The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“I guess this is what the notification meant by the Corruption only gaining a ‘foothold’ over the rest of the world,” Larek muttered as he looked out over the semi-flooded plain in front of him.

The journey toward the location where the Scission had appeared didn’t take all that long once they left Enderflow, though they did have to cross a small stream on their path. Thankfully, there were a few large rocks interspersed over one section of the stream that allowed Larek to jump across the 20-foot-wide tributary of water without getting more than slightly wet, so it was no hindrance in the least. When they crested a small hill that looked over a semi-flooded plain filled with short grasses and a few scattered trees dotting the landscape here and there, they discovered the results of the Scission almost immediately. Or to be more accurate, the monsters that emerged found them and hopped their way over to the riders as soon as they were spotted.

“What are these… things?” Protector Ashlynn asked of him once they all dismounted and readied to defend themselves from attack. They were going to have to wait another minute or so, because while the monsters were only about 100 feet away, they moved rather slowly due to a lack of lower appendages.

“They’re Wilde Mushdooms.”

“Mushdooms? Like… mushrooms with a hint of wild doom to them?” The question caused a few chuckles to emerge from the assembled group of Protectors, but they quieted quickly after that as their professionalism kicked in.

Larek shrugged. “I didn’t name them; I only learned about them in the few classes I was able to take at the A—Fort. Don’t let the silly name fool you; they can be a pain if they manage to bite you, as you’ll suffer from a venom that can kill a full-grown person if enough of it is injected into the body.”

The Fusionist was overstating the danger quite a bit, however, as Wilde Mushdooms were quite weak in comparison to even most of the other monsters that appeared out of Category 1-type Scissions. He had learned about them as part of his Monster Knowledge class in conjunction with his Scissions class, and they were generally thought to be one of the easiest monsters to encounter. Granted, they historically appeared with a few other waves of plant or fungi-based monsters that were slightly more difficult and were considered just fodder at best or an annoyance at worst; in this case, as had been similar back in the Kingdom before the Aperture appeared, there didn’t seem to be any other monsters that came with them through the Scission.

There were over 1,000 of them, however, which only slightly increased their danger to Larek and the Protectors. Even outnumbered a little over 34 to 1, he didn’t think they would have much problem killing the Mushdooms; in fact, Larek thought he would probably be fine all by himself, even if he didn’t have his protective robe.

“Any other information you know about them?” Ashlynn asked tersely as she gripped her spear tighter, visibly taking his warning seriously.

“Well, as you can see, they’re very slow and can only move by bending their stalk sand hopping forward. Their caps open like a large jaw, and they use them to try and bite their victims using hardened and sharpened points inside their mouths to pierce bare skin, where they would then inject a fungal venom into the victim’s body. As far as weaknesses go, they are highly susceptible to fire and their physical bodies are extremely weak just about any type of melee attack.” Larek was proud of himself for remembering that much about them, as he hadn’t been the most dutiful student when it came to learning about monsters – unlike his roommate, Verne, who seemed to soak up all that knowledge like a sponge.

“Do they have hearts or… something like that?”

That wasn’t something he knew, unfortunately, and he admitted as much. “I’m not sure. My studies only mentioned that they are extremely weak and not something to be worried about overly much. I assume that if enough damage is done to them, they’ll die just like any other monster.”

Raising her voice as the Mushdooms continued to close the distance between them, she shouted, “Crescent staggered formation 1!” At her command, the Protectors arranged themselves in two staggered lines in a crescent or half-moon shape, with the back line slightly behind and in between the front line. The formation didn’t make any sense to Larek, even as he took his position on the right end of the formation and Ashlynn moved to the left of the lines.

It wasn’t until the 3-foot-tall mass of Mushdooms finally hopped close enough to the Protectors that he saw it in action. With their spears in position, the front line of Protectors stabbed out at their targets, piercing completely through the caps of the lead mushroom monsters, before their weapons were violently pulled out to the side, ripping apart even more of their caps in the process. From that one attack, it was plain to see that the attacks were more than enough to kill the Mushdooms, proving just how squishy and vulnerable their soft bodies were. It was also obvious that the Protectors were quite skilled in using their spears, as their strikes were precise and well-timed, with a minimal of wasted movement. Larek supposed that made sense given that their expertise in wielding the weapons was likely due to a General Skill related to their profession, just like his own Axe Handling Skill was so high.

As soon as the front line removed their weapons from the corpses of the Mushdooms they killed, they took a step backwards just as the back line stepped forward. This maneuver allowed the front line to recover from their initial strike while the back line moved forward to stab at the next Mushdoom that hopped forward, attempting to take advantage of the first line’s occupation with the dead monster. This didn’t work so well for the Mushdooms, it turned out, because they were immediately skewered by the back line which was now out front. From there, the cycle repeated itself as the front line stepped forward again, allowing the back line to recover as they stepped back, and so on from there.

He could see that it certainly worked well for them, though he had trouble figuring out where the formation came from in the first place. Since they didn’t have monsters in the Empire before this, what would they use this particular strategy for? His wandering thoughts were interrupted as the swarming Mushdooms finally got close enough to encompass the entire formation from side to side; that also meant that they were close enough to register that Larek was nearby and as if by some unspoken command they shifted toward the Fusionist as a group.

