74

Fundamentals IV

Kat and Maia blocked Devon’s sword with their staffs, sparks flying from the impact, but there was too much power behind the swing. Rian clapped his gauntlets together against the flat of the blade as it continued on its path toward his face. All three of the defenders went sliding back, but their combined efforts held up and brought the attack to a halt.

Devon stomped his foot as he suddenly pushed forward, and the three of them went sprawling backward. He raised his sword again and plunged it into the ground, sending cracks throughout the ring.

Rian knew the skill from their last encounter: it was Rend the Earth. A red glow rose at their feet.

“AOE!” he shouted, and Kat twirled her staff. A massive gust blew in and carried the three of them off the ground. Devon remained in place, leaning against the wind, gripping his sword like a post in a storm.

As the gust ended, towers of lava erupted from the cracks in the floor, but Rian and the party were already out of the way.

“Kat!” Rian shouted as he landed. “What’s the item do?”

“It’ll give you range!”

“Is that it?”

“Just read the damn thing! We’ll hold him off for you.”

Devon was already sprinting toward them, plowing his way through the lava on the ground. He didn’t seem to mind catching fire. His passive, Berserker’s Fury, would only make him stronger and faster the lower his HP went.

Maia aimed her staff at Kat, and Kat aimed hers at Devon just as he swept his sword across the ground and sent a spray of lava toward them. A mechanism in Kat’s staff whirred to life, and a frontal gust blew the midair lava chunks away.

Devon, caught in the wind, struggled to push through it and get near the party.

In the overwhelming howl, Rian looked at the potion vial in his inventory.

Breath of Goam (Consumable)

Grade: S2 (Sacred-2)

Activation Requirement: 2 Colorless Tesseracts and 1/4 Mirage Skill Slots Available

Uses Remaining: 4/4

(Via Goam-Ezre): For 60 seconds, performing an attack generates a shock wave that extends for 5-10 meters ahead of the attack and inflicts 120% damage. The size of the shock wave increases with the force of the attack.

“At the creation of the universe, there was once a singular force that gave rise to everything—Ulm, the One. And when Ulm split Itself, the One became the Four, who were…”

The flavor text was kind of odd for an item, and he didn’t have time, so he didn’t read further.

It was effectively a minute of more than doubled damage. And the utility was staggering in its potential. It could give him the one thing his class didn’t have: range. It was like finding a missing piece to an entire class’s kit, absolving it of an inherent weakness. Even a small addition to range would make him absurdly more powerful.

But it only lasted a minute.

He had a decision to make: use the item now to gain an advantage or somehow fit it into his kit to hopefully finish off Devon later.

Given that Devon hadn’t used War Cry yet—his AOE stun—using the item now would probably be a waste. That was the first step: forcing Devon into playing as many of his cards as possible. Maybe even a Mirage skill or two. Get his active skills on cooldown first, and then Rian could worry about defeating him after that.

Kat’s wind magic faded. “Rian!” she shouted. “I can’t hold him off forever. Tank him! I need room to cast!”

All Kat could do at the moment, it seemed, was maneuver the party with her spells. Devon wasn’t letting up on them. Rian had no choice but to go in.

As Rian sprinted forward, Corvis floated up beside him. “Focus on lining up for a parry,” he said. “If it crits, he’ll drop his weapon.”

Weird advice, considering it was completely random if the Parry would crit via Counter Critical.

Corvis must’ve had something planned.

All right, I trust you, Corv. Don’t let me down.

Rian entered the fray with Devon, dodging his swings, leaping over the blade, and sliding across the ground as he caught himself between attacks.

Devon’s stats outclassed Rian but were lopsided toward Strength, and it still took longer to swing such a massive weapon whereas Rian’s equipment hardly slowed him down. Their overall speed was almost equal given the size difference of their Vessels.

As soon as Devon committed to another swing, Corvis appeared beside Rian and was holding a potion. A golden vial. Not Breath of Goam, but something else.

Almost too fast for Rian to see, Corvis pulled out the stopper, summoned a thread of light and a needle, then dipped the needle into the vial like a pen into ink. The glass shattered as the needle pierced the vial, and the thread took on a golden glow. In a flash, Corvis repeatedly swiped the needle through Rian’s arm. The thread wrapped his skin.

