The cold, ghostly light of the City of Illusions flickered across the sky as Ethan crouched low, his heart pounding in his chest. The streets were narrow, winding corridors of deception, but the danger ahead was no illusion. Those snipers—they weren’t just highly trained, they were deadly accurate. One wrong move and he’d end up like Klax, bleeding out on the cold stones.
But there was no room for fear now. Klax’s life was slipping away, and Ethan didn’t have the luxury of hesitation. He had to act.
They were sitting ducks if they stayed in one place, and any attempt to draw the snipers out would leave them vulnerable. What they needed was a distraction they couldn’t ignore.
And there was one skill upgrade that would be perfect for the job.
“Alright…” he said, motioning for Klax to stay the hell down even as the wolfman growled at them to run – to survive. “Here’s what we’ll do.”
Tara and Fauna listened to his plan as the strange mist continued to spiral around the city junction, the dark forms of the two bipedal snipers standing motionless above them.
When he was finished, the girls looked at each other in disbelief.
“It…it could work.”
“Yeah, could being the operative word, Faun.”
“It won’t be perfect,” Ethan agreed. “And it’ll be messy. But it’s the best chance we’ve got. Of saving Klax and taking those bastards down.”
He looked at his [Roar] skill and its shiny new upgrade:
[Project Roar]
Cost to upgrade: 280 Spirit Cores
You can cast Roar at a designated point up to fifty meters away.
Confirm Upgrade?
It was a skill Ethan had never tested. But if he could use it just right, he could cause a distraction big enough to divert the snipers' attention.
“Ok. Ready?”
The girls nodded, but as Ethan hefted his Repulsor Shield and confirmed his new upgrade, he felt a tugging at his elbow.
“Ethan…” Fauna murmured. “Just…be careful?”
He gave her a smirk full of confidence. “Hey, I’m a walking Undead Tank right now. I can take a few hits for us.”
He then grit his teeth and stood, flexing his fingers in preparation. “Alright, you bastards,” he whispered, feeling the familiar burn of power building up in his chest. “Let’s see how you like this.”
He scanned the area again, picking out a building on the far side of the intersection. Its walls were cracked and unstable, a relic of the city’s illusory construction. If he could collapse part of that building, it might just give him the opening he needed.
And then he let loose.
Project Roar: Activated.
The familiar power surged through him, focusing on the distant wall. He poured all of his strength into the pinpointed location, the air vibrating with the force of the sound.
The building shook. A deep, guttural roar erupted from the chosen spot, as if the very earth itself was screaming in fury. The sound was deafening, reverberating off the translucent towers around them, and then—CRACK!—a portion of the building’s wall collapsed, sending debris and dust spiraling into the air.
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The snipers’ attention snapped toward the destruction.
Now!
Ethan bolted from his cover, his Repulsor shield flaring to life above his head. It wasn’t the most elegant move, but it was the only defense he had against the deadly shots that would surely follow. He sprinted across the open street, Tara providing suppressing fire from the shadows, her arrows whizzing through the air toward the snipers’ perch. Fauna, meanwhile, set to dragging Klax towards the safety of their position.
Twang!Thud! The sound of Tara’s arrows embedding themselves into the stonework echoed through the alleyways, forcing the snipers to duck for cover. For a moment, it seemed like Ethan might make it across unscathed, but then—
WHIZZZ—CRACK!
The first shot landed, slamming into Ethan’s shield, but he couldn’t block the brunt of their strike.
HP: -250
The force of the impact nearly knocked him off balance. He gritted his teeth and kept going, pushing through the searing pain that shot through his arm from the vibration. He could hear Fauna muttering a prayer behind him, her voice trembling with worry, as he began to scale one of the ruined buildings directly across from the snipers’ tower.
The shield had managed to block the deadly shot. But -
WHIZZZ—THUNK!
A second shot grazed his leg, cutting through his armor and sending a shockwave of pain through his body.
HP: -250
Already half his health was gone. Another two and –
He put the thought from his head and vaulted over onto the building’s roof. He hissed in pain but kept moving, his eyes locked on the tower’s base. He was almost there. The snipers were good—damn good—but he had one last trick up his sleeve.
[Homing Dive]: Activated
It had been another skill he’d never really tested – a homing strike that could obliterate any obstacle with 60 STR or less in his way. Having scanned the tower for structural weaknesses with his Appraisal, he’d seen where decay and the elements had set in. The centuries hadn’t been kind to the infrastructure of the City of Illusions. And he was about to take full advantage of that fact.
As another two strings of piercing light howled towards him he discarded his shield entirely. With a growl of determination his muscles surged with power as he leaped into the air, his body becoming a blur of motion as he soared upward. The world around him slowed, the wind howling in his ears as he closed the distance between himself and the snipers.
The air was thick with tension. Ethan could feel the presence of the snipers, their eyes locked on him, their bows drawn. He could almost see the string of light as they aimed their final shot.
Now or never.
One shot caught his foot, but he’d already gained all the air he needed. He turned, brandished his blade, and slammed it and the bulk of his Host into the tower’s base. The force of the impact caused the entire tower to tremble, cracks spreading up its length like spiderwebs.
For a moment, everything was silent.
Then, with a deafening CRACK, the tower began to collapse. Dust and debris filled the air, obscuring the snipers’ view as the stone structure crumbled beneath their feet, a final cry of panic engulfing the air and immediately being swallowed up by the roar of the falling tower. The world seemed to slow down as the tower gave way, crashing to the ground in a cloud of smoke and rubble.
Ethan hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop amid the swirling dust. His heart pounded in his chest, the taste of blood sharp on his tongue. He coughed, trying to clear his lungs of the choking air, but all he could see was the cloud of debris surrounding him.
“Ethan!” Fauna’s voice was faint, barely audible over the chaos.
Through the smoke and sapphire dust, no one could see a thing. Then – like a summer day parting the clouds of winter, the Mana Nullifier dissipated into the sky of the city, dying away like its two summoners who now lay spread-legged on the ground, crushed beneath their fallen tower.
And above them stood the triumphant warrior who had just brought them down, his little hat form wriggling atop his dark Host’s head.
The light of the city beamed down on him as he looked back to his shuddering companions.
If there was ever any doubt before, now it was dispelled. They were looking upon a true Archon. The Archon.
“Wh-why…” Klax groaned. “Why…ngh…”
“Klax!” Fauna yelped, pressing her hands on his bleeding neck and summoning up as much healing incantation as she could.
“You – you foo-guh!”
“Enough outta you, big guy,” Tara smirked as she forcefully opened the dogman’s mouth and poured their reserves of Malphus potions down his throat. “Take your medicine and be glad our Archon’s kinder than most.”
Ethan, meanwhile, stared at the two mewling creatures that could barely even cry – their lifeblood dwindling from their crushed veins with each passing second. They were not unlike a pair of bipedal dears, with two great horns protruding from their slender necks and ending in twitching eyes that were slowly beginning to close. Their mouths – what looked like mouths, anyway – were long, conal antenna which throbbed with power. These had been their ‘snipers’.
Appraisal: Success.
Morphology: Obscaurus.
Skills: [Hide] [Ethereal Fade], [Spectral Snipe], [Summon Mana Veil], [Summon illusion], [Skitter]
They had pulled out all the stops – used all the tricks in their disposal to stalk and track their prey. But they hadn’t counted on their prey having a little more up his sleeve.
And now they’re mine, Ethan thought as he grabbed one of them by its bleeding throat and fixed its dying eyes.
“Before you die, you’re gonna be put to good use,” he said.
Then the eyes of the Obscaurus beheld the sight of a true demon before they closed shut forever.