Chapter 373

When the Star Fell (III)

The fight had turned hectic rather quickly--most of the lessons seemed forgotten as the people tried spamming spells as quickly as possible just to get them out, though it hardly worked as U’nul was simply too fast. Even if she still obeyed the laws of aggro, at least on the surface level of things, stray attacks still flew past the tanks and toward the crowd, causing healers a good amount of grief.

Fire slowly began to dominate the area, its chunks turning some of the rock and stone molten-red. Health bars danced the dance of deathly waltz, with Emma being the lead. She desperately chased the tail of the woman, swinging her warhammer with as much force and precision as she could muster, though to very shallow end.

A massive collision with the spear sent her barreling backward, rolling on the ground as her armor cracked. Fixing herself, she ran back up and over, swinging yet again, unperturbed.

U’nul was swift and precise--there was no wasted movements in her actions, and each strike not only directly hurt, but produced discreet shockwaves that had to be sidestepped by most melee attackers. In fact, most of them spent most of the fight just dodging and side-stepping rather than swinging their weapons, leading to quite a few grunts of frustrations and happy swings that led to massive wounds.

The battle tactics had been tossed out of the window completely, and most were relegated to fight by their instincts. Whatever ‘felt right’ was what they did, but the effects weren’t... great. Even ten minutes into the fight, they had barely scratched the health bar. In fact, they’ve had far, far more success the last time they tried the fight.

But U’nul’s sporadic behavior, movement, and shocking freedom ensured that most of them constantly missed their attacks. So much so, in fact, that only about one in ten hits actually landed, and most landed on her armored parts, diminishing the amount of damage dealt considerably.

She spun abruptly, fire heaving from beneath her feet in rings. She pinned the spear under her armpit and thrust at Kramer who, awkwardly, heaved his shield forward and deflected the strike. As he was not properly balanced, the collision sent him rumbling backwards while he waved his arms about, desperately trying to stabilize. At the same time, a sword came flying overhead, burning bright like the sun, prompting Chriss to step in and block it. He, too, was unable to block the entire weight behind the strike, causing him to be tossed aside.

Emma flew in from the side and struck at U’nul, dealing some damage, and drawing her attention away from the two who desperately struggled to recover. Such was the tanking all the while--little perfection in the movesets, little time to showcase what they have learned over the years, and a lot of time spent in recovery after taking a strike directly.

Because of that, however, they quickly learned not to do that--as such, instead of directly taking on the next thrust, Kramer slid his shield against the spear’s side and pushed the strike to the side. While he still took some damage and a few steps back, it was a considerable improvement over being sent backward uncontrollably.

Similarly, Chriss learned to hang back further to avoid the many aftershocks that he was getting caught in, and then when summoned with a task, he was much quicker to respond.

The roles had switched somewhat--in their original plans, Emma was the main tanker, Kramer was secondary, and Chriss was the relief. The natural flow of the battle, however, had tossed those considerations into garbage, turning Kramer into the primary tank, and both Chriss and Emma into reliefs.

Such was the nature of fighting--all the planning had to be changed on the fly due to the unforeseen circumstances that the boss created. Nobody had expected her to be so aggro and to entirely toss aside most of her abilities. Some, though, she still used--but, eerily, it seemed phase-unbound. For instance, she already used Star’s Sigil once, prompting one of the twins to intervene and save the life of an unlucky Mage who was caught unaware.

As though by a bond, the twins kept the poor fella out of the battle forcibly, like a mark of shame almost.

Additionally, the pylons activated automatically rather than through a fight’s mechanic. It felt as though there was no flow to the whole thing, like the fight had been replaced by a bar slaughterfest where no rules applied.

She leaped around the arena like a grasshopper, swiftly striking and retreating, barely leaving any free room for attacking. It was a frustrating ordeal, to say the least, especially for the group that came high and mighty into the arena in want of proving themselves where they faltered before. However, she made it seem as though they haven’t made any progress despite the years of training. Quite frustrating indeed.

**

Cain was in space--a thought he mused about as a wee-old-boy when he dreamed of the distant stars and visiting them aboard the interstellar vessel. As such, most of his ideas on ‘being in space’ didn’t include him, without even a spacesuit, just floating about like a halfway lost puppy.

He used Mana to shield himself, effectively creating a field around him that supported life. The Mana drainage wasn’t too bad, especially because of how quickly he regenerated it, but if he had to fight still while maintaining it, it would become annoying.

It was a... unique experience, to say the least, matched by nothing else, not even ascending the Tower. The man has dreamed, after all, of the stars and the worlds beyond for so long that it had become a genetic imprint, almost, in his psyche. Now, ‘standing’ out and about where only the machines made of metal cradled, made the moment... strange, to say the least. He wasn’t here to sight-see, and yet that was all he did.

There was little else to do surrounded with nothing whilst waiting for the supposed invaders. He could hardly do the math on how to fend them off, not before at least seeing how large and strong their force was. It was annoying, beyond annoying, have to deal with this too, in addition to everything. He’d never heard of literal world wars occurring before, at least not at the scale of a full, all-out invasion.

It seemed such a futile and pointless thing, after all; why planet-hop when the Towers afforded all the resources a world might need? There was no need to starve, what with the access to inexhaustible source of food and water right there, sitting, open to everyone.

He waited for nearly two days before he spotted them--ships beyond count, he realized, causing jitters to crawl over his skin. It was like being in a movie for a moment, bearing witness to something only ever imagined before.

There were hundreds, all relatively similar with a few odd exceptions here and there. Like they had a scope, they zeroed in on him immediately and slowly came to a halt in the front.

Cain’s lips twitched as he fought to suppress a wide grin. It was a strange sensation swelling from within his soul, and one he had difficulty putting into words. As such, he didn’t bother--he simply let it wash over him, sending goosebumps to crawl over his skin.

Shortly after arriving, one of the ships seemed to take lead and, soon after, spit out a figure clad in a thick layer of Mana. It was a humanoid figure, at least, Cain mused, clad in thick, spiked, black armor that made him blend into the surrounding darkness perfectly well enough. The figure had two scabbards strapped to the waist that were dangling about as though in slow motion.

“Here for business or pleasure?” Cain asked, but no response came. He didn’t expect it to--it was entirely unlikely that they understood him, even. Usually, the Tower took care of ‘translating’, even just the rough sentiment. Here, however, it was the genuine ‘first contact’, so to say, and it would be impossible to understand the words.

The man drawing out the two swords from the scabbards, both clad in ebony sheen and slightly curved, spoke louder and clearer than any words could. It was a universal calling, it seemed, to fight, and Cain smiled at the sight. He was being tested by the little peck--rather than going all-out on him from the get-go, they were poking and prodding like it’s an honorable duel.

“Kinda pisses me off,” he mumbled as Mana began to rumble like thunder within him, slowly bleeding into the world outside. “I better teach you a nice lesson then, eh? Yea, let’s go with that. One thing everyone in the universe will always understand... is violence.”