The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 59

Chapter 59

The pressure upon Larek’s entire body ramped up until he felt like he was going to be squished like a grape between his fingers.  He immediately regretted diving into the middle of the Slime to kill it, even if he had succeeded in killing it, but at the time he wasn’t really thinking straight.  His Furious Rampage Battle Art had faded away, but at the point he was attacking was making such a decision it had still burned within him.  It was only now, when he was having the life squeezed out of him, that he realized he probably could’ve simply shoved his halberd through the few feet of the Slime’s shell and activated the Variable Elemental Gust Sphere Fusion he had on the blade, especially as the monster’s core had been so close.  Then again, how was he to know if it would’ve even worked, as perhaps it might’ve been immune to the magical damage and only steel would hurt it.

Regardless of his what decisions he had ultimately made and the regrets that came with them, Larek felt like he was going to die at any point.  The squeezing on his body reached a crescendo as the bare skin all over his body began to compress, until he felt his finger bones beginning to snap.  He tried to cry out in temporary pain but couldn’t even open his mouth because of the pressure, and that was when his very eyes began to cave in, the skin protecting them just not strong enough to prevent their collapse.

As they burst inside of his eye sockets, reaching up to his brain, he mentally activated his Healing Surge Fusion and started to heal what was being destroyed, but it was a losing battle.  The healing couldn’t keep up with the pressure being exerted upon him, and he was counting down his demise within seconds…

…until all the pressure suddenly released, most of it gone as if it had never been there.  He felt fluid around him as if he was inside a thick soup, and his Healing Surge Fusion was able to repair him the rest of the way.  Opening his eyes did nothing except reveal that he was still in darkness, but the sensation of falling through the liquid around him was strong, like he was rushing down a river. 

The next moment, his momentum sped up until he shot out somewhere at an incredible pace, and the feeling of flying through the air caused him to wipe at his eyes – with arms and hands that were now free of the constricting fluid – and he saw the sky above him just as he landed hard upon the ground, bounced a few times, and then skid along what he quickly discovered was the Slime’s slippery internal goo.  Except that, once he stopped and was able to sit up to look around, he realized that it was more accurate to call it external goo, as it was everywhere except in the Slime.

As for the monster, he caught the last of it as it completely deflated.  Spouts of black fluid shot out in various directions, most of it coming from the holes that were carved into its shell, and he quickly deduced what had likely happened.  When he destroyed the core, the internal goo automatically solidified into the nearly impenetrable shell, which was probably a defense mechanism to protect the damaged core, and was what nearly crushed him to death; after a short time, however, it couldn’t maintain its solid shape upon its death and immediately turned back into goo.  That goo was put under pressure and it basically shot him out one of the holes in its shell, and was currently expelling the last of it even now.

As he was getting unsteadily to his feet, which was difficult in all the slippery Slime blood everywhere, he was nearly knocked off his feet as something slammed into his chest.  He belatedly realized his AIRF was on cooldown so it didn’t reflect the assault, but that was probably a good thing as he looked down to see a black goo-covered Nedira holding tight to him.

“Larek!  I thought that the Emperor Slime had killed you!”

He tried to speak, but he had to turn his head to the side and cough out a lung full of black liquid.  “Heh, no, not yet.  It sure tried, though,” he said when he could finally talk.  The woman was still wrapped around him, as if afraid to let him go, and he moved to reassure her by patting her on the head, but realized he was absolutely covered in gunk.  At least it doesn’t smell.  Instead, he asked, “Emperor Slime?  It had a name?”

She finally moved slightly back to look up into his face.  “Not officially, I don’t believe, but that was what everyone with the Strike Faction was calling it.  Thankfully, they say there was only one of these.”

“Ah.  That’s good to know.  Speaking of the Strike Faction…”  He trailed off as he looked around, seeing the Mages and Martials of the Faction in various states of exhaustion; some of them were sitting slumped on the ground, some were barely standing upright, and others were laid out flat on their backs.  The only thing that all of them had in common was an expression of disbelief, as if they couldn’t understand why they weren’t dead – like the dozens of others that hadn’t made it. 

Catching a glimpse of something past them, he knew that it wasn’t over yet.  In fact, within the next few minutes another monster horde would be approaching, and they needed to be ready for it.

