MM - Chapter 42 - AN UNEXPECTED RESULT

I knew it would be bad but this is ridiculous. If a 30% penalty equates to encountering five-man elites… No point thinking about it before I see what I’m up against. Whatever happens, I have to make sure I pull one at a time.

One day and fourteen hours isn’t a lot of time to cover the whole area. Might need to get Endurance afterall. Especially since there aren't any roads.

Feeling more pressured than before entering, Raine carefully descended the steps, his eyes shifting every direction for threats. He veered right toward the desert. A ruined city was clearly visible at its outskirts and was the closest obvious place to begin whatever trials were in store for him. 

He palmed a smoke bomb as he swiftly, but cautiously moved downslope across scraggy rocks and drying, cracked stone. The further he got from the gateway, the less stable space became. At first, it was only the air pressure against his skin that lessened. Gravity soon followed, its grasp on his limbs lessening until even the slightest movement sent him hurtling forward. 

Still not seeing any threats, he began piecing together the rules of the mystic land. He picked up speed, not lowering his guard in the least as the landscape shifted to a blur. He was pulled forward unnaturally, reaching speeds he couldn’t hope to achieve normally. When he left behind the last of the rocks for a wide-open slope with nowhere to hide, he bent forward, his legs pumping furiously.

He crossed dozens of kilometers in minutes, arriving at the edge of the desert. He zipped along the sands. Despite his speed, he left normal tracks in his wake rather than blasting giant walls of sand into the air. His speed slowed to a crawl with little notice, the unstable space becoming thicker and more ‘real’ as he neared the ruins.

There was no movement within but he slowed to a crawl anyways, ducking behind a shattered rectangular column that had somehow been thrown a good distance from the nearest building. He watched the dilapidated stone structures like a hawk. Their bleached, crumbling surfaces revealed nothing of the dangers that lurked within. His only hint so far had been a cryptic one from Zoarra. He prepared as best he could based on her words, but it was only a hunch.

From his inventory, he withdrew some pebbles picked up all the way back near the crog lake. One at a time, he tossed them into the sand between him and the nearest building, gradually getting closer with each throw. When one landed ten meters away, a figure stirred within.

A skeletal head emerged, followed by a three meter tall armored frame that pulled itself from the shadows. It instantly spotted him and sanguine hatred bloomed from within one of its empty eye sockets. Its armor was aged and missing pieces revealed white bones beneath. It held a chipped two-handed sword in a casual grip that reeked of martial competence. The undead moved with fluid grace, a hand gripping a nearby wall to throw itself forward into a headlong sprint.

[Elite Ancient Armsman: Level 15 - ????/????]

Raine’s heart thudded with unbridled excitement. This was no normal undead. Not only was its head and shoulders taller than him, but its footwork was a thing of beauty. The angle of its torso was perfect to carry it forward at an inhuman clip. The sword dragged behind, scraping the soft sand and creating waves that widened as it neared. The movement was far from lazy, serving to adjust its balance and speed like a cat’s tail. Its jaw clicked loudly as its mouth worked in frenzied motions.

Several meters away, it stomped the soft sand twice in rapid succession. The surface turned hard from the first, and the second kick sent it high into the sky. Raine’s jaw wanted to drop at the subtle use of a clear martial technique. Instead of being swept away in awe, he jabbed and a flash of light revealed a short weapon that firmly dragged his arm down with its stupefying weight.

Midair, the skeleton curled into a ball, angled its shoulders toward him, then kicked the air with both feet. Its speed tripled as it Lunged right at Raine. Parry met its powerful sideways Slash. Unable to anticipate the angle of its near-instant strike, Raine’s skill was unaimed, and the skeleton’s momentum was randomly transferred directly to the right. It blasted to the side in a spray of sand, rolling only once before finding its feet.

A mid-air Lunge this early? If my Connection was a little higher…

The skeleton continued to slide away from him until its legs blurred in the mystifying patterns of a martial maneuver. Its momentum shifted one hundred and eighty degrees, sending it right back at Raine. His stomach leapt into his throat, and without time to think, he burned Discipline to throw himself at it before it completely regained its balance.

His newest weapon whistled as it raced forward, held in a two-handed grip despite its stout form. With sand still filling the air from their first clash, Raine entered the range of the longsword aiming for his neck. He kept right on coming, closing the distance. Looking into its one glowing eye, he shouted for all he was worth, “PuriPuri Comet Burst!”

