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Chapter 564 Uphill Battle
🕑 Added 2020-09-19 11:06:05 +0000 UTCChapter 564 Uphill Battle
Ilea quickly checked her status, letting the Queen move up towards her. At least the woman was pretty slow and didnt teleport. A very welcome change of pace and the only reason Ilea could keep this thing up. Otherwise she wouldve had to lure her out of the dungeon before escaping, hoping the town wouldve survived that. She doubted they could. Not when the rot could make even her puke up blood at a close distance.
Name: Ilea Spears
Unspent statpoints: 11
Unspent Core skill points: 63
Unspent 3rd tier General skill points [1919 Total skill levels]: 2
Class 1: The Azarinth Sentinel lvl 447
- Active: Absolute Destruction 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Sentinel Reconstruction 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Azarinth Awakening 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Blink 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Sentinel Sphere 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Sentinel Core 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Azarinth Fighting 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Sentinel Huntress 3rd lvl 18
- Passive: Azarinth Perception 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Azarinth Reversal 3rd lvl 29
Class 2: Kin of Ash lvl 443
- Active: Armor of Ash 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Aspect of Ash 3rd lvl 30
- Active: True Ash Creation 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Heart of Cinder 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Storm of Cinders 3rd lvl 29
- Passive: Ash and Ember Unity 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Ashen Wings 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eyes of Ash 3rd lvl 29
- Passive: Avatar of Ash 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Keeper of Ash 3rd lvl 30
Class 3: The Faen Valkyrie lvl 380
- Active: Phaseshift 3rd lvl 9
- Active: Flare of Creation 3rd lvl 16
- Active: Displacement 3rd lvl 12
- Passive: Space Shift 3rd lvl 7
- Passive: Body of the Valkyrie 3rd lvl 12
- Passive: Space Awareness 3rd lvl 3
General Skills: Hidden
Status:
Vitality: 1300
Endurance: 450
Strength: 515
Dexterity: 450
Intelligence: 1200
Wisdom: 1300
Health: 20842/22594
Stamina: 2480/4500
Mana: 16823/26000
Hmm I reached nineteen hundred at some point. So two third tier General points available. Could go for Rot once its at level twenty but right now that doesnt help me.
The only other thing Core skill points.
Core Skill Points available: 63
[3rd tier Class Skill Point]
[Stat Gain]
[Skill Boost]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Locked]
Nothing new unlocked. Got everything in the third tier and skill boosts dont seem worth it at this point. Theyll advance while I fight this thing.
Question is, is it enough?
She glanced at the Stat Gain option for a little while. Two points for fifty points in a stat. 500 for twenty? A thousand for forty? I mean how many could I need at my next evolution?
Ilea didnt want to waste the points but her Intelligence was sitting at 1200. If she invested just twelve points, her damage should theoretically increase by twenty five percent. With all her multipliers it may be enough to overwhelm the creature.
Theoretically if the cost doesnt increase, I could nearly double my Intelligence.
She bit her lip. The achievement of killing a four mark while alone would surely be massive for her next evolutions. But she wasnt about to dump all of her gathered Core skill points into it just to achieve it.
Okay, first lets try the normal way. I can try to inspect her with Sentinel Reconstruction to see how much of an effect various abilities have. Lets see what I can learn.
Ilea continued her fight, more familiar with the Queens spells and movements. With the full fifty percent reduction from Body of the Valkyrie, she could generally ignore the cyclone around her.
The direct applications of blood and rot magic still damaged her enough to force a short retreat. And while the Queens attacks werent quite as frequent as those of the Meadow, they could quickly overwhelm her if she stopped evading.
Ilea found the training to be quite efficient at the very least. All her Class skills were benefiting from this. Her main goal however was to end the creature, if something like that was even possible.
Reconstruction did allow her to gain some insight into the health and anatomy of the Queen. What she learned didnt exactly reassure her. If anything the creature was closer to a spirit than a human at this point. A being of mana, not one of flesh and blood.
The only noticeable damage Ilea managed to deal was caused by a powerful use of Heart of Cinder coupled with overcharged auras and the expenditure of the fifteen minute bonus from Aspect of Ash.
It really was quite ridiculous.
And when she checked a mere second later, the damage had been healed both visibly and to her spell.
Funny, she thought and blinked up through the destroyed complex of tunnels and rooms. By now most of it was just separated holes and corridors in the mountain, much of it collapsed or ripped apart.
