Blessed Time: The Complete Series: (A LitRPG Adventure Box Set), page 48
He adjusted his grip, yanking backward on the spear as the monster danced inside his guard, a cloud of spores trailing in its wake. Just as it pulled back its claw, thorns glowing brown with some sort of spell, the crossbar of his spear head slammed into its back and pulled it toward him. Its strangely expressive eyes widened as Micah triggered the sonic enchantment. The spear head blurred, pulsing as the vibrations tore deeply into the dryad.
Micah’s off-hand left the haft of his spear as he grabbed the disoriented monster’s extended arm, ignoring the fading motes of Wood mana after his enchantment disrupted the spell. His fingers closed around its wrist at the same time as his right leg planted itself in the dryad’s tiny chest, bracing the wriggling creature to prevent its escape.
The Time enchantment wore off just as Micah pulled with the entirety of his enhanced Body attribute. For a moment, the dryad screeched as its shoulder creaked ominously. Then, with a crack, he pulled the arm free in a spray of dark green sap.
It sprawled backward, screaming incoherently as the tension from Micah’s grip was released, its remaining thorny claw clutching the literal stump on its shoulder. Micah discarded its arm, wiping some of the sap on his thigh before he grabbed his spear with both hands and impaled the monster.
“A little help, Micah!” Trevor’s frantic voice pulled his attention away from the four remaining dryads that the animals had well in hand.
He turned, just in time to see Trevor trip over a root that glowed with a dryad’s mana. One of the two monsters fighting him pounced, while the other extended a glowing claw, its magic forcing a cocoon of roots to grow from the ground, intent on immobilizing Trevor.
Micah didn’t even think. He triggered the Time enchantment, taking advantage of the world slowing to a snail’s pace to analyze the rainbow pathways traveled by the airborne dryad.
The spear left his hand with the speed of a swooping hawk and struck the monster with the force of a runaway carriage. Even without the sonic enchantment pumping the throw’s damage, the razor-sharp blade cut through the dryad’s hardened exterior, digging through the monster’s heartwood only to explode out of its back.
The other dryad turned to Micah just in time for him to reach it, unarmed but for the skinning knife he’d whipped from his belt. It spread its arms wide, screeching its hatred at Micah as he charged it.
It swung at Micah, trying to dissuade his attack, but he simply ignored the swipe. The dryad’s advantage was in its size and magically enhanced mobility. If it would sacrifice that advantage to stand and fight, Micah would happily trade blows with it. He could heal himself later; a small price to pay in order to protect his helpless brother.
Its claws dug into his skin, injecting burning streaks of poison and disease into his muscles. Micah barked out a word and felt augmented healing slow the spread of the dryad’s magic. He couldn’t hope to match its skill with Wood magic, but if there wasn’t a consciousness to guide the spell, it would be a simple matter to root it out later.
The dryad’s eyes widened as it realized its mistake. The monster tried to step backwards, only for Micah’s left hand to grab it by the back of its neck, preventing it from moving. The knife stabbed into its stomach, barely punching through the hardened bark armor.
The second stab broke his knife, the ordinary steel blade unable to cope with the magically enhanced “skin” of the dryad.
It didn’t stop Micah. Even as the creature’s claws drew ribbons of blood down his flanks, he dropped the hilt of the knife and grabbed the front of its head. His fingers dug into its bark skin as he triggered sonic bolt.
The Air mana coursed through his body, settling into the well-worn form of the spell. Almost on instinct, Micah twisted. Something inside his mind snapped, unleashing a wave of vertigo and dissociation.
The mana changed form as it was leaving his hands. Rather than a glob of mana that leaked energy until it pulsed just before striking a foe, it became a sphere. His hands defined the outer limits of the new spell, its boundaries reflecting back any mana that sought to escape. It still felt like sonic bolt, but without the spell’s instability and chaos.
Micah blinked, an orb of energy engulfing the monster’s head in a tempest of energy. Faintly, he heard a dissonant screech of static as the dryad twitched twice in his grip before going slack.
