Chapter 82: The Need for Violence
There wasn’t time for Nara to mope and moan over her first murder, all thoughts of revulsion and horror flickered away like leaves swept away in a storm of adrenaline and focus. The here and now demanded her attention, and feeling guilty for murder would have to be a ‘breaking down later in bed’ sort of thing.
Not that much crossed through her mind at all (she didn’t have that superhuman thought capacity, entire debates argued in a moment like some sort of TV show—or Raskolnikov, that man can ramble. No slowing of time, no pause in the action)—there wasn’t the time for it. A bandit was dead, and she needed to move onto the next step.
“Hao!” The next one yelled out, “Hao is dead! There’s an en—”
She swung her sword, clipping him in the throat as planned. She didn’t have the reach to land a solid hit on the next bandit in the narrow corridor. The second bandit had reflexively turned towards her, granting her access to her sword to his vocal chords. If she wanted to argue in hindsight, the bandit she killed was faced away from her: she wouldn’t have had the chance to sever his vocal chords.
“Escape the stairwell, go outside! Hurry!” Graff, commanded from the top of the stairwell, his voice booming through the stone corridor.
Graff knew that the adventurers lying in wait were a larger threat than the single adventurer in the stair well, so he did not rush back to assist the injured members. However, they could not stay in the stairwell either. The adventurer behind them was clearly capable of executing all his iron rank lackeys one by one like they were unwitting cows on a conveyor belt of slaughter. Graff would have to push past all of them to face the iron ranker, exposing his back to the ambushers lying in wait outside. The only option was to rush outside—he just didn’t know if his idiot lackeys knew that.
The bandit Nara attacked futilely pressed a hand to his throat as if trying to block a leaking faucet, but crimson spilled unimpeded through strangled gasps. She had played her role, so Nara made her own escape. Nodes lined up out the stairwell like a cannon, she teleported directly outside ahead of the fleeing bandits. She made brief eye-contact with a surprised Graff, before teleporting away one final time into the evening darkness of the tree line.
It was more epic in her head: He just sort of glared at her on the way out.
As Graff suspected, his bandit team was greeted by another ambush the moment they all stepped outside.
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Ability: [Force Tether]
Essence: Gathering
Conjuration (trap)
Cost: Low mana-per-second
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Conjures a crystal rod, from which a tether of shimmering force connects to all nearby enemies within a moderate range. Tethered enemies are dragged toward the rod, which is protected by a force field that inflicts moderate resonating force-damage to anyone in contact with it. If the force-field is ruptured, it explodes in a wave of resonating-force damage. If the rod is destroyed or removed from its location, then it explodes in a wave of disruptive-force damage. Dimensional displacement, such as teleportation, severs the tether. Untethered enemies who enter within range of the rod become tethered. Only one force tether rod may exist at a time.
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A crystal rod was conjured between them, tethers of shimmering force temporarily binding them all in place. Aliyah didn’t want them completely grouped up, but she did want them fixed. She additionally cast Binding Light on Graff, buying the group an extra moment against the powerhouse bronze ranker.
Encio layered his own singular control ability as well, Dimensional Flux, the first ability he had awakened with his own Dimension Essence.
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Ability: [Dimension Flux]
Essence: Dimension
Awakening Stone: None
Conjuration (dimension)
Cost: Moderate mana, low mana-per-second
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Wildly distort space in a small area, disorienting anything that passes through. Denies the area as a teleportation egress point. Only once instance of this ability can exist simultaneously.
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The air shimmered and distorted, space swirling and twisting nauseatingly like oil on water. Through their own eyes, each of their bandit comrades were blurred and transformed, warped like reflections in funhouse mirrors.
The bandits felt they all simultaneously suffered vertigo. The ground beneath their feet felt unstable, as if it they were standing on a tiled floor covered in dish soap. With tethers preventing them from escaping their intense and sudden nausea by darting out of the flux, the team launched their attack.
Graff was not trapped for long, easily tearing himself free thanks to his outstanding physical strength (surpassing what Sen would achieve in bronze), transforming into a bear form. In the next moment, the most powerful barrage the team could muster was unleashed on the enemies.
