The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Now that he was actively searching for existing Apertures to close, Larek began to concentrate on the feelings they gave off from a distance. They were quite different in intensity compared to Scissions and newly forming Apertures, as they were more of the annoying buzzing of a fly in your periphery rather than the sense of a gigantic threat bearing down on you. He had been ignoring the few that he sensed nearby up to that point, because they weren’t exactly his priority, but now that his plans had slightly changed, he paid attention to them.

The first one after the Tree Weasels he faintly sensed was far off the road to the south; he judged it to be approximately 2 miles in that direction, which was a bit of a detour if he was being honest with himself. He decided to skip it for now as he wanted to see if there was anything closer to his path, because he didn’t want to spend hours going out of his way to reach these kinds of distant Apertures unless he had no other choice.

Thankfully, a few hours and many miles of running after he left the copse with the Weasels, he finally sensed one that was only a half-mile or so off the road to the north. Looking in that direction as he got closer, the territory that had been claimed by the Aperture was fairly obvious because the gradually drying plains leading up to the larger forest in the distance was covered in snow. Remembering back in the Kingdom and the Snow Spiders he and his companions had encountered after leaving Copperleaf Academy, he thought that they might be a slight problem if they managed to surround him, but he thought that he could probably take them out without too much trouble, regardless.

It wasn’t Snow Spiders that inhabited the territory around the Aperture, however, but Arctic Yetilings. Unlike some of the much larger Yeti monsters that he had learned about, which were 10-foot-tall bipedal monstrosities that had the strength in their blue-skinned fists to smash a Mage flat and had an easy time hiding in snowy environments due to their shaggy white hair covering the rest of their bodies, the Arctic Yetilings were much smaller. At only 3 feet tall, they were easily able to lie down in the foot of snow that covered the area around the Aperture, camouflaging them from Larek’s sight entirely well enough that his first sight of one of them was when he accidentally stepped on one and it immediately attempted to bite his leg off at the knee.

Unfortunately for the little white-haired monster, whose strength was much less than the grown-up version, its bite had absolutely no chance of getting through his robe. Having already taken his axe out when he entered the snow-laden territory, Larek immediately swung down and cut off its head, the Yetilings blue blood splashing brightly against the backdrop of pristine white snow. Disturbed at how completely it had been hidden from view, Larek realized that this was exactly what the plan he had concocted was for, as he immediately strode toward the floating sphere easily seen in middle of the snowy plain.

He was ambushed twice before he arrived at the Aperture, which were easily fended off with a few simple swipes at the ambushing monsters, where he immediately smacked it with his bladed tool. Immediately, the snow throughout the territory – which stretched to encompass a circular area that was at least 300 feet in diameter – burst upwards in dozens of spots, sending particles of snow flying in a cloud that obscured his view a little bit. Soon enough, the sight of at least a hundred of the little Yetilings barreling through the snow as if it wasn’t even there met his eyes, and it was all he could do to prevent being overwhelmed within the first few seconds.

They might’ve been small, but they moved through the snow like a fish through water. As a result, when the initial wave hit him from all sides, he was forced to fight off nearly 20 of them in short order, and his swings were a blur of frantic chopping and slashing as he attempted to keep them away from him.

Things got worse when he discovered that the hairy monsters weren’t just mindless beasts bent on his destruction, as one of them picked up a fellow Yetiling and tossed it toward Larek from approximately 10 feet away. The Yetiling flew through the air on a collision course with his face, and Larek narrowly managed to get his axe handle up to block it before impact. The white-haired monster attached itself to the shaft of his tool and held on, dragging it down before ripping it out of his hand with a strength he hadn’t seen in them before that.

Thankfully, it had no chance to utilize the axe against him as it fell to the snow below right on top of the extremely sharp blade, which cut through most of its body and severed its spine in the process. Unfortunately, it was now covering his major means of defense against the onslaught of Yetilings, and he didn’t have the time or opportunity to bend down and pick it back up. As a result, the former Logger was forced to turn to his fists and feet as he punched yet another Yetiling flying through the air at him after being tossed by its comrade; he felt the bones in his hand creak a little as the skeleton of the monster was harder than he expected, as if it was made from ice rather than bone. Nevertheless, his awkward punch was more than enough to cave in a good portion of the Yetiling’s chest, which incapacitated if not killed it outright.

