Not having vision of Owen, she immediately used all of her empowering skills. Her aura exploded out as her resources slowly were being worn down by her skills. The boss opened its mouth to say something, but she didn't give it the privilege. She launched herself towards the boss, Lucas on her tail as she began swinging her axes in fury. Each slash torn through its body, leaving deep wounds, but the boss seemed to be healing just as fast as she was. Every strike replenished her resources by a little, but the boss seemed to get restored after every hit.
Backing up, she left Lucas continued the flurry of attacks as she began charging up her fated blow attack. Swinging her axe, her whole body adding an increased amount of power behind it, it struck the boss in the side of the next. An unearthly wail escaped the bosses lips, as it looked like she had finally managed to strike a blow that left lasting damage. She wanted to have Lucas take up the bosses time, so she could charge up another attack, but the boss realized their plan and quickly rushed past him, for the first time going on the offensive against them.
Myra was forced to dodge and weave, her boosting skills the only thing that were letting her keep up. But she felt her energies draining even faster than before. In a free moment, she struck her bracers together to get some of her resources back, but barely helped as the energy seemed to also enter the boss. Even while they were clashing, the wound on the side of its neck had gradually begun to close. She tried switching to the offensive, but as soon as she tried swinging her axe, she felt a cold sensation run through the bones in her left arm.
A single glance down to the wound told her everything she needed to know. Her skin started to peel back as if it were under an intense heat and the veins in her arm began slowly darkening from a red, to a dark black. She watched it begin to snake up her arm, before she gave herself too much time to think, she took her other axe and sliced it through her left arm. A pain unlike anything else she had ever felt before wracked through her entire body.
The energy seemed to stop spreading, but she looked down in shock and horror as she realized her arm hadn't been completely severed from the rest of her body. She felt her body begin convulsing, before she collapsed onto her knees. She didn't see that satisfied look on the bosses face before he turned to address Lucas again. Myra barely heard the stone floor shattered nearby before she felt her consciousness slip into darkness.
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Owen could barely breathe underneath all of the rubble that had fallen on him and Briar. He tried shifting his weight around, but nothing seemed to want to shift with him. Cursing, he tried putting more leverage into his pushing, but again nothing shifted. There just barely wasn't any space to get any real leverage behind his movements.
Briar didn't seem to have any leverage, but Owen noticed an energy circulating around Briar slowly begin to build. He then realized that he was still running his mana manipulation skill, which is probably why he noticed the energy in the first place. He watched trying to see if there was any way to help with what Briar was trying to do, not getting any response, he just prepared a purely mana infused blade, ready to try and slice through the stone when there way an opening.
Several seconds passed as the energy around both of them began to build, Owen felt his stomach lurch as the rocks began to shift from the sheer energy they were both exuding. The space became ever so slightly more cramped, but just as Owen was beginning to get worried, Briar blasted a guided wind strike through the gaps in the rocks. As soon a gap was created, Owen grabbed Briar and launched himself through the gap.
Slicing some of the stones with his blade. Briar turned themself back into a bracelet, leaving Owen with his full range of movement. Thankfully the space between the floor as ceiling was less than Owen had remembered falling, so it took him barely longer than a second to make it back to the ground floor. The sight he saw completely washed away his relief. Myra was kneeling against the ground, looking like she was going to fall over any second. Her left arm dangled helplessly against her body as she clutched in with her right hand.
It looked like it had almost completely been torn off, with chucks of flesh and cartilage keeping it together. The boss was currently facing off against Lucas who looked like he was in a slightly better state, but not by much. Owen tried to understand the power the boss was using, but Lucas had managed to keep him at bay, making so that whatever effect its attacks had weren't having any effect on him.
He had Briar reform, sending them to go give Lucas some back up, while he ran to check on Myra. Briar coated itself in a thick layer of energy as it formed several larges spikes. Each crackled with power as Ice, electricity and thorn spikes were launched at the enemy boss. It tried to dodge, but a large gust of wind caught its side, pushing back into the path of the attacks. Feeling satisfied that Briar would be able to last for a while, he used keen eye, and quickly shared the information with Briar as it began a second round of attacks.
