The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Crouching down as he crept up the sparsely vegetated hill, Larek got down on his hands and knees before crawling the rest of the distance up to the apex where he could look over to what was beyond. His robe was already dirty and blood-stained from the last week of travel, though it didn’t have any tears or damage at all; unfortunately, the Multi-Resistance Cloth Fusion on it didn’t repel dirt or stains, which was something he might have address in the future when he improved it. What it did prevent was any of the dirt and blood from passing through the cloth, so if he were to turn it inside-out it would be as pristine as it was when he first put it on.

The last few days had been relatively quiet as far as encountering monsters went, as after the Pukwudgies they only encountered a smattering of monster groups as they passed through miles of farm fields. The first was a pride of Savannah Lions, though that pride numbered nearly 100 of the 7-foot-long cats; the monsters’ quick, ambushing attacks were no match for Larek’s Repelling Barriers, and they were quickly put down through the combined might of the group. Again, though, if it hadn’t been for the protective Fusion, the abrupt attack from hiding places around the farm fields – where the monsters were difficult to see – would’ve resulted in some of them being hurt or killed, so he was doubly glad that he had them.

A day after the Lion ambush, they were traveling over what appeared to be a potato field – with no Farmers in sight at that point, or at any point in their travels – when they were attacked by a horde of 800 Walking Skeletons, the same ones that he had seen back in Barrowford. This time, the defenders were fewer but better equipped to handle the number of undead that attacked them, as they were relatively slow and cumbersome, practically falling over themselves as the Martials and Larek swept through them like a tornado, sending bone fragments flying everywhere. Kimble also showed off his pyromantic prowess by using a Flame Wave spell that was among the strongest in his repertoire; the result was a wave of flames 12 feet wide that coursed through the horde, burning over 50 Skeletons to ash in seconds. It was a spell that required approximately half of his Mana to cast, which normally would’ve wiped him out for a while; thanks to the boost Fusions on his robe, he still had plenty of Mana after that to continue the fight.

Following the Skeletons, they went an entire day without encountering any monsters, but their dry spell ran out when a circling flock of electrified Lightning Buzzards flew in from the north and arrived before they could try and find cover to hide. The birds, which had a wingspan of over 8 feet, weren’t all that more dangerous compared to a normal bird of the same size, but it was the arcs of electricity that surrounded them that made them a hassle to fight. Not only were they able to launch bolts of lightning out of their wingtips, reaching targets up to 50 feet away – and the Repelling Barriers did absolutely nothing to stop them. Since they were more of an energy than something physical that could be blown into the ground, the protective Fusions were useless, though their robes provided them a measure of security as the physical aspect of being electrocuted by a bolt of lightning was diminished significantly.

Burns and being temporarily paralyzed upon being struck by the bolts was bad enough, however, and the only time the Buzzards got close enough to the ground to attack at close range was when they had struck someone and paralyzed them. It made their ranged damage-dealers extremely important to take out the 300 or so flying monsters that harassed them from the sky, raining down lightning bolts constantly, and it was a bit of nightmare to survive through the entire experience. Fortunately, no one was in any major danger of dying, as the Buzzards couldn’t get close enough in their dive-bombing runs upon paralyzed individuals because of the Repelling Barriers – which worked just fine in sending the birds crashing into the ground when they approached at speed.

When they were attacked by a massive group of Fire Sprites the next day, the foot-tall floating flame entities numbering nearly 2,000, Larek couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t normal. From what he knew of Scissions based on his observations and from his Academy classes, it was unusual for there to be so many of one kind of monster released simultaneously, though there was mention that much-higher Classifications were unpredictable that way. 100 or 200 of some weaker monsters was perhaps possible, but not all that common; 500 of a monster was extremely rare.

Or, at least, that was how it was before. Starting with the Jumping Squirrels, which amounted to over 1,000, everything they had encountered had been far more than there should’ve been if they were part of a Scission between Category 1 and 5, perhaps even Category 6. With 2,000 Fire Sprites added to that number, an amount that was almost unheard of coming from a Scission, it seemed that more than just the location of the Scission openings had changed.

“No, this is very not normal, Larek,” Nedira had said when he mentioned it, with Verne and Norde backing that up. They had been getting ready to sleep the night after they annihilated the Fire Sprites – which were slow to move around and their close-range attacks consisted of flaring out a whip-like line of flames at their target – when Larek decided to broach the subject. “Not only are these monsters completely unrelated to each other, something I wouldn’t have thought to see, but their numbers and behavior is concerning.”

