Leveling up the World

Chapter 712: The Platypain

AETHERIZER level 1 has been cleared!

Continue to fulfill the AETHERIZERs destiny.

So far, so good. Dallion had hardly broken a sweat this time. With a bit of effort, he could have gotten things done faster and possibly in a more elegant fashion. However, a win was a win, and he had focused on using spells rather than compensating with standard skills and abilities. It had been enough to moderately impress Nil, but would it be enough for the magic platypus?

Splitting into instances, Dallion continued forward. At every step he looked in all directions expecting the unexpected. If there was a magic symbol, a glowing magic thread, or even a blob of emotion hed have reacted on the instant. Strangely enough, nothing of the sort happened.

Gem, can you see tough illusions? Dallion asked.

Err, no? The aetherfish popped into existence.

That was moderately annoying. There was no doubt that the guardian was present, hiding somewhere among the hundreds of realms that composed the current section of the item. At the end of the day, the guardian didnt have to face Dallion; it was Dallion that had to defeat it to progress forward.

Combining magic with attack, Dallion drew a light symbol on the floor in front of him. Threads lit up beneath the mirrors, stretching like cables, or thin pipes, but still no platypus.

Not in the mood to play? Dallion asked, using his music skills to add arrogance to his words.

Whether or not the guardian could hear, it didnt react. Any ideas on this, Nil?

One or two, the echo said. I still think its a bit too early for you to tackle the artifact.

You could have said so earlier.

Theres still a chance you get lucky.

Translated to normal speech, Nil was acknowledging that Dallion had grown enough to try and take on the platypain. That was encouraging.

Do I have to start breaking things again? Dallion asked.

Without waiting for an answer, he spun around with his harpsisword, doing a semi-circle strike in the process, then sprinted down the corridor, shattering all the mirrors on his right. Every few steps, an instance of his would peel off, carefully observing which mirror would start getting repaired first. When nothing happened, Dallion turned around, doing another destructive dash. Glass fragments fell to the floor with a nasty crunching sound, and yet the guardian still refused to show itself.

Two out of four, Dallion thought.

The logical choice was to go with the floor. That way, hed leave the messiest part for last. Then again, using instances eliminated the need to choose. Two rows of instances ran along the corridor again, sliding the vibrating harpsiblade along a different surface.

With each step, it seemed that the guardian wasnt there. Then, at the very last moment, the platypus jumped down from the final mirror segment on the ceiling.

COMBAT INITIATED

The red rectangle made it clear that the creature meant business. Not wanting to disappoint, Dallion performed a series of sparked infused line attacks in the playpains direction.

A series of barriers emerged, stacking around the guardian. Each of Dallions line attacks was strong enough to smash three barriers at one go, but the more that were destroyed, the more appeared.

When did he cast them? Dallion wondered.

Several of his instances had focused on the guardian every second since it had appeared and hadnt seen any symbols appear. There had been no footprints, no limb movements, not even a change in the platypus fur.

Moments later, another spell materialized, causing sharp quills to emerge out of the creatures body and fly like homing missiles straight at Dallions head. Thanks to his armadil shield and combat splitting, the attacks were avoided, though closer than Dallion would have liked.

Gritting his teeth, Dallion missed the time when hed rely on green markers to tell him where the enemys attack zone was. Sadly, those only worked on lower-level creatures, not to mention that magic seemed to bypass them completely.

Dallion unsummoned his shield, then moved his right hand with such speed that he created the illusion that four sets of fingers were visible.

Lux, take care of evasion! Dallion ordered.

Blue flames surrounded him, pulling him a few feet away from the platypain.

Gem, can you cast shield barriers?

Err, yes. Barriers are easy, the aetherfish replied.

Do that, Dallion ordered while concentrating on his casting. Ill need five seconds.

For most people, five seconds wasnt too much. When it came to magic, that was an eternity. All the boosts and training could only help so much when casting complicated spells. Back in the Purple Moons realm, it had taken two people in unison to cast the spell fast enough. For Dallion to do it on his own, he needed three times the time.

More quills went flying Dallions direction, followed by a new set of barriers surrounding the guardian. Lux gracefully moved Dallion throughout the air, careful not to ruin his spell. Meanwhile, Gem created a series of individual small barriers in rapid succession, blocking each individual quill that posed a threat.

The attack didnt stop there. Catching on to Dallions tactic, the guardian started a complicated spell of its own. Dallion had no idea what the spell was, but experiencing a brief calm during which the platypus remained perfectly still gave him an idea of what might follow. Unsummoning his shield, he cast a portal spell with his left hand.

Lux immediately got the idea, moving Dallion through the portal into another corridor realm. A split second later, the main corridor twisted and collapsed on itself like a straw that had all of its air sucked out.

What the heck?! Dallion shouted. Adding the final symbols to his spell.

What the plapypain had done wasnt just a simple attack spell, it was dangerously creative. It was manipulating the environment itself! The only entities Dallion had seen do something similar were Aether, the reality chameleon, and possibly Katka during their last previous fight.

