[D'sP] Inconclusive - Chapter 426

Near the back of the beast wave, a brown bear rises up above the other monsters to stand on two legs. The bear’s roar echoes over everything else, before it slams back down on the ground, only to rise up for a second time. Except now, the beast’s paws are covered in packed earth with stone claws extending three times what its natural claws had.

Ace points, “Air and Fire mages, focused the bear down! Plant, Earth, and Water mages, be ready to counter the bear as needed!”

Jim then yells, “Not the boss! Keep a lookout!”

Ace gives Jim a look and raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t countermand the order, putting his trust in him.

Then the fight is once again too hectic. There are just too many monsters of too large a variety. Deer, rats, foxes, lizards, a zebra for some reason, boar, and more. The saving grace being that the rats are the smallest and their numbers have already been depleted.

Though there are still a few foxes tripping people up. Oh, and squirrels, but unlike their rodent relatives, they’re staying back being the only ranged monsters left. If you can call their thrown pebbles all that much of a ranged threat.

Oh sure, they work as a distraction, which is dangerous. In and of themselves, though, the squirrels offer no actual danger. It all relies on causing the defenders to react to their pebbles so other monsters can get an attack in.

And the bear makes it to the wall. The ditch doing nothing to stop such a large monster. Its enhanced claws ripping into the wood encased dirt berm, pulling out large chunks of compacted soil.

All while bursts of air and fire chop and singe the monster’s dirt matted fur. Though now that the bear is close enough, it is clear that it being matted is, in fact, a defensive skill being used. But it isn’t the attackers having the most success.

Rather, the nature mages are keeping things under control. Their magic grows sturdy root systems into the berm. Not only holding it together, but resisting the bear’s earth manipulation.

All the while, Jim has stood back, not firing a single arrow. Odd as even Ace stepped in with his nature magic to help assist keep the wall intact. Though his mumbling about needing proper stone walls certainly shows that after this, there will be more than a few construction projects.

Then half of the wave is dead. What remains are the stronger monsters. Boars already grown twice their natural size, deer with unnaturally sharp antlers, and other similarly mutated animals. Not quite enough for the system to declare a new species, but enough for Jim to frown.

This coming year would see the appearance of proper magical beasts on mass. It won’t just be one pack of wolves. Jim then knocks and releases an arrow for the first time.

His bow’s tremendous draw strength made the arrow almost seem to appear in an instant at his target. Or rather, where his target had been. The leopard had managed to dodge at the last moment.

Jim, “Wave boss sighted! All ranged attacks not focused on the bear, re-target! Expect abnormal reflexes!” And he fires another arrow, this one aimed just in front of the leopard to slow it down.

This does work, the leopard dodging backwards to avoid the shot. It likely wouldn’t work a second time, though. Good thing it won’t have to.

The slight delay is enough for all the ranged attackers who can to focus on the leopard. It isn’t that any of them are as good as Jim. Their barrage is simple enough to force the monster to focus on avoiding over progressing.

Even better for Jim, is that the stealthy and oh so agile big cat begins to show some proper openings. Arrow after arrow reaches out from him to touch the leopard and despite all of this, only about one in ten connect. Yet this is a much better record than the rest.

Even given how many attacks are peppering the area, the odds of the regular defenders actually hitting seems more like one in a hundred. Worse, even those few lucky shots that do hit, most aren’t doing significant damage. The attacks leave more scrapes than cuts or holes.

Still, they are doing some damage. It almost feels like a waiting game. And in a way, it is. Most of their mages are focused on the bear and among them, their best at crowd control. Vital if anyone wants to get a full power shot on the leopard.

Of course, this balance can’t last forever. As more of the regular monsters die, more of the defenders can focus on what’s left. In particular, Ace has entangled the bear to where melee fighters feel safe joining in.

Soon after, the bear falls and everyone turns their attention to the leopard. Now alone, every other monster having been slain, the leopard howls defiantly before retreating into the woods. Vine and stone spikes reaching up out of the ground to try and stop. Yet nothing can as it vanishes back into the wilds.

Jim catches his breath before shaking his head. “That’s going to be a problem in the future. Anyway, get a healer on that bear! There should be enough life left to fix all those wounds.”

And there are a lot of nasty wounds to take care of. The bear had not gone down easily. Though since they only have to “heal” the hide, this after battle processing of the body goes by quickly. The bear’s vitality being monstrous enough to handle these relatively minor repairs.

Ace steps up next to Jim as they keep an eye out for any hidden threats. After all, it was a little strange that not a single snake joined in. “So, how did you know the bear wasn’t the wave leader?”

Jim, “Oh, that was simple enough. While cautious, the other monsters weren’t particularly afraid of it. To drive a monster wave, those being driven need to legitimately fear for their lives even while surrounded by other monsters. Otherwise, the monster wave will devolve into a battle royale.”

