– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 19 –
Terry arrived in front of Harrison, whose torso was covered with his own dried blood. Two other channelers were standing at Harrison’s side.
Terry struck out with his left spear towards Harrison.
The livid-faced Harrison jumped backwards and cast Wall of Flames. A fiery wall was raised between Terry and his group.
Terry felt the approaching heat and quickly summoned the barriers of his spears. He jumped up and then seemingly kicked against the air to change direction and slash at one of the other channelers.
Terry’s slash was blocked by a long golden lance that had been thrown by Harrison.
Another channeler tried to interfere but was confronted by a growling Tara, who was enveloped by a strong life-aspected aura on her whole body. The snarling canan with her aspected burst forced the channeler out of the way.
“Move to a different location.” Harrison ordered the weaker channeler. “I won’t be careless again. I got this place. He won’t get past me.”
The channeler was happy to comply. He made a wide circle around Emaldine, who was spinning and slamming her explosive spears into any of Willow’s allies within her reach.
Harrison glared and growled: “Just you and—”
Terry interrupted Harrison with a throwing needle before collecting his transfixed barrier spear from the air and dashing forward.
Harrison felt the blood rush to his head and forcibly restrained himself from acting out in anger. He harrumphed and then prepared one of his killing routines he had learned in the army.
Harrison made sure that Terry’s eyes were wide open. Then, a blinding light was emitted from Harrison.
Unfortunately for Terry, this was not regular spellwork, but a channeled ability, which made it harder for Terry to react in time and avoid the effect completely.
Terry did not pause to curse himself, as he might have done in the past. Instead, his sparring instincts kicked in and he did three things at once.
First, Terry closed one of his eyes while forcing one of them to stay open despite the blinding strain. The opened eye hurt, but Terry was used to worse pain than that. Once the blinding effect was over, Terry would open the other eye again.
Second, Terry pulsed his mana in a burst technique to amplify the recovery in his eyes.
His opened eye would allow him to at least see rough blurry shapes when objects were close.
His closed eye would be usable as soon as the blinding light stopped. While a full recovery was not instant, his eyes would recover quickly once the blinding light ceased, causing further damage.
Last, Terry unleashed a mana pulse and began surrounding himself with a shallow field of his own naturalized mana.
All the while, Terry was focusing on his mana sense. He was familiar with Harrison’s mana signature, and Harrison did not have an ability to cloak his own mana.
Together with the pain, a grim thought popped into Terry’s head. He channeled mana into his gloves and prepared to transfix his equipment.
This isn’t just about you and me, is it?
Terry felt a disturbance in his mana pulse and was certain that Harrison had made a move that was familiar to Terry.
A golden lance was moving towards Terry under the cover of the blinding light. The lance was not continuously moved with mana and therefore did not appear in Terry’s normal mana sense.
Instead of dodging, Terry made a grim expression and guided a torrent of mana into his bidirectional attraction inscription.
The channeler that had been trying to avoid Emaldine’s rampage was suddenly pulled back into a world of light.
While Terry could not follow the entire battle in the area without his eyesight, it was easy enough to pick out some of Willow’s allies through mana sense alone. All the followers of the Bright Lady that had entered the training grounds were on Willow’s side. With Terry’s mana sense, they were easy to spot.
The golden lance changed direction while Harrison roared in rage and indignation.
Terry threw his own throwing needle that did not contain any trace of mana.
“HRGH!” Unfortunately for the weaker channeler, he had been blinded as well. In contrast to Terry, he did not have any means to detect the incoming projectile.
Blood was gushing out of the wound on the channeler’s nape.
“YOU!” Harrison stopped his blinding light ability and lunged at Terry while hurling a lightning bolt.
Terry smiled mirthlessly and countered the lightning with a pointed disruption discharge.
While a low-surface target like a lightning bolt was nearly impossible to be completely disrupted with spell slicers, the wave of foreign mana weakened the attack significantly and blocked the bolt from moving further.
The bleeding man was grabbing the wound on his nape and used a channeled ability to heal himself.
