Eastern Dryfe, Valchouche Mountains
The Valchouche Mountains is an expansive mountainous range that separates the borders between Dryfe and Caldina. While not the only way into the vast deserts of Caldina, its close vicinity to the city of Gizdrift, Dryfe's main port of trade, made it the most used route by traders on their way to Caldina.
Under the shroud of darkness, a line of dim lights made its way through the perilous Valchouche mountains. While there was nothing particularly perilous about the actual geography of the mountains themselves, with landslides and earthquakes too insubstantial to pose a threat, the danger of the mountains lay in its inhabitants.
Instead, the Valchouche Mountains were infested with bandit groups, taking advantage of its natural terrain to ambush and prey on unprepared trade caravans.
As a matter of fact, it was considered suicidal to head into the Mountain range after the sun had set. This provided no reason for the presence of this caravan.
With two trihorn demi-dragons pulling it along, the caravan consisted of five carriages. Each carriage boasted a metal exterior as well as rubber tires suited for all kinds of terrain. Except for the first carriage, which was used as an armory, the other four carriages stored the cargo that this convoy was transporting.
The interior of the first carriage had an appearance reminiscent of a military barrack, with a wood-paneled floor as well as dim lighting hanging overhead. The furniture, which was made out of wood, consisted of tables, chairs and weapon racks. Save for a few modern assault rifles that rested on its shelves, the weapon racks were empty.
Most notably, the carriage was currently occupied by two people. Their attire was mostly identical, consisting of light body armour on top of grey-coloured fatigues. However, from the differing insignia printed on their left shoulder, the difference in rank was clear.
"Edward, have Clint and Raymond reported back yet? I sent them ahead to scout the valley ahead not too long ago. They should have been back seven minutes ago."
"No response from those two, Sir"
"Go around and tell everyone to be on full alert. Tell the masters with us to prepare for a battle."
"Yes, Commander Ernest."
Once the young soldier left the carriage and out of earshot, Ernest let out the sigh he had been holding. He and his clan Verdant Eagle had been requested to escort this caravan to Caldina on short notice.
Furthermore, the client had insisted on traveling through the Valchouche Mountains at night despite the risks. Due to the rocky terrain of the mountains, they were forced to travel at a slow pace while having most of his men on foot to keep a watch out.
His instincts, trained by countless skirmishes, had told him this was a bad idea but the pay, which was a very large sum of money, was far too good to pass up.
His clan Verdant Eagle specialised in escort jobs and consisted of tians with high rank jobs. Before setting off, he had even hired two Masters, something that Verdant Eagle rarely did. Ernest still couldn't suppress his unease, even with the considerable guard.
He surmised that an ambush was most likely waiting for them up ahead. The path ahead cut through two mountains, creating a ravine. This severely limited their options as there was only one entrance as well as one exit. In the event they were attacked, there would be nowhere to go.
Pulling out a cigar from his pocket, he muttered a few words under his breath, and the tip of it lit up immediately in response. Taking a long breath from his freshly lit cigar, he did his best to calm his nerves.
"Damm, this isn't looking good at all... I just hope the masters we hired carry their weight..."
Like that of the first carriage, the other carriages had similar interior furnishings. However, in place of furniture were rows upon rows of cargo boxes. These boxes, reinforced with metal, sacrificed capacity for durability, ensuring the goods inside were transported with the utmost safety.
Most of the cargo carriages were completely devoid of people with the exception of the 4th carriage, which held two individuals. What stood out the most was the fact that these individuals wore gear that was very much unlike the uniform that Verdant Eagle wore.
From the crests on their hands, it was clear that these were masters.
The first master, a tanned male with a vaguely European face, was clad in light metal armour and his bright blond hair covered by a dark blue robe. Currently, he had his eyes firmly shut, still stuck in slumber as he rested against the wall of the carriage.
The other master, a fair skinned lady with typical Asian features, had light leather armour and wore a cloth mask and hood to obscure her face. The most distinctive feature of her getup was that everything was dyed pitch black. Unlike her companion, she was wide awake, playing with her fingers nervously and muttering incomprehensible words under her breath.
This scene was abruptly disrupted as the door of the carriage swung open
"Commander Ernest has requested you to be on alert. Please prepare yourselves."
"Y-yes, we'll prepare now"
Satisfied with the lady's answer, the guard left the carriage. Once the sound of his footsteps vanished into the night, the lady proceeded to shake her compatriot awake.
"Ugh... what's the matter?" The master named Zephyr asks, still rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes "Did something happen?"
"Get up, there seems to be trou-"
Suddenly, the entire caravan came to a halt. The brief moment of silence was followed by the sounds of boots on gravel.
"Why did we stop?" Ernest's voice resounded in the darkness
"Sir, something has been sighted up ahead. 20 metels ahead. It appears to be stationary."
"Team 4, take point and investigate. Teams 8 and 3, cover them. The rest of the teams, rotate and account for all members."
Taking one final moment to steel himself, Ernest tossed the remains of his lighted cigar out of the door before issuing orders to his men.
The atmosphere suddenly became thick with tension and the sudden change reminded the masters in carriage of the severity of the situation.
Channeling electricity between his fingertips, the master known as Zephyr began to cast a skill. Sparks began to form around his body as he continued to chant his spell. The brief flashes of electricity illuminated the rather dark interior of the carriage, supplementing the dim lighting.
The other master, the player known as Haze, shut her eyes to focus as a black canister appeared in her hands.
Stepping out of the first carriage, Edward did a final run-down of his equipment before regrouping with his team.
Unfortunately, It was not Edward's day today. First, the two members of his team, Raymond and Clint, had gone up ahead, leaving him and Albert the sole members of Team 4 still able. Now, he was going to be stepping head-first into danger. Heartened by the comrades behind him, he made a move.
Taking slow, cautious steps, rifle leveled at whatever lay ahead, Edward made his way into the darkness. With the only source of light affixed to his rifle, he strained to see into the blackness in front of him
15 metels.
Even upon his approach, the figure made no attempt to move, its silent figure almost mocking.
10 metels.
As he approached the figure, with the help of his flashlight, he could make out two human figures standing side by side.
They had been standing so close that from afar it seemed that they were one figure. Silently shouting at his furiously palpitating heart to calm down, Edward continued his advance at an even slower pace.
9 metels.
Edward tried calling out to them, asking them to declare if they were friend or foe, his voice trembling all the while. They remained silent, their still figures unnerving. Get closer.
8 metels.
He tried again. No response
7 metels.
They were holding something in their hands. What was it?
6 metels.
Both figures raised the objects they had in their hands, and suddenly Edward could tell what they were.
Rifles.