Encio was the most important member of this phase of the attack. He had the highest instantaneous damage and the most powerful special attacks. His abilities were often the easy solution (the deadly solution), and Sen would be remiss to dismiss it.
First, a fully charged Vorpal Slash ripped through the group. Various reactionary abilities of the bandits went off, sending the already nauseating field alight with shimmers of color and magic—shields, passive protections, force dispersion abilities, etc.—sparing the bandits from instantaneous death.
However, it was his targeted Double Strike, Bolster, God-Sundering Slash that was the real threat. It bypassed Graff’s transformed body and targeted Tan, the priority enemy the team wanted dead.
John’s Magic Record surpassed Nara’s guide in its direct identification abilities. The moment each bandit exited the bunker, he photographed them, identifying even their essence combinations and printing their names (although, not literally—the information was added conveniently to Nara’s Party Guide interface, yay magic!). At equal ranks, they could not block the effect of his ability unless they had an ability that blocked it in turn, like Nara.
Tan, a silver haired celestine, possessed the Dust, Ice, and Wind Essences for the Storm Confluence. The combination produced wide range and powerful spells that the team wanted to avoid. (They didn’t want to fight an enemy Encio. The brief thought of being on the other end of Encio’s abilities of sorts sent shivers of terror down everyone’s spines. No doubt Tan hadn’t Encio’s prowess, but they really rather not find out. Encio was adamant his abilities weren’t ‘wind blades’ but the team agreed to disagree. They were close enough.) John communicated this information to Encio, and Encio launched his attack. Nara had already briefly disabled Tan, but he was one of the bandits that could still imbibe a potion to heal his throat. It was better that he died now, than leaving him an opportunity to recover.
Tan died, the boosted God-Sundering Slash ripping his body in two, spilling cut entrails, flesh, and blood over the grassy clearing.
It was a disturbing sight, but Nara was getting used to disturbing sights (no, video games hadn’t desensitized her). Monster entrails weren’t all that different than human entrails, after all. Nothing filled her with more revulsion so far than those desecrated adventurers, dumped into crates like they were the unwanted scraps of butchered meat.
Three would have to handle Graff, and three team members would need to defeat one each of the remaining bandits.
It was a fight they had a high chance of winning, if Nara, Sen, and John could keep Graff from ripping the rest of their team apart.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Graff had the Blood, Might, and Bear Essences for the Transfiguration Confluence. When he had been initially bound by Aliyah’s trap, he transformed, his large body growing even larger and sprouting hard brown fur. His face elongated, and his hands shifted into paws armed with sharp dark claws. His eyes were orbs of blood red.
Despite this, he was not enraged, his mind clear.
Aliyah refilled some of Encio’s mana, and the fight began in earnest. John unleashed Mana Tide. Both Sen and Nara were endurance fighters with the beginning of the battle as their weakest state (Nara’s weakest state was weaker than Sen’s—he had better instantaneous damage, because of course he did). The extra mana would allow them to push through the difficult fight that lied ahead against Graff.
Nara’s combination of mana cost reduction from her tattoo and other mana generating effects from her Refresh, Astral Blessing, and Moonlight Raiment would have to sustain her once John’s Ability ended. Against a powerful opponent like Graff, it would be a fight with herself to balance her mana, stamina, and health.
With Mana Tide active, the team went all out, unleashing their abilities without care for their mana consumption.
Graff’s bear skin was incredibly tough. John and Eufemia threw buffing abilities her way, allowing her strikes to cut fur and get her affliction ball rolling.
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[Bandit Leader has resisted an instance of [Dimensional Instability].]
[Bandit Leader has resisted an instance of [Dimensional Rupture].]
[Bandit Leader has been inflicted with an instance of [Boundary’s Scorn].]
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Nara wondered if her Guide’s usage of generalized titles instead of names was to distance her enemies—since the team knew the names of the bandits, thanks to John. Another outworlder adaptation? The thought niggled her mind, but she pushed it away.
Even with her rank disparity ignore provided from Tribulation of Self, Nara’s afflictions were blocked by Graff’s significantly higher recovery attribute, which also governed affliction resistance. Still, some eked through, and Entropy was in place. Boundary’s Scorn was irresistible, and it steadily chipped away at Graff’s resistance. The only problem was that she had to actively engage an enemy to apply Boundary’s Scorn. Thankfully, she had the tools for the job.
