Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]

The ursine beast charges at us with a speed that is horrifically ill-fitting for such a massively-oversized monster. Hardly a blink passes before it’s standing over us, on its hind legs, towering to nearly eighteen feet tall, with two claws laced with a violet venom that I doubt promises a quick a painless death. Chloe dashes to the right while I dash left, both of us narrowly avoiding being rent into chunks of formerly-human flesh.

It turns toward me; maybe it sees me as being slightly larger, a slightly better morsel. Big mistake. Again it’s on me, but this time, I’m ready. It strikes; I step back to dodge and use my swordstaff to counter in the brief instant before its foreclaws touch the ground and it sprints once more.

Its defense is titanic; despite scoring a solid hit on the distal side of its right claw, it is hardly fazed. Its attacks are on me again in less than half a second, and only Chloe’s quick intervention keeps me from getting pinned between a ravenous beast and a wall of stone.

I stab its right hind leg as it dashes off toward Chloe. The wound I inflict is deep, but the damage I deal is modest at best; its muscles seem to be designed in such a way that they can quickly stitch themselves back together after being scored in such a matter.

I fear for Chloe as the bear slams down upon her. Intellectually, I know she’s every bit my equal on the battlefield; she demonstrated as much not six hours ago. Emotionally, though, it’s hard not to see her as the meek girl unable to do more than stand there in panic against those rats and that spider on the day the System first arrived.

I rush the two, but Chloe has already extricated herself from the immediate danger by the time I arrive. Four [Mirage Swords], which appears to be her limit, stab into the beast’s chest, though none of them are able to penetrate through the ribs and diaphragm to get to the squishier organs buried underneath. As she runs back toward me, she continues flinging the telekinetic weapons with abandon, hoping to rack up superficial wounds rather than a single deep one.

Unfortunately, her attack only seems to anger the creature and cut some of its pale fur, leaving tufts on the muddy ground behind it. A chase begins, and though Chloe’s movements are swift and its attacks harry the monster relentlessly, Mr. Bear closes the gap in a matter of seconds.

I instinctively cry out for Chloe; no sound comes out as I cerebrally knew it wouldn’t. Instead I open a [Dimensional Rift] right in front of the ursine monster and give it a good stab in the stomach, suffering a nasty wound on my left shoulder that sends me to the ground. Bad part about [Valkyrion’s Body]— I suffer all the pain of injuries to my prostheses and cybernetics just the same. Good news, Chloe can heal them, and with another new spell— [Distal Cure]— she no longer needs to touch me for the spell to take effect.

Titanium-aluminum alloy moves like quicksilver, fragments of torn metal soldering together and filling in the gashes left behind by those claws with diamond hardness. The rapid-fire pings of pain give way to a dull ache, then a gentle soreness as the metal hardens, and then the network of glyphs and sluices re-forms like so many blood vessels and lymph nodes would on the organic portions of my form.

The bear’s back is turned to me as it again attacks Chloe. It must be thinking that I’ve been incapacitated. A big mistake, and one I don’t intend to let it live to regret. [Fire]-aligned [Ether] congeals in my right hand, taking the shape of a crimson orb that shimmers like an artificial sun. I let it expand out to the size of a large beach ball, draining 600 [Ether] from my core in the process before firing a massive [Elemental Ether Strike] straight toward that oversized ass.

My attack fails completely, leaving me dumbfounded. I make the creature’s hair glow and its skin is singed, but I fail even to land even a second-degree burn on the target. A mote of fear creeps in my heart, one exacerbated by the panic that Chloe shows for a brief moment when her [Scouring Light] likewise fails to do more than briefly disorient the bear’s rampage.

Magic seems to be out as a rule, although this gives me an opportunity to test something about my new dimensional magic that I’ve been curious about. I know that subspace is hostile to physical objects and life more generally. Moreover, I know from experience that I can draw creatures in with [Dimensional Slip]. Time to see what happens when I yank this creature past the boundary.

