A Sinner’s Chance

I didn't know exactly what Arya had in mind, but I trusted her enough that I did my best to try and draw Gabriel further eastward. Doing so was not a simple task as I needed to draw her in a way that wouldn't make her suspicious, which meant I wasn't really able to just retreat that direction as it was in front of me and therefore behind Gabriel. I did have an option, but it was far sooner than I had wanted to reveal the power, but there wasn't much else I could do in this circumstance.

Quickly combining the twin naginatas into a single double bladed one, my left hand reached out towards Gabriel, extremely dense magic power gathering to fuel my Yinfire, a small groan escaping from my mouth as I focused on containing the power. Gabriel was however, not one to miss an opportunity to attack me, something I had been counting on as her golden flame blade arc through the air and collided with my chitinous carapace.

My body trembled as a sound similar to cracking ice sounded from the area where her blade met my arm, before a final crunchy snap as my left arm was severed from just below the elbow. Without missing a beat Gabriel grabbed the arm and backed away, a grin spreading across her face. "I can see you aren't in pain, but I doubt the loss of a limb is something you can scoff at. Half the reason you made armor in the first place is because you can't properly regenerate like a Phoenix." She said with a chuckle as she waved my arm at me.

I glared at her while clutching the bleeding stump, only for my expression to lighten as I heard Arya's voice in my ear. I chuckled slightly, causing Gabriel's expression to twist in confusion. "So what if I designed my armor that way? How do you know that I didn't learn to do so when I was down in that stupid cave of yours?"

There was a moment of panic on Gabriel's face, before she calmed and shook her head. "If you had, you wouldn't be clutching the wound. A true Phoenix-" Her words were cut off as an arrow suddenly impacted into the top of her shoulder, burrowing itself nearly halfway in. Despite the painful shriek that sounded from her mouth she ripped the arrow out golden ichor flowing from the wound. She had moved her head at the last moment, any slower and Arya's arrow would have gone straight into her head. I was genuinely impressed by both Gabriel's reflexes as well as Arya's ability to calculate where her arrow was going to land.

Gabriel could only glare at me as she was unable to see where the arrow had been shot from, let alone Arya who had likely moved several times while the arrow had been travelling. A smile spread across my face as she lifted her other hand to the injury as golden light began to spill out and mend the wound.

"Gabriel." I called out, my remaining hand falling to my side as it retrieved the naginata from the space-time cache. Her face twisted nastily as she looked upon the severed stump as I held it forth. While it had been bleeding, it was now spewing out the dark purple-black flames of my Yinfire as it took the form of my severed forearm. "A true Phoenix would have flames coming out, is what you were going to say right? I didn't want to give the surprise away too earlier so I could only hide it with my other hand."

Gabriel's face was wrinkled in anger as she glared at me as I tested to make sure there weren't any issues with the new body part. "Oh, right." I said as if I had forgotten something important. "Truly you didn't think I would sacrifice my forearm just for the arrow right?"

There was a slight moment of confusion on Gabriel's face, but she soon realized what I was implying, but at that point it was too late as my severed forearm that she had been clutching suddenly exploded in a massive flare of Yinfire. I could feel a strange sensation suddenly, almost as if an invisible object was suddenly present. Unassuredly, I reached out and gripped the object, a completely smooth orb. As I did so I watched the golden magic circle that Gabriel had made begin to darken as the sigils and runes changed before relighting with a deep violet light.

I suddenly felt lighter as the orb seemed to melt away and Marian who had been forcibly suppressed suddenly shot off the ground, her bat-like wings flapping furiously as she dove towards the dying down Yinfire where the sight of Gabriel soon came into view. Gabriel had clearly not been able to shield herself from the explosion as evidenced by not only burned and missing feathers, but the spots of withered and even rotting pieces of flesh on her body.

I knew my Yinfire had improved greatly since absorbing the soul and bones of Rill, yet to think even such an improvised method of damage had caused so much decay sent a somewhat pleasurable chill throughout my body. However, it didn't seem that Gabriel was done for just yet, as she covered the weakened parts of her body in golden flame, her face twisted in pain. As before, she summoned the golden flame blade and deflected Marian's sudden attack, only to wince as I also dove towards her.

Moments ago she had been gloating as she seemed to hold the overwhelming advantage, and yet now she was being beset by not only my twin naginatas but also Marian's sword and blood magic, an almost horrific sight when used on Gabriel due to the plentiful amount of withering and rotting wounds that leaked her golden blood.

With the corrupted magic circle and my and Marian's assault, Gabriel was soon overwhelmed and launched into the ground with a crash from the sheer force of the attacks she received. Before she could stand or float back up Marian had already flown down and slammed strange nail-like spikes into her hands and the stone ground. I wasn't sure what technique she was employing, but she was able to completely restrain Gabriel with only two spikes, and I was certain that I had seen more when she'd pulled them out. While I wasn't positive, I was almost sure that it was some kind of Hemomancy, or vampiric Skill, but for now I could only ask Marian to keep her restrained so I could rescue the city.

The questioning and interrogation would wait. I was confident that as long as the magic circle remained Marian would be able to take on Gabriel in her current state even if she did somehow make a miraculous escape.