Chapter 287

Goatstown, Dublin, Ireland - 8:27 AM Irish Standard Time

I watched as Albert Shaw extricated himself from the restaurant ruins with a smug look on his face. The tanned man, with his head shaved bald and dull brown eyes, looked me over. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and his gaze lingered on my Trench Coat of the Mad Captain even though he was wearing something almost as ridiculous.

Lightning jumped from the plethora of metal plates attached to the outside of his black robes. It crackled loudly with small bursts of thunder, and I could smell the ozone from here. His outfit was distracting, and definitely not as cool as mine.

I had to stop myself from sighing; of course his lightning robe was cooler than my Hawaiian trench coat. There really was no comparison. Not that I would admit it out loud.

“What the hell, Sugaar?” Albert asked, tilting his head upwards though he didn’t take his eyes off of me. He didn’t even ask how I knew him, which was kind of rude. “I thought you said this pillar’s been abandoned?”

“Who’re you calling sugar?” I called obtusely, purposely getting it wrong.

His smug expression faltered. “Sugaar, not sugar, you numbskull,” he snapped, the thunder from his lightning robe getting a little louder. “My Patron. I ain’t talking to you and your weird Fairy wings, or whatever those are.”

I stifled a laugh. That was one way of putting it. My awareness brushed against the Starstones hovering behind me, mimicking the form of my wings after I used Break Free to become an Angel. They were used to attack, but there was no way Albert would know that without his Patron filling him in.

<<<>>>

[[Skill]]

Starstone Constellation

As long as you wear this item, you are constantly followed by a number of glowing Starstones equal to  Willpower/10. They hover around you in a unique pattern specific to you, but are incorporeal and cannot be touched until they are used. These Starstones can be fired at an individual no further away from you than a number of feet equal to your Wisdom stat, dealing bludgeoning and fire damage equal to your Willpower to anything it hits. Any Starstones used this way respawn after 5 minutes.

<<<>>>

“Oh, my bad,” I said with a grin, messing with the guy. “I thought you were hitting on me or something, that’s all.”

“Like I’d ever,” he sputtered quickly, his face turning red. “Fuck it, whatever. I don’t have time for this.”

“Time for—”

The electricity arcing around his robes intensified into balls that shot towards me at Albert’s command. He didn’t even bother removing his hands from his pockets Thankfully they didn’t move as quickly as actual lightning. Not like the one that had come from above me while he was still hidden, anyway.

Five Starstones, already primed and loaded as I had expected this, shot off like bottle rockets. They curved around me and collided with the balls of lightning, causing them to grow larger, scorching the pavement before disappearing with a loud peel of thunder.

Albert stared at the aftermath of the explosions with wide eyes. I nodded upwards at him. “Don’t have time for what?” I asked.

“So the Fairy’s got moves, alright,” the other man said, reaching up to rub his chin. “Alright, let’s get down to it, then.”

Albert started approaching me and I summoned the Staff of Raphael from my inventory, using it for its intended purpose as I walked towards him. That made him pause, uncertainty entering his stride, but he puffed his chest out and kept coming. He seemed to take offense to not only my approach, but the smile that was still on my face.

Man, I was still in such a good mood.

A small stream of lightning arced from him and started zapping the Vambrace of Wires I wore on my right arm. It flowed through me, causing my arm to seize. The ghostly metal rope inside spun as I summoned it from inside the item, and the electricity followed it. I barely grimaced at the pain even as more streams hit it and Albert stopped in his tracks. The wire spun into a circle in front of me before I cut it off and Lifted it.

The electricity no longer struck me, and the mage began to backpedal. I sent more Starstones after him. My Willpower was 201 now, which meant that I had a grand total of 20 of them and they each dealt that much damage, just split between bludgeoning and fire damage. Given that my hit points, when my soul wasn’t sheared, were in the 1600s, that meant eight of these little projectiles would put me close to death with a ninth taking me out.

So, I sent eight. They flew through the air, going through the circle I had created. Albert’s lightning completely ignored them in favor of the wire rope, which was rapidly becoming slag. That made him panic. He turned and ran, managing to make it far enough that the auto-attack was no longer in range, and the streams stretched out to destroy the incoming Starstones.

