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Chapter 40: Angels and Demons
🕑 Added 2022-12-21 18:20:34 +0000 UTCWe began our journey to the Barinruth Empire. First, we would go back to the Nymphs’ river to reorient ourselves, restock our water, and enjoy a bit of a rest inside the monster-calming aura of the Nymphs’ two-way empathy. And then, we’d start the trek to Kingdom’s Edge.
“Gonna be a long walk back to the river,” I said as we hiked through the forest. “Think we should figure out Angelic Shield on the way?”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t suggest that,” she laughed nervously. “But yeah, I guess.”
“Alright,” I hesitantly grabbed her forearm. “Do you need to do anything to turn it on?”
“No, it’s not Toggled or anything. I wouldn’t be able to shut it off, even if I wanted to.”
“Okay. Ready?”
She nodded.
Hoping for the best, I activated Noxious Grasp.
Immediately, right as the familiar mist floated from my fingertips, the spot I was touching on Erani’s arm began to glow. A soft white light shone from her skin where I was touching it, and I could feel it tangibly harden, like Angelic Shield was forming a physical wall preventing me from actually affecting her with my Spell. A bright matrix of wires covered her arm in neat lines, forming squares across the part of her skin I was touching.
After half a second, I deactivated the Spell.
You have struck Level 10 Human Sorcerer for 0 damage and drained 0 Stamina over the course of 0.6 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
2.26 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 493.
“Whew!” she shuddered, rubbing her arm. “That felt weird.”
Her arm’s glow slowly faded back to normal. The matrix of wires also faded away, seeming to sink back into her body.
“So it worked?” I asked.
“Yep. 9.3 damage prevented, minus 18.6 Mana.”
“Huh. Well, whenever I practice Noxious Grasp, I’ll just do it while I’m touching you. Sound good?”
“Yeah,” Erani held out her arm again, and I grabbed it.
We walked like that for some time. I would cast a small burst of Noxious Grasp occasionally, which would activate Erani’s Angelic Shield. The hard matrix of wires that manifested whenever I damaged her felt strange, like a soft forcefield.
One time, I accidentally cast for a bit too long, which broke the shield. She only took a small amount of damage, but that wasn’t what surprised us. Upon breaking, a loud shatter filled our ears as the magical threads covering her forearm spun apart and were flung into the air, dissolving after a couple seconds.
I apologized, embarrassed at my causing a scene. But we eventually got back to practicing after her Angelic Shield finished the cooldown following the break.
Within only a few minutes, her Spell rose to Rank 6, which was where her Soft Cap was at. At that point, the Spell could handle a bit over 25 damage before breaking, and it would only be offline for about 30 seconds in that situation. Not amazing by any means, but it was at least useful at this point. Lots of fights were won by means of many small attacks, not one huge burst of damage – hells, tiny increments of damage was normally how I killed anything.
Because of the frequent need for physical contact between us, we didn’t want to keep grabbing on and letting go over and over, so we just walked through the forest hand-in-hand. Occasionally, I’d tell her I was about to cast – she said she didn’t need any warning, but I felt bad just dropping it on her – and then activate Noxious Grasp for a second or so.
We acted like the hand-holding was just for the functionality of practice, but I couldn’t help smiling when she interlocked her fingers with mine. And I caught her blushing occasionally, too.
Luckily, the way Noxious Grasp worked, if the damage got prevented, the Stamina drain got prevented, too. It was good that Noxious Grasp worked that way, because if it always drained her Stamina, that’d be a problem. We probably wouldn’t be able to use Noxious Grasp to practice at all, and instead have to repeatedly stab her with a knife or something. That would be a bit more unfortunate to accidentally cause a break with.
At some point, we encountered another Wood Wraith. Instead of killing it immediately, Erani said she wanted to get some practice using Angelic Shield in live combat. So, I stepped back and let her handle it.
First, she shouted at the monster, and it immediately whipped its head around and made eye contact with her. She didn’t double over in nausea like normal, though. The signature glowing matrix of Angelic Shield spread around her eyes and face, protecting her from the poisonous glare.
This didn’t dissuade the Wood Wraith, though. Seeing its glare attack did nothing, it charged forward, its mouth wide and ready to bite into Erani. She stepped to the side, but she wasn’t as experienced with close combat as she was with ranged, and while she dodged the bite, she left herself open for a claw swipe.
The beast scratched its claws against her leg, but again, the glowing wires formed around her skin, protecting her from damage. She stood her ground, completely unfazed by the force of the strike, as though she hadn’t been touched at all. The Wood Wraith, on the other hand, tripped over itself and fell on its face, expecting to knock her aside with its strike instead of hitting an immovable wall.
Erani stood and waited for the monster to get to its feet. It was obviously furious at this point, and charged at her again. This time, she took a step back, readying herself. Right when the beast got close, she turned, pivoting on one leg, and kicked the monster in its mouth. This would have worked perfectly, but she was still a bit slow, and it managed to turn its head just in time for her to kick her shin into its open mouth.
The monster was still knocked aside from her attack, but I heard a shatter and saw bright strings fly from her legs. It seemed the damage on her leg was too great for the Spell.
“Agh,” Erani grunted, bending over to hold her shin. “Okay, enough practice.”
She pointed her hand at the monster and unleashed a barrage of Explosive Firebolts, immediately killing the Wood Wraith.
“That was enlightening,” she said as she shook the battle jitters from her body.
“Think you’re getting the hang of it?”
“The real trouble is trying to figure out how much damage something’s going to deal before it even hits me.”
