Chapter 458 - Trials and Tributions VIII

  Arciel fiddled with her wand as she idly scanned her surroundings. She traced her eyes over the hills and far away, crossing the mountains, the castle, and the trees in turn. And yet, she found herself unable to determine their enemies’ precise location. Hell, even their general direction had remained a mystery, clear only on account of the focused gazes that Chloe and Jules had directed upon the horizon.

  It was hardly unexpected. Arciel had never bothered investing in enemy detection. She wasn’t completely blind. She could sense it whenever anyone nearby stepped on a shadow. The precise range was variable, changing drastically depending on the amount of mana fed to the skill. In its base, costless form, it covered about a hundred meters, a paltry distance incapable of outcompeting her eyes.

  Expanding the spell’s range was awfully expensive. A kilometer’s extension sufficed to overpower her mana’s regeneration, and two drained a full twentieth of her total each second. She would likely have to learn Allegra’s surveying technique if she wanted anything even remotely efficient. The calm before the storm seemed like the perfect opportunity to pick up the ability in question, but sadly, Allegra was nonpresent. According to Panda, who had vanished as soon as the giant beam swept across the realm, she was still struggling through the goddess’ trial. Lana and Krail were apparently stuck as well, despite having entered in time with Jules.

  “Shall we engage? There is little reason to continue with this stalemate.”

  “That’s way too reckless,” said Chloe. “I know you’re trying to think like Cire, but even she holds back at times like this.”

  “I certainly understand the cause for your concern, Chloe. However, I assure you that my confidence is hardly undeserved.”

  “Look, I know how you feel,” said Jules. “I got beefed up as hell too while we were out getting our asses bsted, but we should probably wait until we’ve at least got even numbers. They’ve still got a few heads up, and by the looks of it, we weren’t the only ones huffing roids.”

  “They all look different,” agreed Chloe. “Their equipment looks really special too.”

  The gate behind them stirred right as Chloe finished speaking. Lana soon emerged from the swirling light, axe in hand, despite having entered without one. It wasn’t the most polished piece, just a rge bone with enough chunks broken off to more or less form the shape.

  “Looks like you pulled it off,” said Jules. “Didn’t think you’d be able to beat it unarmed.”

  “It was tough,” said Lana, with a nod. She set her weapon down in the snow beside her and wandered over to Chloe. “Snacks?”

  “We haven’t been able to restock,” said the maid. “The best I can do is some cheese and crackers with a bit of jerky on the side.”

  “Good enough,” said Lana.

  “I’ll just need a second.” Chloe grabbed a few things from under her skirt and quickly threw together a makeshift bonfire, complete with a roasting stick fashioned from bits of wood. Lighting it with a flick, and blowing to feed the fire, she immediately got to roasting the ingredients.

  Krail emerged from the gate almost right as she set up, so she quickly threw on another portion after confirming his intent with a gnce.

  “Looks tasty,” said Lana. She made no effort to hide the line of drool that dribbled down her cheek as buttery crackers were toasted to a rich shade of brown. Chloe threw the cheese over the jerky as soon as it turned melty, but not before she topped it with a pinch of pepper.

  “Give it a little longer,” said Chloe. “It’ll be even better once its browned.”

  Allegra stepped out right as the maid flipped the one-faced sandwiches. She held the toppings in pce with her spatu whilst bringing them closer to the open fme. As, there was no chance to eat.

  “It looks like we’re all do—woah!”

  For with Allegra’s arrival had come an enemy attack.

  The rabbit narrowly sidestepped an arrow as she emerged from the portal. She barely had enough time to raise her staff before another dozen were fired her way, but she flicked her wrist to summon a gust of wind—a raging storm that thundered across the snowscape. All of the enemies’ projectiles were thrown astray and swallowed, sucked straight into the cutting wind. It was the same fate that befell the trees. They were stolen by the vortex, leaving the hunters that were hidden within them exposed for all to see.

  Their cover likely would have returned had they simply waited. The environment was fighting against the Grand Magus’ magic and repairing itself in real time. But Kael’ahruus’ hounds found no such struggle.

