Chapter 408 The Winds of Time (1/2)
Steel splinters clanged as they fell to the floor, pushed out of the ashen armor.
Ilea collapsed to one knee, breathing hard as the rest of her wounds healed quickly.
The Fae appeared in front of her with a questioning look. Safe?
“Yeah,” she said and rested on the wall behind her. “I think so,” she looked up and didn’t see any more attacks coming their way.
Strong, the thought arrived, the little guy pointing at her.
“No, I’m just an overconfident idiot that nearly died… again,” she said and calmed down, meditation flowing through her.
Ilea had to use her instant recovery so often, her mana was below a thousand. Even with the energy returned from the wind magic, the instant healing depleted her, still using around four times as much mana to heal a single point of health.
“That thing hit like a fucking truck, huh?” she said.
The Fae sat down on the floor and looked at her, not sending anything her way.
“I suppose I should look at the silver lining. I just survived a rampaging quadruple mark beast. Even scratched it once,” she said with a smile. “Damn hard for anything to kill me at this point.”
A giggle came and went, inside her mind. The Fae nodded before it bowed to her. Protect.
“You want to be protected?” Ilea asked, looking through the few notifications she had gotten.
‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Reconstruction reaches 3rd lvl 21’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth Awakening reaches 3rd lvl 19’
‘ding’ ‘Blink reaches 3rd lvl 15’
‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Core reaches 3rd lvl 14’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth Fighting reaches 3rd lvl 19’
‘ding’ ‘Armor of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 21’
‘ding’ ‘Aspect of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 18’
‘ding’ ‘Keeper of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 15’
‘ding’ ‘Veteran reaches 2nd lvl 2’
‘ding’ ‘Veteran reaches 2nd lvl 3’
Ilea wondered why her Veteran skill was leveling now, without any paralyzing effects remaining. Might just be a matter of facing insanely powerful beings. Or I offended it by not freezing. Holy shit…, she suddenly stopped.
If I had been frozen for a couple seconds when it went all out… fuck, good thing I have the second tier now, she sighed.
‘ding’ ‘Wind Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 13’
‘ding’ ‘Wind Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 14’
That ridiculous battle and damage was necessary for two levels, against a creature with four question marks. Thank fuck I have Avatar of Ash now, otherwise I’d have to spend decades getting everything up.
Or I’d have to fight monsters of that power for each resistance. Time and time again, she shook her head and sighed. Challenges were fun and what she was looking for but getting minced for half an hour wasn’t exactly a challenge. It was a beat down.
A testament to her survival and recovery, as well as her defense, reducing the damage she took by a ton already.
“If that expedition even looks at this creature, their mush. Do you think we went to far? The Gracken confirmed they went past though,” she said, looking at the little creature.
He crossed his tiny arms and looked down, tapping one of his feet that looked just as simple as his hands. No toes or claws, just a black stump.
Thankful Protect.
“Ah, now I get it. Sure, I guess you didn’t expect a Storm Griffin to show up either,” she said with a smile.
Hiding Helpful
“Probably. I just wanted to see if I can take it. My recovery is pretty good and until I actually attacked it, the attacks dealt pretty minimal damage,” she said.
Joy
“Well, let’s hope there is something we can kill in the next layer. I’m not particularly good at hiding and we can’t expect every monster to stay in its lair,” Ilea said. Only the lightning elemental and the Storm Griffin didn’t move out of their respective layers so far.
She suspected that there was a more powerful single enemy every five levels, the first one being the Veramath. It must have been the only one not able to deal with the corrupted beasts on its own layer. Or her theory wasn’t right at all.
“Ready for the sixteenth?” Ilea asked.
The Fae jumped up and twirled like a windmill.
“You’re a very weird creature,” she said and chuckled, watching the little windmill start to spin vertically as well.
With pretty good control and balance, she noted to herself before getting up.
The last couple layers weren’t exactly profitable, more taxing on her pride and social energy. Neither had a bar to fill with hear healing magic so she just had to deal with it.
The next layer came after another set of stairs, this time leading into an open space with pale blue light shining from crystal like stone set in the ceiling.
It was a vast and expanding area with hills and rocks dotting the environment. A little less high reaching than the previous layer.
The entrance was a broken steel gate at about fifty meters above ground, a stairwell leading down but most of it was missing. What remained of the metal was lying down at the ground, torn apart.
Monsters flexing their power by shredding through the steel, Ilea thought and looked around.
There were some moving creatures she could see, even with the bad light and from this distance.
Four legged creatures about the size and shape of a panther. Not that she had seen a panther but she assumed them to be a little below her height.
She noticed they were prowling frantically or outright running around.
“Ready?” she asked her tiny companion.
Conquer!
“Ok, calm down there emperor,” she said with a smile and jumped down, spreading her wings to move her away from the steel wreckage.
A noise to her right made her turn, her eyes finding one of the creatures standing atop a boulder.
It growled and showed its sharp teeth. Orange puss dropped from various wounds on its body large body, reaching Ilea’s chest in height and twice that in length. It had four reddish gray eyes and a maw that looked just a little too broad, its jaw unhinging to show several rows of teeth. Its body was covered in thick near black hide, powerful muscles visible below. Short black hair showed on parts of the creature, especially atop and behind its head.
[Corrupted Zanedin Hunter – lvl ???]
Alright, here we go, Ilea thought and watched the monster rush at her.
The thing came in range of her limbs and vanished without a trace.
Ilea felt the impact as her leg was bitten into, the familiar sensation of a powerful curse flowing through her. “Motherfucker,” she exclaimed, her limbs lashing down at it before it vanished once more.
There was no distortion in space, no precognition warning her of the attack either. Or maybe it did, she thought, moving her ashen limbs closer to her, short bladed tips forming before they started to spin around her body.
The creature’s teeth had penetrated her ash but the wound was shallow, healed quickly. The curse was mostly ignored, eating away at her health and making her senses dull. Both effects were remedied by the powerful healing flowing through her.
She spread ash around her, forming little flakes that she threw up with her manipulation.
The beast came once more and vanished. This time it appeared again ten meters away from her, several cuts showing on its body as it snarled. The flakes had fallen considerably, as if they had teleported.
I was wondering why such a weak creature resided at this level, Ilea thought. “Come, you’re frenzied. Get shredded.”
The beast of course wasn’t itself anymore, neither recognizing the taunt nor caring for its own well being. It appeared again several times, its teeth slamming through her defenses and spreading the powerful curse through her body.
Ilea smiled when she found the beast stuck to her ash, her hands reaching out before she slammed her fist into it. A couple punches and it was over.
The noise in her mind informed her about the kill before her precognition picked up something. Interesting.
She held up the corpse and watched with curious eyes as the body expanded, exploding in a flash of blood and bones.
The blast was powerful, washing away her ash and a chunk of her bone armor but not quite managing to get past her skin. The damage was healed again quickly and her ashen armor reformed on top of it.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Corrupted Zanedin Hunter – lvl 582]’
‘ding’ ‘Blood Magic Resistance reaches lvl 16’
‘ding’ ‘Time Magic Resistance reaches lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Time Magic Resistance reaches lvl 6’
There you go, she thought and spread her wings, flying up as she checked the surroundings.
A susurration seemed to go through the creatures she had seen in the distance, groups turning their heads and growling before they rushed her way.
“Yes, come to me my darlings… blood magic, explosions, curses and time,” she could hardly contain her joy as a grin spread on her face. All the resistance levels she would gain out of this. There were dozens of them, even class levels weren’t out of the question.