BXBX NOVEL Chapter 77: Essence of the Spear hero
"Arla said it would take another few hours before the obelisk is fully functional again, five tops, but I don\'t think we\'ll leave until tomorrow either way." Dina peeked one eye open and looked at Ikaris who was curiously looming over her and observing her mana fluctuations as she absorbed it from the air and ground.
"You will be too exhausted to leave, the Mages have worked throughout the entire night expending their mana in order to control that thing," Ikaris looked up at the looming obelisk. "Do not mind me, just focus on yourself and I will be sure to keep you safe." She put a bit of room between the two of them and stood facing the army\'s back, listening to the fight unfold up front.
"Thank you," Dina closed her eye again.
"Hm."
"So Ikaris isn\'t joining us?" Bruce was working with Han, deflecting attacks from projectiles and large creatures while the latter served as vanguard. "What the hell\'s she doing then?"
"She left before the fight even started, saying she wouldn\'t intervene unless a powerful enemy showed up." Han answered. "This could\'ve been easier if she just-"
"Forget it, she\'s right, the mages need her protection, and we\'re severely lacking right now too compared to her and Dina, we shouldn\'t get left too far behind!" Usami used [skill manipulation] and elongated her spear turning a long line of demons into a kebab and retracting it to deflect another attack coming from behind her.
"Especially me, so quit your whining and focus on getting rid of these small-fry." Usami began rapidly skewering her enemies until a large pile of corpses laid before her.
"That is easy to say, but there seems to be no end to these monsters!" Morn joined Usami in killing a particularly large demonkin with a series of stabs.
"Ugh..." Usami turned her back to him.
"We\'ve been relying on the Mages too much, this is a lot easier with them, even those who were on reserve are fighting today, and I can\'t just spam attacks either because it\'s a mix of enemies and allies as far as I can see." She went into a stance."Maybe [dark spear] was the wrong choice of a spear-art to practice, abyssal magic is dangerous to everyone and everything." She grimaced.
"...Usami, I wish to speak to you after this battle-"
"Sorry Sensei, I\'m not interested!" Usami summoned several spears all at once creating a crown around herself and raising several demons into the air simultaneously.
"I don\'t think anything you say later on will be important either." She spun and blocked attack after attack before Han came to her aid and took half the numbers down within a series of precise strikes while she did the same after morn had retreated.
"Did you two have a falling-out?" Han asked her helping her to her feet when she stumbled. "You both seemed to get along even better than Eris and Idria before."
"He\'s delaying my progression, every time there\'s a powerful enemy his advice is to flee and live, if I listened to him in the first place then you and the others would have died when you were facing the eldritch dragon last week," Usami huffed, casting [Skill manipulation on her spear and making it the size of a pencil. "I need power, not protection!"
"Well said!" Han pressed his back to hers while Bruce rushed over toward the medic units that were about to be attacked. "Can you handle here?" He asked.
"Go!"
Han nodded and chased after Bruce and Kris while the rest of the captains converged toward her.
"Usami," Lyra came to her side first. "Why did you send them off?"
"The army is seeing too many casualties, if the medical units fall that number will skyrocket, you should go there as well!" Usami spun and tossed her shrunken spear.
[Skill manipulation: Titan\'s Spear]
The spear suddenly grew to its original size and then continued growing until it was almost as large as the obelisk, crashing into a new wave of demonkin and crushing all of them. "Let me handle the next wave myself and focus on getting rid of the ones that are inside of our lines.
"Usami that is preposterous!" Morn intervened again grabbing her hand. "We are safer as a team!"
"Come Morn!" Lyra smacked him across the shoulder, nodding to Usami. "Let the hero fight to her fullest potential, we are in the way." She dragged him away and nodded to Usami again and the latter took a breath and turned facing the coming threat. "Give it your all."
"Alright," Usami summoned her giant spear again in its regular size and stuck it in the ground gathering her hair and catching it into a ponytail. "I don\'t have a choice now without the help of the others; I\'ll power through!" She grabbed her spear and rushed toward the demons.
[Dark spear technique]
"Was leaving it to Usami a good idea?" Eris asked, catching a mace being swung by a demon with her bare hand and smashing the metal with a squeeze allowing Bruce the opportunity to cut it down.
"She requested this, you know she\'s currently the weakest."
"What if she gets a bad injury and-"
"Have faith in her, so far she\'s pulled through when we needed her, let her have this victory." Han intercepted an arrow through his hand and spun, lodging his sword into the head of an archer demonkin after throwing it with a roar.
"I sense another wave behind that one."
