Chapter 175: Holding Ground

“This is going to get out of hand really fast!” Pyri shouted to Darkshot as she continuously jumped backwards and recast cinderbolts to protect herself. She was able to deflect the strikes of several seekers using the balls of cinders for a few moments at a time before the black hole spell of Mayiera would suck them in.

Seeing her still being effective, though, Mayiera opted to start marching closer to Pyri so that her spells would get absorbed instantaneously.

“I can hold the seekers off, but not if that black hole gets any closer!” She added as she saw Mayiera begin marching forward.

“I’ll keep her away.” Darkshot declared anxiously, followed by a bending of his knees to launch himself forward around an incoming seeker. He maneuvered around the seeker’s thrusted spear to get beside, then behind him, and charged at Mayiera. Mayiera turned her attention to Darkshot and prepared to avoid whatever attack he was planning to do, but wasn’t expecting what he was actually doing - a head-on body tackle. He flipped his longbow over his shoulder before wrapping his arms around Mayiera’s waist and lifting up her light, dark elven body up off of her feet before running towards the edge of the palace’s upper ring where a small, waist high stone wall sat to prevent people from falling off.

Darkshot didn’t stop, though, with the intention of tackling Mayiera off of the side of the platform completely. It was at the last moment of being taken in by Darkshot’s charging attack that Mayiera realized what he was doing, and was forced to cancel her blackhole spell and lower her hands from above her head to grab onto Darkshot’s shoulders. Just as her back was slammed into the wall on the edge of the upper ring, she used her footing and grip on his shoulders to conjure incredible strength, shifting herself to the side and thrusting Darkshot forward, over top of the wall beside her and off of the side of the platform.

Darkshot lost his balance and wasn’t expecting her burst of strength, empowered by her warlock magic, and was caught up in his own charging momentum which she used to do the fling. He still had his grip on her waist, however, and decided at the last second that if he was going to fall, she was coming with him, and held on tight - yanking her over the wall off the side alongside him.

“Darkshot, you idiot!” Pyri shouted as she watched both Mayiera and Darkshot disappear off the side of the upper ring, but she hadn’t time to jump in and try to help him as she was collapsed on by the nearby seekers. It wasn’t just the initial four either, more and more seekers were beginning to join in attacking Pyri as the remaining White Tree guards began to fall to them. They stood no chance against the seekers, due to them still being immune to damage.

Pyri was forced to protect only herself. Even with her incredible spell control, the amount of damage-immune opponents thrusting spears at her was quickly becoming overwhelming.

“I really need to learn some crowd controll spells.” Pyri shouted in frustration just after redirecting two spears that were thrust towards her head.

As Darkshot and Mayiera went into a freefall down towards the bottom of the tree, Mayiera waved her hands outward and stopped their downward motion by shifting into a hover with Darkshot still having his arms wrapped around her waist.

“Let go of me, filth.” Mayiera shouted angrily at him, then released a burst of dark purple energy from her entire body, dealing small amounts of void damage to Darkshot and forcing him off her body and causing him to fall, by himself, down towards the ground.

Darkshot panicked as he felt the air rushing up at him, but quickly pulled out his longbow and looked around for the nearest branch.

“Grappling shot!” Darkshot shouted, firing an arrow that grew a magic rope out of it. The moment the arrow was fired, Darkshot grabbed the rope, even before the arrow had connected to a branch. Once it had, he began swinging to the side and looked up to see Mayiera had lost interest in him and was heading back up using her hovering movement.

Knowing that Pyri would be in trouble if Mayiera got back up top, he desperately looked for a branch for some footing to land on to free up his hands, and found a thin branch nearby below his feet that he swung to.

He managed to land on it within a few seconds, before Mayiera’s slow hovering movement took her far out of his vision, and aimed up at her as quickly as he could.

“Pinning shot!” Darkshot shouted. The arrow flew true, swerving in between the branches up at Mayiera and piercing her leg. It did no damage, but it shot out vines towards the nearby branches and prevented her from moving any further upwards.

“Hrrrraaah?” She turned and glared down at Darkshot with a horrifying stare of pure rage, then looked at the vines. ”Do not get in my way, insect!” She screeched, and Darkshot could tell she was pissed. Not just from her words, but from the giant black ball of energy that she began forming in her right hand, which moments later, shot forth as a void beam not unlike the beams the mosmir voidreavers used.

