“You won’t evaporate if I give it some time for Polar South to come off cooldown? Would be three more minutes now.” Luke asked Authoria.
Authoria hurriedly waved her hands and kept swinging her feet off the gravestone. She moved her head like she was listening to a song.
Sooty perched on his shoulder and tapped her talons while pecking him in the neck. Luke responded, “Yeah, you’re excited to be a bird again. We’ve got to wait to be safe, there’s no telling how things will go once the event starts.”
With a shing, Whispering Edge came out its scabbard, and Luke stabbed it beside the headstone. Authoria glanced at the sword curiously, feeling the need to explain himself, Luke said to the mute ghost, “Trying to get out of my unnecessary dual-wielding habit. I’ll be back for it if I need Wraith Wail, although…”
Having time on his hands, Luke attempted to draw essence in the air to Whispering Edge and attribute it around the blade. He succeeded with minorly manipulating ambient essence but creating frost essence without him or his abilities, as the source proved beyond him. “My idea for Whispering Edge acting as a frost pylon has been dashed. The old-fashioned way will have to do.”
Listening to the cynic within, the Reaver poked Sooty in her plumage, “Hey you, spend your skill points on whatever can be upgraded. No holding back waiting for another point to upgrade one of your offense attacks. I know your habits.”
Caw! Sooty complained.
“Don’t you ‘but roost member’ me.” Offhandedly, Luke thought, Her words through Reaver’s Link are starting to translate better. Is there a limit to it?
The bird dropped her head for a moment. Luke double-checked his crow. He filed through her attributes. Sure enough, Sooty’s Shadow Wing had upgraded to tier 1 while the skill point counter dropped to zero.
[Sooty]
Level: 31
HP: 2425
Stats: 145 Agility, 130 intellect, 49 Strength
Special Stats: 15 Fire Resistance, 15 Frost Resistance, 10 Mental resistance, 10 Resilience
Abilities 5/5: Reaver Beak Tier 1, Iron Feather IV, Talon Strike Tier 1, Essence Screech Tier 1, Shadow Wing Tier 1
Passives 1/3: Reaver’s Link IV
Class: Reaver’s Companion
Skill Points: 0
Hates cages and ugly men with knives. Very attached to her Reaver.
Seeing that flavor text created a pang of guilt within Luke, but also a bittersweet happiness. He ruffled Sooty’s feathers, “Attached to you too, buddy. We’ll break out of every cage we’re forced into. Good job working on your strength; it’s almost balanced enough.”
The Reaver overlapped the tooltip for Shadow Wing with his vision. Beginning to scrutinize for any substantial improvements. Going up one rank changed an ability, but going up a tier tended to have a higher chance of adding an additional component.
[Shadow Wing Tier 1]
Companion flaps their wings, creating a shadow of themselves for 8 seconds. The Shadow has the same abilities and stat-steal chance as their original while dealing 35% of their damage. Can be targeted but impervious to non-true damage. If the shadow lands a critical strike on its target, the target will gain a permanent mark, increasing its vulnerability to stat steal by 40%. Essence buffs applied to the shade also activate on the companion and vice versa. Cost: 60 Essence
Cooldown: 60 seconds
“There it is.” Luke knew the last descriptive line was what he needed to integrate. The increased duration by two seconds was also considerable, but only that ending sentence implied any new functions. He instructed Sooty, “Can you bring out your shade, Sooty?”
A shadow replica of Sooty appeared and sat on Luke’s other shoulder. After giving his companion a short ‘thank you,’ Luke applied Infusion to the shade. The Reaver energy applied to Shadow Wing and ‘duplicated’ at no cost to him, over to Sooty. He gave Sooty Essence Bond, boosting her stats by roughly 20%. The visual effect transferred the same circle of runes onto the newly created Shadow Wing.
“Give your Iron Feather over to the Shade, doubt it’ll work, but costs nothing to try.” An arcane blue-black feather protectively rotated around the Shade, the effect failed to replicate back to Sooty. “That solves and proves what we need to know, now to twiddle my thumbs and wait for everything to be useable again.”
While biding his time, Luke chattered with the rest of his team, “Going to rotate item abilities, Sooty, you’ve got two now to think about. Wings of Reaver can be up to you, but Gigantification should be kept back as a trump card. Use it only if I say to, or we need a temporary pushback.”
Sooty rattled in acknowledgment and spruced up her feathers. Luke set his eyes upon the golden lands surrounded by a radiant barrier. Additional corrupters hung in the back compared to before. While Luke assumed he knew what they were, he inspected them to sign the dotted line.
[Swamp Cursed Guardian] (High Elite)
Tier: 2
Level: 50
HP: 9500/9500
The Reaver exhaled, and his body cracked from straightening his posture, “I’m positively insane. If this ghost is lying, I’m dead meat.” He shrugged, “Can always run away.”
Authoria crossed her arms and turned her head away from Luke. Noticing, Luke said, “Don’t blame me too harshly, I’d like to stay among the living. Been to the netherworld once, it’s not a nice place.”
Wayfinder jingled from Luke’s neck, “Portion out your abilities as you always do, lad. Keep notice of that headstone, it’s wide and sturdy. May be able to take some blows for you.”
