The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 49

Chapter 49

“Are you sure you heard something outside of the perimeter?” Pyluxa asked him softly, slipping up against him and speaking at a low enough volume that only he could hear her. Silence and near-silence was a way of life nowadays down in the Lost Caverns, as any sort of noise could draw attention to the patrolling groups that were sent out from Draverdin to ensure that nothing suddenly snuck up on their fortifications.

This particular branch of the Lost Caverns would eventually lead toward the Kingdom of Androthe, their neighbor to the east, but all contact with all foreigners had necessarily been severed. It felt like it had been years since they’d started fighting the monsters cursed by the vicious hellspawn, the Umbral Demons, but in reality the fighting hadn’t really started until approximately a month and a half ago. In that time, their smaller satellite cities along the trade route had been lost to them as they were overrun, prompting the majority of the Drekkin population to retreat toward the capital, Draverdin, in order to survive.

Thankfully, they had been able to provide for the refugees because their growth centers had been fiercely protected, allowing them to continue growing the food necessary to feed everyone – at least for now. With them losing contact with the last few satellite cities to the north and south, it was quite possible that the monster army would eventually turn its sights on Draverdin and the remaining Drekkin keeping them trapped contained within the underground tunnels of Lowenthal.

But they would be ready if that were to happen. Gharix, along with every other Drekkin blessed by whatever power gave them the capability to defend themselves using never-before-seen magics and abilities, had been improving themselves day by day as a matter of survival. There hadn’t been a day in the last month that Gharix hadn’t killed at least a few monsters as he and his nest-brothers and nest-sisters ranged around the Lost Caverns, looking to thin their numbers. As he glanced at Pyluxa before responding, he couldn’t help but notice how different she looked from his real nest-sisters, who had almost all perished within the first few weeks of fighting. He and the others in his current nest-group weren’t actually siblings, unlike the groups they used to have before the catastrophe that befell them, but had come together through shared grief and a bond that was just as strong as family – or perhaps even stronger, as it had been forged through the heat of battle and was therefore tempered to last longer than anyone could have predicted.

But that was neither here nor there, as they needed to investigate the sound he had heard earlier. His hearing was marginally better than the others in his nest-group, and was only enhanced when he applied his Stama toward his newest Battle Art, Heightened Senses. It worked to enhance his hearing and eyesight for a limited time, which was why he was the primary scout for the group – as well as its nominal leader. As much as he wanted to play it off as his imagination, he seemed to have a preternatural sense of danger and had led them away from situations that would’ve otherwise killed them – and his nest-group appreciated that enough to put him in charge. Not that he desired to be the leader of anything, but he was willing to wear the mantle if it helped to keep them alive.

Over the last few minutes, his sense of danger had been going crazy, which was what prompted him to use his Battle Art, but he had only barely been able to hear what sounded like constantly rushing air. The sound was obviously out of place, but it also didn’t sound as if a monster was making the noise, so now they needed to investigate it so that they could warn the others back in Draverdin.

“Yes, I heard it coming from—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his low-volume response as a series of enormous explosions seemed to reverberate through the tunnel ahead of them, flashes of what appeared to be flames bouncing off the walls of the tunnel curvature. Even as the explosions continued, Gharix took off at a run, with his nest-group behind him.

“Why are we heading toward the dangerous explosions?” Pyluxa half-yelled at him as they ran, though her voice was barely audible over the detonations ahead and it wouldn’t have mattered much if she had raised her voice.

Gharix just shook his head, not knowing how to answer the question. All he knew was that he needed to see what it was that caused the explosions; whether it was to stop whatever it was from moving any closer to Draverdin, or just to observe, was something he wasn’t quite sure of at the moment. His senses weren’t exactly precise in their nature, but he couldn’t deny that they insisted he see for himself what the cause of the disturbance was.

They rounded the tunnel corridor at a sprint, just as the last of the explosions died away. From the remains floating in the air before they dissolved entirely due to their curse, he recognized a few scraps that could only be from what he learned were called Flojiggers – a strange name for a strange monster. He shuddered at the sight of the monsters and could only be appreciative that they were dead, because they were a horrid monster to fight. They weren’t difficult to kill, of course, but rather too easy; the gas inside of them was flammable enough that it was common for them to explode upon death, which caused their needle-like appendages to impale and poison anyone who was nearby. They were best handled at range, but sometimes there was no choice but to take the hits to get the job done.

Someone had obviously killed them all by causing them to explode in a series of subsequent detonations, either uncaring or far enough away from them to risk the aftereffects. It was that “someone” that made him, and his nest-group, stop as soon as they rounded the corner to witness the destruction of so many monsters, and his sense of danger spiked as soon as he caught sight of what awaited them.

Floating above the ground and blowing powerful gusts of wind that seemed contained in an ovoid-shaped area beneath it, was what appeared to be a strange iron and metal contraption. It was around dozen feet off the ground, and it appeared to be some sort of odd conveyance, because it contained a tall figure inside that immediately made the ridges along his backside raise in absolute horror.

