Chapter 869 Brawl

Ilea stayed in her ashen chair, sitting within the crater slowly filling up with murky water and blood. She looked through her skills and checked her Core skill point options.

Core Skill Points available: 103

[3rd tier Class Skill Point]
[Stat Gain]
[Skill Boost]
[Add Class Modifier]
[Skill Enhancement]
[4th Tier General Skill]
[Derivative General Skill]
[Mythical Title]

[4th Tier General Skill] – [Unlock a single 4th Tier General Skill point. This option can be chosen only once – Cost: 100]

Here it is.

She had the points. And spent them.

Name: Ilea Spears
Mythical Title: The Untainted

Unspent statpoints: 220
Unspent Core skill points: 3
Unspent 4th tier skill point: 0
Unspent 3rd tier General skill points [3257 Total skill levels]: 1
Unspent 4th tier General skill point: 1

Just one.

She wondered if there would ever be an option to unlock more of them. Perhaps, though with what she knew right now, she had to make her choice.

And only one of them felt right.

‘ding’ ‘Meditation reaches the 4th tier’

Meditation – 4th tier
While in the state of meditation you cannot move. Your natural mana and stamina regeneration is increased by a factor of 510%. The factor is improved upon leveling up the skill.
2nd stage: Your familiarity with Meditation lets you move slowly while the skill is active
3rd stage: Few ever reach this stage, normally through centuries of study and meditation. You have stood amidst death, trusting the flow of mana to be at your side. Vast experience and understanding has changed your very core. The effects of Wisdom are doubled. Meditation is no longer limited by movement.
4th tier: What others may reach only through millennia of introspection, you have found in the face of your enemies. You have fought absorbing and channeling spells meant to destroy you, have thrived in environments where the arcane was all present. You have pushed your every cell and very essence to the limit of what your magic can provide, and then beyond. You have seen and survived the grand spells cast by beings of legend, you have absorbed from their mana, have trained your resistances to match their prowess. Not a tree growing through centuries, but metal heated and struck, into the pinnacle of the arcane. Through the Fourth tier, your very core yet again is struck and molded. To face the path that you have chosen.
- The Fourth Tier allows you to enter a state of perfect synergy with the arcane for a maximum of 100 seconds [0/100]. This ability will recharge one second for every hour spent with Meditation active, and five seconds for every hour spent in motionless focused meditation.
While you are in perfect synergy, all remaining spell costs are reduced by 75% and you are immune to any averse effects caused by channeling extensive amounts of mana through your body.

Ilea read through the additions while holding her breath. She summoned another bottle and opened it. Now this is situational. Ridiculous while active, but the recharge time is a lot. Can’t really use it more than once in a fight. And even then, I mean I guess I can pretty much cast as many spells as I want, but getting hit is still an issue. Or can I just activate it for five seconds at a time?

The lack of averse effects, if that applies to the damage taken from my other fourth tier spell, then I suppose it would allow me to stay in there for much longer. And the cooldown of Reconstruction applies still, twice as long as I was in there.

And what does seventy five percent of remaining spell cost mean? So I guess the spells can’t be fully free, but the reduction is applied after any other reductions?

For anyone with really big spenders, the addition of this Fourth tier would’ve been insanely valuable, but her most expensive spell remained Archon Strike, and she still had to hit with it. With her Reconstruction Fourth tier already doubling mana regeneration and absorption, coupled with all the absorption from Sentinel Core, she rarely ran into major mana problems.

Even against the Oracle, the main issue was the damage she took during her Fourth Tier usage.

But I suppose I’d have insane burst damage while it’s active. I could go all out, for one hundred seconds, all while using my other Fourth tier for the full duration.

She would have to test it, see how it applied, how different the reduction felt, and how much additional burst damage she could get in with her high cost intrusion abilities. On paper it was great, but she worried about applications in a practical fight. For the Oracle she had just killed, it would’ve been insanely useful before reaching the mist realm. After that, not quite as much as she would have had to avoid enemy strikes anyway.

Upgrade is an upgrade, she finally thought and checked through her status, allocating her two hundred and twenty stat points into Intelligence. If her resources weren’t as much of a problem, she decided she may as well hit harder.

