Chapter 250: We’re Doing This

William Oh set out on a journey to find someone faster than him. He eventually did meet someone faster, but it was himself on the return trip.

• Jason Salazar

 

Vincent’s whole body itched. It felt like insects were crawling up and down his body, trying to implant their eggs and burst out of his skin.

That probably wasn’t an exaggeration, either. Insects were bursting out of everything else. Why would he be special? It was only his high resistance that physcially prevented the bugs from growing.

I need to leave.

He used Necrotic Balm to reshape his body and create wings from his back before jumping into the sky, trying to gain altitude again to look for a Key Site.

Like a living thing, barbed wires whipped out of the ground and dragged him back down to the ground.

Something tightened around his foot and dragged him into the underground where metal teeth bent and warped against his skin, as though a giant had begun chewing on him.

“ENOUGH!” Vincent shouted, exploding the contraption and leaping out of the ground.

I just need to find a Key Site. I just need to find a Key Site.

If he could just…get AWAY!

Fighting this…thing, was supremely frustrating. There was no direct contact at all. He hadn’t even seen the face of his opponent at all, and he’d certainly never heard of a Lord who relied entirely on traps.

If they could even be called traps anymore. They were more akin to ‘mechanisms’ or ‘machines’, built solely to vex him at lightning speeds underground by a swarm of insects.

His opponent seemed to favor braided steel wires and insects.

The onslaught of whipping wire and ever-shifting blades seemed to be thickest to the North, so Vincent pushed through it, relying on his sturdy body.

Despite his annoying ability to seemingly be everywhere at once, the mysterious trap-Lord couldn’t do enough damage to kill him.

Not nearly enough. The blades and whips only dug a fingernail’s width into his skin, not even straining his regeneration.

And of course, he got a little bit tougher with each of those thousands of strikes. Soon enough even this riot of blades and wires would be nothing more than an annoyance.

But I need to leave. I can’t stay here forever.

Vincent didn’t know how William Oh knew where he was, but the other Lords weren’t far off.

Even with his night-indestructible body, Vincent was vulnerable in other ways. All it took was one Lord with the right Ability and he was done.

Waiting in one place was death.

Which was why…

“GET…OFF…ME!” Vincent shouted, blowing the wires away from himself again, his vision stained red as the simmering frustration bubbled over. He needed to escape and this damned trap-maker was being a complete bastard!

If I find where this host is hiding, I’ll…

I don’t need frustration, it serves no purpose. Vincent thought. subduing the part of the host brain responsible for it with his paralytic mucus.

“FUCK YOU!” Vincent shouted, shoving constraining silk away from himself and detonating a boulder before it could land on him.

Still frustrated, Vincent thought, releasing the weak acid that dissolved the problem area.

Barely a step away and his leg dropped into a hole in the earth for what felt like the thousandth time.

“GAH!” Vincent smashed the earth below him with an uncontrolled feral punch, exploding the stone capturing his leg.

It’s…not working? Why is it not working?

Vincent’s skin broke out in a cold sweat as an uncomfortable squirming sensation filled his guts.

Fear is unnecessary. Vincent thought, dissolving it away.

The sweat and squirming guts grew stronger, burrowing up and paralyzing his lungs as he realized…

It’s not working anymore.

WHY IS IT NOT WORKING!?

In an instant, Vincent realized the problem, but it was far too late.

His scepter that boosted his Resistance was boosting the host’s innards as well. That included the brains.

…I’m trapped. Stuck inside this host.

He could destroy or relinquish the scepter, sure, but the only thing that would do is allow the trapper to render him into a fine paste in the blink of an eye.

The strikes that barely broke the skin now would bisect him in an instant without the scepter. He had to keep it on. The only option now was to escape…while suffering these vile host emotions.

The host’s heart began to beat for the first time Vincent could remember, his lungs gasping for air as the fear spread through his body.

No, no no no no no!

“Afternoon, Will!” Ghoul’s voice called from above. “I hear you’re having quite the day!”

Vincent glanced up and spotted the Lord’s colorful tattered robes through the canopy.

Thwip, thwip thwip.

Vincent heard arrows strike his undead an instant before several more arrows hit his body, barely breaking the surface. Another combatant.

I’m outnumbered four to three. At least.

William Oh, Marksman, this trapmaker, Ghoul…Ghoul is an undead!

With the desperation of a drowning man, Vincent reached out towards the undead Lord with everything he had.

Ghoul changing sides could turn this entire situation around in an instant!

