The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 67

Chapter 67

“Where did they go? Were those illusions?”

Larek heard the other teams questioning where Team Fusion had just disappeared to, searching around the area with their weapons and spells to find them; Larek could only assume that they thought they had used something like Light Bending to camouflage themselves, but they didn’t have any luck.

They’re on the right track, however. My Camouflage Sphere is a form of Light Bending, but without the restrictions about moving.

Larek was sure that there were other, more complicated spells that could achieve the same effect of being able to move around while essentially invisible. But to have all 5 of the members of Team Fusion disappear within a split-second of each other with no obvious spell-casting and at a run confused the heck out of the other teams.

“They’re still in their fortification! Let’s just rush them!”

“No, that’s what they want! I’m not walking into a trap!”

“Well, we have to do something!”

Somehow, 4 Mages along the backline that were near the large faux melee suddenly disappeared, though no one noticed immediately. It was only after a few more seconds of argument that the first of the disappearances was discovered, when a Mage’s staff was found lying on the ground. The other 3 were found a few seconds later.

“What? Where did Rowan go? Yandra?”

“It was them!”

“They’re taking us out one by one! It’s time to attack!”

“But—”

“Let’s just capture their flag and be done with all these tricks!”

Larek heard that and tensed, as there were only a few dissenters. As a group, the Martial trainees rushed across the arena floor straight toward the entrance to his team’s fortification. Without any Mages to slow them down, as those that had been in the faux battle had disappeared and the rest were likely hiding in wait inside the various enemy fortifications, it didn’t take the trainees long to arrive.

Larek stood in opposition of them, holding his staff crossways in front of him as if to bar their way, though there really wasn’t much he could do to prevent the 8 Martial trainees who entered from taking it. Wait… only 8? Where’s the other one? He could’ve sworn he had seen the full 9 outside during the melee, but now there was one fewer.

A sudden noise behind him caused Larek to whip around, his staff smacking into the side of a figure he vaguely recognized as belonging to Team Coldsnap reaching to grab the flag. The leather-clad individual went flying as the *crack* of the blow hit them harder than either of them was expecting, as Larek forgot that his Strength was actually at 48 – a significant number, even if it likely less in comparison to some of the trainees. He was also fast because of his 48 in Agility, which was slower than the person trying to snatch the flag, but they had been so thoroughly surprised that they weren’t able to react in time.

“Rush and surround him!”

The sudden attack on the trainee attempting to steal the flag didn’t do anything to deter the others, as they rushed into position around Larek. The member from Team Coldsnap was still getting up from where he had landed and appeared at least slightly hurt; that didn’t mean that the 8 others weren’t capable of completely boxing the Fusionist in. With 5 of them armored and wielding shields, there was no way that Larek was going to win, but he would give it his best shot.

As they moved into range, Larek slid the staff down his hands until he was gripping one end, before swinging it in a wide circle. Three of his attackers jumped back but the fourth simply held her shield out to block it; as it rebounded off the steel, the young woman stepped back in surprise at the strength of the blow, but it ultimately didn’t matter because Larek was slightly off-balance as a result. As he attempted to regain that balance, the better-skilled trainees struck at him simultaneously; he somehow managed to get his staff up to block or deflect a pair of swords coming at him from the front, but the rest were able to get through his staff defense.

Feeling and seeing the Repelling Barrier on him activate to his sides, another 4 weapons were violently blasted toward the ground, with one sword snapping in the process, but that still left one long stab of a wooden dagger from his back and a smash by some sort of mace-like weapon in his lower left leg. While neither of them hurt too terribly bad, the blow to his leg was right behind his left knee, which caused it to buckle a little bit under the blow. As a result, he was entirely unprepared when another strike from those around him hit him yet again; most of them were miraculously blocked by his barrier Fusion, but a single uncomfortable stab by a sword to his side was enough to count.

“4F down!”

Knowing the rules, Larek dropped to the ground and pretended to be knocked out as he lay on his stomach. Thanks to his Repelling Barrier still being active, none of them tried to “kill” him while he was prone; technically, they could’ve simply reached down slowly and pretended to slit his throat, but they didn’t really know the limitations of the Fusion. Instead of trying anything, they simply walked over his body and took the flag he was protecting.

Well, that could’ve gone better, I suppose. It’s not like I had much chance against them, though.

“Hey! I thought we agreed that we would take the flag!”

There was a brief argument over who was the one to take the flag, though Larek didn’t know why it mattered to them. He supposed that it would only matter as a point of pride for having captured it, but it wouldn’t really affect the outcome as far as he knew.

“Yes, because it was your plan; but now that your plan has failed, we’re taking it.”

