Chapter 78: Battle of Mirages
“A team mirage chamber match?” Nara asked Vallis.
Nara and Vallis exchanged blows on the sparring field of the academy. Vallis still held the aggressive edge, but she grinned upon seeing her friend’s improvement. The trial had spurned on her growth—she’d make a proper adventurer of her yet. Vallis held a small pride; it was the first time she had been so closely involved in the training of another essence user (Vallis was young herself, after all), and she could see why the teachers of the Academy did what they did. It was fulfilling work.
“Thanks to the trial,” Vallis said, her thoughts moving back to the conversation, “I’ve gathered myself a full team. Six of us, like Sen’s team. Now that we’re all full up on essence abilities, why not go all out? A battle to the death in an arena of illusion.” Her tone was challenging. The smile that played on Nara’s face told Vallis she was more than up for it, although her response was balanced and thoughtful.
“Sounds interesting to me. I’ve only had small scale battles, duels and stuff like that. I’ll pass it on to Sen.”
“Tell him to hurry up and let me know. I’ve reserved us a time at the Academy’s mirage chamber.”
“Without even his confirmation?” said Nara incredulously.
Vallis’ grinning smile suggested she was confident Sen would accept her challenge, and she was right. Sen wouldn’t pass up an opportunity for training, and 6-person team battles were difficult to organize.
“We could just use the Arlang mirage chamber.”
“We could, but where’s the fun in that? Let’s put on a show for our fellow classmates.”
“You just want to inspire more challengers,” Nara rightly accused.
Vallis laughed. “The mirage chamber battles lately have been lackluster. I want to light a fire beneath the students of the academy and see what they call pull off. It’s time to set an example.”
“Or be made an example.” Nara’s tone suggested she wasn’t referring to her own team.
“Oh? Such aggression. I didn’t think you had it in you!”
Vallis lunged forward, her large wooden sword swinging with surprising speed.
“Where’s your aggression now?”
Nara grit her teeth, “Working on it! I’m not really an aggressive person. All bark, no bite!”
“I want to see some of your bite! Did your wolf familiar teach you nothing!”
“That familiar isn’t teacher material!”
“Everything is a teacher if you’re paying attention!”
Vallis threw her weapon, Nara twisting to dodge it. Vallis followed up with a body slam, sending Nara tumbling to the ground. Nara glared at the triumphant Vallis, spitting a lock of dirt covered hair from her mouth.
“Oh, one day…”
*****
The two teams gathered in the mirage chamber arena of the Academy. Sen was quietly ecstatic over the invitation to a team battle. If Vallis waited any longer, Nara had no doubt Sen would’ve posed the challenge first.
That may have even been why Vallis did pose the challenge first. Just to get the jump on Sen. By Sen’s narrowing eyes and controlled grin when Nara delivered the message, she suspected that was Vallis’ intent indeed.
“I know Vallis said she wanted to put on a show, but I didn’t think it’d be this whole thing…” Nara said, wildly gesturing and staring at the students that had gathered in the arena seating.
“A match between two teams of the great families is a great attraction,” said Aliyah matter-of-factly, “Few would pass an opportunity to see the power and potential of the youngest generation.”
“Yeah, but Sen’s been training at the Academy like everyone else. More or less…I guess he’s gotten a lot of private tutoring. So have I.”
“I wouldn’t call what you have private tutoring,” Encio said, quick to dismiss her poorly conceived notions, “All of your lessons have been the basics. More ‘catching up’ than ‘private tutoring’. What Sen and I have—politics, laws, essence user etiquette, battle strategy—are advanced topics that are unnecessary for most adventurers.”
The unsaid was ‘higher level learning’ required actually mastering the basics first. Basics that Nara certainly didn’t have when she materialized bare-ass naked like a new-born babe (in more ways than one) on the floor of Amara’s research lab.
“Not everyone needs team leader training.”
Encio nodded, “Frankly I’m a bit wasted here, but I never cared to be team leader personally. It’s just how it always ended up when I recruited others.”
“What, everyone is a ‘yes man’ next to the Aciano name?”
Encio’s tone agreed with her. “Even when I tried not to be the leader, the leader deferred to me. Which meant, I was effectively the leader once more, even if I wasn’t on paper.”
Eufemia rolled her eyes, “Oh, the woes of the rich and famous! Thrusted onto positions of leadership and power they reluctantly accept! Such is their duty!”
“I hope you never change, Eufemia,” he said dryly.
“If she starts buttering you up, you know she wants something from you.”
“Then I know to be afraid,” Encio said, holding his body in a fake shiver, then grinning at Eufemia’s displeasure.
*****
“I hope you are your team are ready to get crushed, Arlang.” Vallis said, her crossed-arms posture was just as competitive as her tone.
“You won’t find us so easy to crush, Nisei.”
Within Vallis’ team there were a lot of familiar faces. As Vallis said during the adventure society exam, she recruited Kiris the water essence healer onto her team. Gento, the fire fist leonid, had also joined Vallis’ team. He waved cheerfully to Nara.
Hugh, the chain user that had saved John during the first part of the trial, was now the defender and battlefield controller of Vallis’ team. He was also a Sanshi local, so Vallis snatched him up for her team. She was impressed with his calmness in crisis and quick thinking.
