Chapter 8 – Battle With The Horned Druid

Sarka was a druid about seven feet tall. It was hard to tell what he used to look like when he was alive. In Shadow form, he was made of glossy black strips that looked more like a statue made of electrical tape. He was a re-creation of Dreagans, somehow preserved in the exact form he used to be prior to his death.

From the silhouette alone, he was an imposing man with two horns with three twisting, sharp branches each. The tape-like strips had welded his outfit to his body, making it all part of him. He was wearing what looked like a tattered fur coat. It flung in the winds as he stared at Darya with a pair of glowing purple eyes.

He extended his hand, growing a black branch from his forearm that flared in her direction. Purple arcs of lightning wound through it and burst out of three sharp ends of his transformed hand-branch.

Well, that’s new. He made his own Manacer with his body.

The arcs of lightning quickly collected into a point between the claws.

Darya didn’t need to find out what it was. She couldn’t afford to get hit by a single spell or skill that Sarka could throw in her direction. At level 146, he would have had time to perfect even the worst spells. She had no intention of testing or probing with her second life on the line. This was about winning as fast as possible.

She waited for the moment of activation. The mana projectile between his claws hardened and flickered in a split second.

[Skill: Wind Step]
-20 SP • 8s Cooldown
[view more]

She managed to dodge the projectile by inches. It passed right through where she had been standing and cratered the ground. The shockwave that followed it would’ve sent her flying if she hadn’t dashed against it with Wind Step.

It was a calculated move to evade and counter the pressure wave. It worked as well as it would have in the VRMMO, but it was disorienting in RLP. She felt the true power of whatever that spell was. She had leapt away from a tank shell, something she didn’t have to do for thirty years of her past life. This really put her current situation in perspective.

One hit and I’m done for.

Sarka started moving; the bolt of lightning that suspended him mid-air lowered him to the ground. His hands were moving too fast, making it difficult to predict when his next attack would be.

Darya used the skill to sharpen her eyes and increase her reaction speed.

[Skill: Diamond Eyes]
-65 SP • 400s Cooldown
[view more]

She felt the effect take hold as a pulse behind her eyes. It hurt her retinas as if she were staring into a bright light, but nothing unbearable. Narrowing her eyes, she could see the world a bit slower than before. Sarka’s hands were still blurred in the distance, but she could tell he wasn’t preparing another spell just yet.

She needed a spell of her own before she started going at him.

[Spell: Sense Sphere]
-3 MP/s • Sphere • 90s Duration
[view more]

Mana burst from her skin like thin jet streams, creating a faint spherical mist around her that extended about twenty meters. It was just enough to detect mana-based attacks, and with her enhanced vision and reaction speed, she was confident she could do something within twenty meters.

She noticed something else that only she would’ve cared to notice as she observed Sarka. The spells and skills activations had changed after she entered combat. It was still the same Verse Gear thought trigger of thinking about the name of the action she wanted to take, but it was displaying more information along with it.

I could activate anything outside of combat without even knowing if they’re spells or skills. It wouldn’t show me details. So, Verse behaves differently based on what I’m doing.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, or more accurately, observed. Even in RLP, Verse had a way to gauge different states. This was simple enough in VRMMO, but with the sheer amount of complexity in a real-life scenario should’ve made it hard to distinguish between states. For example, she wondered if throwing a spell at a tree counted as in combat.

This wasn’t the time to dissect it.

She had spent about five hundred MP for preparations. It was time to deal damage to Sarka’s health pool, which was about two and a half times hers.

Darya started running to close the gap to ensure better targeting. Sarka’s lightning-like mana was distorting everything. She was amazed at how fast she could run now. This body was the healthiest and strongest that she had ever felt. It seemed that the previous Darya hadn’t sat around being a princess.

She got within a hundred meters of Sarka and saw his Manacer arm swing her way. In her slowed vision, she saw the five axes flash at the tips of his three claws. It was the same as before, if she wasn’t mistaken.

This time, she saw the projectile form and split the air towards her. It was a sharp piece of crystallized mana. The projectile entered her Sense Sphere, and her eyes bounced between the entry point and Sarka.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

She had to be careful to pick the direction she wanted to dash towards. Sarka was ahead of her, and getting too close was a mistake.

She chose a diagonal direction as the shockwave followed the mana shard.

[Skill: Wind Step]
-20 SP • 8s Cooldown
[view more]

The skill launched her another twenty meters closer to Sarka, but in a diagonal direction behind a pile of rocks. She caught a glimpse of Sarka changing his Manacer posture, getting ready for a different spell. Purple lightning sparked at his claws.

Darya took cover behind a pile of rocks as a bright purple glow blurred. The ground tremored beneath her feet as a bolt of lightning cracked the stones above her head.

She dashed out from the cover as the rocks fell. She realized she had almost forgotten to count her cooldowns. If eight seconds hadn’t passed, she would’ve been a sitting duck.

[Skill: Wind Step]
-20 SP • 8s Cooldown
[view more]

Sarka changed targets swiftly as she emerged. A second bolt of lightning burst from his claws. Darya only had milliseconds.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

The world flipped monochrome, and the bright purple lightning bolts bursting from his hand became nearly frozen white branches. They were still slowly cracking their way towards her.

It was lightning. This wasn’t something she could dodge by moving. It had spread across the entire pile of rock before shattering it. She suspected it was something similar that damaged the ship from this far away. Sarka’s lightning had incredible range. The ship had to have been attacked for a reason. Fominel was the one outside when it happened. It had to have targeted him somehow.