Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 289: Zach

Wind and Song

The spirit came from above, diving at Zach with both of its arm-blades extended forward, intending to impale him. The wind surged around it, the Essence of this place visible in his eyesight like ribbons dancing in the air. It was filled with an Essence that he didnt recognize, but which definitely contained Wind as part of it. He blinked away, creating distance again. His attunements worked overtime, he was fighting a spirit so his cooldowns and stamina were boosted, and as he passed through a rift with his blink his cooldowns decreased further. His abilities came off cooldown, and he raised his weapons as the spirit hit a cushion of air just above the ground, halting its momentum and then twisted, locking on him again and blasting in his direction.

It swiped with its blades, sending visible wind crescents that roared through the air with a loud sound. Zach dashed away with his |Perfect Spatial Evade| then attacked the spirits side as it flew by.His Blade Form was still Wind, as he knew that the spirit shared something similar. His |Flaw Perception| told him that that just after it attacked was the most optimal moment to strike. Its body didnt seem to have any weaknesses that he could see now, but the longer the fight went on, the more he was going to notice, and his skill would find something.

He attacked with both of his weapons, leading with his rapier and using Double Aspect Strike with it. His rapier landed on the spirits hip, a blast of wind followed his strike, a combination of his strike perk and Winds Mark. His Wind didnt do much but get blasted away by the Wind coming from the spirit. But his attacks landed. His rapier struck twice, and then he hit with his blade. A screeching sound of metal hitting metal echoed as Zachs attacks barely scratched the surface of the spirits body. It was tough, but Zach knew that this was just the opening, the preparation before the final performance. The strikes with his rapier had already applied 5% bonus to all the damage he was going to deal to the spirit each, and his Lord of Grace and Woe lowered the spirits Winds effectiveness. And his Wind powers were increased further by Tyrant instances that he had gained by attacking, and he had also lowered his enemys effectiveness as wellwhich was why he was using Wind.

The metal plates on the spirits body shifted, wind spilling between them and whistling. The spirits wing swung around and Zach stepped back, avoiding it by a hairbreadth. Then the real attack came, surprising Zach as it sang through the air. Zach raised his shoulder, blocking the attackthe spirits blade skipped off the shoulder pad and clipped his helmet, sending him stumbling a step to the side. It continued its spin, bringing to bear its other arm-blade. Zach whirled, raising his blade to intercept the attack. The strength of it pushed him back, and he felt his entire hand shake from the impact.

He triggered Riposte and Primal BlowNahas perkand struck with his rapier. The spirit tried to block, but Zach was faster, his rapier hit its head, cutting a shallow line in the metallic surface of the spirits body as it pulled back to evade.

It wasnt much, but with that shallow wound Zach could tell that his plan was working. His strikes increased his buffs, and his Aspect Tyrant and Lord of Grace and Woe were lowering the spirits power. With every moment that passed he would grow stronger, and the spirit weaker. Or at least its power.

The fact that with Nahas perk he had only managed to inflict what was basically a scratch told him that the spirit either had an incredibly high endurancewhich Zach thought was unlikely as his attack had been far above what any spirit of that tier should haveor, far more likely, it had a perk or perks that increased its defense. Just how Zachs offensive abilities and perks had modifiers for his attacks that could make him strike with greater strength, so did defensive ones have modifiers focused on making their defense greater.

Zach mostly relied on evasion and parrying, so he didnt have any real defensive perks. Though, his new armor seemed to be very powerful. He only now realized just how much better made it was than anything that he had worn before. If he had worn any of his previous armors, that attack from the spirit wouldve cut right through it.

The defense of an armor relied on its endurancethe toughness of the materials that they were made out ofbut also the angle of attack, the type of damage, the craft of the armor itself, the way that it was layered and made. His armors buffs werent the only thing good about it. It could take a beating.

Zach looked at the spirit floating a short distance away, the wound it took making it wary of him. Zach didnt push it, he knew that with every second he drew closer to another stack of Tyrant and more power while his opponent lost its.

He wondered how the people that fought it before him felt. It was tough and powerful, if Zach wasnt built to dampen its power It wouldve been a lot harder to fight it. His mental defenses were also formidable, but he could imagine others encountering the spirit falling prey to its mental song, dying without knowing it. Naha was still present in his awareness, but it was muted, as if she was sleeping. It was a tough opponent, but Zach had come prepared. The potions they drank were still in effect, he was faster and stronger, more resistant to the spirits Aspect or at least a part of it.

The spirit beat its wings getting higher, Zach activated Temporal Fighting and dashed to the sidehis image a step ahead of his real body. The spirit moved immediately, a blast of wind traveled ahead of it, hitting Zach before it arrived. Zach used Winds Master to hit the attack with his own blast of wind, canceling most of its power. What got through simply washed over Zach with no effect, his Winds Mark and other powers decreased its effectiveness against him.

