Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Tactical Carnage

Another arrow flew towards me, but I didn't even try to sunder this one in two.

Even with the effects of [Spelldancer] buffing my movement speed for as long as I had my conjured blade in my hand, seeing an arrow well enough to chop into it mid-flight was a challenge large enough that I didn't want to commit to trying it twice if I didn't have to.

Instead, I dove to the side.

As I did so, my hand planted down firmly and a discrete flash of heat flared between my palm and the chilly, deadened earth.

Thanks to [Warmage] which cut the cost of all of my offensive spells by half, on top of the cost-mitigating effects that [Fire Manipulation] had on the majority of my magical skillset as well, I didn't really have to worry about running out of mana as long as I was smart.

And being smart was the keystone that a victory in a battle like this would be built upon.

I had to be tactical or I was risking my life and my friend's.

"Gwen? You still kicking? You blacked out there for a second," I sent the telepathic message as I rolled back to my feet.

As I moved, my eyes once again locked onto the spider-like archer from where he perched weightlessly upon an especially thick tree limb.

[Bonesilk Archer, Level 30.]

A growling came back through the telepathic link.

"I'm going to rip its legs off!" Gwen roared into my mind; the signal was mixed with a dull buzzing that I could only imagine was a carry-over from what must be a pounding pain in the panther's skull.

"That's the spirit," I said and dodged another arrow. "Just let me know if you need healing."

This time I didn't roll, however, I instead sidestepped and summoned a ball of fire into my palm.

Unfortunately, at the last moment, I was forced to once again aim the spell in the direction of the mage as another of her own spells perked my sensitive ears.

"I'm getting tired of being ganged up on, girl!" I messaged again to Gwen.

As I communicated with my familiar in the seconds between actions, I twisted my body and lobbed the fireball that had been meant for the archer directly at the mage instead.

And, for the second time, I was forced into a roll to evade her spell after letting off my own.

When my free hand touched the ground to guide my [Acrobatics] fueled dodge, my palm once more flared with the same red glow and my released magics settled into the dull dirt.

Gwen, meanwhile, sent telepathic flashes of her doing her best to hold off the massive spider she was facing down.

She was doing a good job, but was struggling to find an opening in the face of the monster's many angled and massive, though deceptively fast-striking, legs.

"What if I told you I ha--" my telepathic message was cut short by a searing pain in my calf.

I heard my panther companion roar in rage at my sudden spike of pain that I couldn't keep from flowing through our soul bond.

I fell to a knee under the weight of the arrow that had managed to pierce through my armor.

My [Flame Coat] burned away at the edges of the spidersilk projectile even as it drew my blood in a gush; unfortunately, my spell only appeared capable of eating away at the thickly wound layers of the arrow at an annoyingly slow rate.

You're just a waste of mana now, I thought as I deactivated the previously pivotal spell.

The blue fire spiraling around me faded off into the air.

My hand grabbed for the arrow, but not before another, smaller but sharper web-spike pierced into my ribcage. I heard my bones crack somewhat from the force as the spike spun to a stop inside my torso.

"Fuck!" I screamed and doubled over from the force of the strike.

The pain was a lot worse than that from the arrow.

The muscles in my punctured leg began to numb. I could feel my lungs bleeding; it was a wet, burning, panic inducing feeling that was quickly growing cold.

[You have been paralyzed.]

[You are bleeding internally. You will lose 2hp/sec.]

[+1 Poison Resistance.]

Oh great: poison--fucking--arrows!

My eyes were already spinning by the time the green-gold glow of [Accelerate Metabolism] flared around my free-hand.

I clenched my fist to allow my spell-bathed fingers to contact the non-enchanted flesh of my palm. My spell-altered mana flowed back into me through the point of contact and my heart began to thud violently to fight off the poison.

[+1 Poison Resistance.]

I started to stumble back to my hands and knees.

[+1 Poison Resistance.]

I almost made progress, before--

Another arrow smacked into my back.

I shuddered forward again.

My [Manapelt Armor] was doing a good job of reducing the damage to my health, but being turned into even a well-armored pincushion fucking hurt like a bitch.

