(I) Veilpiercer

-64 (I)

Veilpiercer

Adam jumped with Uva in tow, using his arrow as a teleportation anchor. He wouldn’t even call himself a partial Jump Mage, but if he infused a spell into his arrows and focused on that, he could serve at least in a limited capacity.

Unfortunately, the dragons pursuing him were Jump Mages, and they caught on before Uva or Adam arrived at their destination.

Getting intercepted by enemy Jump Mages mid-transit was an ugly experience. Adam suffered it a few times in the academy in several of his courses. It was like having a larger pressure bubble crash into yours, and then, depending on who the stronger Jump Mage was, a bubble would burst, and the losing party would end up within the winner’s teleportation route.

That was how he and Uva found themselves facing a single dragon in close-quarters combat. Their spatial tunnel collapsed as they were wrenched out of their teleportation pathway and into the route charted by one of the dragons.

“Not good!” Adam cursed as he flared his burning wings. “Not good at all!”

“Adam!” Uva cried, holding on to him hard. “Buy me some time! I’ll try to break its mi—”

They plunged through the dragon’s spatial tunnel, and Adam cried out as a massive, flaming blade crashed into him. His unbreakable armor kept him alive, but the blow still cracked several of his ribs. It also launched him into Uva, driving the air from her lungs. Thankfully, with all the additional adaptive adamantine plates Shiv had applied to her already impressive armor, she remained unharmed.

The Dragon-Knight lashed out with another sweeping blow. A blow that barely missed as Adam created a clone that promptly shot a mind-arrow into the dragon’s face. A surge of fire swelled over the dragon, and the heat within the spatial tunnel became nigh unbearable. Adam responded by dousing himself and Uva in water before creating a dozen more hydro-limbs and unleashing a constant barrage of shots at the dragon. The water magic bolts peppered and broke against the fire dragon’s body and splashed apart around its eyes. The shape of a Pyromancy spell formed in the beast’s right hand—only for the spell to break as Uva harpooned the dragon’s mind with a psionic chain.

Uva hid behind Adam, her form only slightly smaller than his. The dragon was a beast of considerable size, which made it hard to avoid in the narrow space of the distorted tunnel, but worse than that was the growing heat. The dragon’s Pyromancy was further amplified by the great blade it wielded. It brought the weapon down against Adam faster than he could react, and he cried out as the blow rattled his entire body. Several of his bones fractured; his armor was Legendary and unbreakable, but he was far from invulnerable. At that moment, he envied Shiv more than ever.

The Umbral was launched off his body, but she twisted her spell, and the dragon howled. The flames briefly died as Adam recovered.

He focused his water arrows on the beast’s eyes, trying to distract it. He plucked Spellstring, launching wave after wave of mind arrows, each crashing into its skull. The dragon shuddered and unleashed a wild blast of fire from its wings—but Adam countered by firing as many water arrows as he could. His own Hydromancy was no match for the beast’s fire, but Adam compensated with quantity and the magic infused within the Heroic Spellstring. His constant stream of attacks made the oncoming wave of fire mana curve inward, sparing his and Uva’s lives just long enough for them to reach their final destination.

Deadeye > 93

Bowslinger > 90

Wings of the Starhawk > 94

Repulsion Shroud > 54

Portomancy > 39

The spatial bubble burst. They materialized in a ruined wasteland. Adam and Uva crashed against the earth, the ground fracturing beneath them. They struck and rolled across glass instead of soil or mud or water. A few hundred meters away, the dragon shook off Uva’s mind magic and ascended with trails of fire streaking from six flaming wings; it no longer wanted anything to do with close-quarters engagement. Instead, it rose into the air and held its blade high.

A channel of flame exploded from the dragon’s broadsword, and the weapon turned into a colossal conflagration. The heat grew unbearable even from this far away, and just then, the other dragon Jump Mage emerged as well. This one bore twin axes, and it had fluid fins that also doubled as wings. The water dragon glided before the fire dragon, and they began to circle each other, their power magnifying. Their cycling bodies formed a strange symbol of harmony and cooperation.