Name: Ilea Spears
Mythical Title: The Untainted

Unspent statpoints: 0
Unspent Core skill points: 3
Unspent 4th tier skill point: 0
Unspent 3rd tier General skill points [3258 Total skill levels]: 1
Unspent 4th tier General skill point: 0

Class 1: The Arcane Eternal – lvl 841

- Active: Archon Strike [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Sentinel Reconstruction [Enhanced] – 4th tier
- Active: Azarinth Awakening [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Transfer [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Arcane Dominion [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Sentinel Core [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Brawling [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Huntress [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Sight [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Arcane Circulation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 2: The Ashen Titan – lvl 835

- Active: Mantle of the Titan [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Titan Core [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Origin of Ash and Embers [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Embered Heart [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Tempered Seal [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Authority of Ash and Ember [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Ashen Wings [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Vision of Ash [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Avatar of Ash [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Embered Form [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 3: The Primordial Arbiter – lvl 834

- Active: Primordial Shift [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Fires of Creation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Fabric Tear [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Reality Warp [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Primordial Flesh [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Space Manipulation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

General Skills:

- Ashen Limbs – 3rd lvl 10
- Azarinth Barrier [Mythic] – 3rd lvl 30
- Bulwark of Ash – 3rd lvl 21
- Dancing – lvl 14
- Deviant of Humanity – 3rd lvl 30
- Drill – 2nd lvl 3
- Elos Standard language - lvl 7
- English Language – lvl 15
- Gourmet – lvl 18
- Harmony of the Drowned – 2nd lvl 3
- Heavy Archery – lvl 12
- Identify - 2nd lvl 11
- Meditation – 4th tier
- Minor Earth Manipulation – 2nd lvl 6
- Minor Ice Manipulation – 2nd lvl 2
- Minor Lava Manipulation – 2nd lvl 12
- Monster Hunter – 3rd lvl 30
- Monstrous – 2nd lvl 20
- Oxygen Repository – 2nd lvl 20
- Sage of Torment – 2nd lvl 20
- Soul Perception – 2nd lvl 14
- Spear of Ash – 3rd lvl 13
- Star Touched – lvl 5
- Teaching – lvl 18
- Telepathy – 2nd lvl 1
- Veteran – 3rd lvl 30
- Warhammer Mastery – 2nd lvl 20

- Arcane Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Ash Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 11
- Astral Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 15
- Blast Resistance – 3rd lvl 28
- Blight Resistance – 2nd lvl 8
- Blood Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 22
- Blood Manipulation Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Bone Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Corrosion Resistance – 3rd lvl 2
- Crystal Resistance – 3rd lvl 4
- Curse Resistance - 3rd lvl 27
- Dark Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 17
- Death Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Devour Resistance – 2nd lvl 8
- Diamond Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 6
- Divination Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Dust Magic Resistance – lvl 17
- Earth Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Emerald Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 5
- Fear Resistance – 2nd lvl 10
- Flesh Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Gold Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Gravity Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Health Drain Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Heat Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Ice Resistance – 3rd lvl 18
- Lava Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 13
- Light Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 26
- Lightning Resistance – 3rd lvl 23
- Mana Drain Resistance – 3rd lvl 8
- Mental Resistance – 3rd lvl 28
- Mist Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 15
- Obsidian Magic Resistance – lvl 3
- Pain Tolerance – 3rd lvl 5
- Petrification Resistance – 2nd lvl 3
- Poison Resistance – 3rd lvl 6
- Rot Resistance – 3rd lvl 6
- Ruby Magic Resistance – lvl 18
- Sand Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Sapphire Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Shadow Magic Resistance – lvl 19
- Silver Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 1
- Smoke Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 7
- Soul Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 11
- Sound Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Space Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 29
- Stamina Drain Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Time Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Topaz Magic Resistance – lvl 20
- Vine Magic Resistance – lvl 14
- Void Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Water Resistance – 3rd lvl 15
- Wind Resistance – 3rd lvl 23
- Wood Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 18

Status:

Vitality:                 3000
Endurance:                 600
Strength:                600
Dexterity:                600
Intelligence:                2846
Wisdom:                2700

Health:                 114000/114000
Stamina:                 5997/6000
Mana:                 130183/162000

Number two down. And I’m getting closer to a third.

Ilea smiled and stood up. She raised her hand towards the hammer, a few silver threads extending before it moved itself into her hand. Her copies, she dissolved, happy to deal with any monsters herself.

She aimed for the general direction of the pulse she had felt and started flying. After a few minutes, she noted the complete absence of mist within the marshes.

Right. Rid the marshes of the endless mists. Suppose the environment is a tiny bit less hostile now, murder ravens, crocodiles, and frenzied elven monsters aside. Oh and the swamp itself attacking anyone in it.

I do wonder why the roots came for me back over that pond.

She flew for a while until she came upon a few fighting Dread Beasts. All of them were below level three hundred, wounds all over their bodies as they continued to slash each other with their blood magic. Bone and flesh magic too, she thought as she landed near the four injured creatures.

Ilea was most interested in the strange healing magic manifesting from their vicinity. She could tell the magic didn’t come from the Dread Beasts themselves, but she couldn’t make out the source either. Maybe the swamp itself? Just like it attacks creatures, it heals them?

