Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia: Chapter 124 - Dynamic Duo.
🕑 Added 2024-03-30 03:05:28 +0000 UTCLee watched with mounting horror as an enormous amount of mana swirled in a violent and frightening display before him. It coalesced, centered on the basilisk's third eye as it widened and widened. Its eyelids rolled back like a furrowed scroll as its pupil spasmed, and its iris began to give off an ethereal glow.
In his peripheral vision, Lee could see adventurers backpedal in shock and terror. Even without Mana Sense, they could tell that something was horribly wrong.
Lee tore his eyes away from the basilisk and scanned everyone around him in a panic.
I can’t stop this… Everyone will be petrified.
He could save one person—maybe two if he resorted to his former barbaric practices before he, too, succumbed to the effects of petrification.
Miraculous Return was his only method of dealing with magical ailments, curses, and debuffs. With a cooldown of twelve hours and the inability to target himself, he was doomed. His only option of surviving was hoping that someone nearby could dispel the effects or stop the eye before it unleashed the oncoming catastrophe.
Without hesitation, Lee cast another Spear of Eternity and pumped as much mana as he could into its construction. Unlike his previous spear, this one was much larger—roughly two to three times wider and with a length suited for a giant. He felt his mana drain and didn’t even need to check that he was tapped. The torrent of mana ebbed to that of a slow, minute trickle as he ran dry.
Lee launched his spear and aimed for the eye, creating a thunderous clap as the spear zipped through the air, breaking the sound barrier.
An uncoordinated onslaught of arrows, spells, and skills bombarded the basilisk as everyone came to the same conclusion in a desperate attempt for survival. Whatever was happening needed to be stopped now.
It only took a single blink of an eye for his Spear of Eternity to impale itself into the basilisk. Unfortunately, his aim wasn’t on the mark from about a hundred meters away. With a moaning wail, the basilisk reeled from his supercharged spear of glacial frost, which embedded itself in the bony protruding ridge of its brow.
The coalescing of mana flickered for only the faintest of moments before continuing. Weaker spells lobbed in its direction were unraveled, adding to the mana being stored for its devastating attack, and the arrows raining down upon it did little more than aggravate the creature.
As most of the adventurers on the frontline began to flee, there wasn’t enough left to hold down the numerous sinuous ropes and heavy metallic chains keeping the creature on the ground. It flailed around, launching those nearby away as it clambered up from the floor, regaining its footing.
Lee spotted the silvery armored form of Hemsworth clinging to the basilisk's neck as he used his impaled sword as a hold. Regina darted in from his side, grabbing Hemsworth and flying him to safety.
The basilisk turned to face the sea of adventurers fully as the mana absorbed into its third eye finally reached its climax. The iris shook and strained; blood vessels popped and rained down thick droplets of blood as it focused its utmost on unleashing its devastation. Its iris began to glow brighter, and an audible hum of power washed over all those present.
Lee began casting as many Wall of Earths as he could manage in front of everyone around him, hoping that the skill, spell, or ability the basilisk was casting or activating depended on a line of sight.
As the ability activated, Lee’s wisdom alert faded from his mind. A serene feeling filled his being as Lee turned away from the walls he had raised and regrettably noticed that he didn't raise a wall for himself in his haste to cover everyone around him—if he covered himself first, he wouldn’t have been able to see the others who needed walls.
Almost as if in slow motion, Lee gazed around in front of him as the bright purple tidal wave of mana shot forth from the basilisk’s third eye. He saw adventurers huddling together with one another behind his raised walls. Some ran for nearby alleyways in a desperate bid for survival.
He saw Regina flying towards him. Her normally monotone visage contorted into one of pure panic and worry. To his right, he saw Jeremy hunkered behind his shield, and Kendri held close to his chest. He had forgotten about Jeremy and wasn’t even aware Kendri had joined them.
Time continued to slow further as he looked back toward the basilisk and its purple tidal wave of petrification. The final person he noticed was the closest to it. Eight metallic spidery limbs created sparks as they ground and slid on the rough cobblestone streets, bringing Em front and center for the oncoming devastation.
Looking like a knight in shining armor, Em raised both hands with a fervent, toothy grin and screamed her spell for all to hear.
“Weave of Reflection!”
A cascading spidery web of moonlight mana began unfurling with her at the center, creating a wall of bright white spiderwebs that walled off the entirety of the street they currently held. The wave of purple petrification slammed into the weave and instantly bounded back in the opposite direction.
The purple wave churned like a stormy sea as it crashed into itself, causing ripples and waves to manifest. The wave eventually reached the basilisk, which seemed unaffected by its own power.
The street was deathly quiet as everyone's eyes latched onto Em with awe, disbelief, and hope.
Em turned to face the sea of people she had just saved, and her gauntlet-like fist launched into the air. With a smile filled with childish glee and satisfaction, she screamed.
“For adventure!”
All was quiet for a second before a daring fellow up front yelled out unsurely, raising his fist high.
“For adventure?!”
Like a dam broken, the sea of adventurers and knights began to rally. The bombardment of spells resumed, arrows flew, and warriors sprinted forward.
Regina landed next to Lee as he watched in utter disbelief at the scene unfolding before him. To say he was surprised would be the understatement of the century. It felt like he was waking in the Shadowgrove again. The number of times they fled and rejoined the fight felt like his heart would be torn in two from the stress.
“Lee! Drink this!” Face still panicked, Regina handed him a glass vial of deep blue liquid.
