3 more corpses remaining…

Ariandel watched her kin perish with a studious look. There was no trace of anger from her gaze, but I could tell that she was scheming a plan inside of her wolf mind.

Frankly, I’ve shown most, if not all of my cards at this point. The only surprise that I have not shown was Tzatch’s spear, but even then, the effects of that spear would be negligible.

Now that

“Death siphon? You must’ve been fortunate to have acquired that skill.” Her remark snapped me out of my thoughts. “And to think that you possessed no affinities yet… interesting…”

There were moments when I could question Ariandel’s intentions. Wasn’t her purpose being here to invade and destroy the gate? But the way she acted was nonsensical if that was her purpose.

It felt like she was studying us. Killing us comes later, once she was done with learning about us.

I used the momentary silence to sneak in a surprise attack from behind her, but she dodged my spear with ease. She spun and swiped at my torso with a bite, which I was able to duck out of the way by the skin of my teeth. Despite her obvious focus on magic, I was surprised at how fast she moved.

Her bite wasn’t just a simple physical attack, however. Particles of the mist were released from her maw as they spread all around the place, drastically lowering the temperature around me.

Another illusion? Or is this real?

The lack of system notification alleviated my worry somewhat. If the chill in the air was real, then I wouldn’t have to worry about random illusions popping out in my vision, like the three white-furred wolves watching my gaze with their glowing eyes.

Wait… Why are there three Ariandels now?

The Ariandels howled, their cries were in tune with each other. Ice shards were formed once more, but they were formed only by the middle one. The others scrammed away from each other, surrounding me from both sides.

Then, they all attacked simultaneously.

Ice shards flew past me as I weaved and rolled in every direction that I could pass through. Then the other Ariandels came, swiping and clawing away at my figure as I accumulated wounds that weren’t at all superficial. None of my counterattacks were effective in the slightest. I barely had enough space and time to perform any sort of meaningful attacks.

It was so bad that they forced me to shadow step away just before one of the wolves was about to chew my head off.

Retreating into the distance, I conjured another spear as I aimed for the one that was summoning the icicles. My eyes observed the approaching figures before throwing my first spear between them, scraping the furs from those who were chasing me down.

The sole white wolf was aware of this attack. Our glare clashed as she swerved to her side, watching my spear glance by with a scoff. I knew this attack wouldn’t land, but hitting her wasn’t the main purpose of that spear.

It was to buy a few seconds for me to deal with the other two.

Her projectile strikes momentarily paused as I wielded two daggers in both of my hands. With my dagger mastery, I was able to wield both of them with a certain degree of effectiveness, and I feinted a throw with my right arm, which was aimed at the beast on my right side.

The right Wolf’s cautious eyes were tracking the location of my daggers and she took my bait cleanly. She sidestepped my feint with the other wolf continuing its charge, and then-

A thrill ran down my neck. It was subtle - too subtle - but I felt a slight tremor on the floor just right behind me.

Ariandel didn’t split into three wolves. She split into four.

I felt her jaw on its way to rip my neck apart. My reflexes kicked in, but I made the wrong move during this crucial step. I should have used shadow step, but that skill wasn’t ingrained into my reflexes yet.

A costly mistake. A mistake that caused me to lose my left arm. I shadow stepped again right after that, creating some semblance of distance between us.

“Ghhaa….” I yelped in agony. My pain receptors were doing their best to tell me that I had lost a limb, I had a potion, but could it heal me enough to regenerate my arm completely?

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

My other arm searched for a potion and I gulped it down in an instant. I felt the healing pulse overwhelming my senses for a moment, but alarm struck when I saw the four figures of Ariandel charging in my direction.

Once the potion refilled my health back up, I sensed my left arm once more. The bones were regenerated first, then the muscles and the blood vessels, topped off with the skin that covered the insides of my arm. It was a bizarre sight, which I couldn’t appreciate as much as I would love to since Ariandel wasn’t giving me a second of time to think.

“Impressive, isn’t it? The system’s boons are incredible.” Ariandel’s voice pierced through my already busy mind. “You had the same look I had when I witnessed that kind of healing for the first time…”

Again, every sentence she spoke roused the curious side of me. It was almost as if she was another one just like us, but had somehow grown into a wolf over time.

2 more potions. That’s how many more mistakes I can make in this fight.

