(7.2) Desperate Struggle

The Corpse Ettin lets out a horrific roar just then, its eyes glowing a vibrant yellow.

Aki realises the effigy must have been binding it but not powering its life. Meaning that thing was now completely autonomous.

Now unrestrained, both of its heads locked onto Aki and Winter in the tree line. It roars again and charges.

Aki nearly screams but forces herself to make use of that energy to sprint over tree roots, brush, and other obstacles. She can vaguely feel Winter on her tail as the Corpse Ettin rams into the trees, breaking and uprooting the trees at the clearing's edge.

Mirra and Phoebe are before her suddenly. Phoebe is still on Mirra's back but no longer looks like she's seconds away from passing out.

"A little closer Mirra," Phoebe instructs, staff raised horizontally in front of her. "An empty container makes a lot of noise; let me fill it for you!"

Gold light erupts from her staff's head, and a single rocky spike pierces the Corpse Ettin's body. A disgusting, horrendous smell wafts out from the pustulating body. Bile pours out of its body, and the Corpse Ettin roars again. This time, however, it pulls itself off the rock spike and howls, creating visible magical sound waves.

In response to its call, the forest was filled with the sounds of Dead waking from their slumber. The ground beneath shook as the weighty steps of the Dead began to converge on their position from all around.

"Corpse Ettin can recover from injury by devouring other creatures, living and dead," Aki points out where everyone can see the tops of New Pinacca's buildings. "Since it's like that, the rest of the Dead probably think it's an enemy, right, Winter?"

Sweat beads on Winter's brow. He shakes his head and covers his mouth in distress. "The Corpse Ettin's call is overriding the spell relays. It's dominating the Dead with its own mana.

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(Tactician Lv. UP! Lv.1 -> Lv.2 - Boosted insight granted)

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A new angle of information flows into Aki's tired mind, clouding the dark forest and the Corpse Ettin's horrendous form.

"Wait, if it's using mana to take control, can you force a direct connection?" Aki asks the exhausted Winter. "Bind its fate with all the other Dead."

He clenches his jaw, his attention turning from the monster before them into a thousand yard stare. Soul Sight, of course.

"I… It's not impossible but I'd need to touch its heads directly." Winter answers.

"What's the verdict then?" Mirra steps in. Phoebe is off her back now and reclining against a tree. "Run or fight?"

Aki watches the Corpse Ettin preparing to attack them. "We won't be able to outrun it. Our only chance to live is this. I'll keep it busy, you guys get Winter in place."

She pulls off her cloak and tosses it at Phoebe.

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[MP: 250 -> 200]

[Agility: +1]

[Speed: +1]

[Mobility increased by 80%. Clothing reduces actions by 10% each.]

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The Corpse Ettin responds to the movement and dashes toward Aki, ignoring the rest of her allies. It covers the distance in the blink of an eye.

She dashes to the side, skirting the massive, diseased arm of her opponent by a hair's breadth. Her bag is not so lucky. The monster's disgusting claws managed to hook onto the haversack and tear it off her body.

With it, go all her weapons and books.

She curses as the sound of the surrounding Dead have closed in enough to create an ambiance of grumbling and rattling bones while the Corpse Ettin continues its unsteady assault. Until it devours enough to recover, it'll likely keep exerting control over the Dead, Aki reasons.

Behind the hulking frame of the monster, Mirra has Winter on her back and has been trying to get closer with little luck. It keeps charging at Aki, unintentionally escaping from Winter's grasp every time.

The Corpse Ettin punches down, causing a crater upon impact where Aki stood seconds before leaping over it.

She lands on its massive arm.

Here, her luck runs out. The Corpse Ettin has two heads and as such, is considered an extremely dangerous enemy to face in direct combat because it is essentially facing two opponents in one body.

A fact many of its opponents often overlook in the heat of the moment, just as Aki just did.

While one head directly focused on lunging and attacking, the second head bided its time. Once Aki landed on its body, it struck. With incredible reflexes, it catches Aki within its grasp with its other hand and proceeds to slowly crush her.

