Legacy of the M'Zee EG Book 6 Chapter 2

I bent over, gagging as I tried my best not to throw up after the teleport. “Light,” I panted, not spewing my guts only by sheer stubbornness.

“Are you okay, sir?” a High Smoke Ashkhas asked from the front of the platform. She was younger than he was and wearing a set of leather armor that he’d seen quite a few others wearing in the Sayaad Hall.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said, straightening out. “Teleporting like that doesn’t agree with me.”

“Good. May I ask you to please vacate the Transport Platform. I cannot signal for another group to transport until you are off,” she said with a slight bow.

We hurried off the slightly elevated surface. “Sorry,” I said. “I’ll clear out faster next time.”

“Thank you! Have a great stay at the Jungle Arena Camp,” she said, her feline face stretching in a grin I recognized from retail stores everywhere.

We all murmured thanks then turned to the camp. The teleport had taken us to a new clearing, just outside the ring of trees I recognized from our mad dash to escape the high-level Beast. Inside the clearing, two large wooden buildings had been erected already. One was four stories tall, with a dozen windows on each level facing us, looking like a large hotel or apartment building. The other was two stories tall, with two massive doors and no windows. Near the entrance to the Dungeon, three shaded stalls were set up.

“Huh, there is a tiny market set up at the entrance,” Jon pointed at the stalls.

I looked closer and noticed that two of the stalls were set to either side of a worn dirt path leading to the third, and they had shelves stacked on and around the booths. They were both manned by two people, and each had a small line in front. I could see one of the Ashkhas talking to a Volk, animatedly waving their arms and gesturing at an item on the table next to them.  The third stand, in contrast, had a single person sitting at it, writing on something in front of them.

“Come on, we are supposed to speak to the Sayaad Guild representative,” Vaya said, starting to walk towards the Dungeon. “I am assuming it is the booth at the end of the path.”

We marched down the trail. I heard the merchant next to it discussing their wares, selling items to help their customers do better in the Dungeon. Huh, that guy just tried to sell a healing powder for ten silver, when the Alchemist’s Treasures sold that one for two. Wow, captive pricing is in full swing here. Glad we stocked up ahead of time, I thought to myself.

“Good morning, sir,” I said, stepping to the front of our little group and bowing to the Core-level gatherer at the stand.

“Good morning, Knight Aiden,” he responded, standing and bowing just as low to me. “I am Caretaker Zana. The Dungeon’s Condensation instance,” the word instance was in English, “is available. The Dungeon has the amazing ability to hold three different parties in it at the same time, as long as they are at different tiers. Bruno calls it ‘instancing’, and I find it fascinating. You are free to head in. Take care of yourselves. While he does not like killing, he cannot stop his monsters if you all go down.”

“Thank you,” we all said with a bow.

“That’s so cool!” I said, bouncing on my feet. I looked deeply at the entrance into the Dungeon, pushing Aether into my Divine Senses Technique to try and look at whatever it was doing. Swirls of Aether could be seen flowing around the opening, but nothing that looked like a rune or technique. With a shrug, I stepped through. A gut-wrenching sensation of movement was gone in an instant and we were in the middle of the clearing.

“Aiden!” Bruno’s voice thundered around. “Welcome back to the Jungle Arena Dungeon!”

“It is good to be back, Bruno,” I said.

“I owe you so much! These last two weeks have been the best of my entire being. I’m getting stronger! Did they tell you I have instances now? It’s radical, man. The lowest levels, I think they’re just called Aether Gatherers, can run every day, and I can start a new instance only a few minutes after a group finishes. They don’t give me much, but something is better than nothing! Your level takes me an hour to recover, while the highest level, uh, Core I think, I can only do two instances a day. But it was one a week ago! Hah. How many waves do you think you’ll take today?”

“Are they the same as before?” I asked.

“The first is, but I’ve got sooooo many new Beasties, that every wave past the first is a new experience,” his enthusiasm thundered around us.

“Well, we’ll push as far as we can,” I said.

“Good, because you won’t get any cool equipment if you can’t beat the second wave,” he told us. “No first clear bonus this time.”

“Aww,” Bridget said. “I was hoping to get Kami something.”

“Ready?” I asked, and got a bunch of nods. Sia was sulking, wearing a suppression collar again so we could fight together. “We’re ready!”

“Then let’s get ready to rumble!” Bruno shouted while beams of Aether shot out of the false sky above us. Twenty four Soldier Ants formed around us, only to be met with a withering storm of Aether. I sent two Lightning Aether Blasts that obliterated my targets, while a beam of Fire swept across three others from Sia’s place on my shoulder. Ice Spears, Earthen Spikes, Vine Whips, and Air Blades shot out from my team, leaving the majority of the Ants splatters of goo on the ground. Only a few made it close enough to retaliate with Aether Slashes.

Kami leapt in front of the attacks, an aura of Earth and Metal Aether forming into a wall stopped the attacks instantly. Sia and Zim leapt into the air and Blasted away the last Ants of this round.

“Well, that went smoothly,” I said. “Ten minutes, refill as best you can. Next round has more, but we should be able to avoid using a Barrier Inscription.”

