We Hunt Monsters 14, page 33
Keith couldn’t have agreed more. He dashed for the cavern entrance as he pulled the Spirit’s Anchor from his inventory. This was what would turn into Neader’s body, and the last thing he wanted was for the Spirit of Bitter Cold to emerge from his inventory in perfect striking distance.
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Keith emerged from the cavern, hurling the Anchor away from himself as he did. It vanished in a flash of blue. A storm was brewing above, massive, billowing clouds darkening the sky, despite the time of day. Icy blue lightning flickered through the clouds as the air began to smell heavily of snow and ice. A chill crept through the air as the temperature began to drop. Keith had seen the physical, mortal manifestation of a Spirit in this world once before, and it had been just as spectacular and terrifying.
Within the spinning vortex of crackling blue, he saw the cowl appear, the fluttering black cloak that covered the face of the Spirit of Bitter Cold. Icy blue eyes stared out from within, massive and looming, piercing into his very soul. Keith felt a shiver run through him and quickly suppressed it. Now that he knew what was happening, it wasn’t as terrifying, though he had to admit to himself that this was still quite unnerving. The manifestation of a Spirit was no small thing, and even in mortal form, Bitter Cold would not go down easily.
A tornado began to form over the location of the Anchor, the icy feather appearing in the air some two hundred feet away. Keith rose into the air as well, taking a deep breath and preparing for his skills’ activation. The sky crackled an icy blue-white as the twister touched the Anchor, then began to retreat, revealing the figure standing within. The sky above – just as with Tenor – remained icy and cold, stretching far into the distance. The power of the Spirit’s aura carried through, even to its mortal body.
Neander floated in the air, on the level with Keith now, cloak billowing around him. He looked different than he had the last time Keith had seen him – not that that was a surprise. His cloak seemed more solid and was made up of dozens of layers, rather than a single sheet. Thousands of tiny, icy symbols were layered throughout, obviously leading to the fact that this cloak was as good as any armor, if not better.
The only visible parts of the Spirit were his hands, pale and icy blue, with clawed fingers, and the glowing eyes, visible from within the deep cowl of the cloak. Nothing else of the Spirit was visible, which made it all the more worrying when he reached into a tear in space, hand wrapping around the end of a gnarled, black haft that protruded.
“So, you did kill Tenor, after all.”
Neander’s voice was like sheets of ice scraping together, setting Keith’s teeth on edge as the Spirit pulled his scythe from the spatial rend, the weapon over ten feet long in its full manifestation, standing a foot and a half over the Spirit’s towering height as he set the butt down on invisible air.
“And now it’s your turn,” Keith said, then triggered Imminent Domain.
He wasn’t sure how the skill would work, given the fact that Neander was a Spirit and obviously radiating his own aura. But Keith needn’t have worried. Neander staggered as though he were struck as a burning, golden light blasted out from Keith’s body, the sky changing color in an instant as their surroundings seemed to freeze.
“So, that’s the difference!” Tac exclaimed. “The Spirits bring their auras, but not the time-locking ability. That’s how your skill can override his! Sweet.”
Unconquerable Aura exploded around him, alongside Heatstance, boosting defense and offense as Keith shot forward. The timer was still ticking down in the corner of his vision. Fifteen minutes, fifty seconds. His Imminent Domain had a fifteen-minute timer, so if he didn’t kill Bitter Cold in that time, he may as well concede the fight and flee to Monstros. He wasn’t sure how the effects of the failed quest would work on him or on those he’d used World Items on, but it would mean having to tackle the rest of his challenges alone.
He wouldn’t be able to risk bringing any of his automatons with him or contacting anyone, even his closest friends and allies. Seeing as it would be close to impossible to kill the final World Monster without them, Keith wasn’t planning on losing this battle.
The World Titan’s Meteor crashed into the side of Neander’s head, the Spirit’s shock giving Keith a split-second advantage as he sped up his movements with Speed Demon. The hammer’s blow was blunted a bit by the haft of the scythe, which was undoubtedly a World Item, but when the head depressed, the Spirit was blasted away in the explosion of force.
