For a long time now, Lev had wondered what he would do against a vulture. The name implied that the monster was opportunistic and that it wouldn’t show up unless it could swoop in for the kill.
His revealed aura changed that. Not only was there just one vulture, but another really strong monster was approaching his location rapidly. As much as he wanted to take his time, the fight had to end in less than two minutes, which was still a long time for his Perception.
Next to him, Beatrice’s face had gone cold and white like ice. Her eyes, however, stared at the vulture through the powered armor’s visor with undisguised hatred, fear, and smugness. She knew that what Lev could do when he put his mind to it, and he had no plans to hold back.
The timer began with Beatrice overloading her buffs. Lev’s Intelligence increased by another 25% or so, and even his regeneration saw a significant increase. Her aura also momentarily went out of control, betraying how strenuous keeping up the buffs was.
Lev patted her on the shoulder once before he dropped out of the bubble. Monstrous eyes landed on him instantly, the vulture screeching upon finding its prey in an early celebration. Too early, if he had any say in it.
The vulture’s wings flapped towards him in unison. Twin slashes formed along their trajectory, and Lev made a split-second decision. If they were allowed to go on, both slashes would land too close to the humans facing the ants and the wave.
Stargazer’s blade shone bright as it was swung, releasing a horizontal Fracturing Wave. The three collided somewhere high above him as he dove downwards, charging the monster that had the same idea.
Feathers trembled as a truck-load of lightning mana was channeled through the vulture’s body. Too far away, Lev tried to stop the process with projectiles, only for another set of twin slashes to take down all of his lances.
The active skill reached completion after another second. Tiny darts of lightning bloomed all over the monster just as it opened its mouth.
Lev was already backtracking, infusing his armor with as much lightning as possible. He shot away like a blue blur, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough. Shieldwall after shieldwall shattered in front of him as the monster roared, all two dozen smashed through by a condensed sonic attack.
It slowed down the attack ever-so-slightly, giving him a chance to launch another Fracturing Wave. The slash sheared through a quarter of the sound beam before exploding, still leaving a decent chunk of it that smashed into Lev’s armor.
Fortunately, the absorption enchantments on his armor negated a large portion of the attack, and the rest was powered through by the resilience. Unfortunately, Lev was buried deep underground by the raw strength of the sonic attack.
An uncontrolled wave of lightning blasted away the debris covering him, letting him see the full might of a third-threshold monster’s active skill in all its glory.
The sky darkened as hundreds of lightning darts descended upon his position. Clicking his tongue, Lev called the bubble holding Beatrice closer and unfurled all the ropes coiled around it.
Blue fire and lightning imbued his armor in equal measure. A single step, and he surged forward faster than he could control, avoiding a large chunk of the falling projectiles.
Above him, ropes spread out like a net, coursing through the air and catching as many of the darts as possible. All of the ones that went through were dodged with calculated movements, made manageable by Dance of the Elements.
Kinetic energy flowed smoothly to aid his movements, empowered by lightning to increase his speed even further. Blue fire was the fuel that started it all, rendering each of his dodges explosive and almost too fast.
Combined, he weaved through each bolt. That wasn’t to say it was easy. No, he had to give it his all to not get hit, and even then, one of the bolts clipped him on the shoulder.
The barrier armor over it was smashed to bits immediately, which also wasted all of the angry lightning that tried to dig deeper. It fizzled out, only succeeding in disintegrating the broken shards.
Lev hastily fixed the pauldron, glad that none of the important enchantments had been hit. The few that were damaged were repaired instantly, just as he escaped the limits of crackling rain.
My turn.
Hundreds of lightning arrows rushed towards the monster. It gave the projectiles an almost scornful glance, flapping up as if offended.
Except, it couldn’t. The vulture slammed into Beatrice’s barrier. Arrows landed on its body by the dozens, doing no damage but disorienting it with the sheer amount.
An angry screech dispersed the flames in a wide sonic attack. The monster dove, intent on tearing Lev apart, but he was nowhere to be found.
