The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 45

Chapter 45

“This isn’t working!”

Larek couldn’t help but agree with Nedira. The first minute or so saw the dark glow around the sphere begin to dim more and more as their long-range attacks hit it, but they seemed to hit a wall where it wouldn’t dim any further. To the others, it appeared as though it was regenerating its glow randomly, but Larek could see exactly why it was happening.

The stream of Greater Trizards flowed toward his group as soon as they emerged from the sphere, and the abrupt change wasn’t lost on the SIC members killing them. If anything, the monsters’ obvious target was actually a boon to them, because they could concentrate their spells and defense in one place rather than the seeming randomness that it had been before. Walls made of earth or ice were used to funnel the attacking Trizards into a killing zone of wide-area spells that absolutely devastated the monsters as they passed through; if they didn’t die right away, they were severely wounded and were easily cut down by the Martials waiting for them to arrive at their defensive line.

But for each one that died, Larek saw the tell-tale dark haze of Corrupted Aetheric Force emerge from their corpses before it was almost immediately sucked up into the sphere. When it was absorbed, the dimming glow was rejuvenated, creating a constant cycle of death outside and subsequent renewal inside the sphere, and it didn’t appear as though that was going to change anytime soon. Larek debated asking the Major to have the Mages turn their attention to attacking the source of the Greater Trizards as well so as to get ahead of the constant regeneration, but he immediately knew that wasn’t going to happen.

After constantly fighting and casting spells for nearly 15 minutes, he could see that the SIC Mages were starting to run empty on Mana. Fewer and fewer devastating spells were cast upon the emerging Trizards as they had to turn to their staves to supply the majority of the damage, though as soon as they had enough Mana they would cast another spell to help slow down the tide of monsters. The Martials looked a little better, as their Strength and Body stats were helping them weather the assault much better, but Larek was also seeing less use of their Stama in Battle Arts as time went on.

If they were called off the defenses to attack the sphere, it was entirely possible that the Trizards would break through and reach Larek and his group.  While everyone was prepared for that eventuality, that would also likely spell the beginning of the end, and the only hope they had for surviving would be to run.

We need to do a lot more damage to it, but how? Nedira and Kimble were already adding their own spells to the mix of projectiles from the staves, but that was just barely keeping the pace of damage where it was. It was possible that they might have some luck whittling the sphere down even further if they used the Fusions on the staves faster instead of waiting 5 seconds, but he had severe doubts that something like that even that would be enough. Instead, they needed to do a large amount of burst damage all at once, which just wasn’t possible with what they had.

Looking at the SIC, he thought about asking them to toss their new Fusions toward the sphere, where he could use his Pattern Cohesion to break one and make it explode, which would then cause a chain reaction that would destroy all of them – but he doubted they would be willing to do that. For one, they had just received the powerful Fusions and wouldn’t want to give them up without a fight. Secondly, those Fusions were the only reason everyone was still alive; if they lost them, the Trizards would undoubtedly overrun their positions as every Martial would lose half their strength and every Mage’s spells would be weaker and their Mana would regenerate slower. Lastly, the Major would probably think Larek was trying to pull some kind of trick to get them all killed if he asked her to do such a thing, and he wouldn’t blame her – because it sounded suicidal to give up their advantages.

What about cracking open our Fusions?

It was a good thought, but none of the Fusions he’d made for his group had a flaw he could exploit to cause them to explode. It would be next to impossible to break one of them without time and focus, and that difficulty was exacerbated if he attempted to do it at a distance. Besides, throwing all of their Fusions at the sphere would entail stripping off their clothes and armor and giving up their weapons, which would leave them completely vulnerable if the worst were to happen and they were forced to run.

Even as he continued to batter the sphere with his staff, Larek ran through a multitude of Fusions in his mind that he could create that might work to help do some more damage, or even help in their current defense, but there wasn’t anything that he could think – at least not any that were already created. If they had more of the Paralytic Light stones they had used against the SIC, they might come in handy to delay the onslaught of monsters long enough to destroy the sphere. Unfortunately, they had thrown out every stone that had the paralyzing Fusions on them already, and running back to see about gathering one up was both risky and would take too long. Larek had a feeling that unless they figured something out within the next 5 minutes or so , they would either have to flee or be overrun.

Trying to create one in the middle of a battle, with everything going on around him, was next to impossible. While he had adopted a method of hyper-focused attention to his Fusions that blocked out most distractions, doing such a thing with all of the screams of pain, sounds of a variety of spells being cast all over the battlefield, and the incessant thuds and strikes against hard Trizard scales was entirely too much for him to block out. Besides, he wasn’t even sure he could create a Fusion successfully under such stress, which meant he was equally as likely to accidentally lose control of it during the process as completing it – which would be disastrous and potentially deadly.

