Chapter 050 - Proud and Ruthless

Anna whipped her arm to the right as her club streaked through the space the skeleton’s head had once occupied. The pulverized creature’s skull naught but shards and powder at her feet as it collapsed to the ground. She stepped over it, dipping low as a razor-sharp set of fingertips snapped towards her own head. She snapped her eyes up to meet the gaze of the skeleton that had gone for the kill and drew her club up in an almost sword-like uppercut. She took a half step back and tilted her head to the side as another came charging at her with a swipe. She snapped her foot out and tripped it, grabbing it by the head and driving it into the wall with a callous grunt.

There were a few things she noted immediately after starting this round. First: Rebuke didn’t kill a single one of them. Second: It did way more damage to the fearless undead than she was expecting, not by a lot, but it definitely softened them up. Third: When her presence went on cooldown it stayed at the volume she’d left it at, making it impossible to take advantage of her reduced presence. On top of all of that, the cooldown after using Rebuke was a little bit longer too. Not to mention the mana expenditure from using it.

Even so, Anna thought as another one went down. What if I don’t want to hide? Who cares if the cooldown is a little longer, who cares if I’m blasting my presence like some jock with his fly down? She clicked her tongue and brought her club up into a two-handed block, driving her shoulder and elbow forward into the jaw of her latest attacker. It’s chin collapsed and she pushed it down onto its allies. …what if I want him to see me when I’m coming? Her frown deepened. No, knowing isn’t enough.

She felt warm inside. She had no grasp of how long it had taken, but her cooldown finally ended. She cranked her volume all the way down and the skeletons stumbled a little in confusion as s he pushed past a few of them, going deeper into their ranks. She heard a shout overhead but ignored it. I’m so tired of keeping my head down. Running and hiding from everything. She clenched her teeth. I wasn’t wrong about how I handled things back in the Student Council. I was just fixing problems. They just needed to shut up and listen. 

She was crowded by them now.

Knowing isn’t enough. He needs to be afraid.

She cranked her volume all the way back up. A dozen pairs of eyes snapped towards her she met them with her flat scowl. Then the second Rebuke came. A shockwave of presence colliding with the undead and diminishing them just a little more. The cracks on their bodies became more serious as they stumbled away, swatting at the invisible force that ruthlessly pushed down on them. She eyed their condition and then glanced at her resources.

Resources:
HP: 220/224 | SP: 184/209 | MT: 36/217

Those numbers sent a thrill up her spine.

The small advantage of weakening them all with Rebuke before engaging had made all the difference in the world. Her increased stats giving her just that tiny bit of edge she needed to avoid more damage, use up less stamina, and hit just a little bit harder. Her lip twitched as she did a quick head count of the remaining skeletons. Only eight left. Not enough, not nearly enough. I’m just getting fucking started! This is it, this is what I was missing! A set-up to go with my other abilities. Something to make them quake. 

She tilted her chin up as the skeletons recovered from the shock of her rebuke and took a deep breath. “BEVAL!” she bellowed. She didn’t wait for him to respond as she continued. “SET UP THE NEXT ONE!”

“ANNA!” Catherine called down to her. 

Anna could hear the concern, she actually appreciated it, but boy if she didn’t give a flying fuck. She whipped her head towards the stairs and realized she was smack dab in the middle of the garden. Her lip twitched and she looked up at Catherine as the skeletons charged at her again. She held her knight’s emerald gaze with a scowl. I want more. I need more. It isn’t enough. Don’t you dare stop me. She thought as a skeleton leaped at her. She stepped back and tripped it before swinging at another, caving in its shoulder with a horizontal swing.

She didn’t break her lock with Catherine’s eyes.

Catherine nodded and turned away to bark at the elf guy.

Anna turned back to the undead and planted her feet with a snarl. Fucking system underestimating me. I’m going to hit level seven today! BRING IT ON!