“No, that’s not how this works—”

Thankfully for their sake, they only took another few seconds to finally decide that Team Boulderfist would take it since they were a bit of a neutral party – as far as Larek could determine with his face against the dirt. They left with the flag shortly after that, though before they even made it out of the entrance, there were additional shouts by the observers that caught their attention.

“1F down! 1F out!”

“1E down! 1E out!”

“3D down! 3D out!”

“3F down! 3F out!”

Larek couldn’t see their reactions, but he definitely heard the trainees who were leaving his fortification curse at the shouts. The sudden change in the Skirmish’s dynamic was unfortunately a detriment to Team Boulderfist, who were now seen as a threat because they hadn’t lost any of their members. As a result, a fight broke out directly outside the entrance that pitted the Coldsnap and Highflight trainees against the defensive-based Boulderfist trainees – at least as far as he could tell without being able to see but a glimpse of them out of his peripheral vision.

“2A down!”

“1B down! 1B out!”

“2C down! 2C out!”

“3B down!”

“2B down! 2B out!”

Within 30 seconds, the three Boulderfist trainees were eliminated, though they downed one each of Coldsnap and Highflight. While Team Fusion’s flag had been stolen, they were still looking good—

“4B down! 4B out!”

“4D down! 4D out!”

Earlier, Larek finally learned the designations of everyone on his team, which were based on seniority and whether they were a Martial or a Mage. A through C were Martials; D through F were Mages. Penelope was A, Vivienne was B, and Bartholomew was C; according to the shouts by the observers, Vivienne had somehow been downed and “killed”. The same could be said for Kimble, who was 4D – and of course Larek was down, though not out.

The teams were now even, though Team Fusion’s flag was now being carried away by either Team Coldsnap or Highflight; he wasn’t sure who ended up with it after the melee outside of his fortification’s entrance.

The noise of the crowd was the only sound Larek heard for approximately the next minute, which was surprising; he was expecting the announcer to say that Team Fusion was eliminated, but such an announcement never came. It was at about that time that Larek heard footsteps around him, though he couldn’t see anyone. Just as he was worried that someone had come back to “finish him off”, a gentle hand rested on his face.

“Hey there, Larek. I’m dropping my Sphere so that they can see me healing you.”

Nedira’s voice was like a calming breeze rushing through his confused mind as he waited for the allotted time for a single “hit” to be healed.

“Thank you,” he said as he got up, looking around – only to see that Penelope and Bart were standing near the flag bases, where he recognized the flags from Coldsnap and Highflight were now stuck inside.

“How? What happened?” he asked, shocked at what he saw.

“We used our disappearance to throw them off for a few seconds while we took their available Mages,” Penelope said, frowning. “While that worked, and were able to reveal ourselves to the observers in order to eliminate them, our plan to take all the flags afterwards was thwarted.”

“Vivienne and Kimble?”

Nedira answered as she healed him the rest of the way. “Boulderfist either got lucky or knew that we weren’t protected from below as they stabbed up with Ground Spikes and Stone Walls, trapping both of them in what was essentially a kill box. We managed to grab the other two flags underneath their noses as we ran in and out so quickly that they couldn’t see us – especially as your Fusion then made the flags invisible – but Boulderfist still has theirs.”

“I see. What’s your plan now?” he asked her, but it was Penelope that took over again, the scowl on her face disappearing as she outlined what was next.

“It’s going to be an all-out attack on us by the other two, because by now they know we have their flags. If Boulderfist had taken them, they would’ve been eliminated already so we’re the only possible location for them. We’re going to have to fend them off and then take out Boulderfist’s Mages somehow. We also have to ensure that Boulderfist doesn’t get our flag, or we’re done.”

“Do you want me to protect these flags now?” he asked, at a loss of what to do currently because the flag he was normally protecting was gone.

“Yes,” the blue-haired team leader replied.

Before he could get into position, a blast of frigid cold air fell over the interior of the fortification, followed by a shout and an Ice Spike that shattered against Bartholomew’s Repelling Barrier as it was blown into the ground. The gust of air caused by the Fusion lingered a little in the space it occupied as ice crystals were left in its wake, as the temperature was so cold that Larek could feel his movements slowed.

“Watch out! Nedira, take out the Mage!”  Penelope shouted as she and Bart intercepted the two Martials that had sprinted inside the entrance. The two trainees attempted to go around Team Fusion’s leader and the Shieldguard, but were quickly intercepted. As they defended against the quick strikes of Penelope and Bartholomew without attacking back, using short, deliberate movements to avoid triggering Larek’s Repelling Barrier, he realized that they had begun to learn even more of the flaws of his Fusion.