Nolan was also a part of Vallis’ team, part auxiliary, part combatant. Even more than their healer, he was the least combat-oriented member of Vallis’ team. However, Vallis’ team was heavy with damage dealers, so his abilities were a nice balance. Nolan was more auxiliary member than frontline combatant, but his essences abilities could pack a serious punch, and his essence set of Dance, Feast, Knife, and Bounty also provided buffing, healing, and evasive abilities.
The final team member was Jaina, a bow user with sharp features and an icy persona. Nara didn’t know much of her abilities, so she would be a surprise. Sen had gone over what he knew of the team members, but adventurer abilities, while recorded, wasn’t accessible knowledge.
Vallis’ team was heaving offensive focused, compared to Sen. Vallis, Jaina, Gento, and Nolan contributed a large amount of damage, whereas the last two members, Kiris and Hugh, were the team’s healer and defender respectively.
On their side, Encio was the only pure damage dealer (pure in a way that made everyone on Vallis’ team shoot him a combination of wary or challenging glances. Jaina and Gento had more than enough powerful to get one-hit kills off, but Encio’s speed (combined with absurd skill) was always his most terrifying aspect), while Sen, Aliyah, Nara, and Eufemia all had mixed skill sets and roles.
Hugh had the impressive essence set of Chain, Iron, Myriad, and Prison. Myriad was a legendary essence, well known for its multi-target and duplicative capabilities. He wasn’t from a famous family, so Nara wondered how he’d gotten his hands on that essence (likely inherited).
It would be a challenge to see if the Sen’s team could handle their continued onslaught, or at least their initial burst. However, since both teams were fresh, the outcome was indeterminate.
Of Sen’s team, his most effective and most independent members would be Nara, Encio, and himself. Nara’s weapon skill was moderate, but in conjunction with her abilities, she was incredibly difficult to kill while also effective at harassing a single enemy, even if the damage was low (barring fatal blows with a sword in the right place). Meanwhile, Encio was the most experienced and skillful member of the team. His high speed meant that he, like Nara, was hard to pin down.
John held the crucial role of healer and would likely be focused by the high offense of the enemy. This fact would be the impetus of their strategy.
Sen told the team his plan.
The battlefield was amid a forest between spires of rock, the typical terrain of Sanshi. Vallis knew the terrain was to her team’s disadvantage, but it was the most common terrain they’d fight in. If wasn’t as if they’d hadn’t fought in forests before either.
The two teams would begin separated. The first challenge—who could strike first.
Vallis’ team lacked a member they could use as a scout. Jaina was a bow user, but with offensive and trapping abilities. She particularly wasn’t suited towards scouting (although more so than the rest of her team. But wandering alone at iron rank where a quick stab could finish you off was a quick way to turn a 6v6 into a 5v6.). This was Sen’s first advantage. Both Eufemia and Nara served as competent scouts, although Nara held the competitive edge in mobility and anti-detection, due to her anti-detection armor effect and superior aura control.
Nara hopped from node to node. She left Sage with her team members, intentionally spending mana to begin stacking Integrity early. Stopping at a high rock spire, she began to examine the area she had covered. In her hand, she had a pair of conjured binoculars—courtesy of John. Detecting nothing, she continued, picking her way across the terrain in focused silence.
Nara stopped on a tree. Beneath her body was a thick three branch that obstructed her body from below, although it was unnecessary.
“I found them,” she said through voice chat, “Northwest, by a waterfall that leads into a wide stream.”
The moment Nara had detected them, the map had marked their locations.
“Vallis knows she lacks the initiative, so they may be preparing to receive us there. The water may be an advantage to their healer.”
Vallis’ healer, Kiris, had the Water, Life, Balance, and Mystic essence combination. Elemental essences often had greater effects in locations where the element was present, and Vallis likely intended to utilize every advantage she had.
“Can we lure them away?” asked Eufemia. She was always sensitive to traps and ambushes—honed by experience of a careful and dangerous past.
“Not yet, but maybe…” Said Sen, pausing for a moment to think, “Nara could you run harassment?”
“My afflictions aren’t going to stick. Not with the healer alive.”
While Nara could eventually take out a healer, she could not while surrounded by five other team members.
“We’re adopting a siege tactic. It’s time for mental warfare.”
*****
“Again? So damn persistent!” Gento said, swatting away another arrow. Gento was usually cheerful, but the attacks had been wearing even him thin. For the past hour and a half, their team has been assaulted by a combination of mana arrows and rays of light. Whenever they tried to settle, an attack would arrive from the surrounding trees, unbalancing them.
Every so often, Nara would teleport in, harassing their healer with a barrage of attacks. She generously used Phase Shift to avoid damage since she could recover mana between engagements. Infinity Domain handled the rest, bending away the weaker ranged attacks. Jaina’s powerful icicle arrows were the only real threat, but Nara’s mobility meant she could recover from mistakes.
She never let the healer have a moment of rest. Kiris was shy and quiet, but surprisingly resilient. But the unexpected and ferocious focus of Nara left her unsettled and shaky over her continued assault. More importantly, she had to continually cleanse herself, else Nara’s afflictions would build up. She wiped herself clean each time without issue, but Nara’s mana recovery was building while hers was a stagnate rate. Even then, it was a stalemate. Nara made no significant progress against Kiris except gradually depleting her mana.
