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<01/27/1972 – 22:10 | The Outback {Alpha Zero}, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>
After walking inland for fifteen more minutes, the landscape changed so much, though Jane was making some good progress for how dangerous the place was said to be. Jane was now noticing deep holes and inclines downward far off the path, random flat patches of dirt that didn't agree with her one bit, and now there were rocky cliffs about a hundred feet tall each passing her by on the legs taking her. She could even see an arch made of rock much further ahead in the distance, but she couldn't let her guard down for even a second.
Everything about this place reeks. No wonder they call it the dark zone. The beautiful Outback that was once a magical forest the size of a grand wild land continent has been transformed into a dead zone of mesh and decayed life. The slight winds were so quiet, that the unknown low pitch sounds were still loud enough to overshadow them. It sort of sounded like the roar of thunder very far away, stuck in stasis and unable to change its pitch or volume.
Despite the red light making things brighter than before compared to a black sky, the entire landscape was still poorly lit. It's about as bright as installing a red tinted light bulb into a room. The color change looks cool, but one can't help form noticing how much dimmer that light is all around. Or perhaps the sun is out right now, and the thin fog was responsible for the effects here. Jane couldn't be certain, for she knew so little about dark magic. The light provided was brighter than the normal ambient light previously available, but darker than the normal day - should the sun have been unobstructed, much darker in comparison than daytime with heavy rainfall. The dry heat was almost unforgivable. Jane was able to finally get used to some of that heat by now, but her feet was getting soaked in the sweat, trapped in by her socks and shoes. What was worse is how badly it messed up her hair.
Even the smell of this place was eerie. It was nearly indescribable and unpleasant at the same time, the smell produced after mixing the hot summer breeze with burnt rocky minerals and long put out fires from plant mesh. No matter which way she turned her nose, she couldn't diffuse that smell. After returning, she'll need a long shower to wipe this stench off.
But boredom was quickly replaced by a life threatening feeling of suspense all around her. The noise, the smell, the sight, the heat, everything here amplified together how creepy her environment was. Jane knew she was trapped in here for now. The hostile environment spans everywhere, Jane could feel it all around, and all that did was give her nervous twitches and a rapid heartbeat. Right now, anything can jump out and kill her, provided that heat isn't the cause of death here.
So far, so much was the same. Jane was on edge the entire time with the uneventful travel, and tried to distract herself by pulling back on her suit's right glove again. The full Lennith battle suit allowed her to pull back on the glove, exposing her hand completely. To her perspective right now, this was just her normal hand. Jane already knew that the symbol was there in hiding, but with all of the practice Jane had over the days, she was finally able to just call it out whenever she wanted to. With a few seconds of concentration, Jane suddenly made the hidden symbol appear again on the top of her right hand. The bright crest of artwork faded in and began to glow with a holographic projection aura. The art and design was the same as before too. Dark pink in color, yet stained in there like a well-made holographic tattoo. The design was so unique, resembling an oval with a ring going around it. It sort of looked like a planet with a ring, but on the interior of the oval was a circular spiral that formed on the inside, completing the design to a few more circles within circles, thus finally the very center of the symbol, which turned out to be a colored in sphere. A lot of circles and ovals, but the spiral on the outer most interior made it the most unique.
To think, this was the exact same symbol Jane saw appear in the sky after using the dangerous spell bomb on herself, just a moment before the beam of light blasted her from the sky. The symbol that appeared from the spell bomb and the one on her hand right now; they're exactly identical, difference being the sizes. This symbol is the reason she is on this crazy path, doing dangerous things. This symbol is the downfall of her entire life if it cannot be reversed.
Jane let the symbol become transparent again, fading into its completely invisible form. It was much easier to control lately than what Jane remembered earlier. She put her glove back on, disregarding the mark on her hand. Still terrified of the walk, Jane took in all of her surroundings again to make sure she was alone. Though she wouldn't want any action or creature stalking her, Jane sure did wish for human company right about now. The sensation of nervousness just kept growing on her the longer things remained the same. Jane used a tiny bit of her magic, trying to invoke the energy scope above her head again. Claudia said something about it looking different in the dark zone. That has to mean something.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/gkrjLzD2/S2-Jane-AV-001.png]
The energy scope was holographic, all the same visual design as before. The only noticeable difference was its color. The color and glow is green now, the text, the box, the design, all of it was green instead of orange. Someone told her what that meant earlier, but Jane struggled to remember what it was about.
