~~~Lee~~~
Lee saw nothing out of place when the building came into view.
Then a blue streak slammed into something brown in front of the building... and the something moved.
He still didn't know what he was looking at until the tail whipped up and started shaking. The massive rattlesnake tail was obvious; if ridiculously oversized, but the noise it made was far beyond even that.
The air vibrated against his eardrums, drowning out everything else. Lee slowed down, both in shock at the sight of the monster before him, and because he wasn't sure what he could possibly do against that thing. His brand new machete felt like a toothpick for all the good it would do... his better one he'd left to Larry wouldn't have helped either.
Alejandro was still out of sight behind him, and Lee took off again. He didn't have time to wait.
Jake fired another exploding arrow and the snake dove at his small form. It missed biting him when he jumped into the air, but the tail stopped shaking abruptly and then whipped out, catching him in midair.
He went flying, but another streak hammered into the snake even as he flew away. Unfortunately, the snake didn't chase after him, and instead turned back to the building.
It struck, and Lee felt his runes diminish again. That explained what he'd been feeling all this time... and Lee was honestly tempted to just say fuck it and find a new place to live rather than fight that monster. Especially considering that Jake should have been fighting for a while and it didn't look like he was winning.
He didn't do that, though. Not only was the Liquid Mana Well in there, but he couldn't abandon Alejandro and his family. The man had proven himself enough today. Lee would at least try to help. Of course, he wasn't a hero. He had no desire to make a valiant last stand to the bitter end, and even less so, to die pointlessly before it even came to that. So he ran a different way.
First things first, he had to touch the building and start pumping mana into the runes. A task that wasn't looking very doable at the moment...
The only upside he could see was that the snake seemed very focused on one side of the building. Which just so happened to be right outside Lee's apartment. Alejandro might charge it head on, but Lee wanted to try avoiding getting eaten again. On that note, he dropped his shield. It wouldn't matter against the monster ahead and would only slow him down. It would be easy enough to find later.
It had been a long sprint to get here, and now he needed a bit more, but his muscles still weren't tired.
Debuff Upgraded: [Famished]
Of course, there was that. Lee pulled another of the plastic tainted candy bars out and shoved it in his mouth as he ran. He was really starting to hate the taste of chocolate.
The ground shook multiple times as he ran, and Lee saw both the head and tail make appearances over the three-story tall building. It was hard to reconcile what he was seeing and make sense of it. His eyes wanted to insist that it was some kind of optical illusion, but his terrified brain wasn't buying it.
Despite almost falling a few times, and narrowly avoiding a flying car that came out of nowhere, Lee made it to the other side of the building. He crashed into the door and tried to pull it open...
It was locked.
Lee cursed but held a hand to the wall in preparation for dumping mana into the rune... it worked. Quickly. Then he was out of mana…
He needed the Well, and the door was still locked. Since he wasn't F-grade like Jake yet, Lee couldn't jump to a porch and get in that way.
Only, this was his home. He had keys!
Lee wanted to kick himself as he fumbled in his pocket and started trying each key in the door. One of them had to work, and at least this time he'd remembered to bring them. As he tried one after the other, he prayed that the giant snake wouldn't come around to this side...
It did. Of course.
Lee froze in place as he frantically tried to remember if snakes chased movement. Or was it heat? The head was so big... and those eyes were massive...
It's head tilted right before another streak of blue light exploded where its eye would have been. It was practically dodging Jake's arrows!
However, the rock spear that flew in from the opposite direction hit dead on, right in its other giant eyeball.
Lee could see the man who'd done it in a doorway of the next building over. A brave bastard for sure to be attacking that monster, but a dead man all the same.
The snake agreed with his assessment, and its head snapped out in the blink of an eye. Just like that, there was a large chunk missing from the other building, including the man who'd thrown the rock.
It was a stark reminder of what would happen to his building if he didn't keep the runes alive.
As the head rose back to the sky, Lee could see a lump going down its throat. Poor bastard indeed. He knew what that was like, knew all too well, and just hoped the guy had gotten crushed on impact. That would be better than getting digested alive...
Lee noticed one other key detail as he stood frozen in plain sight. The snake had only one good eye. He wasn't sure if the rock had done the deed, though he doubted it. More likely, Jake had managed to pull it off earlier and the other guy only landed the shot because the snake didn't see it coming. Especially since he could feel one of his runes in the snake's head...
Either way, it couldn't see him at the moment.
Lee wanted nothing more than to find a place to hide after seeing the speed at which that massive head moved. So much faster than it should be.
He tried keys faster. He wouldn't find a better place to hide than inside. If he could make it... and if the door... the key turned.
Lee yanked it open and thought he saw the snake's head turning back around as he ducked inside. He slammed the door behind him, and the building shook violently. Whether that was related to him, he didn't know. Along with the shaking, so went more power from his runes. He wasn't safe yet. He needed to reach the Well.
