Time remained frozen. Thanks to the Diamond-crusted ring, Ray had a little bit of time to think. To come to a decision. To try to understand what could be happening.
The two people nearby him weren’t attacking. Of that he was certain. Kredevel definitely wasn’t. And though he couldn’t turn his head, it was obvious Gritty wouldn’t come barging in to stop him just to backstab him.
But even worse than that, he couldn’t sense anyone else nearby. Presence of the Primordial would have picked up their signature, otherwise.
Time unstopped.
“Now,” Kredevel was saying. “What exactly did you get from the—”
Ray was holding up a hand. His expression must have been urgent, because Kredevel stopped talking immediately, curiosity and concern mixing together on his face. “We need to move.”
“Move?” Gritty asked. “What for?”
“Why?” Kredevel asked.
“Now,” Ray insisted, already beginning to hurry backwards.
He had only taken three steps back when Kredevel’s eyes widened as well.
“Move,” he shouted.
Ray wasted no time. He made his wings extend, grabbed a squawking Gritty by the arm, and then shot off. Ten, twenty, thirty feet—then the danger appeared with a speed so great, it beggared belief.
Something shot in from the sky. Ray was barely able to catch the tail end of whatever it was. Some sort of comet-like blast, arcing in from overhead. He would have almost believed it was a meteorite or something along those lines, but just before it landed, he managed to see properly.
It was a fucking spear.
The weapon flew in so fast, the air shrieked in its tail. Amethyst energy burned all around it, turning the sky purple. If only there was enough time to for Presence of the Primordial to focus on it.
Then the spear struck the ground, at the exact spot they had been the moment time had frozen thanks to Ray’s ring.
The impact sent up a detonation and a shockwave that struck Ray like a tidal wave. He lost his grip on Gritty, who screamed as she was flung in a different direction. Ray himself was sent tumbling through a rain of rocks and debris, his voice lost in the tumult.
When things settled down, Ray found himself buried under a mound of rubble. There was throbbing pain on the back of his leg and around his waist, but he sent some of his Recovery to fix it up. He was good as new in a second. Minus being covered in dirt, of course.
Ray climbed out and got to his feet. Presence of the Primordial still detected Kredevel and Gritty. They had both survived, thankfully.
“Can someone tell me what the hell was that?” Gritty poked her head out of a different mound of earth. Her spiky hair was now matted to her head.
“A betrayal.” Farther off, Kredevel was getting to his feet, brushing dirt off his robe-like armour. If Ray had to guess, the Sylvan was one step away from channelling the same kind of anger that Gritty was so clearly fond of.
Gritty began following suit. Clearly, she understood that what had just happened wasn’t Kredevel’s fault. He had been set up just like the human Denizens. In fact, the plan had probably been to take him out along with Ray. Gritty had just been an unexpected casualty.
“Looks like you’re not the only one who wants to take care of me, Kredevel.” Ray wasn’t looking at the Sylvan, His eyes were surveying the entire dust-strewn area. No sign of the Imps anywhere. He really hoped they hadn’t died in that blast. “And it looks like they didn’t care if you lost your life in the process too.”
Kredevel’s teeth were gritted when he answered. “I am aware.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Gritty said. “I’m clearly not as big-brained as you two. Mind explaining what just happened? Someone obviously tried to kill us, but who?”
“Kredevel’s superior,” Ray said. “It’s got to be the Floor Lord himself.”
Two things made that evident to Ray. One was that Kredevel was clearly not surprised by the exact power. He understood exactly what had just happened, including what kind of skill or ability had come into play. And since this was familiar to him, there was only one entity who could be capable of that kind of power.
Plus, Kredevel wasn’t denying it.
“The Handler wants us all dead?” Gritty stared between Ray and Kredevel. Her curious expression started to sour. “Of course. What else would a Sylvan want but to kill every human.”
“Not every human.” Kredevel’s eyes were fixed on Ray.
Ray faced the Sylvan. “That’s not what’s important. The real point is that your Floor Lord is determined to kill me no matter what. No matter who else gets caught in the crossfire. No matter if he even has to sacrifice his own kind to do it.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” Gritty turned an evil grin onto Kredevel. “You were set up, just like us. Your boss doesn’t care if you die.” She laughed, then spat to one side. “Of course, you Sylvans don’t have any sense of loyalty or decency. You’ll kill your own too.”
