BXBX NOVEL Chapter 135: An Echo
"Hey, what\'s— What\'s this? What\'s happening to me?"
"That green cloud paralyzes anyone who breathes it in," Henry said.
"What?" Louis asked with his eyes ever-wide.
"I told you to hold your breath," Henry reminded him.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, you did. So this was why…" Louis said and visibly became calmer.
"Yeah, this was why," Henry said finding it slightly interesting that Louis was taking paralysis far better than he had ever seen anyone take it.
"It\'s not permanent, is it?" Louis asked.
"No. No, it\'s not," Henry told him, "It\'ll wear off in a while. Circulate your Mana if you can. I hear that helps."
"Oh, alright," Louis said and with some level of concentration seeping into his expression, he began to do just that.
"In the meantime, we should stay away from that thing," Henry said with a gesture at the Mummified Undead that just exited the Sarcophagus.
"Oh, it\'s not going to come for us," Louis said calmly.
"Wait, really?" Henry asked, surprised.
"Yes," Louis said with a nod, "The writing said something about a representative or something like that. It\'ll test the Representative by fighting them."
Henry furrowed his brows,
"Seems a bit vague. It could still pick us."
Louis shook his head,
"I don\'t think it\'s a matter of choice," he said in a low voice,
"And even if it was, you think Doherty will leave it to us?"
Henry opened his mouth to speak but just then, Doherty stabbed his sword through the chest of a Decaying Undead, before following up his stab with a forceful blast of Mana that shattered the creature\'s chest cavity.
"Ah," said the Mummified Undead with its pitch-black eyes on the display as its hand clenched and unclenched around its Spear,
"A fine challenger."
Doherty eyed the creature with a slight frown.
\'There\'s something off about this one,\' he thought, \'It can talk.\'
He gave it some further thought and then shook his head as he took on a fighting stance,
"Bah, forget it. I\'ll stab through you like the others," he said as his Mana surged.
The Mummified figure nodded,
"A fine resolve. As befitting of a Fighter. Shall we observe the proper custom and start with an introduction?" It asked.
Doherty shrugged,
"Fine. I\'m Dick Doherty. What the fuck are you?"
"I—" the mummified Undead started, "I am no one. In years past —do not ask me how long for I do not know—, I might have been great and I might have been ordinary. Again, I do not know.
What I am now, is a mere Echo whose duty is only to test the mettle of fine challengers such as yourself to determine if you are worthy of going on ahead."
Doherty scoffed,
"All that and you can\'t give a name?" He asked.
"I told you my name. I am an Echo. That is what I am. That is who I am," Echo, the Mummified Undead said.
"Alright then. Now that we\'ve got that out of the way…" Doherty said and his voice trailed off as he dashed forward to strike his sword at Echo\'s chest.
Doherty had struck many power sources today and while Echo\'s chest wasn\'t glowing with one, he believed it must still be there.
*Clang!*
Echo swung his Spear and used its shaft to knock Doherty\'s sword aside before striking him with an uppercut that sent the Fighter flying back to fall against one of the other Sarcophagus in the room.
*Bam!*
With the battle now underway, Henry wanted to pay attention to it but he felt vines creeping up on him and wrapping around his and Louis\'s bodies.
"Henry," Louis called out to him as his wide eyes followed the twisting vines, his body still paralyzed to act.
"Yes, I see them," Henry said as he called magical energy to his hand so that it began to spark with lightning.
Shocking Grip!
By common sense, Lightning burns so Henry decided the spell was about the best tool he could use to get rid of the vines all at once. He slammed his palm against a vine and the current of the Lightning he discharged pulsed along the net the vines were starting to form, turning them limp and causing them to smolder as they fell off his and Louis\'s bodies.
Of course, with the vines being so close to their bodies, the two suffered the lightning as well.
Henry even lost Hit Points…
[You have lost 2 Hit Points]
[Hit Points: 78/180]
… it was a small loss but a loss all the same.
"Henry?" Louis said slowly having just suffered the lightning and starting to gain feeling in his hands.
"Hmm?" Henry asked.
"Did you just use magic?"
"I did."
"Was that Shocking Grip?" Louis asked.
"It was," Henry said.
Louis seemed to consider Henry\'s answer for a bit before he then followed up with a question,
"Are you a Mage?"
"No, Louis. I\'m not," Henry answered.
"Then how…"
"A bit complicated and now\'s not the time," Henry said to shut the question down as he returned his attention to the fight that mattered and called Magical energy to his eyes.
[Activating <Insight Lv.2>]
His eyes glowed with the Analyzing Magic of <Insight> and after a moment that the skill spent raking over both Doherty and Echo, it delivered two screens side by side for a direct comparison of Stats.
——————
[Name: Dick Doherty]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Fighter]
[Job: Mercenary]
[Health: 240]
[Mana: 200]
[Strength: 85]
[Agility: 50]
[Stamina: 46]
*[Remarks: A Mercenary Fighter who has spent years honing his ability with the sword. Killable but possesses stats so good, caution must be advised.]
——————
——————
[Name: Echo]
[Job: Mettle-Tester.]
[Health: 240]
[Mana: 200]
[Strength: 85]
[Agility: 50]
[Stamina: 46]
*[Remarks: An Echo.]
——————
"Hold on," Henry mumbled, "The stats are the same."
"What are you talking about?" Louis asked, confused. The Paralysis was gone now and he could move his body so when Henry didn\'t answer him, he followed up with another question,
"What do you mean \'stats\'?"
Henry ignored him because as he stared at Echo\'s Stat screen as well as the \'Remarks\', something was starting to dawn on him.
\'Echo.\'
Everything Doherty was capable of, Echo was capable of as well in a perfect replication that might have been improved on.
*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*
In the multiple clashes they had had with their weapons, Doherty was starting to realize what Henry just discovered with <Insight>.
"This strength," Doherty said with a smirk as his sword and Echo\'s spear met in a stalemate, "This is exactly my strength. Are you holding back on me?"
Echo\'s mummified face lacked any emotion as it said,
"I am unfamiliar with the concept of \'Holding back\'."
"You\'re telling me this is all you\'ve got?" Doherty asked with a wide grin.
"Against you, this is \'all I\'ve got\'." Echo said.
Doherty laughed then,
"Hahahaha. If matching my strength is all you think you need to beat me, you\'re in for a rude awakening!"
With that, Doherty unleashed a wave of Mana that surged out of him in powerful arches, and at the center of it, he performed an impressive maneuver to move away from the stalemate with his sword aimed at Echo\'s neck.
*BANG!*
With contact that seemed almost explosive, Echo unleashed a sickly Mana surge that flowed out in arches and smacked into Doherty\'s. The two Mana surges canceled each other out and Doherty\'s eyes went wide when his sword cut through air and the tip of a Spear stabbed at his face.
"Damn—" he said and leaped back a few steps, putting distance between him and Echo only for his eyes to grow even wider in horror as the Spear tip followed him. Relentless aiming to pierce his head.