"Oh?" Erik murmured curiously, an eyebrow cocked. He stood across from Gabriel casually, warhammer slung over his shoulder. He was in his werewolf form, and the Taurus Runeguard covered his body from shoulders to toes, with Eira’s core pulsing in his chest.
"Think you can succeed where Lilith failed?" he continued. "I may have needed help to defeat her, but I’m not alone now, either—unlike you."
Actually, Erik planned to fight him all on his own—for several reasons—but his point was a good one.
The man’s malicious smirk acquired some ridicule. "Should have figured a beast like you doesn’t know what honour is," he spat, then suddenly slammed the tip of his walking stick into the ground. "Fortunately, I am not without recourse..."
Erik frowned, but then his eyes widened when he felt aetherium surge and realised what he wanted to do. Instantly, he elbowed Zahra behind him, sending her skidding back several steps.
For the last few seconds since Erik’s arrival, she’d been staring at his armoured back strangely. Just moments ago, she’d been seconds from death when he showed up to save her.
Her impression of him had not been the greatest so far, but at that moment, the wide, gleaming, metal back of his armour standing mere inches in front of her face felt like one of the safest things she’d ever seen. Her exhausted mind became momentarily lost at the sight of him.
Then, he elbowed her, and the spell broke.
"Gah!" she yelped painfully. The force of his blow combined with her tired, Arcanist body caused her to fall on her ass several steps back, from where she glared at him with blurry vision. "W— What was tha—!"
Zoom
Suddenly, a shimmering barrier erected between Erik and herself. In fact, it went all the way around to encase both Erik and Gabriel in a dome. Rather than the midnight domain from before, this looked more like a regular sigil barrier.
Before Erik arrived, and even before Zahra got in serious trouble, Nasir and Zohran had retreated a little to more easily deal with the midnight plates. They were now further away than Zahra had been after being blasted by the moon, so only Erik was caught inside the dome.
Except for Erik and Gabriel, everyone looked shocked. "Shit!" Astrid cursed with wide eyes. Zohran and Nasir did the same, as they shook off their surprise and mixed feelings at Erik’s sudden appearance.
"I’ve been led to understand you did something similar to Lilith," Gabriel smirked, speaking her name with obvious ridicule and resentment. At the same time, he released his walking stick, which was now stuck in the ground, and only grabbed the hilt. With long, drawn-out movement, he pulled up to reveal a thin sword that was using the stick as a sheath.
Sighing regretfully, he stepped back from the part still stuck in the ground and looked at his sword. "I would have liked to beat you in the same setting, just so I could show that bitch up, but I know the Primarch would scold me for it even after I succeed." Looking away from his sword, he smirked at Erik. "So, killing you like this will have to do."
"Don’t you count us out!" Zohran suddenly roared, immediately charging the barrier. Nasir, after blinking a moment, then quickly followed with a stern frown. From up high, Astrid also joined in by jumping down, aiming straight for the barrier with both swords pointed down.
Erik looked at all this curiously, not making a move yet. He wasn’t particularly concerned about being locked up in here, because he still felt connected to his dimension. Having closed the portal back in Enkare Nkai, he could now access it whenever he wanted, including from inside this barrier.
If he truly couldn’t beat Gabriel, then fleeing into his dimension would mostly solve the issue. He refused to believe Gabriel could break into his dimension any time soon, so at that point, Gabriel would have to either sit and wait, or lower the barrier. If he choose the former, Elora and Erik’s other allies would have plenty of time to take the barrier down on their side.
Thus, Erik wasn’t concerned or in a hurry. He was curious to see what his wife and those other two could do to this thing.
As it turned out, not much, at first.
When they almost reached the barrier, Gabriel snapped his fingers. Right now, the barrier only had a circumference of about twenty meters (~65.5 feet), with Erik at the edge, and Gabriel in the middle. But now, the barrier suddenly expanded massively.
It crashed against the approaching Runebound and smashed into the sitting Zahra, pushing them all further and further away, until the barrier had about the same size as the midnight domain had before. Astrid, who’d come up from above, slid down the barrier with a frustrated snarl as she attempted to plunge both her swords into it without success.
At the same time, Zohran and Nasir did the same as soon as they came to a halt. Even the exhausted Zahra threw illusory daggers at it. Only Emma did nothing. She continued smiling serenely as the golden disk she stood on slowly started floating down to where Astrid landed. All the while, however, her gaze was filled with almost naïve confidence and never left Erik’s powerful form.
Gabriel ignored all of this, however. With his barrier expanded to give them a decently sized arena, he pointed his sword at Erik. "Shall we get started...?" he asked calmly, arrogance dripping from his lips.
Erik cocked an eyebrow and looked around. "Even if you aren’t concerned about my allies breaking this thing," he muttered, before pointing at the walking stick stuck in the floor, "it’s obvious that thing’s the source. I could just break it?"
Just as he said that, a second, much smaller barrier erected to cover the walking stick. Meanwhile, Gabriel smirked. "You’d probably be able to break that barrier, but I dare you to try it while also defending yourself from me. As for those idiots outside? The—"
Suddenly, his nose wrinkled, and his eyes shot over to a certain spot on the barrier’s edge with annoyed surprise. There, Astrid had just unleashed her solar beam ability on the barrier, and it shuddered.
"Oops," an amused Erik chuckled at his expression. "I’m afraid my wife is of better calibre than the people you fought before."
Gabriel growled, snapping his eyes over at Erik again. "It’s still going to take her at least a few hours to break it at that pace... I only need one to kill you!"
With that declaration, he finally waved his sword in Erik’s direction and sent his six midnight plates forwards. At the same time, the midnight domain started reforming to fit precisely inside the barrier.
Erik grinned and palmed his hammer before charging Gabriel with a howl.
"Go deal with everything else," he told Emma, Elora, and Astrid through their bonds with him, his voice filled with murderous excitement. "I’ll be fine over here!"
Just like that, his rematch against an opponent on Lilith’s level started.