Chapter 154: Consumed By the Void
“I’m actually interested,” Nara said.
“You are?” Sen responded, an eyebrow inching up in mild surprise.
“Don’t look at me like that. You haven’t had to goad me into training for a while, right?”
Sen smirked, apparently teasing her.
“Since we keep fighting stuff above our rank, I want to see what’d be like on the opposite side. A bunch of those below me trying to bring me down.”
“So if it ever happens, you’ll know how to deal with it?” Sen offered as explanation.
“I hope I don’t do anything where multiple iron rankers are trying to kill me,” Nara groaned. “Then I know I’ve become the Big Bad. But I agree with you. I think it’s good training. Not often do we have to fight outnumbered against highly skilled essence users.”
“Moderately skilled,” Encio interjected, because if Adelina wanted them beaten down because of arrogance, then they weren’t up to snuff and didn’t deserve the adornment of highly skilled.
“The pirates weren’t exactly all that,” Eufemia huffed, remembering that recent fight. After her fight below deck against the ritualist, the iron rankers above deck had not been impressive, barely able to work together to even stage a resistance. It was like mowing grass, and she had almost felt bad. Almost. “Murder a bunch of arrogant twats in a mirage chamber to show them my superiority? Say no more. It’d be a pleasure.”
“How many do you think you can handle and still win?” Adelina said, smiling over their apparent collective enthusiasm to murder teenagers in virtual reality, which really should be more concerning, or Nara just had an old boomer mentality like that of video games.
“I’d need to see their abilities first, wouldn’t I?” Nara said, tilting her head thoughtfully. There were plenty of ways to counter her, after all, although Tribulation of Self did cover her most glaring weaknesses.
“No,” Sen denied, surprising her. “What abilities they have doesn’t matter for you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ll see,” Sen said. He turned to Adelina. “She can handle six or more.”
“What! Sen, you’re out of your mind!” She nearly shouted from the shock. “I can’t handle six! Why did you limit the floor, not the ceiling?”
“Seven.”
“Sen!”
“Eigh—”
“STOP!”
He opened his mouth again to increment.
“—Stop, slow down,” Nara begged, shaking Sen with an intensity verging on hysteria. “Six is enough, isn’t it? Isn’t three or four the recommendation for rank jumping from iron to bronze? Six is more than enough! God, Sen, these are trained iron rankers! Not some two-bit examination flunkies ganging up for quick score!”
“Six it is then,” Adelina hummed. “I’ll pick them, since you don’t need to see, right?”
Nara glared at Sen and responded mulishly. “Whatever the leader says, since apparently he’s made the decision for me.”
“In that case, eight.”
“You got it.” Adelina’s eyes gleamed with amusement. At least, Nara thought, that she didn’t think her facing one-versus-eight against her students was offensive or a criticism of the school’s education prowess.
Nara sighed, “I shouldn’t have said that.”
The rest of them hammered out their own matches, with John participating as well.
Sen would fight six, Encio could fight any number (arrogant!), John at four, Eufemia at five, and Aliyah at five.
“Why is Encio’s limit…limitless?”
“He has high instantaneous power,” Sen said. “Against iron rankers—”
“Those poor babes are going to be torn apart,” Eufemia said. “He’ll attack so fast that he’ll wipe out a whole group of them, all at once.”
“And they’ll learn something from that?” Nara wondered aloud. They’d certainly learn trauma by being whipped up into a meat whirlwind before their own hands can draw their weapons from their sheaths.
“Well…” Adelina mused, “My son should fight at a disadvantage, shouldn’t he? We can have his battlefield as a forest.”
“They won’t learn not to group up then.”
“If they do, punish them for it.” But she paused, thinking something over. “How about this? Those that want to fight blind, the other side will fight blind. Those that do not, the other side can see as well. Is that more challenging?”
“We will need to adjust our numbers,” Aliyah said, ever the scientist. “It’s no longer the same.”
“Nope!” Adelina declared, impulsive as she was, or simply unwilling to rehash that conversation. “It’s too late for that! Take this as an opportunity to analyze what you’re good at as well and make your decision.”
“Mother, we aren’t your students,” Encio groaned.
“Today, you’re guest students! You’re learning whether you like it or not.”
Although she said they wouldn’t, Encio number of foes did get readjusted, since it was predicated on an open arena. He’d fight eight as well, and he opted for a known ability battle.
