bookpower [358] 4.79 Final Flight X
[358] 4.79 Final Flight X
I’m relieved and horrified in equal measure at the horrific devastation caused by [Chain Lightning]. My crackling electrical energy surges toward Apocrites faster than the blink of an eye, only to be blocked by a trio of her drones which rush in to intercept. The electrical power fries their circuits, then, as the energy tries to dissipate, it causes rapid thermal expansion which leads to just as many explosions.“All that talk for–” Apocrites remains so smug even now. She’s really starting to piss me off.
“Shut up,” I say.
If it were a simple [Lightning Bolt], then the attack would have been expended. But this new spell remains fully charged. Another chunk of [Ether] fed into the matrix and another surge of sparking energy flies loose, again aimed at the hive queen. This time it takes four of these automatons to fly in and absorb the blast. Then again, amping up the power slowly but steadily. The first one took fifty points of [Ether], the second took sixty-five.
Now, with two hundred points, I see the sparks really start to fly. Five drones block the initial blast, but this time, the metal in their bodies proves insufficient to completely absorb all the electrical energy I emit. The remainder arcs onward, striking into another cluster of drones, then a third, before finally fizzling out just before reaching the third.
“Interesting,” I say.
“How dare–” Apocrites starts, but I cut her off.
“That was two hundred [Ether]. Shall we see how my spell works when I throw five hundred points into it?”
I release the spell without giving my foes the chance to protest against me. This time, three initial sparks fly off in different directions. These then spread out into nine different clusters, turning another sixty drones to scrap before finally breaking apart into harmless sparks.
“Ah, ah, ah!” I say as Apocrites again lunges toward me, freezing her midflight. “I think I understand how this spell works now.”
“Enough of this!”
“Yes, I agree. It has been fun,” I say, drops of sweat forming on my forehead from the mental strain of maintaining the spell matrix. “But I don’t have all day to play. So let us see what happens when I throw eight thousand [Ether] into my attack. I’m sure the results will be… enlightening, to say the least.”
This time I actually do suffer a noticeable amount of blowback as more energy than I’ve ever used in a single spell spreads out in hundreds of directions. Drones fly forward to intercept hundreds of arcing bursts, exploding without so much as slowing the now-violet bolts down. If anything, the fact that there’s so much metal flying about only makes my attack that much stronger.
Whenever the spell has the choice of which enemy to strike, it chooses both without slowing down, then those attacks move toward the next conductor— another drone, or occasionally the walls of the room— zapping everything in its path. Chloe is spared from the carnage thanks to my will and how she’s curled up, away from the center of my attack. But every other creature is at best sizzled by my display, and at worst completely broken and melted.
And the violent devastation isn’t content to stop anytime soon. The arcs of lightning surge from drone to drone, deactivating them before continuing on to the next in a cascade of failures. And once the streaks reach the outer walls of the chamber, they continue on through the hundreds of access tunnels from which the drones had been spawning before. More explosions, more buzzing noises and beeps which grow violently loud before turning into thuds and then blessed, deathly silence.
Even Apocrites herself is not spared this time, so thoroughly were her shields eviscerated from the cataclysmic display of electrical energy. She flies about, and unlike her so-called ‘children’, she actually has the speed and the processing power to dodge some of my attacks, if only long enough for one of her sacrificial lambs to intercept and tank the blast with its face.
I can only grit my teeth and take heed of exactly what I’m capable of. And to think, this is only level 80, and my capabilities are definitely increasing superlinearly; I would never have been able to wreak half this much havoc at level 40. Not even [Black Hole] so thoroughly devastated so many of these creatures, and even then, I needed Nicholas’ [Ether Cannon] to actually dispatch the far weaker harpy swarm.
The hive queen continues flying around, the buzzing of her wings growing faster and more frenetic as she tries and barely manages to outfly the speed of my encroaching lightning.
“Enough of this!” she shouts and raises all four hands as just as many chains of electrical energy. She catches each attack in one of her hands, causing her to fly backwards until her entire being is assaulted by explosions and a plume of metal-infused smoke envelops her entire being.
“Is it over?” Chloe asks. She stands back up, and though her breath is no longer so ragged, her [Blessed Regeneration] hasn’t finished healing her wounds. Must have sustained even more damage than I’d realized.
“I doubt it. I can still sense her presence in the smoke, and the Ether that was surrounding her body hasn’t abated.”
“What did you do!” Apocrites screams. “My children! My babies! You killed–”
“Oh, fuck off!” Chloe says. “If you really cared for them as your children, you wouldn’t have been constantly sacrificing them to save your own sorry ass! A real mother cares for and nurtures her children, rather than running for the hills at the first time of inconvenience!” Her rage builds to an even greater extent than before as she begins summoning more of that [Celestial Fire]. “So take your smarmy ass right back to hell where child-sacrificing creeps like you belong, you damned hypocrite!”
“I have had more than enough of you!” the bee queen shrieks.
“Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual, Hypocrite,” I say. “So let’s finish this thing once and for all.”
No more drones, no more magic. My [Ether] is down under a thousand, Chloe’s probably isn’t much higher. Both of us are purified of the toxins and my [Strength] is already returning, though it will take a bit more time before I’m back to a hundred percent.
With that said, whatever Apocrites did to block my lightning did a number on her as well. Two of her four wings are cracked, her flight patterns are erratic. There are plenty of markings on her arms where she absorbed the full extent of my attacks, with sparks and occasional twitches suggesting that she’s still running in a less than ideal state. No more drones are appearing, both because the shafts have been ravaged and I’m willing to bet her connection over the hive mind has been compromised. The latter seems almost certain, considering those sentry hulks outside the chamber haven’t barged in to turn the fight into a 2 v. 5.
