The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Attacking and killing everything in their way toward closing the Aperture was easier said than done. The first obstacle was convincing the Drekkin to go along with it, as they immediately dismissed his plan as foolish. In a way, they were correct; as they all were right now, that would likely be killed before they even got close.

“Fine. Is there somewhere we can go that is relatively safe and out of the way?” Larek asked, knowing that he – along with everyone else – needed some rest after the day they’d had. He had essentially been going at full-speed since the attack by the giant scorpion and he needed some time to relax and finally spend his accumulated AP and AF since he kept being interrupted. That, and he had a plan to convince Gharix and the others to help him complete his objective.

The Drekkin looked at each other, silently communicating between themselves. After about a half a minute, Gharix sighed and said, “Perhaps. It was added to the roster of the Lost Caverns a week ago, but it’s not well known and was supposed to be our fallback point if we ever got separated on a patrol.” He hesitated for a moment before he added. “It’s dangerous and is likely behind enemy lines by this point.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Larek assured him. “Tell me where it’s located, and we’ll get there as soon as possible.”

Gharix got up from where he had been sitting in the Air Skimmer, and as Larek lifted back up, he started telling him where to go. He quickly learned that they had passed multiple side passages that he hadn’t even noticed on their way to the Drekkin city, and he was instructed to take one of them that led what he thought was north, though it was still difficult to tell where he was underground. Regardless, the side passage was a lot narrower than the main tunnel, as well as less well-lit with glowing crystal along the walls scattered in a random pattern. Fortunately, he had Gharix to help light the way with the aid of his Directional Illumination stone piece he had stored in the vessel, which shocked all of the Drekkin to witness it working.

“How does it do this? We usually have to rely on chunks of Luxite to illuminate the darkness.”

“Luxite? Is that the glowing crystal stuff all over?”

The group leader chuckled. “Glowing crystal stuff? I guess that’s a good description, but yes. Now, about this… whatever it is?”

“Ah, it’s a Fusion, like I described briefly before. I’ll explain more once we get to wherever you’re leading us.”

Thankfully, Gharix nor any of the others pushed him for more information at that time, as most of them appeared to be on edge. The reason for that was evident shortly into their journey down the side passage, as they suddenly came upon a small group of monsters that flew toward them in a rush. “We have to land! We can’t fight them like this!” the Drekkin group leader whispered as soon as the monsters were sighted, but Larek simply brought his staff tip forward and began aiming.

“They look like Soiled Crowhogs, and if that’s the case, they shouldn’t be a problem. I told you, I’ve got this,” he answered as he began firing Magnitude 3 Icy Spikes out at the flapping figures.

Thankfully, Soiled Crowhogs were relatively slow, as their portly hog bodies weighed more than the average flying creature. They made up for this fact by having a 10-foot-wide wingspan, which they could retract into their bodies so that they could divebomb their victims on the ground. They were also dangerous if you got too close to them because they exuded a poisonous gas that would quickly restrict the breathing of anyone or anything that inhaled it. It was also flammable, though not as much as what came from the Flojiggers, but they were already close enough that any explosions would likely cause damage to the Air Skimmer and might even be dangerous to the narrow side passage. The last thing he wanted was to cause an accidental cave-in.

His aim had gotten much better from all the experience he’d had using his staff inside his vessel, and the Crowhogs stood no chance against the icy projectiles that they were unable to avoid. Sharp icicles traveling at high speed impaled many of them through their faces, not just once but multiple times, which was more than enough to bring them down. They fell to the floor of the side passage with loud *thumps*, killing most of them upon impact if they weren’t already dead from his attacks. A few of them had their wings clipped when they attempted to dodge his projectiles, which still caused them to crash to the ground and were subsequently out of the fight.

Fortunately, there were only about 20 of them that attacked, which wasn’t much of a threat, but he made sure to finish off the ones that crash-landed but didn’t die, before moving on. He could feel the tension and… awe, perhaps, coming from the group of Drekkin as he quickly and easily dispatched the Crowhogs without any worry, but he ignored it.

“Where to? Keep going this way?” he asked, even as he finished absorbing the rest of the Aetheric Force that came from the Crowhogs.

“Uh, yes, this way,” Gherix confirmed, pointing ahead.

They encountered a few other small groups of monsters, none of them any particular threat as they were quickly destroyed thanks to his staff, before they finally arrived at their destination. At first, he didn’t even see it, but when he moved his Air Skimmer closer to the wall and off to the side of where Gharix pointed, he could finally see a much smaller opening that blended in well enough that he probably would’ve passed by it countless times before he noticed it. It was just barely large enough to fit the Skimmer inside, thankfully, though he had to have the others get out so he could bring it down to just above the floor so he could gently guide it through.

