The Last Experience Point-Chapter 178: Phase Return

Chapter 178: Phase Return

As a T9, rampaging horse boss taller than a four-story building pursued a line of shield-bearing, backpedaling tanks, a single word bounced around Zach’s head like a rubber ball on a concrete surface.

Doomed.

Zach, along with everyone else, had actually been doomed. And it even made a sick sort of sense, you know? Like, why not? This was just what tended to happen to Zach these days. This kind of bullshit.

Doomed.

All throughout the world, people were often forced to take risks, and sometimes, these risks came with a high probability of death. But Zach envied these people, because it seemed like, every other day, he found himself in a situation where he was guaranteed to die. Seriously, how many times a month could one person be expected to survive the un-survivable? It never seemed to end.

Just for once, Zach would like to be in a situation where death was only “very likely” instead of 100% certain. Wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t it just be so amazing to have someone say, “Hey, Zach, I need you to go fight this giant monster, and when you do, you only have a 99% chance of dying instead of 100%?” But nope. Once more, he was thrown into a situation where death was not only possible, but basically a promise. Hell, death was currently counting down visibly above his head. How did this always happen to him? Truly, it was a miracle from the Gods that he’d only died once so far. If he somehow lived beyond today, a second death had to be right around the corner.

And so, here he was, on this stifling, scalding afternoon, with steaming, burning rain pouring down from an artificially cloudy sky, fighting in a raid against a T9 horse from hell that could’ve been safely ignored with just a little inconvenience and some roadwork. But no, of course Zach ended up in this position. Of course he was now being asked to use an ability that would take his life with no chance of survival—all while a completely separate “ability” that also had no chance of survival ticked down above his head.

“Zach!” Jimmy called to him urgently. “The hell are you waiting for?”

Ahead of them both, the boss, which had been slowed and was now using exclusively ranged attacks, fired off its dual eye lasers at the tanks, melting the shield of Frederick Britethorn while causing Maric’s grip on his own large shield to become unsteady. Frederick summoned another shield and Maric regained his stance. Truly, it was amazing how the two best tanks on the raid were both men over the age of a hundred.

“What’s it doing?” Maric shouted as the boss opened its mouth wide like it was going to use its standard biting attack. Yet, from this distance, which Zach approximated to be half a block away, the boss would only be nipping at the empty, humid air. For this reason, Zach was not surprised when it turned out that the boss did not crunch down at all. No, it instead left its mouth open wide, and now, a bright, blueish, flickering light emanated from within its throat as it suddenly stood upright on its hind legs and made three quick jerks of its neck.

Following each motion, a perfectly round, blueish orb of electricity emerged from the boss’s mouth as though “vomited” out while a cough-like sound accompanied each. These blue orbs, which started off in a single-file line, spread apart and then began moving towards three separate tanks at a moderate, but not quite fast pace that made each appear to be floating more than flying. One of them was heading over to Maric, another to old Frederick Britethorn, and the last to Ophelia Graven.

“Back up!” Maric called out.

“We’re fine,” Ophelia said as Maric and Frederick dashed backwards. She remained where she was. “What are you two boys so afraid of? It’s moving so slow. You can just dodge the Gods-cursed fucking—”

Ophelia spun around to the side, and the round, blue orb, which still moved relatively slowly, stopped midair and veered off directly to its right in the direction Ophelia had lurched. As though surprised and caught off guard, she then remained exactly where she was.

“—ZENANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANA!” Ophelia screamed out as the orb flew into her chest, vanished, and caused her entire body to light up with various tendrils of electricity racing all across her. She shook, convulsed, drooled, and dropped her shield and weapon. Finally, she fell forward onto her face, her body smoking, her hair standing up on end, and all while about 500g, a piece of chewing gum, and a cellphone fell out of a hidden compartment in her armor’s breastplate.

“Ophelia!” one of the tanks in her guild cried, rushing over to her and dragging her away. Then he placed his ear to her mouth. “She’s alive! I can hear her breathing, but…but she needs a healing stone!”

Meanwhile, now that the blue orbs revealed themselves to be a form of homing attack, Maric and Frederick were being pushed so far back that they were about to leave aggro range. Zach had no idea for how long the electric orbs would chase after the men, but from the look of things, it didn’t seem like there was any amount of distance that would stop the two orbs from pursuing them.

“Group 5!” Jimmy’s voice shouted. “Group 6! Stop watching the goddamn tanks and attack! We’ve got less than a minute to live! Move your asses!”

A dissonant combination of organization and chaos began playing itself out as Group 5, led by Alixa, and Group 6, led by a woman in brown robes named Emala, began unleashing their magic onto the Mare of the Primordial Void. This, as the 8 above everyone’s head turned into a 7.

“Zach,” Jimmy growled, “will you please use your ability and get in there?”

“You don’t understand,” Zach replied as he watched the mages begin their assault. “If I do, I’ll die. And there’s no time for me to explain to you why that’s the case. The healing stones won’t be enough to save me.”

To this point, there had been exactly four occasions where Zach had found himself using Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 2 or 3. Despite a massive difference in power between them, they both had the exact same exertion cost: Very High. And while Zach could just manage to handle paying off a High debt, a Very High was still completely out of the question.

There’s just no way, he thought to himself.

If there was any hope at all that he could survive, he’d seriously consider using the ability. Really, he would. Even if it meant taking a huge risk, he’d still do it. But this was basically a death sentence, and he knew this because his prior experiences made such an outcome abundantly clear. Thinking quickly, the four previous experiences flashed through his mind, each of which was associated with an unpleasant conclusion.

First: Archian Prime, during the battle between Olivir and Fylwen. Zach had used Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 2. Fylwen had promised to heal him, a promise she’d then broken, and the result had been a painful, horrifying, tear-filled death on a cold, Elvish-controlled world. Zach decided not to think too much about that day, as the last thing he needed right now was to become “jittery.”

Thinking ahead, he recalled the second time: one day before the dragon raid, when Ziragoth had summoned a group of adds right before Olivir had put the dragon to sleep. Zach had used the weekly ability of his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness, which caused his next exertion ability to have its cost cut in half. At the time, he’d concluded that if he could survive a High debt, then surely, he could handle just half of a Very High, right?

Wrong.

It was on this day he’d learn that half of a Very High was still well above what he could pay off. But thankfully, this time around, Fylwen had saved him. Actually, she’d saved him on his next usage of the ability as well, which, incidentally, was only a day later.

The dragon raid: the third time.

This one happened to be the only time Zach had ever activated Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 3. It was also the most important one as far as his current situation was concerned, because unlike during the previous occasion, Zach was unable to cut the exertion cost in half since his sword’s weekly ability had still been on cooldown, meaning he’d been left with the full Very High debt to pay off. And that had turned out to be a whole lot.

Following the raid’s conclusion, Fylwen had actually died in the process of paying off his debt. The fact that there had been stones available was what made this third time so important. Because just like right now, Zach had been surrounded by people who had the healing stones on hand in the event he needed them. And yet, Zach’s exertion debt was so high that even with healing stones available for his use, Fylwen had still needed to give her life in order to save his.

And my sword’s ability is on cooldown right now—just like then, he thought.

Yeah, it’d be a full week from now before he could activate the sword-ability again. This was because he’d used the ability very early this morning with a Phase Level of 2 during his rescue operation, and because of that, Kalana had been able to save his life using nothing but the healing stones. He actually didn’t remember that part, though; he’d blacked out and had only regained consciousness later on in Angelica’s. The last thing Zach remembered was riding on his Kralzek’s Beast with Vim Alazar, leader of the Royal Roses.