Terry ignored the itchy feeling of his recovering eyes. Instead of opening his good eye, he began radiating his own intense light by relying on the inscriptions in his glove.
Terry exchanged his barrier spear with a cheap spear that did not radiate any mana.
Before Harrison could arrive with his Blink spell, Terry had already thrust the spear and the weaker channeler had stopped breathing.
Every one of you chose to stand with Willow and Anand.
Terry grit his teeth and pulled the spear out of the corpse.
Every one of you is a threat to my whaka.
The air was reeking of blood. It made Terry nauseated.
No time to be squeamish. Not unless you are willing to lose another whaka. Make yourself useful.
Terry swallowed the sour taste in his mouth and recalled the words that the Captain had once said to him.
‘Sometimes the choice does not include an option that makes you feel good.’
Terry resolved himself.
They made their choice. I made mine. They stand with Willow and, therefore, with Anand. I stand with my whaka.
Terry stopped his radiating light and opened his recovered eye. He glared at Harrison.
Actions.
For a few bated breaths, they circled around each other while keeping their eyes glued to their opponent.
Terry noted every possible target for the Immovable Object spell, as well as every opening in Harrison’s armor.
Harrison’s head was filled with nothing but hatred, contempt, and indignation. Hatred for all the people that dared to threaten a Bright of his circle. Contempt for everyone that chose to speak up and stand up for the Divine Hammer, whom he considered a loathsome murderer. Indignation at being unable to protect his fellow faithful against a person he had considered much weaker than himself.
Terry’s mana sense picked up a huge disturbance above them, but he did not dare to take his eyes away from Harrison.
Poison-aspected?
Terry frowned and grit his teeth.
Nothing I could do about it. Focus.
Terry rushed towards Harrison, whose attention was temporarily drawn to the dangerous mana movement.
In his run, Terry could feel the poison-aspected spell structure being erased. He heaved a silent sigh of relief while closing in on Harrison. He thanked Amelia in his thoughts and then forced himself to focus.
Crap!
Terry cursed when he recognized an unwelcome spell structure.
Harrison had placed a hand on his chest. The spell structure was thereby shielded by his own body.
Snakes of lightning erupted from Harrison’s body and forced Terry to keep his distance.
The smell of ozone mixed with that of blood.
Terry clicked his tongue. While Harrison rarely shied away from close combat, he had the advantage in long range. To make it worse, Harrison also had an annoying number of spells and abilities to keep his distance.
If Harrison had regained his composure, this battle would become a lot more difficult.
Time to switch it— Crap.
Terry hurriedly air-jumped up when he saw Harrison hurl long golden javelins with a rounded end towards him.
The javelins themselves were not much of a problem, but they were part of a familiar pattern Terry did not look forward to.
Harrison finished his dual casting. First, he threw out his Lightning Bolt towards the first golden rod. Afterwards, he took control of the bolt’s movement by finishing the Guide Lightning spell.
Under Harrison’s guidance, the lightning bolt jumped from rod to rod so that Terry could not predict from where the bolt would hit him.
Terry decided not to wait around and instead used his bidirectional attraction inscription to pull the golden rods out of the earth. They were much less of a hassle when they laid flat on the ground.
Harrison hurled more golden rods into the air and kept them floating with a channeled ability.
Terry scowled. He rapidly summoned several tertium slabs and transfixed them in the air.
When it came to dodging lightning, Terry’s reflexes had improved tremendously under the tutelage of Matteo. However, he had also learned to not solely rely on his reflexes if he could help it.
If Terry could not predict the attack’s direction, he could at least create some blind spots that were out of reach and, therefore, safe.
From an outside perspective, the following minutes seemed like an odd game of positioning. Harrison attempted to take Terry off-guard by moving his golden rods into place and guiding his lightning while Terry placed his own immovable items to prevent that scenario.
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In the past, Terry had often become impatient in this game of attrition, because he had been worried about using his own mana, while his opponent had access to an unlimited pool of channeled mana.
‘Not quite.’
Cadence’s words on the limitations of channeled mana rang in Terry’s head. However unwilling Terry was to waste time, he did not feel pressured to the same degree anymore. He maintained his balanced state while searching for an opening.