While the person inside the contraption was tall like an Umbral Demon, though perhaps a bit smaller, they had the look of someone who came from the Kingdom of Androthe, even if they were wearing the clothing seen mostly in those from the Sealance Empire. He – because he was moderately sure it was a male – was holding a wooden stick in their hands, but Gharix could also see some sort of weapon attached to his belt.

It was none of those things that caused him to recoil slightly in horror, however. It was the strong taint of the shadow-touched that surrounded him.

Almost any Drekkin would be able to identify the taint that one who has been in close contact with an Umbral Demon possessed, which looked like a faint, dark aura around them. As the Demon’s possessed and consumed the soul of the individual, there was no other outward sign that they had been shadow-touched, but once it happened there was no reversing the process. It could be contained through the use of the blessed Enexro metal, which could slow down the assimilation of their body and restricted any inherent abilities they might possess, but they couldn’t be saved.

At the point when their soul was lost, there was no choice other than to kill them – or exile them if they were from an outsider race such as those from the Kingdom or Empire. Unfortunately, executing the victims didn’t necessarily harm the Demons inhabiting their bodies, as it was impossible to destroy their shadowy bodies, but it severely weakened them and made it so that it would be a long time until they were able to possess someone else. They had been a menace to the Drekkin living beneath the desert of Lowenthal since The Transition, when the land above was transformed from the lush, green environment it used to be to what it was now.

Stories that Gharix had heard from the elders purported that Lowenthal was merely an extension between the Sealance Empire and the Kingdom of Antrothe at that time, which was why the two peoples were so similar, though they’d drifted apart after Lowenthal was devastated and made passage between the two all but impossible other than through the underground tunnels the Drekkin built later. That was when the Umbral Demons started to terrorize the Drekkin as they emerged from the darkest corners of their underwold, but hadn’t been too much of a problem over the last few hundred years. That all changed recently as the Demons were somehow able to shadow-touch the monsters that emerged from the Apertures, which led to defenses being overrun and more and more people falling to the evil soul-snatching nightmares that were getting stronger by the day.

And this figure in front of them was most certainly one of those who had been possessed by an Umbral Demon. The aura wasn’t as strong as those he’d seen possessed before, which was strange, but he’d also never personally seen someone from outside of Lowenthal be shadow-touched, either. That being said, there was no mistaking the aura, faint as it was, and there was no defense against the Demons’ touch once someone was caught by them.

This man had to die. Not only that, but they had to do it quickly, as they couldn’t allow him to come any closer to Draverdin. Who knew what he had planned when he got there, but Gharix could only assume that it wasn’t anything good for the city that was bursting at the seams with refugees from all over.

Thankfully, the man seemed slightly distracted, likely wondering how he had accidentally destroyed the Flojiggers; it was doubtful that he had done it intentionally, as they were on the same side as the Umbral Demons. Now was the time to attack before he could prepare—

The man suddenly looked up as if he could sense the stare of Gharix and his nest-group. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Pyluxa’s tail was switching back and forth, a sure sign that she was angry, and it was likely this that had caught the shadow-touched man’s attention. He didn’t have to say anything to the others as they moved to attack, as they were smart enough to know that they couldn’t let this individual live any longer and potentially threaten Draverdin.

Using his superior Agility of 50, Gharix shot ahead of the others as he loosely gripped the handles of his steel daggers, preparing to use them to stab the man before he could react to their presence. He had no idea of the shadow-touched capabilities, but it wouldn’t matter if he could get to him before a defense could be prepared; his quickness had served them quite handily in battle against the other shadow-touched Drekkin they had fought over the last month or so, as well as the monsters that had been altered by the blasted Demons.

When he was approximately 50 feet away from the floating contraption, Gharix activated his Power Jump Battle Art, which funneled his Stama down to his tail. Using its flexibility and extra strength that the Battle Art provided him, his tail slammed down on the floor of the tunnel and acted as a sort of spring. Launching himself at a run, he held out his daggers that were aimed for the heart and neck of the shadow-touched threat, a dual stab that would effectively cut the man’s throat and pierce his heart simultaneously.

Even if he didn’t succeed immediately, he knew that the others in his nest-group were prepared to finish the job if he failed. Pyluxa was likely already casting the Fireblast spell she was so proficient at, while Hakkin would be readying a quick cast of the Ice Storm spell he had just recently discovered how to create. Abarcen and the other pair of Martials in the group were more close-quarters fighters than Gharix and had been instrumental in their success as a front line, utilizing their high Body and Strength stats to prevent the more vulnerable Mages from being overrun during their battles against shadow-touched monsters. Even so, they had enough strength to jump up to the floating contraption, which he thought he heard them doing when he was only a dozen feet from his target—

—which suddenly dropped from the height it had been at, plummeting to the floor of the tunnel. Gharix sailed right over it with shock paralyzing his body momentarily; he had no way to arrest his movement while mid-air, so all he could do was look back and see his other Martial nestmates also traveling through the air as their intended target delicately landed on the floor below.

