Putting all my focus into channelling Infusion was what prevented another tidal barrage of acidic spit. The worm-ant’s huge head was weighed down by the ball of misshapen metal I had chucked at it, which had caused it to crash to the ground with a screech.

  All the acid that it had been about to spew at me just spurted onto the ground around the monster instead, leaving a boiling mess that damaged the spit’s owner.

  There was no time for me to take advantage of its fall, no room for me to kill it. The big rider leaped off its mount. It walked closer without hurrying, insultingly sure that I wasn’t going to present it much trouble. What an asshole.

  Pain continued to call my body home, to the point that I was having trouble focusing. If only I could Sacrifice it all away. But I knew that was a forlorn hope. I had already tested it. Pain delivered by someone or something else wasn’t my pain, so I had no way of controlling it with Sacrifice.

  But I could stop it from affecting me much.

  I bit down on my tongue hard enough to draw blood. Tears pricked my eyes, making the sight of the approaching monster turn a little blurry, but I managed not to cry out or even wince too much.

  “This,” I mumbled with a stinging tongue. “Is my pain.”

  [ Sacrifice

  You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Experience of Pain. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward: Pain Sense Control: Modifiable threshold of pain sense by up to 4x for 4 hours ]

  I didn’t have much time to go over the reward, so it was good that I was already familiar with it. All I needed was a bit of concentration to focus on the new little blot of sensation within me, and then the pulsing agony went down as the strange buzzing feeling grew a little.

  There. Much better. Now I could deal with that overgrown insect.

  Of course, I was already channelling Gravity and Flare threads. It was a bit of a blessing I could direct some threads to turn purple with Field Manipulation and the rest to create the little pockets of heat energy.

  I rushed in to meet the ant. With the pain of my wounds no longer a real distraction, I could focus fully on the battle.

  Field Manipulation with Infusion was enough to trip the monster just a bit. Enough to make its aim go awry. The axe-club still swung in with enough force to make my hair ripple, but I wasn’t paying attention. Instead, with a yell, I slammed the mace into the disoriented monster.

  It was fast enough to block. The armoured right arm rose up just in time, my mace cracking the white, bonelike gauntlet. I had used enough strength to send the monster hurtling backwards, though it had felt like hitting a stone pillar.

  The humanoid ant hissed at me as its ride slowly tried to raise its enormous head.

  “Don’t like getting hit?” I said. No idea if it could understand me or not, but taunting felt satisfying. “I’ll stop after you die.”

  Maybe it did understand because the next second, it was chucking its axe-club right at me.

  I hadn’t been prepared for that. Thankfully, Reflexive Mana was still active. Even though my instinctive jerky reaction wouldn’t have been enough to evade the ranged strike, I was able to swerve past thanks to my Agility Augmentation coming in clutch.

  It was great because not only did I get to dodge the monster’s frustrated sudden attack, the forward momentum Reflexive Mana imparted to me also helped me counter. The monster was rushing me too, though. Our blows connected with a powerful thud, bug fist meeting metal mace. I registered that the monster was capable of Power greater than my Gold-ranked one because this time, I was the one who went hurtling back.

  My opponent was already lunging in to take advantage. What a complete jerk.

  I jumped, weight lost thanks to Siphon. It rushed under me at top speed, and I cracked back down immediately with Infusion. My earlier leap was angled so I would be landing right around where the monster had come to a hard halt.

  Fist met mace again, and this time, its gauntlet shattered and green blood spurted from its crushed hand. Small but delightful progress.

  Which immediately stopped feeling satisfying when the ant lashed out a kick that I failed to block. It felt like someone had rammed an anvil into my guts. I was just grateful I remained standing despite feeling like my stomach wanted to exit my body by any means possible. Breathing was difficult, but I’d manage. If the pain was this bad now, what would I have gone through without Pain Sense Control?

  It came at me again, but Flare was ready. A series of little detonations flashed around us, geysers of vaporizing heat striking my enemy with burning force.

  Seeing my chance, I charged. I was just about to connect when the monster spit acid at me.

  Honestly, I should have expected that. I was too lost in trying to take advantage of the opening I had created to react properly. At least I managed to bash the acid away with my mace. It made the spiky metal head start to melt, but it was still a much better alternative to getting my face vaporized.

  The humanoid bug was swinging its clawed fist in a follow-up already.

  All I managed to do was prop up my forearm to block. The impact fractured my ulna, with the claws drawing out a good chunk of blood from the wound. Livid pain tried warring against my last Sacrifice reward, but I forced my focus through the distraction and channelled Gravity once again.