Despite the overall damage to my health not yet being horrible, as least as long as I got around to solving the issue of my damaged lungs soon, I could still feel more poison seeping into my body from the new arrow.

My head felt like it was spinning in circles, both from the poison and my cure for it, as I rose to my feet defiantly even despite my pain.

To make matters worse, with it being neither fire-based or an offensive casting, [Accelerate Metabolism] was going to strain my mana stores if I had to keep it up for minutes on end.

Plus, all the fucking weaponized webs sticking out of my body were hardly pleasant.

I needed an alternative to--

My poison-dulled senses picked up on the familiar sound of another web-bolt.

My mind had been too addled by pain and poison to allow me to do anything but stand up; I hadn't properly tracked my enemies.

Time slowed as I turned my eyes to watch the spell flying directly towards my face.

This was going to be far worse than a normal hit.

The spell was inches from my face already.

I didn't have time to dodge.

My neck was already shifting to try to avoid the incoming spell, but it just wasn't going to happen.

Despite how much the System had strengthened my body, I didn't think my brain could be pierced clean through quite yet without it killing me. Not everything could be pure numbers and damage counters; reality had to factor in somewhere.

I only had one chance to save myself from a possibly lethal critical hit.

I had to have a solution and I had to have it now.

As my panicking mind ran through options, my legs carried me back in an instinctive and sluggish jump that was more of a stumbling trip; still, the movement was better than just standing still as it put just a little more space between me and the incoming magical attack coming my way.

My eyes flared a bright red, as my spell-aided body still fought to clear my poison-fueled double-vision.

The web-spike was only a half-second from contacting with me now. The sticky spear alternated between being one and being two as it spun in my adrenaline-slowed sight.

Unwilling to just die easily, mana surged from my core and pulsed down through my feet.

From the ground directly in front of me, a blast of thick fire erupted.

Unfortunately, as I watched the web-spike edging ever-closer to my face, I realized that no matter how much mana I had poured into the [Wall of Flame] that it would not reach the opposing spell in time to burn it up.

This was it, I was about to be skewered through the skull.

With the poison running through my veins, and with it not being a fire-based spell, I didn't have time to activate [Mana-Blink].

But, just as my mind was raging against the shock of certain death, a crack of thunder deafened my right ear at the same time as a shining flash of lightning half-blinded the same eye.

An impossibly large, four-legged body appeared in front of my own, with its front legs outstretched.

I watched as the panther's reaching claws, arcing with electricity, slashed through the web-spike.

The solidified webs flashed as my familiar's lightning-charged claws entered it, before it pulsed and then shattered under the invading touch of Gwen's explosive mana.

I caught my bodyweight on my aching, arrow pierced, calf.

Wincing in pain, I turned as quickly as I could towards the sound of an approaching arrow.

My lungs heaved in agony as I activated [Resolute Strike] which drained half of my Stamina in one go.

Despite the cost, which was the only way I could've hoped to move fast enough while being so beat up, my flaming blade shattered through the blitzing arrow that had been aimed directly at one of the unarmored spots on Gwen's thick neck.

I caught myself against the dying force of my ability-charged sword blow on my lead foot.

With a violent cough, I expelled a small mist of steaming blood into the night air from the exertion.

"Gwen, can you give me ten seconds?" I heaved.

Sweat and blood poured from my body in trails..

"Absolutely," the cat sent back without a single question or moment of hesitation.

Gwyneth roared. Being truly up close to the feline unleashing her thunder-charged shout, for the first time, my bones rocked inside my body against the force.

Another arrow came and another web-spike followed it, but they were shredded upon reaching the outer edges of the defiant shout's mystical soundwaves.

The sheer force of the roar rolled through the air and, even though I could feel the mana of the cat's spell purposefully not harming me, it was still suffocating in its thickness against my flesh.

Was Gwen stronger than me?

With no real time to dwell on that thought, I let my body collapse further down into a half squat, one hand supporting me against my exhaustion, as it had wanted to since I'd stood back up.

As I went down, I slammed my flaming sword's tip into the ground to free up both of my hands.

First order of business was the poisoned arrows, I could still feel them leaking a cold paralysis into my bloodstream.