Seize Undead (x200)

322 -> 122 Charge

A massive surge of power flooded out of him and arced towards Ghoul and then…

Nothing. His Ability was scattered to the winds.

“NO!”

Something primal flooded down his spine, gripped his legs and made him turn and bolt away, his body weak and at the same time light as a feather.

Only a few steps later, the ground crumbled under him, revealing a black pit glistening with steel, eager to pull him into the Abyss.

“Get away!” Vincent’ mouth shouted by itself as he laid about wildly with Unliving One, converting the traps to undead before detonating them.

I’m going to get away. I HAVE to get away!

…unknown to Vincent, his feet had stopped moving.

Across the jungle, Will glanced up and spotted the tattered robes of Ghoul as the undead Lord stood in the sky above them, waving.

A thick bundled rope of Miasmatic structures lanced out of the canopy from where Loth was fighting Vincent, shooting up at Ghoul like a snake striking its prey.

Ghoul flared with miasma and the rope was scattered, hundreds of threads dissolving into nothing.

The thread of miasma would’ve been invisible if not for my eyes. I’ve never seen that configuration before though. At least he hasn’t used it on me. It seems related to the Ability he uses to turn the terrain into undead and then blow it up.

A control undead Ability? Will made an educated guess.

Seems optimistic to think he could control Ghoul, but it would be stupid not to try at least once.

Control undead?

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Will habitually stored a sketch of the miasmatic structures in his legend as he turned his attention back to the duo of undead he was faced with.

They were having trouble, as their bodies were slowly filling up with glowing white arrows.

There was an explosion in the distance, and Ghoul swooped down beside Will, chains of miasmatic structures connecting his fingers to spots outside Will’s field of view further out in the forest.

“Oh this?” Ghoul asked, glancing down at his hand. “Just keeping an eye on things. Or a finger, in this case. How’s it going creating an original Ability?”

“It’s only been two weeks.” Will said, shaking his head. “I’m still gathering samples of other Abilities and looking for a solid theme. Although I have some rough ideas.”

“Well, lay ‘em on me.”

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Marksman swept past them and dove into the woods as he chased the two fae away from their position. The archer’s bow was seemingly only a couple feet long. How it accommodated full-size arrows, Will had no idea, but it looked easy to carry.

“Well, the further up I go, the more ridiculous Stats and Abilities get.” Will said. “Something that could disrupt Miasmatic structures to deliver damage directly to the opponent would be good.”

“Gods!” Ghoul said, wiping his hand down his face, crumbling a bit of his nose.

“Simpler, start simpler!” Ghoul said. “Don’t try for the instant win Ability with your first creation. Make something simple, use the experience to design something more complex, and so on. Like a simple magic missile. Just a bead of force that shoots out in a straight line and hits the other guy.”

To demonstrate, Ghoul pointed a finger at a nearby tree and a coin-sized sphere of Charge wrapped in miasma shot out and bored a hole through the tree.

Will jotted it down in his legend.

“When you learn how to create a self-propelled projectile, use that knowledge as a foundation for your next Ability and so on. Or a simple shield, or a simple summon or a simple transmog. Something that only has two to three simple, easy to understand effects. You learn how to make these first so you can add them together later.”

“But…a simple magic missile won’t…cover any of the things I’m missing.” Will mused, reviewing his thought process and discovering the flaws therein.

Will’s rationale: He could already do huge amounts of physical damage just by shooting stuff out of Phantom Hand. He could already fly, create shields out of air, use telekinesis, and light-bending illusions. And all of it for free. Why spend Charge on recreating what would likely be an inferior Ability?

He had truly thought that his first self-made Ability had to be something that was both original and covered an aspect of combat he wasn’t already able to do.

Nobody had said that had to be the case. Creating simple Abilities that contained smaller parts of the finished product he was envisioning was a good way to make tangible steps forward, even if the Abilities were weaker than what he could do normally.

He didn’t have to do it all at once. Only his first Original Spell had to be original, not his first self-made Ability ever.

“Listen. The path of a wizard is mastering creations of ever-expanding size and complexity, but there’s a halfway point where you begin to pare down complexity and size in the pursuit of true mastery. Even I haven’t reached that tipping point yet, but I can see it on the horizon. You on the other hand, need to learn your basics and simply focus on amassing techniques. Start small.”

“Understood.”

Will pointed his finger at the same tree and wrapped miasma around a pocket of charge, sending it shooting forward, but the burrito dissolved before it even made it halfway.