Despite the low expectations Hirrus had set for Andrew from his soft-looking appearance and casual aloofness, the man was the first one to act. Andrew’s hands came up and an Arcana burst from the ground beneath him, suffusing his body in a shadowy aura.

Hirrus had to consider the man as his primary target. It was obvious that he was preparing for something, like Clive had with his Eyes On Me Arcana. Something big and flashy, and likely annoying to deal with.

If Hirrus could reach him before the payoff for his charge-up, he may avoid a great deal of pain.

Without pause, Hirrus dashed across the table towards Andrew. He passed by Maggie and Helen before either one could even get to their feet to stop him.

The widening of Andrew’s eyes with terror was extremely satisfying as he closed the distance.

But the table was too long.

The distance too far.

Before he could close the gap, Ash leapt up onto the table to block him.

The man was now wearing a pair of black iron gauntlets with short blades sprouting from them. Hirrus thought it was an interesting weapon, to be sure. The left gauntlet had a glittering red gem set into it on the inside of his wrist. A blade flashed at Hirrus, but there was a tentative uncertainty in the movement.

Despite leaping into his path, he feared Hirrus.

The hesitancy let Hirrus duck under the attack. He continued, leaping from the table towards Andrew.

For a moment, Andrew started to stammer wordlessly, presumably trying to come up with some argument that could stop Hirrus' advance. He seemed afraid. But it was an act. When it didn’t work, he raised his hands and flung an Arcana at Hirrus.

A golden orb of light flickered across the space between them, striking Hirrus is the stomach. There was no physical impact, but the orb dealt two thousand four hundred and eighty-five damage to him. A paltry amount.

The golden glow was mirrored on Andrew’s hands, though, the shimmering added to the dark miasma that crawled over his body.

That attack wasn’t the man’s endgame. It was just another build-up.

He was growing tired of Andrew already.

Hirrus lunged, but there was a piercing shriek from behind him. He glanced back to see a blast of blue energy emitting from Ash. An Arcana. It crashed against Hirrus' body, doing only one thousand one hundred and thirty-one damage, but it applied a potent debuff to him that would last for the next twenty seconds.

Fearful Chill

Slows movement speed by 10%. While this debuff is active, the afflicted cannot gain positive move speed bonuses.

Hirrus found that intensely annoying as Andrew danced away faster than Hirrus could follow. The Fearful Chill meant that even Split Second wouldn’t let him catch up. Despite him needing to deal with Andrew before the man finished winding up his finishing punch, if Andrew spent even a modicum of effort avoiding Hirrus, he’d never catch him until he rendered Ash unwilling or unable to stop him.

Hirrus whirled on Ash, rifling through his mental spellbook for the appropriate Arcana to employ. He waved his hand, flinging a blade of sand at the man’s face. Ascension's Sands dealt five thousand nine hundred and forty-seven damage to the man, and applied the blind debuff.

The blind itself didn’t matter. What mattered was the distraction as the man grunted in pain and tried to wipe the sand from his eyes with his sleeve. It let Hirrus slowly leap back up on the table, axe raised to strike.

Unfortunately, those brief moments were also enough for more of the table to join the fight. As he jumped up on the table to attack Ash, Mel jumped up on the table behind him, her curved blade lashing out at him even as he brought his axe down.

Hirrus struck Ash for four thousand two hundred and forty-nine damage, and in exchange Mel’s blade struck Hirrus for two thousand three hundred and seventeen. Ash staggered back, and Hirrus used the physical impact of Mel’s cut to follow, stepping forward to deny the man his escape.

A green-gold glow touched Ash, whirling around him. Hirrus saw that Nate was its source, the energy coming from his hands like a wind. He guessed it was healing magic, like what had been employed by the woman in red.

If the adventurers were turning to that kind of power now, it might be a sign that even just those two strikes had put Ash in danger of being finished off.

The tactical needs of the fight were evolving every moment. Andrew still needed to be dealt with, but he would be unable to catch the slippery foe until Ash was removed from the fight. If Nate was allowed to go unchecked, then Ash would be more difficult to kill.

As if to put a check on that point, a large brown orb flew from Helen’s golden glove, splattering the floor between Hirrus and Nate, before igniting in a wall of fire that he would be forced to run through to reach the healer.

Helen would also be presenting challenging obstacles to prevent Hirrus from reaching the vulnerable targets.

Just the same, with tools in plenty, Hirrus was confident that Ash was moments from death even after receiving healing. Despite staggering back, Ash seemed unwilling to try and run away while he was blinded, presumably because if he missed his step off the table, he was going to fall on his face. Bladed gauntlets flailed in the air around him, but thus blinded, he was entirely unable to locate Hirrus to strike him.

Hirrus activated his Iron Typhoon Arcana and brought his greataxe around in what he hoped would be a killing blow.

Blinded, Ash was unable to do anything but flail. Hirrus' axe crashed into the man’s shoulder, dealing four thousand one hundred and seventy-four damage. Shortly after, a double-strike hit connected, dealing another two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two damage.

Ash cried out, but the sound ended a second later as the adventurer’s body went limp. The impact of the twin blows jettisoned the corpse off the table and to the floor.

