RD 3 Ch 18

As it turned out, Merlin could keep up quite easily. Having challenged her, I shot forward, flying over the detritus on the forest floor, only for Merlin to keep pace, walking as if she were strolling in the park. Yet with every step she took, she teleported right next to my side, no matter how fast I was going.

I paused after a few miles and she stepped up next to me.

"What, am I making it look too easy?" she smirked. "To be honest, the way you run looks exhausting." She then continued to walk forward, and there I saw it.

Each step she took was a teleportation forward. It was this weird teleportation, where somehow it looked like she was simply walking in a path, and instead of her moving, it was like the space between the two steps seemed to come together.

I rushed forward, matching her step, curious to see if I could ride along in this strange phenomenon, only to realize that I could.

"See, isn't this so much better?" Merlin held her staff against her shoulder to bear some of the weight as she continued the casual stroll through the forest.

I stared at her again with Soul Gaze, scanning through her actual skills. There were an enormous number of them.

"Keep staring like that, one of your ladies will get jealous," Merlin said.

I shifted my gaze and swiped in the air, making it clear I was look at the system screen instead of her. She already knew that of course. "You have a ton of skills," I said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Now that’s interesting. You can see all of them?”

“Of course, just like your inspect has upgraded into something else, mine has as well, three times over."

Merlin quirked an eyebrow at that. "Three times over. I didn't peg you for being old. Usually, men lose their ostentatiousness with age, not to mention, you seem far too modern." Her eyes raked over me again in my suit.

It was my turn to give her a quizzical stare back and pointedly looked at the robes that hid her figure. "I'm older than I look. That and a potato sack doesn’t look as flattering on me."

Merlin laughed. "Aren't we all? I suppose, you coming in with the ladies like that, I figured you were a young buck.”

“In some ways I am, in some ways I'm not." I gave her a non-answer

"Mm-hmm." She didn’t seem to believe me.

I hardened my gaze and let some of the presence I had generated from hundreds of years on the battlefield escape.

Merlin's eyes flinched, understanding a little more about me. "I retract my statement. You seem more like an old war dog."

I laughed. "Now you get it. But, when I'm not otherwise occupied, I enjoy pretending to be young. Keeps the mind youthful."

She relaxed and joined me in laughter. "Everyone gets their own ways to cope with their immortality. I certainly know I had my fun once upon a time."

While we were both being rather casual with our conversation, we didn't stare at each other. Our heads rotated back and forth, looking for a new opportunity.

Which happened to find us. Trees were falling over in the distance, and Merlin planted her feet, stopping the ability that I had not yet found in the massive list. "Want to check that out?" she asked.

A blade was already sliding into my hand before I swung it over my shoulder. "Never thought you'd ask."

She turned, and I could tell that while previously it didn't seem like she was reactivating an ability at each step, instead it had been one continuous motion, this time I could feel she reactivated an ability.

We took another ground devouring step towards the fallen trees and stopped there. I could see something move between the trees ahead, a massive form crashing between the trees, knocking down more trees in the process, and giving me just enough vision to Soul Gaze on the monstrosity in front of us.

"Well, I am old, but not that old," Merlin said. "It's a real life goddamn dinosaur," I swallowed, staring at the massive beast in front of us.

[Devouring Tyrannosaurus

Level: 754

Status: Ravenous

Strength: 9033

Agility: 4578

Vitality: 9124

Intelligence: 891

Spirit: 923

Skills:

Bite SS

Devour S

Rend S

Sundering Roar S

Scent SS

Far Sight S

Ghost Step A]

"I'm not normally one to back down, but I don't think this is our ideal fight," I said, staring at the Tyrannosaurus currently guzzling down a bull, its wicked teeth making short work of the meal and bending down for another.

"I was going to impress upon you the power of magic over brute force, but I tend to agree," Merlin replied. "Though I didn't think you would be the kind to back down."

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve and if we were forced we could probably deal with it," I admitted, "but this isn't exactly the best battlefield for me." Last Stand would always be my ace, but given that things monstrous strength and size, I’d have to be careful that it didn’t just crush me before it activated.

"Oh? Then what is?" Merlin asked. I squinted at her, and she shrugged. "If we're going to work together, I should at least know when to fight and when not to."

"My best battlefield would be an actual battlefield, preferably with plenty of people dying on it."

"A necromancer?" She asked, her eyes becoming twin daggers, ready to stab in and tear my heart out.

"No. Not a necromancer. More of a..." I hesitated, a word suddenly lodged in my mind. It wasn't a word I wanted to use, because I had insisted multiple times that I was anything but. Yet, the word persisted, drowning out any other options I might have had.

Merlin's eyes still bore into me, and I realized I needed to give her an answer, especially because it wasn't a necromancer. "I'm more like a vampire," I hesitated, barely getting the word out.

Merlin threw her head back and laughed. "A vampire?”

Now that I had gotten it out, my mind freed itself up. "More like a blood-based berserker, but in a field of battle, I'm... well, I'm nigh unstoppable."

She smirked. "We will have to see about that. If life has taught me one thing, it's that nothing is unstoppable. Not even that giant lizard. If we really needed to, we could probably whittle it down."

