The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 11

Chapter 11

After finishing his meal, Larek moved the small table and chairs next to the locked wooden door for extra insurance against someone getting inside. Despite the assurances that Alwhin wouldn’t do something to Larek in the Inn, he had learned to be cautious on his solo journey over the last week. The window looking out into the town of Lakebellow was shut and was small enough that any adult would have trouble fitting through it, and with it being on the second floor of the Inn, he wasn’t too worried about anyone getting in that way.

Only then could Larek fully relax as he took off his packs and pulled a few things out that he placed on his bed. They were just simple rocks and a few pieces of wood he had carved out of a tree that morning in anticipation of his creations that night, and they would work as a medium for his Fusions well enough. Theoretically, he had arrived in town early enough that he could’ve bought something more refined to use, but he was too exhausted from his exertions to stop on the way to the Inn. Thankfully, the town was laid out similarly to Enderflow and possessed almost an identical mix of shops, so it was easy enough to find his destination.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed as he got comfortable, Larek closed his eyes for a moment as he settled himself, pushing away all of the memories of killing monsters and dealing with greedy people who wanted to steal his things or use him for their own ends; instead, he focused on what was unabashedly his passion, the obsession that he thought about every day.

It’s time to make some more Fusions.

In order to push his Fusion and Pattern Formation Skills up to 40 as according to Shinpai he needed either one or the other or both to be able to make Advanced Fusions, he felt as if he needed to do something new; something that would take all that he’d done so far and push the envelope of what he could achieve with Intermediate Fusions. While he had a lot of ideas of things to create when he could finally utilize Advanced Fusions, the limitations of his current bottleneck made it difficult to envision what might push him that last little bit. Fortunately for him, he’d already been considering it while he fought the monsters and closed the Apertures on his way to Lakebellow.

Conveniently, the two main types of Fusions he was considering would help him on his journey as he continued to encounter monsters and acquire Aetheric Force from them – because he wasn’t going to stop even when he achieved Level 40 in his most important Skills. As for those Fusions, Larek had decided on his solo journey that not only did he need to start learning how to fight a little better so that he wasn’t so awkward in a battle against monsters, but to integrate his specialties into his fighting style. It was one thing to learn how to move better and have his maneuvers flow better in the heat of battle, but if he didn’t utilize his other knowledge then he wouldn’t be fully utilizing everything he could to keep him alive – such as when he had forgotten to turn his Repelling Barrier on earlier on in his journey.

In other words, he was going to lean into what he was good at and use Fusions to absolutely devastate the weaker monsters he’d been encountering thus far. He already did this in part with his staff and the offensive Fusions that they utilized, but there was so much more that he knew that he could do with them that he’d shied away from thinking about until now. Memories of the deaths of Ricardo and his two Martial trainees had weighed on his conscience since the incident and had been aversely affecting his thoughts in that direction. It wasn’t their deaths that had weighed on his conscience, however, because he already knew that they deserved it; it was the fact that he had created something specifically to harm other people which had influenced his thinking.

In general, he was a fairly easy-going person, or at least he liked to think so, and that also applied to his thoughts about other people; he didn’t want to hurt anyone, and while he’d had thoughts about not helping some of the common people in the Kingdom because of how they treated him, he hadn’t seriously thought about hurting them himself. His experiences in the world had gradually shifted his attitude toward other people as he started to see what people would do when they thought they had a chance to get away with it – or if they thought what they were doing was right. As Larek’s viewpoint changed, so did his reluctance in developing Fusions that were designed to inflict as much damage as possible. While he had originally been all about healing and defensive Fusions, only adapting certain spell effects toward inflicting harm when it came to eliminating Ricardo and his cronies, the Fusionist was now learning toward more offensive Fusions – and he had the perfect ideas for his current situation.

The first Fusion he had in mind was a variation of the Paralytic Light Fusion. While he could certainly use the Paralytic Light Fusion that had been so effective against the SIC near Whittleton to help protect him from the hordes of monsters that swarmed him after damaging an Aperture, simply paralyzing them so that he could pick them off one by one wasn’t as effective or as damaging as it could be. The first reason it wouldn’t be entirely effective was that non-biological monsters – of which there were quite a few that he had encountered in his journeys – wouldn’t be paralyzed by the Effect. Examples of this included the Dirt Golems he fought back in the Kingdom and even the Wilde Mushdooms he’d fought with the Protectors from Enderflow – neither of those would be affected in the least from the Paralytic Light Fusion.