“They’ll know my iron rank abilities, but not my bronze abilities,” Encio said. “I haven’t attended, so my abilities should be unknown… but my mother may have spilled them over the years or used me as an example.”
“Where’s your faith in your mother, dearest?” She batted her eyelashes innocently. It was not very convincing.
“That is my faith, mother.”
“Adelina, could you do something for my fight?” Nara asked.
“What is it?”
Nara pulled out a legendary awakening stone, an Awakening Stone of the Myriad that she had looted during the astral space expedition. She had others where that came from—as long as it came from her loot ability, she could convert them.
“Can you offer this as a prize to whoever scores the death blow on me?”
“Oh, that’s nasty,” Eufemia smirked. “How cunning.”
“It won’t help me much,” Nara said. “They’ll figure out they need to work together at the end, but it will buy me some time in the middle of the fight.”
“You won’t need that,” Sen said, not particularly fond of the trickery in this instance, for whatever reason. Was it because it was against students? No, Sen never passed up an opportunity to teach someone a lesson. “You’ll win without it.”
“Ugh.” She threw her hands up. “Where does your confidence come from?”
“I know the strengths of your abilities, Nara. It will not help.” He folded his arms, stubborn in his insistence.
Nara sighed. He was being so self-assured, and Sen wasn’t someone she could win an argument against. “Fine! Do without then. Just offer it to any team that manages to win. I have more too, if multiple manage to win.”
“For free? How generous.” It was cheap enough for a silver ranker, especially one than ran a prestigious academy, but she still smiled at Nara’s gift.
“Consider me a patron of learning.”
Which seemed to be going better than her whole mysterious bard shtick.
“Wait Nara, can you do one thing for me too?” Eufemia leaned over to whisper her plan into Nara’s ear. “I want you to—”
Which wasn’t really necessary with the party chat, but it was about the mood of it all. And Eufemia understood mood.
“…Ah, now that’s a spicy plan. Sage?”
“Of course, benefactor, miss Teresina. I am at your service.”
*****
The academy buzzed with excitement. Tension and anticipation filled the air. The best students of the academy were offered the chance to fight various bronze rankers. They could choose from a lineup, along with a party size requirement.
“This one has no information,” A student read, “Nara Edea versus eight, hidden abilities.”
“The rules are, if we chose one with abilities, they get to know ours, right?”
“Enciodes Aciano versus eight, revealed abilities.”
“So that really was the headmaster’s son?”
“John Aurelius versus four, hidden abilities.”
“Eufemia Teresina versus five, revealed abilities.”
“Sen Arlang versus six, revealed abilities.”
“Aliyah Sahar versus five, hidden abilities.”
“Half hidden half revealed, I’m surprised it’s a split.”
“Fighting successfully a rank higher often involves developing a strategy. That’s harder to do if their abilities are hidden,” someone said, a bit smarmy.
“So why aren’t they all hiding it, if you’re so smart?”
“Are you going to go for it, Jessie?”
“There’s a reward for it, look: 5 star Awakening Stone to each group that wins. Sponsored by Nara Edea. Can be traded for lower rarity stones for the whole group.”
“Wow,” A student whistled, “Deep pockets. I haven’t heard of Edea before. Is she a noble or something?”
“Um, not a Ronan last name, I don’t think. Haven’t heard of it in genealogy class.”
“Hmmm…Sulistaveran? Or maybe Selvacorian? I swear its familiar. Argh!”
“She doesn’t look Selvacorian. Ow! That’s not racist, it’s just an observation!”
“Well, I’ve heard of Arlang—”
“—Everyone’s heard of Arlang, that’s not impressive.”
“—They’re that territory in the Shian Union. We’ve learnt about them in our politics and geography classes.”
A whistle. “That’s a heavy weight team. Two nobles?”
“The Aciano are honorary dukes, Yulia. They don’t like to be called nobles.”
She snorted, “There’s no truer noble than a diamond ranker anyway.”
“That’s an impossible standard! Then nobody’s a noble!”
“So, are we going for it?”
“They’re offering free stones up. Who are we to refuse such a generous offer?”
*****
Nara’s slots were the first to fill. Her name was out there, as a sponsor, but she didn’t come from a famous family. Encio’s was the next to fill, for many students wanted to fight an Aciano, burning with youthful competitive spirit. Sen’s was the last to fill, his name generating tension but not enthusiasm like Encio’s local name had.
“Don’t put me out on too many stones, guys.”
