The gorilla swung its fist down, about to flatten Nesha like a pancake. Percy and Elaine were too far to save her, currently locked up with the creature’s packmates. But she didn’t need help.
Right when the attack was about to hit, something strange happened.
Nesha took a step back. Just a single, quick step. But her foot landed over a dozen metres behind her, her leg stretching like a rubber band. Next, the rest of her body stretched, and then snapped back, letting the creature’s fist hit nothing but empty space.
The punch still pulverized the ground where she’d stood a moment ago, sending a rain of splinters all over the place. But Nesha was completely unharmed, already preparing her next spell.
Naturally, it wasn’t her body that had changed shape. It was the space between the two spots that she’d compressed, allowing her to traverse it more easily. What’s more, this was merely a Crude spell – Space Squeeze! Evidently, even the simplest applications of a rare affinity were quite flashy!
She hadn’t developed it by accident either. Her previous lack of mobility had bothered her for a long time, having been one of her greatest weaknesses. It was the reason she had been unable to fully participate in the fights against Grian, Jason and the Divine Root. Even though her offensive power wasn’t lacking, it would have only taken a single hit to eliminate her, unless she had somebody covering for her. And that wasn’t always an option.
Admittedly, the spell did eat a lot of mana, despite its low tier. Or perhaps, because of it. But that was ultimately a small price to pay, to preserve her life.
And it wasn’t the only thing she’d been working on…
‘Third time’s the charm…’ she thought, focusing on the mana inside her core.
Splitting part of her attention, Nesha concentrated on the Green core thrumming inside the creature’s hulking frame. She couldn’t see it as clearly as Percy, but that was fine. She only needed to track its location.
Feeling the shrinking distance between them, she pushed forth a packet of mana, hoping it would meet its target.
The monster was about to reach her when it stumbled, its features twisting in agony. It fell to its knees, barely holding itself up with its knuckles.
That was when something truly appalling happened.
Mounds of flesh squirmed under its fur, before exploding in a rain of blood and gore, a flock of black butterflies flying out in every direction!
The gorilla was still alive, as she’d failed to teleport any of her constructs directly inside its skull, but it wouldn’t be able to continue fighting .
Listening to its gurgled howls, Nesha felt bad for the creature. She launched another barrage of butterflies, this time into its head, finally putting it out of its misery. The Status didn’t miss its cue either, celebrating her first solo victory against a Green beast with an announcement of its own.
[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Chaotic Garden – Refined -> Chaotic Execution – Refined!]
For a long time, she’d been unable to control the exact spot where the butterflies manifested. The best she had been able to do was to surround her opponents and attack them from every direction. But she’d known this was only a testament to her own lack of skill. There wasn’t any reason why she shouldn’t be able to send her constructs directly inside an enemy’s body.
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Since she entered the Valley, she’d resolved herself to eliminate all of her weaknesses, one by one. The lack of mobility and the randomness of her attacks were just two examples. By the time she was done, she fully intended to develop a few earth spells as well, and to master Circulation with both of her cores.
In fact, she’d already drawn some inspiration from her other spells to solve the issue of her space channels. The problem was that many of them led to dead-ends, but perhaps that was only to be expected for a space affinity user. Since she could stretch the space around her and even teleport her butterflies, couldn’t she do the same with the mana inside her channels?
Figuring out the specifics was still a work in progress, but she felt more confident than ever that she would complete the pattern sooner or later.
‘Hopefully the other one isn’t as complicated…’
Other than that, it would be nice if she could learn Percy’s dance moves too, combining them with her new movement spell. Of course, she’d have to go a different route with it, because she had no intention of fighting in melee range like her companions. Her affinity was more suitable for keeping her distance from her opponents, taking them down from afar using her spells and her traps.
If possible, she’d like to dip her toes into affinity fusion too, though that might be asking for too much. She had no idea what a fusion of earth and space would even look like.
“Wow, did you seriously rip a Green beast apart from the inside?” Percy asked, finishing off his own gorilla.
This time, they’d been attacked by a whole pack of them. A large one too, with four Green specimens and dozens of Yellows. Finding even a single Green beast was rare, so House Ypnos had really lucked out with these guys. It was a pity they were about to get wiped out, but they’d made for decent opponents, at least. Elaine was about to dispatch the last of the two Greens she was facing, the surviving Yellows having already dispersed.
“You saw that? I told you it was possible!” she grinned. “Now, I’m the strongest one in the group!”
“Dream on!” he chuckled. “I should be able to predict where the butterflies will appear after seeing the spell a couple more times. As for Elaine, I bet she can take you out before you even use it.”
“Only if you guys see me casting.” she said, thinking of something else. “Reckon I could snipe Acton with this?”
Percy rubbed his chin, pondering her question. But he shook his head a minute later.
“You’ll struggle to get close enough. Even if you do, I’m pretty sure his domain will mess with it.”
She frowned, but she didn’t disagree with his assessment. Leaving aside whether she’d be personally affected by the domain, her constructs certainly would be, once she tried to teleport them inside the kid’s body. After all, spells were essentially a mix of mana and willpower, and domains were thick with willpower too. It would interfere with her control.
“Don’t let Mr. Grumpy here spoil your achievement!” Elaine said, joining the conversation. “It’s an impressive spell. You should be able to assassinate anyone below Blue with it!”
“I’m not trying to ‘spoil’ her achievement.” Percy rolled his eyes. “I just don’t want her to think she can go ambushing Blues just because of a spell upgrade. It’s the quickest way to get killed.”
“Hey, I’m not an idiot, you know!” Nesha said. “I’ve no interest in playing hero. I’ll leave the Blues to you two monsters. I’ll just support you from a distance. Or keep their Greens busy. Assuming they even have Greens left by the time we fight them…”
Reminded of the tall obstacles before them, everyone fell silent. The gap they had to close was colossal, and their enemies weren’t exactly fiddling with their thumbs either. The only way to stand a chance was to work several times harder than them.
But it wasn’t all gloom and doom.
It had been over three months since they entered the Valley, and everyone was improving rapidly. Even more notably, they’d adjusted to the environment by now, settling into their new routine. All three of them had grown noticeably stronger, having a much easier time fighting the beasts. Even Nesha could hold her own against a Green now, though it might be a while longer until she felt confident protecting the whole group by herself.
They’d learned to passively shield themselves from the globules too. Technically, they could have cheated, by having Percy forge a suit of armour for each of them. But they ultimately chose to learn how to deal with the globules properly, since they’d be staying in here for a while. Besides, neither she nor Elaine would be able to use the armour well in a fight.
Without access to Percy’s mana, they wouldn’t be able to turn it invisible or intangible. The runes would still offer some protection, but without the ability to control the network of strings holding everything together, they wouldn’t be able to properly absorb the impacts. The armour would fall apart after the first hit. Finally, they wouldn’t be able to feed the self-repair enchantments if the armour got damaged.
In any case, everyone was able to get more sleep nowadays, and their fights weren’t as difficult.
“Hey, Percy? Think you can start working on the Dance?” Elaine suddenly asked. “Unlike Nesha, I don’t have a fancy new affinity to work on. I’ll be busy trying to upgrade my other spells for the next few years, but it would be nice if you could figure it out by then.”
Percy nodded, looking just as excited as her.