Aki cries out.

Pain arcs through her body as she struggles to fight her way out. She feels her bones grind together and her muscles strain in effort but she is too small and weak to do anything. To make matters worse, Phoebe screams.

Out of the corner of her eye, Aki watches as Phoebe struggles to fend off several armoured zombies attempting to take a bite out of her.

Her vision starts to blur as the Corpse Ettin raises her to its gaping mouths, a sickening stench and puke-green viscous liquid looming closer.

"I'm sorry Shur. End of the line for me…"

Winter is on its back then, hands pressed against its heads. He's shouting something but Aki can't understand a word he's saying. The pressure in the air changes and a sort of static charge focuses itself on the monster before her.

Winter says something else before leaping off the Ettin's back. His words may have been lost, but the determination in his tearful black eyes, however, needs no translation.

Gritting her teeth, Aki surges her pittance of remaining mana. Her eyes flare with acid green light as spectral chains burst from the ground and wrap tightly around the Corpse Ettin.

It groans in surprise and in its attempt to break free, it drops Aki.

With only a few moments to respond, she rolls clear of the Corpse Ettin's stomping and focuses on the draining aspect of the spell.

Aki feels her bones crack under the pressure of conduitless casting but she continues. Her mind permeates the Corpse Ettin, diving into a massive pool of mana so disgusting it makes her skin crawl. If she had anything to puke, she may have even done so.

Feelings of sorrow, regret, pain, and agony slam against her mind like an angry mob.

Ghastly wails begging for freedom. For clemency. For true death. Any sort of mercy.

Memories of dozens of lives lost in violent ways flash through her head. In each one, the same dark-cloaked figure with a golden eye intersected by a straight line on their clothes stands in a watchful, authoritative position. Fear and anger aimed at the figure fill her mind while pain from cracked bones wracks her body.

"Grant me your power," Aki barely manages to whisper. Somehow she had ended up hunched over on her knees. "And I will take away your pain. I'll set you free."

Her right arm, having been broken once already, is the first to snap under the pressure. This time however, the force of the break is enough to pierce out of her flesh. Aki represses a scream and continues. Screams and wails that once echoed in her mind die down.

A gentle, grateful warmth replaces the cold as the sickly mana flows into her weakened body.

"Title switch," Aki murmurs. Her stats and maximum MP return to that of her Witch title. The influx of mana stabilises.

Seconds later, she feels the connection to the many Dead within the forest the Corpse Ettin dominated fade and not long after, the Corpse Ettin too, falls into true death.

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(Maximum MP raised! 250 -> 300)

(Temporary MP overtakes maximum!)

****

Aki  Title: Witch

LE: 27/55  HP: 23/200

MP: 39,000/300

SP: 70/50

[Adjusted to Darkness: 10% increase in vision when in dim light or pure dark]

[Entrusted One: Temporary MP overtakes max. Will not recover excess MP]

[Waning Life: All stats reduced until LE restored]

More: ⟲

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"Woah!"

Phoebe's voice draws Aki's attention. Mirra and Phoebe hold onto each other as a crutch. In Phoebe's offhand, she holds her now broken staff and at their feet are the remains of the zombies.

A few metres away from the two women lies Winter. He's breathing heavily but has his head raised off the ground to look at everyone. Once he spots Aki looking at him, he gives her a thumbs up.

"Did you know you're glowing, Aki?" Phoebe asks. She and Mirra limp cautiously toward her. "It's kinda pretty."

"Like those alien monkey guys, except not aggressive," Mirra laughs but immediately regrets her decision because she doubles over in pain.

"Mirra!" Aki and Phoebe say in unison.

"Wait a sec, lemme get my bag!" Aki frantically gets to her feet and accidentally smacks her broken arm. She panics, finally noticing the bone sticking out of her arm and the steady flow of blood exiting her body. Mirra and Phoebe notice as well and quickly close the gap, looking for ways to help.