And he would be damned if he was going to repel the monsters all by himself.

Gently pushing Nedira away, he turned toward the shocked Faction members and addressed them with as loud of a voice as he could.  “Listen up!  This isn’t over!  You wanted to strike at the Calamity, and this is the result!  This thing is dead, but there are more coming!”

“And who are you?  Where did you come from?” someone shouted back, a male Mage that was doing his best to stay out of the black goo and not succeeding very well. 

Larek shook his head.  “That’s not important right now.  What is important is that you prepare for more monsters and to work together—”

“He’s the one who killed Jack!”

Ah.  The Martial that was with the leader.  What was his name?  Henry… no, Henrik.  Looks like someone healed him.

“No, Jack killed himself,” said another familiar voice, and he saw the female Mage that had asked him about his Pattern construct.  Marteena?  Did I remember her name right?  “He was foolish enough to try and kill this man and his own spell blew up in his face.  And why did he attack him?  Because he was looking for a way to escape, leaving us all behind to die to the monster attacks.”

“What?  No, that can’t be true!”

“Lies!  Jack would never—”

“I saw it happen!  What she says is true—”

“But who has that kind of power?  He’s probably also a monster—”

There was a brief discussion over what Larek did and didn’t do, but they didn’t have time for whatever they thought.  “ENOUGH!  I’m the one who created those Fusions that you’re using, so if you don’t trust me and want me to leave, I’ll just take them back and we’ll leave you to die.  It’s your choice; I’m beginning not to care either way.”

“No!  Don’t go – we need your help!”

“You made these?  I find that unlikely—”

“Good riddance, then, because if he really did kill Jack—”

“SHUT UP!” screamed Marteena, interrupting everyone’s grumbling.  “As he said, that’s ENOUGH!  You can bicker all you want later, but we need to work together to survive.  Whether or not he killed Jack is of no consequence, as he has done nothing but help us since then.  And he is willing to help us now, if we work with him, is that right?”

Larek nodded, glad that he didn’t have to yell at everyone again, because he was exhausted and it took a lot out of him. 

“So, forget whatever you know or think you know about him, because he has given us a chance.  A chance not only to survive… but to fulfill the objective of our Faction.  If you haven’t realized it by now, but we’re closer to closing the Aperture now than ever before, and if we can manage to hold on over the next week and a half, which should bring even the slowest of monsters here, then we can close finally put an end to this Calamity – and we won’t let it happen again.”

As far as rousing speeches went, it wasn’t the best – but it also wasn’t the worst.  It was also enough to get the exhausted Mages and Martials motivated enough to get moving, traveling back to where they had set up their lines before.  Now, of course, they were much depleted, with only 56 people still alive, but that would have to be enough.

Exiting the pool of black goo that remained after the Emperor Slime was dead, Marteena came up beside him and Nedira and introduced herself.  “Hello.  Larek, was it?  I’m Marteena, but my friends call me Teena.”

“Nice to officially meet you, Teena.  I assume you’ve already met Nedira?”

“Oh, yes, I worked with her to distribute all the Fusions she pulled out of those miraculous bags.”  She hesitated for a moment, before blurting out, “So, you said you would tell me more about how you’re able to create things out of Pattern Cohesion—”

“After all this is over, if you still want to learn.  I’m not sure you’ll be able to do everything I can, however, but it might still be beneficial.  In fact, every Mage should know about it, as it’s another Skill that they could Level-up in order to get stronger.”  He shook his head, knowing that this wasn’t the time for this.  “But that’s for later.  We have more to do before we get there.”

“Ah, yes, of course.  In reference to that, how would you like to arrange the defense of the Faction?” Teena asked.

Larek was confused.  “Why are you asking me?”

Visibly flustered, she said, “Well, because you’re the one in charge now—”

“Let me stop you right there,” he interrupted.  “I have no desire to be in charge, nor do I want to lead your Faction in any way, shape, or form.  I only want to work with you so that I’m not ending up doing all the work, especially over the next few hours as I really need to rest after all that,” he said, waving toward the deflated Emperor Slime.