Shadow mana ran out a few moments later. He appeared above the monster’s neck. Stargazer was dodged by the barest of margins as the beast reacted faster than he could see.
Lightning roared into its sharp beak. Knowing what was to come, he reversed Stargazer’s direction, bringing it up just in time to smash into the underside of the beak that accelerated as a blur.
The glaive’s blade shattered, but it had done its job. With hundreds of kilograms behind that strike, it had dug into the bone while also pushing it off-course.
Lev pushed his left hand into the cut, his arm digging in until it wrapped around a fleshy tongue. Immediately, lightning tried to sear into his limb, only to be overpowered by an overloaded blue fireball.
A massive shockwave launched him towards the ground, blinding even his Perception skills. Pain overloaded his mind from the countless burns.
Stunned and injured, Lev still didn’t miss the lack of notifications. Healing mana cleared his mind after a few seconds, just in time to see a vulture-shaped missile rocketing towards him.
Raising his right arm, a lightning bolt rushed towards the monster. It didn’t even try to dodge, which was a mistake. The shattered beak easily provided all the opening for the lightning bolt to latch onto, digging into the blood and body without slowing down the monster.
Shieldwalls arrayed themselves in front of its trajectory, but it was of no use. In a blink, the monster was on top of him, talons rending air and lightning bolts tearing craters in the ground, leaving him no choice but to use the latest constructs in his arsenal.
From the bubble hovering two hundred meters above ground, chains appeared. They dove with the bubble, slithering in from all directions.
Unlike the previous chains with simple formations, these constructs were modified a great deal more. As thick as Lev himself, each link of the chain had its edges sharpened to the extreme. Spiritual Harmony allowed him to carve tiny runes on each link, turning the already useful constructs into something far deadlier.
Augmented by Kinetic Enhancement, Sharpness formations, and durability, the chains tore through the air at immense speed while Lev tried to keep the monster occupied.
As expected, as long as he was on the ground, the vulture also stayed grounded. Wings tried to smash him to paste, cracking the ground wherever they impacted.
Fireball and lightning bolts constantly peppered the monster, not doing much damage but angering it further. Lightning erupted from its talons, carving grooves through the dirt in a bid to bisect him.
Without Stargazer, he couldn’t hope to block or deflect them. Instead, shieldwalls were sacrificed in droves, each slash cutting through three of them.
Dance of the Elements kept him on his toes, absorbing all the resulting blasts through enchantments. Shockwaves deepened the reserves of kinetic energy in his armor, whereas lightning and fire were immediately used to infuse it.
Shadow mana was teleported to a few orbs, once again hampering the monster’s Perception as they exploded into blue flames. Each explosion rendered its moves ineffective, stopping a charge or a bite.
Lances from above tried to damage its feathers, except they were ruthlessly targeted by lightning darts. Each of those tiny projectiles moved as if guided by the vulture individually, smashing into the lances and blowing them up.
After the third such ruined barrage, Lev turned the waste into an opening. Large disks, invisible and positively drowning in shadow mana to keep them unnoticeable, targeted the feathers.
Two of them soundlessly sheared through a few before the monster realized something was wrong. The chains were almost there by then, and that was when things started to go wrong.
It looked up and erupted with massive amounts of lightning. Barrier after barrier, both from Lev and Beatrice, were easily smashed through as it flew higher, which left one option.
The bubble plummeted like a meteor. Beatrice jumped out of it at the last second, forming a barrier platform to float away and wait for her opportunity.
A loud bang originated from the collision. The vulture’s already shattered beak was torn off completely as it failed to go through the bubble, and that sealed its fate.
Sharp, cruel chains wrapped around it from all sides. The monster charged its wings with lightning, but disks cleaved through even more feathers, ruining any chance of smooth flight. Its cries of anger turned into agony when the chains tightened, each link digging into the flesh and drawing blood.
