I tried teleporting after we got to the surface, but it got blocked. [Shadow Melding] worked, but it ate a lot of mana, other shadow skills still worked. I still couldn’t take others with my [Dimensional Anchor] unless I wanted to bring them to a different dimension.
I looked at the hole we just came out of. It was uselessly good. It even has beams for support even though I don't think this all is needed, but it gave a feeling of safety and security. But I guess this is what the 7t are all about, stability, order and safety.
Their damage might be a bit low but defeating or killing one is almost impossible. She might also be the reason why these stalkers came with this many people. It might take long but if she was experienced and mastered everything her race could do, she could fight an army and come out relatively unscathed, of course, this comes with the caveat that that army has no healers.
Noelle had told me about [Polygonic armament]. It was one of their trademark skills and makes fighting them quite unfair. It makes them super tough, boosts their defense and magic defense, and makes all their skills scale either defense or magical defense. This doesn't make them hit as hard as most other-tailed beasts, but they become relatively unstoppable. They will out-damage a 3t though.
You could run away from them, but they can stabilize your body, which means only spatial teleports work. Maybe some witches and certain individuals from other races could pull it off, but they will have to fight to make a rip into space while the 7t are keeping it in its current state, only 9t can consistently win this, but 7t and 9t are on very good terms, so this scenario only happens in spars.
Some tailed beasts have great synergy with each other. Like 3t and 6t have a very good synergy. My synergy is quite low with 3t and 6t. 7t and 9t synergies, however. It's almost as combining an unstoppable spear and an invincible shield. Also, they can stabilize illusions so that they become reality. 9t could also hit them with foxfire when they're using [Polygonic Armament] which makes their physical hits as hard as 9t magic attacks. I considered asking them to join our group, but I decided against it.
I'm sure they wouldn't refuse, but they would have to stop being idols. They are having a good effect on the world by making humans more accepting of us, which is good. Maybe a few more years and she can do the same for spirits.
They're doing something I never could. I would probably make it worse because even though I know it's important I don't care enough about humans to get it done, I'd more likely resort to manipulation or vaporizing a city and potentially making it worse. Also, the lives of me and my friends are a mess and dangerous.
We have lived completely different lives than these idols, and I don't wish for them to experience what we did.
I started to put a simulation to work. Some gods have put a target on our backs and especially a certain bitch goddess would be very interested in Giana. I'm trying to recreate a simpler version of the illusion I made after we escaped Boshi town. But it would make Giana impossible to find only for gods specifically.
“Hey, Agnis, what is Raishin up to?”
Dunno, probably causing problems and blowing stuff up, are you interested? I can hook you up with him, although technically he has a girlfriend.
“Ugh, really?”
Well, they never broke up, he just went to prison…
“Wait what?”
Ehh maybe another time, either way, that’s not important now! They never broke up, but it’s safe to say that their relationship is over.
“And that's why you keep getting into trouble like that! But I guess they never broke up eh… do you think he still likes her?”
Dunno, I have no clue what goes on in his mind but I'm fairly certain he sees the relationship is over since he’s chasing skirts again, might want to go for it before some random chick says yes. Although he does seem to be looking for someone specific now.
“Ugh, why did I have to get a crush on a six-tailed lightning tiger…”
“How about you, Agnis, is there someone in your heart?”
Of course!
I might have been mistaken, but it seemed like Giana flinched.
“Oh, ehh who is it?”
Light golden flame baked spirit salmon.
The chicks facepalmed and shook me, seemingly annoyed.
“I mean a person, not food…”
Hmm, not really, people suck .
I got annoyed frowns.
Ehh, you guys are alright.
“Never mind… what was I thinking, I’m a bit relieved though…” Giana put her hand on her chest as a sign of relief.
“Yes, Giana, he’s never going to get it if you go about, it like that, Agnis, Giana is in love with you in the romantic sense, that you haven't caught on to this is baffling.”
Giana turned red and covered her face.
I noticed…unfortunately, I do not know how to respond to this nor do I have the time to figure this out.
I created a [Frostwall] and blocked a huge, strange-looking [Lightning Claw] coming at us. It put some cracks in it, suggesting that this was probably spirit magic.
We have company.
Noelle stomped. “Why did they have to attack at such an important moment!”
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I don’t know, it’s quite convenient for me.
I felt 18 people lock onto us. We had been surrounded the moment we landed on the surface but they were slow enough to give the chicks time to start their love nonsense. They had the configurations of how adventurers would make teams, as there were 3 teams of 6.
“Ahh, I finally get to meet you in the flesh! Giana, I’m your biggest fan! I am in love with your spirit!” a slender woman with long red hair stepped forward and started talking. She was wearing something similar to Giana, but there was a big difference. She didn't fill the outfit as Giana did.
“We know what you’re up to, stalking washing board! Leave us alone!” Noelle stomped and the ground trembled.
Noelle had no chill, it might not look like it, but it seemed that Noelle had already started attacking, verbally.
“It is you who is stalking Giana! Always being around her! So, vexing! It should be me!”
