Lifeblood Chaos: B1 Chapter 16: Return of The Discarded Spell (Patreon)

Ray had to wonder if Sylvan Pride informed its users of other spells and skills like Presence of the Primordial told him everything. There was a twisted look on Kaylithya’s face that suggested she at least knew that Ray had just gotten a lot more annoying for her to deal with.

In fact, at this point, he felt confident enough that he could take her on. He could win. With some luck, some careful but clever thinking, victory could be his.

“Silly tricks,” the Sylvan said. “That’s all you’re capable of. Of course. If you believe that will secure your triumph, let me disprove that notion.”

She slashed forward. Ray didn’t need his wings to dodge this time. Hoard Defence had already boosted his Agility enough to let him evade her slash, opening her up for his counter.

Ray threw a blast of Chaos Chymify at Kaylithya. She tanked it like all the others, charging at him all the while, but there was one key difference. His Talisman of Focused Fury’s charge condition had been met. Ray had thrown out seven attacks. Now he got a free eighth attack alongside his seventh.

A second bolt of Chaos Chymify materialized just behind the first. The Sylvan’s eyes widened as the spell multiplied too quickly for her to react to. Ray grinned as the ball of whirling dark energy riddled with red collided with his enemy’s face.

She cursed out something he didn’t understand, doubling over as he clutched her face. There. Now was his chance.

Ray pounced. He slashed his arm, throwing out a Shatterclaw. Sharp arcs of red-black energy leaped to life before him, carving the air as they sought to carve up the Sylvan too.

Except, Kaylithya leaped too.

What? How much presence of mind did this Sylvan have? Ray reacted in time, twisting around as his opponent landed nimbly behind him. He was fast enough to dash out of the way as her stab came in again.

Ray cursed too. The damage Chaos Chymify had left on her face was quickly being healed away. She had to be using her Recovery.

It was clearly making her angry. The fact that she had been wounded by a mere human, that she had actually needed to use up some of her precious Recovery points because of him, had stung a lot worse than the injury his spell had delivered. Unfortunately, it looked like the Sylvan experienced the kind of cold, calculating anger that narrowed one’s focus instead of ruining it.

The swings of her blade almost seemed to sing as they slashed at Ray. Ray pulled back to create some space, crushing one of his Mana crystals.

Blue sparks burst out the broken splinters of the crystal and shimmered around his fist before sinking into him. The rush of energy enlivened him. It struck straight through to his soul.

He could do this.

Ray kept moving as fast as he could. He added his wings to the mix a second after dodging one of the Sylvan’s blows. They allowed him to evade even better, getting in those much-needed flanking hits.

How had Insanity not procced properly yet? He had struck Kaylithya so much, her mind should have been scrambled twice over.

Could it be that because most of his attacks were blocked, the status affliction was reduced too? That warning had stated her armour was reducing the affliction’s effect. She was also dodging a lot of the bolts of Chaos Chymify too. Missed attacks wouldn’t increase the Insanity afflicting her at all.

And then it procced. Ray grinned. The condition actually kicked in. Ha! Finally.

The Sylvan had been about to slash again, her curved blade wreathed with wind. But then she paused, her eyes widening as one hand shot to her own head, grabbing her hair and horns. She screamed.

Ray had no idea how exactly it felt to experience Insanity. Could one even think under its effects? He swooped in to take advantage. Shatterclaw summoned up five slashes of black-red—

Kaylithya jerked forward, eyes open and alert, sword arrowing straight towards his guts.

A feint.

Fuck.

At least his Shatterclaw was in place to somewhat block the blade. That was all that prevented Ray from getting his intestines turned into a shish kebab. Kaylithya slashed through the slashes of his chaotic energy, but Ray had already flapped his wings to take him up in the air. His momentum carrying him over the Sylvan’s head.

But she was too fast. Her sword arced over her head, leaving a burning gash across one of Ray’s legs.

He screamed out in pain, but somehow, he managed to stay upright as he landed. She was already rushing him to take advantage.

Ray used another Shatterclaw to repel her, but Kaylithya simply blocked it Pressure Block while continuing to charge. But he already had a follow-up. He snapped his wings on her. They stopped her right in her tracks.