The hammer vanished in a flash, disappearing into Keith’s inventory as he hurled War’s Hammer using Hammerrang, the weapon flashing after the Spirit as he plowed into the ground, tearing a furrow through trees and stone alike.
As Keith dove after him, a series of notifications appeared.
You are inside the domain of your aura and have targeted Neander, the Spirit of Bitter Cold. No others may enter while the skill is active, and escape is impossible for both you and your target, unless either of you should perish.
+10% to all active skill damage
No counter or interference skills may be used against you.
-1,290,000, Critical
-121,445, Critical
“I’ve got Neander’s status,” Tac said as the notifications vanished and the hammer spun back, revealing the Spirit whose body now radiated a near-blinding icy-blue aura.
It seemed that despite Keith’s skill overriding the Spirit’s, he could still generate his aura in a limited capacity, likely boosting his own stats in the process.
“Give it to me,” Keith said as the hammer vanished, replaced by the Doomfire Hand-Cannon.
He depressed the trigger as Neander slashed his scythe, a crackling line of icy blue blasting from the edge of the weapon and cleaving the beam in half. Keith used Magician, barely avoiding the blow as he depressed the cannon again, only for Neander to react almost as fast.
He leaped back as Neander spun the scythe in a half circle, an odd gong echoing in the air.
“Above,” Tac said, and Keith used Lightswap, avoiding a hail of icicles that pounded into the ground, screaming through the air with all the force of a hail of bullets.
Neader’s status appeared as he whirled, hurling Tenor’s hammer again and forcing Neander to block. It seemed World Items weren’t so easily brushed aside. It was a good thing to know when matching weapons against the Spirit-made-flesh.
Neander, the Spirit of Bitter Cold
(Mortal Form)
Level: 95
HP: 17,500,000/17,500,000
MP: 17,500,000/17,500,000
STA: 17,500,000/17,500,000
Str - 48,000
Agi - 48,000
Lck - 15,000
As with Tenor, Neader’s skill list was very long. Long enough that it would have taken several minutes for Keith to read all the way through, which was why he was going to rely on Tac to do the reading for him. Last time, Tac had been unable to read anything from Tenor. This time, while Tac’s use would still be limited – Neander was still a Spirit, after all – he was far stronger than he had been, giving him a distinct advantage.
“Alright, bro,” Tac said as Keith caught the returning hammer, then cast Tough Shield as a returning slash came for him.
It tore through the shield and missed him by a fraction of an inch as he slid aside, summoning the Orc Emperor’s Boom-Boom.
He had the satisfaction of watching Neader’s icy eyes go wide before the cannon expanded, and he triggered the activation. The blast swallowed half the forest, though Keith barely noticed as he was listening to Tac.
“He’s got Sage levels in just about every cold, water, and ice-based skill you can imagine. So far, we’ve only seen two: Ice Cleave and Rain of Cold. Neander seems to specialize in spells, especially wide-ranging ones, but he does have a few close combat skills and more protections than I can count. He doesn’t have any short-range teleportation, but he does have a Passive called Portal Mastery, which basically allows him to do the same, but only a bit slower.
“One plus is that he’s not Tenor, which means he doesn’t have access to every weapon on the planet, though he’ll be just as dangerous, if not more so. As you’ve probably already guessed, that cloak has some serious armor. Protections against any status effect and most secondary effects as well. It can also shrug off a lot of damage, but it’s not as good as Tenor’s armor either. His strengths will come in the protection spells he casts, which he’s doing right now. Stop him.”
Keith took the risk and activated the Boom-Boom for a second time, the barrel glowing white-hot as it bucked. He couldn’t see Neander through all the smoke and debris, but Tac easily pointed him out. The explosion tore a chunk of the mountainside off, melting half to slag in an instant. He put the cannon away and drew War’s Hammer again.