Ace sighs, “It would be so much simpler for us in the future if it had been the bear, and not just because we killed it.”

Jim, “And speaking of killing it, I get the defensive mage use, but what was up with using air and fire mages for damage?”

Ace shrugs and calls over to where they’re processing the bear. “Hey Kelly, Jim just asked about the air and fire thing! Did you find anything else out?”

Kelly pulls herself away from the remains of the bear’s dirt and stone claw gauntlet things. She dusts her hands off and hops up on the wall next to the two. “Well, the results are inconclusive in the most annoying way. It appears to have both worked and not worked.”

Ace, “Shouldn’t it be more cut and dry?”

Kelly shrugs, “I have an idea, but first Jim’s question so we’re all up to speed.”

Jim nods, “I do feel left out of the loop right now.”

Kelly shakes her head, “There isn’t much of a loop to be caught in yet. The basic idea is that most magic systems have inbuilt strengths and weaknesses between elements. Stuff like water beating fire.

“Except there are a bunch of systems for this with the two main ones being a four and five element system. Well, that and the generally accepted idea of light versus darkness. Anyway, you have the western four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. As well as the eastern five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Oh, and they both like to throw in an extra element on occasion to represent what we’d now call world energy.”

Jim, “Sure, I can get that. Didn’t know the specifics of the eastern version and it feels odd not to have air represented.”

Kelly shrugs, “And it isn’t odd to consider edge cases like mercury? Anyway, I’m partial to the more modern interpretation of the four elements. Instead of being literal elements, the four actually represent solids, liquids, gasses, and plasma.

“Though every system of elements that have survived will have some way to fit everything into their world view. And part of that world view is creative and destructive slash conquering pairings. Water beats fire beats earth beats air beats water. Though with the four elements, they also tend to have opposing elements of water versus fire and earth versus air without the other interactions.

“Those pairings tend toward mutual destruction. It is a little more loose. That is not the case for the eastern elements. Wood feeds fire produces earth bears metal collects water nourishes wood. And the reverse of wood depletes water rusts metal impoverishes earth smothers fire burns wood. They even have some extra cycles for regulation and lesser or greater reactions.”

Jim gives a slow nod, “So. You were testing weaknesses?”

Kelly sighs, “You could reduce things to that.”

Jim, “And the results were inconclusive?”

Kelly, “I wouldn’t say inconclusive.”

Jim raises an eyebrow, “You literally did?”

Kelly purses her lips, “Well, yes, but it isn’t the results that are inconclusive. Or rather, the results of the magical actions are inconclusive, but the information we’ve received isn’t. It is hard to describe. Both work. Sometimes. Except it is internally consistent. Someone whose fire beats earth under the four element interpretation always does so. While another person will find that their fire magic isn’t very effective at all against earth magic as seen in the five elements.”

Jim, “So how do you pick which elemental system gets followed?”

Kelly, “That isn’t quite how it works. Rather, I believe that it has something to do with a person’s understanding of their chosen element. And there are some agreed upon reactions such as water smothering fire and even the reverse of fire evaporating water.”

Jim, “Hmm, I guess those using air magic don’t get much of a choice.”

Kelly sighs, “Air tends to end up in the sometimes included sixth element. Though I suspect that like any imperfect understanding of how things work, it fits in where it fits in.”

Ace nods, “I’m certainly not a scholar on this sort of thing, but I’ve read a few stories that include elements like this. They aren’t cut and dry categories and you can have actual things which fit in places other than you would expect. So a water-based fire or a metal tree. Air, in turn, tends to either get thrown in with fire or split up depending on its characteristics. So a flammable gas is fire.”

Jim, “Ah, fair enough. So how do we use this? Neither system seems usable in and of itself.”

Kelly sighs, “I am nearly certain these systems are mental crutches used by our minds to simplify how our magic should react to things. However, they are crutches supported by reality and likely the system and if it wasn’t for the difficulty with air, I would say the five elements.”

Jim shrugs, “I’ll just throw up a drawing of both in the guild with a simplified explanation underneath.”

Kelly sighs again, “You probably don’t have to. We never had control of this seeing as how video games made this sort of elemental rock paper scissors their bread and butter for magic systems.”

Jim shrugs, “I guess you just have to dig into it more. I’m sure alchemy and such practically require a person to subscribe to one world view or another.”

Kelly nods, “True, and I hate it. This nonsense basically means there are recipes some people can’t brew simply because of how they understand things to work! That isn’t science! Just because someone hasn’t internalized the five elements concept of wood grasping earth to stabilize it, shouldn’t make it so they can’t make a potion using said concept. Either it should work or it shouldn’t!”

Jim shrugs, “I think you’re expecting something from literal magic that it won’t ever be able to provide.”

Wave Time - Chapter 425

The Numbers - Chapter 427