“What are they doing? Are they targeting you?” Ashlynn shouted her question even as she proceeded to kill another Mushdoom that was turning away from her to start hopping toward Larek.

“Uh, yeah, I guess they really don’t like people from the Kingdom of Androthe!” he shouted back, his reasoning the best he could come up with for the moment. He really didn’t want to explain his background, either now or later, and he thought it seemed plausible enough.

She didn’t question it any further than that as she called out different formations for the Protectors to shift to as the monsters started to ignore them in favor of attacking Larek. As for him, he was quickly inundated by masses of hopping fungi and couldn’t concentrate on anything but swinging his axe into them. His sweeping strikes sometimes hit 3 or 4 at a time, and because they were so much shorter than him, his attack cut into their caps at an angle, which chopped a large portion of their front side off of them. Most of his strikes manage to kill them in one hit, though if he wasn’t lucky enough for that, he at least cut through a portion of their cap that they were essentially defanged.

He eventually used his feet to kick, squish, or otherwise demolish the Mushdooms that got close to him and wasn’t able to slice apart with his axe.  There was no real strategy to his defense, just swinging his axe and kicking out and hoping to hit something, though he was aware enough of his surroundings to move away from the piles of mushroom pieces that began to hinder his movement, allowing him to get a better position and to keep the monsters from surrounding him.

Not that he was in much danger, considering that the few times one of the Mushdooms managed to reach him and bite at his legs, they couldn’t penetrate his robe. He barely felt the “bites” as it was, other than a slight pressure on his leg and one time on his knee, but if they somehow found a way to reach his face he might be in trouble.

A few chaotic minutes of fighting was all it took for him to finish off those that surrounded him, while the Protectors took advantage of their distraction to tear through them from behind. Their destruction was so quick that he wasn’t even winded from his exertion and was completely unhurt; even better, none of the Protectors were injured or were even close to being injured in the monster assault.

Silence fell over the slaughtered corpses of the Mushdooms as the last one fell beneath his axeblade, before there were a few cheers from the Protectors that was quickly caught up by the others. Even Protector Ashlynn appeared happy with their victory, if her guarded smile was any indication, though she was generally more reserved most of the time.

Larek didn’t rejoice, however, even as he felt the Corrupted Aetheric Force from the slain monsters enter his body. By the time it was purified, he would discover that he had received a total of 261 AF from killing the same number of Wilde Mushdooms – which was more than welcome for only a few minutes of work. But that wasn’t what made him refrain from joining in on the victory celebration.

It was just too easy.

Naturally, 1,000 of the Wilde Mushdooms would’ve been a severe issue for any nearby villages or towns that weren’t expecting their appearance, and an Aperture that was able to constantly create them if left alone would eventually become a problem to the local area, but this seemed like a weak introduction to the dangers that Scissions and their monsters could represent. He might’ve been a little jaded when he compared this attack with what he experienced in the Kingdom, but that didn’t change the fact that it felt… wrong, somehow. Or not wrong, per se; instead, it was almost like it was incomplete, like something else was supposed to happen.

“That was much easier than I expected, Larek. I thought these monsters would be much more difficult,” Protector Ashlynn said, startling him from the thoughts in his mind.

“They usually are,” he admitted. “I think that the Corruption, which flows through a large breach in the world inside the Kingdom, hasn’t had a chance to fully saturate the entire world, so you’re going to see the weakest of monsters here to begin with. I suppose that’s a good thing, though, as you’re going to need to practice your new abilities as Mages and Martials in order to fight anything stronger. You might be brave and experts in wielding those spears of yours, but what happens when your strikes can’t penetrate the flesh of a powerful monster, or you fight something that is immune to physical damage? You’re going to need to learn how to use Battle Arts and spells in order to defend yourselves effectively when the really powerful monsters appear.”

Her jovial attitude disappeared as he spoke, and she nodded slowly at his words. “This was one of the weakest monsters that can come out of Scissions?” she asked.

“One of the weakest, if not the weakest one. If what I surmise is true, then anything else you face will be slightly stronger than these Mushdooms, though probably not a lot stronger for a little while. I can’t guarantee that, though, so you’re going to need to learn how to fight stronger monsters—”

Larek cut himself off as he felt something in the distance. Looking at Ashlynn, he could see that she felt it, too.

I was right. This isn’t done yet.

Off to the south was yet another strong feeling of a Scission, though it felt different. He quickly identified the feeling as the same one he had felt when faced with the Aperture in the Kingdom, and could only assume this was the same.

“Another Scission? Already?” she asked, startled.

But the Fusionist shook his head. “No, that feels like an Aperture. It must’ve released its monsters while we weren’t in range to feel it, and now they’ve had enough time to create an Aperture.”

Larek did some mental calculations in his head. If the Scission had appeared around the same time that the one that spit out the Wilde Mushdooms had, then it took less than a half hour before the beginnings of an Aperture was formed.