The spell dissipated and the dryad dropped limply from Micah’s grip. The bark covering its face and head were split and pitted, revealing the tender heartwood beneath. All of its orifices leaked dark sap freely.
He kicked the body, hissing in pain as the motion reopened the gashes on his sides. The dryad didn’t move, and already he could feel its poisons lose their focus and edge.
Satisfied that his foe was dead, Micah cast refresh and augmented mending in short succession. Despite his low mana, the spells did their work, cleansing the Wood-magic induced ailments from his system and closing the wounds.
Trevor broke free from the roots and vines surrounding him, tearing and ripping at the plants until he rolled out onto the grass of the grove. Micah nodded to him as he picked up his spear and turned back to the fight between the animals and the remaining dryads.
There were only three left, and between Micah, the animals, and Trevor, the battle ended quickly. Their spears restricted the dryads’ movements, landing deep blows on the creatures each time they tried to dodge or retreat from the panther’s attacks.
The stag stood firm as the brothers pushed the surviving dryads up against it, giving the juvenile shade panther every opportunity in the world to dart into the fray and kill the distracted wooden monsters.
Finally, Trevor was twisting his spear in the last of the dryads while the panther batted a severed head, chasing after it as though it were a fleeing rabbit. Micah smiled slightly, leaning on his spear. The battle had been a lot harder without Onkert support, but he wasn’t going to risk summoning another daemon until he had access to the trees and a proper opportunity to investigate his resonance with Elsewhere from the last timeline.
He suspected that he could still summon the daemons normally so long as his body didn’t pass into Elsewhere and mark him with its taint, but that was a risk he was unwilling to take without further research.
Still, he frowned slightly. It almost felt like he was casting a ritual when he’d altered sonic bolt on the fly, and that wasn’t something that happened. Sure, spellcasters could research and create new spells, but that was a matter of research and calculation. Even Karrin Dakkora couldn’t change a spell as she was casting it.
He opened his status, and the frown grew noticeably as he reviewed the changes. He’d gained two points of arcana, one point in spellcasting, two Moon attunement, and a new third-tier spell titled sonic orb.
Even the pitched battle against the dryads couldn’t explain those gains on his own. Especially the points in arcana. He’d only ever earned arcana after doing something profoundly stupid involving Elsewhere.
Micah bit his lip. Whatever he’d done, the new spell was incredibly powerful, dealing intense sonic damage at very close range over the course of a couple seconds. As far as he could tell, he hadn’t interacted with Elsewhere, but that moment of vertigo during the battle wasn’t normal.
“Hey, Micah,” Trevor called out as he pulled his spear from the downed dryad. “I’m not trying to complain about the experience—the gods know that I basically gained a full level in just this fight—but you said you could raise my affinity if I helped you clear out the grove, and, uh—”
He paused, blushing slightly before clearing his throat.
“I kind of wanted to spend some time with Claire once we finished up out here,” he continued, itching the back of his neck nervously. “Do you think you could do whatever that ritual thing was so I can get back to Basil’s Cove?”
FIFTEEN
A CHAT AND A RITUAL
“Are you sure about this, Micah?” Trevor licked his lips as he glanced nervously at his brother from inside the half-constructed ritual circle. “I know I asked for you to hurry the ritual up, but, uh, you seem to be checking that book of yours an awful lot.”
Micah looked up from the Folio, leaving his finger on a passage about the influence of the confluence of weather conditions and altitude on the ritual. A frown flashed across his face.
“I would prefer at least another day to prepare,” he responded, annoyance slipping into his voice, “but you were clear that you wanted this done today. I know most of the ritual already, but there were some complications with my magic during the fight that I’d like to investigate first. Plus, it’s not like I’ve ever actually used this ritual before. I’ve read notes on its casting as well as descriptions several times, but there’s a world of difference between a book and practical experience.”
“What do you mean you’ve never done this before?” Trevor asked, his Adam's apple bobbing. “I thought you did this sort of thing all the time in your last life?”
