[390] 5.14 Katabasis VI

The six of us break off into our own individual groups once the dust has settled and the monster’s corpse has disintegrated.  Three pieces of its body remain behind— an eye, a tooth, and a single nail from one of its hundred hands.  All three would be worth a substantial sum to the right buyer.  With the right contacts, the eye could be used as the substrate for some sort of powerful elixir.  The tooth and the nail would make for potent weapons and armor.  Their size is irrelevant; a person’s [Inventory] doesn’t have quite infinite capacity, but the capacity is large enough that a sphere with a diameter of my height won’t be an issue.

The question right now concerns the division of resources.  If we were doing things fairly, we’d each take one of the three artifacts and we’d be on our way to the dungeon core to get the hell out of this… well, this hell.  However, as Pierre looks over the four of us with eyes that glint with greed and the barest hint of malice, I understand that it’s not going to be nearly so simple.

“Can you fight?” I ask Chloe.

“Not for much longer.  Even now, [Lightspeed Slash] drains me for a good while.  You’ll need to buy me some time to recuperate.”

Pierre’s gaze fixes upon me.  “Now that our temporary alliance is over, I believe it is time to discuss the terms of our arrangements going forward.  All of you will submit your weapons to Jacques at once.”

“That’s preposterous!” Svana says.  “I have absolutely no intention of–”

Pierre vanishes.  He appears next to Svana a moment later with a blade pressed against her throat.  The movements weren’t so fast that I couldn’t see, but in my current state, I wouldn’t have been any more able to resist than she was.

“I regret to inform you that you are in no position to make negotiations, let alone demands.  I don’t care if you wish to obey or not.  If not, I will simply take your head and then relieve your weapons from your corpse.  I trust there will be no other objections?”

“And what guarantees do you offer as far as sparing our lives?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“Only the guarantee that if we are satisfied, we may allow you to live so as to be of better service to us later.”

A strange thing to say, mentioning an ‘us’ like that.  I don’t believe that he refers to just himself and Jacques.  That suggests that he’s working underneath some other force whose membership and goals I know nothing about.   If there were any chance that he would allow us to live before, it’s gone after allowing that tidbit to escape.  But that doesn’t mean that I can’t play along.

“Apeiron.”  Svana’s words have no voice; I can only tell what she was mouthing due to [Valkyrion’s Perception] remaining active.

I pretend not to have heard her words as I approach.  Feigning submission despite every part of my soul resisting the gesture, I lower my head and present my weapon before Pierre.  Once I get within twenty paces, he orders me to place Filia on the ground and step away.  Again, I do so.  The weapon is and remains soulbound to me, and will not willingly do me harm.

“Why?” Svana asks.

“It is better to surrender a small amount than to lose one’s lives,” I say.  “Everything else can be rebuilt as long as we live.”

“You are a fool if you think he is going to let you leave with your life intact, Seraphina.  I thought you were wiser than this after everything you’ve gone through over these past years.  But I see that I was sadly mistaken about you after all.”

Pierre turns back to Svana.  “I don’t remember asking you for your input on the matter.  If you don’t want your little partner to suffer, you won’t say anything more.”

Svana mouths a word that I can’t make out.  From her scowl, I assume it to be an expletive.

I step back with my hands still raised, positioning myself between the two Frenchmen and Chloe.  I do still have one card to play, but I need to be precise with it.

As Pierre steps away from Svana to appropriate my swordstaff, Svana steps back toward where Svylune teeters on the precipice of consciousness.  Despite her injuries and the way she stumbles, the look of steadfast determination in her eyes never once wavers.  Her sword disappears into her [Inventory], but she has been readying a spell all this time.  A sudden flicker follows, and shards of ice launch toward the man.

At the last second, he turns around.  His blade moves in a flash and cuts every single projectile down, the shards dropping harmlessly to the ground at his feet.

“Oh?”  Pierre says.  “So you figured it out, did you?  Well, it truly doesn’t matter.  Although I suppose it does make things a little more difficult for me if you resist.”

Black fog attempts to draw Filia into Pierre’s inventory.  I rebuff the attempt, my silver light rising up to meet and counter the smoke before my weapon disappears into the void.

“Ah,” he says.  “So you are not as much of a fool as I had hoped.”  His eyes narrow.  “It’s no matter.  Once you are dead, I will have all the time in the world to unravel whatever cheap trick you used to defy me.”

He claps twice.  Jacques, who’d been watching imposingly in the background, steps forward, now wielding two greatswords each far larger than Chloe’s longswords.

“If you surrender here,” Jacques said, “I can guarantee you the mercy of a clean and quick death.  It’s the least I can offer you for your assistance.”

“No,” I say.  “Actually, you really can’t.”

I charge at Pierre.  He moves with his stealth active to counterstrike.  I allow him to close the distance, tracking his every contortion with [Valkyrion’s Perception] as he approaches.  He pierces my defenses with ease, some short-term speed boosting Skill allowing him to evade my punch.  His blade is about to collide with the side of my neck, but I’m able to Manifest the power of [Repulsion] once more thanks to my training and block the strike just before it would have drawn blood.

“I will admit you are skillful, Seraphina,” Pierre says after regrouping.  “You’re the first person to face [Assassin’s Blade] and emerge with your head intact.  Nevertheless, we both know that you cannot keep up the pace of battle for much longer.  Nor will you survive against the both of us with that broken body of yours.”

“Perhaps.”  I take a deep breath and draw out the latent power buried deep in my core.  “If you really believe that to be the case, you’re welcome to test that hypothesis.”