“Oh shush. You’ve got plenty.” Eufemia said.
“Hey, I give a lot away.”
“If I lose, I’ll pay my portion, how’s that?” Eufemia said. “I don’t have a use for the stones anyway.”
“We’ll all do the same.” Sen said.
“I’m not so much the sole sponsor anymore now,” Nara said. “Now, it feels like false advertising.”
“You get to ride the fame this time,” Eufemia said. “So just enjoy it. I’m sure the babes will look up to you for it.”
“They look like hungry beasts,” Nara said, glancing down at the arena. “Ready to strip a carcass of its meat.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Eufemia said, and slapped her back encouragingly. “You’re up first.”
“You got this,” Encio said. “Set the tone.
“A tone of despair,” Adelina added encouragingly.
She gave Adelina a look. Goddam, she was harsh to her students. “Yeesh, alright, I’m going.”
*****
“The rules,” Adelina started, her voice commanding and energetic for the following matches. “The battle starts immediately, so be prepared. Nara has requested an open field, and you all have accepted.”
Nara was face to face with her competitors, who looked at her with glowing eyes of excitement. Their youthful innocence still showed, most in their teens. They all had adventuring equipment, a mish mash of various styles and weights, but clearly all of local make, with design aspects Nara recognized to be familiar. Some was probably equipment of the school, top of the line gear given to iron rankers to keep alive, then passed onto the next generation, if the gear survived to be passed on.
“Nara,” she greeted them. “It’s a pleasure.”
Some teen boy pursed his lips. He had that look about him that found everyone else offensive by existence and proximity. “You look ordinary,” he said. It seemed like an insult.
“Francis,” a girl hissed, jabbing a sharp elbow into his rib cage. “Are you serious right now?”
“She’s some no name bronze ranker,” Francis said, persisting in his arrogance, although it seemed to stem from a need to defend himself, a prickliness born of insecurities and newfound power. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting into, fighting eight of us simultaneously!”
Ah, there we go. The one-versus-eight hadn’t been a slight to Adelina, but it had been a slight to them. “You talk big, but can you shore up?” Nara said idly, just bored enough, as if she didn’t actually care about his answer, to drive him further up the wall.
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“Eight of us. Eight!” Francis said as if he himself couldn’t quite believe the odds, “Are you even academy trained?”
“Sanshi, for a bit.” Nara said amicably. And by her mentors, but the quality of homeschooling was hard to judge. She did think hers was pretty good.
“Sanshi? They’re nothing,” gritted Francis. “Some collection of low-rate adventurers calling themselves educators. Our quality is inherent.”
His teammate looked ready to flay his tongue, salt it, and roast it over a spit of her flaming rage.
“How deep do you want to dig your hole, exactly? You have no idea how the adventurers of Sanshi fight.”
Francis snorted, “I don’t need to know because they’re nothing. The Arlang might be famous, but that’s just because they’re numerous. All quantity and no quality.”
“Ohhhh? And your family is somehow more famous than his?”
Francis froze.
She hissed in false sympathy. “Aiyah! Sorry about that. I didn’t realize that was a soft spot for you,” Nara said. “I really shouldn’t be mean to children. I am the adult here.”
Francis grit his teeth. “It is not my soft spot! You don’t know anything about me.”
“You’re right,” Nara said simply, and she almost wanted to laugh about how easily he’d set himself up for that. “I don’t.”
The words he bit back cut into his throat like shards of glass. She’d drawn first blood before the battle even began.
*****
They all awoke, simultaneously, in a bare arena. It was the same sort that default mirage chamber duels took place in. One versus eight, facing each other like a Mexican standoff—a standoff that was promptly ended.
Before the students could react, she dashed with bronze speed plus the enhancements from Cosmic Path, swung her sword, enhanced it with a bit of resonating-force damage, sacrificing what few boons she already accrued to cut through the bone of the neck. Largely unnecessary, as iron rankers were physically weak, and she had the rank advantage. Nara has watched enough movies to always secure the kill ala John Wick. Instead of a gong, the decapitated head that thudded to the ground signaled the start of the battle.
Really, it was becoming a bit of a signature move.
“That’s one.”
Suddenly, the group was down to a seven versus one, down from their eight. Based on their movements, Nara saw that there was a group of three and two groups of two remaining. One of the groups of two looked aggrieved—reacting just a beat slower—they must have just lost a member.
