Chapter 375: Reinforcement Went Wrong
In any other situation, Seth would have been excited or at least pleased, but right now he was feeling anything but.
Brandon and Jack, Seth silently registered the two distinct, rapid presences.
While his mind finally established a link with the nearest shadow in sight.
Without wasting a single breath, he activated the class skill, Wildlock, tapping into the locked class skill Shadow Travel.
His body instantly diffused into a thick shadowy intangible mist surging right into the shade a few feet away in an instant.
Despite Seth seemingly having escaped, he still felt the weight of pressure sitting on his chest.
His hair still standing on ends, as cold pulses rattled his marrow.
Seth could feel that the danger had yet to pass far from that...
His heart almost lurched into his throat, finding himself staring right at a vast sea of darkness, a swirling chaos of void.
Seth’s muscles went stiff, as he realized that there was no shadow, no, the monster’s maws now stood before him!
Despite the shadow realm being completely dark, he could almost catch the silver glint flickering off the row of teeth.
"How..." Seth managed to mutter stunned as he stared dumbfounded by the sight before him...
How was the beast still here? In the shadow realm?
Seth hadn’t escaped, rather he merely switched the direction he was facing.
His skin tingled cold, as he went still, scared to make another move.
Just now if he had been careless he might have swiped right into his own demise.
It was almost as though no matter which move he made it might be the wrong one and he’d just end up dead...
Just as he began to think this, his heart skipped a bit... "Wait, that doesn’t make sense..." he muttered, as the feeling of wrongness once again assaulted his senses.
A fresh jolt of alarm shot through him, and his eyes widened as the scene shifted again, he was back right at where he was, standing frozen behind him the maws of the beast parted wide and hungry.
Not moving, not growling, no signs of life whatsoever, but somehow Seth Seth could hear it, a sickening malicious cackle dancing at the edge of his mind.
His vision cleared and once more the system screen flickered into sight, the words it relayed mirroring the first instance it had appeared earlier...
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[Effects of Title: Charmed But Unfazed, has been overwhelmed.]
[Effects of Title: Charmed But Unfazed, has been restored, mental influence has been resisted...]
A pulsing ache raged in his head, as his heart surged with panic...
Seth hated situations beyond his control and once again he had found himself in one.
A challenge a notch above even what his appetite craved.
Was this another time loop situation?
"No that can’t be, it doesn’t add up." Seth picked up on a clue, as he silently gathered streams of will, ready to deploy another means of escape.
His mind churned with possibilities of what might be happening, he scraped all the clues he had together.
From the absence of the raging entity, to the absurdness of his situation.
And though he still hadn’t come to a conclusion he had gathered enough of a pool of will that could activate a level of dimensional stride that would take him as far as at least a few hundred kilometers away in a single step.
Warmth slowly spread through his body, as he slowly regained function of movement, his muscles twitching as his calves bulged.
A warmth of the abomination’s pungent breath washing on his frame, the moist, sticky mist dampening his frame.
But his focus remained locked, as he willed on his willborne abilities.
The Dimensional Strider willborne skill erupting like a wave of force, folding reality and warping space itself, readjusting the concept of distance, endowing him with the ability to travel distances with a single step.
To pull this, Seth gambled on the fragility of his mind, he did not know how much longer he could bear it, but what was certain was that drawing on more will force would increase the strain.
Unfortunately he had no choice but to make this decision.
Seth gritted his teeth, his veins bulging at the sides of his head, a trickle of blood flowing down his nostrils.
Sweat streaming down his neck as he endured the weight of will ramping on his consciousness, his knuckles quivering against the pressure locking him in place.
Space undulating around his frame as he took a step forward...
The surroundings turned into a receding blur as space warped and stretched, the fold in dimension allowing him to straight up bypass space.
The wind flowed through the vacuum kicking up his hair, but then again it pulsed in his head... Danger!
His pupils constricted into pinholes as he froze realizing that he was right before a gaping mass of darkness swirling down a void.
The same void, he scowled, unable to take it anymore or find any logic to what was happening.
The same voice, the mischievous cackle ringing at the edge of his psyche, echoed once again.
And Seth’s arms whipped, an arrow manifesting with a surge of pure gold, as his fingers drew on the bowstring.
His facial veins bulged, blood streaming from his nose and eyes as he resisted the overwhelming force pressing on his being from all sides.
He resisted the immobility effect just long enough for his muscles to slack and release the bowstring.
And with a reverberating thrum and a reality piercing momentum silent but deadly burst, the arrow tearing into the void of darkness before Seth.
His body returning stiff, Seth still braced in anticipation of impact, but... there was none.
The dark maws burst apart like fragile projections of a mirage.
The projectile flashing into the distance of trees and darkness, Seth’s vision spun, lights swirled and he found himself right back in place.
"No!" He exclaimed between his clenched teeth, as a hot pungent flow washed down his back once more.
As though he had never moved, he found himself back at his starting point, frozen just a step away from a backwards motion that would mean his death.
Seth couldn’t be more sure that this wasn’t a time loop, he could clearly feel the presence of his friend looming closer throughout the process.
No this was almost like a spatial loop, no matter what he did where he went, he would still end up at this fixed point.
It didn’t matter what dimension he traversed through, the point between him and his foe was fixed.
"This... this will be tough."
....
Meanwhile on Brandon and Jack’s end, both sides maneuvered through the region, evading charmed and defiled foes charging at their rear.
Both accumulated so much foes they crowded behind them in a haze of dust.
But both disregarded all distraction, not even noticing when their foes seemed to reach an invisible barrier of sorts.
While both kept charging to the core the air behind them grew silent.
But both were too focused on trying to sense Seth’s location to notice this subtle detail, and by the time they realized something was wrong it was too late.
Jack and Brandon burst right into the dense mist of abyssal essence, the enemy and Seth had to be there.
Only the moment both sides entered the main clearing were they horrified by the sight before them.
Two frames standing still in a dead, empty clearing of the core.
Both frames standing there soulless and almost absent of all lifeforce.
Brandon and Jack’s eyes widened in panic, realizing one of these frames was specifically their friend and teammate Seth Duskreaver.
Was he dead? Where was the enemy that did this to him?
Before any of these questions rushing through their minds could be answered, darkness swallowed their consciousness whole...