IM2: Chapter #46 (Patreon)

Thorn had barely stepped out of the stone doorway on the other side of the battlefield when every single one of his senses went haywire. His vision flipped, transforming the sky into the ground and inverting the jungle that surrounded the battlefield. At the same time, a powerful mix of smells invaded his nose, erasing the blood and steel that filled the battlefield. Disorienting sounds, some high pitched, some low, surrounded Thorn, throwing off his balance and sending pain shooting through his mind.

He could feel the corrupting mana of a curse surrounding him and trying to force its way into his head, and he staggered, completely missing his step. Unable to make out where to place his foot to keep himself upright, Thorn fell face first toward the ground as a flaming figure suddenly shot out of the darkness. Even in his confusion, Thorn knew instinctively that it was Aciakko, and the triumphant scream that accompanied her proved it.

Missing her right arm from her elbow down, Aciakko’s frill burned with the intensity of the sun and flames leaked out of her eyes and mouth as she flew through the air toward Thorn. Facing the dagger she held in her left hand, Thorn was already too far away from his lines to be able to receive support, and he was too disoriented to manage a Blink. He had no idea who had cast the curse on him, but their timing had been impeccable, hitting him right before he used Earth Step so that the effect triggered as soon as he arrived at his new location.

The world jumped into sharp relief as the threat of death sent Thorn’s mind into overdrive, but all that did was exacerbate the effects of the curse, causing Thorn’s disorientation to ramp up. Still, he could barely make out the trajectory of Aciakko’s dagger that was heading straight for his heart. There was no way he could avoid it, that much was certain, but Thorn had never planned on relying on his own abilities anyway.

Aciakko’s expression, filled with savage glee, suddenly fell as a powerful force shot over from the side, knocking her blade off course. Another attack swung in front of her, forcing her to shift her trajectory away from Thorn. Landing on the ground, her feet left deep gouges in the ground that smoked as the dirt under her feet charred. With a rage filled stare, she turned to glare at Ferris, who had launched the two sword attacks.

“What are you doing!?”

“The plan was to capture him alive,” Ferris said, frowning.

For a moment, the battle fell into a slight lull as everyone waited to see how the situation would play out. Heat rolled off of Aciakko in waves as she glanced at Thorn who was starting to get to his feet as the curse faded. She had never faced anyone so full of tricks, and now that her best chance to kill him had been spoiled, she could feel a thread of doubt starting to creep in. Would she be able to kill him at all? Crushing her hesitation, she glared at Ferris.

“If you get in my way again, I’ll come for your head next.”

“I am simply carrying out Prince Felix’s wishes,” Ferris said, his expression blank.

He was starting to regret that he had interfered. As much as he appreciated Thorn, letting him die was much better than having an insane, tier eight warrior with nothing to lose coming after his life. In fact, he wasn’t even sure why he had interfered in the first place. There was no real relationship between them.

“My wishes?! I wish you would kill that traitor and hang his corpse from the tallest tree in the jungle!” Felix yelled, scrambling to get away from Akira.

When everyone turned to look at him and saw his body, covered in burns and scratches, he quickly grew embarrassed. Still, he couldn’t face Akira head on, so he had to swallow his embarrassment and continue running for his life. Coughing slightly, Ferris shrugged.

“Fine, I won’t interfere.”

Before he could offer to help, the Iron Enforcer recovered from his wounds and charged forward again to attack, forcing Ferris back on the defensive. No matter how many times he wounded the powerful warrior, a golden light would envelop him, healing his wounds as Velin cast her healing spells. At first, Ferris had hoped to drain Velin’s mana, but as she continued to cast like a machine, even healing the Iron Enforcer when he wasn’t wounded, Ferris could only throw that idea away. His next idea was to bypass the slower warrior to target Velin, but the warlocks who stood between them were not about to let him have his way. Any time he got close they bombarded him with dozens of curses, slowing and disorienting him. With a frustrated sigh, he threw himself into combat against the charging Iron Enforcer.

