Chapter 682 – Hudson Brawl 6 – The Drop

Chapter 682 – Hudson Brawl 6 – The Drop

‘Jesus fucking Christ, Richard,’ John thought, as the images from Jack’s sight flooded over. Even where he was, the supernatural pressure of the wrathful god’s presence influenced him. The whole thing overpowered his senses. Although he wasn’t forced to his knees, he did have to lean on a nearby shed for support. The whole separation of minds things he had going was currently getting violently pried open.

“...now, Theron...” he heard a very quiet voice and was immediately set into defensive mode. The elementals moved, but there was no enemy to be seen they could have protected him from. Which just meant that the enemy was invisible. Something that John had overcome in numerous ways at numerous occasions.

Looking around with his own eyes, and the corresponding contact lenses, provided nothing. The enemy was cloaked better than that. It was likely that, if John concentrated on the right spot, the enchantment would do the rest. Logically, the next step was what he had done to locate that Metracana. There was no way one of the Lake Alliance was even better at hiding than that ancient weapon. All John had to do was connect with his elementals, Undine and Sylph first and foremost.

However, he couldn’t. The brute force of the Horned Rat’s power still tore through his mental connections, disturbing his concentration. ‘Goddammit, Richard,’ John thought, now irritated. Just in time for this Theron to reveal himself.

Peeling out of the, no doubt shared, invisibility, the man came into sight about ten metres away from John. Already sprinting, the enemy approached John. A short man with brown hair and a tired look, that was as much as the Gamer could perceive, watching as Theron weaved his way through the sloppy counterattacks of his elementals.

John summoned two Arcane Echoes and dropped them to his feet, not trusting himself enough to aim an Arc Lance. The two runes appeared and immediately were consumed into waves of magical might when the enemy stepped on them. Arcane burns appeared on his shirt and pants, seared part of his skin mildly, but did little damage overall. Certainly, not enough to prevent the fist flying into John’s stomach.

While Particle Skin prevented the impact from hurting or bothering John in any way, the status effect caused numerous ill effects. The elementals fell over, their senses confused by the messy data they received through the mental connection. Something worsened infinitely because of how much they were interconnected. In action-heavy times like these, their information sharing was constant, and now all of that fired right back at them.

Across the water, Jack was suddenly harder to feel. As were Aclysia and Beatrice. It wasn’t the worst; it was definitely still operable. Whatever was happening with the Horned Rat was coming to a slow end, so John’s mind managed to split into three operations again. At least that was a plus.

Forcefully, he shut out all the elementals from his mind, so the Connection Fizzling didn’t affect him too intensely. Still, his reactions weren’t fast enough to prevent the next two punches coming his way.

Finally, John had ordered his mind enough to move normally again. A Mana Blade extended from his left hand as he slashed downwards, finally forcing Theron back. The brown-haired man stepped away, remaining in striking distance, as the four elementals around lay on the floor uselessly.

Time his opponents didn’t want to give him anymore. All that thinking had cost John only a couple of seconds, enough time for the two enemies to strengthen their resolve and attack. John suddenly felt a knife being plunged into his neck. The pain was a mere inconvenience, he rammed back his elbow and hit something, but only lightly. Severing his throat on the way out, the attack dealt a considerable amount of damage, a third of John’s HP was gone in one moment, but left the Gamer in the same physical state as before.

“What the fuck...?” the whisper reached John’s ear. To them, it must have looked like he could just instantly regenerate. Theron wasn’t distraught by this, however, still looking to get his own attack in and worsen John’s debuff. With Shifting Momentum, John teleported behind the Interrupter mage and started running.

“Take your Blank Lite powers somewhere else!” the Gamer shouted over his shoulder, simply running in a straight line. Theron (and the invisible guy as well, presumably) immediately followed after him. The intent wasn’t to actually run away, but to gauge how quick they were compared to him.

As it turned out, quicker, but not by as much as he had expected, fighting two melee-oriented people as a mage build. Not until Theron became encapsulated in the blue of an Aura and started using martial arts to catch up anyway.

‘Fantastic,’ John drily thought to himself, ‘so he can do that as well. Maybe I can exhaust his mana supply to take the force out of the connection interruptions?’ Whether or not that was possible was left on the wayside of considerations. The Gamer was too occupied suddenly falling over as another invisibly delivered stab invaded his side. It only took 200 HP off his pool, but still caused his flight to come to an abrupt end. One foot planted down on the floor and he whirled into a roundhouse kick. It connected with nothing; the invisible enemy was already gone.

Theron threatened to reach him any second now. That was when Jack finally got the item off the dismembered arm of Helene. Dumping it into their shared inventory, John opened his character screen in frantic hurry and dragged Purgatory in its usual slot on his left arm. Only when it was in place did he remember that Undine was already in that slot. Something that would have normally meant it wouldn’t work, since Undine wasn’t a piece of regular equipment that could enter his inventory.

However, just as he realized his blunder, he also realized that Purgatory was equipped regardless. The obsidian scales connected with the sleeve of the Suit of the Chosen, but their black entirety now had a dark blue tinge to it. Translucent blue energy constantly drifted from the dragon claw, in mist-like fashion. John would have loved to inspect what any of that meant, but he had to react to the attack coming his way.

Theron’s bored looking expression didn’t change, even with the sudden appearance of Purgatory. John slashed in his direction with the claws. Stopping short in his charge, Theron let the swipe pass him. ‘Come on,’ the Gamer thought trying to switch the missed swipe into a thrusting motion. Claws weren’t the best weapon for that. In fact, they sucked. He needed more reach, something with a pointy end.

Something formed in his hand, reacting to his thoughts. It barely entered his vision, a blade of flawless ice. It was thin, the guard was thin, the blade was thin, but long and becoming ever sharper along its way to the pointy tip. An estoc, as John recognized and immediately used to his advantage. With that sword in hand, he had all the reach he could want. What enchantment had produced it, he couldn’t care less about at that moment.

While Theron had ignored the appearance of Purgatory, he couldn’t ignore it when a sword of ice threatened to pierce through his stomach at an angle that put everything behind his ribs at risk as well. Utilizing Shift, the man suddenly vanished from in front of John. Having seen that martial art more than often enough by now, John reacted in a drastic fashion.

His MP hit 0, as a massive ball of mana launched from his right hand. The arm had already been stretched out for balancing purposes, so it was just a matter of opening his palm towards the sky. The charging form of Arcana Strike caused his assailants to hesitate for just one second, and that was all he needed to teleport forwards with the Shifting Momentum stack he had just earned.

He turned around, switching the estoc into his right hand. It was cold in his hand, but not to the unpleasant degree expected of ice. It felt more like touching a piece of cold glass and was surprisingly easy to hold for how smooth it was. ‘Guess I’ll have to get fencing lessons from Lydia soon,’ he thought, pointing the tip of the weapon towards his enemies. He was no longer swimming against the stream in this tide of battle. Just a few more seconds, and the debuff would fall off. Seconds that he could gain.

By causing the Arcana Strike to come back down immediately.