  Agrippina, Lucius, Roumalou, and Sophia approached in a perfect spearhead formation. It was a cssic cavalry charge with the two dies in front and the god-blessed pair in the wings. The proper response was to establish a wall of spears and shields, and Allegra could easily do both with a wave of the staff. She opened her mouth and prepared to issue the order, only to find that none of the so-called soldiers at her disposal had bothered to await her orders.

  It wasn’t like they’d even put together a makeshift pn. They’d simply broken into a blind charge without much in the way of rhyme or reason. Arciel was way out in front, Jules was taking a detour, and Krail was gging behind, all while Chloe hesitantly fumbled after her mistress. Lana was the only one who refrained from charging in, albeit not on account of any meaningful thought. She was rexing in front of the campfire, happily nomming away at her snack while she watched the others engage.

  Arciel was first to attack. She raised her wand before the hunter could nock another arrow and unleashed a wad of darkness. The glob moved slowly at first, its speed only a little in excess of her own, but it suddenly accelerated a second after it first formed and flew straight into the enemy lines. Lucius shot at it, his arrow configured to seal the spell, but the blob vanished into the ground before suddenly appearing beneath its prey.

  It opened its maw like a hungry slime, but stepping just a little bit ahead of the pack, Agrippina mowed it down with a series of wild but graceful swings, only to find her bde parried by a wand. Gliding past the tempered steel, the arcane implement released a bst of crimson magic and swallowed the right half of her body.

  Her arm was blown right off as the shoulder was scorched pitch bck, but she immediately regrew the limb and grabbed her old sword as she spun around and kicked at the caster with her rear legs. The attack was clearly on track to nd. Though she had certainly grown much faster, Arciel wasn’t quite quick enough to beat out a level 1000 warrior specialized in speed and dexterity.

  But it didn’t matter.

  Her chest—the pce where the hooves had nded—was certainly obliterated, but there was no hint of blood. Where the flesh was disjointed, there were only ribbons of shadow. And worse yet, Arciel had already completed her chant by the time she’d started to spin.

  All the darkness in the world was stolen, sucked into the tip of her wand before suddenly exploding outwards again.

  No longer did it take the form of a slow-moving projectile. It was shaped instead as a circur explosion, one that captured all four of Kael’ahruus’ assassins. It swallowed them whole, bsting them not only with its blinding effect, but an excess of raw power that threatened to dismantle them outright. The battle very well could have been decided from just that opening move were they not long prepared.

  The bands on their wrists might not have blocked any of the incoming damage, but glowing in a pure white light, they fought against the darkness and shielded them from its visual impairment. A simple but effective item of Olethra’s making.

  Arciel wasn’t done, however. She drew a pentagram with the tip of her wand and activated one of her nastiest spells.

  Tentacles burst from the accompanying magic circle and reached for the hunters’ party. The individual feelers were thick and muscur, certainly capable of snapping necks. But it wasn’t for their physical properties that she called upon them. Upon making contact, the limbs would disintegrate before being formed anew within their infected hosts. From there, the parasites would sap their blood so that Arciel could freely use their abilities. At the same time, they corrupted their minds, blotting out their senses and motivations, with thick blotches of jet-bck ink.

  There was only one problem.

  Arciel was still unaware of Lucius’ ability. And though the tentacle aimed at him avoided the arrow he fired, the magic circle itself was unmoving. Struck dead center, it shattered, leaving her with nothing but a log entry stating that her spell had been sealed.

  Agrippina immediately capitalized on the opening and dove at the queen with both bdes swinging, but Chloe stepped between them and deflected them with her daggers.

  Jules entered the fray soon after. Cutting his magical jet engine, he dove for the giant tiger. Roumalou swiped at the cm with his cws, but Jules adjusted his trajectory with a bst of fme and slid under the big cat’s body.

  A series of spells followed in his wake. Large, crimson explosions triggered at point bnk. He didn’t hold back. Every burst of magic was driven by the same, atomic principle. Even just one would have sufficed to vaporize a legion of soldiers. And Jules had unleashed ten thousand.

  It was a shame then that he’d elected to target the tiger.

  Perhaps, during their previous encounter, the attack very well could have vaporized his flesh and immediately wrought his end. But Roumalou’s progress had completely eclipsed the cm’s.

  Jules had gained a hundred-odd levels.

  But just like the rest of his party, the tiger had become an aspect.

