by Dakota Krout
Though he was feeling something pulling him, Luke only managed to wriggle. Taylor’s voice stopped even that, “Knock that off; I can barely manage to haul you and fight as it is!”
“No… the lances.” Luke weakly pushed the words from his charred throat.
“Yeah, you should have listened. There is a reason we need to have team cohesion. Listen when someone tells you to watch out!” Taylor’s voice fell on deaf ears as Luke’s paralysis wore off. “Learn to duck-”
“No, the lances. I want them.” Luke forced himself up and took a step toward the fallen centaurs.
“They are buried right now; you’d need to attack that other herd in order to get even a few lances.” Taylor grabbed him as Luke took a shaky step toward the regrouping centaurs. “That wasn’t an invitation. Enough. You’re injured and naked; fall back for now. We need a new plan.”
“What?” Zed’s faux-shocked voice echoed in their ears. “You aren’t going to just keep attacking them directly? Your face is still intact; why not hit them with that? Abyss, go bite them to death!”
“You’re not helpful.” Taylor calmly yet firmly pushed Luke back, knowing that if he didn’t want to go, there was no physical way to make him do it. Luckily, in his current addled state, he was more receptive to listening to what she was saying. “Luke, we need to regroup.”
“Can you just… throw me? Get me right in the center of that Scar. I take out the leaders, you mop up the scattering army by dropping the mountain on them.” Luke’s voice was firm, though slightly slurred. The blood running down his forehead made Taylor think that he might have a concussion.
“How does your head feel?” They were moving steadily toward the fallback point that Andre had made, though Taylor needed to blast their way through a few times.
“Is fine.” He punched a Scuttler, and luckily his weapons were still available; otherwise, he would have broken his hand. “Only took… twenty hits on the head so far? I was fine until the lightning.”
Sparks started to flash across Luke’s entire head, increasing in intensity until they became sparkles, then planes of mana began to form. After a long moment, the same thing started happening all over his body, and Taylor realized that it was his armor reforming. “Are you doing that?”
“Huh? Oh. No.” Luke looked at his arms as the sparkles faded and the shifting mana once more became invisible. “When the armor breaks, it needs to reform. Whatever mana was in it was locked until the full amount invested is regenerated. Then it just stays that way unless I shift it again.”
“It’s a passive ability?” Taylor let the fact that she was impressed seep through her voice, working to keep Luke distracted and amiable. There was far too high of a chance that he would charge back into the fight if she didn’t.
“Mostly. There are active components to it as well. Oh.” Luke stared into the distance, a clear indication that he was looking at a notification. “It hit level four.”
Taylor tried to control her eye twitch. Luke had gained well over a thousand Potentia in under thirty minutes? She checked her own notifications, finding that her portion had been closer to seven hundred, and most of that was due to the sheer differences in monster types that she had killed before. New always meant more Potentia. “That’s great! Big changes between levels?”
“Literally nothing that I can clearly see. Just a way to pass time until the next tier.” Luke took a deep breath, feeling his mana reserves top off at the same time. “Welp, time to go do some killin’.”
“Abyss, hold on, will you?” Taylor grabbed him, then went cold at the look he gave her hand. She knew in that instant that she had nearly died, and only the fact that Luke had already been straining against his instincts so they could talk mid-battle saved her life. “I’m… sorry, that was a bad idea.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to launch you at the Scar. We’re at the fringes of the horde, and we still can’t easily kill everything. I mean, because of the swarm tactics. Obviously, you can punch things to death. However, your idea of dropping the mountain on them was a good idea. Let’s go talk to Andre and figure out how and where we could cause a landslide.” Her idea was sound, so Luke nodded and entered the strange, still oasis that had no place in this bloody battlefield.
“Welcome back! Can you please let me down now? I need to pee.” Zed called from his tree-tall perch.
“I’ll make you an arrow slit.” Taylor’s calm reply made Zed groan. “Just keep watch. If something too strong comes, we need to be prepared. How are you doing, Andre?”
