We Hunt Monsters 14, page 35
The entire world froze, turning to strange shades of black and white. Then Neander began moving in reverse, slowly at first, but then faster. Keith started to get a headache as the lances of ice were ripped from his body, his prison released. He found himself moving, punching the Spirit in reverse, his fist pulling back oddly with each reversed blow.
Then he and Neander were separated, time flowing backward faster and faster. He was tunneling backward into the massive glacier, bonds flowing over his body to pin him in place. Then the ice was flowing in reverse, the huge spell floating upward. He was free of the ice tablet, struggling against the Spirit. The spiny ball formed in reverse, then back to the first activation of the ice flower.
Things began to slow down then, inching back as Keith dropped to the ground and Neander was up in the sky, scythe raised as he cast a massive spell. Then, the world snapped back into color, and Keith sagged, pain ripping through his body.
Time could be reversed, but his injuries could not. Keith used Total Recovery, even as Tac’s voice yelled in his mind.
“Oh, that’s not good,” the Artificial Mind 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…Huh, are you getting a weird sense of deja vu? Also, what the heck happened to you? When did you get so injured?”
Keith did a quick check of his items. He had been right in his guess. All of the effects had been reset when he’d turned time back in his vicinity, including those of his World Items. Considering how things had turned out last time, he knew how Neander would react to his attack and did things a bit differently this time around.
The Mountainous Frost was already in his hand as Neander’s spell formation grew larger.
“Break his back,” Keith ordered, repeating the earlier command.
Neander screamed as he bent double, twisting the wrong way. His spell formation died in an instant, his concentration shattered. Keith used his teleport, dropping The Mountainous Frost back in his inventory as he triggered the effects of his Field Leveler. Only this time, he did so after he activated Dragon King’s Armor, which boosted all his stats by a factor of five.
Keith reappeared at Neader’s side, spikes growing from his fist, and Field Leveler crackled with power. Neander was still screaming in pain from his broken back as Field Leveler crashed into the side of his head with five times the power it had last time.
51
The air itself cracked at the point of impact, spatial cracks flowing across the sky in a hundred-foot radius of the impact zone. Neander’s body disintegrated upon impact, a fine mist of golden blood hanging in the air as the Spirit vanished from view. The mountain inverted, turning from a towering spire into a crater, ice, stone, and all manner of other materials flying in different directions as the Spirit’s body caused some serious damage to their surroundings.
“Holy ca-friggin-noli, bro!” Tac exclaimed as the spatial cracks began to heal themselves, Keith straightening from his blow as the notification flashed before his eyes.
-100,650,000, Massive Critical
Neander the Spirit of Bitter Cold’s HP has been reduced to zero.
Keith frowned when he saw that notification, cutting into Tac’s chattering about what the hell had just happened and how he knew to do that.
“The notification is different than normal,” Keith said.
Tac paused.
“Oh, yeah. Bob, what the heck does this mean?”
Bob, who’d been along for the entire ride, hiding like a coward – as usual – peeked his head out from beneath the cloak.
“It means his HP has been reduced to zero, not that he’s dead. It’s the same notification someone would get if they killed Keith.”
“So he’s still alive,” Keith said, the corner of his eye twitching.
Over 100 million points of damage, and the wily Spirit had managed to avoid death. The only question was where he was. He couldn’t escape the domain of his aura, which meant he had to be around here somewhere.
“Okay, I think I understand what’s happening here,” Tac said as Keith did a slow turn in the air. “You used Primordial’s Folly, but for some reason, you’re the only one who remembers using it. It’s nice that I can sift through your memories and see everything the old me did. Like the fact that Neander has a Special Skill called Death Reversal that he can use to counter a killing blow that would wipe out over ninety-five percent of his max health at once.”
Keith let out a very long mental sigh. That would have been a very useful piece of information to know before he acted. Had he known, he would have pulled his punch and taken the Spirit out in two, instead of one.
