do damage to her, it made her angrier as she glared at me, that grin fading fast as she tried to slam her chained fist into my stomach, creating another opening for me... though it was a mutual trade.

Letting her slam her fist into my stomach, I grunted as her fist bent the cuirass I wore and crack my lower rib, sending a burst of pain through my body that was swiftly suppressed by my mana, allowing me to raise my booted foot and slam it down atop her own, mana swirling around the sole of my boot and making Deacon Renama grunt just like me as I cracked the myriad bones around her ankle, doing damage to her mobility and creating a worthwhile trade as I leapt back, letting my mana heal me before setting my stance.

"[Inso-]!"

As she was mid shout yet again, I lunged forwards and stabbed my blade towards her chest, watching as her eyes widened at the sudden shift in style as I forwent my reliance on the heavy edge and instead attacked with the tip.

Even though her incantation was interrupted and her foot was damaged, her arms were working perfectly well, and the Foxkin grabbed the haft of her large axe and raised it up, redirecting my blade away from her armored chest and towards her side, where it sliced through her plate and created a fresh cut along her side, joining the previous wound from the dagger and creating a weakness in her defenses for me to exploit.

"You keep using that word and it starts to lose meaning, Miss 'Just'~! I might be arrogant, but I am not~ showing a lack of respect to you~! Just treating you like the stepping stone you are~!"

Growling, she leapt back, mirroring me as we reset the fight and began to prowl the street, our eyes locked as we hoisted our blades and prepared for our next engagement, all while watching out for the small tricks of the other.

My daggers weren't as plentiful as her incantations were, but they had been used strategically to scare her off; meanwhile, her incantations hadn't scored a true hit yet, but they were used enough to discourage me from being offense heavy in this fight.

A mixture of offense and evasive defense was needed to win this battle, and that was different from my usual style; going fifty fifty on my attacks and my movement was a foreign concept, but I knew how to adapt.

Knew that the only way to win was to adapt; otherwise, I left this battle as a corpse.

"That right there is the definition of insolence, Demoness. A blatant example of why you are one of the priorities on our kill list. You and your arrogant, insufferable parents... Each of you Asmodia's need to drop into an early grave, so that the world can experience the change it needs. The people can utilize your-!"

"The people could utilize our what? Wealth? Sure, they could, but would any of you know what to do with it? Would you understand the repercussions of reintroducing such an obscene amount of money into the economy? You would single handedly destroy the meaning of our currency; Coppers would become worthless, Silvers would mean little, and Golds would become your new large Silvers, if we're being generous. Bread would rise from a few pieces of Copper to a Silver! All this would do is change the prices and create an even poorer poor! When your Coppers are worthless, and the Silvers you were given out of pity are only slightly better, what the hell was the point?!"

Renama growled again, her anger continuing to rise as I fought her physically and philosophically, challenging her beliefs and forcing her to split her focus between the battle happening out here, and the battle in her mind.

Did I believe that the reintroducing of our wealth into the economy would ruin everything?

It might, but what mattered now was that I was targeting the clear weakness of this woman in front of me; not her battered plate mail, not her heavy weaponry or damaged foot, but her mind.

That was what mattered currently, and the more I 'damaged' her mentality and got her thinking, the more openings I could find; the more openings that opened, the better, since she was a stalwart fighter that left little open for me to exploit without an intricate series of attacks and feints to create some kind of opening...