NOVEL NEXT Chapter 303 - Faster
A creature of nightmare stepped forward to greet them. Its eyes were bright twin orbs of wet crimson, set deeply on a face made of bone and exposed sharp teeth. Its skin was scaly and black, and it shimmered in subtle accents of purples and greens as it pushed past the glowing vegetation, its muscle rippling with each measured, agile step.
Nar glanced from the clawed feet that support it as it walked into the exposed mud, and considered the bony protrusions coming out of its elbows and back. Unfortunately, Nar knew exactly what that scaled nightmare was, as well as that it was capable of both two-legged and four-legged fighting and movement.
Ah, for fuck's sakes… he thought, and immediately started preparing a new [Aura Blade].
Those had to be the sharpest claws he had ever seen in his entire life, and all those bony protrusions were making his [Instinct] nervous.
"Sej. I think we've got a bit of a problem," Kur said.
"I heard. What's going on?"
"A new beast showed up… I-I'm pretty sure it's a skull ripper."
Silence from camp.
"I'm on my way."
Skull ripper, low-rare, Nar thought, his sword glowing with ready to unleash aura. Two in one, eh, though this one isn't a nest boss.
"Whatever you do, don't let it out of your sight! Once a ripper has spotted prey, it never gives up! It will try to circle around the fight, and snatch anyone it can, and it will keep coming back for more until it's got at least four or five of you dead!" Sej warned. "If you can, the best you can do is have one of the tanks push it back into the jungle, and keep it well away from the fight! And focus on downing the matriarch first! That is still the greater threat! I'll be there as soon as I can!"
"Damn it," Kur cursed from behind them.
Nar glanced at Eum. He didn't even need Kur to say anything. The tanks were all occupied below, in a fight that was already threatening to fall apart as it was, and so, this was a job for the two of them. A hybrid tank/DPS, and a DPS that was fast enough to even outpace Nar once his passive [Predator's Bloodlust] stacked up higher and higher.
"The battle calls to us, brother!" Eum shouted, his teeth out in a ferocious grin. "Let's make it bleed!"
And having said that, he leaped forward. The ripper pounced over his head, seemingly aiming for the ranged and non-combatants, just as Sej had warned them it would, and Nar triggered his [Aura Quickening].
That thing is fast! Nar realized, as he leaped to block its path. Maybe as fast as me with my [Aura Quickening] on!
His glowing [Aura Blade] sliced vertically at the beast, well away from Eum, but the ripper reached a clawed foot to the mud and twisted himself out of the way. It didn't utter a sound, and it simply stared as Nar blocked its path to the squishier delvers by the rock ledge.
"19-feet tall," Calli whispered into the chat. "Estimates at 64,000 HP."
Almost 20-feet, Nar thought, staring up at those red, glowing orbs, unflinching.
The beast dug its claws into the mud and its muscles tensed, and Nar and Eum readied to do whatever it took to keep it from snatching anyone. And then, the beast leapt… Backwards?
"It's running away!" Kur shouted. "Don't let it! Nar! Eum!"
Drawing from his [Speed], Nar jumped after the scheming beast, leaving a trail of exploding mud in his wake. He and Eum plunged into the underbrush at breakneck speed, branches, bushes, fronds and others snapping and breaking as they chased the ripper, who leaped from tree trunk to tree trunk with mighty jumps.
And indeed, the ripper's trajectory seemed to indicate that it was intent on circling around the den of loentu in the hopes of pouncing upon one of the distracted melees instead, who were still embroiled with a mass of buffed beasts and their matriarch.
Lines of red clawed after the beast, shrinking through the still, jungle air, but they were too slow and the crimson aether dissipated well before reaching the creature's bony back.
"Stop running away and face us!" Eum roared after the fleeing beast.
"Watch out! We're coming around behind Leon's team!" Nar warned.
"Cen! Light up the jungle behind them!" Kur ordered.
A few seconds later, just as the beast was nearing the tree line again, explosions of aura lit up the jungle, and the beast came to grinding halt, landing heavily on the vegetation and spreading mud and debris all around it as it dug its claws in to break its vertiginous [Speed].
"You're mine now!" Eum grunted.
Suddenly, the tygaris pushed forward in a blaze of [Speed] powered by his [Thrill of the Hunt], and left Nar behind him.
"Be careful!" Nar warned.
The tygaris' hands glowed with red, bloody aether, and he unleashed dual [Primal Claws of Carnage] at the beast. However, the ripper leaped backwards, leaning on one of arm, and somersaulted out of danger.
Well, that thing really is agile, Nar thought, pursing his lips beneath his helmet. And this damned jungle is wrecking my armor too!
Fortunately, he had plenty of aura at his disposal now.
