Four walls were hidden around each other, leaving Melmarc with the ability to only see one. The remaining three were positioned behind it and none of them were facing him.
Melmarc tossed up the rock he’d used to mark all four walls and caught it one more time before dropping it on the ground.
“Here goes nothing.”
He activated [Knowledge is Power] and shook his arms out in preparation for what he would do next, and just because he could.
He still hadn’t figured out what the ‘extremities’ part of the skill after 10% mastery was, but he was fairly certain he would have the time for it eventually.
The moment the burst of mana came back to him, he knew everything he needed to. It barreled into him like a gentle breeze and Melmarc went into action.
He spun his hand quickly and his skill stirred.
[You have activated Rings of Saturn]
A ring formed around his wrist, a pale white, looking like an oversized bracelet. The moment it shone bright enough, Melmarc swung it in a side-arm throw. Despite its present weight, Melmarc felt his arm adjust itself, obeying his intent as he swung.
With [Knowledge is Power] he had everything he needed. He had marked the location of all four spots on all four walls and was going for something more drastic than the practice he’d done a day before.
As the ring of mana curved around the wall in front of him, Melmarc was already on the move. He turned, hand spinning, and hopped to the side. The wall was wide and he had been standing farther to one side of it so that he could reach around it easier on his first shot.
He had a different intention for his second shot, however.
[You have activated Rings of Saturn]
[Uses Remaining: 2/4]
Ignoring the notification, Melmarc swung his second arm, throwing the ring around the wall as well.
He didn’t wait as he came back down to his feet. His arm was already twirling when he realized he’d overshot himself. He had two more marks but had no idea how to navigate them.
The sound of something heavy hitting walls were followed up by each other and Melmarc let out a sigh as he stopped his hand from gathering raw mana.
Rubbing a gentle arm against the bruise on his chest, he walked around the wall. Melmarc wasn’t sure the bruise was healing, and he was beginning to worry that nothing but an actual [Healer] would be able to heal him once he got home, but the bruise was often itchy, especially when he used his skills.
Growing up, Ninra, his sister, always said that if it something was itchy it was more reason not to scratch it. So, lacking self-discipline, Melmarc had developed an alternative. Ninra had said not to scratch it, but she never said anything about not rubbing it.
So Melmarc rubbed his bruised chest softly and gently as he went to check on the outcome of his little trial.
He’d spent most of yesterday practicing how to use [Rings of Saturn] until nightfall. Amongst the many things he’d learned was the effects of how he threw it. When he used a side arm throw, or sent it flying as if he was throwing a discuss, it went like an actual discuss, spinning and cutting through the air.
When he threw it normally or as if he was throwing a shotput, it somehow spun chaotically and didn’t travel far.
Also, if he made a fist when he threw it, it went spinning chaotically, but if he held his hand open as if making the head of a spear, it went like a disc no matter how he threw it. If he threw it like a disc, he could also make it curve if he wanted to.
Melmarc got to the first wall and let out a small frown. He placed a hand on the crater the size of his head that was in the wall.
I guess increase in accuracy doesn’t mean perfect accuracy.
The crater was a few inches below the mark he’d made. [Knowledge is Power] had given him the exact location of the mark but hitting the mark was the challenge. Yesterday had taught him that it was easier to hit when he could see the mark. Today taught him that stats and skills weren’t completely infallible.
Having an extra three points in strength didn’t mean you could utilize it completely without practicing. It was akin to a body builder and a rock climber with the same muscle weight. They obviously could not use their muscles in the same way.
Melmarc tried not to dwell too much on it as he made his way to the second mark. This one he’d missed completely. From what he could tell, the ring of mana had clipped the top edge of the wall.
Having been at it for almost an hour, Melmarc was more than certain this was the best he could manage. Without obstruction, his aim was acceptable, with obstruction and the assistance of [Knowledge is Power] his aim wasn’t something he could count on unless his targets were as large as a wall.