She scattered her nodes and familiars, keeping them tight within the group and sowing chaos. She teleported behind one and swung again. A shield intercepted—ready for her this time, so they weren’t entirely unskilled—bouncing her sword off and inflicting her with a bit of damage; it was Burst Shield. Classic, common. This, she knew. What she knew was easy to work around, and suddenly Nara more deeply understood why adventurers sought odd or rare stones for unusual powers.
One.
She repeated the action, teleporting behind another member and swinging again. Another shield blocked.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
The next hit landed, but it was a glancing blow, drawing blood through leather armor, but not fatal, quickly healed—she wasn’t committed to it either. The students were burning mana, sure that an overpowering offense of formerly-eight-now-seven would overwhelm her for a win. Usually against a higher rank opponent endurance was key; Nara wasn’t sure if this was overconfidence or an intelligence use of firepower.
Between the seven of them, there were two shield users. One with two bubble shields, and one with three. They were solid defensive abilities, able to shield the user and external targets, and common enough between healers, defenders, and casters. If they were like John’s shields, they would have twenty second cooldowns. She’d need to attack fast, to burn through them, or attack so unexpectedly they couldn’t react. Both were viable options.
A power negation ability tried to block her sword conjuration, but Tribulation of Self plus her bronze rank resistances blocked the effect. Even if it had gotten through, it wouldn’t have mattered; the fight wouldn’t drag on, and the effect wouldn’t have made a difference. They would choose a new ability to disable soon, likely her node teleport, and at that time they may try to boost the effect high enough to surpass her resistances.
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Racial Ability: [Tribulation of Self]
Transfigured from [Resilient]
Increased resistance to afflictions and all damage. This is a legacy effect of [Resilient].
Ignore rank disparity in resistances and damage reduction.
Gain immunity to afflictions that originate from you or your abilities, including afflictions duplicated from your abilities. Gain increased resistance to hostile effects that affect your abilities such as ability duplication, ability theft, ability nullification, and cooldown increase.
This effect cannot be copied by a duplication ability.
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One. Two. Three. Four. Five! She attacked rapidly and from odd directions with teleportation-attack combos, forcing multiple shields out in quick succession. They managed to block, evidence of her skill. She was suitably impressed, although their instinct to block every attack also made them predictable, one she’d definitely abuse later. They should let the non-lethal non-crippling attacks go through. The instinct to block all damage when possible was one hard to unlearn, one John had to fight for some time.
The next hit, Nara leapt forward with vigor, slashing her sword forward towards Francis. Francis smirked, intending to dodge by just a hair’s breadth in a stylish display of confidence in his skill.
“Oh sonny,” Nara crooned, just absolutely delighted. “That’s a mistake.”
She had learnt from Encio’s Whirlwind Sword that near dodges were a precursor to disaster, especially at iron rank, where the skin was the literal difference between a near miss and a cut throat. Leah Arlang, one of her frequent sparring partners, also had an ability that extended her reach past the typical range of her weapon. So did Nara, in not just one, but in two effects—Nirvana’s and Blade of the Boundary’s bronze rank upgrades.
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Item: [Nirvana] (Bronze rank [growth], legendary)
Classification: Weapon
A weapon forged from the Astral and transfigured by the Reaper. Fear not death but a life unlived.
This item is bound to [Nara Edea] and cannot be used by anyone else. This bond allows the weapon to share the wielder’s ability to ignore rank disparity.
Effect: You may invoke all effects of a conjured weapon into this blade for the normal mana cost of conjuring the weapon. Only one weapon’s effects may be invoked at a time.
Effect: This weapon deals increased damage for each instance of a boon on the wielder, up to a limit determined by rank.
Effect: The wielder gains increased resistance to dispel effects.
Effect (Iron): This weapon has no specific form unless it is given a form. Current forms available: Staff, Bow, Sword. This weapon can take the form of an accessory when not in active use. Can transform into other forms with no bonuses. When transformed into other forms, cannot invoke the effects of a conjured weapon.
* [Sword]: Low [Power] bonus.
* [Staff]: Low Increase to damage resistance.
* [Bow]: Low [Speed] bonus.
Effect (Bronze): The weapon gains additional forms: Dagger, Dual Machine Pistols. Alter forms slightly within their concepts.
* [Dagger]: Low [Speed] bonus.
* [Dual Pistols]: Low reduction in mana costs. Ammo Consumption: Medium.
* [War Hammer]: Heavy weapon. Low [Power] bonus.
