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Chapter 106: Elevated Encounter
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 13:00:08 +0000 UTCThe group of six Infernals charged at us as we attempted to climb up the mountain’s edge into a more favorable position. Fortunately, we were higher up than our enemies, meaning we had a height advantage over them.
Of course, none of us fought with heavy weapons – a large portion of the height advantage was that gravity would work for your swings while working against the other’s – but the simple fact that they’d have to move uphill to get to us while we’d move down to get to them could easily change the outcome of our battle.
Part of my mind was still urging me to stop wasting time and just run away, but I knew once these Infernals knew where we were, they wouldn’t stop chasing. Or, worse, they would stop chasing, go back to the army, and then we’d have them coming after us, too.
Besides, there was no way I’d be able to convince the poor Dryad to flee from such a blatant challenge. I could tell by the look on her face, she was fighting back here. No matter what.
But we’d have to do this quickly. The more time we spent stationary, fighting against this splinter group, the more time the main army would have to catch up to us – and we’d have no chance of beating them alone.
Erani backed away, hands out and ready to throw Firebolts. “The sound’s going to draw attention.”
The Infernals screamed and charged.
“Attention’s already been drawn,” I said, shaking my head. Even if we got out in time, the army would come across these bodies. Sure, it could be possible that they were killed by Drakes or something, but they’d know we were near. But that was why I wanted to save our rings until the last possible moment – we’d almost certainly have to use them soon, and I wanted to ensure we had as much time as possible with them active. “Let’s go.”
The Nymph charged at the group with me hot on her tail. A set of Firebolts from Erani whipped past our heads and straight into our approaching enemies, knocking a few of them back. By this point, her Spell had Ranked up quite a bit since the last time we’d fought against them, and it showed.
The Demons grunted and stumbled back at the explosions, smoke clearing away to reveal new burns and blisters covering the areas the Spells struck. But it wasn’t enough to stop them, and they continued forward.
The moment they were in my range, I hit all of them with Crippling Chill, applying my now-signature debuff to each monster, and strafed to the side with my hand out, casting Rays of Frost at the crowd as the Dryad approached, demanding their full attention.
With Crippling Chill draining their Dexterity by 15.5 and Ray of Frost adding on 7.77 more, the Demons now had to go up against an enraged Dryad with a full 23.27 Dexterity taken away from them – and that was ignoring the fact that Crippling Chill also stole some of their Stamina every second. They outnumbered her, but I still didn’t envy their position.
One of the Infernals let its guard down, readying itself to take on the Dryad and forgetting about me.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 62 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 22 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
14.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 766.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 58 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 22 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
14.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 752.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 61 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 22 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
14.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 737.
In an instant, three of my Rays slammed right into its face and eyes, and it screamed out in pain, turning to me with a furious glare. It grabbed one of its companions and split from its group, charging straight at me.
As I focused my attention on my two new foes, I heard explosions and the unmistakable sound of the Dryad’s thorned whip slicing through flesh in the background. I wasn’t too worried about helping them out for now.
I cautiously backed away as the two Infernals approached, shooting off yet more Rays of Frost any time I felt like I had a good shot at any of their vital areas – the better the hit, the more damage it’d deal. Still, I was walking backwards and they were running forward, so with every second that passed, they got closer and closer.
But I still had a couple more tricks I could pull. The moment they both were only a few more paces away, I activated Gravity Well, but only targeting one of them – the one in the back. Instantly, it stumbled under the new weight of its body, but the other didn’t realize what’d happened and kept charging. Now they were separated from one another, at least to an extent. For a time being, I’d only have to deal with one of them.
It threw a punch at me and I ducked under its massive fist, feeling the wind created by the strike blow past my hair. I’d cast two stacks of Expedite on myself, so dodging a single punch was borderline trivial at this point. After it struck at me, I pounced forward and grabbed its leg, activating Noxious Grasp to drain some Health and Stamina, and to stick the Infernal with a Fester for the next five seconds.
It roared and tried to kick me off, glancing around only then to realize that its companion was still struggling up the mountain a few paces back, burdened by Gravity Well’s weight. It snarled and reached down to grab me and yank me away, but I backed off before it could touch me.
You have struck Level 22 Infernal for 55.5 damage and drained 27.9 Stamina over the course of 3.1 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
8.7 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 616.
