Breakthrough

Spirit Skill: Vessel Cloak
Unlocked by receiving enough mana from a greater spirit while holding their vessel. The primary element of the spirit flows from their vessel and wraps around you, ready to heed your command.

Wrapping Shadows: Senka’s Vessel Cloak flows from the tip of her blade to your shoulder in a comforting embrace. Consumes 5 MP per minute and its reserve can be drawn from to cast effects. Effect will end if less than 5 MP remains to power it. You can channel skills and effects through the shadows, delaying their activation until contact with a valid target.

John ran the words he read through his head as he willed the shadows to push back the champion’s arm, his declaration of their counterattack spilling from his lips nearly automatically.

‘I see you’re enjoying my power,’ Senka remarked with amusement. ‘Would you like me to funnel more mana to you?’

John felt his face heat up a bit. ‘No, I think it’d be best to not burn your mana pointlessly. If we can’t beat this thing before I use this up, we’ll see if we need to reup it. There’s no guarantee that Beth and Moira will have dealt with everything up there or that there’s not more bots hiding around somewhere.’

‘Let’s hope fate is kind to us today and that our princess and the Warden cleaned up everything up there without issue,’ Senka thought, a smile creeping onto her face. ‘Perhaps our defeat of the boss will also be accompanied with the announcement of our victory.’

‘Keep the optimism going.’ John grinned as he contracted the shadows until they only clung to his arm and weapon. ‘I’d love nothing more than to be done with the Order today and go home.’

‘I can think of a few ways to unwind,’ Senka seductively thought. ‘But we can save those ideas for later. We have a fight to win.’

John was grateful she only just touched upon that sort of topic. He really didn’t need to have his blood flow redirected southward right now.

“How long can ya keep that up?” Rowan asked, breaking John out of his thoughts.

“About eight minutes if I don’t use Senka’s mana for anything else,” John explained as he willed the shadow to lengthen along the blade, turning the knife into something closer to a shortsword in proportions. “I can run my spells through it too. Might be able to use that to score some unexpected hits.”

Rowan nodded. “I think we might need those. That regeneration is a troubling ability.”

John hit the champion with Observe once more and he couldn’t help but grin. “The mana counter went down. I think I get what the intended game plan was. We’d fight it and trigger a phase two where it would heal up. The bonus challenge would have been to keep it from reaching enough power to do a full heal a second time.”

“So ye’re sayin’ if we don’t **** it to use that mana, it’ll be able to just keep healing. Wonderful,” Rowan muttered before she shifted the greatwood sword a bit. “Crippling blows seemed to **** it to heal. Think we can chip away with those?”

“Best move we have,” John answered as he went over all his options. “The zilhavrum armor really limits how much I’m able to do, but I think if we can open a way inside it, I’ve got a few things that can really wreck it.”

Rowan nodded, a grim look settling on her face as her body tensed. “Then I’ll focus on making that openin’. Cover me.”

John nodded and Rowan shot forward, taking the offensive, forcing the champion to block. It tried to jab with its other blade arm, but John struck first, his shadow-made blade parrying the glowing counterattack, though a sort of static shock ran up John’s arm as he **** the blow away.

‘That’s got to be zilhavrum screwing up my magic,’ John thought as he eyed his mana bars. The purple that represented Senka’s dark mana had dipped slightly. ‘I already had the first minute paid. So I can’t carelessly block or get blocked or I could run out of juice too fast.’

‘Why didn’t the first block have the same effect?’ Senka queried.

‘Could be because it’s running mana into the blades,’ John noted, his eyes locked on the glowing blades. ‘Or it has something like Arcane Edge. The first block hit more of the flat of the blade than the edge.’

‘I would say we should test out that theory but I don’t think it meshes well with our plan to not burn mana foolishly,’ Senka remarked.

John nodded and said aloud, “I can’t really block the swords without wasting mana.”

“Of course things couldn’t be simple,” Rowan griped. “Don’t worry about covering me. Just find an opening and take your shot.”

Before she could rush in again, John spoke up, “Hold on a second! Focus on its joints if you can. We did it before easily enough.”

“I can’t promise anything,” Rowan admitted, “but I won’t pass up something like that in the hopes of getting a better hit.”

Rowan moved back in to engage their enemy. The two began an exchange of blows; the champion slowly pulled them back towards the opening above them even as it tried to score a hit on Rowan. The Order squire deftly met its swords with flowing strikes of her own, clearly now comfortable with the wooden sword’s particularities.

