The White King

Postemptive Strike

Octanus groans, looking down at the ground. Based on her experience with magic- Wizard ambushes, specifically- this was a trap.

And she'd walked right into it.

"Quero ser em outro lugar," she chants, a purple glow coming over her.

The moment the phrase was complete, she was somewhere else, specifically thirty meters closer to her original objective than she was a second prior.

Chanting was a kind of crutch for learning magic. While any technique could be mastered without ever uttering any of the accompanying words, the arcane speech let you experience the passage of magic through your body.

To learn the spell from there, simply replicate that feeling.

Unfortunately, a lot of spells were harder to replicate. Producing fire, for instance, just requires blasting magic from some part of your body, generally your hand for accurate projectiles or your mouth for a cone shape.

Teleporting requires cycling magic through your entire body- clothing and equipment included- and then collapsing it, all while requiring a mental image of where you're going.

Unfortunately, a simple glance behind her was all the evidence she needed that chanting teleportation spells weren't going to help her escape.

Nua stands, stock still, and simply watches the Hokori walk through the forest.

That kind of language doesn't do it justice, though. The Eva'Der (A-Va-Deer), as it had come to be known, strode through the forest atop four bladed legs, easily tearing down the trees in it's way with casual strikes.

It's legs weren't the only bladed limbs, either. The more than thirty foot tall beast- closer to fifty if it's legs weren't held at ninety-degree angles- brought two equally long arms, hinged in the middle, with edges along either side.

It lacked hands, too, but it didn't really need them. When you don't require food, water, or shelter, your body can become far more specialized for a task.

The Eva'Der was specialized for dropping it's arms on a target fast enough to ignore their reaction time and kill them instantly.

Sure, it couldn't raise it's arms back up in a timely manner, but this wasn't even a T3 Hokori.

Lastly, it's entire body seemed to be made of that white armored material, with the exception of its 'eyes'.

Most Hokori didn't have eyes in the general sense. With the exceptions of the Pansa and the Ritoru, a bull-like Hokori, they generally had glass like spheres placed within their faces. While there was no known explanation for how it worked, it was an undisputed fact that it did.

This one had six of them arranged in a 2x3 grid, though that probably wasn't all that important. It had been proven long ago that the orbs were actually tougher than the armor plating, something that warhammers still sometimes struggled to shatter.

To put it plainly, it was an overpowered monster that, for a time, was the worlds ally.

Based on the flash of its eyes and its ongoing attempt to relocate Octanus, it was not a comrade anymore.

I've made an enemy, it seems.

Steeling herself, Octanus narrows her eyes at the beast. Eva'Der didn't have fire or lightning related attributes and no Hokori could use magic, so the creature wasn't the one who killed the Pansa.

Meaning it would assume she did.

Killing a Hokori, even just a Pansa, was considered a capital offense, so the Eva'Der would definitely want her head.

Damn justice system...

Without an easy escape, she'd be best off crippling it before running off into the forest.

That in mind, Octanus inhales sharply, preparing a mental image of what she was going to do next.

And then, with the snap of her finger (a magically useless but still coordinately helpful gesture), the Hokori's next step sinks directly into the ground.

It wouldn't hold for long, but it wasn't meant to. Being able to cut your way out of the earth in the span of a second meant nothing if your opponent won in less than that second.

That's not to say she only had a second, though. To her knowledge, this had never actually happened to a Eva'Der before.

Live and learn.

Sliding out from behind a tree, Octanus throws launches herself forward with the combined applications of Haste and Lunge, two basic movement techniques taught to all aspiring mages.

It wasn't on par with teleporting, but it was so much easier to do.

Octanus flies through the air with a hand outstretched, prepared to impact the side of the captured knee at high speeds.

Her speed was nothing compared to its downswing.

~~~~~

Nua narrows his eyes at the Eva'Der the instant its leg falls into the ground.

It's feet may be razor sharp, but it normally sunk only a few inches. Suddenly going more than a dozen times that was definitely abnormal.

She was attacking.

Oh for the love of all that is holy-

He doesn't finish the thought, his instincts kicking in the instant Octanus enters the Hokori's attack range.

Please don't let me regret this, he prays, warping in the way of Octanus.

She collides with him the moment he lands, sending the pair tumbling, but Nua doesn't stop there. Just as the Eva'Der so much as twitches it's arm in the downward direction, both of its targets were already far, far away.

Or rather around thirty meters away rolling down a hill at high speed.

Hey, not every plan can be a winner.