EmEs_etherious
patreon
Chapter 148- Unfinished
🕑 Added 2024-04-16 22:59:00 +0000 UTCArthur's body jerked as his momentum was halted by Ayesha's golden chains and he was rapidly pulled into their protection barrier. All around them, all he could see was an ocean of green flames, the sheer quantity of poisonous ether he'd released manifesting in the most expressive form of energy he knew; fire.
The sheer scope of it was a wonder to behold, a burning sun with a diameter of a hundred metres. Ayesha thumped him on the shoulder. "What the fuck was that?" She shouted, "How'd you give your poison ether the properties of fire?" It was by no means an exaggeration. From within the bomer, Arthur could see rock melting into lava and pieces of wood combusting. Much of the destruction could be ascribed to a high concentration of pioson affinity ether but not all of it. The golden bummer started to flicker, and Arthur quickly slapped some personalised barriers on herself and Ayesha. "Can handle the remnants of your attack with that body of yours?" She asked him, a defensive talisman at the ready in her hands. Arthur nodded his head.
Congratulations, you have dealt 2,300,000 damage in a single strike...
you have gained the [tier 2] title Siege-Breaker [Deal a million damage or more in a single attack] Attacks using ten thousand or more ether deal resonant force damage...
Arthur had no idea what resonant force damage meant, but it sounded good. the title wasn't as good as the one Alyssia had received for doing a million damage against the Hydra in under five seconds even if his feat was arguably greater which just went to show how fickle they could be. Perhaps it was because he'd had so much help here. Iris had lowered the creature's defences by 90% after all. He ignored 30% of the remaining ten with his attack which meant... Arthur had hit the creature whilst it was at 7% durability.
Unfortunately for them, no one had received an energy infusion which could mean the beast still lived, a fact that Iris confirmed a moment later. "Somehow, the monster's alive. I heard Ascended Bloodbeasts could recover from zero health, but you literally killed the bastard twice over there. How the- Ah, I get it. The territory cannibalised itself to keep it alive. It's half as big as it used to be. I'm not sure if it can even sustain itself anymore."
"Get ready to move in as soon as the fire dies down," Ayesha said. "It'll be disorientated after that strike. Hopefully, it'll stay dead this time."
Arthur tried to move his right hand and winced in pain. It was broken, his palms and knuckles stripped of a layer of flesh. Even with Augmented Recovery active, it'd take the better part of a minute to heal, far too long for such a high-stakes battle. Luckily, Iris came to the rescue with one of her talismans, a green one that surrounded them all in an aura of healing. In mere seconds, all his injuries were gone. Does she have a talisman for everything or what?
"That's the last healing talisman I'll be using in a while," Iris warned. "It's more limited than standard healing and our bodies won't be able to support any more than this for a while." She looked at him consideringly. "Well, with your constitution, I might be able to squeeze out one more for you but don't count on it."
Her words put a damper on Arthur's earlier excitement. It looked like talismans came with their own set of restrictions. He turned his focus on the ascended bloodbeast. Nothing was visible through the bright green flames, but he could tell the monster's general position from where the magic concentration was densest. Even after nearly ten seconds had passed, it didn't show any signs of dissipating. Arthur was content to wait, the longer the magic lasted, the more damage he would do. Six percent of it counted as soul damage- five percent because he'd used his soul-spear to make the strike and the final one the Homunculi's Ire debuff.
Sadly, things didn't go so smoothly. It was Ayesha who noticed it first. "Shit, shit. I think the thing's eating our magic." She cried out. A half second later, her golden chains crumbled to dust, confirming her words. The next moment, it was like someone had pulled a giant sink plug, and all the poisonous ether in the air rapidly drained towards it. The first iteration of the bloodbeasts he'd fought had absorbed magic in their gestation and rapidly evolved to counter those specific elements. Arthur didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it made sense that the evolved variant possessed a similar ability, only it was far more powerful and versatile. If the monster could adapt in real-time during a fight, it would make an already difficult fight all but impossible. He quickly came to a decision.
"I'm going in," Arthur said, stepping forward.
"Are you crazy," Ayesha shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder and hauling him back. "You're sturdy but the poison out there is melting rock. Poison isn't meant to be hot. That shit will kill you. "
"No, Aish. He's got the right idea," Iris interrupted her rant. "This is the best chance we- well, Arthur will get to pile on some damage. And I think you're underestimating how tough his body is. He used that magic unprotected Ayesha. All he got was a broken hand." She stopped Ayesha's incoming protests with a raised hand. "It's the best course of action, trust me." She turned to face Arthur. "Focus only on physical attacks with your spear for now. Hold off on the magic and prepare to disengage the moment things get hairy."