“I never got the time,” Micah said absently as he tried to make out his scribbled annotations on the three-hundred-year-old treatise. “Doing this ritual right would take days and a lot of spare magical energy that I didn’t have. It just seemed like something else was always coming up.”
“I mean, this is safe, right?” Trevor wrung his hands while looking to the deer and panther for support. The deer simply ignored both him and the large cat while she batted at its antlers.
“Not at all,” Micah replied, squinting at an unclear passage regarding the orientation of reagents. “For example, I’m struggling with an issue right now. The original author was fairly unconcerned with whether copper or birch shavings were used to outline the counter circle. One of the first rules is that organic and metallic ritual components are treated very differently. If I pick the wrong substance, it might either ignite you or turn you into some sort of misshapen plant beast.”
“And”—Trevor’s voice caught for a second before he continued, his tone tremorous—"Hypothetically, if you had the time to do this right, how would you deal with this problem?”
“First, I would eliminate any distractions.” Micah shot a glare at Trevor before returning his attention to the Folio. “Then I would isolate the portions of the ritual that were suspect and try to remove them from the gestalt. Obviously, I can’t test the entire ritual twenty different times without catastrophic results, but with enough points in the skill it’s possible to test specific sub-components.
“It takes time and burns up resources”—Micah shrugged helplessly—“but it prevents accidents. If the ritual just fails, that’s unfortunate. That said, turning your subject into ash or letting unearthly horrors pour through a rip in reality, well… those are frowned upon, and I’d like to avoid such things if at all possible”
“I,” Trevor said, fidgeting, “I think I’d prefer to avoid those too. I don’t suppose you’d mind slowing down and working the kinks out before you cast it on me.”
“Don’t worry,” Micah responded, flashing him a quick smile, “I’m actually pretty sure I’ve got this. Copper shavings were for improving Earth affinity, and birch shavings were for Wood. What I really need is something crystalline like salt.”
“Wait.” Trevor gulped, an orphaned bead of sweat trickling down his cheek. “Take all the time you need, I insist.”
“Fine.” Micah flashed his brother a bright smile as he slapped the Folio shut. “You’ll miss your hot date tonight, but I can probably get the kinks worked out by tomorrow. No need for you to stand in the middle of the ritual circle for hours while I figure things out.”
“Thank the gods,” Trevor said, tension draining from his body as he mumbled the words at the cloudless sky.
The stag just snorted. The panther took advantage of its momentary distraction to land a clean hit with its paw on the deer’s antlers.
It shook its head, startling the huge cat and sending it bolting into the nearby forest. A second later, Micah spotted it on a branch halfway up the giant trees that ringed the grove. He shook his head as a smile lit up his face.
“How are Claire and you doing anyway?” Micah asked Trevor as he walked over to the shade of a nearby tree and reopened the Folio. “You’re spending a lot of time with her, but we haven’t really had a chance to talk for the last month or so.”
“Great.” Trevor’s concern evaporated as a smile blossomed on his face. “We’re making plans to introduce me to her family next week.”
“Sounds serious?” Micah said, raising an eyebrow as he flipped pages in the Folio to cross-reference current weather conditions with the tables in his notes.
“Not really.” Trevor blushed. “She’s just really close with her family. I mean, it is serious, but it’s not like I’m planning on proposing or anything. They’re important to her so I want to get to know them.”
“Sounds fairly serious to me.” Micah let the edges of his mouth cheat upward into a half-smile. The stag snorted in agreement.
“She just makes me happy, Micah.” Trevor’s blush spread across his entire face. “The sun seems brighter and birds chirp louder when I’m around her. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like moments matter more.”
Jo’s face flashed across Micah’s vision. A smile in the darkness, showing just a hint of teeth. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to clear the image as his body shuddered.
“What was that?” Trevor asked, his eyes wide as he stared at Micah. “I think that outside of giving me crap, that might have been the first emotional reaction I’ve seen from you yet.”
The panther slammed its head into Micah’s arm, forcing him to drop the Folio. She looked up at him, concern filling her large yellow eyes as she pushed her head against him. Almost on its own, Micah’s hand found its way behind her ears.