*Aerico the Walking Plague: Level 50
This boss has a death aura, that drains HP and MP passively. Its attacks contain some of the corrupted energy.*
After the information was sent, Owen began searching over Myra's body in earnest. The only serious wound was her left arm, but it was bad. Really bad. The veins in her arm had a dark black energy seeping through them and it was only barely still attached to her due to small chunks of flesh not having broken apart at the elbow. Looking with his mana manipulation skill let him see the tiny amount of the infectious mana seeping into the rest of her body from the skin holding it together.
Gritting his teeth, he used a mana imbued knife to quickly slice through the remaining flesh, completely severing her arm. He hoped she wouldn't be upset with him, but he couldn't worry about that right now. He pushed his mana manipulation skill to its very limits as he got an almost x-rayed outline of Myra's pathways. They were slightly different than his, but he didn't let his mind wander as he found the infectious clumps of mana and created shells of her own mana around them.
The fix wouldn't last for long, but injecting his own mana into his ability, he began forcing the mana back through her pathways, causing her to groan in pain. He forced himself to ignore it as he pushed all of the infected mana out of her wound, using his own as a guide. Not sure what else he could do about the wound without a healing spell, he picked her and and moved her to the furthest wall away from the fighting.
"Come on, Owen hurry up, we can't last much longer if its just the two of us!" Lucas practically screamed. Owen looked over and saw Briar was barely able to redirect an attack that would've bashed in Lucas's brain. Setting Myra down gently, he shouted back. "You two take a break and refresh, I got this."
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His anger was a force all on its own as he fully turned to the boss that was holding both Briar and Lucas at bay. The two of them backed off and the boss turned an amused gaze towards Owen. "Unless you are stronger than that girl over there, I doubt you have a chance. I have had hundreds of years to hone my power. All it takes is a single drop of my mana, to slowly turn her towards death." Aerico turned towards Myra who was slumped against the ground with a big grin on his face.
A quick inspection of her caused him to frown. "My energy is no longer in her body, how?" He said in genuine surprise. Owen slowly began walking forwards, his spear, piercing heavens, replaced the small dagger that had been in his hand. Intense waves of energy began buffeting the surrounding area, causing microfractures in the ground as his walk slowly turned into a run. Both mana and chaos blazed on the edges of his spear. The access energy cascading off of the spearhead clashing together to create tiny sparks against the haft.
The bosses face contorted into one of fear as it took a step back. "How is it that you wield chaos so freely?" he said, before his face shifted from fear to anger. "It is of no matter, I have toppled kingdoms without anyone being the wiser. You'll fall just like the rest." Aerico's words were interrupted by the clash of Owen's spear against his bare fists.
Owen began pushing forward moving with reckless abandon. He had almost lost Myra, if things had gone slightly differently, he could've had her back against the boss. This time he would take it all on his own. Keep her safe. And get revenge for her missing arm.
Without even realizing he was doing it, Owen began using one of his hands to rotate the haft of the spear just enough to have the edge of mana clash with every one of the bosses attacks. And twisting the haft the other direction so that every attack he made was with the edge coated in chaos energy. His moves began to quicken and he could feel the flow of battle. The boss slowly being pushed to the edge of its endurance. Its defenses were slowly coming later and later.
The boss let out a wave of condensed energy, in an attempt to either push him back or infect him. Owen wasn't sure, but he simply formed his own barrier of mana, using his manipulation skill, before infusing it with his own mana as well. Barriers crashed together, the infected energy getting thrown back towards the boss. Owen felt more than saw the system notifications stacking up for him to look at, but he didn't let himself get distracted. With the slightest twist of his wrist, Briar formed as a bracelet on his arm, swinging his spear in an arc he normally wouldn't have felt comfortable with, gave Briar a chance to reform on the opposite side of the boss, instantly using a wind strike to blast Owen out the the way of the oncoming attack.
The boss began to turn in surprised, but had to stop as a blade coated in chaos was launched out of Owen's storage bracelet. Owen had known the energy wouldn't last long, but the time the boss used to deflect it in a panic was all he had needed. A large spike made of thorns was stabbed through the bosses chest, despite not dealing any damage, the boss was unable to move for a moment with everything going on. Owen didn't even try to charge his spear with more energy. He stabbed forward, the chaos and mana tearing through the bosses throat.
