Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]

There’s no rest for the weary as Chloe stitches our wounds back together. I’m down about half my [Ether], and Chloe is out about a third of hers. Thanks to her recasting [Saintess’s Cloister] on both of us, we’re both well-protected against the initial onslaught of elemental arrows and gunshots which await us the moment we return to conventional space.

This all but confirms that the Legion was behind the little stunt back in the dark castle last week. That’s the only way they would have known that I have the power to phase out of existence, and the only way they could have predicted exactly when we would have returned to conventional space. Thanks to my quick thinking, I’m able to use my [Wyvernscale Buckler] and my own body to block the majority of the damage, suffering a few flesh wounds but nothing which will prove incapacitating.

The [Lightning Bolt] hitting me in the back is a bit more painful; I can feel my flesh char for a second, before [Potent Cure] repairs all my damaged flesh and organs. But the attacks are relentless. We attempt to fly up in the air to avoid getting surrounded, but the flow of ambient Ether grows turbulent. It’s not the same effect as that last dungeon, where flight Skills were completely blocked, but it’s like trying to navigate through a sea of molasses. We’re slow to move, sometimes pushed in opposite directions by the distorted air currents, and vulnerable.

At least there are no more of those thrice-damnable Seraphina bots around to cause problems. Just so many useless hunks of motionless scrap metal, just as they always were. A fate too good for them; shame I couldn’t deliver these cursed copycats directly to hell where they belong.

“What do we do?” Chloe asks.

“Survive,” I say. “We focus on living while we wait for our backup to even out this fight.”

Chloe’s eyes lower for a moment. A man in a wizard’s robe is conjuring a massive [Wind] spell. And from what I can see of the glyphs involved— the properly constructed glyphs, mind— it has some sort of homing property as well. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a spell designed to clip our wings and force us back to the surface, where we’ll be…

Damn them all. And with us being outnumbered forty-to-two against a group of people who are all around level 60, we’re at a disadvantage. Only one thing we can do, and Chloe isn’t going to like it.

“Make a break for that man; we’re going to cut him down and retreat to regroup.”

“But what about the others?” Chloe’s swords slice through a trio of arrows trying to pierce through her [Etheric Wings].

“I’ll cover for you. Remember, I won’t die so easily.”

“But–”

“No time for ‘buts’, Chloe. Unless you have a better idea. But hurry, even I won’t last too much longer here.” I suffer another wound from an arrow with the [Piercing] glyph embedded in its shaft, then narrowly dodge the ice arrow which follows.

“Fine. We go with your plan. But we focus on keeping us both alive. I know you have your anti-death Skill, but I’d rather we save it until absolutely necessary. Because I can already tell that this night is going to be long.”

“Agreed.”

Beneath the volley of spells and arrows and even a few projectile Skills like Chloe’s [Mirage Swords], we descend, dropping through a spiky layer of spears and swords raised high to impale us. But with movements far swifter than the ambush party on the surface, accelerated by the Earth’s gravity, we’re each able to weave through the blade barrier and make our way back down to the surface. Chloe carves a man in half in an uncharacteristic lack of mercy, while I impale another one, leaving behind a blood-curdling gasp and coughed-up blood in his wake.

No mercy. Not today. A kill notification pops up in the corner of my vision, though I dismiss it just as quickly before continuing on our two-woman path of destruction. Chloe takes the lead, while I clean up the mess she leaves behind. Two more [Mirage Swords] appear at my back, shielding me from the worst of the spells and blocking altogether some of the arrows and spears thrown javelin style straight at my back.

They don’t last long, though, winking out of existence as they collide with some spear emitting concentrated energy of [Darkness].

“We have your position, Miss Mortensen,” Agent Duvall says. “Curve off to the left and continue on until informed otherwise. We will be re-forming our lines to provide support.”

I have to admit, having someone watching the entire battlefield and giving a bird’s-eye assessment of the situation is incredibly useful for this sort of coordination. I almost don’t dislike the fact that I can constantly sense the agent’s presence like a tiny eyelash in my mind’s eye, probing through my and dozens of other people’s eyes as a sort of distributed security apparatus. Chloe shifts direction before I do, having gotten the same directive.

This does pose a challenge in that we’re being cut off. These Legion forces are no amateurs. Like Clara’s team, they move with coordinated precision, their attacks orchestrated to be as close to impossible to dodge as possible. All they’re lacking is the stats necessary to properly corral and subdue us. Only ten levels separate me from the majority of the enemy forces, but those ten levels include a full ascension and seven levels with doubled stat gains, courtesy of doubled classes. Not to mention six more Skill slots waiting to be used.

We’re cut off and surrounded. Nowhere to go, death awaiting in a full hundred and eighty degree hemisphere.

“Clara? If you can cast your veiling Skill on us from a distance, now is the time.”

“Affirmative.”

They already knew about [Dimensional Slip]. Fair enough; I’d showcased it twice before. But I played off [Dimensional Rift] as a mere trick of invisibility the one time I’d used it publicly. And even if they did, it would take a very specific Skill to counter. One which fully I expect them not to have.

Dozens of weapons and Skills and magical strikes of all kinds shoot out from every direction. A pulsing torrent of death, designed to separate Chloe and I from our lives.

We vanish, [Dimensional Rift] pulling us fifty yards forwards, behind their ambush line. Clara’s spell hits us the moment we reappear in conventional space, our bodies shimmering faintly in the darkness under an [Astral Veil]. Chloe pulls me into the dirt to further obscure our position.

