Book 5: Chapter 14 — Mirage |
Noah triggered Arcane Step, blinking across the chamber to intercept the male stalker before it could regroup with its mate. The spatial displacement deposited him directly in the creature's path, spear already sweeping in a horizontal arc.
The stalker was ready. It blinked away the instant Noah appeared, leaving only an afterimage that his spear passed through harmlessly. But Noah had anticipated that—he'd been watching its pattern, counting the seconds between spatial jumps.
"Chains!"
His Chains of Binding erupted from his left palm, the runic links screaming through the air faster than the stalker could react. They wrapped around the creature's hindquarters just as it materialized from its blink, anchoring it to the stone floor with glowing symbols of containment.
[Chains of Binding] has applied [Anchored] to [Mirage Stalker]
[Spatial Blink] suppressed for 8 seconds
The stalker thrashed, claws gouging the ancient stone, but the chains held. Its afterimage ability kicked into overdrive—suddenly there were twenty copies of the creature, all struggling against phantom chains, all screaming in identical fury.
But only one of them bled. Only one of them had a life-force signature. Only one of them mattered.
Noah drove his spear down into the real stalker's spine.
[Spear of Crimson End] has applied [Bleed-IV] to [Mirage Stalker]
[Wyrm's Curse] applied to [Mirage Stalker]
The creature's scream cut off into a wet gurgle. The rot was spreading fast now, crimson veins racing through its body, consuming it from within. Noah felt the familiar trickle of stolen life-force flowing back through the Wyrm's Curse, replenishing his reserves.
Across the chamber, Aurelia was having more trouble.
The female stalker had learned from her mate's mistakes. She wasn't committing to direct attacks anymore—instead, she circled at the edge of Aurelia's flame range, darting in to slash and retreating before retaliation could land. Her afterimages were everywhere, filling the space with phantom threats that forced Aurelia to waste fire on illusions.
The female is more intelligent, Tony observed. She's conserving energy while forcing Aurelia to expend hers. Tony recommends intervention.
Bun Bun will handle this, Bun Bun declared, and launched himself from the shadows where he'd been waiting.
The murder bunny hit the female stalker mid-blink, his timing impossibly perfect. His jaws clamped down on the back of her neck just as she materialized from a spatial jump, his scales gleaming with draconic power as he activated his own version of the Wyrm's Curse.
Bun Bun has applied [Wyrm's Curse] to [Mirage Stalker]
Bun Bun has applied [Draconic Venom] to [Mirage Stalker]
The stalker shrieked and thrashed, trying to dislodge the familiar, but Bun Bun's grip was absolute. His horns, longer and sharper and more draconic than ever, drove into the creature's skull as he bit down harder.
You are prey, Bun Bun informed his victim. Accept this truth.
Aurelia didn't waste the opening. Her blade swept in, wreathed in fire, and took the stalker's head clean off.
The male, still pinned by Noah's chains, watched its mate die. Its eyes changed, the calculated predator replaced by desperate fury. It threw everything into one final surge against its bindings, and the chains groaned under the strain.
Dragon Shift, Noah! Tony advised. End this before it breaks free.
Noah didn't hesitate. "Dragon Shift!"
The transformation erupted from his core with familiar fury. Scales cascaded across his skin in patterns of midnight blue and void-black. His wings tore free, spreading wide enough to cast shadows across half the chamber. His fingers elongated into claws, his spine extended into a crystalline-tipped tail, and from his throat came a roar that shook dust from the ancient ceiling.
[Dragon Shift] activated
All attributes increased by 25%
The Dragon Fear hit the wounded stalker like a physical force. The creature that had been straining against its chains suddenly went still, ancient predatory instincts screaming at it to flee, to submit, to acknowledge the presence of something higher on the food chain.
[Dragon Fear] has applied [Terror] to [Mirage Stalker]
Combat effectiveness reduced by 60%
The stalker whimpered, its afterimages flickering and fading as its concentration shattered.
Noah's Dragon's Will pressed down on the creature, demanding submission. Part of him—the part that was becoming more draconic with each passing day—wanted to keep it. Break it. Make it serve.
Tony advises against binding attempts, Tony cautioned. The creature's mate-bond is broken. It will be unstable, possibly suicidal. Better to end it cleanly.
Noah agreed. Some victories weren't worth the complications.
He drove his spear down one final time, and the male stalker joined its mate in death.
Noah let the Dragon Shift fade, his body shrinking back to human proportions. The power remained, thrumming beneath his skin, but contained now rather than manifested.
"That was good," Aurelia said, approaching with her blade still smoking. She had a new cut on her forearm—minor, already closing—but her eyes were bright with victory. "I could get used to fighting alongside a dragon."
"Dragonoid," Noah corrected. He doubted true dragons would take kindly to him claiming equal status with them. "Apparently." He still wasn’t sure just how dragony he would end up being.
Tony suggests 'Draconic Exemplar,' Tony offered. It sounds impressive and is technically accurate.
Bun Bun prefers 'Alpha,' Bun Bun added, hopping over with stalker blood still dripping from his fur. His scales seemed slightly larger than before, slightly more prominent. Bun Bun killed the female. Bun Bun was instrumental as usual.