Ability: [Blade of the Boundary]
Essence: Dimension
Awakening stone: sword
Conjuration (sword)
Cost: Moderate mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Conjures [Horizon’s Edge, the [Blade of Infinity]]. Normal and special attacks made with Horizon’s Edge deal physical and rending damage and will inflict an instance of [Dimensional Instability] and inflicts or refreshes [Dimensional Rupture]. Horizon’s Edge can be made incorporeal at will, which can affect incorporeal entities.
* [Dimensional Instability] (affliction, magic, stacking): All rending damage suffered is increased. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* [Dimensional Rupture] (affliction, magic): When inflicted or refreshed, suffer additional rending damage proportional to current instances of [Dimensional Instability].
Effect (Bronze): Normal and special attacks made with [Horizon’s Edge] inflict [Dimensional Nausea], [Dimensional Exhaustion], and [Dimensional Ruin]. The size of [Horizon’s Edge] can be adjusted for low mana-per-second, with ongoing mana cost increasing with size difference from the base.
* [Dimensional Nausea] (affliction, magic, stacking): Rending damage suffered additionally inflicts damage to mana, as if mana had been expended. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* [Dimensional Exhaustion] (affliction, magic, stacking): Rending damage suffered additionally inflicts damage to stamina, as if stamina had been expended. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* [Dimensional Ruin] (affliction, damage-over-time, magic, stacking): Inflicts ongoing rending damage. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
-------
Eyes wide, Francis screamed, “TELEPORT ME!”
“I CAN’T!” A teammate screamed back. Infinity Domain locked him down, trapped by the effects of Inescapable.
Even if they had stopped her conjuration, they could not stop Nirvana. It was a redundancy within her ability set. As an engineer, Nara knew the importance of redundancy, and a lot was woven into her kit. Multiple options for mitigating attacks—deflection, space manipulation, teleportation, reaction speed, phase shifting, damage reducing, and multiple forms of regeneration.
Her conjuration was indeed a weak spot, her sole method to inflict her most important afflictions. But to disable her survivability, a single ability was not enough.
Since Nara was constantly dodging or intercepting attacks, she was also constantly triggering Astral Return, inflicting instances of Boundary’s Scorn from Avatar of the Boundary, and gaining instances of Waking Moment from Dream’s Wake. The more Nara actively engaged in combat, the faster she gained instances of her boons. While Overture would stack them for her, her gains were massively increased while she was in the thick of battle. To force out high damage out of her slow burn fighting style, she needed to go hard and fast as well.
All shields and other methods of distance intervention were down, and Francis’ neck was ripe for the taking.
Nirvana lengthened, shifting into a slightly longer sword, mimicking Encio’s longer Whirlwind Blade. The sharp blade caught his neck, and with the enhanced damage and her rapid boon gain, she decapitated him in one swift swing—they had healers, a cut throat wasn’t enough to finish the job. That, she had learned from John.
“Two down. Six left.”
Nara could sense the fear ripple through their auras, their fear an echoing feedback loop between them, unnerved and unbalanced, growing in intensity—they had not expected the battle to go this way. They were shaken, badly, by the rapid consecutive deaths of their teammates. With eight, they had been confident, yet their numbers had been reduced by two, with barely a few minutes passed. Dread creeped into their minds like a legless zombie dragging itself across slick wooden floorboards while all doors in the corridor were locked, but their training held, and they persisted; a testament of both their own and their teachers’ efforts. It was admirable…but not enough.
She could cower them with her aura, she realized. Her aura was strong enough to suppress them mid-combat, especially when they were fighting to hold themselves together. She did not. She wanted to defeat them with her skill, to deliver not only an overwhelming defeat, but also the teaching opportunity that Adelina intended. Winning through aura suppression taught them nothing about the overconfidence in their own abilities.
***
Before her nodes were disabled, she’d make the best use of them. The students had figured out, by now, that they would destroy them if they aimed properly and put some power in. They were bronze rank conjurations, so they wouldn’t shatter at their slightest touch, but they would still break. They may be bronze rank, but they were also more fragile than the typical bronze rank conjuration, corresponding to their low cost.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
She had less than twenty seconds until the first shield ability was available again, but to her, twenty seconds was an eternity. More than enough time to stab someone in the neck again (or the heart or head, if the opportunity presented itself). She conjured all nine nodes into a single location. An archer student reacted, puncturing the nodes and detonating them. She had disabled the detonation feature until now, keeping it in reserve for a little surprise.