‘It’s moving slower,’ John noted of the champion’s fighting style. ‘Is it adapting to the fact that we weren’t taken out by its blitz and playing things safe?'

A horrifying realization struck him when the champion suddenly sped up to parry a thrust aimed at its right armpit, before jabbing with its left and forcing Rowan back, thankfully without piercing through her armor. A move John was sure it could have dealt with at the speed it had been moving at before.

‘Shit, it understands English,’ he thought as the fight returned to its previous speed. ‘I didn’t think about that. The last bot boss did. Dammit!’

John wanted to shout to Rowan his revelation but he managed to tap down his instinctual reaction. If their opponent could understand them, then revealing that they knew that would be giving it more information.

‘We need to get it off balance,’ Senka opined, a point John readily agreed with.

‘How do we do that though?’ John wondered as he ran through his options. Hex and Amplify likely had no way to affect it, and firing off an early Pursuit would mean Rowan would need to disengage so she wouldn’t get caught up in the blast. And there was no guarantee it would mess the champion up enough for the swordswoman to gain the upper hand.

‘The only usable move I think I can use here is Shadow Snare,’ John thought. ‘And that won’t be at full power since the armor fucks with spells.’

‘What if we both used it?’ Senka suggested. ‘Two instances of such similar effects should work, even when they are diminished.’

‘There’s also something we haven’t tried with it,’ John realized as his grip on Senka’s vessel tightened. ‘We’ve never used pure dark mana with Snare.’

‘It could give us an edge against the zilhavrum,’ Senka noted. ‘Fire with Pursuit enhanced its power.’

‘Let’s try it,’ John decided and touched the mana within Senka’s vessel. ‘I’ll take it’s right, you bind up the left.’ The pair held their breath for a moment as Rowan and the champion continued their back and forth. Then, the construct’s right arm swung wide and John drew upon the dark mana and cast Shadow Snare.

Dark thorny vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around the machine’s arm, a mirrored set appeared on its left not even a second later. The bindings rippled as if they were boiling and John felt the dark mana drop faster than it should have and Senka relayed a similar drain on her mana as the machine fought against their hold. And it was winning, the zilhavrum armor leaving no place for the thorns to bite into.

Thankfully, Rowan was quick to take advantage of their binding. Even as the champion tore through their bindings, she thrust her sword at its **** shoulder.

5 DMG

The screeching sound of tearing metal was brief as the construct put its all into leaping back from Rowan’s strike, breaking John and Senka’s hold. But their efforts were enough and a small chink in the champion’s armor had opened up. It was barely a crack, but it was the opening they needed.

“Rowan!” John shouted as he surged forward. The swordswoman fell back and John cast Fiery Pursuit. The Evocation took his mana, but instead of the fireball manifesting above his palm, the hot energy traveled up his left arm, across his chest and down his right, slipping into the shadows around his arm and settling within the tip of the elemental sword, an unseen heat hidden by the rippling darkness.

The champion, now free from its bindings, tried to intercept John’s strike, thrusting its right arm up to **** John’s to go high. Zilhavrum tip struck shadowy blade and John grit his teeth as the metal’s anti-magic properties began to unravel Senka’s mana as the machine **** his arm up. With a shout of defiance, John poured all his will into the cloak and gathered all of it into the blade, leaving his arm bare.

With more mass, John directed the shadow to the opening, the blade becoming like a viper as it twisted and launched for the crack in the machine’s armor. The disruption from the zilhavrum grew worse as the tip of the dark mana slipped into the construct’s shoulder, and for a second, John was worried it would dispel the whole thing, rendering this gambit a failure.

Before that possibility could become reality, John felt Pursuit trigger and an explosion rocked the champion, the blast cleanly ripping off its arm.

55 DMG

John stepped back, Senka’s shadows flowing back up to his shoulder, and Rowan jumped back in, the greatwood sword swinging with all her might, aimed right for the machine’s now exposed right side.

25 DMG

The blow drove the champion to the side a short bit before it dug its heel into the stone, stopping its slide and letting it lunge at Rowan, a faint glow on its remaining blade.

Rowan let out a cry of pain as the blade drove into her side, cutting through her armor enough to sink a few centimeters into her flesh. John saw her health meter begin to dip as he sprang to her aid as she began to falter. His attack **** the champion back and a pair of Black Thorns from Senka drove it further away, stopping its retreat right in the center of the opening above them. John didn’t press the attack, instead quickly supporting Rowan’s weakening form, placing his hand over her wound, stowing Senka’s vessel away to do so.

