The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Ricardo staggered a few steps backward as he felt his Mana bottom out for the third time, his large area-of-effect windstorm buffeting the large spiders out of the air as they jumped toward the walls of the city, throwing them back down toward the ground with leg-snapping force. With their incredible ability to leap more than a hundred feet into the air, they were some of the more difficult monsters to come out of the Category 5 Scission to deal with – though they were by no means the most dangerous. The bug-based Scission had things even more frightening than the 8-legged arachnids, though Ricardo was on Jumping Spider duty at the moment.

With thousands of students and trainees all up and down the walls, joining the hundreds of SIC members already stationed there, they were having no problem holding their own – though it was a lot more difficult than would be normal. With a quartet of Category 5 Scissions opening up and expelling monsters toward the city at the same time, the defenders were spread thinner than they would’ve liked, but from what he could tell, casualties were few and far between. While the monsters far outnumbered the defenders, they were individually relatively weaker than a Category 5 would normally produce.

It started with thousands of Soldier Ants streaming out of the dark-brown Scission, marching on the walls. The 3-foot-long Ants were easily able to climb the walls of the city despite its completely vertical slope, but fewer than a third actually reached that far to begin the climb; the rest were taken out by spells flung by students and SIC members, as well as arrows shot by trainees.

Then came Armored Beetles that had thick plates of chitin covering their 5-foot-long bodies, though their legs and antennae were vulnerable to attack. Many of the spells sent their way either bounced off their shells, though some few were able to cripple the monster bugs’ extremities at a distance. Able to climb up the walls just as easily as the Ants, most of the Beetles were killed by the trainees and Martials that were part of the SIC as soon as they reached the top of the walls.

After that was a swarm of foot-long Knife Wasps, who had bladed stingers not unlike knives that could cut into a victim with deadly speed if they were allowed to get close. Thankfully, many of them were blown out of the air by explosive area-of-effect or otherwise taken out at a distance by the students and SIC Mages. The few that managed to make it through the barrage of spells were annoying and were forced to be countered by the SIC Martials and trainees, as close-range fighting wasn’t exactly a specialty for most Mages.

Then came the Jumping Spiders that were 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide, their long legs allowing them to jump high and avoid distant attacks sent their way with superior agility. It was this reason why many of them survived the initial wave attack on the wall, as they were apparently intelligent enough to stay out of the direct line of fire to attack in a group later when most of the defenders were engaged.

Thankfully, they were the only “smart” monsters that emerged from the Scission, as Rolling Pillbugs emerged next, their 12-foot long bodies able to roll themselves into an armored ball and slam into the wall, sending cracks all through the lower stone layers. They could also crawl up the walls once they tired of slamming ineffectually into it, and their chitinous outer shell was able to withstand quite a few spells and arrows before it allowed any to penetrate. Even trying to knock them off the walls using Air-based spells was relatively useless, as they stuck onto the wall as if they were glued to it. Dropping boulders formed by Geomancers seemed to help periodically, though it was crazy how easily they shrugged off even being hit by a huge rock that weighed a ton.

Thankfully, the Martials were able to take them down once they made it to the top of the walls, though some few of the lower-year trainees suffered horrendous injuries in the process as they had limbs snipped off by the Pillbugs’ long and sharp mandibles.

After the Pillbugs was the smaller—but more dangerous—wave of Scything Mantis bugs, which were 20-foot-tall, thin monsters that looked like green sticks with legs.  Their front forelegs were essentially 8-foot-long scythes that they could whip out and sheer through even the strongest armor that wasn’t enhanced by Fusions. They also had dripping fangs in a frightening-looking head that would infect anyone bit by it with a venom that paralyzed them for up to an hour, and even getting some of its venomous saliva on the skin would cause a limb to go numb and be unable to move. Some of the highest-Level, elite members of the SIC had been waiting as a reserve throughout the fight to that point, but when the Mantis monsters arrived, they rushed to engage them. Ricardo lost track of them after a point since he had his own job to do, but he could only assume that they were more than capable to taking them down without any extra help.

