章節 10: Chapter 10
AN: 18,200 MP + 19,224 MP = 37,424 MP total from Abyss and Sum.
25,012 AP + 31,780 AP = 56,792 AP total from Abyss and summer
AFFINITIES DO NOT STACK DUE TO PASSENGER! If Summer and Abyss used the same spell Abyss' would be MUCH stronger than Summer's because of his skills and the 4x total affinities bonus. Summer is more experienced and has absurd physical stats compared to Abyss and she outclasses him on aura and is a thousand off from his mana and that's only because of his passenger title. Additionally, Summer always focuses on fighting enemies physically while Abyss multitasks between sending barrages of spells and helping Summer out. They draw from the same aura pool as well due to merging their souls and mutually granted permissions (They can undo this whenever they feel like it btw).
Enjoy the chapter.
[|||| =LEVEL 10= ||||]
I looked around with my mage sight as soon as the strike fell and saw Ashaya looking fine. Bondi was gasping on the ground in some pain. Did she…
HP – 76/77
AP – 0/680
MP - 2,234/20,680
She did. She blocked the lightning. Then… The scream was her sensing the lightning attuned mana and reacting. Death would have traumatized her from killing her best friend… damn it.
"Summer. Are you alright?"
I looked to Summer, who was touching her ears, which were bleeding, and looking to the lightning bolt with a dazed expression. Ashaya was looking to Bondi with surprise meanwhile. I think she was more used to pain than Summer since she wasn't reacting. Or maybe she couldn't feel anything. Maybe Bondi shielded her from the sound. I don't know.
I casted a heal on Summer's eardrums and slapped a supplement spell on her to wake her up… I should make an adrenaline spell… Later.
Ashaya shook off her surprise and blurred forward faster than I could see. Not faster than I could react, though, at her distance. I made a wall of curved hard light in front of her and she slowed and struck it.
The barrier immediately shattered and I dumped mana into a resist spatial interference spell. Ashaya was slowed. She narrowed her eyes at the deceleration and I shot ten arrows of light at her in angles to make her go back.
She dodged them, of course. My DEX was far too low to even see her move if she wasn't being slowed by magic. Actually, even slowed I doubt I'd ever catch her at even a casual pace.
Finally Summer got up as my heal spell finished. I swept through her body with her senses and found no other wounds. Good.
With Summer finally up I pulled water down from the storm and made the air clouded in a thick mist. I then tried a rather risky maneuver. I stole all the light from the air and made a large dome absent of light. A parallel kept the environment the way I wanted it.
Summer flicked on a controlled light vision and grinned. Ashaya was fighting blind and her semblance was blocked off by the thick mist. Turning to fire would extinguish or at least suppress her enough to make her use aura to drive back the mist. I'm leaning more towards her using the latter option.
I shared Ashaya's location through a controlled light vision spell. Mage sight was working fine too just in case. Summer pursued her quietly and I stilled the air to quell sound. Something must have given us away, though, or perhaps it's that warriors instinct thing, but Ashaya pivoted and parried neatly and swiped with her other sword.
Summer leaned back and I shot a wind arrow at Ashaya and dropped the still winds. No blows had connected so far and I had to conserve mana. I was already at about three fourths of our MP. We still had aura, though, which I could take from in an emergency.
Ashaya pursued Summer's awkward pose and Summer rolled backwards. "Her eyes should be adjusted to the darkness. I'm going to drop the dome soon." Summer sent a pang of agreement and acknowledgement.
Summer darted forwards and shifted her weapon to her longsword and performed some fancy swordwork with Ashaya. I could barely see it when Ashaya landed a light slash across Summer's shoulder. I could only feel it with our aura. Summer ignored the blow and pressed further. She received several more slashes and I decided to lift the barrier.
I lifted the dome and made sure to shine an intense beam of light to Ashaya's eyes. She simply closed her eyes. Bitch. Summer whipped a dagger of hard light in her off hand and Ashaya moved just a little bit. The hard light dagger gave her a small cut on her nose and I took what I hoped to be a distraction to fire a flurry of wind blades from Summer's sword.