Without an Elf like Fylwen around to heal me, nobody will be able to save my life. I just can’t handle a Very High debt. The stones won’t be enough.

It wasn’t even just that, either. There was also his current physical condition, too. Right now, Zach was badly sleep deprived, and his body was still exhausted from what he’d endured fighting to save Vim. And while he didn’t know the specific biological formula that determined the hidden “stamina” stat, Zach was pretty sure his max stamina was currently reduced due to his condition. This meant that a Very High exertion cost would be an even greater stress to his heart and body than it already was. And so, for this reason as well as all the others, it just wasn’t a realistic option right now.

But Jimmy doesn’t understand this.

If time allowed for it, Zach would’ve been happy to explain all of this to Jimmy. He would’ve been more than willing to calmly go through each of these four experiences to put into perspective how insufficient the stones alone would be in preventing his death. But time did not allow for it, so instead, all Zach could do was meet his friend’s eyes and say, “If I use it, I’m as good as dead.”

“Nah, man, you won’t die,” Jimmy said right away. He spoke the words quickly while darting his eyes around as if half or more of his attention was focused elsewhere. There was a great deal of impatience and even a touch of fear in the way he came across, but there was also an even larger sense of optimism and eagerness. “And I don’t have time to tell you why you won’t. Gotta trust me, dude.”

6

Zach swore. “Maybe I won’t need to use it. We might be able to finish this just fine as is.”

“Yep, that’s exactly right,” Kalana agreed. She was still standing together with the three of them, and her mind was even more made up than Zach’s. It was clear that she was firmly against the idea. “The boss’s HP is so low,” she said. “So um, we can burn it down just like you said, Jimmy. Don’t make Zach do something dumb!”

“It’s not gonna be that simple, Kalana.”

“Oh yeah? You’ll see.”

With that, she drew her daggers and began moving in with Zephyr, Donovan, Mr. Oren, and the others from Group 0: the melee DPS group. Donovan and Mr. Oren refused to make eye contact as they readied their weapons and headed towards the boss with the rest of their group. Having been assigned to Group 0, Zach went to join them, but he stopped when Jimmy grabbed his elbow as if signaling for him to wait. Curiously, he looked at Jimmy, who shook his head, a gesture Zach took to mean he should stay put for the moment.

“They’re not gonna be able to do this in time,” Jimmy said to him. “They can’t get it done.”

“Why not?” Zach asked him. “Kal’s right. The boss is so low, and we’ve got three groups going at it at once now.”

“It won’t be enough.”

“Even if I join them?”

“The way you are right now? It’s not gonna matter.”

Zach frowned. “Are you sure? My stats aren’t exactly low. Here, look.”

Name

Zachys Calador

Level

25

EXP

371,082/400,000

Armor Bonus

48 (34)

Strength

106

Dexterity

100

Constitution

94

Intelligence

142

Speed

73

Luck

90

Jimmy barely even glanced at Zach’s stats, which were hugely inflated thanks to the incredible set of equipment Fylwen had gifted to him. Because of his powerful gear, his stats were on par with an average adventurer whose level was in the low 50s or an exceptionally talented adventurer in the high 30s. But Jimmy didn’t seem to care. He only took the quickest of glances and then sighed. “You’re not hearing me, Zach. You know what? You’re just gonna have to see for yourself. Watch what happens.”

“Fine,” Zach said, suddenly becoming a bit worried. Hanging back as Jimmy requested, he observed as the mages launched their attack on the badly wounded, T9 raid boss.

HP

3,001,707/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Alixa’s massive tome opened up all on its own, and the pages within began to flip faster and faster as several visible gusts of air fired out of the book as though fanned by the pages. These gusts then grew immensely in size and began to spin until forming into full-fledged tornadoes, all of which cut through the air and moved towards the Mare of the Primordial Void. At the same time, a mage standing relatively nearby raised his staff and then swung it downwards, a motion he repeated four times in quick succession; with each one, a fast-moving “curvature” in the air struck down at the boss, with each one causing a bloody laceration on its body; it was as though the boss was being “whipped” by the air. Each lash delivered between three and four-thousand points of damage.

3,122

4,019

3,555

3,556

In the very same general area, Group 6, the smallest of all the mage groups and made up of just five staff-wielding spell casters, let off a starkly contrasting mess of darkness and light that caused large splotches of inky black flames to erupt next to bright flashes of gold and white. Group 6, from what Zach understood, consisted of three mages tasked with using dark and two with light. Since both elements seemed to be something of a rarity among adventurers, Jimmy had needed to combine them into a single group. And though Zach didn’t expect much from them at first given their small number, he became instantly amazed at how much damage they were individually putting out—especially that woman, Emala.

Wait a second…isn’t she the woman Tena said pulled the boss’s aggro off the tanks last night? Zach wondered. The one that caused Jimmy’s raid to almost wipe?

If so, it made perfect sense now that Zach could see her in action. The woman was summoning level-45 wisps that would fly forward, crash into the boss, and explode upon impact, with the latest one dealing a massive 39,245 damage while leaving behind black flames that continued to consume the boss, striking it for almost 6000 additional damage each second. She winced after each attack as though worried that she’d repeat her mistake from the night prior, and this hesitation was made even clearer as she glanced nervously over to Jimmy as if for reassurance after each wisp.

“Keep it up, Emala!” he shouted at her. “Don’t worry about the aggro!”

She nodded, summoned another wisp, and Zach followed it with his eyes as it crashed into the boss’s face an instant before it unleashed more of its eye lasers at the tanks. The impact—and subsequent black explosion—were so powerful that it not only dealt 44,654 damage, but it actually succeeded in interrupting the T9 mare’s attack and knocking its head away as though it’d been punched in the face. This also had the effect of giving a few seconds of rest to the badly exhausted and dwindling number of tanks.

The boss’s eyes, which had been glowing with a crimson heat, momentarily vanished as the entirety of its face was lost inside the black flames that surrounded its head. Zach, amazed, looked back over to the brown-robed woman, and in this moment, he wondered if the adventurers had any idea just how staggeringly powerful Emala was. Did they know what they had on their hands here? Did they not realize her potential?

This woman, who looked to be in her 30s or 40s—but could obviously be much older—came across just as plain as her seemingly tepid, meek personality. Visually, she was so unremarkable that it made sense why Zach had never really noticed her around Angelica’s and why she kind of just blended in and became invisible. She had an unthreatening, neutral face, medium-length blonde hair, and her baggy brown robes displayed a physique that was neither overweight nor thin. In a crowd of adventurers, there was nothing about her that would draw the eyes. But Gods! She was stronger than any other mage on this raid, and it wasn’t even close.

“Keep burning it down!” Jimmy shouted at her as the melee DPS sprang into action. Though such a short time had passed, the boss’s HP was dropping incredibly fast. Group 0, led by Donovan, was only first opening up on the boss, and it was already fast approaching death.

HP

2,725,551/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Attacking from the back-left side, Donovan leapt up into the air and crashed his axe down on top of the Mare of the Primordial Void, ripping through the skin above its back-right hoof and drawing its blood, hitting for 5,241. This, as Mr. Oren delivered a left-to-right slice from his summoned blade for 3,111, and Kalana stabbed both her daggers forward at once, dealing 2,115 with her left and 3,091 with her right. Zephyr, on the other hand, dealt 0 with his first strike as his sword took on a reddish glow; this glow became even more fiery as he struck again, dealing another 0 after that.

“It’s immune to almost all the elements,” he said. “I can’t hurt it with this weapon!”

“It’s okay, pull off,” Jimmy said.

“Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s not your fault.” He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Ranged DPS! Pick up the slack!”

A melody, which had only recently begun playing, halted for just a moment as Trelvor lowered his flute and said, “Understood!” He then resumed playing, and a raven flying throughout the air began pecking at the mare faster and faster while arrows and crossbow bolts punctured its massive body and caused it to leak blood.

As the battle continued, Zephyr lowered his sword and backed away from the boss while Kal, Donovan, Mr. Oren, and the other melee DPS kept at it. And it was at this point that Jimmy tapped Zach on the shoulder as if to signal the start—or end—of something that Zach should be paying attention to. Zach opened his mouth to question what he was supposed to be observing, but he did not end up voicing the question, as it became apparent an instant before he spoke.

Two things happened at once: the 6 above everyone’s head turned to a 5, and a frosty combination of snow-and-ice burst out of the boss in a ring-like formation, extending outwards 360-degrees in every direction. Zach recognized this attack. The boss had been sending out this attack in regular pulses ever since obtaining ice immunity, but it had ceased once the tanks began kiting it and had pulled out of melee range. Now, however, with the melee DPS having moved in, the Mare of the Primordial Void was using it again.

“Gah!” one of the tanks called out as he lost an ear, a chunk of his face, and the hand that was holding his sword. The weapon—and the hand still gripping it—landed on the barren landscape as he began backing away with a heavy flow of blood shooting out of a torn stump. “Help! Oh, fuck! I lost my Gods-be-damned hand!”

“Gurth!” someone cried, rushing over to grab him and pull him back.

“Fuck,” Donovan swore. “Hurts like a bitch.” The armored GSG leader was bleeding out of both sides of his face, but still, he continued to attack. Mr. Oren was even more wounded, having shredded his lab coat in several places—but not enough to cause a full break. He had a bad-looking chest wound, his nose was gushing blood, and there were a thousand little cuts all over his body.

“See?” Jimmy whispered to him. Then, raising his voice, he called out, “Group 0! Back away!”

Group 0—along with the rest of the raid—reacted with shock and dismay. “Why?” Donovan growled out. “I’m fine!” Though he spoke these words with confidence, his armor was becoming shredded, and blood was pouring out of gaps that had formed between joints.

“Me too!” Kalana shouted. “I’m okay!”

In her case, Zach was relieved to see her words were more than bluster. Kal appeared to suffer the least amount of damage of them all: just a few scratches. Still, even just the few droplets of blood that trickled out of a few scrapes made Zach uncomfortable. Was he overprotective of Kalana? Probably. But he couldn’t help it. He drew his sword, held it before himself in one hand, and he tightly gripped the base of the weapon.

“Get it now?” Jimmy asked him. “The melee DPS can’t stay near the boss long enough to hurt it.”

“If you knew that would happen, why’d you let them even try?” Zach asked him, becoming upset. “Why let them get hurt just to prove a point to me?”

Jimmy shook his head. “Nah, that’s not why. I was hoping they could hold out long enough to at least do some damage, but with this damn debuff, they can’t stay in long enough to get it done.”

It was true. Thanks to Curse of the Void, a “permanent” debuff that reduced defense and magic resistance by 30%, the melee DPS were not able to withstand the T9 mare’s fast, periodic AOE ice blast, which delivered a heavy, painful hit to anyone within its range. And given that it pulsed every few seconds and traveled outwards a decent distance, it wasn’t the sort of thing where Group 0 could run in, hit a few times, and run out again. In other words, Group 0 was functionally useless.

Ah, shit, Zach thought to himself, his temper rising as he realized the implications. I’m really going to have to do this, aren’t I? He looked at the boss’s HP, which was still decreasing steadily thanks to Alixa’s wind group and Emala’s light and dark. The ranged DPS were also still pulling their weight, so-to-speak.

HP

2,661,825/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

HP

2,492,812/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

4

HP

2,317,021/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

“It’s not enough,” Zach concluded, nodding his head. “Gods! It’s not dying fast enough!”

“Like I told you.”

Kalana and Donovan were now attacking in way that was frenzied and relentless, but even this came to an end once Donovan finally collapsed, unable to endure any more ice blasts. This left Kalana to pause what she was doing, sheathe her daggers, grab Donovan’s wrist, and then drag him away to safety. But even as his body was scraping across the dirt, another pulse of the ice-based AOE struck him and Kalana just as they exited its range, briefly obscuring their forms within a thick shower of snow and ice. Reappearing afterwards, Zach saw Donovan’s black, plate helmet crack open and vanish, suffering a full break. The man groaned and his eyes became unfocused as he lost consciousness.

“Healers!” Kalana shouted as she dragged the man over to them. “Help him!”

“On it!” they shouted back.

With that, there were no longer any members of Group 0 DPS’ing the boss, and this meant the duration on their Doom would almost certainly run out before they were able to kill it. Worse, the boss was due for another shift pretty soon—probably wind this time around. That alone would take up enough time to ensure they all wiped. Hell, it might’ve been the biggest concern of all. Because they didn’t just need to kill the boss: they needed to kill it before it went through its shifting process. If that happened, they’d likely die as it was changing shape and form.

I’ve got not choice, Zach thought angrily. Unbelievable!

Now holding his weapon in his right hand, Zach took several steps forward and away from Jimmy and paused. “I’ll do it,” he said. “But if I die, it’s on you.”

“You won’t,” Jimmy said. “In fact, I’m so sure you won’t die that, if you do, I’ll agree to die along with you.”

Zach twisted his neck and glanced behind his shoulder at Jimmy, searching his face for any sign of humor. There was none. Jimmy was actually serious. For whatever reason, he really did believe what he was saying. Zach couldn’t imagine why this was. But hopefully, Jimmy had something up his sleeve, and it was something substantial.

Am I being an idiot in trusting him? Zach wondered.

It was a reasonable question—at least in his opinion. After all, the reason he’d literally died once before was because Fylwen had made the exact same promise to him, and against all reason, common sense, and his own instincts, he’d trusted the woman. The lesson he’d learned? Not to do that—ever again. And yet, here he was, actually about to do the exact same thing all over again.

No, not the exact same thing, he told himself. It’s different this time.

Right. This really was different now that he thought about it. For one, Jimmy was not a complete stranger like Fylwen had been at the time, and for two, there was simply no motive for Jimmy to want Zach to kill himself. This meant that, if Zach died, it would only be because Jimmy was wrong or mistaken: not malicious. And Jimmy had been right about way too many things so far for Zach not to at least take him seriously. Even still, this felt wrong. It felt like suicide. But with the doom counter above his head counting down to the imminent moment of his death, it hardly even mattered anymore, did it? No, it didn’t.

I have no choice.

Zach took a deep breath, and then he held the oxygen in his lungs as he activated Phase Reset, raising his Phase Level from 2 to 3 while resetting the cooldown of Unleashed Phase, making it available for his use. Then, he pulled forward the ability itself as if seeing it in front of him would somehow reveal some undiscovered secret that he had thus far missed. It didn’t. How could it? Even still, he glanced at it for just a second.

(UNLEASHED Ability) Phase Reset (UNIQUE)

Resets the cooldown of Unleashed Phase and increases Phase Level by 1. The Phase Level determines the following properties when using Unleashed Phase. Usage Cost: 0:00

(Phase Level decreases by 1 every twenty-four hours.)

