“WHORESONS! THE FIELDS ARE NO GOOD! WE MUST TRAVEL THROUGH THAT WOODLAND!” Kjell yelled back as he pointed and took a sharp left.
“Oh gods no!!” Kate cried out. “We NEVER go in the woods! They are bad! Terribly BAD!” She looked over her shoulder and performed an impressive spin-shot barrage of ice projectiles. “BUT WE HAVE NO CHOICE! RUN! GO!”
Our initial destination had quickly become a real shit show, as dozens of corrupted and arena monsters sprung from the tall crops and thick plant growth, enticed by our arrival, incensed by each others.
Fuck! I didn’t make it this far to die. I’ll take whatever is in the woods over the corrupted.
Me, Kate and Vamp were sprinting together in a line at the back, with Kjell leading in front of Viki, Erika and Sonny, and as fast as we were, the corrupted were wickedly faster..
To give myself some more options, I dropped down Slipfold points in strategic safe looking locations around me and then nearly choked when I went to check on the ones I’d made in the arena and found that they were gone.
WHUUUUT THE ACTUAL FUCK NOW!?
Every single anchor was impossible to reach, as if they had simply vanished. Gone
How could that be?! Who’s doing this? Or WHAT is doing this? The only thing that’s changed is the distance and that we’re outsi-...
…The walls. The gods-damned protective CEILING.
It was all made from the same stuff. And if it was strong enough to stop things from coming in AND getting out, it would stand to reason it could be disrupting or blocking my connections.
Shit it. Okay, not great, but we must manage. Frick it. No matter. Better to find out now rather than when I need it most. I just need to adjust my strategy a bit and to watch out for these walls.
A similar creeping panic and dread I’d once felt when I’d tried caving - a lifetime ago..
It really scared me, this feeling of being buried after getting so used to the freedom that Slipfold gave me.
But Siya had made it.
She fearlessly came for me, so I would make damn sure to watch over her until she recovered.
..How the HELL did you get in here Siya, you crazy moth..
This whole scene would look absolutely insane to a normal human if they were watching us steaming along moving at what must have been at least 50-60kmph.
But right now it didn’t feel fast enough.
Even as the misty tree line rapidly approached filling my view, we barely slowed down and started weaving around and in between the thick woodland, scuffing past a few tree trunks and crunching fallen branches with every step.
The visibility in the woodlands was disastrous, even with my unique vision which eventually forced us to slow right down lest we end up painting a tree with ourselves. And this poor visibility was due to a cottony mist that coated everything, muffling sounds and suffocating the air and surrounding trees with its sticky moisture. The trees themselves were bald, very tall and had a goose-pimply texture. They didn't feel natural in the slightest.
Viki had a small sphere of light floating in front of her and she was leading her family, whilst Kate was being led by Vamp, with his red eyes reflecting light like a cat, and he was gripping her hand, practically dragging her like an eager puppy.
“So dare I ask what’s wrong with these woods?” I called out to Kate.
“Just that if you see any of the trees or branches moving, MOVE AWAY, fast!” Her voice trembled and broke at the end of her sentence.
Maybe it was the loud talking - Or maybe it was just the universe sitting back in its office chair lazily eating its cup’o’noodles with its feet up, when it suddenly realised ‘oh shit! It’s been 5 minutes since I last dumped a nasty and creepy entity onto that accursed man's lap. Better fix that!’ - when from a dozen trees ahead of me, there was a snap of movement and a long thin branch lifted up and out, attached to a 3 metre tall humanoid that was just bald sticks on a thin leaf textured torso with a stretched, long featureless head. It looked like someone had stretched tanned leather onto a mesh of twigs. The hands - for crying out loud! - were just two arm length fingers with a stupid thumb glued onto the arm and-
Label: Leather Twig
MAGN: 66.100
HP: 1980/1980
Notes: Ain't no bears shitting in these woods that's for sure. Reminds me a bit of the broomsticks from Fantasia..*shudder*..
Nope. Fuck off! Fuck you!
I wasn’t in the mood for this creepy pasta bullshit.
Slipfolding into melee range, it sharply swung at me as I appeared, forcing me to swing a shield around and put my back into it in order to block the strike, but it was alarmingly powerful as it loomed over me with its blank faceless head, like trying to stop a malevolent falling tree from crushing you. I managed though, and spitefully retaliated with the other shield, hacking into its leg and cracking it open with a burst of green and white ichor, knocking the tall prick down onto the floor. It left out muffled screams which made me screw my face up in confused disgust but I Surge integrated my shields and pummelled it twice before finishing it off with another Slipfold to catch up with the others.
Behind me a screaming match had erupted and the sounds of tree trunks snapping and cracking were deafening.
“KATE YOU SAID TO LOOK OUT FOR TREES AND BRANCHES?! NOT LEATHER FUCKING STICK PEOPLE!” I shouted.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I-" She panicked and shot me a fearful look at the worst possible timing where long thin branch arms swung out for her, but fortunately Vamp was laser focused and reacted like a cat, yanking her down so that they both skidded under a crazy amount of attacks that abruptly materialised from behind random tree trunks. They both scrambled and managed to hop back to their feet mid slide, as dozens of leather twigs emerged from behind trees as we passed.
"V! Oh lord! Oh holy merciful-..I owe you a dozen apples for that! Thank you! Tha-AHH!!" She screamed as more branche arms appeared but she dodged them well and started blasting out projectiles.
