Duel Duet

You have 3 minutes 35 seconds left until you are forcibly removed from this Dancer.

What did you-

“I’ll explain that later. How about you close these wounds first?” Kara said, glancing around her.

Apparently, using External Life Force was not something that this body was used to. As Duel Duet informed her, it penalized her time for using it. Only a few minutes have passed, but Duel Duet's duration went down by two extra minutes than it should have, leaving them at 6:30 minutes. That was then halved when she took full control.

As the outside light began to dwindle, glow vines crawling along sides the tunnel lit her way. A Game prop to make things feasible, surely, as it made no sense for the Undead Giant Ent raid boss to lay down a visible pathway for those trying to kill it.

Urgh. But. Eh, was his response. Fuck. Can you stop movi--

“No. Look at the Song bar.”

Song Bar

Current: 46%

Max: 50%

Walking keeps it going?

“Slows its loss, and not walking, but walking with style.”

Can you not move my butt like that? Nilbog grumbled, but still got to work on mending her flesh.

She felt like her entire body was on fire, the half-hundred cuts brought upon by those pesky thorns throbbing relentlessly. Her HP dropped to 105, and would drop a couple of dozen more before Nilbog could fix everything. She kept humming, keeping the Song going. Being so well accustomed with pain, wounds did little to distract her from activating skills.

Getting up without a single point of damage would have been child’s play for her, but the issue was Duel Duet’s time restriction as well as her Dancer’s incompetence. For her plan to work, she needed for him to gain enough experience to keep himself alive.

And for him to learn a lesson, obviously. His rebelliousness would get them killed at some point.

It certainly was odd, for her to invest in someone so quickly after having nearly died for doing the same thing, but there was no way around it, unfortunately. The way to the top required risks, and as long as she did her job perfectly, the rest will always fall on him to follow through.

His senses were not too bad, if truth be told. His constraints were his mindset. There is little glory for those that simply try to get by instead of attempting to excel.

She noticed her HP stopped increasing. It got up to 103 HP, probably hitting the daily limit of his healing.

The math didn’t add up. Using both Devourer and Shifter, the maximum healing he could do was initially was a 130 from Devourer and 200 from Shifter because of the Constitution change, but he had healed for more than that. Or did the increased Constitution allow Devourerer's limit to increase? Either way, something was up with the math.

It must have had something to do with Bleed Damage, then, possibly his Minor Bleed Resistance. Refilling that type of damage must come at a reduced cost.

4 minutes were left for Life Force Empowerment. They took too much damage, reducing its duration and effects. The repercussions for using it twice in a row would great for this unaccustomed body, but Nilbog was a big boy; he can take the pain. As long as the heart does not stop, they’ll be fine.

The path forward began to branch off, a glow vine separating to light the way for each of the three different tunnels. A maze to delay the hunters who have not invested in any Scouting or Tracking skills. Kara did not need to use a Scouting skill to know that the wrong paths held traps or monsters. Anyone who poured all their time into battle skills deserved to get penalized.

She neared the wall, letting her hand graze over the glow vines as she walked. Closing her eyes, Kara let a small portion drop into the vines, and then blasted it. The Life Force streaked through, separating with the veins. In return, Kara began to sense life forms based on the amount of Life Force they had.

It was a technique learned from how bats used their own Life Force to see. For humans, it was an excellent way to map out foreign territory, though for it to travel long distances a conduit was required, such as closely tied tree roots or even a rope. Any long object worked, really, though organic ones were the best.

The boss monster was up, in the center of the head, it seemed. The glow vines were ultimately connected to his core. Kara took the shortest path.

“Second lesson,” Kara began. “There is always a way. Some are easier, some are harder, but if you’re bright enough, the Game will reward you for it.”

Nilbog did not respond.

Figures. The child had went through so much in such a little period of time it was no wonder he was flustered.

Which reminds me. What did he get from his Soul Trails? I don't see a title.

Kara left that conversation for another time--she could only focus on so many things while maintaining her Death Siren’s Song.

She did a stat check, including Equanimity and Flow, and Time within the tables.

HP

103/200 (+20.2/Hour)

STM

79/140 (+.84/Second)

Overall STM

182/700 (+336/Day)

Life Force

55/156.4 (2.3/Minute)

Energy

110/200 (2.3/Minute)

Equanimity

32/50%

Flow

44%

Duel Duet

3 minutes 30 seconds

Resource management is always a pain. She would have let Nilbog travel the distance, but he hadn't gained the Flow skill. Unless he's sprinting he'll surely lose the rhythm of it.

Duel Duet was extremely limited. The 10-minute duration ticks whenever she would influence her Dancer in anyway, but would not tick if she only watches from inside him. Meaning that, instead of a 10-minute duration, it was a 10-minute combat duration, which was an enormous difference.

If she were to take full control, however, each second that passes by is counted as 2 seconds of combat duration.

Currently, Duel Duet is showing the time left if she were to stay in full control. It was a pain to have the countdown change every time they switched control, but for now, she would make do.

3 minutes and a half was more than enough time to kill a boss.