Chapter 564: Uphill Battle (2/2)

The cost didn’t increase with each use, leaving her with 55 Core skill points and 213 total stat points to spend.

She put 210 into Intelligence.

Intelligence: 1410

My highest stat now. And it’s multiplied a shit ton by my skills. Let’s see if it’s enough to make a dent.

Ilea felt her aura, trying to gauge a difference. She did feel more powerful but only marginally so. Her resistances and regeneration are a fixed number too though. Just have to crack that, she thought and used Phaseshift to charge up her auras.

Thanks for that constant rot mana supply, dear Queen.

She blinked down and flew past the monster with a smile on her face, grinning as she displaced herself away from the expanding aura before she used Monster Hunter to call her training partner back towards herself.

Ilea floated into the large courtyard, white flames moving on her armor.

The Queen hadn’t gotten far, already joining her again with her cyclone of magic in tow.

Ilea used the last few seconds of her Phaseshift boost to inflict as much damage as she could, her ashen limbs lashing out before she was pushed back again by blood and rot magic, her body ravaged by the overwhelming power.

She felt neither felt pain nor anything else the spells may have caused in a human being. Her body regenerated as she pushed forward again, closing the distance with intent. Heart of Cinder released in a cone from her left hand, stripping the monster of its flesh, digging a burning gash into the stone behind. Her right first slammed into the skeleton’s head, Absolute Destruction and Storm of Cinders releasing as her ash spread out and set the Queen alight with white fire.

A pulse of blood magic sent her tumbling back, sharp bone spikes splintering as her body slowed down in the field of death. Her wings were shredded as she displaced herself out of the bones slowly digging into her ashen armor. A use of blink got her close again, her attacks resuming before the creature could even reform her body.

Ilea used her ash to push destructive mana into her, quickly checking with her healing if her increased Intelligence had made any difference so far. She punched one more time before she was pushed back, her awareness blinded for a split second before she returned, tumbling in the bone field.

My brain? Or just my eyes and enough mana to muddle my sphere?

It didn’t matter. If the Queen had a way to pin her down and kill her, she would’ve used that moment. But she hadn’t.

And now I know that you’re vulnerable, Ilea thought with a wide smile, closing the distance before her limbs and ash attacked the dark sphere the Queen started to form. She tried everything to disrupt or stop the spell but found her efforts meaningless.

So far at least, Ilea thought, using her Space Awareness coupled with her sphere to try and understand what the spell was and how it connected to Ilea. Even just severing the connection would be helpful.

She inspected her own body too, mostly using her healing and Soul Perception. Neither revealed anything particularly useful. Not until she blinked up.

A tether… what’s that?

It wasn’t a connection through space but something much more physical. Ilea used her teleportation a few times and slowly zeroed in on what she was looking for. That’s so fucking subtle.

She smirked, opening her armor as four of her ashen limbs cut deep into her chest, ripping open her rip cage before her hand reached inside. Ilea ripped out her heart and stared at the beating organ, blood dripping over her hand and to the ground. A new one had formed already, the wound in her chest closing as she stared at the thing.

Can’t even see it.

Her sphere didn’t lie however and she was pretty sure this was it.

Ilea looked at the approaching blood magic spell and casually threw her heart at the floating manifestation.

It was ripped apart by dozens of red wisps, pieces of it splattering onto the center as it attracted everything around it.

She watched with joy as the spell broke into itself, flaring up one last moment before it exploded in bright crimson light.

Ilea didn’t waste any time, back to the Queen one moment later. She didn’t know if the target would always be her heart but now that she figured out more about the spell, she could deal with it much better.

The damage itself had already been manageable but if she couldn’t keep the pressure on the four mark up, it may as well be an impossible fight.

Ilea continued her assault, slowly working through each and every spell the Howling Queen could throw at her. She checked the damage she would take, the mana she absorbed, and the frequency the four mark could use them.