Kicks, slaps, and punches were all he could manage to muster against the rest of the monsters as they attempted to pile onto him to drag him down to their level, but he refused to let them win. Showing absolutely no skill whatsoever, he eventually used his elbows, knees, and even his forehead to smash into the scrambling, biting bodies around him, suffering cuts and bruises over his hands and face as he faced down the onslaught. At one point, he was fairly certain he broke his left wrist when he attempted to punch one of the Yetilings in the face, only to hit it at what he quickly learned was the wrong angle. Thankfully, a quick usage of his Healing Surge Fusion was enough to help set it back in place and heal it up as he used his other limbs to inflict damage.

As much as it might have helped, at no point did Larek feel like any of his Battle Arts were going to activate – which was a worry that he had put a little thought into. Engaging one of the Martial abilities had the risk of pushing him too hard which could be detrimental if he were to pass out; at the same time, he couldn’t feel a single thing in his body that indicated that hinted at how he might be able to utilize his Stama. He had a theory that it was only able to be controlled while he was in combat, but that theory didn’t seem easy to prove one way or another.

As quickly as it started, the fight was over, leaving the Fusionist with bloody knuckles and an ankle that felt strained after an awkward kick earlier, but another use of his healing Fusion was enough to patch up any of his injuries. Before he indulged in a small feast to replenish his body’s natural energies from the healing and exertion, he kicked the corpse of the Yetiling that had ripped his best friend from his hands and picked up the axe from the snow. Looking it over, it didn’t look any worse for wear, so he quickly moved to the Aperture and closed it with a few simple swings. At the same time, he felt the accumulated Corrupted Aetheric Force enter his body and start the conversion process into Aetheric Force for him to use.

In total, Larek received 112 AF from the slaughter of the Yetilings, which tracked with his assumption that they were worth 1 AF apiece. It wasn’t a large amount, but it pushed his previous total of 229 AF to 341 AF; it wasn’t enough to increase the maximum Skill Level of Pattern Formation to 39 yet, but it was close. Conversely, he could also put it toward something that required fewer AF to upgrade, but he held off on spending it for now.

Another surprise met him when he checked his notifications and found one that he had ignored while in the heat of battle.

Unarmed Fighting has been unlocked!

Unarmed Fighting has reached Level 1!

Unarmed Fighting has reached Level 2!

The unexpected Skill appeared under his Martial Skills in his Status, which was a welcome surprise. He had thought that only weapon expertise Skill would be part of the Martial category, but he was proven wrong; then again, he didn’t really have a good understanding of what kinds of Skills Martials had access to, and he wished he had asked the Martial trainees he had traveled after leaving Copperleaf more questions than he did. At the time, he had been focused on Stama and his lack of control, and such things like other Skills that might be available hadn’t occurred to him.

With the Aperture now closed, Larek quickly exited the area and picked up his staff from where he had left it before entering the territory, before grabbing more food from his pack. Snacking on some dried meat and a few biscuits as he walked back to the road, he gradually realized that he would have to leave his packs out of the territory around the Apertures he worked to close, as half of the biscuits he pulled out had been crushed during the melee. The next fight might end up doing damage to the actual material and he was hesitant to add any Fusions on them in case he had to store a Fusion or two inside.

He was also going to need to stop for more food supplies more frequently if he continued to require as much healing as he was seeming to need during these fights to close the Apertures. Thankfully, he had the money for it, but then there was the issue of being overwhelmed like he had today when he lost his grip on his axe. As interesting as it was to unlock a Skill for Unarmed Fighting, he had no desire to use his body to inflict damage on monsters unless he was forced to do that.

