Universe's End

Chapter 195: Guardian of the Seventh Peak Pt. 1

"Oh, the memories," Rory said as he looked around, taking in the sight of where he'd had his final battle with his bane during tier six.

He was back and ready for the final round of tier seven.

All his preparations were ready, which was to say not many, wanting to avoid giving his bane a reason to provide clearance to sucker punch him tier eight.

The only thing he had prepared was a sash tied around his forehead and covering his ears. It was hardly a masterwork, just a simple fabric with some quick-and-dirty inscriptions woven into it. It probably wouldn't survive the end of the fight, but then it was only needed for this fight alone.

Alright, anything else?

In front of him was a bound circle with a few inscriptions hastily scrawled around. It had taken him perhaps fifteen seconds to plan out exactly the runes needed, as his bane's ability to spatial warp meant that, really, he was sending out a "I'm here" beacon more than anything.

Stepping away from the ring, Rory gave one last look around before shrugging and snapping his fingers once.

It was all that was needed, his intent 'activating' the runes. One second passed, then two, until, nearly ten seconds later, it was as if the air itself were being pulled apart like a curtain, an endless inky-black maw opened from which a familiar monster stepped out.

It had once again failed to change forms, still appearing as some demonic fusion of bat and aye-aye.

"Yo," Rory said. "Been a bit."

As he spoke, Rory took a stance, one not familiar to his typical style, as his aura began to grow before stabilizing.

His bane watched him intently for several seconds, only to look puzzled as his aura stabilized lower than what he could have pushed it to.

"What, you want me to go full force from the start?" Rory asked, still holding the stance, stolen from a certain Ms. Rong.

His bane let out a sound, which Rory pegged as its version of a dark laughter, a sinister, monstrous smile spreading across its face as it took up a 'stance' of its own, raising its spindly arms and long, talon fingers.

It wasn't just a battle to best his bane; it was as much a test of his own growth, proof of his endeavors throughout tier seven, and thus, Rory wanted to pace things out.

Taking the first move, the Architect's Bane shot forward, flickering about with its familiar teleportation.

Never rushing, Rory swept one foot forward, trailing through the dust on the ground as his arms came together almost as if he were about to hug someone.

It was only at the last second that the elbow of his upper arm snapped back at the exact moment his lower arm shot forward, a palm strike into thin air.

Or what was thin air, the bane teleporting in front of Rory at the exact moment his palm struck out.

Instantly, his bane was launched back, tumbling once, then twice, before teleporting onto its feet, looking at Rory strangely.

"Oof," Rory muttered, shaking out his palm and arm. "Not bad, Ms. Rong."

Having watched Kai Rong fight during the tournament, there had been a few moves that she'd pulled out that Rory had figured he'd probably be able to replicate; the principles were relatively straightforward when you had a magical eye skill that made it easy to follow the flow of energy.

The instant circulation and explosive force of pneuma through the strike was potent, but by golly did it hurt.

Makes sense, I don't have her body or her rings, which facilitate that style of fighting.

Not done with his plagiarism just yet, Rory waited for his bane to attack again, slashing out with its claws.

Bringing his hands together as if in prayer, Rory circulated the flow of pneuma through his body, only a single loop did he feel comfortable with, as he struck out again with the instant explosive strike. Palm striking the joint of its arm, Rory redirected its slashing blow, as Rory pivoted on the balls of his feet, sweeping through the air the same flying roundhouse kick that Kai Rong had been quite the fan of during her tournament run.

The strike landed true, cracking into the bane's head as Rory landed back on two feet. Unlike the opponents Kai Rong had faced, the kick did not badly hurt the bane; instead, it simply grinned its monstrous grin, as if having fun.

Dropping Kai Rong's stance, Rory switched to more of a boxer's stance, dodging and weaving around a flurry of talon strikes, his fists darting out and slamming into its hard body.

The exchange visually was impressive, but neither Rory nor his bane had turned the volume up anywhere near serious yet.

Twenty percent.