In short, both sides are winded, and the battle will be decided by willpower and grit. That’s not a battle I see myself losing. Not against this arrogant wannabe queen.
I take the lead this time around, buying Chloe a few more seconds for [Blessed Regeneration] to patch her up. With another swirl of slashes, I’m able to land more than a few good strikes against Apocrites, but none of my attacks are able to truly pierce through her defenses and land a decisive blow. At the same time, her attacks are clumsy and uncoordinated, the lightning within her circuitry leaving her unable to take advantage of the flaws in my own defenses.
Punches fly and blood and oil spill in equal measure. We both scream and moan as the punishment wears upon us. Apocrites tries to wear me down with her venom, but Chloe has just enough in the tank to cast basic [Heal] and [Antidote] spells to keep me in the battle.
Our foe turns to Chloe and attempts to knock her out of the fight with a flurry of her stingers. I leap in and deflect all but one of them, which bounces harmlessly off Chloe’s breastplate and off toward the ceiling.
She turns to me and opens her mouth, but a glare from me silences her before she can get a word in. She knows by now that psychological warfare is pointless and that any attempt to do so will only embolden us. Still, a punch to the face sends me tumbling.
My eyes catch Chloe’s, and she nods. She stands, and though she immediately drops to one knee, the grip she’s taken, [Aria] sheathed and [Lumen] reverse-gripped with both hands, tells me exactly how the fight is going to end. She bought time for me earlier, and now it’s time for me to come up with the two minutes she needs to win this.
It’s too bad that two minutes might as well be an eternity at this rate.
I rise to my feet and take a fully defensive stance. Apocrites, meanwhile, lunges with fury on her face, taking advantage of my weakness to go all out on the aggression. I fall back and allow myself to take attacks that only impact my armor or extremities, instead focusing my attention on avoiding or deflecting any immediately lethal or debilitating strikes— those to the head, neck, or unprotected abdomen.
“Why? Why won’t you just die already!” Apocrites screams.
I don’t respond as she launches yet more punches to the face. I leap up to avoid them; she follows and tries to knock me down, but I’m able to twist midfall and land on my bloodied palms and backflip to my feet. My head is growing light from the combination of blood loss and the lingering effects of the venom, but at this point, I’ve had so much experience doing battle like this that the adrenaline is more than counteracting the fatigue.
A nasty pair of punches to my right upper arm cracks the bone and forces me to drop Filia. Before I can grab them and return to the fight, Apocrites knocks my swordstaff aside and kicks me in the gut. I spin around to try to regain my footing, but she’s on me again with a diving kick so intense that it dents the floor. Another one follows, but, with my swordstaff forcibly de-equipped, I switch back to the [Mechanical Arm Cannon] and manually fire off a stream of [Ether Bullets] by jerry-rigging the [Elemental Ether Strike] Skill.
I manage to get to my footing, but the inefficiencies of doing while no longer having the [Ether Bullet] Skill means that I’m almost completely drained. And Apocrites sees this and responds accordingly. I dodge the next attack only just, but one of her injured wings catches me in the side of the face.
The poison takes effect and now, weakened as I already am, I’m unable to resist. My movements are sluggish, and if I could fight to a draw at the start of this little engagement, now not even my most defensive posturing stops me from sustaining heavy damage.
Though I still have one last card to play— using Apocrites’ ego to my advantage. Rather than trying to get up and resist her attacks, I feign myself as being a little weaker than I actually am and stumble back to the ground, moaning in pain.
“It was the only way this fight could end.” Apocrites snarls as she kicks me in the gut. “You worthless, weak, sniveling little wretch.” More kicks accompany each word. They hurt, but nothing I’ve not felt thrice as bad before.
“You will never be forgiven for what you’ve done to me. Done to my hive, my family.”
“Is that so?” I say.
“One last bit of defiance before you submit to the inevitable? Very well.” Another kick. “I shall simply beat that out of you before you submit to the inevitable. Your consent will not be required for your compliance.”
I start laughing. “You are a fucking idiot.”
Apocrites frowns. “A ‘fucking idiot’ you may call me, but strong enough I am to kill you. And that’s the only thing that matters in this world.”
“Yep.” I grin. “Strong enough to kill me. But not strong enough to kill us.”
“What do you–”
“[Lightspeed Slash]” Chloe says as she reappears behind me, Apocrites’ severed head in her arms.
[You have slain Hive Queen Apocrites (Level 82). You have gained a boosted 1,000,000 Experience. (Experience accumulation includes ancillary Experience gain from defeating 1,999 Hive Drones. (Levels ranging from 60 to 63))]
[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 82 (From 80). [Strength] +2, [Vitality] +2. Please assign free stat points. (Remaining: 22)]
[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = (478, 481)]
[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = (322, 324)]
[Level: 82; Experience: 11,927,204; To Next: 331,161]
[Current Stats: [Health]: 2,428 / 19,381; [Ether]: 718 / 14,452]
[Current Stats: [Strength]: 107 (Base: 169); [Speed]: 427 (Base: 168); [Vitality]: 505 (Base: 199); [Mind]: 612 (Base: 241)]
[Your [Reconfiguration (Rank XIII)] has upgraded to [Reconfiguration (Rank XV)].]
[Your [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank VI)] has upgraded to [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank VII)].]
[Your [Multidimensional Glyphcasting (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Multidimensional Glyphcasting (Rank VI)].]
[Your [Valkyrion’s Perception (Rank XII)] has upgraded to [Valkyrion’s Perception (Rank XIV)].]