Drustan’s body slid harshly across the muddy and slate-pathed floor away from the coming conflict, a quick move that was well rewarded when seeing what would come if Logan hadn’t done so.
The fenwahlash swept its massive arm in an arc, the wind of power of the strike causing most of the mud and debris to go flying, the trio backstepping slightly to avoid its grasp. Drustan had been standing in that exact spot.
“Not the time to hide anything”, Logan calculated in his head.
Pulling both hands together, Logan threw them out to his sides, cores of his elementals flying in all directions as his increased skills and items allowed him to summon all five in seconds.
“S and I”, Logan commanded, the forming elementals nodding their heads before dispersing in all directions.
He then moved both hands to the floor to shoot two rounds of Air Blast from his palms, avoiding another jab by the demon foe.
“I got this!” Marcus informed as he stepped forward, exploded out a mass of grey energies, and aimed a straight punch at the fenwahlash.
The demon smiled and met the minor fist with his major one, muscles jumped to the skin’s surface from both men, a shockwave of energy erupted from the colliding mounds of meat, destroying most of the floor beneath them, shattering several nearby columns, and cracking trees in the distance.
Marcus’s feet slid across the floor just a little as he lost the tournament of strength, his body shaking all over from the force of it. But it wasn’t an overwhelming difference. Rearing his body forward from a pushed-back position he created a barrage of punches.
“Yer strong!” the fenwahlash praised, meeting each fist with his own, every council of fists causing more of the area to get destroyed.
Further from the conflict, Logan aided Drustan to his feet and the Spellthief began twisting and turning with four eyes feverishly scanning the locale.
Drustan coughed up blood and leant on a piece of debris to keep himself standing. “What’re we to do?” he asked.
“You? Stay back. I need to find the epicentre of the—there!” Logan started to reply as his eyes were drawn to a mass of spellforce in the sky, off-centre a good hundred feet from the top of the dome they were encased in.
Logan tensed his body as it whirred in place, but he tried again, and his body finally warped into its centre, his mastery over Dimensional Jaunt and it being his Signature Spell allowed him some leeway in this dome.
Warping into the sky, a good thousand or so feet up, Logan planted his hands and feet on the invisible barrier that housed their conflict. Grappling onto nothingness, a crystal of white formed in his grasp.
“Symbol Assimilation”, Logan exclaimed, the white crystal dimming to a grey as its energies seeped into his skin, “Necromantic 2nd Grasp”, he followed up, two explosions of dark power cracking the crystal into an almost black mass, “Spell Absorption”, he thought finally, the weakened and damaged catalyst for the magical dome cracking further, breaking apart, and warping into his palm.
With the item that produced this effect, or possibly a spell that created it, now dissipated, the invisible dome became visible as a grey dome around the ruins and a distance away from it. Flashing in and out, the dome faded away, revealing another behind it to Logan’s chagrin.
“Oh no ya don’t”, the fenwahlash shouted. After landing a solid jab into Marcus’s stomach, sending the Devout flying away, the demon aimed an open hand at Logan who was in the air.
Logan’s coat buckled and flew upwards before making a stark turn downwards, the Spellthief’s whole body hurtled towards the demon.
“Fuck”, Logan cursed, “He has a higher form of Telekinesis”, he thought. Looking to another part of the ruins, Logan warped to his centre to release himself from this new effect.
Spying his foe, Logan warped again, appearing above the fenwahlash and aiming both palms for the back of its head. As Logan appeared, the demon merely looked at the Spellthief, sending off alarms in Logan’s head. Warping to the floor, the demon’s gaze followed him before he even appeared.
“Fuuuck!” he exclaimed as he jumped away from another sweeping attack.
“Logan, I’ve been censored”, Marcus informed as he ran into a jumping slam at the fenwahlash’s blocking arms.
“There goes an easy escape then”, Logan thought to himself.
Before Logan could attempt another plan, he saw Celsius’s icon within his party menu disappear. With a grin, Logan looked to the side and teleported twice into the forest.
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Apparating within a dense pocket of flora, Logan swung both arms forward and chanted, “Fire Blast 2nd”, filling the area with flames.
A pained grunt could be heard as visible singeing could be seen across an invisible frame.