The bear’s claw rises, ready to eviscerate a trapped Chloe. Her fear is radiating off her so intensely I can practically smell it. She’s fighting the monster off with everything she has, but her strikes continue to do next to nothing, right up until her eyes widen and she braces for the worst. At the last second, I grab the monster from the back and then slip us away.

The blue-white haze of subspace is murky and twisted, a consequence of already being in distorted space. I hadn’t had much of a chance to observe before, but I can feel the entangled nature of subspace while in what is, in many ways, a massive pocket dimension. I’m not just being hacked apart by the hostile environment; I’m being stretched apart and strung out as if subjected to the ministrations of a hydraulic press.

My body, reinforced by my [Vitality] and buttressed by my armor, resists, but within two seconds, I feel ligaments stretching. My muscles tense and pull back in an attempt to reinforce my skin and connective tissue, but even with all this, my physical form barely retains its form. My [Health] drops precipitously as the connection between my arm and my torso feels about ready to string apart like so much wet spaghetti.

Annoyingly, the bear seems to have an easier time of it. A heftier frame, shorter, stockier limbs, a thicker hide with shorter, denser musculature, and a massive layer of blubber underneath. All of it together makes for a creature especially resilient, and that’s not even counting a level I know to be thirteen higher than my own.

Thankfully, I don’t have to outlast it. After about five seconds of struggle, I let go, release my Skill, and allow myself to get pulled back into conventional space. Chloe rushes over to me and infuses me with [Potent Cure], though neither of us drops our guard. I dare not think even for an instant that the solution I’ve devised is permanent. It would be far too easy if that were the case, and the System has yet to indulge me with a ‘one weird trick’ to make all my monster problems vanish forever.

Two seconds later, the colossus is spat back out into conventional space, though for the first time, it actually looks pained. Its regeneration is working to piece its body back in order, but for the moment, its movements are rougher, slower. No less dangerous; a cornered, wounded animal has the advantage of savagery and unpredictability, and it has yet to showcase any Skills.

The two of us press our advantage. Pierce and thrust, hack and slash, and for the first time, our combined assault seems to be working. [Valkyrion’s Perception] allows me to dart in and out of the bear’s defenses, delivering wounds before raking claws threaten to remove my face. I aim for the joints— if I can take out one of its hind legs, shatter a knee, then we’ll have a decisive advantage.

Chloe’s attacks are twisting around as well, though it seems she’s independently come up with the same strategy that I have. One of her swords has lodged itself directly in the largest wound on the right foreclaw and is attempting to wedge itself in deeper. The creature’s incredible regeneration— it must have multiple Skills to that effect— is working to seal the wound around the weapon, but I can’t imagine it will be quite as robust in its attempts to thrash us about with multiple pieces of weaponry buried within.

And then the idea hits me for how we can deal with the creature. One instant I’m thrusting Filia directly into the back of its right hindlimb— sorry I couldn’t let you know, but our connection is crippled. The back of the neck would have been better, if not for the massive osseous plate protecting its spinal cord and brainstem, one too thick for even my weapon to shatter. The next moment, I’m drawing out my sketchbook and scribbling my plan to Chloe.

“Get all your weapons in the creature. Subspace weak to light. Two second delay. [Radiant Purge].”

I [Dimensional Rift] over to Chloe, grabbing her and then teleporting the both of us back. I’m sweating bullets; my sides feel like they’re going to give out, and my body feels on the verge of collapse from so many consecutive trips into subspace, and yet, here I have yet another trip I need to make. Either this is going to tear me apart or it’s going to be a colossal boost in my combat strength, honed in the hottest crucible. Given my luck to this point, almost certainly both. Either way, it won’t be painless.

Chloe nods in acknowledgement, picking up the subtleties of my plan that I couldn’t write down in the half-second lull I had. The next instant, the bear is upon us once more. We split up, while I throw a weak [Darkness Sphere], not expecting it to do anything but anger the bear. Though, in this rare case, poking at the bear is exactly what I want. Chloe’s [Radiant Purge] needs a few seconds to channel up to maximum efficacy and I need to buy her the time to do so.