In the short time we'd been talking, the dinosaur had finished its meal. Its eyes suddenly twisted over to the two of us, the pupils swelling slightly as it refocused on us in the distance.

"Shit," I said. "Maybe we... will have to.”

“I think it's a good exercise just to let you know what you are dealing with." Merlin waved her staff, and several gigantic ice sculptures came to life, trotting forward to meet the dinosaur.

They were only about half its size, but each of the ice elementals certainly packed a punch. Merlin had a smirk on her face as the elementals came crashing into the T-Rex.

Only for it to surprise both of us with how quickly it moved, circling around the ice elementals in an instant, before its massive jaws came crashing down, shattering two of them with a monumental sweep of its titanic jaws.

"That was unexpected," Merlin said, twirling her staff.

Ice attempted to lock up the T-Rex's head, but it only shook, smashing the ice against the trees, and then straining its jaws before shattering the spell that had been placed upon it.

Now Merlin seemed at least moderately concerned, her brows pinching down. She slammed the butt of her staff, and the world around us turned into a giant blizzard, ice immediately frosting over the trees around us, as long horizontal icicles grew off each tree. We were at the center of this blizzard, and the wind was so strong that the icicles were forming completely sideways.

"It seems I'll have to give it at least a little more effort," Merlin muttered, smashing her staff against the ground again, this time amidst the blizzard. Over a dozen ice elementals formed, rushing the T-Rex this time, rather than trotting over like little minions.

The T-Rex saw all of this, only to crouch low, opening its jaws wide, and roaring with a deafening boom that shattered icicles off the trees washed over her elementals. The ice elementals all froze up for a second, not moving before cracks spread along their forms, and they shattered, falling to the ground.

"Look, you've impressed me, but I think it's time to go," I said, turning to Merlin.

Merlin didn’t hesitate and turned to activate her ability.

However, the T-Rex crossed the distance between us in the blink of an eye and was upon us.

I grabbed her arm and took a step with her ability, but the monster followed through, snarling menacingly at us as if begging us to run, like it wanted to chase.

Merlin swore under her breath. It seemed that ability wasn’t the best for escaping, not only could I join her, but so could an enemy.

When we didn’t give it the chase it desired, the T-Rex decided to give us some encouragement.

I threw up a crimson barrier just in time to stop its tail.

Yet, the weighty appendage smashed through my barrier just as easily as it would a pane of glass.

It bought me a moment though and I wrapped my arms around Merlin's waist, jumping backwards and away from getting crushed.

Merlin wasn't idle herself. She spun her staff, creating a sheet of ice underneath the T-Rex's feet. "Perhaps that'll stall it," she said. "I don't think my normal tricks will work. If you can buy me a minute, though, I can get us far away from here."

"Consider it done," I said. I tightened my grip on my sword with both hands as I stared down the T-Rex and getting its attention.

Merlin went quiet. She put her staff against the ground, raising it an inch before slamming it back down while muttering.

I could feel an absolute crap-ton of mana swirling around her.

The T-Rex came again, this time focusing on me and ignoring the far less threatening Merlin.

Its head slammed into my sword and I felt my hands go numb as my blade barely bit into its leathery skull.

It flipped its head and sent me flying backwards. The T-Rex made a chuffing sound before it chased after me, much in the same way a dog would after it tossed itself a ball. Its jaws were open wide, ready to devour me.

I sliced my hand and let my blood flow freely as I flicked it at the dinosaur. Flecks of blood, turned into bloody thorns that wrapped around its open jaws and locking them into place. I landed on its tongue before cleaving off the front half of it with my sword and thrust my sword into the soft flesh at the roof of its mouth, leaving it there.

At that moment, its jaws glowed with an ability, and I threw myself backwards as those teeth slammed shut behind me, shattering my Sanguine Locking. Even if I had the advantage in spirit, it used its strength and a higher ranked skill to break it.

I landed on the ground, sliding on the snow that Merlin's blizzard had created. A sword bled out of both of my wrists, and I crossed them ready for the next attack.

The T-Rex thrashed, opening and closing its jaws, trying to get the sword out of the roof of its mouth. Seeing its distraction, I decided not to be idle and used Blood Hex, concentrating on that sword and letting the blood pool out as I wrapped several inscriptions around the inside of its mouth and down its throat. The Crimson Blade was wasting away as I used it for materials.

The T-Rex seemed to finally get over the sword in its palate, and I noticed its tongue had regenerated before it turned back to me and came charging with the speed of a bullet train.

"Are you done yet?" I asked Merlin, who was still quietly chanting and slamming her staff on the ground, not bothering to reply.

I took another headbutt from the T-Rex that lobbed me into the air.

This time, instead of going to bite me, it spun around, its tail coming at me fast enough to knock me to the moon.

A sword appeared in my hand from my spatial ring, and I activated Drop, slamming myself to the ground, just in time for the tail to pass over me with the kind of whoomph that you heard when something massive was displacing the air above you.

I ran along the ground, swapping back to my two Blood Blades used Charge to dash at the T-Rex's ankles and make two more shallow cuts.

Only for the massive monster to lift its heel and try to stomp me out of existence.