VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 69: Shadow of the Colossus

Belladonna rose from Vestra’s shadow before she tapped the girl on the shoulder and laughed softly at the shocked yelp her friend let out.

A benefit of Belladonna’s bond with Beans was that had some kind of extra affinity with shadows. What that meant in its entirety, she wasn’t sure. But for the moment, it meant that skills like Shadow Veil were much more efficient to cast and had a larger range.

Now, she could use it up to four times without getting completely exhausted, compared to the previous two.

"How are you feeling? Think you’ve got enough gas in the tank for phase 3?" Belladonna asked as she nudged Vestra again.

The girl bit her lip nervously, before nodding and putting on a cocky face as she puffed out her chest.

"Of course I am! If you think that I’m going to quit half way through when I didn’t even get to fight last time, then you must have been hit in the head one too many times."

Belladonna laughed and gently punched Vestra’s arm then quickly rushed over to Figg as he collapsed from exhaustion. Whilst Fahven Bu’ul was preoccupied tearing himself free from the now inert vines, Belladonna dragged Figg to somewhere safe and glared at the Tree Titan.

A giant hole was punched through his chest, a hole that he had punched himself in his attempt to crush Belladonna. From within that hole, she could see a small glint of green from something hidden inside.

’Thanks for the opening idiot. Now we can start with phase 3.’

She placed Figg down where he wouldn’t be crushed and then sunk onto a primal runners stance. With a nod to Vestra, Belladonna changed her Infusion to Lightning as Vestra waved her wand.

Four illusionary duplicates of the misty haired girl appeared around her, reducing her to the last dregs of her mana in the process. Duplicates of herself was always the easiest to make, and they weren’t just mana efficient. They also had a small amount of tangibility to them.

The duplicates used this tangibility to take handfuls of bright red apples from the real Vestra before hurriedly spreading themselves across the arena as Fahven Bu’ul finally clambered to his feet.

The first duplicate, acting as a relay for Vestra’s power, poured some mana into the apple causing it to glow brighter before she lobbed it towards the tree.

BOOOOM!

Just like when the Living Tree’s used it, the apple exploded into a dazzling plume of fire that eagerly licked at everything around it, including Fahven Bu’ul. The flame immediately drew his ire as he stomped over to the duplicate.

BOOOOOM!

However before he could crush the duplicate another explosion engulfed his leg, causing Fahven Bu’ul to turn in murderous rage and redirect his anger towards the latest irritation. They might not have had a tank on their team, but that didn’t mean they had no ways of controlling the boss.

As soon as he was distracted, Belladonna burst forwards, racing across the arena with her broken arm flopping behind her as she sprinted as fast as she could. She leapt into the air, latching onto Fahven Bu’uls leg mid leap before proceeding to run straight up it as if it was a horizontal surface.

With every step, she was pouring mana into her feet. Avoiding the rune, so she didn’t activate it, and instead pushed it slightly out of her sole to create a slight sticking effect that lasted only long enough to take a single step.

She wove up his leg, darting between roaring explosions of fire, even having to use another cast of [Shadow Veil] to avoid being blown up by one particularly bad throw. Vestra quickly shouted an apology, but Belladonna simply laughed it off and kept on with her rapid ascend.

When she reached its chest again, she grabbed the edge of the self-inflicted hole and whipped herself inside of his chest.

Fahven Bu’ul wasn’t hollow inside, but he didn’t have the typical organ system either. He was a maze of roots and branches weaving themselves together to form a human shape. Clambering through him forced Belladonna to contort her body around the different branches.

Jagged hooks and thorns scraped against her armour and cut the exposed parts of her body, finding every little nook and chink in armour to slice apart her flesh, as she forced her way through. All the while, staring at the glimmering emerald core deep behind the weave of branches.

A weave that grew thicker as she drew closer to the core, until eventually it was so tight that she couldn’t crawl any closer, and no space to teleport to.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Belladonna twisted her body and pulled one of her new throwing knives from her belt and placed it between the fingers of her still functional hand.

She focused on her bloodline, feeding it mana and stringing the magnetic force behind the dagger and between her fingers, as she created the slingshot once again.

With no spare hand to draw back the knife, she clamped her teeth onto it and pulled back with her head until the force was straining to snap her fingers backwards. Then, she simply opened her mouth.

The knife rocketed between her fingers, cutting the web between them slightly, before sailing through the air with a high pitched whistle. It shot between the tiny gaps in the woven branches.

It stabbed into the glimmering emerald core, sticking in the surface as cracks spread across the core like shattering the ice of a frozen lake.

Fahven Bu’ul let out a roar of pain that Belladonna could feel vibrating her bones, and a moment later his hand started to dig at the hole he had created. He desperately clawed at his own chest, completely ignoring Vestra’s flaming apple bombs.

Belladonna didn’t allow herself to get distracted either, quickly loading and launching another knife, and then two more after that. Her first two shots landed, spreading more cracks across the fracture emerald surface.

But the final shot was not so lucky. Just before she fired, Fahven Bu’ul slammed his fist into his chest, jolting Belladonna to the side at the moment of release. The dagger flew from her fingers, sailed through the air and stuck itself uselessly in a thick branch.

Sensing his masters despair, Beans manifested from the shadows of Belladonna’s hair and ran down the length of her arm. His tiny, adorably fluffy body wove through the gaps Belladonna could never fit through, until he stood on top of the cracked, emerald lake.

Beans whipped his tail excitedly as a dagger sized spike extended from the tip of his tail, where it was kept hidden by his fluff, and then plunged it into the cracked surface of the emerald lake.