Once they had passed through the opening and turned a corner that the vessel barely fit through, it opened up into an enclosed cave that was approximately 100 feet long and half that wide, with 20-foot ceilings. There was much more Luxite inside along the walls, illuminating the entire cave well enough that there were very few areas of darkness that would allow the Umbral Demons to hide, and those few areas were hardly larger than the palm of Larek’s hand.

The light also allowed him to see the very sparse furniture made out of stone, including a small table with only two chairs seemingly carved out of the wood, as well as a small stockpile of what appeared to be thin stone crates, a few of which had been smashed at some point and some sort of leafy matter had spilled out all over the floor.

“Looks like something came in here and smashed a few things before deciding that it was empty, but there should still be at least a week’s worth of food stored here,” Gharix informed him. Larek thought that was a good thing, given that he barely had enough for him for the next week; if he had to feed the others, then they would run out quite quickly.

“Settle down, then, and I’ll set up my Fusion to block off the passageway. I’ll know if anything tries to come through.” The fact that none of the Drekkin protested gave evidence to how exhausted they all were, more than Larek was if he was any judge. Despite that, they still made sure to check every inch of the room for any evidence that any threats still lingered, before they, one-by-one, settled down on the hard stone floor and passed out almost immediately, trusting Larek to keep watch.

It wasn’t long until Larek joined them in their slumber, positioning himself closest to the Secure Hideaway, confident in his Fusion to keep them safe.

Unfortunately for them all, his dome of hardened air did absolutely nothing to prevent the Umbral Demons from somehow accessing their hidden refuge.

Larek suddenly woke up when the sound of a loud crack aroused him from his slumber, only to find the cavern they were in was almost entirely dark. At some point while they were all asleep, the glowing Luxite in the walls had dimmed until they no longer shone with light, and it was the final – and largest – crystal that had abruptly cracked with a loud report, and it was already dimming as if all the energy that caused it to glow was leaking away. As he shot to his feet, his staff in hand, he felt an overwhelming sense of pressure pushing at his entire body; out of the corner of his eyes, he saw tall, shadowy shapes that were just barely visible along the perimeter of the cavern – and he knew exactly what they were as his rage spiked at their appearance.

He wasn’t the only one who had seen them, as he heard Gharix shout, “Umbral Demons! Run out to the light!” In the rapidly dimming glow of the cracked Luxite, he saw that all the Drekkin had woken along with him and were on their feet, weapons at the ready. Unfortunately for them, it was now dark enough that the lingering light apparently didn’t bother the Demons, and Larek watched helplessly as they almost seemed to fly across the space between them and their victims, slamming into the Drekkin and then disappearing inside their bodies. He knew exactly what was happening to them then as they fought against the invasive Demon attempting to remove all control they had over their bodies; they were just starting to grunt and strain against the force that was cutting off their physical body from their control, not giving in easily, when Larek felt something collide with his own back, staggering him for a moment.

Oh, no you don’t.

Closing his eyes, he pictured the Pattern Cohesion suffusing his body and accessed his newest Skill, Pattern Manipulation. While he remembered what had happened during the first attack by a Demon and how his Cohesion had managed to kill the invader, he hadn’t had a chance to practice trying to do that manually – and he didn’t want to have to wait for the loss of control over his body for it to work automatically. Thankfully, now that he’d had some practice manipulating his Pattern outside of spells and Fusions, controlling it inside his body was almost simple in comparison to creating a Pattern shield, for instance.

Gathering up a significant chunk of his Cohesion from his body, he mentally gave it a form to perform a specific function; in this case, he created a ghostly, insubstantial axe that looked remarkably like his best friend at his hip. As for its function, it was now a weapon created from the pure strength of what one would say was his soul, and it was designed to kill one thing in particular: Umbral Demons.

With a slight grunt of discomfort as he felt more of his physical control leaving him, he mentally took hold of the shining, ghostly axe of his Pattern… and imagined it slicing his entire body in half, from the top of his head to his groin.

Larek staggered as an inaudible scream ripped through his body and the control over his body suddenly surged back, but he immediately knew that he had essentially ended up cutting entirely through the Demon inside of him. Not only that, but where his ghostly Pattern axe had touched the invader, its potency had acted like an open flame to a piece of paper, as the Demon was rapidly consumed as its touch spread through the rest of its form. In seconds, it had burned up completely and he quickly knew that it had been entirely wiped out.