  It was all that stopped a second blow from crushing some other part of me. The blood daubing the monster’s fist—my blood—turned void-violet and heavy. It stumbled as its entire left arm weighed it down.

  My mace was still in too poor of a condition for a proper blow, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I lunged at my opponent, feet first. A move I remembered fondly from my fight against Khagnio.

  The weight-modified drop kick connected with a satisfying crunch, but not as hard as I was expecting. For one, the white, bony armour blocked a lot of the impact. For another, the monster’s back snapped, wings shivering out to lift it off the ground, reducing the effect of the kick as part of the force just pushed it back more easily.

  Great. Even that thing had wings now.

  Worse yet, the kick had sent it soaring backwards straight to where its axe-club had fallen. It screeched in what felt like triumph as it raised its rediscovered weapon high.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You’re still dying, you overgrown mutant.”

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  We resumed the battle.

  It rushed me down. I did my best to dodge with the help of Reflexive Mana. At times, when it wasn’t using that huge axe-club, I tried deflecting the blows with my regenerating mace. While it worked well enough to protect me, the monster was so strong that every hit deteriorated my weapon’s condition further. I needed its hammering head back to use it effectively.

  Acid globs came flying at me like crossbow shots. While I dodged most, I tried pushing one back using a hasty Field Manipulation. The momentum it already had and the pushback from my artificial repulsive field just compressed it to an unstable explosion.

  At least it couldn’t fire tidal waves of the same acid like the worm-ant.

  Speaking of which, while I had been busy dealing with the more humanoid ant monster, the larger threat had managed to drag its head off the ground. I figured the only reason it wasn’t interfering was because its rider would get caught up in any attack it performed.

  I couldn’t keep this up. The humanoid ant’s relentless aggression didn’t leave many openings for me to take advantage of, especially since it seemed to be actively learning my capabilities. I kept thinking that I’d dodge its blow while also positioning myself correctly for a counter with Reflexive Mana, but the monster had already moved out of range after attacking.

  Mana exhaustion was actually starting to drag on me now. I had potions I had purchased from the Mage Guild, but fat chance of taking one in the middle of a fight like this.

  Nearby, the giant worm-ant screamed like it was cheering on its rider.

  Said rider swung its axe-club over its head in circular motions. I wasn’t sure what was going on at first, but then I saw wind picking up.

  When it struck me next, it missed again thanks to my Agility Augmentation.

  But there was a wake created by the powerful blow, a blast of rippling air so strong that I was lifted off my feet and sent flying backwards. It didn’t hurt, but I was disoriented, and dodging was terribly more difficult in mid-air. Which explained why the humanoid ant was screeching as it charged at me with its wings buzzing.

  A quick use of Infusion sent me down just underneath the monster’s deadly charge. Its momentum carried it farther off, giving me some breathing room.

  I took a quick, preparatory breath. Alright. I had been on the backfoot for long enough. One opportunity. That was all I needed to create.

  The space I had just made for myself was what I’d have to use. I jogged backwards a little as the monster screeched out another roaring cry. At every footfall, I left little Gravity threads in my trail, keeping them in reserve to activate when I needed them to. My opponent’s buzzing wings grew louder, and then it rushed me again.

  There. Now I had it.

  I threw myself backwards as the axe-club crushed down where I had been a second ago. The blast of wind coming off it pushed me back, but that was fine.

  At the same time as the axe-club landed, I made the mana threads there turn deep purple with a combination of Field Manipulation and Infusion. Not just on the ground. As soon as the axe-club touched down—well, cracked down—more violet threads leaped up the weapon and wrapped it in weight.

  As the monster momentarily struggled to lift its armament, I took full advantage to attack.

  It didn’t land. Not surprising. The humanoid ant just buzzed backwards with its wings, moving way too fast even while airborne, even while weighed down with Field Manipulation. How strong was that thing?

  My opponent started rushing at me again, but I wasn’t about to let my momentum go to waste. I continued charging too. The moment before impact, a sudden Imbuement of Illumination blinded the monster. It screeched, lashing out wildly, but missing me thanks to Reflexive Mana.

  More importantly, with its sight vastly reduced, it could no longer see where my blow was coming from. It still tried to dodge by flying straight up.

  I had no difficulty keeping my own weight stable as I jumped after it. When I landed the next blow with my mace, I was channelling Granular Control to warp the not-fully-regenerated hammer head into a weakened state, where chunks of it broke off and embedded into the cracked, bony armour.

  The hit had been so satisfying too. For the first time, I had flung back the monster powerfully enough to make it lose its balance.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more heat pockets available to control my flight and rush it down from my hovering state. I had to drop down. That gave my enemy enough time to right itself.

