[NR] Yellow Mana - Chapter 496

There is a reason for the saying about a lion using its full strength, even when hunting a rabbit. Jason isn't sure if it is literal, but in this case, the boss was finding the literal part of that saying. Though comparing Lily to a normal irl rabbit isn't exactly fair.

Lily is a small ball of sharp energy looking for an outlet and the boss's face looks like the perfect target. So since said boss was too focused on standing up, she applied said Energy directly to the forehead.

She was already small for most rabbits in NeoRealm, and so compared to the boss's head, the forehead was about all Lily could cover. This was more than enough for her though. Lily's spiked fur and charged claws carve through the chitinous exoskeleton like a hot wire through styrofoam.

The only thing that saves the boss from an instant kill is the System. Quite literally as Jason for the first time is able to spot the Systems interference with an instant kill. It had gotten rarer with both him and Lily having assassin titles now and this was certainly the most obvious.

Here though, it was out in the open in a way Jason had not seen before. It did make some sense, this was a dungeon boss after all. Still, to see a shimmer of Energy extruding from the wound and pushing Lily away was quite the sight.

In almost any other situation the Energy wouldn’t be visible despite this, it would just look like the boss’s face was tougher or something. That wasn't the case this time because Lily's Energy was directly interfering with the System's Energy.

It all made sense to Jason. Despite having known about the System protection, he hadn't been able to figure it out before this. The reason why was because his own uses of Energy didn't cut open his enemies.

How was he supposed to see the System using Energy to reinforce a monster's skeleton or cushion their brain, if all of that stuff was on the inside? Sure, his blast skill had penetration, but that was more along the lines of his Energy passing through the enemy.

However, now wasn't the time to think about the discovery. The boss was now up on its feet again and Courtney got a heal in, so Jason was ready to continue the fight. Sure, he wasn't at 100%, but without a charge to back it up, the boss wasn't as threatening.

Still, as the two of them clashed, fist against fist, Jason was clearly on the losing side. He was pushed back and his arm creaked in ways that would disturb even those used to the sound of bones. It just wasn't right.

Though it isn’t like he didn’t get his own chunk of damage in. While his blast might not have pushed the boss’s fist back, it easily penetrated the chitin and unlike a glove, there wasn’t anything underneath to protect the hands integrity. With each clash Jason messed up the tardigroid’s hands even more.

Of course it certainly didn’t help that Jason had swept the enemy up into his tempo. After all, why was the boss even punching in the first place? For a monster like them, using their claws to swipe would be much more effective.

It didn’t really have much of a chance to think about this though. After all, isn’t like Rosha was sitting back and doing nothing. No, she was sending one arrow after another at the monster’s head, jarring any potential thoughts out of it while trying to sink one into the wounds left by Lily.

And speaking of Lily, after being pushed back from the enemy’s face she kept up her rampage. It was just relocated to the boss’s lower torso. Her claws scraping great furrows across the monster’s back. If not for what was surely System interference, those wounds would have been bleeding the boss dry in no time flat.

Of course the System couldn't have a dungeon boss being so easily defeated, especially when there aren't any titles in play related to exsanguinating others. At least Lily was doing more than chip damage. Even if not the deepest of cuts, her claws could fully cleave through the chitin plates, weakening the monster's defense.

All the while Courtney danced around the edge of the fight. While she would have loved to get in there personally, it was her healing that was needed. Not just by Jason, but Lily as well

Now, the beast's blood wasn't some super effective acid or anything. However, that didn't mean it was harmless. After all, this was being meant to live in the void of the Deep Sky.

Earlier tardigroids showed signs of this, but the boss took it to a whole nother level. There was no oxygen up there to breathe and so they relied on other things to live. In particular the wisps of the world's power that managed to escape was a fine feast.

The weaker tardigroids simply didn't have the ability to hold enough magic in their blood to cause problems. That was very much not the case for the boss, as the blood glowed an electric yellow as magic literally arced between wounds, zapping both Jason and Lily. Because that was one change from normal RPGs of the past.

In NeoRealm, Mana was yellow. As for the other two primary powers? Well, Energy was the blue of Jason's glow herbs and Qi matched the red of his bloody lingzi. It was only his focusing tea that didn't match the corresponding power's color scheme. Though even with that, they tended to take on a more yellow hue when dried for use.

Despite the surging of Mana that required constant healing, Courtney wasn't completely resigned to healing. To heal Lily required her getting in quite close as the boss's presence interfered with her spells at range. This allowed her to get a swipe or two in of her own. Not much, but every bit counts.