Ray grimaced. Leave it to Gritty to twist the hateful knife. Although, Ray had killed that Wild Tides commander, so it wasn’t like he could claim the moral high ground of killing one’s own kind.
But Gritty was on the right track. Kredevel had come here to interrogate Ray, but that had been pointless. His superior clearly didn’t care about the truth.
Didn’t care one whit about Kredevel either.
“He confirmed your location moments ago, didn’t he?” Ray asked. “Ot at least, asked if you’d met me.”
With reluctance, Kredevel nodded. There, the final confirmation. Had to be a similar kind of chat feature that Ray and the others had been using.
Taking a leaf from Gritty’s book, Ray stepped forward. “You were looking for the wrong truth, Kredevel.”
“It seems I was,” the Sylvan said. He was stepping back, backing away.
“Remember what I said the last time?”
Kredevel’s face twisted slightly. “I can be doing better…”
“Exactly.”
Kredevel continued backing away. Ray’s heart had been thumping hard since the moment time had frozen, but now it finally began calming down. There was no way for the Floor Lord to tell that Ray was still alive—at least, he hoped there wasn’t, not at this distance. So he couldn’t willy nilly throw out more insane, extremely-long-range attacks like that.
“I’m not your enemy, Kredevel,” Ray said. “You know that, right?”
The Sylvan stared for a moment, then sighed, coming to a grudging acceptance. “I will need to find my true enemies, then.”
“Before you go, can we stay in touch via the System?”
Kredevel turned and hurried away. “I will keep in touch.”
Then he was gone.
Wait, he had said he was going to keep in touch. Did that mean that he would be barging into a chat with Ray through the System just like Gritty had done? Well, wasn’t that fantastic.
Ray had hoped he would be able to figure out the chat function while trying to set it up with Kredevel, but that opportunity had just dashed away.
“Aw, don’t feel bad,” Gritty said, walking up to Ray and punching him in the shoulder. “I’m sure your new Sylvan friend will still remember you.”
Ray rolled his eyes. At this rate, Gritty was going to make him unscrew his eyeballs right out of their orbits. “We should get going to the Base. Now, if only I can find wherever those Imps went…”
----------------------------------------
It turned out the Feathered Imps weren’t dead. They were actually being protected by a weird cage-like structure made of spiralling growths. It took a second for Ray to recognize the material. Spiralling, hornlike growths.
Kredevel had protected the Imps.
After beating them up previously, of course. What a strange guy.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
He probably hadn’t expected his defensive skill to hold up against that attack from the Floor Lord, so had decided to evade instead of relying entirely on it. But he couldn’t have dodged with the Imps in tow, nor did he want to just leave them behind. As such, Spiral Growth it was.
Ray freed the Imps and sent them on their way. He couldn’t sense their actual emotions, but it did feel like they were grateful to finally be done with their little adventure.
That was when Ray received a reminder he was supposed to be headed to the Base.
Maya: How far away are you?
He could sense the urgency in the message. With a nod at Gritty, he got moving.
Ray: Something happening?
Maya: We’re being attacked. But it’s not the Sylvans. It’s that giant monster that attacked them. The Duskshell.
Ray’s heart rate spiked a bit. A Duskshell attacking them? There hadn’t been any of the grove of dark trees with Mana fruits close to the keep. Ray suspected the Sylvans were trying to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Ray: We’re on our way. Just hold tight.
“Something going on?” Gritty asked.
“A giant monster is loose near the Base,” Ray said. “We need to stop it before it becomes a problem.”
“Wingman to save the day, eh?”
“Sort of.” Ray grinned at her. “I mostly just want to kill the Duskshell.”
She grinned back. The light in her eyes was nothing short of devious. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”
----------------------------------------
Ray made good time towards the keep. This was helped by the fact that Gritty was coming over on her own. If she had insisted he carry her because his wings could get them there faster, he’d have been too burdened and too late.
Thankfully, Gritty was making her way on her own feet. She’d probably be too tired to help, but that was alright.
Ray knew how he was going to kill the Duskshell, and his plan needed no one but him.
The creature was so large that he saw it before he saw the keep. Where the monster rose like a small black hill, the Insurge Faction Base was still a ways off, the size of his pinkie at this distance.