Phase Level 0 (default)

Exertion Level: High

Phase Level 1

Exertion Level: High. Additional +5 to all basic stats and additional Armor + 5

Phase Level 2

Exertion Level: Very High. Additional + 30 to all basic stats and additional Armor + 30

Phase Level 3

Exertion Level: Very High. Additional + 50 to all basic stats and additional Armor + 50

Phase Level 4

Exertion Level: Extreme. Additional + 100 to all basic stats an additional armor + 100

Phase Level 5

Exertion Level: EXTREME+ Additional + 1000 to all basic stats and armor + 1000

Phase Level 6

Exertion Level: Terminal. In exchange for the life of the user, additional + 10,000 to all basic stats, and armor +10,000. User has access to every ability and every spell. User can move faster than light. User can summon up to 5 dragons. Cannot summon Elder Dragons.

Zach released the breath he’d been holding—only to draw another as he activated Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 3. And as he called upon his ability, he did so with a heart full of worry, angst, and doubt. He was riddled with wariness, hesitance, and even some fear. But Gods, the moment he activated Unleashed Phase, it just all went away so fast.

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Too fast.

As though struck by one of Alixa’s tornadoes, every negative emotion inside Zach was blown away so quickly it was actually startling. From deep within, an explosion of energy washed over him, one so powerful that it felt as though he could lose himself inside the storm of it. It was astonishing: astounding. He inhaled, and more oxygen filled his lungs than he’d known they could carry.

Wow.

The last time he’d gone this far, he’d been battling back so much terror over the dragon that it had blunted some of the euphoria. But not this time. Things just didn’t feel the same anymore. He was used to the danger now. He was used to the fear. They didn’t quite hinder him as they once did. And so all that remained was this rush of pure, raging energy.

He could feel his eyes widening and his sense of the world around him becoming stronger and more perceptible. Everything felt enhanced and to such a magnificent degree, too. And it was in that moment that his hands and feet burst into flame just as it had done on the last—and only—occasion he’d entered Phase Level 3. These flames, which formed around and over the equipment he wore on his hands and feet, began to dance and flicker, alternating between strong and bright and weak and dull.

“Oh, shit,” Jimmy muttered, sounding as though he blurted out the words by accident. Zach looked at him, and he said, “You’re on fire this time, man. It’s not black smoke anymore?”

Zach shook his head. “Not in Phase Level 3. It changes to flame.”

“Why?”

Zach snorted. “How the fuck should I know?”

Jimmy shrugged, and Zach once again looked ahead. He then took several more steps forward, and it was here that he was reminded of the other difference between Phase Level 3 and the others. Aside from the flames, his entire body and all of his limbs now left behind a cloudy streak like the contrails of a jet airplane any time he moved. These contrails could then linger behind for almost a minute before disappearing.

Jimmy clapped his hands together. “Let’s get it done! You got this!”

Zach nodded, feeling so alive now and filled with energy. “Yep!”

Name

Zachys Calador

Level

25

EXP

371,082/400,000

Armor Bonus

168 (118)

Strength

211

Dexterity

205

Constitution

199

Intelligence

247

Speed

178

Luck

195

Unleashed Phase Duration

14:45 Remaining

Wave Slash

1:15

Boundless

0:10

Phase Cannon (No Target)

1:30/2:00 (if used with Boundless)

Phase Cannon (Targeted)

2:30/3:00 (if used with Boundless)

Phase Blink

0:20

Phase Shield (READY) (25 seconds)

0:45

Phase Rescue

0:35 / 2:15 (if used with Boundless)

Phase Slash

1:10 / 6:10 (if used with ??)

Halting Strike

0:20

Card Capture

0:00

Card Summon

0:00

Card Dismiss

0:00-X:XX

Gacha Get’cha

0:00

Before Zach could take another step forward, a sudden light bathed him in its radiance as a floating heart appeared over his head. He recognized it immediately as Jimmy’s buff, Breath of Invigoration.

Name

Breath of Invigoration

Effect

Periodically restores a portion of user’s stamina (10 second interval)

Duration

4:59

“I probably don’t need to tell you this,” Jimmy said to him, “but if I was you, I’d spam your strongest ability and then melee the boss until you get enough time back to keep spamming.”

Zach again nodded. That was obviously what he was going to do. It was a no-brainer. And so, without bothering to reply, he lifted his left hand so that it could join his right, and now he gripped his sword with both, and following that, he dashed forward and towards the massive, four-story-tall Mare of the Primordial Void, which was still taking on a great deal of damage—just not enough so that it would die before the Doom curse-thingy above all their heads hit zero.

HP

2,105,554/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Zach moved fast: or at least as fast as he reasonably could without risking slamming into someone by mistake and killing them. The wind beat against his hooded robe as he rushed onwards, but only for a moment, as he crossed the distance in less than a second. Yet, in just that time, he came to appreciate the surreal sight of the raid playing out before him. From the left side of the boss, a constant slew of dark explosions, black flames, and sharp, visible wind were ripping the mare apart, and from its right side, golden, explosive light and a barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts—and a raven—were assaulting it as well. A never-ending, fast-moving, and fast-disappearing column of damage numbers were popping up above its giant head, and it was flinching near constantly as one attack after the next caused it to make angry, yet painful-sounding neigh-roars as it continued to pursue the backpedaling tanks.

Gods, it’s even bigger than the dragon, Zach thought to himself hesitantly as he approached close enough to enter within the range of its AOE ice attack, which started up again as soon he entered the vicinity. Up close, he could see just how disorienting and frustrating this attack must’ve been for the tanks and the melee DPS, because now that he was this close, the sight of the frosty mixture obscured everything behind it. It looked like a miniature, ring-shaped storm rushing at him. He braced himself, raising his sword to guard against a tiny portion of it as he was blasted, but most of the attack still washed over him.

For a few seconds, he remained trapped in the storm. Everything became hazy as though he were in the middle of a blizzard, and a scratching, peeling sensation caused his skin to prickle as an extremely harsh and combined blast of rain, wind, snow, and ice brought a sensation of pain to his ears and forehead. But then it went away, and that was that. A few scrapes were the extent of the damage, and if not for the debuff, he probably wouldn’t have had to endure even that much.

The moment the AOE ice blast moved through—and beyond—him, the first tick of Jimmy’s buff came through.

Unleashed Phase Duration

16:40 Remaining

He made a slight smile. It truly was an amazing ability, and it worked so well with his own. With just shy of seventeen minutes on Unleashed Phase, he could probably put out a whole lot of damage before having to get in close. And this was clearly what everyone was hoping he’d do, which Zach discovered as he became aware of his name being shouted. Risking a very quick glance, he noticed that almost every eyeball was trained solely on him now as nervous, yet hopeful adventurers and political guild members watched the countdown to their death tick closer to 0.

3

“Kill it, Zach!” cried one of the adventurers. “Hurry!”

The adventurer was joined in by several-dozen others, their voices all combining into a single shout that made discerning any individual words impossible. But Zach understood what they meant to say even if he couldn’t pick apart their words individually. He sighed. Hopefully, he wouldn’t disappoint them.

Here goes nothing.

He extended his arms, his blade pointed upwards. Then he raised his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness above his head, and with a loud shout, he called out, “Phase Slash!” while swinging his weapon diagonally downwards. Following this slash, the loud neigh-roaring of the boss was temporarily overshadowed by a high-pitched sound eerily similar to zipping up a jacket, only it seemed to come from all directions and it was so loud as to be deafening. This, as a distortion formed in the air: a ripple that blasted forward and shot across the barren landscape towards the Mare of the Primordial Void, which was very slowly pursuing the few backpedaling tanks that could still fight. The rest were either resting, wounded, or being chased away by balls of electricity.

“Phase Slash!” Zach shouted out again, swinging his weapon for the second time and calling upon the ability before even bothering to wait for the impact of the first. He followed this with two more: a third and a fourth. “Phase Slash! Phase Slash!”

