One of Wander’s bodies crept along the rafters, silent as a - well - rat. An observer probably would have thought little of the vermin until it reached one of the many small windows adorning the roofs of the Pristine family compound, easily unlatching and lifting the small colored window to slip outside. The room’s occupants were none the wiser, but Wander had to admit that sneaking by people when they were that distracted was barely a challenge. She was unsure if they would have noticed her even if she had turned up in her human form and asked to join in.
“Those family elders sure know how to get it on though,” she admitted. “Wander, when are you actually going to find yourself a proper squeeze these days~?”
A plethora of other impressions reached her from her varied bodies scattered around the estates. Wander could simultaneously feel the warm, secure feeling of sleeping in her burrow, the elation of a group of bodies who had just gotten into a hitherto unnoticed pantry and the subsequent delicious tastes. Even the coolness of morning dew on the fur of another few who made the rounds outside managed to be neatly caught up and processed.
“Silver-rank sure is great,” she mused to herself. While at iron rank, she hadn’t been able to multitask very much. Being a swarm back then had been quite disorienting unless she focused all bodies to do the same thing. But at bronze-rank, along with her power to further increase her mental capacities and range, things had started to really turn interesting.
“And of course, had it not been for that little incident, I probably wouldn’t even have been able to get such a power at iron rank anyway. Sometimes, happy accidents have their perks~.”
Fortunately, things were still quiet around the gate, even though there was always a servant or guard stationed there these days. The tantrum of the young mistress had been hilarious, but it did mean that extracting Kite would be a lot more fun. Braid had used the word ‘messy’, but Wander liked to have a positive outlook on life.
“Still, I do hope Kite is alright in there,” she thought idly, focusing her attention on the body which was overlooking the garden with the gate. The portal’s presence was both scary and soothing at the same time, with the weird metal and its otherworldly quality certainly making it stand out to all of one’s senses. “He can be so careful and calm most times. I hope he gets some good adventures inside. You know, to get new perspectives and experiences. Develop a bit as a person~.”
Her companion, another of her bodies, just looked blankly at her.
“Bah! You’re no fun~,” Wander complained, looking at the gate again. “Still, to build such marvels. Diamond rank seems awesome. I wonder what I’ll be like if I get there~?”
----------------------------------------
A sharp metal leg swept at Kite, his ward appearing to block the appendage. He did not let the barriers dissipate, because true to form, four more of the vicious, serrated limbs followed in its wake. It left only one of the two barriers intact, Kite having to layer both of the discs of Heaven-and-Void warding in order to weather the assaults which the insectoid ruler made look easy. His jade-green armor already bore the rents and tears from the learning process, but they were closing rapidly as the armor glowed from within. Kite had chosen to empower the suit with the stored fragments of Something from Nothing when he noticed his foe’s relentless pace, and this had left the armor a lot more resilient and greatly enhancing its self-repairing functions.
The ruler of the hive was fast, of that there was no doubt, but as he had been caught in intense exchanges with the thing for almost a minute, it became gradually clearer to Kite that its greatest strength was not the speed itself but the encompassing awareness and coordination of its body. Even with the great mass of thin limbs, it managed to move about to allow multiple attacks at any given time without hampering either motion. Kite was impressed, even if the feeling gave way to the gritted determination of lethal combat.
Another set of striking limbs tried to ward him off as the antennae at its head started glowing again. This particular ruler seemed to be cunning, and it had caught on that Kite could hamper its charging of its magical beam if given the chance, and therefore had started taking measures to prevent it. The first two attempts were negated by the web of steel which seemed to encase the silver-ranker as sharp limbs whirled in defense, but Kite still managed a feint to strike true, enabled by a certain blade which as usual was hard to even properly focus on.
A forceful sweep of Kite’s staff was turned aside, but a mere moment after, the Veiled One’s Decree flickered in his hand, its unseen blade making Kite’s intent even harder to read. The projected attack slid by the protection of whirling metal, and just as the antennae were starting to glow bright the air rippled as a slash struck across its head. Another pair of glowing antennae were severed, and the building power once more faded.
The loss of what Kite assumed was part of its sensory organs did stagger the creature, and another of Kite’s strikes carrying Void-Sunders-Firmament carved even deeper grooves into its metallic exterior.