Ashaya's eyes almost opened in surprise and she slashed in what looked like wild patterns to me but I was stunned as I felt the wind blades to have dissipated. She… slashed the blades to disperse them at that range?! Absurd.
I snarled internally and took a bit of a leap. I drew on my strongest affinity, purity, and melded it with my wind affinity, my second strongest, to wrap a maelstrom of purity charged air around Summer. Ashaya gasped as she felt the air and I saw her skin smoke. Her HP dropped very slowly under the purity but it didn't hurt her much. It did distract her though.
I projected a spear filled with purity mana and thrusted it at her. A small flash of fear crossed her face and she leaped backward in a palm spring. She must have a natural aversion to purity, being a corrupted soul. I dismissed the projectile, thinking it a useless cause, and watched her as she did something.
A mechanism had shifted on Ashaya's swords and she twirled them rapidly. Fire leapt from her sword towards us. Summer and I shared mutual alarm at the dustcasting and Summer cartwheeled out of the way and yet more fire licked her skin. I drew the fog still surrounding us to weaken the fire with it's moisture and only partially succeeded. These were dust based flames. Not campfires.
Luckily I had a good spell for this though I REALLY needed to stop casting so much and urged Summer to move. I flash stepped us out of harm's way and Summer and I flash stepped towards Ashaya who hissed and engaged Summer again. I sent to Summer that I had to rest a little after such an engagement and she took the reigns of the fight.
I rummaged around in my inventory for anything that might help and found only a few things. The dust, firstly. I had the dust absorb ability and that MIGHT help a little… My absorb dust skill was useless without a body, though. I don't know the negative effects and I don't care to find out without a controlled environment. Maybe Summer could do something with it?
The only other thing would be an old project of mine. A weapon, specifically. I had done it mostly out of boredom. An advanced repeating crossbow with special bolts made of an alloy of steel and novis, the dust absorbing metal. The bolts would explode upon contact if I pushed aura into them and shot them. They were powerful as well. But I couldn't really use that on account of not having a body. I don't know if the crossbow would still work right anyways.
Suddenly a thought occurred to me. Purity was Ashaya's natural enemy. I could infuse things with purity… I was internally smirking as I imbued purity attuned mana to Summer's weapon. I briefly thought of it as consecrating the weapon and dismissed the thought. This was no time for that drivel.
Ugh. I focused back on the outside area and was just in time to feel Summer receive a terrible cut to the chest. Aura held out but I checked the pools and we were at maybe sixty percent. Damn that strength of Ashaya's was a killer. Aura sensing told me that Summer had scored a hit or two as well. Ashaya was at seven thousand, three fourths of her aura.
I shot a flurry of light arrows and she had to back off a little. "I have dust in my inventory. Can you use that?" Summer sent a resounding yes and a moment later she asked for a water or ice. I deposited a water crystal in her left hand and she gripped it hard. She swept her hand out and pressurised jets of water saturated with purity attuned aura arced out like a living whip of pressurized water. Ashaya had no choice but to use her semblance for the first time.
She seemed to blur as her entire body became flame. Pale blue flames specifically. Strange. Cinder was more of a red and orange girl. Well, Ashaya wasn't using red anyways. Sadly blue flames were hotter than red flames. Sad for us I mean, though that does give me a few ideas for elements.
I was surprised when I saw that we were actually not using much AP fueling the whip. Most of the aura was seemingly coming from the crystal. Smart. Taking advantage of the crystal to naturally combine the elements was a sneaky thing I wish I had learned earlier.
It irritated me that Ashaya was actually FASTER in her flame body. We could barely keep up with her before and now we had to deal with this? Ridiculous. I decided to go a little adventurous and materialised a low grade wind dust crystal. Immediately I used it to do a new spell I had learned. Tornado. I made sure that Summer was safe and kept the winds mostly calm around her but the tornado sprung up and whipped and whirled near Ashaya. Flames flickered and were torn from her and a wordless cry of pain leapt from her fiery mouth. She turned back to her physical form and I gleefully noted that she had lost maybe three hundred HP. I hadn't used much AP either to use that tornado.