“Hm. Guess it’ll just take practice.”
“Yeah. Killer headache, too.”
“Oh, this is your second ever Spell, right? Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s way harder to train a new Spell than it is to train the ones you have experience with.”
“Hopefully it fades quickly,” she sighed. “I was just starting to get used to Firebolt.”
“Well, the only way to get rid of the headache is by practicing more,” I laughed.
“Yeah, yeah.” She walked over and grabbed my hand again, smiling. I smiled too.
It was another few hours before we finally got to a place I recognized as being near the river. At that point, Noxious Grasp’s Spell XP was at 271/355, and my Health had risen a bit more, up to 166/210. Erani’s Angelic Shield hadn’t quite gotten to Rank 7, but it was close.
“So, Sorcerer Classes get a Spell Strengthening every second Level, right?” I asked as we walked, hand-in-hand. “How does that work when you have multiple Spells?”
“Oh, so whenever I get a Strengthening, I choose one of my two Spells, and it gets a free Rank without getting any more expensive to get its next Rank. Wish it affected both Spells, but unfortunately I can only pick one.”
“So which are you gonna choose, then?”
“Probably sticking with Firebolt, for now. It doesn’t matter as much for us right now, since getting Firebolt to Rank 20 or Angelic Shield to Rank 10 won’t give me an Upgrade – I don’t have any Spell Crystals – but we might end up coming across some way to get them in the future, so I want to stick with the books, and the books say that improving my main way of dealing damage is the best play here.”
While we were approaching the river, I listened carefully for the sound of rushing water through our conversation. That way, we would know when we were getting close and could head toward the sound. But as we got closer and closer, a different sound came to my ears. Well, I also heard the river, but another sound was louder. The sound of fighting. Thrashes, crashes, and slashes were being thrown through the forest from the direction of the stream. Erani met my eyes.
Part of me wanted to flee in the opposite direction. But I also needed to know what was going on. If it was a group of Infernals, we would need to go in a large radius around them in order to avoid any other Infernal groups that could be nearby. But if it was just some random animals fighting each other, we could wait the fight out and cut through like normal. Besides, if the Infernals were fighting so ferociously, what could they be fighting against?
Erani seemed to arrive at the same conclusion. We slowly crept forward, keeping our senses sharp for anything that might attack us. Sneaking through the wood, we eventually saw the familiar sight of the river we slept at poke through the trees. And next to the river was the source of the sound.
On the riverside were the two Nymphs we’d befriended, beaten and battered, fighting against a trio of Infernals. As I watched, I realized they weren’t just fighting against the three Infernals. Hellions burst from the ground throughout the fighting, attacking the Nymphs anytime they left their guards down. Thankfully, the Hellions were the normal-sized kind – only three or four paces long and a bit wider than my thigh – but they were still dangerous.
The Nymphs fought valiantly, and it seemed like they were truly giving the Infernals a struggle. I could see each of the hulking Demons leaking blue blood from their many wounds, and even the Hellions, occasionally bursting from underground to ambush the Nymphs, were cut up in places. The shorter Nymph struck out with its whip, fighting from a distance and never letting the Demons close, and the taller one, with its long claws, was moving from enemy to enemy, stabbing and slicing and fighting for its life.
However, despite their brave efforts, they were losing. The shorter Nymph couldn’t keep all of the Demons back with its single whip, and constantly had to move back, getting chased by the Infernals, and the clawed Nymph had obviously taken a few hits. Due to the severe disadvantage both in numbers and in raw power, it was obvious that the Nymphs would lose this fight. They’d be slaughtered.
However…
I’ll admit, it was a greedy thought. I remembered the amount of XP I’d gotten from the Infernal Erani and I had killed in the past. A single one was enough to Level me up. And here were three badly damaged Infernals, and two extra allies to help me kill them. I had Time Loop back from the night’s passing, so even if we died in the process, the XP gained could very well be worth it.
I’ll also admit I was remiss to let the Nymphs die. They’d let us stay with them for safety, and even given us a parting gift. And if I just stood by to allow them to be killed by the hands of an enemy that I brought here in the first place… Well. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
A Hellion burst from the ground, chomping into the leg of one of the Nymphs – the shorter one with the whip. Before it could bite the Nymph’s leg clean off, though, the other Nymph – the taller one with the claws – dashed forward and sliced at the giant worm. It screeched and let go, burrowing back into the earth. But the distraction allowed one of the Infernals to lumber up behind the clawed Nymph and swing its hand out in a gigantic, powerful backhand, striking the Nymph and launching it backward into a tree. The Infernal took another step forward, now bearing down on the shorter Nymph, which was still nursing the wound in its leg. The giant Demon raised its fists high, preparing a smash to end the Nymph’s life…
I couldn’t let it happen.
Thinking quickly, I raised my hand and fired a Ray of Frost at the attacking Infernal.
You have struck Level 26 Infernal for 47 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 26 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.
22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 472.
The moment it connected and applied its effect, I cast Crippling Chill on the same target.
You have cursed Level 26 Infernal with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 6.38 Health and 5.1 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 12.8.
50.9 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 422.
Even against a monstrous threat like the Infernal, the stacking Dexterity debuffs caused it to stumble and slow, giving the Nymph the time needed to get to its feet and scramble away from the monster. The Infernal turned toward the source of the newfound curses, looking straight into my eyes, and roared in rage.
Erani grabbed my arm. “Are we seriously fighting them?”
“We have to at least try.”
Seeming to understand my resolution, Erani nodded.
And we charged.