No sooner had Ash hit the floor that Helen leaped up to take his place, positioning herself to block Hirrus' path to Nate, even though the wall of flames she’d produced was still blocking him.

Not to mention Ash’s Fearful Chill effect was still stopping Hirrus from sprinting around with impunity.

“Stop ignoring me!” Mel snarled. Her blade crashed against Hirrus' back for another two thousand and nineteen damage.

Despite her rage, the damage was actually negligible to him. Hirrus' Cosmic Barrette was healing him for more than that whenever he dealt damage with an Arcana. All he needed to undo her work was to unleash his power here. If he could strike two or even three of the five adventurers remaining in the room, it would undo most of the damage that had been done to him thus far.

Hirrus whirled on Mel, unleashing his Peppered Breath attack. Flames erupted from his red-scaled snout and engulfed her, roaring past her to reach Andrew as well. They each took over seven thousand damage from his flames. Andrew started to take damage from the burn that followed, but Mel was somehow unaffected by it.

Andrew answered back by flinging purple energy over Mel’s shoulder at Hirrus' face. The attack bludgeoned his forehead for two thousand five hundred and thirty-seven damage, and then whipped back through the air to Andrew. The purple projectile orbited his head, presumably the next part of the man’s charge-up.

Hirrus suspected that he was running out of time to deal with the upcoming finishing move, and that it might actually be enough to seriously hurt him.

“Get out of my way!” Hirrus bellowed into Mel’s face. He thrust his hand out at her, letting the purple pellets of his TK Bullets Arcana whip out at her.

Mel declined yielding to his words, and thus chose instead to yield to his Arcana. The blast dealt five thousand one hundred and ninety-five damage - making him thankful for his choice to diversify his gear away from the pure BUR build - and sent her flying back.

He stomped forward as she was sent skidding away, his combined cast speed and cooldown reduction letting him hurl the Arcana at her again in rapid succession.

The next strike was over five thousand damage as well, and Mel’s striking features contorted into a grimace of agony. As Hirrus raised his hand again, she ducked down and rolled off the side of the table, using the mahogany surface for cover against his next Arcana.

He let her go, now that there was no one left between him and Andrew.

Blue-green energy touched the man at the far end of the room as Nate’s Arcana restored some amount of Andrew’s hit points, but Hirrus knew it wouldn’t be enough. He stalked forward even as Helen thrust her rapier into his back. The blade slid between two lamellae of his armor, but only dealt one thousand two hundred and twenty-four damage. It was a mere bug bite, and Hirrus ignored it.

Ahead of him, Andrew employed another Arcana as he backed away, a bluish blurring cloud engulfing him. Hirrus wasn’t sure if he hoped it was the last of his charging moves or if he hoped there would yet be more to give him more time to close the gap.

Even as he had no obstacles remaining, it seemed he would be unable to catch the man. Andrew was backing away now as he cast his next Arcana, and Hirrus was still afflicted with Ash’s Fearful Chill. Swirling energies coalesced into a disc of golden energy above Andrew’s head. The purple orb orbiting him from the previous Arcana flew up into the center of the disc, giving it a slightly off-color core.

The well-dressed man gave a shout of effort as he flung the disc at Hirrus.

Hirrus could only watch as the spinning blade of energy flashed towards him. It was too fast to dodge, but slow enough to watch it come. He had no idea how much Andrew’s charge-up attacks would add to an obviously powerful Arcana. As much as he didn’t want to find out, consulting his available Arcana, there weren’t any options to-

As soon as his mind settled upon it, Hirrus activated his Split Second Arcana. Without the luxury of time to consider this course, he could only hope that the Arcana worked the way his mental description of it explicitly said, not the way he thought it logically should work.

Obviously, the Fearful Chill debuff denied Hirrus the burst of speed he most associated with the Arcana. But that wasn’t what he was hoping for. His movement speed could not be increased.

However, for a quarter of a second, his form shimmered in place.

More than long enough for the golden disc to pass through him.

As the Split Second Arcana said, he was untargetable and immune to damage for the duration. The invulnerability wasn’t a requirement or result of the move speed. It was a separate effect of the Arcana.

Andrew gaped at Hirrus, mouth flapping open and closed. The black shroud of energy faded from around him, as did the blue cloud and the golden glow around his hands.

All of his effort had gone into that disc of energy, and Hirrus had simply… ignored it.

Andrew didn’t even try to get out of the way as Hirrus leaped from the table and brought his axe straight down on the man. It wasn’t worth Hirrus' mental effort to acknowledge how much damage the double-strike dealt to Andrew. The man split like the ocean before a warship’s prow.

Crimson wetness spattered Hirrus' face and chest, dribbling down the front of him. An intense feeling of vindication roared through his mind, and he allowed himself a bellow of triumph. He whirled to face the three adventurers still standing against him.

Even though his roar was verbal alone, they all still flinched back as if it were an Arcana driving them away.

Of course, he wouldn’t use an Arcana to push them away now. They might use that to escape. And as the last few seconds of Fearful Chill ticked away, restoring his normal movement speed, letting them escape was the furthest thing from his mind.