Accidental Reaver

Chapter 210 - 209: Beginning a Banquet

An ice age. Mists thick enough to deflect and kill taunting red sunlight.

Cold, freezing cold. A bitter, blistering blizzard, and an aura even your usual tier 3 could no longer ignore. Errant arctic winds occasionally drifted from the Western Front, reaching out to the center where Annika finished her first battle.

A tierless, tidal rage-driven minotaur froze to death from that single gale, a good twenty feet away from her. Swirling snows, mists, and ice lowered visibility enough that even her Scholar's Wit needed a second to see through it all. She smiled incredulously and settled Cedric against her shoulder, harder to do than usual, all things considered.

Having a Diplomat's corpse on your weapon like a skewer would do that. Shifting a hip out, Annika absorbed the rushing white waters all around her. The nearest fifth of a mile reformed into a flood plain. The Diplomat's ability to be one with lightning ended up being quite the headache for the Defier.

"A tasty experiment." Holding Jovan's partially consumed carcass with her free arm, she said, "My favorite blind blood knight, how could you let something so weak, nearly kill you?"

Unconscious and in a coma, Jovan's tail hung limp. His armor was destroyed, and short lance blunted. Lightning scars criss-crossed his black spotted red fur. Annika applied emergency triage, and her rushing waters stabilized the tora Defier. Blue pulsing regeneration runes integrated into Jovan's heinous wounds. Part of his face was ruined by literal consumption, revealing the skull underneath. Annika butted in on the battle right as Jovan became dinner for the lightning Diplomat.

Deep-rooted past trauma surfaced, and Annika didn't remember that much for about a twenty minute gap in her memory. Considering Scholar's Wit granted perfect memory, her self-preservation must've instituted it, a measure she implanted after years of research. By the time she came to, the Diplomat was impaled on Cedric, and the battle site became an extension of her rising white waters.

The gaping hole in her stomach barely bothered the woman. Elemental water mended it continually. An annoying flesh wound for an elemental human at tier 3, nothing more. The rune warden considered if she should speed up the healing process with further abilities, but her fellow Defier needed it more. Analysis—except in the social arena—was her forte. Bodily understanding. An opponent's habits. Research. Dismantling enemy Domains, techniques, or even Ichor. She earned the Diplomat Slayer title, granted after killing ten by yourself in one lifetime. Group kills never counted for any such title.

Another arctic gale froze and shattered apart all the tide monster weaklings swarming around Annika. She rarely stated it out loud, but anything beneath tier 2 offered no threat. Her subconscious control over elemental water usually took care of such pests automatically. Scholar's Wit, the blue owl imprint on her cheek, did any low level combat calculations with a tempered compartment in her brain, fed by mana. Cedric nudged out of Annika's grasp, peacefully rotating around his owner.

"Lady Annika, the second successful revenge killing this Tide. What is the next task? To dispose of this enemy?" Cedric veered his spearhead toward the growing blizzard's epicenter. "Shall we assist young master Luke? The first Tide proves the most challenging for your fellow Defiers."

Expanding out a ring of rotating runes, Annika infused mana into them. Next, she condensed it down for Jovan's benefit, further stabilizing the comatose tora.

"Lukey is a delight to tease and teach, but…" She put a finger against her cheek and sighed overly dramatically. "Responsibilities come above all else. These family eaters must be eradicated to the root." A thin blue vein bisected the Defier's Insignia on the back of her hand. "One of us breathed their last. Musai is busy, and I can't find Iona or Tanniv. Each probably got dragged into a minor realm."

Abruptly, she glided toward the ramparts, quickly closing the distance. Cedric kept up, gray mana danced around the staff-spear. The lightning Diplomat's corpse withered. Cedric guided the mana into the runes placed upon Jovan, ensuring the Defier survived what should be otherwise fatal damage, even for a tier 3. Used to Annika's way of doing things, he faithfully followed along, as he always would.

Melding into the Silver Black Tower's barrier, Annika stepped onto the wall battlements, disrupting the defenders stationed there. Counter to her rather cold attitude to Jovan's failure, she used slivers of water to place a scared shit less tier 1 warrior into her grasp.

"Bring the most capable healer assigned to the battlements here."

Gulping, the warrior, tried—and failed—to prevent sweat pouring down his face. Setting his jaw, he said, "Defier Annika, our best healer is already swamped with the most critical patients. If he leaves, they'll most certainly die or be converted by the raging Ichor."

"Let them die. None of them are as valuable as Jovan." Annika threw the warrior over the battlements. "Grow a spine down there."

Tapping her foot, she glared at the remaining possible victims to her attention. "I'm waiting."