Their variety was something else that he had noticed. Scissions typically had a theme to them, such as undead, flying monsters, or oversized bugs, and there were multiple waves of increasingly more dangerous examples of that theme as the Scission expelled its monsters. Either dozens of different Scissions opened across the area and each wave went their separate ways, traveling far away from the others, or something altogether different was happening. When they added in the fact that the different monsters they encountered seemed to be stationary, establishing their own territory rather than wandering around – the Lightning Buzzards being an exception, though it could be that their territory was larger than they had known – it just made the entire situation even more worrisome.

Larek’s notification when he unlocked access to Aetheric Force had mentioned that the Corruption was attempting to widen the breach into its world by either destroying all of the “Guardians” or eliminating all sapient life. Neither of those seemed to be what the monsters were doing anymore, as they were establishing their own domains rather than deliberately seeking out to kill everyone they could find. When those domains crossed over the widely traveled roads, villages, and farms, then they would attack those that intruded; but what was the end goal? Why the sudden change? Was it because of The Culmination that Ricardo had mentioned? Or was it something else entirely?

No one had any answers to these questions, however, and they were left simply trying to stay alive. They continued making their way east toward Whittleton, only encountering one other group of monsters 400-strong. The Tusked Boars gave them no trouble, as despite their 5-foot-tall frames, their charges were stymied by Repelling Barriers; but they did raise another question when it was found that the monsters had been digging into the side of a large hill, getting far enough into it to create a long tunnel which ended with a decent-sized cave made of hard-packed dirt and stone. It wasn’t a natural occurrence, either, as it was clear that it was recently excavated and there were signs of tusk marks along the walls. That, and there were large piles of dirt and stones scattered around the area outside of the tunnel and cave

“Odd behavior. It makes no sense,” Norde said when they explored the excavation, shaking his head in confusion. Larek could only agree.

“Whatever it is, we aren’t going to solve it now, so let’s get a move on. We should be getting close to Whittleton,” Penelope informed them.

Thankful to have another source of food after the Squirrel meat ran out the day before and the Buzzards having a tough, stringy meat on them that tasted charred no matter how it was cooked, they butchered a few of the large Tusked Boars after they were killed and cooked them up before they left the area. With bags filled to the brim with meat, they didn’t encounter anything else the rest of the day or through the night; it was only the next afternoon when Penelope thought they were only a 10 miles or so out from the town they were headed for when Vivienne came back from scouting to report that something was happening up ahead.

Which was why Larek was now crawling up a hill, cautioned to avoid being detected. At first, he thought it might be because the Ranger had found something dangerous (or perhaps worse) than the Pukwudgies, and he welcomed the fight; he had accumulated over 2,000 AF over the last few days, including what he had received from those teleporting monsters, and it had greatly improved his Mage Skills.

Larek Holsten

Fusionist

Healer

Level 21

Advancement Points (AP) : 9/18

Available AP to Distribute: 2

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 34

Mage Skills:

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 10/10 (100 AF)

Pattern Recognition Level 20/20 (200 AF)

Magical Detection Level 20/20 (200 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 20/20 (200 AF)

Focused Division Level 31/31 (310 AF)

Mana Control Level 32/32 (320 AF)

Fusion Level 33/33 (330 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 33/33 (330 AF)

Using his AF, he increased his maximum Fusion, Pattern Formation, and Mana Control Skills twice, and his Focused Division Skill a single time, using 2,170 AF in the process. With a little bit of effort on his part when they stopped for the night, he was able to raise his Skills to his new maximums, but as of yet there was no tangible benefit. He remembered Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai mentioning that most people needed to be around Level 40 in their Fusion Skill to be able to consistently understand Advanced Fusions, so he expected something to occur soon that would let him apply what he had learned at the Academy but hadn’t been able to apply. Regardless, he had made more advancement in his stagnant Skills in the last week than he had in the previous 6 months, and he was eager to absorb more Aetheric Force from the monsters they killed.

When Larek finally reached the apex of the hill and peeked over, joined by his other groupmates as they spread along the top, he wasn’t sure what he was seeing at first. Naturally, he realized he was looking at what could only be monsters that came from a Scission. The 10-foot-tall, shaggy brown-haired humanoid figures had arms that stretched down to the ground and were practically dragging their knuckles along the dirt, and their legs looked like tree trunks attached to a gigantic barrel. That was the extent of their likeness to a person, however, as their oversized heads were on flexible necks that extended at least 3 feet above their shoulders; those heads were in the vague shape of a horse or mule, with a long jawline and large nostrils. Unlike a horse, their teeth were all 3 inches long while being sharp and pointed, and a long black tongue extended out of it like a snake’s, flicking back and forth as if searching for a particular scent. Lastly, their knuckle-dragging, 7-fingered paws were tipped with 2-inch claws that looked sharp from a distance.

