Sworded Affair

Chapter 43: Under the Weight

[Earthbound Immortal - Level 13]

"Sit," Emma commanded as she called Sir Bearington back out, positioning him at the edge of the arena.

Sparing a second to look over the spectral bear, Emma felt a thrum of power and smiled, finding what she had sought; something which gave her great confidence even facing a significantly stronger opponent.

"Come and get me!" Emma taunted the boss, daring him to make the first move.

He responded by stomping his foot; causing the ground itself to tremble with what Emma realized was more than mere force. Jumping off the pillar suddenly carrying her towards a crash course with the ceiling, Emma called Epitaph beneath her feet, kicking off it to correct course in midair and avoid an incoming boulder bigger than herself. Landing in a crouch, Emma grabbed her blade as it fell within reach and sprinted for the boss, uninterested in fighting him at range.

As she came within ten feet of the boss, just short of swinging Epitaph at him; a second stomp caused four identical walls to rise in each direction, sealing her in. A final slab was fitted in place remarkably quickly, cutting off the ceiling as an escape route and completing her prison. Then, with the inexorable force of an earthbound driving them; the walls closed in to crush her for good.

The Earthbound Immortal nodded, satisfied with what appeared to be a quick end to his challenger. Far less satisfying was her immediate emergence, phasing through her prison to cut him at the knee. Emma ducked beneath an angry swipe of his claws, catching his ankles in retaliation. None of her blows cut deep, stymied one and all by thick layers of earth, but that was enough for Weeping Scar to activate, leaving behind pulsing purple lesions and filling him with poison.

"When in doubt, DoT," Emma recited, Epitaph likewise glimmering with malicious intent.

Dancing back and forth beneath his legs, Emma managed to inflict half a dozen lesser wounds, leveraging his own bulk to limit the reach of his limbs. As was always the case though, it didn't take too long before the boss adapted. Going limp, the boss fell, forcing her to leap away lest she be caught under his dead weight. A punch flew out, a fist the size of her torso hitting her dead on - and passing straight through just like the walls from before, with Emma mercilessly slashing his wrists on the rebound.

Eight massive eyes narrowing, the boss paused in place, uncaring as Emma stabbed him again and again and seemingly lost in thought. Only when Emma moved in, intent on carving out a few of his eyes did the giant stand back up, stomping his feet once more.

[Sir Bearington defeated.]

Her companion's simulacrum returned to Epitaph, unable to sustain itself with a massive spike impaling it. Emma didn't waste the opening, managing one heavy slash across the Earthbound's back whilst the latter was distracted before she had to leap back, vulnerable for the first time in the battle.

"Evasion," Emma ordered as she summoned The Leech King to take Sir Bearington's place, the latter immediately beginning to roll, relying on his impressive speed to keep him ahead of the row of spikes aiming to repeat the fate of his predecessor.

"That didn't take you long to figure out," Emma noted. "Still too long to save you though."

Indeed, with the number of wounds bleeding purple from Weeping Scar, Emma could almost see the boss dying before her eyes as his vitality burned down. Whilst Emma didn't rule out the possibility of healing, unless that happened soon he wasn't going to last, and it seemed that they both knew it. Slamming a fist into the floor with such force that the limb shattered, the Earthbound cleaved a fissure through the middle of the arena, with Emma dodging to one side and the Leech King rolling merrily along the other.

Still, this did its job of reducing the latter's space to maneuver, as the boss rose and also joined the hunt. Between the still active spikes and the Earthbound's remaining fist, the Leech King soon found himself driven into a corner and out of space to dodge. The next punch, the Leech King took dead on, an earthen fist burrowing deep into his guts as he twisted in turn to sink his maw into the Earthbound's neck.

"Detonate," Emma ordered, the Leech King pulsing as it forced all of its considerable reserves of Anima to erupt outwards in a suicidal strike.

Popping like a water balloon, the boss found himself showered with the Leech King's boiling blood and copious reserves of acid, adding to the trauma already inflicted by Emma's earlier efforts. Turning to regard Emma once more, the Earthbound Immortal advanced three steps before falling to his knees, pushed beyond endurance by the potent cocktail of toxins assailing him.

When Emma finally approached the stricken giant once more, it was simplicity itself to behead him, a mercy kill but more importantly guaranteeing that it was Epitaph recorded as dealing the final blow.

[Earthbound Immortal - Level 13 defeated!

Weapon Enhancement updated.

No Pal of Mine: Capture the soul of the slain, creating a simulacrum identical in strength and fully obedient. Maximum 1 active per 10 levels, rounding up.

The Leech King - Level 8 (Cooldown: 2 Hours)

Sir Bearington - Level 4 (Cooldown: 1 Hour)

Earthbound Immortal - Level 13

300 EXP gained.

Fourth floor completed.]

"Interesting," The overseer spoke, breaking the silence that had descended in the wake of the floor's defeat. "The mana signature of your intangibility just now, it strongly resembles the ability you used to execute a certain annoying soldier. Too close to be a coincidence in fact; teleportation towards the target, intangibility to allow possession and control once the latter is established. You only used one component here, and most effectively at that, but it was only possible whilst you had a target to lock onto."

"I got the idea from an earlier skill I was offered but didn't take," Emma explained, seeing that the overseer had mostly deduced the mechanism already, whilst also making note that they were watching events outside of the tower.

"Ephemera would have allowed me to pass through physical objects as long as it was active. Oversoul can't quite do that, being primarily meant for possession, but it does come with a moment of intangibility as a secondary power to enable that. Now, Oversoul only works on living targets, and my summons are in a weird state of being both living and dead; sufficiently alive to be targeted by Oversoul but too dead for the possession to work, so I don't move anywhere when targeting them, but still get the moment of intangibility."

Of course, Emma didn't explain everything about Oversoul , deciding that nobody needed to know it only worked on lower level targets. The boss had fallen for her bluff easily enough, focusing on The Leech King under the assumption she could target it as she had Sir Bearington when in truth she could do nothing of the sort, so there was clearly value in withholding that knowledge.

"Hmph," The overseer snorted. "You're still not a practitioner, but you might have the creativity of one. We'll see on the ninth floor."

At her dismissal, yet another spiral staircase descended from the ceiling, beckoning Emma ever onward and upward.