A brilliant flash erupted from both rifles, and Edward's life ended in that very instant. The storm of bullets had made short work of the body armour he had donned, leaving nothing but a corpse. He hadn't even had time to scream.
His comrades had reacted immediately, filling the figures with bullets before Edward's body had even hit the floor.
"Wait... what?"
The identity of the two figures was made all too clear. It was Clint and Raymond, the scouting party. They had just shot and killed their own comrades. Still trying to comprehend their own actions, they were caught completely unaware by what came next.
The dull bark of Ernest's revolver rang as he dispatched the person who forcefully entered his carriage. The gunfire ringing out all around him quickly confirmed his doubts. They had lured out some of his men to create an opportunity for an ambush. Right now, he needed to rally his men to repel the attack.
Exiting the carriage in one swift motion, he emptied the rest of his bullets into the man at the entrance, cutting his life short. Reloading his revolver, he took stock of his surroundings. Judging by the loud cracks distinctive to lightning magic echoing in the distance, the masters he hired had already gotten to work. He needed to regroup with them as soon as possible.
The sound of footsteps resounded behind him and he turned his head to see someone donned in the Verdant Eagle uniform shuffling towards him. Without a word, he fired two shots into the legs of his comrade, whispering a prayer as the figure crashed to the floor. The body convulsed violently as it struggled to get up, before ceasing motion altogether.
Even in the darkness, Ernest had already seen the fatal wound his comrade had suffered, a clean slash from shoulder to hip.
"Tch, Necromancy huh... they'll pay for this..."
More footsteps could be heard in the distance. Replacing the two rounds in his revolver, Ernest steeled himself for more combat.
At the same time, the rear of the convoy had come under attack as well. Without their commander's orders, they were caught in disarray.
"Hu...rk"
Wrenching his blade out of a soldier's throat, Ghani shook off the drops of blood on its surface before sheathing his weapon. As he had expected, these tians didn't pose much of a threat to his group. While the Dryfian climate was a rather harsh transition from what they were used to, they had managed to cope rather well.
All that was left was to command his group forwards to the first carriage and meet up with the masters spearheading this operation.
However, while issuing orders to his men, he was oblivious to the several black canisters rolling on the ground around them. All of a sudden, the canisters burst, dispersing large amounts of smoke, which enveloped the group and completely obstructed their vision.
"...What's this black smoke? It's surrounding us! I can't see a thing!"
A loud crack rang in the air, and the person who opened his mouth collapsed in an unsightly heap, his heart forcefully stopped by a incredible burst of electricity.
"You got him, nice shot. There's a group about 30 meters away, to your left."
Acknowledging Haze's words with a nod, Zephyr promptly sends the lightning arcing between his fingertips in the direction indicated. With the directions of Haze, Zephyr and his lightning magic made short work of any assailants stumbling around in the smoke.
The sound of gunfire rang through the air, with a hail of bullets flying in Haze's general direction. Yet, the bullets bounce harmlessly off a black shield which appeared out of thin air. Then, almost as quickly as it appeared, it melts back into smoke.
She takes off in a sprint in the direction of those bullets and two men find themselves choking on their own blood, black daggers planted in their throats. Haze continues to tear through the raiders, with each and every one meeting their end to the strange black weapons that she wielded.
The smoke was the work of Haze's embryo : Type World Arms, [Achlys, Walker of the Mists]. By releasing black smoke from her hands, Haze could obscure the vision of her opponents. With the addition of her 3rd form, she gained the ability to sight objects in her smoke, allowing her to act as a pseudo-radar as long as the battle took place in her smoke.
Furthermore, the smoke could be coalesced to form solid objects such as weapons or shields, which was the identity of the black daggers that had ended the lives of many raiders as well as the canisters.
Combined with the High Rank Job [Dead Hand], she cut a swathe through the oblivious assailants with ease.
"The enemy's over there! Casters, fire in that direction! "
On the command of another raider, the few casters in the group fired deadly plumes of fire into the smoke. The haphazard order of that raider proved effective as the smoke immediately parted upon contact with the fiery blaze.
Before it could even come close to Haze's location, it instead came into contact with a lone figure in the smoke. Normally, the strength of the flames would have incinerated any normal person before proceeding on its path.
However, the entire barrage crashed against that lone figure before dissipating into harmless embers. Having emerged from the devastating blast looking no worse for wear, the figure began to advance in their direction.
"How did that guy survive that? Casters, prepare another barrage. Everyone else, fire at that guy!"
"..."
Pointing their rifles at the approaching figure, they failed to notice the curling tendrils of electricity forming at their feet. One by one, the raiders began to collapse from the incredible amounts of electricity coursing through their legs. Collapsing into the field of electricity only served to end their lives even faster.
Increasingly disturbed by the cries of agony, the casters began to chant even faster, hoping to at least take down the monster down with them.
"Eh?! My magic disappeared! My MP isn't suffici-"
One of the caster's words was cut short as they collapsed in the sea of electricity. The rest of the casters met the same fate, with their spells dissipating in their hands. Then, large amounts of electricity fried them inside out, turning them into crisps.
With the group of casters completely dissolved, Zephyr uncapped a potion that he took from his dark blue robe and downed it in one swift motion. Haze appeared next to him, the daggers in her hands fading back into smoke, leaving the minute traces of blood to drip onto the gravel beneath them.
"Vic-Haze, that blast of magic almost fucking killed me! Why'd you even direct me this way?"
"You survived, did you not? Besides, those casters might actually have killed me. Consider it your way of paying me back for those notes I copied for you yesterday"
"I did not agree to those conditions at all!"
"Thanks for taking out those casters, Zephyr, but we need to fall back and regroup, let's make haste."
"Sheesh, you could at least acknowledge my comment..."
The battle continued to rage on as the members of Verdant Eagle fought against the raiders. With Haze's embryo providing a tactical advantage, they managed to mount a counterattack. Yet, the commander Ernest was nowhere to be found among the survivors at carriage 4.
"Haah...Haah..."
The last of the reanimated corpses fell to the ground with a thud. It was likely that the controller was out of MP or bodies. Leaning against the wall of the carriage for support, Ernest emptied the contents of a potion into his mouth.
Immediately, he could feel his energy returning and his light wounds began to heal. Judging from the quantity of reanimated bodies, most of his clan had already perished. An intense feeling of grief surged through him as he mourned the heavy losses.
"...!"
His Danger Perception flared. Snapping to action, he broke into a roll.
Ernest let out a dull grunt as he felt one of the bullets clip his shoulder while the other two bullets sunk harmlessly into the place he stood prior. A deep voice resounded through the smoke.
