Chương 42: Low Health

I brought the sword across my body and tried to carry the movement past my injured shoulder. My arm resisted halfway through. I tightened my jaw, changed hands, and finished the upward cut with less reach than I wanted. The knight's weapon shifted. A disturbance passed through the mana around me before the pressure arrived. Mana Circulation was still running. I could refuse to call on my other abilities, but the passive continued its work regardless, drawing my attention to the uneven movement near my face.

There was another attack inside that disturbance. I planted my foot and raised the azure blade to parry. The first contact pushed my hand back. I corrected against the second, and the sword broke before I could complete the motion. [AZURE BLADE LEVEL 15] [STATUS: BROKEN] I stared at the remaining length above the guard. An orange rune ended halfway across the break. Lady Livia had given me that sword. The knight's helmet had cracked as well.

I looked from the broken edge to the opening, still holding the hilt as though there might be enough blade left to use. The knight began to recover its weapon.

'This is undignified.' I drove my free palm into the damaged helmet. The remaining structure gave way beneath the impact, exposing the shadow held inside. I withdrew my hand and stepped back carefully. My shoulder had begun to object to movements that barely involved it. The knight remained upright, its armour trembling.

"You crazy lad!" Mimir shouted.

"You actually did it!" I kept backing away until I had room to watch the whole suit. Much of the surrounding floor remained intact. The whirlwind had extinguished the flames, leaving debris scattered across ground that looked oddly ordinary now the fire had gone. I could hear Petra behind me. Turning to look would have been a poor use of the few moments available. The knight rose off the ground.

"Wait," Mimir said.

"What is happening?" I lowered the ruined sword hilt. I had reached the dangerous part, and my health was still low enough that each small movement demanded consideration. The pain I had managed to ignore during the exchange was becoming harder to put aside. A plate detached from the knight's shoulder. Another followed from its side, hanging briefly before falling. I watched the space each piece uncovered.

The shadow inside stretched between the separating plates, then thinned until I could make out strands pulled tight through the armour. The strands snapped.

"Carlos?" Petra called. I lifted my free hand a little, hoping that would be enough of an answer. The movement hurt. I lowered it again. Something orange emerged through the opening above the collar. Hair unfurled as the figure inside straightened and grew beyond the proportions the armour had contained. Heat reached me before the last dark plates came loose. I raised my forearm across my eyes. Flames gathered around the figure, brightening until I could see little through the gaps between my fingers.

I waited for the brilliance to settle, blinking at the patch of white left across my vision. Looking too soon would only make the next exchange worse.

"I don't feel too good about this," Mimir muttered.

"Hey, lad. You're seeing this?" I lowered my arm. A woman stood above the fallen armour, orange hair descending from beneath her helmet. White metal guarded her legs and formed a lighter set of armour across her body. Fire-bright markings remained visible between the plates. Her gauntlets caught the same light as the flames around her. The system attempted to identify her. [LEVEL:????] I read the question marks, then looked back at her. She began to descend with the measured footing of someone using stairs.

Her toes touched one invisible step and then another. I had watched this before, yet my attention still followed each placement, waiting for her to reach the debris below. Mimir had stopped talking. My mouth pulled into a smile. I tried to settle my expression and only made myself more aware of it. I bowed my head and closed my eyes briefly. The second form of the dark knight stood before me. The Sun Sword Saint, with the heavy steel and shadow finally stripped away.

I had spent enough attempts reaching this point to know how little time a bow should take. When I looked up, her foot was settling among the broken plates. The system still displayed question marks. Lady Livia had produced a similar sign with the system. I had wanted an explanation then, too, though the trader had been considerably easier to stand in front of while wondering. I dismissed the display. The Sword Saint faced me.

The upper part of her face remained partly obscured by her helmet, and the narrow space beneath it gave me little to judge. I straightened as far as my shoulder allowed. She threw something toward me. I released the broken hilt and reached. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. A sword turned once in the air. I caught it by the grip, adjusted my fingers before its weight could pull it sideways, and held it away from my body.

Fire ran along its length around a solid shape I could barely examine through the brightness. This time, she had given it without taking more time then it normally should. This was… the more dignified side of her, I came her missing an arm. She cut her own arm. I had no weapon she gave me a weapon. I came here with a level there hundred enchanted twig she also made small fire twig. Equal opportunity… and I had died each single fucking time, I didn't know what it did to me. But it for sure motivates me every time.

I glare with excitement.

'She's deemed me worthy once again.' The smile returned before I could suppress it.

"Careful with that," Mimir began. A rush of fire and wind reached me while I was settling into my stance. I met it with the offered sword. The force travelled through both arms, shifting my feet across the floor before I brought my weight under control. I could still hold the weapon. I checked by tightening my fingers, which was a foolish thing to need to check, but my hands had gone uncertain around the grip. Pathfinder was available. I kept my attention on the blade in front of me.

Across fifty-two thousand six hundred and seventy-eight attempts, I had handled swords under enough different classes to know when my body would disappoint me. My current attributes were a poor fit. They had been a poor fit before the first exchange, and looking at them again would not improve them. But I had one thing this run I didn't among the countless runs before. Mana. But I couldn't permit myself to use it, it would be disrespectful. The Sword Saint moved past my view.

I turned and brought my weapon around in time to meet hers. Sparks crossed the space between us. She stood taller than the dark knight had, forcing me to adjust the height of a defence my body wanted to place lower. She was tall and had an elegant stature, curves, toned physique highlighted by the fiery glow. She was already moving again. I caught the next strike while turning, then shortened the return because another approach had appeared ahead of me. Her afterimages spread around my position.

