Chapter 264 - I won’t do it again (Patreon)

“A bit. Sending Obelia after my guild member might be a bit rude, don’t you agree?” I tell to the man.

Still floating there with the golden circle behind him, Thalen looks down at Isola, shakes his head, and then turns back to me. “There was a misunderstanding.”

“Sure.”

“My intention…” he starts, but I interrupt him.

“I’m not interested in talking with not even your real body,” the moment I say that, his expression changes. A look of sheer surprise appears on his face, much to my amusement.

How cute. Did he really think no one would notice?

“You are trying to spew your bullshit. Isola pretends to be dumb while spewing out your secrets, maybe in hopes we will kill you,” I say, and both of them exchange looks, and Isola just smiles, mostly confirming what I said.

“Feral angry kitten, we did have some fun together, right? We trained a lot, and I think we are similar at times, so what do you say? Won't you join my side?” Isola asks me.

“Sorry, I don't trust you and I think Myrra wants to kill you,” after answering, I turn to Myrra, who seems to be as amused as she is angry, her feelings betrayed by her tail.

“Is that so?” Isola sighs, “I guess I don’t have another option than to fight together with Thalen. What do you say, old man? Without me, you won’t be able to get the items out of here. We can talk things out a bit later.”

More mana radiates from the red-haired man, and he nods, “You can go all out. I will take care of the aftermath. We will…”

He doesn’t even finish his sentence when the anchor I was sneakily setting up near him explodes, finally allowing him to sense its placement, but too late to cancel it out. I didn’t try to set it closer because he would surely have felt it, but in exchange, I send much more energy through it. The explosion throws him against the wall, the left side of his body missing and bleeding.

At the same time, Myrra again attacks Isola, aurora glass surrounding her and creating a dome around both of the women.

Before I even reach Thalen, he is already fully healed, and the golden circle behind him reactivates, spinning wildly.

Armor forms around my body and covers it fully, and I take on the attack that reminds me of [Oscillation]. It's generated from the golden circle behind the man.

Thalen disrupts even the small anchors I place near him and that I make easily noticeable, not falling for the same trick twice. He then lets my flames hit him. Yellow flames turn golden, burning and charring his body which is extremely durable even on its own and regenerates at an immense speed. Doing that for a while, I notice the effect of the flames weakening.

No, it’s not like they are getting weaker, it’s more like he is getting more resistant to them.

Some sort of adaptive resistance? Probably a trait or passive.

I cut off the flames, and my javelins pierce his body through and through, but before I can expand them and tear him apart, he uses his [Oscillation]-like skill to destroy them.

So interesting.

We continue to shoot attacks against each other, and I keep testing him, somewhat limiting my output to see more of his skills, while at the same time using [Perception] to observe the fight between Myrra and Isola.

“You are really strong, one of the strongest humans I ever fought against,” Thalen says after I throw a small tricolored orb against him.

With his tough body, he takes some of the damage and avoids the rest while healing his wounds. He's doing it the entire time, getting hit by my skills partially to gain resistance against them while waiting. He’s not attacking much, most likely the type that builds up resistance, prepares a plan, and then ends the fight in one fell swoop.

I, on the other hand, ignore his words and continue to limit my output.

Still, I get a bit annoyed by the way he talks, so my domain reaches him, and I use [Resonance] to disrupt his skills in the middle of him restoring the leg I cut off.

While he quickly focuses on regaining control over his skills, I place an anchor that he is too late to disrupt and teleport near him.

The feeling of my fist hitting his face is satisfying, and he crashes against the wall, then falters in the air before he starts floating again. His broken neck fixes to its original position and the wounds on his face heal to a perfect state. He does that while he keeps healing Isola through the bond they have and through the tattoo on Isola’s neck, so she can fight Myrra.

I hear cracking, and through [Perception], I observe as Myrra is sent flying and crashes against multiple walls, breaking through each of them.

Isola immediately charges at me, her body moving nimbly like a wild animal and with a speed I had yet to see. She jumps in the air and reaches me in a split second, her fist hitting the armor on my chest that I use [Infusion] on to send kinetic energy through it. The surface of the armor ripples, and it absorbs all the energy of her attack.

