I don’t hesitate, not even for a mont, to go all out.
Ley Lines erupt into the area, deploying a structure I’ve been preparing in my mind ever since I returned to Beyond. Dozens of threads trace the battlefield, creating a three-dinsional web of pathways I can use to teleport and distribute mana.
All of the mana in my body compresses, turning black, the oh-so-familiar sensation flowing through my body. Sothing I haven’t felt in a while. Whitey doesn’t use mana, so it’s no good as a defense. Instead, I use it to strengthen my body, unfortunately, my kinetic energy still can’t produce the sa effect.
After all those preparations, I let part of the vast store of mana collected in my crown flow into my body.
Whitey reaches in the blink of an eye, his palm striking my chest, causing my unique passive to convert all of that imnse energy into mana. Even then, the damage is severe, leaving most of my organs bruised or ruptured.
Another of the now six remaining marks left by Lily is used.
Five remain.
This ti I find that I can move through his field and I attempt to grab Whitey, but he’s still much quicker than . Before the second blow can land, I teleport, taking a mont to get used to my current state.
A white flash, not a bit of kinetic energy wasted, and Whitey is on once again.
He grabs and pulls my arm, dislocating it and nearly tearing it from my shoulder.
This ti, when I move I strike with that much more precision. He dodges the attack, but the burst of mana evaporates the building behind him, leaving debris suspended in the air. It’s a primitive use of mana, inspired by the training drills I endured under Liss’s instruction—simple, but quick and dangerously effective.
I teleport again as he lets go of , and when he charges again, another burst of mana explodes forth to welco him, his body moving to the side almost fast enough to emulate teleportation.
I release an amount of mana equal to my entire body’s reserve, without even needing to tap into my reservoir. The resulting blast tears a massive chunk out of the mountain beneath us.
I teleport, and my body moves much quicker as I grow accustod to the effects of his field around and the warring forces within my body. Even so, my body alone wouldn’t be enough. So I have to abuse my domain, [Redistribution], and [Resonance] to pick up the slack.
My mind is fine, but taking stock of the damage this is causing my body, I decide to use another healing mark.
Four remaining.
I release two more bursts of mana, each with even greater output than the last. It's an extravagant waste—I could accomplish far more if I weren't using it in such a reckless, primitive manner. But the sheer speed is undeniable.
Whitey dodges both attacks, his field weakening as he redirects more of his efforts into enhancing his body. His movents grow sharper, and his stance shifts.
I teleport and try to move again, and for a mont, both my body and mana freeze, unable to move.
Despite all my preparations—the sheer volu, the imnse defenses, and the countless calculations my eye trait and mind endure—Whitey still halts my mana in its tracks.
The monstrous kinetic energy user accomplishes it using nothing but that energy, even as blood streams from his ears, eyes, and nose.
Sothing like that shouldn’t be possible.
A much smaller pulse of kinetic energy pierces my body. It’s not blunt, in fact, it’s very sharp, so my passive doesn’t stop it.
My insides turn to soup, only my heart survives, protected by a barrier of mana I managed to create at the last possible mont.
Another teleport.
Two healing marks down. Two remaining.
A burst of my own mana explodes around , but Whitey isn’t there.
He remains motionless, standing in the sa spot, staring in my direction. Despite the lifelessness in the lurker's eyes, a faint red lingers within them, and his demonic horns protrude just beneath his long white hair, the color of freshly fallen snow.
And his heart keeps beating. Steady, unstoppable. Like the perfect generator, an engine he uses to harness his power.
But even now, that’s not what interests the most. No, what truly fascinates here is the way he wields his power, the mind he must have had to pull it off, the ability he’s put on display. That’s what I want more than anything else in his possession.
The kinetic field he’s been maintaining until now disappears as if it never existed. My blood suspended in the air, the debris from my attacks, the corpses of the lurkers around us, all co falling down at once.
More and more of my Ley Lines erupt outwards, and I compress more mana, converting it into its black counterpart, powering my mind and body.
Whitey then changes stance again, and with it, his heartbeat changes. The rhythm becos more erratic, its pace quicker.
All thoughts disappear from my mind, and I focus on the sa thod I used to locate Specter, I…
I drop my head down as the stone behind explodes into hundreds of tiny shards, a hole as thick as my finger drilling its way through.
Another one pierces my chest right over my heart, a third destroys my knee, a fourth scratches my cheek, a fifth nearly scalps .
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I teleport again.
Five more attacks shoot my way, I protect my head and heart, four more holes punch through my body.
I teleport again, accumulating three more holes in the process.
Another healing mark gone. One remaining.
I appear behind Whitey, my eyes wide open, my mind on the brink, focused on avoiding his attacks despite the lack of distance.
Another hole pierces through my body as I move to avoid further damage.
With it, the web I’ve been making with [Ley Line] is finally complete, half of that imnse mana I’ve been storing floods its way through the shimring pale blue lines, and [Redistribution]’s effects cover the entire area, directed and concentrated in a sphere around .
It’s Whitey who freezes this ti, unable to move.