I reached down to my calf and, with a unpleasant yank that I felt rending muscle, I removed the barbed and sticky arrow first.

Next came the arrow in my back. That one took a few more quick pulls to dislodge, but thankfully it hadn't suck too deeply past my armor.

[Cauterize Wounds] activated as almost second nature to stem the bleeding created from removing the arrows as I withdrew them from my flesh.

I moved on to firmly grasping both hands around the web-spike that had nicked my lungs.

"Fuck," I said as pain radiated through my bones just from touching it.

Knowing, I didn't have much time, I pulled with all my might in my best go at a clean removal.

My eyes bulged as I near instantly slapped my free-hand, now charged with [Healing Hands] against the now open wound.

I felt my punctured lung threaten to deflate, before my mana refilled and sealed it.

If I didn't have the numbing effects of the paralysis still coursing through my veins, I figured I very well might've passed out from the agony and stress.

I summoned a mana potion into my free hand and drank it. Followed by one more. Then a stamina potion.

As the potion's bottles dissolved into the air after their contents consumption, and the majority of my internal damage ebbed away, I pumped a last charge of [Accelerate Metabolism] through the hand I'd used to restore my lung.

The thundering of my heart gave me enough strength to stand just as Gwen's protective roar shook to an end.

"Are you alright?" Gwen communicated.

"Peachy," I said as my hand wrapped around the handle of my sword and removed it from the dirt, "you're a life-saver as always."

A purr came from Gwen followed by an emotional charge of worry. "Good. But it's catching back up."

I glanced over to the sight of a massive spider barreling at high speeds towards us. Chunks of exoskeleton were ripped from its huge legs, but it looked annoyingly alive enough.

[Frostblood Baron, Level 30.]

"How'd you even get it away from you?" I asked as I shifted my head out of the way of another arrow and then lobbed, yet another, fireball at the spider mage who had raised her hands in what appeared to be a different incantation than she'd yet used up to this point.

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"Teleported," Gwen said as she turned to slowly shift towards the spider once more.

"Smart, an oldie-goody," I said and then took a step in retreat, allowing me to see both the mage and the archer, and placing my back to Gwen's. "Can you hold this thing off for another minute or so?"

Gwen growled back in the affirmative.

"Alright. I've got the artillery then," I said and stepped forward into a run.

The half-spider, half-woman mage was holding her hand against a charred arm. Seemed my last fireball had done some good after all; she certainly hadn't gotten her last spell off.

Her info populated as my eyes focused in on the fellow sorceress:

[Frostblood Countess, Level 30.]

An arrow roared towards my face as I bolted towards the mage. This time, however, with some of my vitality restored, I merely broke into particles of mana as the archer's attack flew harmlessly through my head.

[Mana Blink] allowed me to reappear right beside the Countess and I wasted no time in driving my sword through one of her spider-like legs.

The mage screamed in pain, shifting just enough as she did so, to keep me from severing her appendage entirely.

Meanwhile, I was forced to retreat and twist into a swordslash-fueled pirouette as a tight grouping of three more arrows flew through the spot that would've put me in the best position to press my attack on the Countess.

The glancing edge of one of the projectiles trimmed a bit of skin off of my dodging cheek as it flew by.

I heard the sound of that particular arrow vibrating and knocking into a nearby tree.

The freshly opened wound on my face buzzed with a slight numbness; thankfully, I didn't feel the paralyzing touch of the poison spreading beyond the immediate, small cut it had left on me.

[+1 Poison Resistance.]

I sucked my teeth at the notification.

With [Spelldancer] guiding my quick-moving steps, I bolted forward to re-press my attack.

I kept one eye on the archer and one on the mage I was approaching as I obscured myself from the former with the latter's body.

The archer couldn't shoot me if the only shot he had would be through his comrade, not unless he was very dedicated to making his mark.

Meanwhile, numerous thunderclaps echoed throughout the clearing as I had no doubt Gwen was giving the sturdiest looking of our enemies absolute hell.

It only took me a moment or two to see that I was faster of foot, and in close quarters, than the Countess.

