Chapter 114: Better Luck Next Time

Verren’s Mana shifted through his legs, and this time Jaxir recognized the circulation before the captain had even committed to moving. Charge was coming, which meant the distance between them was about to become a weapon, so Jaxir stepped sideways before Verren exploded forward and watched the trident pass through the space where his chest had been.

Verren adjusted instantly, twisting the failed rush into another attack as Combo began linking Charge into a sweeping strike. Jaxir’s eyes flashed silver-blue when he saw the Mana between the 2 abilities stretch thin, because now that he knew exactly what he was looking for, the weakness was almost embarrassingly obvious.

Fracture struck the connection.

Jaxir didn’t bother aiming for Verren’s flesh or armor; he sent the Hex directly into the narrow bridge of Mana carrying one ability into the next. The connection split before Combo could finish its work, and Verren’s sweep lost most of its force halfway through the motion.

The captain stumbled one step before recovering, but the real change was underneath the failed attack. Momentum had been building from the Charge and preparing to carry that growing force into the next ability, yet the moment Fracture severed Combo, the accumulation collapsed with it.

Jaxir laughed. "Tough scene."

Verren’s expression hardened as he reset his Stance and came at him again, but Jaxir no longer felt anything close to the pressure he’d been under a minute ago. The captain might have more HP, more Body, more MP and a complete Elite foundation behind his abilities, but every one of those abilities announced itself through Mana before his body could carry it out.

A heavier circulation gathered through Verren’s arms.

Heavy Strike.

Jaxir stepped outside its path before the trident began moving, and when Verren tried to recover into Combo, Fracture bit into the same thinning connection again. The strike crashed into the deck instead, tearing out a chunk of wood while Jaxir laughed and fired a Cast into Verren’s exposed side.

[-38]

The captain spun with the impact and changed Stance before Jaxir could fire again, shifting Mana rapidly between his legs, hips and shoulders to recover his balance. Jaxir recognized the redistribution immediately, and another idea clicked into place as he remembered what he’d learned from Rin.

Bind didn’t need to create a restriction from nothing.

It was much easier to make an existing weakness worse.

Fracture had already damaged the pathways Verren was using to shift between attacks, so Jaxir sank Bind into one of those cracks just as Stance tried to redistribute Mana through his right leg. The flow locked for less than a second, but Verren’s foot failed to adjust with the rocking deck and slid across the wet boards.

Jaxir fired twice before the captain could recover.

[-31]

[-35]

Both Casts hit Verren in the chest and drove him backward, while another river beast crashed into the opposite side of the ship hard enough to send broken planks spinning across the deck. Water sprayed over the railing, Nick shouted something Jaxir couldn’t make out, and somewhere beneath them the hull groaned under another impact.

Jaxir ignored all of it.

Verren roared and forced Mana through the pathways Bind had disrupted, activating Overwhelm in an attempt to break the rhythm through raw power. His defense weakened exactly as Jaxir remembered, while a much larger amount of Mana gathered behind the trident.

That gave Jaxir another opening.

Wither entered Verren’s Mana before the attack completed.

Jaxir had once thought of Wither as little more than magical decay, but that understanding had been wrong. The Hex poisoned Mana based on how the target used and contained it, turning the target’s own circulation into the thing that carried the effect deeper.

Verren’s Power Branch made that almost unfair.

Momentum deliberately held onto the Mana left behind by every offensive ability, carrying part of it forward so each successive attack could become stronger. Jaxir only needed to contaminate that accumulated Mana once, and then Verren’s own Path would keep preserving it for him.

The captain thrust.

Jaxir dodged before the movement started.

Verren tried to flow into Cleave, but Combo stretched the poisoned Mana into another thin bridge and Fracture severed it before the transition completed. The half-formed ability collapsed, while the Wither already caught inside Momentum remained there waiting for whatever Verren tried next.

Jaxir laughed harder. "This is terrible design."

Verren’s face twisted. "Shut up!"

"No, seriously." Jaxir fired another Cast and forced him to block with the shaft of his trident. "Who made a Path that stores the poison for me?"