Freed from interference, Aciakko glared at Thorn with a gaze so intense it burned the air between them. Still slightly disoriented, Thorn blinked his eyes, trying to clear the last bit of the curse from his mind. His mental strength was unnaturally high, but even that wasn’t sufficient to defeat the curse outright.

[You have three Destiny Points left,] Eve reported. [I was hoping that you’d get five chances to survive, but it looks like you only have one more.]

[Then we’ll have to make it count.]

Taking a small step forward, Thorn leaned on his staff as he met Acaikko’s glare. His movement immediately set her on her guard, giving Thorn a chance to speak.

“Hey, you nearly killed me, I nearly killed you. I ruined your attempt to be a challenger by exploring the ruin. You ruined my chance to be an upstanding citizen by trying to sell me to the Tardoff clan. It seems to me that we’re about even. What do you say we call it fair and let it be? We can walk away from this fight and both live.”

“I think I’ll take whatever the other option is,” Aciakko hissed, the stump of her tail twisting in agitation.

“No, the only other option is that you die.”

“Hah, you really think you are going to survive today? You can’t survive. No matter how many tricks you have, you and all your friends are dead.”

Hearing a strange note in Aciakko’s voice, Thorn’s heart clenched, and the intense premonition of danger grew by another degree, causing his mind to shake. He had believed that the premonition he was feeling was from Aciakko’s impending attack, but now it appeared that was not the case. Wracking his brain for what else could be coming, Thorn came up blank. Aciakko must have seen his confusion because she burst into sinister laughter.

“Just wait for your death, Thorn.”

“That is not a luxury I’m willing to afford you,” Thorn replied as he took another step forward, mana gathering to his call.

Fighting someone two tiers higher than him seemed like a deathwish, but Thorn had reached the limit of his patience. Aciakko’s constant attempts to kill him had worn away any goodwill he had once possessed, and it was clear that since she would stop at nothing to kill him, the only option was to end the fight for good. She seemed to feel the same way, and as Thorn pulled his mana together, she blurred, approaching him so fast she couldn’t be seen.

Thorn didn’t bother trying to track her with his eyes, and instead focused all his attention into his mental sense as he began casting. The first spells to come out were his shields, followed immediately after by two ancient runes that froze the air on either side of him. Forced to attack him head on, Aciakko hissed in rage when she passed straight through his body when an exquisitely timed Blink put him behind her. Turning around in mid air by twisting the remains of her tail, Aciakko got ready to block whatever attack Thorn was going to throw at her, only to realize the attack was coming from her back.

[World Wolf’s Bite]

There was no way for her to avoid the attack, but by focusing her mana into her flames, she quickly burnt the stone wolf that lunged out of the ground into ash. Just like the last time she fought Thorn, once the spells started, they didn’t stop, and even though they were not strong enough to get through the flames that burned around her body, they were more than enough to tangle her up and slow her down, allowing Thorn to escape from her attacks time and time again. Unlike the last time, however, Aciakko quickly noticed that there were new spells mixed in, ancient runes that thrummed with power, causing that seed of fear she had burnt away to revive.

Taking a deep breath, Thorn suddenly switched his strategy, and instead of running, he charged toward Aciakko, a spear blade forming on the end of his staff. To her shame, Aciakko was so cautious of Thorn that she actually retreated, pulling back well out of Thorn’s reach. The thought of a tier six fighter charging a tier eight fighter was so ludicrous that for a brief second she was convinced it was another one of Thorn’s tricks and she instinctively pulled back.

Realizing what she had just done, the flames around her burned all the hotter and she charged forward again, meeting Thorn in combat. Right before their weapons met, two ancient runes pulsed in the air, slowing Aciakko and powering up Thorn’s stab. The tiny shift in momentum was not enough to stop Aciakko, but it was enough to allow Thorn’s spear to slip past her guard, scoring a wound on her arm. Blood spurted from the cut as Thorn’s magical blade cut through her scales, instantly evaporating in the heat her body was giving off.

