The Systemic Lands

Chapter LXX – Day 901 (2) – Double Helping Of Traps

Chapter LXX – Day 901 (2) – Double Helping Of Traps

Michael collapsed at my words. His soldiers weren’t responding as one of them shouted to hold in place. A quick glance upwards and I also knew what the Avatar was planning. My mind raced as I tried to work out what was happening. Address the issues in order.

Michael was faking obviously. I wouldn’t use my trump card until it was necessary. But he chose to play along with it meaning that he had a countermeasure in place that he thought worked and was trying to lure me into a trap.

I wasn’t sure about his soldiers, perhaps they had instructions, just to protect the area he was in and just acting. Well, an opening would be created soon by the Avatar’s next move. It was an inspired tactic, but ultimately a waste.

Airships were too expensive and only the Avatar could make such high-level hybrids that were plummeting towards the ground. Suppressing their modules that governed various aspects by her mere presence. A nice work around for her clear lack of direct combat capabilities.

Their energy clearly put them at level 5. Michael would be able to kill them, so he would be forced to stop faking to engage them. I was circling his spot, but I would soon be very obvious, since we were moving around his position.

Still, he was injured from the earlier attack. It wasn’t that bad but was another factor pushing me towards acting. The hybrids impacted the plaza, crushing several people and sending a tremor through the ground. How would you deal with this?

That was when I felt an immense amount of danger as a bell began to ring. What was it? I realized only a second before it occurred. The city shield! I quickly reinforced the outer Astral Projection I was using as the bubble snapped into place.

It extended blow the ground as well, a sphere around the center of the plaza where the store was located. The outer edge lining up with the wall. But what was horrible about this bubble was that it enforced the will of the system, crushing any energy that was not inside a human being or a deviation from the standard way to use skills.

The modules I altered, and the various twists I had employed, began to fray at the seams. A homunculus would have been shredded by something like this. Ripped apart, with everything held together destroyed in an instant.

For me, I was in a gray area, along with my skills. I had a physical body, however small and slight. The ability to fly was quickly stripped away and the barrage of energy began to slowly degrade my Astral Projection. It wasn’t chaos energy, or energy from another layer that was employed. Well, it might be, but it was hard to say. Testing city shields was expensive, and I had only done two of them. The shield was nothing more than the system itself sheltering people inside of its protection.

The monochrome was everything else being suppressed. That was why monsters retained some color. They were part of the system, and it didn’t fully suppress them. But the hybrids were suffering terribly, and the soldiers would defeat them. I hadn’t expected such a bold move, but it was impressive.

I wanted to retreat, but a chance like this wouldn’t come again. I debated if I should act, and I noticed Michael’s head tilted in my direction. He might be able to see through my disguise with the city shield active and slowly disrupting my outer Astral Projection.

It was time to act. “Flee and bring supplies to the rendezvous point,” I hissed at Ruth. While I didn’t expect to fail, it was always good to have a back up plan of some sort. If I succeeded, then she would no longer matter and could wait forever for all I cared.

She let go of me and I kicked off the ground. Michael did the same thing. Of course he had been faking, I thought and rolled my eyes. “Gar mar!” I activated the sonic construct as loud as possible and pushed the command through the air with my energy. His body seized up and he collapsed to the ground.

“Null Refraction!” I used my sonic construct to say the name of the skill rapidly to gain more control over it in order to fight back against the pressure of the city shield. The soldiers guarding him all split up as holes of null energy were blasted into the air where they had been standing. One sent an orb of light at me, which was the most useless attack I had ever seen. It wouldn’t even do any damage.

I would be fixing that with my personal guards and ensuring they were both competent and loyal once I took over. The time of my victory was now.

I quickly closed the distance towards Michael. It was a strain to push my body like this, but I had to go all out without holding anything back. Any hesitation here would be my loss. Once I put my hand on him, I would shred his body, with no chance of recovering.

My hand reached out and my skill Imbue Life was ready and waiting. He used skills in a combination manner. I had invented that technique you thief and knew its weakness. I sent out a surge of energy in front of me, slicing through the middle of the annihilation attack.

While it would scramble most other forms of energy, the trick was to make a wave of dense energy. Dense enough it wouldn’t be devoured instantly. The vast majority of the time it was easier to dodge or reposition, but I couldn’t allow him time to recover from his disablement. While I would hope he would be down for minutes, I knew I had seconds to act and kill him.

I felt an immense amount of danger as I readied for another annihilation attack. That wasn’t it! Beam attacks from hidden soldiers. “Null Refraction.” I was ready with my counter, but my danger sense increased. I was suddenly struck in the back by a weak beam attack, but it disrupted my Astral Body and several modules I had been maintaining as shock rushed through my mind.

That was when Michael used an annihilation attack on me and escaped. I couldn’t maintain my outer shell with this damage. Soldiers rushed in and began unleashing weak attacks at me. I reversed the force energy holding my Astral Projection with but a thought, forcing all the soldiers back along with their attacks.

The last hybrid was dying, and soldiers were spreading out everywhere, all focused on me. I couldn’t manipulate anyone with the city shield up. I couldn’t fly either. Already my main Astral Projection was fraying heavily.

Dammit! He had too many countermeasures prepared. Time to go all out and risk an anti-point. The time for half measures and subtly was over. I could already tell Michael was breaking down what I had done to him. In a minute he would regain control over his body.

Taking a deep breath, I drew in immense amounts of system energy. The curse damage was already spreading, but a moment was all I needed. “IMBUE NULL!” Combining two skills like this should never be done. The modules of both skills protested as they were smashed together. I altered the skill to spread out and suppress all energy around me.

The soldiers’ skills all stopped working and they bent over in crippling pain. I couldn’t kill them unfortunately, but I could disable them for a moment. I raced towards Michael once again as my hands flashed through a series of hand signs. Dragging out the possible potential of my skill to the max.

Already I could feel the system take notice that I was infringing upon its power and domain. An anti-point would arrive shortly, but it did not matter, and would only help me. I would give up my useless skill freeing a skill slot and improving my overall situation.

The sonic constructs formed, and all vibrated at slightly different frequencies. Granting me even more control over the skill I was about to use, Michael desperately tried to escape. It was too late! You forced me to go this far, you better be ready to face the consequences of your actions!

“LIFE REFRACTION!”