Chapter 46: To Cultivate Instinct

With Sen now a part of the party, the group had access to the Arlang family compound. With access to a mirage chamber there, the group did not want to hog the mirage chamber back at the academy.

Mirage chambers were a popular form of entertainment in Sanshi. It was the closest thing to professional sports Erras had—essence users battled it out in the dream-battlefield in a variety of scenarios. There were professional teams with leagues separated based on rank, team versus team battles, duels, free-for-alls and competitions to slay the most monsters or slay a single monster the quickest. Teams swapped members to try to counter other teams, and statistics and ability information of each player were widely available. Teams won monster cores and spirit coins which they used to advance their own abilities.

These competitors were probably the highest trained core users, and some even doubled as adventurers.

However, this was not a path to power that the iron rank adventurers of Sanshi sought. That was a path for those that lost their nerve. Those that sought the safety of illusion. Those that survived yet fell on the path of the adventure, turned to other paths. This was one of many alternative options. For many, it was the only one remaining with glory and fame.

Within the mirage chamber of the Arlang compound, Nara faced off against Leah Arlang, one of Sen’s many cousins. She had the Adept, Magic, and Sword Essences for the Master Confluence.

The mirage chamber showed the two an illusion of an arena. It was a classic arena, a circular shape with walls that shot up, then enclosed with a clear dome.

Vallis had promised that using abilities would be different. She was right.

Leah was skilled—she used a weapon like an Estoc. She made pointed, pinpoint stabs with magic that extended the range of her attacks and added disruptive-force damage. Disruptive-force damage was effective against magic-based abilities, and Nara’s nodes were similarly weak to that damage type. Leah was one of the few people that managed to destroy her hard-to-reach nodes on the regular, apart from Encio, who had another cheaper ranged attack apart from his two iconic moves.

Nara teleported at her shoulder, at an awkward angle that Leah couldn’t reach in time. Nara slashed forward, but Leah still managed to react, the resulting blow was only a shallow cut. That was all Nara needed.

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-You have inflicted an instance of [Dimensional Instability] on Leah Arlang.

-You have inflicted an instance of [Dimensional Rupture] on Leah Arlang.

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“From order to disorder,” she chanted. The two afflictions began to grow.

Although Nara could chain node conjurations to teleports, that was a waste of mana. She had no other choice for now.

“Barrage of magic, seek my enemy,” Leah chanted in turn.

A barrage of homing magic missiles glowed into being and launched towards Nara.

“Oh shit. How’s that fair?”

She teleported to the far end of the arena, skittering away from the homing bolts of blue energy. They were faster than her. One bolt smacked into her, sending her crashing into the ground. She immediately teleported away; else she would have been ended right there. A few bolts were wasted into the ground, but the rest curved up, resuming their chase.

Nara changed tactics. She teleported in close to Leah, battling her again in a test of close combat.

Leah expected this. Leah had, like Sen, been training her entire life. Nara was more than outmatched in skill, but she had a few advantages. Her abilities were tailored towards avoidance and deflection.

Leah’s estoc, although not lightweight, was not so heavy Nara couldn’t deflect it with Dream’s Wake. Their swords clashed—Nara’s shimmering black sword against Leah’s pristine silver-grey. Nara pressed in, utilizing her every advantage. It wasn’t much, but she kept up with Leah.

The homing bolts sped closer, tunneling towards her back.

She tried to time it, phasing at the right moment to let the bolts pass through her, but Leah caught her in the shoulder with a stab before she Phase Shifted.

Nara stepped back from the blade, now intangible. Leah’s stab hung in the air with no target, except Nara’s blood on its blade.

Leah was briefly surprised, two bolts of the remaining seven catching her in the chest. She let herself tumble to avoid the other bolts, letting them pass harmlessly over her as they turned again to resume their chase.

Nara’s advantage was in a drawn out battle, but Leah had methods to sour that. Her homing bolts forced Nara into a choice of wasting mana with teleportation or engaging Leah in close combat.

She briefly swapped to bow-form Nirvana. Leah’s quick deflections quickly revealed the flaws in that plan. While Nirvana’s arrows were conjured from magic, they were no faster than ordinary arrows, and Nara had no abilities to enhance them. She abandoned that plan, swapping back to a sword.

Blood was dripping from her shoulder, but her stacking Integrity boon and the effects of Refresh were slowly working on the injury. She wouldn’t die from it, but it wasn’t helping the situation of the fight.

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Nara had one final idea.

She re-engaged Leah, a flurry of swords that Nara was on the losing end of. She managed to avoid fatal blows, carried by the effects of her abilities, but her injured shoulder continually wore on her. One by one, Nara’s nodes were once again destroyed, until she had none left. The oppressing homing bolts made their way back around putting their current deadlock on a short timer.

The homing bolts approached but Nara did not Phase Shift through them this time. She placed a Dimension Node into the ground, deep enough that Leah’s estoc could not easily seek it. Thanks to the large area of effect of the node, she could still teleport around it even if the intangible core was buried.

Leah’s attempt to puncture the node through the ground temporarily fixed her in place, and she realized her mistake of fixating on Nara’s nodes.

Nara let herself tip forward swinging her sword in that awkward position horizontal to the ground. Then, she teleported behind Leah, her mid-swing sword connecting with her lower leg, tearing through the flesh of her shin. The timing was tight, but she managed to pull this one off.

With Nara behind Leah, the homing bolts still headed towards her. With her leg torn and her awkward position, Leah’s normally quick reactions were slowed just enough for the bolts to slam into her again, consuming the remaining five bolts of magic. Nara was already on the floor, so she simply shoved her sword forwards and up, skewering Leah as she fell backwards onto her sword from the impact.