Without sudden warning, a bright orange light flashed in front of Jane, just a few meters in front of where she was going to walk. Suddenly a large red colored symbol or glyphring formed on the ground, and a reflection of the same thing high above that location. Each glyphring was spinning, and the light was getting brighter right in between the rotating disks... It's a summon!
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Chapter Theme Shift: Sore wa Matsuri no Escort ~ Tatsuya Kato
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Something is summoning some sort of creature to this exact spot! Just on cue, the summon glyphring began to finish. Right before Jane's own eyes, pink electrical bolts zapped the ground in between the vertical glyphrings, creating the summon in real space. From nothing, the creature materialized into physical space with a visual pixilation effect. Its final result...
She backed up several paces in response. "What the hell is that thing?!" Jane couldn't believe it! The summon glyphrings vanished leaving the creature behind. What was she looking at? It had four legs and hands, with claws sharper than anything, each a meter long in length. The monstrous beast had some sort of curved blade on the top of its head, and the face of some ugly chimera. It looked like a dangerous hound mixed with a gigantic monstrous ghoul. The creature was also ten times the size of Jane, now turning around to glare at her with unnatural red demonic eyes of death.
Jane instinctively took a few steps back, nice and slowly. This raved animal was staring her down, like she was some sort of snack. Where did that summon aura come from? Why was the summon glyphring red instead of yellow? Who called it out?! Jane didn't see anybody nearby, even when glancing behind her. Whatever this behemoth is, Jane was far from comfortable around it. Could this be what they were talking about? Monsters that are deadly and dangerous, that also spawn randomly due to the nature of Alpha Zero? To think that the dark zone itself allows these creatures to spawn all without control of a conscious person to be there for it? It's a wild summon. But of all things, this is one of the monsters isn't it? This is a blood thirsty monster that eats humans and kills anything else!
The summoning glyphrings have disappeared, leaving behind the dangerous spawn of a monster, and the behemoth was now turning its sights on Jane. Despite how ugly and strange the monster was, it did resemble something just enough for Jane to figure out where its head was. That became easier as the behemoth lifted its tail higher above its body, revealing the small spikes attached to the end of the tail. The monster roared instantly in Jane's face, preparing to pounce.
Jane looked around everywhere for support, but there wasn't anyone around to help her at all. Despite the angered beast glaring into Jane's soul, there wasn't any sort of system or Siriean dome to form between them. A Leray battle between some crazy animal and a human is not an official battle. Therefore it was a little harder to actually calculate whether this was going to turn into a fight packed with a Siriean dome.
Jane figured there wasn't any time for sightseeing. The mysterious behemoth, still riding its four muscular legs began charging towards Jane. It ran just like a giant dog, jumping closer and closer to her body without any hint of a course change. Reacting so instinctively, Jane yelped and threw her arms up in response. Without even thinking about anything else, Jane managed to incidentally create the same shielding aura around her entire body by the way she had her arms up, her energy slowly draining to create the force field. While suddenly surrounded by this force field, Jane opened her eyes only to see the monster swipe its giant claw at Jane. Only instead of the claws digging into her skin in the most dangerous and devastating form of a deadly physical attack, the monster's hand reflected off the transparent shield like a spring, triggering the sound of a shield reflection while creating multiple hexagons at the interior, right at the impact point for Jane to see. It would have landed on her face had the shield not protected her.
Jane couldn't believe this was actually happening, and right now of all times! This disgusting yet incredible monster spawn really was everything people would fear. Its potential for dealing high amounts of HP damage were likely too high since it comes from Alpha Zero. There wasn't a mistake in her mind after seeing its mindless actions. The sky was still red behind the view of her aura, and everything was as dark and bleak as before. This is the dark zone for sure, and this crazy monster in front of her must be one of the spawns everybody is so afraid of.
This isn't going to be easy. Jane already realized that a battle was inevitable. Outrunning him won't be feasible, and because the monster is a piece of the unnatural, it won't be capable of speaking or chanting its moves or attack spells before using them. Everything it does will be random, defying the normal rules of a Leray match altogether. Where is the thing's health and MP status? Even monsters are supposed to have energy scopes assigned to them, no matter what!