Ilea landed, stretching as she stared at her Endurance. It had nearly reached zero.
How?
She shook her head, watching the numbers go up with each second. Admittedly, fighting the Queen took a lot of concentration and moving, both her body, limbs, and wings constantly in motion. Her precognition allowed her to keep up with the sheer number of spells flying around but she couldnt just tank it all, not with the main attacks dealing so much damage.
How long have I been fighting her?
She had no clue.
ding You have defeated [Specter of Rot lvl 612]
ding You have defeated [Specter of Rot lvl 640]
ding The Faen Valkyrie has reached lvl 381 One stat point awarded
ding The Faen Valkyrie has reached lvl 382 One stat point awarded
ding Phaseshift reaches 3rd lvl 10
ding Space Shift reaches 3rd lvl 8
ding Body of the Valkyrie reaches 3rd lvl 13
ding Monster Hunter reaches 3rd lvl 9
ding Blood Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 13
ding Blood Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 14
ding Bone Magic Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 10
ding Rot Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 15
ding Rot Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 18
Should probably get that one to the third tier once its at 20.
Ilea saw no reason to advance her bone magic resistance, easily able to avoid heavy damage from those spells because of her speed, teleportation, and ability to get out when grappled.
The rot damage however was high, and constant. The nausea could be dealt with by using her healing coupled with her enhanced body itself, only flaring up when the Queen directly used the magic type on her. Realistically it simply reduced Ileas regeneration.
But its not enough. Even if Im a hundred percent resistant to that or could double my regeneration, that still wont allow me to just stand there and deck it out with that relic from the great skeleton war.
The four mark simply had overwhelming power.
What I need is enough damage to whittle her down.
[Stat Gain] [Gain 50 stat points to distribute freely Cost: 2]
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Lets use eight points and see if it makes a difference.
The cost didnt increase with each use, leaving her with 55 Core skill points and 213 total stat points to spend.
She put 210 into Intelligence.
Intelligence: 1410
My highest stat now. And its multiplied a shit ton by my skills. Lets see if its enough to make a dent.
Ilea felt her aura, trying to gauge a difference. She did feel more powerful but only marginally so. Her resistances and regeneration are a fixed number too though. Just have to crack that, she thought and used Phaseshift to charge up her auras.
Thanks for that constant rot mana supply, dear Queen.
She blinked down and flew past the monster with a smile on her face, grinning as she displaced herself away from the expanding aura before she used Monster Hunter to call her training partner back towards herself.
Ilea floated into the large courtyard, white flames moving on her armor.
The Queen hadnt gotten far, already joining her again with her cyclone of magic in tow.
Ilea used the last few seconds of her Phaseshift boost to inflict as much damage as she could, her ashen limbs lashing out before she was pushed back again by blood and rot magic, her body ravaged by the overwhelming power.
She felt neither felt pain nor anything else the spells may have caused in a human being. Her body regenerated as she pushed forward again, closing the distance with intent. Heart of Cinder released in a cone from her left hand, stripping the monster of its flesh, digging a burning gash into the stone behind. Her right first slammed into the skeletons head, Absolute Destruction and Storm of Cinders releasing as her ash spread out and set the Queen alight with white fire.
A pulse of blood magic sent her tumbling back, sharp bone spikes splintering as her body slowed down in the field of death. Her wings were shredded as she displaced herself out of the bones slowly digging into her ashen armor. A use of blink got her close again, her attacks resuming before the creature could even reform her body.
Ilea used her ash to push destructive mana into her, quickly checking with her healing if her increased Intelligence had made any difference so far. She punched one more time before she was pushed back, her awareness blinded for a split second before she returned, tumbling in the bone field.
My brain? Or just my eyes and enough mana to muddle my sphere?
It didnt matter. If the Queen had a way to pin her down and kill her, she wouldve used that moment. But she hadnt.
And now I know that youre vulnerable, Ilea thought with a wide smile, closing the distance before her limbs and ash attacked the dark sphere the Queen started to form. She tried everything to disrupt or stop the spell but found her efforts meaningless.
So far at least, Ilea thought, using her Space Awareness coupled with her sphere to try and understand what the spell was and how it connected to Ilea. Even just severing the connection would be helpful.
She inspected her own body too, mostly using her healing and Soul Perception. Neither revealed anything particularly useful. Not until she blinked up.
