Chương 326: AF Chapter 325 – Withering and Dying

Lord Mick led the attack on a trio of the creatures, Withered Banderling Paragons, the tall blood-armored leaders and brutes, and Withered Banderling Hierophants, the bare-chested, armorless Casters, who used Fire and Cold magic with Platinum-grade Bolts and Vulns. Shardings hissed in sizzling arcs above the sands as he approached in range and started cutting at them from a hundred feet away, spitting purple crescents slamming into the Summons and drawing yowls of pain.

The Hierophant there promptly started Casting a Fire Vuln, while the two armored Paragons charged into melee. There were two more Shardings, and then the Mick braced, impaling one of them through the throat and drawing a massive gout of Health Qi via the Archer Stand Thrust as he did so. The two Paragons began to lash out at him with kicks, claws, and fists, trying to drive him back with superior weight, but they didn't have Shields, and they certainly didn't have reach on him.

I plowed my Split Dartrays into the Hierophant, not disrupting the Vuln it was Casting, but the spell fizzled and failed against the Mick's Spell Resistance, and Bunita began to dance with speed and verve.

Riposte, Defensive Sweep, and Sword beats Fist were all triggering on both of the banderlings pounding at him, adding three brutal strikes to each of them as he focused his primary attention on one of them and filled the air in front of them with sweeps, thrusts, and flicker-cuts of lightning that erupted into blazing crits way too frequently to be comfortable. I hadn't Hasted the Mick for reasons of stamina.

The banderlings were certainly unleashing a torrent of blows at him, trying to overwhelm him with attacks, and instead were just helping him kill them faster. It was still a lot of attacks to be taking, driving his Stamina down, and nickel and diming his Health… which he was promptly buying back up with Healing Edge giving him back 1-8 Health with every successful hit.

The Hierophant over there started just unleashing Bolts of fire and cold consecutively, pounding at the Mick as he fought, and suddenly Bunita was in and out of a scarlet-armored chest, purple voltage blasting through its heart and making its entire body light up with amethyst lightning as it quivered, dropping stiffly as he pulled the thrust back as quickly as it had gone out. The incoming Firebolt smashed into him, and didn't break against his Spell Resistance.

His current Protection and Ward against Fire damage was at 60+25%, courtesy of his Rose of Celdon, so the 160ish damage smashing into him was instantly cut down to about 50, still a searing monster of a hit that would have driven him explosively backwards without his Crystal heavyfoot to anchor him. He just grinned, swallowed the blood that came out his mouth and nose, and lit into the second Paragon. Healing Edge flashed and flared, and his internal injuries mended with terrific speed.

The second Paragon went down with an incarnate lightning Claymore impaling his brain, and the Mick bowled him over and was charging the Hierophant instantly. Spirited Charge, Death from Above, Cut the Waterfall, Reckless Charge, a Valorous Weapon… The Banderling Hierophant Casting so confidently was blasted right off his feet by the impaling Blade driving into him, then Clan smashing directly into his chest.

Wolf takes Rat went off as he hit the ground, Breaks the Shield gave me an opening, and Spell of Opportunity meant I could use magic to take advantage of the opening, while Touch of the Wasp triggered after the two Dartrays drove into the sprawled Hierophant that was already on fire with triple Elemental Damage Over Time effects boosted by Banefire. The Hierophant convulsed as the Mick spit it up under the throat, and vivus virtually exploded over it from the ongoing damage effects as it died.

The Mick patted himself patiently.

"Seem t' be fine!" he told me as I glided up behind him.

"And you could have dodged or Shield Parried the Firebolt," I let him know I'd seen, and he beamed.

"Again, and pretend I'm not there to pull you out or anything, and I won't even Dart the Caster to speed things up." I pointed at another trio nearby, watching us but taking no action.

"Repeat tactics with the Sharding to proc them for this trio. Next trio after that, charge the Casters and kill them first."

"Reasonable," he nodded, hefting Bunita confidently.

"Here we go…"

"Ten thousand health," the Mick muttered, shaking his head and leaning back against the Disk I'd scooted up behind him.

"It is a damn good thing they aren't as strong and skilled as they are tough, lass!" He had massive amounts of Stamina and an extremely vital physiology, but taking on four Withered Raider Prefects and Raider Justicars at once was a strain when they took so damn long to kill, and were pretty damn skilled, too. Thankfully, their chorozite Weapons hadn't done them much good.

He used the same tactics against them as he had against the Hollow Minions, especially with Clan deflecting and soaking their blows stoically and skillfully.

His footwork kept him moving around them, even as their shocked misses and thumping pursuits triggered his Thorned Hedge Stance and Riposte, enabling him to spread out tons of damage even as he focused primary attacks on just one target, shifting around him and cutting him down with vicious attacks and a lot of Biting Strike crits going on with Crushing Blows and Armor Cleaving for that little edge of joy. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

They'd also been hitting him with more than ponderous, powerful energy, alternating between brutally powerful One Strikes and rains of faster blows that had him ducking and dodging with great energy to stay ahead of them. I hadn't helped kill any of them. He wanted to see what it took to kill them solo, be it in a duel or in a group. Given they were usually in foursomes out there, fighting them one at a time was difficult, unless one stayed back to throw chorozite rocks at him…

rocks he was deflecting into the lugians around him with Clan, doing more damage to the other Withered lugians than he was taking himself. He had a lot of Melees watching him in the Markspace right now, looking out my eyes and analyzing everything he was doing, measuring it against their own Gear and skills. Most of them, even the Paramounts, swore as they found themselves coming up short against what he was pulling off.

