Alistair knew it had been a selfish and bad idea to fight the Vampire by himself, but he did not regret it. There were some upsides, such as Riseth being able to recover a little and observe Demian's shadow techniques. Luckily, the approaching opponents were still busy fighting each other outside the palace. Unfortunately, the feebleness from using cold rage still lingered, forcing Alistair to rely on his blasts. On the other hand, now that he knew the enemy was coming anyway. He did not have to hold back on his explosive blast and other more noticeable abilities. Alistair tried to nail the Vampire with dispelling blasts in one hand and explosive ones from the other in rapid succession.
Demian was cursing under his breath but Alistair could not make out what he said over his explosive blasts blowing the occasional chunk out of the Vampire as Demian regenerated as much as he could while throwing up barriers.
"If he tries to run, feel free to jump in," Alistair told Riseth over the Akashic Link.
"Sorry, but I have to jump in if you don't hurry it up. Losing the potential titles and the money bet on us is not worth it," Riseth replied somewhat hesitantly.
"She's right; I need to end this quickly," Alistair acknowledged. He had become too engrossed in the battle. If they had killed Demian and hid, they would have most likely won by default after dispatching whoever was left. And it was still not too late for that outcome, though it would be quite messy to dispatch the Vampire quickly. Vampires were notoriously hard to put down, even on lower grades.
Things had been a bit too easy lately. He missed the challenge and adrenaline he had felt at the beginning of the trial. But making things hard for himself and potentially missing out was unacceptable. Demian was already on his last leg. Alistair increased the amount of Qi channeled into his Temporal Combat Reflex skill as he teleported next to the vampire. Alistair used a flash of light to blind the vampire temporarily, and it was surprisingly effective as the vampire's skin glittered and his eyes began to smoke. Demian recoiled, and his concentration broke as the barriers flickered out of existence; he wailed and covered his burning eyes with his hands.
Alistair managed to grab one of his arms with Chrono Seizing Hand, and channel dispel magic, preventing the Vampire from pulling away immediately. In retaliation, Demian pierced through Alistair's Kinetic Skinguard with a series of shadow spears. Alistair felt the pain coursing through him as the spears pierced his body, and his [HP] started to drop. However, his [HP] pool was absolutely massive, and with his augmented physiology, the pain was reduced to be more than bearable. He headbutted Demian, breaking his nose and absorbing the kinetic energy directed at himself as he started to burn the Vampire with conjured flames at point-blank range. Demian tried to let out a shriek, but the time dilation distorted and elongated the scream.
"Fun times is over. They are coming," Riseth said over the link, teleporting to his side with her blades drawn.
Alistair grimaced; the process of putting down Demian was rather gruesome and even slower than he had hoped. He retrieved one of the shorter blades from his inventory and plunged it into the vampire's blood core, located on the right side of the chest opposite his heart. Demian had been clawing at him while wailing in pain, powering through the time dilation. But all it did was add kinetic energy to his spheres. Alistair concentrated his fire on the blade and burned out the vampire's blood core, killing him just as two drones flew into the throne room.
"Go, we will try to hide for now. I'll take out the drones," Alistair said as he dropped Demian's body, which fell and landed with a loud thud.
His armor had protected him from most of the attacks, but the spears had bypassed it, and he was bleeding badly. Usually, he managed to avoid this through his skillset, but besides his bracers, he had little means to heal himself, and closing the holes in his body himself would take too much time and be too energy inefficient. He used the kinetic energies within his sphere to create a set of kinetic blasts that shattered the two drones. He let loose a barrage of explosive blasts down the corridor, aiming to slow down their pursuers, then swiftly teleported to one of the windows that Riseth had shattered, where she hovered, waiting for him.
They turned invisible shortly before explosions rocked the throne room. Alistair wordlessly picked up Riseth, who immediately started stitching his wounds with her particular brand of healing magic. They hurried down into an alleyway, trying to lose their pursuers and recover before returning to combat.
"Good news. They are arguing over their lost drones. They won't be able to track us properly," Riseth said over the link while looking back toward the palace.
"Just how good are your ears?" Alistair asked over the link, a bit surprised.
"Quite good, especially after some refining," Riseth said before reassuringly adding, "Oh, and don't worry, I molded in some safety measures so I don't blow out my ear drums every time."
"Not what I was worried about," Alistair said jokingly as they entered one of the city buildings, heading for the cellar.
"Oh yeah?" Riseth inquired as she summoned a couch, and they both let their bodies fall into it.
"Are you sure they won't find us?" Alistair asked as Riseth started working on his wounds again.
"Pretty sure we would kick their ass even if they did, but no need to take the risk of other people piling on. We have been fighting with only short breaks for a while now." Riseth responded.
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Alistair looked up at the ceiling, checking the score. They were firmly in first place with 13 kills, and the second to fourth-placed teams had been eliminated, with the rest of the pack only now catching up. There were still quite a few teams out there, and Alistair suspected most of them had been hiding and sniping easy targets when they presented themselves. Alistair looked down at his hands and grimaced. Killing Demian had been quite gruesome, even knowing he would respawn.
