The feeling of danger keeps increasing until it takes on an almost physical aspect like I could reach out and touch it as it clings to my skin. It raises the hair on the back of my neck and sends goosebumps prickling across my forearms. The sensation is reminiscent of crawling into the cave of a beast, pulling yourself ahead on your hands and knees. Knowing you should turn and run, even as you continue, ignoring your scraped hands and knees and the blood trailing behind you.
As the fights grow ever more dangerous, we push on, and my wounds are beginning to add up, even with my enhanced body as acid drips from the ceiling, sothing even The Witch is incapable of stopping.
The rotlings double in size, as does the number of legs and the size of their mouths. Just a few seconds is all it takes for them to tear out huge chunks of flesh, and their coordination becos better.
And in the midst of it all, Lily moves like a whirlpool. Her swings, though amateur, are swift and precise, cleaving through swathes of monsters. As dozens of them close in on her, targeting our last healer, her new skill envelops her body.
Her [Disintegration Mantle] rests on her shoulders, flowing down to her knees. It shifts in the air as if it has a will of its own or as if caught in a strong wind, yet it remains firmly within her control.
Its color is a graduated shade of gray, darker around her shoulders and becoming lighter at the bottom, where it begins to resemble smoke more than anything else. Any monster that touches it gets disintegrated, nothing seems capable of passing through as she rolls into groups of monsters without a care, swinging that bone ax of hers.
There are signs of her using it to attack as well, going by the way it’s shifting and moving. Though she's still exploring the skill, even in this weakened form, nothing down here can withstand it, a fact clearly reflected in the expressions of the other expedition mbers.
My mind is also clear and sharp, the dangers surrounding us shaping it as I maneuver across the battlefield with kinetic energy, avoiding the Rotlings, and tossing them aside, so that I can finish them off with compressed javelins, boosted by the sa energy.
Any monster that manages to get close is welcod with a weapon made from manabloc that I’ve compressed to the point of near destabilization, as I alternate its shape between spear, sword, claymore, and ax.
Yet, I still hold myself back, knowing the worst is yet to co.
Fighting through the waves of monsters, we eventually reach a dead end to the tunnel, and the Witch closes it off, soon after we hear the sound of acidic vapors and liquids slosh against the wall she’s created. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, she and two of the other mbers of our group mold the stone, creating a way for us. We head through with hurried steps, rough breathing filling the tunnel.
I notice burns on my forearm, left over from a few droplets of acid I was unable to avoid. As we’ve seen before, it heals much slower than it should.
(We are close, Nat. I can feel her connection getting stronger,) Dennis says, gesturing at the Witch, who now has an absent, painful expression on her face.
Then we stop.
“Where is that creature?” the thylarin woman whispers to herself, slowly turning around as her face clears up and she asks louder, shouting at . “Where is that creature!?”
Biscuit’s not here, he left during the previous fight with a simple ssage to .
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
At that mont, as we wait for the next monster attack, the atmosphere changes quickly. So of the mana from her crown seeps into the air, the pressure nearly palpable, just a taste of the mana she has been collecting for 10 years reaching toward us.
“Where. Is. That. Creature,” she asks, each word forced through her teeth.
My domain expands around us as I weave my mana, using just my body and reservoir to fight her pressure, while Lily and the twins struggle to catch their breath.
Mana Wavelength Iris glows in the dark tunnel, reading and observing the mana filling the air, while I continue compressing, strengthening, and weaving my domain, forcing her to release more of her mana. It reaches a point where, unlike my group within my domain, those around her begin to suffer as the emotional thylarin woman begins to lose control.
Noticing that she imdiately stops, her face twisting in pain as she seems to be listening to sothing.
“Sword,” she orders in a raspy voice, and Mais vanishes, reappearing by my side with two swords drawn, slashing at while two of his arms reach for the shortsword at my waist.
At the sa ti, dozens of hands made from compressed stone explode all around , reaching toward and my sword.