That was… worrisome. If it happened that fast with all monsters, then it was no wonder that the Kingdom couldn’t keep up with the Apertures that were opening everywhere. If the length of time before an Aperture was formed depended on the strength of the monster, on the other hand, then they would have a better chance to kill the stronger monsters before that happened; if this was the case, then something must’ve happened back in the Kingdom that prevented them from reaching these stronger monsters in time.

Regardless, that didn’t help him or the people of the Sealance Empire at the moment, other than to demonstrate that it was inevitable that the Apertures would appear no matter how fast they attempted to react to the opening of new Scissions.

“Let’s go close it, then—”

Again, he shook his head. “Not yet. You have to let it form completely first, otherwise you won’t be able to temporarily close it.” Having learned from his first experience as well as the information his notification on Apertures provided him, he knew it was best for them to wait a little bit. “But we can at least make our way there and see what we’re up against.”

Taking their time, an hour saw them looking at a small forest of the same trees that had surrounded the lake he had landed in a month ago – or at least they had been the same trees before the Aperture changed them. Now they had been transformed into something that looked unreal, as if someone had painted over a section of the forest with colors that appeared to mimic the right shades of leaves and bark on the trees but was just wrong enough that it almost hurt his eyes to look at them.

After waiting a few more minutes, the first of the monsters that inhabited this transformed forest appeared, and it was nothing like what he expected.

“A Gooper Fairy,” Larek named it as soon as he saw it. Another physically weak monster, the Gooper Fairy was only a foot tall and looked vaguely humanoid in shape, but its face appeared as though all the dark green skin it possessed had been partially melted off. Fangs an inch long completed the visage, though the pair of diaphanous wings on its back seemed oddly out of place on the frightening-looking monster.

Where the Fairy became deadly was its usage of some sort of strange magic that allowed it to fling out 6-inch balls of multi-colored acidic “goop” that could cling to most surfaces like an extremely sticky adhesive, which hindered movement while the acid ate through most materials. The rate at which it ate through depended on the material; steel was nearly impervious, while skin and flesh was unfortunately quite fast.

Larek told Protector Ashlynn everything he knew about the Gooper Fairy, with a warning that the best defense against them was to kill them from afar. He couldn’t remember how far or how fast they could fling their balls of goop, but it was a good bet that anything within 10 to 15 feet was vulnerable.

When one of the Protectors approached and tried to stab the Fairy, he nearly had his face melted off when a ball of goop nearly hit him in the face; he was only saved such a fate when he rolled out of the way, but by that time he was out of position and was forced to run as another goop ball was sent in his direction only a few seconds after the first.

Larek quickly moved forward and tossed his axe end over end, his practice with it while Logging giving him a bit of accuracy, and his sharp tool sliced completely through the Fairy in a spray of green blood as it fell to the ground. The Fusionist retrieved his axe while also receiving a total of 2 AF from the kill, but was nearly hit by a ball of goop as another Fairy fluttered nearby. Running out of the oddly colored forest, he was glad to see that the monster stopped at the boundary rather than giving chase, as he didn’t want to fling his best friend again and risk it getting lost.

“We’ll come back with some long-range weaponry and clear this place out,” Protector Ashlynn said. “Bows and arrows aren’t exactly our preferred weapon of choice, but we do know how to use them,” she explained after seeing Larek’s confused expression.

As they started to head back to Enderflow to obtain the long-range weaponry they needed to clear out the Gooper Fairy Aperture, Larek and the others felt yet another Aperture open to the northwest. Turning toward the woman, who now appeared shaken at so many threats being nearby, he could only shrug. “I guess this is your new normal. At least your patrols won’t be as boring as they were before.”

“I’ll take boring any day over whatever this is.”

He couldn’t blame her, as this was extremely unexpected for all of them.  One thing they had going for them was that they already had trained fighters that could help them clear out most of these Apertures with a minimum of difficulty. They also had a multitude of people that had been magically awakened throughout the town that they would eventually need to rely on to help when things got worse and the monsters got stronger, but hopefully they had some time before that happened.

His presence was also a benefit as he was able to give them a little more context on what was happening, which he did while they journeyed back toward the town. He went over the history of the Kingdom as he knew it, the Gergasi and their “Guardian/Great One” moniker, the enslavement of the Nobles, and the origin of the breach the Gergasi opened that had ended up putting everyone in the world in danger. The only thing he left out was his own origin and his dual Mage/Martial status, as he didn’t feel that was important.

Why wasn’t it important? Because he had no intention of staying in Enderflow any longer than necessary. With the way things were going in the Empire of Sealance, he was eager to get back home and find out if he had indeed somehow lost 4 full years of time inside the void-like thing that transported him thousands of miles away. He still needed to learn how to use his Stama and Battle Arts, and while he thought he might be able to learn a little from Ashlynn and the rest of the people that acquired Martial status in Enderflow, he was worried that they would attempt to force him to stay somehow so that they could milk him for even more knowledge of the dangers they were going to face from the nearby Apertures and the monsters they created.

He refused to be used or taken advantage of again like that. He’d have fulfilled his service obligation in one more day; once that was done, he was gone and on his way back to the Kingdom.

If there was even a Kingdom to go back to, of course.