EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 68- Outclassed
🕑 Added 2023-04-27 22:59:00 +0000 UTCI'm sorry for not posting last week. A few days after finally planning a schedule, I couldn't stick with it for a few days. Sadly, I suffered from food poisoning. Maybe it's shit luck, a terrible immune system, or maybe one of you gave my cheeseburger an evil eye, because a mere day after eating it I was bedridden and sick. The burger that delayed your chapter for half an hour stopped you from receiving many. It was insidious. I'm not better yet, but I can hopefully get to writing again.
~Selena Williams~
It took Selena a few seconds to get used to the increased brightness as the orb detonated its penultimate usage. For a moment, it was as if someone was shining a flashlight directly into her eyes.
The starved Ghoul however wasn’t so lucky and she heard an inhumane screech of pain burst forth from its mouth and echo around the empty clearing, the sound somehow bouncing back of empty air. It felt like the sound was coming from every direction at once and Selena was shocked that she actually sustained some damage to her health just from listening to it.
What the fuck! Did I really just lose 71 points of health, Selena wondered in disbelief as she double-checked her status to make sure. The numbers didn’t lie, and she felt a small trickle of warm liquid make there way down her cheeks. She was bleeding from her ears. When she finally opened her eyes, Selena was thankful to see that only she had been hurt by the beast's scream of rage, what with her having the lowest constitution of the group. It would've been bad if everyone sustained damage from a mere scream. Still, the fact she was hurt already didn't bode well for the rest of the group. She could already feel Arthur's stored healing Ether at work dealing with the damage, a warm sensation that she could best describe as the comfort of a campfire.
The man himself was standing near the back of their motley crew in what they'd all agreed was the safest position. Being a non-combatant at only level 60 it had been a point of contention in the group if the young healer should even be present on the scene and not left outside of the clearing.
She had of course been vehemently opposed to the idea of leaving him behind knowing from personal experience that his level was far from an accurate representation of his abilities. Bryan had also been on her side and being the head of this expedition, he'd ultimately decided it was safer for everyone involved that Arthur was close at hand.
Looking at the young man now though, she felt strangely guilty. They would've left him further away if I said so. Bryan trusted my judgement too much and now the guy's in danger. Shit, I know he's been hyped up and everything, but still, he's a healer, not a fighter. We shouldn't have brought him here.
Selena shook her head, trying to get rid of her wandering thoughts. Now wasn't the time to get distracted. The shadow monster responsible for the absurd sound was crouched low, with its abnormally long arms covering its head as if it was cowering away from the bright source of light.
She felt Arthur place his palm on her back as a warm flow of energy entered her, further enhancing the healing Ether already repairing the damage done to her auditory nerves before he went back to his position. The entire process took less than three seconds, almost five times faster than any other healer Selena had observed treating such a specific injury and a testament to why Arthur was present here despite his low level.
The fact that he didn’t seem to have any problem with the monster's screech barely even registered to her, a high constitution just another quirk of the abnormal young man. When Shade remained in his strange position for a few more seconds, the team members looked uncertainly at each other. Perhaps they should capitalise on the monster's apparent weakness, but caution stayed their hand. This was not how they had expected the fight to go and it didn't fall into their plans. A bloody, drawn-out battle of attrition, yes, but not the eerie and creepy direction the engagement was currently going in.
Bryan raised a hand into the air, before slightly signalling that Selena should move forward to investigate. Whilst she understood that as a scout with the highest agility, she was the best suited for the job, it irked her that her straightforward build put her in the most dangerous of positions more often than not. Slowly creeping forward, she used her sonar manipulation to make the sound of her footsteps silent and better hear the grunts and groans the abomination was making. When she could finally interpret what shadow-mage was saying, her blood ran cold.
“Why? Why? Why? He lied to me, Hahahaha!"
Shade then mumbled an unintelligible string of words that hurt her head to listen to, often cackling like a devil-possessed abomination before once again muttering quietly.
