75 || A New Strength! Facing The Lost Engineer
"Oh, did she finally make a breakthrough into Sensory?" Avenue asks as Syringa twirls her glaive behind her without looking to block a Ghoul. Their Commander's astonishing state only lasts for a minute. Surrounded by monsters, Syringa is only relying on pure strength and minor shadow manipulation until she can move like before.
Straw and Kitty both tilt their heads cutely to the side in sync, the couple squinting as they replay what they saw in their head.
"No, not completely. Her movements are still a little stiff; I think her Wisdom Eyes makes it harder to use? She should be able to counter the moment she moves. It's why Sensory Experts are so scary, at their peak every dodge means dozens of strikes in retaliation." Straw says.
"Also, she's not using it passively like breathing, instead stopping and adjusting. A full scope of vision definitely makes extending your senses harder to use, huh." Kitty comments. Syringa is forcefully fusing her sense type Skill to keep her ability from overwhelming her.
"I know I'm new to this and everything but what are you talking about?" Livid raises a hand despite everyone watching their leader.
"I was hoping to have an explanation as well. It's clear that Commander is training in some fashion but I can't figure out for what purpose." Hammerhead speaks. As a friend of Izel, besides his innate Novice skill despite this being his first game, he was just a regular person otherwise. Their main healer analyzes how Syringa switches between dodging perfectly for a moment before rapidly defending. It's mesmerizing but largely inefficient; he had yet to make a move because Syringa's Drain triggered almost ceaselessly keeping her health tip top.
Opal goes to speak, as she and Dark also grew up in a Super Guild and are privy to both worlds' combat standards, but is intercepted. Instead, Alexandrite reminds her brother of what he first learned when entering:
Physique and Mentality originate from the natural world and not virtuality. They are concepts that can be practiced outside of Renovel through various means. The application of what is gained can then be put in combat in virtuality. It is a cycle of memory and retention that work both ways.
The peak comes in the form of superhuman abilities of the Experts, which is a steep mountain to climb. The last step in particular is the hardest as it was a culmination of everything beforehand. The trifold emotional, mental, and physical stress would kill a lesser person.
Many in the know stayed half Experts despite becoming Masters in virtuality for this very reason. The possible backlash to both their natural and virtual bodies wasn't worth it. These folks were Dungeon Running Captains of entire platoons in Super Guilds, only under their Master Expert company leader in terms of strength and influence.
This is why the ones raised by Super Guilds as their prodigal children were in awe and confusion. Lilac Alexandrite had told them all Renovel was her second game after Dragon Cross. Her standards were just shy of Apprentice, displaying indeed she had only been playing for three years. How did she know about the upper powers' open secret despite having no connections and little strength?
They would have sent a message to Syringa if they weren't afraid of breaking her concentration. Alexandrite simply smiles mysteriously at their mixed reactions. It's her secret to keep for another time.
Suddenly a pillar of Dark Essence erupts from Syria's current location, half way through to the Mid-Boss monsters. The outburst of uncontrollable energy blasts out as a circular wave, blasting the Ghouls and Ghosts surrounding her backwards--the closest ones turned into motes of tri-color light. The edges of the wave wash over the group, and though it is significantly weaker by the time it reaches them, even they felt a sense of death.
Misty black energy swirls around Syringa's body before slowly melding with her body. A Ghoul jumps at her as she pauses with Syringa twisting her body out of the way. As the monster passes by, several deep slashes appear dramatically.
Syringa spins her glaive with two hands overhead before swinging in front of her. "Horizon Slash, Anullet!"
Syringa sends a message to her friends. Everyone immediately moves into action to take out the rest of the Undead as Syringa dodges and counters a few more to finally reach the Mechas.
After finally getting the hang of Wisdom's Eyes and her new state as a Sensory Expert, they were the perfect test! The Mecha Sabers were faster than the Undead while the Mecha Guards were tougher. Such enemies could let her get used to what her body could do now.
Syringa's ability to sense the flow of Essence and Darkness energy in the environment, how it moved throughout her body, and where to guide in her Soul Realm has been boosted significantly. She can't move it as she wished entirely, but pushing a miniscule amount of Darkness energy into her glaive lets her deal 200 to the Mecha Guards and 600 damage to the Mecha Sabers.
With half of these numbers from solely her weapon, one could only imagine how much damage she could do if she wielded full control of her Essence. Her Vanguard Weapon Arts cap at 500--900 damage while Dark Arts are boosted to 1000-1200. Additionally the Serrated Shadow passive of her glaive has merged with the innate Dark Ifrit's Drain ability, granting the regeneration stalling Injury debuff while stealing their resources for herself!