Lev knew that it wouldn’t last. With one last infusion of lightning into the chains, the element rushed into the vulture’s vulnerable inside, doing little damage but stunning it for a brief moment.
That was the culmination of his patience and hard work. Killing the monster would’ve been easier and faster if he had pulled out all stops, but hearing Beatrice’s war cry as she beheaded the vulture was the ultimate reward.
Stargazer went through flesh with ease, and Beatrice’s momentum from the drop was enough to snap all the bones. The sound was like music to Lev’s ears, and he happily caught the plummeting aura mage with a rope when the deed was done.
Silence returned to the battlefield, disturbed slightly by distant sounds of battle. They needed to return immediately to help with the ants, but Beatrice was having a moment. Lev walked up to her with slow steps and put a hand on her shoulder, offering silent support.
She shook off the mess of emotions after a few seconds. With quick steps, she walked up to the severed head and spat on it after storing her helmet. Then she kicked off into the distance like a football before turning around, putting it out of her mind.
“Let’s go.”
Holding back chuckles was hard, but Lev managed. He recalled the bubble, noting how the unfortunate monster had somehow hit the Epic disk strapped to the underside of the construct. Little wonder it couldn’t punch through, and even worse, the shield was no worse for wear after the impact.
Beatrice toned down her buffs to half their maximum, taking a moment to rest her taxed willpower. They returned to the humans less than two minutes after leaving, during which they had downed a strong third-threshold monster. Lev checked his notifications on the way.
[
Your Group has slain [Earthen Burrower - Level 442]
…
Your Group has slain [Brown Soldier Ant - Level 255]
…
Your Group has slain [Stormrider Vulture - Level 597]
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 308
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 309
Wanderer’s Repository has reached 2nd Level 5
Dance of the Elements has reached 2nd Level 2
Trapping has reached 2nd Level 3
Trapping has reached 2nd Level 4
Trapping has reached 2nd Level 5
]
Two levels were great. The skill levels were a nice cherry on top, though the biggest reward was the new rune in his repository.
Lightning Surge.
It was… not a combat rune. Instead, it was a travel rune with a ridiculous level of usefulness. Essentially, the rune was a part of a skill that allowed the vulture to infuse its body with lightning and pretty much turn into a lightning bolt. Or at least, that was the impression he got from it. Little wonder the monsters got to him so quickly.
As a singular rune, the function was both similar yet immeasurably less potent. That was fine, however, because Lev had been looking for escape runes for a while now. Before the dungeon run, he wouldn’t have cared too much about them, but now?
He knew very well just how important the ability to retreat was in any battle. Going forward, more often than not, he would need to run away to plan better to prevail at a later date. That was already becoming the case, with each battle eating through his reserves of constructs at a depressing pace.
His thoughts ground to a halt when Beatrice handed back Stargazer. Lev took her back with a smile, searching the aura mage’s eyes for her mood.
“You can just ask.”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’!?”
He didn’t reply and just kept smiling to himself. She was hurting; that much was obvious, but the weight of her trauma wasn’t nearly as intense as he expected. Not anymore.
There weren’t any doubts in his mind about letting her finish off the monster before, but now, he was glad for his decision. Such closure was difficult to come by, and providing it for his friend made all the recklessness worth it.
Elation and smug satisfaction vanished when he returned to the real battlefield and found corpses. Hundreds upon hundreds of them.
Ants made up the overwhelming majority of them, except there were a few humans mixed in, too. The warrior with the broken leg was there, his face twisted in agony, and his guts spilled out. The fearful fire mage’s face was melted off by acid, the bones still sizzling.
Good mood thoroughly doused, Lev accelerated and rushed towards the fort. Most of the humans had already retreated behind the walls and were likely fighting underground, but a bulk of the ants were attacking from the surface.
Grand Strategist Wayne was also nowhere to be seen. That was not a good sign, especially because the strong aura Lev had noticed earlier was now moments away from reaching him.
It did not seem like a match he could win, not by himself.