While they were battling with words, I made some clones and made them set up traps and magic circles in stealth. I also subtly put down an 8-layered illusion. I was expecting there to be an expert in illusions since they’re trying to capture Giana, but they didn't appear to have one. Cocky or confident?
I leaned over to Giana. Hey, how skilled are you in forming and maintaining illusions?
“I’m not skilled in those, I can do a double-layered illusion at best with some effort. I’m very good at transforming, though!”
Leaning heavily in gender difference in our race I see.
“Wait what?”
Uh, vixens are skilled in transforming and not so great at using illusions, while the men are skilled with illusions and garbage at transforming. Our tails also seem to be different between genders.
I said as I looked at Giana’s tails. My tails were 20 times fluffier than hers. I wondered if vixens get attracted to fluffy tails, if that’s the case I’m screwed.
“Oh, I didn't know that... It's not like male 9t are common…” Giana gave me a complicated look.
“Hey who is that and why is he flirting with MY Giana?!” Redhead said as she pointed at me.
“Oh, didn't you know, Giana has a boyfriend now, so scram, there’s no place for you.” Noelle pointed at me.
“WHAT?! You deserve death!” I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but it’s beneficial if they focus on me instead of Giana, which makes “Protecting the President” easier .
I would appreciate it if you guys could kindly fuck off, I have no energy for this bullshit.
Bingo, this seemed to piss her off even more.
“Giana is MINE! I love her so much that I want to become her! I want to become one with her!”
Even though this chick is creepy, she didn't seem to be lying and this confirmed my theory. She probably will kill Giana and take Giana’s spirit inside her. Those pursuers were like a mix between human and spirit, as they could probably switch between different ones. It was a unique type of possession. Now there was one thing I was unsure of, but I had the feeling I was correct in this.
This chick was wearing clothes in Giana’s size. She might take on some of Giana’s properties after she steals her spirit. All these people here looked quite strange, recognizable as humans but the longer you looked at them the less human, they appeared, probably the result of assimilating multiple types of spirits. This is taking spirit slavery multiple steps too far…
I relayed this hypothesis to the chicks.
“He might be insufferable, but he seems to have a good head on his shoulders! That’s correct, I’m here to take you in me and become the new Giana!”
“Uhm, Jenna, I thought it was because we badly need a good healer…” A random stalker said.
“Shut up Jamie! Becoming a healer is secondary! I want to become Giana!”
“You are too ugly and flat to become Giana!”
I didn’t know if Noelle can use poison, but she had quite the venomous tongue and was throwing toxic remarks around while I sized this group up.
A leader of another 6-man group chimed in with the insults and toxic remarks. It seemed she was the sister of the washboard chick, uhh I mean red hair chick. Apparently, they would go to another spot because she was also looking for a spirit to absorb and they found a strong offensive spirit. I appreciated that they engaged in verbal warfare so that I could set things up. But Noelle was holding her own against these 2.
I changed my stance and put my hands together and slowly pulled them apart, creating purple lightning sparks in between them. I had a lot of ideas for new Dragonvein and magic skills and these guys would be my test subjects.
“Shit, it's a skilled lightning user!”
“Uhm that’s not an augmentation, is it? Why didn't I see a magic circle? Does anyone have information on this guy?” the enemies were confused, rightfully so.
I gathered lightning in my index and middle finger and start zapping people. Giana tried copying my movements as a dance, it looked cute, but it wasn’t very helpful. After a minute of zapping, they collected themselves and my zapping became quite ineffective, but that’s fine, they are focused on me now. As long as everyone got hit by my lightning.
They started to go on the offensive, but the lightning DoT I put on them started ticking and landing stuns. It was the Dragonvein version of [Spirit Spark: Electrocute], the skill I learned from Starbolt in Event Horizon. The first stun was my cue to start moving.
The execution was rough, so it was unlikely that I would use this often.
I shifted my stance and started throwing fire around and used the technique [Phoenix Dance]. I instantly killed 2 people because of my passive skill that increases damage on CCed targets. It was a skill i hardly ever used as its power was….obscene. It was also quite ally unfriendly.
Some of these stalkers noticed that my attacks were tied to my movements and tried to hinder these between their stuns, but unfortunately for them controlling leylines was quite flexible, so I could get away with less movement and still have a similar effect.
I evaded, sending out [Flame Blades] every time I evaded. And shifted to [Fire Dragon Dance], a blue fire dragon and a red fire dragon followed the movements of my palms as I guided them through the battlefield. I let more leyline energy flow through me and doubled the number of dragons. These copies had a delayed reaction to my movements to allow for more complexity.
“So pretty…” Giana continued copying my movements and started singing. Noelle had a 1v1 against the red hair chick, which didn't seem to be going anywhere.
We were still surrounded. I needed to make sure to not forget that.
Countless people going after 2 women is bad taste, I will send them packing. Not because I want too, but because these idols didn't want me to be a diversion.
Ugh what a pain in the ass, well here goes nothing.