Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 11

***AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

So, my office has been down for the count for the entire week. We had to caulk the concrete patches put in to support our foundation, which was sinking, and the smell of the caulk caused instant migraines for me. That plus a bunch of other stuff means I’m posting this with the iPad app. It’s not great, even worse than standard Patreon is for accessing stuff. I’ve seen a lot of y’all’s comments and suggestions, and I will try to get a response to y’all over the next week or so. Sorry I’ve been flaky.

Enjoy post number two this week!

***AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

There were two people pounding on each other in the center of the Arena. Daniel and Jennifer, two of the other Vanguards, were waiting next to the elevated platform and another dozen or so people were watching. After a few seconds, the young woman in the fight deflected a spear thrust and retaliated with a lunge through her opponent's gut. He gagged, then vanished in a flash of light. David saw a similar flash off to the left, where Ashley was waiting.

“Lord Black!” Daniel said, having turned around to see him. “What brings you here, sir?”

“Training,” he answered. “Both mine and yours. I need to get some Skills up to Apprentice as fast as I can, and we need all of you to be stronger!” He engaged Invigorating Shout on the second half of that sentence. “So, let’s get a good battle going. All of you versus me.”

“Don’t think too highly of yourself, Lord Black,” Jennifer said with a grin.

“Eh,” David shrugged, “pushing myself as hard as I can should help out with Skill leveling. So, come on down everyone. Let’s get this started.”

All but two people in the stands moved down onto the Arena floor. An older man called out, “What if we don’t want to fight? I just want to farm and this is my break time.”

“Does the Arena let you shoot Mana Darts or Grenades into it?” David asked Jennifer and Daniel.

“I think so,” Jennifer answered. “Not that we’ve tried.”

“Okay,” he nodded then turned to the old farmer. “When we start, occasionally send a Mana Dart or something at me, so you get some benefit, but I won’t force anyone to fight.” The old man nodded, and the old woman near him gave David a thumbs up. He smiled at her, then walked to one edge of the circular Arena.

Across from him, Daniel, Jennifer, and another young man who was built like a football lineman hefted their shields. The former two had heater shields, with Daniel’s enhanced with an Inscription, while the new guy had what looked like a manhole cover with a handle on it. Lisa and Mark were in the crowd, but mostly it was people David hadn’t interacted with yet. “Are you ready sir?” Jennifer asked.

“Ready when you are!” David yelled back, then immediately ducked under a Wooden Spike shot from the farmer. Combat Reflexes started ringing in his head, and he twisted to dodge an arrow that buried itself into the Arena’s dirt. His shield formed, pure Mana reinforced with Earth and a rim of Metal, and quickly blocked a couple Mana Grenades. He formed a Mana Shield, just in time to have it absorb a Fire Bolt to the knee. Can’t just defend, he thought as he watched the three tanks ahead of him set their feet.

He grinned, swatting another Wooden Spike out of the sky and then he used Vanguard’s Charge to blast forward. His feet slammed into the ground, cracking the surface slightly, and he slammed shield first into Daniel’s shield. Daniel had tried to set his feet and absorb the impact, the slight dimpling of the ground showing he had a Skill similar to Earthen Bulwark, only to be knocked backwards as David’s upgraded Skill dumped all of his momentum into his target.

Jennifer absorbed the Energy wave better than footballer and responded with a Shield Bash that pushed David a step away. She tried to capitalize on his stumble, but he twisted to the side with a Swordsman’s Step and chopped his sword into her arm. She grunted, her Mana Shield shattering and a line of blood welled from the cut causing her to drop her sword.

David grinned, then stumbled as Lisa sent an arrow into his thigh that shattered his Mana Shield. He responded with a Mana Bolt, forcing the archer to dodge. The lack of communication and group training showed here, though, as she ran into a guy forming a Mana Grenade. He was knocked sprawling, his Grenade landing in the middle of two more ranged attackers. One of them was apparently super low level, since they vanished from the field before they even landed from the shockwave.

David set his feet, engaging Earthen Bulwark, just in time to deflect the new guy’s Vanguard’s Charge. He swayed, pushing Earth Mana into his Mana Shield, trying to reform it yet again after it broke, blocking three Mana Grenades. Earthen Bulwark broke soon thereafter as Jennifer slammed into his side while he was parrying a spear strike with his sword and blocking another Wooden Spike with his shield. David rolled with her, flaring Strengthen to throw her bodily off him into a guy wielding a mace.

They tumbled together as he came to his feet before shooting a Mana Bolt into Lisa’s chest. She vanished, reappearing next to Ashley with a smoking hole in her shirt. A Mana Grenade landed on David’s face while he was distracted, blowing his Mana Shield apart yet again. Gah, this Skill needs to get stronger! He growled at himself while blinking away the flash. He Sprinted into the group again, laying about himself with Vanguard’s Strikes and Power Attacks, blowing through their attempts to block with brute force.

