“You are a rat! A worthless parasite!” Philia curses, blinking upwards and dragging her glowing sword across the metal armor of Elis. How silly. Rats are cute.

  I [Suppress] the weapon a bit, not too eager to fully test the durability of what Bay and me made. Amelie’s strings hold amicably, and the gambeson that Sylves helped tailor keeps the armor on the ant, even as the warrior’s charge misses.

  Emotions of adrenaline course through our bond, and Elis activates a first skill. Instantly, Philia crashed to the ground, suddenly far faster, forcing her to blink again. I pick at the residue of the skill, stealing more data.

  The paladin breaks into a roll, only for the stone under her feet to give out again as Elis activates another skill. Her job is that of a builder, granting her [Stoneshaping], as I learnt, which makes a great fighting skill in the tunnels. First, Philia just stumbles, then another trap activates. Puppets pour down from above, centipedes kept together by writhing strings, biting at the paladin.

  Her healing skill burns the venom from her limbs, only a few attacks making it through, but she’s forced to teleport in a ray of light again. This time, I pick at the skill as she’s in the middle of it, just enough for her to hopefully not notice, focused on the car-sized ant as she should be.

  Elis activates one of her class skills, [War Cry], and a rather simple effect takes place. Philia, for just a moment, screams in rage, charging at the ant. I use my chance to elegantly throw a needle into her ankle, sending her stumbling.

  The ant’s mandibles glow with a violent red light as another class skill activates. They connect with Philia’s midsection, and I hear the armor crumpling as the paladin is sent, with force, into the stone ceiling.

  I hear cracks, both bones and rock, and then snaps as her mana rouses. For the first time, it feels like she’s serious, a torrent of power flooding her already strong body, and with a pop, her bones are back in place. I grin, maniacally.

  “Hey Elis?”

  My warrior-ant buddy focuses on me, chittering.

  “You can run off. I’ll take it from here.”

  She hesitates, seemingly… worried? I frown. “Go! Take care of other problems already!”

  At my harsh tone, she does as I ask. Maybe I could have been kinder with it, but I feel adrenaline pumping through my veins. Mana surges in my chest. Philia takes a step… and I run the fuck away.

  I’m not an idiot. Until I’ve worn out my resources, I’ll run like the tunnel rat I am. A grin spreads on my face, as I take off again, leaving the angrily growling holy woman behind me. She charges, of course, but she is far from built for speed, and the trickle of [Suppression] I cast with my regenerating mana is enough for me to stay just ahead.

  That, and the traps. I don’t hesitate to abuse my advantages. Bombs. Ambushes. Tripwires, spikes of stone, wooden arrows shot from holes in the walls by members of the colony behind it. Bits of metal and steel dig into her, and I see her discard crumpled pieces of metal in her wake.

  “Now for my final piece!” I yell at her between deep breaths as I sprint through the tunnels. “I bring you… bees!!”

  The hallways suddenly open up into a massive cavern. In the very middle of it hangs exactly what I promise. A large hive of bees. There are large flowers, fed by glowing light from mushrooms, their pollen being harvested by bees the size of my fist.

  Now, why did I think bringing her here was a good idea, when I clearly am entering the area first?

  These bees are attracted to light.

  As soon as Philia comes in, she stumbles on a tripwire and teleports to catch herself, transforming into a billowing cloud of radiance. I don’t suppress it at all, letting her and her sword shine brightly, and dozens of insects instantly turn their compound eyes to her.

  Meanwhile, me? I let Kuro wrap around me, fading into the shadows of the room, watching on.

  “How did a horrid monster like you get a healing skill?!” the paladin roars between slashes of her blazing sword. I see her swing it, bringing devastation to many members of the hive as the radiance burns them. Smoke billows, attracting more buzzing excitement.

  Still, she races me across the cavern. By now, though, I can easily outpace her, since I’m not constantly being hounded by insects and their stingers. Whenever she gets a little too comfy, I throw a bomb at her - specially made ones that release blazing flashes of light, almost like fireworks, attracting yet more bees until the entire cavern is a mess of buzzing and smoke.

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  More than a dozen stings have accumulated on the woman by now, some scraping against her armor, and yet more sinking into her skin. She burns with light, and I pull at the edges of her healing, too. Slowly, I find weaknesses, gaps, problematic points. I take my time in the shadows to watch and deconstruct and pick her apart - until she finally releases it.

  A pillar of light crashes down on the middle of the hive, flooding the cavern with radiant incandescence. Kuro pulls back like a cat from water, and my skin blisters just from being close to it. Without hesitation, I dip into another tunnel - cleared, but not trapped, for a final standoff.

  Philia follows me.

  Covered in radiance, the blood on her skin boils away. She pants, her steps heavy as she comes after me, holding that bright blade. She pulls a few finger-thick stingers from her stomach and throws them to the floor, the wounds knitting closed under bright white flames.

