Finally. Nero finally managed to actually harm the Exarch, but he did not let the achievement blind or tempt him. As soon as the glaive cut its skin, Nero leaped away, aiming to jump over its skull and behind it. Time proved Nero’s decision wise for no sooner had he jumped that the Exarch’s tail swept right in front of its face. Had he been any slower, he would have turned into a meat patty.
Nero did not dwell on his minor success, nor did he focus on the fact that his team had apparently disobeyed his orders. After all, that is exactly what they did, for though Nero could not see anyone in the vicinity, the shadows that hid him were clearly Vanessa’s, the purple attack that aimed for the Exarch’s eyes was clearly from Lina.
He did not feel glee at their aid, nor did he feel distressed that they had put themselves in harm’s way. All of Nero’s focus was on the Primal Exarch.
A gash starting from above the Exarch’s left eye went diagonally across its face until it cut through its nose. A small, deep blue flame could be seen alight on the open wound, though before it could do much harm the Exarch managed to put it out. What was left behind was merely a small cut that was only visible due to the frost covering the monster’s dark scales.
Yet, instead of anger or rage, the Exarch searched its surroundings with excitement in its eyes. Nero was hidden in the shadows, yet that only excited the monster more. How long had it been since it was injured? Even the Exarch itself did not know.
In a few seconds, the small gash on its face healed, leaving nothing behind save the frost that covered its face, but the Exarch did not even notice. Instead, it unleashed its power further, wanting to know just how far it could push the human before it broke.
The ground beneath it broke as dozens of woody vines emerged from the ground, covered in large, red thorns that looked like they could rip the skin off a person’s back! The higher the vines rose, the more the ground broke and cracked until a forest of vines, all pointing straight upwards, appeared around the Exarch.
Then... then they started to smash the ground. Nero finally appeared, not because the shadows were torn open from the vines, but because Nero was forced to dodge at incredible speeds. Vanessa could not guess how he was going to move, which broke the cover of the shadows from moment to moment.
As soon as she determined how he was moving, or where he was going, the shadows would open up once more to hide him, but that left behind moments where he was visible. The Primal Exarch, naturally, did not let such moments go unaddressed.
The vines attacked with greater ferocity, aiming to crush Nero with every strike. Nero, in turn, dodged even faster, pushing his body to its limits. He was also forced to use Virtuous Moonlight II, since his Frostburn proved ineffective against the Primal Exarch.
Instead of channeling the spell through his glaive, he merely coated its blade in the silver Moonlight to test its effectiveness.
The vines did not shy away from the light, perhaps because they were being controlled by the Exarch, but they also could not resist it. Black smoke emerged from the vines, while simultaneously making the vine weak enough for his glaive to slice through.
Without the support of the light, the glaive was entirely incapable of slicing the vines, getting stuck in them halfway, so the light was certainly helping - he just didn’t know how exactly. This didn’t seem to be how the previous Virtuous Moonlight worked - not that Nero would complain.
He merely continued to dodge, slicing the vines when necessary. The reason he didn’t go all out while cutting them was simple: Virtuous Moonlight still drank up an immense amount of aether, and Nero could not support the effect of the ability for long.
The Primal Exarch was content to simply stand and watch the performance, growing more and more vines from the ground, making Nero dance like a monkey to the beat of his vines drumming the ground.
If there was one highlight in any of this, it was that slicing the vines allowed him to use Radix Augmentation, turning the sliced vines into dust, and absorbing the feedback from killing them.
Nero’s body was on the verge of shutting down. To start with, his evolution had already put him in a nearly starved state which he had only temporarily resolved. His purification through absorbing Vitracil hadn’t made the situation any easier. The intensity of the fight only put a further strain on him, so much so that Nero genuinely had no idea when he might instantly collapse.
The refreshing feedback from Radix Augmentation helped to delay any such collapse as it filled with a cool, refreshing feeling while simultaneously strengthening his body. Though, the influence of Radix Augmentation was noticeably weaker than from when he was a Neophyte.
There was no end in sight. Nero, despite all his skill, could not even approach the Primal Exarch anymore.
The card for Snowflake, overburdened by the intensity of his newly strengthened aether, was on the verge of breaking, and Nero himself was quickly running out of stamina. He needed to think of a solution.
Unfortunately, before he could do that, reality caught up with him. It was not the Primal Exarch that got to him, nor was it the vines. His left foot cramped. The toes curled up and froze and he became entirely unable to move his left foot at all, the muscles clenched tight.
It happened too quickly and unpredictably.
Although Nero reacted quick enough, diving to the side using his right foot, he could not avoid injury.
One of the vines finally struck him, ripping off what remained of his suit and drawing blood. Fortunately, Vanessa was quick to act, hiding him in shadows once more.
Nero used the glaive as a crutch and hopped on his right foot, but the cramp in his left foot gave no signs of easing, sending waves of pain up his leg, drowning him in agony.
Nero’s mind worked in overtime, trying to think of something, when suddenly from within the shadows, a card flew at him, visible to only him. A glance was all he gave it before he started using it, not sparing any thought to the possibility that it might be a trap. He had no choice anyway.
Name: Nursing touch
Image: A hand wrapped in a white bandaid
Type: Innate
Star rank: 0
Ability: [ Heal the body through a touch of aether, leaving only a memory of what used to be ]
Flavour text: " Strength is the only medicine that can cure this cursed world," - Dagon Thomas
The card was, most likely, Bael’s innate card and probably a secret just as great as Noman, of that, Nero was certain. The reason for his certainty was that the moment he used the card, sending as much aether into it as the card would tolerate, and he felt how his body began to heal, he also felt that his body was healing stronger than it was before.
He might not have noticed such a thing before, but as a new Initiate, he was extremely self aware of what his body had been capable of. He had done his best to understand its limits in the little time that he had.
But the situation did not afford him the time nor the peace of mind to dwell on the effect of the card. He was injured, exhausted, and on the verge of being pummeled into the ground at any moment, and he had not thought of a solution yet.
Hiding in the shadows and running away was also not a viable plan, for he was certain that if the Primal Exarch didn’t see him soon, he could use these woody vines to destroy all the surroundings, leaving them no place to hide at all.
Just as he was considering his options, two other cards were passed to him through the shadows.
Name: Binding string
Image: An insect trapped in a web
Type: Innate
Star rank: 0
Ability: [ Through aetheric string, bind, and through binding string, seal. The Binding string is not material, but aether given form. It can touch even what cannot be touched, and it can seal even what cannot be seen. ]
Flavour text: "Across the perilous lands of Niere, no curse cuts deeper, no foe strikes truer, than the sharpened spear of the human mind," - Iskunder Macedon
Name: Infinite Lux
Image: A bulb shining with multiple distinct, separate colors, as if giving off a rainbow
Type: Innate
Star rank: 0
Ability: [ Replicate any energy you touch ]
Flavour text: "Cursed, beaten, nearly killed, but not defeated. Never defeated," - Lina Sorin
These were Noman’s and Lina’s innate cards. They were good - very good, in fact. Now, he just needed to find out if they were good enough .