Chapter 123: In Order to Live
Siyu roared, fangs elongating in his mouth. Ragged obsidian axes manifested in his hands, their edges lighting with an ominous red glow.
The fight erupted. Sen and Nara once again playing the role of defenders for the rest of the team.
Siyu knew he couldn’t sustain the concentrated assault of six well-trained iron rankers. The middle-aged healer would shield every time he used his Death Grasp ability, which bought time for the defenders to destroy it, greatly cutting it’s effectiveness.
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Ability: [Death Grasp]
Spell / Conjuration (affliction, unholy)
Cost: Moderate mana
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Effect (Iron): Hands of the undead reach up from the ground to ensnare a target. Can be used on any solid earthen surface.
Effect (Bronze): Inflicts instances of [Rigor Mortis]. Inflicts [Inescapable].
* [Rigor Mortis] (affliction, unholy, stacking): Penalty to the [Speed] and [Recovery] attributes. Additional instances have a cumulative effect. Each time a new instance is inflicted, deals necrotic damage for each existing instance.
* [Inescapable] (affliction, magic): Subject cannot be affected by teleport or non-damaging dimension effects.
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Siyu had minimal fighting experience, but his inherently higher bronze rank attributes and high recovery speed was so far keeping him alive.
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Ability: [Vampiric Bloodline]
Special Ability (transformation)
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Essence abilities can no longer advance through ordinary means such as combat and monster cores. Instead, you must consume blood to sustain yourself and advance your abilities. Consuming a body furthers your advancement. Consuming a body shortly after death has further increased effect. Consuming a body killed by your abilities has even greater effect. If you do not consume blood for a period of time determined by rank, you will begin to degenerate and die.
You are ageless.
You have increased proficiency with aura manipulation.
You can transform willing subjects into your servitors, greater vampires. They become inherently magical and share similar abilities as your essence abilities. They do not require blood to increase their rank, instead ranking slowly with age. Consuming blood will increase their rank faster. Blood is still required for sustenance. Your servitors cannot attack you. You have minor influence over your servitors but cannot bend their will.
Your health drain abilities have greater effect, but you are also less resistant to health drain. Health drain and wounding abilities used against you have greater effect.
Within magically enhanced sunlight, all attributes are decreased. This penalty increases with duration spent in sunlight, and resets after all instances of [Sunlight Madness] are lost. Within magically enhanced sunlight, gradually accrue instances of [Sunlight Madness]. [Sunlight Madness] cannot be resisted. Decreased affliction and damage resistance to sun, light, and fire subtype abilities.
* [Sunlight Madness] (affliction, curse, holy, stacking): Gradually lose control of your rational thought increases your bloodsucking desire. Suffer fire damage-over-time. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
This effect is permanent and cannot be undone.
Effect (Bronze): Gain increased physical strength, movement speed, and health regeneration. This bonus increases after consuming fresh blood.
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John’s camera was rapidly snapping photos. Siyu’s ability descriptions were pasted into Nara’s Party Guide for the team to read.
“I’m not reading that,” Nara said flatly while deflecting an obsidian axe, “That’s a wall of text!”
“Weak to sun, light, fire health drain, and wounding,” John summarized, feeling a bit like he was playing one of those video games. “Increased physical strength and movement speed.” He multitasked—casting shields, weaving healing spells, taking pictures of abilities with his magic camera, and blocking the needles or axe Siyu occasionally flung his way with his Guardian Shield.
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Ability: [Guardian Shield]
Essence: Immortal
Conjuration (shield)
Cost: Very high mana
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Effect (Iron): Conjure a floating shield that can withstand a large amount of damage. The shield will automatically float in a location around the conjurer to intercept attacks, or it can be actively controlled. The shield can be healed to restore its integrity. When the shield is destroyed, it cannot be reconjured until its cooldown ends. If the shield has not been destroyed, it can be reconjured at any time, at a moderate mana cost. The shield regenerates durability slowly while not conjured.