“But—”

“Here’s an idea,” he went on, talking over her.  “Why don’t you be in charge and tell me what you want my help with, and I’ll do my best to follow orders.  I may not follow them exactly, as I may have a better idea of what needs to be done at the time, but it’ll most likely be to your benefit.  I want to protect everyone in the Faction just as much as they want to stay alive, because those people will help defend those I care about.”  He nodded toward Nedira and waved back at where the Faction’s camp was originally set up.  He didn’t have to explain that he was talking about Verne, because she seemed to know what he was talking about.

“I… but I’m not a leader.”

“Neither am I, but you seemed to handle them pretty well back there.  You can all figure it out later if you want to stay in charge, but I figure that you’re the best one for the job.  You know your people better than I ever would, after all, and you’ll know what to do with them.”

“I… will try.”

No more was said, but as they were walking out of the goo pool, Larek could sense the Fusions in his staff, axe, and halberd from where they had been flung during the fight with the Slime or lost within its body.  He swiftly traveled to them and he picked them up, slightly horrified at how dirty they were, but they were both thankfully completely intact and undamaged. 

They only had a few minutes before the next monsters arrived to try and kill them, and Teena rallied her people with hesitant orders; it was enough, however, because most of them were so exhausted from the previous battle that none of them protested her giving them orders.  From what Larek could tell, most of them were glad that they had someone who seemed to be in charge, so that they at least had a semblance of organization.

Of them all, it was the Mages that were in the best shape, if only because they hadn’t been in the complete thick of the battle against the enormous Slime, though that wasn’t saying much.  They still seemed likely to fall over at any point, but they still got into position in a united front against the incoming group of monsters.  Fortunately for them, it was only a large horde of thousands of ferret-like creatures that stood 3 feet tall and were able to leap long distances with their sharp claws extended and their overly large jaws open and ready to rend flesh from the bone.

It was nothing that a concerted barrage of rapid-fired projectiles sent out by the Strike Faction couldn’t take care of.  Even better, the Martials who were practically dead on their feet from the Slime fight could sit back and utilize some of the staves that were extra now that their owners had either died or were simply additional ones that were provided by Larek and Nedira.  The rapid use of the staves dropped the Mana density down quite a bit, to the point where the Fusionist became slightly worried, but the ferret monsters were dead before it became too much of a problem.

“If you can, spread them out a little more, otherwise the ambient Mana density in the area will drop too low – especially in protracted battles,” Larek advised the new leader of the Faction after watching them finish off the last of the horde.  “Are you able to sense the ambient Mana density with your Magical Detection Skill yet?”

“Uh, I think so?”

“Then you can use it to determine how low it gets.  You shouldn’t have any problems if you spread them out a little, or keep it to about 20 or so firing simultaneously.”

The Mage appeared lost in thought as she nodded, before moving off.  Larek turned to Nedira and smiled a tired smile.  “Do you mind keeping an eye on them?  Only participate if you really need to, and if there are any emergencies you can wake me up.  Otherwise, I really need to sleep.”

“I’ve got this,” she assured him, waving toward where the Secure Hideaway was located.  “I don’t think Verne is awake yet, but there’s nothing I can think of to help,” she added.  Larek looked around for the broken Ancient Protector tree, but it was nowhere in sight.  He just nodded, went toward the Secure Hideaway, deactivated it from outside, and then reactivated it once he was inside again.  Looking at his old roommate, he discovered that he was at least resting comfortably and didn’t seem as distressed, which seemed like a good sign.  Without another word, he laid himself down and fell asleep almost instantly, still largely covered in the blood of the Slime he’d had to climb inside in order to kill.

                   *

Larek woke up an indeterminate amount of time later to find that Verne was unfortunately still asleep.  Sitting up, he debated on creating an Expression of Free Will Fusion and settling it upon his friend in order to help clear away the Dominion magic that had been used on him to make him forget Larek, but decided to wait until his former roommate woke up naturally.  He still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened when his friend’s Ancient Protector spell knocked him out, and he didn’t want to mess up any healing that might be going on with that strained connection.  It was a risk either way, however, because if Verne had the same reaction as Kimble had when he was triggered by Larek’s identity being revealed it could be bad, but he also didn’t want to mess with whatever the reason why his friend was still unconscious.