A second passed without anything happening as the whole world seemed to freeze. Owen watched in slow motion, as the mana inside of the bosses wound tried fleeing from the chaos, but a quick twist of his spear, forced the energies to collide. Time resumed as both Owen and Briar were blasted back as the boss began to implode.
Owen slammed back hard against the wall, falling down not too far from Myra. Seeing that Briar was okay and Lucas was walking over, Owen couldn't help but smile as a notification popped up.
*You have slain Aerico the Walking Plague: Level 50.
You have completed a tier 3 gate in its entirety. 5000 credits gained
25,000 experienced gained. 18,750 experience has been consumed by your 1st grade soul.
You have gained 2 levels, you have four unallocated stat points.*
Owen smiled, he had been close enough to gaining a level that the fight had pushed him to gain two. He tried to stand up, so they could leave immediately, but his legs felt like jelly. Sitting back down hard, he looked through the rest of his notifications, just until he felt good enough to carry Myra out of the gate.
*You have gained the skill Polymath's Spear Mastery: Level 5
Your skill mana manipulation has upgraded to Polymath's Mana Manipulation: Level 2
You have fused two skills together to create your own. you have gained the skill, Synergistic Wielder of Chaos Spear Mastery: Level 5
As a wielder of chaos, your spear skills have grown to wield chaos as well. Whenever you wield both spear and chaos, the two become one. Whenever you wield both spear and mana the two become one. Damage while wielding spear is increased by 100%. Deal an additional 50% extra damage when spear is imbued with either element.
Your class Polymath's apprentice has leveled up. you gain 1 stat point in mana, strength, perception, agility, dexterity and luck.
You have reached class level 5, you have 5 skills options to pick from*
Owen couldn't help but chuckle softly. All of the effort he had put into trying to gain skills with no success, only for him managing to gain and upgrade every skill he had excluding Keen Eye, within the span of a single fight. He even was able to pick a skill for free. He probably would've been more excited, but his worry for Myra kept him more reserved. He turned to check on Myra again, before settling himself into the wall. Since he had time, would spend it meditating and absorbing the rest of the experience he had just gained.
In his core space, the surrounding void seemed as if it had been becoming more real every time he used chaos. It felt like there was something there now, rather than the lack of something. Choosing to ignore it for now, he looked at his core greedily as a thick white shell of experience coated it. Descending down closer to his core he began circulating his energy. The shell slowly dissolved, the experience slowly being dispersed throughout his body and refining the core itself.
He didn't even try to keep track of the time as he slowly worked through all of the experience that had formed against his core. By the time he had fully assimilated all of it into his core he smiled. His core had gone from an odd combination of green and yellow, to a fully bright yellow that hummed with energy.
*Your 1st grade soul temper has infused the minimum threshold of experience required to upgrade your core into the Yellow core stage. You have upgraded the title Cultivator to the title Middle Stage Cultivator. This title awards the user 10 stat points in mana.*
*You have completed the quest: Gain 5 class levels.
Progress 5 of 5
Reward - One free weapon from the upgraded tutorial weapon shop.*
Owen opened his eyes, he felt like they were somehow getting sensitive due to the sheer amount of system notifications. He even had to ignore the message that said he was getting three free stat points from level ups now, placing his free points at 8 currently. He felt like a weight had been dropped from his chest. He had thought he lost all of his skills and a lot of his fighting power, but this fight was prove he could still carry his own weight, even if a large amount of his strength came from chaos energy currently.
Feeling like he had had most of his strength return, he picked up the still unconscious Myra and carried her gently towards the gate's exit. Once outside, placed her gently in the car and had Briar create a bed in the backseat. Making Lucas sit in the passenger seat, Owen climbed in the front seat and began driving back towards Rochester and presystem dangerous speeds. He had decided to keep Myra's arm and expunge it of its infected mana, just in case Peggy would need it to heal Myra, but his hopes weren't very high. The system was strong, but he hadn't seen it allow heals of that caliber yet.
He just had to hope that she would be okay.