"Aki! Here," Winter runs out from the treeline where he had gone to look for her belongings. "I've got some healing spells too but nothing that could fix something like that."

"Neither do I," Aki takes her bag from him and digs out her stone amulet. "If I could set it back inside while I still can't feel it, I could do something but…"

"It's an open fracture. Ya can't feel it?" Mirra questions. "Then allow me, I've got some experience with this kind of thing."

She kneels on the ground and quickly inspects Aki's arm while Phoebe and Winter take a step back.

"Can you apply healing magic to keep the internals stable and prevent infection without repairing the flesh yet?" Mirra inspects the damage.

Once Aki nods the affirmative, Mirra gently grasps the arm with a firm grip. "It looks like a type 2, so with the help of magic, realignment and setting shouldn't be difficult. Don't resist, just stay calm and focus on healing what I told you to."

Mirra's authoritative tone doesn't allow for anything other than a nod.

For several minutes, Mirra is focused on her work, exhaustion clear on her face but a serious alertness in her eyes.

Aki switches between applying healing to herself and raising Mirra's stamina at regular intervals.

Finally, a half hour later, her bone is safely where it belongs and magically being restored.

A bloodsoaked Mirra lies on her back with a triumphant smile on her face and exhaustion heavy on her body. Winter and Phoebe meanwhile, had taken care of each other with their own strength since they had no mana to spare.

With everyone roughly okay now, Aki hops between everyone, healing magic emanating from her amulet. There's only so much magic can do, however, and everyone still hangs heavy with exhaustion. Even so, the excess mana Aki had is already paying off, even if it took more than expected.

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(MP: 20,566/300)

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"Staying here might be safe since we cleared every surrounding Dead in a few kilometres around us, but being around rotten corpses isn't very sanitary or good for morale," Winter comments, warily eying the fallen Corpse Ettin as it releases a disgusting amount of internal gasses from both ends.

"Then let's get a move on," Mirra stands and takes the lead, heading toward the city visible over the trees in the clearing. "Getting to a rest spot is a top priority. Best to recover a bit more before trying to cover three clicks in hostile territory. Especially since we don't know how many Dead we managed to clear."

"Right, head for the canal. The Dead, even controlled by necromancy, aren't fond of running water." Winter instructs.

Mirra nods and changes direction. The city is to the North-East, but New Pinacca's canal opens into a wide river that leads out to the ocean. A river much closer to their current position than the city.

"I've been meaning to ask, but how come you're so… mature for a kid?" Phoebe asks Winter.

The four of them had been marching for a few minutes without danger, the bubbly adventurer must have decided they were relatively safe now.

"I get Aki since she's whatever cool thing, but kids are kids, right?"

Mirra hops over an exposed tree root, nearly stumbling as she does so because she had turned her attention to Winter.

Aki quietly chuckles. Perhaps now these otherworlders would piece two-and-two together and finally realise the painfully obvious.

Winter glances at Aki, a question on his face. Aki subtly shakes her head no, already guessing at what he was about to ask. Why bother hiding a way too obvious fact.

"Because I'm an otherworlder just like you two."

Mirra completely trips this time, falling to a knee just before reaching the forest edge. The river is visible just further ahead, not a single Dead in sight, but Mirra and Phoebe are more preoccupied with Winter's words.

They look between him and Aki with surprise and concern on their faces.

At least the two of them had enough awareness to be worried, Aki thinks. Old Guard are quite dangerous to otherworlders but for the most part don't directly attack unless solid 'evidence' is present for the accusation or someone directly outs an otherworlder.

She had managed to avoid the Old Guard by avoiding civilisation entirely but Aki recalls Shur teaching her everything she needed to hide her true identity whenever she and the other two slaves in her cell all had a bit of time together.

Valuable lessons that had kept her alive for so long.

Mirra clenches her jaw and pulls Phoebe behind her.

"Don't worry, Aki already knew. Said it was way too obvious," Winter says, waving at Aki. He sits against one of the trees and pats the ground next to him. "Since we're at a safe enough spot, let's have a chat while we rest."