A quick look with Presence of the Primordial confirmed this one had the exact same skills as the last one. Ray could almost have believed they were one and the same. There was no indication of Overworld Pulse being used. Probably because, like the last one, it was already on land.
Ray considered striking from behind, but that wasn’t going to work. Impervious Shell would block anything he tried, or at least, reduce damage significantly if he used True Enhancement.
That was fine. Ray was about to take advantage of his mobility and hit the Duskshell right where it hurt.
The monster scuttled forward on those massive, tarantula-like legs. As Ray shot forward, spurts of black and brown energy targeted him from under the huge shell. Ray used Occultic Apparition just to make himself harder to locate, then moved as fast as he could.
Then he was past the monster.
He couldn’t tell what exactly was driving the Duskshell towards the Base, but it was definitely heading straight for the Faction. People had thronged out, all arrayed with a bunch of armour and weapons. Shiny, new ones. Probably loot they had earned from their local dungeons or purchased through the Base Node.
Ray was heartened to see them all ready to face down the threat, no matter how dire it looked. But they wouldn’t need to fight. Not since he was here.
Halfway between the line of defenders and the onrushing monster, Ray landed. The prospect of the fight filled him with a strange energy, the same invigoration that possessed him whenever it was time to do battle. He grinned, his skin turning jittery and his nerves dancing like they were being buzzed with the lightest of currents.
This time, Ray was not letting the Duskshell get away from him.
The monster hadn’t changed course or reacted in any noticeable way after Ray had dropped in. Maybe it thought he wasn’t worth it. After all, his level was still far lower than the Duskshell’s. For now.
Well, he was about to show it just how wrong it was for underestimating him.
Ray drew his arm back, readying his spells, but the monster continued charging in the same manner. Looked like it was just going to crush him with its shell then continue onwards. Not ideal. Ray needed an opportunity to strike it where it was most vulnerable.
So, he left True Enhancement for now, using only Shatterclaw to strike the Duskshell’s legs. Several claws of black-red energy swiped at the spidery limb.
With some infusing using the Mana Infuser ring, Ray was able to bypass its defence thanks to his bonus from his Thoroughness Reputation. It wasn’t enough to break the monster’s leg entirely, but the damage dealt left big cuts and caused the flesh to rupture, the dark blood to boil, and the chitinous skin and hair to turn white and sludgy.
Damn. He was never going to get used to the effects of his Path.
That effect was enough to stop the monster in its track. Ray grinned. Ha, take that. More bursts of dark energy shot at him under the black shell, but be had a counter to that. Mottling Membrane stopped those spurts from reaching him.
The Duskshell growled, clearly frustrated. It only widened Ray’s smile. There was only one option left for the monster. At least, when he was this close.
With blinding speed, the Duskshell used Jutting Jaws. Its snapping-turtle mouth erupted out of its shell on a serpentine neck, shooting at Ray like the tongue of a frog attacking a fly. He didn’t even try to dodge. Instead, he allowed himself to be swallowed whole.
It really was almost exactly like last time. The mouth was far too big to cause Ray any direct damage. There were spiky teeth beneath and other him that could have crushed him, if the monster fully crunched down its jaws. But Ray wasn’t about to give it the opportunity to do so.
Because this was his most opportune moment to strike.
With True Enhancement converting Shatterclaw into its True Mana variant, Ray called upon his most offensive spell. There wasn’t enough space inside the monster’s maw to full extend the ethereal arm of black, red, and white energy, but that was fine. Wherever it touched, it contorted the Duskshell’s living matter with a burn of chaotic energy.
The teeth rotted away, the flesh turning to pus, the blood spilling out and congealing into jelly. All of which created enough space for Ray to hammer the Shatterclaw limb straight up.
It was reminiscent of what Ray had done to the Wild Tides commander. The top of the Duskshell’s maw exploded with a gigantic burst of chaotic energy, tiny golden motes shooting through a splash of black and red.
Ray was back out in the open again. His attack had basically freed him from the clutches of the Duskshell’s mouth. The monster itself had retreated and was now groaning in agony.
Now was Ray’s chance to finish.
He broke another Mana crystal, then pulled his arm back. The Duskshell wasn’t about to make things easy, however. It leaped straight up.
