Chapter 287: Won Wager
Rory wasn’t normally overly competitive. Oh, he liked a good competition occasionally, and he could get quite stubborn at times. Still, the fact that he’d spent his entire life on Aelia pursuing a path as an Architect who leveraged his ability to create rather than attempting to be some martial god spoke volumes about his mindset regarding all that jazz.
Except, arms crossed and facing the Spear, he found himself hilariously insistent on wanting to win.
No, he definitely wasn’t hung up on losing to her, even if on a technicality, during their Founders duel.
Given the expression in her eyes, Rory could see the woman felt similairly, unhappy with her win through technicality.
“I’m game,” The Spear said as she turned away, and the two instead turned to face their real opponent, Eia’s roided-up ‘cousin.’
Tapping his head, a helmet covered his face as Rory took one final, quick breath before stepping forward.
Before instantly appearing behind Apophis Serpent Chushi, driving a glorified ice pick down toward its back.
The serpent’s aura attempted to envelop him in its aural toxin effect, yet it found zero purchase against Rory. Not minimal, not a tiny bit. Zero . The reason was simple enough: having spent as many years around Eia as he had, Rory had plenty of time to consider how he would tackle an opponent that could utilize the dangerous aura toxin. While it was generally quite weakened against similar strength or level opponents, it could still build up over time, or in the case of the Rogue, receiving a direct triple dose could even overwhelm the normally ‘nerfed’ output of being used on a similar level opponent.
Rory’s solution was his own affinity, specifically, Lattice. Lattice was, in simple terms, all about structure , and having spent so many years with it now, all he had to do was to lean into the affinity, his own aura taking on an almost ‘panel’ like appearance if one looked really closely at it.
Entirely unfazed by the territory alpha’s aura, Rory’s rapier-like weapon drove down toward the snake’s scales, which turned it crystal a moment later. Undeterred, the snake shrieked as, between Rory’s lattice affinity and integrated seams unseen, he perfectly struck a weak point within a scale, shattering it and punching into the softer flesh beneath before blasting the serpent with a fun dose of lightning.
Lightning Lacquered Promethium Stiletto
A promethium stiletto knife crafted and designed for piercing the weak points of even the strongest armors, it has been lacquered to reduce heat-resistance but, in turn, gains a natural lightning effect.
Between some added inscriptions and a gem acting as a further ‘battery’ for the knife, it was crafted precisely for opponents such as the Aphophis Serpent Chushi.
Rory wasn’t the only one to go on the offensive. The Spear’s aura spiked as she shot forward, the air around her warbling at her passage as her very presence subtly bent reality. Where Rory had needed a weapon specifically designed for armor-piercing alongside his own natural insight regarding weakpoints, the Spear just outright shattered the serpent’s crystal scales with the thrust of her spear, something Rory winced at internally.
No wonder she apparently goes through weapons so fast.
Now wasn’t the time for academic observations regarding the Spear’s fighting style, nor was it an excuse to stare at the extremely pretty woman.
Not that he really could, her own helmet had appeared, covering her face.
Chushi attempted to turn around and snap at Rory, correctly identifying the ‘softer’ target. Unfortunately, Rory vanished in the blink of an eye, ripping through space as he floated overhead, his hands arcing with lightning. At the rate he was going, he would burn through pneuma like a man in the desert chugging water, but he wasn’t afraid of the serpent outlasting both him and the Spear; there was no point in playing it slow.
“ Thunderclap!”
Clapping his hands together, a bolt of red lightning struck downward, striking the serpent, which spasmed for a brief moment. While blood lightning was technically less powerful and effective than regular lightning, his blood affinity infused within the strike would help negate the serpent’s potential resistance to energy-based attacks, assuming it also had an energy affinity, which was dubious, but not outright impossible.
Allison wound up her arm like an old-timey cartoon, literally spinning it in a way that should have been impossible thanks to a cool little thing called joints , which everyone had. Such small trivialities didn’t seem to matter to her. Winding up three more times, her arm had outright twisted about like a corkscrew before she took a step forward, the single step somehow taking her directly in front of the territory alpha as she unleashed her punch directly into its nose.
Nose? Nostrils? Do snakes have noses?
The smart thing would be for the Apophis serpent to turn into its energy form, faster and more capable of inflicting direct damage, but after seeing its… brethren? Rivals? Siblings? Rory wasn’t certain of the actual relationship with the other two snakes. Regardless, Chushi had seen its ‘siblings’ instantly killed after taking a direct shot from the Null Glitter Lance; it seemed unwilling to open itself up to the possibility.
Information warfare, baby.
