My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 285 (Patreon)

Dredd put those four minutes to very good use. As it turned out, his teaching wasn’t anything like Delph’s – it was better. He was like the refined, calculating version of the other professor.

Instead of insane training regimens or pushing students to the limit until they could do nothing but improve, Dredd’s strategy was refined. He pressed Yui, forcing her to fight him at a distance and intensifying the strength of his attacks whenever she let him grow close.

Every time one of his attacks connected with her, Dredd repeated the move until Yui discovered a way to block or avoid it. More often than not, that resulted with him pummeling her into a tree half a dozen times. But, despite the brutality, it was effective.

By the time their fight had ended, Yui hadn’t managed to land a single successful attack on Dredd, but she’d managed to protect herself from three of his attacks. As soon as the time ran out, she flopped to the ground, covered in bruises and gasping for air.

“Acceptable performance,” Dredd said. “I suggest you practice in any manner that you can before our next session. It will not be so easy.”

“Easy?” Yui asked, wheezing. She squinted up at him through a swollen eye. “When’s the next one?”

“Who knows. I suggest you improve quickly,” Dredd replied, baring his teeth in a thin smile. “And remember, you are a ranged fighter. Act like one. If you keep letting me get so close to you, this will go very poorly.”

The professor turned his gaze to Elania, who swallowed nervously.

“Me next?”

“You next,” Dredd agreed, beckoning her forward. “Five minutes. Same rules.”

“My abilities are a little more focused on scouting,” Elania said hesitantly. “I don’t think–”

She thrust her hands forward mid-sentence, sending a barrage of golden bolts hurtling toward Dredd. The professor stepped back into a red portal as it opened up behind him, vanishing before the spell could catch him.

He emerged behind Elania as golden armor bloomed over her body. She spun, a shield shimmering to life between her and Dredd as a red strand carved into it with a loud screech. The shield split apart, but Elania had already launched herself back, weaving between the trees and hurling blasts of golden light back at Dredd to try and keep him back.

Dredd darted after her, strands of red light materializing in the air all around him as he started to weave a web of energy around Elania. She continued to run, throwing bolts of energy behind her without looking back.

To Damien’s surprise, though, the attacks were all on target. Dredd was forced to dodge and defend against all of them, which slowed his movement considerably. Damien glanced up at the orb glimmering above the clearing.

She’s using it to figure out where he is and throw attacks at him without having to turn around. That’s actually pretty impressive. Mark has been training her well.

“It’s too bad her attacks aren’t stronger,” Henry said. “Dredd is only defending against them to give her practice. He could probably just ignore them completely. We’ve seen her throw stronger spells in the intermural tournament, though. I suspect she’s just trying to get an exact lock on his movements before she really starts fighting.”

Damien had to agree. The tiny bolts of energy that Elania was flinging probably wouldn’t have done much more than sting with the amount of Ether she was putting into them. It was certainly a clever tactic, especially since Dredd was limiting the amount of Ether they could use during the fight.

Actually, how is Dredd even limiting the Ether we’re drawing? That’s an ability unique to the Corruption.

“Not if he’s enveloping the girls with his mental energy completely. I think he’s just crushing their energy to keep them from drawing any Ether. It won’t work on us,” Henry said mentally.

A loud crack split the air as Elania launched a huge blast of golden Ether into the air. It soared into the sky, vanishing through the clouds. They all looked up at the spell as it descended like a bolt of lightning, crashing down directly on top of Dredd.

The impact shook the ground and splintered several tree stumps near the professor, tearing them to shreds and tossing their dust into the air. A red thread sliced through the air just as a victorious expression started to pass over Elania’s face, catching her by the throat but failing to fully cut through her glowing defenses.

Dredd launched from the cloud of debris, appearing before her and driving a powerful kick into her stomach.

Elaina’s eyes bulged and her armor shattered, allowing the thread to snap around her neck. She grabbed it and her hands flared with light, barely managing to rip it free before Dredd kicked her in the stomach again, sending her rolling across the ground.