Surprisingly, her increased sense of touch allows Syringa to adjust how she executes Arts, allowing them to be used succinctly. Just a little more practice with the ones she uses more often meant she'd be able to fuse them at least four times without draining her Stamina and Focus. Furthermore she saw her Weapon and Art Proficiency greatly increased while some of her Arts finally breaking into the next Level! It seemed her method of controlling Essence affected growth in every area!
Fighting against monsters almost two tiers above her with 10,000 HP each, Syringa kills a Mecha Saber and Mecha Guard by the time her party arrives. They make quick work of all but two of the Mecha Guards. As they approach the last two, there's a sudden 'thoom!' sound and Syringa is shot backwards by a line of sickly green Wind energy.
If she hadn't awakened as an Expert, Syringa wouldn't have reactivated her Lunar Energy film in time. Still, a bullet size hole is smoking within her chest plate despite the rise in defense. Clutching the spot with a hand, she and the others witnessed as the doors had creaked open.
A pale and gaunt figure about 5 '8 is pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun, the same green energy glowing from the tip. Other than the black cloak hanging off his shoulders, he has a mop of black hair, green eyes, and is wearing a red and gold tunic underneath black overalls and gloves. On his waist is an Alchemist's and Engineer's tool bags.
[The Lost Engineer | Elite | Level 30 | Greater]
"I was wondering who was destroying my metallic creations, and it turns out to be Travelers! I was curious as to how you got this far when none of you are Obsidian tier, well almost all of you." He nods to Syringa as he evaluates their strengths with a cold gaze.
"Purifying Light energy boosting your abilities, a few of you wearing Class Set and Iron Minor Artifacts--very rare I'd love to see the specifications on those once we're done! Oh, the Artifacts even match your Elemental affinity? How curious!--and one of you has undergone a qualitative change in your Essence! Interesting."
A wide maniacal smile stretches on this young man's face as the group stills. Just a glance and he was able to deconstruct their advantages. The way he carried himself was less like a Boss monster and more like an NPC, which means he was extremely intelligent and dangerous.
"Come along now, I still have much work to do." He claps his hands together as brown, green, and yellow energy glows from within. He pulls them away, gripping two pistols engraved with Stone, Wind, and Lightning symbols. The two Mecha Guards charge forward, splitting Alexandrite and Livid with Hammerhead while the Battle Couples fought together.
Syringa is suddenly busy avoiding the Boss's bullets. When they collided with where she had been, Stone spikes along with craters from Wind or Lightning blasts appeared. With such a large level difference atop of the tier difference, it is all she can do to dodge currently. What is worse was even with her intuition guiding her a step ahead, a bullet is always already headed in her new position.
Most would see this situation as frustrating at best or frightening at worst. For Syringa this is an opportunity to further bodily control of her Physique and fine tune her observation of her Mentality. Any push to help her become a Master Expert would help her friends and their collective future.
After about five minutes of adjusting, Syringa finally finds a rhythm. It is a Stone shot, then Wind, then Lightning. The fourth following shot was always at random. The first disrupted her balance, the second offset her speed, and the last dealt the most damage.
With this knowledge Syringa becomes able to plan accordingly. She sped up when facing a Stone bullet, stood her ground and deflected the Wind bullet with her glaive, and met the Lightning bullet with the Lunar empowered Darkness Art [Shade Cutter]. Now she was able to close the distance that had formed from the first shot. When she is about half way, the Boss sneers before disappearing one of his guns to snap his fingers.
Her control of her Essence and Lunar energy is interrupted. In that brief second an explosion of wind cycles around Syringa, causing her to cry out in pain! She falls to her knees, panting in pain. It is at this moment she realizes he had marked her somehow in that first strike and could cause his Essence to explode. Syringa roars as attempts to destroy the more potent Wind energy mark, running forward as she does.
The shadows on the ground shimmer as Syringa moves as fast as possible, pooling Dark Essence into her feet before activating her Charge Skill and becoming a blur. The Boss laughs this time before going to snap once more---but then Syringa is gone.
There's the tell tale rush of air from dispelled Wind energy, as she uses Shadow Travel to cross the distance. While mid-air her right hand is outstretched as she palms his face, the momentum rocketing through the doorway. Despite being the Boss, he's physically weaker than Syringa as she tosses him. His body hits the ground with a thump before rolling a bit.
In that beat Syringa waits for him to rise, she takes in her surroundings as her intuition suddenly goes wild. The large laboratory-like chamber, where the green panels have been going all along, leads to a large silo looking machine. A massive amount of water forms moat expelling from the silo at the center. A vast amount of Wind energy can be seen within a glass casing.
"You've been stealing the clouds to power this machine?" Something clicks as her eyes flash with understanding yet confusion.
"What better way to study the Breath of Life? I always wanted more for my machines, and well, besides my engineering I picked up a hobby." He replies, his title updating:
[The Necromantic Engineer | Elite | Level 30 | Greater]