Jane risked it. She lowered her arms, dropping the shield on her will. Then she waved her hand towards the creature, attempting to force open its energy scope. Amazingly, in just a cinch, her trick actually worked. Another green energy scope hovered over the monster where it was stationed. The behemoth didn't seem to mind, and Jane had to artificially give the thing some sort of name, coming directly from her own thoughts.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/tTVn6Xy6/S2-Behemoth-AV-000.png]
Just as she thought. The monster can be defeated after all. The appearance of an energy scopes means that even a creature like this is not immortal. There's no choice then! It's battle or die trying. "You're in the way to the Den of Purity. Step aside or fight!"
All the monster did was bellow a rumbling roar potent enough to make the ground quake. It then set its sights on Jane again, stomping its front leg into the ground and swiping back again and again. It was a definite sign that the behemoth was about to charge at her once more.
"Not if I can help it." Jane pulled out her two daggers from the side pockets in her suit. Then, after aiming her blades at the monster, she charged a small amount of MP energy into the daggers, firing two blue narrow beams of light into its flesh. "Mako Beam!" Jane only meant to strike the beast twice. Certain it would deal low amounts of damage, at least it would tell her how the creature responds to Leray type damage. Maybe it can be scared away.
Both Mako Beams dug into the monster, but the beast didn't even wince or blink its lidless eyes. In retaliation, it charged towards Jane. The monster seemed to have the courteously to keep its distance a bit before attacking again, but Jane was still in trouble once more. "Power Shield!" Jane reacted quickly, lifting her two arms up and creating another blue force field around herself. Then the beast drove its bladed head into Jane's aura, drilling upward in a failed attempt to try and launch Jane's fragile body into the air. Hexagons formed at the damaged impact sights, and Jane could feel the sudden drain and stress the damaged shield placed on her, but because no HP reduction was registered, the behemoth began to back away foot by foot, pacing itself.
At the same time, Jane could read the subtle change in the energy scope from the monster. It really was capable of taking damage, despite the fact that her last attack did very little to harm the creature.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/cCygMV4b/S2-Behemoth-AV-001.png]
At last, Jane dropped her shield again, realizing she has but another short moment of safety and a chance to strike back. In the dark zone, anything and everything is said to deal real time damage instead of Leray damage, including damage dealt by Leray magic. Maybe that explained the color shift in the energy scopes, because here in Alpha Zero, the veil of Leray protection cannot protect anyone or anything. Energy scopes thus turn green to report that the veil of protection is not affecting that living creature. But Jane wasn't a fool. Taking any damage from this creature should be avoided at all costs, and that means no holding back. If magical damage is going to be cut in half, then it's time to use physical damage instead.
"Splicing Vengeance!" With her daggers still in her hands, Jane charged a small amount of MP into her daggers and her body, allowing herself to completely pull off her battle skill. Jane ran towards the beast, and then accelerated in an unpredictable manner. Jane ran at the speed of light for just a micro-second, enough time to place herself right in front of the monster. Jane then used that momentum, slicing both of her daggers into the creature's gross muscular skin. Just as Jane slashed her blades into the beast, she noticed a significant HP drop on her foe's HP level. The disgusting sound of broken flesh on the monster from Jane's blades mixed with the visual slime of animal blood spilling from the impact sight was equally distracting, but this was the worst thing for Jane, since it lowered her guard for a second.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/1XGgWJ85/S2-Behemoth-AV-002.png]
Despite taking on more slashing damage, the behemoth creature was still unwilling to back down from the fight, not even stepping back form the last hit. With its eyes now locked onto Jane, the creature roared again, jumping into the air with a total spin. It wasn't jumping into Jane, rather spinning around in a full circle with Jane as close as she was to the beast. Before Jane could react to the most unexpected motions and movements of the monster, its giant forceful tail smacked around into Jane's upper chest, pushing her back flying through the air. In the specific moment, it felt like getting hit by a mace, the spikes on the tail adding to the piercing damage as well as the intense pain. From the force of that hit, Jane was sent at least twenty meters backwards to plummet and skid into the burning dirt below her. Visible marks of broken skin revealed itself to Jane from the hit of the spiked tail, as did the scrapes forming from hitting the ground again.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/4NMdzDLb/S2-Jane-AV-002.png]
Though it was nothing more than a mere physical attack initiated by the angry, hungry monster, Jane really wasn't expecting something so large to contain so much speed and mobility. The physical force of that impact hurt worse than most of the magical attacks she felt before. Jane was forced to remember another harsh virtue of the dark zone. Without the Leray veil of protection, the pain scale reduction of all attacks is zero percent instead of fifty percent. Piercing attacks with the veil active have a reduction scale of only thirty percent by design, but here, that scale is non-existent; no pain absorber system works in the dark zone. Nevertheless, she got back up, ignoring that bit of pain that delivered her from the fight. Now Jane and the monster were facing each other again at about twenty meters away. It was now or never for retaliation. One thing remained certain in Jane's eyes. The longer this fight goes on, the worse it will be for her health.
