Chapter 139: Identity Crisis

3…2…1

BOOOOOM!

An explosive blast sent out a wave of compressed air, flattening the jungle around the lake for a hundred paces and disintegrating the top of the ziggurat.

Shrapnel cleaved through the platform of hardened air that they stood on, diverted off course by the angled layers just enough to not cause them any harm. Badur looked distinctly uncomfortable.

There!

Where there had once been an ancient ziggurat was a metallic blob hanging in midair several feet above scorched stone.

Jason’s eyes widened and he immediately began muttering curses under his breath, causing the brilliantly reflective slime to freeze in place as it began taking psychic damage.

Will sent all his Phantom Snakes except for Pinky, the one with the coiled serpent amulet. That one was wrapped around his waist.

No way he was risking that against Silverdeath again.

The four snakes shot down with outrageous speed and caught Silverdeath before it even began falling.

Tangible, intangible, they can still touch you.

Will wrenched upwards with the four snakes, their combined strength enough to send Silverdeath straight up into the air.

“Reapplying.” Jason said, his gaze following Silverdeath as it rose high into the air.

That was the signal to withdraw his snakes.

Will was lifting the monster out of Jason’s AOE. They decided it was worth the risk of interrupting the skill in order to get it in a place where it couldn’t easily return to the earth.

Will let go and Silverdeath continued flying up for a moment, twitching for an instant before erupting in thousands of metal spines.

An instant later, it froze in place as Jason reapplied his Ability.

Will used the snakes to seize the air beneath the slime, creating a shallow bowl of hardened air for it to rest on while they pounded on it.

I wonder if Psychic Venom is doing its job, Will wondered. The thing had a mind, and he had done damage to it with an eidolon when he first escaped from its clutches…hadn’t he?

The cannonballs were able to inflict psychic venom, a fun side-effect of the Phantom Hand’s new manifestation ability combined with his set bonuses.

But it didn’t seem like the thing was withering away like it should’ve been if it had been hit with Psychic venom.

Must be due to it’s body being highly damage resistant.

The only kind of damage one of Will’s eidolons could do was physical damage. Silverdeath laughed at physical damage…

Even surpassing the metal’s resistance and blowing a hole through it’s side hadn’t done enough damage to trigger psychic venom. He had done as much damage as moving someone’s hand off of your plate.

Which was to say: None.

Note to self: Psychic Venom is currently reliant on applying physical damage first. Physical immune creatures are immune to psychic venom. Fix later.

“I think it’s tangible.” Will said, studying the pincushion-looking ball of shiny steel. It wasn’t see-through at the moment. It had shifted to attack and been paralyzed mid-strike.

Mason nodded and assaulted it with their agreed-upon elemental damage:

Cold.

A bead of pitch-black nothing formed on Mason’s finger, and the assembled team shuddered as all the heat in their skin seemed to be sucked away in a fraction of a second.

Mason flicked the ball of nothing forward, where it impacted against one of Silverdeath’s many spines.

A man-sized swath of the metallic slime’s metal spines became sheathed in a fine layer of frost as the jungle’s humid air condensed and froze around it in an instant.

Mason followed up with a small Conflagration, and a large chunk of spines simply shattered, tumbling away to scatter across the platform of hardened air Will was maintaining.

“Watch those spines.” Will said, doing the same himself. If they coalesced and rejoined the main body, they would have a problem.

“Can’t hold this much longer.” Jason said, his face turning red as he struggled to maintain the paralysis effect.

“Why isn’t it dying?” Will asked.

“It feels like shouting at a mob.” Jason whispered, the veins in his forehead throbbing. “Its harder to shame multiple people at once. Especially when they’re already aligned against you. It’s taking damage, but it’s got a huge ego.”

The broken pieces of liquid metal unfroze and began gradually creeping back towards the frozen main body.

Damnit.

“Acid?” Mason asked, a bit of faintly acrid material flickering around his fingertips.

Acid would probably work, but the problem was: how much Silverdeath would be left to Sacrifice if they just corroded it to nothing? Not to mention it might escape the damage through intangibility, making that approach a maybe.

“Nah, I still want to be greedy.” Will said.

“Hurry up, you guys,” Jason hissed between clenched teeth.

I need to find a way to inflict Psychic venom.

Will reviewed the effect and all Abilities related to it, starting with his tomahawk.

Tomahawk of the Underworld Guide

+8 Strength

+8 Kinesthetics

+8 Resistance

+8 Focus

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+8 Acuity

Passive: Damage from the Tomahawk or Eidolons created by the user gain Psychic Venom, which applies psychic damage over time and incremental stat penalties until the target is dead or the effect is overcome or cured. Scales with Acuity.

Damage from the tomahawk or eidolons created by me.

Will had three ways of creating Eidolons: His Phantom Snakes, His manifested weapons, and his ghost butlers.

None of them had any kind of non-physical attack, so he wouldn’t find his answer there…

Will rapidly inspected each piece of his kit, looking for a solution until he stumbled across his boots:

Electric Serpentine Stompers*

+6 Strength

+11 Kinesthetics

+13 resistance

+6 Focus

+6 Acuity

Increased movement speed, increased footing on all terrain. Scales with Resistance.

+20% Ranger Archetype Ability potency

Coiled Lightning:

5 Charges: Eidolons controlled by the User gain a short-range electric aura which may paralyze enemies. Duration and potency scale with Resistance.

Electric aura?

Will frowned and checked the Stormfist Gauntlets in the Phantom Hand.

Stormfists