Cale, with his sword still touching the hammer, triggered his skill and raised himself into the air, causing the arrows to miss him completely and hone in on Alan. Orin widened his eyes and quickly used his mana to destroy the arrows mid-air.
Cale was upside down, his grip still fastened onto the handle of his sword.
Pulling on it, he descended with his knee primed, aimed to smash Alan's skull in one blow. Alan's body burst with mana as he braced himself for the inevitable. Behind him, Reina, who composed herself after the near-death encounter, hurled out one of her knives hidden within her armor. Cale noticed it from the corner of his eyes and quickly re-adjusted himself behind Alan, hiding himself from the other three.
Unfortunately, these were not naive soldiers. They researched him and got a keen understanding of all of his abilities. Alan knew he would cut off line-of-sight and have a small window of time to isolate himself, allowing Cale to have an exchange with Alan without the worry of the others intervening.
Veins popped out on his arms as he reached forward, using his hands that were as big as Cale's head to grip onto his shoulder. Alan's powerful grip squeezed into his shoulder, an explosive pain exploding throughout his arm. 'Shit.' Cale naturally had a weaker body than the others, and he knew Alan possessed immense strength.
One hit from his hammer would pulverize his body. And almost worse than that was the fact that he had a firm grip on his shoulder.
Channeling his mana into his upper body, Cale crossed out the possibility of Alan straight-up crushing his shoulder and reduced it to a throbbing pain.
Alan took a deep lunge forward and channeled his mana to his torso and torqued his abdomen, rotating as if he were a pitcher throwing a baseball. The air around him swelled and churned uncontrollably, unable to withstand the building force behind him.
[Detach]
Before Cale was thrown, he made sure to detach his blade from the hammer so he didn't lose his weapon. Even if he could recall it, a second without his weapon would leave him entirely vulnerable.
Alan whipped his arm forward, and Cale's body was violently jerked forward as he was hurled across the forest, his body crushing against trees as he flew dozens of meters away. Dust was uplifted into the air, and trees burst from the mighty strength of Alan's throw, a cacophony of explosions and groans from Cale. Before he landed, a mouthful of blood escaped, and his entire body ached in pain.
Quickly, he rose to his knees, but Alan was already upon him.
His hammer was raised high above him, crashing down with devastating force.
Cale did not have the necessary foot placement to use omnidrift to bring himself forward to get an attack in on Alan, and had no option but to dash to the side.
Predicting this, Orin already launched a trio of arrows laced with paralyzing poison to both sides. Cale had no choice but to sacrifice his hand to grab the arrow. The whistling came to an abrupt stop as Cale reached out and grabbed it before it pierced into his skin, the sharpened fletching digging into his pale hand. Cale cursed under his breath and glared at the archer. Orin smirked, 'Gotcha.'
There would be no way for Cale to dodge all of his arrows, so he made sure to come prepared and laced the fletching with poison also.
Immediately, a searing sensation flowed through Cale's veins, and he narrowed his eyes in irritation. Starting from his hand, the poison coursed to his elbow, paralyzing his muscles and radiating an intense heat. Cale's arm slowly grew numb, and his eyelids became uncontrollably heavy.
[Dispel]
Luckily for him, his skills were adaptable, and dispel wasn't only effective on spells.
The poison still coursed through his system, but the effects would be minimal. Louis, the spearman, along with Reina, dashed forward. Reina used both swords to slash downward, and Louis stabbed at Cale.
He lowered his body and rotated his shoulder to allow the Spear to only nick him, at the same time, slashing upward to counter Reina's attack.
Imbued with mana, her swords were lifted in the air, and the direction of his swing caused his torso to turn to the right, which gave his other arm momentum.
Utilizing it, he reached forward and grabbed her shoulder like Alan did to himself, and he smirked.
[Attach]
He pulled himself forward and came within a finger's distance of Reina's face, simultaneously evading a slash from Louis. Cale's gloomy eyes brimmed with a glint of a savage as he smiled like a devil.
With the distance too short to attack with her swords, she was utterly defenseless. Cale raised his head and opened his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth. Reina's being paused as she felt the piercing sensation of his teeth digging into her neck.
Cale clamped down on her neck, a strong rush of blood flowing into his mouth. The iron taste made him revel in satisfaction; A reminiscence of his years of combat. He's always smelled it, but rarely tasted it.
He quickly yanked his head back and ripped out a large chunk of flesh and muscle, blood uncontrollably gushing from her neck, an expression of dread overwhelming her face. Orin scowled in disgust as he watched Cale bite her neck like a savage beast and quickly nocked more arrows.
Cale gave her a toothy grin, a patch of skin still hanging from his lips with her blood flowing down his mouth. Using her shoulders as his anchor, he raised his knees together and launched them into her stomach, causing her body to fold under the strength of mana imbued knees. The force made her legs buckle, and her ribs broke instantly upon impact, the splintered bones digging into her organs.
Blood spurted out from her mouth, and her eyes bulged as she felt her organs being crushed by the tremendous force. He made sure to keep his grip on her, but deactivated Attach, and quickly spun her around and threw her in the direction of Orin, who had just dispatched two arrows. 'Shit!' He fumed in his mind as there wouldn't be any time to destroy his arrows before it struck her.
Luckily, it wouldn't cause any fatal damage.
Unluckily, it was laced with poison that could subdue someone of the 8th Pillar if not treated fast enough.
The arrows dug into her back, albeit shallowly.
Orin had no choice but to catch her, being tossed backward by the force. "Gah!' Orin groaned as he clashed with a tree, his momentum finally stopping before plopping to the ground along with Reina.
He coughed and rose to his knees, eyes locked on the standing Cale.
Quickly reaching into his side pocket on his quiver, he dug around to search for an antidote. The rough cloth scratched against his calloused fingertips from hours upon hours of nocking arrows. His visage plunged into distress as it was completely empty.
The battle lingered for a second as Louis watched ahead in fear, and Alan was still behind, not being nearly as swift as Cale.
Cale raised his hand and dangled a vial in the air, its olive substance sloshing within it. Gazing with sinister eyes at Orin, he taunted, "Looking for this? Y'know, for someone who has obviously high mastery in mana usage, I figured you'd sense my mana flowing into your pocket. But I guess not."
Cale was simply bluffing; it flew out of the bag, and he caught it with his mana, but he wouldn't know that.
Instilling fear was a key battle tactic. What was better than having your opponent cower in your presence?