The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 225: Shroud

With a wave of his hand, Jason released a colossal amount of mana in front of him, covering all of Percy’s projectiles like a blanket. At first, both the scythe and the throwing stars continued to stab at him, though they slowed down rapidly. Mere inches before tearing into his pupil, the Soul Harvester came to a complete halt, the rest of the constructs following.

‘The hell?!’

The weirdest thing was that Percy’s mana had been in its incorporeal state the whole time. Whatever Jason’s affinity was, it could interact with soul mana directly! Not something Percy encountered very often. The last time had been nearly two years ago, against that time mage.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Jason poured more mana into Percy’s spells. Soon, he overcame the willpower embedded within them, pushing them back. Slowly at first, they travelled in reverse, steadily picking up speed as they flew towards Percy!

He tried to dodge, of course, but his opponent showed no intention of making things easy for him. Jason sent the enchanted objects after Percy, surrounding him from every direction, cutting off his escape routes.

‘Shit, I can’t block everything!’

Out of options, Percy used his one remaining scythe to crush as many chunks of dirt as he could, gritting his teeth as he let the smaller ones hit him. At the same time, he willed his own constructs to shatter, moments before they stabbed into his soul.

The throwing stars turned into wisps of smoke, joining the rest of the fused mana around his body. Jason let go of them too, probably minding his expenditure. The good news was that Percy could now recycle the mana into a new round of projectiles. Sadly, the same couldn’t be said about his scythe…

With a heavy heart, he destroyed the corrupted Soul Harvester, his expression souring as a wave of teal powder showered him. Alas, it was preferrable to having his soul cleaved in half. And by his own spell, no less…

‘Now I’m one weapon down… And I can’t even hit him. Whatever I throw at him, he’ll just send back…’

Jason wouldn’t wait for him to figure things out, however. Pressing upon his advantage, he resumed his onslaught, sending more colourful bolts after Percy. His joints protested as he strove to dodge them all. Unlike the enchanted objects, Percy couldn’t let the foreign mana touch his weapon, or he’d lose it too. And things continued going downhill, as the bolts landed on the ground, bringing more patches of dirt to life, sending them after him.

At some point, Percy dodged a large chunk of rock: mostly by accident: his knees buckling as he coughed out a mouthful of blood. His channels also felt more saturated than before, even though the same amount of mana was coursing through them. Evidently, neither his body nor the potion’s effect were going to last much longer.

‘I need to do something. And I need to do it fast!’

It was easier said than done, however. Jason was different from the other Greens he’d faced in the past. Not much stronger, necessarily, but certainly calmer. Colder. More calculating. His moves weren’t as flashy as the others, but his entire fighting style was surgically designed for him to maintain the upper hand. The way he chose which objects to enchant or let go of ensured his mana expenditure was minimal. His ability to deflect attacks thrown at him was arguably the perfect defence. His homing attacks weren’t as damaging, but they were troublesome to handle. And to top it all off, it was impossible to escape from him: the ultimate tracker. His entire kit seemed to revolve around slowly and safely wearing his opponents down.

Thinking back, Percy had only achieved a single minor ‘victory’ against Jason since the start of the battle. Specifically, when he managed to retrieve the fused mana Jason had redirected towards him. Jason had probably consumed more mana to commandeer each of Percy’s constructs than Percy himself had spent creating them.

‘Can I scale that interaction up?’ he wondered, raising an eyebrow at the thought.

Capitalizing on his singular advantage was common sense, but there were several problems with that idea. To start, his Mantle of Deceit had never really been much of a finisher: not since he began fighting Greens. Whether in their corporeal or ethereal state, the small constructs wouldn’t do much damage against a strong opponent. This was one of the main reasons why he had developed the Soul Harvester to begin with. Then again, he’d never had access to nearly as much fused mana as he did right now. As a side-effect of the potion and his supercharged boosting art, Percy had a ridiculous amount of teal smoke surrounding his body.

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‘Maybe it can work. I just need to figure out how to make the most of it…’

A few more colourful bolts flew towards Percy, seemingly about to hit him. Unlike before, however, he wasn’t as quick to dodge, doing something else instead. Grabbing a handful of teal mana, he shaped it into just as many throwing stars as there were bolts. Next, he relied on the projections afforded to him by Greater Foresight, to accurately estimate the trajectory of Jason’s attacks, before throwing a projectile at each one.