He scrambled into the courtyard and then had to waste precious seconds finding the stairs because he'd never come in that way before. Then he just ran for a corner and hoped that there were stairwells in each one.
The building was still shaking, and the sky above the courtyard had never looked so wide open before this. More than wide enough for a giant snake. Lee stayed under the overhang as he ran, and did indeed find the stairs he was looking for.
Unfortunately, it had windows to the outside after the first floor. There was no glass, and they were narrow, much too small for the snake to reach him.
It tried anyway.
Lee turned on the first landing and started running up the next flight. A flight facing toward the window. He got to see the gaping jaws completely block out the light as they swooped in. Then the impact threw him from his feet and sent him tumbling back to the landing.
It wasn't easy to get up and keep climbing after that. But he didn't have a choice. He would die if he didn't get to the runes and recharge them. If he even could without the Well.
It struck again, and Lee held onto the railing to avoid a repeat fall. At the second floor landing, he dumped what little mana had regenerated into the handrail and was empty again by the time he hit the third floor, and his arm on the rail was tingling unpleasantly while his core felt... hollow. All that, and it was far from enough.
Lee kept running.
He had no idea if the Well had a limit on its mana. He knew he did. How long would he be able to channel mana into the runes? Would the snake give up? Could anyone here even kill it?
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Jake had wrecked the tick, but even he didn't seem to be making headway now. Was he still alive? It was hard to listen for exploding arrows over the other racket. Lee's own pounding heart and labored breathing didn't... He wasn't actually breathing hard. Sure, his heart was pounding, and he was pulling in more air than usual, but he should have been panting and wheezing after the sprint he'd just had.
Then Lee crashed through the door onto the third floor. He was fumbling with his keys again, having forgotten which was the one for his door, and was looking down as he approached the corner.
He found the key as he came around, looked up, and slid to a stop on his butt.
The snake was inside the courtyard... and just staring at him with one giant eye.
Lee could feel the Well now, just a few dozen feet down the balcony, but he couldn't look away from the monster in front of him.
It wasn't moving either. Just sitting there and staring at him in what felt like the calm before the storm. Did it know about the Well? Was that why it had come here... and did it somehow know it needed to kill him to claim it? Why else would it just be staring?
Lee couldn't move. He couldn't hear anything other than the blood rushing in his ears. Was everyone else dead? Just him and the snake now... he really didn't want to get...
He felt the runes moving below and knew that one of his shields had just entered the building. Lee didn't have to think about it to know that his own was still right where he'd left it. Which meant that Alejandro was coming.
The brain rattling vibration of its tail picked up an instant before the snake struck. A final useless warning.
Lee curled up in the instant he had before death. He wasn't proud of his reaction, but he couldn't help it as his eyes squeezed shut in helpless terror.
Death never took him.
The building shook more violently than before, and Lee slid at least two feet across the floor from the impact. But the snake didn't eat him... His eyes opened just in time to see it pulling back.
The balcony railing was still intact, more mystery runes protecting them, and the snake's head was too goddamned big to fit into the remaining gap.
Lee scrambled to his feet and took off for his apartment. It was do or die time. The building was dying, and he would follow unless he...
He saw the strike coming. It was hard to miss something that huge, moving that fast. He knew it didn't fit, wouldn't fit, but he flinched anyway.
It didn't matter because the impact against the building still sent him tumbling past his door, and worse, the keys flew from his hand... and slid off the balcony's edge.
Down into the courtyard.
With the giant rattlesnake.
They were fucked. He was fucked. The runes might take one or two more hits, and then the building would crumble around him. The snake wouldn't even have to eat him; he would probably get crushed by the rubble.
It was pulling back for another strike, when an exploding arrow struck the top of its head. The blast drove it down, and Jake followed his arrow out of the sky. He landed with both feet atop the snake's head, drove an enchanted machete hilt-deep into the head, and then kicked off hard.
Jake flew up, and the snake kept going down.
Lee saw and felt the violent thrash at the same time that the rattling turned into a machine gun against his ears. Then the snake's head snapped back up with that same ridiculous speed from before. Jake wasn't out of reach yet, and it slapped him upward with all the power of an artillery cannon.
As its head went up, Lee could see the blood on its skull where Jake had stabbed it. It wasn't deep enough, apparently, because the snake tried to eat him again.
There was a boom, and Lee felt his rune shrink even more. The whole time he was dumping every shred of his regenerating mana back into the building, but it was far from enough. He could drain his runes... his and Alejandro's shields. It still wouldn't be enough. He needed the Well.
Fortunately, the snake didn't come back for Lee after that.
Unfortunately, it instead went after the screaming man charging out of the stairwell. Which had the same end-result of damaging Lee's runes.