After he looked outside the Secure Hideaway to ensure that they weren’t immediately in need of his help, he finally looked at the notifications about his Skill increases that he had ignored up until this point. 

Magical Detection has reached Level 49!

Magical Detection has reached Level 50!

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 71!

……

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 79!

Mana Control has reached Level 75!

Fusion has reached Level 75!

Pattern Formation has reached Level 75!

Unarmed Fighting has reached Level 12!

Unarmed Fighting has reached Level 13!

Stama Subjugation has reached Level 28!

……

Stama Subjugation has reached Level 40!

Dodge has reached Level 35!

……

Dodge has reached Level 44!

Bladed Weapon Expertise has reached Level 38!

……

Bladed Weapon Expertise has reached Level 45!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 49!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 50!

Bargaining has reached Level 12!

Bargaining has reached Level 13!

Leadership has reached Level 17!

……

Leadership has reached Level 20!

Speaking has reached Level 25!

Axe Handling has reached Level 93!

You have reached Level 44 and have 29 available AP to distribute!

You have reached Level 45 and have 59 available AP to distribute!

He hadn’t really paid attention to the after-battle notifications or sensations of Skill increases from the fight with the Slime, as he was being crushed at the time, but it had apparently been quite lucrative to fight something that powerful.  Not only did he essentially max out his Mana Control, Fusion, Pattern Formation, and Pattern Manipulation from the act of creating a powerful Weaken Fusion and then placing it on the Slime itself, but he also increased his Stama Subjugation Skill by 13 Levels!  Whether it was because he took a chance to use Furious Rampage or if it was due to the foe he was fighting, the end result was that he now had better control over his Stama and might even be able to use some of his other Battle Arts that required more. 

Since he had hit his maximum Level on multiple Skills, he looked to see if he had accumulated enough AF to raise them – and was shocked at what he saw. 

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 385,147

What?  How?

The answer was fairly obvious when he stopped to think about it.  He’d killed thousands of monsters over the course of a few hours before the enormous Slime arrived, and he hadn’t even taken the time to look at how much AF he had been accumulating from them – and that wasn’t even counting what he received from the Slime itself.  Now that it all had a chance to purify in his body and was ready to use, it added up to nearly 400,000 AF.

He quickly raised the maximum of every single Skill by 20, spending a whopping 225,100 AF in the process, and then kept the rest to figure out at a later time.  As for his large influx of AP, he spent 45 of his accumulated 59 AP to raise his Strength, Body, and Agility up to 200, and the remaining 14 to bring Acuity up to 190. 

He immediately felt a surge go through his body as his stats swelled by a significant amount, and his mind felt even more clear than it had a few minutes ago.  Along with the Body stat increasing, his Pneuma and Pattern Cohesion increased (with Boosts) to 7,200 and 72,000, respectively – an incredible amount by any standards.

With that take care of, he checked up on Verne again to see him still unconscious, so he left the Secure Hideaway on his friend as he went to see Nedira.  “Thanks for keeping watch,” he said as he came up behind her, and she nearly fell down as she turned toward him.  He caught her before she could hit the ground, as the tiredness in her entire body was evident; he could only assume that she was staying awake and marginally alert by sheer willpower alone.  “Hey, you’re alright.  How long was I out?”

“Just over 12 hours,” she replied, her speech a little slurred from exhaustion.

Half a day?  I haven’t slept that long in a while.  I must’ve been more tired than I thought.

“I’m taking over now, so go get some sleep.  Verne still hasn’t woken up, but hopefully he will soon.”

She didn’t argue as she stumbled away, her staff the only thing keeping her upright.  He saw that she had cleaned up a bit while he was asleep, and looking down he found that most of the Slime goo had dried on his clothes and was already flaking off.  Rather than waste time cleaning up, knowing that it would fall off eventually, he went to find an equally run-down Teena.

“Reporting for orders!  Where do you want me?” he asked, and he could see that she was glad he had finally arrived.  With a smile, she essentially told him to take over the entire defense while her people rested; given that he couldn’t see any monster hordes on the horizon, he had no problem with that.  He felt extremely rested, though hungry, and as soon as he grabbed something to eat, he would do his part to keep everyone safe.