Ashley
I tense up when the kobold lord regains his sanity and begins some sort of powerful destruction mana attack. One that annihilates any attacks I send at it while it’s in the orb.
Then I back far away with Blake doing the same thing. But something tells me that I won’t be safe no matter how far I back away.
Not with an attack this powerful.
So I call out to Blake, “I’m using it again!” And without hesitation, begin the chant to use Frigid Tempest Call again.
After I begin my chant, I hear Blake beginning his own chant as powerful spatial mana begins to swarm around him.
Then the area turns into nothing but the two of us chanting while the kobold lord expands his orb of destruction mana outwards. All of which take several seconds before anything actually happens.
Of the three of us, I’m actually the first to finish my preparation, calling forth my frigid tempest just like before. Turning everything around us into a frozen wasteland again, including our traps.
And my attack quickly begins to combat his own massive orb of destruction mana, pushing it back as I reactivate Assimilate just to make sure I get his Skill Tree.
But as it turns out, my Frigid Tempest, even with the boosts I bought before and with the kobold lord being significantly weakened, doesn’t manage to push back against his orb of destruction. And before long, the orb begins to writhe, with bubbles popping on its surface.
Shit.
Then the orb bursts outwards, sending a flood of destruction mana everywhere, colliding with my tempest and pushing it back without too much difficulty. Albeit not too easily either.
Double shit.
The wave gets closer and closer to me until I activate Frigid Tempest Call once more. Using up almost all of my remaining mana with its 25% mana cost to significantly strengthen my frigid tempest and begin pushing back against the wave of destruction mana a little bit.
But even that slowly fails as my tempest once again begins to run out of steam and the wave of destruction mana rushes outwards, soon to collide into me. No doubt to wipe me from existence.
I let out a sigh.
Then I glance upwards with a faint smile on my face even as I try to fly backwards and mutter, “Thank you, Chaos.”
For everything you’ve done for me.
“Ashley…” I hear Chaos mutter, the Primordial sounding incredibly emotional and sad right now.
I kind of want to call him father or dad or something, but that just feels wrong.
Because the only Father I know as some memories begin to flood back into me for a brief moment is nothing like Chaos.
Right as the destruction wave is about to hit me and I slowly close my eyes, Blake finishes his chant, making a wave of spatial mana flood out of him as a massive dome of purple appears mere inches from my face. A dome that the destruction mana crashes into with nothing more than some faint cracks forming in it. Cracks that are repaired in an instant every time they emerge.
I stare blankly at Blake before he teleports to me, grabs me around the waist, and teleports us both a few dozen meters away from the dome. Then he lets go of me again and focuses on the dome while beginning to send more spells at the dome, only briefly pausing to toss a mana potion at me. One that I catch on instinct.
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Huh.
I… forgot I wasn’t alone this time.
A few seconds pass as he blasts spells through the dome at the wave of destruction mana, beginning to force it back a bit.
Not… alone…
I feel a bit of wetness drip down my cheek at that, but I quickly shake my head and down the mana potion before turning towards the dome and sending my own attack through it.
Bolts of destruction mana, bolts of lightning, my feathers, and so on.
One attack after another, whether spells or regular skills.
And gradually the two of us manage to defeat the wave of destruction mana. Making it finish splashing against the dome while leaving behind a nearly emaciated kobold lord in the center of the dome.
A kobold lord that is pierced through by both of our attacks as he glares at me with a look filled with more hatred than anything I’ve ever seen in my life.
Silence fills the area as Blake and I stare at the dying kobold lord. And as his body slowly begins to disintegrate or simply fall apart from our various attacks.
Meanwhile the wasteland around us is even more of a wasteland now than it was before. With ice coating everything, rain water everywhere, all of our traps ruined and messed up all over the place, and traces of our spells scattered across it all. All with the kobold impaled by large stakes and spikes of ice keeping him stuck in the middle of the air.
We watch for several more seconds before the kobold finally loses all of the light within his eyes and stops moving entirely.
{You have been granted 100 Skill Points for killing a mini boss within a Unique Domain.}
{You have been granted 3 Skill Points for killing a monster within a Unique Domain.} x81
{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Lord}
{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold} x24
{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Guardsmen} x21
{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Knight} x36
{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Minor Destruction Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.} – [ERROR – Minor Destruction Resistance is already unlocked. No skills are unlocked. Skills will now be added to the preexisting Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold.] x24
{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Moderate Destruction Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.} – [ERROR – Moderate Destruction Resistance is already unlocked. No skills are unlocked. Skills will now be added to the preexisting Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Guardsmen.] x21
{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, High Stage Destruction Mana Manipulation, is now unlocked for your usage.} – [ERROR – High Stage Destruction Mana Manipulation is already unlocked. No skills are unlocked. Skills will now be added to the preexisting Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Knight.] x26
{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, High Destruction Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.}
{Congratulations, you have now reached level 76. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}
{Congratulations, you have now reached level 77. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}
…
{Congratulations, you have now reached level 79. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}
So many System Messages now that I finally let through the ones from the other monsters along with the kobold lord’s own death message. Then a thought crosses my mind as I remember that I never actually spent the Skill Points I got from the previous round of monster slaying. Or all of the Skill Points I had before that.
Which means…
I focus on my total Skill Points.
{You currently have 1126 Skill Points.}
Oh. Wow.
That’s a lot.
Then I remember the new Skill Tree I just got from the kobold lord.
A great place to go spending these Skill Points considering how powerful that kobold lord was.
I glance at Blake, only to blink when I see him smiling at me.
After a second, he says, “I’m glad you’re starting to enjoy this new life of yours.”
I blink again and tilt my head.
“You’re smiling,” Blake explains, surprising me a little. “A genuine smile.” His own smile grows. “Makes me happy.”
I open my mouth to respond, only to close it again without figuring out anything to say.
And as if on cue, the King of Destruction begins another rampage again. So we’re left fleeing towards his little cavern again.
But as I fly, I can’t help but touch my lips as I think about how it felt to genuinely smile. Not just quirk up my lips or something, but actually smile.
And I find that I don’t particularly dislike it.