Lauri appeared directly before the Whispering King, [Hailrend] in hand. The black-ice cutlass flew through the air, but moments before the strike could land, the King moved – raising its shield with terrifying speed.
The impact thundered across the battlefield, as [Hailrend] failed to bite into the dull metal surface, the shield enduring the blow without so much as a scratch. Even so, frost immediately spread across the point of contact, jagged ice rapidly crawling over the dull metal where the cutlass had struck.
The Whispering King retaliated.
Its barbed lance shot upward, thrusting straight at Lauri's chest.
Lauri dissolved into light a fraction of a second before the lance could impale him. The tip of the lance passed through Lauri's luminescent form as he dashed away.
'That was too close… This guy is too fast.'
He moved several feet to the side, appearing in the air behind the Whispering King.
'But even with all that speed. It doesn't matter if he stays mounted, if he isn't able to turn around fast enough.'
A large grin appeared on Lauri's lips as he moved [Hailrend] to attack.
'Which leaves his back wide open!
[Hailrend] swept upward toward the King's exposed back, the blade poised to slice into its armoured neck – when the mist surrounding horse and rider suddenly came alive.
It twisted violently around the cutlass, wrapping around the blade in thick spiralling currents, slowing the strike until it came to a complete stop. The mist grew dense enough to act as a physical barrier, stopping Lauri's attack, cushioning the blow like an invisible wall the black ice failed to pierce.
Frost rapidly spread through the mist itself, frozen fragments shattering loose and falling through the air as Lauri violently tore the weapon free from its ghostly grip.
'Ah, damn it – of course the horse is going to defend its rider, it's king! Shit–'
The steed began to move, twisting beneath the Whispering King. Before Lauri had a chance to fall to the ground, the horse had given its rider a clean angle of attack. The lance came stabbing toward Lauri once more.
He only managed to activate [Light Dash] a heartbeat before the lance would have speared straight through his chest.
Lauri reappeared several dozen feet away from the Whispering King, boots skidding violently across the icy ground, the golden veil wrapped around his body flapping in the wind as he steadied himself. Frost sprayed outward beneath him before he finally came to a stop.
He grimaced.
'The fight's barely started, and this thing's almost killed me twice already… If I didn't have [Light Dash], I'd already be dead.'
Lauri exhaled sharply, raising his empty hand. He raised one finger to the sky and then pointed it toward the mounted Tyrant.
"Alright then, let's see how tough you are once I turn that horse of yours into a pincushion."
Lauri pulled on his essence, infusing it into the blades of light that snapped into existence around him.
One.
Then three.
Then a dozen.
The radiant swords hovered in the air at varying angles, their edges glowing bright enough to illuminate the area around Lauri.
The instant the first blade formed, it shot forward.
The rest followed immediately after.
A storm of light cut into the Antarctic night as it flew towards the Whispering King.
But the King's steed was not so willing to allow its king to come to harm.
The cyan fog surrounding the Whispering King suddenly compressed inward in a dozen places, condensing into sharp points suspended in the air.
Then they fired.
Mist shot outward like a barrage of spectral nails, colliding head-on with the incoming blades of light.
Each impact erupted into violent bursts of radiance and cyan vapour, shattering both attacks in brilliant explosions that lit the battlefield with alternating flashes of gold and pale blue.
For a few seconds, the space between Lauri and the King became a storm of detonating light and mist.
Then, just as Lauri was about to end the assault after realising how futile it was, he noticed something.
At first, the horse had just been intercepting Lauri's attacks, but now it was beginning its own offensive.
The ghastly mist surrounding them twisted violently, reacting to every incoming blade of light before reshaping itself into fresh attacks of its own. Sharp nails condensed from the fog and launched toward Lauri like deadly rainfall, each nail moving with terrifying speed and precision.
In an instant, the pressure reversed.
Lauri found himself forced onto the back foot, hastily summoning more swords of light simply to fend off the barrage now racing toward him. Golden blades flashed through the air one after another, intercepting the incoming mist-nails in bursts of radiant explosions that illuminated the frozen battlefield.
Lauri's brow twitched.
'So this is what it feels like… It's my first time getting a taste of my own medicine.'
He shattered another cluster of mist projectiles before they could reach him.
'A constant rain of attacks… Yeah…'
A particularly massive nail was conjured from the mist; it smashed through half a dozen swords of light before Lauri raised his arm and brought [Hailrend] down across it. The Transcendant cutlass easily cut the attack in half, the two halves returning to normal, unearthly mist free of the horse's control.
Lauri grimaced.
'I really am not a fan.'
Lauri and the horse were at an impasse.
Lauri couldn't land a hit on the horse, but the same was equally true for the Whispering King's mighty steed. Their ability to manipulate their respective powers was equivalent.
Despite this stalemate, it was Lauri who was losing.
He was burning essence in order to empower his constructs.
[Light's Edge] was the first Aspect Ability Lauri had earned after conquering his First Nightmare. Meaning using [Light's Edge] required such little essence, his soul was capable of regenerating essence at a higher rate than he lost. But as he continued to climb the ranks of Ascension, Lauri learnt that [Light's Edge] had depth to its usage. After Awakening and unlocking his ability to wield essence, Lauri discovered that he was capable of empowering his constructs with additional essence, thereby enhancing their overall potency.