Then, for the first time during their battle, Kite’s foe suddenly leapt backwards instead of the relentless assault that had been its modus operandi for all of their conflict. It landed vertically on the wall. Taken a bit aback by the shift in behavior, Kite stood frozen in readiness, expecting some kind of leaping assault. He had not expected the creature to plant its many legs, which each started glowing with a white light as a hemispherical barrier was projected to surround it.
And what was worse, Kite’s magical perception started picking out a steadily ramping healing effect as what looked like a fine dust started welling out from parts of the ruler’s body to start mending the tears and wounds in its surface. The many hits of Void-Sunders-Firmament had accumulated a lot of the dark energies which hampered such healing, but from what Kite saw, it would not be long before the afflictions were overcome.
“Oh curse you,” he sighed, casting a spell even as he started towards the creature at a sprint.
“Dissolve the patterns of power!”
His dispelling wave washed through the tunnel and over the barrier. While it flickered and buzzed a bit, it did not peter out entirely as Kite would have hoped. Spending some stored momentum of Unyielding, he closed the distance as quickly as possible. The dagger that was his Boundary-devouring Lotus appeared in his hand and he stabbed it into the flickering barrier, the hungry plant quickly starting to spread from what looked like a well-powered barrier.
Kite was not content to wait either, the last of his void-afflictions soon having absorbed their limit of healing. He tried raining blows upon the barrier, striking where the lotus had not yet spread. Disrupting strike showed a modicum of effect, both its dispelling qualities and the disrupting force damage, but it was clearly not enough to easily power through.
“I must remember to have Peony craft me something for moments such as this,” he swore to himself. The lotus was very effective at what it did, but Kite sorely felt the need of a barrier-breaking implement of his own at that moment.
Every moment felt like an eternity when you could literally see your hard work being undone before your very eyes, and the ruler looked well on its way to being restored when Kite finally managed to break through. Even as a Disrupting Strike dispersed the healing effect, its many limbs were once more back in action and slashed out at Kite again. He was even forced to back up a little, as the vertical position meant that more of the legs could reach ‘upward’ from the monster’s perspective to stab at Kite.
“In a show of their fickle nature, the heavens has seen fit to remind me how my foes feel when Immortality comes into play. Now if that isn’t karmic, I do not know what is,” Kite groaned in the few moments of respite. Then the battle was joined again.
While it was probably only a few minutes, Kite lost track of time as he sank back into his combat mediation. While it had been something which he had mainly developed for his mind to be the eye of the storm in a fight and keep track of many things around him at once, it was also well suited to keeping track of the multiple limbs of his foe and their attack vectors.
While many foes might have been overwhelmed, Kite managed to turn the onslaught into a steady slog, his powers draining its mana while restoring both mana and stamina for himself while his strikes sundered its body. He still took enough hits that he was forced to use Immortality himself, and the lingering boost to his recovery eventually became the wave upon which Kite rode through the churning seas of battle to victory.
This particular foe was also the first of the rulers which made an attempt to escape, apparently unable to use its power of recovery again so soon after the first. Fortunately, Kite’s walls slowed it down enough for him to catch up, and eventually it was a simple and humble normal strike of Void-Sunders-Firmament which became the final indignity which the silver-ranked monster’s body could endure.
It ended close to the central chamber where it all began, and as he saw the piles of quintessence scattered in the room from all the insectoid monsters which had been incinerated in the inferno, Kite was glad that his clash with the ruler had taken place several bends away through one of the corridors. Imagining all that rainbow smoke in the enclosed space before it dispersed made him shiver.
After the ruler too had gone up in smoke, Kite gathered its treasures like he had done with all those that came before. He noted that this also left behind some silver-ranked myriad quintessence, which might come in handy in the future given all the bronze-ranked manifestations of that aspect he had already gathered.
The more unique treasure looked like a mass of small, twitching antennae and chitinous legs, like a vaguely spherical, condensed version of the ruler itself. While they flailed slightly of their own volition, neither of the tendrils were harmful or actually hostile.
“A ruler slain, a prize claimed,” the officiator intoned.
“Officiator, I am quite unsure whether I should praise or curse you at this moment,” Kite sighed wearily.
“Not all tests of one’s path allows one to prepare, trial-taker. All actions carry consequences, and it will be up to your judgment which ones you believe that your path is able to conquer.”