With a stomp, I release the kinetic energy I’ve been collecting, the modified vibrations destroy the stone arms and throw Mais to the side making him use his own kinetic energy to stop and rush again. Ꞧ
Lily appears by his side, her hair shortening, and her ax swings toward his head, forcing him to dodge the gray mantle floating around her as well as the ax.
The thylarin man curses and tries to blast her away, but the attack is halted by the mantle, and then her axe collides with his sword. He stops it effortlessly, absorbing the kinetic energy from the strike and channeling it to fuel his own movent.
Lily lets go of the ax and moves incredibly quickly as well, her muscles healing even as they tear under the strain.
Mais tries to avoid her, but even with all the kinetic energy, he’s too slow to match Lily giving it her all, and she collides with him.
Rock bursts beneath her feet, stone spike,s and arms reaching to slow her down, but Lily ignores the wounds, her mantle swirling around her body. Half of her face turns into a mass of bone and raw flesh, and one of her arms is nearly torn off, as Mais drives a hole through her body, fueled by kinetic energy.
Lily pushes through it all and, with an incredibly swift punch, sends a burst of gray mana through Mais’s chest, evaporating half of it. Then his body drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Pressure on my domain intensifies, attempting to tear it apart. The ground shakes, and the rock beneath us moves like waves, twisting, swirling, trying to press in on us.
Reaching through my Ley Lines, I connect to all of us, and even though The Witch tries to stop us, I teleport us away, back to the place we were a few minutes ago.
“Follow ,” I say quickly, and three of them quickly fall in line behind .
“Weren’t we going to fight her?” Aaron asks hurriedly, joining by my side.
“It would cost too much mana, and that might just be what the prisoner wants. At this mont, it seems to be after my sword, and for so reason, it doesn’t like Biscuit… wait.”
We all stop, and as the monsters flood the tunnel, I draw on half of my kinetic energy reserves, adjusting its frequency and releasing it in a single surge through the tunnel without harming the walls.
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 328]
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[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 309]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 316]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 333]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 323]
…
[Lvl 292 > Lvl 293]
Level up, so annoying.
With no presences lying in wait, we rush forward.
“Huh, she seems to be tracking us sohow.” Sensing movent in the rock surrounding us I activate our anchors again before the walls crash onto us and teleport us to another place.
Right away, I use Ley Lines and throw them as far in as many directions as I can.
“What are you…” Dennis begins, but I filter out his voice.
How did she find us? I erased any way she could track the Ley Line even if she could sense it. I didn’t feel any large-range scans either and was even prepared to counter them, so how?
Quickly, I activate my eyes again, observing Lily, Dennis, and Aaron. I look very carefully and deeply yet find no mark. It’s the sa when I check myself. There seems to be no thread, no connection, no foreign mana, no skill I could sense.
Once again, I feel movent in the walls and, annoyed, switch my stance, absorbing the enormous kinetic energy of the moving walls and stopping them in place before they can squash us.
How is she doing it?
Ignoring the imnse pressure, I do the scans again, this ti slower and look deeper. Lily, Dennis, Twins. Nothing. Myself. Nothing.
I grab the line and teleport us again.
More monsters pop into the tunnel, and I release all the kinetic energy I absorbed, allowing it to rush forth like a flash before the surprised monsters can even react.
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 319]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 326]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 341]
[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 333]
…
“How much did you [Sacrifice]?” I ask, turning to Lily.
“Just so hair, I still have plenty in store.”
“Good, you two?”
“No problems here.”
“I’ve still got a lot left in .”
They barely finish, and I start absorbing the movent of the walls around us, this ti expanding even further.
“I think she marked the sword. She’s clearly after it, so it makes sense, but I can’t feel the way she did it, and my attempts to remove the mark failed.”
“We can just leave and return after she’s gone,” Lily shrugs it off.
“We would be leaving a certain corgi though.”
“Oh, right. Where did he even go?”
“No idea. Anyway, we have a minute. I might have to use the sword, so let’s do so additional preparations.”
“Fuck, when you use it you better keep that thing as far away from us as possible.” Despite his cursing, Dennis touches my right arm. He and Aaron connect their calculative abilities, and [Connection] activates at its full power.