That had Authoria put a hand over her mouth in an inaudible gasp. She jumped down, stamped her feet, walked over to Wayfinder, and pointed at him accusingly.
“Keep those see through fingers away from me exterior, you banana ghost. This here compass is your grandpa in age; show the proper respect. Not me fault you went off and died before your ancestors.”
Authoria took on a blank expression and returned to sitting on her gravestone again, ignoring Luke and Wayfinder.
“I think you upset her a little.”
“Aye, sours the dead when they can’t use the respect card on me greatness. Been in a mere pond almost as long as they’ve been in the dirt.”
“Can you swish and cast with me, Luke? Those monsters are begging me to send a blast their way. Remember, my echo is once a minute if the fun gets extended out. ” Xera sounded eerily similar to a glutton drooling over a piece of meat, hinting she wanted to be a wand more often than the current status quo.
Spreading his legs out as one would mirror a stable tree trunk, Luke flicked Xera to the side, Runes rose and ignited around her. The blue mystical cloud that naturally emanated from her wand head turned into a slowly swirling vortex.
Leaving nothing to chance or any last doubts to cause him to backslide, the Reaver tabbed on the ‘Yes’ portion to begin the event. The radiance barrier began to weaken while the golden lands intensified.
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As the first Swamp Cursed Guardian bounded onto the golden land, a slight black sludge mixed in, but the creature steamed and shrunk. Luke set up the odds in his favor before trying to acquire the extent of the weakening through a new inspection. The Reaver cast Essence Bond and Siphon on the monster at the forefront.
Knowing her role well, Sooty screeched, staggering the small waves of creatures and spreading both Siphon and Essence Bond. From the ‘return’ effect from the Siphon, Luke felt energetic, overcharged even, with energy and stamina. The creatures slowed, but the ‘delayed’ reaction from having a superior amount of agility barely showed.
“Go take to the skies, Sooty, dive in where you think it’s best. Your view of the situation will allow you to make better decisions on the fly than I could for you.”
Sooty swooped up, circling at a low altitude, waiting for an opportunity. Luke stepped back to keep ground as he glanced to identify the weakened monsters. A golden glimmer stubbornly stuck against their undulating sludge. When their liquid dropped, it often evaporated seconds later.
[Swamp Cursed Guardian] (High Elite) (Exorcised)
Tier: 1
Level: 40
HP: 4900/4900
Drawing from his experience against the Red Gorrid assassin, Luke surmised the situation: I can handle that, without tier suppression, these Swamp Guardians are beatable. The bigger issue is the number of them. Their quality is only one step or two above the abominations.
With a quick head count, Luke came to over fifteen, and to make things worse, others appeared to be forming right outside the mists. To count his blessings, they only charged the golden land from the side he was facing.
“May as well make this my ‘territory.’” Frost washed out like a wave from Luke’s feet. Taking advantage of the constant rejuvenation from both the set effect and the rot aura recharge, the Reaver pumped frost essence constantly. He lit up his ‘frost works’ by detonating an Essence Lance; the shards coned to shred the coming onslaught. Ruinous echo furthered the effectiveness of the opening act, lowering their magic resistance by twenty percent.
White blue intermixed with vibrant gold radiance. The initial conversion stunted back the cursed marsh ghosts. Luke assessed the monster formation. In short, they were a disorganized mess. He glided on the frost, forming Xera into a sword in the meanwhile. Thrusting out once in range, the Essence Bond enhanced Xera ripped through a relatively isolated enemy.
Or so he thought. Elementalization ate away at the spirit body, yet it was partially mitigated. The sludge reformed, and the beast lost a small amount of mass and health points at the same time. The Swamp Guardian swiped with its claws. Green outlined the attack.
Luke parried with Xera. He was treated to a nasty surprise. The beast’s claws phased through and smashed him in the chest. Hunter’s Ice Blessed Boots tried to keep him in place, succeeding at the expense of his heels. He veered to the side with the next swipe, activating Shadowmeld Spaulders’ passive. Adapting to the increase in speed, he whipped around the cursed being.
Two other sets of ghastly arms grasped out to him, and another Swamp Monster kicked out slowly but with heavy force. Sooty struck the kicking creature in the neck, shadow clung to her talons that interrupted its attack, and Luke backed off with the conjured gap.
Jumping back, Luke extended out to over ten yards, revealing another ability. The swamp monsters punished the mistake by charging at him. To make matters worse, the skill put Luke into a fainted state. Sooty tackled the beast, using Reaver Beak to rip out its sides, turning the charge direction to a much less lethal blow to Luke’s shoulder.
[Marsh Charge has put you in a fainted state for three seconds]
[A cursed has struck you. A stack of Corrupting Touch has inflicted a curse, duration 15 seconds]
The corrupting touch drained Luke of roughly fifty HP a second, plus or minus five. Stackable damage over time that randomly applied on hit was a deadly snag in the plan. A nearly forgotten effect came and lowered the difficulty unexpectedly.