"You're dead," I said as I entered slashing range once again.

My enemy raised her hand defensively up at me. A glow of white surrounded her palm.

Fuck, I couldn't let her get a spell off; at close range I might not be able to dodge and she'd be able to aim far too well.

I activated [Resolute Slash], in an effort to cut the spellcaster's casting short, and felt my muscles tense and my heart thud an extra beat.

The light from the spider mage's hand spiraled out to wrap loosely around me, flashing in-between existing and not-quite, as the spell solidified into form.

I felt my downward strike slow as my body was wrapped up in the magical webs.

I also felt something seeping into me through the mana-forged silk, a strange power that touched my own mana. I tried to activate [Mana Blink] to escape but felt my mana straining in vain as my body flashed blue, but failed to slip its solidity.

It seemed the spider mage's spell limited my use of movement-granting spells as well as restraining my physical movement.

Meanwhile, a speedy line of silver crashed past me and my enemy.

A particularly thick arrow slammed firmly into the ground behind us, just almost out of my view if I didn't turn my head. A long silk-line extended back from the back shaft of the projectile.

I struggled against the movement-restricting spell for a half second.

Meanwhile, I watched as the web-chord connected to the arrow tightened and rapidly began to be tugged against.

A heartbeat, the archer flew through the air, dragged along by his strange arrow, to pounce down into a crouching position behind myself and the mage who'd restrained me.

The [Manasilk Archer] slowly rose to his feet. His many eyes met with my two as he drew an arrow and began to raise it up, at nearly point blank range, to threaten my heart with his aim.

I looked back to the mage. "You smart bitch."

My eyes flared with visible fire as [Flame Cloak] flared out of me with a massive surge of mana.

"But no," I quipped and gritted my teeth as the spell and movement restricting webs were burnt away against the heat of my inferno.

The archer launched his shot.

As the last of the web snare was burnt away, and its magical effects rendered inert, my body once again blinked away in a flash of blue light.

In the next half-moment, I was driving my blade through the back of the [Manasilk Archer].

I left the weapon impaled in the creature's chest as I blinked away once more and [Raging Sorcery] ignited and set the conjured sword to exploding violently.

A second later, I was reappearing behind the [Frostblood Countess], just as her ally's attack was imbedding itself in her own exposed torso.

As the skilled arachnid sorceress was shrieking in pain against the force of the unexpected arrow sliding inside of her, I wasted no time in raising my hand to the back of her head.

The [Fireball] that I unleashed, point-blank and without ceremony against her face had no mercy or pomp to be found within it.

The archer's fragile ribcage and limbs, meanwhile, were sent flying under the force of my exploding sword a few feet away.

The spider mage, after being burned up with a good portion of my mana, waivered--skull-faced and without life in her eyesockets--for a single moment before her body crumpled.

I slowly lowered my hand as the blood from the sorceress was burnt away by my [Flame Cloak] before it could even touch me.

I frowned and fixated on the horrific scene of what I'd done to my enemies, before another crash of thunder caught my attention.

Gwen.

I summoned two more mana potions and drank them down.

My body flickered and, within a moment, I was fifteen feet behind where my panther and the [Frostblood Baron] were doing battle.

"Artilery dismantled!" I shouted to my ally as I charged into the fight. "Good job locking this bastard down, girl!"

With a swift jump upwards, I blinked away into the air once more.

My flaming sword appeared in my hand, raised above my head, as I rematerialized above the giant spider's eye level.

I let out a warcry and fell swiftly in an arc that would lead me to cleaving directly through the thing's bleeding, and clawed apart, face if I had anything to say about it.

Unfortunately, just as I was coming within killing distance, the spider lifted its ugly, massive thorax and launched a barrage of long stingers directly at me.

Not wanting to test the poison of a monster twice the level of those that had all but disabled me, I was forced to [Mana Blink] away.

"New plan," I said as I reappeared beside Gwen. "I'm going to take care of its legs for you, one at a time."

The panther was panting hard.

I summoned a [Wall of Fire] that made the [Frostblood Baron] shirk back in momentary surprise.