Isola pushes against the air with her feet, a short burst of mana or a skill allowing her to push against the air. She continues to strike at me, dozens of attacks in a moment barely longer than a blink.

And I absorb all of them, even though I can barely see them.

For a moment, I even activate my trait, watching the way she moves mana through her tattoos and the way she keeps up barriers over her skin, and make sure to remember the flow of mana.

Before my head starts hurting from all the information that I'm still unable to filter out, I cancel the trait and release all the kinetic energy I collected from Isola. The explosion throws her away and pushes me towards Thalen.

Blood spurts from the pale woman, and her broken body crashes against the floor, immediately getting restored. In the meantime, I reach Thalen, disrupting his attack and grabbing his arm. Before he can do anything, I try to disrupt mana inside his body, but he counters that while a constant stream of Oscillating attacks starts tearing my armor apart, no matter how much I strengthen it.

Like a lizard getting rid of its own tail, Thalen cuts off his arm, only to immediately restore it after putting some distance in between us.

He decides to use the orb he found in the tower, the weapon against lynthari.

Well, he tries to.

I activate an anchor I left on his body and teleport behind him. Mana flows through my body, strengthening it, and I tear off both of his arms, taking the orb from them.

[Tether - lvl 26 > Tether - lvl 27]

I dodge Isola charging at me, and Myrra also quickly passes by, surrounded by armor made of aurora glass as she faces Isola again.

Thalen restores his arms again and turns to face me, and I activate another anchor I left on him, this time exploding the right side of his body.

Fear appears in the redheaded man’s eyes while he regenerates his body.

“Try to guess how many more anchors I left on you,” I throw at him.

I am getting better at masking them, something that I noticed as an option among the upgrades available for the skill. My new trait also helps a lot and the fact that this isn't his real body so he seems to be lacking in places.

Flying higher, I dodge Myrra thrown by Isola, and when the black-haired woman reaches me, I blast her away with a surge of kinetic energy, barely doing damage but getting rid of her for a while.

In the meantime, Thalen uses his skill to cut off most of his body. Only his chest, neck, and head stay untouched, floating in the air with a holy-looking golden circle behind him. The blood and pieces of flesh drip from the man towards the ground and cut off limbs. Then his heart sends more mana through his body, and the missing parts are restored, replaced by new ones.

“I knew you were strong and I knew you have faced the Calamity on your own. However I have not taken you seriously and didn't show you the respect you deserve,” he says and bows curtly. Then the amount of mana he is releasing doubles, and the circle behind his back expands as parts resembling wings are created from the sides.

The look in his eyes changes, “I won’t do it aga...”

His head explodes.

For a second longer, his headless body floats there before the golden circle and wings behind his back flicker and disappear.

[Infusion - lvl 19 > Infusion - lvl 20]

"I left three anchors on you when I touched you," I say to the now-dead body.

I deactivate my trait that I kept up while placing the anchors. There is no notification, obviously, as the body we fought wasn't the main one; either an avatar, a copy, or something else.

Seeing that, Isola immediately tries to flee, boosting her body to the maximum and rushing towards the door we used to enter the tower.

I wait for a moment, and before she gets out, I activate the anchor I left there before we even entered the tower. I teleport in front of her. Unable to stop her inertia, Isola crashes against my body, and before she recovers from the shock of impact, I coat my hand in [Resonance] and cut off one of her legs. I blast her her towards Myrra, who followed close behind, teleporting through pieces of multicolored glass.

Instead of landing on her back, Isola twists in the air, a barrier over her skin expanding and surrounding her with a sphere that absorbs Myrra’s attack. The spherical barrier then shrinks back to her skin, and part of it elongates to give her a prosthetic-like limb instead of her cut-off leg.

She pushes against the floor and avoids another attack from Myrra. She then charges to my side. I track her movement, and doing so, our eyes meet. In the end, she notices it and strengthens the barrier in front of her, creating multiple layers. The anchor I placed there explodes, sending her crashing against a nearby wall, destroying it and sending dust and debris into the air.