Aura spiking, the next time Rory clashed with the bane, his style had changed once again, now a much more grapple-intensive style that he'd lifted from Apostolos long ago, whose hand-to-hand combat often favored grapples due to his weapon of choice, his trusty war scythe, using its scythe head almost like a hook at times.

While typically grappling with something larger than you and stronger than you wasn't the wisest of ideas, for Rory, he managed to pull it off several times, managing to dart into the effective swipe range of the bane and restrain an arm for long enough to throw in a strike into the side.

Swapping between styles for several minutes longer, their speed and power continued to accelerate, until separating after their most recent clash, Rory felt as if his entire body was vibrating, rung like a bell.

Alright, my body isn't physically built to keep up like this in a direct hand-to-hand.

Doing what he could have done far sooner, a pair of curved twin blades appeared in each hand. One was the length of a regular sword, a simple falchion, whereas the other was only around half the length, a main gauche.

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The bane seemed to snicker as its claws glowed with acidic orange light.

Well, that's a little new. Not an adaptation, more so just an application of its old acid.

Having a solid suspicion of what was about to occur, it didn't stop Rory from driving forward with a twin-bladed flurry, claws clashing against blade one after another. No longer using his body as a weapon, the vibrations through his body lessened even as the speed and ferocity intensified, growing by the second.

In the end, it was Rory who was forced back first when his blades, made of inverted steel, gave out.

Yeah, damn.

Clad in corroding acid, with each impact, the bane's claws chewed into the metal. Having not wanted to waste his limited stockpile of promethium on generic weapons, the swords had been made of the much softer inverted steel, and this was the result.

Ehh, not like I mind.

Rory wasn't much of a sword fighter. With his cognition and eye skills, it wasn't hard to snag other people's fighting styles, but genuine sword fighters were surprisingly rare.

Probably because when it comes to weapons, spears are just easier to use. Ehh, I gave it my best.

Swords destroyed, a noxious-smelling mess of corroded and melted metal, Rory tossed them aside as a new weapon appeared, an oversized hatchet in one hand and a small buckler shield in the other.

Raising the hatchet overhead, energy began to gather as Rory copied yet another move.

Technically, it's more of a recreation than a copy, since he used a skill for this.

He was, of course, referring to competitor Harrison's lunar magic-infused axe. While Rory wasn't that good as to be able to replicate affinities after only seeing them once, there were plenty of other affinities he'd grown skilled with over the years.

When the hatchet swung down, a line of heavenly energy shot forward like a spiked whip, crackling loops of energized electricity arcing from the main fork of heavenly lightning, before ripping into the bane.

Well, 'ripped' was perhaps generous. The Architect Bane took the strike of heavenly energy as if it were a nice warm-up, its muscles flexing through the shock before shaking once and dispelling the magic.

Returning the favor, the bane swept out with its claws, streaks of orange light racing forward. It reminded Rory of the magical blight blades that blight commanders enjoyed spamming, except far more dangerous.

While the smart move was to move out of the way, Rory opted to stand in place, flaring his aura as it struck his chest directly.

Most other armors would have found themselves beginning to fizzle and hiss with acrid smoke. Still, his armor, made of some serious quality materials and empowered by his own aura, absorbed the attack without degradation.

"Not bad, ehh?" Rory couldn't help but throw a taunt back at his bane.

In response, the bane lifted its hand, savagely long talons pointed straight up, then flicked them down in his direction, as globes of orange light appeared, only to elongate and shoot forward like streaks of acid light.

Right, guess we're no longer limiting magic output.

Retaliating, Rory whipped a hand forward as green lights flickered into existence, taking shape as they streaked through the air, only to collide with the orange lights in small explosions.

Seeing its acid magic thwarted, the bane opened its mouth as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

Not taking that one!

A beam of null light shot forward, as Rory dodged and rolled, narrowly avoiding the paradoxical space magic.

No way. That felt a bit like my paradox bomb. Did it figure that out on its own? Or because I did that once, did it also learn a similar style of magic?

Whatever the case, Rory was reasonably certain it wasn't magic that his bane could freely spam. It was still far weaker than his paradox bomb, but it also wasn't blowing up in a self-destructing nuke, so it had that going for it.