The spirit dove, slashing with its blades. Zach prepared to take advantage when it attacked his image, but then at the last moment of its dive the spirit whirled around, attacking Zachs real position. He hadnt expected it to be able to tell, and he didnt have the time to wonder why.

The attack surprised him enough that he barely raised both his weapons up in time to block. He blocked the spirits blades, his hands bent and the ground cracked beneath his feet, but he stopped the spirit cold. The grill-like arrangements on the spirits chest opened up, swiveling like a valve, and Essence spilled out as the spirits entire body started to vibrate, creating a sound. Zach braced his mind, but this was no mental attack. A deep rumbling song exploded out of the valves and the spirits entire body, created by vibrations and who knew what else, it blasted straight into Zach.

He felt the sound hit him, the vibration shake his body, it ripped through him bypassing his armor, hitting the soft body beneath. There was pain, and Zach yelled out as his bones cracked, as his blood vessels rupturedhis yell turned into a cough as blood welled up through his throat and he splattered it all over the inside of his helmet. The spirit pushed his two blades against Zachs forcing him back. He tried to take a step, but pain lanced through his leg. He leveraged his will on his |Focused Mind| ignoring the pain. He stepped back, but the spirit followed, it attacked, and its attacks went right past Zachs attempts to block. The hits dinged his armor, but it held. His body was ravaged by the sound that was still coming, he could feel the damage accumulate and knew that soon he would have real problems. His bones werent yet fully broken, but the cracks were there.

With his body trained in combat, and his |Enhanced Trained Body| letting him move through the pain and injury he tried to retaliate. He swung his blade and activated Consequence. The spirit blocked, but the kinetic energy carried through, blasting the spirit back. With a moment of rest, and time to focus his mind, Zach looked around and blinked away. He stumbled the moment he landed, then something smashed into his back, sending him rolling forward across the ground. He stopped on his back, feeling something in his chest give under the assault of the sound that shook everything. Second Chance triggered immediately, and he felt the damage to his chest heal fullyit didnt matter, the damage continued to build with the song continuing.

Zach saw a blur above him, and then recognized the spirit, diving from high above down toward him on the groundboth of its blades pointed toward him. His body was too damaged to move out of the way fast enough, so Zach dropped his rapier and raised both hands, pointing a palm and the blade at the spirit.

As it nearly impaled him, he triggered Unleash Arsenal. A blast of wind, more powerful than anything else that had been in this fight so far exploded out of his bladeall his buffs, increasing the effectiveness of his power. The wind smashed into the spirit, even though it tried to use its own to weaken the attack, it didnt workZachs effects lowered its power substantially. He saw it spread its wings, attempting to ride the momentum of Zachs attack to cushion it. He didnt let it. From his outstretched hand he used [Aspect Binding Chains] using Soul Aspect from his arsenal. Glowing chains caught the spirit, keeping it in place. The song coming out of it changed from a deep reverberation to a high pitched whining sound. He felt the chains hold the spirit, made to hold souls, and it seemed that spirits were close enough. He watched the chains shake as they were somehow attacked, but the sound alone wasnt enough to break them.

Wind smashed into the spirit, it pushed, and Zach pulled with the chains. He heard the whine of metal as the spirits wings bent and twisted them. The spirit tried to escape, its body twisting and straining against the assault and the chains. Then, finally the chains shattered under the strain and the spirits attack, and it was thrown back. Zach rolled, put his knees beneath himself and raised his visor. He threw a vial filled with a healing potion into his mouth, quicker than trying to raise it above his head to drink. He bit and broke the glass, tried to limit the damage and let the liquid flow down his throat. The shards of glass bit into his flesh, but the healing effect pushed them back out and he spit the bloody glass out.

He raised his head, looking around and saw the spirit falling, its wings broken. Wind though, answered its call and let it glide toward the ground. Zach dashed forward and focused. As his body healed and through the pain he swung his blade, sending a |Greater Sealing Crescent Slash| at the spirit still in the air. It tried to evade, but without wings it was a lot less mobile. His skill hit it, and suddenly the wind around it stilled. The spirit fell to the ground and Zach charged it with [Aspect Whirling Wings]. His blades whirled through the air like wind itself, hitting the spirit and tearing gashes in its body as it neared the ground. It smashed the dirt after he passed, and Zach turned, prepared for the final blow.

He took a step, readied his skill, the unleashed his |Technique Set: Temporal Tempest, Three Fold Strikes| at the spirit that tried to brace itself with broken wings and stand up. Two attacks came at it from opposing sides of the spirit, and then just as they were about to hitwind blasted out of the spirit. His silence ran out, and the spirit rose, Zachs attacks stopped cold on either side of it, his mind bending as he felt resistance. As if he was trying to cut through thick liquid, the wind cushioned the spirit, protected it. And then Zachs skill broke and he stumbled back.

