Chapter 200: This Time

Maelis knew something was wrong before her spear had even finished passing through Jaxir’s chest.

There was no resistance. No tearing flesh, no impact running back up the shaft, only the faint feeling of her weapon cutting through empty air while Jaxir’s body warped around it. By the time she planted her foot to stop herself, the figure had already broken apart into thin streaks of pale light.

Name: Glimmer Fade

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Distort your image through Glimmer Mana while moving, leaving behind a false position that persists briefly after departure.

Duration: 2 seconds

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged; Magic

Maelis spun around and found two Jaxirs standing at opposite edges of the platform, each of them more than 20 meters away from her.

One let the Glimmer Fade card in his hand dissolve into motes, his other hand tightening around his staff. The second raised an identical staff, a thick book held open against his palm.

Both of them started chanting.

Before Maelis could decide which one to go after, mana surged across the platform. Four dark structures rose out of the stone, one beside each Jaxir and the other two along the remaining edges of the square.

Their narrow barrels swung toward Maelis in perfect unison. Dense black light spread through the grooves running across their bodies, and just like that, the entire arena was boxed in from four directions.

The chanting never stopped.

The first turret fired.

Black Gem projectiles ripped across the arena in a rapid stream. Each one was no bigger than a finger, but they moved fast enough to leave dark streaks hanging in the air.

Maelis slipped between the first several shots and twisted under another line, then kicked off the ground as the second turret joined in. A bullet clipped her shoulder before she landed.

[-48]

Her eyes went wide, and anger quickly took the surprise’s place. One bullet had just taken almost 50 HP.

That shouldn’t have been possible from a Level 9 player, let alone from some summoned object firing tiny projectiles. Yet, the burning hole in her shoulder was real enough.

Maelis’s gaze snapped back and forth between the two Jaxirs as the turrets kept tracking her. She still couldn’t tell which one mattered more.

Then, a small Treant appeared beside the Jaxir holding the book.

Its trunk had thickened since Jaxir first contracted it, and a broad canopy of wet green leaves now hung over him in layers. Small spheres of water started forming between the branches, compressing until their surfaces shook from the pressure packed inside. Then they fired at Maelis, one after another.

She reached into her Inventory and whipped a small metal object at the Jaxir beneath the canopy.

The Treant’s branches snapped forward before it could arrive, whipping up a storm of leaves around Jaxir thick enough to swallow both him and the projectile. Metal struck something inside the spinning leaves and ricocheted away.

Maelis sneered. If that was the one being protected, then that was the one worth killing.

BOOM!

The platform cracked beneath her feet, and Maelis vanished.

She crossed the first 10 meters so fast that blurred copies of her body were left scattered behind her. The crimson lines under her skin burned brighter, until they could be clearly seen along her neck and jaw, and the power flooding into her legs pushed her speed far past anything she’d shown Jaxir in their first fight.

There was no way he could follow her now. He hadn’t even managed to land that ridiculous L3 Ability of his yet, and at this speed, he never would.

Unfortunately for Maelis, Jaxir didn’t need his eyes to follow her anymore.

Attune spread through the arena with him at its center, touching every current of mana moving through the open space. Maelis could blur, vanish from sight, or change direction faster than his eyes could keep up.

However, the mana raging through her body was painfully obvious to that awareness. Jaxir felt every step she took before her foot had even finished touching the ground.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three turrets adjusted at once.

[-46]

[-49]

[-47]

The bullets hit her ribs, thigh and shoulder in quick succession. Maelis jerked sideways, only for another stream to meet her right where she’d chosen to escape.

She changed course again and ran straight into fire from the opposite edge. She had to twist so hard that one foot skidded across the stone, and no matter where she moved, another barrel was already waiting for her.

[-45]

[-48]

It could be said that the open arena had become the worst possible place to fight Jaxir. There was nowhere to hide and nothing to put between herself and the constructs. Four separate firing angles had her surrounded, and that was before Jaxir himself was even counted.

Dodging one line only carried her into another. Slipping past that one left two more waiting to punish the mistake.

So, Maelis stopped trying to dodge.

"ENOUGH!"

A violent pulse burst out of her body.

The incoming Black Gem projectiles shattered around her, as some kind of breaking force tore through the mana holding them together. Maelis drove straight through the remaining distance toward the Jaxir closest to her.

Her spear drew back as crimson light gathered along its head, compressing into a narrow point until even the air around it began to shake. She thrust.

But, it was exactly then that the turret beside Jaxir changed.

Every trace of black light stored in its frame rushed to the barrel at once. Cracks spread across the construct as all of its remaining charge compressed into a single attack.

Maelis’s spear had barely started moving forward when a thick beam of Black Light hit her square in the chest.

BOOM!

[-1,184]

She flew backward before her spear could reach him.

While she was still in the air, a second turret swung around. Its body broke apart the same way, every bit of its remaining ammunition collapsing into one concentrated shot, and the beam caught her before she could control her fall.

BOOM!

[-1,263]

Her body changed direction in midair.

The third turret fired before gravity could bring her down. Another pillar of Black Light slammed into her side and sent her spinning toward the far end of the platform.

Maelis clenched her teeth as the impact tore through her defenses. The stone below rushed up to meet her.

BOOM!

[-1,417]

Jaxir’s chanting stopped.

Before her back could hit the ground, a shadowy reaper unfolded behind Maelis. Its twin sickles swept outward, and dozens of crimson cuts erupted across her body.

Unmaking sank into her defenses, her stats, her resistances and her abilities, at the exact moment the previous attacks had already pushed all of them to their limits. The first Jaxir lowered his staff, and the second mirrored him from across the arena.

Haunt followed.

Then Drain.

Unravel tore through whatever was left. Each Hex sank into the damage Unmaking had already opened up, while the Treant’s canopy filled with compressed spheres of water all over again.

Jaxir spun his staff through one hand. Across the arena, his duplicate copied him perfectly, as the water bullets joined the Black Gem fire.

The barrage swallowed Maelis before she could get up.

Water burst against her armor hard enough to snap her body sideways, and black projectiles struck in between every impact. Each turret corrected for wherever the last attack had knocked her.

Meanwhile, the final construct started to crack as every last bit of Black Light inside it rushed to the barrel. Jaxir watched the charge hit its limit.

BOOM!

The last beam tore across the platform.

[-4,286]

Maelis disappeared inside an explosion of black light, water, shattered stone and mana.

Jaxir rested the end of his staff against the arena floor, and the duplicate on the far side did the same. His smile stayed perfectly calm as the Hexes buried throughout Maelis’s body finally reached the point he’d been waiting for.

"I guess we’ll see if it’s enough this time." One said.

"Entropy." The other finished.

BOOM!

[-8,741]