"You were," Noah agreed. "Nice timing on the intercept."
Bun Bun's timing is always perfect. Bun Bun is becoming a superior predator. The familiar preened.
Noah knelt to examine the stalker corpses. The mana node's proximity had preserved them well, the bodies still thrummed with residual energy that could be harvested. "We should take what we can. These materials will be valuable."
Aurelia nodded, already pulling out her harvesting tools. "The pelts alone will fetch a premium. Mirage Stalker fur is used in high-end stealth enchantments."
They worked in companionable silence, the mana node's blue-white glow casting everything in sharp relief. Noah found himself hyper-aware of Aurelia's presence—the way she moved, the concentration on her face, the occasional strand of hair that escaped her practical braid.
Noah is staring again, Tony observed privately. Tony finds this behavior increasingly frequent. Tony wonders if Noah is aware of the pattern.
He was aware. That was the problem.
"Noah?" Aurelia's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
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"Hm?"
"You were about to say something. Earlier, during the fight with the swarm. Before you went all dragon on them."
"I was going to say that we make a good team," he said, which was true. "And I'm glad you're here."
Aurelia's hands stilled on the pelt she was working. "That's all?"
"For now. I meant what I said about having that conversation. After Death Valley. When we have time to do it properly."
She held his gaze for a long moment. Then nodded, something complicated passing across her features.
"After Death Valley," she repeated. "I'm holding you to that, Noah Brown."
"I know."
Progress, Bun Bun noted from where he was cleaning stalker blood from his fur. Slow progress. Glacial progress. But progress.
Tony agrees. Tony is cautiously optimistic.
Noah ignored both of them and returned to his work.
But he was smiling.
Around them, the mana node pulsed with patient power and somewhere in the depths, things far more dangerous than Mirage Stalkers stirred in their lairs.
They would face those challenges too. Together.
For now, that was enough.
—
After another day of descending through the Underhalls and studiously avoiding exiting anywhere occupied, they reached what seemed to have been one of the contestant entry passages. It was a vast hall where everything echoed, occupied only by feather-winged spiders that sent one brief attack at them from above before retreating at the outer range of Dragon Fear and not bothering them again. They were all much lower level, but had built quite the network of webs throughout the upper half of the hall. For some reason, there were no webs whatsoever in the bottom half.
“I wonder what comes through here and how often,” he mused aloud.
“And whether it’s coming or going.” Aurelia pointed to the dark streaks staining the center of the hall, like an ancient macabre imitation of a red carpet.
That was an interesting question, and Noah's Dragon's Heart beat faster as they descended, responding to the concentrated death-essence that permeated everything.
The mana concentration fluctuated up and down, but settled at a 125% increase from baseline by the time they reached a set of massive bars that blocked off the path back to the arena interior. Well, they’d have blocked off anything larger than a pair of elephants stacked atop one another. Noah could only shake his head in bafflement at the sheer scope of this place. Every time he thought he’d gotten used to its gargantuan scale it pulled out another reminder of just how tiny he was in comparison.
Then the central arena floor stretched before them, miles of rust-colored sand that had been stained by countless battles, countless deaths, countless generations of creatures fighting and dying for the entertainment of beings long gone, blood soaked so deep into the dust that nothing could wash it away. But even here, the arena was far from uniform. Fallen chunks of stone, broken pillars, even just waves of rock randomly broke up the horizon. And that was beside the bones, many of which put him in mind of the chasm they’d crossed on the way here.
He could see the line of green that marked the southern fringe, out where they’d first entered, and was surprised by just how far they’d traversed over the past few days. Far enough that the vines and shimmerwolves were a distant memory.
Abyssal Awareness swept outward, cataloguing everything. Presences lurked at the edges of his perception, watching, waiting, deciding whether the newcomers were worth the effort. His Dragon's Eyes picked up details even Truth Sight would have missed: the slight shimmer of heat-trails from creatures who’d already passed out of reach, the telltale mana-distortions of ambush points.
Bun Bun smells death, Bun Bun hissed, his scales bristling with anticipation. Old death, fresh death, future death. Bun Bun approves of this hunting ground.
They moved quickly but cautiously, navigating between toppled pillars and collapsed structures that had once been part of the arena's elaborate staging system. Every shadow could hide a threat. Every mound of sand could conceal a predator.
The first attack came forty minutes in.
Five Mirage Stalkers erupted from the sand in perfect coordination, higher level than the pair they'd fought before, their afterimages flooding the area immediately. Dozens of ghostly predators surrounded them, impossible to distinguish from the real threats through normal sight. Unfortunately for the stalkers, Noah’s sight was the farthest thing from normal and turned their shadows to nothing but faint mist in his vision.
[Mirage Stalker Pack - Elite Variant]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 324]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 318]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 331]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 309]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 327]
He started calling out their locations amid the chaos, and flames answered each call, strikes that found real flesh instead of illusory copies. The stalkers howled in frustration, their primary advantage negated by perfect targeting.
Noah triggered Arcane Step, his distance control finally calibrated after days of practice. He appeared exactly where he intended, three feet behind the pack alpha, spear already moving in a lethal arc.
