Survival. The objective function was deceptively simple but optimizing for it under current parameters felt statistically impossible. William's defence was degrading. Yegun Fastblade wasn't just fast, he was operating at a velocity that made high-frequency trading look like a leisurely stroll. Each parry was a desperate deflection against a swarm of incoming errors, each block a temporary patch on a system rapidly approaching catastrophic failure. Pure defence wasn't sustainable. HP: 101/150. Need an exploit, William thought, breath sawing in his raw lungs, arms screaming protest. A system vulnerability. A divide-by-zero error in the Fastblade algorithm. Disrupt the flow, force a processor stall, create an anomaly where none should exist.
He risked a micro-glance at EMMA's internal chronometer: 03:23... 03:22... Just over three minutes remained. An eternity under this assault, yet terrifyingly finite. He'd been hoarding mana like a doomsday prepper, running EMMA's active modules only in short, targeted bursts. But Yegun's adaptation, the brutal kick that still sent phantom pain up his shin, the increasingly unpredictable attack vectors, rendered passive observation obsolete. It was time to burn the reserves. Time to overclock the system before the metaphorical server rack ignited.
Just as William gathered his focus, preparing to dump mana into a continuous high-level EMMA analysis, Yegun executed another unexpected subroutine. The B-Rank adventurer, perhaps sensing the dwindling timer or simply deciding efficiency dictated a swifter conclusion, paused his whirlwind assault for less than a heartbeat. His lips moved, a low, guttural syllable lost to the air, an incantation.
Oh, absolutely fantastic, William's internal monologue groaned. New feature deployment mid-critical operation. Zero testing. This never ends well. He recognized the focused intent, the drawing of mana, but the word itself was alien.
Yegun's eyes snapped open, and for a fraction of a second, they seemed to burn with an almost physical intensity. A faint, distorting shimmer pulsed around him, like aggressive heat haze shimmering off sun-baked pavement. And then he yelled, a single, sharp word that cracked like a whip. "Haste!"
Before William's could even parse the likely parameters, Spell Effect: Self-Buff, Velocity Enhancement (Significant)? Buff Duration: Unknown? Mana Cost: Moderate-High?, Yegun moved.
If he was a blur before, now he was practically a visual echo. Attacks didn't just overlap, they seemed to occupy the same space simultaneously. The air split with the sound of displaced air and the high-pitched schink-schink-clang of steel meeting steel faster than William could consciously track. It felt less like fighting and more like being caught inside a malfunctioning industrial blender made of swords. He was suddenly drowning in attack vectors, trying to process a DDoS attack with dial-up bandwidth.
Right. Critical threat escalation. Unknown variable introduced. Standard defensive protocols: Insufficient. William slammed down his rising panic with sheer analytical will. EMMA! Full diagnostic overlay! Analyse active buff, quantify parameters: Speed delta, reaction time modifier, decay rate! Identify secondary effects: Control penalties, mana drain signature, physiological tells! Execute NOW!
He poured mana into the system, demanding analysis even as he scrambled backwards, sword a desperate flurry of instinctual blocks and parries learned through sheer repetition. The world outside the immediate kill-zone around Yegun became muffled, indistinct background noise. Julia's sharp gasp, Borin's stony impassivity – noted, logged, ignored. MP: 85/100.
CLANG!SCHINK!WHOOSH!CLANG!
Steel hammered against his blade, impacts jarring his already aching arms. HP: 88/150. A blade tip zipped past his ear, the rush of air cold against his skin. Another blow glanced hard off his padded shoulder, a brutal thud that sent stars dancing in his vision but didn't break through. HP: 73/150. Note: Positive ROI on baseline armor investment. He was getting hit now, repeatedly. Blunted practice taps mostly, deflected by luck as much as skill, but they were accumulating. Bruises bloomed beneath bruises. His lungs felt like sandpaper. HP: 62/150.MP: 78/100.
EMMA, status report! he mentally screamed, deflecting a thrust aimed at his sword hand.
The EMMA interface flickered, data streams struggling to parse the sheer volume of input from Yegun's hyper-accelerated state. Calculating… Opponent Agility Metric: +35% (Est. - Upper Confidence Bound). Reaction Time Modifier: -25% (Est.). Active Buff Mana Drain Rate (Opponent): High, Logarithmic Decay Signature Detected. Estimated Buff Duration Remaining: < 105 seconds. Tactical Analysis Update: Opponent aggression maximized, defensive subtlety minimized, attack patterns simplified but executed at extreme velocity…MP: 71/100.
