Aster Loka
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Chapter 159
🕑 Added 2022-07-02 20:27:58 +0000 UTCLevi highly doubted that ever before had anyone constructed a pair of anti-soul-seeker goggles out of a pair of Destruction tokens and a shadevine. And... to be entirely honest, there was probably a good reason for that.
While elemental dungeon tokens were vaguely translucent, they also glowed. It strained his eyes to try to peer beyond the mana-saturated token, and shadevine's branching body twisted around his eyes and the side of his head made him feel vaguely claustrophobic and restrained. But he could at least make out the vague shape of things, and it mitigated the instinctive unease of being in the dark.
For a dozen heartbeats he kept his eyes down, staring at the floor through the glowing orange haze of Destruction power as he tried to work up the courage to look up.
"If it gets through, cover my eyes. The first sign it's influencing me..."
Shadevine flexed his currently-goggle-shaped body in acknowledgment.
Still, even knowing he had a backup plan Levi found himself hesitating to actually follow through.
Memories of his first encounter with a soul-seeker rose up viscerally. The vision of the Demon Lord Vorish grinning at him across a blood-splattered room, casually snacking on Peter's severed fingers…..
Even though it had only been an illusion he knew the memory would never fully leave him. He had no desire to see what horrors this one had in store for him, yet the only way to test his creation was to take the risk.
"This is important."
Skarm put a comforting hand on Levi's knee. With one last deep breath, Levi lifted his head and met the soul-seeker's eye.
It hovered no more than three feet away, gaze focused directly on Levi as though daring him to blink.
He nearly leaped back in alarm, but his discipline was too strong for that. Instead his swords came up in a double slash that scored across the rubbery texture of the giant eye. It reared back in a blur of movement that Levi couldn't quite track through the interference of the token's glow. Something slammed into him, sending him stumbling backward.
But it had worked.
Levi closed his eyes and backed up a bit, reaching in his bag for the beast-sight lens. "Round two."
Shadevine lifted himself from Levi's face, letting him slip the lens over his eye, then re-sealed the tokens in place overtop.
This time, when Levi opened his eyes it was to a world weirdly distorted by the multiple views. The landscape was hazy and orange, while all the living creatures stood out in vivid clarity.
The two Soul-Seeker bosses hovered about at eye level, one drifting around Gordon at a safe distance just beyond reach of his weary swings, the other glaring at Levi with half its tendrils covering the gashes on its injured pupil.
Four more Mirror Sprites hovered by the ceiling, and a dozen or so glitterlings hid scattered around the room, biding their time. Shadevine's presence was overpowering, completely blocking any peripheral vision and not lessening the feeling of claustrophobia in the least. Levi had to turn his head to get a view of Gordon and Skarm, mentally noting their relative locations before turning back to the bosses.
He couldn't read the stat screen to see the boss's health percentage through the tokens, the same mana density that blocked the soul-seekers' gaze also blocked him from accessing their system information, but the ability to clearly perceive the relative position of all nearby living things was one hell of an advantage compared to fighting blind.
The tables had turned. Now they could make some real progress.
"This way."
Gordon followed Levi's voice and together they advanced on the two soul-seekers. The twin bosses continued to stare them down but backed away, drifting in reverse as they maintained their distance.
Skarm ran off to one side to try and flank the massive eyeballs, but the one he targeted only hovered higher as the gremlin approached, staying well out of reach.
They were cautious. Content to play the slow game rather than risk themselves.
Well. That would work out fine too.
"Wait here. Be ready to attack when I say, but conserve your strength until then. I'm going to try something."
Gordon nodded and stopped following. Levi ran at the nearest soul-seeker, screaming wordlessly and flailing his swords wildly as though in a desperate final attack. He didn't use any stamina or mana, just wearing himself out visibly as he tried futilely to reach the hovering eye. It grew harder and harder to resist the instinct to pull in stamina to refresh himself, but maintaining the part was essential.