“I am Sir Galrah,” the burning dragon declared.

“I am Sir Merriman,” the water dragon said. The rıghtful source is novel_fіre.net

“I am Pyromancer, first and foremost,” the fire dragon proclaimed.

“I am Axedancer, first and foremost,” the water dragon added.

“Master-Tier,” they said in unison.

Adam and Uva blinked and stared at each other in a moment of surreal disbelief. “I didn’t realize we were going to get a show before we died,” Uva muttered.

Adam gawked. “Did they just do a felling for us?”

But just then, before either dragon could finish the two off, a third materialized—dropping high from the sky, its body shrouded in darkness. The two dragons stared in shock.

Adam just sighed. “Why bloody not? Another one. Sorry, Uva.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, strangely calm. “But I think we can kill at least one.”

Adam laughed. “What a Shiv thing to say. Well. Let’s try to slay all three, then.”

“Is that Galron?” the water dragon exclaimed, her voice rising with joy. “We thought he was dead!”

“The Weaveress—you said she slit his throat!” the fire dragon cried.

“I did,” the water dragon agreed. “But it must not have been fatal. Sir Galron! Come let us—”

But Adam noticed something bizarre. Sir Galron was still accelerating, going faster and faster. And he was . He cried out, wailing with a voice beyond pain, beyond misery. “Run! Run, my sister! Run, my brother! Save yourself! Save—”

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Before he could finish, he slammed into the other dragons. Adam, using his Seer of Horizons, realized what he was dealing with: the energies crackling around Sir Galron were not normal magical energies. They were corrosive. Viridescent.

“Shit!” He flung himself over Uva before he could explain anything. She cried out as he bowled her down to the ground and hunched into a ball to shield her with his armor.

A thunderous blast followed, the new arrival driving all three dragons into the ground like a meteor and casting a wave of corrosive mana so intense that both the fire dragon and the water dragon cried out in absolute misery. Soil was thrown up for hundreds of meters, but Adam peered through the dust, and he saw the two enemies collapse. They remained alive, though burned and withered. Adam’s armor endured the hit and the following shrapnel without difficulty, and he wondered, for perhaps the thousandth time in his life, where his father had found such a fine piece—through what gate, and how he succeeded.

He pushed those thoughts aside and fired arrows at the downed dragons from three arms. They attempted to respond, but as they tried to get up, their flesh off their bones as their bodies suffered rapid and corrosive decay. They were slower, weaker, more fragile. The fight went from a desperate battle for Adam and Uva to an execution of two crippled Dragon-Knights.

Adam struck both of their minds with Psychomancy arrows, but it was Uva who finished the job. She unleashed a cone of mind magic—a roiling wave of howling trauma infused with pain and misery. It crashed over them, and both dragons howled as they dropped their weapons. One clawed out its eyes; the other bit off its tongue. They collapsed in the dirt, twitching and howling as Uva poured more of her psionic might into them—until she cried out herself, collapsing to her knees and clutching her skull.

In the aftermath, the dragons made hoarse, wailing noises that made Adam shudder. But they were broken. And he and Uva were still alive. Somehow.

“Uva?” Adam said, gripping her shoulder.

“Just strain,” she managed. “Just strain.” She tried to get up, but momentarily blacked out as Adam caught her.

“That's a lot more than just strain, Uva.”

“Just strain,” she repeated, making it back to her feet with a hiss of effort. “How did we—”

“I had it work better than I expected,” Valor mused, slowly descending from above. A streak of fire trailed out from his eyes, and there was an uneasy shiver to his flight pattern.

“Valor!” Adam cried, letting out a relieved laugh as he sagged and clutched his ribs. “I’m glad to see you.” Valor nodded towards them, then let out a yelp as the Young Lord hugged the skull.

