The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 60

Chapter 60

The wind rushed by Larek as he flew backwards, his chest stinging from where the massive snake had swung its tail at him like a whip, taking advantage of the cooldown on his Automatic Ice Repulsion Field to get a hit in. After blocking the other snake’s lunging bite with an application of his Pattern shield, he hadn’t been expecting to be slammed into by a portion of yet another snake that was half the size of his own body and he was paying for it now. Hitting the ground with an “oomph”, he rolled a few times before struggling to his feet, the exhaustion he had already been feeling only amplified as he continued to fight and heal himself from multiple wounds over and over. Nothing had seriously injured him yet, but it was only a matter of time before that happened.

Throwing yet another Weaken stone at the last of the giant scorpions approaching from his left side, he was hit from behind as a set of sharp claws raked his back, and he barely reacted in time to direct his axe up above his head as the flying lizard continued past him. His activation of the VEGS was enough to cause the scaled monster to essentially explode from the inside, taking it out of the fight, but it felt like a drop in the bucket when compared to what he still had to face.

Jumping back into the fray before he ran completely out of physical energy, he chopped at the snake that had sent him flying, activating his VEGS yet again to take a chunk out of its side, which only became a worse wound as the monster twitched and sent more of its body to pass through the lingering spheres of elemental destruction. He threw himself backwards as a black tongue zipped past him as it attempted to wrap itself around his body; he tried to cut at the tongue as it was retracted back into the mouth of one of the large frogs, but he stumbled and missed.

Dodge has reached Level 23!

The Combat Fusionist ignored the notification as he swung at yet another snake, finally managing to cut into its upper portion, and with another activation of the VEGS Fusion, the destruction of the monster was secured as he essentially decapitated it. Of course, the snake decided to take revenge upon him for its demise as it twitched uncontrollably in its death throes, which ended up slamming into him, nearly crushing his leg, though he managed to roll with the blow and saved himself from gaining a nasty injury.

It still hurt, however, even if it was temporary.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed what had to be the last of the flying lizards swooping down on him, so he paused in the middle of combat and created a Pattern shield, which he stuck right in its path. Its diving attack couldn’t be redirected in time and it smashed fully into the impenetrable and immovable barrier with tremendous force, but even as it fell to the floor he was already moving it to block a horse ape’s swinging punch from his other side. Letting the shield go as soon as it prevented the blow from landing, he swung his axe at the monster and cut through its right arm, activating the Fusion just a moment too late to have any extra effect.

He wasn’t able to plant himself well enough to concentrate on another Pattern shield in time to stop the next punch by the horse ape’s other arm, though he did manage to twist his axe so that an activation of the VEGS Fusion occurred right in its face. While it got chewed up by the elemental sphere, it did nothing to prevent the hit, and he felt a rib crack as he was sent flying yet again. As he healed himself, further exhausting his body from the frequent use of the Healing Surge Fusion, he finally landed and struggled to get to his feet… only to feel an overwhelming sense of danger from directly behind him.

Without thinking, he threw himself forward, but even with his high Agility, it wasn’t fast enough to avoid being clipped by the mouth of the enormous worm that had finally entered the battle, having taken the longest to arrive. He felt his ankle break as the edge of its horrendously scary, tooth-filled maw impacted his leg as he threw himself forward, but he was already activating the Healing Surge as he landed in a sprawl from his attempted dodge. The sound of stones rattling along the floor alerted him that his belt pocket had still been open from where he had grabbed one of the Weaken stones earlier, and he watched as his last three rolled past him.

With his ankle just now snapping back into place and healing from the damage, he wasn’t able to easily get back to his feet, but he suddenly didn’t care about waiting for it to heal as he looked behind him. The worm, which had been slow to arrive, was displaying a significant amount of speed now that it was there, and it raised itself up slightly and bunched the muscles in its body backwards, looking like it was going to spring forward – right at Larek. Its gaping mouth was wide enough to swallow him 10 times over, and he needed to move.

Scrambling away from the attacking worm, he felt one of left hand close over one of his Weaken stones and he absently gripped it. The next second, his ankle healed enough to push off of it and he sprang forward, seeing another stone just ahead – and his exhausted mind and body decided that it had a plan. If I can throw these stones inside the worm, it’ll explode from within!

He managed to grab the second stone on the run before spotting the third, just under the paw of a large bear with the head and feathers of an owl. Flinging himself forward with a cry, he smashed his axe down on the face of the strange hybrid monster, getting a claw smacking against his recently injured ribs as a parting gift even as he activated the Fusion on his best friend. As the monster was torn apart, Larek refrained from healing the new damage as he was already starting to push past his limits, and he picked up the Weaken stone at his feet instead.