[Tether - lvl 27 > Tether - lvl 28]

I deactivate my trait, and this time my head hurts a lot and my sight blurring. To alleviate some of the aftereffects, I send thermal energy through my body, activating my passive.

“Fuck,” Isola groans from the ground. She doesn't move and just lays there, most of her tattoos losing their glow and her barriers weaker than before.

“She is pretending,” I tell Myrra.

“Feral one, who do you think I am?”

Isola, still lying on the ground, giggles and tilts her head, looking at me. “I always hated you, creepy-eyed fuck.”

Mana explodes from her body, barriers absorbed into her skin, and for a short moment, she moves like the wind. Chaotic and hard to grasp. She dodges Myrra’s attacks and tries to flee once more, only to be blocked by Aurora glass. Then she moves even faster.

Her tendons and muscles tearing from the strain, each of her attacks sends Myrra backward and damages even the epic armor the lynthari is wearing. In the last attempt, she lets Myrra stab her with a weapon made of Aurora glass that goes through Isola’s chest entirely. In exchange, Isola bites down into the lynthari’s neck and, giggling like a demon. She tries to bite again after tearing a chunk of flesh from it.

But she doesn’t have the opportunity and freezes in the middle of the attack, the bottom half of her body cut off. However, she still tries to attack, to scratch, to grasp, her weak attempts blocked by Myrra. Gradually she slows down, and the light starts disappearing from her eyes.

[You have defeated Stoneheart - lvl 228]

Myrra lets go of her body, and it falls to the ground, the head of the dead woman bouncing off the floor. There is some hard-to-read emotion on Myrra’s face, but I ignore it and come closer, searching through the pockets of Isola´s clothes. Maybe she had some nice items or two. While doing so, I also examine the tattoos on her skin, making sure I remember them all.

I spend a minute on it, but I don’t find anything; the only thing considered an item is the intricate tattoos. Isola always liked to use her body only.

“Feral one…” I hear from over me and look up at Myrra, who continues, “Do you really feel nothing? You knew her, you two did spar a lot, and yet here you are, searching through her pockets, her body still warm.”

I stand up and dust my clothes a bit. I look over Myrra, who still holds a hand on her bleeding neck. The wound nearly healed already, either thanks to a skill or some items or maybe a hidden tattoo she possesses.

After thinking it over, I answer Myrra, “She tried to kill me, didn’t she? She also teamed with someone who attacked my group,” I answer. “I mean, she wasn’t that bad, and we did have some nice duels, but I’m not strong enough to just let her live without worrying about it biting me in the back.”

“So, you would leave her alive if you were much stronger?”

“Probably? I mean, if she didn’t threaten my group and only attacked me. If I was much stronger, it would consider it cute rather than threatening.”

Myrra opens her mouth to ask something else, but I interrupt her, “You keep telling me that you know me so well, so why don’t you answer your own questions?”

We start walking towards where the corpse of Thalen is.

“You care about your guild only, and you wouldn't hesitate if you had to kill anyone here. You might be sad afterwards, but you would do it,” Myrra says carefully back in the hallway of the tower.

To answer her question, I hand her the orb, the weapon against lynthari that Thalen held. “You are mostly right, but I think I would hesitate to kill you as well.”

After saying that, I search Thalen´s body and don’t find anything interesting.

I notice that Myrra wears a strange expression, and her tail is swaying weirdly, but I decide to ignore it. Honestly? She is often annoying, and we fought multiple times, but most of the time she is honest and not the type to backstab people or treat them cruelly without a reason, and that’s what I like about her.

Yes, it’s true what she said, and I do care about Group 4 only on this floor, as everyone else here is fake and will disappear. Yes, I did treat some lynthari and humans nicely, like Cael, Obelia, Eris, Myrra, and Isola at times.

There is no reason for me to be cruel, to murder people for pleasure, or to steal by killing owners. That’s the path I don’t want to walk through. If it comes to it, I won’t hesitate because there is a difference between being cruel and being stupid, and actively hurting myself. But I won't do it if there isn't a reason to.

That’s what I’ve decided to do for now, and I will continue to do so, changing my ways only if I have no other option.

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