The skull ripper turned around to stare down at the two sentients, and Nar's [Instinct] coiled in preparation. The beast had chosen its new prey.
"I think we got its attention," Eum said, his tone a low growl.
"I think so too," Nar muttered.
The beast turned fully to face them, its mouth splitting open in a disturbing imitation of a sapient grin.
**********
Cen looked away from the burning flames that were now covering the back of Leon's team. The fire had shifted from shifting aura gray to its natural furious red, orange and yellow, but without the power of her aura to back it up, the general dampness of the jungle was keeping it contained.
"How much HP does that thing still have?" she heard Kur ask.
"An estimated 85k," Calli said.
"Only?" Rel asked, shocked. "I've been shooting at it non-stop!"
"As HP goes beyond the 50ks, it starts to act more and more like a shield and the damage taken is further reduced. Plus, it has [Toughness] as well…" Calli said.
"Damn."
Cen grimaced at the small amount of damage that they inflicted on the rare beast below. They knew all about the improved HP that further protected beasts once they went past 5000 points of [Constitution], which also worked to also regenerate any damage that occurred. [Constitution] worked somewhat differently for beasts and monsters, in that they always had more than sapient combat classes. For instance, while they had been stronger than the goblins back in their first dungeon, the goblins would've had more HP than them.
The only way to down enemies with such mighty [Constitution]s was with continued assault, and with aiming damage at critical areas, which required more [HP] to protect and heal, and thus would more quickly exhaust that protective shielding. And the less HP the enemy had, the less well protected it became, until eventually, it was dead.
However, such high HPs were not so easily drained…
The large matriarch was fully focused on Tun to one side, but the tank didn't look as though he was going to last long. Between the tail slams and its thick claws, the tank's stamina was taking a blow, and the DPS were still focused on taking down the buffed up loentus. Meanwhile, Gad and Leon were stemming the tide of frenzied beasts, but it would still take a while before they could move over to help Tun.
She glanced at the tree line, at the weak flames that lapped pitifully at the wet vegetation, and readied herself to fire off another volley of [Aura Projectiles], just in case…
"We've got its attention!" Nar said, his tone strained.
"Well done!" Kur said. "Do your best to keep it off us, but if it becomes too much, just run back to us!"
"We'll be fine!" Nar said.
"Will they?" Row whispered to Kur.
"They're both very strong, and Nar can self-tank, but there's only two of them…" the party leader said, clenching his fists.
Cen looked up at her party leader, taking in his dark expression, his lips tightly pressed together as he wrestled with indecision.
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"Kur…" Row whispered, from beside him. Her expression too, was dark and filled with a worry that was easy to read.
Kur passed a hand over his hair, and then, as if surprised to find it there, he brought his hand down to his eye level, and stared at the triple ring in his hand. This was the weapon that had replaced his scepter, and the [Seal of Authority] was a rare weapon that his instructor had given to him, paid for by her own salary.
His shoulders sagged.
"They will have to hold on," he said, his voice flat. "We have to focus on that this fight first. If the loentu go wild, we're dead. And if Tun falls, we're also dead."
"I agree," Calli said. Her voice was low, but her tone was firm. "Between the two of them, they will be alright, Kur. Eum is stronger than you think, and I've seen what Nar is capable of pulling off. We must believe in them."
"That's not…" he sighed. "You're right. You're right."
"And the matriarch?" Row asked.
Kur shook his head.
"The matriarch is not the pressing issue," he said, surprising Cen. "Those remaining loentu are. We need to treat this like the boss fight it is, and that means we need to kill those ads first before we can focus on the boss… And free up Leon to go help Nar and Eum."
He passed a hand over his mouth and covered it, thinking in silence as the battle raged below. Then he blinked, once, slowly, and his ashen brown eyes came to rest upon Cen, and the glowing, shifting aura that she held above her outstretched palm with her bare willpower.
His expression softened from worry into guilt.
"I'm ready," Cen said, already knowing what he was about to ask of her. "But how are we going to do it? If it touches aether, we're all dead."
Kur glanced back down at the chaotic fight in the rain and mud below.
"We're going to take a risk…" Kur muttered. "It's the only way."
Just then, a loud roar erupted from beyond the dying curtain of flames.
Be safe, Cen pleaded, as she changed from [Aura Projectiles] to [Orb of Erasure], ready to obliterate everything below. I'll end this as fast as possible!
**********
Damn!
Nar leaped from the beast's bone spiked tail, and its heavy whoosh missed him by less than an inch. Then his [Instinct] cried out a warning about the incoming thrust from the rippers' bony elbow, heading straight for his heart, and Nar just about managed to pivot in the ravaged mud and avoid getting impaled. As it was, the bony protrusion scratched across his chest, and he had no illusions as to whether his armor would've been able to halt that blow.
