Descend- Bursting Out: A litrpg adventure

by David Burke

  “It isn’t that simple. With each of the others there was trust and a shared desire to become one. You will have to let go of your personal agenda and truly want to merge with me, knowing that while you will influence me, I will also influence you. And I have to trust you explicitly. When you were dying, I couldn’t stand by, so I endured that pain with you and we have that bond. It just isn’t the same though. Now…”

  Jay stopped midsentence. “Something is wrong. I feel attackers coming.”

  Chapter 23- Upside Down Food Chain

  Trina’s voice was raised in stress as she said, “My team is under attack.” Then she sped off and for the first time Jay was pressed to try and keep up with someone.

  Jessie followed behind but quickly lost them although Jay was broadcasting his thoughts to her so she could follow behind. He raced through the forest. The further they got from the housing the denser it got. He still hadn’t detected any animal life other than small insect-like creatures. But the plants became stranger and more colorful.

  There were giant Venus flytrap type plants, multi-hued moss on trees with gnarled trunks and branches that looked more like hooks meant to catch the unsuspecting than anything meant to bear leaves. Even at their speed it took half a dozen seconds to reach the site of the attack.

  The first sound he heard as they broke into the area where Trina’s team was fighting was Kayla screaming. That girl seemed to be in danger more than anyone else. Jay thought he was gonna have to start calling her Kenny, what with all her brushes with death.

  This time she was wrapped up in vines that were two inches thick and covered in sharp thorns. If his eyes were playing tricks on him the thorns were actually moving along the length of the vines as more of them tried to reach her and dig into her. Kayla wasn’t anywhere near as strong as him but she should have been able to break most regular vines and her skin should be resistant to normal thorns. Clearly these were not normal.

  Her cries were cut off as a vine made a move to go down her open mouth. She started to gag almost instantly and the length of the vine pulsed and rippled with an undulating motion that moved the thorns closer to her mouth. If those things got inside of her they would tear her up from the inside.

  Jay raced to cut the vines down, but Trina beat him to it. Her purple energy blasts drained the life out of the vine going down her throat. She still was choking but at least it didn’t seem to be moving or growing anymore. Trina shouted to him, “I can’t blast the rest without hurting her.”

  He didn’t even answer but moved forward, forming narrow constructs like elbow-long gloves around him. They greatly reduced the dexterity of his hands but it was still sufficient. First he yanked the brown, dead vine that was down her throat. It pulled free but he couldn’t be sure that he didn’t damage something inside. He just figured it was easier to heal cuts as long as she was alive and that breathing was necessary for that.

  One of the vines curled around his legs but he boosted his body as much as possible and the thorns didn’t seem to be able to pierce his skin. That wasn’t overly shocking though. Some simple math had shown that after the fusion with Meikiyo, his skin was nearly as resistant to piercing as steel was, at least when he maximized his skill.

  It also had brought to mind that the fusions were pushing his stats up but his skills were lagging. His durability was at two hundred fifty-four before the boost from the crown, but his Evolved Strength Forged Body was only at one hundred thirty-two. After this it was clearly time for some training.

  Emboldened by his resistance, Jay dropped the shields and began tearing the vines off of Kayla with his bare hands. Then he thought to add a small PSI blade to his efforts to make it go faster. Sadly, her skin was already turning green. Whatever toxin the thorns had been pumping into her was fast acting even with her heightened regeneration.

  Jay yelled out, “Sora, Kayla needs healing.” But then he looked over at this team’s healer and saw that she was rolling around on the ground trying to pull at small creatures that were latched onto her.

  Of course then it dawned on Jay that he had inherited a healing power form Huong. It wasn’t one that he had used much, or at all, but he reached out and activated it. Huong’s healing worked by stimulating the regeneration of the body that she was working on. So Jay focused and poured PSI into stimulating Kayla’s body as it tried to fight off the toxin and close the dozens of wounds opened by the thorns.

  He focused his scans down into her body trying to find the areas most damaged. The fight wasn’t over but he didn’t want to leave her until he was sure that she would be okay. With a little extra effort he could combine his body modification with healing to not only repair the tissue that was being damaged but also to improve the way that her body responded to the toxin in the first place.

  Another light bulb went off in his mind but it would have to wait for later. Now he saw that she was reaching a point of homeostasis. Her body was starting to get ahead of the wounds and toxins even without his extra energy.

  As he stood to look up he saw that the fight was not going as well as he might have hoped. Trina was blasting away at something that looked like a dark haunted treant. Foot-long cockroaches were crawling out of it but they withered before the waves of energy she was blasting into them. The fusion, even as failed as it was, had made her body stronger and her PSI pool much larger. It didn’t look like he would have to worry about her.

  Uremi was overhead and seemed to barely be keeping ahead of vine tendrils that lashed out at her. She flew around and would be momentarily caught by one only to free herself with a well-placed sword slash. So Jay moved her into the needs help, but can wait column.