Darkshot was forced to jump off of the branch he was standing on to avoid the blast as the beam smashed into the branch he’d been standing on, but it was channeled and Mayiera began to swerve the beam to follow him as he began to fall - he needed non-linear movements and fast.

“Grappling shot!” He shouted, firing at another branch and changing his trajectory to swing out of the path of the beam as it began to scorch black energy into the glowing white tree’s branches and trunk.

“Just die!” Mayiera roared, watching him swing to avoid it frustrated her further and she lifted her other hand, beginning to channel a second beam. Sure enough, a moment later, another one had appeared in front of Darkshot as he swung through the air, forcing him to release his grappling shot rope lest he swing straight into it.

His fall after releasing the rope didn’t last long though, as another moderately sized branch waited for his feet below, but he now had two black beams closing in on him from opposite sides as Mayiera remained pinning shotted above him, glaring down with disdain. It was then that Darkshot recalled that they were able to interrupt the voidreaver mosmir by hitting them, and he desperately decided to try that. He pointed an arrow up at Mayiera and shot it out at her head, but she saw it coming and tilted her head to the side to avoid it.

Darkshot, however, was ready for this, and quickly wiggled his fingers to redirect the arrow to swerve around and come at her again from behind, hitting Mayiera in the back of her head.

It had worked, even though the arrow dealt no damage it interrupted the channeling on both of the void beams just as they were about to converge onto him. This caused Mayiera to let out another furious roar as her legs were released free from the pinning shot, due to the duration running out.

“Pinning shot!” Darkshot recast it, and hit her again before she could move.

“You waste my time. You cannot harm me. How long do you plan to scurry around like an insect and get in the way of my lord’s will?” Mayiera snapped at him.

“Oh, I'll be here all day, lady.” Darkshot replied as he bent his knees and gritted his teeth, preparing for whatever attacks Mayiera might throw at him next.

“Be careful, he has incredible speed. He is empowered by dark magic.” Seliolara warned Rakkan as he stood bravely in front of her as her protector. As she spoke, Rakkan began fanning out his echoes in a circle around Kagil’aktos wielding the single longsword, and Snowflake took off into the air with Rakkan’s crossbow wielding echo.

“He’s also immune to damage, so no point trying to deal any.” Rakkan called up, his words directed at Snowflake.

“Whoever you are, this desperate last stand serves to do nothing but waste my time. You cannot stop me.” Kagil’aktos replied as he suddenly dashed forward with an explosion of black void energy around his body. His speed was incredible, but Rakkan’s main body wielding the longsword and spear saw it coming. Having trained with Pyri and the others over the past few months gave him the reaction time needed to parry Kagil’aktos’ incredibly quick attack. Despite this, though, he still took a reduced portion of the damage from the attack.

You take 9,350 void damage.

It was a painfull burning surge of energy that shot through the muscles of his body, but he did his best not to show it and used his other two flanking echoes to grab Kagil’aktos and throw him back away from his main body immediately afterwards, to prevent any follow up attacks.

“Nature’s touch!” Seliolara shouted from behind Rakkan, seeing he’d taken the hit. A wave of green light enveloped Rakkan and healed him up from the damage he’d taken.

“You can keep me alive?”

“As much as my mana allows, yes. But my mana supply is not endless.” Seliolara warned him.

“That’s fine, my friends will be here soon. We just need to hold him back for as long as possible.” Rakkan replied.

“I understand. I will support you with my healing magic.” Seliolara nodded at him with determination.

“You will support nothing, Master of the Tree. Soon, your tree will be no more.” Kagil’aktos jumped in as he raised his left, free hand and released several small orbs of black energy that shot out in random directions. All of them curved around Rakkan and shot right towards Seliolara, but Rakkan quickly used himself and the body of his echoes to block the strikes.

He took a lot of damage from it, but Seliolara reacted by healing him up again by tapping his real body on the shoulder and causing more green magic to swirl around his body. Kagil’aktos saw the attack as a success, though, and prepared to cast it again.

This time, however, the moment the spell began forming in his left hand, a bolt impacted into Kagil’aktos’ shoulder and interrupted him.