“Oh, I should also mention that the skill has more than one effect,” Tac continued, as Keith spotted a speck of light at the center of the crater. “It changes the way Neander fights. He isn’t the Spirit of Water and Ice. He’s the Spirit of Bitter Cold. Normally, it’s considered unfair for a Spirit to have access to so many schools of magic and such a huge skill pool, but in the extremely unlikely event that Death Reversal is triggered, he gains access to all of them. Pretty sure he also unlocks a hidden ability of his scythe, though I could be wrong…” Tac trailed off, going silent for a moment.
“Oh.”
“Oh indeed,” Keith said as Neander shot from the ground, spiraling into the air and hovering at an equal level to his own, with about a hundred feet of distance between them.
He looked completely different now. His cloak now clung to his body like a series of wound bandages, his arms, legs, torso and face all clearly defined beneath it. Lean muscle covered the Spirit’s body, and pale, tattooed skin was visible in areas where the bandages didn’t cover. Strands of cloth trailed in the air around him, all glowing with blue-white runes, drifting on an unnatural breeze.
His face was partially exposed, showing a mad grin and wide eyes made up of glowing spheres of blue in pools of black. His nose was covered by bandages, as were his ears, forehead, and some of his hair. Some showed through, pitch-black and drifting in the air around him.
The Spirit began cackling as he twisted his scythe, spinning it through the air. It looked different, further lending to Tac’s earlier suspicion. Before, only one side had been bladed. Now, it had the shape of a crescent moon, supported in the center by the gnarled staff. Neander was a bit shorter than before, his height at around eight feet, but the way he spun the scythe told Keith that this Spirit was now just as dangerous in melee combat as he was at range.
“Well, call me poop and leave me in a flaming bag on someone’s doorstep,” Tac said. “His entire status changed!”
“I suppose I should thank you,” Neader said, his voice sounding richer and echoing a bit less as he cackled, the mad grin not leaving his face for an instant. “I’ve never felt this kind of power before, and I owe it all to you!”
Neander’s new status flashed into view, and Keith bit back a curse.
At least his HP was lower than it had been before – not that that was much of a consolation, considering the bump to all his other stats.
Neander, the Spirit of Bitter Cold
(Mortal Form – Full Power Unlocked)
Level: 95
HP: 10,500,000/10,500,000
MP: 37,500,000/37,500,000
STA: 31,800,000/31,800,000
Str - 85,000
Agi - 92,000
Lck - 22,000
The timer ticked in the corner of Keith’s vision, reminding him that he was still in the middle of a quest. Reducing Neander’s health to zero again might be a bit easier, seeing as he had less of it to lose, but given the massive gains to his other stats, Keith wondered if he was going to make it out of this alive.
Neander spun his scythe once again, the grin widening.
“I’ll reward you for your service by killing you quickly. If you lay down nicely and die like the dog you are, I promise I won’t make it too excruciating!”
Neander shot forward, closing the distance between them in a blink. War’s hammer flashed up, meeting the scythe and stopping the Spirit dead in his tracks. He might be strong, but Keith’s own stats were still boosted, thanks to Doomfire Armor’s effects. Even as Neander drew back, twisting the scythe behind his back, Keith activated the Avatar Token, donning the armor in a flash and further boosting his stats.
It was a good thing he did, as Neander’s hand shot forward and a blast of freezing wind knocked them apart. Keith flipped head over heels, kicking off the air and shooting down toward the ground as a whistling scream sounded overhead. Twisting in place, he saw a line of trees cleaved in two, though he couldn’t see what had caused it.
Turning in midair, he clenched his fist and activated Shattered Star, chunks of flaming stone blasting down from above onto Neander, who’d been in the middle of casting another spell. The Spirit cut it off hallway through, swinging his scythe in an arc and cleaving every single falling meteor into dozens of pieces, the fragments of which rained around him in fine pebbled dust.
