As the large black eyed bear finished it's roar, the grey orc pointed a staff at Lewis, the staff made from various bones topped with what looked like human skulls.
Lewis didn't even have time to process the insane development before one of the skulls on the staff began releasing a sinister mist, a featureless figure forming from it. Right as it appeared, an anguished cry rang out in his mind, as if the phantom figure was telepathically crying out, the ghostly being suddenly rushing towards him as it levitated off the ground, it's arms outstretched towards Lewis and twin black holes where eye's should be.
It's mind splitting cry continued as it shot forward, Lewis instinctively extending his arcane nullfield a meter ahead of him to intercept the screeching figure as it was clearly some sort of magic. Still, despite his mana detection trying to parse out what he was seeing, he couldn't get a proper feel for what it was. The sense he was getting from it was too complex to be described simply as the manifestation of any singular mana type, instead being reminiscent of the look-away magic from Morris's ring. A sort of combination of various mana aspects and effects woven together to form a unique construct, his senses only gave him a general feel for the effect of the unleashed mana rather than anything more complete.
This phantom figure gave him a sense of deep and primal fear, not of the manifested ghost, but rather as if the phantom embodied fear itself. It reached Lewis within moments, it's ghostly form entering the reach of his nullfield, but unexpectedly, it didn't disappear like other magical constructs, instead losing a bit of it's form but otherwise continuing to fly straight at him, slamming into Lewis before he could react, the phantom seeming to merge with him as he felt a soul deep fear consume his entire being.
His body began trembling uncontrollably, flashes of memory not his own overlapping in his vision. Scenes of the orc shaman looming over him, crushing his limbs one by one, a deep desperation flooding him as the memories overlapped with the orc shaman before him, the bear lazily walking towards Lewis as he was frozen in fear, carrying the object of his worst nightmares ever closer.
But despite the foreboding sense of extreme terror freezing his body and stalling his mind, a part of him recognized that this fear wasn't his own. An external entity within him is responsible for these foreign emotions messing with his mind. Exerting control over himself, he pushed back against the mental assault, reasserting reality as the distinct sense of something clinging deep within him became clearer, which made pushing it back and suppressing it feel like flexing an invisible muscle. Lewis only froze for a second before he pushed out the interference with his mind by defying its claims that he should fear this orc.
He was apprehensive of the gray orc, but this level of fear and paralytic dread was clearly unnatural and easily identified as not his own emotions, although he would struggle to explain how he could tell; it just felt different. The moment he identified the external influence, it was as if its power over him dissolved, fading away like mana in his nullfield, returning him to full control of his mind and body, right in time for a new system notification to appear.
Congratulations! You have gained Mental resistance - lvl 1
It was a welcome yet unexpected message, as he still wasn't entirely sure what that phantom was. But he didn't have time to dwell on it as the large bear had reached him, Lewis still frozen in place, although not through any obligation. Still, the Orc clearly didn't know that, a smug grin on his face.
"Pathetic, how could you lot be pushed this far by such a puny human. Look at him shake in fear before me, his will entirely broken. Maybe I'll reap his soul to replenish my reserves." The shaman called out, giving the other orcs a sharp glare and throwing a disdainful glance at those Lewis had killed.
Lewis took that precise moment as the orc was gloating and looking away from him to strike. He suddenly rushed forward, slamming a fist into the large bear, it's shoulder contorting and compressed, but it was far from the degree of damage he had done to the other orcs, the creature not even seeming to react despite the pain it must be in. It appeared impossibly tough, the damage minimal as the creature's dense body alone was enough to overcome the skills destructive energy, similar to how Laurence had survived it, except the bears energy didn't glow in his mana detection, instead emitting a dull putrid sensation that reeked of rot and decay.
His sudden attack seemed to have shocked everyone, including the orc shaman, as Lewis struck the large bear, but it seemed the creature would be far more difficult to take down due to its immense size and toughness. Not even his new technique of quickly unleashing unravelling strike through rapid contact was enough to kill this thing. Especially not when it was clearly so unnatural, the creature not even reacting to a section of its shoulder being reduced to mince, and the pervasive scent of death around the creature along with the orc shamans' talk of reaping his soul making Lewis get a very bad feeling about this bear.
[Reanimated Ursus - lvl 18]
[Orc - lvl 19]
It seemed the scent of rot and decay he vaguely felt from the creature was due to more than its poorly maintained fur. It also began making a lot more sense why it's eyes were pitched black and it didn't so much as flinch when his unravelling strike bore into its shoulder. Still, he wasn't too surprised by their high levels anymore. If anything, it was expected if he was the leader since many of the other orcs were also surprisingly high level.
But that had no bearing on what he needed to do. If he couldn't kill this zombie bear by punching fist-sized holes into its body, then he would just need to punch a bigger hole. Without giving the orcs a chance to think, he prepared to strike again.
Only this time pumping more mana into the skill, something he tried to control better than last time. He had used up about half of his mana during this fight, so attempted to overload the skill with less mana than before, instead focusing his mind on picturing the destructive blast pushing outwards instead of condensing around the point of impact in the hopes that it would cause more wide spread destruction instead of complete eradication only around the section he struck, like back with the first orc.
Time seemed to slow as he focused all his attention on controlling the quick skill, giving him a very small window of time between his skill activating and the unleashed blast of destructive energy shooting out. A small span of time in which he could modify his intent for the skill slightly, pumping more power into it or even lessening it, like how he had just now discovered when tapping the bare-fisted orc and unleashing the unravelling strike in small, rapid bursts.