She’d learned her lesson from watching Yui’s fight and staggered to her feet, forming a shield as Dredd pressed the attack. Elania’s shield didn’t last long, and she went down quickly. Dredd only waited long enough for her to rise to her feet before he attacked again.

By the time five minutes had passed, Elania didn’t look much better than Yui. She’d put up a better fight and had actually managed to land a few blows on Dredd, but none of them, even the huge blast of Ether, had done more than slightly singe him.

Nursing her bruises, Elania dragged herself over to Yui and flopped to the ground with a groan, leaning against the other girl. Yui stiffened at a moment, probably unused to much contact with random people she barely knew, but she was too tired to react much further.

“You’re next,” Dredd said, turning to Damien and extending his arm. His staff flew through the air and slapped into his palm. “I’ll need this for you.”

“How hard am I meant to be trying?” Damien asked. He nodded at Elania and Yui. “Do you and Delph plan to involve them in everything? Because, if you do, they’re going to see Henry fight sooner or later.”

Dredd shrugged. “In the end, it’s up to you. It’s your companion. Make the decision yourself. Do you trust them?”

I don’t really know Elania all that well, but she never said anything about Sylph and I technically causing Drew and Bartholomew’s deaths. What do you think?

“It’s not like we’ll tell them anything specific,” Henry said. “I doubt either of them even know what the Void is. And, if we really need to, it’s not like I can’t take care of them.”

We are not killing the princess or Mark’s girlfriend. Wait, are they dating? I’m not sure.

“Is that really the question you’re worried about right now?”

It’s important! Important-ish. Okay, fine. Not really that important, but still. No killing them.

Henry grunted. “Whatever you say. For what it’s worth, I don’t think they’ll try to betray us.”

Then we might as well see what Dredd is really capable of. I’ll start on my own. Step in if that doesn’t seem to be working.

“Sounds good. Don’t win too quickly, or I’ll be disappointed. I want a good fight.”

Damien chuckled and Dredd cocked his head to the side.

“Are you finished speaking with Henry?”

“Yes,” Damien replied. “On your count, Dredd. We won’t be holding back.”

“It wouldn’t be very serious training if you were. Go.”

Damien reached out, and the cold wood of his staff met his palm. He wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it from the Void, casting a grayscale over the world. Jagged runes sprung to life around him, offering themselves up as his emotions muted.

Dredd’s mental energy extended toward Damien to seal him off from his Ether. Henry batted it away and the professor’s lips pursed slightly.

“You can’t cut us off from the Ether that way.” Damien traced a rune circle in the air and the lantern hanging from his staff glimmered with faint light. An empowered gravity lance screamed forward, a powerful gravitational pull stretching out from its tip.

Dredd tried to step into a portal, but the spell’s draw was so strong that he skidded across the ground toward it instead. The professor flicked his hand and another portal opened in front of him, teleporting him to safety before the spell detonated, shattering a tree and ripping a large portion of the ground beneath it to pieces.

Red threads crisscrossed through the air, expanding to cover Damien. There were far more than Dredd had ever used against the girls, and they formed a perfect hemisphere around him as they started to tighten.

“Tear,” Damien commanded. Waves of dark energy ripped from his body, slicing the threads into pieces and causing them to harmlessly dissipate into the air. Dredd pointed his staff at Damien and sent a bolt of energy screaming toward him.

Extending a hand, Damien cast Devour. The black disk yawned open before him, swallowing the spell. The lantern on Damien’s staff lit a dull, cherry red. He drew several jagged runes in the air, and the bolt that Dredd had sent hurtled back at him, empowered by strands of twirling purple Ether.

The professor stepped into a portal, avoiding the attack as he emerged behind a tree near Damien. Dredd slammed his staff into the ground, burying it a few inches into the soil.

“Come forth, Jormun,” Dredd intoned. His staff crackled with energy, then vanished in a flash. Red portals snapped open all around the clearing, ranging in size from a dinner plate to a door.