“Good.” Andre opened his brilliant green eyes and stood, shaking off the vines that were clinging to him. “It is a fine balance, teaching plants to kill without directing them to do so at my will. It’s an interesting experiment, though!”
“Convincing other things to do the work for you. That’s an impressive way to get around the requirement of not killing directly.” Luke plopped to the ground with a sigh, basking in the calm atmosphere. “Are you sure you aren’t a Bard?”
“Was…” Andre looked at Luke with clear excitement, “was that a joke?”
“He has a concussion.” It pained Taylor to see Andre slump at the explanation. They had once been best friends, and now none of them really knew each other. Though the change was the clearest with the Murderhobo, all of them had spent a lifetime apart. “Luke had a good idea; I want to create a landslide and use the distraction to get to the Scar. Can you help me find the best place to create a Fissure, and shear the wall? The higher the better.”
Andre became introspective, hesitating before responding. “How much time do we have?”
Thunder filled the area as a herd of lightning lances discharged into the trees around them. Taylor watched as vines whipped out and put out the fires that had been started as a result.
“Work fast?”
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Here we go.” Zed was watching the walls of the pass intently. A thin layer of moss had coated it as far as his eye could see, and over time, most had fallen off aside from a few areas where large green ‘X’s showed what Andre had hoped were stress points. Taylor was heading to the largest of them even now, using her stealthy ways to cross the distance.
Since she needed fairly close proximity, and the mana she devoted to the process would light her up like a beacon, Luke had happily offered himself as a distraction. The Murderhobo had somehow convinced Andre to use his vines to catapult him at the centaur herd that was waiting for them, and they had timed the release of the hobo with the next burst of electricity. While the monsters were distracted by the light and sound of their thunder lances discharging, Luke had activated Bum Rush, sprinting forward.
Just before he broke through the brush, the vines had wrapped around his waist and arms, lifting and sending him in a single enormous leap over the heads of the centaurs and into their midst. A wild-eyed Murderhobo had fallen from the sky and wrapped himself around the torso of a centaur before headbutting it. His mana armor flared, preventing him from hurting himself, and Zed had gotten a far-off thumbs up. “Thanks for the reminder that I can use every part of my body in combat!”
Though he hadn't been serious when he told Luke to attack with his face, and in fact had been insulting the concussed man, Zed felt flattered that the idea was working out. Still, Zed hadn’t been able to keep his eyes on the rest of the battle. Luke was brutal, and his attacks left twisted and terrible remains. Among the unarmored foes, there were very few that could survive more than a single hit, and there were only so many times Zed could watch a centaur get split into both a horse corpse and a man corpse before he got ill.
So, Zed turned his eyes once more to the bright green ‘X’ on the side of the mountain pass. His grip on a vine, which Andre had supplied, was tight; and he was near to panicking. As soon as Taylor reached out to him, he needed to tell the others to start running. He also needed to leave the safety of both the stone column he was on and the oasis that Andre had created. Z
ed, a Bard that had barely higher characteristics than a standard human, was going to need to run through monster-infested territory and hope that the plane-walking, super-powered, incredibly violent members of his team remembered to wait for him and keep him alive.
“Well… at least I’ll get a good story out of it.” Zed checked his Potentia gains, and noted happily that he had already gained over two hundred since Luke had started fighting again. Through trial and error, Zed had found that the key to getting large chunks of exp was to point out things that combatants would otherwise miss, or needed to hear. Otherwise, he got nothing. Chatter didn’t do anything, and inane conversation had actually slowed the flow of Potentia. He was glad he had tested the mechanics of the exp splitting his new Mastery allowed, but he really wished it was spelled out better.
Zed was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed Taylor whispering to him across the distance. “Zed, I hope you can still hear me. I’m starting. You need to go now.”
He sent a hasty affirmative, then told the others and jumped. Zed whimpered as the ground started approaching far too fast… then the vine went taut. He swung out like a jungle man, at a lower speed than Luke had managed; though it didn’t feel like it. Zed was flying directly at a large thicket of thorns, but the vine twitched and he was sent sailing toward… “What in the abyss!”
