Jackal Among Snakes

The front deck of the Sea Dragon was shrouded in fog, and as Argrave walked at the head of his people, he reviewed this battleground he’d long ago surveyed. The front deck, unlike the back, was triangular. The emperor and his guards stood in the center of this triangle, and their formation was simple. The vanguard held pavises firm against the ground, the crescent moon of the Great Chu emblazoned proudly in white on their black surface. Just behind, expert archers prepared to fire arrows of great power.

The emperor’s elite archers would undoubtedly make any approach unimaginably difficult, and the cover from the pavises would make retaliation difficult. On top of that, Argrave could see other weapons on their person—once they came close enough, they would surely switch to melee weapons, demonstrating the same devastating prowess that they had in their first encounter.

The position inclined an onlooker toward using devastating spells to break their rank, but that might be a mistake. At the midway point of the triangular front deck, two towers rose up on the left and right sides. It was from there that the S-rank spellcasters had attacked them with water dragons, and it was there two remained, sheltered from attack while within their towers. From its shelter, the powerful spellcasters perched like a hawk watching for prey. With Ji Meng on the battlefield, their role would be solely to protect him completely. They would make casting spells a laborious thing—and even if one slipped past, Emperor Ji Meng himself was an S-rank spellcaster.

It was a deadly formation… but one that Argrave and Anneliese had devised a hastily-conjured counter for. That counter, namely, was themselves.

Rather than the Veidimen or the other spellcasters along with them, Argrave, Anneliese, and Onychinusa walked straight toward the formation. Argrave’s blood echoes spread out in a line, while Anneliese remained just behind him. Onychinusa persisted as displaced magic mist, blending in with the Brumesinger’s fog, yet Argrave knew she was present.

When the first volley of magic-laced arrows came to confront their advance, Anneliese conjured wards with practiced grace. Her wards, empowered by divine creations plundered from Erlebnis’ vault, easily withstood the blow. She and Argrave were protected within, while Argrave’s blood echoes remained without.

On the right and left, the Veidimen took formation centered around their remaining spellcasters. Their task was twofold—deal with the S-rank spellcasters within the towers, and flank the emperor’s guard. Vasilisa and Vera, their two best attackers, countered every spell the S-rank spellcasters in the tower cast, while Castro and Hegazar acted as reserve and rearguard both.

“The two in the towers have some spirits—perhaps a hundred. But Ji Meng has the most,” Anneliese told him, employing her [Truesight] to evaluate these people. “Easily over a thousand.”

Argrave’s party had a straightforward victory condition. They would need to deplete their opponents of spirits using a simple shamanic spell called [Freedom], which required its caster to touch the other party. Once their foes were deprived of their spirits, they became vulnerable to shamanic magic. It was Onychinusa’s duty to then cast the S-rank spell [Subjugate], that they might subdue the emperor without killing him.

Though grateful for the enemy’s spirit count, Argrave did not respond to Anneliese—instead, he unleashed his first counterattack to the imperial guard’s formation, calling upon each of his blood echoes to attack. Argrave saw bright maroon lights before he heard the terrible noise of his attack. Seventy-two sustained bolts of blood-infused lightning came forth from eight blood echoes, casting dreadful lights across the deck. Their sheer power illuminated the fog so completely it seemed that Argrave had cast them into a ring of hell, and the sustained electric arcs emitted an intense noise that sounded like an industrial saw.

This was one of the spells he had designed in seclusion with the Alchemist, experimenting with segmenting and [Blood Infusion]. With segmenting, he turned [Nine-Tailed Bloodbriars] and its bloody whips into [Arc Whips]—a B-rank spell that projected nine deadly electric arcs that spanned the air with lightning’s speed and power. With [Blood Infusion], each of these arcs gained the power of his black blood. He might’ve made the spell A-rank, but B-rank spells were the limit his blood echoes could cast.

The Bloodbriars had already been an unstoppable wave of destruction, yet now that they were formed of electricity while retaining the destructive power of blood magic. Argrave was used to emerging from the gate with an attack so powerful that it forced his foes on the defensive, and this was his most powerful gambit yet.

from their weapons. The [Arc Whips] melted through lower-ranked wards, true—but dozens stacked together was another matter. Their defense held, and the elite archers changed both their formation and projectile type.

had the chance to change his style of attack, the guards’ formation split. Ji Meng walked forward, running his hand along his dadao. Argrave saw a mana ripple split through the fog, hueing it teal, but no spell came. Instead, Argrave saw all of the emperor’s

Argrave shouted, voice eerily clear in the

horizontally. A crescent beam of concentrated electricity cut through the air, and Argrave barely conjured an A-rank ward empowered by [Blood Infusion] in time to defend. Though easily equal to any S-rank ward, his defense shattered. Anneliese’s wards next stood in its way, yet they both shattered before its might. Argrave received the blow with the jade Resonant Pillar in his hand. The slash still had tremendous force behind it, and the Inerrant Cloak that Argrave wore drew upon his

empower it with divinity. The resulting attack was strong enough to slay even greater gods. He

he noticed surprise that they’d endured. Argrave held his gaze and calmly unclasped the Inerrant Cloak to

the next hit, if it comes to that. But be

guards’ formation shifted. Rather than wait to be flanked, his troops divided into two to confront the coming Veidimen. Like parallels to Argrave and Anneliese, Emperor Ji Meng and Admiral Tan Shu

betraying no emotion. Admiral Tan Shu was an A-rank spellcaster and bore a divine bident made of bone. They were both intimidating fighters, but Argrave couldn’t hesitate. He advanced, hoping

against the blade as though drawn to it, demonstrating yet another aspect of his terrifying weapon. Argrave turned his attack into a distraction, however—behind, he had his Brumesingers conjure shades of mist to assail the two archers supporting both the admiral and the

bracer on his arm containing his blood essence had drained about half from merely

haft of her spear. The sheer force contained within the attack lifted her off the ground and sent her flying hundreds of feet away. She threw her bident—not at Argrave, but at the ship. It sunk deep into the deck. As her figure faded away, she once

Anneliese shouted, drawing Argrave’s attention back to

Argrave turned his head, Ji Meng had already imbued his weapon with another S-rank spell. Anneliese stepped in front of him and cast two wards just as Ji Meng swung horizontally once more. As his crescent blade of condensed electricity cut through the air with uncanny speed, her wards barely bought Argrave enough time to cast another of his A-rank wards infused with blood magic. Once again, the Inerrant

known he would be so hard to approach, I’d

her bident to get near. He saw no way to do it without exposing his plan, though—and the admiral wasn’t yet

Argrave. Guess it’s time for good

calling upon the Domain of Law. At once, he felt a tremendous difference. He didn’t look

her voice. Onychinusa did not answer,

of them used [Arc Whips], blasting at the emperor. It was enough to keep him distracted defending, but also gave Ji Meng the opportunity to step backward and retreat. Argrave felt some panic seeing that, but stuck to his plan. All of the eight

the two blood echoes deplete as they cast [Arc Whips], and moments before they finally vanished, Argrave pointed [Bloodarc Bow] into the sky, then shot up the maroon