Secondly, even if the monsters he fought had biological forms and were paralyzed, he would have to fire on them from afar with his offensive Mage’s staff since it would affect him if he got too close. While this was a potential solution to staying safe from harm, it also wasn’t exactly a way to get better at fighting – which was something he needed to accomplish if he wanted to survive when he got back to the Kingdom. The monsters in the Empire might be weak and therefore a good way to train his fighting skills, but if he just sat back while they were paralyzed before killing them from afar, he wouldn’t be improving at all.

Lastly, if he was confined to long-range attacks only, if the monsters were either immune or highly resistant to the Effects he had on his staff, then they would be essentially useless. At that point, he would have to wait for the activated fields of Paralytic Light to deactivate or risk being paralyzed in addition to the monsters, and then he would have to fight the monsters with his axe like he had been doing before.

Granted, the Fusion he had created for use against the SIC in Whittleton was still something that could be effective, and he would likely create some of them once he was done with his other projects.

As for those other projects, what he wanted to do was do either inflict direct damage to the monsters using a Fusion that he didn’t have to manually target, such as the ones on his staff, or to make them weaker so that they would be more vulnerable once they reached him. Right now, he essentially just swung his axe at whatever got close to him or attempted to shoot them from afar with his staff, which typically worked well enough against the monsters he encountered here. Even with an occasional dodge or a flung axe here and there, even his limited knowledge of fighting styles told him that his fighting style was basic and unimaginative. It worked, for now; what he was worried about was when it wouldn’t be enough in the future.

Remembering the Martial trainees back at Fort Pinevalley, as well as his companions that fled Copperleaf with him, the way they moved allowed for them to attack strategically without having to suffer being hit at the same time. Even Bartholomew with his heavier armor used his shield to protect himself from being hit, and even then, the trainee didn’t typically block a blow straight-on but attempted to deflect it to the side so that he didn’t have to cope with the full force of the attack. Penelope moved fluidly through a multitude of stances that kept her moving and away from where the monsters would typically attack her, using the length and width of her large sword to keep the advantage of distance and utilize it for her protection. While Vivienne’s fighting strategy wasn’t as flashy, she’d used her Agility to amazing effect to move in, strike, and then move away before the monsters even knew she was there. The way she was able to seemingly disappear from plain sight also helped, of course, but that was an effect of a Battle Art and only tangentially part of her style.

What Larek needed to do was find what kind of fighting style worked the best for him, as his current style wasn’t cutting it. He already had a good idea of what that was going to be based on his experiences once he was solo, as he was able to identify – at least partially – his strengths and weaknesses in a battle. His main weakness was, of course, a lack of knowledge of fighting with melee weapons and movement in a fight; while he thought he could improve these with experience and time, he didn’t think he’d be able to be as an impressive fighter as the Bartholomew, Penelope, and Vivienne without some formal training at a Martial Fort – along with learning how to incorporate Battle Arts.

Which meant adapting his strengths, which was focused upon Fusions. By creating something that would balance out his lack of fighting knowledge, he could actually start to learn how to handle himself in an assault against monsters rather than flailing around with his axe and hoping his Strength and Agility would be always be enough to carry the day.

All of this led to his designs for offensive Fusions based on Paralytic Light. Instead of an area that would simply hold a monster in place, he was hoping to design a Fusion that would actually harm them in some way. The thought of creating some sort of burning square of flames was tempting, but given how likely that would start a fire in the surrounding area if he used it, it wasn’t something he thought would be safe. So, instead of fire, he focused on three different Effects that he thought might work much better – and would be worlds safer.

