Counterattack

Shortly before John threw the Useless Bauble

Aeolia’s teeth ground together in pain and frustration as she eyed her foes slowly drawing closer. She focused on keeping her breathing steady and repeating the words of her mentor.

‘Don’t let your opponents disrupt your calm,’ she recited the lesson like a mantra. ‘Maintain your balance, and no foe can knock you down.’

The two hounds grew closer, maintaining their circling path around her. Aeolia pivoted in turn, keeping both of her foes in sight. When her back was to the hound she had killed, her excellent hearing picked up a third set of tapping against the hard floor.

'Another one,' she thought, her body tensing slightly as the unseen sound began to approach. Then, a spark of light panic bloomed. 'No, it's the lead one. These things can regenerate?'

Her grip upon her glaive tightened. Three-on-one was normally not odds she was uncomfortable with, especially against something like these hounds. But the pulsing of her wounds were a stark reminder of her nonoptimal state. And her magic was strained beyond her usual limits; already she could feel her transformation slipping.

Clunk!

Aeolia’s ears easily picked up the sound of something hitting the hound in her blind spot and its subsequent impact on the ground. Then, running footfalls filled the hall, only slowing for a second before speeding away, followed by the harsh scraping of wooden claws.

‘That idiot,’ Aeolia cursed as the human she had encountered left her range of hearing. She didn’t know why he had been trapped in this Barrier, but she could only assume he was the intended target of these hounds.

‘Why though?’ Aeolia questioned. ‘This is overkill for a mana farm nabbing. And there’s no way that guy has enough power to need a full-on hunting pack to deal with. Even I can tell that.’

Aeolia shook her head to refocus. ‘It doesn’t matter what he did to draw their attention,’ she thought, ‘not right now at least. Deal with these two and hope he lives long enough for me to save him and see what he knows.’

Dealing with the two hounds still locked on her was a notion easier said than done. Aeolia flexed her wings experimentally. Pain lanced through them and she buckled slightly, giving the hound closest to her blindspot the opportunity to strike.

It lunged, sappy saliva dripping from its open maw. With only a second to react, Aeolia swung her glaive at the beast. The strike was sloppy and poorly aimed, giving the charging hound the needed time to adjust course and avoid the counter.

Aeolia knew that with her badly executed attack, the second hound would press the given advantage. Without missing a beat, she quickly pivoted to meet the anticipated attack. Her instincts were right and her glaive stuck the hound squarely on the side of its head.

She bit back a curse as the blow knocked the hound away. In her haste, she failed to adjust her weapon; the blow hit with the flat of the blade, not its edge.

‘I can’t keep fighting like this,’ Aeolia thought, trying to steel herself against the pain. The hounds had recovered from their near-miss and hit respectively and had elected to abandon the circling technique. They now stood just outside Aeolia’s range, haunched low and ready to attack.

Aeolia tensed, ignoring her wounds as best she could, and flared her wings. She charged at the hound in front of her, wings spreading to take to the air. As she left the ground, Aeolia let go of her transformation, her body compressing until she was a third of her previous size.

Now in her natural size, Aeolia flew higher, each flap of her wings sending tearing agony through her frame. Her shift in size, or the rapid release of the magic that had maintained her expanded form, seemed to have stunned the hounds for a moment, and Aeolia was keen to capitalize on their confusion.

The instant she reached her zenith, she dove down at one of the hounds, wings tucked close to her body, glaive held ramrod straight. A meter above the targeted hound, she ducked into a curl, flipping herself around, her taloned foot aiming between the hound’s shoulders.

Then, with a surge of magic, Aeolia increased her size as much as she could at the moment, nearly to her maximum. With a cry that was equal parts fury and pain, she crashed into the hound, talons tearing into its vegetative flesh. The sudden strike, now with close to her maximum weight behind it, **** the hound to the floor with a dull crunch.