“There’s a girl I’ve had to leave behind.” Micah’s mouth twisted into a line as a deluge of bittersweet memories threatened to drown him.
“Every time I restart,” he continued, focusing on the feeling of the panther’s warm fur against his fingers, “I always run into her. It’s almost fate. Sometimes we date, sometimes she hates me. It almost always ends in a fight, but last time, just before everything went wrong, we made up. I thought—”
There was no sound but the wind blowing through the grove. The deer shifted slightly, still laying down.
“It all almost worked out last time.” Micah smiled sadly, barely even noticing as his vision misted. “The Durgh, Jo. It all worked out, almost too well. Honestly, I shouldn’t have even been surprised when everything fell apart.”
“I never really asked.” Trevor’s voice broke the long seconds of silence that fell over the clearing after Micah had stopped speaking. “You’ve mentioned some of what happened, but you’ve never really gone into any details about what happened. I know for sure I haven’t heard anything about this ‘Jo’ person. Are they a girl?”
“Yeah.” Micah shook his head to clear the lingering malaise. “Her name is Josephine Redflower. She should be joining the Lancers in about a year or so. I met her as a rookie and she made me feel the sorts of things you’re saying about Claire. She became everything to me, and I made some bad decisions.
“Some very bad decisions,” Micah chuckled mirthlessly. “Luckily”—he shrugged, a note of bitterness in his voice—“she picked up on it. I was too inexperienced to realize what was happening and she broke things off before they could really sour. Then, the minute I thought I was getting over my feelings for her, she died in front of my eyes. She saved my life, Trevor.”
Micah chuckled slightly. “Even now, I don’t really know how to process my feelings for her. Clearly she doesn’t know who I am, but I remember watching her die at my feet. I remember learning everything about her twice. I remember her dumping me twice. Really, I probably should be avoiding her, but I can’t. When I came back, my first thought was that my family was safe. My second was that I would get another chance with Jo. It's almost like no matter what I do, everything comes back to her. She's a touchstone of normalcy in between the chaos of the time loops.”
“What happened?” Trevor asked, trying to pet the deer. It simply shifted its head to the side, avoiding his hand and snorting its displeasure at him.
“The deer and I took over this grove.” Micah slapped the tree behind him, grimacing slightly as he purposefully misunderstood his brother's question. “I can use the big trees around us to fuel ritual magic.”
“Oh.” Trevor’s eyes lit up. “Like bigger and better enchantments!”
“Or like summoning daemons,” Micah chuckled darkly.
“Shit,” Trevor muttered. “I bet the Church of Luxos loved that. They really don’t seem to be a fan of any summoning, let alone daemons.”
“They might be onto something.” Micah bit his lip. “At first everything went well. I was able to clear dungeons well above my level and I started growing stronger at an absurd rate. Then I hit a wall. I couldn’t summon daemons with enough power to do what I needed, and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to fight the Durgh when the time came.”
“What did you do?” Trevor cocked his head to the side.
“Something dumb,” he chuckled darkly as he continued. “I changed the summoning ritual and connected myself to the place that the daemons came from. It gave me the power I needed to fight my way through an entire Durgh army and stop the invasion, but it changed something about me.”
“That really doesn’t sound smart, Micah.” Trevor frowned. “I mean, I don’t even know exactly what happened yet, but that sounds like an absolutely awful idea.”
“It was.” Micah shrugged. “Before too long I started radiating energy that destroyed life. I didn’t even know until Esther got sick.”
“Oh gods,” Trevor interjected, mouth hanging slack.
“I don’t even know if she lived or died,” Micah sighed. “As soon as I realized what was happening, I retreated from Basil’s Cove and lived in the forest where I couldn’t hurt anyone. My last pleasant memories were of you and Jo visiting me. I promised myself during that meeting that I’d do it right this time. I wouldn’t take everything on my shoulders and I’d work with my old team from the Lancers, you, and the stag to fight off the Durgh without turning myself into a monster.”
