Chương 127: 126 - Praise The Sun

The stone beast filled Alexandra's path the instant she turned. She didn't waste time hitting something she already knew wouldn't break. Her sword had rung off it without leaving a mark, and her spear was still buried uselessly in one of its forelegs. She planted, pivoted, and threw herself sideways instead, boots skidding on loose gravel as she cut around the leg's outer edge. The beast tracked her, slab-foot dragging a furrow through the stone as it tried to correct, but it was slow to turn.

"Kam!" Her voice cracked on it. She didn't look back to check if the beast was following. The gap closed, and she could see him better now, crumpled where the rock had caught him, one hand twitching against the gravel. Behind her, stone ground against stone, closer than she wanted.

"Willow, I need—""Working on it!" An explosion rang behind her as Willow fired another spell on the stone beast. Alexandra focused on Kam. He was unconscious, but alive. Not for long if she didn't move. A stone the size of her fist skipped across the gravel, aimed at his skull. She kicked it off-line half a step too late, and it clipped his shoulder instead of his head. He didn't stir. Didn't feel it. Two more stones broke off from the circling mass and came at him from opposite sides. She couldn't block both.

She grabbed Kam under the arms and hauled him sideways, gravel tearing at her palms. The stones collided where he'd been lying a second ago, cracking against each other. She planted herself between Kam and the stones. Standing still meant she could actually hit something instead of just deflecting, but standing still also meant she'd stopped watching Willow's fight, and the big one only had to get past her once. A stone came. She stomped it flat into the gravel before it could rise again. Another came from above.

She caught it out of the air. The impact numbed her hand to the wrist. They weren't smart. They weren't even coordinated. But there were a lot of them, and Kam wasn't going anywhere. She needed something. Something that didn't cost her a hand every time. Alexandra threw Inflict Weakness on one of them; nothing happened. The stones were not alive. She frowned. Then, standing between Kam and the skipping stones, she cast Inflict Weakness on the larger stone beast. Once again, nothing happened.

"The stone is not alive!" she called. Willow released another spell; a scalding ball of pressure shook the stone, sending the silver veins into disarray for a few seconds. The beast stammered. Then the veins gathered back together, and it started moving again.

"It's the silver veins!" Willow shouted. Alexandra kicked a skipping stone that was lurching toward her. As it drew close, she caught sight of a mana thread controlling the stone. She followed it. It was coming from underground. She was about to reach the source when another stone pounced at her. She had to cut her thread to deflect it and protect Kam.

"Fuck." Willow's attacks kept the beast busy, and its body slowly deteriorated. While it didn't seem to hurt it all that much, the silver veins had to exert more effort to control the stone construct. Right as Willow landed another spell, the veins flickered. Alexandra threw a thread at the opening. The veins closed a half-second before it landed. Threads snapped back empty.

"Again!" she snapped. Willow's next hit staggered the stone harder. Alexandra latched a second thread onto the monster with Life Drain, then followed it immediately with Aggressive Assimilation before the veins could recover.

"Please be good," Alexandra whispered, remembering the underwhelming buff she'd gotten from the Mossback. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The lifeforce streaming out of the veins was about average for a Silver-rank beast. The effect of Aggressive Assimilation, however, was interesting. Her perception extended. It wasn't just her five senses that did the work; a sixth had surfaced from the depths of the beast's blood.

Alexandra stood before Kam, feeling her new power. She could sense what was happening underground. A pool of the same material that made up the silver veins that controlled the stone construct had gathered beneath their feet. Her eyes went wide.

"Willow!" The silver veins abandoned the stone beast and gathered back into another set of stones.

"Shit," Alexandra snapped.

"All that work for nothing. The real monster is underground. You have a way to get to it?" Willow blasted another spell onto the new stone construct. At least, she was able to slow the beast down. But her mana wouldn't last forever.

"I don't know," she answered.

"If I stop battering the stones, I fear it will crush us."

"How long can you keep going?"

"Not long." She grimaced as she fired another spell.

"Four more casts." Alexandra caught a flying stone in her left hand and kicked another that was trying to catch her from behind. It didn't seem like the thing that was controlling the stone would run out of lifeforce or mana before them. Without Kam, they might be able to dodge, but it would be too hard to do so while protecting him. And even if they wore the stones down, that solved nothing. The real threat was buried under a foot of rock her sword couldn't reach, and Willow's spell couldn't penetrate.

Quickly, she went through her options. Dark Bolt could always serve as a last resort, but based on what she felt from Drain Life, she wasn't even sure it would be enough. Her weapons were useless. The beast countered her skills. Running, too, would be difficult. She snapped her fingers.

"What's your spell called?"

"What? Heat Blast. Why?" Willow answered, casting another. Alexandra didn't answer. Instead, while keeping an eye on the stones, she summoned her journal and flipped to the contribution point shop. Come on. Hurry.

"There," she whispered. Buying the skill. An explosion shook the ground as Willow cast another spell.

"I'm almost out. One more. You better have a solution ready."

"I'm working on it!" A stone hit her on the shoulder; she ignored it. Focusing her intent, she browsed through the shop. She needed something specific. Something that would help her turn the fight around. Willow's spell was not enough. Not enough. She needed to be capable of outlasting the beast.

"Alex," Willow said, panic starting to show in her voice.

"The beast is recovering. That's my last spell." Alexandra closed her eyes, pushing her mind to home in on the skill she needed. Willow released her spell. The beast staggered.

"Ah fuck. I can't worry about optimization now." She bought the skills and felt her mana core shift. This wasn't what she wanted. Had the circumstances been any different, she would have never taken the skill she just acquired. But she needed a way out, and she needed it now. Common skills were simply not powerful enough to save the day without crippling her. So be it. It wasn't the first time she crippled herself to win a fight. Besides, this time, it wasn't a curse. Her mana core burned.

Her threads went up in flames. She could feel her insides scald, as if the heat was real, as if her organs were being immolated. Then it snapped into place, and she felt the sun shine on her skin and inside her body. She opened her eyes just as the silver veins regained control of their stone construct. With a swing of her sword, she deflected three stones flying in her direction. She smiled.

"It feels better than I expected." Alexandra looked down at her journal. Heat Blast – Common: Cast a blast of heat-induced pressure. Each level increases the blast's maximum power. Her lifeline. Then its fuel. Solar Affinity – Common: Replace your mana core with a solar core, turning your personal mana into solar mana. Warning: you will lose access to unaffinited mana. Using unaffinited skills with affinited mana may not work as intended. Each level minutely increases the conceptual truth of your solar mana.

Heat Blast has morphed into Solar Blast Mana Concentration has morphed into Solar Concentration Mana Manipulation has morphed into Solar Manipulation Stasis Core Seal has disintegrated Contribution Points: 25, 074 -> 15, 074"Shit. No… It's fine." She didn't know skills could disintegrate. Losing Stasis Core Seal sucked, especially right after buying it, but it was just contribution points.

At least some of her skills had transferred over, and the rest that used mana hadn't disappeared, so she had hope they were still functional. In fact, Drain Life and Aggressive Assimilation were still active. At first glance, she didn't notice a change in their function. Good. She could worry about the rest of her skill set later. For now, she had a monster to kill. She quickly checked that the skill she intended to use was still working. Solar Blast – Common: Cast a blast of solar-mana-induced pressure.

Each level increases the blast's maximum power.

"Willow, look after Kam," she said as she stepped closer to the stone construct. Willow nodded and took her place. The silver veins flared on the stone. For the first time, Alexandra pulled energy from her Solar Core. She felt the power of the sun course through her veins and grinned.

"It's between you and me now."