[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 100 — Drowning in Monsters

Accurate to everyone’s assumption, and surprising exactly nobody, Gwen was struck first by a monster. The [Fool’s Crown] shattered into golden shards. Before she lost it, she managed to turn a few monsters into meaty pancakes with the extended melee range of her greathammer.

Mel drew blood from the ruined carcasses to fuel her [Blood Magic] and keep her [Sanguine Coat] topped off. Unfortunately, she realized rather early on that she didn’t have much time.

After about 15 seconds, the monsters burst into streamers of runes and Battle Points. Without having to loot the enhanced creatures, they each gained additional BP and aspect coins.

The downside was that they couldn’t loot the damned things. They didn’t respond at all until they blew up into ribbons of prismatic light.

Free of the burden of the false crown, Gwen prowled ahead with [Blindbeast Claws] out, temporarily drawing the monsters’ ire with regular releases of [Howl at the Moon]. The knockback radius was used to great effect, pushing away monsters that got too close to Thomas and Heath while conveniently ignoring the team.

Snow and ice from [Frostbringer] clung to the Berserker’s armor, fortifying her defenses against the repeated monster slashes and swipes.

The lion-like tarikans and the stone frog gorlashes were littered about the place like standard monsters. Thankfully, they were far smaller than the plateau beast variants they had faced. Not that it mattered much when they were only a fraction weaker than their larger cousins.

Mel saw several monster types that were clearly the evolved versions of common creatures she’d seen before while out fighting and hunting. Deer with glowing antlers, bears with runic glowing marks on their fur, giant wasps the size of kites, and screeching birds that were big enough to swoop down from the darkness and pick up Gwen as if she weighed nothing.

She didn’t handle that well. However, the greathammer absolutely did. With it being so slow and heavy, she summoned it out of ash only intermittently.

Worst of all, however, were the sobekiles. The insectile crocodile hybrids. They prowled around the natural pools of water that were dotted along the northern section of the massive hall of martyrs.

Other people were fighting here as well, but the monsters were so fierce and unrelenting that Mel heard them more than she saw them.

Voices were raised in shouting, either commands or for help, Mel couldn’t tell. The pillars distorted distance and sound with equal efficiency.

Gwen’s greathammer crushed another bird into a cloud of feathers midair, dropping Gwen to the ground in a rough tumble. The impact created a shallow crater. She thrashed wildly, eyes darting around for more of those birds.

Heath lost his crown as a rattle stinger wasp crashed into him and slashed its barbed stinger into his shoulder. He cried out and crossed his daggers over its abdomen, opening it up with a shout as his blades flashed a brilliant blue.

Combat Art: [Cross Slash]

It had been a long time since Mel felt the need to use her own combat art, [Shinobi Parry], but she was using it frequently now.

Bolts of magic flew from around a pillar where a small, doughy green creature was casting a spell at her. She pivoted around Thomas, so they were back-to-back, and swiped with her twinblade.

A smear of mana flashed in front of her as she triggered the combat art and the bolts rebounded off the parry, directly back at the creature.

Combat Art: [Shinobi Parry]

Mel raised a hand to use a Blood-infused [Bane of Tartarus] but noticed it wasn’t necessary. The reflected bolts had finished the creature off.

However, there were so many monsters around that she was bound to hit something, so she used [Bane of Tartarus] just to keep it on cooldown. That was becoming more of a limitation than the energy expenditure thanks to [Blood Magic] allowing her to fuel her aspect skills with the blood of dying monsters rather than mana.

[Bane of Tartarus]

(Omen Aspect)

(Copper, Yellow/Ability)

(Grade 6 [79%])

Cost: Modest

Cooldown: Moderate

Weave together omen curses from the pits of Tartarus into an abyssal swirling sphere of compressed malice. Let the song of the damned ring out for all.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Call upon the power of Tartarus itself, launching a swirling mass of malice like a meteor from your hand. Deals heavy Omen area damage, reduces maximum health, and lowers movement speed.

The hours wore on as they fought back-to-back, always seeking stronger monsters for more Battle Points. Mel guided them toward hopeful spots where fewer people were gathered and more powerful monsters spawned in from the surging manastorm. Her [Blessing of the Hunt] proved its worth a thousandfold by directing them toward powerful boss-type monsters that they could handle, while avoiding the ones that would have wiped the floor with them.