A whisper by his side from Verne let him know what it was, because it wasn’t something that he recognized in class.

“They’re Dechonabras. They look scarier than they are dangerous,” he said. “At least to us,” he quickly added. What was funny to Larek was how much the entire group had begun seeing monsters in a different light than they had when they first set out; something like a Dechonabra, if first seen right after leaving Thanchet, would’ve probably had them running away, or at least being more cautious than they had been lately when fighting monsters along their route. It was probably a bad habit to rely on his Fusions so much when there were flaws in them that could lead to their deaths, but that was something they could address in the future. With half of their group starting out relatively untrained in fighting monsters, as well as Larek and his roommates unable to actually cast a spell, they didn’t have any other choice but to rely on Fusions to keep them safe.

So, it wasn’t the Dechonabras that were leaving Larek confused at what he was looking at. Rather, it was the fact that they were all congregating toward a point further away from where he and his group were laying along the ridgeline of the hill, stomping toward something he couldn’t see. That confusion only lasted a few seconds, however, as he saw and heard a large explosion of flames coming from somewhere ahead, which lit up one of the Dechonabras as its hair ignited like a torch, and its scream as it burned alive was ear-piercing in its volume and pitch.

“Are those people from the SIC?” he asked, a little louder than what was probably necessary, but the obvious fight going on ahead was noisy enough to drown him out.

“I only caught a glimpse of them before they started to become surrounded, but I believe so,” Vivienne confirmed.

Bartholomew started to stand up. “We have to help them,” he stated, before he was pulled back down by Penelope.

“What if they are looking for Larek?” she hissed.

“Be that as it may, we can’t let them die. They’re going to be overrun any minute.” The younger Martial trainee pointed past the massive group of over 200 Dechonabras that were trying to approach where Larek thought this group of people was fighting for their lives; in the distance, past where he thought they were slowly retreating toward, was another equal-sized group of the large, shaggy-haired monsters coming up behind them.  The Fusionist immediately knew that if they didn’t do something to help, Bartholomew was correct; they would be overrun within minutes. The Dechonabras were relatively slow when compared to some of the monsters they’d fought lately, but it looked impossible that those people would be able to escape.

A scream of pain from rang out a second later, and this time it was recognizable as coming from a person rather than one of the monsters. It was that which made the decision for the entire group, because as much as he didn’t want to risk being located by his Father, he couldn’t in good conscience let these people die. Even if they were sent to find him, he was fairly confident that it wasn’t their fault; even an order coming from a higher-up that was being controlled by the Gergasi still meant that any searchers were being influenced by the powerful slavers – in a roundabout way, at least.

They’d deal with that if it came to that, but Larek hoped that he wouldn’t be forced to kill them all so soon after saving their lives. Just the thought of needing to do that curdled his stomach, but he knew he would do it if it was necessary to ensure the safety of himself and his friends.

“We’re helping,” he announced, before he slid his bag off his back. Reaching inside one of the interior pockets, he pulled out a ring and slipped it on one of his left-hand fingers. While he couldn’t sense the ring doing anything in particular, his experiments with the Perceptive Misdirection Fusion that Shinpai had placed on it proved that anyone seeing him would think he was about a foot shorter than he really was. It was still tall, but not “freakishly” tall like he normally was, and the Fusion even slightly altered where it sounded like his voice was coming from, so that it didn’t sound like his words were coming from above his head. As his Professor had warned, it wouldn’t hold up to any physical contact, and to those who knew how tall he really was, the results were a bit less than stellar – as if they could force their minds to see the real Larek. Regardless of those limitations, it was time to see if it worked for real when facing strangers, which was something he hadn’t been able to test yet. It would be good to know if it worked so that he could go into a town or city without being singled out immediately because of his height.

“Let’s go.”

With his axe in his right hand and his staff in his left, Larek charged over top of the hill and got ready to go fight yet another horde of monsters. The altruistic goal of saving the SIC members about to be overrun was only slightly tainted by his anticipation of gaining more AF in the process of rescuing them.

However, what worried him a little more than that was the excitement he felt when getting ready to face the monsters ahead of him, something that he had previously vowed to himself to avoid whenever possible. Was this change in his attitude toward fighting and monsters a good thing… or a sign that his Gergasi blood was altering him in ways he couldn’t anticipate?

No matter what it was, it wasn’t something he wanted to think about right now. All he wanted to focus on was crashing the party down below and introduce his best friend to some new victims.