“Yes, Adam, but please focus,” Valor urged. “I might have only bought us some time. There are other dragons, and I do not think I can muster that spell again…” Valor bit back a groan. “My Necromancy is spent.” Something about the Legendary Pathbearer seemed oddly vulnerable just then. “I can’t remember the last time I felt this impotent—spent after a single effigy. I am barely myself.”

“That’s fine.” Adam laughed. “Even if you’re just a fraction of who you were, you still saved our bloody lives.”

A loud moan came from the fire dragon. It twitched, and Adam flinched backwards, pulling his Spellstring taut. When it did nothing more than moan and weep, Adam shuddered.

“Uva, what did you do to this thing?” he whispered.

“I found its most painful memory,” Uva said, chest heaving. “And then I replaced all its other memories with it.”

Adam’s jaw dropped. “I—Sister, you—Is that what all Psychomancers do?” he managed.

“Some,” Uva replied, out of breath. “But I find it to be a reliable strategy—especially if you can focus, especially if you can get past their defenses. Now, quick, we need to get back to Shiv.”

Adam blinked. “Right. Shiv… Shit, I hope he’s still bloody alive.”

A series of massive explosions echoed over the horizon.

“He is,” Uva said. “But he won’t last forever. We must move. I hope he managed to—we need to kill their Psychomancer. You need to find… find the rapier. And I need to—I need to—”

“You need to rest,” Adam said. “There’s blood coming out from your—”

“No,” Uva cried, defiance in her bleeding eyes. “No rest. We’re going back. I need to get to the Jealousy. And I need to… I need to…”

Just then, a shape stepped out from seemingly nowhere. Several shapes followed thereafter. Adam nearly shot them, then lowered his bow with an exhausted breath.

“Give me a warning next time!” he snapped.

“If we gave you a warning,” Liquid Serpent replied as she and Spark Ripper—the automaton in the shape of a male Umbral—stepped into view, “we wouldn’t be Trapdoor, would we?” The Weaveress was missing two arms, but she constantly twirled her revolving crossbows with the remaining ones regardless. Still Water appeared a few meters away, and one of her arms was covered in dragon blood. Twenty other Weaveresses emerged thereafter—more than Adam had expected.

“Our retreat,” Still Water declared, “resulted in quite a lot of injuries. We managed to keep the deaths to a minimum, though. The dragons learned to use their mobility against us. Burned most of the forest. We had to reposition.” She gave a grunt of disgust. “Not my kind of operation anymore. I think I’ll stick to sneaking.”

“What are you talking about, Still Water?” Liquid Serpent demanded. “You slit a Dragon-Knight’s throat.”

“Yeah. But how many others died for me to get there?”

“Good, you’re still…” Uva said, staggered over to Adam. “We need to get back. Adam, here’s the plan: Psychomancer dragon—if it’s not dead, you help kill it. But you get me back to the Jealousy first. Then, you get the rapier, and I will break the rest using the Greater Demon.”

Adam hesitated. “Uva, you’re not Shiv—if you break yourself—”

“I will not break,” she interrupted. “I will not. Not until the job is done.”

Adam placed a hand on her shoulder and sighed as he created a new spatial arrow. “Fine. Be stubborn. Just don’t be a fool.”

Uva nodded. “And get what we came here for. The Great Valor Thann needs his arm back.”

Shiv smashed into the Biomancer with his elbow, snapping the dragon’s head back. Its oppressive banner still made it hard for him to focus to cast spells—or focus at all—so he concentrated on taking that from them first. He ripped the piece of equipment out of their hand. Yet, despite forcing the dragon’s grip open, he encountered another problem: the damned item was bound to the dragon in the same way Shiv’s Magebreaker was bound to him. He needed to kill them if he wanted to take it.

So Shiv switched to another idea. He the banner. With a flex of effort and a shout, he snapped the entire thing in half. A blast of mana detonated from it, and a rush of Psychomancy washed over both him and the Biomancer. The dragon staggered briefly, but it recovered quicker than Shiv—and swatted him out of the air with its tower shield. Shiv bounced off the ground and barely dodged out of the way of a descending shield slam.