Surrounded by six people with melee weapons, Combat Reflexes and Swordsman’s Step got a serious workout, at least until he jumped back and pulled up a Spike Field that skewered one woman’s leg. She shrieked in pain, smashing the stone apart with her hammer. David winced, then was knocked forward as his armor shed a sword slash from behind him. Jennifer had hit him hard enough to drop his Hit Points significantly. David rolled the hit, sending a Shield Bash into the ground to throw him spinning over a Mana Grenade that knocked Jennifer’s feet from under her.

The next thirty seconds blurred, ending with David standing alone on the field, his Mana and Energy nearly empty and only four hundred and seven Hit Points left, leaving him less than a hundred Hit Points over the loss condition. “Well, Lord Black,” Jennifer said, rolling her freshly healed shoulder, “I guess you weren’t thinking too highly of yourself.”

Ashley was meditating, trying to regain her Mana fast enough to finish healing everyone. No one was in any danger of dying, and Daniel had even refused to be healed so he could work on increasing his Health Regeneration Skill.

“You all might have taken me if you fought as a team,” David said. “There were a couple of times that I took advantage of someone’s missteps or getting in the way of each other. Thanks for this.” He looked over the group, “Together we will stand tall and beat the Daemons off our planet!” He Shouted again, refreshing the buff on everyone so they’d recover faster.

“Holy crap, sir,” footballer said. “I got fifteen total Skill levels from five minutes of work. Is that how you’re so strong?”

“That plus this armor,” David said. “Are you new here?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, then put out his left hand, his right still covered in blood. “I’m Elijah Smith. Clancy found us at the shooting range and brought us up here. I heard from Jennifer there about this place.” He gestured at the Arena. “And just had to check it out. Thank you for taking us in.”

“Hey, right now, people are the most valuable resource I can get,” David said, shaking his hand. “And getting everyone stronger keeps all of us safer. I plan on doing this daily for a while.”

“So, how many Skill levels did you get?” Elijah asked.

“I haven’t checked,” David said. “I evolved my Meditate Skill with the Scholar Way into Scholar’s Focus, which lets me go over my Skill usage and get a couple more levels out of it. So I’ll do that first before tallying up my gains.”

“Ooh, that sounds awesome,” Jennifer said. “I’ll walk the Scholar Way next.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you all around longer than you wanted to be,” David said. “Ashley, great job.”

“Would you like healing?” she asked.

“Nah, I’m good,” David smiled at the young woman then climbed up the bleachers around the Arena to sit near the top before diving into his core cave. He moved his mental projection to the workspace that Inscribing had added and plopped into the cushy chair. “Wow, that was tiring. Okay, what could I have done better?” He spent the next subjective hour going over his mistakes and then focused on healing all the scrapes and cuts he’d gotten.

Thirty real minutes later he found himself sitting next to Colin. “So, instead of a group of random people, how about you fight a squad,” Colin said. “Only six people, but two tanks, three damagers, and a healer trained to fight together.”

“Sure,” David said. “But trained?”

“Well, trained as well as we can in only a couple of days,” he answered. “Come on.”

David followed him down and found Craig, Matt, Steve, Mark, Jasmine, and Jamie in a little cluster at one end. “This is strike team two,” Colin said. “We’ve got five teams total set up, plus the groups being trained to fight in a shieldwall only.”

“Well, let’s have us a spar,” David said, hopping into the Arena. Craig and Matt moved first, each holding a shield and short spear. Steve held his maul, while Mark maneuvered a longspear. Jasmine had a pistol and a small buckler and stood in the center of the other four. Jamie was the most interesting, since she had four throwing knives floating around her head.

“Begin!” Colin yelled out, and David shot forward, his shield and Mana Shield forming quickly. Craig and Matt stood side by side, and a small wall of stone formed two steps in front of them. David vaulted it and slammed into an Energy shield that extended from the two tanks in front of him. It shattered, but bled off enough momentum that they weren’t knocked backwards. At least until David push-kicked Craig’s shield while powering Strengthen. Craig was sent into Jasmine’s legs.

David didn’t get a chance to capitalize on the opening as he was staggering backwards with two daggers stuck into his chest muscles. They didn’t sink in deeply at all, but it still hurt. He ignored it, slashing at Matt and stepping away from Mark’s spear.

Steve barreled in with a scream, slamming his blunt weapon down at David while he was dodging Mark. A Shield Bash met the Power Attack, and David’s Earth Mana shield shattered, sending a backlash into his head that made him stumble. The deflection, though, knocked Steve sideways. Matt slammed his shield into David, dazing him further, and he was slammed with a dozen attacks before he leapt backwards to regain his momentum.