Eufemia supported Nara from the shadows. She duplicated Nara’s dimension teleport and Aliyah’s Mana Burst, getting in damage where she could. Mana Burst was particularly effective—with the team grouped up, they either had to eat the area explosion, or split up to let Nara have direct access to Kiris, since Nara could teleport closer to her with nothing blocking the way. This increased Kiris’ healing burden, although Nolan alleviated it somewhat with his own healing abilities.
Eufemia could duplicate Nara’s Dimension Node, but she couldn’t create any nodes with it. She could only gain the dimensional teleportation portion of the ability. With nodes already laid out in a retreat path, Eufemia and Nara could escape if any of them decided to give chase.
So far, they had not. Holding admirably at their location. Although, expressions of frustration filled the faces of many members of the team.
“I’m want to chase her!” Gento said, pacing back and forth. Chairs, tables, food, even their fire had been destroyed. There was nothing to enjoy and nothing to pass the time except wait for an inevitable assault.
“You can’t,” said Vallis, although she wasn’t sure; She was against The Battlefield Strategist, Sen Arlang. What was his plan? “That would be playing into their hands.”
Gento nodded, but Vallis could tell he was at the end of his rope. She burned with a calm fury. She knew this was just a match, and Sen intentionally chose this strategy to attack their mental strength. The realism of the mirage chamber was exhaustive. Vallis couldn’t help but feel her frustration rising. Kiris was being harassed to no end, suffering repeated cuts and stabs. It wore on her.
The occasionally managed to land a few shots of Nara, but her extreme mobility allowed her to safely retreat, disappearing into the forest.
Nara was unrelenting. She teleported in, carving or nicking away at flesh, and teleported out. Even when they landed blows, she returned fully healed. The time between each assault grew shorter, and Vallis knew Nara was growing in power.
Kiris held Mana Tide in reserve, but her mana from repeatedly healing and cleansing herself was drawing low. The interference from Nara did not allow her to use a single mana potion or consume Nolan’s restorative food.
Hugh’s basic binding ability, Ground Lock, created a chain from iron that arose from the earth to bind a target. However, any ability manifesting directly beneath Nara failed, an effect of her Cosmic Path. Hugh had to target ground adjacent to her, but that gave Nara slightly more time to react—it was enough, and Nara had the mana regeneration to semi-generously use Phase Shift.
Kiris would either have to use Mana Tide or run out of mana. But that was a delay that did not break their deadlock. Sen’s team knew where they were, but her team did not.
“We need a new plan.” Said Gento, searching for a way out of this losing deadlock, “The next time we’re attacked, what if three of us give chase?”
“Three?”
“They at most have two members that can serve as skirmishers. Send three—and take the two out.”
It was an inaccurate statemen; Encio could serve as a high burst damage skirmisher, but the team had chosen to save him for a decisive move.
Vallis knew even this move was not satisfactory. If they sent three members away, Sen’s other four members could be lying in wait. The skirmishers could regroup faster after drawing away three members of her team, pressing the remaining half of the team until they returned, or delaying their return entirely.
Vallis gathered the team, explaining her plan.
“Sen, they’re making their move,” Eufemia told Sen through voice chat.
Their base had been set up relatively close to Vallis’ team. John and Nara’s conjuration abilities let them conjure a simple and small box cabin of Minecraft simplicity. If Vallis’ team had a proper scout, they would have been detected within the past hours.
Sen now had two options to consider. The first was to ambush the members Vallis sends to attack Nara and Eufemia. If he was in Vallis’ position, with her team composition, it would be one of the tactics he’d consider.
If Nara and Eufemia led them towards the direction of the base, where the rest of the team was on standby, they may be able to kill the members outright.
It was also possible Vallis may chase with her whole team, abandoning their hold by the river. He didn’t know why they had chosen the river clearing in the first place, but the advantage of water may not be great enough with their healer on low mana, and they may choose to move into the forest. Vallis had, with her lack of scout, made the mistake of revealing her winning condition to easily (she should have stayed in the forest, and led the battle towards the river. Vallis lacked the subtle hand the Nisei was known for, but she was known as The White Sun for a reason—her lack of the finer skill in tactics in part). Sen agreed with Eufemia—the river was dangerous. While Nara benefitted from forest terrain, most the others suffered in varying degrees. The question was if the other team suffered worse.
The other option was to attack in force against whatever members were left behind. Their healer was on the backfoot and may not utilize whatever water ability they had planned to capitalize on in the first place. However, their defender Hugh was still a large threat. He was unlikely to be separated from the rest of the team.
“Keep me informed. We’ll begin to make our approach.”
The next time Nara assaulted their healer, the team left into action.
“Slip through air as through water,” Kiris chanted, bestowing a boon on both Gento and Jaina. The shot off, their speed enhanced by the boon. Projectiles launched against them with this boon slid away, as if washed away by water. Nara and Eufemia fled, the other two not quite ‘hot-on-their-heels’ but steadily gaining.
“Two of them are on us. Gento and Jaina.”
“We’ll move forth with Plan Mirage Replacement.”
“That sounds utterly ridiculous,” Eufemia said. “We don’t need plan names.”
“Yeah, like we’re some sort of official organization,” Nara agreed. “As if we need plan names to keep our plans separate.”
