Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 16

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE *** 

Sorry this was late. I got a massive migraine on Wednesday, and then last night got caught up in a few things. I hope you enjoy this!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Once finished, they continued to move along the game trail they’d been following, still heading north by north east. David thought they’d covered another kilometer from the battle site when a loud huff sounded from beside him. He looked to the side and leapt backwards in fear when a huge antler swung near him. Only after he jumped and screamed did he realize it was the Elk again. “I swear, you’re making fun of me,” he said crossly to the giant animal. “I can see the amusement in your eyes.”

It huffed at him again, then turned and walked slowly away. After ten steps, when it was just barely visible through the foliage, its head turned back towards them and let out a chuffing sound.

“I think he wants us to follow him,” Liz said.

The Elk nodded his head slowly, then turned and sauntered off. Liz walked after it first, and the rest of the group hurried after her. Quickly, the walk turned into a jog and then into a run. The underbrush was easily ignored, and the Elk moved slowly enough that they could keep up. I’m not sure we could stay with him if he wanted to escape us, David thought. Hunting high level animals is going to be a pain. Even out-leveling him I’m sure he’s got a higher Strength, Agility, and Con than either Colin or I do. Of course, we’ve probably got a huge lead on him in Intelligence and Wisdom. At least I hope we do, or humans are going to go even lower on the food chain. Eh, we’ll survive and thrive, just like we did in the caveman days.

The trip through the woods continued at a breakneck pace for nearly thirty minutes, leaving David confused as to how far they’d traveled. “Six and a half kilometers or so,” Aly said. “Scout’s Instincts isn’t too precise beyond that, at least at its level.”

The Elk slowed, and three others, a female and two calves, stepped out of the trees onto a game trail they’d entered a kilometer or so away. More elk were barely visible, maybe thirty all told. “Aww, you wanted us to meet your family,” Liz cooed.

The youngest elk, which David inspected as a level three Juvenile Mountain Elk, turned towards them, and Aly gasped. “He’s injured,” she said. “Liz!”

Liz stepped forward calmly, “Hey there little guy. Can I help you like I did your papa?”

The little elk bleated, then stumbled forward. She gently caught it, and the green glow of her Mana surrounded it.

David looked at the young animal, then frowned. “That looks like burns from Corruption,” he said.

“It is. Now hush, I need to concentrate,” Liz scolded him. Slowly, the juvenile’s cracked and bleeding skin sealed up and scabs formed. Seconds later, the scabs fell off to reveal healthy skin underneath. “There, all better now.”

“Is that why you sought us out?” David asked. “To heal your child, or do you want help with the Corruption?”

The Elder Mountain Elk leaned down and licked his kid, then turned to look up the trail. Lightning flashed among his horns, then faded. He looked back at them.

David nodded. “Lead on then. We will see what we can do.”

With a nod and a huff, the Elder Elk turned and bound down the trail. Aly Sprinted after him. David shook his head, but Sprinted after her as well. The elk in the trees leapt over brush, their passage oddly quiet for such huge animals. The movement to either side of him let David realize that he’d underestimated the number of animals in the herd. At least fifty were rushing in the same direction, while a couple waited with the juveniles and babies.

They ran for another kilometer, before the trees gave way to a farm. One of the massive watering circle things, David had no idea what they were called, sat rusting and fading over where the crops would have gone in a few months, had the world not ended. Instead, the center was full of Corruption and a hundred Wargs. Two Alphas and one even larger Daemon dog stood court over their minions, only to turn surprised at the dozens of massive elk that trampled through the knee-high grass surrounding the edges of the circle.

“Crush them down!” David Shouted, summoning his sword and shield. David fought with his Skill, forcing it to target the animals surrounding him along with his party.

Colin bellowed, only to be drowned out by the bugles of the animals. There were at least twenty male elks who ducked their heads down, lightning flaring between their massive antlers. The Elder Elk who David had helped out had the largest rack, his level increasing from the fight with the Alpha.

A wave of electricity shot out of the group, engulfing the front most Wargs. They were sent tumbling backwards, writhing and howling in agony. The Alphas responded, two beams of Decay shooting out.

David shot forward, urging everything he could into Vanguard’s Charge, Sprint, and Strengthen. A wave of Energy shot out of him when he slammed to a stop in front of the Elder Elk, smashing into one of the beams and disrupting the attack. The other beam annihilated one of the other male elks, his body dissolving into stinky, black goo in seconds.

Liz and Aly retaliated with long range attacks of their own. A surge of vines shot out of the ground, surrounding four Wargs and crushing them to the ground. Aly threw a spear of Shadow Mana  that zipped into the still open mouth of an Alpha, causing it to fall backwards with a strangled yelp.