Percy couldn’t help but crack a smile upon seeing the colourful mana sink into his constructs. The projectiles themselves didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest, however, flying into the distance. Percy tried to call them back, to retrieve his mana, though Jason had clearly learned from his previous mistake. Rather than return towards Percy, the throwing stars flew away even faster, soon falling outside his reach.

‘Ok. So, he can tap into a connection both ways, to repel or to attract two objects from one another.’

Still, this was a positive result, all things considered. Even though he had lost some of his mana, it had probably cost Jason more. It must have: to override Percy’s control over his own spell. More importantly, Percy had prevented Jason from enchanting more patches of dirt, leaving him with fewer objects to send after him.

Grinning, Percy stopped moving around. Using his scythe, he crushed the last chunks of dirt, as he continued to intercept all of Jason’s spells with his own. At the same time, he accumulated more mana, preparing his counterattack.

‘Let’s see how you deal with this one.’

Perhaps one or two throwing stars wouldn’t do much against a Green. Even a couple dozen might not be enough. But what about a hundred?

With a wave of his hand, Percy unleashed nearly half of his fused mana, sending a rain of projectiles at Jason. Furthermore, he varied their trajectories slightly, making them close into his opponent from a wide range of angles.

Remaining calm, Jason released a lot of mana, stopping the throwing stars in their tracks. Due to their spread, it cost him more than it would have otherwise. He repelled whatever he could into the distance, though he was still forced to send a few back at Percy, letting him recover a fraction of his mana.

Percy wasn’t deterred, continuing to push his body to its limits, pumping out as much mana as he could, trying to recover any dregs he could from his surroundings. By the time the throwing stars returned, he was ready to launch a second barrage. And then a third, after a similar situation played out…

The only thing different from one wave to the next was the number of projectiles, as well as their size and spread. Carefully scanning both Jason’s mana reserves and his reactions, Percy fine-tuned his attacks to maximize his opponent’s consumption, while minimizing his own. He was already gaining ground with each exchange, but a Green’s reserves weren’t a joke, and time wasn’t on his side.

‘Come on! Just run out already!’

The pressure in the air was palpable, as Percy pushed himself beyond his limits, rapidly improving with each barrage. Never before had he had so much mana to play around with. And, as his projectiles grew sharper, their formations more elaborate, their trajectories more insidious, his Status finally chipped in.

[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Mantle of Deceit: Refined -> Shroud of Deceit: Refined!]

Oblivious to Percy’s notification, Jason watched the latest wave of throwing stars close in. He didn’t seem to be in a rush to stop the attack, probably realizing he couldn’t sustain the expenditure for much longer.

Yet, just when Percy thought he was finally going to land a hit, Jason smirked, some more mana vanishing from his core.

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‘What is he up to now?’

With no warning, Jason shot backwards like an arrow, at a speed Percy had never seen a human move before. And that was just the start. A few metres later, Jason took a steep turn, and then another. His movements were bizarre, to say the least. Unnatural. But they were effective too, as Jason bolted away uninterrupted, comfortably avoiding all the attacks.

‘How?!’

The scariest part wasn’t Jason’s speed alone, but the sheer finesse of his movements. On closer inspection, Percy realized what was happening. Jason hadn’t twitched a muscle, his body seemingly dragged along the air by an invisible rope attached to his back, like a marionette pulled by a string.

‘He’s using his affinity on himself! But why didn’t he do this earlier?’

Jason could have saved a lot of mana by pulling this trick out a minute or two ago. Then again, it wasn’t that hard to figure out why he’d chosen not too…

Coughing another mouthful of blood, Percy fell to his palms. A wave of weakness flooded his body, a slap of vertigo ringing his skull.

‘He was just buying time for my potion to run out!’

Indeed, why would Jason reveal all his trump cards? It would have only given Percy a chance to adjust course or run away. All he had to do was spend a bit more mana to give him some false hope, keeping this charade of a fight going for a while longer.

Grimacing, Percy looked up at his grinning opponent, evaluating his options. Yet, just when he was considering whether to stay or run, something unexpected happened. Both combatants jerked their heads in a certain direction, watching somebody emerge from the woods. Perhaps they would have noticed him sooner, had they not been as engrossed in the battle, or had the whistling cones not masked the newcomer’s steps.

“Who the hell are you?” Jason asked.

But Percy didn’t have to, recognizing him despite his horrific appearance.

‘Rambert…’