Chapter 832 - Lurker After Lurker (Patreon)

"Hey, you trash, how dare you put your nasty hands on me?" The sword suddenly stops chuckling and says.

The Dhampir doesn't seem to be affected at all and smiles gently. "As harsh as always when you don't try to trick people. Have you given up on that already?"

"A fucking traitor like you should just keep your mouth shut. Do you want me to use your brother's voice? Will you cry again when I do? So, how is your life, you bitch? Do you enjoy reviving after a few hundred years every time someone kills you? Have that many revives already left you demented? I can sense you have been greatly weakened." Calvorn chuckles, a wet tongue flicking as he changes his voice. This time, it reminds me of a nonchalant Wraith, that being Adrian now possesses within his half figure constantly floating behind him. "Are you even still a Champion, Alistair, or just a leech on this body? Just how low have you fallen?" The sword’s voice switches back to harsh. "You fucking..."

Calvorn doesn't get to finish as the blade shuts, closing the mouth, and the Dhampir turns around. "Take care of our guests," he says, and simply turns to leave.

Before I can blink, the lynthari uses that teleportation of his to get in front of me. Some sort of spatial skill presses against me to block my teleport, and the kinetic blast I throw at him disappears, teleported away, and hitting Morwag instead, who is thrown to the side.

Out of the darkness, a dozen more lurkers appear, teleported here by the lynthari.

I swap into my kinetic stance as I turn to face the lynthari, who, after seeing that, teleports away. At the same time, he continues to hold the core, using its mana to strengthen his skill as more and more lurkers begin to appear within this place, with them gradually becoming higher and higher levels.

Morwag and Weslin are already fighting them. I see Weslin’s void cancel out a lurker's flight to reach him quickly and use the palm of his hand to cut off its head. Morwag face tanks a huge velnar's kick, using his own horns to stab the lurker and, with a twist, throws him against the ground, where the demon's speed increases and he stomps the velnar's head.

"I will take care of the lynthari!" Savant shouts at me as he absorbs multiple attacks and, with a swing of his wing, follows the teleporting guy.

"Got it," I call back to him and watch Brich’s body twist and crack and snap back to life as he takes a deep breath. For a moment, he looks around in confusion, but quickly moves, avoids an attack, and begins to fight against multiple lurkers grouping up against him.

My [Empyrean Lance] stabs through a tanky looking velnar about to attack me, with all his defenses failing to put up a fight. The lance just tears through his field, the barrier he sets up on his skin, his natural barrier, and even through his body.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 382]

Another lurker lifts what feels like a mid arcane bow, latching a glowing mana projectile into it. I observe it, my eyes decipher the structure, and I pull on a string that destabilizes it, making it explode and throw the lurker away. Another of my projectiles follows, stabbing through his head.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 397]

A huge mace crashes against my body, but I absorb all of its kinetic energy, and it barely feels like a push. My body doesn't even move.

I move that kinetic energy, narrow it, and feed more into it. The air shakes as the lurker’s head explodes like a watermelon.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 275]

Another barrage of mana projectiles crashes against my back without me even bothering to put up a barrier against them. I don't even have to turn around as they turn to particles that the maelstrom of my Mana Crown absorbs.

In quick succession, I send multiple tricolored orbs through the lines I have woven in this place, and they explode one after another.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 249]

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 266]

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 210]

...

I use the structure of my [Weave] to teleport away, even as the lynthari lurker tries to suppress all spatial skills, even while fighting Savant. High in the air, I locate more powerful signatures.

Sensing danger, I push myself to the side, and a projectile I instantly recognize brushes past me, disrupting my mana as it does so. It stabs into the fleshy wall and continues to fly far away, carrying that golden and white core.

My attention quickly snaps to the lurker who shot the Empyrean bolt. I locate him, a mora, as tall as they come, wearing old, tattered robes and lifting a staff as tall as he is. The staff is almost akin to a small tree with branches and a glowing crystal floating between them.

Another Empyrean bolt shoots at me just as I teleport away and then toward the lurker.

He expects it. The place where I appear is suddenly surrounded by a field that feels like moving through molasses.

My own [Empyrean Lance] shoots ahead to deflect another Empyrean bolt. It misses me, just as my lance misses him. But the time is enough for me to comprehend the field. My [Eclipse] flashes, the hold on me disappears, and this time I move through Wraith Dance while keeping my domain close to my skin, disrupting all attempts to stop me.

When I notice the lurker shooting a few Empyrean bolts toward Morwag, I use my own lance to deflect them. Before I reach the lurker, a sword as long as I am tall manifests in my hands. My body creaks as I momentarily boost it with both kinetic energy and mana, swinging against the mora lurker.

The sword cuts through multiple barriers and fields. All of his disruptions fail as the blade pierces deep into his body.

