Chapter 27: One Man Army (3)

Jaxir’s lip twitched.

"Well, this certainly isn’t―."

A trio of fireballs fell, arrows following quickly after them.

Jaxir didn’t hesitate to use Encore on Twinkle Anchor. This time, he poured his own Twinkle Mana into it to sustain it, burning through over 100 MP in a single sitting.

What he didn’t expect was how long it would take. He had the mana reserve, but his flow rate wasn’t as large as he wanted it to be. Because of that, he had just barely gotten all 100 MP into the armor when the first rain of attacks reached him.

They were diverted away, but the melee classes had finally charged themselves.

"Shit."

Jaxir felt overwhelmed. There were too many weapons coming for him, and they seemed to have stopped caring about friendly fire. The only person staying back was Aidylan, everyone else had rushed him for all they were worth.

A sea of damage markers filled the air.

Jaxir breathed out slowly. "One more push."

He spoke as though the blades weren’t already hovering over his body, slicing down with sharp hissing winds.

But the calm helped, especially when he realized that some of the damage being caused was directly triggered by Twinkle Anchor diverting the mana away from him.

When Jaxir realized this, he also realized he had another chance.

[-17]

[-18]

[-17]

Three sword strikes landed on Jaxir at the same time, the slicing wounds making his heart skip beats. He coughed and stumbled, gripping at his chest with a hand.

It seemed that while the Twinkle Armor could divert arrows, it struggled with swords. It was a Vestigem Card designed to divert mana alone in the first place.

He was going to die. His body couldn’t handle the pain.

’Not like this.’ His eyes blazed. ’Come on!’

Jaxir roared and he managed to snatch some focus back for his mind. The domain of mana around him buzzed and a second volley of fireballs was ripped out of the control of the magic classes.

If he could divert and twist the mana away from him, why could he not direct them toward where he wanted them to be.

As the melee classes raised their blades to attack again, Jaxir gripped the three fireballs, rose them up high, and then smashed them down.

BOOM.

Arcs of flaming currents collapsed and then spread out wildly. Jaxir felt like he had used up at least half of the 100 MP he had just poured into the armor, but he couldn’t care less. Even as he lost at least another 20 as it diverted the sweeping fires away from him and toward his enemies.

The melee class he aimed for shrieked and was wiped out in a single blow.

He ignored the notification that sprung up, quickly scanning the heads of the others who were stumbling away and being blown back to identify his next target.

Without missing a beat, he raised up his staff and smoke raged around him.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Jaxir moved, his staff following his every violent intent. Magic bullets rained down, his MP draining at a speed visible to the naked eye as he chose between attacking and fueling Twinkle Anchor more.

One death notification after another sounded, but the more Jaxir fought, the more they got used to his tactics and his mana type.

He coughed as he suffered blow after blow, the melees becoming the bane of his existence.

The magic classes to the back realized they were only fueling his power. So instead of attacking wildly like before, they chipped at him slowly from the side. While Jaxir was still able to divert their attacks from time to time, they picked their angles well, knowing they were draining his Twinkle Anchor armor at the same time.

Jaxir felt his mana running dangerously low, but he kept glancing at his Experience. He was close to leveling up again, if he could just get one more.

"CAREFUL! HE’S ABOUT TO LEVEL UP AGAIN! NOW!" Aidylan roared.

Jaxir’s pupils constricted as not just one, but two Vestigem Cards appeared in Aidylan’s hand.

He had been wary of the man from the very start and was waiting for just the right time to deal with him.

Jaxir had been planning on countering with Sleight of Hand. It was already off cooldown after all this time. But what was he going to do about two Vestigem Cards when he could only take one?

The worst part was that he knew Aidylan actually had five total Vestigem Cards on him. He might not even manage to get one of the two most important ones.

Without a choice, Jaxir used Sleight of Hand, cursing immediately when he realized that he pulled a Vestigem Card from Aidylan’s deck and not one of the two in his hands.

―

Name: Overclock Step

Grade: Common

MP Cost: 3

Description: Movement speed doubled for 2 seconds. Stacks multiplicatively with existing speed buffs

Recommended Classes: Melee; Ranged

―

Aidylan was so focused he didn’t even notice one of his Vestigem Cards disappear from his deck. One of the Vestigem Cards in his hands sparkled into motes of light that fused into the other one. And then, he raised that Vestigem Card up high.

―

[You have been cursed. Vestigem Card, "Zero Gain", has been applied to you. For the next 7 days, you cannot gain any Experience]

―

Jaxir’s pupils constricted. He had fallen into a trap.

There was no reason for Aidylan to not have used this immediately if he had it accessible to him, but he knew that if he used it too early, Jaxir might still be able to escape.

By now, every cat was out of the bag. Jaxir’s Body stats were off the charts, his mana was too powerful, his methods were broken and didn’t make sense even to someone as experienced as Aidylan was.

The only way to deal with someone like this was to throw everything you could at him.

And in this case...

It was to wait until Jaxir’s HP and MP were blinking red before springing the ultimate trap.

―

[You have killed "A.J. Debraya"]

―

+133 copper

―

An attack landed on Jaxir and he was sent flying back, his HP dipping below 100 for the first time in the battle.

His heart did little bursting leaps, racing so irregularly it felt like there wasn’t nearly enough air to breathe.

―

[Health Warning. User’s body has fallen below the threshold of safely continuing. Emergency pause has been initiated―]

―

[―Error]

―

A sharp pain tore into Jaxir’s chest and he felt like his arm was going limp with a wild tingling sensation. Spots of light filled his vision and he couldn’t quite see straight.

"FINISH THE JOB!" Aidylan roared.