“Well, at the moment I mostly want to conquer the way out of here. I feel that I have some reflecting to do. And one most productive session with my bedroll to get on to.”
----------------------------------------
“Why- won’t- you- just- drop- this- stupid- barrier?”
Each of Dragonfly’s frustrated snarls was punctuated by her axe hitting the mana barrier of the cowering outlaw. The woman did put up a desperate defense, but had the misfortune of facing Dragonfly of all people. The myriad small attacks from her needle essence had allowed the fiery young woman to ramp up her power at record pace, and anything she was currently trying was just adding fuel to the fire.
“Get- get her away from me! Someone?! Log, where are-”
The outlaw’s screeched question was interrupted by said man flying across the small hideout, apparently having picked the less intelligent path of hitting Gold when his armor was glowing. The towering, silent man strode after his opponent, speeding up as Serene’s spell carried him the final stretch. The outlaw called Log did not seem to enjoy the beatdown which the armored juggernaut started to deliver after that.
“Dragonfly, a mana barrier is best dealt with through frequency of attacks, not quality. Hit it faster,” Will unhelpfully called from where he was currently engaging a pair of the wanted criminals. Said pair had found a bit of a challenge in navigating the small forest of spears and lances which the scion left around him as he fought, and from his casual demeanor they weren’t putting up much actual resistance.
“That’s easy for you to say, who can just conjure more attacks when you want to,” Dragonfly called back. “Switch?”
“The contract did want some of them alive, Dragonfly. And your path tends to leave them very much not so.”
“Well, it's not like this one will survive much longer either unless she drops. Her. Barrier!”
“You're crazy!” the woman shouted, sending another barrage of needles piercing into Dragonfly, whose glow only intensified along with the pace of her healing.
“You should have thought about that before you started extorting far-off villages for so-called protection,” Dragonfly shot back. “Or maybe not act rotten enough for the adventure society to kick you out in the first place?”
Dragonfly had hoped for some banter to pass the time as she broke through the barrier, but was left disappointed as the woman continued screeching in panic.
“I miss Kite,” she grumbled, adding a bit more mana to her flames which in turn added some more disruptive force damage.
“We all do,” Serene’s voice said close to her, the priestess apparently having picked up her grumbling even over the din of combat in the enclosed space. “Although you might have more reasons to. But perhaps you shouldn’t take out your… frustrations… on our targets.”
“Wha- Nooo- I mean-” Dragonfly began in protest, but the words died on her lips. Serene’s aura senses were terrifyingly sharp, even more so since her aura-powers had started hitting silver rank. And while Dragonfly also knew that Serene did her best not to pry as much or as privately as she had done when they first met, she had to admit that some of the frustrations the priestess was referring to might not have been very subtle these last four weeks.
The mana barrier in front of her finally crumbled, and as she felt a bit guilty, Dragonfly let her axe hover above her shoulder as she started laying into the outlaw with her fists instead. And she only added a little fire.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I miss Kite…”
----------------------------------------
“I wonder what the others are doing?” Kite wondered aloud, Glint hovering near his shoulder. “At least I hope that their view is better than mine.”
Around Kite, there was only oppressive darkness. He knew that there were cave walls and other stone formations around them, many now scarred from the conflict which had just taken place between Kite and the ruler of the cavernous territory where he had found the first hidden treasure in the challenge.
Of the rulers he had battled so far, the silver ranked mass of darkness attacking through rippling echoes had proved to be one of the easier of the half a dozen Kite had fought so far. It too was hampered by Kite hindering it from shifting places, but mostly it had been due to the fact that its main defensive measure had been a kind of mana-barrier. As long as it had mana to spend, it was almost unassailable, with the surrounding darkness seeming to replenish its spiritual reserves. But that had proven to be a rather fickle defense against one such as Kite. Especially during these days of advancement.
WWJS:
Congratulations!
Your ability [Chakra Implosion] has reached silver 0.
[Chakra Implosion] has gained additional effects.
- Chakra implosion -
Special attack (Combination, mana drain). Cost: Low mana Cooldown: 2s Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Strike an opponent to implode part of their mana reserve in addition to the physical effect of the strike. Applies an instance of [Broken flow], a stackable affliction that reduces mana recovery.