More lightning fell among the Wargs, who rushed forward. They were met with a wall of bodies, trampling and impaling them. They didn’t go down alone, though, as the Wargs bit and clawed at legs and bodies. The Corruption they were running on tried to tangle them up as well, burning and swiping at ankles and knees. David vaguely saw an elk collapse under the assault, screaming in agony as the Corruption ripped into it.

He had his own problems. Trying to surge through the Wargs was a lot harder than when he had done that with the Gremlins. He kept his eyes on the Alphas, ready to intercept another attack. Liz and Aly were focusing on them as well, sending Mana Grenades and their other Skills at them to prevent the attacks. Colin laid about him, his halberd having been turned back into his arm blades as he bashed his way through the horde.

The Wargs quickly learned the elk were the less dangerous of the two groups, and tried to shy away from the two blue and silver covered humans. David and Colin didn’t let them, surging forward with the space given to slice through the dangerous beasts as quickly as they could.

The first phase of the fight lasted all of thirty seconds before the Wargs were overrun. In the forest, surrounding a single elk or even the entire herd, with warning and stealth the Wargs would have overcome the herbivores. In the open, caught off guard by an all out charge left nearly a hundred trampled and almost unrecognizable bodies smashed into the Corruption.

The two Alphas and the larger one, leapt over the line of elk before turning and blasting three more. David Inspected the larger one.

Name: Warg Lord

Level: 9

Aspect: Decay, Death

“I’ve got the big one. Colin, Liz, Aly, take the one on the right!” David shouted, “Let’s GO!” He slammed forward, Vanguard’s Charge powering his movement while he soaked Mana Shield in Earth Mana and filled the edge of his sword with silver aspected Metal Mana.

The Daemon did something, black energy coating its paw as it swiped at David’s incoming shield. A wave of death flowed out from the Warg’s claws.

David hunched behind his shield, reinforcing it as best he could, then he slashed forward with Vanguard’s Strike, hoping to break apart the attack. Break apart, he thought, then cast Spike Field in front of him. The spikes broke out of the ground, only to be dissolved into nothingness by the Warg’s Skill, but it diminished all the same. The cut of Vanguard’s Strike, going straight through David’s shield, lessened the wave as well, and then it was upon him. His shield was wiped away, then his Mana Shield absorbed the impact and shattered.

Each successive Skill, though, reduced the strength of the Warg’s strike such that when it broke through his Mana Shield, what was left was unable to penetrate his armor. He was only a few steps from the enemy, moving too fast to remake his shield. Instead, he tucked his shoulder, letting the momentum transfer through his body while pushing Energy into Strengthen to protect himself.

The Warg, a beast taller than David, collapsed backward, its chest crumpling inward around David’s shoulder, and then was blasted off its feet by the wave of Energy his Skill produced. He hurriedly reformed his sword and shield, but he needn't have rushed. The Daemon was lying crumpled on the ground, having traded the unnatural durability of the Warg Alphas for a massive increase in offensive power.

David looked to the side to see Colin, Liz, and Aly were beating on one of the Alpha’s, and the elk had started blasting away at the other. He moved forward to finish off the Lord, when it spoke. “I still win,” it gargled out. “Your world is doomed, like all the rest.”

“We’ll see about that,” David said, raising his sword. He paused at the top, the beast somehow looking pleased, then glanced backwards to see what the Daemon was looking at. A new portal had formed, swelling in size with each Warg or elk that died. Something was behind it, distorting the plane of shimmering light. He turned quickly back to the injured enemy. He stabbed down, slicing through its front legs, then he kicked its head until the creature was pointed away from the fight. “I’ll just kill you later, then.

He ran towards Colin, who was on the back of the Alpha they were fighting. “Don’t kill it!” David screamed out. “Just cripple. They’re summoning something!”

Colin bellowed a war cry, then stabbed down with his blades. He checked his movement, though, and hit between its shoulder blades rather than decapitate it completely. It stumbled, the rearmost legs flopping as the nerves were cut. The Alpha then collapsed to the ground, its remaining legs pulled out from under it by a whip of Shadow Mana and a vine. It lay there, mewling pitiably.

The elk didn’t stop attacking, even when two more of them died to a beam and a claw. The Elder Elk slammed into its side with his antlers down, ripping through the Daemon’s side. Lightning sparked between the visible tines, causing the Warg to spasm, and then two more elk kicked its skull hard enough to crush it while it was defenseless.

David turned to the portal and saw the surface clear some and grow another meter in diameter, but whatever it was that was trying to get through was unable to. “Elder,” David called, “get your herd to leave the Corruption.” He then ran towards the portal. In the corner of his eyes, he noticed Aly rushing towards him as well.

