READ WEBNOVEL Ch. 55: Time Remaining
Cass raced back toward the Pellen and the central circle. Only to run into a horde of gophers in between.
Aventis Gopher (lvl 17) x3
Aventis Gopher (lvl 18) x2
Cass’s staff swept through them, dismembering the arms of the nearest two. Cass looked for the cores again, certain now that was the answer to killing these things, as she backstepped out of the slash of the third.
Their cores were uniformly in the center of their chests. Metal rib bones and their spindly blade arms acted as defense, but Cass was faster than them. She threaded their attacks, dancing with Dodge to drive her glaive through their cores.
One. Two. Three.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
Each one was easier than the last. If she stopped to check her stats, she was sure her skills were rising to match, but there wasn’t time now.
Four. Five.
Dead. Dead.
She ran through them as their metal bits fell to the floor. A moment later, Pellen was in sight. She had a snake at arm’s length. A shield appeared in time to block another lightning bolt from the black as the little mage ducked right out of the strike of the snake’s jaws.
Cass’s staff announced her return, slicing the bottom jaw off the snake’s face as she slid through the circle. It made a sputtering hiss, lightning sparking off its body.
Silversoul Snake (lvl 15)
Cass’s Wind Blade went through its head before the lighting could form its signature electric snake.
“You doing okay?” Cass asked.
Pellen nodded another Chant already in progress on her lips. It formed another force shield as a lightning bolt rocketed into them. “I am still alive. Please kill that thing.”
Cass nodded and Sprinted back out into the dark. She ran into another horde of gophers, taking them out before they could raise their blades now that she knew where their weak point was.
The crocodile was waiting for her on the far wall. It had three gems, two already shining brightly, the third at about half brightness.
Before Cass could attack, a snake slithered around her ankle, sending a jolt of electricity up her spine.
Cass screamed, not quite paralyzed but also not quite in control of her muscles.
The crocodile’s mouth opened as the last gem glistened to full brightness. The snake wrapped tighter around her ankle.
She swung her staff, throwing the Wind Blade for the croc’s gullet. She willed it narrower, sharper, faster.
Electricity bristled the air. Sharp and metallic and buzzing. It threatened to burs, just waiting for the croc to release it in a deadly bolt.
Her Wind Blade sank deep into the croc’s head, breaking the core. It dissolved before her. The electricity buzzed. Disappointed. Grudgingly fading.
But what if it didn’t?
Cass grabbed after it with Elemental Manipulation, pulling it from the air. It danced along her arms. It wanted to run. She wanted to run.
She just had to let it.
Across the room, she saw another mana core with her Mana Sense. She pointed at it with her staff and let the electricity run. It burst from her staff, flying across the room in an arc of blue and white. It disappeared from her sight almost immediately, but she could feel the impact as it collided with the mana source on the far wall. She could see the core fade to nothing and the thrill of the experience rush into her.
The snake was still wrapped around her leg. It was climbing up, trying to seize her body in its grip. But with the electricity in the air funneled across the room, it was just a snake. Cass summoned fire to her hand and pressed it into the creature’s skull. It hissed a scream of pain and fell from her, writhing.
She followed it with her staff, separating its head from its tail.
It fell still, becoming nothing but a pile of twisted metal.
Cass looked around. The dark was all-encompassing, but Mana Sight could see that the number of cores had not decreased in the slightest. How long had she been at this? It felt like ten minutes easily, but there had been no notification they’d won…
[Time Remaining: 7:30]
Cass winced. It had been 2 and a half minutes. That was it?
How much Focus and Stamina did she have left? How much longer could she keep this up?
Stamina: 106/126
Focus: 317/387
Health: 68/113
There wasn’t time to worry about that. She needed to take out as many enemies as possible to keep them off of Pellen.
Cass ran into the densest group of cores.
It was more gophers. Eight or nine of them. She Dodged. She stabbed. Two went down. Another got a hit in, slicing across her leg. Another down. Dodge out of the path of one blade. A nick to her elbow. Another down. Another.
A lightning bolt exploded past her as she Dodged another blade. It struck the gopher behind her, flooring it. Mana Sight said it was still alive and well, just knocked down. Cass wove around another and leapt on the fallen gopher, her staff driving between its ribs and destroying its core.
Another gopher sliced at her. She stepped out of the way, then rammed her staff through it and the gopher behind it.
More had approached while she fought. Snakes slipped through their ranks. They were all small, two or three feet in length. They snapped at her ankles and attempted to wind up her legs.