Effect - Bronze: Applies an instance of [Broken form], a stackable affliction which lowers damage resistances by a small amount.
Effect - Silver: Applies the [Stunned] affliction, with effect increased proportionate to the amount of mana drained.
[Stunned] (affliction, magic): The afflicted is briefly unable to move, use abilities or control already active abilities. Fully reactive abilities and effects can still be triggered. The duration cannot be refreshed by applying [Stunned] again and being affected multiple times in succession has diminishing returns.
While not integral to the ruler’s defeat, the ability reaching silver rank had made sure that the process was a lot swifter. As with all rank-ups, the effects of chakra implosion was just more encompassing, adding direct disruption to the body of the target. Having a foe flinch for just a moment while having their mana drained could have dire consequences, especially as all combatants just grew faster as ranks increased, further decreasing all margins. And this cloud of darkness that was the ruler of the domain had not fared well when it temporarily lost control over its magic.
“Almost halfway there,” Kite continued, sending Glint a smile where she floated close to him.
“Trial-taker,” the officiator broke in, “I will remind you that you have defeated enough rulers already in order to push for the end of the trial.”
“I know,” Kite said. “But I would be a fool not to try and get as much as I can from this opportunity. Even though I suppose that others might call me a fool for not taking my winnings and leaving as soon as possible.
It is just that this place you have built is amazing! And with all the quintessence I have gathered, I will make quite a fortune on the outside.”
“A fortune? As in monetary funds?”
“Yes. Much of the quintessence here is quite valuable outside, especially the concepts such as void, dimension and other more esoteric concepts. You will have to look far and wide to find reliable sources of lower-ranked quintessences of those kinds.”
“But- but trial taker, this is a challenge of the queen. You are supposed to temper yourself, not gather riches!”
“Officiator, I would protest that building one’s path is quite the costly endeavor.”
“Nonsense! The only thing needed is the path and your insights into it.”
The orb actually seemed kind of outraged that talk of money and riches had sneaked their way into its challenge of self-reflection.
Not wanting a repeat of last time, Kite tried to placate it.
“But surely, there is merit in both. There is no questioning that the path itself is what is most important, but some aid can sometimes bring out even more from it. Yes, give you new nuances on which to reflect.”
Kite felt like he was grasping for straws, but kept his humble facade as he tried to calm the agitated orb.
It remained silent for a while longer, as if giving Kite a long look.
“There is… merit… in what you say, trial taker,” it eventually ventured. “I will reflect upon it, but will also remind you that your conduct and insights will be impacting my review of your performance during this trial. Too much focus on certain… gains… might reflect poorly upon your dedication to your path.”
“Of course, officiator, of course,” Kite said, even bowing a bit in respect. “I assure you that going after all the rulers I can is first and foremost a way to temper myself. Any resources and other things which I may gather is only an afterthought.”
“That is good, trial-taker. That is good,” the officiator said, obviously finished with the discussion.
Kite sighed inwardly, while scrapping his budding plans. Emboldened by his recent successes against the rulers, he had been considering to start actually using Sage more and trigger more manifestations in areas which the quintessences would be especially valuable. But the officiator’s words, combined with the earlier incident, had him choose caution.
“Better not prod this particular erratic sleeping tiger too much.”
----------------------------------------
“Curse these fickle heavens!” Kite inwardly swore as his spiritual perception started to pick up the incoming monsters. His staff clashed with that of the silver-ranker which he was currently engaging; a skeletal humanoid not much taller than him. The being had resided on a stone monument in the middle of the desert, seemingly built from bone and wearing oddly designed, angular robes made of flowing sand. Its deathly grin was very much that of a humanoid skull though, and it wielded a staff with several dark, rattling shells dangling from it.
Things had started mostly as Kite had suspected, with the ruler attacking through waves of projected sand and bolts of deathly, venomous magic. Kite’s suite of powers had seemed well equipped to deal with the variety of magical attacks, and he had also been elated to see that he could keep up with the being in more straightforward melee combat. This was especially true as the body of the ruler itself seemed to be emerging from the stone dais below, as if melded to its surface, giving Kite an advantage in footwork. The staff had been the odd thing out in what the ruler had shown so far, but after Kite had come victorious out of several engagements, the purpose of the thing made itself known.