The cloak effect vanished in an instant and John quickly summoned his healing staff, casting Bloom of Life with most of his remaining mana. The healing effect stopped the diminishing of her health bar and John felt the flow of blood under her palm slow to a trickle.

“That’s a useful spell,” Rowan groaned as she winced. “Think most of it’s been healed.”

Before they could step away from each other and get back into the fight, a golden light flared above them, far brighter than any John had seen before.

“In the name of the Lady, be gone!” Moira’s voice echoed about them, somehow overcoming the environment’s natural sonic absorption. John could feel her power wash over them, somehow both comforting and terrifying. Like knowing the sun gave life to the world but was also a mass of superheated plasma spewing deadly radiation at them as well.

Like an avenging angel, Moira descended upon the champion, her hair fanning out behind her in crimson waves. With a yell of pure determination, she brought her hammer down with the full **** of her fall, crushing the champion like a soda can.

524(26) EXP Gained

All hostile entities defeated. Barrier will repopulate in five minutes.

“H-honored Warden!” Rowan stuttered out, forcing herself from John’s grasp and haltingly marching towards Moira before she fell to one knee in supplication. “I have failed to follow your orders and have besmirched the Order’s honor. I submit myself to whatever discipline you wish to cast upon me.”

‘Is this really the time for that?’ Senka remarked.

That seemed to be the thought running through Moira’s head as well as her hardened battle expression swiftly morphed into something softer and more perplexed. Then her face adopted a neutral, professional mask as she took a breath.

“Squire Donnelly,” the redhead said, her voice carrying the weight of authority. “We will be reviewing your conduct once we return.”

Rowan nodded solemnly and John opened his mouth to speak in her defense, but the words died in his throat when Moira leveled a stoney glare his way.

“I understand,” Rowan submissively said before forcing herself back to her feet.

“Oi!” Beth’s distant voice echoed above them and everyone’s head turned up towards where the dark-haired girl was leaning down over the opening. “Are you guys good down there?”

“We’re good!” John shouted back as loud as he could. “Got the all-clear notification!”

“Great, cus I’m about all out of gas!” Beth yelled. “Otherwise I’d be jumping down there.”

‘She is going to be extra clingy later,’ Senka remarked. ‘Do you mind if I call dibs? Or perhaps she could sit between us?’

‘Let’s worry about that once we’re out of here,’ John deflected, eyeing the bag of loot that had appeared next to Moira. The redhead caught where John’s eyes were going and nudged the sack.

“I presume these are the items from all the machines we destroyed while separated?” she asked tersely.

“Yeah,” John answered as he moved to touch the bag. “How do you want to go over everything?”

“I believe it would be best if you simply gave us a few items to review and we can retire for the time being,” Moira said. “That should be adequate evidence for my father.”

“Right,” John muttered as he called up his inventory. Immediately, he withdrew one of the two zilhavrum ingots they won as well as the mana cell battery. “These two okay? I got a bit of armor, which kind of clashes with your aesthetic, and…”

“I believe those will be enough,” Moira interjected. “We don’t need the whole of what we won here.”

“Alright,” John said, as he handed the two items over to Moira. A second later, he took out the sole zilhavrum sword they obtained and presented it to Rowan. “Looks like we’re not going to be able to look for your sword.”

Rowan looked at John with a confused expression before she stammered out, “You don’t need to do that. I lost my blade and it falls to me to replace it.”

“I offered, and I intend to keep my word,” John countered.

Rowan opened her mouth, trying to form an argument when she glanced at Moira. Whatever was conveyed between the two women in a moment of eye contact went unknown by John but the squire bowed her head and accepted the zilhavrum sword without words, exchanging it with the greatwood she borrowed from John.

“If that’s everything, I believe we should head back,” Moira said as John stowed his returned blade. “We should be able to do so from down here, yes?”

“Don’t see why it shouldn’t work,” John answered before looking back up at Beth. “We’re going to leave!”

“Got it!” Beth shouted back. “See you outside!”

She vanished and John looked back at the two Order members as Senka returned to his aura. He quickly returned his armor to his inventory and said, “Ladies first.”

Moira nodded then she and Rowan popped out of the barrier. After one final look around the cave, John followed suit.