Chapter Twenty-Three: Power Leveling Under the Flight

Leo flew sideways along the bug, dragging his inertially-empowered blade along its side, then using his brutal reaction to slam it rapidly twice. It screeched and turned toward him, and Leo pushed against himself with his powers, soaring into the sky.

The turn exposed the giant bugs ‘neck,’ the point just behind the head. Three foxes, and an angry purple girl, a dwarf with an axe and an enraged dragon hit the exposed portion, which practically disintegrated into yellow goo. The giant monster, weak by the standards of its level, did have one thing going for it—an absolute ton of Health. Everyone pulled back and Leo repeated the maneuver twice more. On the second iteration, Ru got up the courage to get a swipe in as well.

The monster died.

“I… I leveled,” Ru said.

Leo looked at the rest of his team, but no one else had been below Fifteen, and the level Eighteen bug wasn’t enough even divided out.

“Congratulations,” Leo said, turning back to Ru. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”

Suddenly, Leo felt a pulse that seemed to shiver through his soul, and the world seemed… clearer, somehow.

“Holy shit!” Hugh said, stretching, his eyes growing slightly. “Oh… oh my. I… I just got a modifier, Leo. It says “Weak Dragonflight” and its gives me… so many stats. I have like twice the damage capacity from increased strength and modifiers to my magic, triple the health, higher damage resistance… I’m crazy strong!”

“I’ve also gained a great deal of power, and it even feeds into my telekinesis,” Zun said, awe in her voice.

“I, uh, I got stronger as well,” Ru dutifully reported.

“Magic goes Brrrr,” Leo said, staring at his friends.

“That’s a new one,” Lily said, laughing. “I’ll put the illusions up.”

“Or I could just murder everything,” Hugh said, holding his claw out. Orange crystal formed across it almost instantly, sharper and thicker than Leo remembered, and glowing slightly.

“They—as in, the dragons that are currently our enemy—all got stronger as well,” Lily reminded Hugh.

“Hmmph,” the dragon said petulantly.

Then a Cheshire cat grin covered his face. “Well, let’s at least go look for bugs. We’ll be able to jump out and kill them for experience incredibly quick with our power set now. Shame its so dangerous to fly—I want to trawl this whole region.”

“We’ll be sure to level,” Leo said, feeling his gut tighten in excitement. He couldn’t wait to add the ‘perfected grit’ ability to his roster.

She held her hands out, and a huge illusion of a bug covered nearly everyone, with another for Hugh and Zun together.

“All right,” Lily said, brushing her hands together. “This is an illusion I didn’t attach to anyone. Since no one is thirty feet long, I thought it would be easier—and use less essence—if I just made one big illusion. So it’ll cover you as long as you’re inside it. Everyone keep in a straight line as we travel. Check extremely carefully before you leave the line. And stay under the trees as much as possible. This is going to be the hardest part of the trip—knowing when to leave the illusions and when to stay, and then actually staying inside them.”

“Yes, Mother,” Neha said, rolling her eyes.

Hugh laughed, a powerful sound. “Let’s hunt.”

Before Leo could reply, however, a rapid clacking came from down the mountainside they were walking on. He recognized the bugs.

“Positions, everyone!” Leo called. Lily sighed and waved the illusions away.

Three bugs came running up the side of the mountain rapidly. None of them tried to attack his team—all curved away and tried to run past.

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“Get them!” Leo yelled, and flew in front of one, pulling rocks and tree branches as he went and sending them sailing at the bugs. He also pushed essence, shaped into Body magic, into his muscles and slashed the bug hard across its face in an X pattern and then let it run by, slashing its legs as it did.

Hugh bodied one, dragging it to the ground by himself and starting to absolutely rip chunks from it.

Neha touched a leg on a third, which disappeared, and then Remy bit the fleshy part lightly. The bug screeched and rolled onto its back, biting at the sky.

“Leave that one and help me finish this one—except Hugh handle your own!” Leo yelled.

The rest of the team came over and started to take the bug near them apart. Teeth, axes, thrown objects, swords, and a touch that teleported flesh away all brough the bug low fairly quickly, and Leo enjoyed the slight sense of experience. At the same time, Hugh simply chewed and ripped his to pieces, going toe-to-toe with it, his own crystal armor rendering him almost invincible. Hugh and Leo had already passed the bugs level, and now, with Hugh’s buff… it was a one-sided slaughter in both cases.

