Chapter 259: Sword Festival (XII)

Atrinae opened both eyes this time.

She looked at Gray with curious before turning to the chamber outisde.

Then back at Gray with the expression of something that had been waiting to be asked and had developed several opinions about how long that had taken.

“I know… Don’t look at me like that.”

“Hiss~”

“Are you ready?”

She flicked her tongue once, stretched her small body along his arm, and then coiled back into position with coldness on its eyes.

Gray looked at the chamber outside through the gap in the teeth.

’Jasmine. The moment Atrinae starts stripping the defensive field, how long before the worm responds?’

[Based on previous attempts, the reaction time from the plate area to full body response is approximately one second…]

[Possibly less if the stripping is painful enough to accelerate it.]

’So I have one second after Atrinae hits to drive the rapier through before the contraction comes.’

[One second at maximum. Probably less.]

’That’s enough.’

[Gray, every previous attempt collapsed before the six inch mark because the contraction force…]

’The contraction force was responding to the teeth’s blade. This time Atrinae hits first. The worm’s response will split between reacting to the strip and reacting to the blade. The divided response is going to be a much slower response.’

[…That’s actually sound reasoning.]

’I know.’

He looked down at Atrinae.

Her scales had already begun their change as the nine-colored luminescence started bleeding through from underneath, causing his arm to also glow slighly.

The temperature around his arm changed noticeably.

“The moment the gap opens, you go first. Don’t stop until every layer is gone.”

Atrinae looked at him with both golden eyes fully open.

Her scales flared completely.

’Jasmine. Count.’

[Three.]

Gray picked up both teeth.

[Two.]

He adjusted his grip, feeling the weight distribution of each one, the angle he needed to drive them in rehearsed so many times it existed below conscious thought now.

[One.]

He stepped out, and forced the plate open.

CRACK!

“Atrinae.”

Cling!

The first wave left her mouth and the chamber changed immediately, the air taking on a quality that wasn’t elemental but registered in the skin anyway, nine-colored light fragmenting outward from the impact point on the green tissue in thin radiating lines.

Cling, cling!

Second & Third.

The defensive shimmer over the green patch cracked visibly, hairline fractures spreading through something that had no physical form and was suddenly behaving like it did, and Gray watched the layer peel back at the edges like paint from heated metal.

SKREEEEEE!!!

The worm instantly felt it.

The ceiling came apart.

CRAAACKKK!

The Saint-level worm drove its body through the stone at multiple entry angles at once, the chamber filling with falling rock and the enormous grinding presence of fifty meters of enraged creature dropping toward him from above.

Gray threw himself sideways.

KRAAAAABOOOOM!!!

The first section of the worm’s body hit the floor where he had been standing and the impact crater it left was half a meter deep, the shockwave from the landing throwing Gray off his feet entirely despite not being in direct contact.

He hit the floor rolling, came up, and the worm’s head was already sweeping toward him, the circular maw open and tracking his position with the terrifying accuracy of something that didn’t need eyes.

Cling, CLING!

Atrinae, still on his arm, still burning through Prism Sovereignty, hit the green patch again with the fourth and fifth waves, and the worm’s sweep interrupted itself mid-arc, the creature’s body shuddering as another layer of defensive coating stripped away.

Gray used that slight moment of hesitation.

He drove toward the ridge again, both wedges already gone, the gap closed, and he drove the rapier at the lower plate edge with both hands and everything behind it.

Four inches.

The contraction came.

CRACK!

The rapier held this time, the blade flexing under the force rather than snapping, and Gray held on with both hands as the plate tried to close around the blade with enough force to shear it off entirely.

His feet left the ground.

The worm lifted him.

Attached to the rapier lodged in its plate, his full body weight hanging from the hilt, the creature’s contraction force working against his grip in a way that sent burning pressure through both wrists simultaneously.

He held on firmly… not wanting to miss the chance.

Cling, cling!

Sixth and seventh waves from Atrinae, and the green patch beneath the plate pulsed violently, causing the contraction force to dropp by a fraction as the worm’s body prioritized responding to the stripping over maintaining the crush on the blade.

Gray used the fraction.

He pulled his body upward along the rapier, hand over hand, gaining purchase on the plate itself, and drove the blade two more inches deeper.

Six inches.

The resistance below the plate was different here from every previous attempt, softer, the tissue Atrinae had been stripping now partially exposed, and he could feel through the blade that he was close, one more inch, possibly less.

SKREEEEEEE!!!

