It’s many times more experienced than I am, multiple times stronger and smarter. I can barely keep up with the changes it makes on Mikito’s Skills, and I barely pay attention to when it nerfs my own, destroying Penetration’s duration, reducing the damage done on my own Blade Strikes.
But it’s also hampered. Firstly, by the System itself. Like when I changed the Title for Yorera’s son, the System doesn’t like us making localized alterations like this. It fights back, wanting to revert to normal. On top of that, it’s also hampered by the penalty the System placed upon it when it attacked me the first time we met. I sense the hitch in its Skill uses, the way it has to expand Mana in a surge each time it switches to a new line of attack.
And all the while, while we fight in the virtual, Mikito takes it on in the physical. She’s cutting at it, bleeding its body even as she dodges around combat drones, slips past threads of flame and electricity, and avoids the occasional swing of Skill-powered blows.
Ali breaks free and, angry at its entrapment, fights back against the Anasi’s threads. He’s burning them, detaching them from the walls with his affinity, sending arcs of electricity down others to shock the spider.
And occasionally, occasionally, one of my Blade Strikes hits, cutting into the damn spider. It still looks pristine, undamaged, but I know its health bank is dropping, draining with each strike.
And we’re fine. Mostly.
“Keep at it! We’re winning,” Ali crows. “Useless Administrator!”
Of course, that’s when Wex stops playing with us.
***
The first thing it does is release a cloud of gas. I don’t even need the green and purple nature of it to tell me it’s a bad idea to be anywhere near the cloud—especially when it expels it from its behind. Mikito, maneuvering around its back, receives the full blast of it.
Of course, her ghost armor has a protection against direct breath attacks. But such poison Skills bypass the sensibility of pure breathing, using aura and physical contact to push its effects upon its victims. Mikito reels back, forced to pull away for a moment as she’s assaulted by the poison.
Below, I pull out the Hod and trigger its dressing aspect, cursing myself for paying too much attention to its System Edit Skill and not taking the time to armor myself. “Ugh…”
My pity party is cut short when I look to the side and spot a forgotten member of the party. Harry, curled up on the floor, is thrashing as the damn area effect poison hits him. I snarl, and rather than risk it, I use Sanctum. It forms faster than ever, covering the reporter. I can only hope he’s able to survive. Too late, the Hod finishes closing in around me. I feel the Status effects from the poison flare to life as the poison seeps into me.
You have been poisoned by an Anasi Internal Brewed Poison Cloud (Modified)
Effects partially resisted
Health and Mana Regeneration reduced by 38%
You are (mildly) intoxicated. Negative Perception and Agility bonuses applied.
You are receiving 14 HP damage per minute
The damage-over-time effect is negligible for me with my regeneration in play. The Health and Mana regeneration effects are more concerning, especially since this is after my resistances.
But Wex isn’t done just yet.
“Look out!”
Ali’s shout makes me look up to see a rain of white packages falling down around me. Some fall straight, some arc through the air, and many, many of them bounce off invisible spider threads, their final destination impossible to gauge.
Still, I try to dodge, especially when a few hit the razor thread and part. The damn corpses explode when they fall, engulfing the very air in flames and burning poison. My aura trembles, the Hod hissing as acid-coated rain and poisonous flames assault it. Soul Shield and the Hod’s defensive shields sparkle, light chasing across the edges of the protection as I search for a safe place on the ground.
And realize there is nothing.
I take to the air, throwing Blade Strikes ahead of me, calling back my sword as I begin another spell. Beacon of the Angels, targeted to start within the demesne itself.
I swear when my Skill is cut short, the Administrator sliding in and brute-forcing the attack. My body shudders a little as the Mana that was meant to power the Skill flows back into me with nowhere to go. But I climb out of the explosion of body parts and flames, of poison and toxins below into the—relatively—clear air of the second floor. I cut again and again, letting my swords swing in preset patterns, destroying the threads that threaten to take me.
The remnant flames from the explosions pop the Hod’s shield. Poison air eats away at my Soul Shield, but I ignore it, searching.
I spot Mikito first. Her horse is treading on bare air, its armored mane ragged, its ghostly body rotting. Its rider is lolling on the back, head hanging over the edge of the horse’s neck, Hitoshi pointed at the ground. At least the Legacy weapon seems to be doing well, as a small whirlpool forms around its head as it absorbs the poisons.
Wex I miss until it’s too late. It rises up from below me, using threads that I was certain were cut. Hopping through the sky for its fangs to close in on me from below. Dark energies, gravity, and other forms of magic are embedded in its fangs and along the edges of its mouth. Its jaw closes with a snap, popping my Soul Shield without issue. I struggle, attempting to escape and fail.
Rather than fight a losing battle, I trigger Blink Step. I sense it moving to shut it down, and I use my own Skill to block it. But it’s sort of like a teenager trying to stop a professional linebacker. The sheer volume of Mana it can wield compared to me is an entire tier apart. The backlash of the direct conflict causes more damage than the grinding, necrotic bite itself.
I shudder, coughing as Blink Step is forcibly shut down and put on cooldown. Its Mana invades my Status, my body, and the essence of what I am within the System, changing, altering things. It hits my escape and defense Skills first, tearing its way through Portal, through Soul Shield and Sanctum. It even turns off Domain, which is hurting it more than Eye of the Storm.
That’s okay though, since I’m leaning toward bringing the pain rather than worrying about damage. I force Mana into the System, activating Judgment of All and feeling it snap off. I don’t try to stop it though, because I’ve already got Grand Cross rolling. It slams it shut, but I see the constant Mana use, the way System Edit is burning it up.
Of course, I’m not doing well. Penetration’s Shield is powerful, but it requires me to do damage. And it’s stopping me from doing it all too often, shutting down whatever it wants with impunity. It’s not even trying to edit around restrictions, slamming full stops on me. The System is punishing it, fighting it, but it’s taking it to finish this fight. And without damage, my Penetration Shielding is falling, the necrotic, toxic, and elemental damage on its fangs burning through the shield.
I have to finish fast. Good thing I still remember the lesson from our first fight. While it’s busy dealing with the System, I conjure lightning. It’s easy. There’s so much energy being shed—from disrupted Mana, from my shield’s sparking, from the escaped radiation and electrons of its energy attacks. I just borrow it, lowering resistances, increasing attraction. Making lightning itself come alive all around us.
It bounces from it to me, to the threads around us, and back again. Lightning, jumping and arcing, connected to one another. The System registers the damage, but it doesn’t give it to my shielding, ignoring my Elemental Affinity as it stands outside of the System.
Wex tries to shut it down, of course, but it’s an Affinity. There’s no System finagling here. It records, it displays, but it doesn’t control. But it can mitigate. The damn spider pulls me close, holding me tight with its legs, mouth still clamped onto me, as it absorbs the damage. Its body shimmers, shifting to something darker, something more rubbery. My grasp on its body, on the connection to it, slip as it adjusts to my attack.