She swept them back with a spinning Wind Blade.
Another lightning bolt shot from the dark. Cass felt it coming this time, her Atmospheric Sense pressing as hard as it could against the dark to buy even another second of warning.
Elemental Manipulation grabbed it. She didn’t try to stop it. There was no stopping lightning in motion. But she pulled it around, sling-shotting it back at the croc that had released it. She didn’t have time to observe if she’d hit or if it had been effective.
A snake snapped at her ankle. Time slowed as its head approached, its jaws wide and bristling with electricity. Elemental Manipulation greedily snatched up that energy, pulling it from the snake’s fangs and drawing it along her staff. Cass kicked the approaching snake and swung her now electrified staff at the next gopher. Both crumpled to the ground.
But there was no end in sight.
Cass had lost count of how many gophers she’d killed. She did not know how many snakes she’d crushed. She could only guess at the number of crocs she’d destroyed with their own lightning.
She was covered in shallow scrapes where Dodge hadn’t quite been fast enough or where sheer numbers had left her with limited options for avoiding damage. Electricity burns covered her legs where the snakes had been faster than Elemental Manipulation.
Stamina: 87/126
Focus: 232/387
Health: 68/113
[Time Remaining: 4:28]
Over halfway through. A little less than five more minutes. She could do this. They could do this.
She just had to ignore her flagging Stamina. Her swiftly dropping Focus. She could still burn Health. She could still keep this up.
A blade went through her chest as the world’s colors inverted. Cass flickered out of existence, reappearing a little to her right. To her left, where she had been standing, an all too familiar sword hung in the air at the end of an all too familiar enemy.
Soulbound Wolf (lvl 27)
Cass Stormstride Sprinted away before it could swing that blade again, her body screaming from the exertion.
Stamina: 37/126
She couldn’t do that again. Using Liminal Dodge to avoid fatal damage was cripplingly expensive.
She couldn’t believe the trial had summoned a wolf. Or was it the same one they’d dodged earlier? Or yet another looking for them because of the monsters they’d killed? Depending on the answer, there could be another 2 wolves lurking around.
She pushed the questions aside. Future Cass could worry about that.
Right now, all that mattered was killing this one.
Could she? Maybe.
With the resources she had left? While also dealing with everything else? Cass doubted it.
She ran back to Pellen, bursting through the central ring. “There is a wolf!”
Pellen’s eyes went wide. She pointed at the nearest gopher as it stepped over the ring as she finished her Chant. A bolt of blue energy burst from her finger and melted the skull of the offending gopher. “What?”
“Wolf!” Cass repeated, slicing down another pair of gophers and kicking a snake out of the trial’s circle and back out into the dark. “Out there!”
Cass could see its core now that she was looking for it. It blazed red and angry, immensely more powerful than her.
“I don’t know how long my barrier will be able to keep that out,” Pellen said. She flipped through the pages of her tome, perhaps looking for another solution.
[Time Remaining: 3:58]
A bolt of lightning flew into the circle. Cass slingshot it around at the Wolf. The advance of its soul through the darkness did not slow in the slightest.
“How long do you think you can hold it?” Cass asked.
“With the wolf?” Pellen asked. “A minute? Maybe?”
“Without the wolf?” Cass asked.
“I don’t know. Three minutes? Less with every lightning bolt I have to take from the crocodiles.”
Could Cass keep the wolf distracted for three minutes? She didn’t think so. It was fast, almost as fast as her.
The last time she’d fought one, she’d used a lot of Liminal Dodges just to survive. She’d already used one. She didn’t have another left in the tank without burning Health for more Stamina.
Cass cut another snake in two and impaled another gopher. There were so many things here. Why a wolf too? This was way too much for her and Pellen on their own. If only Alyx and Salos were here…
Salos, how quickly can you get directly above me? Cass asked. He was already very close to her. There couldn’t be more than the ceiling of this room and the floor of the level above in between them.
That would take us into a side room, he warned. Why?
So you can do it immediately?
I suppose?
Do it! Cass said. To Pellen, Cass asked, “How quickly can you cast that stone-melting spell? The one you used upstairs to take out the platforms?”
Pellen blinked, actually stopping mid-chant. “About thirty seconds? Why?”
“And do you need to actively chant to keep the barrier up?” Cass asked.
Pellen shook her head. “No, that’s the point of the circle.”
“Assuming you did the stone disintegration spell, how long could you hold the wolf off?” Cass asked.
