As they stepped into the room at the bottom of the stairs, Zalia was taken aback by its contents. It was a lab, a rectangular room filled with tables covered in various scientific instruments that she didn’t recognise. The source of the Ascendant aura was a giant sphere in the centre of the space. It was made of hundreds of rings, each bigger than the last and each spinning on a different axis. Something at the centre of the sphere was glowing with a golden light that only escaped through a gap in the rings once every few seconds. In the irregular flashes of light, a single Gold rank spirit could be seen. The only reason they didn’t immediately leave the room was that Zalia’s soulfire was able to take out the Silver ranked spirits in seconds.
Sazcha immediately prepared herself for a fight, spear enhanced by her swirling molten sand.
Zalia did the same, holding her sword up. Despite having seen them, it wasn’t yet attacking so Zalia tried once again to talk to it.
“Hey, I know you’re angry because of… whatever this spinning orb is but please, let us help.”
The spirit looked at them, opening its mouth in a silent scream.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.”
The silence was broken by an ear-splitting sound so loud it burst her eardrums. She held her hands to her ears as the broken silence was returned to her and blood dribbled out.
While Healing Presence worked on repairing her wound, Zalia cast the ritual of soulfire, lighting the spirit up in a ghostly flickering flame that worked hard to eat at its being. Sazcha, quicker on the beat than Zalia was, had already dashed up to the being and was slashing through it with her spear. The spirit ignored the fire and the spear, then punched Sazcha with lightning speed.
A scream left Sazcha as a ghostly afterimage pushed out of her body, flying backwards. Her physical body followed quickly, snapping back together with it. The spirit had tried to punch her soul out of her body.
As Sazcha lay panting, arching her back in pain, Zalia shot four, then five arrows through the spirit. Each left a glowing line that burned at it from the inside. It was beginning to look tattered at the edges, like a piece of parchment left sitting in dust too long.
It floated towards her and Zalia activated Protection of the Wilds, using Soulroot as the enhancing herb for the ability. At first, nothing seemed to happen and Zalia was worried that the spirit had somehow countered her ability. Then she felt, rather than saw, that the shield was indeed in place over both herself and Sazcha. The woman began to recover, the healing and protection of the ability now both altered to affect the soul.
The spirit tried to do to Zalia what it had done to Sazcha, punching at her with a single powerful strike. Zalia felt the impact on her shield, cracks forming across its entire surface. It wouldn’t take another hit.
She shot with her bow point blank, using the little boost of speed and invisibility to try to get away from it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem the thing saw using any type of normal sight. Another quick punch made her shield explode, a spike of energy with power equal to two of the spirit's punches being returned right back at it. Half of its torso and one arm were blown away by the strike yet it seemed unphased, still approaching Zalia.
She activated Fight or Flight as the spirit suddenly sped up towards her.
Active 3 - Fight or Flight - spell - cleanse - body enhancement
Tin - choose one;
* When used your perception increases greatly for five seconds.
* Remove all slowing and restraining effects and prevent further slowing and restraining effects for the next five seconds.
Iron - Option one now grants the ability to sense if you're going to be hit by an attack and where the attack is coming from within the duration.
Option two now grants you increased speed and dexterity.
Bronze - Fight or Flight now grants both options at once rather than having to choose between.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Silver - Your body now temporarily adapts to the danger when this ability is used. In addition, your Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Resilience all increase for the duration of the ability.
Mana - medium
Cooldown - 1 minute
She felt her body surge with power even as time seemed to slow. The attacks of the spirit were no longer untraceable as she dodged its next strike and her body had fundamentally changed somehow so that it could resist the spirit's soul attacks better. Her bow turned to sword and she struck out at the spirit in every opportunity she could get.
It just wasn’t enough.
Zalia might have been quick and able to see where the spirit would attack but after using her teleport to dodge the previous attack, the thing spun around and dashed at her, managing to grab onto her with a sweeping arm.
She felt it latch onto her soul and pull.
The pain was excruciating as she saw her own ghostly afterimage being ripped from her body. She fought with everything she had, casting a Soulroot major Dodge-vine minor ritual to increase her resistance to the attack. Her attacks didn’t stop even as the pain increased, her sword swiping through the tattered and torn spirit as quickly as she was able.
Her attacks slowed as her consciousness began to fade but then Sazcha was there, striking through the spirit with her spear in precise quick attacks.
All the damage they had done to it soon added up as the strength of its pulling lessened. Zalia fought even harder, pulling on an invisible string between her soul and body to pull herself back together.
Just before she lost consciousness, Zalia used Hunter’s Mark on the spinning sphere and gave the spirit a final stab empowered by Kill Shot.
Active 1 - Kill Shot - spell - targeted - execute
Tin - Enhance an attack, go for the kill. This ability deals a tiny amount of damage. The damage of this ability scales exponentially with the target's missing health.
Iron - Kill Shot deals increased damage based on how many separate effects you have active on the creature.
Bronze - Kill Shot gains Enhanced Shot. You are able to infuse arrows with an element your herbal magic ability can create or execute a kill shot putting this ability on cooldown for thirty seconds.
Silver - if Kill Shot kills the target, excess damage is transferred to the nearest target marked by Hunter's Mark. Enhanced Shot becomes Enchanced Attack with the element infusion working on any weapon you have a proficiency with.
Mana - high
Cooldown - 30 seconds
The spirit, which was so close to dying that it was almost entirely faded away, evaporated. The overkill damage done by Kill Shot bounced towards the sphere and Zalia passed out.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
Zalia woke up what felt like seconds later but must have been quite some time. She was propped up against the wall with Sazcha nearby inspecting the sphere. A cough racked her body, followed by a few more. Everything hurt in that weird way it tended to when she overstrained with passive abilities. Using a Frozen Heart major and Soulroot minor ritual, she applied a healing spell to her soul. The strain and strange pain began to fade away.
“I guess I owe you a debt now.”
Sazcha looked at her and cocked her head in confusion.
“You owe me? Why? You’re the one that took its attention away from me after it smacked my soul out of my body with that first hit.”
Zalia held a finger up.
“But, you wouldn’t have come down here if I didn’t take the first step, then you did enough damage to it that my spell could finish it off before the thing killed me… or rip my soul out or something.”
Sazcha shrugged.
“Alright, I can see your side of it if you insist. But remember we don’t take these debts lightly.”
Zalia gave her a weak smile.
“I know.”
It might have been a bad idea for her to insist on the debt like that but it was for a good reason, or so Zalia thought. She wanted to make allies with the desert people and it seemed like honouring their way of life might be a good way to begin going about it. Yes, she would have to pay out that debt when Sazcha came calling but it gave her reason for a continued presence amongst their community in future. She would need their goodwill if they were going to be alright with her setting up a Grove in their desert.
“You chipped one of the spinning rings. Might clueing me in as to why you did that?”
Zalia looked back up at her and the sphere.
“Oh, because I think I figured out what exactly is in that thing.”
Sazcha turned to look at her again.
“And what is that?”
“A god of nature, an Ascendant like the others, possibly the god of the desert. Trapped here in this sphere somehow.”