I made a quick note of Bondi, who was thrown out of the way of the fight by the tornado. She had been flung into a tree with her back taking the impact. It was broken, my anatomy skill said. Probably unhealable. Well at least she wasn't dead… just injured and maybe crippled… Well screw her. We played nice. It's regrettable but we tried.
Ashaya slammed a foot onto the ground and closed the distance once more. I sighed and created a warp and resist spatial interference to slow her down and give us more distance and placed a new crystal, ice this time, in Summer's hand.
With a vicious grin Summer used the whole crystal and a large amount of AP - wait that's like five thousand AP you greedy woman! With the hits and the whip and the tornado we're down to twenty thousand. Summer flung a huge spear of ice at Ashaya. I threw in my own two cents and bent the light that bounced off the ice randomly to hopefully confuse Ashaya for a moment.
My plan somewhat worked and Ashaya jumped late. It was likely fatigue as well as the crude illusion caused her to land early and have her right foot yanked backwards by the speed of the spear, leaving a bloody spray as the spear left a harsh gash. She flipped and landed but it was unsteady. A slight wince gave me the satisfaction of knowing she was in pain.
Summer flashed stepped towards her with my unspoken approval and Ashaya smirked. Oh SHIT! Summer was not prepared for Ashaya swiping at her with not one of her swords but a weapon concealed in her suit. I had forgotten about those. Damnit.
Ashaya slashed with a very short shortsword or what might be a massive knife that directly connected to Summer's knee. Summer wasn't done, though. The debilitating strike had just taken almost half out remaining AP and now we were at ten thousand. That high strength was killing us quickly.
Summer's sword transformed to her final form, a pistol. She flicked a switch I didn't know she had for some unknown reason but I didn't pay attention. I sent a powerful gust of wind at Ashaya and tried to blow her back. My mana spluttered and the gust came out as a particularly strong breeze. I recalled the mana in confusion as I got a message.
MP too Low! 1931/37424
Oh no… Ashaya tensed her legs and lunged towards Summer with her sword and knife. A million things seemed to happen at once.
Summer opened fire on Ashaya with her pistol, which was apparently full auto now that the switch was flicked. Bullets rained down on her en masse and I noticed one shatter the metal amulet stopping teleportation.
A red portal sprung open and the tip of a dark red sword peeked out with speed.
Ashaya drew closer, her aura almost shattered. Her swords stabbing towards Summer.
Summer's magazine clicked dry and Ashaya's aura broke as just two bullets made it through, slamming into her torso.
I recovered just enough to make a powerful arrow of mana, not having the presence of mind or time to put an element on it.
The blade from the portal flew outwards with a woman wearing a complex mask of bone. Raven.
Ashaya's head blew off by the arrow and her right hand's blade shifted just slightly. Her left hand's blade still slammed into Summer's gut, hitting the right lung my humanoid anatomy skill informed me quietly, and her right sword just barely missed her heart directly and instead slid just outside of it. A number of dings were heard and I ignored all of them.
My anatomy skill whispered that the blade sliced her heart open even if it didn't hit it directly. No chance of survival. Not from both wounds.
My skill was clearly wrong, of course. Summer wouldn't die. I was strong. Of course I could save her. With both her and me she obviously wouldn't die. That's why I was training of course. That's why I haven't made a new body obviously. With all the training she wouldn't die. Not a chance.
Ah, the best way to get her back home was through the teleport spell, right? The marker one. It was nearly nighttime so Taiyang would be home. He could probably do something.
I smiled inside as I pulled on the marker with my skill. My mana was nearly out. One hundred eight points? Wow, cutting it close with no aura… well I'll be more careful next time. Summer was pulled inwards as we teleported instantly to the marker. She popped into existence standing right in front of the kitchen table. She fell backwards and crashed onto the table. It tilted a little and Summer fell off of it to the floor. She was barely breathing.