[Spear of Crimson End] has inflicted [Crimson Rot-IV]
[Spear of Crimson End] has applied [Bleed-IV]
Three stalkers fell in the first minute. The remaining two tried to flee, spatial blinks carrying them toward the arena's edge.
They didn't make it far.
Bun Bun does not permit retreat, the familiar announced, launching himself from Noah's shadow with terrifying speed. He intercepted the first fleeing stalker mid-blink, his jaws clamping down on its neck as it materialized.
Bun Bun has applied [Wyrm's Curse] to [Mirage Stalker]
Bun Bun has applied [Draconic Venom] to [Mirage Stalker]
Noah's Chains of Binding caught the last one, the runic links wrapping around its legs and anchoring it to the blood-soaked sand. Aurelia's flames finished it before it could struggle free.
"Better," Aurelia observed, her breathing even and controlled. "Thanks. Those afterimages are hard to see through."
"You’re welcome." Noah cleaned his spear, watching the bodies dissolve into motes of light. “We work well together, huh?”
“Always have.” Aurelia grinned back. “Hard to believe how far we’ve come.”
“And how much farther we have yet to go.”
—
The Sanguine Hydra rose from a pool of stagnant water that Noah had assumed was too shallow to hide anything significant. Three heads, each the size of a wolf, erupted on serpentine necks that stretched twelve feet from the creature's main body. Scales shifted between deep crimson and void-black, and the ichor dripping from its fangs hissed where it struck stone, eating through solid rock.
[Sanguine Hydra (Epic) - lvl 447]
"Fire head on the left," Noah analyzed aloud. "Acid in the center. Paralytic gas on the right. The heart's in the main body, not the heads."
"What about the regeneration?"
"Cauterize the stumps. Your flames should work, they're purer than its own fire."
Tony can boost Noah's reflexes to dodge the attacks. The creature will strike with all heads simultaneously.
The hydra attacked without warning, all three heads striking simultaneously in a perfectly coordinated assault.
Fire erupted from the left head, a torrent of crimson flame that Aurelia met with her own. The flames collided mid-air, creating a wall of competing heat, and hers burned purer.
The center head spat a stream of acid that ate through everything in its path in seconds. Tony reacted faster than conscious thought, flowing across Noah's torso to form a reflective barrier.
The right head released a cloud of paralytic gas that rolled toward them in a sickly green wave, the particles glittering with toxic potency.
Noah triggered Arcane Step, grabbing Aurelia and transporting them both clear of the gas cloud. They landed twenty feet away, already moving.
"I'll keep the heads busy," Aurelia said, flames gathering around her blade. "You find the heart."
She didn't wait for confirmation, launching herself at the hydra with fire streaming from both hands. The creature's heads tracked her, snapping and spitting, but she was too fast, too agile, her movements a dance of destruction that kept all three heads occupied.
Noah circled, his Abyssal Awareness focused on the main body. The heart wasn't immediately obvious, the creature's biology had been warped by centuries of mutation, but he could see the flow of life-force, the central nexus where all three necks converged.
There.
He struck, spear driving toward the junction point—but the hydra had expected the flanking maneuver. One head whipped around impossibly fast, jaws closing on his spear shaft, wrenching him off balance with strength that belied its serpentine form.
The central head turned toward him, acid gathering in its throat, the telltale glow of imminent attack.
Bun Bun hit it in the face.
The familiar had launched himself from somewhere above—Noah hadn't even tracked his movement—claws raking across the acid head's compound eyes, teeth finding purchase on the sensitive tissue around its maw. The hydra screamed—all three heads screaming in unison, their neural link transmitting the pain—and its attack went wild, acid spraying harmlessly into the sand.
Bun Bun has applied [Blinding Strike] to [Sanguine Hydra - Acid Head]
Bun Bun has applied [Wyrm's Curse] to [Sanguine Hydra]
Bun Bun creates openings, the familiar announced as he bounded away from the thrashing head. Noah should exploit them!
Noah recovered, adjusted his angle based on the Dragon's Eyes targeting data, and struck again.
This time the spear found the heart.
The hydra thrashed, heads whipping in death spasms, but Aurelia was already there. Her flames cauterized each stump before regeneration could trigger, burning hot enough to permanently destroy the regenerative tissue.
One head regrew anyway, forcing her to burn it again, and again, the creature's desperate vitality fighting against inevitable death. But the Crimson Rot was spreading through its core now, and the Wyrm's Curse was draining what remained of its life-force.
Finally, the creature's movements slowed, stopped, ceased entirely.
"Nice save," Noah told Bun Bun, genuinely impressed by the familiar's timing.
Bun Bun is invaluable, the familiar agreed, preening his blood-soaked scales. Bun Bun's interventions are always precisely calibrated for maximum impact.
Tony concurs, Tony added. Tony notes that Bun Bun's combat integration has improved significantly.
Bun Bun notes that Tony’s integration hasn’t changed at all.
Tony does not require further integration.
We all must improve or be left behind, Bun Bun retorted confidently, and Tony was left to thoughtful silence.