The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Given that the eastern side of the camp was facing the deeper part of the forest rather than toward the road, the fact that something alerted the caravan guard on watch from that direction wasn’t a surprise.  That didn’t make the sudden presence of an enemy at the perimeter any easier for Larek as he quickly jumped out of his tent and off the sleeping mat, grabbing his axe at the same time.

It had better not be Night Wolves again. He shuddered as he thought about how much damage a pack of the large, black-furred monsters could do among the relatively helpless first-year students who were just now being woken up in a panic. At least, most of them were waking up; he couldn’t help but notice that some of them were still asleep despite the shouts and commotion happening around them.

Larek ignored them as he raced through the haphazard setup of tents in the camp, thinking that it would probably be better if they were a little more organized rather than being pitched any which way. In less than 20 seconds after the first shout, he made it to the spot where all the action was, only to find the guard who had been on watch falling to the ground with a spear through his stomach, surrounded by small children.

What the—?

It only took him a second to realize that they weren’t children, but short, 3-foot-tall figures with rubbery-looking green-and-brown mottled skin, wearing what appeared to be cloth rags covering their torsos and hips. Their long, pointed ears stuck out horizontally from their heads and curled a little toward the tips, and their solid black eyes were at least three times larger than his own, with just a hint of intelligence within them. None of them wore any footwear on their oversized, clawed feet, nor did they have any sort of protection on their heads or on their bodies other than the cloth rags. What they all did have, however, was a 4-foot-long wooden spear with a crudely sharpened stone blade tied to the end of it, which was obviously deadly enough to inflict some serious damage to those unprepared for it – as could be attested by the guard that just went down with the tip of one lodged in his stomach.

Overall, the strange creatures didn’t appear very threatening, and their gangly arms and legs didn’t appear to be holding much strength. The problem was that what they lacked in individual strength, they made up with numbers.

By the light of the only fire in the camp, which was partially blocked by some of the wagons, Larek could see dozens, if not hundreds of glints in the darkness that was the fire’s light reflecting off the monster’s large black eyes.

This isn’t good.

“They’re Bog Goblins, Larek! Weak, but numerous!” he heard someone shout from behind, him and he immediately recognized his roommate’s voice. At the name, Bog Goblins, Larek immediately recalled learning about them in his Monster Knowledge and The Dangers of Scissions classes, as they were one of the most common, and relatively weaker, monsters that showed up during a Category 1 Scission. He couldn’t remember much about them in the split-second that he recalled what he had been taught, other than they were as Verne had said: weak. The only other thing he remembered about them was that they rarely appeared in numbers more than 30, but he was fairly certain there had to be at least 3 or even 4 times that many just in what he could see.

As if the collapse of the guard was all that was holding the Bog Goblins back from advancing further into the camp, the monsters immediately left the poor defender on the ground as they streamed toward tents housing the first-years. They also, unfortunately, heard Larek’s roommate shouting, which painted a target on the young boy that he didn’t need.

Oh, no you don’t.

Intercepting the first few Goblins that tried to pass by him on their track to get to Verne, he swung out with his axe, his long arms and extra reach in the tool allowing him to strike all three that he targeted. The extra-sharp blade of the axe passed through the necks of all three of the monsters, practically popping their heads off their shoulders; a brief fountain of dark blood spurted out from the open necks of their bodies as they continued running a few steps before collapsing on the ground.

Larek nearly threw up at the display of gore, but he managed to hold it in. This was first time he had killed something that was humanoid in appearance, and it disturbed him more than he thought it would, especially with how easy it was. Logically, he knew that it was a monster, one that was preparing to kill everyone in the camp, but he couldn’t help but think back at his first sight of them and thinking that they were children.

The thought didn’t sit well with him, but he didn’t have a chance to contemplate it any more than that as his attack switched the attention of the Bog Goblins off of his roommate and onto him. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but at least he could prevent them from going after the first-years.

Swarming around him, Larek was quickly surrounded by over a dozen of the little monsters, who began to stab at him with their stone-tipped spears. His reach was thankfully long enough to slip past and kill a few of them when they attacked, but there were just too many of them. He was able to dodge a few of the spears, which gained him another Level in his Dodge Skill, but others managed to slip through and shallowly pierce his skin.

