Lord Sorcerer: Singularity Online: Book 3 Read online

  The tower began to shake and tremble slightly, and Aranos guessed from the loud booming that echoed through the waystation that the monster was beating on the building with its fists. Rhys looked about worriedly, his face clearly showing her nervousness, but the companions held their ground as the beast continued to roar in pain and slam its fists into the tower. Aranos didn’t blame them; if the tower started collapsing, he’d have to drop the Ward so they could flee outside, where the beast would be waiting for them. From the frying pan into the fire, as they say, he thought darkly.

  “There’s maybe a minute left before the Ward expires,” Aranos warned the others. “Once it drops, we’ll take a look and see how hurt the thing is. Maybe we’ll be able to finish it off.”

  “It is unlikely we can do so from the top of the tower,” Saphielle pointed out. “We will have to face it below, Redeemer. Why not simply descend to the ground to begin with?”

  “First of all, he explained, “because right now, it’s blocking the door, and I’m hoping to distract it enough to let the rest of you get out safely.

  “Also,” he continued, “I have a feeling that light hurts it. If it does, I can enchant your weapons to inflict light damage, the way Silma’s bite does. I have to touch the weapons to do that, though, so you’ll need to be near me.”

  The guardswoman looked dissatisfied, but before she could speak, the jets of fire flickered and died, and the wisps of acid curled into nothingness. The woman glanced at Aranos, shrugged, and raced back into the room, Silma and Geltheriel right behind her. Aranos hesitated for a moment, startled, before he broke into a run and followed them.

  While his Ward hadn’t killed the beast as he’d hoped, it had damaged it severely. Blood streamed from multiple wounds on its legs, and its skin was charred and blistered by fire and acid. As he watched, though, the wounds were slowly healing – although, he noticed, the acid burns didn’t look to be regenerating at all. He filed that knowledge away – he could certainly apply acid damage to Saphielle’s spear and Geltheriel’s blade, if not Silma’s teeth – and raised his hand, palm facing the monster’s vast stomach.

  He took a deep breath and summoned his light mana, feeding it into the pattern of his Radiant Blast Spell. He hadn’t had a chance to practice this in his mindscape, so it took him several long seconds to gather the power and adjust the pattern to compensate for the lack of air mana. He mentally crossed his fingers and cast the modified Spell, hoping that the result would be a laser-like beam of light that would burn the creature.

  What he got wasn’t remotely laser-like. Instead, strobing flashes of brilliant light streamed from his hand, bathing the creature below with their illumination. They were flashy and cool-looking, but the light was far too dispersed to inflict damage.

  At least, so he thought. The creature, though, bellowed in pain and stepped back, covering its abdomen with its arms as if to shield its unblinking eyes. Aranos stared in shock as its skin seemed to bubble and peel under the brilliant light, and he wasted no time in casting his Elemental Weapon Spell to add light damage to the others’ weapons. He also buffed their Str and Agil; as hard as the creature hit, none of them would really be able to tank it, even with improved Endurance, and the extra Str would help to offset the beast’s regeneration.

  Aranos expected them charge down the stairs and prepared to hit the creature with another blast of light mana to distract it, but to his surprise, Geltheriel sheathed her glowing blade and leaped into a nearby patch of darkness, vanishing into it. He blinked as he saw her suddenly appear from a pool of shadows on the ground and draw her glowing blade, charging at the creature’s back.

  “What…she can actually teleport with that?” Aranos blurted, but only Rhys stood next to him. Silma and Saphielle had already leapt out the window, the fenrin using her teleporting collar to land nimbly atop the beast’s shoulders, the Avenger landing on the stones in a classic superhero pose, crouched with her shield down and her spear out. Her LP bar had barely shifted from the maneuver, and Aranos realized he’d been underestimating her durability.

  Silma took a moment to savage one shoulder with her fangs, the glowing teeth tearing easily into its flesh, then leapt clear as the creature tried to swat her with a pair of arms. She planted her feet against an arm that was still for a moment, rebounding onto one thigh and then down to the road. As one, the three Warriors engaged the creature, Saphielle using her shield to slide its blows rather than blocking them, while Geltheriel and Silma tore at its sides, avoiding the rear legs.