Now, he did pause for just a moment to observe as the first Phase Slash made contact with the boss’s knee just above its back-right, flaming hoof. The boss was so large that the visible distortion in the air actually became somewhat impossible to see once it passed beyond the flaming barrier that surrounded the hoof. In the back of his mind, Zach became amused as he realized that he and the boss actually had something in common, as his hands and feet were also shooting out fire. But this brief, distant thought was soon flushed out, and the noise that promptly filled the air gripped his full, undivided attention.

“Hiiiiihiiiiihiiiihiiiiihiiii-hi-hi-hi-HIIIIIIII!”

It was an unmistakable cry of pain that could almost pass as convincingly sentient if Zach hadn’t learned by now to tell the difference. Even still, it caused every voice behind him to fall silent. This pained cry continued, stretching on; it was a sound unlike any they’d heard from the boss thus far, and from that alone, Zach could tell he’d managed to do some real damage—which he confirmed with his eyes an instant later.

In the same moment that a massive spray of blood poured out of the mare’s back-right knee, a damage number popped up, one that caused a series of startled gasps to emanate from behind Zach: from the hundred-plus members of the raid, political and adventurer alike.

127,444

“Gods!” Zephyr shouted. “Donovan, wake up. You’ve got to see this!”

“Gods-be-damned,” Zach heard Reni cry out.

“Zach, excellent!” Mr. Oren encouraged him.

Even as they spoke, the second Phase Slash hit, adding another 100,051, and then the third, which delivered 119,590, and finally, the fourth. And this one, in addition to causing an even louder neigh-roar and further reducing the boss by 126,624, caused the entire boss to finally topple. Immediately following a disgusting pool of dark-red, almost blackish blood that gushed out of its knee, the Mare of the Primordial Void tipped over sideways and fell directly onto its side with its head slamming onto the ground, the impact causing another 2,456 damage.

Okay, I can definitely finish this, Zach thought calmly, nodding to himself.

HP

1,581,845/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Unleashed Phase Duration

12:31 Remaining

Having officially begun his assault, Zach used everything Jascaila had taught him to redirect his initial euphoric excitement and instead shift it into an almost superhuman level of concentration and focus. He honed all his senses in on the boss. He ignored the roaring cheering and applause from the adventurers, especially those in the mage groups who could no longer participate, as the boss was now immune to their strongest element. All of this, Zach set aside. Right now, there were only three things that existed in his universe: the boss, himself, and the 3 above his head.

He needed to end this now. Everyone’s life depended on it. They really didn’t have time to mess around. He didn’t know how long the 3 would take to become a 0. He didn’t have a clue how many seconds lapsed each time the counter decreased. What he did know was that it wasn’t a whole lot, but that as long as he wasted no time and gave it his all, he strongly suspected he could get the job done.

And then…die?

He shook his head. Now was a bad time to worry about that. Focus. Focus!

The boss, now wobbling somewhat, managed to climb back up into a standing position on its four hooves. But rather than continue to pursue the tanks, it instead turned its body towards Zach, who was unsurprised that he’d hit the thing so hard that he’d actually pulled aggro. Very quickly, he removed his left hand from his sword and held it up to the tanks with his palm flat. He could see that they were trying to reestablish aggro. “Stop!” he called to them. “I got this.”

“Are you…sure?” a burly man in a thick, silver metal cuirass asked him.

“Let me deal with it!”

He didn’t seem to need much convincing. He, along with the rest of the tanks, backed away. And now, slowed, the Mare of the Primordial Void began wobbling in Zach’s direction. Unfortunately, Zach was in the worst possible position he could ever be in, because with around thirty feet of distance separating him and the boss, he was in both melee and casting range. And this was something he only discovered right now, as the boss released its AOE ice pulse while simultaneously firing off its dual eye lasers.

The eye lasers, moving far, far faster than the wall of frost, reached him well ahead of the AOE. Hurriedly, Zach raised his sword and guarded; both lasers crashed into his blade, and he was flung backwards onto his ass, but he quickly jumped back to his feet in time to brace himself against the AOE, which like before, scraped but did not wound him. A few seconds later, his vision cleared, and now the gigantic Mare of the Primordial Void had closed the distance between the two of them; it was only fifteen or so feet ahead. At this distance, Zach would need to crane his neck all the way up to see the top of the mare’s head. But that was of little relevance, as it was the boss’s torn, bloody, and still-bleeding knee that interested him.

“Phase Slash!” he cried out right as another tick of Breath of Invigoration came in. “Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash! Phase Slash!”

Aiming carefully, Zach swung his blade with such ferocity that the blade made an audible whipping sound as he sliced it through the air. The weapon also moved fast enough so that all twelve of his attacks flew out of his blade close enough that they nearly formed one large, wavy distortion in the air while releasing a drawn-out, painful, zipper-like screech that tempted him to drop his blade and cover his ears.

But it appeared, at least initially, to be worth the effort as the first six struck back-to-back exactly where he’d hoped: the wounded knee.

114,613

97,302

118,007

151,663

110,111

124,214

The sight of all six Phase Slash attacks striking his target was disturbing enough that Zach struggled not to look away. The first vaporized most of the black-and-yellow skin around its knee, and then the second cleaned up whatever still remained while also draining away the last of the blood, which had become superheated and sizzled and smoked on the ground as though being cooked in a soup. This left only bone and muscle.

But then the third Phase Slash came in and cracked this bone, which was so large it could be clearly observed by anyone from any distance. It actually began as a single point that spread upwards and downwards along the bone until it resembled a splitting iceberg. Directly afterwards, the fourth Phase Slash arrived, which deepened the crack, and now, it could actually be heard: an unmistakable sound of splitting and cracking. Then, finally, the fifth and sixth blasted off the leg completely from the knee down. Zach watched as the hoof, still attached to a piece of leg, spun several times in the air before crashing down with the force of collapsing tree, causing the ground to become disturbed.

Its leg missing, the boss dropped down once more, but on its belly now instead of its side; it also landed hard enough to cause a general rumbling in the terrain, which made slight vibrations beneath his feet. This time, Zach highly doubted it would be getting back up.

HP

860,944/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Despite his success, Zach swore loudly and angrily at himself, but he could not even hear the sound of his own vulgarity amid the massive eruption of cheering and howling from the adventurers, who shouted praise at him while completely oblivious to the mistake he’d just made. For in his eagerness to end things quickly, he’d fired off too many abilities too fast. Thus, although the first six Phase Slash severed the Mare of the Primordial Void’s back-right leg at the knee, the next six, having been sent towards the same spot, went right through the air and continued onwards until Zach lost sight of them.

“Shit!”

He chewed his bottom lip and forced himself to breathe and control his temper. Especially as the 3 above his—and everyone’s—head turned at last into a 2, signaling that the end was near. The moment this happened, the cheering and applauding slowed, but did not die—though it certainly became laced with an unmistakable nervousness.

I’m still okay, he thought to himself. I can finish this!

Unleashed Phase Duration

0:16 Remaining

He would just have to cross into melee range and slice the boss a few times while waiting for his stamina to regenerate. There was no time to be angry with himself. It was a mistake, and those happened. This was hardly the first time Zach had ever fucked up. What actually mattered was how he recovered from it: and that he kept his composure.

And so, forcing himself not to dwell on his error, he launched himself forward by kicking off his back leg. The single, powerful dash was enough to put him right in front of the downed, gigantic, T9 boss, which opened its mouth and almost devoured Zach while he was still moving forward in its direction. Zach halted his momentum by kicking out in front of him with both his feet; his shoes brought him to an immediate halt as they slammed into the boss’s equine teeth, each as large as a shutter door.

