Last Words chapter 71 (Patreon)

The skull came crashing down on me like a meteor heading to wipe out the dinosaurs. Of course, my Shield of Faith flared brighter in response, burning it away as it approached, but I could tell from the consumption that the more power it poured down on me the more of my mana was being burned. Shield of Faith was supposed to last three minutes, but I could FEEL it burning overtime. I wasn’t going to get more than two.

Grimacing, I looked down at the shard in my hand. It boiled off the light on my palm even as I held it, the wisps of purple smoke joining the power of the skull as it tried to consume me. 

So I did literally the only thing I could think of. I stabbed it.

My knife was made of electrum, a magical metal native to this world (electrum back on earth was an alloy of gold and silver, but here it was black, potentially because of its alteration by mana). Oddly, when I gripped it in my offhand (my gun was in my belt) the holy mana of the shield began to pour into the knife. It wasn’t a lot (though it was enough to increase the drain), but the black blade lit up bright white, tearing a gash in the chomping skull.

The construct screamed, backing off, and the drain on my shield slowed noticeably. Of course, I still only had a minute or two, and I couldn’t afford to sit back and wait, so I followed up, knife lashing out as I carved into the skull, sticking to it like glue as I did as much damage as possible.

I really wished I’d bothered to learn more about actually USING a knife, but to be fair, the basics were easy enough, swing the sharp side at the other guy. It was working for me, mostly. Every time the holy knife made contact with the cloud some of it would burn away. That was the good news. 

The BAD news was that each time I did that, the remaining cloud seemed to get darker and denser, as if it was sublimating, and after a few more cuts, it broke some sort of threshold and began to form up into a physical shape. A condensed body that slowly shaped itself into…me.

“Ah damn it,” I groaned as I stared at the simulacrum of me, armored and holding a dark, light eating knife. “That can’t possibly be a good thing.”

And I was right. It wasn’t. He came in fast with a vicious punch to my jaw. I yelped and moved back, managing to avoid most of the blow, except he followed through and his should slammed into my chest, knocking me off my feet. The wind went out of me as I hit the ground, and I rolled on reflex, dodging the knife as it slammed into the cracked stone of the courtyard.

He couldn’t hit me. Not really. Or at least not directly. His attack earlier showed me the shield would transmit force, but the knife PROBABLY wouldn’t cut. It would almost definitely, however, burn my shield even faster, and I was already running on fumes. All my energy was going to purifying the damned shard, which was made even more difficult because the cursed thing was taking up one of my HANDS and he didn’t have one, which meant I was literally fighting him with one hand.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to wait a minute while I finish this?” I croaked as I scrambled to my feet. “Almost done here, then I’ll be out of your hair.”

The other me snarled worldlessly, rushing forward, knife flashing. I cursed, bringing my own knife up to my mouth, pulling off my mask and gripping it in my teeth as I pulled my gun free and unloaded it at point blank range into the bastard’s head and chest.

He jerked, stumbling back with each shot, not damaged so much as inconvenienced, but still at least held at bay. I slid the gun back into my belt, happy I’d chosen to wear it OVER my armor, and spat my knife into my hand as I threw myself on top of the twitching form. His armor, unlike mine, wasn’t made of bullshit depleted super metal. It was made of the same darkness as the rest of him.

And it was cracked open from multiple shots to the chest, meaning there was an opening for me to drive my dagger into. A lot. So I did. One, two, three, four. I was still going when I felt the shield begin to wane. The light flickered, the warmth receded, and all at once, the dark SURGED.

I scrambled off him still clutching the shard, but it was starting to burn my palm. Not the burning of righteous fire, but the blaze of unbearable cold. Small flickers of light clung to my armor, keeping it at bay JUST long enough for me to do something. I didn’t hesitate, I reached for my pattern, selling it and then immediately buying a full one. It cost me one hundred twenty thousand, but I immediately felt fire erupt from inside me, driving back the cold as the power blazed up from within to banish the dark.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough money for another one of those last minute saves. After this one ended, I was screwed. I needed to figure out how to put this thing down.

I glanced at the shard, hoping I could sell it, but apparently the fact that it wasn’t mine meant it didn’t work. I needed to expunge the darkness inside before I could do that. Which was happening, but slowly, and I wasn’t sure I’d be done in time.

My knife came up in defensive guard, or the best impression of one I could do, anyway, as I considered what I could do here. I needed help. Something. I wracked my brain. Memories scrolled across my mind, spells, artifacts, I hadn’t come into contact with much. I remembered the teleportation draft from the alchemist shop, but it was a hundred thousand, so I didn’t have enough.