Not one to allow an opportunity to fail, Keith swapped places with one of them, War’s Hammer, clutched in both hands, swinging for Neander’s chest. The Spirit reacted with lightning speed, his scythe coming up to block. His grin was still fixed in place as he thrust his palm outward. Keith used Shard Sponge as it slammed into his chest, a blast of wind rebounding and knocking them apart again. Blood sprayed from a deep gash in Neander’s chest, visible now thanks to his transformation.
The Spirit only grinned wider as he gestured with his hand. Keith felt the impacts before he heard them, screaming through the air as they slammed into his armor. Bullets of icy air, compressed to unbelievable levels, punched three holes in his armor and straight through his chest.
He managed to anchor himself in the air, preventing any knockback, though he began to bleed, the damage notification alerting him to the fact that each one of those had knocked off over 50,000 HP.
Still, they were in an area where he had the advantage. Keith vanished again, reappearing right in Neander’s face. He threw a punch, and Neander moved his scythe to guard. Except Keith’s fist cracked into the side of his jaw, instead of coming head-on.
-27,887
Keith spun, drawing his Orionite hammer and slamming it into Neander’s hip with a loud crack, the Spirit spinning away with a scream of pain, though even as he spun, his scythe arced through the air and Keith was blasted away. It took a moment for his brain to register the pain and the blood as it sprayed before him in a fountain. The blow from the scythe had cleaved cleanly through his armor and cut him from hip to shoulder.
-439,181 damage, Cleave
You are bleeding heavily: -10,000 HP per second until healed.
Keith punched forward and used the Sage-level Dragon’s Breath, now recharged thanks to the trip back in time. Neander was swallowed in a blaze of pure black as Keith healed himself. Doing a quick check, he saw that he still had a few left before he’d need to recharge the skill, once again, thanks to Primordial’s Folly.
“He’s already recovered,” Tac warned. “I think something big is coming.”
The flames cleared to reveal Neander, his body cloaked in a shimmer of blue-white that spun around him. A wall of wind stuck to his skin, preventing any of the fire from reaching him.
“It’s no wonder so many people want you dead,” Neander yelled, his voice echoing across the intervening distance. “You’re too dangerous to let live!”
The entire length of his scythe crackled with power as he drew it up, the blade beginning to glow white-hot. Keith used his second charge, dropping a meteor shower on the Spirit, but the stone shattered with ten feet of his body. Still, that didn’t matter to him.
Keith reappeared in the Spirit’s face, his fist extended in a punch with Field Leveler leading the way, even as Neader swung his scythe down. The two World Items collided once again, and the world went white.
52
Keith blinked away the stars dancing in his vision. His head felt heavy, and his entire body throbbed with pain. He could vaguely hear someone yelling something, and there were bright lights flashing in his vision. He was lying in a pile of rubble, surrounded by shards of ice. He tried to breathe as he realized his chest was on fire, but he couldn’t get any air into his lungs.
“Use Total Recovery!” a voice yelled, making him wince.
He could tell something was wrong, as the burning in his chest became worse. He still couldn’t breathe. The world began to clear a bit more, revealing something white blanketing the sky. He shook his head, winced, and tried to breathe again. Stabbing pain brought his mind back to sharp relief for just an instant, and in that moment, Keith came back to himself. He used Total recovery as his health flashed at a single point.
It only took an instant for his body to pull itself back together and his rattled mind to settle.
“Oh, thank the Spirits! Or maybe not, seeing as most of them hate you,” Tac said as his eyes focused on the sky where Neander stood, his arms outstretched as a titanic spell circle traced its way to completion.
Discerning Eye could see massive quantities of mana streaming into the spell, and if that wasn’t enough to tell him how powerful a spell this would be, nothing would.
“What happened?” Keith asked as he extended his hand, summoning his hammer.
“Two World Items collided, messing up Neander’s scythe’s activation,” Tac said. “The resulting explosion nearly killed you twice over and hit you with so many debuffs it’s a miracle I was able to get through.”
