A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Chapter 434 - Erik vs mud [2/2]

In the end, the battle between Erik and Aaron didn't last very long. While their power levels were somewhat similar, with Erik being perhaps only a little weaker overall, Aaron was already low on power, and his mud was having trouble gaining a foothold against Erik's ice.

Thus, all Erik had to do was defend while keeping up the pressure, and Aaron would eventually exhaust his entire aetherium storage. At that point, the Arcanist would be little more than a pig led to slaughter.

"Dammit, why won't you die, you second-rate trash!" Aaron screamed as he launched more mud missiles at his opponent. His voice was tinged with panic, fear, disbelief, and a hint of insanity.

He could practically feel his aetherium storage emptying out, yet this werewolf just kept coming.

A completely unharmed Erik chuckled as he used a combination of spatial displacement, his hammer, and his thundersnow shield to defend himself against the missiles, all while he continued closing in on his opponent.

"Isn't it obvious?" Erik taunted with a wide grin. "Because I refuse to be killed by a man wielding shit!"

He was just trying to annoy Aaron, of course, but unfortunately, he was annoying someone he cared about as well.

"Masterrrrrr," a soft, whining voice suddenly echoed in Erik's head. "Please don't make fun of mud! It's an important element with a beautiful colour!"

Erik blinked in surprise, but then chuckled. "Right, I'd almost forgotten your preferences. Sorry, Eira. I'm only trying to annoy this guy. I promise I don't mean it."

Even as far back as when they were designing Erik's armour and Eira's current medium, the minotaur spirit had favoured the colour light brown, the same as her core. Although, Erik suspected that perhaps Audumla's main affinity was also related to this preference.

"Hmpf, hmpf," Eira snorted and nodded with satisfaction. "Good, then you are forgiven."

Erik thanked the merciful Eira profusely while continuing to pursue Aaron. Thankfully, it didn't last much longer. In a last-ditch effort, Aaron poured all his remaining energy into four massive missiles of mud flying towards Erik from all four cardinal directions.

There was no way to evade, and they'd all reach him at the same time, but he didn't panic. He scoffed disdainfully before taking a knee and planting both hands on the ground. Instantly, he formed five magic circles around himself, heavily surprising Aaron, who could only manage three at a time.

One circle was icy blue, and the other four were icy white. The blue circle flashed, and four thick walls of ice formed around him, fully obscuring him from view. Then, the white circles flashed, and four thundersnow shields appeared as well.

Finally, he used the icy aura from his Runebound repertoire, enhanced by thundersnow. Extreme cold and a mass of swirling, electrified grains of snow manifested around him just before the missiles entered the area. They clung to the missiles, freezing and slowing them.

Then, they all crashed against the shields and exploded. Dust flew into the air, mud and shards of ice flew everywhere, and soon it became impossible to see anything.

For a moment, it was unclear what had happened. But then, the surroundings froze entirely. Dust particles became grains of ice, and mud turned into frozen tundra before it all exploded outward.

From the middle of the explosion, Erik stepped out unharmed and snorted while wiping filth from his armour. "Nice try, but no luck," he said, intending to address Aaron. Yet, Elora was quick to ruin the moment.

"He's already gone, Erik," she giggled a little. "You should go after him before he leaves our field of view."

"Eh?" Erik muttered, finally looking around, only to realize she was right. There was a lot of devastation, but no sign of Aaron. After another moment, he finally spotted a staggering figure in the distance, stumbling away.

As it turned out, Aaron had refused to wait and see the results of his last-ditch effort. Instead, he'd squeezed the last of his power into two consecutive mudslides and made a run for it. Now, he'd left the forest and was running across the desert plains.

Erik rolled his eyes. "Not only a coward, but an idiot as well," he chuckled, before activating Lightning Flash and covering a large part of the distance instantly. Then, he simply started running while charging his next Lightning Flash.

Yet, it wasn't even necessary. With no power left, an exhausted Aaron was only able to run normally, and while his third-rank Arcanist body allowed him to run far faster than a regular human, it was still nothing compared to the speed of a Runebound werewolf.

Aaron had still managed to get a decent head start due to his mudslides, but in the end, it only took Erik about half an hour to catch up. When he did, he casually kicked the Arcanist's legs out from under him, causing the man to stumble and fall.

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"Argh!" Aaron groaned hatefully as he landed with his face in the desert sand.

"Alright, that's far enough, diar— I mean, mud-man." Erik chuckled tauntingly before placing an armoured, transformed foot on the man's back and resting his hammer against the side of his head.

"Any last words?" Erik smirked, slowly swinging his hammer back and forth as if he were a golfer aiming his club, with Aaron's head as the ball.

"S— Screw you, you mutt!" Aaron groaned with surprising defiance and overflowing hatred.

"No, thank you," Erik shook his head before finally swinging his hammer.

With a beautiful arc, the hammer flew through the air toward Aaron's head. Fear, resentment, and hatred were clear on the Arcanist's face, but there would be no mercy.

Except, surprisingly, Elora's.

"Erik…" her voice sounded in his head with an exasperated sigh.

Erik chuckled, and at the last moment, lowered the speed of his hammer blow. It still crashed against Aaron's head, but rather than sending it flying off his body, the man merely fell unconscious.

"I know, I know," Erik answered Elora with a roll of his eyes. "I just wanted to have a little fun. I can kill him later, though, right?"

"Of course, my love," Elora smiled cruelly. "Just let Emily enslave him first so we can learn all we can from him."

"I suppose that will have to do for now," Erik sighed before throwing his hammer into the dimension and hoisting the Arcanist over his shoulder.

Then, he turned back in the direction of the battle. Over the course of his fight against Aaron, he'd travelled quite some distance, and it would probably take him up to an hour to get back.

"I wonder how they're doing over there…" he mumbled to himself as he began the journey back.