She didn’t have to wait long for the creatures to notice her presence.

They turned and rushed at her, focusing on the human instead of each other.

Silent Memory cut through them in mere instants.

Again, Ilea could feel the pulse, already as the chunks of flesh hit the muddy ground with wet impacts. But something else followed.

A scream.

Distant, and blood-curdling. Barely audible were it not for her enhanced senses.

Ilea spread her ash and fire, even her Fourth Tier flaring to life at the feeling evoked by the scream. She wondered what it would’ve done to her without Veteran in the second tier. She felt on edge, the hair on her arms and neck standing up as she waited.

Taking in a deep breath, she checked her surroundings and waited for a moment longer. Nothing came for her, and so she deactivated her abilities again.

Same direction.

The pulse and the scream.

Guess I found my next enemy.

She spread her wings and flew in the direction of the scream. I won’t be scared by you. Nor anything else.

Ilea flew until she came upon a massive clearing in the marsh. No trees reached here and the earth smelled foul, wet with blood, the scent of iron heavy in the air. She saw Dread Beasts stumbling nearby, the first starting to notice her. Beyond she saw a small lake, unlike anything she had seen in the marshes or beyond. Blood red and still. For but a moment.

A pulse thrummed from within the lake, dense magic spreading out as a ripple moved over the surface. A few seconds passed and another one followed, the same thrum resounding. It repeated every few seconds.

Groans from nearby made Ilea turn towards the Dread Beasts, the first of them running her way. Silver threads rushed out and cut into the creature, bone armor appearing on its injured skin, blocking the attack before it rushed onward, spikes of bone pushing out of its hands.

Ilea raised her brows as her ashen limbs spread out.

[Dread Beast – lvl 783]

Well.

She met the creature, ash scraping against bone before it reached her. Bone dug into her ash as her punch slammed into its chest, Archon Strike and Tempered Seal flashing up and into the elf like monster. Blood and bone exploded out of its back, the skin knitting back together as bone spikes shot out of the ground.

Ilea teleported up, her wings spread as she summoned barriers before her, various projectiles of blood and bone crashing into the defense, the shields holding up. She saw a few of the monsters take flight with flesh or blood wings exploding out of their backs, screeches and hisses resounding.

Ilea let go of her hammer, silver threads spreading out as it fell into the heap of monsters, a dozen already present, all of them at a far higher level than those she had seen before. She summoned a few dozen ashen spears and sent them down, piercing skin and flesh, skewering the monsters into the blood soaked earth. But again she felt the same healing magic from before, far more potent, far closer, even the most heavily injured creatures healed in mere moments.

This time she could feel the source, glancing at the still thrumming lake.

Silver threads entangled with blood whips, bone saws, and meshes of flesh growths, neither able to destroy the other.

“Is somebody there? Can you talk to me?” she called out as heat gathered in her core, the Dread Beasts below mostly entangled with her hammer. A few managed to disengage and went for her instead. She tried with telepathy but neither elicited a response.

She caught the closest monster attacking her, ignoring the crude blood magic sword cutting into her mantle. Charging her Archon Strike, she held the struggling creature with her ashen limbs and finally punched its head, the internal explosion of destructive mana made its skull whip back with an explosion of flesh, bone, and brain, splattering down with the body going limp.

She heard the sound in her mind when a scream came from the lake itself. Loud and present, invading her mind with unhinged fury, and horror. Ilea reeled back as her ash defended her against the Dread Beasts that reached her, their magic scraping into the first few layers of her mantle, the wounds on them caused by her ash healing quickly. Ilea felt the thrumming pick up, the mana growing more dense with each repetition. The scream lasted for several seconds, Ilea breathing out when the sound finally stopped.

The Dread Beasts froze when another scream resounded, the sound primal, carrying no warning with it but the promise of violent death.

She watched as the beasts scurried away, running or flying into the marshes all around, howls and hisses resounding.

Ilea flew down, letting go of the corpse as her hammer slammed into her palm. She watched the lake, the thrums now quick as mana coalesced all around. The smell of iron heavy in the air. She felt it, as if time slowed, seeing a single figure rise from the center of the lake.

Long ears extended from the blood red skull covered in smooth red flesh, white hair soaked in blood, two arms and legs, defined muscle and a near two meter form. No skin covered her, only smooth red flesh, oozing with blood. Her eyes were a dark red with no pupils. Two wings of smooth red flesh grew out of her back as she crouched slightly, standing on the blood of the lake. Her mouth opened to reveal sharp teeth. A deep hiss, the sound prolonged, as if she breathed out for the first time in centuries, and then she charged.