Finishing off the one trapped in Remy’s nightmare power was also an exercise of half a minute.

We’re… insanely powerful, Leo thought as he stared at his group. Each of those bugs had been over thirty feet long, with stronger than plate mail chitin… and they had made absolute mincemeat out of them.

Leo assumed that the other shoe would drop soon in the form of over-powered enemy dragons, but he had hopes this would last for a bit. Although…

“Why were they running like that and not even attacking us?”

Ru answered. “Well, it’s been so long since the last dragonflight that maybe a lot of them won’t have the trait anymore, but most of the bugs around here are inclined to run around till they find places they can hide when said dragonflight is happening.”

Hugh snorted. “So… my easy experience snacks are gonna be disappearing? Are disappearing?”

Ru nodded. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“That’s the only way to look at it!” Hugh cried out. “I got full experience as a Level Twenty-one being, even though I’m fighting like I’m Chester! I’ll never get a better chance to level than this!”

“Well, we’ll search as much as we can. I want to end as many bugs as possible.”

“Well, they’ll be racing around like hatchlings for a day or two, so at least for a bit it should be great,” Ru said. “Also, I made a second level.”

“I’m extremely close,” Zun said, and Andul nodded from her back.

Leo hefted his blade and stared out at the horizon. He saw nothing. “Alright, I’m going to fly up. No one else follow. Lily, please get ready to illusion us as dirt mounds or something equally boring if I come flying down. If not, perhaps I can spot bugs.”

“Are you sure?” Lily asked, twisting her finger in her hair.

“Yeah, the dragon is right. This is simply too good an opportunity to pass up. We need every ounce of experience we can get, and his power will make it far easier.”

Leo rose into the air. “Your hunting hawk is off, dragon.”

“Don’t compare yourself to a bird, it’s just… demeaning.”

***

The next three days were much the same. Leo would check, and if no dragons were around, they would look for bugs.

When the dragons did fly by, they hid, using illusions to appear as dirt mounds or bugs. No dragons ever stopped to bother them, to Leo’s everlasting thanks.

At first, it was extremely easy hunting, and the experience rolled in. No dragons for a few hours and bugs everywhere. Then, the dragons had come in a few huge waves, flying past them toward Dayblossom. Leo really hoped that Ty had gotten as many out as possible.

Then it was easy hunting again, but it dropped off rapidly—as the bugs found shelter Leo supposed. By day three they had decided to pack it in since they were at the outskirts of the swamp, anyway.

Hugh, Leo, and even Neha made a level. Lily made two. Zun and Andul both made three, which had them absolutely ecstatic.

Leo took perfected grit and even increased Agility when he leveled.

A ten percent longer life span, and a lot of random immunities and resistances, Leo thought to himself, pleased. Not dying as my ‘heir plan,’ indeed. On an elven body, that’s like forty extra years, and I’ve only been on Toth for two.

Well, forty if I don’t die violently, of course.

“What did everyone else take?” Leo asked as they walked along.

“The next level of Telekinesis and the area of effect modifier, as well as enhanced telekinetic sight,” Zun reported. “Also, four Capacity and two more Toughness.

Andul hefted his axe. “Another level of Golem mastery, another item slot, and a Metal magic power that improves the defense of my gear.”

“Well, I actually got a ton of powers,” Lily said. “I got the extra elf power as well as five total levels now. Back on Toth, before we came here, I took the next two steps of illusions, so I can create illusions the size of small houses, as well as the olfactory sense power—I can create sight, sound, and smell now.”

Technically, Lily had already told Leo about that, so he assumed she was sharing for everyone else’s sake.

Lily continued. “Since getting the levels here, I’ve also taken the next level of regeneration. I also just got the regenerating aura power, so as long as you guys are even kinda close to me I can hold a field that’ll give Health back to everyone, although a bit slower. I took two Connection, four Capacity, and four Toughness”

“For your last ability?” Leo asked.

“A point of Mind affinity.”

“I added a Level to my foxes through an ability from Soul,” Neha stepped in. “But they won’t grow into it for about a day.”

“More armor,” Hugh said.

Leo stared across the swamp. It appeared as it had the last time.

But this time he was going to try and steal form a civilization killer.

“Thanks for the update, everyone. Let’s do this.”