As he regained complete control and opened his eyes, he witnessed the last of the glow leaving the cracked Luxite, plunging them all into complete darkness. Just before all visible light was lost, however, he saw the shadowy figures around the perimeter of the wall stop moving as they likely became aware of what Larek had done. Rather than flee in the face of someone that could kill them, he was assaulted by an intense sensation of malice and retribution – and he caught a glimpse of at least a half-dozen of the Demons rush toward him just as the darkness became complete – though he was confident there were many more than that.

“Ha! Bring it on!” he shouted, while at the same time forming the same sort of ghostly axe outside of his body like he would a Pattern shield, though it wasn’t nearly as well-made as his best friend at his hip. It appeared in front of him, floating in the air, and while it had an internal glow to it, the oppressive darkness around it didn’t allow it to illuminate more than a few inches around it. Without hesitation, he stood still as he directed it to cut through the Demons he had seen heading for him, and was satisfied to see three of them cut in half by his swipe as the glow from the Pattern weapon passed through them. They continued to disintegrate as the strength of his Pattern ate away at their shadowy bodies in a flash, and he started aiming for his next victims.

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 20!

Two things happened at once, and the combination of them made him lose his concentration for a moment, causing his Pattern axe to disappear. The first was the notification that he had increased his Pattern Manipulation Level, which wasn’t enough to break his concentration, though in his eagerness to improve, he foolishly decided to pump 2,450 of his available AF into the Skill to raise its maximum to 30 – right in the middle of the fight. The sudden use of his AF was distracting, to be sure, especially with how it felt to be used all at once, but that still wasn’t enough to break his focus.

It was when he was slammed into from behind by not just one Demon, but at least a dozen of them that caused him to fall flat on his face, the sudden loss of physical control causing his axe to disappear. Almost immediately, as soon as his physical sensations were cut off from him, he felt the assault on his mind, but Larek was already recovering from the abrupt attack and was marshalling his own response. He discovered that forming an internal Pattern axe was still much easier than one outside of his body, and he didn’t hesitate to immediately chop and slash his way through his own body, destroying large portions of the Demons with every slice. The internal screaming nearly rendered him unconscious with its intensity, but he pushed through and eliminated every trace of the ones that had initially slammed into him, along with at least another dozen that had piled on the rest after he was taken down.

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 21!

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 22!

When the last one was destroyed, he regained control over his body in an instant, and he groaned from the abuse it had taken from being assaulted by two dozen Umbral Demons. Getting to his knees, he found himself breathing hard like he had just ran at full speed for half a day, but what he was more worried about was if any lingering trace of the invaders was inside of his body. He closed his eyes while he recovered on his hands and knees, finding no trace of a Demon left behind. Just to make sure, he passed his internal Pattern axe through every inch of his body again, and he thankfully didn’t find anything at all.

I did it. I killed them all—wait.

Looking up as he opened his eyes, he realized that it was still completely dark inside the hidden cavern, and he could no longer hear anything. The Drekkin! Pushing through his exhaustion from the fight, which had taken a toll on his body, he got to his feet while he rummaged around in his belt pouches. Finding what he was looking for, he activated the stone rod that held his Directional Illumination on it and pointed it toward where he thought the Drekkin were located.

As soon as the light touched them, their still bodies writhed as if the Umbral Demons inside was uncomfortable by it, but it didn’t stop them from continuing their takeover of their victims.

When he created another Pattern axe and used its insubstantial form to chop through the Drekkins’ bodies, however, that stopped them quickly enough.

It was another minute or so before the first of the Drekkin started to stir, but the others quickly followed within seconds of each other. “Y-You… you really killed them?”

Larek shrugged at Pyluxa’s question. “I told you that I could, didn’t I?”

“Yesss… but I ssstill had my doubtsss,” she admitted, before taking a deep breath. “You sssaved my life. All of our livesss.”

The Combat Fusionist simply shrugged again. “I couldn’t let you all get possessed by Demons, now could I? We have a job to do, after all.”

Instead of protesting like they had earlier, the group just stared at him with a look in their eyes that he thought looked remarkably like hope. “You really mean to do it? To kill all the Umbral Demons and close the Aperture?” Gharixa asked softly.

“Yes, I do.”

“Then… I guess we’re with you.” The others nodded, clearly agreeing with them.

Leadership has reached Level 12!

“Well then, I guess I better get working.”