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Attacks that otherwise needed to be dodged or bubble shielded John could block with the floating Guardian Shield instead. Dodging interrupted particularly long spells, or at least slowed them down, while also distracting him from the tight concentration needed for the short-lived bubble shields. The Guardian Shield proved a useful quality-of-life ability that did its job without any particularly special effects. Since John was multitasking as their ability spotter, he could leave his shield to block the occasional attack.
John’s combat skill book, The Stance of the Guardian, was a skill book with knowledge useful for defensive roles such as tanks and healers, which sometimes were one and the same. With the right essence combination, healing defenders were one of the more common roles for humans with their special attack affinities. While John wasn’t a defender, his skill book taught him a steady fighting style and how to position himself on a battlefield—gauging the effective range of an essence user and how to constantly kite around them. A defender would need to either keep on top of an attacker, or stay back at range to intercept ranged attacks and protect their more fragile comrades. For John, that translated to remaining just far away enough that Siyu couldn’t easily reach him, but close enough for Nara and Sen to follow up if he tried.
John’s greatest trouble this fight was not the occasional attacks from Siyu, but his afflictions that his attacks built up on Nara and Sen. At bronze rank, they were resistant to his cleansing effects. He was using Cleansing Lifeblood the moment it was off cooldown, sacrificing his own heal to cleanse his allies. The only condition that could make the situation worse was if Vampiric Curse was a poison or disease affliction, since he could not cleanse those afflictions at all.
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Ability: [Cleansing Lifeblood]
Awakening Stone: Sacrifice
Spell (cleansing)
Incantation: “A cleansing sacrifice.”
Cost: Low health
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Effect (Iron): Cleanse a moderate number of unholy, curse, or magic afflictions from a target. Can target a specific wounding affliction to remove through healing.
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If Vampiric Curse built up past a threshold, it was over. Siyu inflicted Vampiric Curse on all of his special attacks.
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Racial Ability: [Progenitor Vampire]
Your special attacks inflict [Vampiric Curse] on a target.
* [Vampiric Curse] (affliction, unholy, curse, stacking): When [Vampiric Curse] reaches a threshold determined by rank, transform into a lesser vampire or a ghoul, dependent on rank.
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When their afflictions approached the limit, John would have to use Dawn of Creation to wipe them all away. Once he used that, there was no other choice but to use a cleansing potions which had its own limit, or have Eufemia use her Blessing of Relentlessness on him.
He watched the Party Guide indicators, wary as Nara and Sen’s afflictions crept closer to their limits.
The fight dragged on; John had already used Dawn of Creation. He would have been covered in sweat from the exertion, looking like one of those fitness bros with a shirt that was more sweat than fabric, if not for his outworlder body kindly removing that function and regulating temperature with magic.
Sen’s veins were bright and bulging, with a sickly dark hue that made John’s stomach churn. Nara was faring slightly better; her ability to dodge most of Siyu’s attacks greatly reduced her rate of accumulation of Siyu’s vampiric curse.
But Sen, Sen was on the verge. Yet the youth remained steadfast, with no apprehension towards his fate. John desperately cast Cleansing Lifeblood at every available opportunity, yet his curse steadily thickened on his veins, clotting them with their transformative curse, pulsing as if eating him alive.
Caspian, the Simurgh actually named Ka’us-valstalpan, was from a magical beast race known for their cleansing powers, even on Erras. It was an improbable reflection of culture across dimensions, or perhaps a quirk of translation abilities—no one knew. He had been tucked safely into John’s combat robe, in a pouch strapped to his chest like a baby carrier. Bonds were delicate at iron rank, and Sen would rather risk his life first before risking Caspian’s, his young and eternal friend.
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Simurghs transformed their experiences into new powers over the course of their lives, fulfilling their namesake of wise beasts, even if Caspian was puppy-like in intelligence. They could only use one power at a time at low ranks, but it was a power that could transform a battlefield.
