Chapter 156: Critical Mass
With each member that battled, the ease of predicting their role in the team increased. Sen’s abilities were revealed, so whoever battled last between John, Eufemia, and Aliyah would have the toughest time. Of the three, Eufemia would go last, since her abilities were the most unpredictable, despite being revealed, since she could copy her allies’ powers.
The upcoming students could watch the battles in progress but not Adelina’s comments. The battles were recorded, and she would distribute them to the rest of the academy to study with other teachers.
This was to preserve fairness, since if later students could learn from the mistake of earlier battles, the battles would become exponentially harder. Once the students had realized they were being trounced one-to-eight and this wasn’t the cakewalk they’d originally assumed, they had started re-strategizing. They couldn’t change their line-ups and assignments, but there could still choose their battlefield, bring other artifacts (Within reason. Using too many consumable artifacts was considered unsporting.), and copy abilities beyond what their team possessed. Despite their unintentional arrogance as students of a prestigious learning instruction, they were still prestigious hardworking students and had these sorts of strategies taught to them from day one.
Nara had gone first since she was the sponsor and garnered the most attention, the opening match. Enciodes went next, for similar reasons. Sen would act as the closer, since he was the next most famous, ending the whole gauntlet with a bang.
John was the third in line. The landscape didn’t matter to him. His abilities didn’t usually require line of sight and they weren’t stealth-oriented. Some structures may advantage him, but may equally advantage the students. He had decent mobility for a healer, but no teleportation to leverage blind spots (at least, Safeguard was not frequent enough for it to disproportionately benefit).
John’s strength lay in team fights, not solo fights. Healers could protect themselves, but he was the least combat oriented of the entire team. Since healing abilities were common, they also had a lot of counters, which is why he kept his abilities secret.
John’s students opponents chose an abandoned town, and he saw no reason to disagree with that choice. The buildings were low, two to three stories, with occasional specialty tall structures, like a portal pagoda, society buildings, or windmills. The town was also surrounded by a distant forest.
As to why—the students adopted a sniper strategy. They had a long range affliction specialist that would deal damage, curses, and afflictions at a distance. The other three would do their best to hide their teammate and keep John in place.
Were they lucky? An affliction specialist against a healer was a good match up. John had two full cleanse abilities. Dawn of Creation was his most useful one. Grand Renewal was much harder to use under siege, as he had to draw a ritual circle.
The team composition was two healing tanks, a buffer and de-buffer in one, and an affliction specialist. The buffer/debuffer increased the speed of the those on the ground keeping pace with John to block him and slowed John down with harassing attacks. The affliction specialist was a distance away, chanting spells that repeatedly inflicted various afflictions and gradually increased them, like Nara’s Entropy. His was the type that rotted away flesh, than Nara’s that were neutral in effect, unholy afflictions versus her inert magic ones.
John unleashed Beorn.
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Ability: [Everwrath Ursine]
Essence: Immortal
Awakening Stone: Bear
Cost: Extreme mana and extreme stamina
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon an [Everwrath Ursine] to serve as a familiar.
* A physically resilient and powerful familiar with high regenerative properties.
* Can enter [Eternal Rage], where stamina and health are rapidly consumed for greatly increase [Speed], [Power], and damage resistance, affliction resistance, and effect resistance. This mode can be ended at any time. Once ended, this mode cannot be re-entered for 10 minutes. [Eternal Rage] is forcefully ended before the [Everwrath Ursine] is emptied of health and stamina, where it is then automatically subsumed into the summoner to recover.
* Can be subsumed within the summoner’s flesh, increasing physical strength.
Effect (Bronze):
* Gains an instance of [Eternal Wrath] when killing an enemy.
* Gains health and stamina when killing an enemy.
* [Eternal Wrath] (boon, holy, stacking): Bonus to [Power] and [Recovery]. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* Instances of [Eternal Wrath] decrease the health and stamina consumption of [Everwrath Rage].
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Then, he cast Vigor Wellspring on Beorn.
