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(MM) Chapter 60
🕑 Added 2024-02-06 01:18:01 +0000 UTCBolts of annihilation pelted Zoe from all directions as she closed in. It was happening far faster than it was before — in fact, multiple bolts were now striking her from completely different directions at almost the same time. It didn’t make sense. Where were they now coming from? Why the sudden increase?
But Zoe couldn’t focus on that right now. Even despite the rapidly accumulating damage from the bolts chipping away at her scales, the aura master was the far deadlier opponent. Zoe had now survived dozens of these bolts. A single strike from the aura master’s blade had nearly ended her.
That’s not to say that Zoe wanted to keep zig-zagging forward. She had to force herself to keep dashing closer — close enough to put herself in range of another one of those attacks. Her plan was simple. Get close enough for my tail to reach, stop, and spin to hit him.
The tricky part would be getting the distance just right. Too close would be incredibly dangerous, but too far would make the whole effort a waste.
Darting around another rift at the very last second, Zoe pivoted gracefully on one talon and lashed out with a {Corrupted Strike} imbued in the tip of her bladed tail. The appendage almost whistled as it sliced through the air, Zoe’s momentum and spin naturally amplifying the velocity of the strike along with the empowerment of {Kinetic Enhancement}.
Her strike never connected.
Zoe didn’t waste time trying to figure out what happened. Activating {Kinetic Dash} immediately, she zipped forward, just narrowly avoiding entering another rift. Now having put some distance between them, Zoe finally spun around to assess the situation.
The aura master was nowhere in sight.
Peering between the shimmering, mind rending rifts in the fabric of space, Zoe tried to figure out where he had gone. She even briefly glanced behind herself, but he wasn’t there.
Fortunately, she now knew where the barrage of annihilation was coming from.
A single rift shimmered high above the wreckage. Whoever was up on the clifftop was repeatedly firing straight into it, the bolt disappearing — only for it to re-emerge through one of the dozens of rifts down on ground level.
It didn’t stop there — the bolts continued bouncing between rifts, accumulating into a never ending barrage of destructive magic. It was an obvious tactic, now that Zoe saw what they were doing. Unfortunately, she was currently the target and the brief respite was coming to an end. Even now, rifts were blossoming around her new position, and the first bolts began to strike her.
{You have been stricken with annihilation!}
{Annihilation Resistance has leveled up! Annihilation Resistance is now level 9.}
Gee, that sure is helpful. Even as she directed her sarcasm angrily at the system, Zoe began attempting to dodge the onslaught of projectiles. She briefly considered scaling back up the cliff to kill the sniper, but then she realized the aura master would probably teleport them to safety as soon as she got close.
So annoying.
But she had to do something, because even despite her insane toughness, she was continually being worn down. Strike after strike landed on her. At first it wasn’t anywhere near debilitating, but now that a good amount of her scales and chitin had been cracked and scorched away, more and more bolts were happening to hit her now-exposed flesh.
Quickly deciding that she needed to keep on top of the damage to prevent it from getting exponentially worse, Zoe dumped a moderate amount of mana into {Corrupt Wound}. At the same time, she tried to come up with a more effective way to dodge than just hopping about randomly. It was better than nothing, but the barrage was so random and ubiquitous that she was still getting hit almost constantly.
{Annihilation Resistance has leveled up! Annihilation Resistance is now level 10.}
That was great and all, but Zoe had a feeling that she would die before her resistance got high enough to brush it off.
I need some way to track or predict them. But how?
A few seconds later, Zoe had a flash of inspiration and activated {Manasight}. She wasn’t actually sure if it would help at all in this situation — but it had helped her track Andric’s attacks better earlier that day. Perhaps the same principle would apply here.
Zoe realized the difference instantly. The rifts weren’t actually always open. In fact, most of them were closed most of the time. However, a hazy purple mana would flare to life in one moments before a bolt of annihilation shot out. Zoe narrowed her eyes. Let’s try this again.
Keeping one eye on the surrounding rifts, Zoe began searching for any clue as to where the aura master had gone. She still got hit plenty of times at first, but she was already much better at dodging, and her skill only grew as she continued to watch the rifts and evade their attacks.
{Manasight has leveled up! Manasight is now level 4.}
Zoe’s magic senses instantly became far clearer. She hadn’t been paying such careful, close attention to everything the first few times it leveled, but now the difference was obvious. It was like upgrading to a screen with more but not quite double the resolution — a kind of sharpening effect.
In any case, it made dodging even easier.
