My Servant System

Chapter 1086: Chapter 1085: Caliph (1)



Slamming the tonfa's against his barrier once more, I felt my lip curling slightly at his attitude towards this, though as soon as I felt the irritation begin to rise at how he kept up this rather laid back and unbothered demeanor as my rods of ice smacked against his mana and began to crack, I stamped down on it and focused instead on putting that energy into my arms instead of my mind.

"C'mon, what's got you so angry baby girl~? Surely you know how to make use of that tongue of yours... in more ways than one, right~? Alright alright! I'll keep it to a minimum, sheesh!"

He just kept chatting casually as we fought, though it felt more like training as he simply moved from side to side and kept his feet moving constantly, not retaliating at all as I continued to pressure him with my tonfa's, each hit cracking that mana barrier even more.

The way he just seemed to be unbothered was a warning signal in my mind, but there was little I could do about it besides keep pressing forwards and trying to bait out whatever it was that was giving him this confidence; otherwise, I kept leaning forwards and putting all of my weight into these blows, alternating between exaggerated windups that gave me a bit more power - and gave him an opening to potentially exploit - alongside swifter, but weaker strikes.

There were a few other things I wanted to try, namely the palm blasts that had become so fun to use on low level trash that couldn't handle anything at all, but this feeling in my gut as I kept smacking him around this second level was telling me to keep my cards close to my chest for now, so I kept my style rather tame compared to what I was capable of.

With how thick the mana was and the presence of a dozen or so more pendants around his neck, trying to break through this barrier was likely a lost cause at this point, but I needed to find out what was giving him this confidence before I could properly act; the mind games of a fight against someone with an unknown strength, unknown gear and obvious intelligence was stressful, and it wasn't something you could really train for.

I was learning that now as I just kept swinging my arms and cracking away at that barrier, and in the midst of my next swing he said "Really, I don't know what they told you baby, but I promise you that I'm not like that~! Really, I mean it~!", which continued to irritate me somewhat, but that was when I decided it was worth it to start this 'dialogue' with the man. "Should I need anything else besides the knowledge that you want to harm a large amount of the populace for what seems to be selfish reasons? Or how fascinatingly coincidental it was that you appeared here with a Fiend obsessed with any and all knowledge possible? Do you think I can't connect those rather obvious dots?"

That drew a chuckle from him as he shrugged, replying "Well, now that you mention it... I guess that is a little fishy ain't it? But baby, trust me; not every deal with a Fiend is a contract waiting to steal away your soul. Just like how you and me could come to a deal for a night out on the town, we came to a deal with the birdbrain that we could steal the books we need and share them with them. Now of course we knew said birdbrain was gonna double cross us, but like ya said there baby... we could connect those rather obvious dots~!"

"You made a deal with the Fiend, and thought you could outsmart them? A Tza Fiend? The Fiends renowned for their outrageous intelligence and wit? Likely story..."

Targeting the larger cracks in the barrier, I began to peel away this man's protective shell and slowly exposed the weaker armor below, though as soon as his barrier showed signs of failure he leapt backwards and tossed a ring onto the floor, buying a few seconds as gouts of flame jumped towards me like rabid dogs off of a leash.

"Believe it or not, that's the truth... see, we know a thing or two about Tza Fiends because we've seen a thing or two about 'em~! Keep your friends close but your enemies closer and all that... speaking of, I wouldn't mind being close to you and your rack~!"

When the flames dissipated into mist after splashing against my Water Shield, I was greeted with the sight of the man encased in a fresh barrier, but this time he actually had a weapon in his hand, one that didn't really fit his airy and light personality.

Hoisting a gigantic hammer that crackled with electricity, he swung it straight at my shield and drew a curse from my lips as I dodged to the side, rolling away from the shower of lightning that crashed down around the impact zone and forcing me to cancel my Water Cloak as I saw each bolt eagerly searching for a place to reside.

The mana was attracted to the mana that was weaker than itself, and while typically water didn't attract lightning per se, I wasn't going to test that theory now, least of all because it was coming from a gigantic sapphire hammer wreathed in it.

Getting stunned now meant being turned into a meat paste on the floor below, which was also beginning to splinter as the man hoisted the weapon again and dropped it down towards me, trying to eliminate me.

"I gotta admit, after all this time as a Caliph, it's been a bit since I actually had to make use of these pendants of mine~! You should know how weak the average person is, how boring monsters can be..."

His prior laid back demeanor was slowly being eroded by excitement as he dragged the hammer back towards his shoulder, ignoring the way the azure mana licked at his skin, singing it; instead, he was grinning from ear to ear as he just cracked his neck and looked at me from afar.

"Gods it feels good to do this again... Baby, I was gonna leave you alive so I could fuck you real- good, but honestly... I think I just wanna kill you now~! It's serious been awhile, and I'm pent up... all this searching hasn't done me any good, so-!"

The Caliph lowered his shoulders and began to charge forwards, each step he took resulting in even more cracks appearing around us as Earth Mana swelled into being around his feet, while a breeze lapped at his forearms as he swung the hammer once more, this time low and horizontally as he bathed the area around him in lightning, hoping to catch me off guard.

I shrouded my legs in a gale and leapt into the air instead, dodging the lighting that way and grabbing ahold of the bannister above to hang above the man, staring down at him and letting one of the tonfa's attached to my arms shoot towards him as he shouted up at me with a maniacal grin.

"Be a good bitch and die for me, will ya?! Add another tally to my count and let me vent my frustrations properly!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He sidestepped the tonfa and snickered at my 'sloppy' aim, only to swiftly glance at the ground as he heard something besides his hammer cracking, causing his ears to twitch before he cursed as he noticed how more and more of the second floor was beginning to come apart. The floor below him was splintering slowly, but with the weight of that hammer and me being above him, the Caliph had little choice on what to do besides head on up as well, risking the blows from me as he sought out stable ground.

Instead of attacking him directly, my fingers rapidly traced out runes as I cast spell after spell, coating the entire upper floor in a thick sheet of ice and summoning a tempest that pushed down on him, throwing off his balance and ensuring that no matter how he landed up on this floor, he wasn't going to be stable.

Then I began to layer my own defensive spells before summoning a longsword made of ice as I decided that a mixed style of both close quarters and ranged combat would be best suited for an opponent like this.

Strengthening the winds around my feet, I leapt away again as the Caliph tossed another ring into the air, the Dogkin summoning a giant ball of flames that tried to melt away the ice as well as keeping me at a distance as I warily stared at it, wondering if he had control of this

sphere.

"Ice Mages... always gotta be tricky pricks, don't ya? Always relying on area of effect spells to start, then single target afterwards... Tricky tricky..."

Standing beneath the sphere of roiling flames, the Caliph clicked his tongue and shook his head as he stared at me, combating the chill and ignoring the winds as he tapped his hammer against his shoulder repeatedly, before glancing back at his two comrades.