The worm’s body reversed direction entirely.

Instead of contracting inward it expanded outward, a full-body pressure release that Gray had never encountered in any previous attempt because he had never gotten this far in any previous attempt, and the force of it threw him off the plate and across the chamber in a single explosive motion.

THUD!

He hit the wall shoulder first.

Crack…

“Kugh!”

Something in his left shoulder gave.

“Tsk… it’s not broken, at least…”

Gray cracks his head as he stayed down for one breath, and got up.

The worm was reorienting.

Its body moved through the chamber with a speed that its size had no right to produce, the segmented plates reconfiguring around a new attack vector, the maw sweeping toward his position from a lower angle than before, cutting off the lateral escape options he had been using.

Gray went up instead.

He jumped, caught the edge of one of the plate segments as the maw passed beneath him, and held on with his right hand while his left arm screamed its opinion about the situation.

The worm felt the contact immediately.

Its body rolled.

Gray held on through the first rotation, his right hand locked around the plate edge, his feet finding purchase against the creature’s side, and the chamber spun around him as the worm tried to dislodge whatever had attached itself to its exterior.

Cling!

Eighth wave from Atrinae.

The green patch was visible from his current position, two plate segments forward from where he was hanging, the defensive coating now reduced to its final layer, thin and flickering and barely present.

He let go.

Thump!

Dropped, landed on the chamber floor, rolled under the worm’s body as it completed its rotation, and came up on the opposite side with the rapier already raised.

His left arm wasn’t responding properly.

He changed his grip to compensate, both hands on the hilt but the left contributing pressure rather than strength, his right arm carrying the actual force.

The worm’s head found him again.

It was faster than it had been at the start of the fight, the stripping of its defensive patches apparently removing something that had been moderating its speed alongside its defense, and the maw came around at a velocity that left him less margin than he had been calculating with.

Fwish!

He threw himself flat.

The maw passed over him close enough that the displaced air from it pressed him against the floor, the grinding teeth audible at a range that made his skin register the sound before his ears did.

He rolled immediately, right, came up behind the sweep arc, and ran towards the plate, instead of running away.

’…This is my chance now…’

The ridge was visible, the gap still partially forced from the wedges’ previous work, and Atrinae launched the ninth and final wave from his arm as he closed the last three meters.

Cling!!!

The final layer of defensive coating over the green tissue dissolved completely.

The patch went dark.

The tissue underneath was exposed and unprotected and present.

Gray drove the rapier in with his right arm, left hand providing what pressure it could, his full body weight loading behind the blade at the exact angle.

The resistance was gone.

Fwip!

Shhhhhhhhh!

The blade went through completely, hilt deep, and he felt the core the moment the tip reached it.

FWOOSH!

A dense violent pulse mana suddenly pushed outward against the intrusion with everything the creature had left, which pushed back hard enough to drive Gray’s arm back by two inches through sheer energy pressure alone.

“Fuck…!”

He pushed harder, to the point of leaning his entire body into it.

The blade held position.

Crack…

The core cracked.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The giant worm screamed in protest, but unfortunately for it, Gray’s rapier was not a weapon of ordinary grade.

KRAAAAAAAAABOOOOM!!!

The core was destroyed, creating a force that expanded outward from the creature’s core was not fire or lightning or anything elemental.

FWOOOOOOOOSH!

The force caused Gray to be sent flying, hitting the far wall at a height of roughly two meters and came down hard, landing badly on his left side.

Thck!

The already-compromised shoulder took the impact first, causing his face to show a hint of pain.

Thump…

He lay on the chamber floor and looked at the ceiling.

The green patches were all dark.

The grinding sound was gone.

The vibration was gone.

The anti-mana field was gone, stripped alongside the patches, and Gray’s mana flooded back into his circulation.

Because of that… his wounds slowly started to heal.

“Phew…”

He lay there and let it.

Dust settled around him.

Atrinae slid off his arm and landed on his chest, her scales dim, her eyes closed, her small body rising and falling as she probably was very tired from using her unique skill.

Gray put his right hand over her gently, patting her little head.

“Ugh…”

He looked at the ceiling, mostly destroyed, at the dead creature around him, at the inscription lines on the walls now dark and inactive.

His left shoulder was going to be a problem for a while.

His right hand had three fingers that were registering complaints about the grip force they had sustained.

He smelled profoundly terrible.

[…]

Jasmine said nothing for a moment.

[How are you?]

“Alive…”

[Your shoulder?]

“Functional enough.”

[Good.]

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