The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Larek didn’t stop fully running until just before dark hours later. He took minor breaks to walk and eat some food to replenish his energy, but that was the extent of any slowdown in his travels. He hesitated to call it “flight”, as if he was fleeing from being held accountable for some crime, but it sure felt a little like that when he even came upon a small village and decided to run around it rather than going through it. He didn’t want to be seen or remembered by its residents in case the Protector did indeed come through looking for him. When he had thoughts about abandoning the road completely and cutting across the countryside so as to avoid any chance of being noticed, he knew that guilt at what he had done had climbed up inside of him to affect his way of thinking.

It wasn’t guilt about killing those men, however. It was guild about how he had treated the Protectors and ran rather than waste his time explaining or proving that he was in the right. He was also well aware that it was stupid and irrational to feel guilty over something where he was in no way in the wrong, other than perhaps being rude to the Protectors, but he felt it anyway. It wasn’t strong enough to convince him to turn around and seek out the Protector leader in order to explain the situation a little better, thankfully.

He had a Kingdom to get back to, after all, and the sooner, the better.

Navigating his way off the road to a spot that was far away from any Apertures he sensed in the distance, he made a cold camp in the middle of a jumble of rocks situated in a large field of grass. The light of the moon above was enough light to see by, at least, and he pulled out his map to check on his progress. Tracing his route and remembering what he’d been seeing throughout the day, he knew that he was swiftly approaching a small mountain range; it was more of a long line of high hills than mountains, but compared to the majority of the relatively flat terrain he had been passing through, it was certainly mountainous in proportion.

He'd left behind the large forests that had comprised the last half of his journey and was presented with the large plains of grass that filled the land until they butted up against the range of hills in the distance. This also meant that the presence of towns and cities was going to increase over what he’d encountered thus far, which had been beneficial when he had first been planning out his route back to the Kingdom, but now held an element of danger to it as he was not quite on the good side of the Protectors of the Empire right now. He had no way to know if they could quickly share information between towns and cities, but he had at least greatly outpaced a normal horse by the point he stopped for the night, so the danger of him being sought after by other towns and cities from that quarter was reduced. Still, stopping in any inhabited areas was something he’d have to do sparingly in order to somewhat mitigate the risk of being identified.

It was extremely disappointing, but he’d make do somehow. At the least, he could probably get in and out quickly after purchasing any supplies he needed, while staying at another Inn was likely out of the question as it would be too dangerous.

Rather than risk making any other Fusions that night, Larek attempted to get some sleep but had a hard time falling asleep. His paranoia of being found in the middle of the night by the Protector leader – while extremely unlikely because of the distance the Combat Fusionist had traveled – kept him awake until the early hours of the morning when his exhausted body finally succumbed to sleep. He woke shortly after dawn as the light battered his closed eyelids, and while he was tired from not nearly enough sleep, his body and mind quickly rejuvenated itself once he ate something and packed up to leave.

An abrupt decision based on his thoughts of the evening before made him turn away from the route that led back to the road. Instead, he simply headed east and started running. The absence of the road would play havoc on the sense of where he was in the Empire, but given that he still had a long way to go, he figured that if he continued to ensure that he was always heading east, he would eventually get to his destination. Plus, with how wide open the current landscape was, he was fairly confident that if it was necessary that he find a town or city to visit, he’d be able to see it from a long way off.

The first thing he noticed being away from the road was that the prevalence of Apertures was much higher the further away from signs of civilization he was. It took only 30 minutes of running before he came across his first one, and although he had decided to skip all of the ones he had sensed the day before, his lead on any pursuit was great enough by that point that he didn’t want to pass by any more chances to gain Aetheric Force – and another opportunity to test out his Fusions. He would have to be selective of what he used of the latter, given what had happened the day before during the ambush, but it would still be worth any time he spent testing them.

When he found the area where his senses were telling him the Aperture was located, it didn’t take long to identify it at the bottom of a slight incline in the landscape. The grasses that had covered the land where the Aperture’s territory was now situation had all been burnt away, replaced with an ashy landscape dotted with 20-foot-tall protrusions of what appeared to be hole-filled volcanic rock. Streams of lava seemed to bubble up from underground, twisting and turning in their pathway before ending up in a pool at least 20 feet across. There was nothing living, just a barren hellscape – which made it appropriate that there demons present as the monsters.

From a distance, Larek could spot small winged Demonic Imps flapping in and out of the holes of the various humps of volcanic rock, as if they were constantly patrolling their homes. These Imps were approximately 3 feet in height with spindly arms and legs, a pair of leathery wings, a hairless, deep-red-colored skin covering their bodies, eyes that lit up as if with an inner fire, and were holding what appeared to be some sort of three-pronged pitchfork made of some black-colored material.  According to his class on Monster Knowledgeat Copperleaf, these types of demons were simple and not very difficult to kill, as they had very little in the way of defense and a few Mages or Martial archers could hit them out of the air and most likely kill them with one spell or arrow. Their danger only lied in the fact that they spent almost all of their time in the air and attacked their victims from above; otherwise, they were fairly weak.