  Between Kael’ahruus’ aid, Olethra’s support, and Vel’s blessing, the rate of their progress was far in excess of the norm. All of their paths had been computed in advance and validated as perfectly optimal by the god of double-entry accounting.

  Roumalou had become the aspect of hierarchical predation.

  As the embodiment of the food web given form, he found his ability scores infted against all those marked as prey. The requirements for the designation were simple. Any individual that was lower level or sufficiently simir to historical prey would be immediately put on the list. Likewise with anyone that Roumalou suspected of being weaker than him. And Jules was effectively all three.

  Against the Vel’khanese mage, Roumalou may as well have been invincible. All of his numbers were increased tenfold, with his overflowing vitality manifesting in the form of an impenetrable pelt. Millions of thin but fibrous hairs covered every inch of his body, each of which was sturdy enough to repel a cutting edge.

  Though each spell had the same output as about five pounds of plutonium, he had barely felt a thing.

  Clicking his tongue, Jules ducked and slid beneath the tiger’s frame whilst firing a bolt of lightning through it. The strike did little in the way of direct damage. But its effect was impossible to ignore. It assigned the same charge to the feline’s skin and fur. The result was a violent reaction. Roumalou’s hairs stood on end and fired in all different directions, leaving him more naked than the day he was born.

  The tiger himself was thoroughly confused. He awrooed as he pawed at the missing fibres, nearly forgetting that he was in the midst of battle.

  And that was when Jules activated one of his most powerful attacks.

  The spell was called Cry of the Cadrinal Chain. Made by linking seven nodes in his head, the detonation was forty times stronger than the st few he’d made. Lucius tried to seal the magic, but it went off before he could, exploding right in the middle of the melee. There was no avoiding the bst. Spanning roughly three kilometers from one end to the other, it swallowed the battlefield whole, reaching even the few who had stood upon its outskirts.

  The caster was no exception. The spell was fast and powerful; he could get an explosion off within a tenth of a second from the moment he considered the option. But it wasn’t without its costs. Its maximum range was only ten meters. It didn’t matter what he did or how he did it.

  He would always be caught in the explosion.

  He certainly did have a few tricks to mitigate the subsequent damage, but Jules’ affinity for defensive magic was horribly subpar. The only decent shield spells he knew all had offensive elements baked in; nine of his ten defensive spells involved attacking anything that came in range. He was hardly surprised when the shield he made out of water was immediately and mercilessly evaporated by the heat of his own explosion.

  His shell was charred back, and he was soon sent tumbling through the air, his body pained and sluggish from all the excess radiation. It was actively eating away at his health, damaging him through his regeneration, but he ignored it and surveyed the battlefield again.

  It seemed that all had gone as expected. His enemies had taken far more damage than his allies, and the explosion had scattered the fighters all over.

  As far as Jules was concerned, that was for the better. The hunters were clearly more coordinated, and their previous encounter had suggested that they knew their best matchups. While Jules’ added chaos wouldn’t assure that no one drew a short stick, it did make it more difficult for the enemies to pick and choose.

  And at least from a gnce, he found that the spread was in their favour; no one was stuck in a rematch, and the enemy’s fifth didn’t seem too keen on hopping into the fray.

  Chloe and Krail were fighting the bde dancer while Arciel was facing the criocentaur. The bckened tiger did a few extra flips in midair before nding near Lana and Allegra, leaving Jules to contest the archer. As far as he could tell, it seemed like a half-decent result. Allegra would probably finish the tiger in a heartbeat and rush in to help anyone in need of assistance.

  Realistically, it would probably be him.

  Chloe and Krail had the two on one advantage, and Arciel, from what he’d seen so far, could probably at least keep up.

  He was the only one who was clearly outcssed.

  But he had no compints.

  Taking on the hardest role was precisely what it meant to function for the greater good.

  Jules chuckled. Opening his burnt shell, he cracked his neck, and greeted his opponent with a toothy smirk.

  “Well, Fuckface? What now? Looks like you’ve got your back to the wall.”

  The archer didn’t deign him with a response. He simply grabbed his bowstring and crafted a fresh arrow as he pulled it back. But all that did was further the cm’s delight. It was a clear moral win. His smirk widening, he brandished his wand and sent himself flying forward.

