Chapter 201: Did You Know?

For several seconds, Maelis stayed hidden inside the cloud of dust and shattered stone Entropy had left behind, the last traces of black light fading through the debris around her.

Then, a translucent shield appeared inside the cloud. It wrapped itself around her body at the exact instant her HP hit zero, then cracked into hundreds of fragments. However, Maelis didn’t disappear along with it. She dropped to one knee with a single point of health left.

Jaxir watched her force herself upright, one hand gripping the rim of her shield while the other pushed her spear against the ground.

Most of her armor had been scorched black by the barrage, and the shield had several deep cracks running across its face. But, whatever set ability had just activated, it hadn’t only kept her alive. Her body showed none of the weakness Jaxir would have expected from someone standing on 1 HP.

"I hope you enjoyed your little preparations while they lasted."

Maelis dragged the tip of her spear across the stone before leveling it at him.

The crimson markings under her skin had already started spreading before she finished talking. They branched outward from her veins until they had swallowed almost every visible patch of skin on her arms, neck and face.

At the same time, her health suddenly climbed until nearly half the bar was back. Through Attune, Jaxir felt the mana inside her change completely. Instead of spreading out to the structures she’d been using to activate her Abilities, all of it collapsed inward and started cycling through her muscles, bones and blood.

Jaxir watched for another moment, and he understood what she had done.

Her Body stat had climbed so sharply that just standing still made the stone under her boots creak. However, the pathways that normally carried mana to her Abilities had gone completely silent.

Whatever raw physical power the crimson state gave her, she’d paid for it with everything else. All she had left was her body, her spear, her shield, and whatever passive effects her equipment could still provide.

Jaxir’s smile widened. "That’s interesting."

Maelis’s head moved between the two Jaxirs still standing across the arena. After only a moment, her attention locked onto the one nearest the Treant.

Her eyes narrowed, and the crimson glow beneath her skin brightened another shade. She set her shield in front of her and brought the spear back beside her hip.

"I’ve got you, you piece of shit."

She pushed off.

The stone under her boot shattered. She covered more than half the distance before Jaxir could have physically turned his head to follow her, her shield guarding her chest and the spear hidden behind its edge.

The Treant sent several compressed water bullets into her path. Maelis only tilted the shield enough for two of them to burst against it, then knocked another aside with the shaft of her spear.

A fraction of a second later, she reached Jaxir and drove the weapon clean through the center of his chest.

The body caught on her spear shattered into pale fragments that drifted around her before vanishing.

Maelis ripped the weapon back, threw her head toward the stands and roared. The crowd answered with enough noise to make the arena floor shake under her feet.

She waited for the victory notification, breathing hard as her eyes searched the space in front of her. But nothing appeared.

"Hey there."

Maelis’s head snapped around.

"Not sure what all that roaring is about and everything, but I’m still here."

Jaxir was sitting cross-legged on the back of the Black Gem wolf near the far edge of the arena. His staff was balanced over one shoulder, and the wolf stared at Maelis with its crystalline ears turned forward.

The second Jaxir had vanished. That left no doubt that what she’d just destroyed was his Projection.

Jaxir lifted one hand and gave her a little wave.

"You don’t seem very educated, so I’ll have to explain what’s going to happen next very slowly."

He drew a Vestigem Card between two fingers and let it turn once before channeling mana into it.

"Did you know that when you activate Vestigem Cards, you can decide whether they’ll activate on yourself or someone you’re tethered to?"

Name: Glimmer Rush

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Accumulate movement speed while continuously moving, up to +30%. Accumulated speed is lost when movement stops.

Duration: 20 seconds

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged

The card dissolved into streaks of starlight that traveled through Jaxir’s contract and sank into the wolf beneath him.

Its first few strides looked perfectly ordinary. After that, each one stretched a little farther than the last as the Glimmer Mana stacked more and more speed onto its movement.

Maelis didn’t give it much time to build. She dropped her shield forward and launched herself after them.

Jaxir drew another card as she came.

Name: Sparkle Thread

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Link the user’s perception to one moving target, allowing their position and direction of movement to be sensed without direct sight.

Duration: 1 minute

Recommended Classes: Melee; Magic; Ranged

A thin strand of Sparkle Mana shot across the arena and touched Maelis before vanishing from sight. Jaxir felt the difference immediately.

Attune already let him feel the mana raging inside her. Sparkle Thread added movement and direction on top of that, without needing his eyes to keep up.

Maelis could cross 20 meters in the time it took someone else to blink. Yet, the thread shifted with her every step and fed each change straight into Jaxir’s perception. He knew where she was going before his eyes had even finished finding where she’d been.

That didn’t mean his body could react fast enough, though. So, Jaxir drew a second Sparkle Card.

Name: Sparkle Reflex

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Heighten the user’s sensory processing and bodily response, reducing the delay between perceiving a threat and reacting to it.

Duration: 1 minute

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged

Sparkle Mana spread through Jaxir’s nerves just as Maelis reached them.

Her spear came from his right, the point slipping around the edge of her shield with barely any warning. Sparkle Thread told him where it was coming from, and Reflex shortened the gap between knowing it and moving.

Jaxir threw his weight hard against the wolf’s left side. At the same moment, he activated another Glimmer Card through their tether.

Name: Glimmer Carry

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Preserve current momentum through one abrupt change of direction without losing speed.

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged

The wolf’s paws dug into the stone. It changed direction almost sideways, without giving up any of the speed Glimmer Rush had already built.

Maelis’s spear passed behind Jaxir’s back, and her own momentum carried her several meters past them. She had to plant the bottom of her shield against the ground to stop herself.

Before she’d even finished, Jaxir twisted around on the wolf’s back and fired three quick Casts through the Black Gem necklace resting against his chest. Each sphere darkened as Black Light coated it.

[-31]

[-29]

[-33]

Maelis caught the fourth on her shield, the black sphere bursting against its face without touching her health.

She immediately drove off again. However, the Treant had already fired six small bullets of compressed water across the arena, spaced just far enough apart that she couldn’t block them all with one movement.

Two burst against the shield, and one broke under the shaft of her spear. The other three hit her across the shoulder and back.

[-11]

[-14]

[-12]

Maelis’s head snapped toward the Treant. Jaxir saw the hesitation and grinned.

The little thing wasn’t doing much damage, especially compared to what Jaxir himself could put out. But, if anything, that made it even more irritating.

Maelis could kill the Treant if she reached it. But, every second she spent crossing the arena to get there gave Jaxir room to hit her from behind. And if she kept chasing Jaxir instead, those little water bullets would keep finding whatever side of her shield wasn’t facing them.

Maelis chose the Treant.

She surged toward it, her shield covering her left side while her spear came forward on the right. Jaxir drew another card.

Name: Sparkle Route

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Sharpen awareness of terrain, balance, and body positioning to guide the user along the most efficient available path.

Duration: 1 minute

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged