Chapter 15: Clinical

Jaxir limped over to the Vestigem Card and picked it up.

― ℯℯ𝑙.

Name: Twinkle Anchor

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Form an armor of twinkle mana, confusing mana that lands upon it to divert at improper and wrong angles

Recommended Classes: Magic; Tank; Melee; Ranged

―

This would definitely be useful, but it seemed to only be effective against magic attacks. If he faced off against another bear, would it be of any use if it just rammed into him again?

Jaxir slotted those thoughts away and then found himself yet another card to carry around. He didn’t even try to put it in his card holders.

Then he picked up the last of his rewards, a small little hovering shield.

―

Name: Twinkle Shield

Grade: Uncommon

Level: 4

[Apply Twinkle Mana to shield and enhance the effectiveness of any defensive ability by a +12 baseline]

―

"Enhance?" Jaxir blinked.

This should mean that any defensive ability he used would gain +12 in defense. But... he didn’t have any defensive abilities. Cast was just―.

"Wait." Jaxir’s gaze sparkled and then he grinned as a thought came to mind.

Right about now, he looked pretty ridiculous. He had his staff tucked under his arm, the Twinkle Shield in its hand, and was holding two Vestigem Cards between his fingers in his other hand.

Though he was basically a ranged glass cannon, this wasn’t conducive to fighting at all. Luckily...

Jaxir poured his mana into the Twinkle Shield. His eyes lost a bit of focus as he felt the flowing lines of circuits within it.

If this shield was supposed to enhance defensive abilities, that meant that you had to cast your abilities through it just the same as he would cast one through his staff. As such...

The shield recognized Jaxir’s existence.

―

[Twinkle Shield has bonded to user "Jaxir Chance"]

―

The shield began to hover in front of Jaxir and he felt a faint connection to it.

"Oh." Jaxir blinked. That he hadn’t expected. He honestly just wanted to check if his idea would work, but this was even better.

His hand was freed to hold his staff again.

The shield followed him around, hovering in front of his chest. But he found if he moved too fast, it would lag behind.

Good thing he wasn’t going to be moving very fast often.

Jaxir checked his HP again. It had ticked up to 10/50.

11/50 now.

So there seemed to be a slow healing factor applied to you, one that had actually gotten faster after Jaxir upgraded his mana.

"Very cool. Time to go."

He could have waited until his HP was back at 100%, but he had no desire to.

"Just don’t get hit."

Jaxir left the region, holding his staff in one hand and pinching two Vestigem Cards in the other.

There was a burning light in Jaxir’s eyes. He had made a mistake that nearly cost him last time, he wasn’t going to make one again.

Something in him had shifted.

Maybe it really was just a game, but if he was going to turn his life around, he wasn’t going to allow himself to slip up again.

Even if that slip up was in a children’s game.

A trio of twinkle twinkle foxes appeared out of the other side of the clearing he fought the bear in. The additional grouped enemy raised the difficulty to another level, but Jaxir’s gaze seemed to have already calculated what to do.

His MP recovered a lot faster than his HP, likely because his Mind Stat was a lot higher than his Body Stat. And right now, it was already topped back up to its peak.

He immediately drained away 10 of it.

He mimicked Concussive Wave with Cast again, but this time, instead of casting through his staff, he cast it through the floating Twinkle Shield.

The foxes had only just turned toward him, but they were all hit with a sweeping wall of mana.

Jaxir barely registered how much more beautiful his mana looked now. In the past, it was just a milky, plain white. But now, it was sparkling with hints of a coppery, star-like hue.

The foxes were sent flying backward. They rolled across the ground as Jaxir raised his staff.

Two quick Casts erupted, ripping through the air like a pair of spiraling bullets.

"So much faster."

[-19]

[-19]

"So much stronger too."

This had to be related to his upgrade in mana, but it was likely also partially due to the fact Cast had reached Level 20 too.

Before, a quick Cast like that had only dealt around -11 damage to the foxes. Now it was just shy of double that.

This changed everything. He was close to being able to one-shot these foxes.

But not just yet.

The two foxes yelped again, being sent spiraling even further away, but the third of them recovered faster, leaping to its feet and immediately cloning itself twice. Its main body disappeared soon after as the clones rushed for Jaxir.

"Something’s different." Jaxir immediately realized. The clones felt more real, almost like―. "They can do real damage."

Jaxir made his decision quickly. He thought about using a Charge, but realized he didn’t have enough time.

Without missing a beat, he carved out two Casts in the air and launched them.

But they didn’t aim for the two clones. Instead, they both spiraled in relation to one another, slamming right into the body of the third fox.

[-19]

[-6]

It let out a whimper and died, its two clones dissipating in the air.

Jaxir felt an odd pull from the motes of light forming in the air and he reacted on instinct. His body seemed to react without him sometimes, almost as though he was pulling on a muscle memory that wasn’t even his own.

He ripped the dissipating Twinkle Mana out of the air and gathered it into two streams, forming another two Casts as the last pair of twinkle twinkle foxes recovered.

They were just about to cast what would be their own abilities when Jaxir fired.

They tried to dodge, but it was worthless.

[-6]

[-6]

They collapsed, forming into motes of light.

Jaxir exhaled a breath and looked at his staff, a half-complex, half-confused light flickering in his eyes.

This was happening more and more often. Where was this feeling coming from?

"... Continue." Jaxir said.

And that he did.

His battle style only became more ruthless and controlled. He carved through the twinkle twinkle foxes like they were made of wet tissue paper.

He wasn’t gaining Experience literally, but it felt like he was growing stronger with every step nonetheless.

Every battle ended faster and faster, and at a certain point, it felt like nothing could even get within 5 meters of him without dying a horrible death.

His HP recovered to more than half when he finally faced off against a twinkle twinkle bear once again.

Jaxir entered a clearing and knew what he would be expected to find before he even managed to lay eyes on it.

The twinkle twinkle bear shook itself awake, its hairs rising as it seemed to double in size.

And then it roared.

Jaxir raised his staff, a surprising coldness in his gaze. One would have thought that he was meeting an enemy of a lifetime...

And what happened next could only be said to be a clinical dismantling.

Jaxir cast Bind first before the bear could even think to use any abilities, blitzing it with lacing lines of its own shadows.

Its charge slowed as though an ability it had been about to activate was interrupted.

Then, without missing a beat, he used Fracture.

By this point, the bear was already close, too close.

BANG.

Encore came through and Concussive Wave sent it flying back.

[-32]

It didn’t even have a chance to get up before Jaxir’s fingers danced, throwing Concussive Wave away as it turned to ash and nimbly pulling out Flare Burst to form an array of three cards in his hand.

He poured mana into it.

The bear barely came to a spiraling stop before it was slammed into by a ball of fire. It screamed out, not only in pain, but also as a searing light burned its eyes.

[-37]

It should have done far more damage with Fracture still active, but just as Jaxir expected, the odd Body Ability of the bear was allowing its defenses to increase the more damage it took.

It was a good thing, then, that while Jaxir was pouring mana into Flare Burst, he was also forming a Charge of Cast. And once Flare Burst finished, he began to accumulate another Charge of Cast.

They spiraled around themselves, pulling at the mana that hung in the air from the twinkle twinkle bear’s earlier interrupted ability.

And just as it was about to regain its sight and break free of Bind.

BANG.

[-257]

Unfortunately for Jaxir, this twinkle twinkle bear had 400 HP, not 300 HP.

Unfortunately for the bear, Jaxir didn’t actually give a damn.

Pa. Pa. Pa. Pa. Pa.

A free rain of magic bullets rained down endlessly. Jaxir made and released them so fast it looked like he was firing a machine gun.

The bear roared, a radiant echo of Twinkle Mana exuding from it as it broke free and shattered the rain.

[-52]

The bear started to charge at Jaxir again, rumbling forward so fast it seemed there would be a replay of what happened the first time. It still had too much health. There were still 22 health points left and Jaxir didn’t seem to have enough left. He would never be able to send enough Casts forward to wipe that much health out, and land not one, but two fatal hits before it hit him.

And with how low his HP was now, he would die, maybe even in real life considering how poor his health was.

And yet, he didn’t even seem to be trying, almost like he had given up like he always did.

But Jaxir had stopped sending Casts forward the moment the bear rolled back to its feet for good reason.

He was pouring all of his Mana into the Twinkle Shield, and Charging it to his limits.

BANG.

A wave was sent out the moment the bear was seconds from ripping into him.

It was sent tumbling back once again, and though it took no damage...

Jaxir didn’t need it to.

A spiraling pair of Casts appeared at the end of his staff.

"Die, you overgrown, hairy bastard."

BOOM.

The pair of spiraling Casts slammed into the body of the beast.

[-21]

Jaxir spun his staff in his hand, a wild grin spreading across his face before he pointed it forward one more time.

Pa.

[-1]

The twinkle twinkle bear fell. Dead.

―

[Attune has reached Level 20. Special exemption granted. L1 Hex Branch Abilities has been improved to Level 5]

―

A rush flooded Jaxir’s body and he suddenly felt like something was changing within him.