Weapons of Mass Destruction

The dreary silence continues even as we approach the halfway point nearing the area I think of as Whitey’s territory.

There is no wind down here, at least not on this floor, leaving the scenery around us to settle into an eerie stillness that extends even to the grass and trees. Everything stands motionless, in a state of crumbling decay, overgrown by vegetation, or thrown all around by different kinds of attacks.

Luna continues to lead, the golden retriever moving with extreme grace and speed, her sharp eyes scanning the area as she takes the occasional break to sniff at some strange scent before leading us on.

Musclehead appears to be happy; there is an aura of exuberance around him, which seems to upset the boy though he’s clearly learned to accept it.

Derick and Noelle stay together, neither one showing the slightest hint of unease.

Leticia constantly moves mana in the air around her, weaving something in preparation, and I watch with great interest as she does.

As for Savant, he stays off to the side of the group, seemingly unperturbed, his green eyes scanning the area. I bet he doesn’t even want to be here, but his cold, calculating mind probably figured this would be a better opportunity to examine the first floor than mingling with random attendees.

When I try to find out how much mana he has stored in the broken Sword of Aeons on his waist, he deflects that attempt and continues to ignore me.

Everyone here is used to situations like this; it’s almost commonplace. That calm before the storm, the feeling of your senses amplifying in anticipation of danger looming right around the corner.

It’s addicting; it anchors you to that moment in time and makes you feel more alive than anything else.

So when the first attack comes, we’re all ready.

Leticia shouts, and Luna stops, as the ground in front of her explodes, and the shockwave throws the golden retriever against a boulder nearby, and she lands with a whimper.

Leticia’s barrier, which softened the initial attack, surrounds her dog once more, stopping another strike as an explosion devastates the area.

Noelle looses an arrow, and a barrage of white and red lightning pierces the sky—the same lightning Tess has. That attack crashes against a barrier created by the attacking figure floating high in the air.

[Reanimated Corpse - lvl ???]

The barrier glows in three different colors: pale blue, dark blue, and purple.

“Named one,” Noelle whispers, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “Rookie Killer, mage, barriers, and mana-based attacks.”

She doesn’t get a chance to say anymore as the next attack explodes in our midst. The same as before, there is a brief moment where the Lurker’s mana reaches towards us nearly imperceptibly and creates a tiny portal through which it launches its next attack.

The bright white explosion of compressed mana I know so well crashes against my barrier, and I reach out for the Rookie Killer in the same fashion, stretching my [Ley Line] out through the air and creating an endpoint next to him.

It seems to have an incredible perception, sensing my skill and attempting to disrupt it.

But nothing happens. The thread doesn’t even react to the attempt.

Another barrage of lightning from Noelle crashes against the feylith lurker’s barrier, and as it does, I teleport right in front of him.

He has a set of small wings on his back, and his hair and eyes, which should be changing colors, are now a deathly shade of white and his skin has shriveled as if with age.

Rookie Killer moves, surrounding himself with a huge amount of mana in an attempt to resist my rapidly activating domain, which is currently being strengthened by the effect of my subclass.

“We’ve got another named one! Specter!” Noelle shouts from below, and I sense the fight rage beneath me.

My body radiates more and more mana, ramping up the pressure and strengthening my domain as we face each other.

Hundreds of mana projectiles enter my domain, only to be disrupted by [Resonance] as I infuse it throughout.

[Mana Domain - lvl 46 > Mana Domain - lvl 47]

My own mana projectiles, boosted by kinetic energy, crash against that tricolored barrier, which deforms under the barrage but holds strong nonetheless.

I fend off a constant string of attempts to tear my domain apart, along with the projectiles. The lurker teleports away before I can stop him, leaving his barrier behind, as it shrinks to the size of one of his projectiles and turns bright white.

Rather than disrupt it and waste mana, I use my existing [Ley Line] to return to my original position, placing the fight at a distance where I see the orange light of Savant’s [Dawn] and two more lurkers fighting the group.

Something about this group of three feels off. They’re all too strong to be random lurkers, and even then, they’re showing signs of damage —as if they had already been through a tough fight.

Another portal opens near me, and a barrage of attacks erupts forth, crashing into my hastily constructed barrier.