"Charge Attack!" After putting away her daggers, Jane began running towards the monster, initiating her randomized sequence of incredible combinations. It was an attack sequence form what Claudia taught to her earlier, an attack combo that is never the same for anyone who uses it, and totally controllable by the user. Jane ended up summoning two sub machine guns in both hands through quick spawning yellow glyphrings. Then she pulled the triggers on both of them, firing the bullets into the waiting behemoth, but even now, the monster didn't mind that he was being shot at, and that must have meant the damage was too low.
Jane ditched the guns and pulled out her daggers again. This was now getting really dangerous, as she intended to slash at the monster right in its face. As she drew closer, the beast prepared to swipe its claw at Jane, but Jane was luckily quicker than that. She slashed her daggers in an upward position, slicing the chin of the behemoth. Unfinished with her combination, Jane jumped up and kicked the beast in the face again. Before it could figure out how to proceed in a counterattack, Jane jumped backwards as far as she could, using a small bit of magic to boost the height and force of her leap. While in midair, Jane threw her two daggers again into the beast, making sure to land on her feet after it was over.
The daggers hit the monster from flying, but even with all of the added damage from her amazing combination attack, the behemoth was still unfazed from the damages and pain it was taking on, the beast a savage!
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/SQCzNNgF/S2-Behemoth-AV-003.png]
How interesting! Physical attacks really do cause more damage than Leray magic spells, but it was a disgusting sight for her eyes. The dagger slashes she had been dealing onto the monster sliced open some more of its flesh, causing it to ooze black blood from the seams of its wounds, and now some of that gross ooze was dripping from the ends of her small blades. This really is a fight for real time damage. Everything going on here proves that this demon is just a creature with no sentience, a creature of pure evil and instinct.
Keeping up was getting more difficult too. Jane had no way of knowing exactly when or how the beast was going to attack her, but it was already up to something. The monster stood on its hind legs for a moment, then crashed its front legs back into the earth causing a quake and two new glyphrings to appear on the ground. It's using magic! Those large red glyphrings forming on the floor were not from Jane at all. It is about to use some sort of magic, or dark magic for that matter!
Screw this! Jane thought aloud. Whatever it was up to, it can't be good. After putting her daggers back into her pocket again, Jane threw her arms above her waist again, concentrating and focusing her energy outward and around her. This created another power shield, forming from the slow release of energy coming from her open hands. Jane managed to create another shield aura around herself like before, and not a moment too soon.
The magical power invoked by the silent creature was something similar to a fire type attack. Though the glyphrings were formed on the ground, one Fire Ball shoot out from each of the two glyphrings, changing their course from the sky towards Jane's body. The beast must not understand the concept of Jane's own ability to shield out damage, but despite that, Jane saw the first magical based attack the creature was able to use. It shot two Fire Balls with homing capabilities, landing and disintegrating right into the protective aura. Jane suddenly felt weaker already, while the hexagons formed at each impact sight. This time the hexagons were smaller, meaning the damage level was much higher than she predicted. Fire Ball is one of the weakest fire based Leray attacks. So how was it possible for a monster to make its Fire Balls eight times stronger?
There wasn't time to argue. Despite the fact that the beast did not care for taking turns with Jane, it was naturally happening by chance. Jane dropped her shield, readying another prepared counterattack against the behemoth, but Jane wanted to try another one of her newly learned skills and abilities. Another conditional ability, though it should work well in this case. "Return Fire!" Jane wasn't exactly sure what form this spell will take. Return Fire is a conditional Leray ability, generating a random attack spell based on the last three skills used by the enemy opponent. The damage and attack is purely dependent on the magic type that was used against her just now and two attacks before now - from the enemy, so it will likely turn into some altered form of a fire based skill, maybe. Jane never had a chance to use it in the field, but now was the time.