"And to think, I was kind enough to let you die at the hands of your friends... Why. Are. You. Still. Alive?"
From the way he referred to the reanimated corpses, Ernest surmised that this was the necromancer. The sound of his footsteps grew louder, and soon Ernest was able to make him out in the darkness.
The necromancer was a tall, lanky man dressed in a dark brown trench coat on top of lightweight metal armour. The upper region of his face was obscured by the hood of his trenchcoat, with only a crazed grin visible.
"Oi! Show yourself! I know you're there!"
Leaving him to spout stupid one liners, Ernest's mind was already planning a strategy.
"I'm gonna fucking count to 3! If you don't decide to show yourself, you're fucking dead!"
From Ernest's hiding spot, he could hear the necromancer's footsteps getting louder.
"...One!"
"...Two!"
"...Thr - oof!"
His counting was abruptly cut short when Ernest emerged from his hiding spot, charging right into him and sending him crashing to the ground. Drawing his revolver, Ernest fired a shot into his opponent's foot.
"Ack! Fuck you!"
Still screaming expletives from his mouth, the necromancer used his good foot to kick Ernest's leg, knocking him off balance. His second shot fired into the ground near them.
Without skipping a beat, the necromancer drew the revolver stashed on his hip and pointed it in his assailant's face. His revolver, an unnatural and alien looking weapon made a ghoulish bark as it fired its round.
Immediately sidestepping the shot, Ernest backed away from him lest he get hit. Simultaneously, he took a better look at the weapon gripped in the necromancer's hand.
Aside from its exterior that seemed to be faintly glowing, he noticed that the cylinder of the unnatural revolver was filled with what appeared to be living projectiles as they writhed in the chamber.
"Running away so soon!? This battle hasn't even started! Get back here!"
Despite being backed into a corner, the necromancer's foul mouth didn't seem to dull one bit, showering Ernest with a torrent of choice words as he swiftly rose to his feet.
"You garbage tian! I'm a fucking master and I'll crush you easily!"
"...You talk far too much, little boy"
"W-What the fuck did you just call me?"
Taking advantage of his outburst, Ernest closed the distance between him and the necromancer in a flash. Even in the midst of conjuring yet another string of swear words, the necromancer still managed to discharge his weapon.
The bullet accurately sank into Ernest's stomach and he let out a grunt as excruciating pain surged through his body.
However, his bulletproof vest had held strong, avoiding a mortal injury. Before he could fire off another shot, Ernest trapped both his arms in a vice like grip. Then, he shoved his knee into his stomach.
While the necromancer didn't feel any pain, the sheer force of the blow had knocked the air out of him and the revolver slipped out of his hand, clattering against the floor.
Out of the grip of its owner, the alien revolver pulsated wildly before its rough black surface melted away, leaving a standard revolver. It then vanished from sight after Ernest sent it flying with a swift kick.
"You think this means you've won? It's over for you lousy- Gah!"
His repetitive dialogue was cut short by a ball of fire crashing into his chest. All throughout his attack, Ernest had been chanting the incantation to a spell. With his spell finished, he was able to shut the necromancer up for good. Or so he hoped.
The fireball, despite being a spell from the low ranked job [Mage], did its job, making short work of the necromancer's remaining health pool. Despite his rapidly dropping health bar, he managed to crack a stupid grin before opening his mouth to speak.
"[Leech]."
Suddenly, an intense weight crashed onto Ernest's shoulders and he felt his strength vanish in an instant. No longer able to keep the necromancer in place, he sank to his knees. If one were to look at the health values, it almost looked as if they had switched health values entirely.
"Hahaha, what a splendid effort for the commander of these pushovers. Although, I'll admit I didn't expect you to have [Pyromancer] as your main job. What a pity... If only you had managed to dodge my embryo, [Malfeasance]. Then, I wouldn't have been able to steal your health while you were so preoccupied with killing me. Oh well, It's the end of the line for you anyway... any last words?"
Without waiting for a reply, he reached for his revolver, only to grasp thin air.
"Right, you lost my revolver... Well, I'm sure you won't mind if I take yours."
As soon as his fingers closed around the grip of the revolver, the crest on his hand shone brightly and the cold steel of the revolver was replaced with an unnatural black, bearing a distinct similarity to the weapon that he had wielded prior.
"So it's a magic gun... To think a tian like you had such a rare weapon. Anyway, as they say in my country, zai jian! Better luck in your next life!"
"..."
The sound of a gunshot resounded throughout the darkness.
Ernest's body crashed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Then, almost like magic, his body began to move, rising to its feet with an unnatural speed. Ernest's lifeless eyes stared at its new master, before breaking into a run towards the rear carriages, vanishing in the smoke surrounding it.
A few seconds later, a massive figure encased in grey armour appeared from the same direction, and he had to look up to meet the other's gaze.
"My, my, Wu Ming, you might want to cut down on that evil guy personality you're going for there."
"Shut your mouth. I don't want to hear that from you. Besides, what are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to handle the tians at carriage 3?"
"They're all dead. Glass sent me to get you while she secured our objective. The masters at the 4th carriage are proving difficult for our cannon fodder."
"Let's be off then. Don't want to keep them waiting..."
Lightning crackled between Zephyr's fingertips as another group of mindless zombies fell to his attacks. The sheer volume of charred bodies caused the smell of burnt flesh to permeate through the air.
Furthermore, thanks to the thick smoke surrounding them in all directions, the smell showed no signs of dissipating. However, the attacks had stopped, allowing the remaining survivors a brief respite from combat.
"Someone's been hit, we need a medic over here!"
"Does anyone have any spare ammo?"
Suppressing the voices of those around her, Haze focused her effort into conveying her intent to Achlys. She constructed another black canister, filling it with compressed smoke before hurling the product into a direction where the smoke looked thin.
The canister burst apart on contact, enveloping the surroundings in smoke once more. Confirming that they were relatively well defended, Haze let out a sigh as she beckoned one of the medics to attend to her.
After clearing out the assailants in Carriage 5, Zephyr and Haze had formed up with the survivors of the attack from carriage 4 and 5. So far, there hadn't been any survivors from Carriage 3, so anyone from 1-3 had most likely perished.
Using the natural terrain as cover as well as Haze's smoke to locate any approaching hostiles and serve as a protection against ranged attacks, they had managed to defend themselves. From the original 35 or so tians at the very beginning, the survivor count had been reduced to a measly 14.
The attackers didn't seem to be your ordinary run of the mill bandits either, employing necromancy to reanimate the bodies of the dead, which was a rather uncommon skill.
"Alright, I've stopped the bleeding. Drink this please."