A song was unleashed out of the spirit as it took a step toward him. A deep and primal song, that spoke of breaking and shattering. And it was a song, like all the others sound based attacks that came from the spirit. There was a melody to it, a cacophony at first, sounding like a screech of wind and metal that then turned into a symphony.

The ground cracked beneath the spirit, the air shook, and the song hit Zach. His armor trembled, the sound piercing through it, into his body and flesh through the seams and holes. The sound blasted through him, bouncing around from the inside of the armor, almost amplifying the damage that he received.

Zach fell to his knees as the strength left him, he felt his body falling apart under the assault and his mind slowed down. Quickly he realized that he had only one option left. He triggered Essence Elemental, and his body changed. The last plane that he had visited was this one, and he felt the dominant Essences of this plane shape him. His body turned to metallic plates as his armor went into a special storage. His body changed, talons grew on his left hand and feet, his body became leaner smaller, a beak grew on his face. His wounds healed in the process, and the sound attack on his body lost its effectiveness. He could still feel it, but now it was far less. He was a copy of the spirit across from him, a hybrid elemental of something that Zach didnt quite understand. The Wind around him felt unlike anything he had felt from it before.

He didnt have the time to dwell on that, so he jumped forward, using [Aspect Wings] and growing the same type of wings as the spirit on his back. He flew forward, and then blinked across the distance, taking the spirit off-guard. He stabbed his blade into its body, the buffs now high enough, and his |Flaw Perception| allowed him to hone in at an area on his target. He stabbed and managed to punch through. He pulled himself close, chest to chest, leaving the spirits long blades behind his back. It was a spirit, its hands were longer, not as good at grasping as what Zach had. He then raised his rapier in his other hand and stabbed from above, straight in between two plates. The song coming out of the spirit turned to shrieks that wouldve probably ruptured Zachs eardrums if he had been in his human form.

The spirit thrashed, twisted and then wrenched its shoulder, ripping Zachs rapier out of his hand. It wasnt dying and the wind bashed them both just as the song intensified.

Zach let go of his elemental form and turned back to human. He raised his empty hand up above and summoned his Ethereal Blade. The song ripped his skin, he felt his chest open up and blood spill through. His eardrums punctured, and blood leaking from his nose, he smashed his newly formed blade into its eye, activating Dazzling Strike.

It twisted its head, but the blade remained inside. And still it didnt die.

Zach felt his body falling apart under the assault, so he changed his blade form to Time.With his blade still in the monsters chest, his Tyrant stacks reset, but he knew that he needed to finish this quickly. He used Slow Time, and used the extra moment to gather his thoughts. With a plan he activated Ancient Heritage and moved Qi through his body. A moment later he twisted the blade, and unleashed lightning through the spirit. He felt it shake, he felt some of the attack hit him through it as well. But its struggle in his arms lessened, Zach re-equipped his armor as he pulled his blade out of his opponent, getting a step between them that the spirit tried to take advantage of and cut Zachs head off. He summoned a new Ethereal Blade and raised it to block with |Greater Parry|. The parry threw the spirit off, and it stumbled back, its broken wings unable to help it keep balance. Zach advanced, He whirled, striking the monster several times in quick succession, carving wounds in its metallic body.

Then, he stabbed it in the chest again, and felt the time come. He focused his mind and activated his Source Drain. The spirits power filled him, throbbed through his blade and into him as the spirit died in his arms. A few moments, and it was all over.

Zach took a step back then felt his knees give and fell on his back. In the corner of his eye, he saw a notification and he pulled it up. With a tiny mental exertion he chose his LesserWind Aspect to be overwritten and then a new Aspect was now part of his soul weapon.

Greater Windsong Aspect

Windsong blade form. You may control wind freely around you while the form is active. Any ranged attack directed at you will be automatically intercepted by the wind. Each movement of the blade produces a sound based on your willpower. The sounds can either deal mental damage equal to 15% of the targets intelligence per second to a maximum of 80% and put them in a stupor like state, if they have less than 1000 base intelligence or deal stacking physical damage equal to 15% the targets endurance every second up to the maximum of 80% per second if they have less than 1000 base endurancethis damage bypasses most external defenses. You may activate Compelling Song which will be carried by the wind around you to all targets you chose, the song will put anyone who has less than 1000 base intelligence and hears it in a trance like state where they are more susceptible to your commands. You may activate Shattering Song, which will send a vibrating blast from your blade dealing physical damage equal to 150% of each targets endurance.

Drains mental stamina when using the blade and its power.

A new blade form.

Zach pushed his notification away and stood up. He looked around, seeing a chest at the bottom of the shrine. He turned away from it and headed in Nahas direction to check up on her. He had won, and now he had another great weapon in his arsenal.