Luke pushed his feet against the warm sulfuric ground. The hiss of snakes grew louder, and lions roared. The chimera’s bat wings fruitlessly flapped. Luke in-took heated air to his lung and activated Wraith Wail.
The beasts in the front middle of the raging pack slowed, and the individual stuck in horror caused a chain reaction. The pack's momentum became ruined. The beasts to the left and right most pack edge funneled around the stopped middle. Luke felt the rush of experience enter within him. A few chimeras were already trampled to death.
Cassandra spotted the opportunity and shot a black arrow into the yellow-tinted sky; a flash of lightning struck, and a volley of crossbow bolts appeared. The bolt-rain smashed into the mindless beasts, and their group split once more.
“Darius, Kyle, now!” Cassandra said. “Lilly, Luke, ready your skills for the impact.”
Kyle shouted, and his shield grew more extensive. A taunting force made the beasts fixate on him. He pressed his shoulder against the shield and had his axe back, waiting. Darius spread a leg forward; his spear pointed down. His back arm turned pure black, as did the spear’s tip—a silver front outline extended out in front of him, representing his lethal range.
As an undulating white light surrounded her hands, Lilly whispered in worry, “Why are these showing up so early? They’re not supposed to be here…”
Luke placed a reassuring hand on the bird fan for a second. Essence crept up to his eyes, and frost coated both his swords. Without realizing it, Luke had reached a new threshold in essence control. Stolen talent from the Spectral Heart greased the wheels of progress.
With an edge of teasing, he said, “Sooty here will save the day if it all goes sour.”
Lilly smiled but didn’t reply. As a wave of light pushed out from her, the ring appeared around her group. She spread out her hands, and a radiance barrier split between Kyle and Darius, protecting both—the first Chimera charged in. With Kyle’s taunt ability, the beasts attempted to over-run the knight. Darius skewered two with a masterful thrust; a blast of black energy left his back arm and charged the velocity of his attack.
Kyle’s shield held, and Lilly’s barrier vanished after the first three attacks from the Chimera. Two pounced over their occupied brethren. Casandra shot two arrows, spirals of wind rotating them.
Luke spoke, “Help her, Sooty.”
The crow pushed off his shoulder and rocketed to the mid-air beasts, their bat wings gliding to increase air time. She disdained using an ability but raked the feather-less excuse for wings, causing the two to begin to drop. Luke funneled the strength he’d gained, and his legs sprang. The Reaver jumped to a gravity-defying degree; his trajectory approached the two beasts.
His eyes caught a specific insight; he could ‘see’ it. Whispering Edge punctured through one chimera’s heart, and Xera cleaved the other through its neck. Luke’s momentum carried him forward through the air. He let go of Whispering Edge, his feet pressed against the blade, still stuck in a dying Chimera’s body.
Luke pushed with his feet. He dived toward the horde in front of him. The skewered Chimera’s body fell uselessly to the side of Cassandra’s group. He switched Xera to a two-handed style; a frosted wave sprang forward as he sliced mid-air. Sooty strained her wings as she tried to follow her Reaver’s madness.
The Reaver desired the cold. The violent, heated gazes of monsters disgusted him. Without consideration, Luke cast Frost Fall Reave while still in the sky. A raging snowstorm coalesced around him. Frost coated the beasts; their gaze changed from violent hunger to cowed fear. Ice spread under his flight path and thickened around Xera.
Luke thrust Xera down into a beast just below him, softening his landing with its body. Sooty caught up, and he empowered his partner with Essence Bond. He was surrounded on all sides. Four chimeras charged at him. Sooty followed his subconscious intent through Reaver’s Link.
The corvid Reaver Beaked on through a chimera’s legs, crippling it. She spiraled, and her talon strike tore off the head of the beast next to the first. Luke stepped hard, and his body rushed to meet the other two aggressors. He slid with his created ice, and Xera gutted one beast while he dodged the other. Luke turned to the fourth beast, Sooty already fiercely locked in battle with it.
He rolled under its belly, Xera entered in quickly, he pulsed frost, and its organs froze. The Reaver entered into a clear battle-state. Before the monster's body could smother him, he pushed to his right with a hand. Sooty tackled a beast waiting for him.
Luke dodged two paw swipes. A chimera roared in front of him, and a sonic wave began to ruin his balance. He plunged Xera through its throat, and the effect prematurely ended. Frost continued to stack, and Luke re-infused Sooty and Xera. These beasts were too slow to fool his eyes.
With the enchantment of three different abilities, Sooty rattled in glee; monster blood covered her feathers as she mutilated another chimera. The corvid began to flash in and out of sight; shadow clung to the blackbird. Luke came further into the monster pack. Faint yells from the party worriedly called after him.
