Chapter 182: Lightning Rod

This time, the choice is a bit easier. All three floors seem survivable - the left door is a tall set of cliffs overlooking the ocean. They smell of storms and ozone, probably housing lightning elementals or somesuch. 

In the middle there’s a somewhat peaceful looking flooded village… but it smells like rot. And, focusing my [Observation], I can notice humanoid outlines just outside of view. Which seems bad, and frankly, I want to spare Trey the sight of rotting corpses.

Finally, to the right, there is a valley filled with a thin fog, rising from the rivers. It whispers of hidden hunters and cruel claws. 

“Okay, so, this may be really dumb, but I want to take the leftmost door,” I say.

“The lightning one?” Anna asked, creasing her metallic brows. “Why?”

Thatch figures it out instantly. “No way,” he whispers, staring at me aghast. “You want to take on lightning elementals just to get more electricity essence? So you can charge your phone?!”

I shake my head, solemnly. “My phone is secondary, silly. It’s about my headphones,” I reply. 

He laughs at that. “Unbelievable,” he says. “Alright, sure.”

Huh. I blink. That was easy. With quick motions, I turn to the others, who largely seem to have a sentiment of “sure.”

“Wait. How will we take down the elementals?” Bofoy asks.

It’s a very legitimate question that neither Jean or Isabelle posed. They remember what I did on the second floor. So, I simply smile softly. “Don’t worry, I have a suitable skill.”

- - -

Wind and rain slam into me, and for once, I mostly let them hit me. My clothes and hair are still crusted with salt, so I will accept them growing sticky once to wash that off. Kuro still gets to hang around me, of course, hiding my shape from the others - but this time, the shadows are permeable.

Which is a useful ability that I should make use of more. Solid and non-solid shadows. Hm.

I blink in thought, when I feel mana move at the edge of my detection. Almost reflexively, I respond in the way a nullmage should. [Suppression] first, pressing down on the mana that constitutes the ability, delaying its activation and weakening it enough for a quick [Deconstruction] to take the entire thing apart.

Information floods into my mantle, and I tilt my head, looking in the direction. All I see is a brief flicker, like a trick of the light, but mana doesn’t lie. There’s definitely something there. Which means there’s something for me to break.

[Observation 21 > 22]

A good chunk of mana - enough to give me internal burns - passes into my [Deconstruction], and with a scream of high-pitched thunder, the lightning elemental comes apart.

[You have killed a lv. 66 Stormwoven]

Fractured yellow sparks rain to the ground in a mini lightshow. I breathe in, and the smell of ozone reaches me. “Oh,” I say. “I was about to be hit by lightning.”

“Thunderstruck, even, you could say,” Opal supplies helpfully.

I snicker. “Yeah, sure.” Then, with a focused effort, I widen my scanning field. It gives me a slight headache, but Perpetual Pursuit keeps it in check. There are three more gathering presences around us. Three more presences quickly turn into zero.

[You have killed a lv. 71 Stormwoven]

[You have killed a lv. 55 Stormwoven]

[You have killed a …]

Then, I walk forward some more. The grass feels charged with static underneath my feet, and the stormclouds above are dark and foreboding. The air is filled with wind and ozone, but lightning does not spear down yet. It just hovers like a distant threat.

Trey seems impatient, kicking small rocks off the side of the cliffs as we walk. I tilt my head, watching him. Another stormwoven appears on the edge of my detection, and I unmake them. [Deconstruction] really is good against mana-based lifeforms. Scarily good.

The kid pouts. Is he upset he can’t use his skill? I wonder. Checking in on him, I also look at Anna, who looks around in wonder, and occasionally shoots me shy glances. What a strange girl. There’s nothing special to see here. 

One moment to another, lightning spears down from the sky.

It’s entirely mundane lightning. A brutally violent tower of it, shooting from the sky right into Inu. It’s so bright it blinds me entirely for a moment, and my eyes hurt. Half a dozen voices scream in pain, but I don’t. Instead, I breathe.

My healing passes through myself. Then I can see again. Very quickly, I walk up to Inu - and to my surprise, she’s still standing. I tilt my head, and she looks back at me, equally surprised. Shocked, even. Then, she shrugs helplessly. “[Resistance],” she guesses. “Lightning follows the path of least resistance. My… my armor.”

That’s when I notice that spots of the metal are molten. With a quick thought, she pushes it all into her [Reservoir] - somehow - and reveals her skin underneath. She’s burnt. “Does it hurt?” I ask.

She grimaces softly, then smiles. “Yeah.”

“Share it?” I ask.

For a moment, she thinks about it, then smiles and nods. “Okay,” she says. [Empathy] reaches out for me again, and I feel a part of her pain pass into me. It’s… tolerable. Very tolerable. Huh. Her higher heart score, probably? And [Resistance], too.

Still, I fill her with healing mana, which she lets take care of her injuries, even giving me a small smile. “Thanks,” she says, then summons her armor again. “I’ll be our, ehem, lightning rod,” she says with a small snicker.

“Yeah, awesome, but can I like, get my eyes back?!” Opal asks. 

I quickly shake off my confusion, and then heal them.

- - -

A few dozen elementals and three regular lightning bolts later, we’ve reached the bottom of the cliff, where it tapers off. The storm is far less violent down here, the lower alteration making lightning more rare - and it’s also where the world bleeds into white. The edge of what the monolith is simulating for us, I suppose. 

As always, we walk up the staircase, into the next safe-room. This time, the other group didn’t directly follow us… which makes them less predictable. But that’s fine. They can get as close as they like. We’ll prepare. We’ll take them down.

[Level Up! 85 > 86]

I pluck my coconut, and eat it, feeling the restoration flood through me. 

[Your stats have been reinforced!]

It even refills my mana, I note, which is surprising. My attunement loop and the cruncher are both still active, maintaining my training and my structural integrity. We got lucky that Inu was able to so calmly attract and effectively disarm the lightning. 

Things could have gotten worse if Sylves had chosen to fly, for example. She would have certainly been upset if her dress had burnt. Of course, she had more of them, but still. I breathe in, enjoying the calm of the safe zone. Except, of course, it doesn’t remain calm.

A portal swirls open in the air, and Raven steps through, black mantle of feathers wrapped tight around them, soaked with brackish water. Still, I can hear the cruel glee when they hum. “Found you.”

Dang. And I was just enjoying my normal-ish adventure.