“No!” he shouted, uncaring that he was being loud at that point, because now Pyluxa and Hakkin were completely undefended and separated from the rest. His intent to kill the shadow-touched man by throwing everything they had at him had completely back-fired, and now they might even lose some of their own because of his stupidity.

Or maybe not.

Even as he was touching down from his jump and had to roll to avoid being even slightly injured by his landing, he saw the two Mages launch their spells at the shadow-touched threat, and their aim was better than Gharix and the other Martials in the nest-group had been.  The Drekkin nest-group leader watched as the man dove out of the front of his once-floating contraption, though it wasn’t to avoid the magical attacks coming his way; instead, he seemed to be protecting it as he stood in front of it seemingly unconcerned.

Even as he was hit by the fiery projectile that exploded in a large blast of flames as soon as it made contact, and then by a barrage of icicles that were a foot long and 3 inches wide, Charix was surprised to see the metal and wooden contraption suddenly disappear. Where did it go?

He dismissed the question as unimportant a moment later as he ran back to join the fight, pushing every point of his Agility into arriving to finish off the likely heavily injured shadow-touched man. Seeing the conflagration from the explosive Fireblast and the sound of icicles from the Ice Storm impacting something, he missed a step and nearly face-planted when he saw that the man was almost entirely unscathed from the attacks. Somehow, there was a floating shield suspended out in front of him which blocked the attacks, though a bit of the powerful attacks spilled over the edges to nip at the clothing of the shadow-touched – and didn’t seem to do much to them. They certainly weren’t burning or impaled by icicles, as he had expected.

No matter; he’s distracted enough that I can finish him off from behind.

Gharix raced toward his back, aiming to pass through where the metal and wood contraption had been. Before he was halfway there, he suddenly slammed into something invisible at full speed, and he felt his right leg, left arm, and the front of his face *crack* from the impact, as if he had suddenly hit the wall of the tunnel. He was barely cognizant of his body rebounding and collapsing into a heap as his vision swam from the pain. Attempting to get up, the nest-group leader was barely able to get to a knee before he became too dizzy to see straight, toppling over to lay on his side.

Already, he could feel his Body Regeneration at work trying to heal his injuries, but he’d never been this hurt before and wasn’t sure how long it would take. He could only imagine that it would take hours or days to completely repair the damage that he had essentially done to himself – if he even lived that long.

He heard Abarcen and the others race past him, avoiding the area where Gharix had slammed into the invisible barrier, and his vision cleared just enough when he stopped trying to move to see them arrive and begin to surround the man with their spear, sword, and battleaxe ready to attack. The two Mages launched another pair of spells at him, and yet the man didn’t move as the floating shield blocked the magical projectiles as if they were nothing more than simple rocks hurled in his direction.

“Stop! Why are you attacking me? I come in peace, I swear—”

The words he heard from the man were in the common tongue used by the people living in the Kingdom of Androthe and the Sealance Empire, which only confirmed that this person was originally from either one of those locations. Gharix understood and spoke it fluently, just like most of the other Drekkin living underneath the desert, as they interacted with the traders constantly traveling through their tunnels – or at least they used to, before access was cut off. Which, now that he had a moment to think about it since he couldn’t really move much, he wondered how this man found his way inside. Is there a breach somewhere? If so, then the Umbral Demons and their shadow-touched monsters could be getting ready to head out. If that’s the case, then that could also mean that they are preparing to make a final push to eliminate the last of my people. I have to warn everyone in Draverdin!

Unfortunately, he wasn’t going anywhere until his Body Regeneration fixed him up enough that he didn’t collapse every time he tried to get up. He had a feeling that he might be well enough not to pass out in a few minutes, but those few minutes were a lifetime when in the middle of a fight like this against a powerful opponent. And it was obvious that this opponent was extremely powerful, given how easily he had defended himself against their attacks. He even watched the floating shield suddenly whip around the man when Abarcen attacked with his spear, thinking to gut him while he was distracted by blocking spells, but the Piercing Strike-enhanced blow simply deflected off the shield with no visible damage to it. It then rotated toward his back where an axe wielded by Medrizz attempted to split him from sternum to crotch, with the Martial’s arms glowed with Stama to reflect the enhanced strength in them. The axe head bounced off the shield and nearly smacked his nest-brother in the face, but he managed to prevent splitting his own head in twain.

Any other attacks sent his way did absolutely nothing, as they were quickly blocked by the floating shield as if it had a mind of its own. Meanwhile the man just stood there calmly and watched them all, calculating and observing. Likely trying to figure out the best way to kill us all.

Seeing that he was obviously toying with them, Gharix couldn’t help but think it was only a matter of time before they were all killed. I should’ve called for a retreat as soon as I slammed into this invisible barrier, and now they are all going to die because of my arrogance in thinking we could take down such a dangerous threat all by ourselves.

If I call it now, will the others be able to escape? I sure hope so.

He was about to call out for the others to retreat and leave him to distract the shadow-touched man, but he was interrupted by their target speaking again in a measured, controlled voice.