"Take… my eyes… you're making a new body… right? Project… Silver… save them. Ru… by…"
"Don't be ridiculous Summer. You'll be fine." I chided. Ridiculous. She was just being dramatic. Like the time she pretended to be dying when Tai joked that with all the chores I was doing I was replacing Summer. Or like the time I took away the mana we shared since she was childishly freezing and unfreezing a cup of water. She was going to break the glass! Maybe I was mothering everybody too much…
Now where was Tai? Oh! Right at the table. And there's Ruby and Yang! Dinnertime? Is that canned ravioli for dinner?! Tai that's just pathetic bachelor food. Really now… Ah yes…
"Tai could you help Summer out? She's just being dramatic. It's just a flesh wound." Tai stared with wide eyes. He stood perfectly still. The blood was leaking onto her cloak now. I sighed internally. "I'm not cleaning it Summer. Blood is even harder to get out than travel stains." Well, I assume grimm blood is as hard as human blood.
"Tai hurry up would you? Dinner isn't really as important as giving Sum a hug is it?" Tai stared. Ruby slid off of her chair and took a shaky step towards Summer. Then another and she fell to her knees. She reached for Summer's hood and pulled her hood down with trembling hands. She moved Summer's head and looked at her eyes. Summer's eyes blinked slowly. Very slowly. "Give Abyss… eyes." She whispered so softly it could barely be heard over the silent room. "Love… you…"
Summer closed her eyes and her head fell into Ruby's lap. Ruby stared with wide eyes. There were no tears.
Tai suddenly leapt into action. "SUMMER!" He raced upstairs with pounding feet and came down just seconds later with a medical kit. He tore Summer's clothes off and recoiled when he saw the swords impaled in her. He tenderly placed a shaking finger on the blade pierc- near her her heart. It didn't hurt anything vital. Maybe she'd get some battle scars or something.
Tai took a moment to pull the swords out of Summer and stitched up the wounds. I took a moment to look at the text that had popped up.
(AN: He's stitching the wounds to stop his daughters from seeing the blood)
*Ding!* Summer Rose has died. Her inventory has been transferred to yours. She has bequeathed unto you her eyes. They will not decay until they have been used because of this as she intended. Remember to respect the sacrifices of the fallen. Do not forget their last words.
*Ding!* You have killed Ashaya Fall! You gained 19,439,650 XP! You leveled up 63x
*Ding!* As Ashaya Fall's sole living killer her post-mortem acquired XP will instead go to you for the killing of Summer Rose. You gained 14,323,420 XP. You leveled up 34x
*Ding!* As your host has died you have been ejected from her body.
Strange. The text had never displayed anything wrong before. I looked into Summer and didn't see her aura. I shrugged my metaphorical shoulders and looked around. Oh, her eyes. Those have aura. I drifted towards the eyes and felt a small barrier around them. Like a candle that hadn't been lit. Oh, Ruby. Sorry, I thought you were Summer. My bad. Where'd her aura go?
I took a few more minutes to look at Tai stitch Summer's wounds. He worked fast. He finished as I looked at him and he left to the phone in the kitchen. I floated over to him and heard the conversation through lip reading.
"-in the house now… Yes. She's dead… Yes… Please."
I looked to Summer again and blinked once. Twice. A third time. Then I focused hard. No, there was no aura in her… I focused harder. Still no aura…
Summer is dead… Don't cry Ruby. Please don't cry…
I formed an avatar that flickered weakly due to my pathetically reduced reserves and sat next to Summer next to Ruby. It was the least I could do. Ruby hugged her and bawled on her cloak. Yang stared. Just stared. I held Summer's hand. It was the least I could do.
[|||| == ||||]
We held a funeral service for Summer the day after she died. I used a scalpel on her eyes and put them in my inventory. A sort of stasis went over them but I really didn't pay attention.
Ruby wore a black dress of Summer's because she had nothing else. It was way too big for her. I met Qrow for the first time. He arrived an hour before the funeral and took the service sober. We buried Summer at the cliffside with a small memorial Ozpin brought from somewhere. Raven stood way in the back. Nobody but me noticed because she sat with her legs pressed into her chest in the shadows of a tree.
The only people in the crowd were Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Ruby, Tai, Yang, Raven in the shadows, and myself. Summer didn't have very many friends. Besides… keeping her out would be… nobody wanted to do that. Nobody.
Summer's cloak was buried with her. That and her best huntress clothes.
