Chapter 462 - Specter (Patreon)

The dreary silence continues even as we are halfway towards the area I consider Whitey’s territory.

There is no wind down here, or at least not on this floor, so the trees or grass do not even move. Everything just stands still, damaged, overgrown by vegetation, or thrown all around by different kinds of attacks.

Luna continues to run first, the golden retriever moving extremely quickly and nimbly, her smart eyes scanning the area and sometimes pausing and sniffing before we continue.

Musclehead appears to be happy; there is an aura of exuberance around him, which seems to be something the boy with him dislikes but has learned to just accept.

Derick and Noelle stay together, neither of them showing uneasiness.

Leticia constantly moves mana in the air around her, weaving something out of it in preparation, and with interest, I watch what she does.

As for Savant, he is to the side of the group, seemingly not bothered at all, his green eyes scanning the area. I bet he doesn’t even want to be here, but his cold, calculating mind probably decided this was a better opportunity to examine the first floor than mingling with random attendees.

When I try to check how much mana he has stored in the broken Sword of Aeons on his waist, he deflects that attempt and continues to ignore me.

Everyone here is used to situations like this; it’s something we go through often. That calm before the storm, the feeling of your senses amplifying in expectation of the danger right behind the corner.

It’s addicting; it anchors you to that moment in time and makes you feel so alive.

So when the first attack comes, we are all ready.

Leticia shouts, and Luna stops, the ground in front of her exploding, and the side effect of the explosion throws the golden retriever against the boulder nearby with a whimper.

Leticia’s barrier, which blocked the initial attack, now surrounds her dog again, stopping another strike as an explosion devastates the area.

Noelle shoots her arrow, a barrage of white and red lightning piercing the sky—the same lightning Tess has. That attack crashes against the barrier the figure floating high in the air creates.

[Reanimated Corpse - lvl ???]

That barrier glows in three colors: pale blue, dark blue, and purple.

“Named one,” Noelle whispers, but everyone can hear it. “Rookie Killer, mage, barriers, and mana-based attacks.”

She can’t say more as another attack explodes in our midst. The same as before, there is a brief moment where the Lurker’s mana reaches towards us nearly imperceptibly and creates a tiny portal through which an attack passes.

The bright white explosion of compressed mana I know so well crashes against my barrier, and in the same way as the Rookie Killer, I reach towards him, my [Ley Line] stretching through the air and creating an endpoint there.

It seems to have incredible perception, sensing my skill and even attempting to disrupt it.

But nothing happens. The thread doesn’t even react to the attempt.

Another barrage of lightning from Noelle crashes against the barrier the feylith lurker creates, and right after, I teleport right in front of him.

He has these small wings on his back, and hair and eyes that should be changing colors are now deadly white. His skin shriveled as with age.

Rookie Killer moves, a huge amount of mana surrounding him and crashing against the domain I activate, the domain strengthened by the effect of my pride subclass.

“Another named one! Specter!” Noelle shouts from below me, and I can sense the fight going on there.

My body radiates more and more mana, the pressure ramping up and strengthening my domain as we face each other.

Hundreds of mana projectiles enter my domain, disrupted by [Resonance] as I infuse it throughout.

[Mana Domain - lvl 46 > Mana Domain - lvl 47]

My own mana projectiles, boosted by kinetic energy, crash against that tricolored barrier, whose surface wobbles under the barrage but holds strong.

Constant attempts to tear my domain apart are blocked by me, along with the projectiles. The lurker teleports away before I’m able to stop him, his barrier staying behind, shrinking to the size of the first and turning bright white.

Not even bothering to disrupt it and waste mana, I use my set up [Ley Line] and teleport back where I came from, the fight moving to the distance where I see the orange light of Savant’s [Dawn] as well as two lurkers fighting the group.

Something about this group of three feels off. All of them are too strong to be just random lurkers, and even then, there are some signs of damage on them—as if they went through a tough fight.

Another portal opens near me, and through it, a barrage of attacks crashes against the barrier I quickly lift up.

