[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 135 - Here Piggy, Piggy

Dernerd flailed his thick arms, digging himself out of a yet another collapsed tunnel. He spat out a mouthful of dirt, rocks, and some stringy roots.

His once fine suit was ruined by his wandering through the earthen tunnels that [Gravestone Upheaval: Reversal] created. His eyes darted around wildly, reminding Mel of a cornered animal.

Something shifted in the earth. Likely one of Charlie’s skeleton minions moving through the dirt to distract the orc. Small, rough stones fell from the unstable ceiling. He lashed out at the noise with a cruel-looking axe.

Using [Condensate], Mel streaked by in the misty darkness, cutting across the orc’s suit and drawing a line of hot red blood to her infravision.

“I see you, coward!” the orc bellowed. “You have to get lucky–AUGH–every time!” He swatted with a large butterfly axe. The finely honed edge whistled through the air. “I only–ARGH–only need to hit you once and you’ll be dead. Come out and face me!”

While the orc was Iron rank, with attributes that surpassed Mel’s, he wasn’t wearing any armor. Maybe that suit had some imprints that enhanced his combat abilities, but it sure didn’t seem like it offered any defense.

Certainly not to Mel’s afflictions.

“Now, why would I do that? If anything, you basically confirmed that I should just win by a thousand cuts. Not gonna lie, I’m a little disappointed,” Mel said from high up in the room, a place specially prepared for this battle.

Mel shifted to the side silently, using [Condensate] to help herself move without a whisper. It wasn’t flying, or even floating, but it was the next best thing.

For an Iron, he wasn’t very fast. Dernerd seemed built for strength and maybe arcane. He apparently didn’t have the balls or the basic common sense to specialize as a sturdy melee type.

Mel had examined him with great interest.

[Dernerd (Iron Battlerager)]

While she didn’t know what a Battlerager was, she guessed enough that it was a melee-focused class. Most of his aspect skills were close range from what she could see, though a good fighter would hold just enough back to lull their opponent into a false sense of security.

Which was why Mel was taunting him from afar. She needed him to think that she was getting cocky. Sloppy, even.

Getting struck by the Battlerager would carve off a significant amount of Mel’s health. Charlie had been able to partially block that first blow with a defensive combat art. Even still, she lost half her health in a single strike.

With a healer on Mel’s side, she could weather more attacks. [Bone Shroud] was still going strong.

Going toe-to-toe with the Battlerager filled her with a strange burning hunger. At the same time, she realized it was a terrible idea. It was what he wanted. And rule number one of warfare was to never give your enemy what they want.

Mel darted by the orc again, using her [Condensate] nails to speed her along without touching the root and rubble strewn ground. With her superior agility, she could have run across it as easily as a paved road, but she couldn’t be silent.

The orc’s eyes glowed red with the telltale twinkle of enhanced vision. Not that it did much good against her [Hidden Mist]. His ears, however, were remarkably sensitive.

As Mel had learned in the opening blows after she found him, his hearing was supernaturally good. She had nearly been carved in half by his counterattack.

Mel sliced across his ribs, diving low to the ground and under his bulky arms. He whipped his axe high, thinking she’d try the same maneuver again. He hit nothing but air.

Getting greedy, Mel twisted and struck another blow at his back. The orc grunted in pain as she built up to five stacks of [Blight], triggering [Destined Death].

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Mel asked. “I can go all day. How long can this little piggy keep going?”

The affliction wound was a bright spot of swirling heat on his ribs where she had last struck him.

Interesting!

A very different swirl of light lit up the darkness and cleaved through the mist right where Mel had been half a second ago.

Aspect Skill: [Cleaving Light]

Good thing I keep moving, Mel thought to herself. So that’s one ranged attack. One he was holding back. Too bad the System states when somebody’s killed or defeated. I can’t exactly feign my own death.

Two skeletons rushed in from separate tunnels, striking the orc in tandem. A spear burning with the affinity of a Fire ember caught the orc’s leg while a frozen spear thrust into the elbow of his axe arm.

Mel struck at the same time as the skeletons, adding two more stacks of [Blight] and nearly getting her head cleaved from her shoulders. He moved so fast it was like lightning.

Excellent reaction, slow speed, good to know.

One moment he was blocking the attacks from the skeletons, the next his axe filled her entire vision. Instincts saved her, because she sure as hell didn’t have time to think about her reaction.

Aspect Skill: [Thunderstrike]

The Battlerager wasn’t an idiot. He could tell the skeletons were a ruse. He accepted their hits and bided his time until Mel struck. Only her enhanced speed, thanks to Charlie’s [Mythclad], allowed her to narrowly avoid the blow.

The skeletons couldn’t inflict too much damage against an Iron’s hardiness. However, the repeated ambushes chipped away at the Battlerager’s health and offered cover for Mel to attack.

A black, swirling ball of death answered the orc’s counterattack as Mel backed away to the edge of the room. A trickle of warmth dripped down from her temple.

The screeching sounds of a thousand damned souls filled the grave of dirt and stone, burning the orc’s once-fine suit.

[Bane of Tartarus]

(Omen Aspect)

(Copper, Yellow/Ability)

(Grade 6 [80%])

Cost: Modest Mana

Cooldown: Moderate

Weave together omen curses from the pits of Tartarus into an abyssal swirling sphere of compressed malice. Let the song of the damned ring out for all.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Call upon the power of Tartarus itself, launching a swirling mass of malice like a meteor from your hand. Deals heavy Omen area damage, reduces maximum health, and lowers movement speed.