He appreciated the thought but didn’t intend to come in here with a party in the first place. Luke felt they would overlook an ability like Polar South, so he used it. The insight further guided his combat. Luke gathered the ambient frost produced by his elementalization and Frost Fall Reave.
With no intention of retreating, he reared Xera behind him. Luke swung the blade in an arc, and an icy burst from the accumulation exploded before him. The monsters became pure ice. A slight tap with his blade shattered them. Luke continued deeper into the monster horde. Sooty focused on covering her Reaver’s back.
While the two held back two particular abilities each, their previous challenges were greater. The handicap only extended the battle. An energy began to light up Luke’s eyes. He felt more alive. Frost Fall Reaver ended, but the frost didn’t melt. With Luke’s frost essence continually emanating, the terrain transformed further. The monsters slipped often, and those who didn’t still slowed considerably.
Every significant loss in posture for a monster near Luke resulted in their death. An exposed neck or belly was never missed, while Polar South boosted his insight. By the time Polar South ended, the monsters intentionally avoided Luke. Instead, they surged toward his temporary party. His frost slowed their adjusted course.
“Tsk.” Luke stomped his feet, and the ice underneath cracked, “Sooty, fly over. You’ll make it back faster than I will.” The Reaver Companion left after she clicked her beak.
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Luke hadn’t learned how to have ice enhance his speed like he effortlessly managed during Essence Feedback. As he hurried back, Luke’s essence began to hit dangerously low levels. To recover, he stopped using his frost, and the ice slowly melted.
He saw his group holding up well, although Kyle had already become bloodied with Darius in the worst condition out of the four. Their back-line, which consisted of Casandra and Lilly, looked exhausted but otherwise fine. Sooty dived in, with her finishing off any monsters Darius attacked for him.
The combo of spear master and Reaver Companion synergized well, and the tide of monsters was largely stemmed. Cassandra picked up what they couldn’t manage. Luke sliced the tide away from behind, fighting to force open a bloody path back to the group.
As he did so, he noticed Lilly stopped casting. The girl looked on helplessly, unable to support her companions further. Luke cleaved through the beasts with the assistance of his strength stat. Luke caught sight of three hunter groups circling them at a far distance. A light went on internally. As he continued to cut down other beasts, it came to him.
They herded them all here.
Luke hefted Xera, then sliced her down through the nearest Chimera. Its snake tail hissed at him and spat poison. He swatted the attack aside. A thin layer of ice protected Xera from corrosion. He immediately shed the ice and cut the tail off. The Chimera roared deeply in pain and began to sway.
Casandra’s group used their positioning around the spire well. With Lilly out of mana, they began to rotate their health potions. They’d revolve around the terrain advantage, buying themselves more time. Luke spread Infusion to Xera and Sooty. He’d yet to lose a stack on himself. Essence Bond left his bird, and he decided to hold back the ability. It was one thing to use it away from the group and another with Sooty right next to them.
Luke grew tired, and he decided if cutting through monsters was going to take this long, he’d have to go about it another way. He chopped the snake tail off another Chimera, then jumped onto its body. He sprang from beast to beast, making headway far faster. Half a minute later, he regrouped with Darius, and not a moment too soon.
The spear master bled everywhere. His left arm was weakly clasped to the spear. Without Sooty covering for him often, he’d already be dead. Lilly spent her mana mostly on Kyle, their tank. It wasn’t enough for Kyle, let alone Darius. The knight managed to keep most of the monsters on him, but with the taunt ability down, a sizable chuck attacked Darius. The knight desperately tried to peel the uncontrolled beasts away from Darius, but the exhaustion and strain blunted his efforts.
Cassandra used her arrows to pin and stem the tide where she needed to, but it was never enough. Her arms couldn’t keep up, and neither could her mana. Luke stepped in front of Darius. Icy blade strikes slit through beast heads as he said, “Stay behind Kyle; use your spear's length to attack when it's safe. I’ll cover this front. Sooty, help keep the knight alive.”
Luke rebuffed any monsters who attacked; he’d gain a moderate wound at best when multiple struck at once. His agility outstripped the Chimera’s by too large a margin for them to seriously harm him. He whirled, reaving the life from multiple beasts at once. The bloody display cowed the monsters again; they avoided him, which wasn’t as effective now that Luke regrouped with the party.
Through sheer extended use, Luke’s frost essence felt spent. Besides the occasional cast of Infusion, his battle style became a brutally simple swordplay, with Xera caked in beast blood. Kyle got overwhelmed, and a colossal chimera bowled him over. The knight landed on his back but refused to relinquish his shield.
