Cytus (2)

- Peter and Cytus -

Peter shot a jet of flame towards Cytus who materialized his wings and flew over them. He landed behind the group and began discharging bolt after bolt towards Heinrich.

Heinrich created walls to block the fatal shots, but was still getting slowly cut up by the electricity as the rest of the group tried to reposition.

"One-four!" Peter yelled as the other members shifted to support Heinrich. Yvere was standing right behind him as he endured the barrage, healing wounds as fast as she could. 

Heinrich was clenching his teeth so hard he thought he might crush them.

'Come on Peter, what are you doing?'

Peter created a wall of flame between Cytus and the group with his right hand, and then started to channel more explosive orbs in his left.

The bolts stopped coming through the flame wall, which lead Peter to look at the sky. As soon as Cytus took to the air again Peter launched the three orbs he had created in a spiral motion casuing them to crash into each other and create a large explosion near Cytus.

Cytus landed and placed his burnt hands on the ground. Electricity suddenly flooded the ground.

Heinrich summoned a floating platform underneath the group as the sparks from the magic started to surround them. As the wall of fire faded Cytus rushed towards the group with his wings out, wrapping his bony hand around Heinrich's mouth, and pushing him through the other four and up towards the sky.

"You!" He yelled.

Without Heinrich channeling, the stone platform fell back to the ground. The electric magic had faded, but the group was now concerned with releasing their team member from the attacker.

Sabu created a strong burst of wind and launched towards Cytus. He sliced into his wings with blades of wind severing them. Cytus dropped Heinrich in response and reformed his wings before turning to Sabu. Sabu was now falling trying to catch himself and Heinrich with a small puff of wind, but was being pushed downward by Cytus who was gripping his wrists so he couldn't direct his magic.

Heinrich landed, trying to roll to reduce the impact, but still ended up dislocating his left shoulder. Sabu on the other hand had been slammed into the ground. Both his wrists were broken along with multiple ribs.

Lao ran over to Heinrich while Peter and Yvere went towards Cytus. Peter created a whip of fire and tried hitting Cytus with it while he was getting off of Sabu. The whip hit Cytus on the left of his head, charring the flesh and getting him to back away while dematerializing his wings.

As Yvere put herself between Cytus and Sabu she felt two bolts of lightning go through her stomach. She healed them and ran towards Cytus who then fired a short range burst of electricity that burned most of Yvere's cloak and arms as she blocked her head.

Yvere, now slowly releasing healing magic throughout her body, stomped her foot towards Cytus and nailed him with a right hook. Yvere and Cytus proceeded to trade blows, with every punch being met by a small bolt of lightning. A straight to his face, a bolt to her leg. An uppercut to his chin, a bolt through her stomach. Yvere was mentally screaming in pain, but kept pushing forward, making sure to pin down any movement she could, while also avoiding fatal hits.

As that fight was going on Lao rushed to Sabu who was barely conscious. Lao healed his broken bones as Sabu coughed up blood. The healed damage had taken its toll on the two. Heinrich's arms felt like boulders and Sabu wasn't stable as he stood.

Peter cursed himself in his head. The training he had the day before with Lucifer didn't leave him with enough mana to fight as he normally would. His main hope now was that Lucifer could get back in time.

Peter gave an order. "Support Yvere, and do whatever we can to stall him."

The others nodded and ran over to help the healer who was now clearly losing the fight.

"Floor!" Peter yelled towards Yvere. She fell to the floor as Peter shot a torrent of flames at Cytus.

Ctyus brought his wings back out and put them in front of himself while attempting to lower his body. The flames burned his wings to black along with partially burning his thighs. He looked at the human in front of him and could see the begginning of mana depletion on his face.

Peter, now sweating and breathing heavily stepped towards Cytus with Lao right next to him. Yvere, Heinrich, and Sabu were watching the two, readying themselves to respond.

Lao's eyes started glowing brighter, almost illuminating his face in the darkness.

"Seal him in the air, I'll handle the ground." Lao whispered to Peter.

Peter nodded, hoping Lao could actually keep Cytus locked down.

'I can't keep burnin' mana.' He thought.

Lao walked slowly towards Cytus, making sure he was in-between him and Peter. He watched Cytus's hands to see where they would aim and what kind of spell he would use.

Cytus knew Peter wasn't as threatening. He could tell that the main threat left was the healer in front of him. Unfortunately he couldn't use his wings and shoot lightning at the same time.

'I can't let them soften me up too much.'

Cytus noticed how slowly Lao was approaching him and thought of an idea that might speed things up. He placed his electricity filled hand at Lao and then turned it towards the inn.

'I'm guessing the new reborn is still in there. So let's bring him out, shall we?'

Cytus launched an extra strong bolt of lightning that shook the area as it left his hand, blasting the roof off of the inn. The attack was inaccurate and drained a lot of mana, but it accomplished what Cytus wanted.

Multiple humans started running out of the inn. The residents of the village had heard the fighting and simply elected to stay indoors until it was done, hoping whatever was happening wouldn't affect them.