I placed a hand upon my friend and sent healing energy into her. The tired cat's breaths stilled somewhat.

I summoned and drank another mana potion. I was burning through them way too fast.

"I was laying down flame runes as I dodged the arrows before, hoping if I put down enough that I could lure these guys in close to them," I admitted to the cat as I healed her. "Think those were wasted, but I have a better idea on how to use the spell now."

Gwen took a few more deep breaths.

"You good to keep going?" I asked my panther as I felt my mana surging back up from my potion.

"How can I help?" Gwen asked me in response.

"Distract it while I work," I told her, respecting her appraisal of her own condition.

"Deal," the panther responded.

I dropped the flame wall.

Gwen broke off into a bolt of lightning and reappeared directly above the spider's face, far faster than I had; wasting no time, the cat landed with a mighty force directly onto the creature's head.

The mighty cat dug her claws deep, drawing out massive streams of blue blood from the spider, and clung hard to the monster's flesh.

I stepped off into another teleportation spell of my own and appeared directly beside one of the tree-trunk legs of the spider.

I slammed my palm against the hairy exoskeleton. My mana flowed onto the leg of the monster, leaving a barely noticeable magic circle where'd I'd touched it.

I was disappearing before the creature had even noticed my presence long enough to lash out.

Gwen, to her credit, was scaling the face of the injured beast and attacking at its many eyes, trying to remove those she hadn't already rendered useless in their long battle.

I, not long after I'd disappeared, was already coming back into being on the other side of the spider.

Working systematically now, I placed my hand on another one of its legs.

Just as I did so, and as Gwen crested over the monster's head to start ripping into the natural armor of its neck, cutting it off one chink at a time, I watched the arachnid raise its thorax to try and pepper my friend with poison stingers.

My eyes flared. A loud explosion shook the [Frostblood Baron] as the first leg I'd touched was blown to smithereens.

The creature had forgotten all about its attack against Gwen by the time I was teleporting back to its other side.

Another explosion resounded as the second leg I'd touched was crippled.

This process repeated itself, again and again, stopping only long enough for me to drink a mana potion when needed, before I used [Mana Blink] to appear directly beside Gwen atop the barely standing spider.

"Gwen! Get twenty feet away at least!" I ordered her.

The panther roared and burst off into the form of a lightning bolt.

I stepped forward to where she'd been and slammed my weapon, to use as a handhold, directly where she'd been.

My free hand I placed down directly atop the thing's body.

Mana poured from my core down into my palm and the largest magic circle of all the one's I'd produced glowed, this time very brightly, as I laid it down.

The spider rocked on its remaining legs and raised its thorax at me again as it threatened to try and shoot its projectiles at me.

My work was done, despite the creature's best efforts, however; I activated [Mana Blink] and was off to reappear beside Gwen before the half-dead creature could even strike out.

The spider, and what was left of its body, was blown open even before my feet had once more become solid upon the ground.

[Congratulations! You have advanced to level 27.]

[+5 Soul Synergy, +5 One-Handed, +5 Fire-Manipulation, +3 Alchemy, +5 Spell Efficiency, +5 Spell Attack, +5 Spell Control, +5 Spell Defense, +5 Acrobatics.]

[For reaching at least one-hundred points in Soul Synergy, and having a familiar, you have unlocked various abilities:]

[Essence Link [Un] added to perk list.]

I had ignited my flaming sword when I'd also activated the rune that'd killed the [Frostblood Baron]; so, with with my hands freed I approached Gwen and placed a hand upon her soft pelt.

"Well, that was harder than I expected," I admitted.

"Our enemies are getting stronger," the cat observed.

"We did good," I said, "but these aren't even rulers or elites. I still have gaps in my game."

The panther absentmindedly growled in response.

I channeled my restored mana into closing up the remaining wounds on my comrade, before a flashing light and a System alert caught my attention.

[A map to a boss' lair has been revealed. Collect the map to be granted a quest, which will grant appropriate rewards, to slay this elite monster.]

I shifted my gaze to the oddly, and distinctly, shining loot orb that was raising up among many others from the somewhat distant corpse of the [Frostblood Countess].

"Convenient," I said aloud.

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