Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 5

The instant I used Blood Sacrifice, a quarter of my health pool vanished. Myrina stumbled as she coughed up blood. I ignored the pain surging through me. Iron Will made it a moot point. I grinned through bloody lips. I’d made Myrina stumble.

She wanted a real fight, so she was going to get one. I didn’t hesitate to press my advantage.

Myrina was strong, fast, and very well-trained. In many ways, I felt like a peasant facing down a knight. She fought with precision and experience. She even had a good sense of danger. But there was one thing I had that she didn’t.

A willingness to bleed.

I hadn’t learned to fight in harmless duels or from the guiding hand of an instructor. No, I’d learned to fight after being placed in a situation where I either killed my foes or they killed me.

My fights ended in death, and I was used to pain. My own, and that of my enemies. In a true life-or-death battle, there could be no hesitation. Nor could you let taking a hit distract you from the fight. In a real battle, a single mistake could cost you your life.

And so I pressed my advantage. In her moment of weakness and confusion, I hit her with the unexpected. I dropped my sword and pelted Myrina with a barrage of spells from either hand. There was little point in dueling her with a blade, since she’d already proved vastly superior in that domain.

To her credit, Myrina recovered swiftly. She didn’t just stand there and let me pelt her, and in her moment of weakness, I only managed to get three good hits on her. Not nearly enough to win the fight, but enough to strike her with a few Corrupting Marks.

I could sense her confusion as she tried to figure out why she was still taking damage. I put more distance between me and her, coupling Warp Step with Power Jump and Eldritch Augmentation to keep myself mobile. Even with so many abilities active. I was having trouble keeping my distance from her. She had two movement abilities of her own, Celestial Agility and Wind Walker.

She took to the air, feet treading on nothing as she closed on me mid-jump. She lunged, spear extended, and shield raised. That thing was proving far more trouble than I thought. She guarded her core with it well, and I couldn’t get a spell off on anything higher than her thighs.

It was all I could do to dodge that spearhead of hers and keep my distance. Once she closed on me, the fight would be as good as over.

So, I refused to let her close to me. I stayed just out of reach, one Warp Step at a time.

I sensed Myrina’s eyes narrowing behind her helmet as she took me more seriously. She lashed out with her Titan’s Strike ability, and each blow she unleashed kicked up sand in all directions and made the ground tremble.

“Don’t think you can win by running and hiding!” Myrina shouted.

I laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong, Myrina! Surely, you’ve noticed by now that I have many of those Corrupting Marks on you. Each one of them is doing a bit of damage. At least until I snap my fingers. Then they can do a whole lot of damage all at once!”

Myrina cursed. “A damage over time specialist? I should have guessed you’d be one of those wizards.”

“Nimble and witty?”

“A pain in the ass!” Myrina spat back in reply.

The ferocity of Myrina’s attacks increased when she realized she was on a time limit, and to cope, I had to do something I’d been hoping to avoid.

But it looked like I couldn’t avoid the issue after all. I should have expected it, really. Mania was the main resource of my class. It was what made my class an epic rarity class instead of just being a normal spellcaster.

Myrina was too fast and too strong for me to fight on even footing while hobbling myself.

“Brace yourself, Myrina...” I shouted. Then, I activated the first level of mania.

Your Mania has increased to level 1: Dissonance.

The world grows distant, and your mind fills with the allure of forbidden knowledge.

The effectiveness of all Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge spells and abilities is increased by 20%

Suddenly, Myrina’s increasing desperation meant little. Eldrich Augmentation strengthened my limbs more. Exploit Weakness revealed more weak points. Warp Step carried me further. My health bar became full as I drained her health to fill my own, and then I cast Blood Sacrifice again.

Myrina was bleeding from the corners of her mouth and stopped in the center of the arena. She shoved her spear into the sand.

“Giving up?” I asked. But then I stared closer at Myrina behind her helmet. Between bloody lips, she was grinning.

“No, Carter. I’m just getting started. That ability you used is something else. You broke out your trump card? Well, time to show you mine.”