The problem with a two-versus-one wasn’t just as simple as needing to do twice as much damage; it was quadratic. Two opponents meant double the damage, and split focus meant cutting outgoing damage potential in half.
With two opponents of the Founder caliber, a territory alpha that could normally best a single Founder would find itself in a negative match-up.
And if those Founders also happened to understand the capabilities of the territory alpha in question, while it had limited knowledge in return?
Brutality.
The sheer force of Allison’s punch was enough to launch the titanic snake’s head upward with a thundering crack . At the same time, Rory remained floating in the sky overhead.
Oh, I’ll take that.
Smiling at the opportunity that the Spear had just given him, Rory spread his hands back out, arcs of red lightning still bouncing between his palms. Motioning as if twisting a rope, the red lightning strengthened as Rory projected physicality into the lightning. Striking downward, the twine of blood lightning flashed downward, only a fraction as fast as a literal bolt of lightning, as Rory traded speed for conceptual power. When the whip of blood lightning struck the lifted serpent, it forked as the giant snake hissed in sudden pain.
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Rory internally winced as well, some of the lightning having backdrafted back into him, only a few percent worth, but enough to still scorch his hand.
Or it would have, had Rory not purposely held the lightning whip with his artificial hand, something that was oft-forgotten, as over the years it had slowly changed until it looked just as natural as his real hand.
Having only received internal damage from the lightning and no physical harm, Rory lashed out again, and again, and again, seeing no reason to stop.
Allison followed suit, continuing to rain down a machine gun flurry of strikes with her fists.
The match-up simply wasn’t great for the Apophis serpent. Between Rory’s massive cognition, flicker movement, and lattice affinity, the Aphophis serpent in its physical form was too slow to harm him with physical attacks, and its aural toxin simply couldn’t breach his reinforced aura.
The Spear was technically a better match-up; her aura wasn’t outright immune like Rory’s, but it was highly tolerant. The already weakened aural toxin would be further weakened, so by the time it could build up to any noticeable degree, the fight would be long over. While she was faster than Rory on paper, her lower cognitive investment and lack of teleportation meant Chushi could technically physically overwhelm her.
The problem for the Territory Alpha was that neither Founder was alone. Rory’s support was enough that Allison could attack with reckless abandon as her heart hammered like a drum and her speed gradually increased.
To say that the remainder of the battle was climactic would have been a lie. Under the constant barrage of blood lightning attacks from Rory, the Aphophis Serpent was unable to shift into its energy form, lest it risk taking massively increased damage from Rory. Its best bet, at least based on what the serpent could have known, was to outlast Allison by using its superior physical attributes and constantly building aural toxins.
A solid estimation, but one that was unable to account for The Spear’s attributes increasing over time, outpacing the accumulation of aural toxin within her metaphysical form.
Match-ups were match-ups, and the serpent had been in a bad one from the beginning, only worsened by the information gap.
The end came at last when Rory suddenly swapped to his staff, a slowly seeded electrical environment having finally reached saturation point as Rory grinned.
“My win!”
Without being able to see her expression, Rory had no idea how the Spear was feeling, but given the sudden lunge forward with her spear, rushing the serpent that was barely on its last legs-
Snakes don’t have legs. Last tail?
-She understood that whatever Rory was about to do, he felt confident it would end the fight.
But as fast as a Founder was or even a Territory Alpha was, none were as fast as lightning.
“ Empyrean Fulmination!”
A massive red-hued wall of lightning crashed down, the world feeling as if it were shaking from the pillar of lightning, several seconds passing before the lightning at last faded.
Apophis Serpent Chushi had joined its brethren in the afterlife, dead on the ground, its entire body covered in a myriad array of shattered scales, horrifically burnt flesh, and other injuries, but at least it wasn’t headless in death like its siblings.
Wager Winner: The Architect of the Precursors
Reward: (1) owed minor favor from the Spear of the Precursors
The notification appeared a moment later, as Rory sent his helmet into his inventory, the Spear following his lead a moment later with a frown.
“Bullshit,” She scoffed. “I was the one actually keeping it busy; I definitely contributed more.”
“Sure,” Rory rolled his eyes. “And it would have had a much easier time dealing with you if it could turn into its energy form, which I prevented .”
The two stared at each other, glaring at one another. Yet, Rory felt like he could see the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, before she shook her head as if reminding herself she didn’t like Rory.
“Whatever. It’s a minor favor. What do you want?” The Spear asked.
“Here,” Rory tossed something downward before he flickered and reappeared on the ground.
Catching the item that had fallen toward her, the Spear frowned at the small brew.
“It’s an antidote, go give it to your sister. That’s the favor that I want cashed in.”
“That’s it?” The Spear asked, eyebrows arched.