[Onelius’s Soul effect halves the duration of Marsh Charge and Corrupting Touch]
Sooty and my items are lifesavers. Luke sidestepped, and the charging creature slid by, inviting itself onto Xera’s edge. From previous experience, these Swamp Guardians were notoriously hard to make entirely corporeal. To counter, he tried to hyper concentrate Frost Essence onto Xera and create frost gauntlets on both hands.
A double measure often covered what a half-hearted attempt could not. Luke thrust Xera in like paper, and she stuck in this time. Hurriedly, he pulsed frost. The Reaver began to feel like a frost reactor. He’d converted essence at a far faster than normally sustainable rate, but the armor effect and dungeon interaction kept him topped off in stamina and resources.
“Xera, I’m going to put this into my style. With this dungeon and armor constantly feeding me essence and stamina, there’s no need to pace ourselves. Think you can handle more?”
“Ice sword is best sword. The more, the better. Slice away.”
Going for short engagements Luke clashed with the marsh monsters before sliding back on the ice. Their incorporeal and sludge issue was solved, but the Reaver noticed a different problem. While he wouldn’t get ‘exhausted’ using elementalization like usual, as Musai put it, his mental ‘vessel’ was straining from it.
No choice, when my body can’t take it any longer, I’ll try to give myself a breather with Essence Fissure.
Aware of this style’s damage, Luke made the seconds count. He stabbed into a Cursed Guardian’s chest, shed the muck with ice, and sheared through its head next. The first of many monsters died. Heightened situational awareness fed more information.
The creatures wouldn’t charge if he were within reach of one of them, nor would they do so if one of their own blocked their sight. Two additional cursed would mold out of the mists and swamp every thirty seconds.
A defensive style would only make things more complicated. Having acquired suitable information on his enemy’s patterns and understanding the countermeasures, Luke made a plan.
“Sooty, keep near and in the sky, help me pick them off is secondary here. Your biggest priority is to cover for my positioning mistakes. You need to prevent one from completing a charge if I mess up and allow the Swamp Cursed to do so.”
Sooty tightened her circle of aerial dominion, keeping to Luke’s instruction. The Reaver whirled Xera in wide arcs. Ice sprang forward constantly, extending the attack range. When his arms could handle it, he’d explode a thin frost layer around the gauntlets to accelerate his swings, allowing a vicious cleave. The first swamp creature was cut in half.
As things were with this crazy world, it was still alive. HP bars were an offense against nature. Managing Infusion stacks, Essence Bond gaps, frost cycling, and creations, positioning, dodging, refreshing Siphon where possible, Luke’s mind frayed.
The cost of going against creatures much higher in stats subtly shown. Luke didn’t have the ‘slowing’ effect from passively having superior agility. In fact, it was he who was slowed down. Fortunately, between the spaulders’ passive and the natural course of frost, Luke remained on top in terms of mobility.
When he was ‘cornered,’ Sooty would force open an exit, and he’d glide away or detonate ice to fling himself out. Breathing harshly, Luke bisected one, and it slowly reformed. His control was dulling.
“Master, the ice is starting to thin on me. Layer me up.” Xera alerted.
Luke glided back, immediately regretting it. A swamp monster found a gap and cast marsh charge. Even though Sooty put a Shadow Wing in the way, another cursed rushed up before the second and a half duration and rent its claws into Luke’s left side.
To add insult to literal injury, a cursed touch stack infected him. Sooty used Wings Of Reaver, and Talon Striked the monster to the back of its head. Without its normally passive resistance, the cursed died headless. The crow worked together with her shade to allow Luke a rest period.
Shadow Wing screeched, and the vibrations disoriented the monster wave. A shadow feather orbited Luke. To Sooty’s credit, she controlled the shade to take any charges.
“Your technique is on overdrive, lad. Your mind’s about to go take a dip off the deep end.”
The Reaver fulminated the frosted land as if multiple grenades went off simultaneously. Over half the creatures were obliterated, muck flung to every corner of the golden land. The rest were knocked back against the grave land. Luke’s eyes started to lose focus; elementalization without limits was powerful.
Except, he was the limit. It was all too much to control and constantly pour out. Before the creatures could rise up and attempt to charge him, Luke formed a vertical Essence Fissure. He couldn’t even attribute it. The frost creations around his body melted.
Authoria pranced around him worriedly. Sooty took full advantage of the three second crowd control, picking off weakened Swamp Cursed Guardians.
Luke glanced at Authoria, “I’ll recover, my mind needs a minute.” He bit his lip, the backlash greater than mere seconds. Essence Bond dimmed, and the five second gap showed up. Infusion refreshed, Luke Infused Xera and himself.
He dove toward the monsters, his slices incredibly ineffective without elementalization forcing them to be materialized. Sooty with Quicksilver Feather was more than a force all on her own.
As the monsters stumbled to their feet, Luke noticed he had only six to contend with. Yet, with a vengeance, two more rose from the depths of the marshland, sauntering out the mist wall surrounding the lone radiant land.
The Reaver laughed, “And here I thought the endless wave tactic wouldn’t work anymore against me. Maybe it wouldn’t if my mind was durable enough to keep up.”
He spat out blood and raised Xera up before his chest, pacing near the foremost swamp monster.