In particular, the lineage of the Simurgh determined their first power—the one inherent. Caspian was a Lustral Simurgh, with the power to purify heaven and earth, and temporarily consecrate the ground.
Caspian’s wings and tails glowed with a golden-white light, his feathers and fur tipped with the morning sunlight reflected off of the pure dew drops of dawn. The mana was palpable as it gathered at the small creature bundled at John’s chest.
Siyu sensed the change and charged forward, but Sen would not let him through; He would protect his bond at all costs. Nara similarly intercepted, but even at her best she could not match the fervor of a bond and his guardian.
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-The land and air has been consecrated with the power of purification by [Ka’us-valstalpan].
-The effect of hostile afflictions in the zone has been decreased.
-Ally cleansing abilities and effects temporarily ignore rank disparity.
-A large number of afflictions have been cleansed from all allies.
-Cleansing orbs are generated from the land. When allies collect an orb, they are cleansed of a small number of afflictions.
-[Remaining Duration: 12 minutes]
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Sen grinned when the power of his familiar washed across the land in a pleasant, golden wave. Golden orbs of light rose from the ground like fairy lights on Christmas morning; a present for the whole team. Caspian could cast this single spell; he was, much like Thanatos, a mage wolf. However, he was even more specialized in casting a singular large spell that tipped the scales of battle. 12 minutes was not a long effect, but Caspian had bought the team time and reprieve against Siyu they desperately needed.
Sen had full trust that his bond would protect him time, just as he would always be there for him.
*****
Siyu’s Death Grasp had originally caught Nara off guard since it had manifested through her ground-blocking effect of Cosmic Path. Higher rank abilities had some inherent effect of resisting or bypassing lower ranked effects. This was also on a case-by-case basis, with more expensive and focused abilities maintaining their effects against higher rank enemies.
The addition of Cosmic Path as a temporary foothold no matter her orientation or altitude was a spectacular addition to Nara’s skill set and let her largely avoid Siyu’s Death Grasp. Siyu either had to wait for a long enough opening to use the ability on Nara when she touched ground, or just use it on Sen, the easier target. With Siyu’s lack of combat experience and overall impatience, he often defaulted to Sen. Sen’s more powerful blows could more easily break free of the ability, and he could also bear Siyu’s assault during the process.
Nara had already been thoroughly drilled by Laius and Amara to be quick on her feet. They had immediately recognized that her ability set held great potential for 3D movement and demanded excellence from her. She was more thankful than ever for that training. At gold rank, they had already progressed through the ability honing process Nara was currently going through, and developed the basic skills she’d need to make it there as well. Integrating the bronze rank effect of Cosmic Path only took slight adjustment before she was already using it to launch herself from every direction, pinballing with Dimension Node to assault Siyu from all directions while Sen held his attention at ground level.
With her transforming weapon, she was an adaptable foe that switched from defensive interrupter to offensive damage dealer. Her attacks were pinpricks against Siyu; he quickly recovered from them. He may not have been able to drain the townsfolk, but he did have his own supply of blood.
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Ability: [Blood Crystal]
Conjuration (blood, recovery)
Cost: Low mana per crystal
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Conjure a floating blood red crystal. This crystal can store blood and lifeforce extracted from targets. Preserves the freshness of blood. Blood and lifeforce can be extracted to replenish health or used for other abilities. Destroyed crystal loses all stored life force.
Effect (Bronze): Conjure two additional floating blood red crystals. Crystals can generate beams of life-suction from living targets, slowly draining their life force to store within the crystal.
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Three sloshing, deep red crystal floated beside Siyu, their reserves gradually draining, evidence of the damage he was sustaining as the team gradually worked him down. Siyu may be arrogant, but knew internally this was a losing battle. He had no option but to unleash one of his trump cards.
Most of his Bloodstone Servants had been destroyed by the cave in. Made of stone and flesh, they were partially resistant to the crushing force of rocks. He had destroyed another few to repair himself, consuming their old, disgusting flesh, leaving but two at his disposal. They were bronze rank; they would be a potent fighting force against the iron rankers that stood in his way.