He kept going until the eye guided his path over a rift in the floor. He jumped, but fell just short of clearing the pit and slammed his shin into the edge, falling flat on his face. He lay there, panting for breath, too tired to get to his feet. He flopped over onto his back, staring up at the approaching soul-seekers with a blank and hopeless gaze.
And approach they did. Mirror sprites descended from the ceiling to accompany their masters, the light in the area twisting and shifting as Tink's temporary control was subverted once again, but the Beast-Sight lens was not so easily deceived. While the terrain may shift and Levi saw faint double-images of creatures in places they weren't through the orange destruction haze in one eye, the other remained clear and unmistakable.
It was all he could do to hold back a triumphant smile. The soul-seeker was closing in, tendrils raised, ready to grab him while its minions finished off its weakened prey.
It closed the distance slowly, remaining cautious to the last. Levi made a cursory attempt at slashing one of the illusions that came near, then let his hand fall back to his side as though too weary to continue. If not for the steady refill of stamina, he really would have been too weary to fight on. But as it was...
The soul-seeker lunged in a sudden attack, closing in so fast Levi was almost too slow to react. Three of its tendrils snaked around his body, one grabbing for his throat, the others for his legs, ready to wrap him up tighter than a constrictor.
But Levi was waiting for this. The instant his enemy moved, he surged stamina through his body to reinvigorate himself and focus his movements. He dropped his Destruction sword and grabbed the tendril aiming for his throat, seizing it in a stamina-enhanced grip.
"Gotcha."
The soul-seeker reared back, trying to gain distance, but Levi wound its tendril around and around his arm, pulling it in closer like a fish on a line.
The mirror sprites dove for him, intent on freeing their master.
"Skarm!"
The gremlin ran over, eyes still closed, following Levi's voice.
"Up." Levi crouched, dragging the soul-seeker down with him, and held out his other arm. Skarm jumped, using Levi's arm as a springboard. He flew over the top of the soul-seeker's spherical form, dropping just enough to use it as another stepping stone, then hurling himself into the group of approaching sprites.
Levi's aim wasn't perfect, and Skarm was fighting blind, but the gremlin had plenty of skills to help him do damage in those brief moments he was in range, before he started to fall. Lashing out with his claws, he raked destructive slashes across three of the sprites, knocking one from the air entirely, leaving the others with injuries. Tink flew after him, shifting his attention to The fourth evaded him entirely, diving at Levi instead.
"I'll get back to you later," Levi told the soul-seeker, as he instead stabbed at the descending sprite with his shortsword.
The sprite danced out of the way, wings fluttering madly. It wasn't able to move fast enough to escape the spectral beast jaws that snapped shut on its body. Levi swung it down toward the ground, its frantic flapping making it feel like he was dragging the sprite through water rather than air. But struggle as it might, his strength was more than sufficient to slam it to the floor, after which he stomped on it several times in quick succession until it fell still.
Then he turned his attention back to the soul-seeker he still gripped around his other arm. It had shifted its focus, aiming now at Skarm, but the gremlin was still fighting obediently blind, responding to Levi's commands instead of relying on his senses. It did mean he'd not made much progress while Levi's attention was elsewhere, standing in a crouch and slashing with his claws at the air above him while the sprites hovered well out of reach. But that wouldn't remain the case for long.
Levi shifted his angle, dragging the soul-seeker around with him like an overfilled balloon, positioning it just right...
"Skarm, jump towards me. Horn out."
Skarm grinned, and leaped.
As though in response to the danger to their master, the mirror sprites pushed a flickering illusion into the space between Levi and the soul-seeker. It made the view out his other eye almost useless, but against the gremlin it was no use. Skarm slammed horn first, claws out, into the backside of the floating lidless eyeball.
Comments
The Lost Pages
Thanks for the chapter
The Lost Pages
Lol @Undead.
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter!!
Undead Writer
MUHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAH!! The undead is at the top once more!!
Undead Writer
FIRST!!!