Shortly after her invocation, Jane's unleashed magic created a crimson colored glyphring right in front of her. After the glyphring took form, rotating in place with its center aimed at the behemoth, the magical free form attack launched three Fire Bolts out of the glyphring, now heading for the monster. Triple Fire? I could have just done that! Though each Fire Bolt launched simultaneously unlike the form of a normal Triple Fire spell, each projectile hit the target, being that the monster possessed no courtesy of dodging hostile spells.
Despite the attack taking the form of an existing easy to use spell, all three Fire Bolts landed on the behemoth, who didn't even attempt to dodge the attack. The bolts seemed to travel faster than the ordinary skill from Triple Fire, so at least there was some improvement. Jane read the changed energy scope of the monster, realizing that her strategy for coming here was working.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/VLFrnZyK/S2-Behemoth-AV-004.png]
Once again, the monster roared to the top of its deep lungs. Jane covered her ears because of how much louder the behemoth became. Perhaps its constant roaring was its anger? Or maybe this fighting stuff was actually working to take down the enemy. The behemoth wasn't just sitting around though. After seizing another opportunity, the behemoth began charging at Jane again, giving her some warning to defend herself like before.
Whatever the charge attack was going to be like, Jane didn't want to stick around and feel it. So she threw her arms up again, shielding herself just like all other times. The aura surrounded her just in time. The beast stopped running just in front of Jane, swiping its claws at her again. Despite its lack of learning skills, the monster seemed to be getting more determined, swiping against the solid shield multiple times before finally backing away, but Jane didn't have many problems keeping her shield up this time. With a still high MP level and the monster's low level attacks, everything was still going according to plan.
This time, Jane lowered her shield just before the monster began backing away like it did before in a defeated attack run. The very moment her shield came down was the same moment Jane released more energy through her hands. "Rotation!" In an instance of magical invocation, Jane's ability forced a large whirlwind of slashing air magic to spawn around her like a large twister. That twister than slid forward on its own, on a collision path towards the creature by design of the magical skill. The force of the wind was far from powerful enough to trip up the behemoth, but it still kept the creature immobilized as the magical whirlwind continued to deal wind elemental slashing damage into its skin, hitting the beast in various locations against its will.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/qMr6tVFt/S2-Behemoth-AV-005.png]
The Rotation spell did not last long, but Jane found the time afterwards to gain some more distance from the creature anyway. Yet despite all of her winning attacks, this beast was nothing but relentless. In a quick searing motion, the monster used its front legs to lift off the ground, balancing on its hind legs for a short moment. In the same instance, its entire body began to glow with a bright yellow color, just before smashing its claws back into the ground again. Only this time, it had been invoking another kind of magical attack.
The ground began shaking violently, throwing up chunks of dirt and rocks. Jane struggled to stand up straight while the earth below her shifted too much for her to handle. It was an earthquake, or rather the magical ability known as Quake. The behemoth must have used that from far away, tricking Jane into forgetting about the shield. Without the ability to escape the shaking, or without the chance to balance herself out, Jane was defenseless against the earth based damage being caused by the quake. Just then, a chunk of flying rocks suddenly pelleted her right in the face, and another one scrapped up against her leg. For simple rocks, they were razor sharp enough to cut her skin right through the invulnerable fabric of the suit. Just like that, Jane's health declined, and she now suffered slightly open cuts and moderate facial bruising. Each impact was more painful than she was used to, with the pain absorber removed.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/dVy0n5gM/S2-Jane-AV-003.png]
Jane managed to overcome the attack and its pain rather quickly, but her energy scope was reporting something odd already. Of course now was not the time to be concerned about reading things. She decided to remain calm and focused. What's another attack that will work without fail against such a powerful monster?