Crack!

The mere impact between his body and the horse dealt an additional 5,907 damage and caused two of its front teeth to become chipped. Zach, reorienting himself, spun his body right-side up midair and landed on the dirt, and then he raised his weapon and slashed it as fast as he could downwards, tearing an entire section out of the mare’s nostril and hitting for 16,505. With that, he raised his blade to strike a second time, but he halted as five flaming swords materialized right in front of him, and all five struck out at him from a different angle.

“Zach!” Kalana screamed.

“No!” several adventurers cried.

“We have to help him!”

The hell?

Zach once again had to suppress his anger as these idiots actually thought this would be a problem for him. Seriously, were they stupid? Okay, five swords made of fire were attacking from five different directions—and? Of all the things that they had to worry about right now, did they seriously think this was going to be the end of him? Gods, Zach could handle this in his sleep! This was nothing compared to those Gods-be-damned imps that him and Jimmy had dealt with in Trials of Nolak. Hell, Fluffles had given him a harder time in their sword training back when Zach was still learning how to fight.

I’m insulted, he thought angrily as the adventurers continued to shout out at him in warning like he didn’t already see the first flaming sword whipping across the air near his throat.

With time against him, Zach ducked beneath the fiery blade, then got back up to his feet, swung his weapon around, and parried the second, and then the third. The fourth sword thrust in his direction, heading towards his belly, so he spun his body around to the side, allowing it to pass harmlessly through the air. Then he whipped his blade back and forth twice, blocking the last two. Following each failed attack, the weapons vanished, each disappearing into a brief blast of flame that did not leave behind any smoke or fumes.

“Weak,” he growled as he jumped forward, lifted his sword, and crashed it down over the Mare of the Primordial Void’s muzzle a second time, delivering another 17,206 points of damage and carving off another piece of its nostril. But that wasn’t all he did. Immediately after his strike, a green aura surrounded Zach’s body, and in the exact same instant, Breath of Invigoration ticked yet again. It seemed he’d proc’d the stamina regen on his sword at the same time that Jimmy’s buff came in. The result was a huge replenishment of his time.

Unleashed Phase Duration

5:52 Remaining

“Yes!” he shouted out as the boss half propped itself up on its front-right hoof. Though it was unable to enter into a full standing position, it was nevertheless capable of slamming its opposite hoof down at him.

Zach jumped directly upwards, flipping himself backwards midair like he was Kalana or something before landing a half-dozen feet away in the opposite direction while still facing the boss. Honestly, he didn’t even mean to do the flip. It just sort of happened as a result of the urgency of the situation. He had to get out of there fast, and the whole “backwards momentum” sort of just led him to—

Why in the hell am I trying to justify my flip to myself? he wondered, annoyed by his own thought pattern. Why would I even feel like I have to?

“Oh, wow, what a showoff,” Rian called to him, reminding Zach exactly why. “That was the least necessary flip I’ve ever seen. That was an optional flip.”

Zach growled. “Shut up, Rian!” he yelled at his friend as he made a sharp movement to the right to get around another stomping attack. The boss was able to wiggle itself forward along the ground a little bit at a time, but because of its humongous size, a “little bit” in this context meant more than ten feet. In other words, it still had a limited ability to pursue him. But it didn’t matter, because he was fine: he’d avoided yet another attack while leaving behind a still-lingering contrail that led from where he stood, off to his left, and then midair forward to where he’d been standing during the first hoof stomp. It seemed that, while in Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 3, Zach could retrace his path to wherever he’d just been up until around a minute prior, which was around how long he recalled it took for the trail to fade.

“I’ve flipped many times before!” he shouted to Rian, who was somewhere off behind him with the rest of the raid. Zach didn’t bother turning to look. He was a bit preoccupied at the moment. Even still, he muttered, “That’s not my first flip. I flip all the time while fighting, actually.”

“I’ve literally never seen you flip, Zach.”

“Bullshit.”

“Nope. You never flip.”

“I flip—I’ve flipped! Kal, haven’t I flipped?”

“Yep! You’ve flipped, baby!”

“See?”

“Pfft. He’s never flipped. She’s just saying what you want her to—”

“Will ya’ll two shut your dumb asses up?” Jimmy snapped. “Nobody cares who flips. Goddamn! We’re on 2 now and you guys wanna argue about this shit?”

Zach laughed as he launched himself backwards by kicking off his feet, gaining some distance. Then he jumped up and over the eye lasers, braced himself through another AOE ice attack, and finally, he unloaded another three more Phase Slashes while upside-down midair before flipping three times and landing right-side up on his feet—and this time, he did it intentionally to annoy Rian. His dexterity stat, now at 205, might have even been higher than Kal’s. The acrobatics he could now pull off shocked even himself.

Touching down onto the dirt, Zach observed as his first Phase Slash struck the boss for 123,241 and caused the mare’s entire right eyeball to knock right out of its face then melt just outside of its socket. The boss screamed—and then screamed again as the second Phase Slash hit for 105,002 and took out its other eye, which probably didn’t matter as non-sentient mobs didn’t require eyesight. Still, it served as a boost to Zach’s enthusiasm. And now, as Zach raised his blade and prepared to unleash a fourth Phase Slash, he watched as his third hit found its mark, striking the boss right in its forehead and doing…

Oh no! No, no, no!

0

The number caused his eyes to widen and his heart to thud like someone slamming on a door. It also caused an immediate silence from the rest of the raid, but one that lasted for a mere instant. Almost as soon as the quiet appeared, it was replaced by a sudden rush of panic, and this panic grew as a slew of additional zeroes came in from the ranged DPS and the two mage groups.

0

0

0

0

0

“It’s shifting!” Kalana cried.

“W-what happened?” Alixa asked. “Why’s it shifting already?”

“We don’t have the time for this!” Lienne shouted with a gasp. “We’re…we’re gonna die! We’re gonna—”

“Everybody chill!” Jimmy’s voice yelled into the fray, but it went ignored as more and more people began searching around themselves as though their eyes might land upon an explanation they actually wanted to hear and not the truth that was plainly visible in front of his eyes.

Zach, for his part, was not yet ready to give in to despair. Gripping his sword tightly, he slashed wildly, delivering slice after slice, each one doing exactly 0 damage. Then, backing away slowly, he moved over to Jimmy, a contrail in his image lingering behind him, and with a surprisingly calm voice, he said, “Jimmy, just give it to me straight. Are we dead? Did I fail?”

“No and no!” Jimmy said, practically shouting to be heard over the commotion that had just been raised. People were shouting nonstop: at each other, at Jimmy, and even at the boss. Zach had to lean in close to hear his reply. Then he had to reply with equal loudness to in turn be heard as Jimmy’s name was being called and adventurers were crowding around him demanding to know what they were supposed to do now. Jimmy seemingly ignored him and focused on Zach.

“What did it?” Zach asked. “Why did it shift?”

Jimmy shrugged. “This was always a possibility, but I still think we’re gonna be all right.”

Zach guffawed. “Are you sure?” He lifted his eyes as much as he could so that he could see the outline of the number above his head in his peripheral vision. “I don’t know, Jimmy. I think we’re going to die before it even unleashes its next attack.”

Jimmy’s face tightened. “Maybe, but maybe not. I think there’s still just enough time left for you and the others to finish off the boss.” He pointed at the mare with his staff. “But you need to attack it as soon as it’s done shifting. Like, don’t even wait for it to do whatever big attack it’s got up its sleeve. As soon as it changes, get on that bitch.”