But this very boon was the very path that would lead to his doom. As if nothing changed, Lauri would simply run out of essence, and the horse would pierce him with a myriad of mist-born nails.
Something would need to change…
And as luck would have it, change was a moment away.
The battlefield exploded into chaos as Lucky's Legion crashed into the Whispering Legion like a tidal wave of insanity.
Hundreds of Echoes descended upon the Legion at once, and whatever semblance of orderly warfare had existed moments earlier came to a loud and definitive end.
Towering beasts slammed into the formations of Pawns as winged monstrosities dove screaming from the sky. A six-armed ape hurled a Rook high into the air, where it crashed down onto a half dozen Pawns, while a crystalline wolf ploughed through an entire line of the Nightmare Creatures before exploding into a storm of shards that dug into dozens of the silent warriors.
Somewhere on the field, a massive bird snatched a Pawn off the ground only to immediately get knocked from the sky by a spear thrown by a Rook, which was then hit by numerous arrows fired by a skeletal creature riding what looked suspiciously like a crocodile.
The battlefield devolved into complete madness.
And somehow – it was working.
The rigid order of the Whispering Legion buckled beneath the sheer unpredictability of Lucky's army.
Lauri moved forward – not by using [Light Dash] this time. He channelled essence into his legs and charged across the snow-covered ground. Dodging the nails when he could, slashing the nails when he couldn't. Coming to a stop, a wall of light appeared before Lauri, catching the next handful of nails before it shattered into sparkles.
By that point, Lauri had already moved. Platforms of light manifested beneath his feet as he sprinted upward at an angle, rising above the Whispering King and its steed. In motion, he cast [Hailrend] aside. Stretching out his hand, Lauri began to channel light and essence to create a new weapon.
Usually, Lauri would simply cover himself with a layer of light, which didn't just serve as a second layer of defence, but also allowed him to fly. But due to having summoned [Partitioner's Relief], Lauri had to miss out on the second layer due to the veil's flowing fabric – Lauri's constructs were solid, with no capacity to bend or flow like fabric.
So Lauri made do in his own way, a javelin appearing in his outstretched hand.
'I would have used the spear I was holding onto, but it seems the spear broke when it punched a hole in the seventh bridge. I'd say that was an equivalent trade.'
Lauri followed his earlier motion and hurled the javelin down toward the Whispering King.
At the same time, Lauri summoned a number of swords which he fired at the horse.
The javelin fell at breakneck speed, the horse channelled its mist to subdue the attack, but the javelin was created in such a way that it was equivalent to a high-tier Ascended Memory, easily on par, if not above, the destrier's power over its ethereal cyan mist.
And in the world of the Nightmare Spell, offence trumped defence.
The javelin pierced straight through the mist shield and fell on the Whispering King.
At the same moment the horse sought to defend against Lauri's javelin, it conjured up nails to destroy the swords Lauri had created.
The last of Lauri's swords of light shattered apart at the exact moment the Whispering King raised its shield to intercept the incoming javelin.
The javelin struck with explosive force – only for the King to swing his shield outward and violently knock the weapon aside.
But before the spear had even finished spinning through the air, Lauri appeared beside it in a burst of light, catching the weapon mid-flight.
In the same motion, he twisted his body and hurled it again. The javelin screamed back toward the Whispering King, and once more, the horse failed to intercept the attack with its mist, forcing the King itself to react. The shield slammed into the spear again, knocking it away across the battlefield – and once again, Lauri appeared beside it in a flash of light.
Catch.
Throw.
Block.
Reappear.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The fight devolved into a relentless exchange of radiant flashes and thunderous impacts as Lauri continuously pursued the spear through the air, refusing to allow the Whispering King even a moment to recover between attacks.
It became less like combat and more like a violent game of catch played at impossible speed.
From an outside perspective, what Lauri was doing was pointless. The Whispering King would not be so easily harmed. But that was never truly Lauri's intended target; Lauri hadn't planned on hitting the Whispering King at all. It was all one large distraction.
One more time, Lauri threw his javelin at the Whispering King, despite having failed each and every time. The horse was still determined to stop Lauri's attack in its tracks. A large quantity of mist moved through the air; it seemed the horse was putting all of its focus into this wall of mist.
As the javelin struck the mist, the cyan barrier twisted violently around it. This time, it held. The fog coiled tightly around the weapon like spectral chains, trapping the javelin in place mid-air and bleeding away the force behind the throw until it hung motionless before the Whispering King.
Beneath the helmet of [Her Aegis], a satisfied smile appeared on Lauri's lips.
"Got ya."
[Hailrend] bit deep into the horse's armoured flank, black frost immediately spreading from the wound as frostbite tore into the flesh beneath the armour.
The attack had come from the steed's undefended side.
Earlier, when Lauri had discarded [Hailrend], he had secretly wrapped a thin layer of light around the cutlass hilt. Now, with the horse's full attention focused on him and all of its mist committed to blocking his frontal assault, Lauri had simply raised a hand and pulled the weapon back into motion.
The longer [Hailrend] remained buried deep in the horse's flank, the more black frost spread rapidly beneath its skin, tearing into flesh; its ability to manipulate mist was powerless to protect. The steed let out a piercing, unnatural cry that echoed across the snowy night, momentarily cutting through the chaos of the battlefield.