Now, do you understand why I didnt think you were ready? Nil asked. Thats one category of spells you havent trained in.

A series of magic circles collapsed in on themselves, as Dallion completed his own spell. Chains show out of the air, passing through the portal and squeezing through the corridor until they twisted around their target.

The guardian had protected himself by creating a barrier sphere around him, but that didnt dissuade the chains. As if sentient, they wrapped around the sphere, waiting for the moment it would give in. If Dallion knew the exact spell Raven had used to exhaust all magic, he might have resorted to using it. Unfortunately, that was one thing he had failed to learn.

Letting the chains do their thing, Dallion turned around and cast another portal spell. Since there was no way to reach the platypain through the main corridor, he was going to have to jump through the various mini-realms and get to him from the other side.

In his mind, the scholar skills were in full force, forming a mental map of the area for Dallion to follow. Since everything was based on the basic principles of diffraction, one could make a pretty good guess how the realms would be connected.

Youre being reckless again, Nil said.

Yep. Dallion didnt have much choice. Against this enemy, it was a race against time. The aether chains were persistent, but even so, they might snap at any moment.

Youve become stronger. Dallion heard the voice of the guardian in his head.

Does that mean youll surrender? he shouted, rushing forward through the maze of mirrors.

Only if the outcome is wholly in your favor. For now, it isnt.

Youre confident about that? Dallion kept on casting portals. According to his mental calculations, he was half the way there. It was almost funny how the trip so far had taken him less than the chain spell. In the future hed have to get a lot faster, which meant he had to double his efforts during Katkas training.

Youre using mage spells, but theyre borrowed. You arent able to create your own spells.

Ive created lots of spells on my own.

You arent able to create your own sells, the guardian insisted with cold certainty. Until you do, the greatest advantage of humans will remain out of reach.

The further Dallion went, the more the corridors split. Still, he knew he was on the right track. Just for good measure, he started casting barriers behind him to limit any potential movement his opponent might have.

Please lets not fight in three dimensions, Dallion said to himself.

In the distance, he could see the ball of chains. Neither of the two spells had ended, maintaining the status quo. It was the playpains passiveness that was alarming. The creature was smart, creative, and skillful enough to have thought of something seconds ago.

A matter of steps from his target, Dallion summoned his harpsisword, filled it with spark, then thrust a point attack from point blank range. The raw power of the strike shattered the chains and the sphere beneath it. At that point, several things happened at once.

As the attack continued forward, it cut through another barrier that hadnt been visible before.

AETHERIZER LEVEL 2 GUARDIAN

Species: PLATYPAIN

Class: MAGIC

Health: 90%

Traits:

- BODY 20

- MIND 40

- REACTION 20

- PERCEPTION 20

- MAGIC 40

Skills:

- ATTACK

- ATHLETICS

- SPELLCRAFT

- ILLUSION SHROUD (Species Unique)

- FUR ISOLATION (Species Unique)

Weakness: UNKNOWN

The white rectangle emerged, providing the first information regarding the creature Dallion had come across. The good news was that there werent a large amount of unique skills. The bad news was that three of the skills were exceedingly powerful.

The illusion shroud gone, magic symbols shone all over the creatures fur. Most of them Dallion was unfamiliar with. Until the spell took effect.

PAIN EFFECT

Pain will course through your body for two minutes.

Casting speed has been reduced by 50% for two minutes.

Dallions high perception turned against him. Dallion yelled out in agony as even the experience spent in the wilderness wasnt able to help him completely ignore the pain. His vision blurred. Every muscle in his body rebelled, as if wanting to twist off and hide somewhere far away.

There was no way Dallion could withstand two minutes of that. By all logic he had lost the fight and with it, the attempt to clear the aetherizer. However, there was one thing in hunter training that made Dallion accept the outcome. One thing that Euryale had taught him was that the moment of ones defeat was also the tipping point of a fight as long as one managed to take advantage.

Since Dallions body screamed at him to twitch in an attempt to relieve part of the pain, Dallion let it. Only as he did, he kept on holding the hilt of his weapon.

To the observer, it seemed that he had lost control and was moments away from collapsing to the ground.

Spark! Dallin shouted through the pain.

A bright glow covered the harpsisword as one final line attack was performed.

FATAL STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 500%

A glowing line emerged on the platypains fur as the remaining mirrors behind the guardian shattered to dust.

Got you! Dallion said as he crashed on the floor.

All that remained now was for him to withstand the two minutes of pain before moving on to the final guardian. If luck was on his side, maybe he could end this. If not, hed have learned some valuable lessons.

Not quite, the platypus replied.

What?! Focusing every drop of will he had, Dallion looked up.

The creatures outer layer of fun had peeled off like a coat, revealing a second layer beneath. Somewhere buried in the trivia section of Dallions memories, he remembered that the platypus on Earth had two layers of fun to keep it isolated and waterproof. Obviously, this was the case for the platypain, too.

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