  Aranos simply watched, stunned for a moment as the trio moved in a flawless dance of death, before Rhys cleared his throat meaningfully. He shook himself from his stupor a moment later and cast his Flight Spell, grabbing Rhys and launching them both out the window. He deposited the Druid near Saphielle, who would likely need healing the most, then swooped up to survey the battle.

  He watched the melee carefully for a moment, getting a feel for the rhythm of the battle. His three companions were working well together – Saphielle was holding its aggro, allowing the others to savage its flanks with their light-enhanced attacks – but Aranos could almost sense that there was a better way for them to take it down. Geltheriel’s blade and Silma’s fangs lacked reach, and that meant they could really only harm the monster’s legs. Saphielle’s spear, though, could reach its abdomen and potentially do real damage. It was time for Silma to become the main tank.

  He silently sent a message to Silma, and the fenrin renewed her attack with extra ferocity. The beast turned toward her, but when Saphielle moved to regain aggro, Aranos motioned for her to stop. He wanted the giant wolf to have the monster’s complete attention before the elves attacked, hoping that would allow Saphielle to strike with more impunity.

  “Your spear is the best weapon, here!” he shouted to the two women. “You’re going to switch to off-tank and DPS. Rhys, shift your focus to Silma, she’s main tank!” Saphielle looked troubled but nodded and stepped back to wait.

  After several seconds, he signaled the women, and they both struck. Geltheriel slammed her blade directly into the back of the creature’s leg, wrenching and tearing the wound wider, but Saphielle’s spear punched into its side, slipping between the flailing arms, opening a gaping hole. The creature howled and swiped to the sides, but Silma kept ripping at its hands and arms, and its main focus remained on her.

  Once he was sure the beast was committed, he began peppering it with Light Arrows. Each strike did less damage than a Composite Bullet, but the glowing projectiles made the creature flinch, and the wounds they inflicted seemed to heal more slowly. He interspersed these with Acid Arrows, noting that the acid damage still hadn’t regenerated from before.

  As the creature roared in pain and swiped at Aranos, he remained carefully out of reach and watched it closely, keeping his Inspection Skill activated. If this thing is radiating metadata, he reasoned silently, part of that might be its LP status. I mean, it almost has to be; I can see my party’s LP bars, and I’m betting that’s just a matter of the party system interpreting the metadata for me. Rather than watching the repeated notifications that he had failed to Inspect his target, Aranos tried to get a feel for the streams of data, attempting to sense if one number was rapidly fluctuating up and down as the creature’s LP were drained by their attacks and then started regenerating instantly.

  The party’s coordinated assault was hurting the monster badly. They were doing what the urukkai either hadn’t thought to or simply couldn’t: they were using its weaknesses against it and fighting it with speed instead of strength. Silma was simply too fast for it to grab, and the light-enhanced weapons of the elves were doing lasting damage to it, gradually overcoming its regeneration. Rhys healed Silma’s injuries, keeping the fenrin in the battle, and the creature’s LP had to be getting dangerously low.

  He’d just gotten a sense of the data when an agonized howl shattered his concentration. Saphielle’s Battle Shout rang out, while Geltheriel screamed and leaped at t
he beast, but Aranos saw neither of these. His horror-filled gaze was firmly on Silma, who struggled vainly in the grip of two of the beast’s massive hands. As if to spite his earlier confidence, the fenrin had faltered for an instant, and in that moment, the monster had snatched her.

  Aranos fired another Light Arrow at the creature’s eyes, hoping to distract it, while Geltheriel and Saphielle attacked it madly. Even Rhys was raining bolts of fire and ice on the monster, but all to no avail. Aranos’ gorge rose as the struggling Silma was brought up to the creature’s mouth…and shoved brutally within. Instantly, her LP bar dropped to 0 in his vision, and a ragged bundle of crushed bones and silver fur spat from the creature’s mouth almost disdainfully.