The team’s other major advantage was that they had a healer, while the bandits did not. Healers were valuable; no matter their skill level, they would find lucrative work. For a healer to end up as a bandit was improbable. All they had to do was walk into a sizable city, even completely untrained, and receive offers of training, team invitations, and payment.
Between blows, Graff sized them up, and whatever he saw, he didn’t like it. He broke the verbal silence of the clearing—the team communicated through Nara’s Party Guide, no need for words. Other than shouts of exertion, the clearing rang only with the sound of chants, the clang of swords, and the impact of blows and magic.
“What’s all this about?” Graff said in a guttural growl. “There’s no need for violence.”
“Are you surrendering?”
“Why don’t we all cool off and work something out. There must be some sort of misunderstanding here.” He eyed them, his face quirking into a false smile. He didn’t have Eufemia’s skill in putting on a convincing act, his smile and placations falling flat.
Nara didn’t bother responding. His actions and aura revealed his true intentions. He was the stronger opponent—if he wanted to negotiate, he could stop attacking first. He could kill Sen and Nara easily, but Nara couldn’t decapitate him like she had done to the bandit in the stairwell—his rank and abilities barely let slashes of Nara’s sword through, cosmetic scratches on solid metal armor. If Sen and Nara stopped first, he may immediately charge John. They wouldn’t let that happen.
True to her assessment, Graff did not relent, pressing the attack. His powerful blows were enhanced with Mighty Strength, and further boosted by his bear transformation ability. Any solid hit, and he’d crack bone. A clean hit to the head, and Nara would splatter.
She tried blocking one of Graff’s ferocious blows. Her sword was shoved back towards her body, and she felt the bones in her arms creak.
Attempting to deflect Graff’s blows with Dream’s Wake was a mistake. She couldn’t compare to the power of his blows, and she was launched backwards. Even that glancing blow alone was enough to crack ribs and bruise flesh beneath her armor. Nara was reminded of what Amara had called an advantage. With no organs to puncture or rupture, the damage was contained to cracked ribs and ripped flesh.
Bearing the pain, she shot away from the tree, the effects of her aura, Refresh, and a Life Bolt from John slowly repairing the damage.
She had expected a follow-up attack from one of his comrades, and was offhandedly surprised that none came, doggedly chasing after her to seize her moment of vulnerability. If it was Jaina, she would have immediately followed up with a piercing ice arrow, pinning Nara into the tree with a freezing wound. But nothing came, a reminder of Nara and her team’s superior training, and Graff and his group’s distinctive lack thereof. She flashed forwards, re-engaging with Graff.
Graff’s blows in bear form were oppressively powerful. The combination of Might and Bear essences massively increased his strength, each swipe of his claw gouging earth and shearing through Nara’s cloth armor, even if it didn’t catch purchase. Each blow and swipe of his released powerful shockwaves, shaking Nara’s entire body even when he managed to dodge a blow. Surprisingly, her potions in her potion belt held firm, a testament to the quality of the enchantments on the belt (as they should be—potions were potentially lifesaving). Her armor and underclothes she wore beneath her armor was shredded first, her own blood staining the ripped basic white underclothes she wore. When her armor was completely destroyed, she reconjured it, eating the mana cost. Even the low protection of her armor was better than no protection, and she didn’t want to lose it’s enhancements to mana recovery.
With Sen’s boosted physical strength and power attribute, he was better able to deflect Graff’s blows, redirecting them with his heavy staff. Sen played the primary defensive role, getting in Graff’s face and blocking his way, and dealing enough damage to maintain constant threat. Nara was light and offensive, teleporting in to briefly strike or distract Graff long enough for Sen to recover. The two harmonized by necessity—Sen pushing with endurance and power and Nara striking with flow and precision. The rough ore of teamwork was pressured and polished by Graff’s overwhelming might.