With his hands and feet still shooting flames, Zach turned back around and faced the boss. “What’s it even going to be immune to?” he asked.

“Not sure yet,” Jimmy answered. “I didn’t see which attack came in last before it started shifting, but uh, probably dark.”

“Dark?” Zach said, repeating the word. He became instantly confused. “How can it be dark? Shouldn’t it be wind? There’s only three mages here using dark, so how could they possibly be the trigger?”

“Uh, probably ‘cause I gave my buff to Emala, and she was spamming those wisps pretty fast,” he explained. But then very quickly, he added, “But she didn’t do anything wrong. I wanted her to do that. Nobody did anything wrong, actually. I kinda’ figured this shit was gonna come down to the wire.”

“To the what?”

“It’s just an expression.” Jimmy again pointed at the boss with his staff. “But don’t worry about that. It’s starting.”

As the commotion grew, so too did the Mare of the Primordial Void. Its back-right leg missing, it stayed prone on the ground as its body expanded even more, becoming so horrifyingly large now that it began to block out the sun, which had only just reappeared as the rain and thunder came to an end. Even without being able to stand upright, the mare was now nearly five stories tall, and its skin returned to a color very similar to its original coat: black. But it was a darker, inkier black than it’d been at the beginning of the raid, and it lacked any of its initial purplish hue.

It's so close to being dead, Zach thought. We’re right there!

Though its size grew, the mare itself remained in a terribly beat-up, near-death state. Its eyes did not regrow, nor did its missing leg. It was still bleeding even as its horns became sharper, the flames shooting out of its three hooves burned brighter, and the frost it was shedding poured faster and faster. But Zach didn’t care about any of that. All he cared about was its remaining HP.

HP

507,456/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Quickly, he regarded his remaining time on Unleashed Phase, which was only going to continue increasing thanks to Breath of Invigoration.

Unleashed Phase Duration

9:00 Remaining

Turning back around, Zach said, “Jimmy, I’ve got more than enough time left on Unleashed Phase to kill this thing if there’s any chance at all to do it. You’ve just got to tell me when I can, okay? Uh, Jimmy? Hey, Jimmy, what’s…?”

Right away, Zach could see something was totally out of place in his friend’s expression, as seemingly out of nowhere, all of the optimism and still-lingering hope appeared to vanish over the course of several brief seconds. Now, Jimmy began shaking his head, and a lump formed in his throat. “It’s taking too long,” he whispered. He marched closer to Zach, and Zach felt him grab his shoulder. “Zach, it’s taking too long!”

“What is?”

“The boss! This shift is taking longer than the others!”

“Wait, is it?”

“Yes!”

“But…but you said we should still have enough time left to—”

“I know what I said!” he interrupted. “But shit, something’s not right. It should’ve shifted by now!”

Even as Jimmy spoke, the 2 above everyone’s head transformed into a 1, and now Zach, too, felt the same pinch of hopelessness that was starting to consume Jimmy. But for Zach, it was only a pinch. Yes, he felt the fear. Yes, it gnawed at his insides. But he was able to overcome it. He was able to continue to function. Whether that was due to the explosive energy of Phase Level 3 or a biproduct of his time spent with Jascaila, he didn’t know. But he did not allow it to consume him.

“Are you saying it’s too late now?” Zack asked him. “That we’re, what, exactly? Guaranteed to die?”

Jimmy opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again as if unsure how to answer. Zach took this to mean he didn’t know. And that was…upsetting. But still, the fact remained that the boss was almost dead. And if there was time—any time—Zach was going to use it. In fact, he already had an idea of how he might be able to end this thing in an instant. All he needed was to be alive when the boss became vulnerable to damage again: all he needed was for there to be an instant.

“Jimmy,” Zach said calmly. “How will I know when I can attack it again? I need to not fuck this up. I’ve got an idea, but it’s a one-shot-only kind of thing. If I end up hitting for zero, it’s all over.”

Jimmy looked at him. His eyes sank with defeat, but there was still some fight left in them. Zach was sure of it. “Um, you should probably be able to hit it once it uses its once-per-shift ability,” Jimmy said. “But dude, I dunno. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I insisted on leading this raid. I honestly thought we had this shit.” As he spoke, his voice took on a remorseful tone, and now he appeared sad rather than afraid. “I pushed everybody into this, and now, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to—”

“We will,” Zach said, gritting his teeth. “Just tell me when I can attack.”

Jimmy nodded and said nothing else: not to Zach and not to the dozens upon dozens of adventurers screaming at him. The level of noise picked up greatly in intensity, and Zach continued to fight back the sensation of fear as he knew that, at any second now, he could die instantly and without even knowing what hit him.

But still, he watched: and he waited. He studied the boss carefully, observing the way it grew and grew until finally, it grew no more. Its skin had now been completely painted over a dark, inky black—all except for the areas where it was wounded and still bleeding. And with all of that done, it remained perfectly still: motionless. Zach resisted the temptation to start pacing or bouncing on his feet. What was taking so Gods-be-damned long?

“Why won’t it do something?” he shouted, his words now completely drowned out as Donovan and Zephyr struggled to get everyone under control as the panic became full-blown and hysterical.

“Fuck! We’re gonna die!” a man from Children of Order cried.

“Oh, shit. We really stepped in it,” an adventurer moaned. “Gods, what the hell have we done?”

Zach continued to do his best to tune all of it out. He watched, and watched, and continued to watch—and then finally, something happened. Well, three things happened, actually, and they occurred back-to-back. And none of them eased the growing tension: they had the opposite effect, in fact.

First, about eight massive shadows formed all over the raid, darkening the area around Zach and the others. These shadows, which appeared to take the shape of perfect circles, were so large that just eight were enough so that every member of the raid stood within their bounds. Glancing upwards, Zach discovered that these shadows were cast by eight gigantic, black, and ball-shaped objects plummeting down towards the raid from the sky above.

“W-w-what the hell is that?” asked the voice of Lienne. “Kalana, what is that!”

“I dunno,” Kalana said. “I think it’s gonna hit us, though.”

Screams and cries echoed out from a great many raiders as it registered right away that they were being attacked by some kind of massive, absurdly huge, and unavoidably Dark-based AOE attack, which in this case meant having all eight objects crash down on them. Just from the look of them, Zach guessed that they would all likely explode upon impact, too, and thanks to the “permanent” debuff, more than half of the adventurers and probably most of the political guild members would die on contact—or no. Actually, they wouldn’t.

As several women nearby released more screams of terror, Zach now realized that, as fast as those eight massive black balls were falling down upon the raid, the more than one-hundred members would be dead before a single one of them managed to land. And this made itself perfectly clear as the 1 above everyone’s head changed into the dreaded, feared 0.

“No!” a woman just behind him cried. “No! Gods, please, no!”

“Gods forgive me,” a man with a spell sword from Group 2 muttered. “Forgive me for all my sins.”

The eight massive black balls of death from above continued to drop, but it no longer mattered, because their time had now simultaneously run out anyway. But still, Zach did not despair. Instead, he briefly met Kalana’s eyes, and of all things, she gave him a loving smile as a series of poofs began emanating from everywhere around Zach including from the spot right beside him. And following these strange sounds, the loudest screams of all filled the air as over a hundred NPCs called “The Reaper” simply popped into existence beside every adventurer and political guild member on the raid—one for each person.

HP

999,999,999,999,999,999,999/999,999,999,999,999,999,999

Name

The Reaper

Level

????