Raising up my hand to cast a couple more Rays of Frost at my two attackers and keep their Dexterity debuffs active, I stole a moment to glance over at the other four that Erani and the Dryad were dealing with.
One of the Infernals was kneeling on the ground, covered in lacerations and struggling to pick itself back up. The ground below it was covered in the Demon species’s signature blue blood, and it obviously wasn’t able to fight effectively anymore.
The other three were at least on their feet, but honestly didn’t seem to be in too much better shape. I watched as the Dryad did a full-on backflip over one of their heads, lowering her whip as she did so to catch the Demon by its neck and pull it down to the ground with her. It gasped out in surprise and pain, calling out for help from its two standing companions, but before they could do anything, Erani shot off a pair of Firebolts and blasted them both back.
Yeah, I still didn’t think they needed any of my help. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if the Dryad actually needed to pull all of that acrobatic shit when she fought, or if she was just showing off. We hadn’t tried boosting her already-high Dexterity with Expedite since she never needed it while climbing, but after seeing this, I kind of just wanted to see how high we could push her.
A thrown punch from an Infernal pulled me out of my head. Right, I was still in a fight. I quickly activated Gravity Well on the nearest Infernal, dropping it off the one in the back so I could buy myself some time and back away from them, retreating further up the cliff. I wanted to keep the high ground advantage I had over them – with their lowered Dexterity and heavy bodies, they struggled even more than normal to chase me uphill.
The Infernal from the back quickly overtook the one in the front, trudging up the ever-steepening mountainside to chase after me as I continued to shoot off Rays of Frost at them both.
Because of the army that was still approaching, I didn’t want to use my now-standard strategy of taking advantage of my high Mana/Minute to drag fights out as long as possible, finishing off my enemies through lowering their Stamina. We were on a time limit, and dragging out the fight like that would only serve to get us caught by the more dangerous enemy.
So instead, I’d focus on getting in max-damage shots with Ray of Frost and try to lower their Health to 0 that way. Even though Infernals were complete damage sponges, they still only had so much Health. And with my much-increased maximum Mana, I could probably take a couple of them down even while using a less-efficient way of converting Mana to damage.
Besides, even if I ran out, I always had Erani or the Dryad there to help deal that last bit of damage necessary – or I could just wait a bit of time for some of my Mana to come back.
One of them got up to me again, so I utilized my boosted Dexterity to sidestep a punch, get in close, and tackle into the Infernal’s side with Noxious Grasp active. It stumbled, and at that exact moment I hit it with Gravity Well, and it fell to the ground. The one still climbing also had Gravity Well active, so it was still a good few paces away from us as I held the monster down and shot a few point-blank Rays of Frost straight at its face.
62 damage, 61 damage, 59 damage, 62 damage, 60 damage, 61 damage.
Then I leapt back off as the other Demon neared us.
You have struck Level 26 Infernal for 82.3 damage and drained 41.4 Stamina over the course of 4.6 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
12.9 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 423.
“How much Health should they have left?” I took a breath and asked Index as I continued backing away from the Infernals. Honestly, I probably could’ve fought just fine without retreating so much, but backing away served another purpose – getting us further and further away from the ever-approaching army of reinforcements. Once our enemies were dead, we could flee at full speed, but even now, every pace I moved away from that unbeatable force was another pace of progress.
“Not much,” Index responded. “They’re Levels 22 and 26, and you’ve hit the higher-Level one for more damage in total, so you can estimate it to be around… 700 for each.”
I nodded and checked my Mana. Around 425. With Ray of Frost, I’d have enough damage to kill them. Though I did want to leave as much leftover for later as possible – my Mana/Minute wasn’t enough to outpace keeping Expedite active on both me and Erani, so having some in reserve for that while we fled after the fight would be integral to our survival here.
At this point, Crippling Chill had fallen off all six of the Infernals, but my two were in bad enough shape that it wouldn’t be necessary, and when I glanced over at the four Erani and the Dryad were facing off against, I saw that they didn’t need it either; they’d already killed two of them, so now they just had to finish off the other half, which shouldn’t have been a problem.
