Before I can react, Premonition activates again, and I leap out of the way just in ti; the monster crackles through the air, static Firmant bursting out of every scale in a cloud of bristling energy. I try to ignore the way the cactus cracks, and wrack my brain to understand what's happening.
[ Warning: New anomalies detected in loop. ]
That has to be it. I'd assud those anomalies were directly related to the actions I took in the last loop evidently, that assumption was incorrect.
No ti to dwell on it. This new enemy is fast. Premonition is the only thing allowing to keep up with it, and I don't know if it would have been easier with the upgraded version of Quicken Mind.
Crystallized Barrier. Hexfold Shield.
Firmant pours out of to form a crystalline wall, followed by several casts of Hexfold Shield in quick succession. I don't know exactly how strong this thing is, but I don't feel like dying this quickly into the loop.
"What is this thing?!" Ahkelios yells at . He's doing a remarkable job of controlling himself. I hear so panic in his voice which surprises , considering how well he's handled himself against most of our other opponents so far but I also recognize the pulsing Firmant that indicates he's about to try sothing himself.
Premonition activates.
I swing the barriers around just in ti to et the dragon-centaur I really don't have a better na for it head-on, wincing as it pierces through my Crystalline Barrier with a thunderous crack that sends shards of Firmant flying. The Hexfold Shield afterward manages to stop it, but only for a mont. I feel the sting of Premonition again, see its tail swinging around to swipe at
Verdant Armor.
Green Firmant swirls out of the air and settles around my shoulders, coalescing around my body as solid plate armor. I feel almost imdiately the draw of Firmant as it pulls from everything around it, but Premonition still blares a warning, and I let out a snarl as I try to draw on everything I can.
The Void Inspiration surges within . I see the tips and edges of the Verdant Armor turning black as Void-tinged Firmant spreads throughout it. The strength of the armor abruptly multiplies and magnifies as it pulls everything it can out of everything around ; I see leaves around drying and cracking, and plants in a small radius almost instantly withering.
Verdant Armor flares brighter just as the dragon-thing's tail slams into . I skid backwards, letting the montum toss away and trying to catch my breath. Even with all the protection I have, I can feel the sting of the blow; whatever this thing is, it's strong. Stronger than any other monster I've fought before, except perhaps Naru and that robot-thing in the Fracture.
I can't stay on the defensive. I take a breath and combine Crystallized Strength, Amplification Gauntlet, and Lightning Rod for the speed boost. For good asure, I activate the Mirror Inspiration, feeling a deep anger reflect from myself and into my skills.
I won't have much ti. This strains my Firmant usage to its limits; the Mirror and Lightning Rod are both difficult to use and even harder to maintain, especially on this many skills at once.
Black lightning courses through my body, then turns a silver-red. The Amplification Gauntlet does the sa, gaining a faint crimson glow. The quality of Firmant changes, becoming sothing deeper and more profound.
The dragon-thing charges at .
This ti, Premonition doesn't activate.
I swing my arm forward, feeling the combined skills coursing through my body. At the sa ti, Ahkelios does sothing strange, flashing forward and briefly rging himself with my gauntlet. I have no idea what he's doing, but I feel sothing about the gauntlet solidify, like it's been stabilized from within.
And then I hit the monster.
The Amplification Gauntlet provides so protection against the sheer force of my blow I think I hear the air cracking around my fist as it slams into the dragon-thing's face, its own montum working against it on top of everything else. I prepare myself to counter whatever it does in return, ntally going through my options...
...except it doesn't do anything.
I blink.
Ahkelios forms again out of my gauntlet, this ti distinctly exhausted. He's panting even though he doesn't need to breathe, and he's half-doubled over, heaving.
"Are you... alright?" I ask. I'm not much better off than he is. I keep a wary eye on the monster, which is currently standing completely still, and also not breathing. There's text on the Interface, but I don't dare look away to observe it.
"I'm fine," Ahkelios says in between breaths. "That was just more tiring than I thought it was gonna be. It's dead, by the way."
"It doesn't look dead." I an, it does, but only because it's not breathing and standing completely still. I have a feeling if I push it it'll topple over.
I glance at the text. Sure enough, the notification is there on the Interface.
[ You have defeated a Guilty Chira (Rank B)! 102 Strength credits. 57 Durability credits. 42 Reflex credits. 5 Speed credits. 20 Firmant credits. ]
That's a lot of Strength credits. Stacking my skills the way I did must have stretched far beyond what I've been capable of so far. My head is throbbing with pain, probably from stacking Lightning Rod with the Mirror; the Inspiration's cost seems to scale with the skills I use it on, and with Lightning Rod already being incredibly draining...
I'm lucky I'm alive.
"It's dead," Ahkelios says again. He straightens, groaning and doing a little stretch. "Wow, that really sucks. Your gauntlet is really tight. You should make more space in the thing."
"Care to explain what just happened?"