And triggered was her little surprise; A wave of bronze-rank, nine-stacked disruptive-force damage slammed into the students surrounding her. At one stack, it was non-threatening damage, even to an iron ranker. At nine stacks, it was fierce, causing the proper reactionary cast of a powerful area healing ability—one she couldn’t deny; Eufemia would’ve been able to abuse this obvious reaction.
She phase-shifted through the damage, triggering Astral Return, fully loading it with damage—their own damage wasn’t quite doing it for her, a weakness she’d have to remember. It was one of the few ways she could trigger Astral Return with her own abilities, and she made full use of it now.
A body of Sage that had been dormant showed itself, and Nara teleported to it, jamming her sword into the base of the neck of one of the shielders, the damage enhanced so high she barely needed any effort at all.
“You know me well, Sage. Perfect positioning as always. Three down.”
“Of course, benefactor,” was her elegant response, in tempo with her carnage.
Sage faded with a swirl, perfectly in sync. She was still visible but fast and hard to perceive for iron rankers. She was better than the nodes, which were unfortunately stationary, but Nara would lose her teleportation soon.
She had intentionally made a big show of her teleportation, so she could direct which ability would be negated. As expected, sealing her conjuration had been deemed worthless, since she had a physical sword. A telltale flicker of metallic bronze was a student eating a bronze spirit coin, temporarily raising their rank to bronze. Their buffers layered on their buffs, and they finally managed to apply their negation ability, sealing both her nodes and her teleportation—a weakness of the dual nature of Dimension Node. Sage unfortunately, would be useless for the rest of the fight as collateral damage. She could maybe tickle the students, or yank on their clothing. While amusing, it wouldn’t do much, however, as she could not exert very much physical force. Sage also wasn’t predisposed to paltry tricks, although Thanatos was more than happy to stick his paws out of his shadows and trip unsuspecting victims. She had to make sure he didn’t trip ordinary people. Her team, however, was kept on edge.
“Mistake two,” Nara said, enjoying her little stint as a guest lecturer. “You have no idea what my conjuration does.” Between the two, which was the more inconvenient ability to counter?
She switched to her dual pistols, unloading light and weak bullets as she danced around their attacks. They had never seen a gun before, and the new weapon caught them off guard. Most took direct hits to their abdomen and body, which set off a salvo of healing, but all avoided an immediate head shot.
Suddenly, the team was plagued by bronze rank afflictions that they could not easily cleanse as Entropy took hold. Bronze rank afflictions resisted iron rank cleansing. Some would fall off, but they’ve already lost one of their healers, the shield user.
Sen was right. As usual.
It didn’t matter what their abilities were, it was not enough to discard her advantage of unknown abilities. Nara didn’t have any flashy, game-changing, tide-turning abilities that John and Eufemia had. It was both a strength and a weakness.
It was a weakness that John and Eufemia had learned well in their fight with Siyu: Large abilities were predictable and saved for predictable pivotal moments. Eufemia had used that against Kiris and Nolan in their mirage chamber battles, but it had been turned against them in turn by Siyu.
No single ability could defeat Nara. They could seal her teleportation, but she was still fast thanks to Cosmic Path, Avatar of the Boundary, and Waking Moment boons. They could seal her weapon, but physical damage was physical damage, and they were weak iron rankers.
She thrived in chaos, phase shifting through or redirecting blasts so that they inflicted friendly fire. She still got hit; she couldn’t avoid everything, but Astral Blessing and Refresh played their unassuming and silent roles, regenerating the health she lost. Damage to health returned mana, and she could use Phase Shift more often; Yet for this fight, she almost didn’t need it at all, except for style points, and she was racking those up too. Her layers of damage avoidance and general defense were so high they could inflict no lethal damage before Nara recovered it.
Another ability greatly helped Nara’s survivability at bronze rank: Boon Conversion.
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Ability: [Boon Conversion]
Essence: Balance
Awakening Stone: Balance (uncommon)
Special Ability (cleansing)
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Consume boons on self to enhance the damage of your next attack with resonating- or disruptive- force damage. Damage boost increases with the number of boons consumed.
Effect (Bronze): Consume boons on self to cleanse afflictions from any target at a 1:1 ratio. More powerful afflictions may require the consumption of additional boons. This is a cleansing effect. Consuming more powerful boons now offers a greater effect beyond the base effect.