Despite the protection placed on her by Charlie, the orc’s axe was remarkable. His [Thunderstrike] aspect skill was something she’d never seen before. It was like fighting a snake.

[Bane of Tartarus] erupted into a dome of destruction, enveloping the orc’s body. He thrashed around wildly, screaming and patting his body frantically as if he was set on fire.

Then Charlie emerged from another entrance, her staff aimed at his chest. A salvo of green burning skulls burst from the staff and bombarded the screaming orc.

Aspect Skill: [Beyond Death]

Patches of his skin began to blacken and rot away. The metal of his axe warped and mottled strangely. The weapon crumbled to pieces in his hand.

Dernerd struggled to lumber after Charlie, who disappeared out of sight down a rapidly closing side tunnel.

Mel struck again and again, always from a different angle and always when he seemed the most preoccupied. The Battlerager had to choose between waiting for Mel’s attack or letting himself fall to the chip damage of the skeletons.

The moment he tried to attack them, Mel struck.

Letting loose another roar that caused his body to turn bright orange to Mel’s heat-sensitive vision, he committed fully to his attack on the skeletons.

Aspect Skill: [Fortifying Roar]

Mel’s next strike nearly bounced off his hardened skin.

Dernerd gave a hearty laugh and hit one of the skeletons so hard with his bare fist that it burst into powder. “I am Iron! You cannot face me and win!”

He staggered back from the destroyed skeleton, suffering from a burst of afflictions from the fallen minion.

“I could do more with Copper than you could with Silver!” Mel snarled, striking him again. This time, she put all of her strength into the blow. She felt the familiar tug as her twinblade bit into flesh.

Mel lashed out again and again, streaking through the room like a comet as Dernerd’s [Destined Death] stacked up. He fortified himself again and again, but it didn’t matter.

Every wound he took made it easier to take another wound. His body was failing by degrees, but it was failing. Mel kept up the assault, even after he destroyed the last remaining skeleton that faced him.

Each defeated skeleton was like a nail in his coffin. Every time they broke apart, a cloud of afflictions wore him down.

In the end, Dernerd had gotten what he wanted. A one-on-one fight with Mel.

Free of distraction, he adopted an oddly pensive pose. Both palms were pressed together as if he was praying. The orc stood ramrod straight, despite how much pain he must be in.

He bled from countless wounds, each of them inflicting [Blight] which was a combination of her [Frostbite Toxin], [Bleed], [Decay], and the dual bite of her [Fanged Flask’s] [Twinfang Sting] afflictions all rolled into one.

Luckily, she still gained stacks of [Haste] for every stack of [Blight] as she normally would when an enemy was hit with [Frostbite Toxin]. Perhaps that was why Mel did the unthinkable and approached him head on.

She could have continued the assault. Death by a thousand cuts was a guaranteed death, but it was slow, and Mel didn’t like this new calm that had settled over him.

He could have called for backup, or worse. Mel didn’t know everything about this world, but she knew that when your enemy did something unexpected, it was time to switch things up.

“You should have chosen me, Charlie Asleton,” he shouted to the tunnels. “Why would you pick this Copper hothead over an Iron gentleman like me?”

Charlie’s rich laughter that echoed through the tunnels nearly broke his calm.

Still, Mel wasn’t dumb. With the aid of [Condensate], she floated slowly and methodically behind him. She used [Blood Magic] combined with [Thunderstorm] right before she sliced into his thickly muscled back.

[Blood Magic]

(Blood Aspect)

(Copper, Green/Trait)

(Grade 4 [20%])

Cost: None

Cooldown: None

Blood fuels all things.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Any skill or spell can be converted to utilize the resource of blood instead of stamina or mana. Skills or spells used in this way have increased effectiveness based upon the rank of your Blood aspect.

A personal storm of lightning raged around her, enhancing her agility and sense, which was why she saw her doom coming for her.

The moment she struck with her twinblade, the Battlerager blurred. He didn’t simply move. The orc damn near teleported, turning 180-degrees and slapping his hands on either side of her blade like some sort of ancient monk.

Aspect Skill: [Reject Sword]

Years of training and fighting across multiple Worldshards kept Mel alive at that moment. He tore her weapon out of her grasp, but she was already abandoning it and summoning another.

As he tossed the weapon away, he struck out with a powerful blow that split the air in front of his fist at the same time as Mel used her [Exile Twinblade’s] combat art.

Combat Art: [Quickstep]

Mel only moved a matter of inches, but it was enough to avoid getting her spine punched out through her back.

Aspect Skill: [Killing Blow]

Her twinblade was already moving by the time the Battlerager noticed he had missed. Mel’s old twinblade wasn’t quite as powerful as her frostbite stinger, but combined with a blood-infused [Thunderstorm], it was enough to sever the orc’s clenched fist at his wrist.

Dernerd, for all his pompousness, didn’t scream or clutch at the wound like some novice. He struck with his other fist, but it was just a normal attack and lacked any of the speed or power of his previous attack.

“It seems you’ve run out of tricks,” Mel said, shifting to the side and cleaving through his weakened skin. “Still think you’ve got what it takes to stand up to a Copper?”

Using her superior speed, Mel piled on the stacks of [Blight] and [Destined Death] until the orc was hardly able to lift his arms to defend himself.

The battle was over.