It wasn’t exactly the right move. Leah fell on top of her, the two dogpiling with swords at dangerous and precarious angles. Leah couldn’t turn around, her back to Nara, but Nara was on the floor. With no leverage to swing Nirvana, Nara opted to transform it into a small stick and removed it from Leah’s back. Leah’s weight pressed against her—Nara couldn’t move out with just a Phase Shift, but she could still teleport. She was running on empty now. Leah had successfully forced Nara to waste her entire mana pool dodging her single homing ability repeatedly.

She teleported out of the pile, Leah dropping the short distance onto the floor.

“Pierce from below!” Leah chanted. Her expression turned to surprise when nothing activated.

Nara was surprised too, but she continued the attack. With Leah on the floor and her leg damaged, she was in great position of vulnerability.

She dashed to Leah with enhanced speed. She called up the methodology of The Way of the Hunter, precise and lethal. She swung down like a golfer, her sword cutting through vulnerable flesh of Leah’s neck. She activated Astral Return for the base damage increase, but hadn’t expected the return damage enhancement to trigger too; her sword cut through far easier and with far more power than she expected.

Whatever Leah chanted, it would have damaged her, and one of Nara’s abilities had somehow negated it, but what?

With Leah slain, the mirage ended.

Nara awoke on one of the mirage chamber beds in the side room. This hadn’t been her first mirage chamber battle, but it was the first time she managed a win.

Leah was beside her, on her own bed, her characteristic Arlang grey eyes locked onto hers.

“How did you negate my final spell?” Leah asked. Her expression was that of curiosity; she held no resentment over her loss.

“I have no idea—” Nara started to say, “—actually I have an idea.”

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Ability: [Cosmic Path]

Conjuration (dimension, movement)

Cost: Moderate mana

Cooldown: None

Effect (Iron): Conjures a path of stars beneath the caster’s feet. Prevents abilities from manifesting directly below the caster. Enhances [Speed]. Can reduce the weight of the caster for low mana-per-second cost, allowing for reduced fall speed and water walking. Can further enhance the caster’s [Speed] for additional low mana-per-second cost. The slow-fall effect can be extended to others in proximity.

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“I hadn’t expected that effect to come in handy.”

“A lot of trapping abilities can manifest from the ground,” Leah explained, sitting beside Nara on her bed. She was a young lady, in her late teens. Like most essence users from adventuring families, they started early.

“I walk on my own path and no one else can change it. That’s pretty nice.” She felt a bit like Amara and her inspirational sayings.

“Once you know about it, it’s easy enough to bypass,” Leah said, “Next time, I’ll target my ability a little away.”

“If you get a next time,” Nara said, “What if I wanted to end it on a win?”

“Oh you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t dare!” Leah’s expression twisted in pouting frustration.

“Would I?”

They hadn’t fought with familiars this time. The point of Leah and Nara’s duel was to hone their own skills, and explore their own personal abilities. With familiars, the dynamic would change completely. That may change in the future, but they have kept it simple for now.

Even though it was the Arlang’s private mirage chamber, it was still constantly booked. The Arlang members had their own teams to train, and everyone wanted a piece of the mirage pie. In the future, Sen would most likely organize a bout with one of his relatives’ teams.

Encio greeted her outside the preparatory room.

“Nice win.”

“Thanks. Managed to eke something out this time. I’m starting to understand the impact abilities can have on a fight. Even this fight though, my two afflictions did jack shit.”

She inflicted them sure, and they began to stack. But the final blow was not a product of the damage bonus they provided.

“That’s just how it is at iron rank. Don’t worry about it,” Encio assured her, “If the arena changed, the battle would change completely.”

“What do you mean?”

“Consider this—a large and dense forest. Who do you think would have the advantage in that arena?”

“With what I know, I would.”

“Now, what if you decided to just attack Leah once, cast Entropy…” Encio had no idea what Entropy was, so the spell name always tripped him up, “…cast that spell of yours, then retreat into the forest for a game of cat and mouse?”

“Leah’s homing magic would suffer in the forest.”

“It would. What else?”

“My nodes would be a lot harder to pinpoint and destroy.”

“That too, and?”

“I’d also be a lot harder to track and find.” Even against the well-trained Arlang relatives, Nara’s aura was hard to detect. Combined with her Moonlight Raiment, tracking her would be like tracking a shadow through the night.

“And all of that would combine into a desperate chase to finish you off before your afflictions grew so powerful that a single scratch from your sword triggers damage so powerful it blows a hole in her torso. The choice of an arena was a disadvantage to you from the very beginning.”

“I managed to turn Seeking Barrage against her this time, but she’s a fast learner. Next time, she’ll know that I have multiple ways to deal with it, and develop her own strategies to counter it.”

“That’s all the mirage chambers are really for,” Encio said. “To figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your abilities and skills, and to experience that for yourself. Many things are not understood from the ability description that outworlder abilities provide. We understand out abilities intuitively without them, but how they interact in different situations is important.”

“Don’t want to be caught off guard at the wrong time.”

“That’s the right idea. Experience in the mirage chamber will help you prevail in situations where you need that experience. It’s best to fight a wide variety of opponents in different circumstances to cultivate that instinct. The scenario I mentioned—in the forest fighting you—Leah herself may request it in order to prepare against a circumstance like that.”

“A loss isn’t enough to stop an Arlang.”

“A loss is considered a good learning opportunity to an Arlang,” Encio said, “as it should for any good adventurer. How about I provide you with a good learning opportunity?”

“Who’s to say it won’t be a learning experience for you?”

“Want to bet?”