He was almost tempted to laugh. She couldn’t have seen that coming.

Ray pulled his arm back, unleashing another Shatterclaw as he brought it forward. But the Sylvan slashed through his wings. She was still way too fast. The slices of dark energy from his spell didn’t even get to materialize.

Even as his fist flew forward, the Sylvan caught him. Her sword was still too busy slashing away his wings, but that was fine.

She had one hand free to grip Ray’s arm and judo-flip him right over her shoulder.

“Fuuuuuu—”

Ray’s curse abruptly ended when the world stopped spinning and he was slammed down against the ground. The Back Shield took the brunt of the hit on his back, but the back of his head still struck the earth hard. Pain bloomed there, hot and vicious. The edges of his vision had gone dark too. He was pretty sure his skull was cracked. Not good.

A quick application of the last of his Recovery fixed the wound, but that meant his leg was still in a sorry state. He tried to rise, but then froze.

Kaylithya’s grip on his wrist was tight as an iron band. The tip of her sword hovered inches from his face. “I should carve out your guts right now,” she said. “But I respect your gumption, human. You’ve proven you ought to die with honour.”

Ray’s mind was travelling at a hundred miles an hour. His heart hammered, his skin flushed with prickly heat.

What could he do? If he made any move then, she was going to slice him apart before he could execute whatever he had decided on. This couldn’t be it. He had promised he would take control of his life.

He couldn’t die here.

He wasn’t dying here.

“Will you let me have some last words, at least?” he asked.

Suspicion was strong in her eyes, but slowly, she nodded.

The motion strangely reminded him of Kredevel. But now wasn’t the time to wonder where his ally-but-maybe-not had gone. Now was the time to inhale, then say, “Bird.”

Kaylithya’s eyes widened. She scowled as Dory’s little firebird flitted in, harrying the Sylvan’s head like an overlarge mosquito. Ray stared at it. Those guys had actually stepped in. Even after he had told them that they wouldn’t stand a chance against a Sylvan at level 16. Ray hadn’t been a match for her in the end. But they were still interfering.

He smiled. He almost laughed.

A quick slash with the curved sword killed the poor bird. Damn it. That Sylvan was too quick even for Dory’s summons.

“Let him go!”

Maya rushed in. She had her shield up, her armour seeming extra shiny and polished in the low light.

Kaylithya growled something under her breath, then struck out with Wind Whip. The arcing vine of compressed air almost lazily flicked Maya on her shield. She went flying, landing hard almost twenty feet from where she had been.

It was Ray’s turn to growl. He twisted, not caring as the Sylvan brought her sword around to bear upon him. She froze an instant later.

Lines of bright white light capered all over her body, locking her in place. She was petrified.

All thanks to Randall’s Entrap.

“Insects,” Kaylithya yelled out before breaking free of the bind, shattering the lines of light into tiny splinters.

Insects. Maybe they were insects when compared to sheer power that the Sylvan possessed. But even insects could be fatal when they struck right.

Randall’s skill had frozen the Sylvan for just long enough. Ray was able to jerk his arm forward to throw out another Chaos Chymify at Kaylithya’s face. The charges of the Talisman of Focused Fury had completed again. A second Chaos Chymify materialized just behind the first. But that wasn’t the important.

What was important was the fact that instead of applying Insanity once, the two bolts doubled the total status affliction in one blow.

Enough to finally—for real, this time—proc Insanity.

Kaylithya’s scream was genuine. Ray could tell because there was a very different note to it compared to the last, fake one. A guttural quality, like it had been torn out of her throat.

Oh, and his other hand had come free as well. That helped.

Ray pulled his arm back and fired off a Shatterclaw aimed straight for his opponent’s horned head. Even in the midst of the Insanity, Kaylithya was still able to block it. The sheer training and conditioning that allowed someone to respond to a threat while their brain was being scrambled, even if by instinct, had to be insane.

But Ray had counted on it. As the Pressure Block of compressed air pushed aside his first Shatterclaw, he punced down with his other arm.

He was using his second Talisman. Time to pull out all the stops. Surprise, plus boosting the Tier of the Shatterclaw with all his remaining Mana to Tier 5 using the Mana Infuser ring, finally broke through the Sylvan’s defences.