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Ability: [Vigor Wellspring]
Essence: Immortal
Awakening Stone: None
Spell (boon, recovery, cleansing)
Incantation: “From within wells unending vigor.”
Cost: Moderate mana
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Effect (Iron): Grant an ally a boon of the tireless energy, greatly increasing health and stamina regeneration for a moderate duration. Additionally gain increased resistance to health and stamina drain.
Effect (Bronze): The boon additionally cleanses afflictions over time and grants increased resistance to afflictions.
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Finally, he cast Celestial Flame Mantle, finishing his combo of preliminary buffs.
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Ability: [Celestial Flame Mantle]
Essence: Magic
Awakening Stone: Celestial
Spell (boon)
Incantation: “Mantle of celestial flames, protect and burn.”
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Effect (Iron): Grant a boon of white holy flames to an ally. Holy flames do not harm the ally, but burn enemies who attack the target, and adds fire damage to those the target of the boon attacks. The holy flames have increased effect against undead targets or those with unholy boons. The holy flames grant increased resistance to fire damage and afflictions.
Effect (Bronze): Increasing the cost to very high mana allows the mantle of holy flames to be bestowed on all nearby allies. Holy flame mantle periodically cleanses unholy, curse, or disease afflictions.
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John had very few cleansing abilities at iron rank. At bronze rank, his abilities diversified, many dipping into mild cleanse-over-time effects. John himself also benefitted from cleansing others, thanks to his new effect from Healing Avatar.
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Ability: [Healing Avatar]
Essence: Life
Awakening Stone: Avatar
Special Ability
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Maximum mana is increased. Mana regeneration is increased.
Effect (Bronze): Gain an instance of [Soul of the Healer] when healing others, cleansing others, or suffering damage. Abilities with a beneficial effect on life grant an instance of [Resistant] to the target.
* [Soul of the Healer] (boon, holy, stacking): Bonus to the [Recovery] and [Spirit] attributes. Additional instances have a cumulate effect.
* [Resistant] (boon, holy, stacking): Resistance to afflictions is increased. Additional instances have a cumulative effect. Consumed to negate instances of [Vulnerable] on a 1:1 basis.
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He and Beorn transformed into paladins of white and gold flames. His large Guardian Shield floated at his side, protecting him both from line of sight spells, attacks, and projectiles.
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Ability: [Guardian Shield]
Essence: Immortal
Awakening Stone: Guardian
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.
Effect (Bronze): When the shield is damaged, it inflicts retributive damage to the attacker proportional to the damage and type of damage inflicted on it. This effect ignores the shield’s own damage mitigation. The shield can be bestowed onto an ally but cannot be actively controlled by the ally. The shield can still be actively controlled by the conjurer when bestowed.
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Since John had so many healing abilities, only the most concentrated of fire could destroy his shield. The four-person iron ranker team he was fighting had opted for an escalation and sustain combination. Out escalating a healer was one way to defeat a healer, but John was no slouch in damage in short range. Not compared to the likes of Encio, but Solar Judgement was a potent weapon, equivalent to a powerful special attack.
John wasn’t fast, so the two defenders were able to keep up with him, especially with the boons from their friend. However, Beorn was so fast and powerful in rage mode that he, like Graff had been able to, was able to smack the defenders back. He held fast, bearing the flames licking off of both Beorn’s and John’s bodies. While their match up was one that could go either way, the students had been lucky they weren’t fire essence users. John’s stacking resistance combined with his Celestial Flame Mantle boon would have drastically cut the effectiveness of all fire damage.
The battle between John’s cleansing and resistance and the student’s afflictions wore on, but the student’s afflictions would win out eventually; that was in part the whole reason affliction specialists existed—to punch through all cleansing with overwhelming afflictions, to slay those more powerful through attrition. John could reset his progress once or twice, depending on whether he could pull off a mid-combat Grand Ritual.
John needed to make his move—to take a proactive approach to battle he wasn’t used to adopting.