Or so he had learned. Then again, that knowledge was based on defending the wall of a town or city, not for individuals or groups to go out and kill the Imps that spawned from Aperture. Despite that lack of full knowledge of what they were capable of when a solo individual went up against them, Larek wasn’t going to let that stop him – just like it hadn’t stopped him from killing the monsters near all the other Apertures he’d closed on his journey thus far.

With a ground-eating lope that brought him to the edge of the barren hellscape, the Combat Fusionist stopped just outside of its limits as he eyed the demons flying at least 10 feet above his height at the nearest holey pillar of volcanic rock. Up close, they did indeed appear relatively weak, so without any other hesitation he stepped over the threshold over into the Aperture’s territory.

The 5 Imps immediately targeted him because he wasn’t attempting to be stealthy, flapping their wings to bring them close to his location. Ensuring his Repelling Barrier was active, Larek waited for them to attack… and waited… and waited. Even though there was only 50 feet or so separating him from the flock? Gaggle? Clutch? Swarm? He wasn’t sure what a group of demons was called, though he was sure there was a term for it. Regardless, the group of Imps could certainly fly, but they were abnormally slow. It took a good 20 seconds for them to travel the distance and descend to just over his head, where they attempted to stab at him with their black pitchforks, their mouths open with sharp, bloody teeth showing and a disturbing hiss coming from their throats.

Rather than let his Repelling Barrier block the hits, Larek brought his axe up to deflect the pitiful attacks, knocking two of them out of the hands of the Imps, before stretching his arms up to start cutting them in two. That was what he tried to do, but the ones he swiped at suddenly disappeared in a flash of dark flames and reappeared a few feet to the left. It reminded him of the teleporting Warped Void Hunters Chinli had fought back in the Kingdom, though he could tell that this was less manipulating the void to move a certain distance away and more of some sort of innate ability that had to do with the hellfire that flashed in the location he struck. It was also instantaneous, as if he was simply dispelling an illusion which caused the real one to appear.

So, these are a little more difficult than was taught. I wonder if it’s because these things are usually killed from a distance and this hellfire teleportation was never used.

Whatever the reason, the Imps were attacking again as soon as they reappeared, including the ones without a pitchfork which had been knocked away by Larek’s axe. One of the unarmed Imps managed to sneak past his axe’s defense, moving much faster than it had been a moment before, as if the pitchfork had actually been slowing down. Unfortunately for the demonic monster, its outstretched claws aiming for his neck were shattered – along with the rest of its body – as it was violently sent crashing into the ground because of his Repelling Barrier, killing it near-instantly. The others were repelled by his counterattacks and backed off a foot or two, or in the case of the other unarmed Imp, it disappeared again in a flash of hellfire, appearing again a few feet to the left.

It only took Larek’s mind a second to realize that each of the Imps moved exactly the same distance to the left no matter where they were or what kind of attack was used against them. As such, a simple strategy was borne as he surprised the Imps by squatting down slightly before jumping straight toward one of them. He swung his axe crossways at it while moving slightly to allow the pitchfork to strike past his side; as predicted, it flashed away again in a burst of hellfire, but Larek carried through with his attack, the axe head swinging toward his left.

Which was right in the past of the sharp-edged tool. A split-second after it reappeared, his axe sheared through its real body, easily cutting off half of its wings, severing its spine, and destroying the other half of its wings in the process.

Now that he was familiar with how to kill these things, he was suddenly hopping to and fro as he swiped large arcs of his axe through the air, absolutely devastating the Imps that were surrounding him in the air. Fortunately, they weren’t intelligent enough to have a counter to his simple strategy, and therefore were unable to adapt to his technique, ending all of their lives within seconds.

Overall, they were relatively easy to kill once he understood how they attacked. Looking around the Aperture’s territory, though, he realized that there were hundreds of Imps around dozens of the tall volcanic rock pillars. In fact, in his eagerness to start accumulating more Aetheric Force, he had missed that the barren hellscape was at least 50% larger and had more monsters than any of the other ones he’d closed. The only reason for that being the case was if this was one of the first Apertures to open in the Empire and no one had encountered and closed it yet.

Unless he wanted to spend the next hour or two moving all over the territory to kill them all, he’d have to attack the Aperture and have them all come to him. With so many of them, more than any he’d killed by himself, he wasn’t sure he could survive if they all attacked at once.

Fortunately, he had one final Fusion to test out, and this was the perfect opportunity. He hadn’t used it on the first group since he didn’t want to deplete the ambient Mana quite yet, but had no qualms about using it as soon as he was in position near the Aperture.

He had to kill another two groups, one consisting of 5 and the other consisting of 6 Imps, as he sprinted toward the center of the territory. There were 3 other groups following him at that point, but as they were slow, he had plenty of time to prepare himself.

Pulling out his Stone Shredder Dome +6 that was on a small length of wood, he placed it in his shirt’s front pocket so that its tip was pointing up. Taking a deep breath to settle himself, he reached out with his axe to tap its edge against the Aperture, he immediately heard the sound of hissing coming from all over the territory; the rest of the Imps were on their way.