All the wolves launched a coordinated attack on me, approaching me from all sides. Right now, my focus was solely on getting rid of the non-ice-throwing wolves. There were four of them now, with the same wolf that was standing behind the others, waiting for her moment to strike.

Once more, they re-used their previous strategy, the only difference being their numbers this time. I put more attention into protecting my arms this time, since losing them meant I would not be able to consume any potions anymore.

Their coordinated attacks resumed. The additional pair of claws made it significantly harder to pinpoint where their attacks were coming from, and my reactions slowed from the information overload. The occasional icicles sliced off parts of my skin as they whizzed past all over my body from the tiny openings that occasionally opened up between my bout with the three wolves.

I’ve used up all the tricks that I knew, from feints to the infrequent use of shadow-step, to my conjured swords and daggers, only keeping the spear of Tzatch as a last-ditch effort. In the midst of the growing feeling of demise, my thoughts wandered over to the Onyx Hyacinth.

[Onyx Hyacinth - Consume to acquire the possibility of gaining Shadow or Death affinity. However, failure to do so comes with the risk of death.]

Should I consume it now? To gain some kind of advantage? What will the affinities do for me? All I knew was that they would increase the effectiveness of my skill to a degree, but how much they would improve it by?

But if nothing changed in this fight, I would die.

Shadow stepping far behind, I took out the flower that was inside my backpack. The system said that I needed to consume it, and… I did just that. I winced as I chomped the head of the flower down, even when the haze was the thickest on that part of the flower.

In an instant, all of my surroundings turned to darkness. I was no longer on the field, fighting Ariandel…

It was the same place where I’d talked with Ezekiel previously. This time, however, I could breathe normally, and the once oppressive presence was gone.

“Deathborne…”, the same voice which had haunted me since I gained my class resounded in the black nothingness. “You are back again. So the system had granted you what you had been living with all this time…”

There were traces of fury from its speech, which I couldn’t for the life of me understand why. What did I do to piss it off so much?

Was the Deathborne talent considered sacrilege in its eyes?

“And… the system is forcing me to give up one of my affinities to you…” it continued. “However, you will never receive Death from me.”

Amidst the perceived darkness, a shadow orb was formed in front of me. It oozed the same type of haze I’ve seen from my cloak as it floated. A system prompt appeared when I inspected it.

[Shadow Affinity - G rank]

G rank? The lowest of the lowest…

“Leave.”

Ezekiel didn’t bother to utter another word as it turned silent.

It had always been unwelcoming before, but it felt like it was treating me like a minor annoyance, like a bug who was about to be squished by a man’s hands, but now? It was outright hostile.

I sighed as I inspected the orb.

[Do you wish to assimilate the Shadow affinity? Doing so will lock you out of affinities that are aligned with divinity : Light, Life, Nature, Earth, Wind, lightning, and many others.]

Such a heavy restriction… And wind?

The sky lancer class I was given before heavily implied that it was related to the wind affinity. From my innate Deathborne talent, I was already unable to access that affinity, so the restrictions here didn’t matter in the slightest.

If I chose sky lancer then… Would I still receive the Deathborne talent? Was the system railroading me into choosing this path from all the rewards that it had given me? If so, why did it bother to give me that option in the first place?

Focus… That question isn’t important right now.

I grabbed the dark orb with both of my hands. Tendrils shot out from all around the sphere and injected themselves directly into my eyes. I couldn’t even mutter a scream before I lost my consciousness.

[Shadow affinity assimilation begins…]

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Light and shadow. The two were complete opposites of each other.

One lit up and made everything within its radiance visible, while the other hid those who were shrouded by it. Yet, the shadow had always been at the mercy of the light; Without light, there would be no shadow, after all.

Through this concept, both light and shadow manifested their image into their respective beings. The light named itself Uriel, but the shadow remained nameless. The idea of the shadow was about the complete shrouding of one’s identity, so it didn’t see the need for a name for itself.

And thus, they lived in their own separate forms. Despite their differences, none of them held any ill will towards each other. In fact, Light had searched for the shadow for eons, but because of the shadow’s nature, it always eluded Uriel’s ever-present reach.

But nothing in this universe could hide from Death. Everything dies in the end.

The shadow called out to the light as it sensed its own demise. For the first time, Uriel was able to sense the shadow, but then, it was too late.

Now, the shadow and death are one.

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