Keith checked the quest timer and winced. He’d been out of it for nearly two whole minutes. The hammer slapped into his palm, and he shot into the air, summoning War’s Mantle around himself as he did.
“I take it Neander was laid out flat as well?”
“Yeah, he was out for a solid minute and a half,” Tac replied. “As soon as he was up, he began casting that big spell. Just a warning, I don’t think you’ll be able to interrupt this one.”
Keith flashed up, hammer clutched in both hands as he swung for Neander’s skull. The Spirit grinned, blood streaming from his temple. One of his legs was missing, and his health was down at around six million, dropping by over 30,000 points a second. The Spirit didn’t even try to block, though Keith understood why as the scythe spun around, intercepting the attack of its own accord.
He growled, hurling the hammer at the Spirit using Hammerrang, then summoned Orion’s hammer and used Dragon’s Jaws, hoping to overwhelm the weapon’s blocking ability. Massive jaws tried to slam shut around the Spirit as War’s Hammer spun back around, coming for Neander’s back. The scythe split, one half intercepting the hammer, the other cleaving the Dragon’s Jaws in half.
“You can’t stop this one, mortal,” Neander cackled. “You’ll be swallowed in a hole so cold it’ll freeze your blood in your veins and pressure so dense you’ll shatter like glass.”
Keith backed away, drawing his cannon and blasting the Spirit. He activated Dragon’s Jaws again, then used Lightswap to put himself behind Neander, hurling a chunk of stone at his back. Gripping the Dragontooth Slayers in his hands, he tackled the Spirit from below. The simultaneous attacks were intercepted, the scythe splitting again, blocking or destroying the incoming attacks easily.
“You can’t get through,” Neander cackled as Keith flew into a flurry of blows, slashing, stabbing and throwing punches with Field Leveler at Neander, only for them to be intercepted and blocked by the spinning scythe. “It’s a perfect defense, one that cannot be broken.”
His grin widened as the last gaps in the titanic spell circle finished filling in, the entire thing glowing so bright it was hard to look at.
Keith leaped back, swapping places with a boulder on the ground.
“There’s no escaping from this!” Neander’s voice roared from above as a pinprick of the darkest black appeared at the center of the spell circle. “Not for your body or your soul!”
“Another one?!” Keith exclaimed.
“Looks like it,” Tac replied. “I wouldn’t worry too much, though.”
Keith spat to the side, still tasting blood as the circle expanded further, Neander swinging his arms down.
A pure white beam blasted down on him, the sphere of dense black traveling right after, light vanishing as it was pulled into the dense gravity of the black hole.
“I hope you didn’t miscalculate,” Keith said before triggering a subskill of Shard Sponge.
Overwhelm would bounce any attack at the moment of casting, returning it at five times the casting power. The best part about this skill was that it couldn’t be blocked or avoided. The only question was whether Tac’s predictions were correct and Neander’s spell didn’t overwhelm the power of his own skill.
The entire world seemed to flip on its head, silence echoing around him in the golden light of his Imminent Domain. Then Neander vanished in a beam of pure white, the black hole crashing into the Spirit, who disappeared. The spell plummeted from the air, crashing into the ground and ripping the mountainside apart.
“I hate to say it, bro, but I don’t think that’s gonna be enough,” Tac warned as Keith moved after him.
He’d already figured as much, flashing across the distance, clutching War’s hammer in one hand. The explosion of white seemed to blanket the entire world, leeching it of all color. This was followed by a high-pitched whine that set Keith’s teeth on edge. He arrived just as the light faded, seeing only the spot of black, standing where yet another mountain used to be.
He frowned as he looked at it, the spot pulsing lightly as it hovered a few inches off the ground. The damage to the landscape had been devastating, the white beam having ripped another mountain to shreds, while the spot of black and dragged it all in, causing it to vanish without a trace. It made it look like some titanic beast had eaten most of the mountain.
“He’s still inside,” Tac said. “That much is certain, but it’s hard to tell if he’s still being damaged.”
