Neia has many skills, and she has had a long time to know when to use them, even overlap them. Frozen Focus, Keen Insight, Navigation, and Survival instinct, surged into one as she saw her path of attack. Her eyes darted across the bloody battlefield at such speed that her pupils appeared to be staring at multiple objects at once. Suddenly, they grew still, and she stared forward with absolute focus.
She ran forward and jumped over the railing, arms to her sides and head first—a dive.
The wind blew her long, singular silver braid upwards during her freefall. It whipped furiously from the air resistance. It lasted until she was halfway down the battlements. She drew both of her Khopeshes and then she cast her opening spell. Jagged Path.
Ice erupted from the wooden battlements, creating a jagged icy ramp toward the ground, over the top most of the fodder goblins who were besieging the line holding the entrance to their defenses. She flipped forward, landed, and transitioned gracefully into a slide as more ice created a winding path through the battlefield directly in front of her.
The Goblins below bellowed out with a blood-curdling scream and charged the long, winding, frozen path. Too bad the spell was named Jagged Path for a reason. Spears of Ice erupted from the icy slide impaling all who encroached into its general vicinity. The spell itself almost seemed to have sentience as it culled the meek. They stood no chance against an advanced ice spell cast from a level 97 Elf with over 100 intelligence. They were obliterated into a fine paste or torn in half as the jagged spears of ice impaled their feeble bodies. The unending tide of green goblins ran to their deaths. Uncaring and unfearful, they had no thoughts other than the instinct to kill.
Neia ignored them. They aren’t what truly stood in her way.
Her eyes were locked onto the nearest giant, who bellowed out a deep rumbling roar. It held a whole tree, bereft of all branches and leaves. It stood at a monstrous height of 10 meters and wore a singular loincloth made of fur and feathers, presumably, that of an Owlbear. Its feet were too large even for a monster of such size. The feet were easily made for a body even twice the size of the Giant itself, and they were bloody from walking through the remains of the dead. It began its charge directly at Neia, stomping on allies and snuffing out their existence for the rest of time.
The Jagged Path wound itself downward and connected to the ground. Neia slid all the way down its length, then hopped off and transitioned into a sprint directly toward the incoming Giant. She started casting her second and third spell of the battle at the exact same time with her skill Multicast. She cast Chilling Wake and Concurrent Flow.
A freezing cold began to follow Neia as she began her sprint forward. Her sprint began to speed up, increasing her movement speed slowly but surely, not stopping until she came into striking distance of the Giant. When it’s Khopeshe vs Tree. Tree wins with its range.
The Giant roared and swung its weapon in a sweep. Neia, without moving her eyes from the giant itself, jumped and landed on the weapon itself. Her skills, Spacial Awareness, and Grace of Elves came into play.
She rode the tree that carried on through its path from its wielder's mighty swing and began her climb. She crouched and sprinted off the tree onto the Giant's arm. She dragged her Khopeshses along the very flesh she ran upon, carving deep grooves with little to no resistance—the blades' enchantments showing their worth.
The Giant roared and raised its free arm and aimed to swat at the prey that was climbing upon it. The Giant, for all its strength, ran purely on instinct. Its thunderous blow came down upon its elbow where Neia was passing.
Neia cast another spell, Water Lock. Tendrils of water materialized around her carving khopeshes and the arm of the Giant. They locked into place, halting all of her momentum forwards. Thus enabling her to dodge the Giant's blow, as well as get an up-close look at the damage the Giant caused itself.
The Giant’s tremendous strength slammed down upon its own joint. With a sickening crunch, its elbow bent then snapped apart, tearing its own ligaments and tendons and nearly taking its arm off with its own strength alone.
Neia canceled Water Lock as her Chilling Wake caught up to her. Freezing cold penetrated into the Giant’s open wounds, causing it to begin to shake from the piercing, bone-deep cold.
Sadly, Giants weren’t known for being fragile.
She began her journey upwards once more, dragging and shifting her khopeshes side to side as she passed the dangling, destroyed elbow of the now bellowing and furious Giant. As she ran, she opened her mouth and cast Spitting Flames into the Giant’s bloodshot eyes. Small blobs of condensed fire shot rapidly from her open mouth as she traversed the Giant’s long and scarred arm.
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The Giant roared, and the shockwave of the roar itself extinguished a few of the fiery projectiles. Still, a few of her firey payload landed upon the Giant's face and eyes. It slapped its working hand through the flaming bombardment and attempted to swat at her once again. This time, it was more aware of damaging itself. Sadly, this is what Neia expected.