[Ley Line] activates again, and I throw a dozen or so invisible shimmering blue lines in all directions and shrink my domain to make it more potent. Another teleport gets me closer, and I boost myself with kinetic energy, closing the remaining distance, as I deflect the incoming frontal attack with my barrier.

The lurker attempts to open another portal behind me and launch an attack, but I reach towards it and tear it down before it can happen.

Then a mana projectile passes through my barrier, and just before it explodes, I disassemble it with [Resonance].

Another dozen or so attacks have modified frequency, ignoring my barrier and even partially disrupting my attempts to match the creature’s speed, forcing me to come up with my countermeasures the same way Rookie Killer does.

Then, an animal I don’t recognize forms from his mana. It looks like a wolf with long legs and two pairs of wings.

It passes through my barrier, becomes more transparent within my domain, only to be torn apart before it can even reach me.

I activate my Mana Wavelength Iris and weaken my domain as two more press the attack.

They phase through my barrier, better able to handle my domain, their frequency constantly shifting. One of them gets destroyed, and the second one I let bite my forearm, the being entirely made of mana bites into my flesh, and a powerful mana disruption effect rushes through my body. Then in a blink, the animal shrinks into an orb before turning bright white, and exploding, forcing me downwards, and throwing me onto the ground.

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Just in time, I pop up a barrier around me, strengthening it as much as possible as dozens of attacks crash into the area around me.

Each of the explosions is big and powerful enough to wipe out an entire building, evaporating my surroundings into a cloud of dust and debris.

But that’s it.

Disappointed, I stand up. Dusting myself off I activate my healing passive. Healing the assorted scrapes and bruises I’ve accumulated.

Rookie Killer floats there, hanging in the air, his small wings unmoving, as he charges hundreds of projectiles in the space around him, while more of these weird wolves take form by his side.

The lurker can teleport, send attacks through portals, and actually seems to have a decent amount of mana, or, more likely, a high rate of regeneration. His skill at disruption is amazing, and he can change the frequency of his mana to surprise opponents.

Most interesting though is probably the animals he creates with his mana, delivering a powerful disruptive attack and quick explosions. It’ll definitely be something to experiment with in the future.

But that’s it.

I teleport close to him, my eyes flaring into activity as my mind fractures into pieces, absorbing every detail. With a single pulse of disruptive mana, everything around us is torn apart.

[Resonance - lvl 51 > Resonance - lvl 52]

All the animals, all the projectiles, all the defenses, and portals disappear.

The lurker tries to move, but [Redistribution] holds him in place, and I send another disrupting wave at him, ramping up the effect with an excessive burst of mana and causing the air to reverberate under the pressure.

A single orb appears, forming over the tip of my finger, made from tricolored mana which turns bright white in the blink of an eye, growing to the size of a grape. I mold it into a javelin-like projectile and drive it into the lurker's chest.

The attack detonates, my barrier wavering as waves ripple through its surface, but it endures, withstanding the blast reverberating through the air.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 303]

[Lvl 276 > Lvl 277]

My Ley Line takes me closer to the group, and I fly the rest of the distance.

The orange color of Savant’s domain surrounds the area, and the man’s left arm hangs uselessly across his body, displaying a row of deep cuts, clearly meant to pass through his forearm only to stop at the bone. And the finishing blow that exploded his shoulder bone.

Savant swings the sword in his hand, and his opponent ducks under it, with incredible speed stabbing at Savant’s chest three times in quick succession. Savant dodges all three attacks and kicks out at the lurker who dodges again.

The lurker's skin is even more cracked than usual, resembling the horrific burns inflicted by Savant's domain.

Derick reaches them, short bursts of disrupting mana flashing from his fists, as a skin-tight mana barrier flickers around him.

The lurker dodges, tanks one hit from Derick, and flickers, turning half transparent, as Savant’s swing and Noelle’s arrow pass through without causing damage.

Materializing again, the lurker moves incredibly quickly, parts of his body flickering in and out to let some of the smaller attacks pass through.

Repositioning, he attacks me, in a clear attempt to capitalize on my distance from the others.

This one’s the same race Rat was. Humanoid, with gray skin and long arms and legs. His dead white eyes lock onto me, and I disrupt his attempt to mark me in some way.