“We need to close it!” she said, and he nodded. He continued to ignore the attempts by the Corruption to claw through his ankles, forcibly ripping any attempt at tripping him out of the ground. They reached the portal, and he touched it.

Type: Large Greater Portal (Forming)

Description: A forming greater portal to the Daemon Realms. Large in size, it can only allow Behemoth or smaller Daemons through. Extremely dangerous, may break limiters on Daemon levels within a large distance.

Closure required: 1,000,000 Mana or Energy.

Essence required for stabilization: 400

Mana or Energy input will increase Essence required for stabilization.

David checked and saw he still had a bit over a thousand of each resource, so he immediately dumped everything he had. The Essence required increased by ten, and then jumped another ten when Aly touched the portal.

“This is going to take a while, and if that big guy bleeds out it’ll open,” Aly said. She stabbed her spear into the ground, creating a tiny pocket of greenish moss out of the Corruption.

David mimicked her, making the area just large enough for one person to sit down on.

“I’m going to get Liz to tie up and heal the big one,” Aly said, “and I’ll try and keep the Alpha alive. You and Colin focus on closing this, or at least increasing the Essence required so we can kill one of the Daemons.”

“Good idea,” David said, dropping onto the ground. Aly patted his head, then Sprinted off to Liz and Colin, pulling a bandage out of her storage item. David looked around again, and saw the elk were blasting the Corruption from outside it. He tried to figure out how long it would take them to get to triggering its defense mode, but couldn’t narrow it down to less than a couple of hours. Okay, meditate to speed up regen, fill cores most of the way, dump into portal, repeat. Use the time to go over my attacks.

He fell into his cores, pulling more Mana and Energy into his body with his Skill. On a whim, he moved his focus to his skin, trying to see if he could figure out where it came from. I can’t sense anything outside of me, he thought. It’s almost like the Mana just appears on my skin, then it's sucked into my core. But where does it come from? He pounded his viewpoint against the boundaries of his body, but didn’t get anywhere. After a subjective minute, he stopped. Try it later, when I’ve got more time. For now, I can just focus on other Skills. I wish the sparring in the Arena was as effective as a real fight. Only the first time really did anything significant for my Skills.

His consciousness moved back to his core, settling into the little office that Inscribing had added to it, and he brought up a viewpoint of his charge at the Warg Lord. David focused on the interplay of his Mana Shield and the attack, watching it break over and over again. Maybe I can move the Mana around? Could I have focused it against the attack and then spread it back out again?

Twenty minutes of subjective time later, he realized he was full. “Oops,” he shook his head and came out of his core cave. It took him only fifteen seconds to drain his resources again, noticing Colin was sitting on a similarly cleared patch of ground. A quick check showed almost five hundred Essence was required to stabilize. The top of the portal, nearly six meters over his head, was bulging outward, the Daemon on the other side trying to rip its way through.

Suddenly, the required Essence dropped by two hundred. David looked over but both the Warg Alpha and Warg Lord were still breathing. The Corruption had been reduced in a crescent where the twenty surviving elk were pelting it. “The portal got Essence somehow, but I don’t see anything that could have caused it,” he said.

Colin opened his eyes and emptied his pools into the portal. “Could be from the other side. Guess we should hurry up.”

David nodded jerkily, then jumped back into his core. This time, he only focused on recharging, not letting his Skills distract him. It took just over thirteen minutes of subjective time to reach full, and he popped back out and emptied his Mana and Energy into the portal. After the seventh time, his channels were starting to feel strained. He diverted some attention to Advanced Bodily Repair, giving up a bit of his regeneration to try and heal them. It worked somewhat, not bringing them back to a pain free state but reducing how quickly they decayed at least.

The twentieth time he paused to inspect the portal. “Six hundred fifty Essence,” he said. “We’re making progress.”

“Yeah, but I’m not going to be able to continue much longer. Is the dispersal amount changing?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, it’s gone down with every bit of Mana or Energy we put in. We need the other two. Do we risk it?” David asked.

“Aly first,” Colin said.

“Shadow, kill it and come help,” David said through the communication system. He pulled up his Status to see what he could potentially do. Twenty five hundred Essence, so I got twelve hundred so far. I wonder what the Alpha Lord will give us. Options, what are my options? I can buff Con or Wis to increase regen speed. I don’t have enough to level. I’ve got enough Ways, so I guess just an even split between my regen stats. Ouch, two hundred Essence each stat. Not much benefit. Back to the grind.

Twenty minutes later, Liz stood nearby. “It’s stable but weak, and tied up with dozens of vines. We should be safe enough for me to join in.”

Not five minutes later, a surge of Essence flew into David, and he looked over to see the elk had reached the Warg Lord and squashed it. The portal flared into life, and he looked up in panic.