“You’re going to want to stick in melee range the whole time. No dodging and dancing around. That’ll only work to Neander’s advantage. Yes, he has crazy stats, but he’s still a caster. If you stay close, you can limit most of his weapons. The big thing to watch out for is that scythe. Tenor got most of his physical strength from his armor, whereas Neander gets it from the weapon.
“I don’t know what the special effects are, but that thing is a damage amplifier for his spells, much like a staff and can cut through almost anything, including skills and items, as you’ve already seen with the former. Whatever your armor rating is, just cut it down by seventy percent. That’s all the protection you’re going to get.”
Keith dove as Tac spoke, flashing through a spell with Magician and still taking some damage despite technically avoiding it.
“Oh, yeah. Like Tenor, his attacks will hit, even if you try and avoid them. Unlike Tenor, though, they can be blocked if you directly oppose them. I’ll try and keep you alive and remind you of which tools to use next so you can focus on killing that snot-rag.”
Keith slammed into the crater, finding Neander already stepping through a rift in space. He whirled, and sure enough, the Spirit was stepping into the air a hundred feet off the ground. Lightswap carried Keith halfway up before Neander used another spell, his scythe glowing an icy blue. Gigantic hands the size of houses slammed into him from both sides, attempting to trap him within. His thrown hammer landed inside as he used Lightswap again.
As though expecting as much, a second set of hands was already coming for him, these obviously set on blasting him apart. Keith used Shard Sponge and was blasted from the air as the spell rebounded off him. Unfortunately, instead of hitting Neander, they shattered an inch from his body, flowing around him and reshaping into a gigantic drill which flashed down, through a portal and reappeared to his left.
Keith threw an arm up, using his Orionite Dragon Armor, which was supposed to reduce all magical attacks to zero for six minutes. Instead, it more blunted the attack than anything else as Keith felt the spinning drill rip into his arm, shredding muscle and bone as it tried to burrow straight through him.
He twisted, slamming Ancient’s Fury down on the spell and shattering it as he used Magician to create some distance, throwing up another Tough Shield as a rain of icicles fell from above.
He was starting to breathe hard as he ripped the chunk of ice from his useless arm and healed himself using Total Recovery. His arm knitted back together, flesh, bone, and muscle restored to be as good as new, and the damage he’d taken reversed.
Neander was gone from his previous spot, having reappeared over three hundred yards away, scythe raised and a series of concentric circles beginning to spin around him.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Tac said as Keith kicked off the air, blasting toward the Spirit to intercept the spell. “That’s really, really not good. Keith, you cannot let him finish casting that. You won’t reach him on time. Use the teleport.”
Keith really didn’t want to use the teleport. He only had one to use per day. He’d been planning on using it to escape once this was over, as it would allow him to go wherever he wanted. If he used it, his only other means of escape would be the anchor he’d placed using Lightswap, as he wasn’t sure if the active quest would counter the Heart Between Worlds, counting it as combat even if he wasn’t fighting.
Still, he wasn’t exactly given a choice. It was this or take the hit, and the latter wasn’t something he was willing to do.
Cursing to himself, Keith dropped the hammer into his inventory and triggered the teleportation, appearing right at Neander’s side and throwing a punch using Field Leveler. He triggered the World Item’s once weekly skill as he did, knowing this would probably be the hardest punch he could throw all fight.
If it were a clean hit, this single blow should be enough to one-shot the Spirit of Bitter Cold. Keith could hope, but he wasn’t an idiot. Crackling green spread over the expanding claws of Field Leveler, wrapped around his fists. The spell formation vanished as Neander realized what Keith was about to do.
“He’s using his own World Item!” Tac yelled. “Brace for impact!”
Keith’s fist slammed into Neander’s head at the same instant his scythe pulsed. The world seemed to turn black and white for an instant, then a ripping explosion blasted him back, sending him tumbling through the air.