Myrina Samhain has activated Tempo of Battle (Legendary)

I felt a chill as Myrina activated her legendary ability. Something in the air changed, and I went on the defensive. I kept myself all the way on the other side of the arena from Myrina, throwing my spells from as far away as I could manage.

At first, it didn’t seem like anything had changed. Myrina moved the same as always.

Or was she a hair faster than before?

I frowned. I couldn’t really tell.

I let her close on me, and the spear thrust I narrowly dodged told me she really was a bit faster now. Her blows seemed to carry more strength behind them, too.

“Is this really a legendary skill?” I called out from across the arena.

“You haven’t seen anything yet! This is my answer to wizards like you!” Myrina laughed.

I frowned at the odd hint. Then, I finally thought to check my Corrupting Marks. Thanks to the pendant and the information she was sharing with me, I could see her exact health and status effects. My Corrupting Marks were still dealing damage, but Myrina wasn’t getting any weaker! Her health pool grew larger as fast as I damaged it.

But more than that, Myrina's Vitality stat wasn't the only one that was increasing. Her Strength, Agility, and Perception were all increasing as well. She was getting stronger the more we fought!

Suddenly, I realized what Myrina’s legendary ability did. It increased her stats the longer the fight went on. My Corrupting Marks were still dealing damage. She just added more health points to her total the longer the battle went on.

The thought terrified me. This one legendary ability was antithetical to my entire combat strategy. I'd gotten used to being able to wear powerful foes down over time, but that wouldn't work against an enemy who got stronger the longer we fought.

Suddenly, attacking from a distance and stacking up Corrupting Marks wouldn’t help me any longer. Myrina’s growing health pool was enough to counter the damage I was doing, and she was getting faster and stronger by the moment. Pretty soon, I wouldn’t be fast enough to get away and she'd overpower me with raw stats.

And so Myrina forced me to break with my winning strategy and engage her more aggressively. I needed to land more hits and land them faster. I needed to be riskier with my dwindling mana pool, converting it into health points to fuel more blood sacrifices.

I snatched my sword from where I dropped it on the ground before. While my mana pool was extremely impressive for my level, I was throwing around many spells. I needed some way to keep the pressure up while conserving mana.

At the same time, I needed more power. Stronger spells. The will to do battle.

Before I even knew it, I’d slipped into the next level of mania.

Your Mania has increased to level 2: Furor.

Your lust for battle grows and threatens to overtake your sanity.

The effectiveness of all Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge spells and abilities is increased by 40%.

I attacked recklessly, throwing myself at Myrina’s exposed flank. Warp Step took me to the side, she carried her spear on faster than she could turn, and I lashed out with my sword. It was a clumsy strike, but Eldrich Augmentation took my power to new heights. What I lacked in skill, I made up for with raw stats. Even if the swing was clumsy, it still came at her in the blink of an eye.

“Yes! This is what I wanted to see!” Myrina laughed even as she shrugged off an Eldrich Blast to the face.

But the more I attacked, the stronger Myrina seemed to grow as well. The notification I received from her told me nothing of her skill’s exact abilities. Still, I had a good idea of how it worked now. It had something to do with the number of exchanges. Either that or the number of times she was hit.

As the tempo of our match increased, so did her increase in power. When I first attacked with the might of Blood Frenzy at its fullest, I was landing several blows in quick succession. But as Myrina gained strength, clear wins for me were becoming less and less frequent.

Faster! Stronger! More power!

The thoughts swam through my mind before I was even conscious of them. The Mania I already had was a wild and greedy beast. And it was not one easily tamed.

Your Mania level has increased to level 3: Blood Frenzy.

Your grip on sanity grows looser, and your lust for battle grows.

The effectiveness of all Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge abilities is increased by 80%

My assault redoubled, and soon Myrina was bleeding once again. The blood only made the desire for battle grow all the more within me. The warrior before me was prey, and I was the predator. Through a sword or spell, victory would be mine!

Even now, my Corrupting Marks ate away at her health, finally making progress despite that damnable legendary ability.