The three of us stare for several seconds, all of us unmoving.  Pierre must’ve seen something in my expression; I’d’ve expected him to be moving and pressing his surface advantage before Chloe has a chance to heal or charge up another [Lightspeed Slash].  Instead, he’s shifted to a defensive stance and has drawn the darkness around his body.  My earlier cast of [Brilliance] has all but faded, leaving nothing but a dim aura surrounding the battlefield.

Jacques screams loudly enough that my eardrums nearly burst.  Pierre uses the noise as cover for his advance.  Something which would be an effective tactical maneuver, if only I actually had to rely on light and sound to perceive the zig-zagged approach.  I stand motionless, ready, waiting, tracking each millisecond and waiting until the absolute last moment to tap into my secret power.

My entire body glows golden as my Overlimit takes effect.  Immediately, that strange energy that had lain dormant for three years erupts out from me.  My senses sharpen; my muscles tense and my tendons tighten as my entire existence becomes temporarily more than it ought to be.  Before I struggled to block the [Assassin’s Blade] with the last of my strength.  Now, with my combat parameters significantly enhanced and my [Health] and [Ether] overflowing, I’m able to both dodge and throw a punch of my own which is only narrowly dodged in return.

I don’t let up.  Even before Pierre has forced himself back into a neutral engagement, I summon Filia back into my grip and blitz at him.  Jacques moves to intercept with a flurry of heavy swings.  His blows are heavy, but I focus on deflection rather than countering them with a strength I cannot quite match even in this state.  The moment I get the opportunity, I break off the engagement and turn back toward Pierre.

He rushes toward Chloe.  I accelerate further, switching from running to flight to reduce movement inefficiencies.  Chloe raises [Mirage Swords] to block, but she lacks the training and the speed to intercept.  However, at the last second, a single shard of ice about as large as my arm forces him off course just enough for Chloe to dodge.  If he had to dodge such an attack from a weakened Svana, his [Vitality] and [Health] must be quite low for our levels, with all his points in [Speed] and maybe [Strength] instead.  A weakness… if I can exploit it.

Jacques is back on me before I can isolate Pierre from Chloe.  She blocks admirably, using a combination of [Curing Light] and her passive [Divine Regeneration] to continue the fight after she would have ordinarily succumbed to her injuries.  I focus down the big man, and I decide to use his master of all weapons both metal and martial against him.

Remembering a battle from years ago, I charge up a familiar combination of [Lightning], [Scalability], and [Repetition] with a few new runes Hank and I have isolated over the years.  The spell is about fifteen percent more efficient than the one I’d designed back when fighting against a certain mechanical hive queen, but the technique is still the same.

“[Chain Lightning],” I say.

As I expected, Jacques summons more weapons to block my magical assault.  It was futile then and it will be futile now.  Three thousand points of [Ether] is enough to start melting the steel and titanium-based ores even through their runic enhancements.  When the [Ferromancer]— and I’m quite certain that’s at least one of his Classes— raises the heap of slag to intercept my second bolt, I respond with [Infernal] flames to clear the path.

That was another something I had learned over the previous three years.  While in the Overlimit state, I’m unable to use most of my Skills, with the exception of my [Glyphcasting].  However, passive Skills, like [Valkyrion’s Defense], continue to work as normal.  [Multidimensional Twincasting] and [Advanced Ether Manipulation], to my surprise, count at least partially as passive Skills rather than active ones.  While I can actively employ them to improve the potency of my magic, the subtle guidance and knowledge they provide work even when I untether myself from System limitations.

Jacques’ mouth widens as I slam into his gut at full-force.  I fail to do much actual damage to him.  I do, however, knock the wind out of him and use the brief window to break serve and dive back toward Pierre before he can incapacitate or do worse to my future wife.

Pierre is a slippery bastard.  My [Speed] nearly matches his in this state, but he has the advantage thanks to his own Skills and experience with fighting at this pace.  Every time I’m able to get close enough to strike, he conjures some infinitesimal burst of energy to dodge by a hair’s breadth and continue the fight.  He is showing signs of fatigue, but I’ve already used close to a minute of the hundred and ninety seconds I get in this state.

I worry that he realizes that the duration of my Overlimit is short, and is just buying time until I expire.  So I improvise by taking a page out of Svana’s book and conjure up a storm of ice to coat the entire battlefield in a thin sheen.  Pierre pauses for a moment to recalculate, but it’s the scream that comes from the other side of the cavern that gives us all pause.

Svylune is again in the form of a serpent, though this time one of a far more ordinary size.  Their attack proves no less effective than before, however, judging by the way Jacques’ screams and nearly keels over from the single bite delivered from the nature mage or whatever other class they actually are.

Pierre rushes in before I have a chance to finish the big man off and throws up a shadowy shield to occlude my pursuit.  I start to chase after them with what limited time I have left, only for Svana to call out to me and beckon me to stop.

“Why?” I ask impatiently, more than half of my time already spent.  “I’m not going to be able to–”

“It’s alright.  Both of them are going to retreat.  They gain nothing from continuing this engagement; should they fall here, their group suffers too much.  I do not believe they want to continue this engagement now that it has proven to their disadvantage.  Especially not with Jacques’ condition so perilous at the moment.”

“And you’re absolutely certain about this?”

“I am.  I am prepared to stake my life on the fact that they are rushing toward the dungeon exit even now.  They will not risk dying here.”

I have no reason to trust Svana, nor would I put money on the fact that Svylune won’t try to envenom me to death the moment I release my Overlimit.  But they do seem to have some information about what’s going on that I need to understand if I’m to better prepare for what’s to come.

Chloe and I consult telepathically for a brief moment.  We agree to hear them out.