The medic had successfully removed the arrow stuck in Haze's shoulder and was in the midst of bandaging the wound properly. While doing so, he instructed Haze to drink the potion that he had offered to her.
Unlike the [Priest] and other healing joblines, the [Medic] jobline possessed no actual healing skills whatsoever. Instead, the [Medic] jobline focused on enhancing the strength of healing items. One of their main skills, [First Aid], boosted the strength of any consumables administered as well as increased the potency of any debuff curing items. This gave them a healing output that rivaled that of any similar jobs, as well as being the jobline capable of curing the widest range of debuffs.
However, the main reason they didn't see widespread use among masters was due to the fact they couldn't heal allies in battle. Healing magic could be used to restore health instantaneously while healing items needed to be administered by hand. Thus, they commonly saw employment in large groups as they weren't constrained by MP requirements. With enough items, a few medics could treat a whole army given enough time.
"...!"
She felt her heart sink as she noticed the number of people stepping into her smoke increasing rapidly.
"They plan to overwhelm us with sheer numbers alone..."
While she could identify a large number of zombies due to their unsteady gait, there was still a disproportionate amount of attackers with over double the number of survivors. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she took command once again.
"We've got a large number of hostiles coming at us from all directions! Zeph, establish a defensive perimeter around us. Everyone else, prepare for combat!"
More canisters appeared in her hands as she prepared more smoke to reinforce their defence. However, her embryo had a limit to the amount of smoke she could produce. With the battle imminent, she hastily tossed the two canisters she was holding into the surroundings, where they further obscured the area from view.
"Eh? I'm -cough- being poisoned! I need a medic!"
All of a sudden, catastrophe struck as several soldiers manning the defence of the north region started coughing violently.
Sending her vision north, Haze identified two figures at the edge of the smoke. One had full plate mail, while the other was clothed in light metal armour. She figured that one of the two had caused this effect with their Type Territory embryo.
Having masters involved made the situation far more dire and it would be incredibly dangerous to let them proceed any further.
Another skill that Achlys possessed was the ability to inflict certain restrain-type debuffs on targets. She decided to inflict the debuff [Binding] on both of them, which would serve to slow their movements and discourage them from advancing further.
"W-what? My body feels numb! B-binding?"
One of the survivors sounded out, startled by the sudden application of this debuff.
"...An ability that "returns" their debuffs in an area around them."
Haze saw through the ability instantly.
The master in full metal plate's movements had grown sluggish. However, his companion seemed to be completely fine. There was a chance to resist the effects of [Binding] depending on the target's STR stat and judging from the gun gripped in his hands, he wasn't specialized in STR.
From this, she surmised that the man in light armour was the owner of the Type Territory. She guessed that the other master was the necromancer. She needed to eliminate the Type Territory first. Cancelling the [Binding], obsidian-black daggers formed in her hands as she prepared a preemptive strike.
"[▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ ▉▉ ▉▉▉▉▉, ▉▉▉▉▉▉]"
Her vision blurred as she accelerated into the smoke at near subsonic speeds. One of the skills of the Job [Dead Hand] increased AGI significantly before initiating combat. This enabled Haze's preemptive strike to deal significantly increased damage.
"Debuff [Poison] Acquired"
She closed the distance in a matter of seconds, daggers at the ready. Paying no heed to her decreasing HP, she focused all her attention into connecting her strike.
Wu Ming's [Danger Perception] triggered and he immediately opened his mouth to warn his companion.
"Wha-!"
Wu Ming's words died in his throat as he found himself face to face with gleaming silver eyes. Upon initiating combat, the boost in AGI lasted for an additional 10 seconds.
Without skipping a beat, Haze began her dance of death as her daggers found their targets, unrelentingly tearing apart Wu Ming's armour before going for his health. From Wu Ming's perspective, he could notice his HP bar dropping rapidly as his armour began to lose it's defensive capabilities.
The sound of something breaking could be heard as the shards of a lifesaving brooch clattered against the ground. The aftermath of those 10 seconds left Wu Ming's brown trench coat torn up and stained red from the grievous wounds he suffered.
"He's not dead!?"
The brooch had already shattered before the 10 second mark, so he should have already died. However, Wu Ming's health value was exactly 1.
No matter what attack Haze used, it was impossible for her to reduce his health value any further. The general skill of the Job [Rearguard] had already triggered, [Last Stand], which prevented the user from dropping below 1 HP for 5 seconds even if fatal damage was suffered.
A massive force crashed into Haze, sending her crashing to the ground. Even with her head still spinning from the concussion, she could make out the conversation between Wu Ming and his armoured companion, who had knocked her aside with the gigantic shield they wielded.
"Oh, she almost got you. Need any help there hotshot?"
"Tch, mind your own business. Go on ahead, I'll deal with this one. [Leech]."
In the east, Haze sensed several figures in the smoke collapsing to the ground, ceasing movement entirely.
"Try not to beg for help later, got it?"
"Fuck off, will you?"
Laughing heartily, his companion slowly trundled off towards where the rest of the survivors were still fighting for their lives.
"Now…what to do with you."
He couldn't exactly see in the thick smoke, preventing him from simply ending her life from where he stood. Scrambling to her feet, Haze downed the contents of a potion before planning her next course of action.
She still held the advantage due to her embryo, and that skill. However, she had to act quickly.
"I need to stall him. If he healed to full health, then his HP isn't that much higher than mine."
Holding her daggers in a vice-like grip, she lunged at Wu Ming.
While Wu Ming and Haze clashed, Zephyr focused his efforts into defense. However...
"Debuff [Poison] Acquired"
"He's coming closer."
As the system announced the debuff in a monotonous voice, Zephyr felt an increasing level of dread. Judging from Haze's HP bar in the party window, she was still engaged in combat.
Yet, the embryo spreading the debuff had still come close enough to inflict poison on him. The lightning field that he had cast around their defenses served its purpose, having stunned or killed anybody who stepped into it.
For many, lightning magic was easily the best offensive magic, with high damage and speed as well as the chance of conferring [Paralysis]. Furthermore, it could be conducted through metal.
While mythical metal such as Hihi'irokane negated this downside to a certain extent, most metal armour didn't protect the user from lightning magic, making it a counter to most END-oriented builds.
The extreme firepower that lightning magic brought was extremely costly, so most magic users tended to gravitate towards fire magic, which was the mainstay of most magic users due to its excellent damage output as well as the ability to confer debuffs such as [Burning] or [Charring].
"Someone's collapsed! We need a medic here!"
As it stood, it seemed their plan was to simply stand in an area where they could safely debuff people. Most likely due to the fact the embryo reapplied debuffs constantly, recovery items simply weren't helpful.
