Chapter 57: Challenge

Chapter 57: Challenge

And then I was back, reawakening in my body as we walked the all-too-familiar trek to the Faerie village, an hour before I died.

“That fucking bitch!” I cursed the moment I had a mouth again.

Erani looked at me, wide-eyed. “Sorry?”

“No, not you,” I sighed. “Gods fucking damn this shit. Wouldn’t be surprised if that bitch crawled her way up from the bottom hell.”

“...That’s a lot of blasphemy you’re doing over there. Something going on? Time Loop? I thought you just got back from the last timeline, like, five minutes ago.”

“Yeah, shit went down,” I took a breath, trying to calm myself. The Queene seriously had to interfere? We were there. We were about to win. How were we even supposed to pass this dumbass test of hers if she refused to play fair? And really? She spoke the Nymph’s language? Of course, don’t use that to help us communicate better with it, or to establish better trade connections. Purely use that to kill us. Great. Fucking phenomenal.

While I continued to mentally curse the Queene, Erani went on guard at my confirmation that something had gone wrong. She looked around and raised her hands, preparing to cast a Spell. “What is it? An attack?”

“No, no,” I clarified. “I’m from an hour ahead. Nothing right now.”

“Oh. What happened? Did you die again?”

I sighed, frustrated with the fact that I had to explain the events of the most recent loop when I’d just gone through explaining everything. Erani hadn’t done anything wrong, though, so I tried not to direct any of that frustration at her.

It seemed like I’d ended up going back to a few minutes after I’d gotten back before, so Erani did know about our first attempt, when I was stabbed in the back, but didn’t know about our second attempt, when we actually fought Aankin. This day felt like it had gone on forever. Which, it had been a couple hours longer than temporally possible, so I guessed that was appropriate.

“Yeah, I died again,” I finally said.

“The plan we made didn’t work? Teaming up on Aankin with the Nymph?”

“The Nymph was kind of the problem,” I said, and went on to explain what had happened in the previous timeline.

By the time I was done, Erani had her lips pursed. “So, if we lose, we die, but if we’re winning, she’ll just make sure we lose.”

“And die.”

“...That’s unfortunate.”

“Pretty much. And it’s not like we can even tell the Nymph what’s gonna happen and have it react better to the Slimes,” I gestured to the Nymph, who was entertaining itself by weaving together a rudimentary doll out of sticks and leaves as we spoke. “It can’t understand us. So, no matter what, the Queene can always distract it.”

“And you’re sure we can’t handle Aankin without the Nymph’s help?”

“Well, that’s part of the problem, but even if we can kill him without the Nymph, the Queene can just do something else. Who’s to say she won’t just throw in a few more soldiers if we do too well? Or that Aankin won’t just be reborn and come and attack us again if we kill him?”

“Wait, what? Reborn?”

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t mention that. Apparently Aankin doesn’t even care if he does die, because he’s got a dozen more bodies waiting for his spirit to take them over or something. So, if we kill him, he’ll just possess a new person and be totally fine.”

“...Huh.”

“Yeah. A bit of a fucking predicament.”

“No, no. I think we can use that.”

“What?”

“C’mon, let’s get walking. I’ll explain while we go.”

By the time we’d arrived at the Faerie Village once again, I’d heard Erani’s plan and was on-board with it. It was risky, especially for her – almost uncharacteristically so, to the point where she was the one who had to convince me to go through with it. But maybe it wasn’t that it was risky, and more that we had no truly safe options. I mean, what else could we do? Just try the exact same thing once again and see if it worked?

Still, I wasn’t a fan of it. I’d just have to trust that we knew these Faeries as well as we thought we did, and I really didn’t like putting my life in the hands of strangers.

I contemplated how much I didn’t like our plan as I scaled a tree at the edge of the village. At this point, I’d gotten to the point where the branches were almost too thin to hold my weight, and I looked down at the unaware Aankin who was still guarding the gate. My boosted Strength and Dexterity helped me climb, the action much easier than it’d seemed when I’d still been on the ground.