A tether whats that?
It wasnt a connection through space but something much more physical. Ilea used her teleportation a few times and slowly zeroed in on what she was looking for. Thats so fucking subtle.
She smirked, opening her armor as four of her ashen limbs cut deep into her chest, ripping open her rip cage before her hand reached inside. Ilea ripped out her heart and stared at the beating organ, blood dripping over her hand and to the ground. A new one had formed already, the wound in her chest closing as she stared at the thing.
Cant even see it.
Her sphere didnt lie however and she was pretty sure this was it.
Ilea looked at the approaching blood magic spell and casually threw her heart at the floating manifestation.
It was ripped apart by dozens of red wisps, pieces of it splattering onto the center as it attracted everything around it.
She watched with joy as the spell broke into itself, flaring up one last moment before it exploded in bright crimson light.
Ilea didnt waste any time, back to the Queen one moment later. She didnt know if the target would always be her heart but now that she figured out more about the spell, she could deal with it much better.
The damage itself had already been manageable but if she couldnt keep the pressure on the four mark up, it may as well be an impossible fight.
Ilea continued her assault, slowly working through each and every spell the Howling Queen could throw at her. She checked the damage she would take, the mana she absorbed, and the frequency the four mark could use them.
The Queen did switch things up from time to time but she didnt show exceptional cunning or battle experience, not even as much as the Specters.
Because she was a queen and not a warrior, Ilea thought, wondering how the woman had gotten quite as powerful as she was now. Was this another case where magic took over somehow and made this place into a dungeon? Where it strengthened the creatures within?
But she was human once did she die? Or did something take over at one point? Madness or corruption?
Ilea flew sideways, letting several blades cut into her before she activated Phaseshift. The Queen used her powerful blood and rot magic right before the spell activated.
Getting better at the timing, Ilea thought and healed the damage. The direct attacks provided a lot of mana but they also ripped out a lot of health. The time it took to retreat and focus on healing was problematic. So instead she healed during Phaseshift, using the time to empower her auras instead. The Queen still had no way of detecting her but would usually remain stationary for a few seconds whenever her enemy vanished.
Three, four, Ilea counted and deactivated her spell. She displaced herself close to the Queen and greeted her with a punch to her skull. Her white flames spread out and over the woman, every split second they remained on her was important.
Ilea smiled, the quick check showing a change in her health. Perhaps ninety five percent or ninety six. It was hard to tell. The important bit was that it wasnt higher than that. Her continued assault was starting to have an impact.
Lull of Battle would be fucking useful at this point, Ilea thought, glad her more frequent Phaseshift uses prevented another Stamina exhaustion.
She ripped out her heart again when the next Seeking Wrath spell formed, the organ flopping against the incomplete sphere without an effect. It didnt matter, Ilea just kept throwing hearts until the spell exploded in the Queens face.
Hah, take that, Ilea said, immediately pressing her aggression.
She fell into a trance, laughing as she circled the creature, sending out her spells in quick succession and perfectly timed with the counter aggression from the Queen.
The heart trick didnt work another time, Ilea instead having to figure out what the Queen had chosen as a connection. In the end it hardly mattered, be it limbs, or even her head. In the latter case, she at least blinked up to prevent another spell from taking her down in the short time she needed to recover.
As Ileas skills grew in power, so did the Queens resistances. When she finally reached the end of her second tier Rot Resistance, the tides started to turn.
ding Rot Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 19
ding Rot Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 20
- Rot Resistance
Youve basked in the power of an incredibly potent Rot aura. Most humans would die near instantly when exposed but you of course, have come to enjoy it. Perhaps its necessary for you to go to these lengths when other people can eat blue cheese for a similar experience.
The third tier was available and with the progression of the fight, Ilea thought it necessary to invest a point.
ding Rot Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 1
Rot Resistance 3rd lvl 1
With your regeneration and healing, it was unlikely that such a resistance would ever manifest. However you have found a powerful source of unnatural rot. Perhaps fueled by a curse or magic. Congratulations on yet another painful and horrific experience.
2nd stage: Your body has endured more than most, solely thanks to your magical regeneration. Time and exposure have made your body more resilient to infection, damaging bacteria, and fungal growth.