Melmarc sat on a dislodged piece of wall as he contemplated his next course of action. First he would rest, allow his mana grow itself back up, then he would head out.
Maybe it was time to stop looking for Naymond and just make an attempt to clear the portal. There was a part of his mind that assure him of failure but he wouldn’t know if he didn’t try.
…
Melmarc walked into another ruin with a sigh. There was a part of him that was ashamed of himself.
He’d decided to try and clear the portal but here he was, still looking for Naymond.
In his defense, seeking out Naymond was appealing to three different logical decisions. The first was that making sure that Naymond was alright was the right thing to do. It didn’t matter if he shared a significant part in what had led them to this situation.
The second part was that looking for Naymond allowed him run into [Damned] in a controlled environment that he now understood almost like the back of his hand.
Finally, it was an excuse that appealed to the cowardly part of him that didn’t want to have to do with anything related to fighting against a Demi-god alone. A part of him had already accepted that the fight was likely inevitable, but it refused to accept that he had to do it alone.
It also appealed to the part of him that continued to wait to be rescued. But while it had felt completely normal in the beginning to want to be rescued, there was now a part of him that felt slightly shamed by it.
He believed he had been given the tools required to save himself, and if he had that he was supposed to save himself.
[Knowledge is Power] came back to Melmarc and the ground around him lit up with red indicators. They weren’t so many, many thirteen to twenty-five.
Melmarc ignored them and paid attention to the real threat. He twirled his arm casually and [Rings of Saturn] came to life. The slow growing weight on his hand told him the raw mana was gathering to him and he slowed his action to slow the growth. The brighter the ring shone the more mana it consumed.
He would still be able to fire off all four uses but how many times would come into question. Unlike [Knowledge is Power] and [Bless Your Kindness] the amount of mana [Rings of Saturn] consumed were not fixed. The more he charged each ring the more the mana cost.
Melmarc strolled into the ruined building fully aware of the two [Damned] currently searching for him. He stepped carefully, making sure not to step on the red indicators. They would flock to him eventually, but that didn’t mean he had to make their job easier.
If he was their prey, the least he could do was make them work for it.
He stepped over another indicator until he was at the entrance to the room that held the two [Damned] he could sense inside. Currently, they had their backs to him, heading in the opposite direction.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
With his hand still moving slightly, Melmarc kept the ring of mana at a steady gauge. With both monsters in front of him, he tossed it casually in an underhand throw. At point blank range, and with little distance between them, the ring struck the [Damned]. But it didn’t just blast a small crater in the creature’s back.
It spun like a wheel, embedding itself in the [Damned]’s back, spinning and drilling a burning hole until it caught fire. Melmarc was already stepping back as the ring of mana dissipated.
You have slain [Damned(C)]
[You have gained EP +59]
[EP 791]
Melmarc dived into a roll a moment before the second [Damned] leapt into the air and smashed a baking pan of a hand into the wall.
In his time within the portal, Melmarc had learned two more things about the [Damned]. The first was there was a time delay between them being aware of their enemy and when they attacked. The second thing he’d learnt was that all their attacks had a pattern.
The problem with the second, however, was that while he knew there was a pattern, he didn’t know what it was. He also kept running into different groups with different patterns. So far he was able to tell the first two attacks of each pattern.
All the groups leapt into their attacks and he knew of three different patterns so far. This one attacked with a variation that started with a downward slash that followed into a sideways slash and a pirouette that came down with a hard slam that Melmarc felt would’ve shaken the ground if it was a more powerful weapon.
The [Damned]’s downward smash hit the ground and it dashed forward for a follow up combination and ran into the wall. The wall shook, a crack spread across it and the [Damned] staggered back.
Five red indicators attached themselves to Melmarc’s leg and he almost snorted. He ignored them as he picked the foot off the ground and twirled his ankle. A small ring of mana gathered to his ankle, accompanied by the smell of something burning and he kicked forward, swinging his leg from the side.