Venom is coursing through your veins. 1 damage.

Your Health is 19.

The poison definitely added some challenge to the climbing, though. The ascent had taken enough time that my Health had fallen pretty low, and I was beginning to feel anxious. That anxiety may have just been coming from the ground that was far below me, though. I hoped the plan to break my fall actually worked, here.

“Finally! A true challenge!” He slammed his fist into his hand. “I haven’t felt like this in decades! Let’s go!”

Yeah, nevermind. I didn’t feel bad for him.

He sprinted forward, somehow invigorated after taking so much punishment, and slammed a fist into the off-guard Nymph, sending it stumbling back and falling to the ground a few paces away. Erani shot a Firebolt at him at the same time that I shot off a Ray of Frost, but he ducked and dodged them both. He adjusted his grip on his knife and took a wild swipe at Erani, but she blocked with an arm, the blade glancing off the glowing matrix of Angelic Shield that protected her.

I shot twice more with Ray of Frost as Aankin was thrown off-balance by the unexpected wall preventing him from hitting her, and these rays hit, renewing the Dexterity draining effect and slowing him down to a more manageable level.

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 48 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 6.7.

23.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 109.

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 52 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 6.7.

23.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 85.

He must’ve had some sort of Talent or ability that raised his Stats when he was at low Health. Berserkers had Talents like that, and even Swordsmen had paths they could go down to get those types of effects, so it wasn’t a surprise that a monster could get one, too. But, if that was the case, then it must’ve meant he was close to death, too. And with Venomous Grasp causing the double-Stamina-draining effect, there was no way he could keep up with this frantic melee fighting style, either.

Erani backed away, taking advantage of his stun from the two Spells impacting him, and shot off an Explosive Firebolt of her own. It punched Aankin away, sending him tumbling back to the ground, and as he tried to get back up, slowed by the multiple curses and low pool of Stamina, she shot him again. And again, and again, using the same method to keep him constantly stunned and off his feet that she’d used on the Anacaps all those days ago.

It wouldn’t have worked on him at the beginning of the fight – his Health pool would be too large to allow him to be thrown around like that, and his Stamina would be high enough to allow him to move away before the next Firebolt hit him – but now he was finally weak enough for it to work. After many echoing booms and ground-shaking explosions, I finally got the notification I was waiting for.

You have offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of Level 29 Faerie Champion.

You have earned 377 XP. Your XP is 633.

Threshold reached. 600 XP.

Your Level has increased to 11.

Due to achieving Level 11 in the Minute Mage Class, you have been granted the following benefits:

-You have gained 1 Endurance.

-You have gained 2 Conjuration.

-You have gained 1 Intelligence.

-You have gained 3 Stat Points.

-Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength, 1 Endurance, 1 Conjuration, and 1 Intelligence.

-Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 11.

Intelligence threshold reached. 12 Intelligence.

Your Intelligence information rank has increased.

Due to increasing your Intelligence information rank, you have been granted the following benefits:

-When choosing Spells, you may now see the Spell Schools of the Spells that will be offered to you the next time you get to choose one of them if you pick any given option.

I took a breath as I looked over the Level-up notification – and subsequent Intelligence threshold notification – presented to me. But before I had time to celebrate, I heard a creaking sound as the gigantic wooden gate began to open. Someone must’ve been turning the wheel from the inside after hearing the many sounds of our battle with Aankin.

We’d completed step one of our plan – kill the guard. Here came the hard part.

Venom is coursing through your veins. 1 damage.

Your Health is 4.

I walked up to the opening gate, arms held out wide as if asking for applause as I approached the many citizens staring at me from within. I tried to hide my intense pain and exhaustion, and the fact that I was limping on a broken leg.

“Hi there,” I announced with a fake confident smile. “We just killed your Champion.”