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Nara had high resistance to afflictions thanks to Tribulation of Self, but iron rankers had their ways to reduce her resistance. The ones that managed to eke through, she cleansed away instantaneously. Cleansing the rare iron rank affliction didn’t even dent her super mass of boons.
This balance she played with her resources was the silent core of her fighting style. Selectively take health damage for mana. Spend mana to regain stamina and move to heal. Use boons to deal damage, cleanse effects, or regenerate health by leaving them alone.
The Inescapable affliction of her Infinity Domain was the star quarterback of this fight. Any target she focused on could not escape. Her domain isolated, forcing an inescapable one-on-one fight that was her advantage. They could run, but she was faster.
She realized a new facet of her fighting style—so fast that every fight was a one-on-one fight. Those within her Infinity Domain tried to run, and she chased, easily.
Nara knew was what was needed to fight herself.
Option one was overwhelming and continuous fire power, like those with the Fire, Earth, and Potent Essences for the Volcano confluence. Storm confluence users, with their wide ranging and continuous damage that would rip apart her nodes and wear her down faster than her regeneration could keep up. The other option was continuous, moderate damage. Those like Sen, who could give a beating and take it. Defeat her before she could take them down, but no fast and large damage hits she could instantly avoid. Another option was overwhelming afflictions that she could not out cleanse. She could get rid of a few, but too many and she’d have no boons left for anything else, and she’d have no regeneration.
A fight between her and Sen had originally been her win, but Sen evolved, and now mirage chamber battles were far more even. His continuous, heavy blows wore her down.
This though—
The students had underestimated her. They had a strategy, but it was too basic for an enemy with unknown abilities. They should not have surrounded her—for most other fights, it would have been the correct strategy, but the stacked numbers meant they were more likely to hit their own people than her. They should have tried to maintain a defensive line and disabled her teleport later. Even if it set them on a back foot, they needed to take their time and identify what they could. The first death had shaken them, sending them into a reactive panic. The disabler jumped the gun trying disable her weapon, then reenabling it after a healer had already died and swapped to her teleportation, which didn’t improve anything for them either, and eating the bronze rank coin put them out of the match too. The disabler shouldn’t have bothered, and switched to a different strategy, rather than thinking they’d hit the one ability that shut Nara down; It was a great temptation with those sort of powers, Eufemia had once explained, the insidious lie that there was an easy win, and all it took was turning the right lock.
Her Cosmic Path pulled weight, disabling control abilities that tried to manifest below her, if they were fast enough to cast it at her current position. They adapted, trying to control her arms, which worked for a moment until Nara shifted her hand through, not even bothering to yank herself free with physical strength that had reached mid-bronze thanks to Dream’s Wake.
They managed to get off an offensive teleport, shifting her into a specific location. They unloaded damage, but not only was it too late, it was a mistake when she had mana for Phase Shift. Unloading damage in a moment of vulnerability was a common tactic, and in their panic, they all went to the textbook, forgetting what they had learnt about her capabilities during the fight, or simply not realizing she could Phase Shift her entire body to begin with. Much to Encio’s frustration, that was the tactic she excelled against.
Nara lengthened her sword to its maximum, burning mana in a humiliatingly wasteful expenditure. Then unleased an empowered World’s end.
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Ability: [World’s End]
Essence: Harmonic
Awakening Stone: Ruin
Special Attack (execute, dimension)
Base Cost: Moderate mana and moderate stamina.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Effect (Iron): Imbue your next attack with the power of dimensional rending annihilation. Additionally deals a small amount of transcendent damage. As an execute effect, damage scales exponentially with the enemy’s level of injury.
Effect (Bronze): For a very high mana and stamina cost, your next attack massively extends the range of your weapon with dimension energy. All enemies damaged by the attack are executed. Each enemy suffers damage proportionate to their own level of injury.
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On top of the original length increase, her sword further expanded, a long blade of void black energy surrounded by the red of an event horizon scraping the edge of the arena.
“It’s not golden…but close enough! EX…CALIBUUUUR!!”
She swung, the massive blade of energy deceptively fast, catching all the remaining students all at once that had grouped together when they thought they caught Nara in their trap.
She had not damaged them much, since she aimed for instant kills, her greatest advantage when they were only iron rankers. However, her afflictions were unmanageable, and Dimensional Ruin worked its damage passively along with Chrome’s triple decay afflictions.
The students were consumed by the void of her blade, annihilated.