A pair ran off, calling for the sole tier 3 healer kept back for the defense, any other usually paired with someone out on the central portion of the Tide. An aged monic shaman with yellow cheek runes came to Annika in exasperation. "Defier, I understand Jovan's importance. However, staying away from the patients for any extended length of time will cost lives."

Tossing Jovan at the shaman, Annika ignored the excuse. "Start the ritual. Together, we're going to prevent the Fifth from entering a permanent coma. That outcome is more valuable than the loss of anyone you're overseeing currently."

Aging visibly, the monic shaman interacted with Annika enough in the past to know how to act when this side of her bubbled up. He nodded. A set of four totems came down from the skies, each holding a primal elemental spirit. An improvised medical bed centered under Jovan, no doubt hastily put together by the nearby onlookers.

Discarding the Diplomat corpse still clinging to Cedric's spear shaft, the body crashed into a distant house in Sylen's Southern Quadrant, on the other side of the city. Annika dropped any regard for restraint. She shifted Cedric into his staff form, runic script crawled along the weapon.

"Monstrous trash taken care of. Cedric, we have surgery to perform."

"As you wish, Lady Annika." A mix of rushing white waters, the regeneration rune, and healing mana swirled around the staff.

Given a glare by their temporarily outranked Sergeants, most of the nearby defenders realized a battle was still ongoing. Each returned to their station, firing spells, arrows, and formations into the literal floods of monsters crawling up the walls, or tearing at the gate.

Multiple regenerative methods and stabilizers settled into the partially eaten, comatose Jovan. With preparations put in place, the real work began. Thus, Annika aided the shaman's healing methods, adding her own elements and rune warden spells. Defiers were her family.

And she would never see her family be eaten in front of her again.

Heat died around the Reaver. Arctic winds thickened to the point a sphere formed. Self-sustaining ice powered the blizzard nearby, slowly expanding it. Three elemental marks fed into the elemental mastery, stabilizing the product beyond the norm.

Even for a being at the peak of Expert in Elementalization, this display broke well past those limits. An Elemental would be required to produce and maintain a zone-changing effect like this. Not to mention one growing like a plague, bits of gold fed into the ice age. Warmth helplessly bounced off the glacial cocoon's edges. By now, Luke claimed the outer third of the Western Front for himself.

Of course, that meant all the beings within that section primed their attention on him. Enemy number one. The Reaver would have it no other way. His section plummeted in population anyway. Useless they evacuated to the inner sections of the Western Front, all hunters or otherwise were dead.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

From the original tens of thousands of living creatures in the outer western edge of the battle, be it friend or foe, six still breathed. Five Envoys and one Defier. During the relatively short slaughter, Luke intuitively learned much of Xera's evolution. Sharpness, spell potency, and other expected upgrades powered her.

Nothing took the cake compared to what he glanced at in a gap of the slaughter minutes later. He kited the one flying Envoy, a mutated Darkwood Drake that breathed green life-fire. Another, while unable to truly fly, managed to glide for a considerable period each attempt. An Infernal Balrog with unsettling gold holiness around its brands.

[Essence Resonance]

Xera responds perfectly to your manipulation of essence. Through essence flow, Xera may rotate, spin, cast, cycle, or fly in the air as you will her. If separated from you, Xera can manipulate herself. The connection between you two allows for previously impossible flexibility. The Sword Wand orbits you and returns for its purpose. Resonance amplifies the connection, bringing additional benefits to the Essence Bond enchantments when applied to Xera.

Blessings occasionally came in pairs, and although he lacked the same opportunity to read it over in detail, the Reaver noticed it anyway. Essence Lance broke through to tier 2. The air around them changed, and a thin ring appeared in between the four shards loosely connecting them as they orbited the central lance.

While setting back on the glacial tundra, he allowed an internal observation. Slaughtering all those thousands gifted more than attributes, have I ever upgraded an ability in tier without skill points before? Blade pointed down, Xera stood in the air. The Reaver darted his eyes to each of the five Envoys. This is going to really tax my brain, keeping track of five at once. None of them are an easy target, but…

Out numbered, Luke stuck to his supreme advantages. Namely, superior speed and environmental control. The Ichor inside those creatures made manipulation inside them lackluster, even frost and ice on their skin was partially neutered, but the ground beneath them? Fair game.

Two of the five needed special attention. The feminine Black Satyr Envoy, due to its advanced intelligence and power, plus another that Luke best categorized as a Frost Titan. He gulped from greed when sensing out that Frost Titan. While it was barely affected by his ice element, in the Reaver's eyes, that was the most wonderful thing he'd seen all day.

The titan Envoy has Ice Affinity, I just know it. That slots into the plan perfectly.

Visible metallic echoes resonated out of Xera. Essence Bond's runes crawled around the sword-wand. "We're going all out finally? Smash me hard, and blast me harder. Finally, I can take all you can give!" Blood thirst and excitement intermixed with the sentient artifact.