In reaction, he carries the staff like a weapon and swings it at me. I let go of the sword and launch dozens of kinetic blasts at him, channeling them quickly one after another. He stops half of them, but the latter ones break his barriers, riddling his body with holes and making him stumble back. Another sword manifests in my hand, and I boost myself up to cut off his head.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 401]

Before he even falls, I grab the tall staff. Through my eyes, I observe its function. In a split second, my mana circles through it to see how it operates before I lift it and slam the bottom against the ground. A huge portion of my mana flows in, and from the staff, that field akin to moving through molasses spreads out. It is not unlike a kinetic hold, but it is mana based and much more effective, requiring less effort even if it doesn't halt movements fully. The advantage is that it slows both mana and kinetic based attacks.

I twist around, activating another function. My mana flows toward the top, into the crystal between the branches, where it bounces inside, strengthening with each bounce and narrowing. Like a laser, a beam of cutting mana shoots out. I spin it around, tracking and cutting through a dozen lurkers.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 346]

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 278]

...

[Lvl 423 > Lvl 424]

The power contained in the crystal dies off, requiring another dose of mana, but instead, I lift it quickly to defend against an attack from a blue glowing axe that stabs into the staff. It is held by a vyssari woman, a lurker who turns into red and white lightning, zigzagging around me to attack from my back.

I let go of the huge, cumbersome staff and switch to kinetic movement as I jump over another swing of her axe. I boost myself to fly to the side to avoid a primordial lightning projectile and then back into the same space. With my palm covered in oscillating mana, I swing at her, but she simply turns into lightning and avoids it again swiftly.

I track her movement, and where she appears, a blast of kinetic energy reverberates through the air, but she avoids it as well.

She is about to charge me again when Weslin’s void disrupts her primordial energy, and the half demon lands near her with a slam. As she swings her axe at him, he disrupts whatever energy surrounds it and grabs the blade of the axe with his hand before his kick caves in her chest and throws her against the wall.

A dozen of my projectiles pierce through a human lurker about to attack him, and I teleport away just as an explosion lands where I stood.

More and more lurkers continue to be teleported by the lynthari lurker that Savant still hunts, with me not even seeing any of them as I just gather more mana and charge away from the vicinity to avoid more projectiles. My domain expands as I choke off another explosion about to drown the battlefield, and I track the source of it. Two weird domains press against mine, trying to destroy my [Weave], but I just feed it more mana to strengthen the ley lines it is made of and weave it tighter into this space.

Another of my lances shoots at the lurker, preparing a wide range bombardment, before I duck to the side as Savant flies past me, his wing flickering to stop his momentum. Right after, with the air shaking, kinetic energy vibrates the space in a familiar movement.

I feel sick as I lift my eyes to see the lynthari lurker standing there in the distance. And next to him, a tall male demon with long white hair and short black horns. Even dead and left as a lurker, his face is handsome, with his eyes retaining some of that demon’s red.

In a fast, twitchy movement, the demon lurker avoids Morwag’s attack and, in a burst of speed, hits my guildmate multiple times, dancing away as Morwag attacks back. I watch as all the kinetic energy he absorbed slams into the ground, exploding a crater into this space made of flesh of enormous organs, which then all freeze in the air. Droplets of blood, pieces of flesh, and even some nearby lurkers are suspended as if frozen in time.

He is about to attack Morwag again when Savant charges at him, swinging his sword, only for the lurker to tilt to the side and avoid the sword.

Savant’s movements are much faster and much more powerful. The lurker cannot even hope to absorb it all. Yet, in melee range, something like raw power won’t work against him. Even if he is a hundred or so levels lower.

The demon lurker uses dozens of bursts of kinetic energy, each feeding on another as they bounce within his body. Some move him, some are feints against Savant’s kinetic senses, and some are meant to deal with the sheer momentum he generates.

Once again, he avoids Savant’s attacks in twitchy, unpredictable movements, and when Morwag moves to attack him, a Needle Point, this one truly as narrow as a needle, pierces through the muscular demon's body in multiple places. These attacks are incredibly small, yet all directed at the ligaments, causing Morwag to slow down and falter until he almost falls to his knees.

Even then, Morwag does not use his primordial binding, and the demon lurker slams a fist against his face before avoiding Savant and jumping away as Savant uses his domain.

"Morwag, with me!" I shout as I slide deeper into [Focus] to get my eyes off the lurker.

Meanwhile, another lurker that I recognize as the one nicknamed Specter reappears from behind my back, about to stab a dagger through me, but I already knew about him. Before he even materializes fully, a spike made of mana stabs through the entirety of his body, causing him to die and drop the dagger.

A notification dings, and I stand there with clenched teeth as Morwag, annoyed, turns toward me. Seeing my expression, his eyes narrow further, and he leaves the fight, letting Savant, Weslin, and Brich deal with the lurkers here.

When he lands near me, we rush toward where the Dhampir went with Calvorn, with Morwag still holding the glass container with the rot.