All of that meant that their options were extremely limited. Kimble and Nedira were the only ones in his group that had the ability to cast stronger spells if necessary, but whatever they tried thus far over the last minute and a half hadn’t been much more effective than a normal Fireball. Even with their higher Mana regeneration thanks to their Boost Fusions, they couldn’t keep up the more-powerful spells for long, either, just like what was happening to the Mages in the SIC.

Vivienne was already shooting what arrows she had left by that point toward the sphere, and there wasn’t much else that she could do at a distance.  It was possible that if she, along with Bartholomew and Penelope, went close to the sphere and attacked it at close range, they might be able to do enough to reduce its glow down even further, but that also ran the risk of being close to the sphere and becoming the target of every single Greater Trizard that emerged into the world.  If that happened, Larek doubted that the SIC would be able to stop them all from reaching his bodyguards, so getting that close wasn’t a good idea.

Unfortunately, Verne and Norde were only able to contribute through their use of the staff they both possessed, which left Larek to do something. With additional Fusions out of the picture, and it being unlikely that any of those he had created before being used as a type of Fusion bomb, there was only one other thing he could think of that might make a difference. If he left his companions to continue attacking the sphere, would his attacks against the rampaging Trizards provide him with Aetheric Force? Would he be able to siphon some of the Corrupted Aetheric Force that was regenerating the sphere?

There was only one way to find out.

“I have an idea,” he told his companions, before explaining what he saw and his potential solution to the problem to the others. There were only a few minor protests, but without any other options, none of them stopped him from moving up with Penelope by his side to help defend. As soon as he reached the line of Mages firing their spells and staves into the bunched up Trizards trying to break through the Martial line, Larek used his own staff to add to the carnage. It took about 30 seconds before his attacks finally helped to finish off an already wounded Trizard, and he watched as the dark haze of Corrupted Aetheric Force appeared over its corpse.

Almost immediately, approximately 10% of the dark haze broke off from the rest and hovered in the air and he could sense that it was waiting for something to come claim it. Based on his experiences against a variety of monsters, he usually only absorbed any Corrupted Aetheric Force at the end of a fight, so he had to assume that this was something similar.

Unfortunately for him, this fight looked like it was going to last for a long time unless they were able to destroy the sphere. In addition, his contribution toward the death of the Trizard was relatively miniscule, considering that it had already been heavily wounded by the SIC forces, and the other 90% of the Force was sucked back into the sphere.

“Did it work?” Penelope asked, after seeing his success in taking down one of the monsters.

He nodded at first, but then shook his head. “Yes, but not enough. I’m either going to have to kill all of these Trizards myself, or at least find a way to do a whole lot more damage than I’m currently doing.” If they were some of the weaker monsters they had fought over the last week, he could see this being not too difficult; unfortunately, the Greater Trizards were tough to kill for someone of his limited means, and while his projectile Fusions were powerful, only multiple attacks in the same place was able to break through the monsters’ protective scales.

If he had some other way to do damage without throwing himself into melee combat with the Trizards, then he might have a chance. However, even with his axe being able to cut through the scales of the three-headed lizards, it was too dangerous to get that close. His Repelling Barrier was unlikely to prevent all of the breath attacks that the Trizards could use on him up close, and without that protection, he was basically defenseless against them.

If only he could cast some spells to supplement his Fusions, then he might have a chance to do more damage, especially considering that he essentially had unlimited Mana that he didn’t have to worry about running out of. Of course, Larek couldn’t actually cast any spells—

Well, that’s not technically true.

What he should say was that he couldn’t cast a spell successfully.

At least, he thought that was still the case, despite not trying since his first failed attempt back at Crystalview Academy. He hadn’t tried to cast another spell since then because it was too dangerous, especially if he were to try it at Copperleaf, and even his Advanced Fusions Professor warned him not to try it again.

But he was running out of options at this point, and even if they were prepared to run away right now, that didn’t guarantee they would be out of danger. Despite their large size, the Greater Trizards were actually quite fast; while the Martial trainees and himself were able to run quickly because of their high Agility stats, the Mages in his group had no such advantages. They could carry them, of course, but if they had to fight their way out, that would be cumbersome, not to mention attempting to flee through ice and snow of the transformed forest.

Therefore, they might be able to escape, but it was likely that many of the Mages from the SIC wouldn’t.  And though he didn’t really care for many of them given their desire to ambush and steal from him earlier, he also didn’t want their deaths to lead to a reduction in the safety of the local area. Given the fact that the sphere was literally pumping out monsters by the second, Larek had the feeling they were going to need all the defenses they could get in the coming days.

Unless he was able to destroy it here and now, of course.

“I’m going to do something stupid and you’re going to need to carry me,” he abruptly said to Penelope.

The blue-haired Martial whipped around and said, “What? No, don’t do whatever you’re thinking. If you think it’s a stupid idea, then it’s got to be catastrophically moronic.”

“Too late. Get ready to grab me and run.”