The NPC was tall—about seven feet in height—and wore a black, flowing cloth that was torn in places. It also had a large scythe. Its face was horrifying, too. It looked decayed, its mouth chipped in places and oddly plastic, but its eyes burning with an otherworldly heat. It vocalized no sounds, either, as it began to raise its scythe upwards as though intent on slashing down and decapitating him. In fact, aside from the slight rustle of its robes, it made no noise at all.

What the hell is this?

His heart thudding in his chest, Zach whirled around and ignored “The Reaper” that was beside him. Instead, he eyed the one standing next to Kalana, and he raised his blade and prepared to charge at it. In this moment, Zach didn’t care how powerful it was. If he accomplished nothing else, he would find some way to block the scythe that was targeting her!

“Kal!” he shouted out. “I’m coming!” Don’t let it—”

“Now!” Jimmy cried, causing Zach to immediately stop what he was doing and instead refocus all of his attention.

“N-now?” Zach asked urgently, his own voice rising.

“Yes!” Jimmy screamed. “Now!”

Zach didn’t need to hear another word. He didn’t need another moment of confirmation. His heart was now beating so fast that he could hear it in his ears. His composure at last broke. He was flooded from head to toe with terror, adrenaline, and even excitement. But he acted. He cut through all the uncertainty, and he acted.

Now, with all the quickness he could manage, he spun his body around—and this time, he did so with such unbelievable speed that the friction of his shoes on the ground caused sparks then flames to sprout up around him—and these had nothing to do with Unleashed Phase.

Zach knew that he had less than a second. Hew knew that the raid had less than a second. There was no time to think. There was no time to waste. There wasn’t even time to aim. But thank the Gods, the Mare of the Primordial Void was so large. Because thanks to that, Zach wouldn’t be able to miss.

And so, releasing his sword and letting it fall to the ground, Zach shot his arm forward with his hand clenched into a fist, which he angled in the approximate location of the boss. And then, as a majority of the raid released what well may be their final shouts, he activated his blasting ring—with no time to brace himself.

The ring fired, and then there was red.

Bright, laser-like red.

So much so that it blinded him and he had no choice but to close his eyes. He couldn’t even see the beam. He knew it must’ve been big, though: like, really, really big. With 247 points into intelligence, it must’ve been at least twice as large as his DEHV-tunnel-sized one he’d used against Ziragoth’s adds. But he didn’t actually know, because he couldn’t see. The red was too bright, and it erased any trace of the world in front of him.

Now, all Zach knew for sure was that he was moving fast: very fast. Impossibly fast. He felt warmth and wind, and spinning and turning. But he did not know if he faced up or down, and he did not know in which direction he was moving. He could no longer hear the sound of any raid members, and he was oblivious to whether or not he’d succeeded. There was also a great heat around him. And as he struggled to open his eyes, he realized he was surrounded on all sides by a massive cone of flame. He was confused. He didn’t understand what was happening. He had no idea whatsoever where he was.

But he reasoned that he was moving very, very, very fast. As in, beyond the speed of sound. Just how far had he launched himself? How fast? Clearly, it was enough so that Galterra’s atmosphere was taking issue with it, thus the fire and the heat. For him to be igniting the air itself, he must’ve been pushing Mach 5. He risked opening his eyes just a drop, but he was still blinded. He counted to ten and tried again. This, he then repeated once more. And now, finally, he was able to keep them open, and it was here he was able to confirm that he was indeed flipping through the air—and he was doing so at such breathtaking speed that he was unable to make any sense of where he was or his general direction.

Disoriented, he threw his arms out to both sides of himself while exerting his strength. It was thanks only to his massive dexterity that he was eventually able to pull himself right-side up—or at least he assumed this was right-side up, as there was now endless blue along with clouds above, and green and some brown below. And there was something else, too: something very, very significant. It was something that, all other factors aside, filled him with such relief and joy that he could barely contain himself.

Level Up!

26 (25)

Speed

+4 (182)

XP Required for Level 25

500,000

(UNLEASHED ABILITY) (Unique) Phase Return Acquired

The level up was all right. The ability? He had no idea. Neither were cause for his elation and joy. No, it was the simple fact that, for him to have leveled up, it meant that surely the boss had been killed: surely, he had somehow managed to do enough damage to it with his blasting ring that it at last perished.

But wait.

WAIT!

That meant…

Loot!

Zach began to claw and scramble at the air as he continued to be blasted away. He had no idea where he was. He had no sense of how far he’d gone. The only indication he had at all was the cloudy streak that led all the way across the sky, over the horizon, and back in the direction he’d come from. But he had no way of knowing just how far it ran or for how many miles. It was probably a great many.

Glancing downwards, he estimated that he was at least four-thousand feet in the air and traveling at several-thousand miles-per-hour. Gods, he really threw himself a hell of a distance away. Yet all he saw beneath him were patches of green grass broken apart by brown dirt. He sighed. Did he really have no way of slowing himself down or ending his flight? Or was his only option to just zip his way across the land until finally gravity crashed him down somewhere?

If I don’t get back, I’ll die from my exertion debt, he thought. Or worse! I’ll miss loot!

Unable to slow himself or quicken his descent, Zach, even knowing how ridiculous it was, figured he might as well read up on his new ability even despite the fact that his body was hurtling through the air backwards at supersonic speed. But, absurd or not, from the moment he started to read his new ability, he sure was glad that he did.

UNLEASHED Ability (UNIQUE)

Phase Return

Usage Cost:

2:25 / 3:10 (if used with Boundless)

Cooldown:

60 seconds

Range:

500

Description

Can only be used while Unleashed Phase is active with a Phase Level of 3 or a Phase Level of 4.

Teleports the user to the beginning of the user’s trail and grants +100 armor for 3 seconds.

My…trail? Zach wondered.

Then he again looked at the cloudy streak in the sky, which continued on seemingly forever. And with that, he let out a cheer—one he could not even hear over the sound of wind beating against him or the hiss of flames, which at last began to die down as his speed gradually declined.

Wait, will this bring me back? That’s what it’s implying, right?

Zach sucked on his lower lip a moment. He could definitely spare the time on Unleashed Phase thanks to Jimmy’s buff and, honestly? He really needed to get back so that Jimmy could tell him how in the hell he was supposed to survive this Very High debt. So, assuming he’d read everything correctly, he might as well give it a shot…no?

Of course I should.

Zach shrugged midair and activated his newest ability, Phase Return. Then he braced himself, fully expecting to feel a huge sense of vertigo or some other nauseating sensation. Instead, he felt nothing at all. It was almost like roping out of a dungeon, only a bit stranger as the entire world seemed to “fold” in a sense, bending and curving until it became something shaped like a cone, or a funnel, which he realized he was sliding directly out the bottom of—even without feeling any sense of falling or change in speed. And all of this took place in an instant. The clouds, the grass, the sun: all of it just kind of “folded” together like he was an insect stuck to a piece of paper that was being made into a paper airplane. Yet, as quickly as it folded, it unfurled just the same, and now Zach landed in a crouch on the empty, barren landscape that used to be a market square.

“…and I’m worried too, because I have no idea where he—OH FUCK ZACH YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!” Rian cried, actually jumping backwards and dropping his shield.

Zach bent down and picked up his sword, which was exactly where he’d dropped it: right in front of his feet. He carefully sheathed it, and patted some dirt out of his sides with his hands, which were still shooting out fire. Then, as Kalana sprinted towards him and a hundred eyes settled on his back, he glanced over to what looked like a fifteen-foot deep, spiral shaped indentation in the ground that ran for several miles, at the beginning of which was a massive pile of treasure.

“Loot,” he said, ignoring all the words being shouted at him. “Loot!” he yelled. “Now!”