Kalrina, the other sorceress, and the Cultist watched Meera dash off with the dragon. The lass had grown quite a bit in the time she spent with the Sovereign. Kalrina hoped she could take on the dragonling by herself. She had taken on quite a challenge by herself; that is not to say, Kalrina didn't have a challenge standing in front of her in the form of some beautiful women.

  "You better not run now, Cultist dear," Kalrina said. "I hope you haven't forgotten what happened to the last person that looked like Aksha."

  Lainor set his jaw. "Oh, I remember that very well. But I should inform you that I'm unfamiliar with all these skills, so I don't know how effective I would be in this fight."

  Just shut the fuck up and fight, or I'll gut you right here. Was what Kalrina wanted to say, but instead, she said, "Then I just suggest you get familiarized rather quickly. That woman holds a bit of a grudge against me on account of me misplacing one of her books."

  "Misplacing…" Nikai seethed. "You stole that book after you killed Isolde, and then you go one and lose it." She shook with an unbridled rage. "I begged the others to give you to me, and they didn't listen, but Lord Lorendor must have been listening, for look how here you are, ready to die by my hands."

  "You really need to do something about that rage, dearie," Kalrina purred. "It's not good for you to be so angry."

  Nikai's nostrils flared, and her eyes blazed. Black ink dripped from her hands and raced upwards to cover her arms. Kalrina figured she would throw whips at them again, but instead, she began to draw in the air. She whipped the air, leaving splotches of ink, which looked like it was nothing at first, and then, a bird of prey began to form.

  Kalrina backed up, and Lainor's memory must've told him what was coming as he did the same. Kalrina formed a shield large enough to cover her entirely, but she doubted the shield would protect her.

  A large raptor, which could've been an eagle or a hawk, spread its wings. Its wingspan must've been ten feet across. That was not what Kalrina was worried about; she was more about the sharp beak and talons.

  Lainor shot the bird of ink with daggers made of poison. He might as well have thrown stones in a lake as the bird's form rippled and swallowed all the daggers. Now, he seemed to realize that this thing couldn't be fought with brute force. All it did was make the fake bird and its creator mad.

  "You cannot hurt my creations with any craft or skill you possess," Nikai snarled. "Let me show what I can really do."

  Kalrina wanted to bark that she already knew what the manic sorceress could do. It was good that Duinith, the sorceress of papers, wasn't here, or even the dragonling would've been nothing short of a cute pup before the duo. The pair of them together could wreak such havoc that even the real Aksha would have trouble putting them down.

  The bird of ink flapped its wings and came for Kalrina. She dodged to the side and got close to the fake Aksha.

  "She's right about one thing. We cannot beat her creations," Kalrina whispered. "But we can beat her. So, listen carefully, this is what I want you to do. She's going to come—"

  Before Kalrina could finish, the bird came flying back, its talons extended. Kalrina used one of the mirrors Meera had dropped and teleported to safety, but it also put her far away from Lainor. She cursed under her breath and shot a Mirror Shard Barrage at the sorceress.

  The ink on Nikai's left arm turned into a shield, and she blocked all the shards. Absorbed would be the better word, as all the shards were sucked into the black ink, never to be seen again.

  Before Kalrina could do anything else, the blasted bird returned to harass her again, forcing her to use Mirror Step again. She extended a hand and littered the ground around the sorceress of ink with mirrors.

  Then, used one of the mirrors and teleported to her. She appeared with a mirror sword raised high in the sky. She brought it down on her in an overhead swing. The sorceress countered with a swing of her inked arm. They traded blows, but Nikai pushed her back, creating some distance between them.

  Her arms were like black tentacles lashing out like tongues of a flame. Kalrina had to constantly teleport away or get gripped by them. But she had no choice but to stay on top of the sorceress, or she would create such hellish creatures that even in the Rakineyes, the demons from Rothedon's forest would run in terror of them.

  Then Kalrina made her first mistake. She was so focused on the sorceress that she forgot about her bird. The raptor descended on her and raked her shoulder with her talons. She cried out, and, losing her balance, she fell forward, where Nikai was waiting. But before she could put her tentacles around her neck, Kalrina teleported away to safety.

  She winced and griped her bloody shoulder. This bitch is too annoying to fight. I should've taken the dragonling.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Now that she had given Nikai some time to breathe, she was working on her next creature. Thankfully, the idiot Cultist finally stopped standing idly by and sent a wave of dark greenish poison at the sorceress.

  But she didn't stop creating her creature and let her bird of prey block the poison wave for her. It flew in the wave. The two clashed and neutralized each other. The poison wave crashed against the inky bird and splattered into the ground but did not go any forward and that was all the time Nikai needed.

  Her next creature was a four-armed monstrosity with four crooked horns. Each arm ended in a jagged sword and a mouth of sharp fangs. Kalrina shivered at the sight of the creature. The worst part was that she had seen this thing before, and that was not a pleasant memory. But back then, it wasn't coming after; she had prayed that it would never come after her.