"Ultima!" Jane dared not to use this skill during her last fight against the challenger, for its power level is on such a high scale. It would consume a ton of her current MP reserves, but she needed to end this fight as soon as possible. Jane began charging the necessary amount of energy, hoping that the behemoth would not interrupt her. The invocation of the spell was not instant, and Ultima is one of the most powerful skills of all time. It's the strongest refinement form of Mega-Flare. It was weird for Claudia to help Jane learn Ultima instead of Mega-Flare though, but it didn't matter right now. This thing needs to die. "Naaaaahhhhh!" After releasing all of that charged energy, the entire area became cloaked in a blinding flash of white light with bursting sounds, lasting for three lengthy seconds. The temperature began burning much higher than it was before, but all of that light-screen damage was being dealt to the monster, not to Jane. Like Mega-Flare, Ultima blasts the entire field with blinding light, dealing pure magical damage with a heat element involved too, containing a power level of 9.2. Ultima hits the whole field with light, so it cannot be blocked or dodged no matter what, and that makes it a deadly magical Leray spell.
As the light faded, Jane noticed that the monster was just standing on all four of its legs, breathing heavily and staring at Jane as if to charge again. How did that thing survive?! The behemoth didn't even seem hurt by that crazy attack, but its energy scope told another story, and so did the disgusting black blood oozing through its claws. All of that damage was still effective, but the behemoth somehow retained its resilience the entire time.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/vZH1z7bb/S2-Behemoth-AV-006.png]
The monster began charging at Jane on all four legs again, like her Ultima never even happened. "Damn," she cried. Jane put her arms outward again, forming another power shield with a quick invocation. The aura surrounded her like before with no problems. Her MP level didn't drop too close to zero despite the use of her last powerful spell, but at the same time, the monster stopped charging towards Jane halfway there, as if it somehow knew about the shield. Was it really capable of learning anything else?
Just then, the monster lifted off its right arm, and its body began glowing with a deep red auric color in midair. It was another magical attack. Just as its body slammed into the earth again, that magical energy was released, causing another earthquake. Jane was still protected in her shield despite the sudden quake. Her balance was protected by the shield just as much, but this wasn't any ordinary earthquake. Soon after the ground began shaking, large vertical plumes of fire shoot out of the ground in random areas and patches, as if hundreds baby volcanos were erupting from underground all over the battlefield. It was Fiery Plume!
Jane had seen Claudia use this attack against her. Hell, she got to feel the effects of fire plume first hand. Despite being in the Leray zone in her past experience, the pain threshold and fire based damage was not pretty. Just on cue, a plume of fire shoot up from the ground, right under Jane's own power shield. The fire was spreading around the shield, unable to penetrate its aura, but the plume of fire was continuous after eruption for a long moment, and the hexagons on the bottom were of the tinniest form Jane has ever seen yet. In no time flat, she could feel her shield failing, all of that energy output draining to zero. Jane knew she could not keep it up forever, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Just then, the shield aura around her collapsed, sending Jane on her knees from the sudden drain of her energy it caused. Just as the shield collapsed, the plume of shooting earth and fire beneath Jane now had more room to throw itself everywhere. Jane's entire body was suddenly enflamed with the fire from Fiery Plume, burning her flesh while simultaneously splashing her body with rocks in the same form. Despite her shield failing before the attack was over, the plume of fire brushed into Jane for a full second of time, sending her all the way to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs while she tried to pat out the non-transferable fire on her body. The attack just ended, but the damage was already done to her. With third degree burns stinging at her nerves, Jane's body wasn't actually on fire anymore, but it still stung as if she were. This hurt three times as bad as it did when Claudia invoked the same spell against her, and the burn marks were not leaving any time soon.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/tgG4chHs/S2-Jane-AV-004.png]
Jane didn't care that her energy scope was warning her about imminent death. She didn't care that her position would give the monster more time to attack her. She just wanted the lingering pain to stop! The Fiery Plume attack did not even hit her for as long as it could have, and yet it was far worse than she ever imagined it could be. Even so, Jane eventually managed to quit screaming out in the agony. She was hurting all over with small scrapes and bruises, but worst of all the multiple spots of which that fire burned her skin right through her black and blue mercenary suit. That pain only faded slightly, and Jane was still in trouble for letting her guard down. This damage counts as real time damage too, which means healing orbs won't do that much to restore the carnage already caused to her skin.
Luckily for her, the crazy dog wasn't charging at her yet. Instead it was roaring loudly, stomping everywhere vigorously and randomly. It must be hurting too. This was about the first time Jane actually noticed that her earlier attacks were finally affecting the foe in some sort of way. Can't let up now!
