Spiteful Healer

Chapter 230: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.2

Aegis and the elven priestess Ysilda stood motionless, the loud vibrating warping sounds continuously echoing out of the rift in front of them. Their eyes were staring up at the long necks of the curious hydra, as it rotated its three heads above the destroyed walls of the chapel, taking in the city sights.

After a long, tense few moments, the hydra seemed to pick up on something that piqued its interest, and began stomping forward. The rest of its body formed out of the rift behind it as its large front claws crashed through the walls of the chapel in front of it, walking through them as if they did not exist in the first place.

The obsidian blocks of the structures exploded outward and scattered along the streets and nearby buildings outside, and the hydra dragged its large thick torso along with it using the force of its legs until the creature had completely left the building. Unfortunately, in doing so, it completely destroyed the chapel walls all around the front of the building, removing any cover that the structure was providing for Aegis and Ysilda from outside threats.

Still, the pair waited motionlessly, until Aegis was sure it was far enough away that it wouldn’t turn one of its heads back to look at them and see them moving about.

“How long will it take to close it?” Aegis asked, speaking only loud enough to be heard by Ysilda over the sound of the rift.

“A few minutes.” Ysilda replied in equal fashion.

“Get started, I’ll keep you safe.” Aegis took a deep nervous breath. Ysilda nodded and stepped forward, her eyes on the rapidly rotating strands of black void energy that were whipping outwards and rotating around the condensed, large orb that was the rift. The pair took a few steps forward to get Ysilda in range, cautiously and quietly preparing for any other creatures that might begin pouring out of it.

Once close enough, Ysilda held out her hands in the direction of the rift and closed her eyes, and bright holy light began to seep out from between her eyelids. Moments later, her hands as well began to glow, and she began murmuring an incancation using a language unfamiliar to Aegis.

The moment she had, the white light from her hands also appeared at the center of the rift in front of them, and slowly began to expand and consume the rift.

Aegis kept watch, looking in all directions for any potential threats while primarily keeping his eyes on the rift itself. Not long after Ysilda’s ritual began, a large black mass of starry skin erupted out of the top of the rift and began soaring upwards. Aegis recognized the pattern on the creature's skin to quickly identify what it was - another one of the stingray monsters that would kill you if you looked at it. Aegis quickly jerked his head away in the opposite direction, towards where the entrance of the chapel once stood.

There, he saw a pale elf rushing towards him from the street, wielding a double-sided glaive in his hands and a long black cloak with the hood down. He had short silver hair that flowed behind him as he rushed forward with determination. Aegis wasn’t immediately sure what to make of it until he got close enough to look up at Aegis in the eyes, where Aegis saw his eyes glowing black with void energy and a grimace on his face.

“You will not destroy my beautiful creation!” The elf, now with his name visible as [Kilyak(Elite) - Level 163)], shouted at Aegis. This line told Aegis all he needed to know about what to expect from this NPC, and with no hesitation he lunged forward with his glaive pointed at Ysilda. Aegis moved in front and blocked the strike, but he quickly spun the double-sided glaive around in his hands to strike at her with the opposite end of it. Aegis moved to block it, and he repeated the motion - striking left, right, left, then right repeatedly. Aegis was forced to jerk his shield back and forth rapidly to block each strike in quick succession.

After a few more attempts, Kilyak altered his attack pattern to add in a jump strike where he swung one of the glaives downward at Aegis from above. Once Aegis raised his shield up to block it, he swerved the glaive horizontally to strike at Aegis from underneath his shield using the other end of the weapon. Unfortunately for Kilyak, Aegis was still able to pull his shield downward to block the strike from below in time. With the experience he’d had with PvP in the last few weeks, a single attacker with a glaive wasn’t going to be enough to get past his shield - his reaction time was more than enough to keep up with these strikes.