  Abby was in a knock down drag out with a trio of walking shrubberies. They kept hurling their brilliant red fruit at her but she used her power to rebound the small globes, which would then explode on impact splattering the area with a viscous crimson substance. In turn she was sending volleys of the small spikes she could produce. The problem being that the bushes didn’t have enough substance to be severely damaged and the tiny projectiles just passed through them doing little more than damaging a few leaves.

  Again Jay decided that she could wait and raced over to Sora. She was near one of the huge roots of the treant fighting Trina. It had apparently torn itself free in the middle of the fight and opened up the ground. The roaches and apparently other little vermin lived within the soil around the dark treants’ roots. Those creatures had been freed by the tearing motion of the roots and were now trying to crawl out and attack anything that moved.

  Sora was covered in two-inch-long grubs that were about as thick in diameter as a quarter. Rivulets of blood were pouring from her and she was whimpering as she frantically tried to knock them from her skin. Some had even eaten through her B.O.B. armor and were attached to her. Each one trying to burrow into her skin to get more of her lifeblood or to lay eggs. Jay didn’t know which and wasn’t about to find out.

  There were just too many on her. He couldn’t go there picking them off one at a time. He exercised as much precision as he could and he sent a razor-thin PSI blade skimming over her skin. In a few places he misjudged and sliced the top layer of her skin off too, but never very deeply.

  It was demanding work as he focused on her and frustratingly hundreds of the rot grubs kept crawling towards her even as he freed her from the ones already on her. Once she was mostly clean, he lifted her up off the ground on a PSI construct and then noticed the grubs starting to try and eat at his skin.

  Oh well, he laughed out loud. Meikiyo had gifted him with the perfect solution for this. He had experienced it during the fusion with her but he admitted that it was odd to feel himself burst into flame. The heat was there and it was something more. His body became heat. His PSI pushed it to a flame so intense that it was white with a purple halo.

  Jay imagined that he could hear a thousand small screams as the grubs were exterminated in a single second with a sickening pop akin to a bug zapper. It was mus
ic to his ears. He kept it up but was careful not to expand the area of his head. He knew that it would already be hot to the others nearby and he didn’t have Meikiyo’s experience or precision. The last thing they needed now was a massive forest fire.

  Still it was exhilarating to leap into the air and feel the currents of heat propel him forward. A quick scan showed that Sora was awake and safe on the platform he had created for her. She was now able to start healing herself and dealing with the grubs.

  That left Jay to be able to help Trina. She was winning but because of all the waves of small creatures that she had to deal with, it was going to take time. With more time to pay attention to it, he realized that the creature was truly massive. At least twenty feet in diameter and forty feet tall. In fact its very size gave him an idea and he looked over at Abby.

  She was starting to be pushed back by the bushes. The little monstrosities had come up with a new tactic apparently. They hurled the fruits and instead of actually trying to reach her they made it so that two or three at a time would impact each other in the air. The force turned the viscous material into an aerosol and now a growing crimson cloud was creeping towards Abby. It didn’t seem to have enough substance for her to be able to rebound it.

  Then she fell backward stumbling over a root. She got moved up to “needed immediate help”. Trina would just have to hold out for a bit longer.

  Jay, confident in his indestructibility, chose to dive right into the red mist while channeling more PSI into his flame form. The plan was to burn it all up. The problem was that the mist got everywhere. It was soon inside of him breathed in as he continued to inhale air into his lungs, even though he wasn’t sure if he needed to.

  He felt pain blossom through his body. That shouldn’t be possible but as fast as he was burning up the toxin it was still having some impact on his body. This wasn’t going to happen though. He wouldn’t allow it. If the dragon had taught Jay anything, it was that willpower mattered. He wouldn’t allow himself to be overwhelmed.

  The floodgates of PSI opened and his body flared again. All the toxin was consumed. He might have to deal with some damage once he was back in flesh but for now he dive bombed the evil shrubberies and allowed himself to laugh as their cackling turned into hideous wails when they went up in flame.

  The sound was gone in a second as his incredible heat turned them to ash in two seconds, but he felt no remorse. Abby might not be one of his wives, but she was a faithful companion in battle and one of his women. No one would threaten his women, his cluster, his children, and his family. That day was come and gone. Not the Forlorn, not the A’snkarnt and certainly not some stupid plants.

  This was a vow that he made to himself. He meant to keep it even if he had to burn the rest of the universe down. Maybe it was the fiery form he was in affecting him, but he decided that he was tired of reacting. It was time to go on the offensive. S’vanth wanted their children. Well he was about to find out what it meant to come after those precious to Jay.