He launched himself backwards, flinging himself towards the wall of the mountain. Two Bloodstone Servants burst from the mountain, their red pulsating veins highlighting their heretical nature.
Then, Siyu’s skin warped and crackled, shards of crystal falling off of him like a glass lizard shedding its skin to form a massive, part crystal part flesh monstrosity. It was as if a sculptor had seen a rotted corpse trapped within a crystal growth and instead of choosing another piece of crystal, had decided to use it as their base for a monster sculpture. Except, the sculptor was an amateur, and his masterpiece was large and misshapen, limbs hanging off at odd angles and dragging on the floor. The torso was lumpy and too large. It was like an orangutan, but lumbered without the quiet power and grace they possessed. All the while it moved, shards of crystal flaked off like dandruff, forming painful spikes on the ground.
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Ability: [Crystal Monstrosity]
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana and extreme health
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon a [Crystal Monstrosity] to serve as a familiar.
* A monstrosity of crystal and flesh. The crystalline components are brittle and is held together by pulsating fresh.
* After the initial summon, if the familiar has not been destroyed, the [Crystal Monstrosity] can be resummoned with the blood of beings beside the caster to increase its power, up to a limit determined by rank. Only blood of beings that had a soul will increase the power of the [Crystal Monstrosity]. This is a simplified ritual that does not require the original ritual materials.
* When attacking a target, parts of the familiar break off, leaving shards of crystal and inflicting or refreshing [Bleeding].
* Can be subsumed within the caster’s flesh, increasing resistance to wounding afflictions.
Effect (Bronze):
* Can generate and manipulate its flesh portions to adapt to its enemies after a period of time. This effect can only occur once per six hours.
* Can consume dead bodies to regain biomass. Can increase maximum size with excess biomass.
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The tides of battle had shifted. There were now four bronze rank enemies against the other team’s six iron rankers, although they also had their familiars. However, a characteristic of Siyu’s abilities was the increase in power of his familiars over time. On another essence user it may indicate their inclination towards preparation. On Siyu, it evidenced his cowardly nature; he wanted to be as strong as possible against even the weakest of enemies. He wanted to overwhelm them and crush them underfoot, to feel his superiority through violence.
Eufemia, Aliyah, and Encio, together with a litany of their own familiars, shifted their focus to deal with Siyu’s minions.
While Siyu had his own time to prepare, so had Aliyah. Aliyah’s arcane constructs were flying, soccer ball sized steampunk quidditch orbs. At base, they fired basic disruptive force bolts. However, with ritual knowledge and preparation time, Aliyah could transform their forms to adapt them to her enemies. These transformative rituals required additional materials such as quintessence and spirit coins, making it an adaptable but expensive ability (Aliyah had a perfectly good reason to complain about ritual costs, thank you very much!)
The three quidditch balls had been transformed into bronze armored hawks that carried a cannister of pressurized poison—the same poison Chrome had pelted Siyu with. They flew around the stone and crystal monstrosities like seagulls circling a schoolyard for food. Streams of corrosive liquid ejected from their cannisters like oil and vomit flamethrowers.
Aliyah had seen the stone monstrosities in Siyu’s lair and prepared against them. The team had an odd number of fire abilities for their lack of even a single Fire Essence—John’s Celestial Flame Mantle, his Solar Judgement, her own Arcane Dragon, and Thanatos’ Umbral Flames. There were covered for a vampire’s inherent weakness to flames and sun.
Eufemia had even doubled John’s Celestial Flame Mantle, so that both Nara and Sen alike were comets of living flame assaulting Siyu, who hissed and snarled as flames licked against his skin and restricted his ability to directly attack them.
That left the stone monstrosities as a weakness area for the team. Sen had his crushingly powerful blows and resonating force damage, but it wasn’t enough. Siyu also had a known Crystal Essence, so Aliyah concluded her best move was to adapt her summons to those threats instead.