The situation was completely under Aegis’ control with Ysilda safely behind him, up until the moment he began to hear a strange reverberating hissing sound coming from the rift, and a long pink tongue began to wriggle out of it. Both Aegis and Kilyak eyed the tongue out of the corner of their eyes as it retracted back into the rift, and a moment later the head of a gigantic, voidscaled serpents head protruded out of the rift. The scales were pitch black and appeared to absorb nearby light, each scale giving off its own unique shimmer. The eyes of the snake itself were a dull yellow, and it’s head alone was double the size of Aegis.

As more of its head formed from out of the rift, a grin grew over Kilyak’s face.

“I get it now.” Aegis mumbled to himself. “Intermediate quest was a mechanics check. A tank has to not just be able to block attacks, but understand everything that their enemy is capable of.” Aegis called out to Kilyak, but Kilyak gave no reaction. “What’s a…” Aegis asked rhetorically, eying the red name that appeared above the snake's head - [Void Serpent - Level 193].

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Once its head had fully formed, it stopped moving forward and panned its yellow eyes towards Kilyak and Aegis. Kilyak stopped attacking and unequipped his glaive, causing it to disappear from his hands. The instant he did, the Snake lunged its head towards Aegis with his mouth open, revealing razorsharp silver fangs that attempted to snap down on Aegis’ body. Aegis was quick to react, jumping backwards away from the snake as its large serpent body extended out of the rift.

One jump back wasn’t enough - it slithered after him and lunged several more times. Aegis found himself jumping backwards repeatedly, back into the streets in front of the chapel. He attempted to utilize one of the obsidian structures lining the streets for cover, but the serpent easily crashed his head through the walls as if they were made of paper, chomping his fangs down on where Aegis had been standing repeatedly.

“Why’s it going after me but not them?” Aegis asked himself curiously, staring up at Kilyak and Ysilda over the body of the long serpent, seeing that Kilyak was preparing his fists to strike out at Ysilda. “Guard!” Aegis shouted, projecting his shield out in front of Ysilda to block the strike, but as he did, he understood it. “The iron….” Aegis looked down at the shield he was still wielding. Too late, he’d realized why Kilyak unequipped the glaive when the serpent appeared.

The moment he casted guard, the snake lunged at him again. Aegis knew now he was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he unequipped the shield he wouldn’t be able to cast guard, but if he kept it equipped the snake wouldn’t leave him alone. To make matters worse, he heard the familiar humming sound of a voidreaver beam charging up. Glancing across the street towards the roof of a nearby building, he saw that he’d caught the attention of another Mosmir Voidreaver.

He jumped up off of the ground to get overtop of another lunging strike from the snake and landed on top of a ruined obsidian building not far from the chapel. Once atop it, he quickly cast guard in front of Ysilda to block another fist strike from Kilyak and saw that the serpent’s body had finally finished forming - its tail was now visible slithering out of the rift. From there, he dashed to the side as the void beam fired out from the Mosmir voidreavers pincers at him, absorbing sound as the black energy narrowly missed hitting his legs.

“I don’t have time to redo this quest over and over again.” Aegis gritted his teeth and glared at the various creatures attacking him and Ysilda. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the Voidhydra still rampaging in the distant city. With it in his sights, an idea came into his mind. He began running atop the obsidian structures, repeatedly casting guard at its maximum range around Ysilda to protect her from a flurry of strikes from Kilyak, while simultaneously jumping repeatedly over lunging strikes from the serpent. His goal was to angle the path of the void beam from the voidreaver out in the direction of the hydra to bring it back.

After jumping over a few more buildings and creating more guards, it worked. The voidreaver wasn’t aware enough of its surroundings to realize that the beam it was aiming at Aegis shot past him, through the air and across the open city above the buildings, hitting the otherwise preoccupied void hydra in the distance.

Once hit in the back, the void beam bounced off the scales of the hydra and it let out a ferocious roar, turning all three of its heads to glare at Aegis, the serpent, and the Voidreaver who promptly ended its beam. The hydra then turned its body and began stomping aggressively towards them, tearing through any and all obsidian structures in its way and knocking them over with its might.