  “NOOO!” Aranos screamed as his mind exploded in anger. His hands shot up, one firing a Light Barrage, the other unleashing an Acid Blast at the monster, his rage driving the Spells as he poured energy onto its skin. He boosted his Flight to its max and sent power raging through his muscles, supercharging his reflexes. He swooped into the creature’s face, firing his twin Spells point blank into it. It swiped at him, but in his enhanced state, the massive claws were slow and ponderous. He darted around them, a hummingbird zipping around a lumbering eagle, his attacks ripping into the creature’s hide. Dimly, he sensed the others joining the attack, but he ignored them. This thing had killed Silma. His Silma. Its death was his responsibility, now, his duty alone.

  His mana started to flag, but he took no notice. Instead, he reached into that swirling mass of gray Soul energy and drew it into his spirals. As the power shifted, he understood; he saw how that energy was ephemeral, decoherent, existing as the sum of all possible energies. It didn’t flow from the ball into his spirals; it flowed into him and replaced what he lost as his own energy rushed into the Spell. That mana didn’t come from without, it came from inside him, which is why he’d never noticed it before. It was a part of him, not something he could draw from outside.

  With that knowledge, he pulled the energy from within and channeled it into his Spells. Instantly, the dimming globes of light mana flared as brightly as the sun; the failing streams of acid burst forth with firehose intensity. The monster screamed, but Aranos wasn’t done. He wanted it to suffer as Silma had, and he knew how to do it.

  He pulled more energy from himself, turning it into light mana, using his Forge Mana Spell to wrap it around the creature in saw-bladed chains, shrouding it in wickedly glowing bands of power. He shouted for the others to stand clear and grasped the chains with his mind, demanding that they move. The bands began to shift, slowly at first but then with greater and greater speed. The creature howled as the spinning sawblades shredded its flesh, tearing into its body, but it wasn’t enough.

  Aranos pulled more power, aware that he was out of Soul Points and was now drawing solely on his own reserves. The blades flared brightly and increased their speed. Aranos watched grimly as first a leg, then an arm went flying free of the body. The remaining limbs followed, and the mutilated torso crashed to the road, helpless. Still, Aranos concentrated on his Spell, and the blades ripped into its body, tearing off gibbets of flesh. A few moments later, the chains snapped taut, and the creature’s shredded remains collapsed in a blood-drenched pile of meat.

  As Aranos released his Spell, he felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over him, and he fell hard to the road as his Flight Spell failed. As the others rushed to his side, rolled onto his back, his head spinning and strangely struggling to focus. Struggling, he pulled up his Status and was shocked at what he saw:

  Aranos, Lord Evenshade, Elf-Friend

  Age: 26

  Race: Aleen

  Advanced Class: Sorcerer AscendantXP: 111908/120000

  Level: 6

  Class: SorcererXP: 78454/78000 Level Up!

  Level: 12

  Profession: HunterXP: 465/500

  Abilities:

  Str: 39 (45) Dex: 46 (52) Agil: 43 (49) End: 41 (47)

  Int: 115 Wis: 124 (64)Per: 53 Cha: 98

  LP: 521/1121Regen: 6.2/s

  SP: 5929/13264 (7412)Regen: 53.3/s, 69.6/s when meditating (29.4/38.3)

  Stamina: N/A

  Soul Points: 0

  Debuff: Wisdom Drain

  Somehow, his Wis Stat had dropped 60 points during the battle; was that because he’d been pulling power from himself? Had he been turning Wisdom into SP somehow, or was that a natural side effect of using Soul energy the way he did?

  As he glanced at the pile of shredded, silver fur and shattered bones that were Silma’s remains, he stopped caring about that. A wave of sorrow swept through him, and he felt tears streaming unbidden from his eyes. Guilt followed immediately after; if he’d been more alert, been paying better attention to the battle and not to trying to improve his Inspection Skill, he might have been able to save her. Despair coursed over him, and he lowered his hands to his face and wept.

  A pair of arms snaked around him, and unthinking, he buried his face in them as his sorrow ran its course. They held him tightly, a hand placed comfortingly on the back of his head, and they stayed that way for long minutes until the immediate grief had run its course.

  Sniffling, he pulled back and stared with surprise into Saphielle’s eyes, which were filled with a mix of puzzlement and understanding. Geltheriel stood behind him, her face grim, while Rhys watched them all, his eyes concerned but not stricken.