[Innate Skill - PuriPuri Comet Burst: Single target physical attack dealing 760% physical damage with 760% bonus force. Ignores all defense]

The skeleton's unpowered slash flew wide, its arms connecting with Raine’s head as the heavy end of Cassidy’s Comet pulverized its jaw. There was a bright flash, and a massive fist of pressure smashed into Raine, throwing him backward. He felt the impact of the ground on his back before he flipped end over end several times.

His eyes and mouth were full of sand. He spit and blinked, feeling like an angry squirrel was clawing at his eyes. When he could see again, his jaw really did fall open. Starting from where he hit the monster, a long furrow had been ripped through the sand, leading all the way back to the structure. Almost to it, another furrow started and led off to the right, ending a short distance away. The first continued to the building where the original target left a gaping hole in the now crumbling stone structure.

Raine tracked the second furrow, finding a second Elite Ancient Armsman at its end that must have been attracted by their fight. As it was coming to join, it was struck by the first and sent hurtling as well. Both their limbs and pieces of armor were strung out along the length of the furrows.

[Obtained 22,000 SP bonus 250% Superiority for defeating an elite boss 4 levels above you]

[Obtained 43.75% AT bonus 250% Attunement for defeating an elite boss 4 levels above you]

[Obtained 22,000 SP bonus 250% Superiority for defeating an elite boss 4 levels above you]

[Obtained 43.75% AT bonus 250% Attunement for defeating an elite boss 4 levels above you]

Bosses?! And they’re both dead? How?

Raine toggled the combat log in his interface and skimmed the details.

[Elite Ancient Armsman 1 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

[Elite Ancient Armsman 1 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

[Elite Ancient Armsman 2 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

[Elite Ancient Armsman 2 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

[Elite Ancient Armsman 1 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

[Elite Ancient Armsman 2 struck for 3,826 unaspected physical damage]

What?! That doesn’t make any-oh… that's so broken!

The initial hit—ignoring all defenses—dealt a ridiculous four thousand damage. Raine knew the weapon would hit hard, but it was well beyond his expectations because he hadn’t accounted for the innate damage resistance every creature gained per level. Innate defense wasn’t represented anywhere on the status sheet, it was merely a bonus that further divided the levels of all creatures.

Since innate defense was amplified by the power of five, it could easily lead to a situation where zero damage was dealt, despite exceeding an opponent's statistical Defense. For instance, if a level one hundred player wielded a top-tier legendary weapon, and struck a level two hundred sixth tier god, the attack would do nothing even if the statistical Attack Power was enough to normally hurt the god.

Since PuriPuri Comet Burst ignored all defenses, the result was similar to striking a level zero skeleton. As if that wasn’t broken enough, the bonus to force transferred all the damage. When the two armsmen struck each other, it counted the damage once more, for each of them, then again when they hit the building and ground respectively.

Raine’s eyes tracked down to the bright,  frilly-gemmed weapon of mass destruction held loosely in his grasp. He shook his head, having no idea how such a thing made it past the AIs balancing algorithms. 

If I hit a player with this, and they flew into a group…

The weapon vanished back into his inventory. The skill would be on cooldown for another thirty-nine minutes so he didn’t mind losing access to it already. Hopping up, he ducked out of sight behind his same column and considered how to proceed.

I have just enough SP to level both weapons to ten. Question is, could I beat one of those bosses without the wand? I didn’t get a chance to see everything they were capable of. At level fifteen, they definitely have a class, which means more powerful skills and higher attributes.

With Discipline, I barely kept up with its normal movements and it utilized several martial techniques. A difference of speed I can handle; it’s those techniques that are the real problem. No, that’s not the right way to look at it. This place is no mystic land. It’s a divine training ground for me to perfect my own techniques. And here, the second law is in full effect: With impossible challenge, comes impossible reward.

Raine’s heartbeat thrummed so loud in his ears they tickled. The tips of his fingers prickled as his fists clenched, squeezing grains of sand against his armored palms. He filled his lungs with desert air, baked clean by the blazing sun. 

A full two hundred thousand SP flowed into his growth weapons, boosting both to level ten and leaving him a toenail into the same.