It was a thin line to tread between overloading the skill with too much mana and causing a backlash while using up far too much of his dwindling mana, and underpowering the skill, spreading out its destructive power too thin and not inducing significant enough damage.
All that happened in the space of a heartbeat, as his fist impacted the bears chest, [Unravelling strike] channeling its payload into the creature, Lewis's will infusing his attack, something he hadn't known would work as he intended, but it felt like he had opened a deeper connection to his skill as he willed it to push outwards and spread throughout his foe, similarly to how he could modify his arcane nullfield's shape.
A invisible shockwave invaded the zombie bear, its frame shrinking and contorting slightly as its entire torso was bathed in destructive energy. The sound of wet cracking and meat squishing as the creature's domineering form collapsed, like an old car getting crushed, its frame seemed to compress in on itself as the mass that had been supporting it was suddenly dissolved and shredded. The orc shaman let out a rather undignified cry of surprise as his previous confidence and bravado disappeared. Replaced by sheer incredulity.
Lewis himself was shocked at the difference his modification to the skill's initial intent had made, not having expected such drastic results, especially since he had only used 10% of his mana reserve on that strike, making feel lightheaded and tired, but not as bad as before. It seemed like investing all those points into willpower for added control back then actually paid off, but he didn't receive a notification informing him of the zombie bears death, despite most of its body having been badly damaged and several bones snapped and crushed, not to mention the insane internal bleeding it must be experiencing.
Skill: Unravelling strike has reached level 4
Skill: Unravelling strike has reached level 5
Skill: Unravelling strike has reached level 6
Damn, I must have been using the skill wrong all along. I guess I was always supposed to shape and control the skill's destructive attack, rather than having it stay in its default state; I was just too stupid to realize until now.
Guess it makes sense since it seems to just be some more condensed form of anti-mana that can manifest in reality and wreck shit, similar to how normal magic can affect the real world, only mine can't conjure shields or glowing swords, only what it's good at... Destroying things.
A moment of stunned silence passed as the bears seemed to shrink, like one of the floors of a building sinking down, making it appear far shorter than a moment ago.
Lewis was breathing heavily, his head hurting and body sore, but he was ready to keep fighting, although, glancing around, he noticed that at least a dozen orcs had formed a semicircle around him, far more than Morris had said there were.
Speaking of which, he had no idea where the man was, having not seen any sign of him or evidence of his assassinations, which was making Lewis's life a lot harder, meaning he would have to kill all these orcs by himself, and they had clearly not shown him everything they could do.
Not to mention Fiona's interventions had entirely stopped after a measly two arrows, Lewis's having no idea were she had gone either.
I really hope they haven't abandoned me. Lewis thought, not sure if he would even have enough mana to deal with all these orcs. Especially not of he was going to need to use it for both offense and defense. Something he was already in the process of doing as several orcs began glowing in his mana detection, they're bodies radiating various flavors of mana as a second passed and they all began unleashing their attacks together.
Even the orc shaman quickly recovered from Lewis's surprise attack, his body radiating a putrid corrupted energy that flowed into the bear beneath him, appearing to swirl within it's broken body and halting it's further degeneration, perhaps even attempting to reverse it, but the damage was too extensive, rapidly siphoning the shaman's energy, making him snarl as he cut off the flow, the bears mana dimmed rapidly as it's black eyes lost their intensity, becoming a dull grey shade as it's corpse fully sagged, released from its afterlife of bound servitude.
You have slain Reanimated Ursus - lvl 18 (+50 TP)
The notification flickered onto his vision a heartbeat before dozens of magical explosions hammered against his arcane nullfield. Even the shaman joined in as a beam of dark energy shot from his staff, it's power reeking of rot and death, his arm blackening where a fraction of the energy managed to slip through his nullfield.
With only a quarter of his mana remaining, Lewis didn't even think of holding back as he pushed everything he had left in his tank into defense. bolstering his magical defense as he gritted his teeth against the streams of flames and arch's of lightning. Even what appeared to be projectiles made of mana crashed against his nullfield, the amount of mana beginning to overwhelm him as his skill struggled to purge them fast enough, burns and cuts appearing all over his body as the onslaught continued.
After a few moments, Lewis was screaming from the effort and pain, knowing that he was running out of time and running out of power. He watched from the corner of his vision as the system displayed his mana pool dwindle precipitously, from 20%, to 15%, dropping past 10% in mere moments, the shaman's dark beam only seeming to intensify the rate at which his anti-mana was being used up.
So this is it then? This is were I die? Being magically bombarded by a bunch of angry orcs until they exhaust my anti-mana and blow my body to pieces?
Time seemed to slow down as that realization suddenly settled in, the feeling of death's cold hands wrapping around his neck and tightening, everything suddenly coming into focus as he found himself put into a state of utter focus and tranquility. He didn't think of the people in the orc camp he had come to rescue, nor the true reason he had ventured out here to face these orcs for his pursuit of higher power. He simply saw and accepted everything as it was, like when he was under the effect of [Spiritual alignment], everything just became clear to him, with logic and emotions taking a backseat.
It was in this state of pure consciousness nestled somewhere between fight or flight, and with the primal determination of a cornered animal that Lewis came to a single, final conclusion.
I'm not going to die here.