Chrome and Thanatos, along with the teams’ other familiars engaged enemy familiars, if there were any. At worst was Graff’s bear summon, a massive roaring beast that tore towards the group. Chrome, Thanatos, Beorn, and Aliyah’s dragon familiar Ensi-Kuliana (who they just called Ensi) kept it at bay, slicing it with swords and burning it with black and dawn flames. Nara moved Sage bodies to Chrome and Thanatos, keeping their self-recovery up against the higher ranked familiar.
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Ability: [Arcane Dragon]
Essence: Master
Familiar (summoning, ritual)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon an [Arcane Dragon] to serve as a familiar.
* High resistance to physical and disruptive force damage.
* Can unleash elemental breaths and basic elemental spells. Breath attack has a 2 minute cooldown.
* Can chose to empower itself with an element, increasing the damage of that element. The dragon cannot use other elements. This effect has a 6 hour cooldown.
* Generates its own aura effect.
* Aura effect: Allies have increased damage resistance to the chosen element and increased resistance to elemental afflictions.
* Can be subsumed into the summoner’s skin, increasing physical and disruptive-force damage resistance with reactive dragon scales.
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John played the most crucial role in this phase, managing both Sen and Nara’s health as well as the rest of the team. He had to fight a battle on two fronts, straining his mental capacity to keep track of multiple engagements at once as well as watching his own spacing. Sage’s final body was with John, a reassuring presence to the man who bore the weight of his team’s lives.
He cycled shields, blocking Graff’s most explosively powerful attacks against Sen. He also had to manage Eufemia’s health and afflictions.
Encio…didn’t need help. Of course not.
John was thankful for that one small reprieve, and focused his attention on the others, trusting that the annoyingly-yet-completely-competent Encio would look after himself.
Blow after blow, Nara desperately struggled to land pathetically weak scratches on Graff while deflecting and distracting him to protect Sen. Luckily, after seeing her capabilities, Graff didn’t care much about Nara. Her attacks weren’t dangerous. They built up an affliction, he could tell, but it was at worst a time limit.
Graff just had to kill these two worthless adventurers before that.
Not worthless, Graff realized. The woman attacking him had a blade made of a material he had never seen before. It was a black so deep it looked like a tear in space. Shimmering lines of silver and tiny, glittering speckles of light lit up on the blade, like trails of shooting stars over the deep blackness of night.
That was a valuable sword. Graff usually could tell around what a piece would fetch, but for that sword he hadn’t any comparison, any guess. Despite his repeated attacks deflecting against it, it never chipped, broke, bent, dented, or scratched.
The man fighting him too—his weapon and armor were conjured, but his other equipment was not. His boots, his belt, and his necklace possessed the hallmarks of top-shelf craftsmanship—dangerously top-shelf. He could loot him, but he may need to leave this one alive. Torture him for a bit, find out his background, then send him crying back to his family if he was too troublesome to kill.
Since her fight with her mimic, Nara had been meaning to develop a way to deal with powerful attacks with she struggled with. Vallis fought and Sen both fought leveraging their high physical power, and Graff was a more extreme version of the two, both relentless and powerful.
She’d had no choice but to force development mid fight. Nothing she hadn’t done before, and this time instant death wasn’t a risk (it technically was, but at least a scratch wouldn’t do her in like she was a Prince Rupert’s drop one broken tip away from shattered annihilation). Graff was powerful, and a single blow was extremely dangerous, but her affliction scaling was an even more extreme threat, if anyone lasted long enough (or was dumb enough) to let it get that far.
This fight was pushing her more physically than the mimic fight, but it wasn’t as dangerous. Her skin and bones were repeatedly battered and healed, but Nara didn’t mind it. (Somewhere in the backrooms of her mind, in the dark and deserted corridors of Earth’s common sense, her sanity let out a single, screaming death knell, before it keeled over, forgotten. Maybe one day she’s wander upon it and revive it. Today was not that day.)
Just like before, her technique was lacking, and it now had the opportunity to grow further. First, she started to use Infinity Domain to blunt Graff’s blows. It was a simplistic application of the ability, but she had to start somewhere. The extra space slowed down Graff’s bear swipes just a little, as if he was an animation that dropped frames. It didn’t weaken his attacks, but it gave Nara more space to react and move to lessen the blow.
That’s a good start, she thought, but I can do more.