Knives & Levels - Chapter 116

Utter war—there could be no other series of words to describe what Colt witnessed as he looked out the Academy window and saw the battlefield that was the Academy grounds. The whole place blazed with an overwhelming reddish-white churning blizzard. Snow and ice smashed into the window with enough force to make a loud pinging sound, making him wonder how the thin sheet of glass didn't just shatter under the abuse.

With such a whirlwind of ice and snow, it should’ve been impossible to see the battle below, but every couple of minutes, a contesting force dispelled the blizzard—and it showed the fight beneath: chaos. Four copies of the Yeti rampaged around on the grounds, rushing the phantoms as they threw spell after spell at them. But it did little to stop the boss.

It tore into the phantom shapes, eviscerating them into a ghostly nothingness as they blasted it with whatever kind of firepower they could muster. There were flashes of blue, flashes of red. There were spikes pulled from the earth and shoved into the Yeti as it jumped around, deflected or outright ignored spells, and tore apart wisps of people down below.

War.

Colt watched as a Phantom broke an ice version of the Yeti, only for another to appear in a different area and shred a group of Phantom Students.

More and more Edicts flew as the blizzard increased and then subsided, fighting against the Edicts of what he could only assume was the Dean. He could only guess since it took all his concentration to track the flow of the battle and grasp the influences of the powers whirring around down there.  Edicts wrestled like gods down below. The Yeti grasped at the environment like an overwhelming titan, enforcing its demands over the icy sleet. Still, the Dean fought back with refined nuance, fighting from somewhere hidden far above.

Colt observed with interest. Both the physical fight and the more universal combat occurred at the same time.

He only paid half an ear to Leo as the ghost informed them of the battle plans. Things were getting dire, with the Dean’s frustration only mounting due to the lack of progress from his phantoms. Even though they flung all the spells they could at the Yeti, it shrugged most of them off—some left only very brief, shallow wounds. Colt watched a professor lance a giant bolt of electricity into the Yeti, searing off all the hair on one shoulder and leaving a nasty burn, but that was the extent of the greatest damage he saw.

The thing was built strong. There was just so much mass and power coiling beneath those frozen muscles that these spell-slingers could scarcely compete, especially not when the blizzard was swirling around, making it hard for them to target and effectively hit the Yeti.

Whoever controlled the battlefield dictated the pace of the fight. Even though these Phantoms used similar cold edicts and had their own grasp over them, none of them had quite the amount of dominance over the landscape that the Yeti had, except for the Dean. Every now and again, like a wave, Colt could feel his influence radiating outward, grasping the blizzard swirled into a fury by the Yeti and then systematically stripping it apart.

"Where is he?" Colt said, his eyes still tracking the Yeti as the storm had come to a small lull once more. It sought to tear into a group of phantoms, one claw shearing through them, its other ruined hand still batting them aside and ruining their forms whenever it hit. Despite their intangible nature, they were still treated like physical beings, and their bodies reacted to it the same way. It seemed to cleave away much of their essence, stealing it as it used one of its Edicts to convert their strength into its own, much like the cold sapping environment around them.

"He's looking out from above," Leo said. "That's about all I know. You'd want eyes on the battlefield to make sure what he's doing, and he's giving orders every now and again to specific groups to close in. But like I said, he's getting frustrated.”

Colt nodded. The Dean was acting as a general, conducting his battle as he did, but when faced with an enemy of overwhelming force, keeping himself in reserve wasn't going to win the fight. At some point, he’d make his appearance.

Just as he began to ask another question, a burst of light shot down from above like a rocket out of heaven, it crashed into the ground and kicked up an immense field of snow that broke the view of the battlefield. The second it cleared, came a jet of light that snapped into the Yeti.

There was a horrible howl as the monster was hit with a cannon of a magical attack.

Colt looked at the devastation as the snow settled. The blizzard was gone, and the Yeti was missing a whole arm, blasted off with whatever light magic had just been used. Sitting in the crater was the Dean, and Colt’s first look at the second boss. The monster was too tall, as if its proportions had been stretched out like clay dragged a bit too far to be natural. They were a looming presence, wearing a simple hat that looked like that of a graduate, draped in a fanciful robe, with a scarf wrapped around their shoulders.

The Dean held out two long digits and began to twirl them as it cast another spell; this time radiating with intensifying Edicts. A light gathered before its digits then pulsed out in a smaller version of the cannon it’d blasted the Yeti with before.

This time, the Yeti was ready. Walls of ice burst out of the ground, separating it from the Dean with layers of frost. Just as fast as they emerged, the laser slammed into the first and shattered it, then broke through the second, stopping on the third and taking a handful of seconds before shattering this too. When it got past it, though, the Yeti was gone.

Its ice forms had vanished as well. The Dean looked confused, that lanky head swiveling around and then focusing on the ground nearby.

