48 Book 3 Chapter 44 (2/2)
Dubaku was delighted upon seeing his dream build come into existence. Alas, he forgot to consider something. Although he could now fight dozens of monsters at once by using melee skills from afar, it also increased his stamina consumption considerably.
Dubaku didn't give up and decided to go all in. His second rune solved the problem, albeit slightly.
Continuous Strikes - Tier 1 Rune
Stamina consumption is reduced by .1% for one minute for every skill used, up to a maximum of 10%.
Remark 1: The buff's duration is refreshed with each additional skill usage.
Passively reduces stamina consumption by 1%.
To be honest, ten percent was negligible. Only after several upgrades would the rune show its real power. As a result, Dubaku used his daggers to support his allies instead of killing monsters outright like before.
Fighting down in the horde was dangerous. Monsters surrounded the team, and if not for Jason forcing most of the monsters to attack him, they wouldn't have chosen to drop from the wall. There were even a few tier four demons among those assailing him. Usually, Jason would have to defend against attacks of such caliber, yet today he disregarded any thoughts of doing so. His confidence came from his second rune.
One Against Many - Tier 1 Rune
Increases your fortitude by .1% for every foe within thirty feet.
Passively increases fortitude by 1%.
The fortitude stat increased the natural hardiness of Jason's body. As he was a tank, the stat was already absurdly high compared to his peers, and the rune only served to increase the stat further. In combination with his first rune, Jason was practically invincible fighting the low tier demons.
Typically, the defense modifier on equipment would never apply to an ascender's body. Only because of Jason's rune did this rule change. Not only did he have the improvement from Fortitude, but he also had the defense modifier as well. From the perspective of the tower, Jason's body was considered equipment.
The monster horde this time came from the north-east. By using skills to force demons to attack him, Jason reduced the pressure on everyone else. Anyone else would have died in minutes.
Inevitably, it was dawn. While everyone was exhausted, not a single person died. The tier three mana barrier prevented any deaths. Not only that, the tier one mana cannon killed around three percent of the horde. While it seemed insignificant, three percent removed a lot of pressure.
The success this time purely came from the sacrifice of the seventy-two ascenders. If not for them, who knew how many would have died this time, considering Lavos wouldn't intervene?