  His momentum only made it more difficult to dodge the arrow when it was finally unleashed, but he intercepted it with a fireball. The collision came hand in hand with the clear, bell-like ring that echoed through his mind whenever his log was updated, but he ignored it and continued forward.

  Another arrow came his way almost immediately, so he quickly prepared the spell again. But strangely, he found that it refused to manifest. He tried it another two times before falling back on deflecting the arrow with his wand. Without Allegra’s training, he never would have even attempted the parry. And yet, he pulled it off with ease. He smacked the arrow straight out the air, a cackle on his lips all the while.

  He couldn’t help it. He just felt so good.

  The cm always wanted to fight in close quarters. It was always the warriors who charged straight into the fray whose names were sung eternal. He’d tried it when he first started out, but Jules had no talent for the martial arts. And taking up magic, he found it was just as he’d always expected. It didn’t matter how stalwart he stood on the side of justice. It didn’t matter how many dungeons or how many names he cimed. As one of the cowards who stood on the backlines, his name went ever unsung.

  He had long resigned himself to the unfortunate fate.

  He’d long given up on living in the moment of a melee.

  And yet, there he was, cutting down a champion’s attack.

  Just like a hero of old.

  Jules slung another spell midswing in the deflection’s wake. With his red magic seemingly out of commision, he quickly switched tracks and fired off a stream of water. He managed to destroy another arrow, but again, contact came hand in hand with a notification.

  There was no time to read his log, but trying the stream again, and confirming that his other red and blue spells still worked as usual, he loosely deduced the effect.

  It was a simple trick.

  All he had to do was derail the arrows without letting them make direct contact with his spells. And though there was little time between the shots, he happened to have just the thing. He raised his wand in the air, joined the first seven prime nodes, and set up a barrier that would detonate any enemy projectiles that entered within its bounds. Of course, in a default implementation, such a spell was simple for the archer to seal. He simply needed to fire an arrow at the barrier from beyond its range.

  Hence why Jules set it up to span the entire subspace. He didn’t know exactly where Aurora’s realm ended. But his barrier grew as far as the sky would stretch.

  The archer fired three or four arrows as a test, but stopped when they all blew up in his face and threw his bow back over his shoulder. His magic defense must have been a lot higher than it had appeared, because there wasn’t a lick of damage on his person in spite of the point-bnk detonations. Krail made note of that as he prepared a more powerful spell, only to find that there was suddenly no distance between them.

  Dashing with a dagger in hand, the thoraen hunter had moved at three times the speed of his arrows. He swung straight for Krail’s throat with the bonetooth bde, its tip angled to rip out his jugur.

  A traditional dodge was impossible. The mage couldn’t have possibly kept up. But he quickly made up the difference by pcing an explosion between them. It was a small payload, only worth about a pound compared to the usual five that was his trademark, but it served its purpose and blew them both away.

  The archer healed in an instant, his wound closing as he rose to his feet, but Jules wasn’t so lucky. The underside of his shell—he had lifted it just in time for the explosion—was charred enough to fke. The cm was given no time to mope. Lucius kicked off the ground in a heartbeat and closed the distance again.

  But the second time around, Jules was better prepared.

  He fired a yellow spell at his target. The lightning bolt was cleaved apart by the dagger, but that was exactly what Jules had wanted. He casted another spell right before contact, with the second instance targeting himself.

  Enduring the accompanying zap, he gave himself a potent negative charge—the very same one that he had assigned to his enemy’s weapon.

  The descending bde slowed rapidly as it closed in before coming to a stop just before it touched his skin. The hunter drilled his feet into the ground, twisted his hips, and poured all the strength he could into the blow, but still, it was frozen in pce, overpowered by the repelling force that accompanied the matching magnets.

  Jules was nearly crushed beneath it. He was shoved into the ground by the sheer weight of the blow. His body surely would have given out had he not followed Allegra’s instructions and invested his points in strength, and even then, he was just barely able to resist the pressure.

  Despite having predicted success, Jules found the experience unnerving. The bde hadn’t decelerated until they were far too close for comfort. Still, he maintained enough of his calm to raise his wand and counter the attack.

  The archer kicked off and immediately sought to retreat. But it was already too te.

  He had already combined his red, blue, and yellow spells to craft a withering nuclear bomb attracted to the thorae’s skull.