A dozen claws of black-red energy roared into being, each claw bigger than the Sylvan was tall. They struck point blank. Ray’s aim was true.

“No—”

Her scream was cut short. The boosted Shatterclaw hit the Sylvan right in her head, their motion sending her crashing to the ground. A crackling detonation rocketed outwards as the claws connected with the earth, an explosion that sent Ray staggering backward. When the dust cleared, all he found was a crater big enough to park a sedan in.

And the headless corpse of a level 16 Sylvan.

[Enemy Defeated— Sylvan]

Acrobat Assaulter [Tier 3] Sylvan: [Level 16] x1

Essence: +600

Mana Restored: +160

[New Personal Achievement—Denizen Killer!]

You’ve killed your first Tower Denizen! Your taste for blood grows. Horrors guised as monsters were only the beginning. Now the intelligent terrors are your target as well.

Reward

·       Reputation: +30 Chaotic, +15 Ruthlessness, +5 Tenacious

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 50-point threshold, your Chaos now builds Insanity faster, and procced Insanity is now at Tier 2. At Tier 2, Insanity now inflicts heavy mental damage.

[New Personal Achievement—Teamwork Makes The Dream Work!]

You have cooperated with a group for the first time to defeat a much stronger foe. The power of cooperation will see you through many challenges. United you stand, divided you fall.

Reward

·       New System Function: Party Chat [Accessible without a Party]

·       Reputation: +25 Cooperative

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 25-point threshold, your cooperation now boosts all your stats by 5 when in a party or Faction.

[Level Up!]

Reward

·       +3 Intellect, +3 Spirit, +2 Vitality, +4 allocatable free stats.

·       1 New Apell: Arcane Construct [Tier 1]

·       Arcane Construct has been converted to Lifeblood Construct by Path of Lifeblood Chaos.

Essence to next level: 110/6,400

Ray found himself lying on the ground, facing the sky, simply taking in the fact that he had done it. He had actually done it. Ray had killed a Sylvan.

But not without help.

“You okay?” he called out. He was hoping Maya was alright so he wouldn’t have to get up just yet.

She groaned somewhere in the distance. Alive. Good. Ray could be one with the ground for a little longer. His heart needed to settle back in its proper place, and all the sweat and adrenaline needed to get going.

Checking out all the notifications helped calm his body. Only 600 Essence didn’t seem a lot, but it had said shared Essence. That meant the other three must have received a share of it too, and Ray suspected they had received the same amount as him. Which meant a Sylvan with a Tier 3 class and at Level 16 granted 2,400 Essence in total.

Hmm, maybe Ray should go around picking fights with Sylvans who were dicks to progress faster. For now, he added half his free stats to Intellect, and half to Spirit.

Compared to all the monsters he had faced so far, the Sylvan had granted a crap ton more Essence. She had been only one level higher than the Feathered Fiend had been. Yet, he had acquired… what, over twice as much Essence? Insane.

Did the System reward more Essence when the opponent was a sentient, intelligent creature? As in, a Denizen? That was the only plausible explanation Ray could land on.

Interestingly, he had also received the spell he had neglected in the last spell selection from that Grimoire Pamphlet reward for completing his tutorial. Ray had imagined he might receive it eventually, as he levelled up more and more. He hadn’t expected it to come this soon. Not that he was complaining.

He’d have to find some time to test it, though maybe not just yet.

“Are you alright?” Dory asked, having walked over.

Ray tried to grin at her. “I’ll be fine soon.” He was waiting until he had regained enough Recovery to fix the wound on his leg. “Is your summon scouting?”

Dory nodded. Once her bird had attracted the lone Sylvan’s attention, she had set it to scout around the area to see if more Sylvans came following in. If they did, Ray and the rest of them would have had to leave. No way were they taking on more than one Sylvan at a time.

And now that their adversary was dead, Dory had resummoned her bird to set it to scout again. They’d have advance warning if any other Sylvans came in to check for their missing compatriot.

“Can you check the body?” Ray asked. “See if there’s anything interesting any of us can use.”

With another nod, she headed over to where the Sylvan’s corpse had fallen. Ray detected a hint of hesitation about her. Maybe she didn’t like the idea of grave-robbing. Really, she ought to see it as taking the spoils of war or something along those lines.