A dragon around the size of a workhorse stayed by Aliyah’s side. It was Aliyah’s familiar, Ensi-Kuliana.
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Ability: [Arcane Dragon]
Awakening Stone: Dragon (epic)
Familiar (summoning, ritual)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon an [Arcane Dragon] to serve as a familiar.
* High resistance to physical and disruptive force damage.
* Can unleash elemental breaths and basic elemental spells. Breath attack has a 2-minute cooldown.
* Can chose to empower itself with an element, increasing the damage of that element. The dragon cannot use other elements. This effect has a 6-hour cooldown.
* Generates its own aura effect.
* Aura effect: Allies have increased damage resistance to the chosen element and increased resistance to elemental afflictions.
* Can be subsumed into the summoner’s skin, increasing physical and disruptive-force damage resistance with reactive dragon scales.
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Molted lava peeked through its obsidian scales; the Arcane Dragon was the embodiment of a volcano. It was channeling the element of fire through it, both to counter Siyu and additionally effective against the Bloodstone Servants. It’s glowing hot claws burned through the flesh of the flesh and stone monstrosities, greatly restricting what flexibility their corrupted flesh provided, while its high heat breath melted stone.
Ensi, however, stayed near Aliyah. Siyu would occasionally break away from his encirclement with his shadow form to attempt to kill Aliyah, who lacked physical defenses. The dragon stood in his way, protectively shielding Aliyah with a scaled wing, now battered from Siyu’s obsidian axes, or by unleashing a potent flame breath that wrenched scream of pain from Siyu’s throat as his skin blackened like carbonized meat.
Through pain, he was made to understand she was a well-protected target. His incursions against her opened himself up to assault from Sen and Nara. Nara deflected his attacks, weakening them or parrying them aside entirely, while Sen swung Searing Cold, the staff enhanced with a glowing hot energy blade.
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Ability: [Staff of Duality]
Essence: Balance
Conjuration (weapon, heat, cold)
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Conjure [Searing Cold, the [Staff of Duality]]. [Searing Cold] can generate either a blade of condensed flame or a shell of cold on the weapon, costing low mana-per-second for either effect. The blade of condensed flame inflicts additional heat damage. The shell of cold inflicts additional cold damage. This is a heavy weapon.
Effect (Bronze): When enhanced with condensed flame, special attacks additionally dispel an instance of a stacking boon from the target. When enhanced with the cold shell, special attacks inflict an instance of [Deep Cold].
* [Deep Cold] (affliction, unholy, ice, stacking): Suffer cold damage-over-time. Penalty to the [Speed] and [Recovery] attributes. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
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Siyu’s panic and rage built as the fight progressed. The team had an answer for every one of his tricks. They had evacuated town, preventing him from healing through involuntary blood donation or transforming others into thralls. The had called over a bronze ranker who incidentally dealt with his monster minions. The flaming aura on his two attackers prevented him from even attempting to suck their blood instead. Another blasted familiar had cleansed away most of the afflictions Siyu had painstakingly worked onto their defenders, and he hadn’t forgotten the pain that coursed through his body as he attempted to make Nara’s life force his own either. He knew, once his three familiars were run through, their full attention would be on him again, and he would die next. He wasn’t a trained adventurer either; each attack against him interrupted his concentration and his attacks were wide, wild, and inefficient.
Siyu was desperate to live. That desperation fueled him through the battle, providing a tenacity and clarity he wouldn’t demonstrate otherwise.
Siyu sloughed through the battle, flinging and reconjuring his axes, bearing the rips and damage against his flesh, and he hated hated hated every moment of it. The afflictions increasing on him were a constant reminder of the ticking clock on his life. Each sword stroke gouged out more flesh when they landed. He was already drenched entirely with his own blood, and he had long gotten used to the stench of his own burnt flesh, so potent he could taste it on his tongue.
In order to survive, Siyu made his final move.