Chapter 177: Close

The shadowy reaper finished rising behind the Black Gem Ancestral Spirit. Both sickles crossed over its chest, then ripped apart in opposite directions.

Dozens of crimson cuts opened across the Sovereign’s spectral body at once. Some were shallow enough to barely disturb its shape. Others tore deep enough that black mana spilled out of the wounds before it struggled to reform.

Unmaking settled into every one of those openings and started doing exactly what an L3 Hex was meant to do. It dismantled stats, resistances and abilities all at once, and kept making them worse over time.

The pressure crushing Jaxir’s mana senses loosened almost immediately.

He sucked in a breath as his Attune sphere forced its way back into existence around him. For the first time since the ancestral spirit appeared, the space around its body stopped feeling completely untouchable.

At the very least, Jaxir could finally sense the mana gathering around its maw before the next beam fired.

Then, a timer appeared at the edge of his vision.

[02:59]

Jaxir’s grin faded.

"Three minutes?"

He rolled aside as black light tore through the spot he’d just been in, then came back up onto one knee with his staff already raised.

Technically, 3 minutes was generous compared to the single minute of vulnerability he had managed to create against Maelis. However, Maelis had been Level 27, while this thing was only Level 12.

The difference should’ve been absurdly in Jaxir’s favor.

Instead, an L3 Ability had bought him 3 minutes. Unfortunately, Sovereign meant far more than Jaxir understood.

He pushed himself up and jumped straight onto the junior Black Gem’s back, grabbing a ridge of crystal with one hand as the wolf startled beneath him.

Jaxir leaned forward and pointed his staff past one of its ears, keeping his eyes on the ancestral spirit as the first traces of another beam gathered in its maw.

At least now he could see it coming.

"Your job is easy. If we can dodge it, run, and if we can’t, redirect it."

The Black Gem Alpha’s ears twitched.

"I’m going to assume that means you understood me."

Jaxir didn’t wait for confirmation.

The junior wolf launched itself sideways as the next beam fired, its paws digging into the cavern floor as it carried them both out of the way.

Jaxir started casting before it had even landed.

Silver-blue shots streaked across the cavern one after another, until the Ancestral Spirit disappeared behind a constant stream of mana.

Some Casts struck its body, while others only forced it to react. Either way, Jaxir used every impact to keep mapping out the weaknesses Unmaking had carved open.

Fracture.

He drove the Hex into the same crimson fault lines Unmaking had already exposed, reinforcing them rather than searching for anything new.

The Ancestral Spirit’s body shuddered as those wounds reopened. Before the Sovereign could fully stabilize itself, Jaxir followed up.

Haunt.

The ghostly Hex buried itself in the weakened structure, making the damage far harder to shake off.

[02:32]

The Black Gem Alpha cut sharply beneath him, carrying Jaxir past another beam while his staff never stopped moving.

Casts filled the gaps between his Hexes. Some flew straight at the spirit, while others curved around its body to hit the weaknesses from angles it wasn’t watching.

By now, Jaxir could see the shape of the fight. He didn’t need one devastating attack. He needed weight.

Every Hex he landed had to stack on top of the last one, until the Sovereign’s defenses collapsed under the accumulated pressure.

Unmaking had already given him the foundation. All Jaxir had to do now was make sure the Ancestral Spirit never got enough room to tear those weaknesses away.

All of a sudden, 3 minutes didn’t feel like such a generous window. If anything, it felt like a countdown to an execution.

Bind.

Shadowy tendrils erupted beneath the spirit and climbed around its limbs.

The Ancestral Spirit tore through them almost instantly. Still, that tiny interruption gave Jaxir enough time to layer another Hex into the same damaged pathways.

Wither.

Crimson lightning cracked across its spectral body while dried leaves spun through the black light around it, poisoning the mana that was trying to repair everything Fracture and Haunt had already damaged.

The Sovereign finally growled.

"Yeah, now you’re paying attention." Jaxir said with a grin.

The junior wolf surged forward before another beam could finish forming, then stopped so suddenly that Jaxir nearly went flying over its head.

Black light passed a meter or so in front of them and carved a glowing channel through the cavern wall.

Jaxir barely noticed. He was watching the Ancestral Spirit.

The Sovereign had taken a step forward.

Only one paw had moved. However, it was enough to make Jaxir’s eyes narrow. The edge of its spectral body had started fading before the foot even touched down.

The ancestral wolf immediately pulled back toward the black pillar. Once it returned to the spot where it had formed, the missing part of its body restored itself.

Jaxir stared for half a second, then grinned.

"Oh, you’re stuck there."

The Ancestral Spirit could attack from across the cavern and dominate the mana around it. What it couldn’t do was actually chase them, not without losing whatever connection was keeping it alive.

In other words, Jaxir had never needed to worry about missing Unmaking in the first place. Now that he understood the limitation, every attack from here on could be built around a target that had no choice but to stay inside one small area.

Suddenly, the next minute looked a lot easier... until the ancestral wolf snorted.

3 slabs of black light formed around its body.

Jaxir’s smile vanished as the shields began to orbit.

His next Cast hit one and ricocheted off to the side, blasting apart a section of the black crystal wall instead of reaching the Sovereign.

A second shield moved to catch Fracture before it landed. The Hex twisted off course as the strange surface redirected the mana away from its target.

The third intercepted Bind.

"Goddammit."

The Ancestral Spirit’s attacks changed as well.

Its beams no longer came with the same horrifying speed. They took longer to gather in its maw, while the 3 shields moved around its body on their own.

It had traded some of its offense for defense, and Jaxir understood why right away.

The spirit didn’t need to kill him quickly anymore, it only needed to survive.

Jaxir glanced at the timer.

[01:27]

"Fuck."

More than half the window was already gone.

He had landed Fracture, Haunt, Wither and pieces of several other Hexes. But, that was nowhere near enough to do what Entropy had done to Maelis.

Unravel struggled to reach any meaningful buff through the moving shields. Drain couldn’t stay put long enough to pull anything substantial. And every time he tried to layer another Bind or Fracture, the Sovereign got 3 separate chances to redirect it.

At this rate, Unmaking would run out before Jaxir built up enough pressure for it to matter.

The Black Gem Alpha dodged another of the slower beams while Jaxir sent 6 Casts out at once, spreading them across different angles to try and keep every shield busy.

2 of them slipped through and hit the Sovereign. However, the gap closed before Jaxir could force a Hex in behind them.

Through the entire assault, the ancestral wolf just stared at him with that same infuriating contempt.

Jaxir’s jaw tightened.

They weren’t going to win this from range. The shields had too much time to react while his attacks crossed the cavern. The spirit could afford to just stand there, trading seconds for his failed attempts until the timer hit zero.

Jaxir looked down at the junior wolf beneath him, then at the crimson weaknesses still burning across the ancestor’s body.

There was only one way to make those shields useless. They had to get close.

Really fucking close.