Darius turned to the two remaining wraiths with a smile on his face. If undead were still capable of still experiencing feelings like fear, he was sure that these two would have long booked it.
Rather, they seemed hesitant at best, but soon overcame that with a screech. They both rushed at Darius together, intending to take him at the same time.
Darius smiled and performed an experiment he had been curious about. Undead were technically beings categorized under the Death element, though they naturally also had some affiliation with the Dark element, so light-based spells like Purify had a strong effect on them.
However, on the scale of elements, it was not the Light element that was diametrically opposite to the Death element, but the Life element. Currently, the only Life element spell in his repertoire was Heal, and he wondered what kind of effect it would have on these undead.
Darius cast a Heal on one of the wraiths and what happened next shocked him silly. The wraith suddenly stopped and clutched its body, screeching so loudly that even Gunner stopped brutalizing the wights. Even those same wights forgot to fight back as they observed the wraith with fearful expressions.
The wraith itself began to glow from the inside as cracks appeared on its form. It continued to shriek endlessly and the pitch rose as more light emerged from its core, eventually shattering its body like glass in an explosion of light.
The battlefield remained silent for a second as the various combatants took in this sight with various emotions. Darius and Gunner were flabbergasted while the undead were terrified.
The very next second, Darius watched the final wraith turn tail and run, an action which blew his mind. According to his extensive research of undead and the Plains of Death, their race was known for never running away from enemies, no matter the reason.
Although this fact had been widely accepted, reality painted an entirely different picture right before his eyes. Darius sobered up and cast Heal on the fleeing undead, which shrieked as it faced the same end as its predecessor.
Darius glanced at Gunner's side and saw that he had the wights under control, so he quickly went into his Database to check the damage calculation.
Knowledge was indeed power, so if Darius could find out what happened, he could shorten the length of his battles by choosing the right attacks that dealt the most damage.
The damage calculation was a bit vague at first, but from the looks of it, the modifier for Life element damage against Death appeared to be x6! Not to mention there was an extra x3 modifier, which was likely critical damage!
However, Darius was confused. His Heal spell was described as: [Channel mana into the body of any living being to bring replenishment to their lifeforce. This restores 25% of a target's total HP.]
In essence, it sent his mana into the body of a target and increased their lifeforce. That explained why the wraith was in so much pain and had imploded. Purify was also a spell that had no 'animation', only targeting. This basically meant that, in the absence of any specific defense to that end, it would always hit his target.
Similar to Adjust, all he had to do was mentally select his targets and they would be struck with Purify as if the spell teleported from his fingers and onto the targets, unlike Sparks or Ember which sprayed their attacks and - following that logic - could miss.
In other words, Purify struck its exterior, while the Heal spell sent the mana within. What baffled Darius though, was how the specific base damage was calculated.
According to the spell description, it increased lifeforce by 25% of a target's total HP, which was 1/4 of their life. So technically, this should remove 25% of an undead's HP pre-modifier.
With the modifiers on top, it should be a 1-hit kill. Rather, it worked like Sparks or Ember, taking 25% of his Intellect and putting it through the modifiers as damage.
But why was the damage listed as 225 points instead of 112.5, or 113 if the system rounded it up? It would seem that the modifier ended up to x18, instead of x9, but Darius had trouble believing it could be so high.
It made more sense for the elemental bonus damage to be twice that of the Light element at x6 and for the rest to come through x3 critical damage.
That created a problem where the maths did not make sense, but Darius traced the spell's activation and had a strange idea.
Could it be that the elemental bonus and critical damage were calculated after the previous equation was completed instead of a single equation? If so, then yes, it would account for the current number, but why was it different in this case?
This was what created Darius's weird idea. Since the spell started out as mana that increased lifeforce, the calculation started with the elemental bonus damage.
However, looking at how that wraith slowly acclimated damage instead of blowing up at once or experiencing the damage for s short time, like with Purify or Sparks, Darius believed that the intrusive nature of the spell was what accounted for the critical because it struck the internals.
But that didn't answer why the equation was done sequentially. Confused, he summoned Mikey and Joneson, who appeared before him through a very malevolent portal.
"Sup boss, you good?" Joneson greeted cheerily.
Darius nodded with a smile. "Physically yes, but mentally I'm confused about something."
"Well, what's got your panties in a twist, boss?" Joneson inquired with surprise.
"How is the Heal basic spell calculated as damage on the undead?" Draco questioned with a frown.
The duo of undead were silent for a long while, before they shared an uncertain look, then simultaneously asked: "What?"
Darius repeated his question and Mikey and Joneson were about to shake their heads before their hoods cocked a little to the side. With wide eyes, Mikey began speaking.