Ilea perceived the attack already, seeing the shock wave extend from where the creature had stood. She moved into a stance as fast as she could, her ashen limbs going forward as her body lit up with white flame, shields conjured before her.

A fist crashed through the defenses, Ilea deflecting it just barely with her right arm, entire layers stripped off her mantle near the grazing punch, her own blood rupturing with a burst of insane magical power. She moved her wings to get back, her ash piercing into the red skin of the monster when its second punch forced her to teleport.

[Oracle of the Forgotten – lvl ????]

The being was at a lower level than the last, near the two thousand mark. The sound of the shock wave finally reached her.

Ilea’s teleport didn’t help much, she could feel her body tense up when blood magic invaded her. Blood ruptured throughout, her healing pushing against the damage, her high resistance the only thing that kept her in the fight. The split second was enough for the Oracle to close the distance, her heavy punches coming in with incredible speed, shock waves extending from the sheer strength. Her attacks were wild and unhinged but Ilea found herself on the defensive anyway, her precognition and all of her fighting skills and experience just barely enough to deflect a few of the punches, the strikes still enough to damage her mantle, the blood magic rupturing her insides.

Her fires spread onto the being but fell with the oozing blood, any damage done to the red layer of flesh by both her ash and fires healed near instantly. Ilea dodged to the side, feeling the fist rush past, the air pulling against her resistance and wings. Blood magic erupted from the being, her internals damaged before she was forced to teleport, appearing only to see the Oracle close the distance. Three punches followed, Ilea dodging the first, deflecting the second, and unable to evade the third.

Her mantle was dented in, her chest cavity followed, blood and air punched out of her mouth as the reverberating shock wave trembled through her entire body. She was sent backwards, her leg caught by the creature’s left hand, her chest knitting back together with her third tier before the next punch shattered through her shields and ashen wall, slamming into her thigh where everything below her ash was turned to mush. The next punch cracked her bone, and the next ripped through it all.

She teleported again, as far away as she could, her wings keeping her up. She felt no pain from the ripped off and broken leg, the limb already reforming. Ilea activated her Fourth Tier, blue runes coming to life as the Oracle reached her once again, into and through the extending beam of white flame, Embered Heart exploding into the approaching creature without slowing it down. She tried to adjust to the wild strikes, reminded of a fight she’d had back on Earth. A woman with over twenty kilos on her, little technique, and what felt like an unending amount of stamina.

With her Fourth Tier, she could almost keep up, deflecting punch after punch with a heavy toll on her mana pool. She punched back, striking the monster’s chin with a jab when she got an opening, immediately ducking back and away when it grabbed at her. She kept up the fight, both of them no longer flying but walking in the blood soaked mud. Ilea tried to keep the monster at bay, using her ashen limbs and fires to inflict what little damage that she could, but everything was healed, time and time again, her own mana reduced with every grazing punch and every direct use of blood magic.

She deactivated her spell and teleported to avoid the next punch, caught soon after with a series of wild strikes, the last two hitting her head. Ilea could feel her skull cracking with the first, below the remaining bits of ash on her face. Her nose was broken and her lower jaw was ripped away with the second, her eyes exploding in a burst of blood. She felt herself lose consciousness and brought herself back with her third tier healing. Her shift activated before the Oracle could grab her head.

White flame rushed out, tendrils of writhing flesh, and space itself pushing back against the fabric of reality. She healed as quickly as she could, seeing the winged figure of blood and flesh step forward in her dominion.

Fire burned as flesh writhed, the Oracle screaming as she cut into the flames with blood enhanced claws.

Ilea could see even the wisps of the fabric quiver at the sheer presence of magic. She wondered for a moment as her jaw and eyes reformed, how she was still alive. And why she was facing a creature like this.

She saw the white hair of the being, her sharp teeth as she hissed, pulling and cutting the indestructible realm Ilea had conjured herself into. And she was gaining ground.

Ilea cut the spell and tried to deflect the next attacks, only to be forced to teleport again. When the creature reached her, she was sent flying with a kick that broke through her hip, the explosion of blood rupturing through her abdomen. Ilea spun through the air, breaking through several trees on the way before she impacted the mud, digging a furrow before she raised her arms, another punch already coming down at her. She sent a push of space magic against the creature, deflecting the punch slightly as she moved her head to the side. A clawed hand dug into her neck before she teleported out, summoning a gate to Kohr and closing it immediately once she was through.

She stood there for a moment, her shattered hip healing near instantly, the bone groaning as it shifted back into place. She touched her neck, the wound already healed but her ash covered hand came away soaked in blood.

She’s got a bit more on me than twenty kilos.