The spell the Electrician Mage was using was meant to keep them safe through the use of offensive determent. If you got close, you got zapped. If you tried to shoot into it, then your projectiles were turned to slag. It didn’t work very well on guns, as melted bullets still hurt, but against things like the Starstones it worked incredibly well.

Albert stopped when he heard the projectiles get destroyed, and spun around. Once again, I put a Force Field above me as a lightning bolt was conjured in the air above me. It protected me as I walked off of the pavement, and released another length of wire rope. This one had one end hovering around me and the other buried into the ground.

I sent the remaining seven Starstones his way as I Pushed the metal rope forward. It was practically one piece now instead of a set of entwined wires, but it still served its purpose as the closest thing for the lightning to strike. Four of the Starstones were destroyed, but the remaining three collided with Albert’s chest between the metal plates, knocking him back as he screamed in pain.

The smug arrogance on his face disappeared as he looked at me with fear in his eyes. I had no doubt that he’d probably lost a good third of his hit points from just those three alone. His worn gear, the ones I could see at least, didn’t increase his Constitution much.

I was in the same boat, but I was wearing gear that helped mitigate that. Like my belt. Reaching down, I polished the big, gold buckle that had the words “Big Con Energy” engraved on it with my glove.

<<<>>>

[[Equipped]]

Belt of Overflowing Constitution

(+5 Constitution, Robust Constitution passive acquired)

[[Passive]]

Robust Constitution

Every point you have in Constitution gives you 12 hit points instead of 10.

<<<>>>

Sadly, this was going to be replaced soon enough. I certainly liked the buckle enough to try to move it over, even if it didn’t fit the motif of the Warmongering Mystic set. Still, I had enough Blank Skill Books to learn Robust Constitution on my own, or perhaps merge it with something to make it better. I hadn’t decided what to do with the extra Blanks or Synthesis Pages I received from the Mills yet. There were so many options, many of them good.

My attention was pulled back to the fight as Albert recovered and made his move. Raising one hand, electricity began to charge. This could be any number of different abilities he had, though what it actually was depended on how long he charged it up for. I would actually need to be wary of that one.

His other hand was thrust forward towards me, and a beam of light shot out towards me. I had started conjuring two Force Fields between us the moment he targeted me, one in front of the other, and the first one broke. The second one held, taking the rest of the damage though it shimmered in a way that I knew meant it could be destroyed if hit by a stiff breeze.

I Constructed three daggers around his head, high where he couldn’t see them. Even though the transparent purple weapons weren’t made of metal but out of psychic energy, the lightning surged to meet the new intruders. Albert’s gaze snapped up to see what they were, and that’s when I moved.

Mentally, I activated Crash Test to see if it would work. Technically, I had been in a timeless realm when I had used it against Abbatrastoria so I wasn’t sure if it would activate or not since it had a one hour cooldown. When it didn’t, I wasn’t bothered; it had only been a test.

I surged forward on my heelies, ejecting more rope from the Vambrace of Wires, and Dropped the slag that I had been holding up. The lightning destroyed my daggers easily, but they did their job distracting the Electrician Mage. His automatic spell targeted me when I got close enough, and he looked down to see me charging him.

Taking the electric damage was well worth the continued panic on his face.

The wire rope snaked in front of him as he tried to bolt back where he came from, and caught him before wrapping him up. He attempted to pull free with one hand, the other one still charging his attack, but it was no use. Even with the electricity flowing up the rope and into me, I wasn’t letting him go. My teeth clenched and my muscles seized before I cut off the offending wires.

It continued to move as I used Orbit to sling the end closest to me around him, catching his arms. My body may have been protesting, but my mind was clear. This pain was nothing compared to some of the things I had faced before, and I didn’t let it get in the way of my efficiency. I began charging one of my favorite moves.

The lightning stopped striking me, instead forced to arc to the wire rope, and it joined the rest of the metal plates on his robe as yet another conductor. Albert struggled to keep his arms free, jerking this way and that in an attempt not to be caught in my tangled web, but every time he’d move I’d simply counter it. The whole time that I watched I was thinking about how lucky he was that he had an ability that kept him from frying himself. Necessary, really.