Eris grabbed the arrow in Han\'s hand and yanked it roughly then cast [heal] on him. "You\'re the leader, even if she asked, her life is your responsibility, I hope you know that." She glared at him, and he nodded seriously.
"Of course I know that, I believe in her; that\'s all."
And so it continued for the next three hours, an endless stream of demonkin seemingly appearing from nowhere.
"There\'s another wave... Again?" Usami stood in a massive pool of blood and bodies with black flames and white smoke-like phantasm creatures flying around after her overuse of abyssal magic, tens of hundreds, she had killed countless demonkin, but leaning on her spear and breathing heavily it was evident that she was at her limits.
"Even levelling up hasn\'t stopped me from getting exhausted huh?" She yanked the spear from the body she was using as a platform and raised it with a huff.
[Level 119]
[Mana 0.2k\\\\70k]
[Skill manipulation unavailable]
[Dark spear technique unabailible]
[Spear summons cost 300 mana, unable to summon-]
"-Fucking do it anyway!" Usami snapped swinging her hand through the system window. "My spear is cracked I can\'t use it anymore-" She was about to curse again but winced when she felt a phantom pain stab her heart as mana was forced out of her body to summon her last spear while the damaged one vanished from her other hand.
"There..." She staggered forward and used the new spear to catch herself again. "I can still fight, I can still grow stronger!"
[Mana: -0.1\\\\70k]
[Conditions have fully been met, the system has acknowledged your tenacity and willfulness in the face of a lack of power, you will be rewarded for forcefully breaking your limits; activating title]
"Title?" Usami staggered again and caught her balance before the new popup window.
[Essence of Spear Hero (new): Active]
[As long as there is a sliver of hope the hero of the spear will not lose strength in her body, no matter the broken bones and internal injuries life essence will continue to burn, healing has been drastically increased to prevent loss of bodily functions, you have earned an audience from the gods, all stats have been increased by 10%]
[The god of hardships smiles at your willful spirit and intends to reward you in the future]
"That\'s not a lot though!" Usami took a deep breath as a portion of her strength was returned to her. "But if I can indefinitely fight in this state it\'s more than enough, plus a god is going to reward me, that\'s perfect!"
[Activating Dark Spear Technique]
[Activating guided missile]
[Once below the threshold your mana will be raised to the 10% margin for effective casting, mana is currently set at 7k until the cooldown of (Spear Hero) resets]
"Do we help her?" Eris asked, wiping her hands free of purple blood while her and the others stared at Usami rushing toward the last batch of demonkin.
"The strongest is only at level 100, she should be fine, maybe." Sol seemed to appear out of nowhere next to her.
"Where the heck have you been?" Han stared at Sol, but the latter smiled at him instead of being affected by his tone.
"There\'s a hot spring a few miles east of here, I was taking a soak, it\'s not every day you get to use a natural hot-"
"You asshole," Han narrowed his eyes, and Sol\'s cheer dampened for a brief moment as his eyes narrowed and his smile thinned and widened.
"You wanna fight me, hero?" Sol asked.
"Haha, he thinks he can fight the sword hero." One of the soldiers behind them laughed, but Han in reality had just been shocked speechless from the question.
"Oops, she suddenly got injured," Sol looked in the direction of Usami.
"Can\'t have her dying can we, take care of that will you." He looked at Han again as he was already preparing to rush across the field of corpses to help his fellow hero, but above them two streaks of white flew by, and a second later the ground Usami was fighting on erupted into a great white explosion sending bodies flying in every direction.
"There." Ikaris gracefully landed next to Sol, folding her arms after flashing residual magic off her fingers. "I took care of it as requested."
"She\'s fine, don\'t worry," Dina landed next to Ikaris with a huff, "I cast a shield on her as soon as she was injured." She waved her staff with a grin but the sighed and used it for support to not fall over.
"Dina?" Eris smiled at her looking around at the Obelisk and seeing the space around it distort as a transparent shield grew from the top.
*Snap
Usami appeared before them, hunching and breathing heavily with her spear tightly grasped, she had a cut across her cheek, and a sword sticking out of her leg with countless other cuts and bruises across her body and dented and worn down armour.
"She showed you all up today, when everyone else was complaining, Usami did the opposite and gained power from the system in return, how ironic, usually it\'s the other way around." Sol looked at the state she was in and smiled at her. "She showed you all what it means to stand against the odds as a hero."
"Thanks ...for the praise," Usami raised a weak thumbs up at Sol while Eris grabbed her in a hug.
[Recovery: heal]