The shells had suddenly started rattling more intensely, and Kite had been able to sense it soon thereafter; the aura projection. One that had been answered by the surrounding deserts. If his spiritual senses weren’t fooling him at the moment, swarms of the beetles common to this region had started burrowing out of the sand and were converging on the location of the battling pair.
“I do not relish the prospect of warding them all off while dealing with this,” Kite noted even as he exchanged a few more staff-strikes with the ruler. A pair of sand blades swept up against his back, only to shatter when they met the barriers of Heaven-and-Void warding. “Glint, I will try the new stratagem. Please, stay ready to help me escape if it fails.”
As he got a sense of reluctant affirmation from the carp, who was currently hiding in her bottle upon Kite’s request, Kite went to work. He kept up the barriers as best he could while he started charging the Twofold Toll of the Bells. Both bracers started humming while he fought and feinted, and as soon as they were drawing close to their maximum charge, Kite broke the rhythm he had been deliberately building during the last few exchanges.
He dodged the next pair of sand-blades, turning a solid hit into grazing slashes as he instead employed his barriers to ward of the descending staff of his opponent. This left both his hands free as he stepped in close and brought his bracers together, unleashing the twin tolls. The resonating force cracked the skeletal body while the ensuing kinetic force blew the sand robes apart, further damaging the ruler.
To a silver-ranker, this damage was not insignificant but the payout compared to the high cost was quite questionable. The other times he had faced the rulers, Kite would not have bothered. But now he was on a timer, and as he had only himself and his path to rely upon, he had to develop a new strategy to use in a pinch.
That was why the Twofold Toll of the Bells was only the opening shot. Next came Fulminating Sirocco, the head of the meteor hammer slamming into the flat stone structure to unleash its swirling storm. Both of his most damaging tools used, Kite switched to Carmin Sunrise, unleashing a slash powered by Void-Sunders-Firmament. Even before the rending damage had detonated inside his foe, his staff was whirling in to strike again.
Throughout the relentless assault that followed, Kite really went all out on the offensive. Even as he dodged and blocked what he could, sensing that the swarms were closing in and seeing their dark masses coalescing as they drew closer, Kite accepted more hits from venomous spells and sand blades than he otherwise would. His mushroom cloak dropped to shed the poison, and Sage had blasted both its resonating force beams into the skeletal ruler as well.
Immortality went off not long after, restoring Kite’s flagging body and spirit as he continued, and it was when the first of the swarms started getting shred by the whirling area of Fulminating Sirocco that he knew that it was time for the final push, which would end in either victory or retreat, the latter in all probability being a painful one at best and truly dangerous at worst.
“Peony will probably hate this part of the ability,” Kite thought as he brought forth his staff, once more sacrificing the fragments of Something from Nothing into the weapon, which started shining with an inner light. The darkness of Void-Sunders-Firmament started to emanate from the staff, and a keen observer would note that the spatial tears looked even more jagged and lethal than normal. It would not be difficult to surmise that there was a reason for this change, even if it was not the power itself but the one supporting it which was the source of said change.
WWJS:
Congratulations!
Your ability [Potential of Stolen Power] has reached Silver 0.
[Potential of Stolen Power] has received additional effects:
- Potential of Stolen Power -
Special ability. Cost: None. Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Gather charges each time an effect is dispelled or mana is drained. Use accumulated charges to give a potent boost to an ability, partially changing its scope and/or effect.
Effect - Bronze: Generate additional stacks when dispelling more powerful effects or draining more mana in a single instance.
Effect - Silver: If the boosted ability is a special attack or offensive spell, it receives the [Execute] trait, increasing damage dealt in proportion to the health already lost by the target. If the ability is a defensive or supportive spell or a special ability, it receives the [Counter-execute] trait, increasing its effect in proportion to health lost by the user.
From his time spent with his companions, Kite had always been rather envious of the execution abilities of their power sets; to be able to quickly deal a burst of damage which escalated with the damage already suffered by his foe. Even Serene had one, her discordant dirge, which had left Kite as the only one without such a power. But as Potential of Stolen Power had reached silver rank, he could now count himself as a proud equal to them, even if his ability had a bit of a condition to compensate for its increased flexibility.