"Don't worry too much about killing that Vampire. We'll have to take out some opponents sooner or later, and they won't be respawning," Riseth reassured him after observing him for a moment.
Alistair nodded, wincing as her healing skill tore at his flesh to close the bleeding wound.
"I'm honestly curious how someone with a high-tier species like that is still at grade 10." she mused, her tone tinged with annoyance. "That's like a demon lord sitting in his castle all day and waiting for someone to kill him."
Alistair avoided eye contact. He would not bring up how that was a common trope that had trickled through from the multiverse. "It didn't seem like he spent much time honing his magic skills. Most of what he did seemed to be related to racial skills. My mind is already racing with tons of possibilities on how to enhance those shadow abilities," she added, her thoughts drifting towards future strategies not noticing that he kept quiet.
"Let's just rest and then get back out there. I know you won't stay still and wait for them to kill each other for long," Riseth said as she finished up with his wounds, leaning back onto the couch and staring at the ceiling as well.
"Damn Right," Alistair said with a smirk on his face as he turned to look at her.
She rolled her eyes before leaning into him, relaxing her body as she did.
"To be fair, there are practical reasons as well. They might team up and try to kill us as we are sitting in the first place, and preventing us from getting any more kills could allow one or two of the groups to barely pass us in the scoreboard." Alistair added.
She looked down from the score and nodded approvingly. They started talking about their earlier battle and some of the insights Riseth had gained from observing Demian and his skills. Alistair gave some feedback on the shadow skills and recommended that she stick to her plan to refine her skin with ethereal essences and not mix it with elements of shadows for now. It was common for Body cultivators to augment their skin with defensive properties. They had lucked out as they had gotten quite a bit of ethereal essence from the ambrosia. They had a handful of defensive patterns using lower-tier essences from the cultivation manuals. Those patterns and Alistair's experience in creating his own defensive skin augmentation helped them immensely in the intricate process of developing a new augmented organ pattern.
Alistair would not have known where to begin without the manuals and their instructions. He had encountered his fair share of roadblocks and lost some valuable essences in the process. Riseth had convinced him to write down his experiences and the patterns he had created. He would not publish them for now, but she had been correct with the assumption that it might add to his records and could benefit the clan down the line. Reflecting on what worked and the how and why had given him some epiphanies he would not have had if he had not revisited the issues. He had also obtained a create manual skill that, much like his array skill, was separate from his body cultivation skill.
Skills: Tier: Name: Description: [Uncommon] Create Manual
Whenever the user creates a manual, his magic imbues it, increasing its resilience. The more knowledge the user imbues into the manual, the more resilient it becomes. Body Cultivation manuals reduce the reader's prerequisites for gaining insights.
She looked down from the score and nodded approvingly. "To bad it's too risky to use our Soulscape in here,"
"Well, we could use it one after the other," Alistair suggested.
"It's not the same doing it alone. Also, I like your Soulscape better," She replied, giving him a weak smile.
Alistair realized that he had never entered her Soulscape and was not even sure he could. He lacked the title she had that allowed her access to his Soulscape.
"What does your soulscape even look like?" Alistair asked
After some hesitation, she explained that it was the cheap apartment she had gotten after she started working for a living and gaining her independence. It was relatively high up on a mountain overlooking the jungles below. It was technically a well-kept place with a beautiful view, though, according to Neshan culture, it was considered an apartment for poor people and undesirables. As the deeper one was, the more prestigious, though, she had always liked the view and the freedom the place had represented. She had gained a new perspective and appreciation for the place after the initiation, though shaking off the cultural stigma of such places was a slow process.
They both suddenly stopped talking over their Akashic link as they sensed murderous intent directed at the two of them. They both leaped away from the couch, weapons drawn. There was a moment of silence, but the intent was still there. Riseth took the chance to store the couch as they bolted for the stairs. Just before they were about to reach it, metallic clangs rang out, and they saw a device tumbling down the stairs. Alistair wrapped his arms around Riseth and summoned his shield, blocking the line of sight to the bomb as a massive explosion rocked the chamber. The building above them collapsed, and Alistair strained despite Riseth's barrier, absorbing some of the initial explosion. As some of the dust settled, Alistair absorbed three highly condensed spheres of Kinetic energy orbited around them. There was a chime, and he was pretty sure the strain and danger of the situation had finally upgraded his Kinetic Skinguard skill.
Their combination of skills and good armor had shielded them from the worst, and Alistair wanted nothing more than to return the favor by shoving the stored kinetic energy down the attacker's throat. However, the building had collapsed, and the stairways were buried in rubble. There were cracks in the ceiling where light shone through.
"I can get us out. Hold on tight," Riseth said with a pained expression, a streak of blood flowing out of her nose.