Dip, dive, and dodge the furious swipes. When I can’t do any of those, force the attacks to land on my arms or anywhere else that I can go a couple minutes without. Chloe doesn’t like thinking this way, but my [Health] is a resource. Only the last one truly matters, temporary pain aside. Even the last one doesn’t matter too much, as long as Chloe is healthy and hale and able to stitch me back together within the half-minute.

I strafe to the side, bringing the beast back toward where Chloe is waiting. Her charge is nearly maximized. Time for me to play my own part. I start channeling [Ether], coating my body in another layer [Etheric Armor] right as the first wears out. It doesn’t do much to shield my body from the inhospitable environs which await me, but it does deflect some of the weaker attacks from the bear, which makes it [Ether] well worth spending. Then, as I get into position, I start readying my own [Light] and [Piercing] glyphs together for the instant I return to conventional space.

Chloe gives me a nod. Tiny, imperceptible were I not looking for it. Her mouth turns upward just as subtly; she’s looking forward to this as well. The bear attacks me with twinned claws and teeth bared. I wait until the last instant, then I’m gone. Its teeth must be clattering upon each other to its irritation and my amusement. I appear an instant later, clapping my hands as the closest thing I can do to a taunt in this goddess-forsaken pit.

The monster roars, unbothered by the rules of the labyrinth. As though I would be cowed by the gasps of a soon-to-be-dead pile of Experience. No, instead I wait for the monster to just about clamp down upon me with its crushing jaws. Then I teleport behind it, [Dimensional Slip] my way into subspace, and leave the carcass behind.

I fall to the ground in a slump, fatigue and nausea and pain setting in. [Defiant Spirit] helps me avoid the urge to drop unconscious, but it only helps me push through the pain, not rid myself of it altogether.

With every bit of force I have left, I fire a [Light] type [Elemental Ether Strike] right as Chloe’s [Radiant Purge] hits home. I’m spent; Chloe doesn’t look much better. But that must’ve been enough to finish the creature off. Right? There’s no way that it survived all of that. Not–

“How?” I silently mutter. Half the creature’s head is torn off, multiple claws are severed, Filia’s spear has fully severed the right hindlimb. Chloe’s [Mirage Swords] have acted like conduits for the [Light] energy, each spot where one had been now marked by a fist-sized hole of flesh and a spattering of gore and sinew evaporating on the ground. And yet, the beast still roars, somehow not dead yet.

Chloe lets out a silent shriek, summoning a [Mirage Sword] in an effort that both looks and feels painful. She tries to dodge the swipe, but only partially deflects it, suffering a wound to her side in the process. She’ll be able to heal us both, but I don’t see any other strategy. I have to go [Overlimit]. I’m reaching into my body to grab hold of that surging strength, only to pause at the last moment as I see that the creature has fallen. And I don’t think it’ll get up, either.

I can breathe. I can close my eyes. We’re still in a dungeon, but at least we’re not in imminent danger. For a few moments, at least.

[You have slain a [Lesser Ursine Titan (Level 80)]. You have gained a boosted 780,000 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 70 (From 67). [Strength] +3, [Vitality] +3. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 33).]

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = (355, 380, 383)]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = (269, 272, 273)]

[Level: 70; Experience: 7,120,044; To Next: 247,351]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 1,022 / 13,849; [Ether]: 1,044 / 10,397]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 292 (Base: 127); [Speed]: 285 (Base: 124); [Vitality]: 359 (Base: 156); [Mind]: 462 (Base: 201)]

[Your [Dimensional Rift (Rank III)] has upgraded to [Dimensional Rift (Rank IV)].]

[Your [Dimensional Slip (Rank III)] has upgraded to [Dimensional Slip (Rank IV)].]

[Your [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank V)] has upgraded to [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank VI)].]

[Your [Etheric Armor (Rank VI)] has upgraded to [Etheric Armor (Rank VII)].]