Chapter 134.1: The Last Stand
PART 1/2
Seconds passed. Then a minute. Then two, three, four, five. I stood there, waiting for the Demon that would be my death to come to me. I had 480 Health, 231 Stamina, and 1220 Mana to my disposal, and I intended to use every last point, every last Stat, every last Spell and Talent, every last muscle in my body, thought in my mind, and droplet of determination left in my soul to bring that Demon’s home plane up to the Overworld and make him experience a living hell. I didn’t care if I died. He would not get to enjoy it.
I felt completely paranoid in my time waiting. There were a few boulders around me, fallen from the sheer cliffs making up the walls of the canyon, and it was like I kept hearing footsteps or movement from around them. But when I checked my surroundings for the hundredth time for some sort of ambush, I saw nothing. It was only a few minutes, but evidently waiting any amount of time for your certain demise didn’t seem to be exactly healthy for the mind.
So when I saw, over the horizon down the road, a cloud of dust approaching me, it almost felt like a relief. Followed directly by what seemed like a heart attack as I realized that, realistically, I probably only had a minute or two left before I was dead. I’d experienced death before—seen my Health drop to 0, seen the “You have died” notification, everything—but I’d never experienced that feeling of losing consciousness and never regaining it. Seemed like I’d finally get to know what the full package was like.
The cloud of dust approached closer and closer, and I saw more and more detail in the familiar sight. The silhouette sprinting at supernatural speed. It was him.
Step after step he traveled pace after pace. Closer and closer, until—
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1077.
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 58 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 7.76.
25 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1052.
I unleashed my barrage of curses on the Demon the moment he was in range, and then sprinted forward, myself. Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost, Gravity Well—all of the effects tore into his Status and weakened his immensely-powerful body. Not a terribly impactful effect, but every bit counted.
“Right into it, huh?” I heard him laugh right before I got into striking range.
Index, I thought, I want live readouts on whatever you can tell me about this guy. Health, Stamina, abilities he might activate, stuff like that.
“Health? Well, after that Ray of Frost and about a second of Crippling Chill, we’re at, what, ninety-nine point… eight percent? Not much to tell you in that department.”
Just tell me if it starts falling low!
I knew about some of his abilities from experience, and Index had given me a bit more specific knowledge while I’d waited for him to arrive. I knew he had two main pieces to his arsenal: first, his physical power. That much was obvious. One hit from him was enough to kill most low- to mid-level things. Second, his ability to set pretty much anything he wanted on fire at will. Honestly, despite the fact that his physical attacks dealt so much damage, that was what scared me most about him.
The thing about the attacks was that I could at least control when he hit me. Sure, I couldn’t control it very well considering his immense speed, but it was at least something I could attempt to protect myself from. The fire? That was at will. No defense, no countermeasures. And even if it would take longer to kill me that way, I would pretty much have nothing I could do about it the moment it started. I certainly couldn’t fight against him while my skin was melting off, that was for sure. Maybe if that Bond with Ainash had Ranked up more, and I had a more sizable Heat Resistance to protect me from the fire, I wouldn’t have had to worry about it. But as-is, I had basically no countermeasures against that ability.
So, while being within melee range of him was absolutely dangerous, it was also my core strategy. If I kept him moving, dodging, and on his toes, he wouldn’t have the time to stop and set me ablaze. I just needed to keep him busy. And maybe, just maybe, I could somehow chip away at his Health until he died. Or, more likely, I could at least force him to work a bit before he killed me. And maybe feel just a little bit of pain.
The moment I got close enough, I reached out to try and grab his arm in an Expedite-boosted lunge, the spiked gauntlets of Dark Plate forming a claw ready to grip him and activate Noxious Grasp. But just before I could reach him, he shifted his body to the side, leaving me nothing to touch but air.
I stumbled past him and instantly turned to lunge again for another strike.
“Eager, are we?” He asked in an infuriatingly conversational tone. Why couldn’t he just take this seriously?
I once again fell past him as he easily dodged my strike. I turned around and, this time, tried a new strategy. I still needed to make physical contact in order to get that Fester with Noxious Grasp active, as well as initiate Sanguine Bond. Every piece of my arsenal mattered here. So I reached out in an attempt to grab him with my right hand once again, just like I’d done before, but this time, as my left was moving back as I twisted my body for more reach, I turn my left hand’s palm to face the Demon just before he dodged and shot a Ray of Frost straight into his eyes.
You have struck Level 61 Devil for 60 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 7.76.
25 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 968.
“I really thought— Ah! You dick!” He shouted in pain at the sudden source of damage.
And in that moment, my hand reached his arm and brushed past it.
You have cursed Level 61 Devil with Sanguine Bond. For the next 10 seconds, or until Level 61 Devil is further than 10 paces away from you, the following effects are true:
It loses 6.21 Health, 7.76 Stamina, and 9.31 Mana per second.
You gain 1.55 Health, 3.55 Stamina, and 4.65 Mana per second.
238 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 730.
With a split-second activation of both Sanguine Bond and Noxious Grasp, I managed to hit him with both effects. At this point, he had five separate debuffs wracking his Stats, Health, and Stamina. Certainly nothing to scoff at, but he still seemed relatively unfazed—only a minor fleck of annoyance on his face. Maybe some of it was a ruse, though—acting tough just to get under my skin. I hoped that was the case.
I turned again with my hand raised, ready to cast Ray of Frost. At this point, my goal was just to keep him within 10 paces for Sanguine Bond, but far enough away that he couldn’t hit me. And, whenever an effect wore off, I needed to approach again to reapply it. Not exactly an easy job, but maybe I could manage.
Xhag’duul turned toward me. “Okay. It seems like you want to skip the formalities. If anything, I’m pleased. At least you understand the gravity of what’s about to be done to you.”
And then he lunged forward. The moment he began to move, I activated three stacks of Expedite on myself and stepped to the side in an attempt to avoid his strike. And with the extreme boost in mobility, I actually managed to do so. In what felt like slow-motion, his open hand flew right past where my head used to be, a gust of wind blowing by my right ear in the wake of his arm. I backed away again.
With my Mana running so low after all three activations of Expedite—it’d just run below 550—I was forced to deactivate the constant drain of Gravity Well, or be forced to face running out of Mana very soon. And the moment I did so, Xhag’duul stood up a little bit straighter. Though, honestly, when comparing his immense strength to his relatively light body weight, I doubted Gravity Well was doing much to actually hinder him.
He sighed and shook his head. “So you actually managed to avoid an attack, huh? It’s fine, I guess you’ve gotten some practice against me in a previous timeline. Though, really, that terrified look on your face really does make up for the extra effort I have to spend. It is just so cathartic to look at. Maybe you’ve already heard me say that too, though? Say, where are those two others you keep hanging around? The girl and the pet?”
I took a breath. With my passive Mana regeneration and Sanguine Bond running, I was getting back around 6 Mana every second that passed with him just standing around talking. “Nowhere you’ll find them. They’re long gone by now.”
“Oh, so what, this is some sort of distraction, then? Hate to break it to you, but that’s a pretty moronic plan. I’m not looking for them, dumbass. I’m looking for you. It doesn’t matter if they survive—I still win. I’m happy whether they live or die. Did you not even think about that?”
What was he talking about? This wasn’t some game with win and loss conditions. My goal wasn’t to just make him unhappy as possible. Did he not even realize? He must’ve had a pretty twisted view of me in his head.
“Oh well,” he shrugged before I could respond. “I was looking forward to killing them in front of you, but I guess I’ll just have to settle with seeing you scream in agony.”
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