The professor stepped back into one, vanishing from view. Damien narrowed his eyes, scanning the portals. A bolt of energy shot out of one, but before it could even hit Damien, it disappeared through another.

“Those have a lot of Ether in them,” Henry warned. “Don’t get hit. It’ll be like getting caught in your Storm spell. This is his companion’s battle manifestation.”

Damien didn’t respond. The Void already had him calculating, searching for the optimal solution to deal with Dredd. He cast devour behind himself, absorbing a bolt an instant before it collided with his shoulder.

“Shatter.”

Black lines spiderwebbed out from Damien’s hand, stretching through the clearing before imploding with a loud crash. They ripped everything they touched apart, but the portals weren’t even slightly affected.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damien saw Dredd emerging from a portal, a huge scythe of red energy clasped in his hands. He Warp Stepped an instant before the strike carved through the air where he had been standing.

But, as fast as he was, Dredd was moving between portals, not compressing space. Even a fraction of a second counted for a lot, and Dredd wasn’t wasting any time. He was already behind Damien when the boy released his spell.

Henry surged into Damien’s mage armor, taking over it. A cloak sprawled out over Damien’s back as armor formed over his body. Dredd’s strike rang off his shoulder guard with a clang, and then he was gone, back into the portal.

The eye on the front of Damien’s chest piece snapped open and purple light flared within it. Dredd appeared an instant later from another portal, firing a bolt of energy. Tendrils erupted from the bottom of Damien’s cloak and shot for him, sinking into the portals.

Henry yanked them back an instant later. Smoke rose from their tips where they’d been burned to a slag.

“No fair,” Henry complained. “Everyone should get to use your portals!”

Damien gritted his teeth as he gathered as much Ether as he could before casting it out, forming several dozen gravity spheres throughout the clearing. He couldn’t cover all of the portals, but he put one in front of all the nearest ones.

As soon as he felt Dredd emerge, he detonated every single one of them. Air twisted and screamed around them as the spells went off. He didn’t hear any feedback from Dredd, though. The attacks had all missed.

“This is annoying,” Henry growled. “Hold on. I’ve got an idea.”

A single black wing snapped open on Damien’s back, unfurling to its full length as a single eye snapped open within it. The world spiraled into darkness, a vortex of greys disappearing into Henry’s orifice.

With it, Dredd’s portals were torn apart. Dredd was forced to jump free of his magic as it dissipated. As soon as he did, Henry’s eye snapped closed, and color was spat back into the world like an unwanted meal.

Dredd staggered and Damien hurled a gravity lance at him. The professor rolled to the side, then grabbed a thread from the air and yanked. A string that Damien had missed bound around his leg. Even as Henry cut it, the professor reared back, forming a thick bolt of red light in his hand, and hurled it at them.

It streaked through the air. Henry’s wing whipped around, blocking it before it could strike home. It connected with a sizzle and a pop, and Henry hissed in annoyance. He and Damien hurled spells at Dredd, forcing the man back into the safety of his portals, which Henry promptly yanked away a second later.

The fight lasted for several minutes, and Damien quickly found himself cutting it close to the limits of what he was willing to use the Void for. He dismissed it reluctantly, throwing the staff away and letting the world snap back into vibrant life.

No more than a few seconds later, Dredd lowered his hands with a sigh. His staff appeared beside him, and he took it, lips pursed. “Five minutes are up.”

“Wait, what?” Henry cried. “I wasn’t done! I had barely gotten started. More!”

“No,” Dredd said. “This exercise was for five minutes. It would be unfair to my other students to continue any further.”

“I think we’re quite okay,” Elania muttered, staring at Damien in awe. “Just keep doing whatever. We can take a breather.”

“That is unacceptable,” Dredd said. “Damien, obviously, has passed this test. The two of you, however, have not.”

“Passed,” Yui muttered. “It looked like he had the advantage there. Would he have won if that kept going?”

“I did not use my full manifestation.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” Yui pointed out.

“No,” Dredd agreed, giving Damien a serious look and inclining his head respectfully. “It did not.”