Content Warning!
[Previous]
[Next]
[Previous]
“Spellfeast.” As the flames envelop Nathanael harmlessly, his 100 spent mana is restored; 10% of the overflow from that refills his missing 58 HP; and 10% of the remaining overflow gives him 3 XP.
“Oh,” Phyr says. “Shit.”
Vector aims at Thorn again, but just as he raises his rifle to aim and fire, the spellbreaker reflexively casts Shield and blocks the laser with ease. He curses and runs at an oblique angle while blindfiring, trying to improve his position while also drawing the action away from Pannych.
Pannych watches, helpless and hurting, as her friends try to engage with this twisted version of herself - stronger, faster, and twice as ruthless, he is every bit as much the fighter as she, but with no compunction about the violence he is capable of. He’s not holding back, she thinks, And he got me in a blind rage. I can’t meet him where he’s at - he’s calm, focused, determined. That’s always how I fought best, so of course his first move was to get under my skin. She takes a couple turns to gather her focus as the others fight on for her.
Thorn’s shield blocks most of their fire, he uses Push on the few plasma blasts he can’t block, and when Phyr holsters Righty to draw Lefty and resume the attack, a well-placed Dispel instantly drains its charge. Phyr withdraws to recharge his blasters, leaving Vector alone with Nathanael, who advances behind his shield. Seeing what’s coming, Vector swaps out the Final Word for his quarterstaff and activates his Berserker feature: he takes half damage and deals double, but loses accuracy and dodginess. This proves a mistake, as in the ensuing exchange of blows, Vector takes 64 damage and Thorn remains unscathed.
Just as Phyr is ready to rejoin the fray, Thorn sends Vector flying with a Push, and he takes 5 damage on landing. Thorn refreshes his Shield and advances on Phyr - but under the barrage of plasma blasts, he is losing ground. Realizing this, he focuses on switching tactics, just as Vector leaps from behind and swings for the fences - Thorn wasn’t expecting such a quick recovery, and the attack catches him by surprise, dealing 60 damage and laying him out on the floor. Phyr’s next blast hits home for 101 damage, sending both Thorn and Usher skidding across the floor in two different directions. “Heal ‘er up, I’ll press the attack,” Phyr shouts to Vector as he pursues Nathanael, nearly half dead.
Vector pauses to think - I’m not healing very much, but I haven’t needed to heal very much before now - then casts Rearrange Attributes and moves 3 Informedness, 7 Gentility, and 2 Fortune points all into Ardency. Then he casts Heal on Pannych for 52 HP. She sucks in a breath, eyes wide as her flesh knits back together, then screams as her arm wrenches itself back into place - but she feels much better after a second. She looks around for Hawkmoth, and dashes off to retrieve it after stowing her shuko. Berserk has worn off while he was disengaged from the fray, and he switches back to his rifle just as Pannych returns - then they move to re-engage.
In the meantime, Nathanael has Dispelled both of Phyr’s blasters and cast Etherblade on his fists, enveloping them in yellow flames and making them do double damage. Just as Pannych and Vector reengage, they see him rush at Phyr and execute a flawless triple attack - it only does 34 damage in total, but the final punch lands on his unarmored face, bloodying his nose and knocking him down on his back. He casts Shield again just as Vector sights down his rifle and Pannych charges.
Pannych goes for an all-out attack, intending to open up his defenses so Vector can get a shot in while Phyr recovers and recharges his blasters. But he gets his hand in the way of her pommel as she swings, and follows up with a gut punch for 17 damage that doubles her over. He raises his shield arm and dashes for his longsword, blocking Vector’s shot. Phyr gets up and retrieves his blasters from where he dropped them.
Pannych gets to her feet and charges - Usher is directly between Phyr and Vector, and she mentally prepares to lay into him and then immediately back off so the boys can fire unimpeded.
Then Nathanael reaches his blade, and instead of scooping it up, he extends his hands to both sides and casts Push - sending the gunmen flying before they can fire on him. Phyr takes 2 damage on landing; Vector, 5. Then he grabs Usher from the floor and stares down Pannych as she charges.
Vector gets to a knee, but doesn’t have a hope of a clear shot. Phyr doesn’t bother getting up, and focuses solely on recharging both his blasters at the same time.
Her plan gone to shit at the last possible second - she didn’t think he could cast Push from both hands at once - Pannych locks up at the worst possible time and half-heartedly checks her swing.
It’s just the opening Thorn needs: an upward cut catches her by complete surprise, doing 75 damage and sending her katana sailing into the darkness. She staggers in shock and falls to a knee.
Vector screams and charges - he can’t risk shooting Pannych, she has only 8 HP left. Phyr stares in disbelief at seeing his best friend on her last legs, then gets to his feet and charges as well.
Pannych, sliced open from navel to neck, can only cough weakly as the shock numbs her to the pain. Nathanael lifts her head by a fistful of hair and asks, “Any last words, hero?”
