[Earthbound Immortal - Level 13]
"Sit," Emma commanded as she called Sir Bearington back out, positioning him at the edge of the arena.
Sparing a second to look over the spectral bear, Emma felt a thrum of power and smiled, finding what she had sought; something which gave her great confidence even facing a significantly stronger opponent.
"Come and get me!" Emma taunted the boss, daring him to make the first move.
He responded by stomping his foot; causing the ground itself to tremble with what Emma realized was more than mere force. Jumping off the pillar suddenly carrying her towards a crash course with the ceiling, Emma called Epitaph beneath her feet, kicking off it to correct course in midair and avoid an incoming boulder bigger than herself. Landing in a crouch, Emma grabbed her blade as it fell within reach and sprinted for the boss, uninterested in fighting him at range.
As she came within ten feet of the boss, just short of swinging Epitaph at him; a second stomp caused four identical walls to rise in each direction, sealing her in. A final slab was fitted in place remarkably quickly, cutting off the ceiling as an escape route and completing her prison. Then, with the inexorable force of an earthbound driving them; the walls closed in to crush her for good.
The Earthbound Immortal nodded, satisfied with what appeared to be a quick end to his challenger. Far less satisfying was her immediate emergence, phasing through her prison to cut him at the knee. Emma ducked beneath an angry swipe of his claws, catching his ankles in retaliation. None of her blows cut deep, stymied one and all by thick layers of earth, but that was enough for Weeping Scar to activate, leaving behind pulsing purple lesions and filling him with poison.
"When in doubt, DoT," Emma recited, Epitaph likewise glimmering with malicious intent.
Dancing back and forth beneath his legs, Emma managed to inflict half a dozen lesser wounds, leveraging his own bulk to limit the reach of his limbs. As was always the case though, it didn't take too long before the boss adapted. Going limp, the boss fell, forcing her to leap away lest she be caught under his dead weight. A punch flew out, a fist the size of her torso hitting her dead on - and passing straight through just like the walls from before, with Emma mercilessly slashing his wrists on the rebound.
Eight massive eyes narrowing, the boss paused in place, uncaring as Emma stabbed him again and again and seemingly lost in thought. Only when Emma moved in, intent on carving out a few of his eyes did the giant stand back up, stomping his feet once more.
[Sir Bearington defeated.]
The Leech King - Level 8 (Cooldown: 2 Hours)
Sir Bearington - Level 4 (Cooldown: 1 Hour)
Earthbound Immortal - Level 13
300 EXP gained.
Fourth floor completed.]
"Interesting," The overseer spoke, breaking the silence that had descended in the wake of the floor's defeat. "The mana signature of your intangibility just now, it strongly resembles the ability you used to execute a certain annoying soldier. Too close to be a coincidence in fact; teleportation towards the target, intangibility to allow possession and control once the latter is established. You only used one component here, and most effectively at that, but it was only possible whilst you had a target to lock onto."
"I got the idea from an earlier skill I was offered but didn't take," Emma explained, seeing that the overseer had mostly deduced the mechanism already, whilst also making note that they were watching events outside of the tower.
"Ephemera would have allowed me to pass through physical objects as long as it was active. Oversoul can't quite do that, being primarily meant for possession, but it does come with a moment of intangibility as a secondary power to enable that. Now, Oversoul only works on living targets, and my summons are in a weird state of being both living and dead; sufficiently alive to be targeted by Oversoul but too dead for the possession to work, so I don't move anywhere when targeting them, but still get the moment of intangibility."
Of course, Emma didn't explain everything about Oversoul , deciding that nobody needed to know it only worked on lower level targets. The boss had fallen for her bluff easily enough, focusing on The Leech King under the assumption she could target it as she had Sir Bearington when in truth she could do nothing of the sort, so there was clearly value in withholding that knowledge.
"Hmph," The overseer snorted. "You're still not a practitioner, but you might have the creativity of one. We'll see on the ninth floor."
At her dismissal, yet another spiral staircase descended from the ceiling, beckoning Emma ever onward and upward.