Well, fair is fair.

Not wanting to be outdone, Rory raised his hand to his mouth, recalling exactly how competitor Flair channeled flames. Straight channeling fire in the exact same fashion wouldn't work for Rory; again, he wasn't all that practiced with fire magic, but if he added his blood affinity into the mix?

A column of crimson blood fire raced out from his funneled hand, instantly swallowing up some of the orange lights that had continued to fly toward Rory. Exposed to alchemical blood flame, the acid magic was torn apart. Damage-wise, they wouldn't do much to something as durable as a bane, but it was great for extinguishing opposing magic.

Blocking his own view with the outrushing flames, Rory was taken off guard as the bane suddenly appeared directly in front of him, raising his shield just in time as it backhanded him, sending him flying away like a launched pebble skipping across a placid sea.

Except, it wasn't water he was bouncing across, but hard-packed stone.

"Fucker," Rory muttered when he managed to get his feet under himself once more and shot back up, using the momentum to his advantage. "Turned the dial up a good bit with that hit."

Not that he was surprised, his bane was hardly one to play fair.

Fighting around fifty or sixty percent speed, that strike felt more like it had been instantly turned up to seventy or eighty percent.

"Fine then," Tossing his hands aside, the shield and axe vanished, a staff held instead. It was the one weapon he hadn't destroyed in the fight against the Blight Khan, and swinging it downward, arcs of regular lightning raced forward. As fast as lightning was, even a tier seven shouldn't have been able to dodge it, but the bane flickered out of existence the moment it had seen Rory swing the staff down, dodging the lightning by nature of moving before it ever appeared.

Continuing to blast away with lightning, the bane was forced onto the back foot. While Rory had its teleportation timings down to a T, regardless of how seemingly erratic and random it might appear to others, that didn't mean he knew where the bane was about to appear, especially when it was fighting defensively.

It's a little unusual for it to take such a cautious- oh god damn it, I'm stupid.

Catching on, Rory dodged back as the bane suddenly appeared in front of him with its most recent space jump. With lightning, he could have blasted it faster than it could ever hope to react.

But, because of the recent barrage of lightning Rory had just sent down range at the bane, the immediate area had been depleted of ionic charge to easily build up any lightning magic, slowing down the cast speed if he attempted to brute force it, until the charge was replenished from further away.

While Rory avoided shredding his face, a single talon managed to slice a thin line through his forehead as blood began to spill.

"First blood goes to you, I guess," Rory muttered angrily. It had been his fault. Lightning was one of the more powerful basic elements, but it had the downside of depleting itself from overuse.

New plan.

Slamming his foot down and punching forward, a stone spike speared upward, catching the bane by surprise as it had expected an actual projectile attack. Only as thick as his arm, the stone spear stabbed through its leg, acidic orange blood melting the stone as it tore free, glaring at Rory.

"Tit for tat," Rory said cooly.

More stone spikes began to shoot upward, the very ground beneath it turning into an enemy as the bane began flickering about, teleporting away from the spikes before they could wound it more.

Holding his staff straight out, Rory sighted the monster as magic built up, metal earth elements rising and forming several 'rings' around the staff, sparks dancing around the semi-solid rings as a small red item appeared, looking like an elongated bullet. Withdrawn from his inventory, Rory 'chambered' the promethium bullet above his staff, still building up the magic as a second mental thread continued to focus entirely on keeping the bane busy with a forest of stone spikes attempting to skewer it.

Two can play at that game.

Rory was, of course, referring to the sudden spike in fight intensity. The magic Rory was building up was one he had used once before to significant effect against a real tier eight. Waiting until the opportunity arose in its flicker sequence, where its teleportation was on cooldown for a longer stretch, Rory finally released the magic as the promethium rail shot forward at hypersonic speeds, striking straight through its chest.

The bane screeched, before recovering and turning to once more glare at Rory, all signs of 'fun' gone from its eyes.

Well, that probably means playtime is over.

The real fight started now.