Mimicking what he had done a little over a year ago back at Crystalview, Larek used his Pattern Cohesion to create the relatively simple spell pattern for Stone Fist. As soon as it started to form, he was pleased to see that his Focused Division Skill really did work for spell patterns as well as it did for Fusion formations, as it was thick enough to split it into 4 equal spell patterns for his plan to work.

He could immediately feel that the patterns he made were even sturdier than what he used in his Fusions for some reason, now that he was able to compare the two. Regardless of the reason behind the difference, what it meant to him was that it was unlikely that he would ever be able to cast a spell without some extreme practice, and even then, he wasn’t confident of his chances of it actually ever happening.

Using the ability he had honed while practicing Focused Division, he mentally moved the entire spell pattern out toward the sphere in the distance, which became harder to do once it passed about 10 feet away from him, but he was hyper-focused on what he was doing, so he pushed through any difficulty in his way. At 20 feet, he felt a slight strain on his mind but ignored it as he pushed it further. At 40 feet, there was a painful spike through his entire body that nearly kicked him out of his hyper-focused state… but he was so close.

Just a little more.

Finally, at 50 feet, which was where the sphere was located, he nearly passed out as the spell pattern arrived right in front of his target. Once it was in position, the strain of keeping it there was strangely negligible, as it appeared as though the difficulty lied in the act of moving it that distance rather than keeping it intact. That was probably because the pattern was strong, and even if his focus wavered a little bit, it wouldn’t dissipate like a normal Mage’s would.

“Boy! What are you doing?”

His action hadn’t gone unnoticed by the Mages in the SIC, and he took the time to look at the older man who asked him the question, even as the Corpsmen cast another spell that killed another of the Trizards. The 20-something-year-old Pyromancer was from the Kingdom and felt like a Noble, but there was a strange difference there that he recognized in Kimble; while he was technically a Noble, he probably wasn’t very highly placed. At least, that was his assumption from the feeling he got.

Raising his voice, as he wanted everyone to hear him – including the Major – Larek announced, “I’m about to detonate my spell pattern next to the sphere! Get ready to retreat!”

“What are you on about—whoa! No! You’re going to kill yourself!”  The Pyromancer looked on in horror as Larek filled his Stone Fist spell pattern from a distance, which didn’t take more than a second. After it was filled, it should’ve dissipated and cast the spell, but his pattern was too strong for that; instead, it pulsed once but then started to pull more Mana from him while sucking out additional Pattern Cohesion simultaneously. With a flex of his Focused Division Skill, which was insanely difficult at that distance, he forced the charging spell pattern to split into 4 equal patterns and then strained to move each of them nearer to the sphere.

Relinquishing his control of them, Larek slumped to his knees and looked at Penelope. “Tell everyone to run and help me out of here, if you would.”

The blue-haired Martial immediately shouted for everyone to start running while she moved to Larek and threw his massive frame over her shoulder. Despite her high Strength stat, she grunted as he felt himself picked up and manhandled like a corpse, which was how he was feeling at the moment. Having strained himself moving the spell patterns, he felt weak, but that weakness was only exaggerated by the fact that both Mana and Pattern Cohesion was being pulled out of him at an incredible rate.

Every time his Mana regenerated, more of it was pulled out to feed the spell patterns even at a distance, and his Pattern Cohesion dropped 1,000 points within seconds. It hit 2,000 a few seconds later even as he bounced up and down over Penelope’s shoulder as she ran, and then another 1,000 joined it shortly thereafter. Dragging his head to look up at the sphere and his spell patterns in the distance, he saw them beginning to shine with an almost blinding light in the middle of the forest clearing, while a flood of Greater Trizards followed after the retreating SIC forces after they started to flee. Larek was thankful that they realized the danger of staying too near the upcoming explosion and resolved to flee for their lives rather than stay.

He felt the weakness in his whole body increase yet again as the Pattern Cohesion that streamed out of his body topped 4,000 and kept going. If what he suspected was true, based on his experiments with Fusions, each additional spell created with Focused Division would take an additional 20% Pattern Cohesion from him, meaning that they would likely end up siphoning 6,400 Pattern Cohesion from him in the end.

That was the most he’d ever lost at one time, and he wasn’t sure if he would survive it. But he felt like he had to try.

He nearly lost consciousness when the amount of Cohesion lost topped 5,500, but he held on to the end. Pushing through the darkness encroaching upon him, he looked up as he felt the last bits of required Pattern Cohesion was imbued into the spell patterns and was instantly blinded as all four of them detonated simultaneously, the light from the explosion it created so powerful and bright that he lost his eyesight.  Less than a second after he found himself blind, the shockwave of the explosion slammed into him and Penelope, sending them both stumbling forward and he flew off her shoulder into the air.

Because he couldn’t see where he was going, he was unable to brace for the impact with a frozen tree, where his head smacked against the trunk with enough force to send him into the unconsciousness he had been fighting up until that point.