I DID have enough for some of the other ones, though. Stoneskin potion, trollstrength, windspeed. I snagged one of each, hoping I wasn’t going to blow myself up or something as I switched my knife to the hand with the stone and downed them one by one.

As the potions hit my stomach I felt…energized. Power poured through me, mixing together and infusing my body. Stronger. Faster. More durable. I roared with excitement as I rushed forward, grabbing my knife and unleashing it in a blurring storm of burning white steel at the simulacrum. It tore him apart, one slash at a time, and I realized, in my speed enhanced state, that the more I hurt him the more smoke was sucked out of the gem. I was draining the corruption.

The creature seemed to realize it at the same time as I did, roaring and turning to run. I don’t know if he could have escaped, or what that would have even done, but I didn’t feel obliged to take the risk. I snarled and bolted after him, body boosted by windspeed and trollstrength. He got about ten feet before I caught him, tackled him to the ground, and then considered my options.

My knife was doing damage, but not that fast, it was more surface area than anything. The shard was also part of it, and the power was squeezing out with the damage I was doing, so…

I hauled back, wrapping my fist around the shard, and punched the simulacrum with that hand. A burst of light flared up, and this time, instead of replenishing the construct, power boiled off entirely. I grinned, then started punching. Hard. And fast. My fist rained down on the thing’s head and body, flashes of light erupting as I bashed the dark energy out of the shard the hard way.

Finally, it screamed, an unearthly wail of fear and defiance, and then burned up entirely. Even as it happened, the last of my power drained away, not just the shield, but the potions too, and I toppled over with a groan, twitching on the ground as the aftermath of so many mixed energies hit me like a mac truck. Whimpering in pain, I pulled myself up, then sort for half dragged half crawled my body to the wall so I could lean against it.

I looked down at my hand, staring at the shimmering white jewel. I immediately attempted to sell it.

Sell: 1 Fragment of Soul Container- cleansed. Price-20,000 Delyrans= 1,000,000$ USD.

I didn’t even hesitate. I sold it immediately. Getting rid of this thing was the whole point of coming down here, and making a cool mil on top of that? Sign me up. I let my body go limp with relief after it was gone, my head flopping back against the wall. I groaned in satisfaction at the feeling of peace that washed over me. I was done. Completely finished down here. Now I just had to get ou-

“Over there!” A voice bellowed in english. “The smoke cleared. He’s in there!” I grit my teeth, groaning in frustration. Fucking Tennies. But it was fine. I’d made the sale, which meant that I had plenty of cash to play with. I could buy a car, or a huge gun, or…I paused, thinking back to my earlier remembrance. Teleportation potion.

Wincing at the hundred thousand dollar price tag, I decided to take a shot. Couldn’t spend any money if I was dead. If it wasn’t what I needed I’d sell it back. I bought the potion quickly, doing a quick analysis.

My analysis perk was damned useful, giving me a vague idea of what an object could do as long as I was able to scan it. I’d figured out from the armor that it wasn’t invincible, at least not at my current grade, but since I’d bought this myself I was pretty sure I could get some general idea of how it would work. And I did.

Grinning, I popped the cork on the bottle. Just as I was getting ready to drink it, I heard a shout, looking up to see a familiar face. Maggie the Librarian Speaker was stepping around the wall, a bone wand in her hand, scanning the area. When her eyes landed on me her lips peeled back in rage. “You!” She screamed, whipping the wand towards me.

Sadly for her, I’d already started drinking. Teleportation potion. Teleports you to a location you’ve been within the last day. Hundred mile distance limit. Her eyes widened as light spilled across my body, and the last thing I saw as the world was consumed by light was her incoherent scream of rage. Maybe I shouldn’t have winked at her.

I was still laughing as the light faded, and I found myself on my back in the room where the tunnel came out. Everyone who was still there whipped around to find me, guns up, and I had to take a minute to catch my breath.

Finally, I stood up and walked over to the radio. “This is Gus,” I said over our secure line. “Mission complete. We have hostiles in the area. Return to base.” I grinned at Connie as I released the button. “I’ve always wanted to say something like that.” With a groan I limped over to the nearest chair and plopped down to recover from my ordeal. This had been a very long night, but it was definitely worth it.

Everyone got back within the next twenty minutes or so, safe and sound, and we headed back up the tunnel. I had plenty to tell everyone, and then we needed to plan out our next moves. The shard was gone but the lich wasn’t. Not yet, and I had a feeling, after that fight with just a fragment of that bastard, that he wasn’t going to go as quietly as I’d hoped.