It was a high kick and the ring shot out of his leg to slam into the [Damned]. It struck the creature’s shoulder and Melmarc frowned as it staggered a few steps back.
As for his leg, it was free of red indicators but more were gathering to it.
Melmarc ignored them, returning his attention to the real threat. The [Damned] smelled of something burnt, smoke oozing from it’s shoulder.
It eyes locked onto Melmarc, emotionless. Its skull did not shiver or quake, it did not give any indication of the existence of any emotion. Melmarc remained always disturbed by its very existence as well as the idea of fighting moving things without any show of emotion.
They were more automatons than actual monsters.
The [Damned] darted forward, baking pan swiping in an underhand swing. Melmarc dodged to the side, placed a large rubble on the ground between them.
As expected, the creature did not break its combo. It swung five more attacks that ended in a Spartan kick. Its foot slammed into a wall that shook the entire ruin.
Melmarc’s hand touched his chest, remembering what it felt like to be hit by the creature. He was beginning to understand why he was still kicking.
Ranks were likely not measured strictly by the stats of an individual. They were a measurement of the capabilities of their skills. Which meant that [Rings of Saturn] would likely not carry the same destruction it did if he was a C-rank, which would’ve made this fight a lot more complicated than it was.
He backed slowly away from the creature as it turned to face him. Melmarc wasn’t scared of them, not anymore. He still had a little bit of trauma from being struck by one but he felt that was a healthy dose of fear. Personally, he doubted a normal person wouldn’t be afraid of being hurt.
Melmarc stepped out of the ruin casually, making sure to keep the [Damned] in front of him as it walked around the rubble in jerky steps.
Red indicators continued to flood towards Melmarc’s leg but he ignored them. He was being cocky and he knew it. But it was hard not to be. Once upon a time these things had scared him.
They’d made him fall asleep with the heart draining fear that he could wake up in the morning surrounded by them. It was hard not to be arrogant now that he had the high ground. A perfect body shot from [Rings of Saturn] was enough to kill them.
Currently, he had one in front of him and two more uses of [Rings of Saturn] remaining so fear wasn’t a factor.
Melmarc charged up a ring of mana and tossed it forward casually. Amongst the things the [Damned] knew how to do intentionally, dodging was not one of them. The only time Melmarc missed was when his aim was poor.
You have slain [Damned(C)]
[You have gained EP +52]
[EP 843]
…
Naymond was having one of the worst delves of his entire life. He was propped up against a wall, paying attention to the converging group of monsters as they converged on his location. He’d learned a few things in his eleven days of being here.
One was that night and day was nothing but an illusion, a vivid mess controlled by something somewhere. Whatever it was, it probably didn’t know how night and day was supposed to work, the switches were too abrupt, and it somehow calibrated them based of the monsters around.
At night, after the death of evening, the monsters went to sleep. It was the safest time in the portal. Day, however, was not determined by any reasonable logic, but an unreasonable one. With the few days he’d been here, Naymond had discovered that day came when the first monster woke up.
Naymond wasn’t entirely certain of this theory but he’d seen it happen twice. The moment the monster’s eye opened, day simply appeared.
There was a glitch to its appearance but Naymond never worried about that. Portals often had glitches people were rarely ever aware of.
The second thing Naymond had learned was that the portal was a terrible match up for him. He could sense the monsters but not the countless bugs still attached to his leg. They snuck up on him and he was beginning to think there was perhaps some trick to their existence that allowed them sneak past his skill without detection.
Another reason the portal was a poor matchup for him was because he was literally a [Sage] alone in a portal. Being alone in a portal was a completely poor matchup for any [Sage].
Not for the first time he paled at the stupidity that had led him into the portal.
No, he thought.
It wasn’t the stupidity that had led him into the portal, it was the stupidity that had led him to using Madness’ child to play undercover. At the time, he’d thought nothing could go wrong. He had Navari’s gang in the palm of his hands already. There was nothing they could do that would fall outside of his calculations.
