Even that damage was quickly repaired by the ongoing healing effects of the Integrity buff, which continually replenished his health, stamina, and mana, along with the healing of the Guardian’s Blessing. The needle storm was never intended to be the real threat, however, just keeping Jason off-balance to set up the assassin lunging in with his claw-like weapons.
Sophie would have been more than a match for the silver-ranker, in speed and skill both. As it was, the silver ranker had the clear edge in speed, while Jason’s experience and technique were dominant. Month after month, day after day and even hour after hour of battle in the astral space had sharpened Jason’s skills to a razor’s edge.
When he had first started training, he had na?ve ideas about being some kind of perfect counterattacker. Then, the practical realities of combat slowly pounded into his head that he was not an anime character. Training with Rufus and Sophie, then battle after battle after battle had allowed him to refine that original idea into a more practical form.
Jason and Sophie practiced the same, highly versatile combat style, but they did so in different ways. Sophie used the versatility to constantly dominate, adapting her attacks into what was worst for her opponent at any given moment. It was her style before gaining powers and piling on speed and mobility only enhanced its effectiveness.
Jason likewise moulded his approach to his powers. With his cloak and his stretching arms, his approach leaned heavily on deception. Hiding unconventional movement and posture behind his abilities, he was hard to pin down and full of unpredictable attacks. The fact that he rarely went for more than superficial wounds with his daggers also opened up a world of attacks that others would find inconsequential.
Jason used all this to full effect against the assassin. Leaping between Shade’s bodies. Masking his posture and movements behind his voluminous cloak. Reaching out with his shadow arms to make attacks that shouldn’t be possible.
Jason dominated the fight. Despite the assassin’s advantage in speed, his claw weapons never landed on Jason, even getting caught up in the cloak, which Jason used to yank him off balance. When the assassin tried to yank the cloak back, it passed through his fingers, insubstantial.
This did not mean that Jason was relaxed. He was fully aware of the power disparity and knew that only a handful of blows from the silver-ranker would breach the protection of his amulet and take him down.
The assassin continued to strike out literally and figuratively, hitting air as his attacks passed through the cloak. Jason’s body was never exactly where it seemed, and every failed attack was followed up with a counterattack. Realising he was outclassed, the assassin tried to back up and regroup his thoughts. Jason didn’t allow that, however, as he moved to the offensive.
Every moment that ticked by was gold for Jason as his afflictions became more and more entrenched on the enemy. Likewise, Gordon was lashing out with two beams from his remaining eye orbs. The disruptive-force damage was specialised against magic, though, adding only minimal damage to the silver-ranker. If Gordon didn’t share Jason’s power to ignore rank disparity as Jason’s familiar, the damage would have been almost ignorable.
Eventually, the assassin became aggravated at Gordon and threw out a stream of shimmering force needles that managed to harm the incorporeal familiar. Jason recalled the familiar, Gordon bolstering Jason’s aura strength as the familiar disappeared into him. Neither Jason nor the silver-ranker could suppress one another despite the ongoing struggle, so they were each affected by the other’s aura. In this, Jason had the advantage, as his aura seemed to take full effect. The assassin’s aura inflicted a weakening debuff that Jason’s continually resisted, actually making him stronger.
Although he had seen it before, Jason was still amazed at the resilience of a silver-ranker. His opponent was fighting through what would have killed the most resilient bronze-rank monster, let alone an essence user. The man looked almost undead under the ravages of Jason’s necrotic damage.
Jason had more skill, not just with his combat skills but also in the tactical use of his abilities, outplaying one power after another despite his own being lower rank. The assassin, like most humans, was heavy on special attacks, and Jason was unsure if he was holding back the more dangerous ones. The idea seemed to be capture, rather than kill, after all.
Ultimately, Jason was not Sophie. Stand-up fights were where she excelled, while he was all about making the most of complex environments. The rooftop on which they fought offered nothing more than a slight slant, the open space very much to the assassin’s advantage. If not for Shade’s bodies spread over it for shadow jumping, the fight would have gone far worse.
Jason’s original plan had been to turn the fight into a chase. Drown his opponent in afflictions, then flee for more complex environments to buy time as they worked. Unfortunately, not all of the assassin’s powers were effectively handled by Jason. Just one made his plan unworkable.
The most effective power the assassin employed was a tether power, much like the one used by Belinda. It did not impede Jason as long as he remained close, but trying to leave the rooftop brought about dangerously escalating damage. The tether even tracked him through teleports and he wasn’t willing to risk a portal.
If the power managed to follow him, that kind of distance would cause the tether to kill him instantly. It would be possible to destroy the conjured rod to which the tether was affixed, but that would likely cause a powerful explosion. He could survive the silver-rank blast, but it would hit him hard enough that the silver-ranker would have a chance to end the fight.
Jason was willing to stick out the fight, as his position improved with every passing moment. He was accumulating power while his opponent accumulated afflictions. Crucially, this included an affliction from his Hand of the Reaper power that simultaneously chipped away at the assassin’s speed advantage and ability to hold off his afflictions.
[Rigor Mortis] (affliction, unholy, stacking): Penalty to the [Speed] and [Recovery] attributes. Additional instances have a cumulative effect. Each time a new instance is inflicted, deals necrotic damage for each existing instance.