Chapter 76 – The Imperfect Lever Actions

The blue preview of the collider wireframe disappeared. Darya zoomed forth and appeared near the Dreagan.

She looked at her hand. She couldn’t feel the collider.

I didn’t lose the grip, did I?

There was no way she could’ve.

[Vainfall: Edit Collider Wireframe]

She looked down at the direction she came. The blue shape was still there. She had stretched it a certain distance, but it was hard to tell exactly how long it was.

This confirmed it. The wireframe did have some sort of limit. At its simplest, it was probably constrained by the maximum distance between two vertices. Even taking that into account, it was quite long. The pointed end was right under her.

Darya found Nerima through the telescope, catching a glimpse of her fish tail.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

Terminate was necessary. She could easily impale or cut herself on this invisible collider.

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

Zooming back down, Darya appeared a few feet above Nerima. She was holding the stick with a determined look as she was told to do. Darya handled the landing herself. She had another two and a half seconds to waste. If she let herself fall with Terminate, she would sink underwater, and Nerima would panic and drop the stick.

[Flying Celestian]

[Smooth Slither]

She flew a circle around Nerima, making sure to stay well out of the way of the invisible collider.

The world caught up to the prediction dots and the monochrome dissolved to color. Darya swooped in.

Nerima squeaked and blinked in surprise. “Prin—!”

“Stay where you are!” Darya said as she landed on the water next to Nerima. She did as told.

Swimming the few feet back to her, Darya quickly grabbed the stick over Nerima’s hand and let her slide out. The stick was hard to hold. She could already feel it toppling, with the bigger surface area catching the ocean winds.

She waited for Nerima to sink below.

[Vainfall: Edit Collider Wireframe]

It was as she feared. The sharp end was swaying off target. That was fine. She could always adjust it.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

The toppling collider immediately felt light as the stick. Prediction dots stirred on its invisible edge, but she was free to move it however she wanted through the monochrome world. She took aim, using her other hand to push and level it right.

She targeted the big black dot in the sky.

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

The world blurred as she zoomed forth. The frame angle worked in her favor this time, without veering too far off the direct angle that she wanted.

[Vainfall: Edit Collider Wireframe]

She watched the blue shape clip into the Dreagan’s tar-black surface. Prediction dots splashed as the zooming came to an abrupt halt.

Darya held the brand-new record-breaking world’s longest spear for the rest of Terminate duration, making sure to always keep it pointed at the Dreagan. Fast movements phased through it, but slow movements dealt visible damage in prediction dots.

“Mother Goddess, What is this sophisticated spell!” Sarka exclaimed. “What incredible range.”

“Looks good enough,” Darya admitted. “It’s not enough, though.”

The stretched collider would certainly deal a lot of damage, and the Dreagan would bleed even more. It still wasn’t enough. She had just skewered an apple with a very long needle. The surface area of damage was low.

It’s just the second experiment. Now I know the vertex drag distance.

Maybe the experiment didn’t have to end there. She could take a risk. She knew puncture damage wasn’t enough. She already had the solution to this problem. She had already cracked a Dreagan with it.

The monochrome world faded. The spear felt firm in her hand. White blood splashed out from the Dreagan, following the exact pattern that she had carved into it from far away.

Just as she thought, it didn’t deal enough damage. The Dreagan was trembling already, ready to let out the repelling mana pulse.

She had a few seconds to make a decision.

There was one problem.

“Sarka! Where’s Emil?”

“Below, to your right, princess!” Sarka said diligently.

Darya peeked over her arm. He wasn’t hard to find. He was frozen mid-swing against at least five Shadows. A line of twenty or thirty more was gathering toward him. A luminous mana spear was shattering against his body.

Interesting. He can tank a hit. Some kind of warding spell?

She snapped out of it, focusing back on the task at hand. She could lever this spear any way she wanted, but she couldn’t let it swing anywhere near Emil. It wasn’t safe to even phase through with Terminate. An unintended slowdown in that movement could be fatal. Her tools made it hard to coordinate with allies.