“Uhhhhh,” her eyes crossed while she thought, “About thirty, maybe thirty-five seconds? Where are you going with this?”
Cass explained her plan.
Pellen blinked. “That’s not a good plan.”
“You have a better one?” Cass asked.
Pellen shook her head. “You’re sure that your team will be up there?”
Cass nodded.
Pellen opened her mouth, then closed it, shaking her head. “Fine. Let’s do this. Barrier first, stone disintegration second.”
Cass nodded.
Pellen inhaled sharply and started Chanting.
[Time Remaining: 3:15]
A dim, dusty blue light glowed from Pellen’s chalk marks, their light gradually increasing into pinpoint beams, solidifying and brightening with every syllable of Pellen’s chant. The beams arched overhead, forming a hemisphere of shimmering light, flecked with specks of white and purple.
As the barrier formed, the wolf emerged from the darkness.
[Time Remaining: 3:12]
It stood staring at them through the shield. It howled and raised its swords. They struck the shield and the entire surface shook. Sparks leapt from the point of impact. Cass could feel the energy bleeding off.
Pellen grimaced and started the next Chant.
The wolf struck again and again. The gophers and the snakes pressed themselves up against the walls. Cass threw a Wind Blade through the barrier. It knocked the snakes back and sliced the gophers, but more poured into the open spaces.
Pellen kept chanting, though her voice was more and more strained with every syllable.
We are in place, Salos said. Cass could feel him directly above her. What now?
Just stay right there and brace for impact.
Impact? Salos repeated. What is the plan exactly?
Cass explained again for him.
Abyss and blood, he muttered. You are fighting what?
A wolf? Cass said.
By yourself?
I’m trying not to?
I hate everything about this plan. He sighed. Hurry up.
It’s going as fast as it can, Cass agreed. Pellen Chanted as fast as she could.
Stamina: 31/126
Focus: 217/387
Health: 68/113
[Time Remaining: 3:03]
A bolt of lightning streaked out of the dark. It hit Pellen’s shield and the whole thing flashed red for a moment. She shook her head, still Chanting. She shot Cass a look that said all that she needed to. Another lightning bolt like that and this shield would go down too soon.
Cass watched the dark, ignoring the gophers and the snakes. They couldn’t do anything to the shield. Ignoring the wolf, she couldn’t do anything to it. She watched for the crocodiles. Inside the trial’s barrier, she couldn’t sense their lightning soon enough. Not with Atmospheric Sense anyway.
But what about Mana Sense? She could see the crocodiles’ cores. She could see their energy gathered in the gems on their snouts. If she just waited for—
There!
The lights went out as a crocodile released the energy it was storing. Cass burst across Pellen’s barrier in a Stormstride Sprint. Half a second later, the lightning appeared at the edge of the trial’s barrier. Cass met it another fraction of a second later. Elemental Manipulation reached for it, pulling it wide around the barrier instead of into it. She pulled it into the Wolf on the far side.
Electricity ran up and down its body. Its head arched back in a soundless howl. It was outside the trial’s barrier. Cass and Pellen couldn’t hear it. For a moment, it howled into the dark. Everything outside the barrier froze as it did.
All too soon, it was back to pounding away at the barrier.
Another bolt of lightning. Another desperate Sprint and deft Manipulation pulled it around the barrier.
[Time Remaining: 2:49]
Almost there. Almost there.
Just a little more.
A spider web of cracks formed on the barrier. It flashed red with every other sword strike. Pellen was pale, her chant coming no slower, but her voice was weak.
Just a little more.
Another lightning bolt. Another moment of respite as the wolf howled silently from the attack.
Just a little more.
Stamina: 25/126
Focus: 172/387
Health: 68/113
[Time Remaining: 2:36]
Pellen screamed the last word of her Chant, pointing with a force Cass didn’t think she still possessed at the ceiling above them. Her shield exploded into a mist of shards as the ceiling dissolved above them.
Rubble fell and the monsters rushed in.
Cass spun in place, throwing the largest gust of Wind she’d ever managed with Wind Blade and Elemental Manipulation working in concert. For a second, the monsters could not approach.
For a second, the two humanoid figures falling from the new hole in the ceiling were slowed.
Alyx’s blade shone as she fell. She landed amid the staggered gophers with an explosion of light and aura. They were crushed beneath her skill.
Marco slammed into the ground on the far side of Pellen, taking another lightning bolt to his shield with ease.
Salos appeared on Cass’s shoulders, a familiar weight and a familiar disapproval in his gold eyes.
The cavalry had arrived.