"You stacked a bunch of different Firmant skills, right? You would have broken your hand again if I didn't do anything the gauntlet isn't strong enough to protect you from what you did. I just made sure you didn't break your hand."
"That doesn't explain why it's dead," I say. "It looks fine."
"You scrambled its brains." Ahkelios glances up at the monster and shudders slightly, hopping up to settle on my shoulder again. "Whatever it is, it's got a really tough body, but all that rigidity doesn't really help if the force can't go anywhere. It wasn't made to take a hit like that."
Oh. That's... morbid. I take a step back from the monster's corpse, now significantly more disturbed by my own abilities.
"It's a good thing, though!" Ahkelios adds, as if noticing I'm disturbed and trying to cheer up. "You beat it!"
I roll my eyes a little, but he does manage to pull a small smile from . That smile quickly fades as I glance over the monster's corpse again. "This didn't happen in any previous loop," I mutter.
And what is it, exactly? My best guess is that it's linked to yet another forr Trialgoer. It would make sense. Ahkelios being able to draw on that mantis-monster more or less confirms the connection between them, and therefore the potential connection between Trialgoers and these monsters; the Anomaly logs tell that there have been a lot of people trying to beat this particular Trial
A rustle sounds in the leaves. Premonition activates again, and this ti it pings on to not one but three distinct presences that all feel like the chira I just fought; what's worse is that they've surrounded in a three-pronged attack. Was the first one just bait?
Warpstep. The strain makes my head throb, but I don't have much of a choice; I use Warpstep to head straight up, so I can see past the foliage and pinpoint exactly where the attacks are coming from, and if there are any more of them I should be worried about. I need to use it twice to create enough distance.
The good news, I decide when I look down, is that there are only three of them. That I can see.
The bad news is that they're all clearly as strong as the first, and I'm not sure I'm equipped to deal with three Rank B monsters at once. My defeat of the first one was a result of a combination of skills that were taxing to use. I might be able to pull it off one more ti, but I can't imagine two without falling unconscious. If there are three...
"Ahkelios?" I say out loud. I can, interestingly, use Accelerate to keep myself floating in the air, though not forever. Unlike its parent skills, the direction I use it in doesn't have to match a direction I can physically move in.
Which is convenient, because it allows to have a conversation in the air, and the chiras don't look like they have a way to attack this high up. Ahkelios looks about as worried as I do. "I'm not sure I can do it again," he warns. "Maybe one more ti, but after that I'll be tapped out. If I force it again it'll damage my Firmant and you might not be able to summon again for a while."
"Don't force it," I say imdiately. It's not worth that. I'd rather cut my losses and lose this loop I don't have anything particularly important that I've gained so far. I still don't want to die, but if it cos down to it...
I let myself fall, and bleed montum at the last second with another Warpstep. The chiras snarl as all three of them turn towards .
At least they're not surrounding anymore.
I take a quick ntal note. The three of them are different, though on the surface they seem mostly the sa; the placent of scars on their bodies don't quite match up.
One of them has what looks like acidic drool spilling from its open mouth, dripping onto the floor and eating up the organic detritus in a cloud of acrid smoke.
Another has invisible ripples around it that feels like so sort of heat-adjacent Firmant, proven by the way so of the drier leaves catch fire as it steps on them.
The third one is cold. Air condenses into liquid and then freezes into ice around it, leaving small crystals and snowflakes wherever they walk. Its breath is a cloud of vapor, too, obscuring most of its face.
I'm reminded of the almost electrical Firmant bursting out of the first one's scales, the way it tore into everything around it. I shudder. Without Ahkelios to boost my gauntlet...
They're waiting. I can see them starting to circle around, like they're trying to subtly surround again. There isn't anything subtle about their movents, but that worries the first one was blindly aggressive, and these ones are waiting. It's like they're learning.
If they are, that's no doubt a part of why they're B-ranked monsters. I feel like the first one was a little too easy to kill for its rank.
My gaze flicks to my Interface as I call it up, trying desperately to find a better combination of skills that could help out here. Maybe the Void-Verdant Armor combination again for defense, with the sheer amount of Firmant these monsters are emitting. If I activate Lightning Rod now and keep it activated, I can move faster than I ever could by just stacking my speed skills...
Except Lightning Rod still drains . If I use it, I need to make it count.
I take a breath and let the Firmant crackle through . It's do or die, at any rate
I hear the last thing I expected to hear: A loud, cawing scream. A blur of black feathers slams into one of the chiras and sends them both sprawling, and I sense a very familiar crackle of lightning Firmant.
Off in the distance, I see another crow, big and bulky and holding an arm up like she's just fired her husband off into the chiras, living cannon style. Which I'm pretty sure is exactly what she did.
...and also I think her bicep is smoking?
I have no idea what to say or how to process this, so I go with the first thing that cos to mind. "What the hell, Tarin?"
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