Not missing a beat, and aware that she only had a few moments before the hound beneath her would try to shake free, Aeolia hefted her glaive up and began to swing it around her head. The blade ignited with a green glow as she poured mana into it. Her display kept the unfettered hound at bay, the beast biding its time outside the range of the wind-based weapon.

“Too bad for you,” Aeolia said, her voice harsh with fatigue but tinged with satisfaction, “a wind blade isn’t the only thing I can do!”

The glaive made one final arc past her head and as it travelled behind her, Aeolia angled the point downward. As the blade began its upward return, she let her mana burst out from it and conjured a solid wave of green-tinted wind that filled the corridor. The sudden gust quickly traversed the gap between Aeolia and the Vine Hound and slammed into the living foliage, cleanly lifting it from the floor, the scraping of its claws drowned out by the rushing tempest as it was launched towards the shattered window.

Aeolia let out a strained, but triumphant, whoop of elation as the hound cleared the window frame, the remnants of glass tearing minor wounds into it. Her celebrations were cut short as the canid under her had recovered from her landing and was trying to rise up.

Swiftly, Aeolia drove her glaive into its head. For good measure, she repeated the action twice more and left her weapon embedded in the floor after the third strike. With the beast pinned to the floor, Aeolia withdrew her talons and stepped off the hound, taking a position in front of it. Then she yanked her blade free and began to stab at the unmoving creature, her attacks growing more frenzied with each strike.

She maintained her **** as the hound’s body began to crumble into grey dust, her repeated strikes dispersing the decomposed beast. She drove her blade into the floor as the corpse fully broke down, hands tightly gripping the shaft to keep herself upright.

Heavy breaths caused Aeolia’s breast to heave as she tried to settle herself from that outburst.

“Calm down,” she said to herself. “Don’t lose yourself. There’s still the one chasing after that human and their summoner. You’re fighting to avenge the fallen, don’t join them before that can be satisfied.”

Once her breathing returned to normal, Aeolia righted her posture and wrenched her weapon free, specks of lingering dust falling off it.

“Hope that human didn’t get himself killed,” she said, slowly beginning to head in the direction he had led the hound in. “Would suck if he did. Gotta admit, took balls for someone as wimpy looking as him to do that.”

Her stride stopped when the clicking of wooden claws joined the rhythm of her own taloned feet. The first hound rounded the far corner, its posture shifting into an aggressive one, teeth barred as it spied her.

Aeolia bit back a curse as she mirrored the beast, glaive held at the ready.

“Guess I was too optimistic to think that guy could survive you,” she spat. “But he’s going to be the last person you kill!”

Her declaration made, she charged forward. Pain shot through her legs with every step, the deep bruises and numerous lacerations were beginning to become hard to ignore. She grit her teeth as she closed the distance between her and the stationary hound.

Then, her body pulsed and began to collapse inward. Aeolia’s eyes widened as her form shrank, centimeters vanishing with each step. The hound still hadn’t moved, but seemed to regard her reducing size with a feral grin.

Aeolia didn’t stop, couldn’t stop, her charge. She was able to arrest her compression, but now stood only a meter tall, coming to just above her foe’s shoulder in height. Her die was cast, and her will remained strong.

Evidently, now was the time the hound was waiting for and it pounced, teeth and claws primed to tear into her. With the chorus of claws and talons, rushing blood, growls and battle cries, both combatants were unaware as the other occupant of the barrier rounded the corner.

John’s lungs burned as he raced back to where the fight began, his new, and first, weapon gripped hard in his hand. He ran through the battle plan as his goal drew nearer.

‘OK,’ his thoughts flew, ‘find the bad dog, snare him up, stab repeatedly.’

He knew it wasn’t a great plan, but it was better than just playing cat and mouse. Or dog and steak as was the case.

‘It’d be a better plan if I could keep track of my mana more easily,’ John griped, ‘I don’t want to risk running out if I have to keep Shadow Snare up, even if Mana Conductive reduces the cost, but my Character Sheet is too big to keep open.’

HUB Options Activated. Health and Mana Bars Display Engaged.
You’re Welcome

John blinked as the pop-up vanished on its own and two transparent bars of red and blue faded into view at the lower left corner of his vision.