The first was based on a combination of the Binding Roots and Wall of Thorns spells that he’d learned from Nedira. The first spell simply brought roots up out of the ground to ensnare and temporarily trap a monster so that they could be safely killed; the second created a wall of roots with thorns that would minorly injure anything that ran up against it. While it was more of a defensive spell, as the injuries from the thorns were minor, it wasn’t considered very damaging effect. But since they both featured roots as a major element, Larek thought he could combine them – and use his expertise in making Fusions to increase the damage that was done by the thorn by an order of Magnitude.

The Fusion used a similar basic idea behind the Paralytic Light Fusion to achieve a similar Reactive and Activatable activation effects, though instead of physical pressure upon the ground it relied on any physical movement for the Reactive portion. When it was activated, they would be wrapped up in roots that burst from the ground, which tightened around anything within its range, and then ripped them to shreds with the thorns attached to the roots.

New Fusion Learned!

Binding Thorns +1

Activation Method: Reactive, Activatable

Effect(s): Creates binding roots that emerge from the ground to ensnare victims within range

Effect(s): Creates sharp thorns that inflict damage upon any ensnared victims

Magnitude: Covers a 1-foot by 1-foot by 1-foot cubic area

Input: Physical movement detection of over 1 mph, phrase recognition

Variable 1: If no movement is detected, deactivates after 5 minutes

Variable 2: Upon any physical movement Input detection, creates binding roots with thorns from the ground that ensnares all physical movement Input origins

Variable 3: Upon initial mental Activatable activation, activates detection of physical movement Inputs after 5 seconds

Variable 4: If the spoken phrase, “Deactivate Binding Thorns”, is detected within range, deactivates after 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 90

Pattern Cohesion: 4

Fusion Time: 30 minutes

Fusion has reached Level 39!

Starting out with the lowest Magnitude possible at +1, just to see if it would work, Larek was pleased to see that it had, indeed, been successful. It only required holding onto the Fusion on the stone he had placed it upon to know that all of the various Inputs and Variables were working exactly as they should. He was tempted to try it out in his room, but was worried that it would harm the Inn – which he figured wouldn’t go over so well with the Innkeeper.

The biggest difference in the creation of Binding Thorns and Paralytic Light was the addition of the Phrase Recognition Input to turn it off if it was needed. This was mainly so that if he was accidentally caught in his own Fusion that he would be able to extricate himself, as well as to gather up the Fusion once he was done with it if it hadn’t deactivated already.

All told, it was complicated array of connections he had to create to ensure it operated the way he wanted it to. Connecting the Reactive Activation Method to the binding thorn Effect, the physical movement Input, the phrase recognition Input, and the Variable concerning physical movement (which was similar to how his Repelling Barriers detected movement, though the threshold was anything moving over 1 mph) was easy enough, but then separating the other Variables so that they connected to the Activatable Activation Method and then connected to the Reactive Activation Method to turn it off required a unique use of a Diverter so that the one superseded the other. It was complicated, but as he’d had some time to think about it on his journey, he had most of it worked out before he even started.

In all, it was a 3-by-4 grid that contained a single Mana Cost, Magnitude, and binding thorn Effect, along with an Activatable and Reactive Activation Method, a quartet of Variables, a pair of Inputs, and the specially used Diverter that was the real power behind its success. Instead of it being used between two different Effects depending upon various Inputs and Variables, Larek had to mentally change its purpose so that it essentially acted as a “shut-off” switch that would allow it to override both Activation Methods so that it would shut down entirely. It was actually an adaptation of the Override symbol that was used in Advanced Fusions, which he’d learned but wasn’t able to utilize because of the block that was still upon him from not reaching Level 40 in some of his Skills – but he was one Level closer to that as Fusion increased to 39 after his successful creation.

Of course, a Magnitude 1 Binding Thorns wouldn’t help all that much other than as a minor distraction, given its small area of effect and weaker thorns; in this state, it wasn’t much better than the Wall of Thorns spell that he knew.  Only when he increased the Magnitude much higher would it be of use to him.

Before he did that, as he estimated that it would take at least 20 minutes with the current state of the ambient Mana in the environment and subsequently his Mana Regeneration, Larek moved on to the next Fusion now that he had successfully created the base of Binding Thorns.

Once he reached his goal of hitting Level 40 in his two Skills, then he would go back and start producing viable Fusions for the resumption of his journey home.