NOVEL NEXT 25. Damage Types
25. Damage Types
Ashvanaga the living castle rumbled onto the pink desert at top speed. The sandstorm billowed around it imperiously, somehow enhancing the menace of its architecture. Serac and Zacko nevertheless sprinted head-first into the storm, both intuiting that this boss fight would be as much a race as a contest of might.
The Rakshasa dealt the opening salvo, unloading an entire cylinder as fast as her Stamina would allow. It was a tough ask. No matter who or what she'd been in a previous life, she had little experience of sprinting and aiming a six-shooter at the same time. Good thing then that her target was big—as all six of the unimbued bullets found their mark.
[61!], [61!], [61!], [61!], [61!], [61!] -> [366!]
After all that, Vetala's and Ashvanaga's shared Health bar went down by only about a tenth. Pathetic damage! Yet it only made sense for a boss with castle walls as its main line of defense to boast high Physical Mitigation.
More disturbing than Ashvanaga's high defense, however, was that six clean hits hadn't been enough to Poise-break it. The castle rumbled on unimpeded, with Serac none the wiser as to how to slow it down. Yet it also made sense that being a freaking castle would come with stupidly high Poise.
Physical couldn't make a dent, but Serac had another damage type to try. Sprinting and reloading at the same time was another tricky skill she had to master on the fly. But, for this next experiment, she only needed the one Cartridge to sit for her.
[Chamber One: CATHARSIS]
On the back of [152!] in self-damage, REVOLVER's black flames of penitence found its target easily enough. It then dealt… only [37!] points of damage. And Serac's disappointment was immeasurable, as her whole attack fizzled out after just one hit.
It finally happened—that suboptimal scenario Trippy Version One had warned her about. [Catharsis] had hurt Serac more than it'd hurt her enemy!
So… the Infernal Steed's castle walls were even more impervious to Infernal damage than to Physical. Not only that, but it was also flame-repellent to boot, cutting out [Catharsis] before the spell could complete its three-stage arson. Good to know, but Serac was quickly running out of options.
"There must be a weak spot!" Zacko shouted even as he sprinted to keep up with the boss. He was the more experienced of the two Wayfarers, and his mind had been churning as fast as his feet. "Gotta slow this thing down long enough for us to find it. Follow my lead!"
Without waiting for a reply, the NINEFOLD master leapt forward, extending his legs full-stretch as he sprang himself ahead of the living castle.
[Auxiliary Technique: THE EIGHTH DAO—LANCE]
Follow your lead? How am I supposed to follow that? Even as Serac grumbled inwardly, she picked up her pace, burning a big chunk of her Stamina in an effort to match Zacko's burst of speed. She didn't have any fancy hiyah moves with which to propel herself, but she could run like her life depended on it.
Just as Serac was about to catch up to Zacko, the Manusya spun in place to face Ashvanaga head on. He then lowered his shoulder and tackled the castle, right at the base of its front wall.
[Auxiliary Technique: THE FIFTH DAO—PAULDRON]
A resounding clash of man versus stone. Ashvanaga and its entire structure came to a complete halt, held back by a Manusya and his NINEFOLD-sculpted shoulder.
"Hurry!" Zacko screamed in a strained voice, even as his veins popped and his sallow skin reddened. "Find that fucking weak spot and hit it!"
Good thing that Serac's mind too had been churning as fast as her Stamina had been draining.
Ashvanaga the castle proved to be as impenetrable as it looked, but Pathsight had classified it as a Steed. That meant someone still needed to ride it. Someone needed to hold its reins.
A pair of glinting eyes yet stared out of a slit upon the castle's front wall. By now, Serac had a pretty good idea to whom those eyes belonged. And on this occasion, those eyes also served as a convenient marker—a bullseye to indicate the boss's 'weak spot'.
With Zacko holding the fort (literally), Serac had the time to aim, lock, and fire. The second bullet in a fresh cylinder found its mark, right through the slit and between Vetala's eyes.
[111!]
That was REVOLVER's Base Attack Value, unmitigated. A marked improvement over the preceding attempts, but nowhere near enough to finish the fight. Serac wanted to try [Catharsis] again, this time against Vetala the Ferryman's mitigation profile. But she first needed to cycle through REVOLVER's chambers to rearm the spell, and that needed more shooting, and more shooting needed—
[111!], [111!], !, !, !
—more Stamina, which she didn't have! Too much running, too much shooting, and too much frenetic reloading had completely messed with Serac's awareness to manage her Stamina. With the now empty green bar flashing its warning, she was forced to wait. Precious Ksanas slipped away—Ksanas that weakened a NINEFOLD master's resolve and emboldened his enemies.
"Ugh!"
Serac looked up in alarm. At the castle's base, Zacko reeled and bled profusely, skewered as he was by multiple javelins. Up in the battlements above, several laughing Jailers now peered over the parapets, clearly pleased with their handiwork.
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Serac and Zacko had taken too long to find and exploit the boss's weak spot. The fight itself had transitioned from a race into a pure contest of might—one in which the Wayfarers were outnumbered and outclassed.
With a thirsty roar of shifting stone and churning metal, the castle resumed its rumbling march. Zacko's stance broke completely as he was run over—only the latest of puny souls to be subsumed into Ashvanaga's history of bloodshed and domination.
"N—!" Serac tried to scream in horror, momentarily forgetting the impermanent nature of her companion's death. But she didn't even have the time to finish her scream, before she too was dragged under the whole weight of a living castle.
