The Developer Reborn As Archmage

Sarka swayed in place while bleeding from the diagonal cut across his torso. Blast Weaver had blown it wide open, leaving his blackened insides exposed. Everything inside the wound was just as black as the strips outside. The blood that poured out of his wound was a clear liquid, followed by thin spools of black material rolling out of him like ribbons.

Doesn’t look like necromancy to me.

His body cracked in other places as Blast Weaver ricocheted inside and broke him even further. Mana chains materialized from the nine pillars and wrapped around his limbs, slithering snake-like.

He struggled against the restraints as he was getting paralyzed by the chains. Pillars of Erisoth was a bold choice, considering he had resorted to warp away with it the last time.

Darya was ready for that as well. The fight would be over if Sarka warped away again. If he took her with him, she would likely end up with the missing members, and there would be no need for a Seer.

Wonder what forced him to warp back. If it’s predictable, I could make the return trip as well.

She would be operating on too many unknowns, but she felt ready to handle them just as she felt ready for this fight.

Sarka twitched in place as the mana chains paralyzed him. Darya expected him to break out or warp, but the opening was too good to ignore. Either way, she wanted to shave as many chunks of his health as possible.

With Sarka locked in place, she pointed her Warblade directly at him.

[Spell: Comet of Volaria]

-514 MP • Bolt• Instant

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White tendrils of mana burst from her skin and wrapped around the wooden staff of the Warbalade. She felt the surge of energy on her forearms as the axis lines flashed. Energy concentrated at the tip of the Warblade, scattering white arcs of lightning in every direction.

She wasn’t seeing things slow down anymore. Diamond Eyes skill had likely run out at some point.

Sarka had three thousand in Resistance. It was pointless to hit him from the outside with spells where the damage wouldn’t even hit his health. Comet of Volaria was a bolt-shaped spell. It was capable of doing about 2,300 damage, much higher than Blast Weaver if it could bypass Sarka’s Mana Resistance.

She didn’t know if it could work mid-slash like Blast Weaver did, but she had to test it out. Essentially, she wanted to try turning the bolt-shaper spell so that it works similarly to a touch-activated one.

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

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She dashed forth as the spell charged. The step took her about two meters away from him. She needed more time to shove it straight into him.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

She kept moving forward with the same momentum as the world turned monochrome. Pushing forth with all her energy, she drove the sharp end of the Warblade into his torso just as the bolt formed. A flash of white momentarily illuminated her face during the last second of the monochrome world.

She had to manually stop the Warblade from going straight through Sarka. There was no material rigidity in the Terminate state. She could cut anything as if it were made of smoke.

Prediction dots splashed as she adjusted the hold position of the Warblade, positioned such that the bolt-shaped spell could have some travel time inside Sarka’s body.

Would be a huge waste of Mana if this spell passed straight through.

She held the staff firm as she finished counting the last second. She caught a glimpse of the world falling into place over the prediction dots.

The spell still acted as a bolt, but it only got to travel a few centimeters before hitting the inner flesh of Sarka’s corpse.

Her mana dispersed all over him, white gaps of light cracking him open like a porcelain doll that got hit with a chisel.

That worked, time to get out.

She noticed something as she tried to pull the Warblade out of Sarka’s torso. Sarka no longer had the clawed Manacer on his right arm. It had appeared on the top of his forehead. He glared down at her with his glowing purple eyes.

Can he cast spells from anywhere on his body?!

She realized what Darya Altazark would’ve found out the hard way when she died. Sarka’s body could create a Manacer anywhere. Restraining him didn’t limit his ability to cast spells. Furthermore, the clawed Manacer blended in with his horned head. She hadn’t even noticed it happening, even when she was paying all her attention to him.

He had been casting the spell for a while by the time she noticed. Purple mana swirled around him in a faint circle. She felt a sudden pressure bearing down on her from above.

Changing her posture, she switched directions. Instead of leaping backwards, she twisted in place to keep moving in the same direction of the Warblade thrust.

She couldn’t tell if this circular spell was for warping or not. She had a guess based on the increasing pressure from above. It felt a lot like a spell that she was familiar with from the VRMMO.

Back in version six, she had worked on several ‘hammer’ type spells with the circular shape. They could vary in axis composition, but they were AOE spells for fighting against mobs or zoning out areas.

She focused on the tip of Sarka’s Manacer poking out of his forehead.

[Inspect]

Spell: Hammer of Rakalla

Grade: 115

Rarity: Relic

Axes: Ae(1346)

Mana: 1,346M

ATK: 6,730

Shaper: Circle

Duration: Instant

Materialize the Hammer of Rakalla in mana form, falling from above onto the target area. Delivers massive damage on impact.

It was an unexpectedly high-grade spell.

Hammer-type spell after all.

She couldn’t remember if she had seen the word Rakalla before, but what she saw was enough. ‘Massive damage on impact’ is something that she didn’t want to be there for. Hammer of Rakalla was going to deal Aenthune (Matter) damage that she certainly didn’t have a lot of mana resistance for. With 6,730 points of damage, that could kill her thrice over, even if she was an Aenthune specialized archmage.

She looked ahead for the range of the spell.

All vertical AOE spells that she worked on had a circular preview of their bounds. It seemed that worked the same in RLP with the faint glowing circle around them. It was expanding with the mana bursting from Sarka’s body.

She twisted the Warblade out and leapt forward with the next two steps.

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

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It darted her halfway across the range of the spell.