“Thon Thorn. Thorn! THORN!"
Shade suddenly shouted and the air was blasted back around him sending Selena stumbling backwards. Everyone had heard the last shout so she didn’t need to tell them that the crazed ghoul still retained some of its human faculties. It didn’t really matter though.
Their job still remained the same.
It had only become a little more difficult, but when a few pebbles were added atop an already unclimbable mountain, it didn’t really mean anything. It was still a peak that couldn’t be reached. Shade finally looked up and seemed to register their presence for the first time. He turned his head to the side as if he was confused and raised an elongated limb to scratch his head. The scene would have looked funny if the abomination didn’t present such a terrifying sight. The monster smiled, revealing blood-stained teeth far too sharp and big to belong to a human before he started chuckling.
“Hey, mama. Mama, are you listening. We’ve got guests. What should I do?” Shade asked.
He was silent for a moment before he suddenly shouted.
“WHY AREN’T YOU SAYING ANYTHING!”
The crazed ghoul breathed heavily in and out, clutching his head in both hands as if in great pain.
“Don’t. Don’t. Please, don't leave me alone.” The man cried, releasing a loud keening moan.
Selena was dumbfounded by the sight before her, unsure of how exactly she should respond to the strangeness of what was going on. The rest of her team were similarly confused and Bryan raised his hand into the air, no doubt about to signal their next course of action.
What happened next was so fast that Selena couldn’t even see it, despite her agility having passed the two-hundred mark. That meant that no one else even registered the fact that Shade had moved, not even Bryan whose arm was now clutched in the monster's hands.
Her superior looked confused for a moment, looking at the monster feasting on his flesh and then at the bleeding stump where his limb used to be. It took a moment for him to realise what had happened and another few seconds for the pain to reach his shocked brain. With a grunt of pain, Bryan fell to his knees, clutching the severe wound, trying to staunch the bleeding. It was at that moment that Arthur's planted ether started to work and everyone watched with wide eyes as the limb rapidly regrow in a matter of seconds. Even Shade looked up from his meal to see the fascinating sight.
After a half minute during which everyone was suspended in motion, Bryan was ready to get back to his feet. Although miraculous healing brought Bryan back to fighting condition, the sight of his injured form was burned into everyone's mind and Selena felt her heart drop. She realised at that moment that they were out of their depth. It didn’t matter that the abomination wasn’t sane enough to use its magic properly, or that they had eradicated all the shadows in the area. Shade could defeat them all with physical might alone.
Ghouls, like most undead monsters, were heavily focused in the flesh, beasts of legendary strength and constitution. It was why their team consisted mostly of people specced in the mental department, the antithesis to the ghoul's power. Fighting the creature at its own game by bringing warriors instead of magicians was a fool's game and one the current people of Earth had no chance of playing.
How much agility was that? 250? 300? And its constitution's supposed to be even higher. Fuck, I know it had us outclassed in body stats but still, isn't the gap too large. Ghouls were supposed to be susceptible to magical damage, but an insane constitution attribute was just that, insane. Would they be able to get through its defence?
Still, Selena would not go down without a fight and she drew on her ether reserves to cast her strongest skill, one that she had only gotten after unlocking her class and the combined result of her sonar kinesis and minor speed manipulation Echokinetic deviation.
Echokinetic deviation (Rare+) [Fusion skill] Level 1- A class skill produced by combining sound and speed magic, it is on the verge of breaking out of the limitations of your (rare) class Sonar mage. Due to weak foundations caused by your haste in levelling, this skill has been knocked down in its potential.
Reduces the target's balance by deviating their standard relation to vibrations caused by sound. This is done by echoing sound a fraction of a second after the ear perceives it causing a dissonance in one's ability to perceive reality. This ability is weakened depending on the target's constitution and agility.
Cost: Variable
Time: Variable
She hoped it would give them a fighting chance.