Kinetic energy flows through my body, and I squeeze Flamebearer in my hand.

The lurker dodges three bursts of kinetic energy, he lets a barrage of mana-based attacks pass through his flickering body, my [Redistribution] slips off of his skin, and he stabs at me.

I teleport, and he immediately follows me, an aggressive movement that makes him look more like an animal than anything humanoid. He dodges a dozen arrows launched by Noelle in a single second and briefly clashes with Derrick before the red-haired man kicks him. The lurker lets the kick land, using it as a boost to launch himself back at me.

He dodges more primordial lightning arrows, he avoids Derick again by moving at much higher speeds, and he adjusts his barrier to weaken the effects of Savant’s [Dawn].

My domain activates at full power, my eyes reading his barrier, and my disruptive attacks are at their best. And for that short moment, I cause his barrier to flicker and decide to face him head on instead of teleporting.

Kinetic energy supports me, my movement matching his for that moment, and I disrupt his barrier again, swinging my ax at his head while launching powerful bursts of kinetic energy to take a chunk of his chest, right where his heart should be.

And he dodges both.

His speed surges and the barrier around him reactivates as if I’d never disrupted it. The lurker reduced his speed. He even let me weaken his barrier.

All to lure me in.

His dagger stabs into my chest, as I pivot just enough so it doesn’t pierce my heart. Some kind of poison is flooding in through the wound, along with a powerful disrupting attempt.

But I’ve seen it all before. Disrupting my mana just isn’t that easy.

Kinetic energy boosts my movement and a barrier of mana forms over my forehead. I bring it down and smash it into the lurker with full force, with an audible crack from his head or mine. Or both.

He tries to take another step, but I wrap my arms around him, pinning his arms so he can’t move the dagger he’s managed to lodge in me. The direct contact makes it harder for him to flicker away.

Golden flames seep out of my body, surrounding us both. Healing me and damaging him.

I hold on to him all the while, disrupting his attempts at using that flickering skill of his, in a constant battle not unlike the orb-shaping exercise Lissandra left me.

But I love this. I reinforce the barrier on my forehead and slam into him again, shattering his nose and teeth.

Feeling that he’s about to slip away, I boost my body and resonate my mana, removing the arm he stabbed me with, a split second before he flickers away.

He tries to grab the arm and dagger lodged inside me, but Derick smashes into him, and the lurker lets his body roll. Then in an incredible display of acrobatics, he jumps into the air, dodging an arrow, and tries to kick Savant, who deflects the blow and attacks in turn.

The lurker’s body flickers, and he starts running at incredible speed.

I send a powerful burst of kinetic energy through the Ley Line I tied to him and the lurker reacts with incredible speed, flickering away the instant my attack grazes him, minimizing his injuries.

A weird dagger forms in his hand made out of an extremely pale, almost transparent form of blue mana, which he uses to cut away the Ley Line, along with the flesh it was attached to, before disappearing into the distance.

As the explosions continue in the distance, Leticia and two others caught in their own fight with the third lurker, I pull the dagger out of my chest, focusing thermal energy around the wound as I concentrate it and let it burn my own flesh to stop the spread of poison.

It hurts a lot, but I distract myself by thinking of ways to improve my [Ley Line] and make it harder to get rid of.

Even though that lurker was insane and likely one of the stronger ones, it shouldn’t have been so easy to take it down—or even notice it. It serves as a stark reminder that no matter how strong I’ve become, these lurkers were once attendees, people who reached Beyond on their own.

I store the severed arm in my bag and glance at the dagger.

Nullstrike Knife (Arcane, Damaged) - TheNullstrike Knife is incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through the toughest armor. The poison it once held is nearly gone, but it disrupts mana on contact, hindering magical defenses. Occasionally, it releases a pulse that temporarily silences all spells in the immediate area.

It shouldn’t be this easy to collect damaged arcane items.

“Good job. That was a bit of a crazy way to go about things, but hey, if it works.” Derick says, as he approaches, glancing at the dagger In my hand.

“Thanks. Are you done doing the bare minimum so that you can observe our abilities?”

The red-haired man seems to be amused, and for a moment, a smile flickers across his face before it disappears. “Aren’t we all doing it? Why don’t we check on the others?”

“After you,” I gesture.