And her last thought before she was ground into Souldust: wow, this is at least a thousand times worse than the Pulverizer.
The incorporeal cloud that used to be Serac Edin wafted into the air, momentarily mixing with Ashvanaga's sandstorm before breaking through to the scarlet sky above. From her new (and fleeting) vantage point, she observed the castle's irrepressible march toward its destination. But her waning attention was soon drawn to a movement further back in the desert.
A lone, puny figure—a Rakshasa man, to be exact—moved at speed, or as fast as his weakened legs could carry him. The man ran from the direction of Last Sorrow, and he didn't stop until the sandstorm he'd been chasing faded into the distance, long out of reach.
And even as the last of Serac's consciousness dissolved into the Interstitium, she didn't fail to note the man's features, striking and visible even from the sky above. Chief among them was a pair of bleeding onyx horns, chipped and broken from a whole week of head-bashing.
***
The Ferryman had already doubled back and crossed the Canyon by the time Serac and Zacko reconstituted at the Hubstation. They were so informed by a somewhat remorseful Ravi, who also expressed his utmost surprise upon learning the true nature of the Infernal Steed hitherto veiled by sandstorms—namely a living castle, rather than an animal that might be persuaded to switch allegiances.
Yet the Wayfarers had already decided—by unspoken agreement—that there would be no change to their plans. Whether conquering Vetala-Ashvanaga might lead to solving the Fibrinous Canyon was no longer the foremost concern. Because a boss had soundly kicked their ass, which meant they couldn't rest until they returned the favor tenfold.
Using 'historical data' collected by Last Sorrow's oldest resident, they could forecast the approximate timing of the Ferry's next arrival. Having just finished a delivery, the Ferryman and his Steed were unlikely to return for at least another month, perhaps even longer.
Thus, the first roadblock in Serac's Wayfaring journey became a veritable hiatus, spent in the monotony of Fiend-hunting as well as the dour company of sorrowful Penitents. Forget becoming Frenzied. She very well might've died of boredom, were it not for her burning desire for revenge and the corresponding need to level up—and to do so smartly.
"Permission to speak freely, Wayfarer."
"Permission granted."
"I've taken the liberty of analyzing your failed attempt to smite [VETALA—Ferryman of the Desolation] and have identified three key areas for improvement. Permission to—"
"Yes, yes. Go ahead, Trippy."
"First is Stamina management. The mobile nature of Vetala's Infernal Steed necessitates a high rate of Stamina expenditure throughout the encounter. My recommendation would be to sufficiently boost your Max Stamina in preparation for the next attempt, which you can do by—"
"By leveling [Abidance]. I know. What are the other two areas?"
"Second is your approach to the fight itself. While Vetala and his Steed share the same total HP, the bulk of their combined form is taken up by the Steed and its high Physical and Infernal Mitigation. These, unfortunately, happen to be the only two damage types currently at your disposal. The way you initially approached the fight—mostly by focusing on the Steed—was highly inefficient, but that also means there's much to be gained from—"
"From honing in on the 'weak spot'—Vetala himself. Is that what you were going to say?"
"Well, not exactly, no. This actually leads naturally into my third point, which is the role of your Manusya companion."
"Zacko? What do you mean? He was doing his thing, right? 'Drawing aggro' and creating openings for me to exploit? I mean, that's how we won our last boss fight against Mr Jackass."
"I don't disagree, Wayfarer. But as I understand it, your 'last boss fight' occurred while Zacarias Borges-Juventus was missing his Instrument."
Serac couldn't help but gasp.
Trippy Version Two was right, of course! In the week she'd spent beating up on easy mobs like the Flesh-fiend, she'd forgotten all about Zacko and his laughing Buddha mask. In fact, she knew next to nothing about VISAGE at all, despite the fact Zacko kept it clipped to his waist at all times.
"Come to think of it," she murmured, "it's strange that I've never seen him actually wear that mask."
"Not just strange, Wayfarer. I'd even go so far as to say it's irresponsible of him. VISAGE is an Erudite Instrument—capable, of course, of dealing Erudite damage. Unless we expect Vetala's Steed to possess universal mitigation, we definitely ought to test how it might fare against—"
"Wayfarer? A word?"
Just then, Serac's private conference was interrupted by someone who couldn't have known about the voice in her head. Pazu the head-basher now joined her by the Hubstation, lowering himself into a meditative stance to match hers. Serac half-expected him to bend over and start bashing his head right then and there, but at least on this occasion, the man appeared to have his self-punitive impulses under control.
He was, however, still in a plenty sorry state. His broken horns were a gruesome and painful sight for any soul to behold, let alone a Rakshasa who wore hers proudly. As much as Serac had sympathy for the man, she couldn't quite bring herself to enjoy his company, which was why it took her a while to compose her response. In the end, she settled on a curt and minimally polite: "Sure."
Pazu bowed his head slightly in a gesture of gratitude. Then his gaunt, embattled features were softened by a sheepish smile as he said, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you're not actually the Wayfarer I wished to speak to. It's just… I'm too ashamed to face him on my own. Do you… happen to know where the Manusya might be?"
"Zacko?" Serac raised an eyebrow. Whatever she might've expected Pazu's question to be, it certainly wasn't this. "You're in luck, because I was just about to go look for him myself. But… can I ask why you want to see him?"
After the two of you kind of tried to kill each other just the other day? Was left unsaid. And whether or not Pazu managed to read between the lines, his voice took on just a hint of defiance as he replied:
"I wish to ask Zacarias… if he might teach me how to fight."