He took a couple of steps back to gain some breathing room from the ripper's non-stop assault, from claw, to sharp elbow, to tail, and even kicks and punches, but before the enemy could chase after Nar, it let out a guttural roar as Eum once again drove his bloody claws into the tough, scaly hide of its flank, inflicting more [Bleeding] before darting to safety again.
Nar grit his teeth.
Too slow!
He was outclassed in terms of [Speed] and [Agility] in this fight. Eum's [Predator's Bloodlust], an epic skill, boosted his Body attributes by 0.1% per second he remained in combat, as long he landed a hit within every five seconds, and the skull ripper itself had an incredibly high [Speed] and [Agility], more than Nar did.
The only way that Nar could match up with the two of them was with [Aura Quickening], but he was already dangerously skirting the consequences of overusing the skill, and couldn't just continue spamming it. This did mean that he hadn't managed to score a proper hit yet however, in order to fully trigger the aggro from [Aura Infused Strikes], and he was growing increasingly concerned about Eum, who despite having some [Toughness], had no means of healing himself or chugging down a potion mid-combat.
The beast slid across the mud, obviously comfortable in its natural environment, and thrust his claws in a beastly spear that Eum just about managed to avoid.
Dammit! Nar thought, as Eum's blood sprayed the stifling jungle air.
Other than a few attacks thrown his way, the ripper didn't seem too worried about Nar, as his [Sword Aura] was too slow to connect, and his [Aura Blade] was held back by the risk of hitting Eum instead. Therefore, Eum was the real danger of the two delvers, with his claws, teeth and even punches and kicks growing faster and heavier from both his bestial [Thrill of the Hunt] and the momentum from his [Predator's Bloodlust]. Plus, Eum's [Bleeding] was nothing to ignore, though it was nowhere as severe as Rel's cursed [Bleeding].
If I don't do anything, I'll just be useless in this, Nar thought, his mind calm and assessing despite the frenzy unfolding before him. Come on, Nar. Think. What's the way forward here?
It was a lack of attributes that was holding him back in this situation, mainly [Speed] and [Agility]. [Reflex] was keeping up just fine, but the shortcomings in the other two prevented him from joining that fight properly, and thus all of his massive aura was going to waste…
There has to be a way to use it. I just need to figure it out, Nar though, as he darted in to attack the beast, and was parried by a clawed foot that sent him stumbling backwards. It's strong too.
A howling exploded from the direction of the den, drawing his attention, and it drowned out the sound of the fighting and of the very jungle itself, and the air filled with the crying and screaming of dying beasts.
Nar clenched his jaw. Cen. You used it in the end…
There was no forgetting the desperate screeches he'd witnessed that first and only time the caster had used her [Orb of Erasure], back on that thin strip of beach and dunes. Her aura had ripped living flesh apart, and those easy dungeon beasts had not received an easy death.
They must be worried about us and trying to finish as fast as possible. This thing is a rare, after all, even if not a nest boss, Nar thought, as Eum and the towering ripper went at each other, snarling and growling as though there were two beasts facing each other, rather than a beast and a sapient. Eum's eyes were even starting to glow red…
Nar clenched his fists around his sword, the shimmering purple cloth dangling over his wrists.
What should I do? What can I do? Nar thought again, eyeing the cloth. He had seen the impossible, the insurmountable that no amount of attributes or teaching would help him overcome, but this wasn't it. Think, as the master always says, it's what you can do, rather than what you can't, that you should focus on!
But that damned pounding headache from the overuse of his [Aura Quickening] wasn't helping, and with a by now subconscious order, Nar set his aura to do something about it.
Wait… He realized, his eyes widening. Who said I can only heal damage done to me? Why can't I heal self-inflicted damage too?
Could it be…
Was it possible to use his self-healing in order to heal the ravaging effects of his [Aura Quickening], and to be able to keep using it for as long as he had the aura to self-heal and the HP to support it? It felt almost like cheating, but it seemed doable. And for a moment, the ramifications of the momentous discovery he'd just stumbled upon rooted him in place as the fight wore on.
This could change everything, Nar realized, staring in a daze as Eum and the ripper continued their snarling match, blow by blow match.
But first, he had to prove it was possible. Sure, he risked melting his brain to goo, and shredding his nerves and muscles apart in the attempt, but if his aura could keep his mind and body together… If his still precocious self-healing efforts could keep him moving…
Nar inhaled deeply, his nostrils filled with the dampness and the thousand and one scents of the jungle, and then he exhaled, his heartbeat slowing, his mind going quiet and ignoring that thundering pounding against his temples. The decision was made.
[Aura Quickening].
The battle slowed down to a much more manageable rate, as his skills flooded him with attributes.