Miraculously, Hush hadn’t managed to die. Mel’s [Avatar of Askara] familiar often kept close, absorbing blows that would have otherwise caused her to lose her crown.

Sometimes Heath or Gwen would leap out in front of an attack aimed at Mel or Thomas, the only two members of their team to retain their crowns.

Gwen was even able to haul and shove a lot of the monsters, often on top of one another. Though [Howl at the Moon] rarely drew any animosity from the monsters anymore.

Ribbons of multi-colored light flew around the room as more and more people entered the hall of martyrs. Mel could only guess at how many other groups there were, but so far, nobody had tried to attack them.

Everybody was too busy raking in the BP and simply trying to stay alive.

A few spells had gone astray nearby, but nothing that seemed like an overt attempt, so Mel didn’t bother chasing anybody down.

Besides, separating seemed like a death sentence here. With two of their members still sporting [Fool’s Crowns], they drew the eye of every nearby monster.

Mel had them delving deeper than any other group. Most of the fighting they saw were distant flashes of various spells and abilities going off.

Mel spun and danced around a thrusting horn from a demonic cross between a unicorn and a badger. The glinting steel of its singular horn suddenly reversed direction and slashed for her belly. Mel had to suck in her stomach and throw her hips back just to avoid being disemboweled.

Heath stepped up and crossed his daggers. A spray of blood accompanied his [Cross Slash] while Gwen’s greathammer crushed the creature’s body flat.

“Thanks,” Mel said, sweat pouring down her face.

The room was cold and dark, sparsely lit with torches burning high up on the pillars, but they had been hunting nonstop ever since they descended the stairs.

They needed to make every minute count.

High above, Mel could make out thin cylindrical braces–metal by her guess, considering the color they glowed in her heat vision–crisscrossing from one pillar to the next.

She had already tried to reach them, but the pillars were impossibly smooth and the braces were too high even for [Condensate] to reach.

It felt like the longer they battled, the more monsters appeared. At first they had to range around to find monsters worth hunting, but now there was a wave of monsters assaulting them.

Mel was beginning to piece together a pattern. The way the monsters spawned in and attacked was not as random as she first thought.

If only I could get higher!

She felt certain, with her [Gaze of the Serpent] from up high, she would be able to see the pattern in its entirety. As it was, she had to guess every direction.

Slowly, as they whittled the gorlashes, tarikans, and other plateau beast types down, more evolved forms showed up to replace them. Mel could instantly tell that these were stronger than their lesser forms. Least of all because they were bigger and more imposing.

They weren’t quite on the level of that one Iron ranked plateau beast, but they were close. More importantly, they were stronger than she was.

While Mel was parrying a multi-limbed creature that was dead set on robbing her of her crown, a blue-and-white furred monstrosity the size of a sedan barreled into its side.

Lifting its lion-like head, it shook back and forth, goring the creature it had speared on its horns and raining blood down on everybody.

[Manastorm Lionwing Coltrask (High Copper Rank—Boss)]

Mel immediately siphoned up the blood she could and used it to enhance [Windstorm]. The [Smoke Dash Anklets] proved their worth in that moment. Her feet blurred as she moved and danced around the thrusting and swatting beast. It made the tarikans look like kittens by comparison.

Silvery growths adorned its larger body. Its claws were like small swords, but most concerning of all were its two pale bat-like wings that it used to buffet the air with magical wind.

Anytime that Mel got close to striking it, the creature reared up on its hind legs and flapped its wings to push her back. Despite her speed, she couldn’t do anything but keep its attention. Every flap of its mighty wings cleared her [Hidden Mist] and pushed her back.

Mel had nowhere to run.

Spotting Gwen to the side, Mel grinned to herself. There was a benefit to having the [Fool’s Crown]. It turned all monsters into tunneling idiots. They focused on Mel and Thomas to their ultimate demise.

While they were trying to kill Mel, they were completely blind to the very real threat of Gwen and Heath.

The greathammer, glowing darkly with a Gravity aspect skill, collided with the full force of [Falling Meteor] into the monster’s horns.

Its horns shattered to pieces, with the skull following shortly after. The echoing shockwave of the direct hit crumpled its whole upper body in a flash.

What was left toppled over with a meaty thump.

You defeat the [Manastorm Lionwing Coltrask (High Copper Rank—Boss)].

You gain extra runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience for slaying a manastorm corrupted boss monster.

You gain extra Battle Points for slaying a manastorm corrupted boss monster.