3rd stage: You damn near bask in rotten magic. Rotten matter just turned into a delicacy to you. The process of rot has turned beneficial, destroying but also healing you at the same time. The more familiar with specific sources you become, the more youll be able to benefit from this boon. Just make sure to was yourself thoroughly afterwards.
The bonus was more than welcome. It provided health on top of a higher percentage of resistance.
Ilea felt the change immediately, as if she had fought in a haze before. The damage she received lowered significantly, allowing her to ignore more of the direct attacks, stacking her offensive skills with a higher frequency.
The higher resistance meant more mana from Sentinel Core too. By now she was constantly fighting with the full benefits of Body of the Valkyrie, any defense against mana intrusion the fake skeleton had were long gone, Storm of Cinder making sure of that.
And yet it remained an uphill battle. Every slip of concentration led to heavy damage to her body and in turn a short period where she couldnt attack. Seconds trickled by as Ilea turned the powerful four marks mana into her own offensive healing and fire.
Each of her skills worked in tandem, healing and defense keeping her alive, Sentinel core and meditation keeping her resources up, Flare of Creation working against the enemy regeneration and healing. Had her Classes been focused fully on offensive power, Ilea wouldve never been able to challenge this being. She wouldve been a smear on the castle floor the moment this creature set its glassy eyes on her.
But there was a reason Ilea had a third tier Veteran skill. This wasnt the first time she had to fight for hours on end against a monster she could just about challenge. In a way it even felt familiar to her. She felt prepared, ready, enjoying each and every moment.
She was a long way off from the magical power that beings like this one commanded, but hunting them? That she could do.
Comments
Ghornet
See, now blue cheese is alright, but I'm a mozzarella man myself.
White Neko Knight
I was, quite literally, eating a Blue Cheese Burger as I read this. I feel called out.
Kurt A
She already knows what the effect of raising the skill level of a skill by 1 would do. raising stats was a better bet.
Zarik0
I OBJECT, why use core point for stats for more damage when she have never tested the use of core point for the boost skill, if she need more damage vs queen rot try upgrade the skill who do damage to her (flamme creation/cinder) with core point before "loosing" core point for some stats (check before what boost skill do sight)
Scott
I feel like several skills are either redundant, or should have combined through achievement or rank ups. Sphere and perception could be rolled into an improved huntress. As such it could also contain the benefits of eyes of ash so that slot could be freed up. Heart and storm of cinders should have combined by now. It also seems like her skills are are underutilized. Several are manipulation type skills but she uses them like they are pre-scripted as if playing a pc game. Mash button, get set effect. I still enjoy the story, I just feel like Ilea could use more creativity with her magic, especially considering the knowledge she possesses from earth.
Corwin Amber
'make sure to was yourself' was -> wash
fbt
well done. I normally get a bit bored w/ long combat, but this was nicely done as a combination of combat, problem solving, build planning, etc. to mix it up. I was starting to wonder if the Queen was a projection of an item or something she could destroy (i.e. a puzzle rather than just a mob), but it sounds like it was just a matter of getting enough of an edge to whittle away at her. I luv 2x chapter days! :)
tibbish
Its bad but we're not quuuiiite turbo fucked yet. Its if the current guy stays if office that we're fucked.
379 points from Faen at 380 - you don't get free stat points at level 1, just the class bonuses. Of course that still doesn't make sense for 11 free. It should be a multiple of five minus 1, so 9 or 14. Let's see... should be 446*5+442*5+379 = 4819 stat points from leveling. 40 base for Faen, 110 from Sentinel, 105 from Ash = 5,074 total stat points. I added up 1300 + 450 + 515 + 450 + 1200 + 1300 and I get 5,215 though, so clearly my math is off somewhere. Did I miss a stat boost somewhere in the story?
Nate
Well I think my country is fucked so bring on the escapism!
Ilea is a badass :)
Andrew
Thank you!
Chopper
Last line of Rot resistance 3rd stage: was > wash
Han Pol
yeah she should likely dump a few points in that one as well as strength and dexterity. with her next few level ups.
Amazing!
Martin
First time ever Ilea almost ran out of Endurance. Liked her approach to battle - pause for a moment, analyze and then chose the right skills. So she still grows as character as well
tibbish
Loving the imagery of her ripping off limbs and such and tossing them at the monster while laughing when the spell backfires and blows up in its face!
Johannes Sauer
Impressive writing. Im loving it
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
sese hang
Loving it
Torbjørn Nilsen
Woop more chappys :)