Finally, the last bug emerged from the Scission even as the entire wall was still engaged in fighting the other monsters, which was a shock to not only him, but everyone else. While this kind of Scission had been recorded before, which was how Ricardo knew the names of the bug monsters that streamed out to attack, he’d never heard of this particular monster before. He was expecting a massive Burning Dragonfly, which was difficult enough to kill, but what emerged was a giant brown and yellow-colored butterfly.

On the surface, seeing a butterfly with a wingspan of at least 100 feet seemed rather innocuous, at least compared to a Burning Dragonfly which could breathe fire and drop burning motes from its wings as it flew over the wall. However, as the air filled with what appeared to be a pollen that emanated from underneath the butterfly’s wings, spreading over everything underneath it like a layer of falling snow, he began to think that this could be worse.

Especially since as he looked at the green grass that covered the ground outside of the walls started to wither and die soon after being touched by the pollen-like substance the butterfly was emitting.

This isn’t good.

Thankfully, he wasn’t the one in charge nor was he the only one that was fighting along the walls. Fiery explosions cast by the many Pyromancers that were part of the SIC defenders ignited the deadly pollen, spreading like a wildfire as it was burned up in the air. Aeromancers like himself fought back by blowing anything that made it through the fiery explosions away from the city, and archers slammed their arrows along with Ice Spears, Stone Spikes, and smaller fireballs sent out by students into the butterfly’s body and wings. Ricardo was about to add his own contribution to the attack when he saw the butterfly begin to descend to the ground as its wings were filled with holes and torn apart, where it crashed into a trio of Pillbugs that were about to start another climb up the wall where they had been nocked down. It slid forward into the wall as it landed, causing the entire structure to vibrate alarmingly underneath his feet, but he knew that it was already the beginning of the end at this point.

Leaning up against one of the wall’s rear merlon, Ricardo allowed his Mana to regenerate while the rest of the students, trainees, and SIC members dispatched the hundreds of monsters still roaming around. He looked around at what he could see of the other walls of the city, seeing only one butterfly still airborne to the west, but even as he watched he saw it descend out of sight beneath the walls.

Looks like that was it. It could’ve been even worse if the students and trainees weren’t here; I don’t even want to imagine what a city without such a large number of Mages and Martials – even half-trained – would do if they were forced to defend against 4 Scissions at once.

He didn’t even have to imagine it, because he’d heard the reports through a few information channels available to him that indicated that this type of thing was beginning to become more common. It was the main reason why he had taken the half-breed prisoner: To learn if this heralded The Culmination or if it was just a series of flukes. The bonus reason was being able to kill the half-breed, because killing, hurting, or even working against their masters, the Great Ones, was impossible. It was a way to get back at them the only way he knew how, demonstrating his frustration with being unable to change the way things were.

He knew he should probably just be grateful for the privileged life he had as a Noble, but there was something in the back of his mind that made him feel as if he were less than the poorest commoner in the Kingdom. Ruling the Kingdom should be up to us alone, not as a representative slave to a bunch of power-hungry fools. It was their fault that these Scissions happened in the first place, and here we are cleaning up after them a thousand years later!

He smiled as he thought about the torture he would conduct on the half-breed stuck underneath the Academy. Yes, it was petty, but he would take what he could get.

Marano and Phyllia found him almost as soon as the wall was declared safe from monsters, and the students began filing back down the lengthy staircase and back toward the Academy and Fort. “Shall we go visit our friend again?” he asked them, and they nodded enthusiastically. Ricardo was tempted to invite a few others in the know that would be excited to kill a half-breed, but he felt like being selfish. It was already bad enough that he would have to share it with the two Martial trainees; any more than that being present would somehow diminish his enjoyment.

“Good. I have a few more questions and then we’ll have ourselves a long, drawn-out goodbye.” He didn’t need to explain what he meant by that. “Then I’ll have to send the message on to my House, while you should do the same.” They nodded again, though not quite as enthusiastically this time.