I raised my hand and fired off a new barrage of Rays of Frost, focusing on the lower-Leveled Infernal first. I’d shoot its face, then when it raised its hands to defend itself and try to push forward, I’d either shift my position to get a new shot at the head, aim at the neck, or find a new decent spot to hit – gut, chest, groin, whatever. Hitting an enemy in the head was always the best way to get maximum damage for a Spell, but plenty of other spots could get you close.
I had to duck and weave under a few swings as I hurried to get the fight over with, but soon enough, the first Infernal fell.
You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level 22 Infernal.
You have earned 404 XP. Your XP is 1.93k.
Threshold reached. 1.60k XP.
Your Level has increased to 17.
Due to achieving Level 17 in the Minute Mage Class, you have been granted the following benefits:
-You have gained 1 Endurance.
-You have gained 2 Conjuration.
-You have gained 1 Intelligence.
-You have gained 3 Stat Points.
-Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength and 3 Endurance.
-Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 17.
And after that, it may as well have been over. The second seemed to understand this, glancing over at its fallen brethren, then back behind it, at the three out of four that’d died fighting Erani and the Dryad.
It tried to run away, back down the hill, but I quickly hit it with a fraction of a second of Gravity Well, pulsing it on and off and completely ruining its coordination. The Demon fell to the ground, completely exposed, and I finished it off with Ray of Frost.
You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level 26 Infernal.
You have earned 481 XP. Your XP is 806.
I took a breath now that the main struggle was over and glanced over my Level-up benefits. It’d taken some effort, but I’d gotten another Level! There hadn’t been much for this one other than the extra Stats, but my next Level would be 18, and that’d mean a new Spell.
But I couldn’t consider the possibilities long – the sound of the army’s march was getting louder by the second. Part of me wanted to sit down and apply my Stat Points, but I knew we wouldn’t have that much time. Our immediate enemies were gone, but that didn’t mean we got to rest. It just meant we were free to run as fast as we could away from the unstoppable force.
I looked down at Erani and the Dryad just as they finished off the fourth Infernal.
You have offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level 23 Infernal.
You have earned 41 XP. Your XP is 847.
I’d been getting those notifications as they killed the Demons off during the fight since I’d cast a few Spells on all of them right when it started, but mostly ignored them. In total, though, I did get a decent bit of XP from the four they killed.
“C’mon,” I called down to them, “we need to go!”
Erani nodded, pulling the Dryad along with her up the hill to me.
But just as I turned to start climbing up again, I heard a shout from behind and turned around to see flashes of armor through the trees.
Many, many flashes of armor. Spread out across my vision, easily hundreds of soldiers all approaching.
And in the front…
“There!” A female voice called out.
You have been shot. 141 damage.
Your Health is 189.
An arrow, flying so fast I didn’t even know it was there before it pierced my skin, ripped straight through my shoulder and tore through the other side, embedding itself into the stone behind me.
I instantly fell to the ground, both trying to duck into cover from any more projectiles, and out of intense pain from the hole that’d just been made in my body.
“Arlan!” Erani dashed up the hill toward me, stumbling over loose stones. She kneeled by my side . “What happened?”
I only saw her for a moment, but I knew who shot me. A woman with a bow as tall as she was, wearing a familiar set of armor.
The same woman who, in an old, doomed timeline, had killed me. Shot me straight through the head with an arrow in the same way she’d just shot a hole in my shoulder.
I still remembered her name, too. The same name that woman, Camilla, had called her. Asmo.
She was here once again to take my life, but this time she didn’t have someone there I could convince to spare me.
No, instead, she just had hundreds of people alongside hundreds of Demons, all just as eager as she was to kill me.
“Rings!” I coughed out in pain, mentally moving to activate mine. But even with the magical invisibility, I knew things wouldn’t be so easy. Following footprints, using special tracking skills… there were ways for them to follow us.
You have been made invisible.
For the next 15 minutes, you gain the following effects:
-You are affected by invisibility. You cannot be sensed visually by anyone.
-If you take damage, invisibility automatically ends.
The effect activated, and I began to see myself fade away. But above all of that was a single thought.
This wouldn’t be the last I saw of Asmo. I could tell, in that single glimpse of her face. She fully intended to kill me. Either she’d find me through my invisibility now, or she’d find me fifteen minutes later when it wore off. But she was going to do her damndest to end my life.
And I knew in that moment that I’d have to do my damndest to end hers, in turn.