“We are an official organization,” Sen said flatly. “And we may re-use plans.”
“A team? That hardly counts as an official organization.”
He paused, considering. “We’re part of an official organization.”
“Yeah. But we’re not officials of the official organization.”
“Could we focus on the battle?” Aliyah chided, “Or are we going to lose because we can’t get over Sen’s ridiculous formality?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Aliyah…”
The speed boost began to wear off, and Gento and Jaina approached Nara in a clearing. They had lost sight of Eufemia sometime during the chase. You really would not have expected it, with her bright red hair contrasting the forest browns and green, yet she had shaken their focus.
“Where’s your slippery friend?”
“Eufemia would resent being called slippery, but she’s around.” Nara gestured to the trees. On cue, a light ray shot from within the forest, which Gento sidestepped.
“You’re to hold us here.”
“You bet,” Nara’s bow transformed into a sword; her boons fully stacked.
“Give it your best try,” Gento said, smashing his hands together with a grin.
The four erupted into battle. Gento roared, activating Leonid’s Roar.
-------
Racial Abiltiy: [Leonid’s Roar]
Active. Roar loudly to increase the [Power] and [Speed] attributes of nearby allies.
-------
Chrome and Thanatos manifested, tag teaming Jaina while Nara held off Gento. A body each of Sage was attached to Chrome and Thanatos, granting them the benefit of Nara’s full boons. Without them, Chrome and Thanatos alone would not be able to hold off one member. Even with them, they were only a distraction.
Their targets were not necessarily so fixed. Nara swapped back and forth, applying her afflictions to each member when she could. Chrome accelerated them with his, and Thanatos inflicted his afflictions as well, increasing their mana costs slowly with Umbral Burn.
Gento was a fearsome foe; Five of a leonid’s six racial abilities were related to speed, strength, and stamina cost reduction. His flaming fists were sharp and powerful; any hits that landed staggered Nara or even blew her away. He immolated himself, slowly burning his own health but also burning away some of Nara’s afflictions. When she was too close, flames licked onto her, burning her skin. Still, this cleansing ability was not enough to keep up with Nara’s afflictions. He disabled the ability, keeping his health in reserve.
Jaina’s arrows were more powerful than plentiful, a poor match up for Nara. She could not influence their trajectory much and they raked across her body, leaving gashes of icy blood. Every so often, an ice trap immobilized Chrome or Thanatos, letting her press the attack against Nara.
Magical ice and fire did not conflict. Nara suffered the effects of both, simultaneously burning and freezing. Her muscles froze and her skin burned; a thoroughly unpleasant sensation that would turn her stomach, if she had one.
Nara juggled the two opponents as best she could. Luckily for her, only Jaina had a familiar, a clear, transparent hunting bird that looked as if it was made of melting ice. It similarly fired piercing icicle shots, but they were less dangerous than Jaina’s attacks and mostly ignorable.
Nara put Gento between herself and Jaina, forcing Jaina into difficult positions that prevented the use of her most powerful abilities. Meanwhile, Eufemia’s newest familiar, Lumi, fired Light Rays from the forest. Together with the Echo Spirit Runa, they made a passable mimicry of Eufemia.
-------
Ability: [Firelight Wisp]
Essence: Light
Awakening Stone: Fire
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon a [Firelight Wisp], to serve as a familiar.
*
* Can move extremely quickly. Cannot attack while moving quickly.
* Casts light on its surroundings. Light can be dimmed or strengthened.
* When the light of the familiar is increased to its maximum, it dispels concealment effects. Wisp cannot attack in this state.
* Attacks using Light Rays. Attacks gain increased power and frequency in strong light.
* When subsumed in the summoner’s skin, the summoner can manipulate light to make their self and their abilities harder to detect or cause themselves to glow.
-------
Runa’s attacks inflicted no damage, they were illusions of Eufemia’s abilities, such as her copied Wrath of the Magister. Lumi, on the other hand, dealt real damage, although it was weak.
Even with the familiar and boon advantage, a strange feeling nagged at Nara. Jaina and Gento were sent to intercept or kill her and Eufemia. Nara and Eufemia’s familiars, in turn, were trying to delay the two so that Sen, with the advantage of one additional member, could mop up the rest of Vallis’ team.
If they knew Nara was trying to keep them in place, why would they stay? In their position, they should quickly realize Nara was trying to delay them 1v2 (it was more 1.3v2 thanks to the extra familiars, and Nara’s ability set was tailored towards small engagements and duels, which was what even allowed her to delay this long in the first place). The sensation gnawed on her, but she could do little else but fight the two desperately.
*****
Sen had not expected that Vallis would choose to reverse the bait. She allowed Gento and Jaina to split, and they instead held Nara down while the rest of the team rushed to intercept. Kiris was carried by Hugh, conserving her low energy, while the team ran through the forest.
Vallis needed Sen to also split his team. She sent Gento and Jaina off, hoping he’d send his team to assault hers, instead of backing up Nara. While he made his way there, her team would catch up to the ongoing skirmish.
Vallis intended to reverse the chase.
What Vallis had not expected was how close Sen’s team truly was. The lack of a scout for her team was the missing brick that toppled the tower.
Vallis’ two fastest members had been sent to catch up with Nara; the rest of the team had a lower top speed. Sen and Encio however, were both fast.