Despite his best efforts, Albert didn’t have the Strength or Dexterity to keep up with my psychic moves yet. Soon, he was standing there, arms stuck to his side as over twenty feet of slag was fused together. Stubbornly, his defensive electric spell was still up, but all it was doing was costing him mana.

The lightning in his hand turned from white-blue to dark red, and he tapped himself on his side. My wire rope tore as the red electricity empowered the Electrician Mage, giving him the Strength to free himself. I could feel his triumph in his aura.

Too little, too late. A condensed beam of pure golden energy erupted from my mouth straight for his head.

<<<>>>

[[Skill]]

Dragon’s Breath

Gather energy in your mouth and open it to unleash your fury. This skill allows you to convert Mental Points into pure elemental damage based on your stat total. As a Half-Angel, your breath weapon is infused with the Holy property. You may concentrate the beam of energy or cause it to widen, altering the damage output accordingly.

Activating Dragon’s Breath takes 2 seconds and costs 180 Mental Points. Extended use of this skill drains 18 Mental Points per second.

Notice: the Heavenly Hero passive decreases the cost of this skill by 10%. This deduction has already been factored into the description.

<<<>>>

He had no time to react as his buff hadn’t fully charged his body. Not only would his Strength have gone through the roof, but his speed would have increased tenfold. Without Cheetah Sprint to help me out, that would have been a problem.

In his brief moment of triumph when he thought he had activated the buff that would be his trump card, I had struck. There was nothing the lightning could do against my breath weapon even as it lashed out against the holy energy. He could only take it.

Albert’s body disappeared a mere half a second after my attack slammed into his face.

<<<>>>

[[Notice]]

You have knocked Avatar [Albert Shaw], Electrician Mage, out of the Star Spangled Shadow Invasion. Ten Defense Points have been added to your pool.

Defensive Option: Tesla Coil has been unlocked at all obelisks.

Alabama’s obelisk will now be marked.

<<<>>>

Far in the distance, a spear of light appeared in the air. It didn’t touch the ground, but I knew it would be hovering over where Albert had started. This nifty little feature meant I wouldn’t have to search so hard, not that I’d need to, but it would disappear if someone else claimed it.

“Huh, I guess my Starstones must have done more damage than I thought if that killed him so quickly,” I said aloud, shrugging.

Reaching out, I Pulled the book he had left behind into my hand. Not only had defeating Alabama’s MVP gotten me more options for my obelisks, in this case electrical coils that zapped people who got close, but he dropped a skill book as well.

This was one of the main incentives to take out other players. The whole point of the Star Spangled Shadow Invasion, aside from giving the Patrons something to watch, was to have the MVPs gain strength. Each one would drop a single skill book with a watered down version of an ability inside of it, just like bosses.

I flipped the book open and saw what it was, and then nodded as I accepted it. The spell, which an Electrician Mage would get for free as part of their abilities, was circumstantial but easy enough to trigger on my own with the proper items.

<<<>>>

[[Spell]]

Bodily Battery

Whenever you would take electricity damage, absorb it instead. Increase your Strength and Dexterity stats by 1 for every 25 points of damage you would take. Bodily Battery stores electricity for 3 seconds, and the buffs gained during this time last for 0.1 seconds per point of damage absorbed. Cost: 100 Mental Points.

<<<>>>

It wasn’t every day then I was up against electricity-based monsters or users, though there were ways to self-inflict the damage. I’d have to go through a few options with Ash once I got back to the Angel Express. Three seconds was a long time to accumulate damage when done right, so I could make it work.

I wasn’t prepared because I hadn’t expected to fight against Albert Shaw. Usually, he defended his own land and was killed off by another, but this was a fine surprise. My late appearance had put Sugaar, his Patron, at ease, and that was his downfall.

Ignoring my own obelisk’s defenses, I started heading towards the giant pillar of light in the air after marking one of the doors nearby. Even though this event was taking place in Dublin, we didn’t have access to the entire city. We were stuck in a vaguely United States-shaped barrier. Albert’s starting position was close to that border, near Florida’s panhandle, and the obelisk there would make a fine defensive point to keep them from moving any further.

And with all my points still burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket, it was going to be a doozy.