Arc 4:
Part 3: Rest for the Wicked
"There you are, Arcane King… It's time for you to die!"
Evalyn said as she and Velm had reached him at last.
It finally hit her that after all that happened here in Pardem, this should have been the plan from the start.
No flaunting of power. No arrogance. Just mission. And to please her master, Wrath.
If you can manage to kill Daz, I will promote you above Arthur. She recalled him saying during their meeting.
In the mere seconds she had arrived, she managed to view Velm in her peripheral. Judging by her similar state, it seemed they were both in bad shape. But, ironically, had both awakened.
For even if they both came earlier, because of Daz's renowned Nullifying magic, he still would have defeated them. With her obtaining Tantra and Velm turning, she thought that perhaps everything prior was a necessary outcome in order to overpower Daz in this moment.
It was this distinction that led her to believe that she and Velm could actually win this.
They could actually kill an Arcane King.
Both Evalyn and Velm landed simultaneously atop the highest roof that Daz occupied above the Wolves Den. Immediately, close combat commenced.
Daz blocked and dodged their wild attacks one after another. Their punches and kicks were so strong, they pulsed the air and shuddered the entire Den.
When Velm stepped a foot down, he converted that part of the roof into mercury, sending a scourge over to Daz.
Daz remained. The mercury unaffecting him as it passed by…
Evalyn then flexed her body while in a stance.
Her open toed heels snapped and shattered upon the act as she bolted forward, barefoot.
She met Daz in a violent back and forth of martial arts. Back fist. Block. Kick. Kick. Dodge. Daz had met her with each motion, effortlessly deflecting.
Velm then melted into the mercury below his feet, surging and becoming one through it, meeting Daz from behind as Evalyn took the front.
Daz's gray eyes darted quickly to him, and with a bare hand, caught Velm's morphed blade, and Evalyn's foot with his other.
They staggered as Daz held them both almost effortlessly; a solemn expression was cast over him, all the while.
Evalyn's violet eyes trembled, grinding her teeth, nearly cracking them from her sheer untapped power, as Velm snarled like a beast on the other side of Daz, opposite her.
The groan of Velm's metal sounded as Daz gripped harder, shattering it eventually, making a fist, and then sending it flying right into Velm's face.
His head thrashed back, like he didn't know what hit him. But before he could fly off from the utter strength of that punch, Daz grabbed his collar and twisted him upside-down.
He then slammed Velm down, dragging his head over the roof until he was just below him.
Evalyn thought she saw a chance, leaping into the air and spun, releasing Daz grip from her foot. She spun thrice in a vicious speed, sending that same foot on a direct path to the back of his head.
Daz blocked with the back of his left hand, pulled her closer with the bridge of her foot using her momentum, jabbed her core, and then snatched her head, all in quick succession.
Evalyn grunted as his hand smacked her face, and he held her in the air.
Her eyes shuddered in anger as he had utterly handled her, as with Velm who was barely registering that he was now laying below the Arcane King.
Daz looked her in the eyes with a cold expression.
"My…" He spoke at last in a calm tone as he adjusted his grip on her face and stomped forcefully onto Velm's chest, pinning him there. "If this is how you two say hello, then don't be surprised when the recipient returns your gesture with the same informality."
They both broke free somehow, Evalyn with fists spread, and Velm having morphed to a silver mess as his mercury began spreading over more of the Den.
Nash and the other's backed away from the ooze as he shouted, "Hey Idiot King! Don't fuck up the Den!"
"Apologies," Daz called as he raised a foot and stomped it down onto the silver liquid.
In an instant, it all morphed back to normal, with Velm now stuck to the bottom of his loafer in his relinquished state.
Though Velm was still berserk, his face was that of utter shock.
Evalyn found her footing and reeled in a punch.
Daz turned his head to face her ever so calmly.
When she threw it, he shifted his foot with Velm still at the end of it over to her, letting him take the brunt of the blow.
The sound of thunder rumbled upon impact, and Velm roared in agony. The effects of Tantra and Nullifying magic coursing through him on both sides.
"Oh, how irony stings, Velm…" Evalyn muttered as she and Daz forced their attacks through him, eradicating him to bits.
And rather than silver, scarlet rained instead. Followed by half of Velm's head as it crunched somewhere on the roof.
Evalyn and Daz pushed back, their fists ricocheting off each other, throwing blow after blow—offense against offense.
She threw a left jab, then a right hook. Daz tilted his head to dodge the first, then ducked, bringing his fist down, and then back with an uppercut right under her jaw, sending her flying into the air.
"I see," Daz said in the split second. "You two were sent to kill me from the start…"
He rose casually, bringing his hand to his neck, and as he did, an Arc Slayer flew in from sight unseen, stabbing Evalyn dead center in the sky just as he fixed his collar.
"You should have come more prepared."
Evalyn spat blood as her vision began to fail.
Without a sound, the Arc Slayer in her chest disappeared, and she fumbled back onto the roof, bleeding to death.
She twitched, blood gushing from her mouth with each attempt to cling to life as Daz strolled by and knelt down.
Evalyn choked, managing to sputter a single word. "Gr… ace…"
Daz trailed eyes down and found a necklace at her breast, snagging it.
It was small, Lotus-shaped, and glowed crystalline blue as he held it up to his face to observe it. There were carved in letters of the name she had just uttered on each petal, and it was the opposite color Evalyn was now drenched in—even more so than her bandit group's name.
"This must be a beacon," Daz said, rising now to search for Velm's.
He turned his head, finding it nearby, grabbed the pentagram necklace, and held it up along with Evalyn's at their strands as they clinked together in quiet harmony.
He then weaved a one handed hand sign, chanting, "Convergence." And by doing so, it had connected him to the other bandits from all the groups present—the Bloodtusks, Silverthorns, and the unknown group that had shown up moments prior, along with the other, remaining Riot Gang members that were not present:
Gorran and one other who was like an itching rabbit, at a distant cliff near Pardem.
A burly looking man with long brown hair at the edge of the Mountain jurisdiction.
Lilith and Arthur back at Tartarus.
And the Rooster, whose features were shadowed, aside from his red and black mohawk, sitting crouched atop a bandit with brown, gold, and red clothing; others from the group were scattered on the ground around him as he listened in.
"To all whom this may concern," Daz spoke through the beacon. "I urge you to fall back if you value your lives. Your leaders, Evalyn and Velm are both dead."
The Arcane King's words were heard all across Pardem from each bandit. Some found it hard to believe, but Daz leaped off the Den and onto the ground, bringing both Velm's head and Evalyn down with him.
The brown and gold bandits there saw them, as did some Bloodtusks that came from the entrance in the south of Pardem, and the remaining Silverthorns from the southeast.
All had witnessed their two leaders. Dead.
He dropped them at his feet, and the dust burst from their thud.
And when all beheld Daz's face, they felt their hearts drop down to their stomachs.
Gulps. Sweat trails down the side of a face. All felt as though they should not—or rather, could not defy this man.
"And if you do…" The eyes of each of the other Riot Gang Head Officers from their separate locations flashed, as well as Wrath's—who had overheard it all from Tartarus.
"Only a casket awaits you."