Chapter 65

  Phantom

  This purple thing gives me the same sense of wrongness that I got from the Undead Abomination clear back in the forest outside of Dabun, and it’s impossible to ignore how it resembles the Heart of Corruption.

  My hand is shaky as I raise it up to make a monocle around my eye, because I already have a very good idea of what Identify Lv2 is going to tell me, and I really don’t want to see it.

  NAME: Phantom of Corruption

  RACE: Projection

  AGE: 0

  LEVEL: ??

  CLASS: Swordmaster

  STATUS: Malicious

  HEALTH: Slightly Injured

  ENERGY: High

  VITALITY: High

  CONDITIONS:

  - None

  … There are numerous problems with the status window that appears that immediately leap out to me. First off, just from the top down, what the heck kind of race is a Projection? Is it just an illusion? This thing is definitely no hologram. It’s got a presence. So if it’s not a light or magic projection, what is it a projection of?

  And then its level. I’ve never failed to be able to identify something’s level. Granted, I’ve never tried it on the high-level adventurers I know, because that seems rude, but I was able to tell the level of the Undead Abomination when I was only level five, and that was an even bigger gap than between me and the ogre subbosses now. Is the gap between me and this Phantom even higher, or is there something else keeping me from seeing it?

  It has a real class, too! The Undead Abomination’s class was just Corrupted, but this thing’s an actual, System-recognized Swordmaster! And it doesn’t have the Corrupted condition, either. Even the Foxy Receptionist - which I still can’t believe is what he was actually called - had that condition, it was how I knew he was possessed by a Heart of Corruption.

  But this Phantom of Corruption isn’t corrupted. Does that mean that this is truly its natural state? Just … a pure manifestation of Corruption, like the Heart?

  As focused as I am on it, it doesn’t seem to even recognize we’re here. When the portal opens, it just turns from where the ogre died and starts toward the dungeon orb, like nothing else exists.

  That’s bad. Bad, bad, bad. My instincts scream at me, and I remember that dead world of the Forest Cavern dungeon. Before I have time to consider any other course of action, my gun is in my hand and a bullet is ricocheting off of a stone statue just past the Phantom’s head.

  It pauses, and I feel its attention land on us before its head even turns to face us. It’s a sickening, heavy weight that feels like a physical manifestation of disease has slammed down on my shoulders and compressed my chest. It feels hard to breathe, even though nothing’s stopping me from doing so.

  Leuke already has Ryutaiji Steel in his hands, but I see a bead of sweat forming at his temple. Obviously, he feels it, too.

  “Ayre,” I shout without taking my eyes off of the Phantom, “take Korrigan back to the doorway and keep her safe!”

  The elf’s voice is shaken. “What … what is that thing, Remmi?”

  Hearing my best friend’s chords quake makes me tighten my own grip on my pistol as I narrow my eyes, trying to push the aura’s effect away from me.

  “It’s the enemy.”

  I barely get the sentence out before a flash of power sets off an alarm in my mind.

  Attacking has drawn its attention. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but the cold sweat dripping down my back is starting to make me think otherwise.

  The phantom is too far to reach me with his sword, but that doesn’t stop him from swinging it right at me. No, not at me. At my gun.

  It’s going after my weapon!?

  The fact that its blade is too far to reach me doesn’t matter. I pull my hand aside and twist my body, getting out of the path of the sword. A wave of darkness cuts the air right where my hand once held my gun.

  Leuke shouts. Ayre is scrambling to get Korrigan to safety. But for a brief second as the phantom’s attack passes by, none of their sounds reach my ears. There’s only silence. Silence so deep, so complete, that it feels like the fundamental laws of the universe have suddenly changed.

  As quickly as the silence came, it leaves again. Noises flood me, sounds that I knew had to be there all along, even if I couldn’t hear them. But they seem distant now, not because they’re further away, but simply because now I’m starting to understand just how deadly this phantom really is. If I don’t focus, we really will die.

  I unconsciously swallow, but my mouth is so dry that I only gulp down air, and even that feels thin going down.

  “Remmi!” Leuke’s voice rings clear in my ears.

  “Flank it while I’m the target–Leuke!”

  “Gah…!”

  The Phantom swaps targets as soon as Leuke gets in range. Both of their swords clash, but Leuke is the one who gets thrown away.

  I fire a barrage at the Phantom to draw its attention again, but I don’t even think it was necessary as it’s barely even taken its eyes off me. My bullets hit something solid, but I can’t even tell if they’re doing any real damage to it. Not that it matters right now, when we haven’t even been able to get into a proper formation yet.

  Since the Phantom is facing me directly, I fire a headshot at it. There’s a metallic sound and two glimmers of light as the Phantom cuts my bullet in half, punctuated by the sound of two tiny impacts behind the Phantom.

  “Uhh…” I gulp again.

  Finally, the Phantom moves.

  “Woah!” I jump back, the Phantom’s blade suddenly close to my face. “Fast, too…!”