[Ley Line] activates again, and I throw a dozen or so invisible shimmering blue lines in all directions and shrink my domain to make it more potent. Another teleport gets me closer, and I boost myself with kinetic energy across the rest of the distance, blocking the front attack with my barrier.

There is an attempt to open a portal behind me and attack from there, but I reach towards it and tear it down before it can happen.

Then the mana projectile passes through my barrier, and just before it explodes, I disassemble it with [Resonance].

Another dozen or so attacks have modified frequency, ignoring my barrier and even partially disrupting attempts with the speed I force myself to match, coming up with countermeasures in the same way the Rookie Killer does.

Then, an animal I don’t recognize forms from his mana. Something akin to a wolf with long legs and two pairs of wings.

It passes through my barrier, becomes more transparent within my domain, and gets torn apart before it can reach me.

I activate my Mana Wavelength Iris and weaken my domain as two more attack me.

They phase through my barrier, handle my domain better now, their frequency constantly shifting. One of them gets destroyed, and the second one I let bite my forearm, the being entirely made of mana biting into my flesh, and a powerful mana disruption effect rushes through my body. Then in a blink, the animal shrinks, the orb turning bright white, and the explosion throws me downwards, where I crash against the ground.

Just in time, I pop a barrier around me, strengthening it as much as possible as a dozen or so attacks crash.

Each of the explosions is big and powerful enough to wipe out an entire building, evaporating the rocks and surrounding area into pieces.

But that’s it.

Disappointed, I stand up. Dusting myself off I activate my healing passive. The smaller wound I have quickly heals.

Rookie Killer floats there in the air, small wings unmoving, and hundreds of projectiles around him are charging. There are also more of these weird wolves by his side.

The lurker can teleport, can send attacks through portals, and it also seems to have a nice amount of mana, or more likely high regeneration. His disruption is amazing, and he can change the frequency of his mana to surprise opponents.

Most interesting are probably the animals he creates with his mana, delivering powerful disruption and quick explosions. This is something I could experiment with in the future.

But that’s it.

I teleport close to him, my eyes activated and my mind fractured into pieces, absorbing every detail. With a single pulse of disruptive mana, everything around us is torn apart.

[Resonance - lvl 51 > Resonance - lvl 52]

All the animals, all the projectiles, all the defenses, and teleports disappear.

The lurker tries to move, but [Redistribution] holds him in place, and I send another disrupting wave at him, powered by my mana that ramps up even more, the air reverberating under its pressure.

Over the tip of my finger, a single orb appears, made from tricolored mana that turns bright white in the blink of an eye, growing to the size of a grape. I mold it into a javelin-like projectile and drive it into the lurker's chest.

The attack detonates, my barrier wavering as waves ripple through its surface, but it endures, withstanding the blast that shakes the air.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 303]

[Lvl 276 > Lvl 277]

My Ley Line takes me closer to the group, and I fly the rest of the distance.

The orange color of Savant’s domain surrounds the area, and the man’s left arm uselessly hangs along his body, deep cuts that tried to pass through his forearm but were stopped at bone. And the finishing blow that exploded his shoulder bone.

Savant swings the sword in his hand, and his opponent ducks under it, with incredible speed stabbing at Savant’s chest three times in quick succession. Savant dodges all three attacks and kicks at the lurker who dodges again.

The lurker's skin is even more cracked than usual, resembling horrific burns—all inflicted by Savant's domain.

Derick reaches them, short bursts of disrupting mana flashing from his fists, and a skin-tight mana barrier flickers around him.

The lurker dodges, tanks one hit from Derick, and flickers, turning half transparent, making Savant’s swing and Noelle’s arrow pass through.

Materializing again, the lurker moves incredibly quickly, only parts of his body flickering and letting smaller attacks pass through.

Repositioning, he attacks me, who is a bit further from the others.

It’s the same race Rat was. Humanoid, with gray skin and long arms and legs. His dead white eyes lock onto me, and I disrupt the attempt of marking me in some way.

Kinetic energy flows through my body, and I squeeze Flamebearer in my hand.