“Minor favor, not like I’m probably allowed to do much with it,” Rory snorted. “Anyway, Zoey has a bit of a flailing reflex when it comes to medicine, and I don’t feel like getting smacked in the face by that idiot.”
The Spear frowned at him before finally sighing.
“She is an idiot,”
And then with that, she walked toward where the three other Founders had been dropped into a pile as Rory turned his attention to other things.
First and foremost, I’m assuming this is the Anomalous Energy mentioned.
Since the defeat of the triple Territory Alphas, Rory had felt a surge of… something within him, like when you had to burp but it just didn’t seem to come. Focusing on that feeling, Rory pressed it inward, at the same time holding his hand upward and projecting outward , as several clearish yellow beads appeared in his hand.
“Meaning you can trade it around as well,” Rory nodded to himself, before mentally ‘grabbing’ the beads and reabsorbing them. “Nifty.”
He would have to check out the shop to get an idea of the ‘value’ of a single bead. That said, Rory was also hesitant to actually spend anything at the initial shop location, assuming they weren’t all created equally and that there were likely much better options elsewhere. While the materials listed were novel and interesting, they were hardly more special than just handing out promethium gear or the like.
Second up in the room full of elephants.
Casually approaching the corpse of Chushi, Rory crossed his arms, examining it.
“Yeah, no doubt about it,” Rory sighed. The serpent was, for all intents and purposes, the exact same species as Eia.
But how, and why?
Truthfully, the ‘how’ wasn’t that hard to figure out; the answer was ‘Because Eon.’
The ‘why’ was a better question. Was it just pure chance that the first enemy ‘boss’ they encountered was the same species as Eia?
No, I find that doubtful.
Pondering it for a moment longer, his pondering was interrupted by a notification appearing.
A fief under Kaiser [Phosphorus the Lightbringer] has fallen!
Feudal Alphas Joshi, Chushi, and Geshi have fallen in battle. Their fiefdom, [The Fragmented Whole] , has been claimed by Usurpers of Aelia!
“Dramatic,” Rory muttered as he read the notification. Reading it a second time, Rory scratched at his chin. “I wonder…”
Reaching out with his intent, Rory almost felt as if something ‘clicked’ into place as another notification appeared.
“So, that did work,” Rory nodded to himself. Having been given the update that they had claimed the ‘fiefdom’ from the Territory Alpha triplets, Rory had suspected he could establish a ‘proper’ base in the same way settlements could be claimed and established on Aelia once a territory was controlled. As for the name, well, Rory had figured since no one else aside from him apparently thought Base Camp Zero was cool, he’d taken the Spear’s name and adjusted it down to just the ‘zero’ portion, applied a nice German filter, and tadah, base ‘Null’ was born, also a play on the fact that two of the three territory alphas had been slain using the Null Glitter Lance.
Pulling up the Sovereign Interface, Rory was surprised that, rather than the regular interface, a new one appeared.
“Invader Interface?” Rory pondered out loud before shrugging. “I mean, I guess it’s not incorrect .”
The interface was fairly bare-bones in comparison, the main things of note being a ‘territory status,’ which informed Rory that they controlled only sub-1 % of the former fiefdom’s total territory. There was also an interface showing how much virtual build mass they had, something that the regular Sovereign Interface also had, a big fat zero, as one had to actually feed resources to the settlement, or in this case, the forward base , to increase that value. There was also mention of the current heart level of the forward base, another big fat zero, given the lack of a monster core or even a basic pneuma network to the freshly established forward base.
Closing the interface, something Rory would tackle more at a slightly later timeframe, Rory instead pulled the prior notification up one more time, frowning as he did.
A fief under Kaiser [Phosphorus the Lightbringer] has fallen!
Feudal Alphas Joshi, Chushi, and Geshi have fallen in battle. Their fiefdom, [The Fragmented Whole] , has been claimed by Usurpers of Aelia!
“Lightbringer,” Rory said, his frown deepening. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, feeling as if he had an idea as to the nature of the first Kaiser they’d likely be facing.
But whatever the case, Rory didn’t have much more time to consider it as Zoey marched up to him, hands on her hips.
“That shit tastes horrible ,” She bitched. “Like aged piss in a bottle.”
“And why would you know what that tastes like?” Rory raised an eyebrow at his friend.
“It’s a phrase,” She waved it off as Rory sighed.
“Null,” Another voice said as the Spear walked up, notably sporting a bruise on her face after force-feeding her sister the antidote to the Mountain’s Moment brew. “Not a terrible name.”
Zoey looked between her best friend and her sister, her eyes narrowed, before her shoulders sank.
“Great, now there are two terrible namers around.”