[Level down! -5 free attribute points]

[Last Chance’s Gambit - Common Gray > Lustrous Blue - LVL 9 > 10 - SP 0/150,000: (AP 20 > 40) (EP 20 > 40) (AS 1 > 1.5) (FNS 9 > 12) (CNC 9 > 12) Innate Skill - Final Gambit: Convert 50% maximum EP into a single target non-elemental attack. 19 > 40 damage per EP converted (no cooldown)]

What an upgrade! I can use its innate skill twice now and its speed got a fifty percent boost. It's definitely fitting of a Lustrous Blue.

[Cassidy’s Comet - Lustrous Blue - LVL 9 > 10 - 0/150,000 SP: (AP 55 > 60) (PTC 11 > 12) (PHY 2 > 12)]

[Innate Skill - PuriPuri Comet Burst: Single target physical attack dealing 760% > 800% physical damage with 760% > 800% bonus force. Ignores all defense. (Skill name must be shouted to activate) (Cost: 20 Discipline) (Cooldown: 40 minutes > 35 minutes)]

Now his back was against the wall. He could feel the pressure settling on his shoulders and it drove his feet to take the next step. He angled around the building, not seeing anything lurking in the shadows. He threw a pebble to be safe, then moved to the next squat structure and repeated his method until another armsman came rushing out to greet him.

This one wielded a greataxe and didn’t jump at him, instead dashing forward in jerky steps that made it difficult to tell when it would arrive. Raine summoned a weapon, smirking when his own two handed axe appeared. 

[Double-tap Greataxe: Lustrous Blue - LVL 10: (AP +65) (AS -.25) (PTC +15) (FNS +10) (ACU +5)]

The weapon felt alive in his hands. His body ached with purpose as the bonus Potency and Finesse invigorated him. He set his feet in the same stance SolemnRiver used. He had yet to get her technique to work but he didn’t care. There was no better enemy to test himself against. 

His pulse hammered, an adrenal cocktail of fluids pumping through him like a raging river. The over ten percent bonus to Acuity brought his brain to life. Every sense was cranked to maximum, filling the world with vibrant colors and sounds.

He started his spin early, guided by instinct as much as years of experience. Their axes met in a clanging crash. The Potency behind his foe’s blow was greater than his own, and would normally be enough to send him flying. His footwork absorbed the force, adding it into his spin. He came around in an instant, his axe burrowing into the skeleton’s side with a sickening crunch. [-103]

Raine missed the follow-up step, teetering off balance. His exuberance at getting the first two correct faltered as the monster’s eyes glowed with hatred. Its Counter turned the heavy axe into a blur as it reversed directions to race toward his face. Parry knocked it away at the last second. The skeleton’s arms flew wide and Raine pushed in closer, a sandy grin stretching his lips.

Its arms raised high in a two-handed grip, the length of the axe glowing a dark indigo. Raine reached it and slipped under its guard. His leg hooked behind it, and his shoulder slammed into its sturdy frame. 

As it fell, its skill completed. The axe descended in a rush, leaving a streak of dark energy in its wake like the air itself had been cut. Two whirlwinds howled, one released on each side of the attack. Raine could feel them pulling him in toward the line in the air that stubbornly refused to dissipate. It was right behind him, radiating danger that made his skin prickle with sweat.

Raine’s every move had been boosted by Discipline from the beginning. He barely managed to avoid being pulled in by hooking his boot beneath the skeleton's exposed rib cage. When its attack ended, the armsman tried to rise, but he slammed his weight down on its spine, then dropped his axe onto its neck. [-187]

The undead rolled, coming up in a crouch before Lunging at him. Raine ducked and spun away, avoiding several more rapid swings and a kick before finding another opening. He dove beneath its guard again, shortened his grip, and slammed his weapon into its sternum. [-97] 

That special class skill must have temporarily lowered its defense. I've never seen that skill before.

Before he could check his combat log to see its name, a dark shimmer passed through the undead's bones and the tiny chips his weapon left behind vanished. [+200]

Five percent regen per ten seconds? Looks like my new practice partner isn’t going anywhere for a while. Perfect.

Raine reset his stance, copying the impressive young Phoenix Clan member once more, “I like that shuffling step of yours, I hope you don’t mind if I borrow it.”