Keep me healed, he instructed his aura, beginning the self-healing process not just on his mind, but across his entire body, focusing on wherever pain called out from the loudest, and imagining his aura moving in to deal with whatever was causing it.
Then he lowered forward… Lower… Aura flooding his bright weapon… And in an explosion of mud and vegetation, he blurred towards the ripper.
The creature heard him coming of course, and it tried to dodge him and his glowing blade, but Eum took advantage of that distraction to stab at its leg, and Nar had the opening he needed to slice across the beast's back. The bulky, buff reaper's massive HP absorbed most of the damage as it kept its spine from being severed, but Nar's aura seeped through its black, green and purple shimmering scales, and he grinned as his [Lingering Aura] took root and went to work.
The beast howled in shock and pain as Nar's aura glowed from the shallow cut, pushing and burning deeper into its flesh and sapping his HP, and at last, Nar's aggro took hold.
"Good one!" Eum panted from the beast's other side.
"I'll hold its aggro from now on! You DPS!" Nar said, and he triggered [Aura Quickening] again.
Once more, the dungeon slowed down around him, the very sound of the distant, main fight in the loentu nest fading from his senses as he zeroed in on the ripper. His mind screamed as agony laced through his brain and slammed against the top of his spine, reverberating across his nerves, but Nar shrugged it off with practiced ease, and only urged his aura to heal him faster, allowing more of it to spill from his aura bar.
His pathways blazed within him, leaving traces in the dark jungle, and the effect was surprisingly immediate. Though it wasn't a great decrease in the pain that burned within him, it was enough that in that split-second before he needed to dodge the ripper's claws, he knew he had been right.
It works… Fucking Crystal. It works! He thought, a startled laugh pushing past his lips.
There was no more blurriness to the ripper or Eum's movements either, as his [NPC] was boosted and parsed all the data streaming in through his senses with pinpoint accuracy, and if he wasn't faster than them, at the very least, he could now match their pace.
But let's see if we can go faster! Nar thought, the thrill of battle roaring through him as he leaned back away from the clawed slash that would have severed his head from his body.
And Nar danced with the rare beast, time vanishing into just those next ten seconds until he needed to call for his [Aura Quickening] again and again.
Tys was right about that pain resistance training, he thought idly, as his sword spread another bright cut of [Lingering Aura] into the beast's flesh. Without mastering pain, one cannot fight to the utmost of their potential.
For he was healing, yes. But he was continuously tearing himself to pieces and then putting himself together just enough to keep going, and to stop it before the damage triggered catastrophic and cascading consequences within him. And even then, his sight sometimes blurred at the sheer pain and strain that his brain was being subjected to in order to stay conscious, let alone fight… And even as he watched his aura bar plummeting, he knew that he had stumbled upon something astounding.
It's always in pressure that one grows, Nar thought, idly. Whether that be the Pressure of the B-Nex, or the whisper of death every time he entered a dungeon.
"That's the spirit, Nar!" Eum roared, blood drenching him as he hacked away at the ripper with impunity. "Don't be shy and don't worry about me! Match me, Nar! Come on! I know you can do even more!"
Even more? Nar thought, grinning. Well, I have been working on a little something…
He prepared an [Aura Blade], pushing 500 points of aura into it, his eyes aiming for the beast's heart. Now that he was close and fast enough, he could finally attempt without risking Eum too much.
Try and absorb this.
And he unleashed his [Aura Blade], though not in a slash as he always did… No, this time he thrust the sword forward, and a line of thick aura burned into reality.
The ripper howled in agony as the solid, sharp beam of aura ground against its HP, screeching to break through and reduce his heart to a smoking ruin. But the ripper was smart, and knowing himself outmatched, he dashed away from the attack, and Nar's [Aura Blade] went streaking into the distant canopy above them, a solid line of aura that for a moment turned the dark jungle into a proper day.
"Yes, Nar! Yes!" Eum shouted, launching his own [Primal Claws of Carnage] at the beast and scoring long lines of red, bloody aether across its scales.
Wish I could've tried chasing it with my blade, but Eum's here, Nar thought, and so he let go of it, allowing the line of aura to explode, the shockwaves shaking the vegetation and loosening a torrent of droplets from the canopy above.
Still, laughter bubbled out of Nar's chest, shaking him, as he watched EUm's battle joy, and for that moment, he forgot all about the B-Nex, his dad, the barred Gates, his guilt and the darkness consuming him from inside.
In that moment, he simply was, and his entire being roared with the thrill of the fight and of the despair to stay alive! To push himself beyond his limits! To drive himself ever harder and harder as he erased anything that dared to stand in his way! And still laughing, he triggered another [Aura Quickening] and chased after the beast.
The tide had turned, and the two sides were now much more evenly matched. Perhaps even tipping towards the two battle crazed delvers.