Out of the corner of his right eye, Larek suddenly spotted two figures ascending into the air and jumping over the walls, where they somehow controlled their descent to land right behind Penelope and Bart. With a shout, all four of the invading trainees abruptly switched their target to Bart, who couldn’t move quickly enough because of the cold environment to avoid a handful of strikes. Those weapons that were caught by his Barrierwere allowed to hit the ground without shattering, before they were back and attacking the Shieldguard. Just as Penelope attempted to take advantage of their new attention, another shout caused the enemy teams to focus on her, inflicting even more hits on her.

Off to Larek’s left, Nedira was attempting to trade spells with the enemy Coldsnap Mage, but everything she sent toward him was countered by an Ice Wall or even shot out of the air by a projectile. She wasn’t winning or losing, but she was at least keeping him occupied.

Seeing that his team was going to lose, Larek made a decision to get involved more than he was planning as he sped forward as fast as he could through the frigid cold, arriving at the melee ahead of him; while abandoning his protection was potentially foolhardy, as anyone could grab the flags he left behind, he saw that if he didn’t help now it wouldn’t really matter.

*Clang!* *Clang!*

His staff impacted hard against the backs of the two Highflight trainees as he hit one and then spun with the rebound to hit the other in quick succession. As the two abruptly turned around and instinctively tried to attack him in retaliation, their weapons were sent into the ground and they stumbled, allowing Bart and Penelope to strike at them as well with rapid blows at their unprotected backs. Unfortunately, the two enemy trainees recovered quickly and were back on the defensive, spreading out so that Larek couldn’t hit both of them at once.

A powerful gust of air that had nothing to do with Larek’s Repelling Barriers slammed into Penelope and Bart, knocking them off their feet; looking around, he saw the last Highflight Mage appear near the entrance behind the Coldsnap student, completely free to cast spells as Nedira was having troubles of her own simply keeping the other occupied.

The two trainees on Larek’s team were able to pick themselves up from where they had rolled as quickly as they could, but the enemy had taken advantage of their state to rain even more hits down on them from below their feet, which were unprotected by the Barrier. His teammates seemed to go into a frenzy as the seemed as if they were about to lose and double-teamed one of the Coldsnap trainees, hitting him so many times in a row that they finally took him out.

“1A down!”

The cost was high, however, as each of them took another few hits, though when Larek arrived and started raining down blows of his own, he was able to take out another on his own; he suspected that they had already been “hurt” before they arrived, as it only took about a half-dozen.

“3C down!”

Blunt Weapon Expertise Skill has been unlocked!

Blunt Weapon Expertise has reached Level 1!

Distracted by the notification, Larek barely noticed as a trio of shadow-casted boulders appeared in his peripheral vision, descending from above. Larek jumped back, tripped, and rolled to his feet as he shouted, “Up!”

Dodge has reached Level 7!

Unfortunately, his warning was too late. Before the trainees could react, the boulders landed amongst the remaining trainees and exploded upon contact, hitting each of them with enough shrapnel from multiple directions that not even their Repelling Barriers could handle them.

“1C down!”

“3A down!”

“4A down!”

“4C down!”

As they all let out a disgruntled snarl at nearly the same time, the quartet of trainees dropped to the ground. Larek was fortunately saved from being hit as the shrapnel was deflected by his Fusion because it all came from the same direction due to his lack of proximity to the explosive boulders. Nedira was also saved because she was far enough away that only one hit her Fusion and was sent crashing into the ground, but she barely even noticed as she was still doing her best to hold off the Coldsnap Mage.

She didn’t have to hold him off much longer than she had because a boulder suddenly flew through the entrance and impacted the back of the Coldsnap student, sending him tumbling forward just as it exploded, inflicting even more shrapnel damage to him.

“1D down! 1D out!”

Somehow, the young woman from Highflight managed to throw up a Wind Barrier just in time to avoid being hit by the shrapnel, meaning that she had free reign to cast another spell; Larek expected her to target him, as he was a larger target and near where she was just assisting her teammates – but instead she threw a spell at Nedira.

Taken aback by the sudden loss of her opposition, she was caught flat-footed as another huge gust of air slammed into her, the Repelling Barrier absolutely no help against the air-based spell. Lifted off her feet, the fourth-year Mage flew backwards at least 15 feet before she hit the ground and rolled, eventually slamming against the back wall with a *crunch*. She groaned in pain as she shut her eyes, her hands reaching up to the back of her head gingerly – before she slumped into unconsciousness, as still as death.

“4E down! 4E out!”

It was at that point that Larek saw red.

Book 2 Chapter 68: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84876573