Chapter 56: Cheating

Chapter 56: Cheating

“Your objective is to survive by any means necessary,” the Queene said. “Do not hurt non-combatants. Go.”

I immediately ducked as a knife flew over my head, right where my back would’ve been. I turned and stepped back from Aankin, my attacker, and raised my hands to cast a Spell. The Queene’s words were permission enough to fight back, so I went ahead with it.

You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 252.

Aankin stumbled at the effect and chuckled. “So you were hiding some magic from me! Strange, I had you pinned as a melee fighter. Seems I underestimated you.”

He lunged forward, much more quickly than he’d been when he stabbed at me before, despite the fact that his Dexterity was lower. He must’ve been holding out on me. His knife was held out, ready to strike again, but Erani stepped in and blasted him with an Explosive Firebolt, shaking the entire building. He stumbled back, coughing and fanning away the smoke.

“Two magic users? I understand your struggle with the test of strength, now. Still, think a couple Spells are enough to kill me?” He lunged forward again with an excited grin on his face, dodging another Firebolt shot by Erani, which flew past him and impacted the walls of the palace, blowing a hole straight through so that I could see the night sky outside.

He continued rushing at me, but I shot him with a couple Rays of Frost, the fast-moving beams of cold much more difficult to evade.

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 39 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.

22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 228.

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 50 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 206.

“Ooh,” Aankin stopped and rotated his shoulder, stretching as he no doubt felt the effects of the two stacking curses. He looked behind him at the hole in the wall. “You two are packing some firepower, huh?”

“You sure you’re okay with us attacking you?” I asked. “I don’t wanna tear down your palace by accident. Or kill you, for that matter.”

“We can build a new palace,” the Queene spoke up, spectating our battle, “and I can get a new Champion.”

“You’re okay with dying, just like that?” Erani asked Aankin, obviously taken aback.

“No, no,” Aankin laughed, stretching his arms as he spoke. “My spirit is hundreds of years old. Every time one of my bodies dies, I just possess the most worthy Champion Vessel that lives in this village. They train every day in hopes that I do. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to get a new body soon, this one’s getting a bit rusty.”

“The Champion Vessels, they’re conscious?” I asked. “And they’re alright with you just taking over their bodies?”

“Of course. Who wouldn’t want to be chosen as the strongest candidate in the entire village?”

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 116 damage and drained 93 Stamina over the course of 15 seconds using Crippling Chill.

“No!” I shouted and grabbed the Nymph’s arm once again, restraining it from killing the Slime. I wished I could just tell it what was going on.

An explosion blasted out from behind me. I turned to see another hole blown in the wall – Aankin must’ve dodged another one of Erani’s Firebolts. He rushed forward and slashed at her with his knife once again, much faster and harder than he’d been doing before, and I heard a distinctive shatter and watched as the glowing lines of Angelic Shield ripped apart and were flung into the air.

Fuck, I’d forgotten about Crippling Chill! I’d gotten a notification that it’d worn off while trying to keep the Nymph from attacking the Slime and had completely forgotten to refresh it on Aankin. With his suddenly-stronger Dexterity, he was able to dodge her Firebolt and break her shield. Erani was pushed back from the force of his strike, landing on her back a few paces away from him. Then, he turned toward me, who was still trying to keep the Nymph from mutilating this pile of goo in front of us.

“You don’t have your protector anymore,” he laughed at me. “Let’s dance!”

Aankin rushed forward at me. It was at that point that the Nymph noticed him and turned to strike, but he was too fast and too late. He arrived right in front of me and stabbed out with his knife. I ducked and cast Crippling Chill, trying to trip him up with that, but he’d already gotten used to the effect, and it obviously didn’t surprise him to have it re-enabled.

I tried to stand back up from my ducking position as Aankin prepared to swipe at me once again, but my tired legs gave out on me, unable to lift me back up, and I collapsed back on my butt, completely open to attack. Aankin grinned, lifting up his knife for a stab, but the Nymph leapt onto him, wrapping its whip around his throat and strangling him with the thorny vine. His eyes bulged and he elbowed back at it, trying to push it off of him, but its small stature helped it here, allowing it to easily dodge his frantic strikes.

With my Mana barely above 30, I couldn’t do much to help but back away to make myself a harder target if Aankin did break out of the choke hold. I looked behind them as Erani just began struggling back to her feet. Once she was up and able to continue, we could finish this guy.

“Hm,” the Faerie Queene grunted as she watched the spectacle in front of her, her loud voice echoing through the damaged palace. “That’s too boring an ending. Iinwak the Brave, Oonwit the Speedy, come in here,” she called through the holes in the walls once again.

Two more piles of goop came tumbling through. One of them moved slightly faster than the other, at more of a tortoise’s pace than a snail’s. I guessed that one was Oonwit, judging by its name.

Uungik, the first Slime, had only just then arrived at the pillar. It began slowly – incredibly slowly – sucking up stones into its body, sloshing over to the pillar, and excreting the stones back onto it.

“Uungik the Sturdy, Iinwak the Brave, and Oonwit the Speedy,” the Queene commanded, “I order you to–” and then her speech changed, no longer speaking a language I understood, but instead humming in a low tone in the same way the Slimes had spoken to her. Her loud voice resonated throughout the room, causing minor tremors until she was done.

Immediately, the three Slimes changed course, now heading directly for the Nymph, who was still busy trying to strangle Aankin to death. Or, not to death, really – he’d just get a new body. Strangle to rebirth? Anyway, it was trying to cut off his air supply until his body stopped functioning, so it thankfully didn’t have time to look around and see the group of Slimes slowly encroaching. And the Slimes moved slowly enough that they probably wouldn’t reach it for another hour – maybe in fifty minutes, for Oonwit the Speedy.

The Queene sighed as she seemed to realize the same thing I had. “That won’t do. Let’s see, let’s see...” she pondered, looking off in the distance at nothing in particular.

“Could you just let the fight go on without interfering and cheating on your Champion’s behalf?” I asked as I struggled to my feet. “Bending the rules in your favor doesn’t show off your strength that well.”

“Oh, but it does,” she smiled at me. “It is precisely because I’m stronger that I can cheat. Otherwise, you’d just kill me for cheating. But you can’t do that, can you? See? I’d say that shows off my power very efficiently. Oh! I know!” She said suddenly, looking back at the Nymph. Then she began speaking in another, new language, one that I also didn’t understand. Only... no, it wasn’t entirely new. I’d heard it once before. Back when we’d first met the two Nymphs, when they were speaking with each other, was this the exact same language that the Queene was speaking now?

The Nymph’s head snapped over to look at the Queene as she spoke – I’d be surprised, too, if the first person in days spoke a language I could understand. The Queene finished whatever she was saying, and watched smugly as the Nymph suddenly looked around itself, obviously searching for the Slimes. The moment it saw them, it yelped once again and backed away, weakening its grip on the whip it was strangling Aankin with, allowing him to finally escape from her and push her away.

“Finally!” he rubbed his bleeding neck, “thought that’d never end. Anyway,” he marched up to me, knife raised. I tried to back away, but my exhausted body could still barely move, and he quickly got ahold of my shirt, raised his knife, and struck.

You have been stabbed. 29 damage.

Your Health is 0.

You have died.