  A quick telepathic message to Trina told her to step back and he asked Abby to shield everyone from any flying chunks of wood. Neither had time to respond before Jay dove into the side of the giant treant. It might become cliché but this was one of his go-to attacks since the giant scarab in the desert. Few things were as resilient on the inside as they were on the outside.

  Amelia’s gift to him of Phase Burst gave him the perfect way to exploit that very attack. His body passed right through the treant. Once inside he fed more PSI into his Flame Form and then as the creature burnt alive from the inside, Jay sent out spears of PSI construct ripping it open.

  The combination of those spears and the intense heat he was putting out caused the creature to burst apart. The chunks of rotted and seared treant flew in every direction. Abby had paid attention and rebounded the pieces that flew at the team. That of course only sent them flying back into his heat to be consumed.

  Once Jay was sure that he had scoured the ground surrounding them from any of the giant cockroaches or the rot grubs, he allowed himself to drop to the ground and turned off his transformation. He looked around. Everyone was okay or on the mend, but he didn’t see Jessie.

  Through the bond he could feel that she was fighting but apparently enjoying herself. Still he streaked over to where she was a quarter mile away. In her giant rhino armored form she was fighting two much smaller versions of the massive treant he had just finished off for Trina. Again he could see that she was able to handle this; it would just take more time.

  He started to intervene again but the rage was gone from him and he remembered the lesson he had learned. He would protect what was his but he also had to allow them to stand on their own two feet. Jay knew how much Jessie prized being one of the few that could melee next to him. So he respected what his wife would want and stood there silently as she slowly tore the two creatures into so much lumber.

  These didn’t appear to be corrupted to the same extent as the large one had been. Only a few roaches and even fewer grubs fell from their bodies as she battled them. Jay didn’t allow those to go free though. Instead he sent small spears of PSI construct hurtling at great speeds to pierce each one. His scans assured that he didn’t miss any.

  When Jessie finished up, Jay found Trina and the others had followed him and were standing next to him. Kayla was up and looking much better and Sora didn’t seem to have any visible wounds. Even Uremi was okay, so Jay assumed that Trina had helped her out.

  Sora ran her hands over him drawing a raised eyebrow from Trina, but she simply said, “Sorry, boss, just making sure he doesn’t have any injuries. He did breathe in that poisonous stuff after all.”

  “Thank you, Sora, but I’m fine. My body was able to fight it off after it was essentially burnt up,” Jay said. Then he looked at Trina. “I’m sorry that I intervened in your fight. I know that you had it handled.”

  “You don’t need to apologize for protecting us,” Trina said.

  “I want you to know that I realize the importance of letting you handle some things on your own as well as my realization that you are a force to be reckoned with. I was sorta carried away with rage that those things were trying to hurt you,” Jay said.

  Trina simply replied, “Thank you.”

  Jay appreciated that she let it go. He knew now that he wasn’t going to be able to stop protecting them. He didn’t want to, but he also wanted them to be strong and independent. So, now was the time.

  “Pull everyone back, we are going to have a cluster meeting in a few hours. Till then I want guards up and no one leaving the housing area on their own,” Jay ordered.

  Jessie and the others looked at him askance for a second. They weren’t used to him being so firm. He noticed and said, “I have to finish formulating my thoughts but then we have some attack plans to make. The fight for our freedom begins anew today.”

  Jay watched as they all nodded and stayed with them till they got back to their homes. Trina said as he walked away, “You can count on me, Jay.”

  He looked back over his shoulder. “I know and it means a lot to me. This is a step forward for us.”

  Then he was a blur as he sped off.

  Chapter 24- Change of Directions

  Jay found an area not far from the houses at the very edge of the clearing before the vegetation started to get too dense. A series of PSI constructs first acted as a lawnmower then a shovel and he began digging a ring into the ground. It felt strangely good to just do a type of manual labor. His incredible strength made it trivial but he felt like he was taking a step forward.

  He ended up having to dig deeper than he had expected, but when he reached the metal decking thirty feet down he stopped and began to expand his hole. When he finished he had a hole, thirty feet in diameter. The dirt was packed hard and he used PSI constructs to smooth the walls in combination with flame form.

  Walking around the ring he thought about his family. His wives, children, and all the rest of Team Jay that counted on
him. They had been going about this all wrong. This was never about killing owlbears, treants, or even dragons. He had allowed himself to be deceived by the wallpaper, but this wasn’t some magical dungeon.

  No, all these were just the trappings of their prison. The real walls of their prison were this metal decking that he was walking on. The real monsters were the A’snkarnt and to a lesser extent the Forlorn. What happened on each dungeon floor didn’t matter. It was what happened when they finally confronted their captors. Even D’varn was just a kind captor, but still a captor.

  The anger swelled within him again. He worried as the rage built up within, but he checked himself repeatedly. He became confident that his anger was righteous. It was a true and noble thing. No person deserved to be trapped and experimented upon as had been done to them.