Simplified patterns, less subtlety? You don't say! William thought hysterically, ducking under a wild horizontal slash. The data confirmed the obvious. Yegun, under Haste, was sacrificing finesse for overwhelming speed. EMMA's predictive lines, while still appearing, lagged fractionally behind Yegun's actual movements, turning prediction into near real-time reaction advisories. It was barely enough. He was a CPU desperately trying to process high-def video, dropping frames, buffering, constantly red-lining. MP: 65/100.
He needed a counter. Now. Waiting out the Haste wasn't an option. he'd be overwhelmed long before it faded. Continuing this level of EMMA analysis was equally unsustainable.
02:30
EMMA, bless its potentially sentient algorithmic heart, flashed updated tactical options based on the new reality:
Option 1: Maintain Current Defensive Strategy.
Analysis: Opponent velocity exceeds sustainable reaction threshold. Defensive integrity near total failure.Projected Survival (10 min): < 0.1%.Est. Time Until Incapacitation: 35 seconds (Median).Comment: Functionally equivalent to using thoughts and prayers as firewall.
Option 2: Attempt Evasion / Disengagement.
Analysis: Opponent mobility vastly superior (Haste Buff Active). Creating/maintaining distance: Improbable. Exhaustion penalty: Severe.Projected Survival (10 min): 2%.Est. Time Until Incapacitation: 55 seconds (Median).Comment: Running away slowly from a cheetah. Outcome predictable.
Option 3: Execute Unconventional Counter / System Interrupt.
Analysis: High risk. Potential to disrupt opponent's rhythm/exploit simplified attack patterns associated with Haste state. Requires leveraging unique user capabilities (EMMA / ???). Outcome variance: Extreme.Projected Survival (10 min): 18% (Est. - Low Confidence: High number of unknown variables).Est. Time Until Incapacitation: Indeterminate (Potential for immediate failure OR mission success).Comment: The 'Format C: Drive and Reinstall Hope' protocol. High chance of bricking the system.
Less than a one-in-five chance, and that was the best outlook? A cold, sharp clarity cut through the panic. Standard operational procedures had failed catastrophically. Time for creative, undocumented, potentially system-violating solutions. Time to throw a spanner, a monkey wrench, a confusingly large syntax error into Yegun's meticulously optimized Haste sequence.
But how? He couldn't match speed, power, or skill. He needed a disruption. Something Yegun wouldn't expect from an F-Rank. Something leveraging his only other tool…
His fingers, clumsy inside his glove, brushed the smooth, cool surface of the simple river stone tucked in his belt pouch. The focus for his Light spell. The basic illumination cantrip he'd spent days mastering. A glorified flashlight. Utterly, demonstrably useless in combat.
Unless…
The thought sparked, erratic and desperate, born of sheer necessity, the kind of wildly improbable workaround coded at 3 AM fuelled by stale coffee and existential dread. The Light spell channelled mana through the stone, exciting its matrix via specific runic pathways to produce light. What happens if you deliberately exceed the specified parameters? Shove too much mana, too quickly, down that simple channel? Like ramming gigawatts through a cheap LED. It doesn't just glow. It flares, pops, detonates. Could he weaponize a cantrip? Turn Light into a magical flashbang?
He had zero data. Zero precedent. High probability of fizzling uselessly. Non-zero probability of mana backlash resulting in temporary blindness, unconsciousness, or spontaneous internal combustion. Risk assessment: Generally categorized under 'Really Bad Ideas'.
But Option 1 was certain failure. Option 2 was marginally delayed failure. Option 3, this statistically unsound 'Flashbang Hypothesis', offered… a chance. A sliver. An outlier. The only path not leading directly to a negative outcome variance of 100%.
Okay, EMMA, he thought, ducking under another whistling slash that ruffled his hair, feeling the displaced air like a physical blow. MP: 58/100. Reallocate processing resources. New simulation request: Model forced mana overload into standard 'Light' activation sequence via silicate focus medium. Prioritize prediction: localized photic/energy discharge parameters – intensity, radius, duration. Execute simulation NOW!
The EMMA interface flickered violently, protesting the computational load while simultaneously trying to track Yegun's onslaught. HP: 32/150. Simulating… Warning: High energy cascade potential detected… Unstable mana reaction probable… Predicting intense broadband photic discharge… Est. Duration: 0.9s +/- 0.4s… Est. Effective Radius (Visual Disruption): ~3 meters… Warning: Potential for localized kinetic force negligible but non-zero…
It might be enough. A second of disorientation. An eternity in this fight. If he could just time it.
01:28
The sand flowed. Yegun pressed relentlessly, sensing the F-Rank weakening, moving in for the final, decisive blow.
Time to inject some unexpected data into the system, William thought, taking a ragged breath, fingers closing around the smooth stone in his pouch.