“Got you”, Logan teased as he landed solidly and aimed both hands at the unseen foe, his second pair of eyes’ gaze turning to the side as a window appeared.
“You are currently viewing a PC.”
It was quickly followed by another window.
“GP Quest:
Kill the rival Player Character.
Reward: Gain the target’s EXP, Skill and Spell Masteries, and gear.
Failure: Death.”
“Fire Blast 2nd”, Logan chanted again, crowding the area with red and orange alongside the cracking of wood as several trees fell to the floor.
“How is this fair?” a feminine voice cursed as he jumped around the arena. “Hey!” she shouted, “follow the fucking rules”, she insisted as her body seemingly teleported away.
This was confirmed by another System window, “Foe has fled, GP quest has been rescinded.”
“Rules? What?” Logan thought aloud as the seemingly first below PC to meet him ran from their confrontation. “What do you mean!?” he shouted beyond but was offered no response.
There wasn’t enough time to ponder what had just happened, at least Logan didn’t have to worry about the PC for a while. Turning back to his party, the Spellthief teleported back into the fray.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
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The conflict that Logan had left had become chaotic. Amalia’s shield remains littered the ground, at least the parts that had not become craters from the melee match between Marcus and the fenwahlash. At least everyone was breathing and active, Logan’s re-entry hopefully pushing the scale more towards the good guys’ side.
Warping to the side of the fenwahlash, Logan followed through with a dual-armed blast of magic as he chanted, “Avalanche 2nd”, causing two massive ice storms to form overhead and batter into the demon’s blocking arm.
Making claws, Logan dragged backwards as he spoke, “Flame 2nd Skystrike”, calling forth two balls of fire that battered at the demon’s flank.
A mass of steam and mist bellowed out from the combined attacks but was completely removed as the beast fisted through it, sending waves of air all around. Marcus met his upward jab with the punch, the ground beneath him cracking yet again.
Another punch was hurled towards Logan, but before he could teleport away a shield from Amalia came flying in his direction, stopped in front of him, and blocked the fist. As the fenwahlash recoiled from beating in a steel defence, Logan let loose two rounds of Lightning Cascade 2nd at the demon, pinpricking him all over.
“This has got my blood boilin’!” the demon yelled as he flexed his arms upwards.
“Back!” Logan commanded as he Air Blasted far away. Marcus took the command and jumped away quickly. Amalia kept her other shield ready as well as kept an eye on her foe, Drustan hiding behind the bastion.
The amber deposits across the demon then began to glow, getting as bright as the sun before they condensed their light into the centres. The deposits then exploded outward with huge beams of amber disaster. The energy cut through trees, mud, and rocks alike as if they were not even there.
The ground shook and cracked all over as it was penetrated by the attack, digging further than any miner had any right. Upward explosions of water, fire, and the light that the fenwahlash shot into the underground erupted all over.
Logan easily dodged all the beams and eruptions from the ground, sidestepping, jumping, and using blasts of air to direct his body.
Marcus wasn’t as nimble but avoided the attacks as best he could.
Amalia wasn’t so fortunate. Her Agility was much lower, not to mention her heavy armour. What blasts from the ground she could avoid only put her into the path of the devastating beams from the fenwahlash. Her shield was cut to ribbons with each beam, each newly formed one copying its predecessor.
The fenwahlash then jiggled its body, the amber deposits shifting somewhat as if they were eyes seeking their prey, the beams becoming even more erratic as they aimed high, wide, and low.
Logan’s party system alerted him to all of his elementals dying, there was little hope for them in this climate.
Jumping off one of the remaining ruins, Logan went high before the last remnants of the place were decimated.
“Aqua Shot, Lightning Cascade, Gaia 2nd Shot, Lightning Cascade 2nd”, Logan chanted, letting free a spell from each level at his foe. Now in clear view, Logan realised his earlier third-level flames did little against the foe, it having spell immunity below fourth. “Not giving me a lot of options here”, Logan cursed in his head.
Blasting around another beam, Logan continued to blast towards the fenwahlash. With a wave of its arm, the demon repositioned its body so that more of the amber aimed towards Logan, the Spellthief blasting to the side to avoid the tracking attack, and again, and again.