A massive green bear was staring at him! He was getting closer; it opened its mouth as he neared. Zed squeezed his eyes closed, then felt a soft *thump*. Andre’s chuckle made Zed’s eyes crack open, and he froze as he realized that he was sitting on the bear. Andre spoke out, “Zed, meet Arthur. He has reluctantly allowed you to ride upon his majestic back. Please make sure to properly thank him later.”
“Andre there is a bear.” Zed squeaked out in a high-pitched jumble of words. Then his mind caught up to the conversation, and he looked at the bear below him. “He’s green… and I can see through him.”
“He’s my bound Cave Bear.” Andre explained simply as the bear started to lumber out of the area. “He is not actually physically present; this is a mana-clone of him. If he came here personally, he would be stronger, but could also be killed permanently. He was already hesitant to leave The Grove, and the low mana density on our world gave him the final push to decide against staying on this world when I returned.”
“Why is this the first I’ve seen him?” Zed managed to say the words in a normal register.
“He came through the portal for a few seconds when Archmage Don brought me back, but you must have been traveling at that point still. Short answer: he takes a lot of mana to summon. Now, there is no maintenance cost, but his mind is here, even if his body is back home. Since there is a time difference, that means if he is here for an hour, his body is asleep for six. The limit is clearly shown here; what if he is attacked while I need him here? He just… dies; fully unable to protect himself.”
“Ah.” Zed nodded, pressing himself close to the bear as they broke through the brush and his terrifying mount shot forward. “I can… see why this is a rare occurrence.”
“Yup; hold on, Arthur wants to move faster than just walking.” Andre was having no issue keeping up with the bear-relling beast, yet they were moving far too fast for Zed’s comfort. “Luke, we’re going!”
Luke joined them in a flash, a stack of lances held under each arm and a satisfied expression on his face. “Got what I needed. Where’s the-”
*Rumble*.
“Oh, there it is.” A flash of purple in the distance caught their attention, a ring that morphed into a pillar of light. It looked like a star had touched down on the pass, and the effect was similar. Thousands of tons of rock tipped and fell, almost in slow motion. The ground began shaking, and the subsequent earthquake simply became exponentially more powerful over the next few minutes.
The three of them were sprinting toward the still-tumbling scree, very pleased that they were at the highest point of the pass. The rock followed the slope, and a vast multitude of chimeras were caught under the stony torrent of death. Zed’s head jolted up, and his eyes followed a particular rock that seemed to be falling at a different angle. “Luke! Andre! Taylor is there; she just went unconscious!”
Luke looked up, then down at his lances, then up at the falling stone that had a smidge of Taylor’s white robe dangling over it. “Well, we had a good run together.”
“Save her, you cheese wheel!” Zed felt ashamed that his honed mind had only been able to come up with that very lacking insult.
“Throw me!” Andre demanded instantly as he charged at Luke. The Murderhobo prepared himself, dropping the lances. “At Taylor, Luke!”
Realization dawned, and Luke shifted positions quickly; then caught Andre and hurled him even as the Druid jumped. The fur-robed Druid shot like an arrow at the falling rock, vines exploding away from him and into a massive spider web as he got close. Taylor was scooped off the rock almost gently, and the ‘web’ closed around them, rolling into a ball that cushioned their fall as they hit the ground.
Arthur, Zed, Luke, and Luke’s re-collected lances were sprinting toward the ball before it had reached the ground. Taylor came flying out of the vines, though a few of them anchored to Arthur and tied her to his back like a bedroll. The remaining vines settled around Andre’s body and he once more appeared to be dressed only in a simple fur-and-flower robe. His Livingwood Staff flipped off the bear, and Andre caught it just in time to swing it up and around into a centaur’s knee.