A Spike Field stopped Steve’s charge for only the second it took him to sweep his maul across the ground. David pelted his musclebound opponent with two Mana Bolts when he stood from destroying the spikes, knocking him backwards. Jasmine grabbed his shoulder, pulling him behind a recovered Matt and Craig before shooting David. HIs Mana Shield sparked before he was able to reform his physical shield, but it held. Huh, first time it blocked something! He Charged them, not willing to stay on the defensive. Just before he reached their frontline, he leapt, diverting his momentum up and then slamming his shield downward.

The resulting Energy wave knocked the tanks down and split them apart, letting David land in front of Jamie. Two spikes of Metal Mana shot out of the ground, stabbing into his legs, but he ignored it to stab the young girl in the gut. She grimaced, trying to dodge, but only succeeded in making the damage worse until it crossed the threshold and she vanished.

Of course, David was still pinned by metal spears, so he was quickly overwhelmed. He managed to get Steve out with a Mana Bolt to the chest, but Mark and Matt beat him with spears before he could work his way off Jamie’s Skill. A bright light filled his eyes and he blinked to find himself standing in front of Ashley. His legs spasmed and he collapsed. “Don’t worry about me, I’ve got plenty of Mana and Energy,” he said when she jumped towards him from treating Steve’s burned chest.

“Let me stop the bleeding at least,” she said, then her hands glowed bright green and the pain in his legs eased. “All right, you can take it from here.”

“Thanks,” he said, dropping into Focus and activating Advanced Bodily Repair. Okay, let’s pull the muscles back together. No tendon damage, so this shouldn’t be too hard, he thought as he directed the healing Energy and Mana to his legs. After that he fixed up the bruises where he’d been beaten and the minor cuts from the spear blades. I’m so glad I got this Skill evolved. It’s so much quicker and more efficient, plus it makes the pain go away faster, he shook his head. Of course, that means my Pain Resistance Skil isn’t leveling as hard as it could.

He spent a bit more looking over his mistakes and thinking through his Skill usage, then popped out of the meditation. “That was well done,” he told the others.

“Thank you, sir,” Matt said, stoic as always. “You had us on the ropes for a minute.”

Jamie had a downcast look on her face. “Hey, Jamie, you know you won the fight, right?” David asked.

“But I got out first,” she said.

“Yeah, but you pinned me in place long enough for the others to beat me bloody,” David laughed. “That Skill hurt, what was it?”

“It’s called Spike Trap. Uh, I got it from Metal Mage three,” she said, forcing a smile on her face.

“I’ll have to watch out for it next time we do this,” David said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “You did good kid.”

“Alright, so, how’d you do?” Colin asked David.

“Haven’t checked, so I’ll do it now,” David said, chagrined. Okay! So, Shield Master up six levels! Sword up four. Power Attack reached beginner two, yeah! Mana Bolt, Vanguard’s Charge, and Multiple Usage went up three each. Vanguard’s Strike, Strengthen, Sprint, Invigorating Shout, and Swordsman’s Step all reached Beginner one, holy moly. Earthen Bulwark, Mana Shield, and Shield Bash went up four. Pain Resistance advanced three. Huh, thought it should’ve been more after fighting with my legs impaled. Focus is up to Beginner four! A Lord’s Presence went up one, as did Earth’s Unrelenting Motion and Advanced Bodily Repair. Spike Field, Combat Reflexes, and Minor Muscle Efficiency all went up five! Awesome. Oh,wait, Mana-Inscription went up to Initiate ten, but that can’t have been from here, so I won’t count it. Good to know research still boosts that Skill! So, total, he counted on his fingers. “A total of seventy seven Skill levels across the two fights. My new bonus to Skill leveling speed is ridiculous.”

Colin was speechless. “Well, good thing that you are around to help keep us all safe,” Mark said, awe in his voice. “I think you just advanced as fast as the entirety of our team.”

“Really, how many Skill levels did you get?” David asked.

“Twenty-seven,” Mark said.

“Well, he did use a lot more Skills than we did,” Jasmine pointed out, walking up. “So that would explain a lot of the levels right there. I got twenty five, but only in six of my Skills.”

“Yeah, my levels were divided among twenty one Skills, almost two thirds of my total amount. I was trying to use them all, and get better at using them together,” David said. “Focusing on only a few means you’ll hit the higher tiers on it faster. There seems to be a qualitative difference with each tier, so that might be a better option, but it’s not what I’m planning on.”

“For our strike teams, like these guys,” Colin said, “Josiah wants them to have a larger variety of Skills in case they have to operate alone. The guys he’s calling our Army are focusing on only six or so Skills. We’ll see which one works best, I guess.”

“Well, I need to eat,” David said, “but I’m glad we got to do this.”

“Come on, its venison stew again,” Colin laughed, pulling David into a side-hug. The twenty or so people who were watching all filed out of the Arena to get dinner with them.