The afflictions on John approached critical mass, damage outpacing his healing for the first time since the start of the fight. His very flesh rotted off his bones, and his open wounds festered and bled; he was surprised as his own resilience. Nara had mentioned the strange sensation—a survival mechanism. He felt it now too, as he had with Siyu; His rotted flesh did not bother him as much as it should have. He still felt the pain—stinging, consuming, and corrosive. And he smelled the air, thick with the rot of his own body. John had always been tough, but not to this extent. It seemed normal essence users did not necessarily possess the same mental resilience, although well-trained ones did. His nature as a healer reassured him, an aloe balm and rock-steady foundation in the back of his mind—"All of this is temporary and healable”, his Renewal Essence whispered, washed away like dirt in a spring rain.
He dashed away, taking distance and sending Beorn in the opposite direction. The defenders converged on John, ignoring Beorn. He had sent Beorn off into the distance, entirely away from the battle. If John’s ramping familiar wasn’t attacking their support and affliction teammates, they didn’t care to stop him.
Once Beorn was far enough way down the long main street, John leapt up, his bronze rank strength shooting him upwards like a professional volleyball player. He quickly conjured a pair of binoculars, then teleported to Beorn.
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Ability: [Safeguard]
Essence: Magic
Awakening Stone: Reach
Special Ability
Cost: Moderate mana
Cooldown: 1 minute
Effect (Iron): Teleport to an ally or teleport an ally to yourself. Both the target and you gain temporarily increased resistance to damage.
Effect (Bronze): Able to bring along a group of nearby people or teleport a group of clustered people to yourself (up to 10 iron rank individuals). Both you and teleported individuals gain a mild heal-over-time effect.
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He took one of the defenders with him, immediately sandwiching him between two flaming bronze rankers. He did, unfortunately, have to use an item (a Mancatcher) to pull an enemy along in this sort of teleport, but thankfully, it’d not be used up in a mirage chamber fight. It’d be consumable otherwise. He’d hoped to not have to use it, but it was a good reminder to the students that as much as they could use potions, restoratives, and other consumables, so could their enemies of higher rank.
John pulled out his trusty shotgun.
“Say hello to my little friend.”
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Item: [Solar Judgement] (bronze rank [growth], legendary)
Classification: Weapon, gun, fire, holy
Description: A magic weapon modeled after a Winchester Model 12 pump action shotgun. The sun bestows both life and fire.
Effect: Generates 7-rounds of sunfire flak every 5 minutes for a moderate mana cost. Otherwise, can shoot normal flak dealing physical damage for a low mana consumption per shot.
Effect: Sunfire flak deals massive disruptive-force and fire damage in a wide-range conical area. Damage is considered holy damage and has increased effectiveness against the undead or unholy beings.
Effect (Iron): Shotgun blasts knock back nearby projectiles and enemies.
Effect (Bronze): Sunfire flak additionally inflicts [Burning]. Sunfire flak does increased damage to [Burning] targets.
* [Burning] (affliction, damage-over-time, fire): Inflicts ongoing fire damage.
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John unloaded his shotgun into the student, shooting blasts of sunfire at near point blank. John didn’t have the methods Nara had to deny teleportation with Inescapable. He had to make use of simple line of sight manipulation.
Most teleportation abilities, especially those that teleported others like his own and Aliyah’s Juxtapose, required sight of the target. With his massive shield, Beorn’s large body, and John’s own body, he blocked line of sight to the student trapped between him and Beorn. The support teammate had a teleportation ability, and this is what John had to do to separate one of their team, otherwise, he would have been the first to lose on their team. A long, excruciatingly slow loss, but a loss nonetheless.
He had intentionally sent Beorn so far away that he needed binoculars so that their support teammate couldn’t see their teammate at this distance. Combined with the body blocking, it was enough to deny a teleportation save (or any other high-speed intervention, Encio style) and secure a kill.
He stepped over the charred corpse of a teenager, feeling complicated inside but also unwilling to relent. He reminded himself that this was just a simulation, and that their defeat—their death—in this mirage would teach them what mistakes not to make in the future, so that they’d live then.
Since he had more than enough distance, and the students had to take time to reorganize, he set up and cast Grand Renewal.