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Pain tore through his body as his health plummeted, dropping to a single point in the blink of an eye, his HP being kept from bottoming out thanks to Peak Health. He used Total Recovery as he spun, his health leaping back up to full as he righted himself, reorienting in the air and looking down. The entire battlefield surrounding Neander for a hundred yards in all directions was covered in a gigantic glacier, spines of ice spreading out almost like a flower, some of them rising well over two hundred feet into the air.
Neander stood at its center, his scythe still glowing, though his cloak looked tattered in several new places, and judging by the looks of it, he was breathing hard.
“That should have killed him,” Tac said. “But he managed to get that up in time. Still, check your damage notifications. You managed to score a nice hit despite the block.”
Keith did just that, feeling a twinge of annoyance that the Spirit had managed to avoid dying.
-9,188,908
That was a lot of damage, but it was less than half of what he should have been able to dish out. Even accounting for his armor, that blow should have ended the fight. It seemed Neander wasn’t quite ready for that to happen yet.
Keith flipped in the air and used Lightswap, hoping he might be able to catch the Spirit before he could recover. Unfortunately, even as he reappeared less than thirty feet up, Neander was already moving, his body blurring through a rift in the air and scythe glowing.
“Back. Back!” Tac yelled.
Keith reversed course, kicking off the air using Combustive Body and using Magician at the same time. The ice flower slammed shut like a massive Venus flytrap, only in this case, he was the fly. His arms creaked as the sides of the icy flower slammed into him, trying to crush him.
“You need to get out right now!” Tac exclaimed.
Keith strained for a moment, then gave up and dropped. The flower was larger on the bottom than on the top, so it gave him a second to breathe. As he fell, he triggered one of his items. Regality’s Sun blazed around his body as he was imbued with the power of the Avatar of Regality. Strength flooded through him as he twisted in the air and threw a punch. Field Leveler slammed into the side of the ice flower, a massive boom echoing in the air as cracks spread from the point of impact. His next blow was less than half a second behind, and his third followed right in its wake.
The flower didn’t so much as shatter as Keith punched a hole through its side to free himself, launching through and out into fresh air without a second thought, a hurled chunk of ice preceding him by only a second. The instant he was free of the ice flower, he swapped places with it, reappearing over fifty yards from it.
A series of twisting icy lines crashed into the area Keith had just been occupying, and he turned to reorient on the Spirit, who was back in the air. A spinning series of runes now covered his body.
“Darn, looks like he managed to get the first level of protection up while you were trapped,” Tac said as Keith hurled War’s Hammer using Hammerrang, refreshing Heatstance as he kicked off the air, blasting toward the Spirit, who cut off his attack to block the incoming weapon with his scythe.
“On the plus side, he didn’t use the time for a larger attack,” Keith said, managing to close half the distance before Neander was free to strike back, having deflected his hammer off to one side with the scythe.
Keith vanished with Lightswap, switching with the hammer, a pebble flying from his grip the instant he reappeared. The Spirit’s scythe cleaved through the air, clearly having expected him to take the obvious opening, only to meet nothing but empty air as Keith disappeared again, blinking only four feet to his left and leaving him with a wide-open shot at the Spirit’s back. Keith used the effect of Sartori’s Ring of Annihilation.
Mountain’s Burial functioned in a similar way to his hammer, imbuing his next strike with the unstoppable force of the World Monster’s might. Keith doubled the cost of Stamina he was paying to keep Speed Demon active, his speed and control going from an improved factor of four to one of eight in an instant.
Neander was already moving, his arm sliding back to get the scythe in place, but what he hadn’t expected was Keith’s sudden increase in speed. The blow, powered by the Avatar of Regality, Sartori, his Field Leveler, and his own not-so-inconsiderable strength, slammed into Neander’s shield spell.
For an instant, the air trembled, and it seemed like the shield might block it all. Then, the invisible force keeping his fist from connecting bent inward, like the straining of an inflated balloon before it popped. Once again, Keith’s fist slammed into Neander’s raised scythe, the shield giving him that split second to get it in the way. He used his immortality effect from his Title, giving himself 75 seconds of no damage the instant before the explosion.