  I have to lower my gun when the sword comes around again. My plan was to bring it back up after, but I don’t even have time to do that before a heavy fist slams into my face. Ignoring the ringing in my ears and the stars in my vision, I jump as far from that deadly sword as I can, not knowing whether or not I would make it.

  “Watch out, Remmi!” There’s a clash of steel as Leuke rushes in between me and the Phantom, Ryutaiji clanging against that long blade made of the same stuff as the Phantom, itself. There’s a visible ripple that passes through the air from the impact, and Ryutaiji is surrounded by an aura of golden power, like when Leuke cut Ayre away from the wall of ghost hands.

  The Phantom seems to flinch slightly from that light, but immediately breaks the guard lock and unleashes a horizontal sweep that knocks the Hero away.

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  “Thanks, Leuke!” I manage to put some distance between me and the Phantom. “We can’t let ourselves get pinned up against the wall by this guy!”

  I whip around to the side, firing into the entity’s flank as I try to pull it away from where Ayre and Korrigan retreated. The bullets impact solidly again, but no blood emerges, and the Phantom pays the wounds no mind.

  It seems happy to oblige my pulling of aggro, however, turning to pursue me back into the greater whole of the room. Mindless beyond the mission? Maybe. Or maybe it just doesn’t care about anything not in the way of its mission. How close is that to the same thing?

  I burn Empower as I roll out of the way of that long blade, desperately staying on the move, but it’s fast. Faster than me, even with Empower. If it weren’t for the long wind-ups that huge sword requires, I’d never be able to keep up.

  Worse, as I duck and weave and futilely try to keep my distance, some part of me realizes there’s a rhythm to this fight, that I could know where this monster was going to move next if I could just get in sync with that beat. But I can’t. It’s not that the Phantom is moving chaotically. If anything, its form is exceptional. It’s not the movements that are the problem. Just its presence seems to throw me off, disrupting my pattern recognition, as if it refuses to be quantified.

  Is it really some trait of the Corruption that’s affecting me psychologically? … Or am I scared? I’m no longer sure.

  I can’t get out of the way of all of its attacks. I can only avoid them being fatal. Even as I turn my pistol away to load a new magazine, I trade the action for another cut across my left arm. When I fire again, though, I trigger Spiral Shot, and golden explosions go off in the Phantom’s face.

  Like Leuke’s golden attack before, the Phantom recoils from the holy rounds, and I’m able to keep it occupied as I jump backwards repeatedly, reestablishing my distance from its stupid sword.

  It rears back to lunge after me again, but I’ve bought enough time for Leuke to recover, and he jumps into the brawl once more. Golden aura smashes against purple flame, and they contest each other furiously, but the Phantom elbow-checks its fellow Swordmaster, then bashes the pommel of its sword into his nose. Leuke staggers back from the blow, and the Phantom rears back to cut him down.

  Again, my Spiral Shots ram into the side of its torso, but, again, it looks more offended than injured. … I’m pretty sure it tosses me a dirty look. I don’t really know why I’m so sure, since it, y’know, doesn’t have a face, but that’s definitively what it feels like.

  And then purple fire erupts around its blade again as it whips around in a full circle, the horizontal spin sending Leuke flying again, this time hard enough that he slams back-first into one of the trees with enough force to send a crack splitting through the thick old thing. The pain is visible in his clenched face, but then he slumps to the ground.

  The Phantom takes another swing of its sword, and that dark plane ripples forth again, crossing the distance in a blink to slice right through the old tree that would have taken three, maybe four people to wrap their arms around. The holy tree groans from its fatal wound before it falls, crashing down on top of Leuke’s still form.

  I’ve reloaded again, and before the Phantom can get any ideas of going to finish him off, I open fire on it. This time, however, it’s not nearly so impressed, its blade turning and deflecting my bullets.

  “I’m really getting sick of sword people doing that,” I shout out loud. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that trick’s Hollywood nonsense?!”

  My Empowered Spiral Shot rips through the air between us, but there’s a gust of wind, and suddenly, the Phantom’s covered half the distance between us, off to the side of the shot. Immediately, I adjust and fire again, but it vanishes again, and I almost freeze up as its shadow falls over me directly.

  It’s almost like it’s telling me, I don’t need nonsense to deal with someone as weak as you.

  I try to fire up into the underside of its skull, but one of its hands grabs my gun arm by the wrist and twists it away. The purple energy burns like real fire against my flesh, and I scream before I can stop myself, but the Phantom isn’t done, rearing back its other gauntleted hand and backhanding me across the face.

  It’s the most powerful blow I’ve ever felt. Even the way the Undead Abomination knocked me around didn’t send the utter shock through my jaw that this does. It’s like I can feel my jaw and teeth atomize as the impact ripples through the bone. My head torques around sharply.

  Somehow, my neck doesn’t snap then and there, and I don’t think I truly lose consciousness, but the next moment I’m aware of my surroundings, my head is against the floor of the arena, and there’s something wet between my flesh and the stone.

  A window pops up in my vision informing me that I’ve contracted the Concussion condition. It’s penalizing my Intellect and slowing my Stamina regeneration. Yeah, some part of me says that checks out. I hurt the brain case, and the muscle inside isn’t happy.