“Fortune, may this be enough!” he shouted as he swung, barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding blocking out a torrent of venomous vapors which his foe had started spewing. The widened barriers winked out at the last moment, allowing the circular head of Immutable echo to connect with the side of the skull-like head. The jagged mass of spatial tears looked even more vicious than normal, having almost a hungry feel to them as they unfurled in a chaotic mess.
All of Kite’s more desperate measures so far had been to deal as much damage as possible to his foe in as short a duration as possible, to give the twice empowered Void-Sunders-Firmament at least a chance of finishing off this ruler. This was no optimal use of his path, and would have a low chance of working had his foe just been a bit more mobile or resilient. But from his many hours of training with Phiona Geller, she had time and time again urged him to find the ways to make his suite of powers do just that which it usually struggled to do.
“It does not always have to be efficient, stylish or pretty, and it might not work against every foe, but developing strategies for those rare moments will in all probability save your life one day.” As they had been prone to do, his mentor’s words once more proved prophetic.
In an instant, most of the creature’s head and upper torso were sliced to bits and pieces. Each of the dark, jagged holes in the world seemed to devour the ruler’s body with even more hunger than before, as if they were gorging themselves more on the weakened form. Amidst the swirling storm of Fulminating Sirocco, it was almost hard to make out the results at first as the silver-ranked foe had frozen in place. But a moment later it twitched, its staff blurring with speed as it prepared to strike again as more and more of the surrounding swarms had started to push through the shredding storm, apparently heedless to the danger when called by the ruler.
“Curses! Glint-”
Kite had just the time to start preparing his escape in the face of his failure, calling on his trusty familiar, when the echo struck. It was as if a fading version of the strike impacted the ruler again, and while the effect of Immutable Echo delivered only a weakened version of the attack, it carried the same effects as the original. Execution-effect and all.
More jagged pieces of the skeletal monster were thrown out to be consumed by the storm around them, its fury well on the way to peter out. But in contrast, the ruler’s aura winked out like a candle blown out.
Kite’s exultant relief was immediately tempered by the fact that the swarms pressing in on him from all sides seemed in no way deterred by the demise of the silver ranker. And as the storm was fading, they would soon come crashing down on him from all directions.
“Wall! Glint, a little help?”
A square wall sprang up around them, Kite stacking it as high as he could make it while leaving the roof open. He scooped up the reformed head of Fulminating Sirocco just as the silver-ranker’s body went up in smoke. Even though he tried to stay away, reinforcing the nearby walls as best he could while pressing up against them to avoid the stench, Kite still got a lot more than he bargained for as the plume from a silver ranker was a lot more expansive than that of a bronze.
Coughing and weezing, he still waded into the dissipating clouds to snatch up the scattered piles of quintessence and the weird, shifting orb of sand which the ruler had left behind. The walls around them were cracking, and Kite managed to coax Glint out from her bottle and assume her enlarged form even into the odor.
“They are coming soon. Are you ready?” Kite asked his familiar as he mounted. His weariness must have been obvious throughout their link, as the carp seemed to perk up a bit in response, sending sensations of encouragement.
“Then please, little beauty, take us out of here!”
Just as the walls were about to crack, Kite swung his staff, projecting the strike into the surrounding barriers. They all exploded outwards simultaneously, sending ripples of resonating force to tear into the swarms. The mass of small bodies flung outward like a dark, scattered mass. And through that mass, a giant carp shot through like a falling star through a cloud.
Two curved barriers hovered just in front of Glint, making sure that her rising momentum kept the swarm away from both mount and rider. In a blink, they were through, the billowing dunes like an ocean of gold beneath them.
“A ruler slain, a prize claimed,” the officiator orb declared somberly from Kite’s side. “I will admit that I thought that your path would have to give way here, trial-taker, but I was mistaken. This has been a more valuable learning opportunity than I had initially thought.”
“Such praise! Glint, I believe that we can stand tall after this day.”
“Victory is ultimately what matters,” the officiator retorted, oblivious to the irony in Kite’s voice.
“That it is, my dear officiator. That it is,” Kite agreed, taking in the view. Battered and weary, but once more victorious. Over half of the rulers of the queen’s gate had fallen before him and his rapidly developing path. The end of the challenge felt within reach now, even if there was more tempering to be had.
“And, hopefully, a few more victories to celebrate.”