A peculiar feeling suffused Rian’s body, a clarity so profound as if all of reality was revolving around him, like the universe itself had suddenly gained millions of eyes swiveling to focus upon this moment.

Rian didn’t even need to inspect the buff icon to know what Corvis had just used on him.

It was the Superior Lucky Potion.

Corvis had pocketed it after all from the merchant in Elmguard, on the morning before they’d entered the Rift. Rian thought he hadn’t seen Corvis steal it—the potion had never left the merchant’s rug—but now it was obvious what had happened: Corvis must’ve replaced the merchant’s potion with a fake and pocketed the real one.

When Rian parried, he could feel his movement rippling through another universe. His hand struck the flat of Devon’s blade and knocked it free.

The surprise on Devon’s face lasted an instant as he watched his weapon hurtle out of his grasp. With teeth-gritting rage, he immediately wound up to throw a punch.

Rian watched it all happen in slow motion, his INT skyrocketing from the Parry. Ducking Devon’s follow-up punch was effortless. And as soon as Rian was clear of the attack, he slammed his fist into Devon’s stomach.

The pistons on the Mecha-Gauntlets fired, and the Voltaic and Ethereal keywords activated, giving the first hit enough power to destroy nearly a tenth of Devon’s HP. The blow knocked him back by almost a foot. Though the paralysis effect of the Voltaic keyword didn’t activate, Rian still had enough time to throw a flurry of punches into Devon’s rib cage, raising his Charge Punch meter, incrementing his Combo Attack buff, and empowering his Spirit Fists with every hit. Each tiny sliver chunking off Devon’s HP was like a sip of water in a scorching desert.

Devon roared.

Rian staggered, unable to move. It felt like all of his muscles were vibrating out of sync. Dammit. That was War Cry.

He’d known it was coming, but there was nothing he could’ve done to prevent it. There was no situation where he wouldn’t be in range of the stun while attacking, even if he’d used Breath of Goam, and there was no way Devon would’ve used it early and put it on cooldown. He’d been saving it to counter Rian.

“A luck potion, huh?” Devon said. “Nice trick. Too bad it’s a one-off.”

He retrieved his sword and swung. Rian watched helplessly as the huge blade surged toward him like the wing of an airplane coming for his neck. With Rian still stunned, Devon’s eyes flashed red as Bloodlust kicked in and empowered his attack.

All status effects have been reverted!

About time, Corvis.

Freed from stun, Rian parried. Since Devon had probably thought the attack would land, he’d telegraphed it far in advance, making it easy to deflect. In hindsight, Rian saw why Corvis had waited until the last moment—for Parry’s cooldown to end. He was saving the cooldown reset.

Devon’s smug grin vanished as his sword bounced off Rian’s hand again.

Now.

With everything else in slow motion again, Rian pulled out the Breath of Goam vial and drank.

It tasted like smoke, burning pine trees, the mists of a foggy morning. When it settled into his lungs, he felt power suffuse his entire body. Two colorless tesseracts exploded inside his inventory.

He dashed in and let loose. Blue waves shot out from each of his punches and struck Devon for 120% as much of the impact of his actual fists when they landed an instant later.

Rian almost struggled to keep close, pushing Devon back twice as far with each hit. But also due to Breath of Goam, activating twice as hard were his Spirit Fists, Combo Attack, and Charge Punch skills. With his hands fully ablaze in blue flames, Rian cast Vital Strike and hit each weak point on Devon’s body twice with Breath of Goam, half the hits critting and slowing his movements.

This was it. The opening Rian had been looking for. A beautiful symphony of game mechanics synergizing. He could almost see it now, the road ahead. The path to victory. All he had to do was find a few more openings like this, and he would win.

But right now he needed to make it count. So as his meter hit max, Rian committed and went all-in for one final strike. An enormous blue shock wave trailed ahead of his Charge Punch.

The double-hit landed, one massive blow after another, and dropped Devon’s HP to 60%.

As Rian’s fist landed, the slowdown from Parry ended, and Devon hadn’t gone anywhere from the Charge Punch.