I just needed to continue. Relentless attack after relentless attack, I would cut through her defenses and leave her broken and defeated. Her health points would replenish my dwindling reserves, and I would be on to my next fight before her corpse finished cooling. Just a few moments longer before I would detonate my Corrupting Marks and deal the final blow. Perhaps one final boost from the fourth layer of Mania, and I could finish things right away...

I stopped my mad thoughts in their tracks. Corpse. The fourth layer of Mania?

This wasn’t a life-or-death battle. This was a sparring match. What was I doing?

And the fourth level of mania? The last time I’d done that, an evil god from another world reached through my soul and turned me into a puppet. The last thing I wanted was another encounter with the Chaos Wolf.

I needed to calm myself down. I forced myself to halt my ruthless barrage of attacks, and I pulled myself away from detonating my Corrupting Marks.

The moment I hesitated, Myrina struck with the weight of an avalanche.

I felt the shaft of her spear clip me in the helmet, knocking me sideways. I tried to roll with the blow, but she was on top of me again. She shoved her shield toward my chest, flinging my arms wide. I grabbed her spear by the shaft to keep her from getting a clean it with it. I still had Eldrich Augmentation active, so I had the strength stats to contest Myrina’s grip.

She didn’t bother wrestling me over it, though. She drew the short sword and stabbed it into the ground inches from my neck.

“Victory!” she declared. She sank down, sitting herself on my chest with her knees pinning my arms. With a heaving sigh, she pulled my helmet off and checked the side of my head where she’d hit me for a bump.

Sensing none, she pulled her own helmet off and crouched low. “That was a very, very good fight, Carter. I’m impressed.”

I felt her lips on my cheek for a moment. My brows were furrowed too tight to respond. I was focused on dispelling my gathered Mania. Myrina understood I was doing something, and she toyed with my hair a bit and looked me over for bumps and bruises while she waited for me to finish.

When I finally opened my eyes, she was still sitting beside me. She held my hands in her own and rubbed at my bumped and scraped knuckles. I’d taken a few hits to the hands with my clumsy attempts to ward off her spear.

“That is one weird ability you’ve got, Carter,” Myrina smiled down at me. “If it were a skill, I would have guessed it to be a legendary like my Tempo of Battle. But it’s not a skill, is it?”

I shook my head, coughing up a bit of sand. “Nope. It’s part of my class. I’m a Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge, remember?”

“Oh, I remember.” Myrina hugged her knees tight to either side of my head. It felt a bit weird to have a conversation in this position, but it seemed like Myrina was enjoying her victory and wasn’t going to be letting me up any time soon. “I did a bit of research on you. Your class is a rare one, I’ll give you that! But not completely without precedent. It’s all in my tutorial’s itinerary! But first, I want to enjoy my prize for victory!”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t recall betting anything.”

“Every battle has a prize, Carter. The victor just has to know how to claim it.” She leaned low over me again. The way she was sitting on top of me was starting to feel less and less like the aftermath of a fight and more and more like the prelude to something else.

“And what kind of prize is that?” I asked.

Myrina leaned low, eyes fixed on mine as she pressed her body against me in the sand. My heart beat faster. Myrina was truly a beautiful woman. She had the body of a warrior, toned and athletic. But more than that, she and I shared a connection I wasn’t sure I’d ever have with anyone else.

“The prize,” Myrina purred. “Is you, my handsome captive. What do you say I--“

A voice cut Myrina short.

“The prize is learning why you won or lost and growing stronger from the match.”

From the stands, a figure emerged from the shadows. I wasn't sure how someone as big as her managed to sneak up on us, but we were rather focused on our fight. She stood alone among the empty stands, gazing at each of us with deadly seriousness.

It was Cyra, Myrina's big sister. It seemed I was going to meet her again a lot sooner than I thought.

She turned her gaze to me. “I watched your match. Well done, both of you. Both of you, go get patched up. Then I will tell you where you went wrong.”

+++

<Note>

Cockblocked by big sis! But for good reason...