“Well, that’s, um, convenient,” John said aloud, the sudden fulfillment of his desire catching him flatfooted. “Thank you, I guess.”

John didn’t get the time to ponder who or whatever was on the other side of those pop-ups as he rounded the corner, seeing the hound charge at an equally charging Aeolia, who was definitely smaller than she had been. John thrust the knife forward like a wand and tried to trigger the Evocation. When it didn’t fire, John panicked for a second before remembering the distance limit.

‘One meter, right,’ he recalled from the Observe sheet on Shadow Snare. ‘Need to get closer.’

That was a task easier said than done. Aeolia and the hound were almost within striking distance, both seemingly oblivious to his reemergence. So, John resorted to the one thing that had worked before.

“Hey, you overgrown weed,” John shouted as loud as he could, breaking into a full sprint as he did. “Miss me?”

John knew the Alpha wouldn’t stop its charge and turn to face him, but both combatants did slow at his sudden declaration. John could see a look that was equal parts stunned amazement and disbelief grace Aeolia’s face as he rushed forward, knife outstretched. The disruption to their pace had given John the opening to get close before the Alpha and the AvenFae could come to blows.

The instant John crossed what he believed to be the threshold for Shadow Snare, he cast the Evocation, pointing the knife at the hound. He felt his mana flow into the knife, the blue lines in the steel igniting into an ethereal glow as a shadowy aura began to coat the blade. Twisting vines of the same substance manifested around the Alpha, tangling around its legs, quickly tying it up.

Its legs restricted, the Alpha crashed to the ground, sliding along the cold floor towards Aeolia. As a seasoned warrior, she didn’t let the sudden turn of events distract her from seizing the opportunity and hefted her glaive up, pouring mana into the blade. A green-tinted wind bloomed into life with a whistle and she swung the empowered weapon at the prone hound’s neck.

Even in her compressed state, her weapon was deadly and easily cleaved through the beast’s cellulose flesh, drawing a gash in the floor as well. With the hound now decapitated, John released the Snare and eyed his Mana Bar.

‘I held Shadow Snare for about six seconds, which should have cost 14 Mana. That looks like it did drain around that, but Mana Conductive would only drop the cost by a bit.’

With no numbers on his HUD Mana Bar to confirm things, John opened his Character Sheet to find the definitive answer.

‘I was at 36 before, and now I’ve got 23. Looks like Mana Conductive does work for the Evocation.’

His musings were cut short when Aeolia’s clicking talons signalled her approach.

“Oi,” she started, stopping right in front of John, “what’s the big idea? You run away then try to play the hero. And why the hell do they want you dead, anyway?”

John looked down at her, as her shrinking had put her at waist height. Her height and positioning gave John a view right down her cleavage and he stuttered as he couldn’t help but track a bead of sweat as it travelled down into the dark promised valley.

“W-well, um,” John managed to get out, “I don’t know. Like I said before, I just woke up today with these powers. I haven’t even really run into anybody else, besides you, I guess. I mean, I got a Quest that says there are people at school that have magic, but….”

John trailed off as a thought crossed his mind. He had gotten a Quest for this fight. So why hadn’t he gotten a reward for winning, or rather surviving, the fight? Or received the loot his Observe on the Alpha had indicated?

His eyes snapped to the Alpha’s corpse and widened in terror as it returned to its feet, body streaming with sickly purple energy. New growths of vine burst from the thing’s neck, quickly weaving into a new head. The growth didn’t stop at a new head; the vines of its body writhed and began to grow wider.

In only a few seconds, the Alpha ballooned from a lean hunting dog to something closer to a massive mastiff, with thick, bark-covered shoulders and thorny spikes jutting from its spine and brow. A flood of sappy saliva ran freely over renewed fangs and to the floor.

“Shit,” John managed to eek out, raising his knife into a ready position. “Really!?”

“Fuck,” Aeolia spat out the curse and twisted around to face the now glowing monster. “Why can’t you just die!”

