Chapter 53: Wither

Jaxir moved the instant Telik’s arrow appeared before him, throwing his weight sideways while Twinkle Anchor twisted around his chest and pulled at the shaft with everything it had. The gravity caught for half a heartbeat, enough that Jaxir felt the arrow begin to curve away from his heart, but Telik had fired it far too close and Jaxir had noticed it far too late.

Encore.

Twinkle Pulse reformed between his fingers for the fourth and final use of the card, and Jaxir immediately pushed mana into its circuits while shoving it between himself and the arrow. The pulse hadn’t even finished taking shape when the arrowhead punched through the forming repulsive force, tore through the outer layer of Twinkle Anchor, and buried itself deep into his chest.

[-186]

[-31]

Jaxir left his feet and slammed against the floor, sliding backward until the twisted gravity of his armor finally brought him to a stop. Blood rushed into his mouth when he coughed, his left arm hanging almost uselessly beside him while his HP flashed a violent crimson at the edge of his vision.

The hall started spinning before he could push himself upright, grey creeping inward from the edges of his sight in a way he recognized far too well. He wasn’t crippled yet, but he could feel himself standing directly on that edge, his fingers refusing to close properly while even drawing a full breath sent pain pulsing through his chest.

Telik had already drawn another arrow.

Jaxir saw the motion and knew he needed to move, yet there was an uncomfortable delay between that thought and his body actually listening. The arrow settled onto the string, Telik’s possessed eyes found him, and Jaxir realized that he wasn’t going to make it.

"ARGH!"

Nick launched himself out of what should have been his own crippled state before Telik could release.

He crossed the distance with one desperate burst of speed and buried both daggers into Telik’s back, forcing the archer forward as his shot went screaming into one of the pillars instead. Nick ripped the blades free and staggered with the motion, looking like sheer irritation was the only thing keeping him upright.

Jaxir didn’t waste the opening.

Zay was already charging him from the other side of the hall, her shield lowered as those ridiculous physical traits carried several hundred kilograms toward him with more speed than most players could sprint. Jaxir raised one trembling hand and finally released the Twinkle Pulse that had failed to stop Telik’s arrow.

The burst caught Zay low.

Her feet left the floor for only an instant, yet it was enough to destroy her momentum, sending her sliding sideways as she desperately planted her tower shield into the stone. Sparks streamed from its edge while she carved a long scar across the floor, putting some much needed distance between herself and Jaxir.

Jaxir sat back onto one heel and pulled air into his lungs, only to notice that even his breathing wasn’t the worst problem anymore. His heartbeat had picked up an ugly rhythm beneath his ribs, one heavy beat followed by a pause that lasted too long, then two more crashing together before it stuttered again.

"Don’t start."

His real body was reaching its limits.

A few days ago, this might have already been enough for Divinity to forcefully remove him from the game, but whatever improvements his body had undergone since then were apparently buying him a little more time. Jaxir didn’t know how much, and considering there were still two possessed players trying to kill him, he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.

BANG.

Nick flew past him.

Telik had spun out of Nick’s next attack and driven an elbow into his chest with enough force to lift him completely from the ground, sending him crashing into a pillar several meters away. Nick’s HP plunged toward nothing, and Jaxir’s stomach tightened until a faint pulse of light suddenly spread from somewhere beneath Nick’s armor.

His HP stopped at one.

The light faded almost as soon as it appeared, leaving Nick crumpled beneath the pillar with both daggers still loosely held in his hands. Whatever Skill, item, or effect had protected him had saved his life once, but Jaxir seriously doubted it was going to do it twice.

That left him alone.

Jaxir spat another mouthful of blood onto the floor and slowly forced himself upright, his staff settling against his palm. His breathing remained ragged and his heart was still throwing a tantrum inside his chest, yet his gaze sharpened until the entire hall seemed to narrow around the two remaining enemies.

’Alright, then.’

Twinkle Vacuum activated above him.

The sudden pull ripped Jaxir from the floor and launched him toward the vaulted ceiling, while Zay immediately turned to track his movement. Jaxir activated the second use of Twinkle Step the moment he reached the top, his feet catching against the stone as gravity shifted and allowed him to stand upside down.

Telik barely cared.

Rather than waste time aiming at Jaxir, the archer walked toward Nick and calmly nocked another arrow, apparently deciding that the crippled man beneath him was the easier kill. There was no hurry to his movements, no concern that Jaxir had escaped to the ceiling, almost as though the power inside him had made the very idea of losing impossible.

Jaxir’s lip curled and he started chanting.

Ancient syllables flowed from his mouth while his awareness locked onto Telik, and this time Jaxir wasn’t searching for some generic weakness in whatever strange mana the Demi-Goddess had forced into him.

He had already seen what happened when Tayo’s vessel was pushed past what it could endure, and that realization had finally answered the question that had been bothering him about Wither from the moment he learned it.

"Chi."

Crimson lightning descended in a swirl of shattered leaves edged in dark gold, crashing into Telik just as he finished drawing his bow.

―

Wither Lv18 > Wither Lv28

―

Jaxir felt the Ability change the instant it landed, understanding rushing into the gaps that had held him back for so long. He had been looking at Wither all wrong, wondering how mana rotted, what kind of poison could affect one mana compared to another, and how he was ever supposed to understand enough different types to use the Ability properly.

A poison wasn’t poisonous in isolation, its effect depended on what it entered and how that body reacted to it. Jaxir didn’t need to understand every kind of mana in existence, he only needed to watch the person standing in front of him and understand how they were using their own.

Tayo had already shown him everything.

These three weren’t avoiding Skills and Abilities because they had somehow forgotten how to use them, they were avoiding them because their bodies were already struggling to contain what the Demi-Goddesses had forced inside. Every scrap of control they possessed was being spent keeping that overwhelming mana from ripping their vessels apart.

That was the weakness.

Wither didn’t need to poison Telik’s mana. It only needed to make the poison already inside him rampage.

Jaxir pushed.

Crimson lightning sank deeper, twisting through the fragile control holding Telik together, and the arrow in his hand immediately faltered. His arm dropped several inches before jerking back up, then his entire body shuddered as something began moving beneath his skin.

Light swelled along Telik’s forearms in bubbling ridges, forcing flesh upward as it crawled toward his shoulders and throat. The Demi-Goddess’s power fought to remain contained, but every correction only made another part of Telik’s body swell as the vessel desperately tried to hold something it had never been built to carry.

[-97]

[-142]

[-210]

Telik slowly looked up.

Jaxir met his gaze from the ceiling with blood still staining his mouth, his body barely holding together while a small grin pulled at his lips. A single sphere of mana formed at the end of his staff, almost pathetic compared to everything else they had thrown at one another.

"See ya."

Jaxir fired.

BOOM.

The mana bullet touched Telik’s chest and the balance collapsed.

Divine light erupted outward as Telik’s body exploded beneath the pressure, the shockwave rolling across the hall while fragments disappeared into motes before they could hit the floor. Jaxir remained standing upside down above it all, watching the last traces of Telik vanish before his eyes shifted toward the only possessed player still moving.

Then there was one.