Chapter 197: Severed

I slowly turned back around and glanced up, only to see one of those demon guys standing over me. He was as tall as the statues, and he was on fire—the same blue fire that seemed to be everywhere here.

A fellow fire enthusiast then? Maybe if I put myself on fire we could be friends, just like how me and Palets bonded over our shared passion for decapitated heads.

He stared at me and growled, but didn’t move. Maybe he was waiting for me to put the shard back?

I slowly raised the shard. “This? You want me to put this back and then we’re good?”

He growled again, but [Omniglot] didn’t translate it. How was I supposed to know what he meant?

“Bogumir,” I whispered. “Bogumir!”

“What?” he said, annoyed, popping his head out of the satchel.

I slowly nodded at the demon.

Bogumir followed my nod. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Do you think this guy is part of a puzzle or can I shoot him? He’s not moving so maybe this is a puzzle.”

“I don’t think this is a puzzle. I think we should run.”

“Run? Why would we run? The guy isn’t even moving. Maybe he will only move if we grab the other stuff? Should we grab the other stuff? I could just shoot him. I think I should shoot him.”

If the demon could hear me, saying all of that out loud may not have been the smartest idea, but since he was just growling at me I hoped he wouldn’t speak Silesian. If he even was a he. I couldn’t be sure. He looked like a he.

For some reason the fact that the demon wasn’t moving at all was disturbing me more than if he was. I got the feeling that something very bad was about to happen and I wasn’t sure if moving would make it better or worse.

I glanced down at the goblet and the dagger. They sure looked pretty. I looked back up at the demon, who was still on fire and still staring at me. His head would probably look great on my belt or one of my guns. Killing him would probably give Kasia another level as well and Kasia needed levels fast. You know, for her safety. But would it be rude to just kill this guy? He looked pretty evil, but he hadn’t done anything evil yet. He hadn’t even tried to attack me, and maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he was just hungry and was hoping I had some sausages or pierogi with me.

It was quite the conundrum. On one hand I wanted his head, on the other hand I didn’t want to be rude. Speaking of hands, what kind of upgrades would those big hands give? Probably something perfect for my build as well. Maybe even Kasia’s. Should I really let such a potentially good source of experience and upgrades go to waste? No one would know if I shot him. Probably.

And I really wanted that head.

“Why aren’t we running?” Bogumir asked.

I sighed. “I’m sorry I—”

***

Katarzyna (Kasia) Cieślar, [Raptomaga]

Hecate managed to [Blink] just in time to avoid getting raked by one of the demon’s claws. That thing was fast!

Kasia took a step inside the room, then hesitated. What could she possibly do against this monster? She’d probably only get in the way. But at the same time, she couldn’t just stand by and watch her best friend get mauled, not now that she had a class.

Hecate blinked again to dodge another attack by the demon, then shot a hole right through its stomach. It didn’t even flinch, and a thread of fire and mana surged from the brazier into the wound, knitting it back together.

“Of course,” Hecate said.

What could Kasia do to help? Clearly that demon was being empowered by the flame burning inside of that brazier, but so what? It wasn’t like Kasia could knock over the pedestal, and she wasn’t even sure it would do anything. What if it would spread the fire instead and make the demon even stronger?

Hecate shot off both of its legs, but the demon kept advancing at her as if they were still there, and as it did, fire regenerated its limbs.

“Of course,” Hecate said again, then pulled Vasil out of her satchel and threw him at the demon. “Take this, you big bastard!”

Vasil bounced off its head and dropped onto the floor. The demon stared at the frog in confusion just for a moment, but that moment was all Hecate needed to fire off several shots and the [Push] bullet that hit it sent it crashing into the wall. The shockwave blew Kasia’s hair back and she had to squint against the rush of wind in her eyes.

Hecate sped up and fired more bullets into the demon as it struggled to get up. It couldn’t, because every time it tried another bullet hit it, pushing it back down into the corner it had ended up in. Pieces of it were flying off, but kept regenerating. Multiple strands of mana and flame now actively healed the demon. The room seemed indestructible.

“Hecate!” Kasia shouted. “The brazier! It’s healing him.”

“I think it might be him,” Hecate answered, firing another shot into the demon. “Hmm.”

Hecate fired a shot at the brazier, but that too seemed indestructible. She sighed, then fired a shot to keep the demon down. “Of course. Well, at least this guy isn’t too much trouble. We just have to figure out a way to keep him down. Oh, and without destroying his head, preferably. I’d like to add it to my collection.”

“I believe you should just shoot it in the head,” Vasil said. “You are playing with fire by doing this.”

Hecate laughed. “Good joke, old man. Since I’m literally playing with fire. Sort of. Cause he’s on fire. Haha. You get it.”

Vasil didn’t seem amused. “This is dangerous, Hecate. Just finish it already.”

All across the room lay pieces of flaming demon, and with every shot Hecate fired into it more bits and pieces were added to the scattered mess.

This is my chance. Now I can finally do something to help, Kasia thought. If I can somehow extinguish that fire, it might prevent the demon from regenerating.

But how do you do that in a room without water? Starve it of oxygen somehow? Taking a water-based skill just to defeat this one demon seemed like a waste, and Hecate had the situation mostly under control. But for how long could she keep that up?

What if I could cut the thread of mana somehow? Would that work? It should work. What good is having a thread that you can’t cut?

You could do a lot with a needle and thread, but in the end you always had to cut it, so there had to be a skill for that.

Kasia opened her skills menu and feverishly went through the options, hoping to find something that would allow her to cut mana, if that was even possible. The constant explosions and air from the blast waves blowing into her eyes made it difficult to concentrate.

There!

One of the skills glowed just slightly brighter than the rest, as if the System was hinting at her to take it. Maybe this was a core skill for her class? Or maybe it was being helpful and this skill was just what she needed in the moment?

[Manatomi]

Type: Passive

Allows the user to sever and manipulate the flow of mana. Effectiveness scales with both user level and Dexterity.

Interestingly for Kasia, the skill descriptions always seemed to be different from Hecate’s. Kasia’s skills didn’t have any of the quippy lines before describing what the skills actually did. She wondered why that was. Or did Hecate just make those up on the spot? No, that couldn’t be it, since some of them seemed to mock her, and Hecate would never mock herself. It didn’t matter—Kasia had a mana thread to sever!

She accepted [Manatomi] and ran toward the brazier. How did this skill even work? She tried touching the thread of mana.

Ow! Stupid!

The flames surrounding the thread burned her finger, but she had felt the thread itself. And if she could feel it, that meant she could cut it. Did she really need to use her fingers to do that, though?

She summoned her [Spirit Needle] and inspected it.

What if I…

The needle disappeared from her hand and was replaced by a pair of ethereal shears that shimmered and thrummed with mana. She opened and closed them several times.

Yes!

Kasia immediately snipped the threads of mana connecting the brazier to the demon, the flames vanishing from its body. Another boom blew her hair to the side.

A surge of energy shot through her—she had gained a level!

“Haha!” Hecate said. “Easy! Check this out!” she proudly held up the shrunken head of the demon. “Isn’t he adorable?” Then Hecate’s expression changed. Her eyes went wide with panic. “Kasia! No!”