Sen’s movement ability was like a leonid’s Sprint racial ability, which allowed leonids to run extremely quickly at extreme stamina cost.
--------
Ability: [Momentous Sprint]
Essence: Might
Special Ability
Cost: High stamina-per-second and low mana-per-second
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Sprint with greatly increased movement speed. Rapidly gain instances of [Momentum] during the sprint.
* [Momentum] (boon, magic, stacking): When making an attack, all instances are consumed to inflict resonating-force damage. Multiple instances can be accumulated, and instances are lost quickly while not moving.
--------
Sen and Encio moved to intercept. John and Aliyah would have to catch up.
Nara continued her precarious battle against Gento and Jaina. Now, she was sure they were trying to hold her in place, rather than the other way around. This realization was illuminating—It was easier to fight when she didn’t have to keep them in place, instead freely teleporting and moving around.
Their battle had evolved into a retreating skirmish, where Nara retreated in the direction of Sen and Encio while occasionally hitting attacks against Gento and Jaina. They traded blows, but the forest cover blocked most of Jaina’s attacks, and Gento didn’t have as much vertical mobility as Nara—few did, at iron rank. With mild pride she though of it as one of her specialties.
Since she didn’t need to make risky moves to keep them in place, she could move easily avoid the duo.
“Sen, it feels like they’re trying to keep me in place, not the other way around. I’ve started to retreat in your direction,” she reported to Sen.
“Understood. We’ll join you shortly. Eufemia, join up with me.”
“I’m on it.”
Eufemia was already sprinting towards Sen’s party. She carried one body of Sage on her, allowing her to maintain a high speed without tiring. She didn’t have Sen’s movement ability, nor access to Nara’s nodes (nor a target to copy from), so she had to settle for base speed running.
Vallis’ party was making their way through the trees at a hurried pace. She abandoned some amount of caution, prioritizing speed. She once again lamented her team’s lack of a scout.
With a roar of wind, a massive black crescent shot through the forest, cleaving through trees.
“Hugh!”
The trees blunted the speed of the blade somewhat. Hugh swiftly conjured a small iron wall in front of them to stop the attack in its tracks. At iron rank, it was not large nor thick, but the iron dissipated the cutting black energy. However, the wall crucially obscured an incoming attack.
Encio’s God-Sundering Slash ignores physical obstructions and only attacks the intended target—And his intended target was the small Kiris, who Hugh had set down. Knowing that Hugh would act to block his Vorpal Slash, Encio duplicated a God-Sundering Slash with Double Strike.
Kiris was harried and exhausted, but she wasn’t helpless. More instinct than thought, she conjured a bubble of water around herself. It absorbed part of the damage of the first slash, the slash sloshing into water, spraying water out from the bubble like a burst water balloon.
There wasn’t enough water to block the second, which slammed into her, cutting through her armor and flesh. Kiris, however, wasn’t dead yet. She was badly injured (with a gaping gash across her torso that would kill her shortly, at least due to blood loss) but began weaving healing abilities in a las-ditch effort to preserve herself. Sen’s team needed to follow up to finish her off (because if anyone could survive Encio’s attack, it’d be a healer).
The attack did not stop; Sen and Encio both engaged. Sen moved close to Hugh’s flank and activated his most powerful attack—a combination of Explosive Zeal with Unstoppable Force, further bolstered by the instances of Momentum he gained on his run there. The sturdy Hugh was sent flying backwards like a misaimed bowling ball. Midair, he managed to cast Ground Lock. Thick chains wrapped around Sen’s ankles, tying him in place to the ground.
Ordinarily, a single essence user against a deluge of attacks from three others was a death sentence, even if two of their best attackers were occupied elsewhere. Vallis herself was a heavy hitter, and Nolan and Hugh had ranged attacks they could use from afar.
With Sen immobilized, Vallis gathered energy in her blade, the large blade lit with a vortex of energy.
However, Sen had a new trump card from the trial he had awakened with a rare Awakening Stone of Defiance
-------
Ability: [Return to Origin]
Essence: Balance
Special Ability / Special Attack
Cost: Very high stamina and mana
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Effect (Iron): Become briefly invulnerable, then attack to unleash a powerful wave of disruptive- and resonating-force damage with an attack, blowing back all attacks and abilities at the impact to their origin.
-------
The Balance Essence was a flexible essence that awakened abilities with an equivalent cost, or abilities that required timing and judgement. Return to Origin was the latter, an expensive attack that required precise timing or else its greatest benefits were wasted.
A wave of force abruptly reversed spikes of iron, Vallis’ charged up sword swing, and Nolan’s dancing chef knives back to those that had unleashed them. With the time he bought for himself, he used the concentrated heat blade on his Staff of Duality to quickly cut away the chains binding his feet.
Freed, he dashed forward, seeking Kiris to finish the job. With no allies to protect, he could go all out.
Suddenly, a figure dashed through the trees, a rust-furred Leonid.
“Gento!” Vallis exclaimed in relief.
“I’m on it, chief!” He crossed the line of fire, dodging Sword Waves that launched through the air to intercept him. He landed nimbly next to Kiris, a splendid display of acrobatic athleticism that was expected from a leonid.