–

Catherine watched Beval hurry into the control room before she looked back down at the beacon of tyrannical presence standing amidst the last few shambling skeletons that remained. The quick moving creatures were cowed slightly in the area of effect of her ability, their moves just the smallest of a fraction slower. Their collective wounds were even more severe. Their bodies were all the more fragile. Is that a debuff? Catherine wondered as she descended the steps to the half-way point, arms crossed. That ability… a combo perhaps?

The Knight felt the garden start up again, more skeletons crawling out of the ground as Anna reduced the first round down to a frail three. Her ruthless presence had remained steady if a bit ‘strained’ for about a minute. Then it smoothed out. A cooldown. That ability has a one minute cooldown. Rather large for such a low level. Catherine’s eyes narrowed as the fresh wave of skeletons gathered and charged at her liege in a croaking and groaning frenzy. An ability that synchronizes well with the other features of her ‘class’ with solid output and a large cooldown. That sounds like a level ten signature ability. She got her heritage’s first signature at level six, the little monster…

Catherine’s lip twitched into a proud smile as Anna’s presence dipped into nothing and she watched the girl force her way into the ranks of the newly spawned undead, looking to maximize coverage. Good strategy. Now let me feel this ability of yours. I want to know exactly-

Anna’s presence came back with a roar and then a wave of mental agony followed it. Catherine felt something warm trickle down her nose as she took an involuntary step back. Her health dropped down by a whole quarter with a single burst. She gasped and caught herself on the wall. That felt… like significantly more damage than those skeletons took, she thought wildly, dragging herself away as she fought off a brief spell of dizziness. It does more damage to living creatures, then?

A red icon flashed in the corner of her vision. There it is.

Trespasser (Debuff)
Suffer, Trespasser, in my presence. 5% of mental damage used against you is converted into force damage. Your stats are reduced by 1%. This effect lasts until you exit the sphere of influence of the caster.

Catherine’s throat bobbed. Yes, definitely the result of a signature, she thought and wiped her nose as she arrived at the top of the steps again. She sat down and crossed her legs to allow herself to heal a bit as Beval hustled over to her side. She held up a hand to forestall his question about her bloody face and instead gestured towards the melee below. A single dark figure standing amidst a sea of bony-white rage, crushing everything that drew close. 

“You turned up the difficulty for her?” she asked, noting that the undead were taking a bit more to go down.

“You said to turn it up by a level,” he said shakily, his eyes fixed on the carnage. “What the hell am I looking at?”

Anna’s presence vanished again and Beval shifted uncomfortably on his feet. They both could see Anna dip beneath the undead and push through them to another spot in their midst. Even so, feeling her aura vanish was an intensely uncomfortable thing for someone who didn’t understand how it worked. It was even more disconcerting when that tyrannical, unforgiving, ruthless presence blasted back out enough for them to feel the wisps of it at this range. Another flare of that unnamed ability crashed into the undead and they all swayed, more cracks forming on their rigid bodies.

Catherine smiled. “Your liege.”

Beval swallowed hard. “...do you think I should get another round set up for her?”

The knight raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him before nodding. “That would be best. I will let you know when to start it up,” she paused and made a decision. “Turn it up to level eight.”

He swallowed, nodded and ran towards the doors to the control room as Catherine turned back to watch her Lady throw herself into the world of violence. She’s inspired, a moment of explosive growth. I need to make sure she rides this out as long as possible. That may not be the only new ability she acquires today, Catherine thought and rose to her feet. You’re a long, long way from standing alongside the other little powerhouses of the Multiverse, my Lady. You have no backers, a pathetic gathering of allies, few resources and refinement materials of your own.

Catherine’s eyes narrowed just a little bit and her lips curled upward. Born in the Grey, huh?

–

Anna let herself get carried away into the carnage. She swung, stepped, moved, and swung again. She blocked, dodged and weaved. She used every part of her body as a weapon; her knees, her bare hands, anything she could use to kill the bony fuckers that grew even stronger on the third round. She felt the telltale buzzing in the back of her mind of waiting notifications but paid them no mind. She wanted nothing in that moment but to revel in her newfound strength. It felt like everything she’d endured and struggled for had culminated in this. A combination to give her the tools to really, truly fight.

