Chapter 16: The Phantom Thief and the Phoenix

Chapter 16:
The Phantom Thief and the Phoenix

 

IT WAS AMURRU. He hit the ground in front of us and didn’t get up. Leila rushed over to him. He had taken quite a lot of damage. He was groaning in pain, and his clothes were a mess. Not torn, which I might have expected, but burned. Phan didn’t have any fire-based skills so…

“Watch out…she…ngh…”

Amurru stopped moving. Leila checked his pulse.

“He’s just unconscious. Come on, this one’s ours.”

Leila arranged Amurru up against a wall, then scooped me back up in her arms and leapt. A second later, we were once more on the roof.

Phan was still up there, and so was something else. A firebird—a three-foot-tall falcon with feathers of flames. Another summon. I checked to make sure Emma was still safe. Fortunately, the cheetah hadn’t run off yet.

“You won’t take her so easily,” I growled.

Phan threw back her head and laughed. “I would love to see you try and stop me. If you leave now, you might get away with your life.”

“Emma is my best friend. I’d rather die.”

“Oh, my. What fire, child. Very well. Then I shall meet it with a fire of my own. Take her by force, if you can!”

Of course I would. That was my plan. I had over 4,000 LP, but it wasn’t enough to destroy her Summoning skill. Then again, she did have that weakness to lightning. I had a chance—one I’d take. But first, I needed to know what that firebird was capable of.

 

Name: Firebird

Level: 50

Skills: Wings of Fire; Feathers of Hell

 

Its level wasn’t concerning, but it did have some troubling skills.

“Noir, look out!”

“Whoa!”

Phan fired off a Water Bullet. If Leila hadn’t warned me, it would have hit me right in the face. That would have been enough to blind me, and I had no desire to lose my vision in the middle of a battle.

This is not good.

I’d narrowly dodged by ducking, and I tried to straighten up, but the firebird came right for me. It flapped its wings, pelting me with a rain of fiery feathers. There was no time to dodge again. I had to hand it to my enemies—that was some impressive teamwork.

“Haaaah!”

But they weren’t the only ones working together. Before I knew it, Leila took out every single burning feather with her fists.

“Nice one, Leila!”

“They’re kinda hot,” she said. “But they’re not as bad as they look!”

“I knew I could depend on you.”

She’d saved my backside yet again. I felt a sudden surge of invulnerability. As long as Leila was with me, there was no way we could lose. I fired a Stone Bullet at the firebird, but it was too quick, and I was still too off-balance.

Apparently our opponents wanted to end this quickly, too—before I could attack again, Phan and her summon charged us together. I parried Phan’s dagger with the Blade of Divine Punishment.

“Oh, what’s that? Can’t even save your little friend?”

Her attacks were ferocious and unrelenting. My weapon had more reach, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I probably had her Grade-A Dagger skill to thank for that. If I couldn’t think of something fast, I was toast. Gripping the blade in one hand, I fired off a Lightning Strike with the other. Its range was only nine feet or so, but we were at pretty close quarters.

“Why you little…”

Somehow, I still managed to miss her. At least that got a reaction.

“Dammit!,” she growled. “You can use lightning spells?!”

“Yes,” I said. “And I see you’re scared of them.”

“I’m not going down that easy!”

Phan’s confidence reasserted itself. She realized her weakness didn’t matter, so long as she didn’t get hit. She was right. I had to figure out a way to hit her, but she was so light on her feet. Worse, she always seemed to know exactly what I was about to do.

“I can see right through you,” she said. “You’ll never hit me here.”

“You’re good,” I told her.

She moved deftly out of the nine-foot range of the spell.

“Ah ha ha! Looks like they’re having a close fight too.”

I turned just in time to see the firebird hovering far above Leila, barraging her with Feathers of Hell. She managed to avoid the burning feathers, but the bird escaped into the sky every time she tried to jump at it. Her skills were almost useless against a flying enemy. It would have been better if she were fighting Phan, but the thief would never allow that to happen. She had set this mismatch up on purpose.

“Leila,” I said. “Just focus on avoiding those feathers. Don’t try to land a hit.”

“Got it.”

There was nothing I could Bestow to help her reach the firebird, but maybe I could do something to the bird instead. Something like a Sixty-Pound Weight Increase? The firebird wasn’t that large to begin with, so that seemed like enough to cause significant problems. It cost 1,000 LP, but the choice was a no-brainer.

The firebird squawked in shock and flapped its wings frantically, but it was hopeless. It began to fall.

“What did you do?!” Phan cried out.

“Nothing crazy. Anyone would have a hard time keeping their balance if their weight suddenly increased, right?” I turned my attention to Leila. “Go on! Now’s your chance.”

“I’ve got you this time!”

As the bird plummeted, Leila shot up through the air. She nailed the bird with a powerful uppercut, and it exploded in a cloud of blood and bone.

“She’s a monster…” Phan whispered, genuinely shocked at the power of Leila’s Demon Fist.

I seized the opportunity and fired a Stone Bullet at her feet.

“Ngh?!”

I was close this time. Close enough to throw her off balance, and close enough to give myself an opening. I charged at her with my arms outstretched.

“How’d you like a taste of lightning?”

“I told you,” she said, leaping back out of my range. “I can see right through you!”

But this time, I had her. I used Magical Fusion to combine a salt Water Drop with Lightning Strike, allowing my lightning to fly further, and fired it straight at her. Phan’s eyes went wide as the water flew toward her—and across a greater distance than she’d anticipated. She tried to flee, but I had outwitted her at last.

“Ahhh!” she screamed.

Her face crumpled with anguish. The attack only just grazed her, but with that weakness of hers, it was enough.

“Hah,” she said, collapsing to her knees. “This must be a joke. When I was a child I…was hit by lightning, dammit all to hell, I remember…”

“Maybe,” Leila said. “You should take a break.”

Leila struck Phan right between her shoulder blades. I could almost feel the shockwave from where I was standing.

“Uuuh…”

Phan’s body contorted and spittle dribbled from her lips. She was done, but there was no time to get distracted. I ran, grabbing Phan’s dagger and throwing it as hard as I could. The cheetah was already making a break for it. Fortunately, I hit it square in the hind leg with my C-Grade Throwing skill and the cheetah collapsed, letting Emma fall from its back.

I rushed forward, catching her before she tumbled off the roof.

“Mmn…Noir…”

Emma’s eyes were still closed. She was talking about me in her sleep. I smiled to myself. Emma seemed unharmed, so I didn’t try to wake her. Instead, I set her down gently next to Amurru, then went to help Leila tie up Phan.

There was no way she was getting out of this.