Apart from the reanimated soldiers stumbling into their defensive perimeter, which had stopped coming a few minutes ago, the only attacks came from ranged attackers firing on them from inside the smoke. They were certainly losing this battle of attrition.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, he wondered why he continued to fight a losing battle. After all, a death penalty was more than assured if he persisted. At the same time, he already knew the answer.
For the person controlling the master Haze, she wouldn't back down no matter what. To her, the ability to decide her own choices was what drove her forward. That was why Zephyr concluded her embryo, Achlys, was a reflection of her real world circumstance, where all the choices were never in her hands, as if her path was permanently shrouded in mist.
Her desire to see the path that lay ahead had manifested Achlys, and being able to walk the path she decided for herself was what drove her in Infinite Dendrogram. And for Zephyr, who had introduced her to Infinite Dendrogram to begin with, he had already decided he would support her choice from the very beginning.
"This really is more trouble than it's worth..."
Lightning sparked from his fingertips as he began to cast another spell.
Inside the smoke was Wu Ming's companion, a giant dressed in full plate armour. While he couldn't see inside the thick smoke, he showed no fear of being ambushed as he silently stood on the spot, as if he was waiting for something. A couple of seconds later, he reached into his inventory for a vial of dark green liquid. He gently swirled the mixture in his hand before putting it to his lips.
"Debuff [Poison] Acquired"
"I should only need another 2 bottles…"
Crushing the empty glass bottle under his heel, the master known as Heugsim swallowed the rest of the poison in a single gulp. He had already equipped accessories which gave him a high resistance to poison damage, however, his embryo : Type Territory [Cleansing of Burdens, Ganesha] didn't carry over any resistances when "sharing" the debuff.
This allowed him to mostly negate the poison damage inflicted to him. Though, he felt a little disappointed that the poison didn't sting as much as he'd expected. He attempted to satisfy himself with the suffering of the survivors beyond the smoke he stood in.
"This is a little boring… I'd hoped to be able to see their faces as they writhed around in pain."
With the lightning field being constantly maintained, it was suicidal to mount a head-on attack, thus forcing Heugsim to stay at the edge of the field and slowly wear down their defenders. While it was an incredibly boring strategy, on her orders, he wasn't to endanger himself unnecessarily.
"Crack!"
Pain surged through his body as a bolt of lightning crashed into his shoulder, conducting electricity throughout his fully metal armour. Without uttering a sound, he lifted the massive rectangular shield resting at his side. Though concealed by his helmet's visor, the faintest hint of a smile appeared on Heugsim's face.
"Finally, some action."
Gripping his massive shield by its wooden handle, Heugsim advanced in the direction of the attacker. The distinctive crack of lightning magic resounded through the smoke, and another bolt of lightning crashed into him. This time, the lightning struck the shield before harmlessly dissipating. Wood wasn't a conductive material after all.
After enduring a few more projectiles, he cleared the smoke surrounding the survivors and found himself face to face with Zephyr. He silently stood in his lightning field while sparks of electricity danced around his body. However, what interested Heugsim the most was the look of determination in his eyes as he stared at him. From the look in his eyes, Heugsim could feel Zephyr's intent to prove victorious against him.
"I've decided. I'll crush this person's spirit and savour the look of defeat in his eyes."
Pulling out a glass bottle of dark purple liquid from his inventory, Heugsim shook the contents of the bottle such that Zephyr could see it clearly. Then, he lifted the visor of his helmet and dumped the contents into his mouth.
"Debuff [Deadly Poison] Obtained"
Zephyr's eyes widened as he noticed the addition of this debuff. What set [Deadly Poison] apart from its predecessor was instead of reducing HP proportionally, the damage of [Deadly Poison] would increase over time. This meant that eventually, Heugsim would start taking substantial damage from the poison as the damage surpassed the limits of his gear's resistance.
For people without sufficient poison resistance, it represented a near death sentence if left uncured.
Raising his shield, Heugsim blocked the bolt of lightning Zephyr hurled at him. Charging into the field of lightning, he rammed his shield into Zephyr. Instead of being flung like Heugsim expected he would, he didn't budge an inch, using both his arms to hold back the advance of the shield. Tendrils of electricity curled around his shield, sending thousands of volts through Heugsim's arms. Despite the excruciating pain turning his arms numb, Heugsim instead felt surprise.
"...An END build?"
No ordinary mage build had the STR or END to stop such a blow. Even with the assumption that Zephyr held a MP-oriented superior job as well as an END-focused embryo, the stat distribution simply didn't lend well to stacking enough END to stop that blow. If the user had instead gone all into END, they wouldn't have sufficient MP to maintain so many spells.
Currently, Zephyr was still maintaining the field of electricity at his feet as well as the lightning that had turned his arm numb. Both of these spells combined demanded a significant amount of MP per second. Even consuming MP potions off cooldown wasn't enough.
"Ah..."
He noticed his own MP bar was dipping sharply. He hadn't used a single MP related ability or skill throughout this whole encounter.
"The ability of his embryo is to..."
"... draining his MP. If this keeps up, there's a possibility that I kill him before I can die to the poison."
While his embryo did possess the ability to drain MP through direct damage, the signature skill of Type Territory Rule [Generator of Storms, Tesla] was the refunding of MP by taking self-inflicted damage from spells. By wrapping himself in an "armour" of electricity, Zephyr could convert any form of energy damage into self damage as well as mitigate it slightly. The MP he generated could also exceed his maximum MP.
While Zephyr's main job was still [Thundermancer], every single one of his other jobs was END-focused. As long as he engaged in direct combat, Tesla would easily supply him enough MP.
This hybrid build allowed him to contend with most opponents in Dendro. However, with Tesla at form 4,he was severely limited by his output. Compared to the form 6 Ganesha, Tesla would struggle to compete.
His pain settings were off, but his eyes had begun to water from the superheated air and his exposed skin had begun to char. Even so, Zephyr focused everything he had into the small chance of victory. He estimated that the debuff [Deadly Poison] would kill him in about 40 seconds. Against the END-focused Heugsim, with more HP than him, he would last for a lot longer than that.
Every single point of MP that Tesla produced was channeled into his electricity. The increase in MP used would of course increase the damage of his lightning, which would increase the amount of self damage that he took, increasing his MP output.
He had effectively recreated the effects of [Deadly Poison] on Heugsim. They had both been inflicted with [Paralysis], so escape wasn't an option. He couldn't even reach his inventory to drink any healing. For now, they seemed to be locked in a standstill as both of their HP values dropped at increasing rates.
Unfortunately, the difference between their embryo forms was too great.
"[Shoulder the Overwhelming Burden, Ganesha]!"