"Any more comments from the audience?" he asked, while we watched from a safe distance as the rock-tosser, the last to be killed, slowly discorporated atop its spawn point. The very first spawn point had respawned less than ten minutes after being killed, and we weren't using vivus because we didn't want to block the points as of yet.

"They are quietly impressed at what you managed to pull off here, and trying hard not to say anything. Talking about optimized Gear and whatnot, especially with the Stones."

"No Blackfire Stones, lass." He concentrated on his breathing, Bunita thrust into the sandy soil of the beach in front of him.

"And no Jade Armor, as it were. I cannae help but think how much easier 'twould be t' take on the hollow shites if me Armor an' Shield had those upgrades." Another +8 to AC would mean not needing to dodge and parry so much, and his offense would accelerate instantly.

"Getting a +IV effect for Armor only takes two Slots with Soul Essence, cheaper and faster than going Jade by a huge margin, and it can be built up further. Jade effects do not stack with straight magical Enhancements, you know."

"Aye, I know, I know. Question, though. I know that ye have t' devote the first Slot on a Weapon or Armor or Shield in the Artificer methodology to an Enhancement, either straight or fed with Soul. Now, if ye're willing to limit yerself to the +II effect… could all nine of the other Slots be used fer other purposes?"

"Yes… which would save you exactly one Slot, net. And you'll never be able to take advantage of Defiant properly if you don't build the foundation up." I paused thoughtfully.

"But, +IV is pretty damn nice by itself, and if it keeps it against Hollow and null-magic crap like it, that's probably worth it." Clan had been fed enough to be Greater Soulbound, meaning it was indeed +IV when defending, and could be +VI with Defiant. If he added another +I and got it to +V, the top before Eternal, that would be incredible. +VII against the foe it was Defiant to was a LOT of protection!

"And someone has to take the time to make the Jade Shield 'r Armor. Which we have a fantastic shortage of right now." He threw up his hands in mock dismay.

"What, you don't get to turn in a doohickey and instantly get a +IV top-off-the-line Jade Shield for yourself, skip all that dreadful crafting time, hard work, skill checks, and raw materials? Reality really must bite for you old fogies, Lord Mick."

"It do, it surely do," he agreed seriously, then caught my amused and exasperated shift in expression.

"What now?"

"They want to see some teamwork at play. Flanking tactics and Opportunist going off with Cunning damage."

"I've seen yer Spearwork. Ye're not a Fire Dancer," he pointed out.

"Utterly true. I'll still be triggering Opportunist for you, and allowing all the flanking bonuses. An extra +4 on the stack… and are you teaching Bunita Subtlety yet?" His dark eyes opened slightly, and he slapped himself on the head.

"So much damn Naming Karma t' apply, an' I totally fergot about that one!" he admitted.

"I'll be starting right on it, sure'n I will. And it be Slotless, too!" He looked up at the sky, berating himself.

"Gor, I think Rogar an' Hundig have it on their Weapons, an' I don't! Some Wolfpack optimist I be…"

"Probably shouldn't surprise you that Kris does, and she can effectively flank with herself so it's always active, right?"

"That lass be terrifying, an' no lie," he nodded with a sigh, tilting his head as Kris /chortled in the Markspace.

"Aye, aye, I know, always more tricks out there," he nodded along.

"P'raps I be showin' off a tad, Highness, aye, but I also be wanting to know iff'n I can kill these things straight up once more, without all the power an' magic o' the past. And if I can, that be meaning that others can learn t' do the same." -The Knights are getting thirsty thinking about getting out there and trying everything you are doing, - Kristie /assured him calmly. -They totally want to see how teamwork changes things up, even if Ryin's not the best melee partner you could want.

She can still do the job well enough to upgrade your offense. - We got rid of the rock-throwing Prefect in the green-limned blue armor first. The other three lugians charged out for the Mick, who zipped around them and charged the lugian who'd opted to somehow conjure Hollow rocks out of nowhere and chuck them his way. He had no problem dodging the things, and his opening charge was a brutal thing of exploding crits of purple lightning ravaging the sucker…

and every time it tried to throw at him in melee range, it triggered another Attack of Opportunity.

When I slid in behind it and started poking with the Electrum Spearpoint of Soulfire extending off of Crown, the Mick's offense really did get a definite spike. Distracting, bleeding from Cunning cuts, hampered and harried, the wounded rock-tosser basically contributed rapidly to killing itself as the Mick sidled around it, chased by its compatriots as I circled opposite him…

and every time it tossed a rock, it left itself open for another attack from me, which was actually a good way of approximating what a master Wolfpacker could do bouncing Opportunities off one another. Crown was a good Weapon, and if I wasn't the strongest or greatest master of Sun Spear or Oak and Willow stick techniques, well, that was fine.

I was still very good at using it lethally, and only the fact this thing had so much damn Health Qi meant it wasn't hamstrung, impaled through the groin, or had its arm cut off very quickly. It went down easily twice as fast as before, the extra Cunning damage more than making up for the fact I wasn't as good or as fast as the Mick was, he was heaping enough damage on top to make it seem that way!