A fanged grin curled in a way that was somehow out-of-place, eliciting a shiver down Vallis’ back. Gento conjured a weapon into his hands that Vallis did not recognize. It was made of both wood and metal, with two long cylinders attached in parallel. The end of the weapon pointed down at Kiris, whose eyes widened in surprise.
“Gento…?” She said with a warbling voice. Her hand was pressed to her stomach, a healing glow slowly stitching wounds and slowing blood loss. Her other hand hovered in the air, a glowing ritual circle halfway drawn.
“Sorry, Kiris. I really tried to like you but you’re just not a good fit for the team. The most optimal form of this team is a team without you.”
The end of the weapon lit ablaze in a roar of fire and explosive force counter to what one normally expected of an infiltration transformation specialist. Kiris partially formed into water to teleport, before the effect was unexpectedly dispelled.
-------
Ability: [Void Cancel]
Essence: Refracting
Spell (curse)
Incantation: “No power escapes the void.”
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Effect (Iron): Cast a spell on a target, interrupting a target ongoing ability. You can cancel the inherent abilities of a magical creature. The ability that was interrupted is placed on a 3-minute cooldown, and mana is consumed as if the ability had been cast, up to a limit. If more than one ability is interrupted and no target ability is specified, the ability with the longest cooldown is prioritized.
-------
Void Cancel was a new ability Eufemia awakened from a legendary Awakening Stone of the Void, cementing her specialty in both copying and sealing abilities.
Kiris was forced to suffer as many shots as possible of Solar Judgement Eufemia could unleash in a short period of time. Kiris already used her greatest defensive ability, Water Bubble. Even John’s two magic bubble shields would not have been enough to block all seven blasts. A single shot was all it took to finish off the already badly hurt Kiris.
Kiris died, fire evaporating the remnants of water from her in mixture of smoke and steam.
The battle was not over yet. Kiris had been defeated, but iron rankers were weak. If the battle didn’t last long, it mattered not that Kiris had died (you can’t heal the dead after all). It was Sen and Encio’s turn to be besieged, and Nara was still fighting off two essence users on an intercept course for the main skirmish. Vallis had chased Nara, and Sen and Encio had intercepted, so Nara was relatively close to both groups.
Vallis gathered power for another strike, flinging herself at Sen who had already expended his trump card.
Sen prepared to block the ability with his staff, but Vallis’ strike was bounced back by a shield. John and Aliyah stood at the forest’s edge. Aliyah was out of breath from prolonged running she wasn’t used to. John was tired too, but it wasn’t visible since he had already abandoned the human activity of breathing.
John’s shielding timings was still lacking although the trial had sharpened up his skills. The outnumbered group could only rely on Nolan for healing effects, and he transitioned into their sub healer, using draining attacks to create glowing red healing streams that restored allies. However, Sen had the support of a dedicated healer.
However, a hybrid healer and damage dealer did not often have the extreme restorative effects of a dedicated healer. It wasn’t enough to sustain the group under the onslaught of five enemies. Defensive buffs from Nolan’s food however mitigated a large portion of damage and prevented attacks from killing members outright. John’s shields played a similar role, blocking attacks he judged to be lethal, which he had made marked improvement on.
“Sen, I’m approaching your position. I can’t keep Jaina and Gento much longer without going down myself,” Nara told Sen through chat.
“It’s enough. The full group is here, return for healing and join the battle. Prioritize staying alive over further delay.”
With a flash, Nara teleported away from her fight. Her fingers were icy and blue, a few necrotizing. Her teeth chattered, and large burns ran across her arms and face, blistering.
“Hey John, how about some healing?” Nara said, appearing at his side.
“Bloody hell, you scared me!” John started, but began tossing Life Bolts when he saw her poor state. Her robe was greatly burned, the blue marred with black burnt cloth and red blood. Frost crawled up her body and limbs as if she had grown scales of ice. As it flaked away, so did her skin, exposing bloody and raw subdermal skin. He once again internally bemoaned that young adults were attacking each other in magic’s equivalent of virtual reality and wondered how exactly he had ended up here.
John didn’t think he’d ever get used to it, but he kept his concerns to himself, reflected externally only by his eyebrows crinkled in worry. At least, nobody actually got hurt here, no matter how real it felt.
“A cleansing sacrifice.”
A glow of red life force faded from John like it was sapped away with an invisible vacuum, then set Nara aglow with a red and gold cleansing shimmer.
-------
Ability: [Cleansing Lifeblood]
Essence: Immortal
Spell
Incantation: “A cleansing sacrifice.”
Cost: Low health
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Effect (Iron): Cleanse a moderate number of unholy, holy, curse, wounding, or magic afflictions from a target.
-------
Cleansing Lifeblood was the final ability in John’s Immortal Confluence, awakened with an Awakening Stone of Sacrifice. The price of his ability was his own health, but compared to anyone else on the team, he, the middle-aged-man, ironically had the greatest amount of health in the form of healing.
The ability alleviated some of the many afflictions she had built up from fighting Jaina and Gento, but it unfortunately did not cleanse elemental afflictions, which were the mainstay affliction type of her two opponents. She would have to bear the effects and damage until they naturally faded. Thankfully, her affliction resistance now granted formerly by Resilient, now Tribulation of Self, also reduced the severity and duration of afflictions. Not enough to naturally cleanse them this battle, but she had no other choice. At least her stacked recovery boons offset the damage the afflictions caused her.