What? Where’s the knock-back?

Already, Devon had lined up another swing—as if he’d been preparing for the exact moment when Parry’s slowdown would end from Rian’s perspective.

He knew, Rian thought in despair. He knew the timing.

Rian saw the shape of his demise: Devon had intended to trade hits with him. A trade in which Rian could only lose. The slow-down from Vital Strike didn’t even matter. Berserker’s Fury had canceled it out.

Devon swung. The sword struck Maia’s protective barrier, giving Rian a fraction of a moment to think. He only now noticed that Devon had cast a Swordsman skill—Iron Will, a temporary Super Armor buff—during Rian’s combo of skills. Rian had been blinded by the promise of victory. He hadn’t even thought to consider the skills of Devon’s base class, so preoccupied with studying the Berserker kit earlier.

With his sword sparking on the barrier, Devon ignited the blade, activating its Inferno keyword, and used Focused Strike. The barrier cracked, then shattered as the sword passed through it.

In an instant, a small tornado spawned between them, nudging Rian one way and Devon the other. The flames of the sword whipped sideways. Off-kilter, Devon’s swing missed and hit the ground.

Kat had timed her wind spell perfectly.

These team plays…

It was almost giving Rian a glimmer of hope.

Then Devon pivoted, slashing horizontally without missing a beat. Rian, panicking, dodged away from the sword but into the wind. It slowed him down just enough to get slammed in the side and sent flying, losing a third of his health.

Devon dashed after him and brought down his ignited sword in a follow-up attack that crushed Rian into the ground. Rian tried to get up, tried to dodge or dash out of the way, but Devon’s foot came down onto his chest and kept him pinned.

Kat’s tornado spun toward them, but it wasn’t fast enough. The spell was already dissipating.

Over and over Devon slashed at Rian, who could only brace himself. Maia’s restorative spells and Corvis’s gradual healing kicked in, a race against the damage Rian was taking. At first it was enough. But once the major heals were on cooldown, Devon’s attacks overwhelmed him.

You have died.

Returning to Overworld in 10 seconds.

“There,” Devon said. “It’s over—”

Lightning crashed into him.

Rian would’ve flinched if he could. The lightning had hit him as well, but he was currently a corpse. Devon stood there, grimacing as electricity jumped up and down his Vessel. He was stunned.

A gentle wind surrounded Rian, and he picked himself up off the ground.

Katrin has revived you! (Cooldown: 24 hours)

There goes the Confidant perk, he thought. This was going about as badly as he’d expected.

Before Devon’s stun wore off, Rian retreated closer to Kat and Maia, who were staying near the edge of the arena. The revive hadn’t brought him back at full HP—just 40%. He wanted to buy some time for his healers to recuperate. And he needed to rethink his strategy.

“Time for round two already?” Devon laughed, shaking off the stun. “You sure are fast, at least. I drop my guard and you’re on me like an annoying fly. But in the end, that’s all you can do: buzz around uselessly.”

He crushed a tesseract and activated a Mirage skill.

Mirage: Pact (Level 1 [MAX])

Cooldown: 4 minutes

Activation Cost: 1 Colorless Tesseract

For 2 minutes, all skills and passives apply as if the Berserker’s HP is at 10%. Player dies if actual HP is below 30% when the skill ends.

Berserker’s Fury was fully active now—all that extra Agility and Power while Devon was at half health. Granted, it made killing him easier, but that penalty for the skill was only a fanciful thought if Rian weren’t about to immediately die again. The only upside to it was that Devon’s Accuracy was lower and his cooldowns were longer.

“Just give up already,” Devon said. “Why are you dragging this out? Because you still think you can win? You realize I haven’t even used an item yet, right?”

“Uh,” Maia said, “I think we need to get on better terms soon, Rian. Wanna speedrun our friendship real quick for that revive perk?”

“I’d love to,” he said, wiping blood from his mouth. He hesitated and looked down at his palm.

There was no blood. But he swore it had been there. He’d felt it.

It’s happening again. Something’s not right.

Distracted, he was nearly caught off-guard as Devon hurtled toward him again, shouting, “It’s already over!”