Dodge > 11

But the dragon’s following Biomancy spell nearly made him black out from the pain: his field frayed apart as he barely prevented the dragon from stopping his heart.

“Who are you?” the Dragon-Knight Biomancer cried. “What are you?” The dragon let out a series of incoherent threats, and in the middle of the melee, Sir Tarlow materialized out of nowhere and slashed Shiv across the chest. His armor screamed as a small gap opened along its side. Shiv went sliding across the ground, stopping himself with a few more bursts of his gravitic field. He rose with a groan, rubbing his chest in relief that he’d put on a new set of armor. But as he came to a stop, he heard sobbing. Slowly, Shiv turned, and the massive, axe-wielding dragon clutched the remains of the Psychomancer dragon close to its chest.

Shiv froze.

Slowly, the axe-wielding dragon turned. It saw him—his blood-drenched form—and its eyes widened. Its rage literally boiled over its body. It ignited, but it wasn’t flames that consumed the dragon’s form; something more—an aura of pure fury.

Where the axe-wielder was purely a beast of Physicality before, Shiv now failed to track its movements at all. Its massive form slammed into him faster than he could track, its axe cracking and smashing into his body over and over again. The Deathless drained momentum; time slowed slightly, and he began to perceive the coming blows—only for Sir Tarlow to hit him in the back, launching him into the air, where the axe-bearer grabbed him with its massive fist and smashed him down against the ground, opening up a small crater.

Shiv growled and tried to break free, but the Dynamancer struck him across the head. The axe-wielding dragon swiped its blade upward, catching him under the armpit, and Shiv shouted in pain as his left shoulder dislocated and almost tore off. Then another few hundred Psychomancy arrows crashed down, briefly stunning the dragons. Shiv barely reacted in time; he parried with the Magebreaker, driving the attack into the axe-bearer’s face—but it did nothing. There was no mind left to break. Nothing but rage remained.

Shiv sighed. “Shit.”

The axe-dragon picked him up and smashed him against the earth again, then started driving its head into his body—headbutting him over and over. Shiv snarled and headbutted it back. The dragon staggered but didn’t stop. Sir Tarlow tried to help by teleporting, but the axe-bearer swatted her aside as well.

Shiv managed to squeeze out of its grasp, striking it twice and sweeping its legs out from under it with his field. It crashed down on all fours, and Shiv lifted the dragon up into the air, burning rage to feed his gravitic field, and power-bombed the dragon a good hundred meters deeper into the soil. The world vanished into spraying dirt and rolling shockwaves.

Gravitic Wrestler > 116

He popped his shoulder back in and dropped another elbow on the dragon’s face—but he felt his blow bounce off. Shiv cursed. His arm actually He ignored it, tried to hit the dragon again, but was promptly seized by a grip of . That’s when Shiv realized he was dealing with someone that had the same Toughness Skill Evolution as he did.

“Sh—”

The axe-bearer punched him.

This time, he went shooting across the landscape. Stars spun in Shiv’s vision. Most of his bones were fractured. Then, Sir Tarlow, being the bastard that she was, slashed her blade across the opening she had left earlier. Shiv howled as a beam of heat split his chest open, and she caught him with her tail before she slammed him into the ground over and over and triggered her Momentum Core. She shot back—back toward the axe-bearer, whose rage was burning even hotter, spreading along his colossal great axe. Tarlow flicked Shiv out of her tail at the axe-bearer, and the massive adamantine dragon hit the Deathless so hard that the resulting shockwave tore across the landscape and turned everything in a good three-kilometer radius to dust and rubble.

Incredible pain tore through Shiv’s skull. It was like the entire world just smashed down into and his skull.

Adamantine Adaption > 119

Then. Darkness.

Peace. Serenity.

And once more, Shiv found himself in his strange dream…