Another rust-furred leonid burst from the tree line in a blitz of speed like a runaway train, showering dirt behind him. It was the real Gento, a minute too late.
-------
Racial Ability: [Sprint]
Run at extreme speed for extreme stamina cost.
-------
Seeing a dead Kiris on the ground, torso blown through with a smoldering hole, he cursed.
“Fuck, this match is really heating up!” His expression was a mix of frustration and excitement, a mirror of Vallis’ own. Battle junkies, the lot of them.
Jaina was still behind him, peeling through the woods and quick to catch up.
The resulting brawl was far less coordinated than their initial tactics. Both teams had yet to reach the mastery needed for effective team battles, and fights devolved into smaller, more controlled fights. Individual abilities were also hard to direct—that is where practice was necessary; Getting used to how your teammates fought, to sense when they’d use their abilities, to fit together like Power Rangers forming the Dino Megazord.
Sen blocked the enemies who tried to corner Aliyah, who was launching spells and disrupting opponents with traps and spells.
Binding Light was a simplistic spell with a short incantation to match. The strength of the spell lay in its versatility. Unlike Hugh’s Ground Lock, which manifested from the ground, she could conjure these threads anywhere on a target. They attached themselves to the air itself (or space or something—it was magic), as if silken strands of light had been woven from sunlight. They did, however, possess less binding strength than Hugh’s chains. Physical strength alone was enough to be freed from the threads unlike Ground Lock, which required an attack to deal with. Used at opportune moments, it could catch an opponent out in an awkward condition.
Vallis felt growing frustration as Aliyah’s knowledge of magic and abilities was able to identify these vulnerabilities in Vallis’ charge-oriented fighting style. Vallis’ combination of Gathering, Might, Magic, for Onslaught focused on charging power for massive, crushing attacks. While Vallis was well-trained in swordsmanship, her abilities were harder to combine with the natural combat flow than Nara’s light and flowing attacks. Since Vallis killed most monsters and even her peers in one strike, this was a refreshing change of pace that identified her weaknesses. Even as her grip on victory loosened, she thrill of battle fixed her hands to her heavy claymore.
Gento continued to chase Nara, the only one able to keep up with her movement abilities. Jaina arrived as well, but she couldn’t compete with the two sprinters. She focused on the other, more stationary part of the fight, targeting John and Aliyah.
A multitude of iron chains rose from the ground like seaweed, whipping around like a cat startled by a loud noise. They snatched onto anyone close by, chaining them in place and battering them.
Nara, of course, had a teleport and flitted away, back towards the tree line where it was safe—a conservative, safe distance, where she allowed herself the time to re-evaluate the battlefield. Gento took the opportunity to press the attack against Sen, who was now being overwhelmed with four others on top of him. With John, Eufemia, and Aliyah supporting him, he was holding on. Eufemia duplicated both of John’s shield abilities, creating remarkable spur-of-the-moment protection even as some bubble shields overlapped. It was Eufemia’s quick judgement and creative ability application that prevented Sen’s defeat then and there.
Fuck.
She had made a mistake. In her own instinct to preserve herself, Nara forgot she needed to protect her teammates. Against ordinary people, Sen could Kung Fu his way past disaster. He could genuinely solo an entire gang of people (assuming they had no guns). Against adventurers, Nara needed to be there. Knowing Sen, he had already seen her issue, and he’d be working out a way for her to improve.
At least he wasn’t psychoanalyzing her or something (he may be, internally, but had the decency not to say anything. Rather, he’d just implement his training. She didn’t know if that was better or worse). Really, standing in front of whipping chains as if they wouldn’t just bash her skull in wasn’t a natural reaction for self-preservation. She wasn’t supposed to react like a sane person. That wasn’t the point.
She dashed back through the seaweed forest of whipping chains from her position at the tree line of the clearing, chasing Gento, and feeling oddly like she was abandoning her sanity (as if that hadn’t happened more than once before. She and Sanity had an on-and-off relationship). Unfortunately, she was snatched up by a chain, arresting her speed. Nara tried to teleport forwards, but Jaina intercepted her nodes, smashing them with pinpoint arrow shots.
While Aliyah lacked mechanical skills, she did not lack basic battlefield judgement. With an obvious grouping of enemies in front of her, she made a Very Logical Decision. She conjured a core of wind between Vallis, Gento, Nolan, and Hugh, which pulled them towards its center.
-------
Ability: [Force Vortex]
Essence: Gathering
Conjuration (trap)
Cost: Low mana-per-second
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Create a core that generates a vortex of pulling force, sucking all enemies nearby towards the center of the vortex and dealing continuous rending damage. When the core is destroyed or displaced, a wave of force explodes outwards, dealing a burst of rending damage and knocking all targets away from the core of the vortex.
-------
A certain someone had, despite his self-proclaimed (and genuinely) enchanting looks and ostentatious personality (not self-proclaimed), managed to slip the mind of the enemy despite the impactful role he played at the beginning of the fight. It was stunning, really, how easily he could disappear if he kept quiet and kept out of sight. He wouldn’t be the grandson of a diamond ranker if he wasn’t adept in the basics of stealth (or rather, a skill born of Wisteria. He may have tried to slight-of-hand in their table games, not that diamond and gold rank sense ever let him get away with it. Didn’t stop him from trying).