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Ability: [Grand Renewal]
Essence: Renewal
Awakening Stone: Life
Spell (healing, ritual)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: 1 hour
Effect (Iron): Conduct a powerful healing ritual that cleanses all afflictions. This ability takes the place of the ritual’s material components.
Effect (Bronze): The ritual circle is magically drawn, allowing the ritual to be more quickly enacted and in less ideal conditions.
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His rotten flesh revitalized, like a basil plant returning to life after watered. All afflictions were purged, and his health reached peak capacity. Combined with Avatar of Healing, John resistance was so high that only an ability that ignored resistance like Nara’s Avatar of the Boundary effects could get past them. It’d take longer this second time to wear him down, although it’d still eventually happen.
“Just four was a little mean,” John muttered to himself. If they had five members, then even if one had been defeated, they could’ve kept their formation. It was still possible to defeat a bronze ranker with three people, but it was tight, requiring no mistakes.
The students were highly skilled, and they persisted. John thought they would have given up then. But this was training; there was no meaning if they had given up. They were dutiful students, seizing every bit of this learning opportunity they could.
John could repeat this tactic one more time with Dawn of Creation as his cleansing ability. However, John soon learned that was too predictable of a mindset. The next time he sent Beorn away, the supporter switch-teleported Beorn and the tank, preferring to leave Beorn together with John than allowing them to separate.
“Smart lad,” John muttered.
He had no idea where their affliction specialists was hiding in town, secretly casting his spells from safety as the other three, now two, distracted him. He had not Nara’s aura, Encio’s speed, nor Eufemia’s wiles to suss out the member. As long as the affliction specialist survived, the students had a shot at winning. John’s high resistance slowed the pace of his rotting afflictions the second time around, but they’d punch through eventually.
John used his second trump card, Hero’s Moment.
The supporter had just used Juxtapose to swap Beorn and the defender and had some time before his cooldown recovered.
Hero’s Moment was a bit wasted on Beorn, but John had no other option. He was a worse target to use it on than Beorn.
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Ability: [Hero’s Moment]
Essence: Immortal
Awakening Stone: Potent
Spell
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: 1 hour
Effect (Iron): Bestow a powerful boon on an ally, increasing all attributes and resistances by a significant amount. They receive damage reduction, their maximum mana and stamina are increased and they gain ongoing mana and stamina recovery. They ignore the effects of rank-disparity. When this effect ends, they are temporarily debilitated, suffering the inverse of all previous effects.
Effect (Bronze): Affected ally’s essence abilities have increased effect.
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Beorn, with his already boosted attributes from rage mode, pushed into silver rank attribute levels. He shot towards the approaching defender in a blitz of speed John couldn’t quite believe a bear could manage (although he’d seen nature documentaries, and those beasts could be frighteningly fast when they want to be). He was a massive brown cannonball moving at the speed of a bullet; a speed so fast John could barely keep up with him, even with his increased perceptiveness thanks to his increased Spirit attribute.
Beorn didn’t even need to attack. The impact of his charge smashed the iron ranker, killing him on impact like kia compacted flat by an 18-wheeler truck.
With no defenders to distract John from his search, John could expand his aura to locate the iron rank affliction specialist, who had been hiding the entire time. He wasn’t as good at using his aura for detection as Nara was, but the whole team had been practicing. It was when separated that competency in an essence users full breadth of skills was necessary. John may usually be with a teammate, but this mirage battle reaffirmed Sen’s almost religious insistence of well-roundedness.
*****
John joined Nara, sitting with her and Adelina with the other students.
“Oof. I need a sit down after that. Never feels right killing kids, even if it is all a mirage.”
“Those most likely to harm the students won’t share that reservation,” said Adelina.
“I know,” John sighed. “I get it, but it still feels strange to me. I would’ve preferred it if they had surrendered.”
“It’s best they didn’t,” Adelina denied, eyes fixed on the mirage chamber viewing projections. “Experience against a bronze ranker is rare. Even if it’s a losing battle, it’s best they gain as much experience as possible.”