  I didn’t know whether it was aware of the trick I had tried to pull or if it had some sort of prescience, but it proceeded to shatter apart its armour. The white chunks fell to the ground with heavy thuds. Well, so much for manipulating its weight.

  In apparent desperation, I threw my mace at the monster as it screeched and rushed me down. It just deflected the flying weapon with a blob of acid.

  Then it continued its rush.

  I waited.

  And waited.

  Not yet.

  I even tamped down on Reflexive Mana to prevent my body from automatically dodging. Not that there was much time to do so anyway with how fast and powerfully the monster was approaching me.

  Its kick lashed out so fast, I was sure I saw it blur in the air. I had lowered my weight to reduce the effect of the strike on my arm so that I was mostly blown away by the severe force instead. As soon as the kick’s contact was done, I was biting through the agony rolling down my limb and using Infusion to weigh myself down.

  But I wasn’t really paying attention to whether I crashed into a nearby house or not. Instead—

  The monster screamed in agony as the axe-club crashed into its midsection, the bony blades piercing through its chest, spilling green blood and black ooze.

  There. I grinned hard. My little trick had worked. The reason I had waited, the reason I had even foregone Reflexive Mana, was all so I could draw in the ant’s own weapon flying towards my earlier location with a well-placed Field Manipulation on my back. Then, as soon as I had been kicked, I had released the field of artificial gravity.

  That was after the axe was already flying at me. There was a bit of luck involved with the timing of everything, but it had worked out. I had the opportunity I needed.

  With a growl, I took one step forward and then leaped as high as I could while controlling Gravity, arcing over to land on my monstrous target. The ant had staggered at the wound delivered by its own weapon, but even then, it was aware enough to defend itself. As soon as I got close, it gripped the jutting axe handle and ripped it free from its own torso to swing upwards with deadly force.

  Which missed because Reflexive Mana was active once again. The sudden upwards shift in momentum did weird things to my guts. I ignored it. The monster had missed and now it was my turn to end this.

  Infusion turned me into a literal boulder of flesh and bones and determination. As soon as the axe swing flashed past, I was plummeting, fighting through the rippling wind launched by the ant’s strike. And when that was done, I crunched down on my target.

  Its chest caved in, its limb snapped. The sheer weight that I landed with made my own ankles strain in protest, agony lancing up my legs. But the rest of my body was still falling and my clubbed fists smashed into the monster’s skull to crack it open, green and white fluid splattering outwards.

  We were both unmoving for a while. I could only hope that the ant monster was finally dead.

  The worm-ant was screeching out where its rider no longer could. With the humanoid ant dead, it was going to attack any second now.

  I had to drag in a quick breath to steady myself, then rose to my feet.

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Power, Agility, Vitality, Spirit, Fervour, and Thauma Attributes have risen by one Rank.

  Your Flare, Illumination, and Sacrifice Aspects have risen by one Rank.

  Your Path of Burning Starlight have risen by one Rank.

  Power: Gold III

  Vitality: Gold II

  Agility: Gold I

  Spirit: Gold I

  Fervour: Silver IX

  Thauma: Iron VII

  Flare: Silver I

  Illumination: Silver I

  Sacrifice: Silver X

  Path of Burning Starlight: Silver X ]

  There was so much going on in that list that I was a little floored. Even a quick glance revealed that I had crossed rank tier multiple thresholds there. Silver in two Aspects and Gold in two Attributes. That meant a whole heap of Augmentations and Affixes I needed to think about.

  When I wasn’t about to be killed by a giant worm-ant hellbent on avenging its rider’s death.

  I just managed to jump just in time as I dismissed the Weave’s window of information. The huge worm-ant crashed through the spot where I had killed the humanoid monster, the dust and debris left in the rush’s wake now obscuring the corpse of my last opponent. I didn’t go back down. That could wait.

  First, I tried to focus on my new Augmentation.

  It was a little crazy because despite all my training, I hadn’t yet manifested the Augmentation I wanted for Power. There were probably a few reasons for that.

  But this, the one I wanted for my newly Gold-ranked Spirit, this I had been envisioning and considering for a long while now. I had way more faith in it than I had on my Power Augmentation. This one I had already been using, in a sense, had already been practicing when I had found time.

  So, as the worm-ant prepared to throw up another humongous glob of acidic spit, I held out my hand. I channelled Gravity and focused on manifesting it without using any Affixes.

  The monster fired, and at the same time, something clicked within me as a tiny, void-dark orb materialized.