  I get my hands under me and try to force myself back up, but a boot slams into my ribs, and suddenly, getting off of the ground is handled for me. I even pull off a full hundred-eighty degree flip before I crash into the ground again.

  “Ow…” I groan pathetically. Or I try to. The realization that half of my mouth isn’t working kind of stunts my snark.

  The Phantom of Corruption has surprisingly heavy footfalls. I can feel them through the stone as it comes over until it stands above me. It stares down at me, then takes its time dragging its sword around and lifting it up above its head, that long, narrow blade pointing down toward my body.

  An arrow surrounded by spiraling seafoam energy and an exploding fireball like a small meteor pierce the distance and slam into the Phantom’s side.

  No. No, no, no …

  The Phantom and I both turn our heads to look back toward the entrance to the boss room, to the elf and oni already preparing another brace of attacks.

  No, no, no, no, no …

  “Get away from Remmi!” Ayre’s shout feels muddled through my ears. Like it’s passing through water. Right, concussion. I’d almost forgotten.

  Like I’m pulling myself through the muck of a nightmare, I roll over onto my side as the Phantom starts toward its new challengers.

  It’s going to butcher them. It tore Leuke and I apart, and we’re Heroes. It barely even felt my bullets. They’re not going to be able to do anything to it.

  I ask cruel fate why they didn’t run even as I know the answer. The same reason I wanted them to run is why they couldn’t.

  My torso protests the movements that bring it mostly vertical, and as my arm drags along behind it, there’s a metallic scraping. I look down at the unexpected sound.

  By some miracle, through all of that, I managed to keep hold of my pistol. There’s a thick ring of burnt, purple flesh around my wrist, and the sensation in my hand is faint, but my fingers are still iron tight around the grip. I wiggle my finger, and it responds.

  Without hesitation, I raise my gun at the Phantom’s back, determined to keep it away from my friends. My aching head screams at me that it’s pointless. So what if I distract it again? If I can’t kill it, and I know I can’t, it’s just going to turn around, finish me off, and then kill them, anyway. I’m not accomplishing anything but buying them a few more moments and rendering their attempt to save me moot.

  My eyes lock onto a flickering just a little to the side of the Phantom from where I’m sitting. It’s the portal. Through it, I’ve got a clear line of sight right to the glowing light of the dungeon core.

  If we’re all going to die, at least I can make sure that one last place is protected from Corruption first. Maybe I can’t defeat that thing, but with my last act, I can steal its prize.

  It’s a small adjustment in the focus of my barrel. I go to speak the words, but my tongue won’t make the consonants. I sputter as I try to make it work, the focus making my head feel like it’s about to split open.

  The Phantom is halfway to Ayre and Korrigan, taking its time and slapping their attacks away. I dread to think it’s enjoying itself.

  I use my fear for them to push them from my mind, focusing all of my attention on that glowing sphere. I don’t need to speak to use my spells. It’s a visualization technique, nothing more. So visualize, you blonde idiot!

  I do exactly that, reproducing the sensation of that first time the System-granted spell flashed through me. That brilliant beam of light. That cleansing stream.

  PURIFICATION CANNON!

  The ray of holy magic rips through the air with such force that the Phantom of Corruption freezes in its tracks, its head whipping toward me, but it’s too late. By the time it registers the attack, it’s already colliding with the dungeon core.

  The light of the attack fades, and the core pulses for a few moments as if digesting the energy, and then solidifies into a brighter, steady illumination. The next instant, there’s a tangible difference that flows through the air. It’s comfort, it’s safety, and I know it’s flowing through the entire dungeon and out into the surrounding region.

  And then comes the window.

  You have purified all of the dungeons in this region.

  This region is now warded against contamination.

  The Phantom stands there staring at the dungeon core for a moment longer, then slowly rotates its head toward me. Its long, faceless glare at me portrays such deep, unfathomable hatred that my heart quivers in my chest.

  And then it simply sheathes its sword and disappears, its presence instantly vanishing as if it had never been there at all.

  I exhale a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I don’t know if the Phantom was expelled by the region being protected or if it just decided to leave since it could no longer complete its mission, but we survived.

  Another window appears in my vision as Ayre and Korrigan start toward me.

  You have survived an encounter with the Phantom Warrior.

  You have failed to defeat the Phantom Warrior.

  The likelihood of a future encounter with the Phantom Warrior has increased.

  Reward:

  + 100,000 Points

  All I can think as I let my body collapse back to the arena’s floor is that’s a lot of points for failure. The last time I got points for failing, it was only a hundred, and that was against an army of Level 25 Wood Golems.

  Points are awarded according to the difficulty of the challenge. If the experience of losing to those golems was one-thousandth of losing to this sword-wielding purple fart, just how powerful was that Phantom?

  And it’s just a projection. So what does that say about wherever it came from?

  Ayre and Korrigan are helping me up, and my friend is blatantly avoiding looking at the side of my face the Phantom slapped, but I barely feel that side at all. That’s probably a problem in and of itself, but my mind’s honestly elsewhere entirely.

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