  Looks like the gods just love to ram their cock up my ass all the time.

  The proverbial cock was only getting more engorged because four more arms of ink emerged from Nikai's back. So, there would be no more getting close to her, either.

  Kalrina glanced at Meera, who didn't seem to be having too much trouble with her opponent. If anything, the girl seemed to be playing with the dragon. She was teleporting away while lava dripped from the dragonling's mouth.

  Kalrina wondered if she should have taken on the dragonling. But she didn't have long as the sorceress's creature attacked. It pounced on her with its jagged, swordlike arms, and she countered the first blow with the sword in her hand but then teleported away.

  She was no swordsman who could hold him off indefinitely. Shooting a Mirror Shard Barrage did nothing, as the creature's core simply opened and let the mirror shards fly on by. She gritted her teeth as she groaned.

  Most of her fighting skills were specialized in countering and reflecting attacks. This was one foe that could just smash through her mirrors instead of countering them. But she tried anyway. She activated a Mirror Dome.

  The ink demon was encased in a round mirror dome. Thanks to her Mirror Vision skill, she could see the demon striking the dome, making it shake. The dome was reflecting its attacks for now, but it wouldn't last long.

  She had to move and finish off Nikai before the demon broke through. She teleported behind Nikai, formed a spike, and hurled it at her. Just when it looked like it would impale the back of Nikai's head, one of her arms caught the spike and threw it back at her.

  She dissolved the spike, and before she could do anything else, one of Nikai's arms twirled around her ankle, tripping her. Kalrina fell to the ground hard, banging her head. She teleported away and sat there, dazed as the ache in the back of her head lessened.

  Meanwhile, Nikai had been going full force after the Cultist, who surprisingly was doing quite well despite having no teleportation. Poison dripped from him in droves, making it harder for Nikai to get close while he shot poison spikes at her in full force.

  The infernal ink creature broke through Kalrina's dome. The worst part about it was that it didn't scream or holler. It simply raised its four arms and came straight for her. She pointed to it and activated Mirror Dome again, capturing it again.

  Nikai shrieked like a woman possessed, frustrated at not having dealt with Lainor yet. Kalrina shared the feeling. She wanted to scream as well. If she couldn't deal with Nikai, then how could she ever dream of killing Aksha?

  After leveling up almost seventy levels, she thought it would have made a difference, but it did not seem so easy anymore. She punched the ground and stood. There was no time to sit and mop.

  Kill this inked-out bitch, and then worry about the undying whore.

  She teleported to Nikai's back once more. This time, getting as close as she dared. Block this.

  She activated Mirror Blast.

  The world rocked as mirrors and light erupted out of her. Nikai's head turned in at the last minute, and two of her arms expanded to cover her entirely in ink, saving her. Some of the ink was withered away in the blast, but she had more than one layer of protection.

  In the end, her attack failed to harm even a single hair on the sorceress's head. When she emerged from her cocoon, she was fuming. She huffed through flared nostrils and blazing eyes.

  "You two have played around for far too long," she seethed. "Time for me to get serious."

  "Oh, so you weren't serious all this while?" Kalrina asked. "Seemed pretty serious to me."

  Lainor, not getting the seriousness of the moment, shot the enraged sorceress with a poison spike, making her turn on him, practically foaming at the mouth.

  Sensing its mistress's anger, the demon smashed through Kalrina's dome. As it so happened, Nikai wasn't the only sorceress who could get angry and frustrated with her opponents.

  "I've just about had it with you," Kalrina muttered, being a model of serenity on the outside while a storm raged on the inside.

  She clapped her hands together, and a long, thick sheet of mirror formed overhead the demon and squished it into the ground. Black ink splashed outwards from the edges of her mirror.

  "Huh?" Kalrina tilted her head. "If I had known, it was going to be that easy."

  As it turned out, it was not that easy. Black ink shot out of the center of her mirror, shattering it to pieces. The ink slithered as it put itself back together.

  Nikai laughed at the dread that was building up inside Kalrina. Then, thanks to her Mirror Vision skill, she noticed something, and it was her turn to laugh.

  "Sorceress!" Meera yelled as she hurled the severed head of the dragonling at Nikai. "Catch!"

  Kalrina didn't know what strength skill Meera possessed, but she was strong enough to chuck the massive head as if it were a child's plaything. The head began to glow as it came full tilt for Nikai. She had no time to dodge and could only extend her inky tentacle arms to catch the head before it crushed her.

  Kalrina teleported as far away as she could. Lainor had a similar idea. He rode a wave of poison and put as much distance as he could between himself and the impending blast.

  Nikai caught the head, and a moment later, it exploded in a brilliant red light. Nikai's outline vanished from sight piece by piece, and then the explosion ate into the ground, leaving behind a crater of substantial size. Kalrina's eardrums rattled so hard she feared they would burst. But the head wasn't the only thing that had exploded. Up above, the rest of the dragonling exploded and rained down stones from the great archdragon upon them.

  Something told Kalrina that these explosions would not go amiss, especially among the dragons.