Now!
Terry channeled mana into his gloves and used the radiating light inscription to first create a blinding flash and afterwards create a strobe light effect that made it harder for others to accurately take aim at him.
Next, Terry dashed forward through the air.
Terry stopped at a location protected by a tertium slab and hurled several throwing needles at Harrison.
Harrison roared and guided his lightning bolts to attack from several directions at once.
Terry exhaled sharply and rushed forward. The hairs on his arms stood up from the incoming electric charge.
Terry stopped blinking. In the last possible moment, when he was sure that Harrison would not be able to redirect the lightning further, Terry somersaulted in the air and guided mana into his equipment.
He used his air-jump to propel himself downwards behind the cover of another tertium slab.
Terry grit his teeth when one of the lightning bolts hit him through the gap between the slabs.
Fortunately for Terry, the lightning bolt was weakened by his own mana field and the cloud badger leather that was the base for his armor.
Thanks for the resistance training! I’ll make sure to pay you back.
Terry grimly circulated his mana like Sigille had instructed him to do. The memory of Sigille helping him sped up the blood pumping through his veins.
Terry had transfixed all four of his coil spring pearls during his charge downwards. Now, the combined force of the coil springs propelled him back into his original path.
Terry air-jumped to pick up additional speed.
Terry sensed Harrison dodge some of the throwing needles while ignoring those that had transfixed before him.
Many things had happened in quick succession, but only a few seconds had passed since Terry had started his dash…
Terry used his bidirectional attraction inscriptions to slightly pull on the throwing needles that Harrison had dodged. This way, Terry angled the needles so that they pointed towards Harrison before the activation delay passed and they transfixed.
Terry used a burst technique that focused on speed, but he shifted it from leg to leg in order to make his movement less predictable.
Terry was silently counting the time since he had thrown the needles, and his attention was on the mana in the transfixed needles, as well as on Harrison’s own prepared attack.
Right before Harrison was igniting his next lightning barrage, Terry unleashed an intense layered disruption discharge.
The disruption discharge hit the transfixed needles in front of Harrison. When the backside imprint on the bladed part was disrupted, the compressed coil spring activated, and the anchored needles were propelled towards Harrison.
Next, the discharge’s spell slicers cut apart Harrison’s spell structures.
Right afterwards, the disruption discharge hit the needles that Terry had angled behind Harrison. As soon as the first imprint in the anchored needles was disrupted, the coil springs propelled the bladed parts towards Harrison.
Terry adjusted his trajectory to have Harrison between himself and some throwing needles that were lying on the ground from his earlier attacks. Then, he used the bidirectional attraction gloves to increase the number of projectiles attacking Harrison, as well as to add force to those already on the way.
Harrison growled and dodged the incoming projectiles while trying to get away from the wave of Terry’s mana and its mana suppression effect that made it difficult for Harrison to harvest mana.
While Harrison’s eyes were occupied with spotting the projectiles, he felt Terry approaching with his mana sense.
Harrison decided to focus on getting some distance above all else. He dropped the idea of dodging all projectiles and instead received some attacks intentionally while backing away from Terry’s mana.
Harrison clenched his teeth when one needle pierced through a weak spot in his armor. Fortunately for Harrison, he could still channel his mana abilities somewhat and immediately began healing himself.
Terry refused to let Harrison get away. If Harrison was free to finish a Blink casting, Terry would be right back where he had started.
With determined eyes, Terry followed up with another disruption discharge while mentally keeping track of his mana pool and the available mana containers in his storage items.
Terry cursed inwardly when he saw that Harrison managed to invoke his ability to summon gold. This would pose a significant obstacle for both Terry’s throwing needles and his disruption discharges.
Don’t blink away! So close!
Terry accelerated while pulling on his previously discharged mana to recycle what he could.
Harrison felt like cursing, too. His mana sense clearly showed Terry hoovering up his discharged mana before it decayed further.
While Harrison’s own mana pool was still fine for now, it had already decreased considerably since the fight had started.
