Chapter 653 (Patreon)

Ajax felt like his body had just gotten tenderized, every muscle was in pain and his bones ached. His arms and legs felt like lead and the less said about his Mana channels the better. Most worrying however were the faces of the two healers that were examining him after giving him a potion and applying a cool salve that dulled the pain.

Despite the condition he was in, Ajax was happy with the results of today's battle. He had personally killed two champions, took the arm off a third and together with Aurexion captured a fourth. This out of a total of seven champions that had taken the field against them. Even if all Aranor was able to do was to get them to back away they would have come out massively ahead.

With three champions permanently removed just on this battlefield the enemy would need to change their entire deployments to make up for the lack of champions. Even though both mages were on the low end for what could be considered a champion and the beastkin had significantly more such champions than was normal, losing so many in a single engagement was devastating.

Once the healers did all they could for him, which wasn’t very much seeing as even his own Life Mana couldn’t do anything more, Ajax pushed himself to stand up. His body was protesting every movement but Ajax wanted to get a good feel for how far he had pushed himself during those ten seconds, more importantly than that however Ajax also wanted to check something. 

Ajax remembered the moment he gained his Pseudo-Mythic Skill despite not having looked at his Status page. The moment everything clicked just right and his body went into overdrive. He felt like all five of the Legendary Skills he was using were simply locked away, that he didn’t have access to them. This included [Last Stand] and Ajax was pretty sure the Skill hadn’t triggered the backlash despite having been forcefully turned off. Ignoring all the notifications and putting them off for later.

Looking at his Skill list for the first time since unlocking the Skill Ajax saw it, after the Legendary Skills a new tier had appeared with only one Skill. [Absolute Body Enhancement Lvl 24(Mana Syphon, Life Aspect Mana, Vibration Aspect Mana, Last Stand, Physically Enhanced Battlemage Style)]. 

[Absolute Body Enhancement] was already level twenty four, just like he had been told the Pseudo-Mythic Skill wasn’t one he could level but rather its level could only be increased by working on the Skill used for its creation. Despite that limitation it was clear that this Skill was more than just the sum of its parts. 

Looking back on the fight Ajax was sure that he had been overlooking quite a lot of information he was naturally picking up thanks to the Vibration Mana that had been infused into his body. Simple contact with the ground allowed him to sense a number of vibrations that with training he could learn to interpret and that was just the tip of the iceberg. 

The power increase when it came to his other Skills were obvious though none more so that [Mana Syphon] and [Last Stand]. Despite the beastkin physical champion being on the weaker end of the power scale Ajax had still managed to not only blitz past him but the only reason the champion was still alive following their clash was because Ajax had instinctively targeted his arm instead of trying to decapitate him. As much as his body was in pain following the use of such a boost it had put him head and shoulders above a physically focused champion and that was a big deal. 

“How did it feel?” Aurexion asked after Ajax took a few steps, the dragon’s menacing gaze silenced the healers when they tried to approach Ajax and get him to lie down.

“Everything hurts.” Ajax admitted. 

“Not now!” Aurexion snorted. “I can feel some of that pain as it bleeds through our bond, how did it feel when you were using it.” 

Ajax was just about to answer before he realized that they were still in front of the healing tent and that all the healers were listening in on their conversation even if most of them were doing their best to make it seem like they weren’t. 

“Best we go somewhere private.” Ajax answered and Aurexion wasted no time carefully scooping up his bond and moving with him in the direction of the trap where their newest prisoner was being restrained. 

“Go on then.” Aurexion said once they put some distance between them and everyone else while still being able to keep a lookout over the people restraining the enemy champion they had brought with them. Though by this point they were more trying to keep him from bleeding out rather than restraining him.

“It didn’t feel real.” Ajax started to explain once he had a privacy barrier up. “It felt like I wasn’t in control of my own body yet at the same time I decided what the body was doing. When I wanted to attack my body instantly responded, it moved on its own and it did so much better than I ever could have.”

“Your Skills are very synergistic.” Aurexion nodded. “Not the most synergistic I’ve seen but it's close and that means you give up very little.” 

“It's too much for my body to handle.” Ajax was sure that even if his Mana channels could learn to handle the out of Mana required to maintain his newest Skill he simply didn’t have the Mana and Stamina to maintain it, let alone the fact that he had almost torn his body apart despite [Last Stand] and Life Mana being part of the Skill. 

“It’s something you will need to learn how to manage better.” Aurexion agreed. “It’s nice knowing you have the option of pushing the boost that high but now that you have the Skill you have to learn how to use it at a lower setting much like how you did with [Telekinesis].” 

Ajax wasn’t sure how feasible that would be. The only reason he had been able to even begin making progress with using [Telekinesis] was by using the Skill on himself and using the innate resistance one had against hurting themselves. That was not something a Pseudo-Mythic Skill had, if he wasn’t careful he might very well push the Skill to the point it killed him before it ever let up.

“We will need to make arrangements for a quick response after something like this.” Ajax said as he took a moment to think about something else besides his newest Skill and realized that he just painted a very big target on himself with his latest display. “After something like this they might be willing to risk angering even dragons since letting me continue to grow wouldn’t be all that different in the long term.” 

“You need to rest.” Aurexion shut down the discussion and coiled his tail around Ajax protectively. “I know you have a mattress and some blankets in your spacial ring, take them out and get some rest, you can deal with all the rest of it later when the rest of the army returns.” 

As much as Ajax wanted to argue, he was sure Aurexion would stop anyone from disturbing him until he woke up on his own, the dragon did have a point. Ajax could already feel his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as the salve dulled his pain to a quiet background noise and the adrenaline of battle was almost completely worn off. 

“Fine, I’ll get some rest if you can report what happened to the prince.” Ajax said as he passed the communication device to the dragon. “Something this big will change all the plans that have been made so far throughout the war and I doubt the Republic’s biggest concern will be my safety.” 

“What are you planning?” Aurexion could feel that Ajax was already forming a response. 

“I plan to spend quite a bit of time in a dungeon learning how to better use my new Skill without the danger of three champions attacking me.” Ajax said. “As long as they don’t know where I am, my disappearance alone should force the enemy to stop for a small while as they search for me. After all, they can’t afford me killing more of their champions like I just did.” 

Aurexion was ecstatic at the idea of entering a dungeon now. The time delation and the much higher Mana density would make for an ideal environment for Ajax to get a better handle on his Skill. 

While Ajax was out like a light the moment he laid his head down Aurexion didn’t have to wait for more than a moment after activating the device before it connected with its pair. 

“Ajax?” The prince’s voice came through, a note of concern since the prince knew about the battle that was supposed to be taking place right now. 

“My bond is recovering in the aftermath of the battle.” Aurexion said. “He did insist I contact you before taking his rest.” 

“The battle is already over?” The prince was shocked. “And you said he is recovering, but he insisted you contact me right now? Oh great, just what has he managed to do this time?” 

Aurexion made no attempt to keep the amusement from his voice as he gave a general overview of what Ajax had managed to do as well as his idea for their next move.