Before Luke could assist, Cassandra said, “Kyle, roll!” The knight acted as instructed. Cassandra released a charged arrow shot, and a burst of wind blasted back the nearby monsters. A few roared in frustration, and the screech messed with Luke’s ear canal. His level suppressed the effect, but the story wasn’t the same for the group behind him.
An intrepid group of Chimera circled behind. Sooty noticed through her aerial view, she shoved Lilly aside just in time. The priest fell to the floor. But the ambush failed on the healer.
The groups getting surrounded, not good. Luke thought.
The Reaver scanned the area. The three groups from earlier were gone, and Luke was too busy keeping others alive to see where they skittered off to. He commanded, “Darius, take my position again. I’ll take the group’s back. Sooty, keep to the center, help where you see fit, stay flexible.”
Lilly half pushed herself up, her back against the crystal spire. She was inexperienced with any high-pressure battle, and it sorely showed. Luke stepped in front of her; he smashed aside a monster with one arm and thrust Xera into another. The forceful use of his arm made it ache. Luke refused to show more abilities but decided to reveal one more card in his hand. He wouldn’t let one of these four die due to his mistrust, even if it were only to satisfy his conscience.
“Use your feather, Sooty.”
Sooty applied Spatial Feather’s on-use and the true-magic conversion applied to her next three strikes. The corvid only had Reaver’s Beak available, Essence Screech, and Shadow Wing non-withstanding, due to Luke’s command not to use those skills. She used the ability on one monster, killing it on impact. The assistance from Spatial Feather enabled her two claw rakes to send two other beasts back to the reaper.
The quick kills gave Kyle’s front some breathing room. With that gap, he managed to pull monsters away from Darius. Cassandra ignored Luke’s end, trusting him to handle the rear alone. Instead, she used her arrows to cripple and blind as many beasts as she was able.
With his party still encircled, the group began to be chipped to critically low levels. Luke’s group members were in over their heads. Darius went down. His spear left his hands. Before a beast could tear into Darius’s neck, Luke cut off the monster’s head. With one Xera in one arm, he used his other to bring Darius back up.
“Put your back to the pillar next to Lilly,” Luke picked up Darius’s spear, “here, your spear.”
Darius gripped the weapon, his entire body shaking; the man limped to the red spire; the hot air made everyone struggle to breathe. The frost Luke emitted occasionally refreshed the group. The party shrank their perimeter; Kyle took the front alone and Luke the back. Sooty dived in and out, terrorizing the thinning monster wave.
Cassandra said, “I’m out of mana, can’t conjure any more arrows, shit!” Her eyes grew desperate, but the woman took a mace from her Inventory and began swinging where she could to support Kyle.
Her inexperience in melee immediately showed, and the archer suffered wounds quickly.
Luke closed his eyes. He could hear Sooty’s talons rend the creatures around him. The sound of a shield cracking, a spear snapping, a mace smashing, and a girl sobbing.
Time to bring out the last of the frost. If it’s not enough, fuck it, I refuse to let them die. I’ll use every last ability.
Call it naive, but Luke’s service molded him. Part of him stuck his neck out for others, and yes, it often put him in harm’s crosshair.
An iced wind spread out from the group. Xera became covered in ice once more. Luke placed Essence Bond around Sooty…and Xera. The two enchantments synergized, and Infusion overlaid the two of them as well. Luke sheathed Xera to let the frost build. Both hands laid onto her hilt. Luke allowed his eyes to remain closed.
Breathe, feel, and see.
His eyes snapped open, and he jumped up and put his feet against the spire behind him. Luke shot forward like a missile. He slashed out, and the ice-covered arc expanded his attack range; as Luke cleaved through five monsters, an ice creator impacted the once-volcanic soil.
He dodged a beast’s desperate pounce without skipping a beat. The passive of Shadowmeld Spaulders boosted the rate of his sword strikes. Kyle slipped behind him, and the ice, in combination with Kyle’s fatigue, made him lose his footing. Luke stood with Cassandra, and the two beat back the beast’s remnants. Sooty covered the defensive hole Luke created by leaving his former position.
Luke thrust Xera up through the mouth of a scarred Chimera. His blade came out and poked out its head. It released a death shudder and stopped moving. The handful of runts remaining contemplated but ultimately chose self-preservation. They sprinted away, afraid of the ice demon. Sooty began to chase after, but Luke stopped her.
He looked over to Cassandra, “Does this dungeon usually have this many monsters on a floor?”
Cassandra laughed with a sense of absurdity, “No, they don’t, spell sword; if the Beast Divide did this constantly, we’d be required to form ten-man parties.”
The Reaver remembered the three groups at the edges of his vision earlier.
Don’t let me find out who you are.