The second round ended and the third round came, the skeletons were tougher than before but she had gotten her strategy down. Trespasser stacked, reducing attributes by a percentage and increasing the damage that Rebuke caused with each compounding layer of the debuff. The longer the fight went, the easier it was to bring them down. Larger groups were perfect for her, she’d realized. This ability wasn’t built for one-on-one fights, not really. It would help but it was better used as a supplement rather than something to lean on exclusively.

Part way through the third round she started using Power Strike on occasion, delivering devastating blows to skeletons that got a little too eager or close. She had to be careful about when and where she used it; the ability used stamina and that was her most precious resource at the moment. Mana wasn’t as much of an issue for her as a primarily melee fighter but it was still building as well. By the time the fourth round came she was already starting to feel warm on the inside and knew that this would be her last go around.

She stuck to her strategy, slipping into their midst and blasting Rebuke out on as many of them as she could hit before starting to swing. It looked like they were the same level as the skeletons from round three, which was fine. She didn’t think she could handle another jump in difficulty with her resources already dipping further and further down. Case in point, a skeleton managed to get in close enough behind her to snap its clawed hand out at her throat. Contingency triggered with a surge of sourceless mana, the spell had already been cast to set it up. A barrier of hardened energy formed between her and her attacker and she pivoted with the sudden awareness of the ability triggering. Her club took the damn things head off like a home run swing.

When it was over, finally over, she dropped to her knees amidst the piles and piles of bones. Sweat dripped down her face as she caught her breath and pulled up her resources.

Resources:
HP: 92/224 | SP: 24/209 | MT: 181/217

“...cutting it close, Flitt,” she chided herself and sat down, wheezing out a breath.

The sounds of boots crunching over bone drew her attention and she looked up to meet Catherine’s steely emerald gaze. Anna’s lip twitched and she tried to force a grin but she was too fucking tired. She looked out over the carnage she’d wrought, there had to be nearly two hundred bony corpses laying around her. “It’s not enough,” Anna growled.

“It never is,” Catherine said.

“You think I leveled up?” Anna asked.

“Probably.”

“I took things as slow as I could in the dungeon. Focusing on staying alive. I got a little reckless now and then but only when I was certain I could come back alive,” Anna said sullenly and rest her arm on her knee, puffing out another tired breath. She frowned and tilted her head. “That’s a fucking lie, I totally screwed up with that colossal whatever-the-fuck it was.”

“You are tired of clawing and scraping for strength,” Catherine said with a nod of understanding.

“Yeah,” Anna said and looked back up at her. “You think by the time I’m caught up with him in level I can beat the Champion?”

Catherine let out a breath and crossed her arms. “I do not know, my Lady. He is the champion of a major force sent to lead an integration. I would argue compared to the average newly integrated soul you are mighty, but…” she trailed off and frowned. Anna could tell she didn’t want to actually say what she was thinking.

Anna snorted and got shakily to her feet, walking over the closest pile of bones and kicking it. “There’s always a bigger fish and they’ve had eons to get good at leveling up,” Anna said with a nod. “I get it. Stay humble, right?”

“No.”

Anna turned to her with furrowed brows. “Huh?”

Catherine shook her head. “You have every right to be proud,” Catherine said firmly. “Humble is the wrong word here, my Lady.”

Anna tilted her head. “Then how would you put it?”

“I have said it once before,” Catherine said and looked towards the bones. “Show no mercy, never underestimate your enemy. Be proud, my lady, and ruthless.”

Anna  let the words sink in. She turned back to her work as she dismissed her club into her inventory and pressed her lips together. Proud and Ruthless. She could do that. That sounded good, really good, like the kind of person she wanted to be in this fucked up new reality of hers. If thats what it took to survive to the end, to see her mother again, and to make sure humanity got through this alive. That sounded a-fuckin-okay.