Using the Battlefield

Unfortunately for them, they were unfamiliar with the death geysers and had not accounted for one that had been within their red protective dome. There was a scream from one of the mages as they turned to see their companion get cut diagonally from their hip to their shoulder by a stream of compressed water.

This moment of chaos provided an opportunity for me to attack the enemy tank. Kalvos had been distracted by the explosion of red that appeared within his companions' dome. Kalvos' dome flickered as his concentration wavered, revealing a weakness in his defense. I covered my sword in advanced-tier sword energy and thrust it forward, propelling it through the air with my telekinesis. The sword struck his dome and shattered it in a single decisive blow.

The moment I saw the dome shatter, I rushed towards the tank and got into close combat with him. Kalvos looked stunned, probably because he was not expecting me to shatter the dome so easily. My reactions were so quick that I could tell he was struggling to keep up with my movements. It was impressive already that he was somewhat tracking where I was moving and attacking from, so his mind stat had to at least have been high-tier.

I made three quick unarmed strikes at the tank, aiming for vital points as I pulled my sword towards me using telekinesis. Kalvos' eyes glowed blue, and I realized that he had been buffed by the remaining mage within the red dome. His eyes were better at tracking my movements, and his shield managed to catch all of my strikes just in time.

Versaga flew towards me, and I caught it with my left hand. I made an awkward strike with a left-handed swing, coating my sword with advanced-tier sword energy. The tank easily parried it with a shield, so I used the momentum granted by the deflection and spun around, making a backward slash with the sword directed at his ankle.

As I spun, thanks to my mind stat, I caught a glimpse of the other red dome and noticed that the one-arm swordsman was missing. I did not see him on the battlefield, so I decided that I would do something unexpected. Kalvos slammed his shield into the ground, blocking my strike at his ankle, which I had expected him to do. Using telekinesis, I pushed outward in all directions in that moment. Kalvos did not budge, but he wasn't my target.

It was a given that the tank would resist a telekinetic push in all directions, but the swordsman was not as resilient. I listened closely and heard a startled grunt and a thud from the left of me. The swordsman was invisible, which could have been from a skill or an item effect. I needed to have that if it were a skill.

It had only been 15 seconds, so there was still a quarter of a minute left before the reduction in damage was lifted. Because of this, I didn't have to worry about accidentally killing the swordsman. I made a heavy blow in the direction that I heard the yelp and released sword energy in the form of a blade towards where I believed the swordsman to be. I heard a scream, and there was a splattering of blood.

Notification

You have resisted Void Calling.

The mage was a problem, but she could be dealt with later, so I continued to ignore her. The swordsman wasn't visible yet, so I knew that the invisibility was granted by an item effect and not by a skill. This was unfortunate, but it wasn't the end of the world. There would be other opportunities to find a stealthy skill like invisibility. I saw a pool of blood and knew exactly where the swordsman was hiding. I decided to ignore the tank and focus the rest of my attacks on the pool of blood. I swung my sword three times, causing three concentrated blades of sword energy to fly in that direction.

Kalvos did exactly what I expected him to do; he rushed toward the location where I had thrown the sword energy. Unfortunately for the tank, he was not as quick as I was. The unfortunate downside of being a player that had to rely on stats like vitality, mind, and strength to weather blows and see attacks before they happened meant that you had to make certain sacrifices, in this case, agility.

As Kalvos rushed towards his ally, I used telekinesis to pull loose rocks up from the ground in front of him. The tank was able to resist my telekinesis, but something physical like a collection of rocks was a different matter entirely. I didn't need to use a skill directly on a player to trip them; fighting wasn't all about landing your skills on others. I was a survivor, so I used everything on the battlefield to my advantage.

My sword energy landed, and I heard another cry of pain coming from the invisible one-armed swordsman. As he cried in pain, the tank flew forward and slid on the ground, tumbling until he crashed into a geyser that just erupted in the middle of our battle. He just managed to bring up his shield, blocking the concentrated beam of water but blowing himself back in the process. Unfortunately for Kalvos, the jet of water knocked the shield out of his hand, causing it to fly high into the air. Using telekinesis, I knocked the shield even further into the air and out of the battle for good.

Notification

You have failed to resist Embrace of the Void. You will be embraced by the void for the next 30 seconds. All damage dealt by you will be reflected back.

"Okay… Guess I don't resist everything."

I looked over at the mage and noticed that she was no longer protected by the red dome of energy. It was definitely because the tank had fully lost concentration at this point. I would have gone for a kill, but the debuff was holding me back. Kalvos started to get up, and I could already tell that he was going to try and make a run for it. I was about to let them go when I saw a large shape loom over the mage in the distance.

A collection of thick tentacles wrapped around the mage and lifted her into the air. A single, sharp tentacle impaled her from her back and burst through her chest like a Xenomorph from the movie Alien. The tentacles then retracted, dragging her into a giant treasure chest that was the size of a minivan.

It was Tim.

Notification

You are no longer under the effect of Embrace of the Void.