  She leverages her sword at me, the bees not willing to follow us anymore. “Now you die, parasite.”

  “Dang, not even a single complaint about the bees? You’re no fun,” I pout. “Well. That’s okay, though. You don’t needa be fun. You need to be dead.”

  The words come out so calmly, entirely unlike the rest of my bravado that I see her brows furrow, crystalline wings fanning in wariness. “What was that?”

  “I called your goddess an ugly harlot,” I say, forcing that cocky smile back on my face, and drawing a goblin knife that I wreathe in mana.

  She roars, and charges at me. And, for the first time since the start of the chase, I meet her with the full force of my skills.

  [Selection] snakes past the gaps in her few remaining pieces of armor, showing me her vulnerabilities. [Suppression] comes next, targeting every bit of her that is weak, that is a target. Her legs slow, no longer catching up with her body, and she almost tips forward, blinking again.

  I pick at the skill one last time, at the fringes of its activation, and it clicks. I’ve got her pattern down.

  A moment passes and I take a deep breath as I step back, creating solid, floating needles of mana around me. I wear no armor, no radiant blade. Just a jagged knife and a handful of thick needles, facing down someone two thresholds above me.

  Philia roars, and charges. I catch her sword with my dagger, and her power is enough to almost break my wrist. She winds, aiming in, and I push to the side. My one hand stands no chance against the both of hers, until I [Suppress] the sword itself.

  The flames fizzle, and suddenly incandescent heat is just a faint warmth to my heart-enhanced skin. I give her a brutal kick to the midsection, and it feels like kicking a rock wall. Her stats are balanced, so I probably have more vessel than her, but she’s strong. Really strong.

  With a quick motion, the sword comes sailing at my head, and I jump back. She moves in to catch up. A needle drives itself into her ankle again, disrupting her jump. She blinks.

  I grin.

  For just a moment, her entire body turns to light. For just a moment, she attempts to shoot forward.

  And then, all at once, I break her skill.

  [Deconstruction 9 > 10]

  [Class up! Nullmage 2 > 4]

  Instead of blinking, Philia is sent sprawling on the floor, blood leaking from her eyes. She splutters, confused, as my needles dig into her, a half dozen at once stabbing into her stomach. She tries to heal, but her mana is in disarray, not even listening, so it’s child’s play to disrupt her spell.

  I walk forward to the woman, now sprawled on the floor. She tries to blink again, away this time, and I shatter the spell, turning it into more of a pointless roll. Her sword lashes out at me, but I break it, too.

  Radiance dissolves into bright-white sparks.

  [Class up! Nullmage 4 > 5]

  I smile at the points flooding into my vessel. I’ve proven to the tower that I’m better than her - and with the level gap, that deserves rewards. She tries to teleport one more time, but it fails. So, instead, she tries to heal.

  And it fails.

  In a last resort, she starts casting the pillar of light again. The spell that so nearly killed me last time, but I just frown. “Stop that,” I say, [Suppressing] the activation to slow it down, then driving my solidified mana knife into her stomach.

  Philia gasps in shock and pain. Her mana rages against mine, trying to purge the foreign substance, but I hold it in place, disrupting her casting of her skills. Her mana wars against mine, but…

  [Solidification 7 > 8]

  We were evenly matched at the start of the fight. She has a couple dozen points on me, sure. Maybe even as much as a hundred. But they’re spread. I can compete with her mana reservoir, and that’s what I do.

  I beat her. She’s been teleporting, casting, healing, summoning… and I’ve just been running. Throwing bombs, having others activate traps for me, forcing her to fight a hive of bees. It’s simple attrition and maths.

  My vessel is higher than hers.

  Drop by drop, her mana leeches out, and she feebly tries to hit me with her physical strength, chained down by [Suppression]. I stab mana-needles through her arms, pinning them to the stone, shaping them like nails.

  “Scum,” she curses. “Trash. How dare you. You are killing not only me but everyone I would have healed. Everyone-”

  “I don’t care,” I say plainly.

  “Parasite!” she spits.

  Slowly, I shrug. “Sure,” I say. “But at least I’m not a corpse.”

  For a moment there, I’d considered sparing her. That she might beg for mercy. But she doesn’t. Her skills don’t work, her mana is in disarray, she cannot heal, and I have her beat in every way.

  [Respitia the Pure offers a favour if you let her paladin go.]

  I frown at the message. “Ugh. Bothersome. Your goddess is begging for mercy in your stead.”

  “Spare me and I will kill you.”

  “Okay, then I won’t,” I shrug. Her mana is gone. I pull the knife from her stomach and neatly slit her throat. Then I stab it through her eye into her brain for good measure, so she doesn’t have to suffer.

  Thus, with a quiet whimper and a spilling of blood, the messages start flooding in.

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