Dodge has reached Level 6!

As they retracted their spears, he immediately triggered the Healing Surge Fusion on his anklet, and a small shock ran through him as the minor wounds healed. He made sure to deactivate the Fusion after only a few seconds, as he didn’t want his natural regeneration to start eating him from the inside out.

Larek killed a few more of the Goblins before he started taking even more damage, and he saw out of his peripheral vision as the rest of the monsters began streaming past him, heading for the first-years’ tents. Before he could try and break out from the surrounding Goblins and stop them, he was reinforced by the other caravan guards that ran up, some of them appearing to have just woken up.  Better than that, however, was the arrival of Rheina, the quick Martial graduate with her twin knives.

She began tearing through the Goblins with a speed and deadliness that couldn’t be matched by either the guards or Larek. With deft moves, she slipped around spears that were stabbed in her direction, slitting the throats of those that attempted to hurt her, before moving on to the next.  She did just enough damage to them with her weapons to incapacitate them with open necks, but she didn’t have the same sort of power or sharp blade as Larek did when he lopped their heads off completely.

Distracted in watching her fight, Larek was stabbed another half-dozen times, his robe and overalls doing absolutely nothing to stop the attacks. Fortunately, none of them were too deep and were largely superficial, though they certainly hurt enough that he didn’t to suffer more strikes. With a furious roar, he spun around himself, angling his axe blade in such a way that it didn’t hit the Bog Goblins themselves, but instead targeted the spears they wielded. His tool easily cut through the shafts and even the stone blades of the Goblins’ weapons, leaving them holding what essentially amounted to useless sticks.

Axe Handling has reached Level 81!

Deprived of their weapons, the monsters seemed to turn suicidal as they charged toward Larek. What they intended to do, he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t give them a chance; as soon as they were in range, he spun around again with his axe extended, cutting through Goblin bodies with very little resistance, leaving them bisected or missing limbs once he was done. One of them managed to sneak through and attempted to jump on him, but Larek quickly punted the green-skinned Goblin away, where it disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

With a temporary reprieve in the constant attacks, he looked around to see that the other Martial, Crester, had arrived and was currently surrounded by dozens of Goblins. A strange light seemed to emanate from his shield, and Larek thought he felt some sort of pull toward the armored man, but it was easy enough for him to ignore. As for the other caravan guards, they were holding their own, but were being pushed back by pure numbers, and even as he watched, one of them disappeared under the flood of green bodies.

Looking back toward Rheina, she was having trouble of her own, as he saw her slowing down a little as she was inflicted by a few minor injuries as she was surrounded, and he saw a few slits in her leather armor that weren’t there before. A flash of light coming from one of her knives seemed to push back a half-dozen of the Goblins, giving her some room to maneuver, but she was quickly surrounded again.

A fireball suddenly appeared from the middle of the camp, followed by another one, descending upon the clustered monsters. When they impacted the Goblins, one of them exploded and engulfed a half-dozen of the green-skinned menaces, while the other simply charred its target and lit it on fire – which quickly spread to the clothing of the nearby Goblins. A second later, a dozen Goblins were suddenly ensnared by thorn-covered vines that seemed to appear out of nowhere, the sharp points of the thorns digging into their skin and causing additional damage.

Good, it looks like Nedira is involved. I’m guessing that one of the fireballs came from Rendle—

A sudden shout that was enhanced by some sort of spell came from the camp, and he recognized the voice of the Naturalist he was just thinking about. “Everyone, close your eyes and look away from me!”

Larek, stupidly, continued to stare toward the center of the camp, even as he was stabbed in the butt by a Goblin spear when he wasn’t paying attention.  As a result, he received a face full literally blinding light, and he felt his vision go completely white before abruptly turning black without a hint of color.

Oh, crud. Blinded by own Fusion!

The Illuminate Wood Staff Fusion that Larek had put on Nedira’s staff was on full display, searing through the eyes of anyone who had been looking in her direction. Shouts of pain echoed throughout the camp, and unfortunately it wasn’t just the gurgling screams of the Bog Goblins.

I sure hope Nedira’s blinding light was worth it.

Book 2 Chapter 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-81392868