Chapter 82: Vampyr (1/2)

Joseph watched on as two people from his newly assigned team clashed together, red lightning flashing and painting the whole hall as the woman’s fist smashed into the ground, cracking it and sending stone flying.

The magical lamps above flickered as more and more red lightning landed around Ilea who was dodging incredibly efficiently. Her body moved, powered by no doubt second stage fighting and movement skills and seemingly a lot of experience. Joseph pierced the ashen mist used by the girl to inhibit the view of her opponent and concentrated to keep up with the fast paced fighting.

He was aware that the longer the fight went on, the more of an advantage the vampyrist would have. Though he was shelling out spell after spell just to keep Ilea away from him. Every so often she would manage to predict his movements and get a punch or a kick in though Joseph was betting on Trian more and more. It didn’t matter to him though as with them in the team, he would certainly climb as their designated team fighting teacher. His face was stone though and didn’t show any emotion.

‘Fuck he’s going to get me like this...’ Ilea thought as she followed the teleporting mage just a moment too late to deliver another attack. The lightning that coursed through her a testament to her failure. The man was certainly dangerous. Without her Resistance skills she would’ve likely been dead for quite some time already.

‘I need to grab him again...it’s the only way for me to win...’ she thought and blinked again. His lightning attacks continued to disturb the ash she still distributed after every teleport. He had some way to see or feel her, at least partially but considering he tried to get out of the ash most of the time she was sure it was troubling him at least somewhat.

Two blinks later she finally got her opportunity and grabbed his arm again. She noticed that the bone wasn’t broken anymore and remedied that immediately. She was hit straight on by red lightning and the full force of his draining but simply smashed him into the ground again.

Instead of her previous actions, she used her legs to push her reversed hunter’s recovery into the man while punching him with reversed destruction. His drain was certainly stronger than hers, and that by a large margin though her still powerful physical punches seemingly pushed his concentration enough to make his spell a lot less effective.

He punched at her as well while lightning bolts rained into her from above, both of them too caught up in the fight to stop at that point. Punch after punch landed on his face as bone cracked and the control on his magic waned. Ilea didn’t look much better as she couldn’t heal herself anymore with her reversed healing spell entering the man. More and more of her internal organs were being burnt up and she felt her control leave as well.

Just before she decided to jump away to save her life and heal herself, the man’s attacks stopped. He lay there under her, unconscious and bleeding. His face was barely recognizable as Ilea’s healing spell changed from destructive to constructive again.

‘She actually did it...’ Joseph thought and immediately ran towards the two to stop her from killing the man, if it weren’t already too late. He should’ve stopped them earlier but he had been too caught up in the fight to react. The sheer raw power of these combatants was blowing him away. It’s been a while since he had taught people that were this powerful right after they had joined.

Usually he had to deal with people who had some sort of trick to kill higher leveled monsters quickly. He assumed the boy and his metal was something similar though even he was much more advanced than many Joseph had taught before.

He reached the two and stopped himself from intervening as he watched the woman’s burnt flesh rebuild right before his eyes. Both her burns and the man’s wounds below her healed quickly as he stood there. ‘She either heals herself much more quickly or she uses more resources on herself right now...’ he thought as he watched her move to the side of the man, not stopping her touch.

“You heal with touch, no other way? And is this the fastest you can go?” he asked the woman. She didn’t look at him but answered nonetheless. Only a gargling noise came out, likely a cause of one of Trian’s attacks. She waited a moment and then answered.

“Only with touch, yes. And that’s the fastest I can heal others.” she said and continued in silence. The others were slowly advancing on the scene, a gust of wind pushed away the remaining ash and Joseph nodded towards Claire whose rune still hung in the air as she joined the group.

Ilea meditated as she healed the man in front of her, her own wounds had been taken care of more quickly. She had to admit that his damage output had been incredibly impressive. More so than anybody she had faced before lest perhaps the elves. Though she had an easier time dodging them and of course a team of the hand helping her out. With his vampyrism as he had called it, he had become much harder to take down than she had expected.

The damage she had inflicted slowly healed and his bones set again before he finally woke, gasping for air and quickly coughing. He lied down again and breathed out.

“I lost.” he said and then smiled. “How close did I get though?” he asked, turning his head to look at Ilea.

“Very close.” she simply said and held out her hand to help him up. He refused though and got up himself, brushing off his coat. It didn’t help a lot with the blood though but considering it was red and black it wasn’t much of a problem in the first place already.

“Well that was certainly an interesting fight. I’m sure I could take you though, knowing now of your abilities.” he said.

“That is often the case Mr. Alymie.” Joseph said to the man “You both have impressive levels of strength though and use your skills and resources very well. I’m afraid I won’t be able to teach you a lot. As most of these classes will consist of spars though, it won’t be a problem. You’ll advance your skills and will have to get creative with using them.” he finished.

“Who’s next?” he asked and looked towards the two women standing around.

Ilea walked to the side of the hall and checked her leather armor. It was singed in a lot of places but the lightning didn’t destroy it as fire would have. She checked the notifications she had gotten during the fight and was quite happy with them.

‘ding’ ‘Lightning Resistance reaches lvl 7’

…

‘ding’ ‘Lightning Resistance reaches lvl 9’

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the General skill Mana Drain Resistance – lvl 1

‘ding’ ‘Mana Drain Resistance reaches lvl 2’

‘ding’ ‘You have learned the General skill Health Drain Resistance – lvl 1

Some creatures have the ability to drain your health. You have been subjected to such a spell and have endured. This skill will help you endure more easily and turn the tables on your enemies.’

‘ding’ ‘Health Drain Resistance reaches lvl 2’

‘ding’ ‘Ash Surge reaches lvl 10’

‘ding’ ‘Hunter’s Sight reaches lvl 2’

‘ding’ ‘Ashen Warrior reaches lvl 13’

‘Quite the result...’ Ilea thought and smiled, mostly at her win though. It had been a good fight and as much as she had gotten used to it, she felt a little good about how nobody had to die this time around. She would be able to raise her skills here at least, no matter how the whole team thing would go in the end. Though if Trian didn’t already plan on gutting her for insulting a noble or whatever, she was quite happy to have him at her back.

‘He’s certainly more than just talk...’ she thought, looking over at the man at the other side of the hall. They locked eyes and she felt his glare to be more challenging than insulted. A good sign for now but her judgment of character had been wrong before. She would keep her guard up, as she tried to do at all times now anyway.

Kyrian joined her a couple meters away, leaning on the wall while looking at the ground. “Good fight, I..Ilea.” he said after a while and she nodded.

“Thanks.” the two watched the women of their team face each other in the middle of the hall. Joseph motioned for them to start with a gesture and the two women went into motion.

Claire dropped a bunch of stones on the ground and started seemingly painting into the air before her, a shining rune appeared where her hand moved. Ilea heard the humming and started smiling widely as she finally found the person she had been looking for. Her head throbbed a little but Claire seemingly was a little more unprepared.