Icy hands broke through the snow as three Ice forms broke out near the dean, suddenly surrounding it. The Yeti appeared from above, crashing into the ground as it threw itself above the laser, landing directly on the ghostly figure and smashing it against the floor.

One claw went back and slashed against the Dean’s face, spilling no blood but yanking a trail of mist out of it as it damaged the incorporeal foe.

The rest of the Yetis descended as a blizzard suddenly appeared, obscuring their location. It appeared the Yeti got its ambush off, and with it had yanked control of the fight firmly back under its Edicts, empowering it further as Colt watched it tear into the pinned boss…

Half a minute later, the blizzard broke into small gusts again, revealing the Yeti howling as the Dean had disappeared from his midst. Not dead, at least, Colt didn’t think so by the way the rest of the Phantoms were pulling back and the Yeti’s head was turning by the second, scanning for its enemy. Somehow, the Dean had made an escape.

Colt looked to the rest of his group and sucked in a breath. “Well, is this it?”

There were reluctant nods as they had seen just the kind of battle they’d signed themselves up for. Still, as one they pulled away from the window and began to race down the stairs. Colt took them two at a time, but didn't pull from Movement, knowing that if he did, then he’d be going far too fast for the rest to keep up. Still, they all moved with a high degree of urgency.

Every second, the two bosses were out there fighting, and every second, there was a chance one would die. Fights like this didn’t last long. Based on the type of power Colt saw the Dean throwing around and his guess about a spellcaster’s durability, they didn’t have the kind of staying power that would matter. At most, this fight would last a couple of minutes. If Colt and his team wanted to get in and take a stab at killing both for experience or levels, this was their one opportunity. And they needed to act fast.

They made it to the bottom floor, and Colt gave four quick slashes with Cut into the wall, making a weak spot for Nate to smash open the makeshift door. The square of dark brick flew out into the snow, letting them see the battlefield again. Phantoms had gathered in a ring in front of them; their hands raised to the sky as they repelled the blizzard, pushing it back with their magic to keep the battlefield under their Dean’s control.

Past them were the Yeti and the Dean; the Yeti kept the fight close, but the Dean was phasing through him in a move far too similar to Colt’s own Phantom’s Gambit to be comfortable. Still, it wasn’t foolproof; for every blast of fire or light the Dean got off against the Yeti, it managed to get a scratch out of the Dean.

There were gaps in the lanky form of the Phantom as it fought. Tears that leaked mist and hadn’t healed from the rends left behind by Yeti claws. Yet the Yeti was wounded too, bleeding from a dozen spots and missing an entire arm from the Dean’s opening move.

It might have only taken a minute to rush down the stairs, yet the fight had reached a different phase—the endgame. The Dean darted away from the Yeti and held its hands overhead, a massive ball of light beginning to form for a second as it brought it down, crashing into the ground and searing the Yeti, who screeched with pain as an area attack hit it point blank.

This was far too big. Colt covered his eyes for a second in the blinding flash and then revealed it a second later, seeing the Yeti still standing there, most of its hair either burnt or gone, presenting a more black-and-red version of the Yeti than a massive being of white. Blood dropped from it into the crimson cast floor below… But not onto the snow, as all of that had been evaporated away in a split second by the burst of light the Dean had used.

It was clear who the victor was going to be. Colt spared one last look at his group, who were still catching up. They had a handful of seconds at best.

“I’m going in. Nick—Shoot at the Yeti. Nate—Fill in where you can. Sarah, defend this exit, because as soon as we finish, we’ll be retreating back this way… Julia—do whatever you think is right,” Colt gave out the orders as rapidly as his tongue could manage, already feeling time slip away like snow between his fingers.

This was an assassination mission in the middle of a fight, so he was the best qualified to do it. Colt pulled out both of his knives and then suddenly vanished in a pull of Movement unlike any he'd done before. The brief rest he’d gotten in Julia’s barrier was a far cry from enough to restore him. But it did ease the screaming pain in his soul as he yanked at his Edicts.

Time slowed down. The Dean began to conjure another spell; from the way his fingers were pointing and the small spark of light, it was bound to be another deadly laser. Aimed straight for the Yeti’s heart.

But Colt wasn’t about to let that happen.

He raced up to the Dean as light condensed down, and then sliced upward with the Yeti knife, straight through the Dean’s face. There was a small step back as the Dean backed away, caught by surprise—but Colt ignored that, stepping around the dean and slashing into the thing’s back as well. He tore through it twice with as much of his cut that he dared pull in a single second, channeling as much Momentum into each hit, too, for good measure.

When his heart was about to beat out of his chest, Colt started to let the Edicts slip and step back. The Dean’s spell fizzled out, popping into a spark of light that burned Colt’s face.

Slowly, the lanky form of the boss turned to face him, tilting its oblong head. Like the professors, it had no eyes. But unlike them, it also had no mouth. Only staring at him with a hollow expression, puzzled about where he’d come from.