"Not any other choice. Even for me, five is far too much to handle directly. Time to play this tactically."

The Spectral Heart slowly ramped up in beats per minute. Each time the Reaver allowed the Greed Concept into any of his elemental moves or swings, greed became harder to control. Whispers seemed to brush up at the edges of perception. After he stole another piece of knowledge from the Black Satyr Envoy, it fused with the Greed Concept. Whatever it was, it fed into his understanding, good, but troubling.

Consume. Feed. Eat. Devour. Accompanying those words came images of past engagements he endured on Earth. Bullets flying, often right into a friend or acquaintance's body. Flicking a portion of frost essence, it froze his brain, then the Golden Stigmata dispersed the ill-formed illusion. Dragging his eyes to the far right, a three-winged black and red fairy Envoy suffered a backlash. Compared to the other four Envoys, this one was tiny, three or four feet.

An illusion or magic specialized Envoy. If that's its main ability, then it's one of the best realistically possible match ups I could ask for.

Manipulating Reaver Link, Luke sent a short rundown of his plan and expected next moves to Sooty. Going over the improvised plan, the Reaver shut off any other thinking. If the action wasn't reflexive or preemptive, then it was a luxury he couldn't afford. Keeping each of the five Envoy's positions in mind through direct sight and the Mist Shroud, Luke sliced a darkwood tree thrown at him. Xera carved into it, frost seeped in, and blasted it apart. Jumping back into the air, he flipped right past a set of jaws aiming to bite into his flesh.

Landing onto the Lifefire Drake's head, he grunted, a golden ice smothered Xera ripped into the beast's skull. The Greed Concept fed off the Ichor's white aura, rushing into the new wound. A furious, pained roar rang throughout the blizzard. Confirming the attribute growth feedback, the Reaver reformed Xera into a wand, an orb of black and gold essence shattered, applying Ruinous Echo to the five Envoys. Pillars of fire rained. Hulking ice constructions aimed to smother, and black wood snaked toward him. Illusions whispered, broken near immediately. Still, they interfered with his senses for a fraction of a moment, deadly in a fight at this level.

Appearing in a black blur, the Satyr Envoy swiped its claws. Shifting his body, Luke dodged, except for the tips of claws. Poison seeped in, expelled the next instant by frost extraction. Funneling the strength attribute, Luke whipped in the air, a pinpoint kick landed in the Satyr's face, crashing it back down. An Essence Fissure spawned over it, adding to the already debilitating frost and pressing it down into the tundra, compacting layers upon layers of permafrost. At the first sign of struggle, the elemental shifted the frost to the Satyr's less precious left leg, ripping it to shredded fur and muscle.

Lightning sparked across living ice, streaking away from the Lifefire Drake's snapping jaws. Sooty worked in tandem with her Shadow Wing to occupy the Frost Titan. Its abilities were a summer's breeze to her. While she lacked the ability to seriously harm it enough to overwhelm the Ichor's regeneration, the corvid was fully capable of keeping it busy. Snow blasted apart, then billowed up. A creature of greed landed next to the fairy Envoy. A twin Essence Lance detonated in midair between Luke and the Infernal Balrog hot on his heels. Ice glaciated onto the monster's skin, cracking apart soon after, and pulsing magma burst it apart. Xera came down with arctic winds and golden glares like a guillotine, slicing into the fairy. Reaver essence danced back onto the blade, Essence Bond's runes crawled up her wielder's forearms, then the ability branded onto the fairy. A demonic screech came from it, dripped in illusion. Swooping down, the Lifefire Drake breathed green flames from its gullet.

Blitzing away, the Reaver smashed one fist into the fairy. It crash landed into the Frost Titan. Triple Step innervated the Defier's vessel, arcing winds expelled from his soles. He reached the Frost Titan, perfectly in sync with Sooty, the two alternated in a deadly combination, keeping the both Envoys out their comfort zone. A black forest matured in an instant around the four, encasing them, roses wrapped around Luke, trying to suffocate him. Sooty dipped back into the shadows, free of any control effects.

Chortling to itself, the Satyr landed a kick on the Reaver. Taking advantage of the contact before the vines and roses ripped away, Luke placed a frosting Siphon mark on the extended monstrous leg. Sooty arose from the Satyr's shadow, applying her rotation of abilities in rapid motion, then Essence Screeched them to all the Envoys except for the Lifefire Drake due to its altitude. Luke unleashed Xera as he bounced off towards the east.

"Humans. So fragile, weightless, and weak." The Envoy gloated before Xera curved around in the air, thrusting herself through one of the creature's hearts. Black blood spurted out, but it merely laughed again. "Much harder to kill me than that, metal toy."