If this continued, Harrison could only rely on his channeled abilities, and without sufficient mana of his own to guide the channeled mana, he would soon feel the strain on his mana channels.
Harrison felt his earlier wound close up. The reemerging anger from having received yet another injury added to his growing impatience and pushed his resolve over the edge. Instead of using the brief respite to cast Blink, he cast an empowered Raging Winds spell and rapidly summoned small and sharp pieces of gold.
So that’s what Derek had been talking about…
Terry suppressed a gulp, and he dismissed falling back to an alternative plan. He hurriedly exchanged his equipment and charged forward with two spiked shields to protect himself from the raging storm of golden shrapnel that was moving towards him.
Terry felt a moment of hesitation right before charging in, but he pushed it down with the memory of Sigille’s back as she was staring down the Devout Division.
Actions.
*Ting* *Ting* *Ting*
Terry felt himself pulled by the winds and assaulted by countless shards of gold. He protected his head with the shields and stayed the course by relying on his imprinted equipment.
Harrison grinned viciously and channeled an ability to adjust the course of a few of the gold projectiles while preparing another spell.
Terry subconsciously growled in a low tone when he sensed unusual mana fluctuations inside the turbulent mana movement of the active Raging Winds spell. Terry had enough experience with the spell to be very familiar with it and his exquisite mana sense detected the deviations immediately.
Unfortunately for Terry, there were just too many golden projectiles to begin with. He used the shields to protect his head, but his lower body remained exposed unless he wanted to curl up into a ball.
Terry clenched his teeth when one of the gold shards cut through the cloud badger leather that protected his thigh. While the cloud badger leather was resistant to piercing and cuts, the armor had reached its limits.
Terry temporarily transfixed the shields and summoned a tertium slab to transfix as well.
*Ting* *Ting* *Ting*
The slab was heavily damaged before Terry could transfix it and prevent further damage.
The only upside for Terry was that blocking a single direction sufficed to offer him some respite. Terry took a deep breath and used a quick burst technique to aid in the recovery of his wounded leg.
Terry sensed another familiar spell structure from Harrison and repositioned the shields to provide more cover.
*KAZAP*
Lightning jumped from one golden shard to the next until it impacted on Terry’s transfixed shield.
*KAZAP*
Terry clicked his tongue and wondered if he should wait for Harrison to continue wasting his mana.
He might just blink away if he notices that the lightning does not work…
Terry used a gap between Harrison’s spells to grab his shields and dash forward. He controlled his breathing. He estimated the remaining distance. He observed every little detail in Harrison’s mana movement.
*KAZAP*
Terry had transfixed one shield just in time, but some of the electric charge jumped past the shield to hit Terry’s septimum plate at his chest.
Terry felt as if his innards were boiling for a moment. He ignored the pain and lunged forward through the air while the shields protected him from the shrapnel.
Terry transfixed the center pearls on his bracelets. He swung his legs forward and unleashed a double discharge from his feet.
Next, Terry transfixed the mid-ankle pearls and disrupted those on his wrists. He swung himself into his normal running position and then disrupted the pearls.
Terry hurled his two shields forward and to the side. He quickly retrieved several mana-osmotic throwing needles. He activated the imprints, pressed the timer mechanism, and threw them.
Harrison eyed the throwing needles warily. Terry’s previous projectile combination was far from lethal, but the fact that Terry fought differently from their spars caused Harrison to feel uneasy.
Harrison suppressed the hesitation and searched for another path of attack now that his raging winds had been disturbed by Terry’s disruption discharge.
Harrison channeled a mana ability and golden shards were aiming for Terry’s head before Terry reached the protection of his shields again.
Terry blocked one gold shard with his bracer while using the bidirectional attraction gloves to pull the shields back to himself and using the radiating light imprint to create another strobe light effect.
Harrison frowned and decided to retreat temporarily. His eyes opened wide when he noticed that on top of the mana suppression, he could not find a clear line of sight for his Blink spell.
The throwing needles from before were placed densely enough to obstruct Harrison’s movement spell. The only direction left was up, and Harrison knew Terry felt more comfortable in the sky than he himself.