The serpent hadn’t noticed, it was so focused in on the iron of Aegis’ shield that it continued to lunge out at him, while the voidreaver turned tail and ran with several teleports away. Once the Hydra got close enough to Aegis, he froze in place and held up his shield, allowing the serpent to lunge his head into it and blocked the attack. Due to the dungeon option, he took 0 damage from it, and the motion drew the attention of the hydra whose three heads lashed out at the body of the serpent, biting into its black scales.

The serpent let out a horrific hissing sound which mixed in with a strange whale-cry coming from a gigantic void stingray flapping its fins in the sky far above the city, which Aegis had to resist the urge to look up at.

The only movement Aegis did was a wiggle of his fingers, recasting his guard repeatedly in order to keep blocking attacks from Kilyak as he repeatedly struck out at Ysilda. Eventually, Kilyak gave up and turned to glare across the ruined streets to see Aegis, and the Hydra feasting on the dying serpent that now had several chunks bitten out of its body. The serpent died, but the Hydra remained beside Aegis, forcing him to stay completely still.

Seeing this, Kilyak equipped his glaive again and grinned at Aegis, preparing to strike it out at Ysilda. Aegis knew full well that while his guard could keep up with unarmed strikes, the glaive strikes could attack too quickly from various angles, more than his guard skill alone could handle.

“Fuck it.” Aegis sighed, breaking into a sprint as he simultaneously guarded the first glaive strike on Ysilda. The moment he started running, all three of the hydra heads jerked upwards and followed his movement. It stomped after him, abandoning the corpse of the serpent and crushing it under its flaws as it moved forward quickly behind Aegis, whilst Aegis ran up the stairs into the chapel and thrust his shield forward at Kilyak, bashing him in the side to interrupt a secondary swing of his glaive down on Ysilda.

“I AM WILLING TO DIE FOR MY CAUSE. ARE YOU?!” Kilyak laughed maniacally as he saw the Hydra approaching behind Aegis.

“Nope.” Aegis replied. “Shield skills are allowed. That includes shield bash.” Aegis said to himself, bashing his shield into Kilyak again to push him backwards into the rift. Once Kilyak touched the rift, it distorted his body slightly and caused parts of it to disappear, then reappear, but otherwise didn’t seem to deal damage or had any lasting effects.

The hydra had arrived and gotten close enough at this point to strike out at Aegis, shooting its long necks out like spears with gigantic snouts filled with razor sharp fangs inside its jaws that collapsed down around where Aegis had been standing. He jumped to the side to dodge one, then jumped backwards to dodge another. The third, he was forced to jump back again into the rift itself to avoid it.

As he did, his body was partially transported between locations. Part of his body remained in the chapel, another seemed to enter a strange, unfamiliar world of the void where everything appeared like a starry night sky, and Aegis felt an intense surging pain through all of his muscles. He quickly closed his eyes to avoid dying to whatever he was looking at, but not before seeing a large pool of warping black liquid hovering towards him on that side of the portal.

Using his legs still in the chapel, he ran forward to pull himself out of the rift in time to see Kilyak rushing at Ysilda under the rising heads of the Hydra as it prepared to strike out again.

“Guard.” Aegis shouted to block the glaive strike on Ysilda, while simultaneously the hydra roared out in anger with two of its head, and the third lunged down at Aegis again. He jumped to the side and the snout crashed into the obsidian block floor of the chapel, destroying it and sending chunks of stone and debris upwards into the sky - of which the majority fell into and was absorbed by the rift.

Aegis then lunged at Kilyak and bashed his shield into his side, knocking him off balance once more and pushing him away from Ysilda. He then glanced back at the rift and confirmed what he had seen - the black liquid began seeping through the rift towards their side of the gameworld, pouring out around their feet and creeping towards them. The hydra didn’t seem to care, and the liquid neared the hydra's feet and rather avoided getting too close to it as if afraid of it.

It was seconds before the liquid reached his and Ysilda’s feet, and he already knew what would happen if it did. Kilyak did as well, and quickly got back to his feet and jumped up onto some nearby pieces of rubble created by the collapsing chapel walls, to get off the ground.