Sliding back out, Xera carved into the Satyr while avoiding the Frost Titan and Balrog. The Fairy's illusions, while incredibly dangerous on a mass scale, were effectively nullified on the cursed Artifact. Sooty dipped from one shadow to another, applying Vorpal Touch, and distracted the three of the lesser Envoys, their lack of intelligence a flaw the Reaver and crow team purposely took full advantage of. Slapping into a hastily formed hillock of snow, Luke dove to the side after, avoiding the Lifefire Drake's snapping bite. Hardening ice on his right hand, gold capped the tips. Still moving across in the air, Luke detonated ice on himself for counterforce. Curving back toward the Drake Envoy, the Reaver jammed the frosted claw into its eye, golden rime corralled into the exposed organ, literally ripping the entire thing out.

White and green blood spilled onto the side of Luke's face. Propping a hand into the side of the draconic head, he vaulted back, using frost patches on himself to avoid the Balrog's flaming whip. Not all the way successful, unfortunately, as a piece of his lower leg seared and bubbled, ambient snow packed against it, reforming the injury quickly. Taking advantage of being airborne, Luke sought to increase his sorely lacking power.

With a mental command, he perished some skill points, upgrading Essence Bond, Roll of the Reaver Siphon, and Essence Fissure to tier 2, and Withering Echo to tier 1. He hoped to have naturally upgraded them by now, with the extended combat. Things never went as planned, with only Essence Lance achieving that. In no situation to read over the changes, he relied on intuition, and plain trial and error to integrate the surely numerous variations to the upgraded abilities.

Pushing his right hand out, Xera landed in it. Luke slithered underneath a frosted arm that swatted at him. Gracefully sliding in the thick snow, the Reaver stood upright on the tundra—a tiny figure before the towering titan. It summoned a tremendously gigantic axe, a construct of pure whitened ice. Howling blasts fruitlessly brushed against the ice elemental human. Sooty already switched her efforts to the Satyr Envoy, buying her Reaver some time to face off against the Frost Titan without its interference. The Fairy Envoy hid away in the tundra, casting illusions and seething rain. Since this entire section of terrain was under his influence, he knew exactly where it actually was.

Let it believe itself safe. It's the least effective Envoy out of them all, anyway.

Swinging Xera to the side in a blistering arc, a frosting-gold essence arc ate into the Infernal Balrog gliding toward him. A different kind of cold, accompanied by a drop in pressure, ate into the space surrounding Luke and the Frost Titan. Gold-blue eyes set on the Titan's glacial body, roaming over them like glorious art. One of the two 'keys' he designated to potentially breaking out of the deadlock, a breathing bag of Ice Affinity to steal from. And a three-winged small fairy Envoy that gullibly believed its tools were effective against him. With experience, Luke further internalized what adding the Greed Concept to his Elementalization actually did. While far from able to constantly inject it, when it was present, it turned the frost into a literal plague. It stole ambient ether, other sources of elements or resources like mana, to grow itself, free of cost to him. For a time, that's all he thought it did, nothing to sneeze at. Sometime ago, during the fight, as he slaughtered thousands of weaker monsters mainly through the use of the frost element, he made another discovery. Anytime he created 'gold ice'—basically any frost element creation with the Greed Concept applied—it possessed the ability to steal attributes for the Reaver, and did so often.

Mixing that discovery into the plan, a golden pulse followed the concentrated blizzard barely affecting the Frost Titan. Gold crept into the previously pristine blue-white ice and frost, rushing against the Envoy. Luke calculated the Frost Titan possessed the highest vitality once he accounted for its natural resistance against Ice Elementalization. He discarded the immediate goal to kill it.

No, this thing served one purpose: to make him strong enough to kill the other Envoys. Their regeneration, backed by Ichor, baffled and challenged the usual methods. Any insidious, slower styles proved useless against them, unless you negated their ichorous healing entirely. While his frost slowed it down, a one hundred percent denial was a pipe dream. The Reaver's use of greed twisted that into an opportunity instead of a problem.

Envoys, in effect, were extremely high attribute monsters blessed with varying amounts of Ichor, or what he believed to be their own weak Divinity. From a cursory scan, Luke pinpointed the Black Satyr possessing the most by an order of magnitude, followed by this Frost Titan. He really couldn't ask for a better situation, assuming he kept breathing through it.

Flecks of gold dragged into the usually invisible ether, melding into the Sin, each one an attribute. The blizzard heightened in potency. Luke's command over frost increased by the second as ice affinity and frost resistance drained from the Frost Titan Envoy. From an outside perspective, an outsider would be forgiven for thinking things devolved into a battle between one monster and five others.

After all, neither side was human anymore. A confrontation between what this world designated as unholy and blessed.