After the funeral I assumed nobody would want me around. I began walking off but Ruby held my hand. I stayed and she cried on my leg. Yang cried into her father's chest while he sobbed into her hair. Raven cried into her knees in the tree. Qrow cried into his hands. Glynda cried silently while taking shuddering breaths. She seemed used to this. How sad. Ozpin didn't cry. He looked tired and empty. I couldn't cry. So I made the sky cry. It rained for her.
Ozpin left first. Glynda left a few minutes later. Then Tai brought Yang back. He didn't seem to want to go… but he did. Qrow finally left after Yang. He left Ruby with me.
Finally Ruby and I sat down. I drew the water out of our clothes and let the rain fall on us. After a few minutes Raven walked over to us and sat down next to me. We sat there for a while. Just the three of us.
It was probably an hour later that Ruby fell asleep on my leg. I kept her warm with heat mana, not having any body heat of my own. Raven broke the silence. "I killed the maiden. Broken back… she wouldn't have survived Salem." I sighed.
"That's fine. You're the maiden?" She nodded sadly.
"My last year before becoming ineligible. I'm thirty four." I said nothing.
"... I need help." Raven said quietly. It seemed like she meant to sound like she had forced the words but they were just sad. "You're a wizard. You can teach magic…" I nodded again. "... Please." The last words were a hoarse whisper. "I don't know how to… use it. I need it."
For the first time I looked left to Raven and looked into her eyes. They were scared. Sad. Regretful. I looked for a while before sighing and standing up. I dried Ruby off with my affinity and opened a portal to Yang with my parallels. I couldn't focus enough, I knew. Yang was in her bedroom sleeping.
For a moment I paused and looked at Ruby. I hugged her and tried something. I gave her a piece of my aura. Her aura slowly opened like a flower blooming and I marvelled at it for a moment. Then I dropped her softly onto the bed with Yang. I would protect Ruby. This was the start.
"..." I stared blankly into space for a moment… Raven… Why was I helping her… I looked at her again. "You kill innocents." I stated it as a fact but Raven sighed wearily and nodded.
"Sometimes. I try… I try not to. Sometimes." I looked at her without emotion. I withdrew the book on magic. The general primer Ozpin had gotten me. I handed it to her without any ceremony. Raven got the message. It was a solemnity between us that we could both understand.
I then left through the portal and left her alone. I bent the light to make my portal invisible and looked at her. She cried just a little bit more on the book and left through a portal.
[|||| == ||||]
A month passed. We all handled our grief in different ways. Yang got more social and left the house more often. I was left with Ruby. Ruby clung to me for her grief. Tai had nothing to do. I took care of Ruby better than he ever could with his grieving and he knew it. I had Summer's cookie recipe, though it was my cookie recipe now. He finally ended up talking to friends and taking care of the house. I think he took up training again as well.
Qrow took up drinking. He wandered off again. Raven threw herself into her magic and her tribe. I checked in with her about once a week and we traded tips. Mostly me giving her advice, though. I was far more experienced than she was. I never told Yang about our contact. Raven's business was her own and I still respected the ideal of freedom. If to Raven freedom was keeping her tribe than I would respect it. We were similar in a way I guess.
I myself threw myself into my studies after taking care of Ruby. I wasn't real. An avatar. A soul in the shape of what I once was. I maxed out my runes and my enchanting was at ninety seven. Strange how those two skills were so useless when I needed power the most. Metalworking leveled up fast as well. Maybe in the mindless work I put into the skill. I only bothered to get it to seventy before I stopped.
My growth skill slowly leveled as I kept it on all the time. The forest grew lush until a parallel leveled it with wind blades eventually. I already knew how to make a homunculi. I had maxed my anatomy skill out. I just needed to be able to grow quickly, which only took the time to level the skill.
It took time to scar over the wound. There was an emptiness in the house. I could only fill it for Ruby and even then I didn't have the love Summer did. Tai was never father material. He could change but he wasn't father material now and now was when it mattered. Yang ran from the emptiness and filled it with cheap friends that changed by the day. She was more like her mother than she cared to realize. I don't know where Qrow went. Probably missions. I never asked Ozpin. In some small way I don't blame him for not crying. He was an empty, tired man. He just didn't show it all that much. I started to think that wisdom of the ages was far more of a curse than I dared to realize before.
Time passed. And wounds began to heal.
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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