Neia’s spell, Concurrent Flow, increases her speed slowly over time, ramping up in its power over the duration. She had been ramping up in speed since she had cast the spell. She ripped her khopeshes out of the Giant’s meaty arm and surged forward with shocking speed. Bypassing the entirety of the slower blow.
The Giant overextended from its attack and could not defend itself from Neia’s counter. Neia activated Elemental Ignition, coating her two khopeshes in frosty, Glacial mana. Then activated another active skill, Razors Edge.
She leaped from the bicep of the Giant, aiming for its neck. Her twin khopeshes flashed out and cleanly sliced through a third of the Giant’s thick neck as if there wasn’t even an obstacle in their path. She rotated in a graceful, dance-like flurry of strikes while rotating her way around its neck.
The Giant tried to roar once more, but blood flowed into its esophagus. The only sound that came was a bubbling gurgle of blood. It dropped down onto its knees as Neia finished her rotation around its neck.
The Giant attempted to turn to try and bite Neia, hoping to crush her within its powerful jaws. But as it rotated its torn and blood-gushing neck, it didn’t stop turning. Its head rotated a full 360 degrees. Its neck muscle wound itself together, crushing its already drowned esophagus, then tilted backward and dangled between its shoulder blades.
Neia looked down from atop the wound mess of flesh, blood, and gore and stared into its now dim eyes. It was dead.
Wasting no time, she turned and rushed off to her next foe—another Giant.
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Lee watched with mouth agape from atop the battlements. He couldn’t believe that this was the same Neia whom he had traversed the Shadowgrove with. She seemed like a completely different person.
Was she trying to hide her true strength from me? This isn’t even close to what she showed in the forest…
Lee could still spot Neia as she hopped off the Giant's mutilated head and began to run towards her next target. She was still relatively close to the battlements, so he activated Medical Attention and inspected Neia’s HP and MP.
HP: 100%
MP: 88%
She had to have hidden her strength from my skill…. But how? Carelessly chugging through mana? But I never saw her cast anything big.
He continued to watch as Neia sprinted towards another Giant with speed never showcased to him before. He watched as Neia cast a multitude of spells, much more varied and effective than what he himself could cast. Fire, Cold, Ice, and maybe Glacial spells, from what he could tell.
She cut away at the Giant’s Achilles tendon like a hot knife through butter, causing it to collapse to one side. She started to tear her way through the side of the Giant with her khopeshes. Carving a tunnel through the Giant itself.
Lee waited, nervous and shocked for a few moments, to see what else Neia had hidden from him. She erupted through the Giant’s chest in a flurry of steel, right where its heart would have been. The giant lay motionless on the bloody purple grass as Lee felt a cold chill run through his body.
She just carved THROUGH the fucking thing. Jesus christ…
Lee watched silently as she continued her graceful culling of the battlefield. The Goblins around fell to what seemed to Lee as some kind of invisible force. He squinted and tried to study their bodies from afar. They were too far away for him to make out any wounds or discover the cause of their deaths.
He continued watching without blinking. He was taking in what a high-level person could accomplish.
Will I eventually have that kind of power?
He thought about his free stat points. He had 45 of them, and they almost added up to the total amount he had allocated already.
He shifted his eyes from Neia to side-eye Nitis. Nitis was watching his daughter with a small smile.
If Neia can accomplish all of that. What is he capable of?
Lee felt another cold chill run down his body. He tore his eyes away from Nitis to focus on Neia once more. This time, she went up against a troll. She seemed to have an easier time against the Troll, but she didn’t seem to be using much Ice or Cold magic this time—mainly using Fire magic.
He watched as Neia surrounded the Troll on three sides with walls of fire, then forced the troll to fight her in the only opening available. She pushed the troll backward in her onslaught, and the troll began screaming as she forced it into the flaming walls. The troll tried to fight back away from the walls but, in its desperation, left an opening which Neia gladly took.
He couldn’t see clearly what had happened, but the troll's head rolled to a stop as Neia ran to another target.
What kind of people have I been associating with? Anybody could be capable of this kind of destruction, and I would be none the wiser?
Lee decided, then and there, that he needed to become stronger. He did not want to live in fear of monsters, but it appears that the true monsters are higher-level people. People who could kidnap him for his Healer’s Touch ability with no consequences. He could not stop Neia from making him a healing slave even if he tried at his current strength. He needed to plan. He needed to get stronger.
He needed to be strong enough to take care of himself, so he would be able to take care of others.