“I’ll keep you within 5 meters of the rift.” Aegis said to Ysilda. She couldn’t reply she was still murmuring her incantation. He had no choice but to assume that picking her up wouldn’t interrupt it. Aegis swiped his arms under her calves to sweep her off her feet and cradle her in his arms while she maintained her incantation, her eyes continued to glow - as did her hands. Aegis was relieved that the spell hadn’t been interrupted, but that was short lived as the liquid pooled towards him rapidly.

Where Kilyak had jumped was safe, but it was more than 5 meters away from the rift. Aegis had to find alternative methods of keeping Ysilda protected from the liquid monster.

“Guard.” Aegis shouted, casting it in the air above him, then jumping up on top of it just in time to get away from the liquid seeping towards him.

With the projection between him and the floor, the liquid poured outwards without shooting up any tendrils, much to his relief. His movement, however, prompted a reaction from the Hydra’s three heads. Aegis saw their shadows extending up over him from behind in the light of the many flames now burning across the city, and let out a desperate sigh to himself.

Aegis canceled his guard after jumping forward off of it, just in time to get out of the path of a lunging strike from the hydra’s middle head. He recast his guard a meter away, orb walking around the rift and catching his footing just in time to prevent several black tendrils from grabbing him that had lashed out from the pool of oily black liquid below them on the ground.

Kilyak was forced to do nothing but stay completely still in order to avoid drawing the attention of the hydra, as he had no clear method to attack Aegis given his current position. The hydra made another strike a moment later, forcing Aegis to jump again. After several more jumps to dodge the hydra’s strikes, Aegis saw the liquid on the ground below slowly slinking away, seeping out of the chapel and into the surrounding city. Aegis sighed with relief at this, but Kilyak had a different reaction. His eyes were on the void rift, where Ysilda’s light within it had grown and was beginning to overtake the void energy of it.

“You will not undo my creation. This world will fall into the void, and you will not prevent it!” Kilyak shouted, drawing attention unto himself from the hydra, but he didn’t seem to care. He then suddenly plunged his glaive into his own chest, and following this his body exploded into a black mist that engulfed Aegis, Ysilda, and the Hydra. Several debuffs then appeared on Aegis, which he could only assume also appeared on Ysilda and the Hydra as well.

[Greater Mosmir Voidreaver Lure]

[Greater Mosmir Soldier Lure]

[Greater Void Hydra Lure]

[Greater Void Serpent Lure]

[Greater Void Ooze lure]

[Greater Void Beholder Lure]

[Greater Void Ray Lure]

[Greater Ilmian Lure]

[Greater Mimic Lure]

The list of debuffs was unrealistically large. The only good news was that in order to spread them, Kilyak had committed suicide in some odd way.

“5 meters.” Aegis said to himself anxiously as he removed the guard under his feet to drop to the ground of the chapel, while all three heads of the hydra panned to look at him. Simultaneously, the sound of endless amounts of void creatures began to hiss and roar throughout the burning city, and strange sounds began to come from within the rift itself. Every void creature that had made it through the rift was now coming to its defense, stomping towards them.

“Holy shit.” Baffo leaned forward anxiously, clutching his fists together nervously.

“No one’s gotten this far before.” Uggard took a deep anxious breath. Both of their eyes were wide, peeled to their livestream viewers floating in front of their faces. “He used the hydra on the snake.”

“I know, I saw. I never thought to call that hydra back.” Baffo replied. Aegis’ viewership had shot up to 1 million once more, and Hae-won’s rapidfire commentary focused on nothing but his gameplay.

Aegis carefully lifted Ysilda up over his shoulder, so that her body hung over the back of it, head down with her eyes closed - she remained focused on the incantation despite the odd way Aegis was holding her over his shoulder. He was grateful for how light weighted elves were, and with her in this position he could somewhat utilize his left arm to block incoming attacks. Pairing that with his guard, he felt he stood a chance, and dug his feet into the ground, preparing for the oncoming swarm of enemies that were announcing their approach through various roars, hisses, and screeches from within the rift and throughout the city.