What we are about to do isn’t necessary—I can use the sword without it—but we have protocols in place that should help use the weapon to a greater extent and with a lesser degree of backlash.
[Connection]
weaves a stronger link between and the weapon, in theory allowing to weaken its effects on the surrounding area should I wish, while putting more pressure on . It’s just a sacrifice I’ll have to make for more control.
Once they’re done, Lily places a healing mark on the back of one of the bones of my right forearm, of the sort that’s connected to her with the twins’ assistance. It requires more mana and doesn’t last as long, but it is much more effective.
Knowing my tendency to lose limbs, there is a necklace around my neck with a small pendant made out of her bone and coated in a mix of tals to strengthen the effects.
These preparations barely take us a minute, but having reached my limit, I use my Ley Lines and teleport us again, deploying a modified version of Sneaky Mode, which I concentrate around my weapon, just in case.
Not needing to follow the Witch anymore, I head toward that presence I feel far away, there aren’t any more monsters in our way, but the density of the molten tal and acid rivers through the walls increases to the degree that I can barely sense any of the rock in between.
POV The Witch, lel
“lel, please, hurry.”
“I… my head, it hurts so much.”
“It’s our connection, it’s getting stronger the closer you are.”
“It hurts so much. I feel like I’m dying.”
“Yes, my dear child, you will die soon. Your mind won’t be able to resist much longer if this continues. Hurry.”
“I…”
“Please hurry, lel, I’m scared.”
“I…”
“They are already so close. Please. Save .”
“I… I don’t want to die.”
“Please, help , my dear child. It hurts.”
“Who… who are you?”
“SAVE , LEL.”
“…I… I’m on my way.”
POV Nathaniel
I teleport us across the molten river, and we jump over streams of green acid finally landing ourselves in a perfectly spherical cave.
The walls are smooth, as is the floor, divided by dozens of gutters leading outward from the center towards the edges. Through these gutters, acid flows through them, to be collected in the middle and sent to the edge to be circulated. The full force of disruption generated by molten rivers is stronger here. The field generates a constant sensation of pressure, threatening to take control of one’s skills. And we feel the incredible weight of its influence even though most of it is concentrated in the center, targeting the being chained there. Well, what remains of it.
It’s the skeleton of a monster the size of a small building, lying there, attached to glowing gold chains tied to the bones in four places, anchored to a plate with a tallic shine that covers the entirety of the floor. There were clearly two more at so point though now they lie broken, their pieces lying near the skeleton.
The bones of the skeleton shine a brilliant shade of white where they can be seen, but most of them are covered in dark red blood and the tiniest pieces of flesh that continue to move as the skeleton tries to regenerate.
But it can’t.
The constant, dense rain of green acid that falls from the ceiling, serves to dissolve the regenerated parts.
When an eye begins to form, the acid eats it; when a hint of flesh appears on long bones, the acid falls there as well.
It’s a constant fight between the creature’s regenerative abilities and the terrifying green acid, aided by the field of disruption, strengthened and delivered by the golden chains, preventing the being from being able to regenerate.
This is clearly more than a prison, this looks like torture, and yet the being is still alive.
Looking at the chains, I recall their durability from the pieces we found in the smithy, and a plan begins to take shape in my mind.
For a mont, I glance at the sword on my waist. Whether I rely on items or not, it may actually co in handy this ti.
Fracture (Mid Arcane) -The shortsword is capable of devouring mana from everything around it. The mont it connects with an object or being, it disintegrates the material within, unravels all mana and connections, leaving nothing behind. The weapon flickers with instability, damaging anything it touches, including the user. Fracture grows stronger as it feeds, but its insatiable hunger also turns inward, siphoning power from its wielder. With each encounter, the weapon becos more powerful, yet its defective structure strains under the imnse energy it consus, becoming increasingly unstable. The longer it is wielded, the more it seems to break apart, its power twisting and spiraling out of control, threatening both itself and its user with destruction.
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