“A spell cast, no matter how short the cast time, can be interrupted by a well timed attack. You won’t cast that spell again.” Rakkan glared at him as Kagil’aktos looked up at the echo riding on Snowflake wielding the crossbow, as Snowflake circled them in the air in the small gap between the top of the landing they stood on, and the roots of the tree above them.

“More seekers have breached the Palace.” Krael announced to Aegis, forcing Aegis to look up from the table at the door of the dining room to see that two more seekers were now trying to kill Krael alongside the two corrupt Royal Guards. Krael, despite his skill, was also beginning to take a lot of damage as he attempted to hold back the attacks of four enemies.

“Healing wind. Healing wind. Healing wind.” Aegis cast it on himself, Kur’aktos, and Krael before going back to casting another heal spell on Kur’aktos. He was just barely being kept alive as the red numbers of the poison kept on appearing above his head, and Aegis was getting to half mana.

“Okay, come on. Think.” Aegis said to himself as he looked at the ingredients that Darkshot had bought for him from the alchemist shop. “This is basically every herb and mixture available in this city. Whatever was added to the poison is here in front of me, so therefore the ingredient required for the antidote is here as well.” Aegis thought out loud. “The poison damage matches that of the original poison, so nothing was added to change its potency.” Aegis declared as he looked at Kur’aktos carefully. “Can you tell me how long the poison will last on you?” Aegis asked him.

“No, we do not possess such a skill like you other-worlders.” Kur’aktos replied with a violent cough.

“Then, join my party, fast. Both of you.” Aegis fumbled into his party interface and converted it into a raiding party, then sent party invites to Krael and Kur’aktos.

“What is this?” Kur’aktos replied in confusion.

“Just, accept it. I know you’ve not much experience with other-worlders, but this will allow me to see more information about your poison.” Aegis explained, to which Kur’aktos hesitantly, without moving his arms, somehow accepted the raid invitation and appeared in Aegis’ raid party interface list. Moments later, Krael did the same, and Aegis immediately saw Krael getting low on stamina.

“Aura of beauty.” Aegis released a burst of light to help with Krael’s stamina, then turned to heal Kur’aktos again. Now, with him in his group, Aegis saw just how bad Kur’aktos’ situation had been. He had been jumping between 10% and 20% health repeatedly thanks to Aegis’ heals. Once Aegis saw it, he began spam healing Kur’aktos to try and get him further away from death, managing to get him all the way back up to 50% health in spite of the constant damage intake from the poison.

Once he had him higher, Aegis eyed the poison debuff on Kur’aktos in the interface and saw its duration.

“It's 1 hour, 26 minutes. The original poison only had a duration of one hour. Whatever ingredient Kagil’aktos added, it had the property to increase the poison's duration.” Aegis said to himself as he excitedly eyed the ingredients set out on the table before him.

“Many of these would dilute or ruin the mixture, or increase its potency. I can rule them out. Not this…” Aegis threw a pouch of herbs back into his inventory, “or this. Also can’t be this…” Aegis quickly went over each and every ingredients item card, ruling them out one by one, making sure to heal again in between, as the sound of blades clashing from Krael and the attacking seekers continued to overtake the sound of his voice.

“It’s gotta be one of these three. Depending on the one he used will determine what I need to add to the antidote mixture to make it work on your poison. Do you have any spare antidotes? If so, we can quickly just try all three.” Aegis asked Kur’aktos.

“No, unfortunately I only had time to prepare the one, and I have already consumed it.” Kur’aktos replied.

“Shit.” Aegis groaned as he pulled his own antidote out of his inventory. “I also only prepared one for the original poison. It’ll take too long to make another.”

“That means, you only have one shot at creating the proper antidote?” Kur’aktos confirmed.

“Yeah. If I add the wrong ingredient to this antidote, then it’s game over.” Aegis replied anxiously as the two glanced at each other with knowing nods. “It’s between these three. He either added this,” Aegis motioned to a small brown pouch he’d set on the table with grounded up tiny gray leaves sticking out of the top of it. “Shilgrak weed, or, Terradite,” he motioned to a dull white mushroom with a light blue ring around the base of the mushroom’s head, “Or Haltrey petals.” Aegis pointed at a tiny vial filled with dried black flower petals.

“Terradite has a pungent odor, it carries it into any mixture.” Kur’aktos said as he eyed the three ingredients.

“You’re sure?” Aegis asked him.

