SWNOVELS Chapter 689: Nightmarish Combo
As I try and close in on Jornes, another ball of iridescent light appears in front of me.
Rather than trying to hit me, it feels more like she’s trying to stop me from reaching her. It’s scary to do as she wants, but with her high number of strange skills, I want to avoid carelessly approaching her. Rather than forcing my way past the [Ruin], I should take a safe distance and let her exhaust her MP. Getting into close range of an opponent whose tricks I don’t all know is unnerving, and taking a hit in order to force my way closer could expose a fatal opening.
Rather than forcefully approaching, it’s safer to keep my distance and watch what she does. I pull back as the [Ruin] explodes in front of me.
She didn’t use [Magic Scale Magnification]… It looks like her objective really was to prevent me from getting closer. It’s worrying that she got what she wanted, but it’s also a good sign that I was able to read her intention. The problem is what she’s going to do now that she has her distance..!
『[Doppel Pain].』
A skull of dark mist appears next to her. I haven’t seen that skill before…
【Normal Skill [Doppel Pain]】
【Ignores resistances to apply the poison, curse, and paralysis status conditions to the user.】
What’s the point of that…? It sounds like nothing but downsides. Does she have some other skill that uses them to power herself up like the ymir had? None of her skills seem like they’d do that…
『[Empath].』
A faint light shines in Jornes’ stone eye. With a wrenching feeling, my thoughts are thrown into chaos. The next instant, my body is wracked by pain while also feeling numb and unresponsive. With a burst of willpower, I maintain my flight.
Wh-what was that? There was absolutely no opportunity to dodge it.
【Normal Skill [Empath]】
【By momentarily synchronising the minds of the user and the target, the user’s pain and damage can be shared.】
【Damage cannot be shared with a target that has taken more damage than the user.】
It’s written so plainly, but it’s ridiculous.
I have no idea how it reached me. If anything, [Empath] feels similar to [Telepathy]. Probably, no matter how I struggle, there’s no evading it.
If she has shared her pain and damage with me, then does that mean…
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[Irushia]
Species: Apocalypse
Condition: Poisoned (major), Cursed (major), Paralysed (major)
Lv: 105/175
HP: 7957/10386
MP: 8361/8361
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This is the worst. Her aim was to gain time to use [Doppel Pain] and [Empath] together. It completely bypassed my resistance.
Status conditions are bad enough, but if she can share any damage I deal to her, then this is seriously dangerous. Her maximum HP is rather high. Mine is fortunately a little higher still, but if it was the other way around, then maybe she could have potentially instantly killed me with [Empath] after lowering her own HP.
I’m glad I sent Aro and treant away after the bad feeling I got from seeing her status.
However, I haven't got a skill for curing status conditions. I could spam [High Rest] to cure the paralysis and poison, but the MP efficiency is bad. [Holy] can dispel the curse, but curses only have a long term effect of robbing the target’s vitality, so it won't have much immediate effect. Rushing to heal right now seems like a bad idea. She would just apply them with [Empath] again.
Perhaps I should take it as a plus that Jornes chose to inflict herself with the status conditions too. The continuous damage from the poison and the loss of mobility from the paralysis are bad, but in the end that’s for both of us. I should just wait to naturally recover.
『[Baptism].』
Jornes’ body is enveloped in light. A-another new skill!? Could it be…!
【Normal Skill [Baptism]】
【Purifies the user’s impurities.】
【Completely heals the user of status conditions.】
A-after applying them to her opponent she heals herself…!
[Doppel Pain] produced the status conditions, [Empath] copied them to me, and then [Baptism] cured hers.
Of all the monsters I’ve fought so far, hers is by far the dirtiest fighting style. She has multiple counter skills, and the ability to boost her magic attacks massively. That’s not all, since she also has a vicious combo that bypasses resistances to apply status conditions and, depending on the situation, can instantly kill.
Her fighting style is too strange. I thought the fact that she was only Legendary meant that God’s Voice struggled to produce Upper Legendaries, but this abbadon species is perfectly capable of fighting higher rank opponents. That might be the reason she was chosen as a [Spirit Servant]. She might even be the most dangerous of the four.
At any rate, now that I’m poisoned and she isn’t, I need to make it a short battle. She’s forced me into pushing for a frontal assault.
As I try to charge forwards, another ball of iridescent light appears in front of me. I dive down to dodge the [Ruin] blast.
This is bad… Like before, she set the [Ruin] directly between us.
I need to get closer for my magic attacks to reliably land at this range, but at this rate I’ll just keep taking damage from the poison. The paralysis has also dampened the responsiveness of my body, so getting any closer will be difficult. My only option here is to use long-range attacks to try and create an opening.
…However, Jornes also has the [Chant Return] skill, so I can’t carelessly reveal my magic skills. If the apocalypse’s vicious magic attacks were copied, my position would get even worse. She really has a thoroughly unpleasant way of fighting.
done.co