“Are they dead?” a woman asks. “I don’t see a trace of them.”

“Shut up, Desmond,” one of the stronger presences says. An officer, likely. A target, now they absolutely were. “They’ll show back up in the next five seconds.” That’s their limit, she adds under her breath.

“Stay down,” Agent Duvall says. As though I need his directives to realize this much.

Our enemies don’t seem to notice the encroaching forces gathering on all sides, so transfixed they are on when we’ll appear again. Fools one and all. Though, I do have to begrudgingly admit that I’ve wholly underestimated Clara’s abilities, and the potency of having this sort of illusory shroud. Or just anti-detection Skills in general. Maybe [Defiant Spirit] will evolve in that direction. I hope so. Level 96 can’t come soon enough.

“What do we do now?” a man asks. “I thought you said they were good for five seconds at the most. It’s been at least twelve by now!”

“They’ll come back any second now. And we will be ready.”

One of the soldiers shakes with fear. I’ve heard of these [Danger Sense] types of Skills before. Not as useful as advertised. Vague premonitions of peril are useful, but I find having the perception Skills to pick out the danger instead to be far more beneficial. Especially when–

“Calm your nerves, Jacobson!” the officer says. “Keep your wits about you, not off chasing phantasms.”

Idiot. Maybe I should leave her alive after all, considering her utter lack of competence.

“We’re in position,” Agent Duvall says. “Ready for attack on my signal. Five seconds.”

My mind grew as calm as my still breaths. These people kidnapped Alicia. Not because of personal grudges, but to use as bait. Crimson fury tempered with the hardness of sharpened steel. I readied the one [Dimensional] spell I could actually cast, rather than relying on a Skill to perform. Twenty-seven hundred [Ether] to ensure that no one was going to try any dimensional funny business. More importantly, to ensure that no one could escape and call for backup. A steep price, but one I gladly pay.

The runes snap into place, but I realize there’s a problem with [Dimensional Lock] which forces me to abandon my original plan. As soon as it starts activating, I feel my connections to the mental link fading. My bond with Chloe remains intact, if a little stretched; my guess is that the permanence of our Skill provides us with a resistance that my current level of [Glyphcasting] cannot overcome.

It pains me to have wasted so much [Ether] for no benefit, but pushing through out of sheer stubbornness will only serve to a greater detriment. Test the spells before using them in battle, but there’s no way to test their interactions against every Skill in existence, especially when the known Skills are only a negligible fraction of those which may one day exist.

Time’s up. Chloe charges in with a war cry; I follow just behind. The group of Legion partisans turns toward us, only to begin buckling in sheer terror as spells begin pelting them from every direction. A few even start sprinting back toward the dungeon’s entrance at the revelation that they’ve been trapped. Good to know that there are still more troops and traps waiting within for our later pleasure.

For now, my attention snaps back to the battle. It turns out to be less a battle and more of a slaughter. Chloe leads the attack, with me following just behind. Morale has broken among the gathered Legion forces, while ours surges as we put down every one of them without more than a token resistance placed against us.

“No, stop!” I call out to Chloe as she’s about to deliver the coup de grâce to a . “We–”

“We can’t kill them? Is that what you were going to say? Do you think they would just hand over Mom? You think they won’t threaten to kill her, force us to do their bidding? Tell me, Sera, do you think they would have gone after Mom if I were level 96? If I were level 128? 160? I don’t think they would have. And I won’t–”

“No, Chloe.”

There are deaths in the struggle. About half of these Legion soldiers have suffered enough grievous wounds to drop their [Health] to zero, at which point they die from their accumulated injuries. But the other half remain merely incapacitated, bleeding out, health in the double or low-triple digits. They can be saved, and already, Clara and her agents are putting restraining cuffs around them and patching them up well enough to be taken to whatever facilities now exist to hold high-level prisoners.

“Why not? Why shouldn’t they–”

“We will get stronger, Chloe. I promise you. We’ve got the rest of this to go through, and then I promise we’ll go do that extra flight in the Tower and make sure we’re ready to make sure that everyone who was involved gets brought to justice. And maybe that means they end up dying in the battle, but maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t want to see them win–”

“Then why do you stop me?”

“Because, if you give up being you, give up being the compassionate, loving, caring person you are to go down a path of revenge and slaughter? Then we might as well put on crowns and declare ourselves queens and give up on the ideals we were espousing just weeks ago. We’d be admitting that the Legion was right all along and that we’ve given up the law of men for the law of the jungle. And I don’t want you to do something in the heat of the moment that you’re going to regret for potentially hundreds of years. So please, Chloe. I feel your anger, but let’s not surrender our consciences to it, either.”

“But–”

“We’ll get her back, Chloe. I promise and swear it on my very being.”

Chloe takes a deep breath, then sheathes her swords. “Fine, love. We’ll do it your way. And… Thank you.”

[Your party has slain 17 humans (Varying classes, Levels ranging from 58 to 63.) You have gained 73,000 Experience.]

[Level: 71; Experience: 7,692,544; To Next: 19,476]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 10,452 / 14,252; [Ether]: 6,549 / 10,669]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 304 (Base: 129); [Speed]: 297 (Base: 126); [Vitality]: 389 (Base: 165); [Mind]: 474 (Base: 201)]