D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2145 Moore of a Fight

Chapter 2145: Chapter 2145 Moore of a Fight

— Nixilei —

Nixilei moved backwards, getting away to avoid any potential follow-up but still tested things on her way back out. Activating the enchantment on her dagger, she struck at the side of Clive’s neck. It was armoured, and this didn’t have much force behind it… but the fact that her dagger bounced off a wall of condensed magic once again confirmed her fears. That lucky shit had found some good armour between the first time she’d taken him out and now. *So is it going to be based on damage or time?*

Enchantments tended to be one of three varieties. Total defence with a cooldown, slightly weaker defence with a limited duration, and finally, decent defence that needed to be chipped away at. The first was good for defending against alpha-strikes and ensuring that no one thing could take you out. Didn’t matter if a boulder dropped on you from the edge of the atmosphere, you’d still be fine… but if someone threw a pebble at you with a bit too much force it would activate on that as well, allowing time for the boulder to crush you while it recharged.

That clearly wasn’t the case here, so the question of what needed to be done to bring the shield down was one Nixilei would need to figure out. If there was simply a damage threshold then she’d just need to hit Clive as hard as possible, as often as possible without wearing herself out. It also seemed to go OVER his armour so she’d have to get through that afterwards as well, but it could be done. Assuming she was fast enough. The problem with the shields made this way was that they regenerated while being damaged. As long as it wasn’t entirely broken, every second she wasn’t attacking was another second the armour could use to recharge.

Of course, the other side of things was the limited time barrier. Now that it was active, it would protect from most strikes until it burnt through all of its energy. It might be high quality enough to recharge afterwards… or it might not be. It didn’t truly matter because even the finest armour at this level would still take at least an hour to recharge. That should give her plenty of time to take Clive out…

But the risk was in determining what type was being used. If she started to attack rapidly, trying to chip away at the armour quickly to get to Clive underneath… she might just be wasting energy on a shield that would drop anyway. “FUCK!” shouted Clive as he stumbled around. Nixilei had long ago internalised the specifics of the shield type, so she’d considered all of her options in less then a second all while backing up.

Clive however, had apparently not been prepared for an attack. Nixilei had assumed wrong, thinking that he had at least some idea of the people following him… but apparently not. He was too busy flailing around to prepare for a proper counter attack… but the issue was, Nixilei had no idea if that was the correct course of action or not. *Best to just drag this out for a while. Most duration based shields on last for thirty seconds, with the best ones lasting no more than two minutes. If I can drag this out for a minute or more before starting my real attack I should be set.*

Of course even Nixilei could admit that in a fight that was quite a lot of time. Perhaps if she was stronger, or had her more… extreme enchantments on hand she could punch through that shield. Then again, there was a reason she didn’t bring those out much anymore. Best not to let anyone suspect you had them, and this was quite the public event. *Then again, with that team filled with money bags running around perhaps it wouldn’t have been too surprising. That or I could claim to have found it somewhere… not sure how Thyme will spread the news of events though so I might not get away with that sort of claim long term.*

Clive did manage to recover before long, spinning around pulling his short sword from its scabbard and looking right at her. He didn’t even bother touching the bow on his back, but that made sense. Even if he was a bit distracted, he was able to turn before too long and there was no reason to think there would be a good chance for a bow attack.

Clive didn’t wait once he confirmed her appearance. He moved forward and tried to make a slash directly at her. Nixilei simply moved to the side, far more ready for the sandy terrain. Sure Clive had some experience, he didn’t slip during the motion… but Nixilei knew how to glide along the sands. Simply kicking off and letting momentum carry her. A few tweaks to the angle of her feet and she could go anywhere she wanted.

There were a few clashes immediately following the first. Clive seemed ready to push the issue, constantly striking out to attack her without letting up. Nixilei was quite content to simply dodge around with minimal effort. She wasn’t entirely sure if Clive even knew what sort of shield he had so this behaviour didn’t tell her much.

Occasionally, Nixilei would use her greater manoeuvrability to go for a slight nick on Clive’s hands. They were well armoured so it wasn’t going to be anything serious… and sure enough a shield of magic would continually bounce away her ’attacks’. Nixilei kept this up for a good forty seconds without issue, though she was getting annoyed. She could hear that Ugalaz wasn’t moving, the bastard was just sitting around somewhere, likely right at the top of the dune they were fighting under.

*And I can’t even call him out on it because he’ll say something like “I didn’t want to risk interfering while you were doing so well” or “now you’ve revealed my position! I was preparing a sneak attack you know!”. So I’ll have to work something else out. I’m not using much effort… but I’m still using too much.

Clive here is able to put some force behind those blows and I can only dodge them so long before he gets his feet under him. I expect he’ll get good enough on the sands to contest me before I make it to the two minute mark… do I try talking? Distract him with that and buy more time?

I’ve probably already lost any progress I made in that first strike, assuming there even was any to be made. I can’t find a good spot to damage him. Not that I’ve been taking those risks anyway, but it means I don’t need to worry about the fight pausing completely…*

“So, lovely weather we’ve got,” Nixilei commented offhandedly.

“Good weather for avoiding ambushes,” growled Clive with more than a bit of anger. Split between Nixilei and herself.

“Eh, the wind covers for some of my mistakes in approach but yeah, I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on it,” commented Nixilei as she snaked her arm around a particularly bad thrust from Clive, allowing for her to score a big hit on his elbow. Didn’t do much real damage but it was a warning to keep his head in the game.

Clive shook his head, “Yeah bad awareness on my part.”

Nixilei waited for a follow up comment, holding her dagger almost lazily as if she really was just waiting. When Clive predictably stabbed out at her to punish that ’inattention’ she snuck in past his sword and slammed the hilt of her dagger into his throat. The shield blocked it, but even with that Clive stumbled back a bit and Nixilei kicked him in the chest, hard to force him further away.

Just as Clive was about to say something, Nixilei heard movement behind her. She didn’t look away from Clive, and was rewarded when she saw Ugalaz coming down from the sky with a massive rock he’d clearly picked up somewhere. Clive tried to say something but the weight of both the rock and Ugalaz was enough, especially with the demon forcibly slamming the rock down harder.

The lack of blood was a bit odd though. She had heard the sounds of bones breaking… “Can you move that aside? Just to confirm he’s done for?”

Ugalaz didn’t say anything as he slid off the boulder and then wrenched it out of the way. Except, he did it in such a way that the sound underneath him slid out, allowing the boulder to knock him to the ground. Where Clive was remained a letter from Thyme with what could be looted from him. Nixilei nodded and asked, “Ugalaz, why did you let that rock crush you?”

“A mistake on my part,” said Ugalaz. “Now I am trapped with no real hope of escape unless you help me,”

Nixilei narrowed her eyes. “Wait is this a way to be even more lazy about things?”

“Of course not that would be against my real and notable contract with my employers. Something I can’t go against. It was an accident,” insisted Ugalaz.

*Yeah only so that you can basically lie about it later. Now, question, do I free him?*