Breathing heavily, Gwen pulled back into a defensive position to recuperate, swapping out the greathammer for the bladed claws in multiple swirls of pale lunar ash.

Heath rushed in, attacking the second coltrask that was charging in. He tossed a ball of smoking darkness at its neck, which ballooned to cover its head, obscuring the creature’s field of vision.

Aspect Skill: [Tinker: Smoke Bomb]

Blinded, it thrashed around in a panic while Heath peppered it with throwing daggers.

With her feet moving at a blistering pace, Mel easily pivoted around the creature’s uncoordinated attacks. She fell to her knees beneath it and slashed up into its belly, inadvertently bathing in its entrails while Heath and Gwen attacked it from opposite sides.

Thomas had his hands full with a different pair of creatures coming for him. With a wave of his hand, a black grimoire appeared. Obsidian tentacles ripped through the air from another plane and gored the creatures within inches of Thomas.

He winced, leaning away as their limbs fell limp and they collapsed to the ground in shredded heaps. More runes and loot flowed out to each party member.

Mel slid out the other side of the coltrask and slashed the tendons on the backs of its legs for good measure. A strategy that worked very well on almost any creature without armor. With a mighty roar of pain and rage, the creature fell to the side, dead.

More Battle Points and runes flowed in, but it was a small poultice for the harsh reality of the manastorm.

They had been fighting for what felt like days. The monsters ebbed and flowed, but never stopped their assault entirely.

How did I ever think that we’d be able to find a safe spot and hide long enough to sleep and recover? We can hardly fight for another hour, let alone the original forty!

On the upside, they were climbing the ratings at a blistering pace. With the last pair of coltrasks down, they were now up to the coveted second place.

[Convocation Standings]

Time Remaining: 6:51 (2:17)

(1) Jacob/Fenris + Camilla + Shrubley/Smudge

===(2) Mel + Gwen + Thomas + Heath===

(3) Charlie + Adam + Almace

(4) Sylvie/Komachi + Miranda/Sose + Cal + Hal

(5) Bertram + Alexander + Bocar + Karim

(6) Ashera + Solomon + Victor + Aegis

(7) Kolkab + Urkath + Cesseli

(8) Louis + Jean-Luc + Claudette + Simone

(9) Cooper + Noah + Zoey + Sofia + Flynn

(10) Yok’sal + Semthra + Nymasolth + Shae’kathoth

Mel stared at the standings. Not only because they had made it to the spot they were hoping for, but because both timers were listed.

No wonder it feels like I’ve been fighting so long!

She couldn’t help wondering if somehow her body was able to tell the difference, that while it might have been hours of hardcore fighting inside the hall of martyrs, it had really been more than a day outside.

It also explained the new arrivals and the shake-up to the standings. While Mel had been fighting, people who were attracted to the storm had more than a day to arrive.

Competition was getting fierce. She saw more and more fighters amid the tall forest of pillars and darkness, despite venturing deeper at every opportunity.

A temporary reprieve arrived when a familiar dark clad Necromancer descended from the cavern ceiling, riding a literal witch’s broom. Mel squinted her eyes and focused on the woman.

Nope, not a broom, just a staff. Lame.

Gossamer wings of spider silk trailed from her robes. It was surely the work of another aspect skill, but she was too far for Mel to make out what it was. She carried two men like vermin caught in her web.

Twisting, the witch aimed her staff at the rampaging tide of small monsters rushing Mel’s position. They were nothing that Mel’s party hadn’t already dealt with, but she appreciated the break all the same, even knowing that she would be out some points. The two men dropped from the webbed wings, diving to assault from the sky with weapons out.

Aspect Skill: [Vital Harvest]

Glassy orbs popped out of dozens of monsters that were actively being attacked. The blue, green, and red orbs steamed with energy. The monsters that were more heavily damaged produced far more [Vital Harvest Orbs].

When too many of the orbs formed, they fuzzed and fused together, forming larger ones.

Heath picked a blue sphere up before anyone could stop him. His eyes widened with shock. “It recovers mana like a potion!”

Mel was quick to add [Bane of Tartarus] to the mix, crashing the orb into the remainder. She wanted at least partial credit. It howled to life and consumed those that weren’t already dead.

The few that exited the other side of were quickly picked off by Heath as Gwen turned her gaze skyward to track the witch.

Gwen winced. “Great, Miss Perfect has arrived.”