Arthur nodded his head. Taking a deep breath, he took a step forward and came to a stop at the edge of the golden barrier. It was impossible to see anything through the haze of green fire, but the noxious flames were rapidly disappearing right before his very eyes. It wouldn't be long before they were gone for good. He'd do all he could to make that time useful. Iris hadn't said anything outright, but he didn't need a seer to tell him that the outcome of this fight rested on his shoulders.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur stepped out of the barrier. He was instantly surrounded by a dense fog of steam as his water shell fought to combat the high temperatures. It stung slightly, and he was grateful for the added protection it offered him; keeping his eyes open would have been impossible without it. The first thing Arthur did was throw a quick use of A Homunculi's Eye in the direction of the ascended blood beast. Whilst he didn’t have a direct line of sight, there was no reason why the ability shouldn’t work. His actions were rewarded a second later.
Ascended Bloodbeast level 293- Created through great sacrifice and pain, this creature poses a significant threat to all living creatures. The monster's true strength has been heavily restricted due to its energy reserves being focused towards territory advancements and being brought back from death’s border. Highest stat: Constitution Health- 193,400/483,000 (730,000) Weakness: Light magic time till detonates: 1 minute 54 seconds.
It took Arthur less than a second to digest all that information and note the differences from the description's first iteration. In that fraction of time, the ascended blood beast recovered a staggering 20,000 points of health, which put even the lesser Hydra to shame. It also meant that he had no decisive way to win the fight.
His strongest skill, even supported as it had been from a dozen rituals and the perfect circumstances, hadn't been able to finish it off. There was no way he could dish out more damage than the creature could regenerate. The only hope was that his soul spear triggered its secondary effect and lowered the monster's stats. Already, he could see that the blood beast's highest stat had shifted from strength to constitution and it had permanently lost far more health than it should have from his first attack, almost twice as much in fact.
Arthur didn’t waste any time hesitating or creating any elaborate strategy. Time was quite literally of the essence and a moment he didn’t spend dealing damage was a moment wasted. Ignoring the slight phantom pain lingering in his wrist, Arthur clutched his soul spear-which had once again appeared in his hands without him noticing and charged forward. The problem with the flames was two-fold, in that it prevented him from seeing anything and also used up any breathable oxygen in the air. Until the fire was gone, he wouldn’t be taking another breath.
Arthur winced as he approached the blood beast. The poison here was significantly stronger and his skin started to break out in a bad rash reminiscent of a bad case of eczema. The only problem was that it inflicted far more pain than the surface-level wounds appearance would otherwise suggest, akin to the concept-enhanced strikes Issania had hit him with. Ignoring his discomfort, Arthur pushed forward as fast as his considerable agility could take him. In his rush and with the flames obtaining his vision he almost missed the blood beast altogether.
Two metres away from the creature, the air momentarily cleared up and he finally got a good look at the beast. Gone were its once angelic looks. In its place stood a skinless clump of flesh, covered in gaping sores oozing a putrid gooey pus. In the split second it took for him to cover the remaining distance, he took everything in. the stench of faeces, sewerage and rotting meat, a potent soup of filth that attacked his sinus like a physical blow. The way its body looked like a display of the stages of decomposition, from freshly deceased to pre-compost fertiliser.
Where its mouth had once been now resembled a miniature black hole- at least the scientifically rendered images he’d seen -and it was currently absorbing all the poison affinity ether surrounding them at a prodigious rate trumped only by the speed at which the abomination was healing. It’s single working eye turned to look at him and then Arthur was upon it.
His spear struck the side of its neck with the force of all his physical stats behind it- and did nothing. No, that wasn’t quite right. There was the sound of a distinct crack and Arthur realised with growing horror, that instead of the soft flesh he’d expected to hit, his spear had come up against a very familiar defence.
A Hydra’s scale.
The ascended Blood beast wasn’t simply becoming resistant to the magics used against it, it was evolving in real time and taking on new traits. The next moment, Arthur was sent flying backwards so fast he broke the speed of sound five times over, the oxygen forcibly expelled out of his chest. He hadn’t even seen what struck him. What he had seen, though, was the updated information a last-second use of Homunculi's eye showed him.
Things didn’t look so good.
Ascended Blood Beast; The Hydra’s Revenge level 275- An evolved ascended Blood Beast, this creature has surpassed its genetic limitations, taking on the traits of the magic that would have otherwise slain it. It has reached the end of its road for growth, though its path has taken it to places most will never see.
Health-395,000/750,000
Highest stat-vitality Weakness-???
Time till detonation: six minutes.
Its level had dropped by eighteen points. For some reason, Arthur couldn’t find it in himself to be happy.
Comments
Haden Snodgrass
TFTC! I hope you feel better man. PS: I used to be a powerlifter before I evolved into a dad-bod. Not sure what gains you are trying to get, but always strive to not get injured. A bad injury can take you out for months where your gains stagnant, vs minor/micro progress over months is better than pushing the limits and potential hurting yourself... If you are interested I follow Jeff Nippard, who goes through various clinical sports research papers and describes how to implement them into your workouts to maximize gains.
bcd051
Hey, feel better man!