  “I’m sorry,” Aranos breathed, smiling weakly at Saphielle. “I didn’t mean to…”

  “I am here for you, Redeemer,” the woman smiled back. “Although I am uncertain as to the full extent of your grief, I will always offer you what comfort I may.”

  “Uncertain?” he snapped, his sorrow flaring into anger. “That thing ate Silma, Saphielle! Why wouldn’t I be upset?”

  “I believe the Lieutenant is considering that, since the fenrin is your Bonded Companion, you may recall her upon death, Liberator,” Rhys pointed out gently, his voice lacking its normal mocking tone. “Perhaps that is something you have forgotten.”

  Aranos froze, stunned. He had forgotten that, in fact. He’d gotten so used to thinking of Silma as a regular, if intelligent animal, he’d forgotten that she was really his Soulbound Companion. She couldn’t actually die; at worst, he’d have to wait a day to recall her.

  He pulled up his Status and found Silma’s listing:

  Silma

  Age: 1

  Race: Adult Fenrin

  Level: 12XP: 74568/78000

  Abilities:

  Str: 39 Dex: 40 Agil: 58 End: 44

  Int: 33 Wis: 43Per: 58 Cha: 28

  LP: 0/1596Regen: 4.4/s

  SP: 0/50Regen: 4.3/s

  Stamina: 0/724Regen: 4.4/s

  Debuffs: Dead

  Do you wish to recall this Companion (Yes/No)?

  He quickly selected ‘Yes’, and a swirl of prismatic light surrounded the fenrin’s remains. The light grew brighter, obscuring the sad pile of fur and bone, then dimmed, leaving Silma lying on her side, whole. She staggered to her feet painfully, and glancing at her sheet, Aranos saw that she had the same Death Debuffs that he got: all her Physical Stats were halved for an hour. With a shout, he raced over to her and embraced her, burying his face in her soft fur.

  That was extremely unpleasant, pack leader, she spoke in his mind. I feel as weak as a puppy, and everything aches. Is it this way for you when you’re reborn, too?

  Every time, he replied silently. I thought I’d lost you, girl.

  That was foolish, she said simply. You can’t lose me. We’re a part of each other, pack leader. She glanced around and saw the pile of meat where the creature had been. What happened to that thing?

  I got a bit angry when you died, he said ruefully. I wanted to give it a taste of its own medicine.

  “I am glad that you are reunited with your Companion, Oathbinder,” Geltheriel interjected gently. “Yet, we should not linger out of the tower, as surely all this death will draw other predators.”

  “You’re right,” Aranos nodded, risin
g to his feet. “We should try to Harvest that thing first, though.”

  Geltheriel shook her head. “I have tried; the body is too damaged to be an acceptable target for Harvesting. If there were anything we could have gained from that creature, your assault upon it did not leave it intact.”

  Aranos winced inwardly; something that powerful might have given them valuable components. There was nothing to be done about it now, though. “Okay, let’s head back to camp and see if we can get some rest. At least, as much as possible, all things considered.”

  “Perhaps you could restore your Spell,” Rhys suggested. “We could move our camp into the room from which we keep watch.”

  Aranos shook his head as they re-entered the tower. “Can’t right now,” he said, forcing himself to stay calm as he once again thought of his massively drained Wisdom. “I don’t have the SP, and the Spells I used to kill that thing drained me in a way I don’t understand, yet.” He had notifications blinking in his vision, so he refused to think about his lost Wis until he’d read through them. The fact that his lowered Wis score was in parenthesis suggested that it was temporary, but until he read his notifications, he wouldn’t know how temporary.

  The party returned to their camp, and Aranos told the others to go rest. The meditation he’d had earlier was enough for him to last the night, and they were all tired from the battle. Plus, he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until he’d figured out what happened with his Spells and Soul energy.

  He sat down before the window and called up his notifications:

  Your Companion has died!

  Penalty: You suffer a 10% penalty to earned XP until 1 hour after your Companion is recalled to life.

  Enhanced Aspect Discovered!

  Aspect: Soul

  Soul mana comes from the very core of the spellcaster. It is the caster’s connection to this world as well as all others and can affect the connections other natives have to the world, binding them here or banishing them.