One crossed behind my right shoulder while a second advanced directly toward my guard.

"Behind you!" Petra or Mimir? I really couldn't tell. I had to block out all my other senses. That's right Sound, peripheral view, taste, touch. The sword was an extension of my arm, my flesh my bones, my soul. And something much… much more important, my will. I had begun the turn before Mimir or whatever voice calling out had finished. The warning almost made me turn farther than I needed. The wind stance helped me recover.

I kept my movements small enough to follow one defence with another, though the effort was accumulating in my legs. An attack from behind became pressure at my front, and then I had to shift right to meet a weapon I had barely seen begin its path. I searched the helmets. Most of the images gave me armour and flame, enough detail to waste time on. I followed the upper edges until orange hair moved beneath one of them. There she was. I aimed toward the shoulder guard below it.

My blade came close enough to touch the edge, but she withdrew before I could complete the strike. I followed her movement with my eyes and resisted the urge to chase. My agility would not support that. I needed her to come back within reach, which she had done after this evasion before. The Sword Saint lunged. I left an image where I had been standing and moved behind her as the attack passed through it. I brought my other hand onto the hilt.

My shoulder made the grip awkward, but I held it long enough to drive the sword forward. The blade met the bright energy at her back. She shook and faltered as my sword impaled her. I felt the resistance change and pressed farther, trying to finish the movement before my arm gave out. Mimir shouted something from my hip. Flame swept over my hands. I tried to withdraw the sword, and she turned before I had freed it.

"She broke the pattern," I said. Her gauntlet caught me at the throat and lifted me off my footing. The sword ceased to be something I could use. I reached toward her wrist, unable to bring my weight against the hold.

"They always break the pat…" The system interrupted my view. [Health: 06 / 310] Twenty points gone. I kept looking at the zero before the six, as though it belonged to another alien number. The Sword Saint threw me. Petra's cry grew distant while I waited for the ground to meet me. My legs moved uselessly beneath me. I tried to turn far enough to see where I would land and found stars in every direction. There was no floor.

"Lad?" Mimir's voice remained close.

"What is that?" I searched below my feet. More stars occupied the place where the arena should have been. I turned my head the other way, then farther, looking for even a piece of the floor. Spatial manipulation. I remembered this. Humans called it space, and I had found the name disappointingly small for something that extended so far beyond anything I could touch. But more importantly I have used it, it's an extension of ones will. For a moment I forgot to keep searching.

Then my shoulder pulled at me as I moved my arm, and the six health points returned to the front of my thoughts.

'It's too soon.' Perhaps the pattern had continued after all. The transition belonged to the sequence. I remembered the stars and what followed them, but she had brought me here earlier than I had expected, before I had properly recovered from the strike. I turned toward the growing brightness. An enormous sun occupied the distance.

"Is that the sun?" Mimir demanded. I stared at it. I had known what would be there and still needed a moment to accept its size.

"Yes."

"What do you mean, yes?" Mimir responded. I had no better description to offer. The light covered too much of my view, making it difficult to judge whether the thing was approaching or expanding. Either possibility required me to stop staring and reach for the potion. It looked like a beacon of light. Instead, a remark about human food came back to me. Bacon. They cooked it until it was crisp, apparently, and people spoke well of it.

I had never understood how often discussions of human civilisation eventually arrived at something to eat. I pulled my attention back to the bottle.

'You're close to reaching them. Concentrate.' Beneath the sun, a solitary figure became visible. The Sword Saint held a gauntleted finger beneath the immense sphere, appearing to support it with the tip. I smiled before my hand had found the potion. I knew this attack. This was the reason I had saved it, even if the timing had changed and my remaining health was worse than I had intended. I could work with recognition. I had been waiting for something I recognised without having to correct it halfway through.

It was an ultimate attack.

"It was nice knowing you, pal," Mimir said. And sombrely. I checked the place where I had secured the vial. My fingers passed over it, came back, and closed around the neck. The resource display opened. [RESOURCES] [Health: 06 / 310] [Mana: 220 / 300] [Stamina: 12 / 100] I read the stamina value twice. Twelve left. The fight had taken almost everything available to my current body while most of my mana remained untouched. I brought up Wormhole.

[Wormhole] [Active] [Rank: 4] For a moment I searched past the panel, trying to choose somewhere the skill could take me. Stars supplied points of light without giving me a destination I could judge. I could not see the Spire. I turned again, more slowly this time. Nothing in the distance resembled the place we had left.

"Can you get us back?" Mimir asked. I kept searching.

"Carlos."

"I need to see where." The distance was beyond anything I could establish from here. This was another mechanic of wormholes… I could not just feel my way through space. No, I required sight and memory of the place. The fact that I have been in this tower for more than a couple hundred lifetimes gave me the ability to teleport anywhere, as long as I knew it and as long as I could spare the mana.

When you are inside someone's spatial manipulation, you are no longer within the authority of the Inverted Spire, but in an entirely different reality governed by the one controlling it. The higher their level, the worse it is... I had no visible coordinate near the tower, and the skill's name remained in front of me without providing one. I closed the panel and tightened my hold on the vial. The sun expanded. Yeah right... I had just concocted this. [VITALITY POTION II] [This is not a health potion.] I moved the bottle closer, although the words belonged to the display. [Rejuvenates the user. May increase Vitality.]