{You have learned Combat Sense!}
The new ability notification came as quite a surprise — almost as much of a surprise as the downward sweep of the astral blade heading for Zoe’s neck.
Dashing away just in time, Zoe narrowly avoided the potentially devastating attack — but her randomly chosen trajectory took her straight into one of the just-opened rifts.
Zoe was falling. As she spun, she realized she was not halfway up the cliff this time — no, she was even higher. The clifftop came into view just slightly below her and to the side. Activating {Kinetic Dash}, Zoe took the opportunity as soon as she saw it.
She landed in a rather awkward tumble, but she managed to right herself quickly and lash out with her tail towards the rifle-wielding woman who had just rounded on her. Hastily adding on {Corrupted Strike}, Zoe struck the woman in the collarbone.
Her death was quick.
Fucking hell! No level!
Zoe didn’t have long to lament the lack of progress from the system because her new {Combat Sense} ability was giving her just the barest hint of potential danger. It was honestly so slight that Zoe would have ignored it under other circumstances, but this fight had her really on edge. Activating {Kinetic Dash} again, Zoe zipped out of the way of the sweeping blade of astral magic once again.
It seemed the aura master had joined her on the clifftop.
New rifts opened around both of them — but fewer this time. Zoe’s {Manasight} told her that the two strongest ones were the ones directly behind each of them. That has to be significant, but fuck if I know why.
In any case, it was now just her and the most dangerous opponent — no more projectile distractions.
Well, technically the first guy was still alive down at the bottom. He had somehow survived the ensuing chaos, the corruption in his body once again finding itself at a stalemate. Zoe could still feel her link to him, but that same link told her that he was completely irrelevant for the oncoming fight.
Zoe sprinted forward.
Instead of conjuring his blade, the aura master began channeling a dense maelstrom of hazy purple magic in his hands. Preparing to unleash the attack, he held his ground as Zoe closed in.
Zoe’s strategy was simple: just run straight through and tank it.
After all, she was really fucking tough and she would be able to heal off the damage if she survived. She needed a way to end this, and the current positioning looked like it gave her that opportunity. I just hope he expects me to dodge at the last minute.
Zoe closed in.
The aura master released his attack.
Zoe didn’t dodge.
The unleashed astral beam didn’t actually do much damage. It honestly barely even hurt. But as Zoe powered through, she realized the issue.
She was losing ground.
No matter how much harder she sprinted, the space between her and the aura master continued to grow wider and wider. In fact, she was even beginning to slide backwards, even as she ran forwards.
It was like trying to climb up a down escalator.
It didn’t even feel fast. It just felt unstoppable. Nevertheless, Zoe continued fighting her way forward, even as he lost more and more ground. She even used {Kinetic Dash} several times, making up lost ground for but a moment before losing it again — and more.
She entered the rift.
Zoe could tell immediately — and then she was immediately spit back out the one on the other side. The astral blade cleaved through her before she could so much as stabilize herself.
Zoe coughed up blood before she even hit the ground. The attack had missed her head, but it had cleaved vertically down the rest of her body, from her shoulder to the inside of her thigh. Once again, her exoskeleton was barely damaged, but everything between had been thoroughly impaled.
Zoe put everything into {Corrupt Wound}.
It worked.
But now she had nothing left to spare.
As her insides furiously knitted themselves back together, Zoe rolled over onto her back. Even with over half of her maximum mana dumped into healing, there was still plenty of internal bleeding left, and she would be hard pressed to fight to her fullest.
And that wasn’t even considering that it left her with not a single point of mana to spare.
As the aura master readied his blade, Zoe reached out to the unconscious man a dozen meters below. This time, she tried to take mana instead of send it.
The man’s spirit resisted. Ordinarily, Zoe’s would have been far stronger — she knew this instinctively. But ordinarily she would have a fair amount of mana. Despite him being literally unconscious, the playing field was now almost completely even.
Come on. Just six points. Just enough for a single dash.
As the aura master’s magic fully coalesced, Zoe watched as her mana ticked up. It was putting a huge strain on both her and the man’s spirit — neither of them would last much longer.
{Mana: 1 / 320}
{Mana: 2 / 320}
{Mana: 3 / 320}
{Mana: 4 / 320}
{Mana: 5 / 320}
…
The man died.
Fuck!
The fractal blade streaked down.
{You have leveled up! You are now level 33.}
{Do you wish to attempt ascension?}
Comments
Winterharmony
Thanks for the Chapter
