Chapter 9 – Zero Margin For Error

Sarka swayed in place while bleeding from the diagonal cut across his torso. Blast Weaver had blown it wide open, leaving his blackened insides exposed. Everything inside the wound was just as black as the strips outside. The blood that poured out of his wound was a clear liquid, followed by thin spools of black material rolling out of him like ribbons.

Doesn’t look like necromancy to me.

His body cracked in other places as Blast Weaver ricocheted inside and broke him even further. Mana chains materialized from the nine pillars and wrapped around his limbs, slithering snake-like.

He struggled against the restraints as he was getting paralyzed by the chains. Pillars of Erisoth was a bold choice, considering he had resorted to warp away with it the last time.

Darya was ready for that as well. The fight would be over if Sarka warped away again. If he took her with him, she would likely end up with the missing members, and there would be no need for a Seer.

Wonder what forced him to warp back. If it’s predictable, I could make the return trip as well.

She would be operating on too many unknowns, but she felt ready to handle them just as she felt ready for this fight.

Sarka twitched in place as the mana chains paralyzed him. Darya expected him to break out or warp, but the opening was too good to ignore. Either way, she wanted to shave as many chunks of his health as possible.

With Sarka locked in place, she pointed her Warblade directly at him.

[Spell: Comet of Volaria]
-514 MP • Bolt• Instant
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White tendrils of mana burst from her skin and wrapped around the wooden staff of the Warbalade. She felt the surge of energy on her forearms as the axis lines flashed. Energy concentrated at the tip of the Warblade, scattering white arcs of lightning in every direction.

She wasn’t seeing things slow down anymore. Diamond Eyes skill had likely run out at some point.

Sarka had three thousand in Resistance. It was pointless to hit him from the outside with spells where the damage wouldn’t even hit his health. Comet of Volaria was a bolt-shaped spell. It was capable of doing about 2,300 damage, much higher than Blast Weaver if it could bypass Sarka’s Mana Resistance.

She didn’t know if it could work mid-slash like Blast Weaver did, but she had to test it out. Essentially, she wanted to try turning the bolt-shaper spell so that it works similarly to a touch-activated one.

[Skill: Wind Step]
-20 SP • 8s Cooldown
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She dashed forth as the spell charged. The step took her about two meters away from him. She needed more time to shove it straight into him.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

She kept moving forward with the same momentum as the world turned monochrome. Pushing forth with all her energy, she drove the sharp end of the Warblade into his torso just as the bolt formed. A flash of white momentarily illuminated her face during the last second of the monochrome world.

She had to manually stop the Warblade from going straight through Sarka. There was no material rigidity in the Terminate state. She could cut anything as if it were made of smoke.

Prediction dots splashed as she adjusted the hold position of the Warblade, positioned such that the bolt-shaped spell could have some travel time inside Sarka’s body.

Would be a huge waste of Mana if this spell passed straight through.

She held the staff firm as she finished counting the last second. She caught a glimpse of the world falling into place over the prediction dots.

The spell still acted as a bolt, but it only got to travel a few centimeters before hitting the inner flesh of Sarka’s corpse.

Her mana dispersed all over him, white gaps of light cracking him open like a porcelain doll that got hit with a chisel.

That worked, time to get out.

She noticed something as she tried to pull the Warblade out of Sarka’s torso. Sarka no longer had the clawed Manacer on his right arm. It had appeared on the top of his forehead. He glared down at her with his glowing purple eyes.

Can he cast spells from anywhere on his body?!

She realized what Darya Altazark would’ve found out the hard way when she died. Sarka’s body could create a Manacer anywhere. Restraining him didn’t limit his ability to cast spells. Furthermore, the clawed Manacer blended in with his horned head. She hadn’t even noticed it happening, even when she was paying all her attention to him.

He had been casting the spell for a while by the time she noticed. Purple mana swirled around him in a faint circle. She felt a sudden pressure bearing down on her from above.

Changing her posture, she switched directions. Instead of leaping backwards, she twisted in place to keep moving in the same direction of the Warblade thrust.

She couldn’t tell if this circular spell was for warping or not. She had a guess based on the increasing pressure from above. It felt a lot like a spell that she was familiar with from the VRMMO.

Back in version six, she had worked on several ‘hammer’ type spells with the circular shape. They could vary in axis composition, but they were AOE spells for fighting against mobs or zoning out areas.

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She focused on the tip of Sarka’s Manacer poking out of his forehead.

[Inspect]

Spell: Hammer of Rakalla
Grade: 115
Rarity: Relic
Axes: Ae(1346)
Mana: 1,346M
ATK: 6,730
Shaper: Circle
Duration: Instant
Materialize the Hammer of Rakalla in mana form, falling from above onto the target area. Delivers massive damage on impact.

It was an unexpectedly high-grade spell.

Hammer-type spell after all.

She couldn’t remember if she had seen the word Rakalla before, but what she saw was enough. ‘Massive damage on impact’ is something that she didn’t want to be there for. Hammer of Rakalla was going to deal Aenthune (Matter) damage that she certainly didn’t have a lot of mana resistance for. With 6,730 points of damage, that could kill her thrice over, even if she was an Aenthune specialized archmage.

She looked ahead for the range of the spell.

All vertical AOE spells that she worked on had a circular preview of their bounds. It seemed that worked the same in RLP with the faint glowing circle around them. It was expanding with the mana bursting from Sarka’s body.

She twisted the Warblade out and leapt forward with the next two steps.