The Queen did switch things up from time to time but she didn’t show exceptional cunning or battle experience, not even as much as the Specters.

Because she was a queen and not a warrior, Ilea thought, wondering how the woman had gotten quite as powerful as she was now. Was this another case where magic took over somehow and made this place into a dungeon? Where it strengthened the creatures within?

But she was human once… did she die? Or did something take over at one point? Madness or corruption?

Ilea flew sideways, letting several blades cut into her before she activated Phaseshift. The Queen used her powerful blood and rot magic right before the spell activated.

Getting better at the timing, Ilea thought and healed the damage. The direct attacks provided a lot of mana but they also ripped out a lot of health. The time it took to retreat and focus on healing was problematic. So instead she healed during Phaseshift, using the time to empower her auras instead. The Queen still had no way of detecting her but would usually remain stationary for a few seconds whenever her enemy vanished.

Three, four, Ilea counted and deactivated her spell. She displaced herself close to the Queen and greeted her with a punch to her skull. Her white flames spread out and over the woman, every split second they remained on her was important.

Ilea smiled, the quick check showing a change in her health. Perhaps ninety five percent or ninety six. It was hard to tell. The important bit was that it wasn’t higher than that. Her continued assault was starting to have an impact.

Lull of Battle would be fucking useful at this point, Ilea thought, glad her more frequent Phaseshift uses prevented another Stamina exhaustion.

She ripped out her heart again when the next Seeking Wrath spell formed, the organ flopping against the incomplete sphere without an effect. It didn’t matter, Ilea just kept throwing hearts until the spell exploded in the Queen’s face.

“Hah, take that,” Ilea said, immediately pressing her aggression.

She fell into a trance, laughing as she circled the creature, sending out her spells in quick succession and perfectly timed with the counter aggression from the Queen.

The heart trick didn’t work another time, Ilea instead having to figure out what the Queen had chosen as a connection. In the end it hardly mattered, be it limbs, or even her head. In the latter case, she at least blinked up to prevent another spell from taking her down in the short time she needed to recover.

As Ilea’s skills grew in power, so did the Queen’s resistances. When she finally reached the end of her second tier Rot Resistance, the tides started to turn.

‘ding’ ‘Rot Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 19’

- Rot Resistance

You’ve basked in the power of an incredibly potent Rot aura. Most humans would die near instantly when exposed but you of course, have come to enjoy it. Perhaps it’s necessary for you to go to these lengths when other people can eat blue cheese for a similar experience.

The third tier was available and with the progression of the fight, Ilea thought it necessary to invest a point.

‘ding’ ‘Rot Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 1’

Rot Resistance – 3rd lvl 1

The bonus was more than welcome. It provided health on top of a higher percentage of resistance.

Ilea felt the change immediately, as if she had fought in a haze before. The damage she received lowered significantly, allowing her to ignore more of the direct attacks, stacking her offensive skills with a higher frequency.

The higher resistance meant more mana from Sentinel Core too. By now she was constantly fighting with the full benefits of Body of the Valkyrie, any defense against mana intrusion the fake skeleton had were long gone, Storm of Cinder making sure of that.

And yet it remained an uphill battle. Every slip of concentration led to heavy damage to her body and in turn a short period where she couldn’t attack. Seconds trickled by as Ilea turned the powerful four mark’s mana into her own offensive healing and fire.

Each of her skills worked in tandem, healing and defense keeping her alive, Sentinel core and meditation keeping her resources up, Flare of Creation working against the enemy regeneration and healing. Had her Classes been focused fully on offensive power, Ilea would’ve never been able to challenge this being. She would’ve been a smear on the castle floor the moment this creature set its glassy eyes on her.

But there was a reason Ilea had a third tier Veteran skill. This wasn’t the first time she had to fight for hours on end against a monster she could just about challenge. In a way it even felt familiar to her. She felt prepared, ready, enjoying each and every moment.

She was a long way off from the magical power beings like this one commanded, but hunting them? That she could do.