Randall brought over Maya, who was leaning on him for support. She was in the same boat as Ray. Waiting till enough of her Recovery returned before she could finish healing herself.

“Did your shield survive?” Ray asked.

“Uh…” Maya brought her shield around. There was a big dent in the middle, where the metal had been punched by the Sylvan’s Wind Whip. “It’s seen better days.” Her eyes sharpened on him a little. “You were incredible, Ray.”

He laughed a little. “I’d still have died without you guys.”

“Even if we did need to intervene. The three of us together wouldn’t have stood a chance against that thing, but you gave it a strong run for its money.”

“Funnily enough, I was weaker than her. The Sylvan was at level 16, and I was still at 11.” He could only imagine how the fight might have gone differently if he had been at least at the same level as his opponent. “But it wasn’t because of the level difference that I almost lost. It was because she was stronger.”

“Stronger?”

“Well, stronger in the sense that she was just a better fighter. Better trained, better conditioned to win, more hardened, that sort of thing.”

“…oh, I see.”

Bits and pieces of the fight still replayed in Ray’s head, like a highlights reel after a televised match. Kaylithya working past the Insanity, knowing when to tank hits and when to block, actually possessing a rounded accoutrement of defensive, offensive, and evasive skills, and powerful gear to boot.

And then there had been that feint. Perfectly executed, now that Ray could judge more objectively.

“Sounds like we might need to be an actual party, huh?” Randall said, raising his eyebrows. “Especially since we have the party chat going on.”

Ray grimaced. Despite the benefits of working together, he still wasn’t sure working as part of a group was the right thing for him long-term. Ultimately, he really didn’t want to have to depend on others, and a working in a party would inherently need that.

“I need to think about it,” Ray said. “I don’t think it’s really for me. But that’s not super important right now. You guys got some Essence, right?”

Maya nodded tiredly. “I hit level 9. The other two got a level out of the fight too.”

“I found some stuff,” Dory said, returning to them. “Nothing useful for most of us, I think, but Maya should be able to make use of some of them. And yeah, I got a level too, plus a Tier Point.”

It turned out the loot would indeed benefit Maya more than any of them. There was a ring that boosted Strength, a belt that raised Resilience, and apparently, the dead Sylvan’s boots raised evasiveness a great deal.

The chest piece, unfortunately, wouldn’t fit any of them. Too slim at the shoulders, too constricted at the waist.

Seemed that the Sylvans’ body structure was too different, even if they looked humanoid.

Once Ray and Maya had recovered enough, they decided to plan their next move.

“It would ideally be best if you guys could level up even more,” Ray said. The trio nodded back resolutely. They had just experienced a first-hand account of how important it was to be at a high level. “I have somewhat of an idea how you could do it, but it’s going to take time.”

“Time we don’t have,” Maya said.

Ray sighed a little. “Right. We need to help those people. They don’t have long.”

He explained and reiterated everything he had deduced from the little he had talked with the Sylvan. It was pretty obvious they were going to kill their captives, regardless of how innocent or guilty they were. That was why Ray had decided to help them, why he felt urgent about it.

If the Sylvan had been so keen on attacking Ray with no hesitation, he had a feeling everyone they had captured was in deep shit.

“We need to figure out how we can help,” Maya said. “We can’t take them on directly.”

“But how much time do we have?” Randall asked. “They could be killed any moment now.”

“Not until they finish moving them.”

“That’s what I mean. We don’t know their final destination. That’s another thing stopping us from doing anything.”

Ray closed his eyes. Ever since he had pretty much figured out the captured people were going to be massacred like cows in a slaughterhouse, the back of his mind had been trying to figure out what they could do against the seemingly insurmountable odds. Now, the first pieces of a plan were beginning to fall into place.

“Randall,” he said, opening his eyes. They stopped talking as he got to his feet. “That Basic Craft skill of yours. Can it make paper?”

The younger man blinked. “I… think so. I’d have to double check. Why?”

“Because we need to send some messages.”

“Messages? How’re you going to write anything on the paper? I for sure can’t make pencils or pens.”

Ray knelt down at and swiped up some blood from around his leg. He held up his finger, smeared red. “We’ve got our ink right here.”