“How are your meridians?” Vaya asked, chewing her lip as she looked at me.

“Pain free. I did get the last of the damage cleared off yesterday,” I said. “In fact, they feel stronger than they had been.”

“Good,” she smiled, then closed her eyes.

I felt the Aether around us surge towards her, only balanced out by the others' pulls. There was so much ambient Aether, though, that none of us had any issues with running out.

A tone rang out across the field. “That was your thirty second warning, I won’t repeat this information,” Bruno told us, his voice robotic and toneless.

I stood and started to charge another two attacks. This time, thirty two Soldier Ants appeared. We destroyed just as many before they reached their range of a few meters, but a dozen survived to attack. Jon and Kami blocked the majority of them, and I deflected one Slash away from myself and Vaya.

I leapt forward and it tried to bite me. I stopped its mandibles from closing around my waist with my trisula held in a reverse grip, before flaring Aether into the General Strengthening Technique. I felt the difference from its evolution, an unconscious increase in the efficiency and strength of the Technique. With a grunt, I threw my arms to either side of my body, ripping the Ant’s pincers off its face. I rotated my wrists and slammed my hands back together, this time with the point out. The Beast’s head exploded and I had to spit gore out of my mouth as I turned to survey my team.

Jon was defending against three Ants, and I watched as he skillfully deflected two of them into each other with his shield. He then stepped forward and skewered the untangled one through the face, dropping it. I sent an Air Aether Blast into the other two. The explosion of Air Blades that formed around it sliced off several legs, leaving them easy prey.

Vaya had entangled three before carefully stabbing them dead, while Lampart casually dismembered another Ant.

“Does this seem too easy to you all?” Jon asked.

“We have all grown significantly stronger,” Bridget said, “and we know what to expect this time. Of course this is going better.”

Ten minutes, Sia sent right after landing on the last Ant and ripping its head off its torso. Also, these are slightly weaker than the ones we fought last time. Weak level fours instead of average.

“Thanks Sia,” I said before sitting down to gather, though I barely had any Aether missing. My natural regeneration went up again, I thought, looking around my center. And I’m starting to think my Aether capacity is just ridiculous. I could probably use a thousand of these simple Aether Blasts without running out. Alright, full. Not time to work on enhancing my meridians. I opened my eyes and looked around. About a minute left, I think. Let’s build up a Wrath of the Lightning Deity, but let’s change some runes. See if I can make it multitarget instead of single.

I stepped away from the others, giving myself a bit of space, then swept my hands up in front of me from my side, then out to either side before bringing them straight up. I turned around and dropped them to create two semi-circles of runes above me. I heard the chime, then filled in the space between with runes, replacing several ‘target’ and ‘enhance’ runes with a few that meant various versions of ‘split’ or ‘redirect’.

The beams of Aether fell and Ants appeared. The first flying ones showed up in this stage, and I thrust forward. A Lightning Bolt shot from my trisula, then hit the split rune at the very front of the cage I’d built. It wrapped around me, then blasted off a dozen in every direction but towards my friends. My meridians strained a bit, my mind stressed by forcing the Technique to function even with the imperfect rune structure.

Six Flying Soldier Ants were blasted out of the sky by the modified Wrath. The other six Bolts struck the Soldier Ants, but every one of them continued to trudge forward, though slower than their comrades. “They’re stronger!” I yelled out before sending a Fire Aether Blast into the fastest Ant.

“I am raising a wall,” Vaya called. “Aiden, protect me. Jon and Kami have that side.”

“Got it,” I twisted to see Vaya stab her swords into the ground, and a waist-high wall of vines erupted. It started out only a meter wide, but slowly extended to either side. I moved in front of her, stabbing into an Ant with my left hand before picking it up and bodily flinging it into the next two. Lampart darted to my right, bounding off the growing wall to grab a Flying Ant as it tried to dive bomb us. She took a nasty gash to her side, but ripped the thing’s wings off. With a roar, she pushed off the falling Beast to land behind me, shoving it so it fell onto another Ant.

Metal Slashes flashed at me and my arms blurred as I pushed myself to deflect each one. An Ant tried to climb the newly formed wall, but I slammed a Forceful Punch into its head and exploded it. A few more desperate blocks came before our attacks slayed the last Ant trying to clear the wall. I had a minor scrape along my right forearm where a pincer had glanced off my trisula, but nothing that would reduce my capability.

I turned to find the others had killed all but one of the other Ants. Jon had the last one pinned between his shield and an Earthen Wall Kami had built. “Hey, you should strengthen that wall so it sticks around,” Jon called out. “And gather for a bit. I will hold this one so the round does not end.”

“You can get another five minutes with that trick!” Bruno called out. “If you have not slayed a Beast by the end of those five minutes, the next round will start anyway.” His voice was robotic, then it became more lifelike. “Bro, sorry. You’re not the first to try that. If you don’t kill something every few minutes, it counts against your break time. I can give you a one minute warning, though.”

“Hey, five minutes is better than none!” Jon yelled back, a cheeky grin on his face.