The safest solution now was to always make sure to keep the blunt end of the stick in his direction.

Good plan. I can also use other Shadows nearby.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

One.

She targeted Emil while adjusting her wrist. She couldn’t lever the spear perfectly, but she could imagine the correct wrist movement. She was going down, which meant the spear had to point upwards.

Zooming down, she appeared near Emil. The spear phased out of the Dreagan, but she managed to shove it back in. Making sure to slow her movements, she waited a second for damage from this new angle.

Two. Three.

Frame command was too fast for Terminate to register damage during the movement. The last time, she had relied on the flying spell to move slower.

It wasn’t going to work with a Colossal Dreagan from this far away. She had to find a way to lever this one with Frame command.

Physics was in her favor. If she could just hold the stick properly during the movement, the colliders would be pivoting slower near the Dreagan than the blunt end.

That might need a lot of practice. I have to work with travel time, distance, and the wrist movement.

It wasn’t impossible. She needed a distant target. Longer travel time and cutting distance.

She targeted a shadow to the right of Emil as the Terminate ended. For a split second, she heard clashes next to her as Shadows bounced against Emil’s gauntlet.

“Sarka! Remember this position!”

“I will!”’

Darya gripped the stick.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

Excellent travel time. It was at least three hundred feet, giving her more time to adjust her wrist. The spear didn’t drift out of the Dreagan this time. It was slow enough to draw inside the Dreagan’s silhouette.

One. Two.

“Good damage!” Darya said triumphantly.

It was far from a perfect lever action that she envisioned, but it did several times more damage than a puncture. The Dreagan was already splashing white blood from the previous cut as well.

Darya targeted another shadow to continue the streak. She had one more movement. Space had warped around the Dreagan, signaling the start of the repelling pulse.

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

The travel was shorter this time, but she still managed to keep the spear inside the Dreagan’s silhouette. It was mostly similar to the previous mess, and cut a shorter line across its black surface.

Three. Half.

She felt the stick turn firm in her hand as the world caught up to the prediction dots. A triangular chunk the size of a house fell off with a waterfall of white blood.

The ripple of the mana pulse was coming. It had hit everyone equally, carrying a wave of Shadows with it.

“Sarka, Emil?”

“Behind you, below to the right.”

Safe enough. Maybe I can phase through the ripple now.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

She targeted a random Shadow behind the ripple. It was near the Dreagan, and would also be a great angle to deal damage from.

[Vainfall: Frame Selected Entity]

Moving directly toward the Dreagan, she held the spear exactly as it was. She appeared a few feet away from the Shadow from a manageable angle.

She couldn’t miss from this up close. The entire left side of her field of view was a tar-black wall with white waterfalls of blood.

One.

“Princess, I am scared. Thought you ought to know,” Sarka announced immediately upon arrival.

“Noted,” Darya muttered as she looked around.

The chunk that fell off gave her a good look inside the Dreagan. It was deeper cut than she thought. She caught a glimpse of the shapes inside.

She made the next move purely on a whim.

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

[view more]

It brought her to the cavernous opening and the white waterfall.

Two.

The inside of this Dreagan wasn’t soft, brittle flesh that she had seen on others. It had more intricate parts holding it together. The inside looked like a blooming flower, a bizarre symmetrical shape already beginning to fill the cavern from the inside.

In the middle of its fleshy petals lay a smooth shard with a complicated pattern of holes. It had three seams along which it could split, and perhaps bloom like the petals around it.

Three.

[Inspect]

Item: Archangel Seed [V.0.32 BETA]

Category: Unknown

Weight: 431 lbs

Worth: Unknown

Effect: Unknown

“P-princess…?” Sarka asked shakily.

Darya glared at it with a flat expression. She didn’t know what to think. “What in the ever-living fuck is that?”

Half.