After all, most embryos unlock their ultimate skill at form 5.
Zephyr turned into particles of light within the next second. The field of electricity at his feet disappeared without a trace and Heugsim was the only one left standing. A few seconds later, as the debuff [Paralysis] finally vanished, Heugsim drank the antidotes for all his debuffs as well as a HP potion. He no longer had any use for the debuffs anymore as Ganesha's ability had been disabled for the next hour.
That was the price to pay for the ultimate as Ganesha shared the debuffs that it inflicted in a radius, but instead concentrated it on a single person. There remained 14 survivors plus Zephyr affected by Ganesha, as the other master had already left his range. This meant that Ganesha had applied 14 additional instances of [Poison], [Deadly Poison] as well as [Paralysis] on Zephyr. Even Heugsim was confident his own stats wouldn't have been able to survive that.
"I wished he had squirmed a little more..."
Meanwhile, Haze wasn't faring much better.
"Why are you running so much? Why don't you attack me head on again?"
Wu Ming taunted Haze as he sent more of his undead after her.
Haze couldn't spare a moment to reply as she dodged the haphazard swing of one unfortunate undead. As she aimed for a fatal blow, another undead had lunged at her, forcing her to abandon the kill. She had no choice but to back off as the undead horde continued to pursue her.
After using [Leech] to restore his health back to full, Wu Ming had recalled all his undead to assist him. He had then gone around searching for more dead bodies to reanimate. All the while, he took the opportunity to offer grating trash talk.
While the undead had no intellect to speak of, their numbers as well as their stats posed an issue for Haze. Their stats was due to the fact that most of the dead had relatively high stats which carried over when reanimated by Wu Ming. This gave them surprisingly high AGI as well as STR. Despite that, Haze knew for a fact their HP didn't carry over. In fact, every single undead possessed identical health values.
If you told this information to someone well versed in necromancy, they would find it rather odd. This was because reanimating the dead would carry over all the stats, including HP. Often, the reanimated would have a higher maximum HP as they lacked any vitals nor bodily functions, thus allowing them to withstand damage that they wouldn't be able to withstand while alive.
The reason why the HP didn't carry over was because Wu Ming never employed necromancy to begin with.
Type Advance Legion : [Parasitical Blight, Malfeasance]. True to its name, Malfeasance was a parasite. It would burrow into bodies, living or dead. Inside the body, Malfeasance would wrap around the vitals of the target and once triggered, would absorb as much HP as it could from the body depending on how widespread it was.
In dead bodies, Malfeasance could replace the function of the brain, sending signals to the body to order it to move. Recently killed bodies often had leftover resources which Malfeasance would take advantage of to manipulate the dead. This was more akin to a pilot in a Magingear rather than true necromancy and the HP value that the "reanimated" possessed was in fact, the HP value of the parasite controlling them.
"Just a little longer…"
Despite the horde of undead still chasing her, Haze held her ground. Using her embryo to scout out the location of Wu Ming, she prepared for what would be the deciding blow. Paying no heed to the dozens that had begun to encircle her, she broke into a run.
The sound of her footsteps immediately roused the undead near her, who began sprinting after her. However, at this moment, the only thing that mattered was the distance between her and Wu Ming.
"There you are! That's enough running from you. It's time to die!"
The guttural bark of his revolver sounded as he fired in her direction. His bullets zipped harmlessly past her as she evaded or deflected them with her embryo. The few undead that Wu Ming had kept near him had moved to block her path. To Wu Ming, it seemed that she had thrown everything into one final attack, risking damage from his puppets to finish him off.
"If I hit her once, she's as good as dead."
Out of nowhere, the reanimated body of the deceased commander lunged at her with blistering speed. Time slowed to a crawl as his arms inched closer and closer to Haze's figure.
"End of the line!"
"[Enveloped in Death, Achlys]!"
If you spend too much time in the mists of Death, then Death is what you shall get.
The smoke that had clouded the landscape had vanished without a trace.
The only thing left in its wake was Wu Ming. His legion of undead were nowhere to be found
He didn't even have time to raise his revolver as Haze appeared right in front of him.
Without his legion, Wu Ming already knew that the death penalty was more than assured. As Haze cut into his HP, he didn't make any attempt to resist.
As she was about to deliver him the death penalty…
"[The Watcher's Interference, Psyche]."
She froze.
"Consider yourself lucky, Wu Ming."
"G-Glass?"
"I've already got what we came for. Let's just clean up and go. Right, Heugsim's embryo is out of commission, so I'll expect you to do it."
"O-of course!"
Drawing the bow that she slung on her shoulder, she fired an arrow into Haze's still body. That was the final blow for Haze's HP, and she began to turn into particles of light. Without an ounce of hesitation, she continued walking at a leisurely pace, leaving Wu Ming where he stood.
"I'll borrow that embryo of yours for a short while then…"
"[Whisper of Death, Malfeasance]."
The skin on his right hand began to glow, before eventually revealing another crest. He glanced at it briefly before running to catch up with his party.
With both masters gone, the clan of Verdant Eagle had been sentenced to death.
[Party Member "Obsidian Haze" Has Died]
...
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Obsidian Haze" was Logged Out]
"No way..."
"Aren't we done for?"
Nobody answered the question. The announcement of Haze's death left an uncomfortable silence among the remaining survivors. Without Haze and Zephyr's help, they were aware of just how helpless they were. The disparity in power between tians and masters was too large to be crossed. At this point, surrender was the only option for them. Even though a single soul couldn't be made out in the darkness, they still felt a presence watching them. Any attempt to run would certainly prove futile.
"Eh... isn't this?"
A familiar black smoke had begun to surround them.
Had Haze managed to escape death somehow?
A blood-curdling scream rang through the air and they could only watch as the smoke enveloped one of their allies, in a manner akin to a ravenous beast. The muffled sounds of bones snapping could be heard, before the smoke cleared to reveal... nothing. In the face of such a horrifying display, the final glimmers of hope had been crushed. They were at the mercy of the smoke that had once been their ally.
"Aren't you having too much fun?"
With a hint of disappointment in his voice, Heugsim addressed the cackling Wu Ming. They were standing at the entrance of a small crevice further down the path. While they were a while away from the combat, they were still close enough to hear the screams from Wu Ming's unfortunate victims.
"This embryo is pretty awesome. It was just an experiment, but I could manipulate the smoke into crushing his bones."
Paying no mind to Heugsim, Wu Ming continued to terrorise the remaining survivors with his new embryo.
Slightly annoyed by his companion, Heugsim instead turned his attention to the lady standing behind them.