Jane pushed herself back on her feet, doing her absolute best to ignore all of her damages. If this is how the dark zone treats incoming magical damage, better be sure to avoid it at all costs from now on. "Hah," Jane blurted while getting her will back in place. She was now in the position to fight back, and did so without moving her legs an inch. Jane held her right hand up high, charged with MP energy which caused it to glow a pure blue color. "Photon Burst!"
Jane's magical release caused an instantaneous reaction in the sky, causing it to rain barrages of photon bolts downward, striking on the top of the behemoth from such a high starting point. Each impact carried a slight after explosion of pure magical damage, and the monster was suddenly being slammed with these powerful photons.
Photon Blast is one of the rare and powerful abilities that Claudia managed to teach her. Photon Blast is another high power level ability, creating a blue glyphring and firing a massive barrage of energy photons in the form of bolts. Each photon packs high damage, dealing non-elemental magical damage with the ability to pierce through metal armor and deal blunt damage at the same time. Each photon travels close to the speed of light, so the area attack cannot be dodged randomly, but Photon Blast fires from the wielder's glyphring to the target.
Jane managed to learn the ability, and then modify one of her own versions of the spell into this. By using an aura spawn instead of a glyphring for what she calls Photon Burst, the photons now spawn from above, striking down on the target in a magical rain. This way, the extra momentum due to gravity gives the photons extra damage, and the enemy might not see it coming from straight above them. This monster sure didn't see it coming. Jane's Photon Burst ability worked like a charm, dealing heavy damage to the monster, and turning its energy scope the dangerous color of red.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/2Sc1XqSv/S2-Behemoth-AV-007.png]
Jane was even more impressed with how much faster she had been able to invoke her Photon Burst ability. On either form, it usually takes about seven second for any average person to invoke the spell, but Jane's photon Burst came into effect only two seconds after chanting the name. As impressive as it was, the monster was now on low health and nearly beaten.
Though with the way it was running straight for her right now, it can't be out of stamina just yet. "Power shield!" Jane threw up another protective aura just as the monster got in clawing range again. Only this time, the behemoth went straight for using its jaw to attack her. With the shield up and running, the behemoth tried to take a bite out of Jane, instead landing its razor sharp claws into the protective aura, bouncing the vibrational force back into the monster's mouth. Since the force of attacks gets reflected back, that had to have hurt his teeth!
The hit to Jane's shield caused more hexagons to appear, though they weren't that small, so the damage was light. Either way, Jane was already getting weaker from using that shield over and over again. Her MP levels were dropping quickly after her last Photon Burst attack had been launched. While keeping an eye on her stats, Jane thought of another easier skill to invoke while the monster stepped back and heeled over in pain from its jaw.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/jj6SYLsZ/S2-Jane-AV-005.png]
"See how you like Lightning Strike!" Jane consumed most of all her MP just to create the jade color glyphring around her wrist, and then unleashed that energy into a powerful blue colored lightning bolt that lasted for over a second, zapping the behemoth in place as it savagely roared and bellowed in pain. As soon as the lightning attack ended, Jane's spirits dropped realizing that the fight was still on.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/BvjjWqjz/S2-Behemoth-AV-008.png]
Roaring and screaming! That's all the behemoth was capable of doing now. Perhaps it was in excruciating pain too, but Jane didn't feel much sympathy for it right now. Even though she didn't bring it down, the monster was in total denial, refusing to even look at Jane or retaliate against her. It just stomped in place, turning and stomping, roaring as loud as it could go, enough volume to shake the ground like before. Even though she was using Leray magic for damage, even if that power was cut in half by the dark zone, the damage type itself still registers as Leray based real time damage, thus causing serious harm and injury to anyone hit by such effects.
"Gotta end this now." Jane pulled out her daggers, taking careful aim in order to pull off her critical hit Knife Toss strategy. As soon as she threw her daggers, they flew through the air horizontally, keeping their formation and trajectory until each bade dug their way into the monster's skin. With that one final hit, the behemoth bellowed even louder, making an earthquake with its massive voice. Jane covered her ears in response, hoping that hit did enough damage to end the fight.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/pd3pRg8L/S2-Behemoth-AV-009.png]
The reaction to its downed HP was clearly delayed, but the monster refused to give up and die. As a result, Jane just watched as the same two red glyphrings that summoned the creature took form again, one right under the behemoth's feet, and another right above its body. Both of the summoning glyphrings reacted, dragging the monster back to god knows where else. This certainly was a strange way to defeat an opponent, but it somehow worked out. In just a few more moments, the glyphrings rematerialized the behemoth into a stream of light, being sucked into the glyphrings until both of them disappeared with the monster. The moment that happened, everything was all quiet again.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Intricate Match ~ Star Ocean 3 OST
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Jane couldn't believe this moment. She had done it! That dangerous monster was beaten, killed by her own two hands. A spawn of evil, one that has never been seen or killed before, Jane managed to overcome it with her new skills and the defense of her power shield. But even with just a few stray hits to her own body, those damages were still hurting her. Now was the perfect time to use a healing orb.