As the staff swung, a multitude of spores were released from small sachets connected to it. The seeds burst into bloom, and everything they landed on started to scream as roots twisted into them and began releasing capsaicin directly into the impacted areas. “Go, run, run!”
Luke was starting to lag behind slightly, the unwieldy lances forcing longer turns and increasing the difficulty of leapfrogging over the unstable and still-settling rocks. Andre glared at him as he joined the others on Arthur. “Drop those! I’ll make the wood in them walk the weapons to a safe spot!”
There was a long moment of hesitation, but then the lances were tossed. They started inching like worms toward a space between some rocks, and Luke felt satisfied that this teammate hadn’t yet betrayed him. The Scar was looming closer and closer, but the monsters were regrouping around it. Some were departing through the portal, and Luke knew that there would be no such thing as the ‘element of surprise’ when they got close to it.
What he wasn't counting on was the time differential. Creatures began pouring out of the scar, far more than should have been possible. They were coming so fast that some were getting crushed by the sheer numbers that followed, unable to get away. With a quarter mile to go, and thousands of monsters between them and their goal, Luke started to get uneasy.
“Something is wrong.” His voice demanded attention from the others. “They aren’t attacking. They… they aren’t defending either. Something has changed. I don't understand this, but the mana is swelling around the Scar. We need to wake Taylor up.”
The portal pulsed, and even as far away as they were… the creeping certainty of death washed over them.
Chapter Forty-Eight
A hooded figure stepped out of the portal, and in an instant… the Scar was reduced in size by at least a third. The sheer amount of power this one being represented must be utterly huge if the stabilized portal weakened that much just to let it through.
“Wake her up, wake her up, wake her up.” Luke muttered in manic repetition, a strange desperation flowing through him. The hood worn by the creature made it impossible to understand what he was looking at, but a single glance made Luke feel like he was swimming through a pool of blood. The sheer killing intent bearing down on them screamed ‘massive Charisma and Capacity’.
This was a Mage of a high order, and the only being that Luke had encountered with even close to the same feeling was Archmage Don. “Andre, do something.”
“How am I supposed to be able-?” Andre was cut off as Zed
reached over and caressed Taylor’s face.
In his most lecherous tone, Zed whispered, “Wake up, sleepyhead. You fell asleep in my arms and were here all night!”
“Noo!” Taylor awoke with a scream as one of her worst nightmares played out in reality. The shift between unconsciousness and fight mode was instant, and only Taylor’s exhaustion saved Zed from an instant Flame Lance to the heart. “What…! Did it work?”
“Yup! You nearly died, though!” Andre cheerfully informed her. “Great to know your real feelings toward me, by the way. Also, it looks like the whole dying thing may still happen. Any idea what we should do about… that?”
Taylor directed her weary gaze to the Scar, and her focus sharpened instantly. “It shrunk… what came through? Oh… oh no.”
“I was really hoping to hear ‘that isn’t so bad, we can handle this,’” Zed fumed from his position on the still-charging bear.
“That’s… it’s so strong. I’ve never felt a power fluctuation from a monster like that, except once: a sentient thunderstorm. The storm was a tier ten existence.” Taylor swallowed; her mouth too dry to say much more.
“Stop. It’s doing something.” Luke pulled them back to the moment, just in time to feel a mental shockwave pass over them. For an instant, Luke wanted to destroy his group, then himself… but he tensed his body and shook off the insidious demand. Still, in the next moment he was rolling his eyes as he held a rabid Andre off. The Druid was gnawing on the skin between Luke’s thumb and index finger, but couldn’t manage a single point of damage to the mana-armor of his gauntlets.
Taylor seemed to move… inward? Like a wineskin that was squeezed suddenly, she convulsed once, and then she was fine. Zed didn’t even blink at the mental order that had tried to control him, but the bear that he was riding on started bucking wildly. Were they not tied on, Taylor and Zed would have been tossed off and swarmed by the chimeras that were sprinting at them in orderly, neat rows. Luke noticed the difference, and let the others know. “That thing has control powers; it took direct control of everything.”