Aeolia pressed forward, letting out a frustrated battle cry that morphed into a cry of pain as her rushed steps put too much pressure upon her wounded legs. She stumbled, and the overgrown canid lurched forward, jaw wide to take a bite.

John was not far behind and managed to enter Shadow Snare’s range before the Alpha could make the attack, summoning the shadowy vines to bind its mouth and legs. This time, the beast wasn’t as bothered by the spell, jaw and powerful limbs tearing through the magically summoned restraints after only a few seconds. With nothing slowing it, the monster barreled into them, sending both Aeolia and John flying like bowling pins.

-20 HP

The air was knocked out of John’s lungs and he crashed to the ground with a meaty thunk. Painful gasps tore through John’s frame as he struggled to reclaim his breath. After a second of struggle, the pain lessened suddenly and air flowed easily into John.

The Gamer **** himself to his feet with jerky motions, every second a bit of the pain fading away.

‘Just getting run into by that thing took nearly half my health out,’ he thought. ‘I guess Gamer’s Body is the only reason I’m not still on the floor.’

A breathy gasp drew John’s attention and he blanched as he saw Aeolia lying against a wall, glaive loosely held in her hand as the hound pressed a heavy, glowing paw into her abdomen.

‘Shit, this is bad. How can we beat this thing? It can heal and Hulk out and…’

John looked down at his knife and back to the behemoth.

‘This blade glowed when I used my magic on it. The hound only glowed when it was healing. If it’s using magic to heal, then I can Hex it off and we can kill it!’

John tried to cast Hex but the effect failed to manifest.

‘Crap, I don’t have enough mana. Shadow Snare dropped me below 20 and there’s no time.’

His grip on the knife grew tight, the dark oak handle slick from sweat.

‘The handle,’ John thought, hope blooming in his heart. ‘The Dark Charged Attribute! That’s an extra shot of mana. I can use that for Hex!’

John bolted towards the hound, while he directed his thoughts towards the knife. Just like with his skills, once he thought of an action that could happen, it did. Dark mana flowed out of the handle and into John. It filled him with an odd sensation of cold, not unlike entering a shady spot on a bright and hot day. With no time to muse on that, John threw that mana and 5 points of his own into casting Hex.

The purple energies that surrounded the Alpha didn’t vanish as John thought they would, but instead seemed to rush away from the towering behemoth and towards him instead. The energy quickly covered him and John felt a massive surge of strength flood his body. He didn’t question it and threw himself atop of the hound, barely noticing it was beginning to revert back to its normal form, albeit slowly.

John drove his knife into the creature’s side, sending a spurt of green ichor spraying from the wound. John wrenched his weapon free and stabbed again.

“Aeolia,” John shouted, the sound of her name getting through to her, “I’ve turned off its regeneration. Stab it!”

Aeolia tightened her grip on her weapon and gave one last defiant cry as she thrust the blade into the Alpha’s jaw, igniting its magic right as it pierced the vine skin. The wind blade carved through the hound’s skull once more before flickering out of existence, the weapon falling to the floor as its wielder’s grip failed. The beast staggered for a second before tipping over to one side, John jumping off its back before it fell.

A second after it thudded against the floor, its body flashed with a bright, white light and vanished, leaving behind a small pile of items. The aura around John faded as he stared at the items. Before he could react, a number of popups filled his vision.

“Guess that means we won?” John said, dismissing the reward screen and turning to Aeolia, only to find her **** and shrinking. He rushed over to her, the remaining displays fading until they were transparent. She was less than a meter tall in John’s estimation and he checked her pulse with his pinky finger.

John let out a held breath when he felt the slow but steady beat against his smallest digit.

“OK, she’s just sleeping,” he said, mostly to help calm his nerves. “She’s sleeping and I have no idea if she’s going to be OK or how to get out of this Barrier thing.”

John cast his thoughts to the pop-ups still hanging in his vision, causing the transparent stack of notifications to return to full visibility.