Chapter 386 - Outburst (Patreon)

For now, I decide to stay and not try to run away from this crazy woman. I should be able to get a useful thing or two from her.

This 5th floor seems like a continuation of my instance, so unfortunately I can't loot the Veil Ignition Station again. But there should be more of them, so maybe I can do it along the way. Of course, while working hard on what Lissandra requires from me.

I don't think I will be able to sleep in the following two weeks, so my first goal should be to get myself to level 250 to complete the quest that will reward me with body strengthening. Hopefully, it will help me to endure that.

“Myrra, why do you guys have that arm with you,” I gesture at the slim pale arm that surely belonged to a woman.

“Lady Lissandra brought it with her. She said it belonged to someone who used to have the same title she did.”

Oh? Could it be the Saint Absolute's arm? The one from the third floor?

I take a few steps closer and squat in front of the arm that pokes from the bag. Surely it is better than the piece of Champion’s body I left with Lily, right? Even though she was long dead, it’s from the body of Absolute.

“Feral one, I would advise against taking it. Very strongly advise,” Myrra says seriously.

“It feels weird. What did she do with it?”

“We found Thalen's original body.”

“Who?”

Myrra blinks slowly a few times and stares at me. 

"What? I can't remember every random guy's name."

"Thalen, the guild master of Luminous Order? We fought against him and Isola in the Old Capital, feral one. Lady Lissandra forced him to use his skill, and then she took over. She did it so easily too. With Thalen's skill activated, she made some changes to the arm and created some single-use emblems. Thalen died. The pressure melted his brain."

“Not like anyone will miss the guy.” I poke the arm, which feels soft and even has some warmth.

It’s a similar feeling to the Saint's body back then as if it’s still alive, ready to wake at any moment.

Looking at the arm, I whisper, “It’s nice you made it.”

“What?” Myrra asks, and her ears perk up.

Being pretty sure she heard, I ignore her question and stand up without messing with the arm further.

“So she didn't declare you Champion candidate?” I ask her.

“She didn't. Unlike the matriarch, she doesn’t think I’m deserving of it as of yet.”

“Can she even do that? She isn’t Absolute anymore. What is even her current level?”

“You can ask her, feral one. Please let me know what you have learned.”

“Maybe you should ask. I’m sure Lady Lissandra loves her little kitten and will answer.”

“Maybe she likes her little pup more. Why don’t you bark for me? Bark bark, feral little pup.”

“Nya.”

Myrra freezes and blushes, “Do not…”

“Nya nya nya.”

“Feral one, do you have to get beaten again? Did you grow even more annoying since we saw each other?”

“Nya?”

“You little…”

“Grab our things. We will be moving out.” Out of nowhere, Lissandra stands there. It’s as if she does it to show me how lacking my detection skills are. I didn’t sense her at all. I didn’t sense her heart, black dagger, the heat of her body, or kinetic energy from her movement.

She just stands there out of nowhere.

Myrra reacts quickly and grabs the items from the ground, a few smaller bags. Some of them contain food, others water, and some other items. Oh, and the human arm and heart of a just-killed man, of course.

“This way. You will be going first, little pup. Kill any monster that gets in our way. For the following hour, you can use only five percent of the mana your body currently contains. Regenerated mana doesn’t count in. No primordial energies either,” she says.

I look at her for a while and blink. 

Lissandra doesn’t react anymore, so I move where she is pointing, being sure she will be watching.

I sense my heart beating. A feeling I identify as nervousness and worry? It’s something I’m not used to feeling that much.

Quickly, I reduce the reach of my [Perception] to stop it from using mana. I also stop strengthening my body, which becomes much weaker right away. It’s to the point it feels as if I’m naked without mana feeding my Reinforcement Construct.

The feeling I get from the forest around me changes immediately. The same is true for the feeling of danger caused by the two beings walking behind me.

I know Myrra won’t attack me without a very good reason, and Lissandra doesn’t have it currently. Yet my permanently suspicious mind expecting betrayal feels worried. Even my weak reach is something I’m not used to.

The first monsters to appear are a small pack.

[Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 201]

[Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 212]

[Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 206]

[Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 202]

[Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 199]

They are humanoid, but they seem to be made of black wood, even with some bark all over them. There are no eyes or other sensory organs. Each of them is at least two heads taller than me, and each step they make lets out a cracking noise of branches creaking in the powerful wind.

I let the first two of them move closer, and when they swing their limbs to attack me, I boost my body and jump to the side.

There, from the ground, a few root-like spikes pierce. I avoided them by dodging to the side.

Two more Ebonwood Stalkers enter the tree near them only to disappear and exit from the tree right behind me. Four of them attack me together again.

This time, I let a bit of my mana seep out and cover the bottom part of my palm at my little finger. I oscillate that little bit of my mana and slash against one of the limbs.

My attack doesn’t cause any damage. Instead, I feel a sharp pain in my hand and boost my body to escape the encirclement and then two times more to avoid even the normal trees they manipulate to try to grab me.

A feeling of frustration almost makes me send mana through my body, but then I see Lissandra standing calmly and watching me.

I force myself to push these feelings to the back of my mind and run towards the Ebonwood Stalker who keeps using the spikes the most, forced to boost my body to reach him before the others catch me. Once again, oscillating mana coats my hand. This time, I attack where the neck is.