While having foreknowledge of the upcoming apocalyptic events facing their Kingdom was beneficial, that didn’t mean it was a good thing. It was like knowing that a Category 10 Scission was going to open up nearby in the future; you could prepare as much as possible, but in the end it was still going to end up killing a lot of people.

Might as well get some enjoyment out of this.

It was over an hour after they left the city walls by the time they were back in the Academy, working their way into the storage tunnels underground. Ricardo was worn out but unharmed, his Mana at nearly full after having an hour to regenerate; Marano and Phyllia didn’t appear to have been affected by the fighting on the wall at all, though a slit in Phyllia’s left pant leg indicated that she had been at least minorly wounded. Thankfully, there were dozens of healers spread all throughout the wall defense, who were easily able to repair relatively minor wounds such as scratches and even deep slices into skin and muscle. If she had been hurt more than that, such as a broken bone or internal damage to vital organs, they would’ve transferred her off the wall until she could be healed outside of combat with a lengthier and more-exhausting spell.

Moving through the lit sections of the storage tunnels without seeing any staff was something that Ricardo felt was lucky, especially as they weren’t able to plan out how they would avoid being noticed as they snuck inside. Not that he had anything too much to worry about as far as punishment if it were discovered that he had abducted and held prisoner another student, even if said student were tortured. His family was powerful enough to negate any punishment as far as that went, though they wouldn’t necessarily be happy about it; given the new information about The Culmination and half-breeds that he would pass along to them, he could probably guarantee that they would forget about it almost immediately.

But if it were discovered that he killed another student, even if it was a half-breed, that would get him in trouble from the King and the Great Ones. Fatal violence between those who are supposed to defend the Kingdom was persecuted to the fullest extent, and unless the one who killed the other was doing it out of clear self-defense, which could be determined through truth-sensing, they would be punished to serve in perpetuity at the Diregate. If he was part of the royal family, he might be exempt from such a punishment, but even that was a toss-up in whether he could get away with it.

The Great Ones wanted everyone that had access to being a Mage or a Martial to fulfill that potential in defense of their Kingdom, which was why so much effort was put to finding those among the commoners who had that potential – and why it was perfectly acceptable to threaten to kill the families of those who had potential and were then unwilling to join the SIC. It wasn’t necessary very often, but every once in a while they were forced to carry out the deed, which further incentivized the rest to join up rather than risk their family being killed.

So, killing the half-breed was a double-edged sword; on the one hand, if it was revealed that Larek was a half-breed, the Great Ones would be highly displeased and might end up killing his family as a result; if he was just considered a normal student, he would still be punished and sent to the Diregate. Which just meant that he had to ensure that no one would ever find the half-breed’s body, or even know that he was killed in the first place. If he could somehow arrange it, he might even be able to convince the faculty that he saw Larek foolishly on the walls, hoping to earn some misguided glory as he ineffectually “helped” to defend against the deadly monsters up there. His death would then be blamed on the Scission, and if his body was never found, then it might have been eaten by one of the Pillbugs, perhaps?

Yeah, that might work if someone comes sniffing around, looking for him.

Soon enough, the lights within the tunnels disappeared and Ricardo pulled out another cube that had an Illumination Fusion on it. He had left the other two down in the room where the half-breed was being held, as he didn’t want to have Larek go crazy from the pain in his broken legs, the stifling silence, and complete darkness. He still needed to answer some questions and Ricardo needed him sane for a little while longer. After that, they wouldn’t need him any longer—

The journey to the storage room he had set up to contain Larek was over quickly, but as soon as he turned the corner with Marano and Phyllia in tow, he knew something was wrong. A glow streamed out of the abandoned room that he could see even past the lit-up iron cube he was holding, which shouldn’t have been the case. He had deliberately ensured it had been closed and locked from the outside, so there was no way he could’ve escaped.

Unless someone discovered where he had been taken and freed him? But how? We had taken every precaution to ensure that didn’t happen.

Whatever had happened, things certainly weren’t going the way he had imagined.

Book 2 Chapter 44: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84166246