Lashing out with her foot, she landed a solid kick on his chest, blasting him backward. Turning a somersault to shed some of the force of the attack, Thorn could still feel the cracks running through his sternum. The difference in strength between them was simply too much to overcome, but Thorn didn’t care. Landing on the ground, he cushioned his impact by shifting the earth around him and then launched himself back the way he had come, meeting her in mid air.

As they fought, Thorn was constantly knocked back, but each time he felt his bones breaking, the lich totem carved onto his heart would begin to glow, releasing some of the corrupted life force it had stored, restoring his cracked bones and torn flesh. With each clash, Thorn’s ancient runes flickered into being, helping him fight on even footing. Mixing martial arts, his ancient runes, and his spells together, Thorn used every single ounce of his skill to try and drive Aciakko back. Though he was outclassed in terms of speed and strength, his magic gave him the edge he needed to survive, and the lich totem gave him a seemingly unlimited life force.

The sight of him battling fiercely against Aciakko was so shocking that many of the adventurers and Tardoff clan warriors found themselves growing intimidated. The idea that a sixth tier warrior would be able to last even a minute against someone in the eighth tier broke every strand of common sense they possessed, but as the first minute stretched into the second and then the third without Thorn showing any signs of slowing down, they could only admit that their understanding of the world was broken.

On the other side, the Deva let out powerful cheers and pressed forward, leaving nothing on the table as they fought to protect the center of the battlefield. On the southern side of the battlefield where Thorn was fighting against Aciakko, the fighting was especially fierce, while it eased considerably as the line extended north. At the very top of the battlefield, Kroxl and the Silent Guard stood with Master Assal, Master Levandi, and the other forces from the artificer’s guild. They were not even making a show of fighting at this point, and instead were watching the fight to see how it unfolded.

In part, it was because of the warning that Thorn had given Kroxl after their battle, but mostly it was because Master Levandi had threatened to defect if they attacked Thorn. The idiot savant had no idea what was going on, and when he heard that they were going to attack Thorn’s army, he threw a fit. Now, watching as Thorn fought against Aciakko, Master Assal could only sigh with relief, feeling like she had made the right choice.

Ferris, on the other hand, was coming to regret his choice more and more. Cursing whatever it was that had possessed him to block Aciakko’s sneak attack, Ferris blocked an attack from the Iron Enforcer. He hadn’t missed the forces that were abstaining from the battle on the northern side of the battlefield, and while it frustrated him, he couldn’t find it in his heart to blame them. There was no benefit for them to join the fight, especially since Prince Felix had decided to kill Thorn instead of trying to wrest his secrets from him. Though, at this point, Prince Felix would be lucky if he could even survive.

Shrieking and cursing in equal measure, the prince was locked in a fierce fight against the giant flaming monster with three tails. He was simultaneously being cut, battered around, and roasted alive as he fought against Akira. So far, he had used almost all of his life saving treasures and tricks, and still barely managed to make it this far. With every attack, Akira grew fiercer as she bit, clawed, and slashed at him, doing her best to take him down. For her part, Akira was quite depressed in her heart. She had bragged that she would easily be able to take the pompous prince down but now it was looking like she was the pompous one. Every time she thought she had him, he would pull out another magical shield, barely escaping.

In this strange stalemate, the minutes ticked by and everyone, pushing themselves to the edge, began to grow weary. Attacks lost some of their luster and blocks were not as well timed. In this exhaustion, more warriors were making mistakes on both sides. Even Thorn and Aciakko had no choice but to slow down, their bodies beginning to drag. Thorn’s inexhaustible energy began to fall behind the weakness his body was feeling, lowering the amount of force he could wield. At the same time, Aciakko was beginning to slow down as the toll of maintaining her flame aura weighed on her. Standing on top of the hill, watching all of this play out, Velin’s eyes narrowed. As the time for the portal to appear arrived, she couldn’t sense a thing.

“Ingo! What is happening?”

“The… there is something wrong with the portal,” came the weary reply. “It won’t activate.”