Chapter 256: The Blue Reaper (2/2)
Half an hour passed before she heard another clicking, the grin on her face returning as she prepared for battle. This time she slowly floated towards the noise, her magic adding more and more ash to the swirling and writhing mass that surrounded her. A pulse of magic punched into her mind, her wings wavering as she lost control, catching herself a split second later as her ash surrounded the reaper. Limbs of ash extended and smashed into it, Wave of Ember coursing through the monster while its destructive power flowed through her mind. Ilea found that with meditation and her healing, the damage was controllable.
The lightning attacks it sent out where blocked by her ash and Veil, the damage that got through was healed as well, Ilea building up more ash than she could reasonably control but it made it harder for the enemy magic to get to her. Focusing on the eight limbs, she kept on attacking, dodging the lightning strikes whenever possible. Jumping closer right after it had missed an attack, she grabbed one of its legs and broke it just the way she had done with the corpse’s. Other than the lightning nearly locking up her muscles in the process and frying a good portion of her right side, there were no problems with the move. The leg cracked at the joint and Ilea moved back again, healing and meditating as the beast screeched in pain and anger.
Its magic continued to blast into her but she simply out healed whatever got through her defenses, a thick mist of ash clouding the whole area up to the ceiling. The mantis like head kept its eyes on her, broken limb uselessly dragged at its side as it continuously sent its destructive waves of magic power towards her mind and body. Again, Ilea blinked next to it and broke another leg at the expense of her own health. With two of its legs broken and more damage coming in from her ashen limbs continuously, it finally decided to try and flee.
Checking her health, Ilea found it well above half and simply appeared next to the running creature, grabbing on before she started smashing her fist into the carapace around its small frame. The dull sounds of bone hitting against rock resounded through the dark halls, only the thrumming of lightning occasionally adding to the noise. Ten hits later, something cracked and silence returned to the halls of the old city, leading farther down into the Descent.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Blue Reaper – lvl 329] – For defeating an enemy seventy or more levels above your own, bonus experience is granted’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 249 – Five stat points awarded’
Ilea smiled, much less damaged from this encounter than the last. Not overextending at first certainly helped. Blinking before the lightning hit her was preferable but having the whole area full of ash made it hard to get it all away from the moving critter. If the ash touched her and the enemy, she couldn’t blink. Next time I’ll do better. Still, it was much simpler than facing the knights. She was a little annoyed at how much experience these simple insects gave her just because of the high level and powerful magic. They were less of a challenge that was sure. Terok would be fried immediately though… as would many others. He could fight the knight and survive.
Of course she could see some logic in it all but already she was craving to fight two or three at a time to make it more of a challenge. I really am a nutty masochistic fighting crack…, She knew it already but thoughts like that still sometimes surprised her. She had reached level two hundred, had a house and thousands of gold pieces invested in a growing city. Ilea had the option to lie back, enjoy all the food in the world and maybe bring skiing to Ravenhall and Elos. A life of comfort and pleasantries, with friends and maybe even family at some point. Behind the walls of Ravenhall. One of the strongest humans and a power to fear.
Yet she was here, in the Descent, a pitch black tunnel somewhere in the north with blood dripping down her chin from the lightning blasts that had again nearly fucked up her eyes. And she loved it. Loved the thrill, the next challenge, the next monster to kill in a fight for survival. Considering the damage they each dealt to the other it wasn’t just a hunt, not a predator and prey, just two magic beings brawling until one was dead. Ilea refused the notion that she was simply doing this for power. It felt more like monsters acting on instinct. If she wanted to, she could already be an influence in human territory. She didn’t do this to become the empress of Lys, nor the head of the Shadow’s Hand. She did it because it was fun.
Storing the corpse, she continued onward. Next to experience she’d be gaining silver from the Blue Reapers as well. Not the reason she was there but it was a welcome addition. She noted that the hallway ended, a big chunk in the wall missing to reveal a cave like tunnel beyond. The marks and cuts on the walls as well as the size of the opening indicated that the reapers had carved it out. How long did that take to do?
It was likely the place or one of many they used to come into the Descent. Ilea crouched and moved into it, finding the opening just high enough to crawl. Were this a tunnel of Rhyvor, filled with Rose Knights crawling around she’d turn back and seal it with whatever she could find. Though a hyper aggressive behavior on her part coupled with the small space for reapers to escape, it might work. Ilea followed the tunnel, crawling through as she listened for the clicking noise.
Ten minutes later, she heard it. The tunnel wasn’t completely straight, allowing her to blink to safety, at least against lightning blasts coming her way. Either the reapers hadn’t anticipated a foe to do something like this or this was literally the stupidest way to engage them for anybody but her. She found the critter behind a bend, her mind immediately blasted with magic as soon as it heard her. The thing didn’t even need a line of sight. Just like me.
Listening carefully while she healed her mind, Ilea was pretty sure there was only one of them. Blinking behind the reaper, she wrestled it and resisted the lightning that immediately spread through her body. A crack resounded and then another before she let go and blinked back to her safe spot, at least lightning wise. The smell of burnt skin came to her nose as her tissue reformed and healed. Watching the beast writhe in pain at its broken bones made her focus on recovery for a minute before she blinked in again, all her offensive skills working in tandem. Another two of its limbs were broken, its central shell showing a crack before Ilea blinked back again. The tunnel was an even better way to fight them than the hallways from before.
‘ding’ ‘Mental Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 12’
Smiling at the news, she appeared above the creature and smashed her fists onto the carapace as well as the little space allowed. With her high Dexterity as well as perception it was less of a detriment than she initially anticipated. Another four hits and several sections of her body burnt and damaged, the reaper fell.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Blue Reaper – lvl 341] – For defeating an enemy eighty or more levels above your own, bonus experience is granted’
Storing the corpse, she crawled on to find more. Meditation and Hunter Recovery worked hard to restore her to full health in the process. Her crawling speed wasn’t exactly spectacular, allowing her to meditate during her search.
Ilea grew a little frustrated after crawling for two hours and not finding a single enemy. The tunnels weaved into the stone, more and more ways to explore or get lost in. She tried to sketch it out in her notebook but made sure to cut into the stone as well. Little crosses to mark where she had been before with arrows to show where she had come from. The markings were perfectly visible to her sphere in the dark tunnels. Ilea had expected the claustrophobic and dark space to be at least somewhat of an issue but she felt like a crazed miner sure to find a new vein in the gold rush.
The only problem she saw was if the reapers repaired the tunnels, perhaps removed her markings but she had no idea to know. At least the critters weren’t that fast, her blink likely able to outpace them easily before she could heal and meditate. For a while at least.