“Haven’t ‘ad this much fun int’ while!”
Logan ignored the boasts of the demon, warping into the sky above his foe. “Platform!” Logan commanded.
“Gaia Jet”, Marcus chanted, throwing his hand and an arcing pillar of stone above Logan.
The Spellthief linked his legs around the perch above the demon, far above.
“Gotcha”, the fenwahlash spoke as it aimed all beams at Logan.
Logan spread his arms wide, “Spellforce”, he chanted, the air beginning to get sucked into his palms. As the beams of energy primed to cut him to ribbons, they instead also got absorbed, spinning and minimising into the man’s skin.
“Hah! A demon after me own ‘eart!” the fenwahlash gleefully shouted.
The light beams detached from the amber deposits as a lot of the liquid within also shot upwards into Logan’s palms.
The fenwahlash then opened his maw, a pit of flame forming within.
“There’s the Bloodcasting” Logan thought, knowing this was a possibility with demons.
The demon shot the condensed red and black flame ball towards Logan who hung in the air, Logan retaliated by placing both hands together to form the monochromatic orb and shooting it in opposition.
Thanks to the power of the attacks that the fenwahlash was using, this Spellforce Blast was quite strong in a short amount of time, easily disintegrating the attack used against it. However, it was defeated by a flurry of three more fiery blasts from the demon, exploding in the air as their equal was met.
Logan breathed out heavily, drained somewhat from the tactic.
“Let’s see you stop this!”
Logan tried to warp, but his body felt tight, “Fuck, when did he use Warping Censure on me!?”
Another ball of fire shot from the demon’s maw, he attempted another but was interrupted by a jabbing Marcus, but the fenwahlash grappled the man in his mitts as Marcus’s enhancements fell away due to their lesser duration when improved.
Logan let go of the rocky pillar under his legs, falling facedown to the ground, and the dark flame heading in his direction. Grappling it in his hand, Logan mentally commanded, “Spell Absorb”, at the same time he also grabbed his invisible mask and attuned it to fire.
Instead of warping into his palm, the fire exploded across his body, burning and desecrating him to a harsh degree. Taking 46 fire and 80 shadow damage, Logan was put down to 168/294 HP.
“Spell Absorption failed.”
Like a Gatling gun, the fenwahlash let loose another at Logan. “I can’t just avoid it, he’ll target Marcus instead. He needs to know I’ll take it head-on! Spell Absorb.”
“Spell Absorption successful. Devastation Flame charge stored.”
Logan quickly drew out a vial from the air and drank it as he continued to fall, recovering 69 health.
Another blast came Logan’s way, another failure as it exploded across his body, dealing 48 fire and 82 shadow damage.
Another potion, another ball to survive. This was the last one before reaching the demon in full, whatever came next was going to be a close call regardless.
“Spell Absorption successful. Devastation Flame charge stored. Devastation Flame has been learnt.”
Landing solidly on the fenwahlash’s head and shoulders it teased Logan, “Fancy seeing you here. What’s with that fancy trick?”
Logan could only think, “Here’s another”, as he dug his fingers into the skin around the demon’s eyes, grabbing on tight through sinew and blood, “Demon-Clan Spell: Devastation Flame Grasp”, Logan chanted, his arms erupting in blackened fires that rolled down into his palms, boiling over with abyssal embers.
“Backstab, Backstab”, text appeared to let Logan know his usual tactic was successful.
The demon roared out in pain as Logan’s Dastardly Backstabs skill activated in tow, the beady eyes of the fenwahlash completely destroyed.
Logan kicked off the demon as it began thrashing around, Marcus darting away as he was released from its grasp. The pair regrouped as Logan was healed by his friend, preparing for the continuation of the battle.
“Fuck! Shit! Argh!” the fenwahlash lashed out in pain as he battered and swiped away flies.
Logan began to summon lightning in his hands again, but the shocking tones of it alerted the demon to the attack.
Holding out an open palm, the fenwahlash shouted, “Wait! I yield!”
Chapter 190 - Fenwahlash XP [https://i.postimg.cc/bwJ2rYkG/Chapter-190-Fenwahlash-XP.png]
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