"Maria!" To his credit, Alejandro didn't flinch or fall when the snake hit the balcony. He just staggered and kept running to his apartment. Where, to both of their surprise, the door opened and the woman in question emerged.
They crashed into each other and babbled in Spanish about love or something equally stupid.
None of that mattered because the snake’s last attack did the deed. His rune endured the impact... then it died... winking out completely. Lee felt the wisps of his soul dissipate from the broken rune and flow back into him.
They were defenseless.
Lee heard the roof above them crack as the two idiots embraced.
He needed the Well. The Well inside his apartment. Behind the locked door, the keys to which he'd just dropped down three flights of stairs.
The snake spilled off the roof, slithering into the courtyard and coiling up as it stared at them. Almost as if it was savoring the moment... like it knew they were helpless.
He could break the windows now… get inside that way… He might be able to pull mana at range like he’d done once before… like he’d been trying to do this whole time… only now it was too late.
A streaking arrow exploded spectacularly against the top of its head... blasting it down. The snake never took its eye from Lee. Despite the hit, it never deviated from him. He had done nothing to it... but it was still far too focused on him.
It struck, mouth gaping and massive fangs gleaming.
Alejandro and Maria ignored the monster. They thought they were safe. Fucking idiots.
Lee didn't have enough mana to make a new rune on the building, not without the Well, but he wasn't ready to die. Not without trying one last Hail Mary.
In the instant he had left, Lee took back his runes. He took back the ones in the snake's head... took back his own shield runes, took back everything except the ones Jake, Alejandro, and Larry's group were carrying. No need to potentially doom them just yet... and he wasn't sure if he wanted all of them for what he planned.
Because it wasn't just his soul that came back when he took the runes; it brought most, if not all, the remaining mana in those runes with it. And it came back fast. It wasn't enough to fill his mana pool, not even half, but it was enough to make him scared about what he had to do.
Lee raised his hand to the oncoming snake... and forced his mana out exactly as he had on that day so very long ago… or was that only yesterday?
There was a loud noise that accompanied a rather horrific amount of pain... and then everything went wonderfully dark and quiet.
...
The peaceful darkness ended far too soon, and the pain hadn't left while he was gone.
Voices were arguing nearby, but it was too much noise for Lee to even want to make sense of. Instead, he looked at his notifications. At least that way he didn't have to open his eyes.
Non-Class Skill Created: [Liquid Mana Blast]
Debuff: [Mana Burn]
Buff: [Improved Regeneration]
That was it. Lee couldn't believe it. The whole situation felt more... substantial than just... that. He looked at the skill first.
Liquid Mana Blast (Rare) - Level 1 (Novice)
User unleashes all remaining Liquid Mana in a single blast.
Liquid Mana is highly volatile and this Skill will damage the user if too much Liquid Mana is unleashed at once.
Effects:
+1% Effective Mind Attributes
+1% Liquid Mana Channel Capacity
Requirements:
Liquid Mana(Requirement Met)
As this Skill was Created, and not learned from a Skill Shard, it does not count against the User's Non-Class Skill limit.
It wasn't so bad... he was still alive, and from the fact that he could hear voices, assumed the snake had died. Especially since it looked like Maria had used her skill on him again.
[Liquid Mana Burn](29:23:55:45)
You have used more Liquid Mana than your Liquid Mana Channels can withstand. Continuing to channel with this effect may increase the severity and extend the duration. Excessive use may cause permanent effects.
Effects:
-150% Liquid Mana Channel Capacity(+90% from Energetic Resilience)
For all that the debuff said, it didn't mention the excruciating pain running from his heart and down his right arm. That wasn't the totality of it either, just the worst spot. Lines of fire spread throughout his body, all of them like hot wires in his flesh... so maybe that was what the burn in Mana Burn meant...
It had to be his mana channels.
It also looked like his mystery trait had added a positive modifier rather than the one he was used to seeing... Did that mean it would have been -150% otherwise? What the fuck did negative channel capacity mean? Just how bad did he fuck up?
The timer on it was also a serious problem if he was reading it right. Was that thirty fucking days!?
He couldn't be out of it for thirty days. The enchanted building was gone, and he needed a lot of mana to get that up again. While he still had a few enchanted weapons... could he even recharge them without making the debuff worse?
He was so screwed.
But maybe if his regeneration was still good... they hadn't killed all the ticks. He could fight those without an enchanted weapon. As long as he didn't get attacked by the queen...
Of course, there was one more option he still had at his disposal.
Lee could feel something in his pocket and knew what it was. It was the cores he'd taken from the dead men outside the store. Technically, some of them were Jake's cores… or the other’s… but if he was going to be crippled for a month... then he might as well get to F-grade now. So he did.
All Base Attributes have reached the F-grade Threshold.
Evolution to F-grade Begun.