“Yeah,” she says in a faint, whistling rasp. “Eat a dick.”
“That’s one thing I always liked about you: defiant to the end. Goodbye, hero.” He draws his blade smoothly across her throat, and she collapses face-down on the floor as a stream of blue energy passes from her body to Thorn’s.
Vector draws up to a stop, all the fight knocked out of him. Phyr screams in rage and rapid-fires his blaster as he charges, two shots going wide and the third blocked.
Nathanael turns and charges to meet Phyr with a thrust that dips low and rises - his armor does its job, deflecting the blow away from his torso, but his left shoulder is sliced open for 15 damage.
Vector stares, stock still, mind blank, eyes far away.
Phyr, undeterred by the cut to his shoulder, charges headlong into Nathanael. They go to ground, and Phyr blasts him point-blank in the chest for 101 damage, taking 33 splash damage himself and flying on a short, high arc to land nearby on his back.
Nathanael is flagging at last, but still going strong, at just under a quarter health. He manages a kip-up, but woozes a step before regaining his focus and taking a swing at Phyr - he tries to roll away, but still gets cut for 15 damage.
Vector shakes it off and focuses: he can’t shoot at Thorn or he might hit Phyr, but his heals are much more effective now. He sprints into range and Heals Phyr for 52 HP.
Phyr shoots his plasma blaster, but Nathanael jukes him and Pushes Vector away again, then refocuses on Phyr with a furious double attack. Phyr dodges the first blow, but the second slices the barrel off Righty.
Vector took 10 damage from hitting a large piece of fallen masonry, but he gets right back up to rejoin the fray.
Phyr draws Lefty and hip fires, but Nathanael Pushes the blast away effortlessly, avoiding the backslide from a Shield block. Nathanael unleashes another double attack, cutting Lefty in half and taking another 15 damage out of Phyr.
In range to Heal now, Vector draws up short, not wanting to draw Nathanael’s ire. A triple attack with that sword would put him on death’s door, but… wait a second. He does some quick math in his head, then casts Rearrange Attributes and moves every Ardency point he can into Fortune.
Phyr looks at Vector and shouts, “What the Hell are you doing?! I need Heals here, bro!”
Nathanael rushes in for a triple attack, doing 45 damage and knocking Phyr to the ground.
Vector casts Heal on Phyr for 13 HP.
Phyr gets to his feet, wiping blood from his face as he shouts, “What the fuck, dude?! Get your head in the game!”
Thorn lays in with another triple attack for 45 damage.
Vector shouts, “USE THE PEARL! NOW!”
Phyr’s eyes go wide, and he musters all his focus to try to figure out how to get the Pearl of Transversion out of his chestplate. But no sooner does he touch it with his bloodied glove, than it bursts into brilliant green light that fills the cavernous room and causes Nathanael to stagger back.
Phyr’s max HP of 154, divided by his current HP of 6, gives him a power form at level 25. Everything pauses while he stats himself out.
“All right, let’s put this fucker in the ground. What can I get at level 25? Oh, god-tier classes open up now… ‘Mana God’ looks like a heavy hitter. I’m fuckin’ sick of those ‘jaunty garb’ comments, too - time for a new look. Black... sleeveless... trenchcoat. Need to be taller to pull that off, though. New look, how about a new name - let’s go with ‘Hellphyr.’ OK, features... keeping Mana Regulator and Technical Intuition. Solar Powered looks good. That Mana Manipulator is a pain in the ass, so I’ll take it. Now - spell slots. Mana Beam, Mana Blast, Mana Armor; yes, yes, yes… Etherwing, Etherblade, Dispel, those seem good… what else? Infuse Spirit looks good - I bet Ethergrasp will come in handy. OK, last one. I need something that can get around his fuckin’ Spellfeast… let’s see… Spellfeast, Spellfeast…”
“Hey, Phyr,” Vector says.
“Yeah?”
“I just looked at his mana bar. Spellfeast costs 30 MP, but right now he only has 8.”
Nathanael cannot move and chooses not to speak, but he visibly pales.
“Oh. Then fuck it, I’ll just grab a Counterspell and be done with it.”
Pause ends, and although Phyr is still on his back, it remains his turn, and he’s still mad as Hell. He thrusts one hand forward and shouts, “MANA BEAM!” He puts everything he has into it.
Nathanael shouts something back, but it’s impossible to make out over the sound of all Phyr’s mana screaming out of his body, tearing a hole out the castle, and boring straight through the mountainside. The atmosphere around the beam is superheated, causing a pressure wave that throws Vector across the room and into the wall.
Then the refund from his earring hits. Just like mana toxicity can poison a person, draining or gaining too much mana in too short a time can also have negative effects. Phyr sees spots for a second, and then blacks out.
[Next]
No comments:
Post a Comment