“Good call, Jon,” I said, then rushed over to Vaya.

“Make pillars of stone every twenty or so centimeters?” She asked, still holding the vines in a wall. “I can wrap the vines around them so they stay, but I cannot stop the technique without wasting a lot more Aether.”

“Got it,” I said. I moved to the left side of the wall and crouched. My hand stretched out to ten centimeters over the ground, and I poured a moderate amount of Aether into the technique Vaya had shown me way back in Craesti City. The next four minutes passed quickly, and I managed to get a dozen pillars done in that time, giving us a few meters of protection on the next round.

A chime sounded around us, our one minute timer. Jon started to count out loud, and twenty seconds prior to our limit he crushed the poor Ant. “Ten minutes before the next round, starting now,” Bruno announced. “No more modifications to the battlefield until the start of the next round.”

“Thanks Bruno,” I said. “Okay, two more rounds, then we get a longer break between waves. Anyone need any Alchemical powders?”

“Nah, already used my own,” Bridget said, gesturing to her belt pouch. “Kami had a couple of cuts that could have become more serious, so I used an Earthen Beast Healing Powder. Better than the human ones for my baby.”

I nodded, and everyone else just shook their heads. I examined my center, and decided to take a Refined Jungle Gathering Powder, what I’d decided to call the recipe that Jon had helped me with. A small surge of Aether flowed towards me, my normal pull enhanced by around fifty percent by the powder, and I focused on pulling it in and condensing it into the liquid Aether I needed now.

I only managed to replace about half what I had spent on the round when the next warning sounded. Hopefully we’ll get thirty minutes or more to gather between waves. Eh, if not, I’ve got the refill powders to try and tide us over. I started this round off the same way as the last, though I managed to fit an extra ‘split’ and combined ‘many’ and ‘target’ on a whim. Eighteen Bolts flew out this time, and I mentally forced the majority of them to strike the weaker flying bugs.

Vaya extended the wall, and I blasted away at the Beasts from behind it. The fight got closer this time, the Beasts getting both more numerous and stronger left me grappling with two Soldier Ants on top of the vines. I twisted around, shoving one Ant’s head into the other just as it was about to bite me. A leg speared through my Iron Bones, Granite Skin Technique and ripped a gash in my leg before I was able to wrench its head off. I leapt over the spasming body and sent an Aether Blast into the other one’s thorax with a kick, splitting it in two.

I looked over to see Sia slice the wings off the last flyer, then catch it and bite off its legs as well. Every other Beast was dead except one that Jon had pinned again. We can use this one to extend our time. I will kill it in four minutes, then you kill yours four minutes later, Jon, Sia commanded. I sat wearily, then the Ant head exploded into the colorless, heatless flames of the Dungeon taking its Aether back. I threw the Cores that landed close to me into a bag before reaching over to pull another pillar of rock out of the ground.

Vaya and I worked quickly, and we were able to make an arc that extended almost eight meters across and two deep. “Last round before the wave ends. Bridget, can you use a barrier to block off the other side of the circle?” I asked when the last warning popped us out of our gathering trances.

“Yeah. Are we going to use one every round in the next wave?”

“Don’t know yet,” I shrugged. “Depends on what we’re fighting. Stay safe.” I stepped to the edge of the wall and worked through my new technique for the third time. A few more tweaks let me get twenty Bolts out that were a bit stronger than the first set, taking ten flyers and four crawlers out of the battle before they could do more than materialize. I paid a bit more attention to the others, and saw that Jon and Bridget had copied me, extending and enhancing their area techniques to take out more Beasts before they could reach us.

Of course, that only made it so an equal number of the Ants reached our little fort as the previous round. Bridget blocked off the rear, though, so half the Ants were stuck walking around the Aether Barrier, giving us breathing room. I held the middle of the wall, with Jon at the leftmost corner between vines and Aether. Kami held the right. Lampart was focused on enhancing the vines, repairing the cuts that the Ants were putting into the wall while Vaya alternatively healed us, stabbed over the wall with Aether Blasts, or brought tangles of thorns to wrap around our enemies.

Sia and Zim flashed through the sky above us, dogfighting with four Flying Soldier Ants. Zim flared his wings and released a cloud of Ice, freezing two Ants wings and causing them to fall. One recovered before it hit the ground, though, and Zim had to dive to avoid a Metal Slash. Bridget hit the barely aloft Beast with an Air Aether Blast, ripping its wings apart and sending it to the ground. Light, sometimes I wish I had a polearm! I thought, shaking my head and sending out a spike shaped Earth Aether Blast to smash an Ant away from Kami.

The last Ant collapsed to Jon’s Ice aura technique (Name from MI). “Congratulations on besting the first wave! You may now choose to complete the Dungeon and earn your rewards, or continue to another wave for a much greater prize! Please either walk to the flashing lights with your choice, or announce your selection out loud in a language the Dungeon understands. You have thirty minutes to make your choice. If you choose to continue, the battle will commence at the end of the decision time.”

I looked at my team, “Of course we’re continuing. Thirty minute break, gather every bit you can.”