Team Vallis had forgotten in the messy brawl that Team Sen had one additional team member on them. Grouped enemies was his bread, his butter, and his jam, and he was more than happy to demonstrate to a bunch of new iron rankers why standing close together in a fight with him around was a very, very, very, bad idea.
He flickered from the tree line, his sinister grin sending chills down Vallis’ spine. She didn’t have the speed to stop what happened next.
He used Eternal Moment to bypass the charge time of Vorpal Slash entirely, then enhanced it with Double Strike. An ominous crescent of black energy erupted from his sheath, flying with a speed almost too fast for the gathered enemies to react to. Thanks to Eufemia’s cooldown reducing ability Blessing of Readiness, Encio’s attack had recovered faster than Hugh’s ability to block it with an iron wall from the time he used it earlier.
Instead, Nolan reacted, buffing his allies (by releasing a golden mist, don’t worry about it) with a short duration but powerful boon that temporarily increased the damage resistance of everyone around him, the effect of which smelled oddly like fragrant chicken broth (better than certain other potential alternatives). Hugh pushed forward, taking the brunt of the attack with durable iron-like skin.
However, Encio’s assault was not over.
Eufemia used her other cooldown reduction ability that she awakened from Encio’s Time stone.
-------
Ability: [Blessing of Relentlessness]
Essence: Adept
Special Ability (recovery)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: 24 hours
Effect (Iron): Reset all cooldowns of a single ally of bronze-rank or below.
-------
Blessing of Relentlessness was a common cooldown recovery ability, an ‘unlucky’ pick up for Eufemia who used a legendary stone on it. Legendary stores were more specific ant not strictly of rare abilities. However, ‘common’ abilities were not weak.
It was, perhaps, a bit of a waste to use a 24-hour cooldown ability on Encio whose best attacks had a 5-minute cooldown (barring Immortality, which had its own 24-hour cooldown. That was worth it to refresh). But Sen knew it wasn’t about getting the most efficient use of an ability, it was the timing of it that mattered.
And this was the right time.
Aliyah unloaded all of her saved up mana onto Encio, and Encio repeated his attack, unleashing both an instantaneous Double Strike Vorpal Slash then a God-Sundering Slash. The Vorpal Slash crashed into the iron-skinned Hugh, cutting further and exactly where the previous slash had hit him. The God-Sundering Slash bypassed him entirely, targeting their sub-healer, Nolan. Nolan doubled over, blood and ripped up flesh spilling from his abdomen. He didn’t have the instantaneous healing power of Kiris to save himself. He fumbled a potion, but a Bolster from John enhanced Eufemia’s Light Ray enough to smash the potion bottle through its reinforced glass, the healing fluid nurturing the blood-soaked soil instead, and sealing Nolan’s fate.
-------
Ability: [Bolster]
Essence: Magic
Awakening Stone: Growth
Spell
Incantation: “Let your power fulminate.”
Cost: Low mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): The next essence ability used by the target ally has increased effect. This can affect parameters including damage, range, and number of targets, depending on the affected ability. Cannot be used on self. This effect cannot stack.
-------
Encio could have targeted anyone in the group, but targeted Nolan for a few reasons. He was the last healer and support essence user on the team and had done surprisingly well despite his non-traditional combination. The second reason was that Gento and Jaina would fall to Nara. Gento and Jaina fought Nara for an extended period of time, and her afflictions built on them from the skirmish. That was Nara’s role—dragging out a fight and finishing targets off.
They had pressed Kiris to prevent her from undoing all of Nara’s work, and now killed Nolan to prevent any further surprises. Without a cleanser, Nara would not lose to Gento and Jaina. Chrome’s Deterioration increased the affliction stacking speed, making Nara a threat quicker than the two will have expected.
With an extended battle, Nara now became the largest threat to Gento and Jaina, who had no way to combat her growing afflictions and boons. Eufemia switched her copied spell to Life Bolt, in charge of healing Nara while John supported Sen.
Eufemia swapped her Silver Gleam to copy Nara’s Blade of the Boundary. The remaining members of Team Vallis all had escalating stacks of her afflictions, and the sword was dealing decent levels of damage for little effort. Eufemia shifted into a hybrid support and frontline attacker role, still copying John’s shields, and using the basic special attack Relentless Assault from Sen to start stacking damage.
-------
Ability: [Relentless Assault]
Essence: Might
Awakening Stone: Growth
Special Attack
Cost: Low stamina, increasing with each successive attack.
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Each use of this attack in quick succession increases the damage of this attack. Damage is of the same type caused by a normal attack.
-----
She didn’t need any fancy tactics now, just solid attacks. Her skill was still low, but shields, healing, and the full team pushed Eufemia and Nara towards inevitable success.
Eufemia’s fighting style weaved in beams of light and sword slashes. At point blank, her Light Rays were incredibly hard to dodge, inflicting low but consistent damage. She could only launch them from nearby herself towards a target she could see in her line of sight, but their convenience was that she could use other attacks at the same time.
Gento fell first, killed with a slash that tore at him like a black hole had spawned in his shoulder. His flesh tore apart then dissolved in a swirl of chaotic silver, gold, and blue particles, evidence of the transcendent damage that finished the job.
With an expression of silent frustration, Jaina also fell to Nara’s blade.