David had done as was required, Navari was living happy with no competing gangs even if he still wondered what had happened to them, and there was no one in the city’s underworld that didn’t fear the consultant in the suit.
As for the Romanians, he had a good enough grasp on their operations within the city and had known that they wouldn’t be stupid enough to send one of their own before the deadline.
Naymond had accounted for all possible and logical variables. Then some druggie had come and thrown his entire plan in a wrench, changed the dates and everything.
In hindsight, Naymond realized his hubris was what had undone him.
Even when he’d found out that Melmarc was the son of Madness, he hadn’t been too worried. The boy had been a perfect fit for the job, and the job was relatively safe. Coupled with who his father was, Naymond had assumed the boy would have some survival concept, and he’d been right.
The boy had handled himself well enough against the opponents he’d been faced with…
…Until the gun.
He’d only been hoping to give Melmarc some experience while solving the Romanian incident. He’d seen what their drugs had done in some of the villages in Romania. It gave benefits but the addiction that came with those benefits were worse than any drug anyone knew.
Then there was their main reason. Vampirism designed to boost ranks. There were a lot of problems and being a part of the police force gave him the tools he needed to solve the current issues in Brooklyn before making his way to Manhattan.
Naymond groaned as the numbness in his leg lightened insignificantly as a few of the critters simply fell off.
It was a comfort wheneve such things happened. It was proof that there was someone out there taking good care of the monsters around.
He looked down at the tattered mess that was himself and sighed at another thing he’d learned. The state of the portal.
It was what he would call a preservative portal. The entire thing wasn’t even real, not necessarily. From his deductions due to his constant pain, the portal was not a naturally occurring mana phenomenon. If it was, it had clearly been altered at some point.
It was in an arguable state of stasis, judging by what he’d learned from studying his injuries and the entire environment.
In the simplest terms, the portal simulated what he liked to call a fixed point. Every single thing inside it had a state it was in. A state it was not allowed to grow past or fall below naturally.
It was the reason his injuries did not fester or heal. It was why his pain did not grow or fall. To establish such a strong hold on such a large space would take a massive amount of mana. The likes of which even an Oath would not have.
He’d only seen such a portal once before and it had been anchored by the heart of a dying arch-demon.
One thing Naymond was glad to know was that the portal didn’t have demons. Those were nasty creatures. If he was to make a bet, the entire portal was being stabilized and controlled by the Orb of Caldath. Which meant it was a powerful orb.
Probably SS-rank by the time it gets out of here.
Chances were that the orb was more than that, but powering the entire place would definitely have put a drain on it. By the time the portal was cleared, it would be a shadow of what it had once been.
One of the monsters walked into a wall, shaking the building, and Naymond pulled himself closer to the window next to him.
He wasn’t going to go through it now, but he would eventually. Once he got his bearings. Right now everything hurt too much to move. For now, he still had time, and the later he was out the window, the better for him.
Once he was gone, the monsters would have to go around all the walls all the way back to the only entrance large enough to contain their tall size.
Naymond winced as another monster hit a wall and shook the entire building once more. He pulled his numb leg, dragged it closer to him. Then he shimmied closer to the window.
In his awareness [World of Insight] showed him eight of the monsters scattered all over the building.
One was so close that he was beginning to contemplate going out the window when his senses flared in confusion.
Naymond groaned at the pain, instinctively covering his ears with both hands and pressing his eyes shut as if they somehow turned off the passive nature of [World of Insight].
They did not. Instead, all of Naymond’s awareness shifted. He lost sight of the monsters and his surroundings as his mind focused on a single thing. He didn’t even know what it was, all he knew was that his senses refused to ignore it.
It held his attention, a weighted chaos of destruction. It filled his mind and he groaned in discomfort. It was like standing in a very bright room, the kind that allowed no shadows.
Then it shattered in an eruption of darkness. Simply winked out of existence like an extinguished flame.
Suddenly there were only seven monsters.
Naymond paled.
What the hell was that?
Some idiotic Delver was engaged in the stupid game of playing with raw mana.