His field reactivates as well, and I find myself unable to move. Dozen more piercing attacks co my way without even a hint of movent from Whitey.
Half of them end up deflected by a tricolored mana barrier taking form around my skin. Others, in a show of concentrated fire, pierce my body in two places.
The last healing mark is gone, and with it cos the feeling of death’s approach as I sense his attacks reverberate through the air, their source just a step or two away.
Five small segnts of the tricolored barrier activate, blocking each of these attacks, and two more besides.
In exchange for two attacks piercing my body, I redirect a bit of my concentration from my defense to return the attack and focus the rest on upholding the web restraining Whitey. Another burst of mana explodes from . It’s even more primitive, less efficient, and less damaging than it was before. It’s the simplest attack I can do.
It tears pieces of flesh from the body of the demon opposite , revealing his bones in a few places.
Another wound to , and another burst of mana.
And another.
And one more.
Until Whitey stands there, a ragged skeleton, nearly stripped of muscle, and I can see parts of his heart pulsing through his rib cage.
Then the half-skeleton moves.
There isn’t much left in terms of muscle, just a few tendons. The only recognizable parts of Whitey’s face are one solitary patch of white hair and a single eye looking at . Yet he still moves, even under the influence of my field.
Another burst of mana explodes forth, along with three javelins, and a tricolored orb.
And he takes another step, just a skeleton, moving himself with kinetic energy alone.
I almost want to laugh when I see him move the bones of his fingers, clenching what’s left of his hand into a fist in an insane display of control.
He can’t even see anymore, only sense my heartbeat and movents.
The sa way I can sense his, each beat coming slower than the last, his damaged heart steadily falling out of rhythm.
Whitey, even now, holds with his field, and for the last ti, he punches the mana shield I’ve created. That barrier shatters, and one last burst of kinetic energy damages my body. Only then does the skeleton crumble, a fraction of a second later the notification sounds.
[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 301]
You have won your first Challenge. The contents of the wager will be delivered soon!
The only thing holding upright disappears, and I fall to the ground. With no healing marks left, I’m forced to rely on my healing passive. For a while, I sit there, surrounded by the devastation, and replay the fight in my mind. Move after move. Every mistake I made, every opportunity I missed, every ti Whitey did sothing that surprised .
While part of my mind scouts the area, I keep replaying the fight, over and over again, and with it, I’m already modifying the ways I’ll use my kinetic energy going forward. Sothing I was once so proud of now feels inadequate in the face of the things I’ve seen.
Liss with her mana control. Whitey with his kinetic energy manipulation.
Amazingly, Whitey was barely over level 300. One of the lowest-level nad lurkers, and yet he consistently wiped out entire groups with complete ease.
It leaves a bad feeling in my mouth, the knowledge that I only won because of the mana I had stored away, an amount great enough to power a city. Just trickery and taking every advantage against soone long dead, a lurker incapable of fighting to the full capabilities of his past self.
How fucking sad is that.
I want to fight him at his best, not as a lurker with weakened abilities, but as a living, breathing being.
The web of Ley Lines Is useless now, so I start modifying it into a detection system, reducing the density and expanding the area of effect. My plan is simple now. I will try to survive as long as possible, probably find myself being hunted down like a rat. Then a few seconds before the end, I should reach the place I hid the items and materials from the expedition Whitey wiped out. The one where I found all those damaged arcane items with Shayna.
If I add in the items from the dead lurkers lying around — killed by Whitey — it’ll really be a lot.
That line of thought also gives pause. For soone who doesn’t care about items that much, I sure enjoy collecting them.
POV ???
A short man with a shaved head, wearing a simple uniform in a combination of white and pale blue, turns to the woman next to him.
“Nyssa will fucking love that guy. Do we grab him right away?” he asks as they continue to watch from a distance, observing the young man they just watched fight the nad lurker known as Whitey.
“Not now. He probably tid his stay token so he wouldn’t have to run from Whitey for more than a few minutes before it expired. He’ll probably be leaving Beyond in a minute or two. Tell would you have been able to kill Whitey?” the woman asks.
“I think so.” He says before pausing in shock, “Is he collecting the items from the lurkers Whitey killed?”
“Looks like it.”
Then they wait.
An hour passes, and the young man is still there, hidden away in one of the buildings, the other lurkers still too scared to enter what they consider Whitey’s territory.
The man starts to giggle, shaking his head in disbelief, “Tid his stay token to be able to run away? Ha! That motherfucker is even crazier than I thought.”
"Seems like it. He’s got a decent handle on kinetic energy and with that mana in the mix… Nyssa’s going to want him. We’ll snatch him up when he hits the second floor."
“And if he refuses?”
“The Doctor can gather plenty of information from his body. There are groups of lurkers staying just outside his detection range. Stop them and let a few through every so often so he doesn’t get suspicious. Don’t reveal yourself, and rember his mana signature.”
“I already have,” the man snorts, then rushes away to complete his objective while the woman holds her position on top of the hill, observing the man far away.
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