Jane pulled a healing orb out of her supply sphere, minding the silence that surrounded her. It was a bit of a surprise to see this orb still functioning in a place like this. As Jane held the orb in her hand and activated the device, the orb brightened with a bright white color, just like it was supposed to. During that time, Jane quickly reflected on her own strategy.
Not much went wrong other than letting her guard down even slightly for a few moments, but it was much harder than an ordinary battle, given that she cannot predict the movements or actions taken by these creatures. They can't speak, let alone chant the names of any type of skill, and though the thought came just now that Jane could simply use healing orbs in the middle of her battles, it would leave her open for a dangerous interval of time. Since there is no Siriean dome, the battle doesn't count as official. In fact, the Siriean dome's formation is normally what locks healing orbs from being used during battles, which is why people can't just use them against live targets. Since these battles are not officiallized by the Leray system, her license card is totally unaffected, and so are some of the basic rules of battling. Once the healing process was over, Jane noticed something different about what was supposed to happen.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/9MWFmC0V/S2-Jane-AV-006.png]
Whatever error the scope was throwing off wasn't going away. Additionally, the orb failed to completely heal her HP status and MP status to 100%. After waiting another second, Jane's MP level climbed by one percent, showing a clear sign of passive regeneration, but the HP mark didn't even budge. Jane shook her head in disbelief, and used another med kit orb to try again. After the second flash of the med kit orb was used up, Jane's stats on her scope barely changed at all.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/VvvftgXV/S2-Jane-AV-007.png]
The important fact was that her HP level was not climbing back up to a full 100%. Nothing is supposed to prevent a healing orb from doing its job. Even now, most of Jane's battle pains and wounds were gone, but a couple of scrapes and bruises remained, especially the one just over her right eye. A rock chunk hit her there earlier, and it wasn't healing. Plus a few burn marks remained there on her left arm too. The intensity of the burns healed somewhat, but the marks and pains from there lingered at a low intensity. Wait a second...
Is this what they meant by irrecoverable real time damage? If I take too much damage in the dark zone, medical orbs won't be able to heal all of the damages... Because it's partially real time damage! Jane finally figured out its meaning. The longer she says here, the lower her own maximum HP level will get with each and every battle. If she takes enough real time damage, and then her HP reaches zero even for a second, its instant death to her. Man! No pressure or anything! So I can only heal up to 93% now? That's my current HP cap due to existing real time damage? Guess I better not fight anyone else. I'd rather just run away. Battles here are not even official battles, so it won't count on my license either.
The blinking text on Jane's energy scope was already bothering her too. That unknown recovery error thing must be talking about taking real time damage. The scopes were never officially designed to tell people that they've taken real time damage, because Leray magic cannot detect or measure that damage type properly anyway. The response error would be in that she cannot naturally heal at a normal rate, nor can she make a full recovery from the damage until these wounds heal by other means. Since she already knew about it, Jane decided to will it away from the report line.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/pX9VX0W9/S2-Jane-AV-008-REDUX-B.png]
There! That's better. Now... Where's the way again? Jane had to pull out her paper map once again, making sure no other blood thirsty monsters were walking around. Nothing else about the dark zone's environment seemed to change, and it was going to be like this for the rest of the way it seemed. Based on the map, Jane was only able to determine which way to go, not how far she was to her destination. She had an analog compass too, following the needle to the direction of north, allowing her to find a sense of direction.
There was a high and oddly shaped cliff further ahead in the distance, and just past that, a wide stone arch that served as an excellent landmark. Though it seemed she would eventually end up walking by or under that structure, it would only get closer for her. Jane cautiously proceeded in that direction, remaining wary about any possible intruders.