[Skill: Smooth Slither]

-30 SP • 30s Cooldown

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Keeping the same momentum as she turned weightless, she leaned forward hard as she slithered across the air out of the circle. It was catching up to her even then, the weight from above increasing sharply. Sarka’s purple mana was quickly transforming into the ghost shape of a dark metal cylinder with serpentine decorations.

She had to cross about another ten meters to get out of the way.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

The first second was enough to get to the edge of the circle, and the next second sent her flying over an outcrop of rocks. The ground shook beneath her feet as she came to a sliding stop over the grass.

She rolled away as the purple-tinted cylindrical metal structure slammed against the ground. The force of it crushed the rock outcropping that she dashed over, cratering the ground beneath. Grass and soil splashed high into the air.

Darya recovered from the roll and stood up with the aid of the Warblade, leaning forward against the shockwave. The nine Pillars of Erisoth were still there, although damaged significantly. Sarka was starting to move. Glaring at him through the wind and debris, she checked his numbers before the next phase.

[Inspect: Health]

Character: Sarka Vol Rekaldor

HP: 3,785

She estimated to have dealt at least six thousand total damage, including spells and her Warblade slashes. It seemed at least half of that had been absorbed by defensive layers that Sarka had been using. He still retained more than half his health as when their battle began.

Darya quickly checked her own numbers again.

[Character:Health, MP, SP]

Character: Darya Altazark

HP: 2,521

MP: 2,916

SP: 108

Her own numbers were running out at an alarming rate. She had to find a way to close the gap and kill Sarka for good. The safest way would be to chain Terminate commands, but she could still end up in a sticky situation between the gaps. Freezing the world in bursts changed that dynamic quite a lot as opposed to freezing it indefinitely.

She had to stay within the 2.5-second blocks and time the next activation with minimal gap in that last half a second. Trying to mimic indefinite freezing this way solely depended on her ability to chain it. Any mistake could leave her wide open just long enough for Sarka to kill her with a single hit. This was a plan with one catastrophic point of failure among many others.

Sarka extended his left hand towards her, even with the mana chains dragging him down. Three claws sprang from his forearm as purple lightning arcs erupted from them.

[Inspect]

Spell: Eight Handed Thunder Strike

Grade: 105

Rarity: Mythic

Axes: Lo(30) Un(346) Ru(40) Ri(145)

Mana: 561M

ATK/s: 701

Shaper: Cone

Duration: 8s

Status Effects: Electrified, Stun, Burning

Fire eight cursed thunderbolts in the target direction that seek living flesh as they scatter.

Eight bolts of lightning that seek the living. This spell was worse than she thought. This was how his lightning bolt had seemed essentially unlimited in range. He had definitely used the same spell, or a different one with the same range condition of finding a living thing in whatever direction. It had found Fominel on the weather deck, as well as a thousand other living things that would’ve been fried to a crisp along the way.

She had interrupted this eight thunderbolt spell earlier with the Pillars of Erisoth. She had to do it again. Sarka definitely had one in her eighth chance to hit her, even with the mana chains from the damaged pillars slowing him down.

Darya gripped her Warblade. She had to attempt the chained Terminate commands and mix them with a host of others in a final charge. She only had to deliver another four thousand damage, which was worth about two Comet of Volaria spells. She could ensure her damage output was well over that if she threw everything she had at him. With defensive layers depleted and mana resistance ineffective against physical attacks with her Warblade, Sarka was destined to lose.

He’s definitely going to warp away if he gets damaged too hard. That must’ve been the trigger the last time.

She thought about harvesting some MP with the mana funnel along the way, but it was too risky to waste both mana and effort on it when the focus was on dealing as much damage as possible. She had enough MP to do that much.

The problem was her Stamina. She didn’t have a lot to spare.

She heard a howl from above, right before she started dashing in Sarka’s direction.

“Princess!”

“Oh no,” Darya muttered, turning around.

Fominel was flying above. He was carrying Seris with one arm around her waist. They had just broken through the wall of excess mana, which had now reduced to a short ring of purple fire around the circular piece of ground.

Fominel was flying with a set of luminous, gaseous wings made of mana that resembled long feathers. The wings were at least ten times as large as he was. He looked like an angel descending from heaven, contrasted against the dark sky.

Wings. Style. He’s got it all. Flying Celestian just made me float like a balloon dragged by a rope. I wonder what spell gave him wings? He really is the main character.

Sarka’s hand was already extended in her direction. There wasn’t a lot of time to strategize with them. She gestured forward in Sarka’s direction with both her hands and Warblade.

“Wait for my signal!” She yelled. She wasn’t loud enough. Fominel swooped down and dropped Seris. Darya saw a blue glow coming from that direction. Fominel was glowing blue with mana when he emerged from the dive.

Seris had used some sort of support spell. Darya could’ve used a boost to her defense, but she was too far from the casting range. Fominel had wisely kept Seris out of danger.

Except that’s not out of danger. Those thunderbolts have no range limits.

Darya dashed forward without another word. She hoped Fominel would be patient enough to observe before charging in.

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

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She saw a white, blue streak riddle Sarka from above. Fominel was extending his manablade from far away. Sarka swiped his other hand and managed to counter Fominel’s attack even in his slowed state.

[Skill: Smooth Slither]

-30 SP • 30s Cooldown

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A lightning bolt erupted from his other hand in Darya’s direction. She hopped sideways as the arcs riddled the wet ground before her.

[Vainfall: Terminate]