Harrison sneered inwardly and unleashed his own disruption discharge towards the needles. This would help crowd out Terry’s naturalized mana and thereby ease Harrison’s spellwork trouble.
Additionally, the disruption discharge would clear the path by breaking the active spell in the transfixed needles. While Harrison was not as confident in his disruption discharges as Terry was, a few disrupted needles would already be sufficient…
Unfortunately for Harrison, reality showed that none of the transfixed needles were disrupted.
With no other path left, Harrison hurriedly finished a short-distance Blink spell upwards with the plan to immediately teleport down afterwards.
Harrison was already cursing himself for having wasted mana on Terry’s toys.
As soon as Terry sensed the mana movement at the destination of Harrison’s Blink spell, he hurled a bolas towards it.
Before Harrison had regained his bearings, he felt himself entrapped by Terry’s transfixed bolas.
Harrison instinctively prepared to disrupt the imprints with a discharge and a holy-infused mana ability, but when he recalled the previous throwing needles, he hesitated and wondered if this was another trap to waste his mana.
A moment of hesitation was enough for Terry to arrive in front of Harrison, who hurriedly summoned a thin protective layer of gold while continuing to channel a mana ability to prevent the gold from falling down due to gravity.
Terry rammed shield-first into the golden protection with all the force he could muster.
“Hurgh.” The shield’s spike pierced through the thin layer of gold and hit Harrison into the chest.
Terry frenziedly transfixed the shield into place and then triggered the mechanism that released the shield’s spike.
When the spike pierced even deeper into Harrison’s chest, Harrison’s eyes bulged from the pain while his mouth filled further with blood.
Without pause, Terry air-jumped towards Harrison’s back.
Harrison channeled his healing ability. He summoned a sharp blade of gold and attempted to cut the bolas that restricted him, but he discovered it was not a simple rope like Terry had always used in their spars.
Harrison quickly changed his plan and instead shot out several sharp pieces of gold towards the approaching Terry. He also scanned the area for gold pieces to pull from the other direction.
There!
Terry was certain that he had found the right spot. He retrieved his barrier spears and immediately channeled mana to summon a barrier and block the projectiles from the front.
Terry felt his mana field disturbed by incoming projectiles that did not appear in his mana sense. Evading or blocking would mean abandoning his current attack…
Terry refused to back down now and instead began shaping his spell structures without releasing the grip of his spear.
Several things happened at once…
Two of the incoming gold projectiles were transfixed in the air behind Terry’s head by the Immovable Object spell.
One gold shard still managed to hit Terry’s back right below his protective septimum plate.
Terry thrust his spears into two openings in Harrison’s armor.
Terry ignored the pain while slashing through the armor’s leather straps. He angled the spears with their activated barriers so that Harrison’s arms were blocked and then air-jumped closer while drawing his inscribed dagger with his left hand.
Terry stabbed the dagger into Harrison’s left side, which was exposed after cutting the straps that had held his armor in place.
Terry transfixed the attachment on the dagger’s hilt and then channeled mana into the dagger’s keen inscription.
Harrison spat blood and noted with dread that his channeled healing ability had stopped. Terror took hold of him when he realized that Terry had stabbed right into the location of his channeling anchor.
The mana blade had damaged Harrison’s connection to the Bright Lady.
“N-no, Te-Terry,” stammered Harrison.
Terry’s face was grim. He did not allow himself to hesitate and lose the momentum, because he was not sure under what conditions the channeled healing abilities might become usable again.
Terry clenched his teeth. He used his free right hand to draw the three-pronged sai from his left hip. He held his breath and rammed the pointed weapon into Harrison’s vitals.
‘Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to yourself.’
Terry had heard the words from multiple people before. Now that he saw the light fade from Harrison’s eyes, Terry’s mind echoed them in the way that Harrison had once spoken.
Terry exhaled slowly.
Another voice rang in Terry’s mind: ‘I believe in choices.’
Terry tasted the iron flavor of blood in his mouth from the earlier impact on his back. He circulated additional mana to aid the recovery and took a deep breath.
Not done yet. Far from it…
***