From the monster’s body, spikes shoot out, too many for me to dodge, so I shift my body, with two of the spikes piercing over my collarbone and one taking a chunk out of my forearm.

I force my healing passive to not activate as it uses primordial energy.

Then I slash three times into the monster’s neck, separating the head from its body.

[You have defeated Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 202]

When I stagger back and avoid the other monsters, I notice something spreading through my body. Foreign particles seeping inside through the wounds I just received.

Dodging to the side, I examine them, and then, seeing no other options, I raise my mana a bit and push them out of my body in one concentrated effort at two places, using two percent of my five percent allowed mana. 

Three percent remains, four monsters are still alive, and there are over 50 minutes until the end of the time limit.

I attack right away, using just a bit of my mana for detection and mostly relying on my senses. I jump from side to side and then extend oscillation around my palm and cut through the tree.

It falls down with the Ebonwood Stalker that just attempted to use it to transport near me.

[You have defeated Ebonwood Stalker - lvl 212]

Using [Focus] for [Resonance], I clash against the rest of the monsters.

They are strong and extremely durable and would probably cause more trouble to someone without enough cutting force. [Resonance] is just that strong, and I can keep up with their attacks I can sense.

When the last of them is dead, I stop and, for the first time in a long time, I feel breathless. My heart thumps wildly, as even now I stop mana from strengthening my body too much.

[Lvl 237 > Lvl 238]

When our eyes meet, she points in one direction, “That way.”

With just over one percent of five percent I’m allowed to use, I head there.

It’s all weird. My emotions I usually block or weaken with the skill. Using just bits of my mana that I’m used to throwing around without any worry at all. I’m sure I even sense a bit of fear. An emotion I sometimes let pass through to increase my enjoyment of the fight, but this time it feels more real. More raw.

Getting to a small clearing, a single monster faces me.

[Rootfiend - lvl 210]

Another humanoid figure. As tall as me and with extremely thin limbs. The moment the monster spots me, it attacks, in a single smooth movement, mana coating its entire arms that vibrate wildly.

Barely in time, I boost my body and hold both of my arms in front of my neck, my forearms coated in oscillating mana.

Almost by reflex, I’m about to place an anchor on it but stop myself from doing so because of how much mana it takes. Instead, as the monster jumps back, I grab its arm, resonating my mana against it to stop it from damaging me.

Losing balance because of my grab, the monster hisses and its teeth show. Multiple rows of shark-like teeth. In exchange, I also open my mouth and the orb I was hiding there from the monster’s detection shoots and lodges itself in the monster’s mouth.

I manipulate it, and change its shape, making it elongate into a spike that pierces the brain of the monster, making it sway and fall. But not before it slashes against my body a few times, too quick to dodge in time. I get cut on my waist, blood showing through my clothes.

[You have defeated Rootfiend - lvl 210]

One percent of my mana remains. My mind feels weirdly blank, and even my heart, though still thumping wildly, turns into strong rhythmic beats.

“That way.” I hear from behind me.

It irks me the wrong way, and for a moment a strong temptation overtakes me.

Just a single order and my mana will move the way I want. I can use all of it. I just need to turn around and face that annoying woman. There is no need to kill her, just show her that I’m not here to be toyed with. At this moment I don’t care if she is trying to teach me something.

Just a…I freeze the moment I turn around.

Lissandra towers there. At that moment, I don’t even see Myrra who is nearby. It’s as if Lissandra is the only being existing in this place. Her presence overwhelms everything near her.

There is no mana around. Lissandra doesn’t even take a battle stance. She just returns my gaze. Something about it tells me she knows exactly what goes through my mind. She even welcomes it.

If I attack her at this moment, she might kill me.

My lips shift, and a big smile forms on my face. The biggest one I’ve shown in a long time.

Lissandra seems to be taken aback for the faintest moment, but even though her expression doesn’t change, a dangerous light dances in her eyes.

My mana flows into my body, and a crown forms over my head. I take a step towards her, extending my domain over the area. I do not use black mana, nor do I use [Focus] for my emotions. Instead, I manipulate my trait, activating it, and within my domain, I place anchors. Then I use [Redistribution] and reach to grab Lissandra.

Lissandra reaches and taps on the black dagger on her waist. A single clear ringing sound, and I see the dagger absorb a bit of my mana. Less than the five percent I used against the monsters. Only then does she lower her body and use the skills Hadwin used to have.

[Strengthening] activates, and she moves even quicker than Tacita, each of her steps tearing the ground apart.

[Disruption] dances around her skin, changing frequency with a speed I can’t even imagine, and that makes me deactivate my eyes when I try to examine it.

Barriers stack around me. I strengthen my body and shoot projectiles towards her.

She ignores it all. None of that mana damages her. Every piece of it bursts into particles when it touches her.

When I kick against her, she increases her speed even further for an instant, dodges under my leg, and kicks at me. Under her kick, my knee bends and shatters. I send mana there to support myself, but then she touches me and all of my mana becomes uncontrollable.

I empty my Vortex Core, all of the thermal and highly concentrated kinetic energy shooting around me, flames burning, and kinetic energy tearing the area.

She connects to one of my anchors and activates it, and I feel myself teleported through it, and with me, an uninvited hitchhiker. Both I and Lissandra appear in a place far away from the explosion.

For a fleeting moment, our eyes meet. Then her arm becomes a blur, striking the side of my head, and I black out.