“Positive. I am no alchemist, but every child in the city knows the disgusting scent of a Terradite mushroom.” Kur’aktos replied. Aegis healed him again, then leaned forward and took a whiff of the mushroom. Sure enough, it smelt disgustingly similar to rotten food. Then Aegis went and did the same thing with the bottle of wine, and it had no scent at all. “No smell in the wine.” Aegis said.

“Yes, he’d be a fool to use that, I would have noticed it before I took a sip.” Kur’aktos replied.

“Okay.” Aegis reached for the mushroom and added it back to his inventory. “That narrows it down to two. Shilgrak weed, or Haltrey petals.” Aegis said as he looked between the final two ingredients anxiously.

“Then, let us take our chance. Pick one, and fate will decide the rest.” Kur’aktos replied.

“No, medicine isn’t about chance, it’s about informed decisions. There’s got to be a way we can determine which one it was.” Aegis gritted his teeth in frustration as he began glaring intensely at the two ingredients, his mind racing over a possible solution. He was running out of time, though, as he saw his mana dip below 40% from the next set of healing spells he’d cast on Kur’aktos and Krael.

“Reactions.” Aegis said as a thought suddenly popped into his head, sliding the wine glass closer to himself. “Adding more of the same shouldn’t do anything, but there’s a chance that adding something that wasn’t in the original poison might trigger a reaction. It’s a longshot, but,” Aegis said as he grabbed some of the Shilgrak weed and sprinkled it into the wine glass, then stirred it into the mixture.

Nothing happened to the wine, it stayed completely the same color, so Aegis frustratedly turned to the petal vial and opened it, taking a few dried petals out and dropped them into the wine. This time, the red wine began to change it its color to a darker shade of red.

“I know my wine, I would not have drank it if it was that dark. I would’ve noticed darker coloring.” Kur’aktos declared when he saw the color change slightly.

“You and Leonard sound like you would get along.” Aegis smirked as he pulled out a white powder from his inventory in a small bottle. “That means he used Shilgrak weed. Therefor, the ingredient I need to add to make the antidote work is this…” Aegis said as he opened the bottle, then opened the bottle with the antidote in it, and quickly poured in the powder into the antidote. Once in, he closed the antidote vial and shook the mixture, then handed it to Kur’aktos.

“Drink it, it’ll work.” Aegis said confidently.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I’m not just an alchemist, I’m a healer.” Aegis smiled with a look of eager determination. Truthfully, though, Aegis wasn’t 100% sure, and as he watched Kur’aktos pop open the antidote bottle, his heart began to race.

“I’m not sure if he got it right. I’m not an expert on alchemy. Vote in the chat if you guys think Aegis managed to make the correct antidote!” Hae-won shouted anxiously to the audience of 120,000 viewers as she sat on the edge of her seat, leaning forward and staring at the broadcast of Aegis’ stream.

It felt as though time slowed down to a halt, the sound of Krael’s blades echoing faintly in the background as Kur’aktos tipped the antidote vial into his mouth, and made a loud gulping sound as he swallowed the liquid.

Aegis’ eyes went from staring intently to Kur’aktos as he drank it, to staring at Kur’aktos’ name in the interface as his health, finally, stopped dropping. The poison debuff was removed from him.

“I think it worked, my strength, it’s returning to me.” Kur’aktos announced as he stood up straight for the first time since he’d been poisoned.

“Oh thank god. That was a butt clencher.” Hae-won let out a sigh of relief as she looked at the poll she’d created. “And what do you know, 96% of you voted that Aegis got it right. Shame on those 4% doubters.” Hae-won continued.

“I am glad you are better, my Lord, but I could use some help.” Krael shouted as Aegis and Kur’aktos looked up to see that there were now 6 attackers fighting their way into the dining hall.

“Yes. You shall have my help. The seekers will pay for this attack on my life, and this city.” Kur’aktos declared as he drew his blades and stomped forward.

“Right, well,” Aegis gathered up the last of his ingredients into his inventory, then readied his shield to join the fight. “They’re still not taking any damage.” Aegis warned them.

“Good, I can beat them until my anger has subsided, with no remorse.” Kur’aktos growled with determination.

“I assume you have a plan to remove this protection they have placed on themselves?” Krael asked as he deflected several more spear strikes.

“Yeah. Lina and Viella are on their way. It’s all up to them, now.” Aegis replied.