Pain throbbed behind Cole’s eyes; a splitting headache brought on by his rapid use of mana. He could try to finish the battle now, with a huge burst of power, but he wasn’t sure what that would do to his body. In Vestria Online, having zero mana just meant you couldn’t cast spells until it regenerated. Here the penalty seemed to be much worse, the headaches serving as warning for something more. ‘No,’ he thought. He’d be better to cool off his mana use for the minute. If the overuse of mana would somehow incapacitate him, this was the worst place for that to happen. And so began the deadly dance.
Runic Speed suffused his entire body, the only ability that Cole would activate for the moment. Luckily, his headaches didn’t seem to worsen when using it, perhaps because of how much he’d activated the spell. He weaved around blows, the supernatural runic magic giving him fine control over the muscles of his body. Cole kept a careful eye on the Rune as it hung over his shoulder. While he’d gotten used to sort of just ‘feeling it’ and subconsciously just knowing when it was about to run out normally, the way he was using it now, not focused on a specific point, it was sure to run out quicker than normal.
While the cooldown between uses of the Speed Rune had greatly shortened, again due to the extensive practice he’d had with it, it was still there, and seconds were the equivalent of hours when in the heat of battle. He would need to be ready for the rune to wink out. Hopefully he’d be hale enough to cast some sort of blast.
The Gargoyle showed no emotion at its inability to kill Cole, unlike the other monsters he’d used the same constant dodging strategy on. Luckily, the [Knights] were keeping him safe, using their respite to carve through the weaker enemies around them. Cole glanced over his shoulder as a Kobold was beheaded, and almost had a heart attack. His Runic Speed was about to run out.
The Gargoyle leaped in the air, crashing onto the space Cole had just occupied. As he dashed out of the way, the rune fizzled out. A normal human once more, the young man’s mind raced as he thought of how he would survive. The headache, while much better, was still pounding away at the back of his eyes, so he was hesitant to unleash a Hallowed, or even Runic Blast. Strength would have to do for now.
His fingers traced it out almost autonomously, purple light settling around his arms. He settled into a loose approximation of a boxer’s stance. It was terrible form, far too loose, and if an actual boxer had seen what he was doing they’d probably vomit. But it made him feel kind of confident, and he needed as much of that as he could get.
The young man tensed up as the brick like fist of the Gargoyle came crashing towards him once more. Instead of trying to meet it in force, which he was doubtful was possible even with Runic Strength, he opened his hands at the last second. Cole pushed his open palms against the charred, craggy skin of the monster, wincing at the heat he felt even by only touching it for a second.
His gamble paid off. By pushing with all the strength his magic could give him, he was able to redirect the blow from taking his head off, instead barrelling past his shoulder. Cole made to sigh in relief, but the exhale caught in his throat as the Gargoyle’s left arm jabbed straight forward. He shoved his arms forward, catching the blow in between his hands, which cast their purple light onto the black skin. The fist stopped an inch before it would have caved in his chest.
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His arms were incredibly sore, strained due to the amount of force he’d just held back. Cole tensed once more, before shoving the arm away. The Gargoyle was momentarily thrown off balance, not expecting such strength from such a comparatively small opponent. The young man capitalised, throwing a wild haymaker straight into the monster’s craggy chin. He instantly regretted it. A shock went down his arm. It felt like he’d just slammed his fist into a rock. The Gargoyle seemed to barely react, but as Cole removed his fist, he saw that the previously charcoal black skin of the monster was now cracked, shot through with glowing red.
While he could still deal damage by doing that, his body wouldn’t appreciate it. His fist was also stained red. The blow had split the skin on his knuckles, and blood was now pouring out of his right hand. This wasn’t sustainable.
The Gargoyle body slammed Cole, dashing forward suddenly and sending him skating backwards. The young man pushed its follow-up attack out of the way again, but failed to catch the second fist, only weakly blocking it with one hand. While he didn’t take the full force of the blow, it was enough to bowl him over, rolling backwards across the battlefield.
He came to his feet, breathing heavily. A sharp pain stabbed through his ribcage. ‘Broken’, he thought.
It was time to finish this. His headache had subsided somewhat, enough for him to attempt a Hallowed Blast. As the monster approached, he began tracing, timing the completion of the rune to when it entered his effective range. His finger trembled slightly, the last line of the golden symbol almost complete. The monster took one more step, and began to raise its fist.
*CRAACK*,
Just as it activated, Cole dashed forward, unassisted by Runic Speed. His fist slammed into the chest of the monster, pushing the Hallowed Blast rune along with it. The rune activated directly on top of the monster’s skin, forcing him to blink as he stared at the golden flash.
If anyone had been standing directly behind the Gargoyle, they would have been vaporised completely, as the blaze of energy continued out its back. When the divine energy faded, the monster was left with a huge hole through its middle, which started small on Cole’s side, before flaring out to a gaping wound on its back.
Despite having half its chest missing, the monster didn’t fall. For a terrifying second Cole thought he hadn’t killed it. His fears were assuaged quickly, however, as he noticed the cracked red light on the monster’s chin fade. Its body solidified, becoming a black, stone-like substance. When the light had completely faded, only a statue remained. Cole looked around the battlefield, which had now been mostly cleared of Infernal Kobolds and Boars. The Gargoyles were now the main threat. And the Drake of course, but they’d cross that bridge when they got to it.
With the help of the [Knights], [Spearman] and [Ronin], the remaining Gargoyles were much easier to handle. Cole served as the executioner for two of them, only having to use a single Hallowed Blast on each by pressing his hand to their back, after they’d been sufficiently weakened by his allies on the ground. The Shoi Cal [Ronin] claimed the last, Flash Stepping his katana straight into the monster’s chest. Light cracked across the monster’s body, lighting it up red, but it quickly faded as it turned to stone. The man struggled to yank his weapon out of the statue he’d just created, grunting in annoyance before simply shrugging and Flash Stepping backwards, katana in hand.
Cole looked back towards the palisade, jaw dropping as he saw a huge complex array of runes floating in the air above Thesta, their origin. The collage of blue energy burned bright, and then disappeared.
A huge blue spear of energy appeared, crackling like a bolt of lightning. Flung by the blue scholar’s magic across the sky, it lit the whole battlefield up, a deep contrast with the red of the Infernals. The spear, which was fizzing with blue sparks, thundered towards the Drake, which raised its head in defiance.
Impact.