The lurker dodges three bursts of kinetic energy, he lets a barrage of mana-based attacks pass through his flickering body, my [Redistribution] slips on his skin, and he stabs at me.

I teleport, and he immediately follows me, an aggressive movement that makes him look more like an animal than a humanoid race. He dodges a dozen arrows Noelle shoots in a single second, and briefly clashes with Derrick before the red-haired man kicks him. The lurker lets the kick land, using it as a boost to launch himself toward me.

He dodges more primordial lightning arrows, he avoids Derick again by moving at much higher speeds, and his barrier changes to weaken the effect of Savant’s [Dawn].

My domain activates at full power, my eyes reading his barrier, and my disrupting attempts are at their best. And for that short moment, I make that barrier flicker and decide to face him instead of teleporting.

Kinetic energy supports me, my movement matching his for that moment, and I disrupt his barrier again, my ax heading at his head and powerful bursts of kinetic energy to take a chunk of his chest where the heart is.

And he dodges both.

His speed surges, and the barrier around him reactivates as if I’d never disrupted it. The lurker reduced his speed. He even let me weaken his barrier.

All to lure me in.

His dagger stabs into my chest, me pivoting just enough so it doesn’t pierce my heart. There is some poison flooding in and a powerful disrupting attempt.

But I have seen it before. Disrupting my mana won’t be that easy.

Kinetic energy boosts my movement, and a barrier of mana forms over my forehead. I bring it down and smash it against the lurker with full force, with an audible crack from either his or my head. Or both.

He tries to take another step, but I wrap my arms around him, pinning his arms so he can’t move the dagger lodged in me. The direct contact makes it harder for him to flicker away.

Golden flames seep out of my body, surrounding both of us. Increasing the speed of healing my body and damaging the guy.

The entire time, I hold on to him and block his attempts to use that flickering skill, a constant battle not so dissimilar from an orb-shaping exercise left to me.

But I love this. I reinforce the barrier on my forehead and slam into him again, shattering his nose and teeth.

Feeling he is about to slip away, I boost my body and resonate my mana, cutting off the arm he stabbed me with just a split second before he flickers.

He tries to grab the arm and dagger lodged inside me, but Derick smashes against him, and the lurker lets his body roll. Then with incredible acrobatics, he jumps into the air, dodging the arrow and kicking against Savant, who blocks the hit and attacks.

The lurker’s body flickers, and the guy runs at incredible speed.

Through the Ley Line I tied to him, I send a powerful burst of kinetic energy. The lurker reacts with incredible speed, flickering away the instant my attack grazes him, minimizing the wound he takes.

A weird dagger made out of extremely pale blue mana that is nearly transparent forms in his hand, and he cuts off the part of his body where the Ley Line is tied to and disappears in the distance.

As the explosions continue in the distance, Leticia and two others fighting the third lurker, I pull the dagger out of my chest, thermal energy focusing around the wound even more as I concentrate it there and let it burn my own flesh to stop the spread of poison.

It hurts a lot, but I distract myself by thinking of ways to improve my [Ley Line] so it’s not as simple to get rid of.

Even though that lurker was insane and likely one of the stronger ones, it shouldn’t have been so easy to take it down—or even notice it. It’s a reminder that no matter how strong I become, these lurkers were once attendees, people who reached Beyond on their own.

I store the cut-off arm in my bag and glance at the dagger.

Nullstrike Knife (Arcane, Damaged) - Nullstrike Knife is incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through the toughest armor. The poison it once held is nearly gone, but it disrupts mana on contact, hindering magical defenses. Occasionally, it releases a pulse that temporarily silences all spells in the immediate area.

It shouldn’t be that easy to collect damaged arcane items.

“Good job. A slightly crazy way to do it, but hey, if it works.” Derick comes closer, glancing at the dagger I hold.

“Thanks. Done doing the bare minimum and observing our abilities?”

The red-haired man seems to be amused, and for a moment, a smile flickers on his face before it disappears. “Aren’t we all doing it? Why don’t we check on the others?”

“After you,” I gesture.

***

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