Chapter 35: Never underestimate the Weak
As Layla and Celeste landed in front of the Bishop and Rook, the fight instantly continued. Behind them, Ragna and Cera were also occupying the Queen, while the Pawn just continued slowly moving forward on the sideline.
"I'll fight the Rook, you continue fighting the bishop!", yelled out Celeste to Layla, while already dashing forward and behind the Bishop, to reach the Rook.
***
The bishop stood menacingly, just a few meters in front of Layla. And in the next fraction of a second, it dashed towards her with unimaginable speeds.
But thanks to Layla's Aspect, it wasn't as fast as it could've been, way faster than Layla could really react tho, so she decided to use a different tactic.
The Bishop couldn't change its direction while moving, meaning that Layla could use this to predict its movements and kill it that way.
Layla sidestepped, quickly and narrowly avoiding the bishops dash, as it flew by past her like a bullet. The bishop halted just a few meters in front of the wall, avoiding crashing into it. It turned around, kinda looking annoyed before repeating the same thing.
'I'll get you this time.'
As the Bishop dashed again, Layla sidestepped once more, but this time, she swung her sword at the spot she stood just a fraction ago.
The Creature ran right into the swing, feeling the dark blade cut through its armor and flesh.
Of course, this wasn't enough to kill the Bishop, but atleast Layla gave it a deep wound. Layla dashed back, recalling her sword since it was stuck inside of the Boshops flesh.
Since it would take a few seconds to manifest it again, she needed to use a different tactic.
The Bishop, now angered, dashed even faster, also because the effect of her Aspect Ability had dissapeared., but that was exactly what Layla wanted.
Just when the bishop was about to hit her, she slid under its arm and touched it, at the same time splashing ink on it and making it go blind.
Before, she didn't want to use her ability to make it grow blind, since she feared that it would go crazy and just dash anywhere, but this was something different, she had something planned.
Since the Bishop now couldn't see the wall anymore, it also didn't know when to stop. Because of that, it tried stopping way too soon. But because of the panic and momentum, it turned in the air and crashed right into the wall.
This of course didn't damage the Creature in any way, but it stunned it for just the few seconds Layla had needed.
As she ran off towards the Bishop, her black katana already manifested in her right hand. She knew that she only had a moment before the Bishop would get up, so with a final burst of speed, she lunged forward and bringing her sword down around the neck of the Bishop and slicing of its head.
[You have slain a Awakened Demon, Chess Piece, Variant: Bishop.]
***
After Celeste had dashed off towards the Rook, leaving Layla with the bishop, the fight had instantly started.
The Rook was rather slow, meaning that Celeste had another enemy that she had an advantage against.
The Rook towered over Celeste with its massive and wide statue, but a bigger target just meant more places to hit.
She held her staff tightly before dashing forward, holding the staff in front of her. After she had gotten her second core, her mastery grew with it, meaning that now she could use her gravitational powers in different ways.
She covered the tip of her staff in gravity that pushed upwards, so after she hit the Rook, it got pushed backwards.
Since the Rook was slow and large, it was an easy target to hit, especially because of the range her staff brought her.
Celeste just played with the poor creature, plunging her staff forward from afar and pushing the Creature against the wall, over and over again.
This tactic wasn't doing enough damage tho, but at least the Rook couldn't fight back like that.
Celeste grinned while forming a devious plan.
'Poor Creature, I'll make you explode from the inside and smear your blood all over the walls.'
Celeste pushed the Creature against the wall once more, dazing it for a second before she jumped onto its large and hard skull.
She plunged her staff down again and again, trying to crack it just enough so she could put her fingers inside.
It was actually easier than she expected, and after she cracked the skull slightly, she touched each side and spread them a little bit wider, using gravity to push them too.
The Creature just screamed but couldn't do anything against her because of its agility, except to wiggle and jump.
After the crack was large enough, Layla grinned more before thrusting her staff inside, coating the tip in gravity again and pushing the head outward into every direction.
The pressure inside the Creatures head build up, crushing its brain, eyes and everything else while the head started to bloat up. And a few seconds later, the head completly exploded.
As Celeste heard the whisper of the Nightmare spell, she just laughed.
[You have slain a Awakened Demon, Chess Piece, Variant: Rook.]
***
After Layla and Celeste had killed their respective enemies, only the Queen and the Pawn were left.
Since the pawn was just slowly moving forward, ignoring the small cohort, and since the Queen was the strongest of them all, Layla and Celeste decided to help Ragna and Cera fighting it.
Layla and Celeste sprinted towards where Ragna and Cera were fighting the queen.
The queen emitted an ominous aura that the other pieces didn't have. It also moved more fluid and with more intelligence, using a sword and having her own style.
They didn't really know how to help Ragna tho, since he and the Queen were engaged in a very direct fight, trading blows, parrying strikes and dodging punched or kicks.
Cera could help Ragna, since she had a way to attack from the far and buff Ragna. The only thing they could do, was Layla using her Aspect Ability to weaken the Queen.
Since they couldn't really help in any other way, they had two options now. Either quickly kill the pawn, or watch Cera and Ragna fight the Queen.
"The Pawn is weak anyways. We can always kill it later and I want to watch them fight."
"All right, we can do that."
***
Ragna was fully concentrated on the fight against the queen, not even realizing that Celeste and Layla were watching. He also hadn't realized the true powers of the pawn because of that.
As Ragna parried another swing, making a shockwave push the queen away, Cera shot out more turrets of blood while Ragna dashed forward.
He concentrated all of the blood at his disposal at augmenting his sword to the brim, before smashing it against the fine, but for some absurd reason, hard tunic, dragging the Queen with his swing and smashing her into the wall.
The Queen screamed before dashing to the other side of the room in one singular blink.
Just a little bit away, the pawn continued to jump forward, getting closer and closer to the end of the room.
As Ragna turned around, looking at the Queen, the Pawn also finally got into his vision.
His mind was instantly filled with fear, as he thought about the special power a pawn had in the game of chess, transforming into a different piece, when reaching the enemies side.
"GET THE PAWN. QUICK !"
His friends froze for a second before complying. They didn't know why he thought it was so urgent to kill the pawn, since Layla had never really played chess, because of the place she grew up, and Celeste was just too oblivious and cocky to think about it.
Celeste's and Layla's bodies darted through the air while Cera shot out a beam of blood. But it they weren't fast enough, as the Pawn took one more jump, and landed on the end of the room.
It suddenly started shining brightly, as the silhouette of its form started to change into that of the Queens.
And now, two of the ominous Queens stood in front of the cohort, both wielding a blade and wearing a fine tunic.
——-Authors Notes——-
Words: 1400
Sorry for not uploading in a while.
I have much work to do for school and I recently started going to the gym, giving me less time to write.
I'll still try to create a nice schedule and keep it up tho.
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