Mana Potion - Quality: Rare
Consume to restore 20% of your maximum MP.
Lee unstopped the vial and chugged the potion as fast as he could. Then, he checked his mana.
MP: 95/475
“Time to do your part. What’s its health?” Regina asked as she grabbed his waist from behind and flew into the air again.
HP: 54%
“Fifty-four percent. Make sure I don’t get obliterated before it dies.” Lee said as his stomach dropped from the force of the takeoff.
Lee gazed down from high overhead as he and Regina flew above the adventurers toward the basilisk.
“Do not come and grab me until I say so. Promise me.” Lee pleaded as they approached the basilisk.
“I know. I promise. Good luck.” Regina panted as she let go of Lee as they were directly above the basilisk.
It wasn’t a high fall—maybe ten meters—but it was enough time for Lee to activate a skill he’d never had to use before.
Lee’s swirling silver glow from Healer’s Beacon shifted and inverted. Where formerly white strands with silver accents lapsed about his person, healing all those within their comforting embrace, black tendrils with golden cores swung wildly and aggressively, seeking to destroy and maim any and all.
For the first time, Lee activated one of his trump cards—Antithesis of Healing.
Immediately, Lee checked his own HP, and stared at it until he landed upon the rough green hide of the basilisk near its shoulders.
HP: 250/250
HP: 250/250
HP: 250/250
He let out a shaky breath of relief. There was a reason he never activated Antithesis of Healing for testing: With his Healer’s Touch, he was always healing himself.
Skill Name: Antithesis of Healing.
Skill Description: Turn your healing into pain. All healing will turn into typeless spell damage for one minute.
Cooldown: 1 hour.
For the longest time, one of his fears was dying within ten seconds once he used the skill granted upon the completion of his class quest. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to self-sabotage himself.
The black and gold tendrils slammed and easily bore themselves into the thick, murky green hide of the basilisk. All around him, within ten meters, the healthy hide started to loosen and decay—almost as if it was aging in real-time.
Lee stumbled and ran along the spine of the basilisk, casting Wall of Winds to block oncoming friendly fire and Mend Wounds on the basilisk itself as he ran. Unlike using death mana, which seemed to decay everything it touched, this typeless damage took many different forms.
Initially, Lee wasn’t sure what the effects of the spells would be like when Antithesis of Healing was activated. Since the basilisk had some innate form of magic resistance, he was worried about his spells having little to no effect, even with the skill active. Regina had surmised that since healing bypassed typical wisdom resistance, his Mend Wounds spell would be effective on the basilisk.
Thankfully, she was right.
Several things happened with every cast. Sometimes, enormous chunks of flesh and hide were seemingly erased from existence, creating gaping wounds that poured the lifeblood of the basilisk. Other times, just like his Healer’s Beacon, a section seemed to age a lifetime within seconds, the normally taut and healthy hide loosening and sagging and losing the color of health.
Lee spammed Mend Wounds as fast as he could, quickly draining all of his available mana within seconds. Throughout the process, he checked the health of the basilisk.
HP: 55%
HP: 51%
HP: 47%
HP: 44%
HP: 38%
HP: 32%
HP: 28%
HP: 22%
HP: 17%
HP: 14%
HP: 9%
HP: 5%
HP: 1%
With his bonuses from his title, Genesis of Healing, which doubled his healing, his perks from his class, Miracle Worker, which boosted his advanced tier spells by 25%, and Antithesis of Healing, which turned all of his healing into damage, Lee was dealing one hundred twenty-four damage a cast for seven mana a cast. Which meant to use his ninety-five mana, he had cast Mend Wounds thirteen times—for a total of one-thousand six-hundred and twelve damage.
And that was with twenty percent of his total mana.
Lee stumbled and toppled over the side of the basilisk, letting loose a final deep, reverberating call. It toppled over on its side, crushing numerous buildings and flattening the ground in its death throws. Lee was tossed through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby building, sending an enormous jolt of pain through his body.
HP: - 42
Lee deactivated Healer’s Beacon, causing the swirling tendrils of black and gold to fade out of existence, and waited for his Healer’s Touch to heal his wounds. He lay there in pain, hearing the jubilation from outside as adventurers cheered, hooted, and hollered at their success. After a few seconds of not feeling any sort of comfort, Lee brought up his health.
HP: 208/250
Ah. I don’t heal when Antithesis of Healing is active. That’s good to know.
After waiting less than one minute for the skill to end, Lee finally felt the white-hot searing pain of his Healer’s Touch, healing him to full HP in less than three seconds. He sat up and looked up into the gaping person-shaped hole in the thatched roof of this particular building.
Thank Arcani… what if that shit was stone? I’d have been splatted.
Lee opened the rough wooden door of the building and stepped outside. Out in front stood the gallant form of Em with one of the smuggest looks he had ever seen on a living person. Before he could even speak a single word about how glad he was to see her fine and dandy, she put her hands on her waist, as she didn’t really have human hips, and spoke with an austere tone.
“Feel free to steal that spell from me. It saved the day after all.”
Lee instantly closed his mouth, about to praise her on her ‘adventure’ and say he was glad she was alive. Instead of kindness, he gave her a blank look and shrugged. “I’m the one who killed it. Thanks for being the side character.”
Comments
Academic Geek
TFTC! For Adventure! Huzzah!!
James Faulkner
I fucking love Em 😂 for adventure!!
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter (≧▽≦)