Cytus watched Lao's and Peter's faces, searching for a reaction, to see which of the humans was their new recruit.

Fortunately for Lao and Peter, Elijah wasn't amongst the group that ran out of the building. Elijah had gone out the back of the inn, making sure to avoid the battle at all costs.

'There's nothing I can help with. Chances are I'll just be a liability if I try to assist them on my own.' Elijah went up to the uništi who almost looked like statues with how still they were.

Cytus sighed, angry that his plan didn't work and proceed to generate electricity all over his arms.

'I shouldn't underestimate lessers.'

Lao ran full speed towards Cytus the moment he saw the electricity form. He knew that he couldn't afford to have limbs blown off and had to stop the channeling. As Lao closed in he dodged a left hook from Cytus by swaying back. Lao learned back in and struck hard with a left straight. 

Cytus had bluffed the spell he was channeling. It wasn't for a more powerful bolt, but instead a close range blast that would tear though the healer. As he went to release the spell Lao kicked him in the stomach, knocking him back, and out of range.

The spell went off, lashing and burning the ground around Cytus.

'THAT'S IT!' Cytus was furious at how long the fight had gone on and was done saving his strength. His entire body proceeded to generate electricity around it as it twitched.

Peter noticed what Cytus was doing and shot the most powerful explosive orb he could with his remaining mana. The orb hit Cytus in the chest, exploding, but unfortunately for Peter it wasn't enough to kill.

Cytus, now covered in severe burns, with part of his ribcage showing through his melted flesh, finished his spell. The electricity had mostly faded, with a few sparks here and there coming off of him.

Lao closed in on Cytus and went for a right straight to his face. Cytus took the hit and grabbed Lao's arm, crushing it as he gripped.

Lao gritted his teeth and slammed his palm into Cytus's stomach, getting him to release his arm and sending him flying backwards into a shop. Lao could tell his right arm's bone was effectively powder. He placed his left hand on the injury, restoring the arm enough so that it was just broken instead of shattered.

Cytus stood up in the store he had been sent into, smiling. He started laughing to himself, thinking about how Lucifer would react to seeing five corpses this time instead of one. He pushed aside the rubble, dug his foot into the ground, and rushed towards Lao at an impossibly fast speed.

Lao was watching the dark building, waiting to respond to whatever attack came next, not anticipating what followed.

"He used surge Lao!" Peter shouted.

Lao's eyes widened.

'Shit that means-' his thought was interrupted by Cytus grabing his face and smashing him into the floor.

Lao's ears started ringing, but he understood that he couldn't afford to stay down. He kicked Cytus off of him with both feet and flipped himself upright. He knew he needed to push,he clearly couldn't react in time to Cytus's attacks. His eyes got bright again, he pushed himself into Cytus's chest and stomped down on his foot.

'Seal the movement-' He then put as much mana as he could into his next attack, '-and then finish him off.' and struck his left palm into Cytus's throat as hard as he could.

Cytus spewed blood from his mouth, leaned back, and brought his head down on Lao's, knocking the healer unconscious. Cytus's body was in shambles, but it didn't deter him from finishing his hunt. He dashed towards the rest of the group.

Peter saw Cytus rushing towards them. He was completely tapped. If he wanted to use magic again he would have to use his life force to do it.

'It's my fault. They don't deserve to die because of me.' Peter faced Cytus and said "Goodbye." to his team members behind him. Before he could start channeling his spell a loud

"HEY!" could be heard. It was Elijah.

Elijah was riding one of the uništi. Riding was a strong word, but he was getting the creature to somewhat move how he wanted. He looked at Cytus, horrified by what he saw.

Cytus had exposed ribs, multiple third degree burns, and now his lower chin was covered in blood. Pair that with his thin frame and it made him look like a walking corpse. He stopped running towards Peter and turned to look at Elijah.

'I'm guessing he's the new guy. I'll save you for later.' Cytus had been distracted for a moment, but continued towards his original targets.

Elijah didn't know what to do. He had hoped the thing would chase him so the others could regroup and heal for a moment. He was scared, but knew he would hate himself if he ran.

'One thing left to try.' Elijah took off his glove, placed his formerly damaged hand on his arm, and aimed at Cytus. He couldn't stop shaking, but ignored the fear as best he could. He pictured the cannon again, and fired.

Cytus was about to dash over to Peter as he felt a bolt of lightning rip through his leg. The bolt was powerful and managed to leave a hole in his left thigh. He turned to Elijah with a look of fury as the human fell off the uništi, unconcious from the mana depletion.

- Lucifer -

(About twenty-five minutes prior.)

Lucifer could feel his echo pulsing with energy. He landed and proceeded to answer the call.

"What's going on, what's wrong?"

Elijah was heard on the other side. "Someone fired a bolt of lightning into the sky. Peter believes it's an enemy."

Lucifer nearly dropped the echo. He ended the call immediately, put the echo back in his pocket, and flew as fast as he could back to Hydern.