“Not so fast!” Ray shouted, using Primal Summons to call in his wings again.
Cursing under his breath, Ray shot straight into the sky. The monster had risen high, but its ascent was too fast. Ray was able to catch up just as it reached the peak of its climb.
Where he was in the perfect position to punch forward.
True Enhancement was still active. The spell lasted for two and a half minutes at Tier 5. All Ray had to do was activate Shatterclaw. The whole limb materialized a fraction of a second later, punching forward with the speed of a boxer in the ring. It struck right in the spot where the monster’s head had come out of. The exact spot where Ray had already destroyed its maw.
The range was impressive. Ray grinned as the ethereal fist crashed through the monster’s flesh to sink deep into its body. Then, just as it began to fall back down, another explosion went off.
This one occurred so deep inside the monster’s body, there was almost no sign of it externally. Just a burst of blood through the hole Ray had stuffed his magical arm through and several spurts through the joints between the main body and the scuttling limbs.
Ray let the monster fall. Massive as the crash was, it didn’t hold the skill any longer, as the monster must have originally intended. No Shell Quake to send out a rupture of earth and a blistering shockwave. Only the monster crashing down with a great gout of dirt and rocks flying everywhere.
[Enemy Defeated—Duskshell]
Tier 6 Monster: Duskshell [Level 19] x1
Essence: +1,140
Knowledge: +3
Mana Restored: +190
[New Personal Achievement—Vaunted Hero!]
You’ve saved an entire Faction from facing off against a superior foe. No need for others to step in when someone like you is in the vicinity.
Reward
* Reputation: +25 Benevolent, +25 Heroic
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 50-point threshold, your Benevolence now refunds you the Mana cost of one spell every fifteenth spell. Refunded Mana is equivalent to the cost of the fifteenth spell used in a chain.
For reaching the 50-point threshold, your Heroism now boosts all your stats by +10 when facing opponents who are stronger than you by even one level.
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +3 Intellect, +3 Spirit, +2 Vitality, +4 allocatable free stats.
* 1 Tier Point
* New Skill: Mana Imbuing [Passive] [Tier 3]
Essence to Level 14: 550/8,100
Knowledge to next Threshold: 113/150
[Lifeblood Crucible Activated]
Chaos Chymify has stolen the soul of a defeated Duskshell. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
* Impervious Shell [Tier 5]: Channel the power of your shell to create a defensive barricade that stops all incoming damage at or below this spell’s Tier.
* Duskshell Limb [Tier 6]: Giant, scuttling limb covered with sticky hair.
* Jutting Jaws [Tier 4]: Thrust out one or more jaws with a massive bite that pierces through defences up to the skill’s Tier.
* Mana Accumulation Sprout [Tier 6]: Absorb Mana from the environment to create growths that can then condense the Mana into a consumable. Consumable Mana provides several benefits, such as refilling physical needs and creating concoctions.
* Mana Surge [Tier 4]: Send a surge of Mana in an eruption to shatter the surrounding area and all foes within it. At Tier 4, this spell’s radius of impact is 25 meters.
Hoo, boy, so much stuff. Ray added all four of his free stats to Spirit. Now that he had access to True Enhancement, he didn’t need to rely on purely his Intellect for spell damage. With True Mana, he could pump out massive magical power.
The cost came in the Mana. That was why raising his Spirit to raise his total Mana capacity was imperative.
Next came his new skill. Right. Not a spell. A skill. Despite having Mana in the name, it wasn’t something he could cast with his catalyst.
He was about to check it, but then, warnings rang out from behind.
Ray looked back to see a dozen people standing close to the Duskshell’s corpse. For a second, he thought he hadn’t been that thorough. That the monster was still alive and about to pull out some last gasp manoeuvre. But that was impossible since he had received the kill notifications.
That was when he saw what was the real issue.
Dead though the Duskshell was, there was still the growths coming off its back. Growths that sported a few Mana fruit. Several of the Faction members had come in to claim the fruit.
Except, they weren’t alone. A dozen Brighthorns were rushing towards their location. That shouldn’t have been a problem. They should be able to take care of a few of the monster hounds on their own. No, the real problem lay farther back.
There were a group of Sylvans not far from the Brighthorns.