He whipped around just in time to fling and activate all three of the stones at the open maw of the worm as it sprung forward in an attack designed to swallow him up. Already preparing to dive as far out of the way of the incoming behemoth, he was flung sideways as the stones suddenly exploded in mid-air, halfway to their destination. At only about 30 feet away, the detonation of not just one, but three of the Weaken stones should’ve injured him severely if not killed him outright, but he belatedly realized that the cooldown on his AIRF defense had finally ended, which had created something that had essentially encased him in ice blocks. The pressure from the explosion was so great that even his powerful defenses couldn’t stop it completely, and he was pushed back with enough force to send him nearly a hundred feet away.

Rolling to his knees with a groan, he looked back to see what had possibly happened, and it took him a moment to get his bearings. Once he did, he could see that the worm hadn’t wiggled away from the detonation unscathed, as it had been close enough to mangle half of its mouth and a significant portion of its upper body, but it was still technically alive as it struggled to find its way toward him. The blast had also killed a few of the nearby monsters, but the collateral damage was surprisingly small considering that three of the stones had exploded next to each other. But how did they explode prematurely?

The answer wasn’t long in coming, as he looked further afield, only to see that the Drekkins and other random people who had been possessed were on the move. An arrow shot toward him that he saw at the last moment nearly hit him in the chest as he moved to the side, a necessary dodge because he was fairly certain that his defensive Repulsion Field was back on cooldown after blocking most of the explosion. The arrow had come from a Drekkin holding a black wood bow at over 300 feet away, an accurate shot by any estimation, and he suddenly realized that the possessed person had shot his Fusion stones out of the air.

He shook his head at the unbelievability of that thought, but it was the only thing that made sense.

Dismissing the unfortunate interception, he looked around to see that not only were the remaining dozen or so monsters heading toward him to finish him off, but the rest of the possessed people were getting close, as well. Deciding to try and eliminate the threat that the people posed him, as they could interfere with his elimination of the last few monsters. Besides, it was about time to free his companions from the forced slavery that had overcome their bodies.

Beginning to create another Pattern “sun”, despite not being completely full of Pattern Cohesion as of yet, he only barely formed it before another arrow out of the corner of his eye made him flinch away from it as he dodged its annoyingly accurate trajectory. Thankfully, he had been able to reabsorb the Pattern he was using rather than losing it, so he started again and—

A barrage of Icy Spikes flew toward him from the crowd and it was all he could do to abandon his project and dive out of the way. He was forced to use his Pattern Cohesion to make a large shield that blocked the constant stream of projectiles, even as it was joined by a different barrage of Flaming Balls.

They’re using Pyluxa and Hakkin’s Fusions? I forgot that they steal all of their memories and that includes knowing how to use all their Fusions. This is suddenly going to get a whole lot harder.

He couldn’t drop his shield because the constant stream of magical projectiles wouldn’t let up, but if he didn’t do something soon, the monsters that were already running toward his location would likely kill him. The same issue arose when he thought about killing the remaining monsters first, because then the possessed people would have free rein to attack him with impunity.

If the Demons have the same knowledge as their hosts, then they know that I can’t move while I’m maintaining anything involving my Pattern. That means that they planned this sudden interruption in my battle against the monsters, waiting until I’m nearly on my last legs and are unable to defend myself from multiple enemies. I’m not sure I’m getting out of here alive.

He briefly looked over his Pattern shield as he continued to maintain it, just in time to see an arrow descending from above, completely bypassing his defense. He shifted agonizingly slowly to try and avoid it and succeeded for the most part, but it still struck his upper arm rather than his chest; it was only stopped from going through his arm by the sleeve of his shirt with the Multi-Resistance Fusion on it, but it still hit forcefully enough that he felt the bone inside creak as if it was on the verge of cracking.

Thankfully, he was able to maintain his floating Pattern shield, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last. The closest of the monsters were only about 50 feet away by this point, so he had to make a decision of what to do soon. Indecision weighed on him as he considered if he wanted to be eaten by a monster or be killed by Demon-possessed Drekkin, but the decision was made for him when an impossibly long frog tongue stretched nearly 75 feet to wrap around his right leg while he wasn’t paying attention. All of a sudden, Larek found himself yanked off his knees as he was pulled away, losing the Pattern Cohesion that he had used to fuel the shield as it dissipated behind him. As he was dragged toward the mouth of the frog, he managed to swing his axe and cut off the long appendage just past his knee, but his momentum made him roll right under the legs of a horse ape, where he narrowly missed being trampled. In his uncontrolled roll, his axe managed to cut through one of the legs that had nearly stomped on him, severely wounding the monster, but that small victory was short-lived as he struggled to his feet to find himself surrounded by all the monsters but the wounded worm, which was still trying to move toward his location.

