3003 Ears of Menadion (Part 3)
A blue bolt of lightning was visible coursing under Maergron's armor as he used Flash Steps as well.
He blocked the short swords with one claw from each of his gauntlets, leaving Strider flabbergasted.
'I suspected Maergron would have trained using our abilities while waiting for us, but this is too much. I have years of experience and he's blinded. He's supposed to panic and flail his arms.
'How could he block my attack with such precision and why is he not using the rest of his claws?' With no answers to his questions, the Zouwu used the recoil from the block to alter the trajectory of his blades by twisting his torso and flicking his wrists.
At the same time, Ryka's and Unanna's Blinks opened and the two Awakened launched a sneak attack from Maergron's left at right side. The Redcap smirked, he needed no eyes as long as he had the Ears.
A flick of his fingers allowed him to stick one claw to the Zouwu's right blade and extend a second claw that pierced through Strider's defense and armor before he could react.
The claw was actually a stake that the propulsion system on the glove shot forward like an anti-tank bullet. It had been designed to impale the enemies and knock them back to buy time for its master.
While Strider was still recovering from the impact, a second claw struck his right cheek, opening a shallow cut.
Then, Maergron pivoted on the b.a.l.l.s of his right foot, kicking Ryka in the chest with his left leg while the right arm moved in front of Unanna and shot all four claws. Even with six arms, the Naga was no match for the Zouwu-like speed.
Ryka was sent cras.h.i.+ng against the wall behind the throne while Unanna blocked one claw, dodged another, and took the other two respectively in the shoulder and the stomach.
With the Darwen coating their amor cracked, the aura of the Awakened now seeped out along with their blood.
"Much better." The Redcap smiled and recalled the stakes stuck in the Naga's body, leaving gaping holes that bled profusely. "Who's next?"
Lith raised Ragnar?k while Xenagrosh charged Sky Piercer, both expecting Maergron to go in for the finis.h.i.+ng strike and intercept him.
Instead, the Redcap remained still.
The Members of the Hand of Fate were dumbfounded as well but exploited his bizarre behavior to heal their wounds. Or at least, they tried.
Strider and Unanna fell to the ground in agony, having a hard time not letting go of their weapons as they doubled over, clutching their stomachs. Maergron pointed both his arms at the Zouwu, shooting the eight claws on his gauntlets from point-blank.
"No!" The t.i.tania felt perfectly fine and reacted by instinct.
Instead of Blinking Strider to safety, she Blinked in front of him. It made much more sense to her since with her regenerative abilities those hits couldn't kill her and this way, she would get close to Maergron and draw his attention.
'Awakened only need one breath to recover and I can buy-' Her train of thought derailed as the claws dug into her body and inflicted her pain like she had never experienced.
Ryka screamed in anguish, collapsing to the ground as her whole being seemed to be on fire.
Bytra and the other members of the Hand of Fate tried to intervene but Lith and Zoreth stopped them.
'It's a trap.' The Shadow Dragon said via the mind link connecting them. 'Those wounds are nothing to darkness fusion. The problem is that they carry the smell of the Redcap.'
'Poison? Then let me go I-' The Lich felt confident but Lith cut her short.
'Mana poison. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d uses the spikes to inject his mana in critical points like auxiliary cores. That's why your friends are suffering so much. You may have not a body, but you still have a mana core.
'If you recklessly jump in, you'll end up like them.'
Maergron's weapon, Killer Wasp, had been devised by Pharek after studying the Ears for centuries and its purpose was as Lith suspected. The first hit had cracked the Darwen, creating a flow of mana that the Ears could read so that the second strike would hit a vital mana spot.
Even if blinded, the Blinks weren't cloaked and the Ears had perceived their opening and allowed Maergron to react. He remembered the position of all intruders so based on the entry point, he knew who his attackers were.
What Lith and Zoreth weren't aware of, was that the Ears could listen to the mana flow of an individual just like that of the Garden. The strike to Strider's cheek was intentional, to inject the mana on the most direct current to the Zouwu's core.
Without such pinpoint precision, the quant.i.ty of mana injected would have been nullified by the vigorous flow of a bright violet Awakened core before Strider could even notice being poisoned.
Bytra inwardly nodded and charged forward, carried by a silver bolt of lightning. Her cloaking artifact wasn't as good as Darwen so even though the Ears couldn't hear her flow well it was enough for Maergron to react.
'Luckily, she's slower than the Zouwu in such a confined s.p.a.ce, and just like him, she didn't cloak her weapons. No one does.' The Redcap grinned, using the Raiju's faint mana flow and the Absolution's ma.s.sive stream to predict and dodge her attacks.
Even with the t.i.tania's strength Maergron had stolen, he didn't dare block. He knew from their previous confrontation how strong Bytra was and the Killer Wasp had no defensive abilities.
The claws would bend out of shape if hit by the Davross hammer and become useless until fully repaired. It was something that would never happen because the Redcap would never last long once he lost his prized weapon.
As Maergron avoided the Raiju's lightning-fast attacks, he countered at every opening by shooting one claw at a time. Some Bytra dodged, others she blocked, a couple managed to open small wounds.
'Perfect! That's not enough to poison her but now that I tagged her energy signature with mine I can-' Maergron cursed himself for underestimating an Eldritch.
The Ears had just started scanning the Raiju's mana flow when the energy tags the Redcap had injected inside her body were devoured by Bytra's Eldritch half.
She further surprised him by making a copy of the Absolution materialize in her left hand and throwing seven more hammers at him while she performed a dual-wielding a.s.sault.
Maergron knew that Blinking with so many Awakened using Life Vision on him was madness. He activated a Spirit Barrier and unleashed three Raging Suns he had at the ready, placing them in a triangle formation in front of the incoming hammers.
The combined shockwave from the three spells deviated the projectiles' trajectory while the barrier took the brunt of Bytra's attacks. It shattered under the two Absolutions but still gave Maergron the time to retreat to safety.
'Whoever decides to attack, be careful of what the others do. If we get into each other's crossfire our numbers will be a weakness instead of a strength.' The Shadow Dragon said before joining the fray.