Colt took advantage of its slow response and threw another cut towards its face, making it stitch itself back together, and losing more of its forms. From beyond it, the Yeti roared and rushed forward, priming Colt to toss himself out of the way as it barreled forward, crashed into the Dean, and took it to the ground.

After retreating a couple of yards away to let his heart cool down, the two were disengaging once more—until a shower of light arrows careened into both from afair, burning the Yeti and scorching the phantom as Nick joined the battle.

The two of them reacted instantly. The Yeti began to pull more upon its blizzard, but the phantoms around it were suppressing that. It abandoned this in favor of trying to reform its ice armor again, but Colt didn’t let that pass, darting in with another hefty pull of his Edicts and smashing into the Yeti’s side with the combined might of both Movement, Cut, and Momentum—this blow cut deep, showering him with dark blood as the Yeti reeled back.

His attack was punctuated by a javelin of ice, which had an odd feeling as it slammed through the Yeti. A coolness inherent to it that was definitely not an Edict his friend had before. The ice stuck through the Yeti and speared to the ground, pinning its body in one place and temporarily stalling it out before it could retaliate against Colt.

Taking care of the Yeti did not stop the Dean, who had taken the opportunity to cast another spell and try to blast Colt off the face of the earth.

Colt dodged at the last second, feeling a searing pain on his arm where part of the laser got him as he flung himself like a ragdoll with Movement and Momentum.

For a second, his vision was red and white as he tumbled through the snow and came to a soft landing. Each breath felt like he’d run miles—his limbs were starting to shake. Even after just a few seconds of fighting, he was spent. And as he looked up, he saw that both bosses were still alive. A testament to their level that even after all this damage to themselves and each other, they’d kept going. More light arrows peppered them, and the Dean sent a blast of light at Nick—they could keep going.

So it was a great relief that Nate strode out to the Dean, and smashed him with his hammer aflame with that blue fire; it scorched the Dean in a way other attacks couldn’t, making the thing stumble back as it fought against a very effective Edict.

Rally. Colt thought, seeing his chance. And dug as deep as he could, willing to spend every last ounce of himself to seal their victory. He barely got to his feet and then vanished, reappearing on the other side of the Dean from Nate. His body shook as he began to whip out golden waves of death at the enemy, as many as he could, turning the dean into a blender of death as on one side he spammed out rapid fire cuts with both knives. Distracting the Dean as Nate went to work on the other, smashing his hammer repeatedly into its incorporeal form and burning it away with that blue fire.

It didn’t have a second to cast, to retreat. Its attempts to phase into Phantom Gambit were met by Colt’s own—a quick flash into an incorporeal state where he could keep slashing the Dean like a wolverine tearing apart something with his claws.

He didn’t care how much damage his ripping and shredding did. It was Nate who was whittling the boss down to non-existence.

Behind them, the Yeti moved, trying to get into the action, but another heavy-fire ice javelin speared through it again, followed by a rain of arrows. Buying them time.

In thirty seconds, the Dean was gone, faded away to nothing as Nate and Colt tore it apart.

———

You have defeated the Frost-Forsaken Dean - Level 99

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have 12 Stat points to spend. You have gained 4 points of Dexterity and 4 points of Soul.

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Advanced) has gained a level!

Phantom’s Gambit (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Dungeon Alert: Frost-Forsaken Dean has been defeated!

———

Colt turned to the Yeti and slipped, his leg giving out as his Edicts and body ran dry. The Yeti roared, yanking at the javelins speared through it and shattering them. Fully intending to now, in turn, do to Colt what he’d done to Dean.

Just as it stepped forward, red eyes flaring with death, a third javelin crashed into it, spearing straight through its skull and making the monster collapse onto the ground, limp and lifeless.

———

You have defeated The Abominable Snowman -  Level 99

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have 24 Stat points to spend. You have gained 4 points of Dexterity and 4 points of Soul.

Soul And Mind Fortitude (Advanced) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has reached level 20! This skill has advanced to *Olympic Physique (Advanced)! As this is now at the (Advanced) level, this skill enhancement to the user’s Dexterity, Strength, and Endurance has increased to 20%.

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) has reached level 20! This skill has advanced to Thread Weaver (Advanced)!  As this is now at the (Advanced) level, weaving three Edicts together has become far more manageable.

Your class has advanced to Edict Carver (IV). Please check the Class Screen to evolve.

Congratulations!

Dungeon Alert: The Abominable Snowman has been defeated!

———

Colt numbly took in the information as he felt a set of hands yank him out of the snow and toss him over their shoulder. Nate. “We’re leaving,” the soldier said. The blizzard had stopped, but the cold was still there, leeching away and consuming as Nate broke out into a run and started barking orders. Though for his part, Colt barely processed any of this, saved by his ally. Even as they dealt with the second part of the problem. All of the phantoms were now trying to hunt them down after slaying their boss.