Panting from the injuries that he hadn’t had a chance – or the energy – to heal yet, he held his axe loosely in his hands as the monsters paused in their attack around him as if awaiting the final order to kill. Beyond them, where he could make them out between the hulking form of a bear and owl hybrid and a massive snake coiled into a mound, appearing ready to strike, he could see the possessed people running as a group. Within seconds, the Martials he sensed within the group would be close enough to attack him directly, which only gave him additional proof that his time was just about up.

As they were closer, he could see both Pyluxa and Hakkin, their shortswords aiming straight for him even through the monsters, as if daring him to try something. Near them, he also saw Gharix, Abarcen, and the other two Martials that had recently been a part of his group, their weapons at the ready to be used against him. Beyond them, he could finally see the Drekkin who had been releasing arrows at him, and there was another projectile at the ready on his bow that radiated danger; he was sure that the Drekkin archer could draw and release the arrow in less than a second, and the closer it came to his position, the less likely Larek would be able to dodge it.

Besides the people he knew, or had at least been attacked by, he saw hundreds of other Drekkin, most of them giving him the feel of a Mage or Martial even from a distance. Most of them didn’t seem particularly powerful, though he had an inkling that there were a few that were relatively strong – though they couldn’t compare to Gharix and the others because of their Fusions.

There were also dozens of other Drekkin that appeared to be “normal”, as in they didn’t have the feel of having changed into a Martial or a Mage recently. Despite that, they all held weapons in their hands, from rusty-looking swords to steel-tipped spears; while they undoubtedly couldn’t stand up to any decent Martial, their expressions showed that they were ready and willing to use them even if it killed them. As far as he knew, that was exactly what would happen if they were to assault someplace such as Draverdin – but he also didn’t think that would bother them so much, as that would just free the Demon inhabiting their bodies to possess someone else.

Past them, behind the Drekkin that were the most prevalent, he saw about a dozen people he identified as coming from the Empire, a few from other lands that he knew about but couldn’t match their appearance to their origin, and there were even a few people that looked so like the people from the Kingdom that they couldn’t be from anywhere else. A Martial and a Mage, in fact, based on their armor and clothing, as well as the large shield and sword the woman was carrying and the staff the man held in his hands. Neither of them were familiar, of course, as the SIC was large and there were tens of thousands of members that he’d never met nor even heard of before, but just seeing them only seemed to increase his desire to return home.

Not that I’m going to have much chance of that now, considering how close I am to dying here.

He nearly dismissed all the possessed people as being of a secondary concern, believing the monsters surrounding him to be of a bigger threat considering that they were closer and would be difficult to kill considering that both his offense and defense were both limited for the moment. However, before he could completely put them out of his mind, something in the crowd of people caught his attention like an eagle spotting a small rodent on the ground, and he found that he couldn’t look away. His first assumption of what he thought it might be was confirmed a few seconds later as he got a better look, and Larek felt his exhaustion completely melt away as it was replaced by an overwhelming anger that he couldn’t prevent from taking over his mind and body, even if he wanted to – and in this case, he certainly didn’t want to.

Feeling something familiar-yet-foreign stirring in his chest, Larek immediately recognized that it was his Stama reacting to his emotions, readying itself to be unleashed in a display of destructive force. The Combat Fusionist forced every shred of his consciousness that hadn’t been swept away in absolute rage to try and influence the Stama now boiling through his entire body; it was about to blow, but he couldn’t just allow himself to lose complete control, as he wasn’t sure it would be conducive to staying alive. Instead, he managed to wrestle the tiniest portion of his leaking Stama toward his head, hoping that it would help to keep him just slightly more aware of what he was doing if his mind was connected to the volatile force that was about to take control.

It was a long shot, of course, but it turned out that miracles certainly did happen.

Stama Subjugation has reached Level 2!

New Battle Art Learned!

Tactician Mind

Effect: Boosts perception and awareness while in battle, applying 50% of Agility stat toward Intellect and Acuity

Duration: 60 seconds

Base Stama Cost: 800

More of his Stama was sucked up into his mind as a result of activating this brand-new Battle Art, just before he lost complete control of his body when the rest of his Stama seemed to take on a life of its own.