He wasn’t sure if the apparent speed increase he noticed was a benefit or not; on the one hand, he didn’t have to wait as long for them to arrive; on the other hand, if they were faster, they would be able to attack that much quicker.

When the closest ones of the swarming Imps were only about 15 feet away from him, while still being at least 10 feet above his head, Larek activated his new Fusion. As Stone Shredder Dome +6 was activated, the first thing that the Combat Fusionist noticed was the outrageous noise that the new Fusion created above his head. The sound of rapidly rushing air was certainly not silent; while contained in a dome-like shape, it was like a tornado’s swirling winds were caught within the maelstrom of sharp stones. Even the sound of the stones that had been created with the activation of the Fusion made noise, a high-pitched whistling sound that was difficult to listen to for long periods of time.

While annoying and a little overwhelming to him, the noise was apparently infuriating to the Imps. One listen to the horrific sound was enough for them to start flapping their wings in a frenzy, with the closest ones dive-bombing the dome as soon as they were close enough. The change in their attack pattern was slightly worrying at first, but was soon proved to be a boon as they charged straight into the Effects of the Fusion…

…and were violently ripped apart.

Limbs and mangled pitchforks were sent flying off in all directions as the sharp stones and the strong, fast-moving bursts of air tore them apart and tossed them about. The impact with the stones inside the dome caused some of the sharp stones inside to be dislodged from their path; the cacophony increased as stones smashed against stones, pulverizing them into much smaller pieces, and before long it was a nearly deafening grinding and cracking of stones in the air above him as any semblance of order was lost.

Hmm… I guess I didn’t think about that.

The effectiveness of the offensively slanted defensive done was only minorly affected, however. Even as more and more of the Imps literally dove down in an attempt to attack or even pass through the deadly Fusion, the smaller – and yet still sharp – stones were more likely to pulverize their bodies rather than rip off limbs, but that didn’t mean that they were any less effective. Instead of body parts being flung everywhere, it was soon raining broken Imp bodies all over the place as they were smashed to mush by what was essentially high-speed sharpened gravel.

Larek lost count after nearly 200 of the Imps essentially killed themselves on the dome above his head, but he could see that were at least another 100 of them left to go. He’d also been monitoring the ambient Mana density and saw that it had been dropping rapidly, which was a little worrisome. Granted, the Fusion had been going for nearly 10 minutes by that point, because while the influx of Imps was fairly steady, giving him no time to turn it off to conserve the available Mana, it still took some time for the furthest to reach him from the edge of the territory even at their increased speed.

Just when he thought it was getting to the point where the ambient Mana density would start to become a problem for the other Fusions on his clothes, axe, and staff, Larek deactivated the dome in between groups. He immediately raised his staff and shot a sharp Flying Stone projectile at the nearest Imp, which impaled it with such force that it was essentially ripped in half.  Flipping it around, he attempted to do the same to another Imp with a Flaming Ball, but the projectile essentially broke apart without doing any damage to the flying demon.

Ah. Immune to fire; I guess that makes sense.

Regardless, he flipped the staff back over and shot another stone projectile, killing another Imp in the process, before getting another one off a second later. His newly enhanced Fusions were a lot stronger than the ones he used before he arrived in the Empire, and instead of having to wait 5 seconds, he estimated that he only had to wait a second or 2 between activations to ensure it didn’t start to deteriorate.

By that point, the Imps were too close to hit from long-range, as evidenced by one last shot that caused the Imp to activate its hellfire teleport ability. It seemed that if they were within about 10 to 12 feet of his person, they had access to the ability; further away, it didn’t seem to work for some reason.

Dropping his staff on the ground, Larek gripped his axe with both hands and got to work. The next 5 minutes was a bit hectic as he jumped around, slicing through hellfire and the actual incoming demons as they descended to attack him, but at no point was he in any real danger. There weren’t enough of them by that point to surround him and attack from multiple directions at once, and the strikes that did get through were met with his Repelling Barrier. Despite that, Larek was happy when it was finally done, as he had learned something from the fight despite the lack of danger.

The combination of his own Martial prowess with the usage of Fusions was more powerful than he had hoped. While it wasn’t a perfect system, mainly because he had to watch the ambient Mana consumption, it was nonetheless a viable fusion of strategies going forward. In the future, he knew that he would have to continue to improve his physical combat skills, but he was well on the way there already. Without anyone to teach him what he should be concentrating on, it would be likely be slow to advance his skills in that regard, but until he got there, his Fusions would protect him and hopefully even eliminate all of the danger that came with being attacked by a horde of monsters.

As his body absorbed over 300 Aetheric Force, joining the 16 he had accumulated earlier as he made his way toward the center of the Aperture’s territory, he smacked the floating sphere a few times to close it. At the same time, his peripheral vision caught a change coming over the outer limits of the territory as it began to shrink, stopping until it returned to what Larek supposed was its original size.

Regaining his staff from the ground where he had dropped it, the ecstatic Combat Fusionist left the barren hellscape – which was now also empty of any monsters – and took off at a run, looking for the next Aperture to close on his journey back home.