Verren answered by activating Charge again, but Jaxir saw the Mana gather in his legs and moved before he launched. The captain rushed past him, tried to convert the miss into Slam, and found Fracture waiting in the transition while Bind tightened around the damaged pathway in his hip.

His body jerked sideways instead of completing the collision.

Jaxir’s grin widened.

That was the difference between understanding an ability and merely knowing what it did. A status screen could tell him that Combo chained attacks together or that Stance improved offense and mitigation, but watching the Mana itself showed him where those abilities had to bend, where they thinned and what they depended on to function.

Now Verren’s entire build looked fragile.

The captain attempted Crush next, gathering Mana into the downward strike, but Jaxir stepped away before the trident rose completely. When Verren changed toward Cleave instead, Jaxir caught Combo in the transition yet again and broke it, leaving the captain standing with poisoned Mana trapped inside Momentum and Bind interfering with the pathways he needed to recover.

Jaxir stopped Mana Reinforcement.

He had too little MP left to waste 20 every second, and he no longer needed the extra Body Stats now that Verren couldn’t surprise him. His simple Casts cost him almost nothing through the Reflection Staff, which meant the last of his personal pool could go exactly where it mattered.

Verren seemed to realize the same thing.

His expression changed, and for the first time since the Elite status appeared, he hesitated before attacking.

Jaxir noticed immediately. "Oh, don’t stop now."

Verren snarled and forced Overwhelm.

The decision was desperate enough that Jaxir almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

Overwhelm stripped away part of Verren’s defense and shoved even more Mana into the offensive circulation already carrying Wither. Momentum tried to preserve that power, the poisoned Mana surged through the same damaged pathways Fracture had opened, and Verren’s own armor lit violently as his circulation buckled.

He coughed and staggered, a continuous series of damage markers appearing above his head as Wither bit into him more and more.

Jaxir’s eyes glowed brighter.

"Got you."

Bind tightened around the fractured Mana in Verren’s right shoulder just as he tried to raise the trident, leaving the weapon hanging too low to protect him. Jaxir fired one Cast into the captain’s hand and another into his knee, breaking his grip and dropping him onto one leg.

[-29]

[-42]

The trident hit the deck.

Verren reached for it.

Jaxir fired again.

[-51]

The captain’s hand snapped away as the Cast struck his shoulder, and before he could shift Stance to recover, Fracture reopened the weakness Bind had been holding shut. Wither surged through the disturbed Mana at the same time, turning the attempt to regain control into another burst of pain.

Jaxir laughed and kept walking forward.

Cast after Cast hammered Verren across the deck, each shot arriving while the captain was still trying to repair the last interruption. Jaxir no longer needed to predict a complicated sequence because there wasn’t one left; he’d dismantled Combo, poisoned Momentum, disrupted Stance and left every offensive ability dependent on Mana pathways he could now recognize on sight.

[-44]

[-48]

[-53]

Verren crashed into the railing.

Jaxir raised his staff one last time, Mana gathering at the tip faster than it ever had before his reforging. He didn’t need much, only enough force to finish what the previous Casts had started.

"Better luck next time, Captain."

The final Cast struck Verren square in the chest.

[-79]

The railing snapped behind him, and Verren disappeared over the side of the ship.

Jaxir stood there laughing as the river swallowed him, the entire battle having gone from nearly impossible to one-sided the moment he stopped fighting Verren’s body and started fighting the Mana that made him dangerous. For the first time, he understood what it actually meant to have abilities 2 full Tiers above his own Level instead of simply enjoying the benefits they gave him.

Then the ship tilted so violently that even Jaxir’s new balance almost failed.

He caught the mast and looked toward the river as an enormous ridged head began rising beside the ship. The creature resembled a freshwater crocodile scaled up beyond anything reasonable, its broad skull alone spanning several meters while sheets of water poured from its armored snout and down the thick plates covering its neck.

Jaxir’s smile faded as more of the Riverheart Matriarch surfaced.

At the same time, blinding silver-blue light exploded through the windows beneath the deck. A wave of Mana followed it a moment later, strong enough to buffet Jaxir across the deck and whip his robes against his body as he snapped his gaze toward the stairs.