Similar to Wu Ming, Glass was dressed in padded cloth armor, making it clear she favoured AGI to END. The hood of her cloak was down, revealing a mass of long, blond hair. While her eyes were wide open, her mind seemed to be elsewhere.
She also sported a quiver on her back. While it was originally packed with arrows, the battle had cut the number of arrows significantly. Now, only two dozen arrows remained in the quiver. Her bow, on the other hand, was currently in her hands. While the decoration was rather plain, Heugsim knew the bow was of quality make.
At this moment, Glass blinked, cutting Heugsim's brief period of observation short.
"Alright, we're in the clear. I couldn't find a soul within a hundred and fifty meters of us."
A couple of butterflies fluttered around Glass before perching themselves on her head and shoulders.
"Nice. Wu Ming's just about done. What about the rest of our party?"
"There isn't a single one left alive. That girl with the smoke killed whoever was left."
"Our retreat should be quick then."
Wu Ming seized this chance to interrupt the conversation.
"Hey Glass, what exactly did we get sent here for? We don't usually do this kind of thing anyway. What did he ask for?"
"Shouldn't you be focusing on whatever it is that you're doing?"
"I'm just curious. Sending the 3 of us against a couple of weak-ass masters and a bunch of tians is kinda overkill, ain't it?"
"Well…"
"I'll admit, I'm also pretty curious. He only briefed you on what we're after." Heugsim spoke up as well.
After a moment of deliberation, Glass gave in. Reaching into the inventory at her waist, she pulled out the object in question. Holding it in the palm of her hand, she presented it to her companions.
It was a large object that barely fit into the palm of Glass's hand. Even in the darkness of the night, they could clearly make out its dark red exterior. On further inspection, the object was a relatively spheroid shape, with uneven grooves and a distorted shape. The top and bottom of the object had small white rings, which looked similar to pipe connectors.
"What… is this?"
"Dunno. The briefing I got only told me about what to look out for. This thing was locked up pretty tight though. Don't know what I would have done if I didn't find the keys."
She turned it around in her hands one more time, in hopes of gleaning its purpose. Of course, she still didn't notice anything of note. After what seemed like an eternity, she returned the object to her inventory defeatedly.
She turned to Heugsim,
[Party Member "Heugsim" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Heugsim" was Logged Out]
Only to find a headless body turning into particles of light.
Without a moment to lose, she grabbed the collar of Wu Ming's cloak.
"[Soul Veil]!"
Then they disappeared.
Still shaken by Heugsim's untimely death, Glass struggled to sort out her train of thoughts. After grabbing Wu Ming, she immediately made a break for it. She led the way while Wu Ming followed closely behind.
At the moment, their priority was to ensure the object would make it safely to their leader's hands. Thus, they opted to escape deep into the mountains in order to throw off their attacker.
"The attacker launched an attack strong enough to blow away Heugsim's head in one hit… and the brooch didn't trigger. A superior job skill?"
With only thousands of Superior Job holders among the millions of people and tians in Dendro, the strength of the unique skills that they provide cannot be taken lightly
Having already seen a few superior job skills firsthand, Glass concluded that the ability to "bypass defensive items" belonged to a superior job.
"Seriously? How are we gonna win?"
"We don't have to. As long as Soul Veil is active, he won't be able to see us anyway. I'm keeping track of his location as we speak."
She outstretched her palm, releasing a few more butterflies into the air.
[Psyche, Watcher of Souls], Type Legion. An embryo that consists of hundreds of butterflies. Every butterfly has the innate ability to hide themselves from the vision of living things. Through physical contact, the same invisibility can be imparted to any object. Furthermore, due to the nature of the ability, skills such as [Reveal] are ineffective.
By retracing the trajectory of the attack, Psyche had already managed to track the assailant, who had been at least 150 meters away when he fired. The moment they fled, he had given chase on foot.
Despite the head start, his superior speed had allowed him to narrow the gap between them. However, he had only managed to follow them due to the limited options the mountains offered for retreat.
Glass was confident that once they reached their hiding location, he would lose track of them entirely.
Suddenly, her communication with her butterflies was abruptly severed, one after the other.
Her entire network went dark in a matter of seconds.
He had only cut the surveillance because he no longer needed to keep up the chase. That could only mean one thing… he had a clear shot.
"Wu Ming, dodge!"
"Huh?!"
The next instant, Wu Ming's left arm was blown off.
The area became shrouded in pitch black smoke.
Finishing the contents of his potion, Wu Ming tossed the bottle away before crushing it with his foot. The potion had stopped the bleeding and restored a small portion of the health he lost, saving him from an untimely death.
The moment his arm was blown off, he had immediately begun to scatter smoke to block line of sight. This gave him the valuable time he needed to restore his health.
While they hadn't been hit yet, the sound of suppressed gunshots indicated his proximity.
"Tch! He keeps shooting down any of the butterflies that leave the smoke. He hasn't fired a single shot into here either."
"My ultimate expires in 7 minutes. Once that happens, we're sitting ducks."
"...I have a plan."
The walls of the smoke expanded in size, engulfing everything around it in darkness. Every inch of the surrounding terrain was swept into the sea of smoke.
Wu Ming drew the revolver from his hip. After his previous revolver had been lost, he had claimed the magic revolver for his own use. Magic guns usually come with rare skills, and this one was no exception.
[Warmonger] (Class : Revolver)
[Magic Missile] : Bullets fired can have their trajectory altered in mid-air using MP
It had the ideal skill in this situation. Using the only hand he had left, he fired all 6 bullets at his opponent.
The bullets whizzed through the smoke, each of them taking different paths to the enemy.
The first of the projectiles struck the assailant in the right shoulder, alerting him to an attack. Sidestepping the next bullet, he was abruptly grabbed by the wrist by an unseen hand. The 3rd bullet landed in his left forearm, leaving a sizable hole.
Freeing himself from the grasp of the smoke, he elegantly rolled out of the way of the 4th bullet and evaded the 5th with ease. Finally, he reached out and snatched the final bullet right out of the air.
Guns mostly only see use at mid to low tiers. While the premise of relatively high damage with no prerequisites is appealing, most experienced players would not recommend investing into the high-rank gun jobs.
One of the reasons is because gun users are limited by the strength of their weapon. Melee weapons scale in damage based on STR and even the simplest of magic spells can have a devastating effect with enough MP. However, DEX instead affects the outcome of gun related skills. Similar to production jobs, DEX only affects the possibility of a long-range skill's success. Increasing DEX does not affect your damage output as significantly as STR or MP. The main factors affecting gun damage are
The velocity of the projectile. This naturally translates to the strength of the propellant. Stronger propellant requires rarer materials as well as a gun capable of supporting the recoil.