It was at that point in his contemplation about it that he realized he had gone through both the fight with the Tree Weasels and the Arctic Yetilings without activating his Repelling Barrier. He smacked himself in the forehead while he berated himself for such a stupid mistake, kicking a rock on the road in frustration. The only excuse he could think of was that he had taken to keeping it off while with the Protectors as he didn’t want more questions about it than he could easily answer, and he didn’t want to risk someone envious of its protection attempting to steal his robe from him.

But now that he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing him, he should’ve been using it any time he went into a fight. That he hadn’t realized it until then said something about his state of mind, as the only two things he could think about were getting back to the Kingdom to see how his friends and family were faring and to develop his Skills along the way. Rather than being more cautious now that he was alone and traveling through what was essentially a dangerous foreign land, his combat preparedness had taken an unfortunate dive. Whether it was the newfound feeling of freedom he felt from all the expectations that were weighing him down back home or his self-assured confidence that he had nothing to fear from any of the weak monsters he encountered, he needed to change his mindset – and change it fast. Otherwise, he would make a mistake and end up dying in the middle of what was essentially nowhere for no reason other than his own incompetence.

He had the tools to succeed, after all, but he needed to use them in order to survive.

Thinking about the Fusions that had protected him so well back in the Kingdom, he realized that he needed to quickly replace some of them before he took any more risks. With that in mind and with the daylight slowly dying in the sky, Larek sped up his running and began to ignore the few instances of Apertures he could sense along the way. His goal was the forest ahead, where he hoped to find shelter of some kind so that he could get some Fusion work done where he wasn’t sitting in the middle of a field or on the open road. Ideally, the next town would work even better, as he could rent a room in an inn like they had back in Whittleton, but according to the map Larek had copied from Protector Ashlynn, he’d have to travel at least a few hours after night fell in order to reach it.  Instead, he was going to have to find something else to shelter himself before it got dark, because journeying through a dark forest at night when there might be monsters about wasn’t exactly the smartest idea.

He had to start doing the smart thing eventually if he didn’t want to end up dead. He’d gotten lucky to have survived as long as he had, but eventually his luck would run out if he didn’t take an active role in making the correct decisions.  Being on his own was harder than he thought it would be, but he couldn’t help but think it was actually the best thing that could’ve happened to him.

Naturally, Larek didn’t appreciate being deposited halfway across the continent while potentially missing a few years of time, but this was also an opportunity to prove to himself that he was more than just someone that could make Fusions. When he first discovered the ability, it was all he wanted to do and the obsession to create more and more had consumed him. After learning how to focus and apply that obsession toward the greater good, which had felt rewarding if a bit hollow at the same time, he had begun to wonder if there was more that he could be doing with his life. He still had no desire to confront the Gergasi or figure out a way to close the breach permanently like the Dean wanted him to do, as that seemed impossible and so far above his abilities that it was more of a nightmarish obstacle rather than a future goal, but he also felt a drive to help people.

Or, at least, help people that he knew and cared about.

In order to do that, he had already planned to increase his abilities with Fusions, but he had already learned that creating Fusions wasn’t enough. He had to learn how to use them properly in a fight against monsters, which meant that he needed to learn how to fight.

And what better classroom was there to learn how to fight than confronting the weaker monsters infesting the Sealance Empire? Well, Fort Ironwall was likely better in many ways, in addition to teaching him about Battle Arts and manipulating Stama, but it was half a world away at this point. Just like using whatever material was on hand to make Fusions, Larek was going to use this current environment to hone what few skills he had in fighting to ensure he wasn’t just a one-trick mule when he got back to the Kingdom and went looking for his parents and friends.

If he couldn’t attend an Academy or a Fort to train himself at the moment, he would use the rest of the world to instruct him. It would take a lot of trial-and-error, patience, and dedication to studying what he was doing right and wrong when it came to fighting monsters. Thankfully, he had more than enough practice staying hyper-focused on any task he dedicated himself to, whether it was Fusions or something else.

He just had to hope he didn’t make any more mistakes and die before he learned his lessons.