Caliber of the projectile. In Dendro, where END can turn the human skin harder than steel, stopping power is very sought after. As a rule of thumb, a stronger material is going to pierce a sturdier defense. A larger caliber, coincidentally, requires a bigger and sturdier gun to fire it from.
While guns and melee weapons are similar in cost, the added cost of bullets make it much costlier to use. Bullets themselves are also not easily reusable like arrows. (Guns are helpful for power levelling job builds if you have the cash though)
While using guns themselves are costly, the final nail in the coffin is AGI builds. While bullets can still do considerable damage to END builds with the right gear, damage means nothing when bullets never reach the target.
Creating a shield to deflect the bullet aimed at his head, Wu Ming returned fire at the assailant, expending his entire magazine. The exterior of the revolver glimmered as bullets began to take shape inside his gun. With only one hand, Wu Ming had to rely on one of Malfeasance's passives, which refilled his gun with tainted rounds slowly.
With the element of surprise gone, Wu Ming was being pushed into a corner. Even though he had the terrain advantage, being able to track bullets as well as locations, he was struggling to keep up.
AGI builds usually have no problem dodging projectiles and the like, and Wu Ming was no exception. Yet...
"How are his bullets so fast?"
It was only due to the smoke that he was able to react in time to block the bullets. Furthermore, each and every shot fired at him would have struck him if he hadn't. Without missing a beat, his opponent was dodging oncoming fire while targeting him with deadly precision. Had it been low caliber rounds travelling at such speeds, he wouldn't have expressed such unease.
Suddenly, another bullet was fired and Wu Ming hastily created another shield. The shield successfully stopped the bullet, shattering like glass from the force of the impact. Achyls could create items with steel-like toughness, and even after being reappropriated, its capability hadn't diminished one bit. The bullet had enough force behind it to shatter the shield that had simply swatted aside smaller caliber weapons without a scratch.
"Tch, it's almost over..."
[Whisper of Death] had a 30 minute duration. 29 minutes of that duration was up. Soon, the only thing keeping him in this fight would disappear. Wu Ming was pretty sure he didn't stand a chance even in his peak state, much less missing an arm and badly fatigued. Though, he still had one final card to play.
[Whisper of Death] has ended.
The smoke vanished without a trace and Wu Ming barely had time to aim at his assailant. Instead of opening fire, he leapt at Wu Ming, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second.
"[Leech]!"
After his surprise attack, Wu Ming had injured his assailant further, landing several more shots on his arms and legs. Malfeasance would slowly steal HP from their host, before giving it all to Wu Ming in an instant. With this, even if he were to die here, he would have at least wounded him.
…
No health was regained. Still wrapping his mind around the shock, he was completely defenceless.
In an instant, his fingers were wrapped around Wu Ming's neck. [Last Stand] had triggered again, sparing his life for a few more seconds. It also immobilised him, preventing him from offering any resistance.
Streaks of blue light started appearing on the arm holding him, sparsely lighting up the area around them. Under the sparse glow, Wu Ming realised why [Leech] had refused to work.
All four of his limbs were prosthetics. Malfeasance required direct contact to the flesh for any of its skills to take effect. Despite the hole in his left forearm clearly visible, all Wu Ming could see was metal and electronics. The shots he couldn't dodge, he had simply blocked with his limbs.
On the other hand, the shot that landed on the right shoulder hadn't even left a scratch. With each passing moment, the streaks of light grew brighter and brighter.
Wu Ming finally noticed his dwindling SP bar. The arm looked like it had a mind of its own, growing brighter as it feasted on Wu Ming's SP.
"[Reveal]!"
If this was it, he would at least find out some information.
The display appeared in front of Wu Ming's eyes, and he began to scan it as frantically as he could.
Name : Caliber
Job : King of Snipers
Level : 1-
His 5 seconds were up.
[Fatal Damage]
[Resurrection Expired]
[Death Penalty : 24 Hour Login Ban]
"Just a little bit further…"
Glass mentally encouraged herself to keep going. The location in question was a hidden tunnel that led to the border between Dryfe and Caldina. Currently, both sides were in a state of increasing tensions, leaving most of the border heavily watched. Due to that, it was impossible to cross it with a large group of armed soldiers without it being seen as an act of war. Thus, in order to enter Dryfe, it was necessary to use a hidden tunnel along the border, where the mountainous terrain would mean little to no surveillance.
While she had suggested Wu Ming stall their assailant, she was doubtful that he would be able to buy enough time.
[Party Member "Wu Ming" Has Died]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Due to the Death Penalty, "Wu Ming" was Logged Out]
Sure enough, the message had come in a few seconds after.
At the speed she was going, she would reach the entrance in about 3 minutes. Once she was through the heavily concealed entrance, her safety was more than assured. Then, she could start the log out process and exit the scene.
Wu Ming had given her a 7 minute head start. She desperately hoped it would be enough.
3 minutes turned to 1 and there was no sign of him, nor had her [Killing Intent Perception] gone off.
He had reduced her legion significantly from earlier, so she had opted to keep the remaining butterflies with her.
Glass heaved a sigh of relief as she saw the entrance coming into view. As she began to loosen her guard...
The silence was punctuated by a deafening crack, and her blood ran cold.
Her HP remained untouched.
Instead, the bag at her waist tumbled to the ground, the strap snapped by a bullet.
On reflex, she activated [Soul Veil], once again disappearing from sight. This time, running was no longer an option.
[The Watcher's Interference, Psyche]'s strength lay in the number of butterflies killed by the target. By placing butterflies in vital locations, any attacks would inevitably crush them, adding to their counter. She had used this very technique to immobilise Haze. The ability to seal off the target's soul from their body. Movement, equipment skills, job skills, embryo skills, each and every of them are rendered unusable in the face of this skill. The only cost was its cooldown, which varied depending on the counter.
It had just gone off cooldown.
When casted indiscriminately, the skill would target the enemy with the highest counter. Here, the target was obvious. She began to utter the words that would change the tides of this battle.
"[The Watcher's Inte-
Then a bullet pierced her skull.
[Fatal Damage]
[Resurrection Expired]
[Death Penalty : 24 Hour Login Ban]
...
pretty sure about 2 people are going to read this anyway, so i'll keep things brief. this is my attempt at creating a story that felt like dendro. Some of the stuff in here is made up for storytelling like the [Medic] Jobline, but i've tried to be as accurate to the systems of dendro as possible. As for story related matters, as far as the web novel is concerned you can consider this story to fit into canon without any narrative breaks. There won't be any interaction with any of the characters from the original series ever. This story isn't going to be too long either, so don't expect too much from it.
thanks for reading till here, unless you didn't read until here.