Kjell and co had sped off not waiting up in the slightest, but I couldn't blame them.
As all around us dozens-no, hundreds-of leather twig monsters were casually popping their faceless long heads out the side of tree trunks, intrigued by the fleshy intruders, pondering how satisfying it would be to just squeeze us until we popped like grapes.
"FUCK SAKES! Don't you sticky CUNTS have some photosynthesising to do or some shit?" It always felt good to vent my frustration vocally.
We kept running, ducking and side stepping the countless stick arms that swiped and reached out for us but with the poor visibility and not really knowing which direction to go, it felt like a fever nightmare, like we were stuck in an endless purgatory forest with stick demons coming to grind our souls..
"SCRIII-*THWACK*..SCRAAA-*CCCRACK*"
The corrupted sounded like they were actually getting slowed down. One of their screeches or screams would momentarily pierce through the fog before an almighty smacking noise snuffed it out.
"I SEE LIGHTS! I SEE LIGHTS!" Kate was pointing like a kid at Disney land and indeed, up ahead there were white and purple bursts of light and the edge of a tree line that spilled out into a mist free open space.
That's not necessarily a good thing Kate-
And surprise, surprise, as we exited into a meadow, in the distance about 200 metres away, we could see a veritable army of guards fending off monsters, including the leather twigs, deployed in a semi circle formation, protecting a group of people doing something elaborate and flashy to a large loading bay like gateway that was closed.
They looked like they were handling their shit. They were organised and very strong.
Well crap. Seren, be ready, I may need your help here..
An immediate shiver in my shields reassured me she was paying very close attention.
"HEY! HEY!-" Kate foolishly started to yell out,
KATE WHAT THE F-
The cat was already out of the bag and along with their attention directed at us, they also kindly didn't hesitate to send a care package storm of projectiles our way.
"AHHH!"
"WATCH OUT!"
Kjell curled his huge arms around Erika and Sonny and spun them around as Viki put her hands up, conjuring a pearl white lattice shield that pulsed and rippled with impacts like raindrops falling into a pond. But it managed to hold.
Vamp pushed Kate out of the way and for his troubles, he was pierced right through by a blue tracer round projectile which sent him spinning down onto the grass. He became motionless.
My shields snapped forward and skillfully jerked around, deflecting and absorbing the majority of the projectiles. But my DS resources weren’t up to the tasks and plummeted to critical levels forcing me to phase dash through a white crackling ball that sent out licking tendrils of lightning and yet still managed to get a single hit on me, dropping my HP by 50.
But aside from that I made it without a critical injury.
That's a fucking scary attack though. 50 from one hit and it's spitting out dozens of tendrils every second!
My shields parted slightly and I glared at our aggressors.
You motherfuckers will regret that.
They were all mag level 50-60 and they were most definitely veterans fighters. Even after unleashing that attack, they had maintained their perimeter against the increasing number of nightmare creatures streaming in from the surrounding woods, and so I needed to think extremely carefully about my next move.
I also took note of the lack of a single corrupted arriving yet.
Must be busy elsewhere..Gotta count your blessings I guess. Okay. What's the best play here..
They sent a focused barrage in my direction, so I Slipfolded over towards Vamp, Kate prone next to him, serving another healing tonic whilst simulatanously firing pot shots back from behind a small natural mound.
"ASSHOLES! BASTARDS! PEDILO YOU SHRIMP DICK! I SEE YOU!"
Youch. Majik bullets are not the only shots being fired.
"Kate, Vamp, are you both good?"
Vamp looked over and sharply nodded as his gaping wound stitched back up and Kate just jumped and glared at me with unhinged eyes, wild with fear and anger; confusion at the lack of mine.
"Okay. Listen carefully, DO NOT attack the large black armoured Daemon when you see her. She's friendly, although she won't be if you hit her. You'll understand shortly."
"O-Ok-WAIT? THE WHA-" Kate started but I Slipfolded before she could go into it and arrived near Viki's shield, keeping a bit of distance so as not to spook them and relayed the same somewhat cryptic message.
Fuck it. I gave them enough warning…
Seren!
Please come do your thing.
Immediately my insides lurched and I could feel a burst of movement and change occurring around my torso and shoulder blades.
The shields juddered and growled as they spilled out and slammed into the floor.
Shifting around with the surface crawling and rippling into familiar shapes, more black and azure Majik spooled out like streams of water on a hydrophobic surface; the sound of metallic raindrops on a pane of glass.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Finally, with an echoey synth sigh, Seren's Daemon construct form was complete and she immediately interposed herself between me and the attackers, shields fanning out to completely block another barrage of attacks.
"By all things holy!" Kjell gasped.
Hello again my darling! Two times in one day oh my! Oh my you're insatiable!!
Clearly I'm Hella thirsty, and my only quench is violence.
Hmm, yes. And I see you're in a spot of bother, but I have to tell you, things really do not look great.
Encouraging and on point.
On point indeed. Firstly, those fancy Nancy's at the back are channelling reinforce abilities on the gates, meaning something must be trying to get in!
Ooof. That sounds ominous, but we still need to get the hell out of here! I’m willing to take our chances with whatever is behind mystery door number one.
I couldn’t agree more darling. Careful of stray fireballs now-
She abruptly spun around and shot forward, tearing up the dirt into plumes with every powerful step.
The guards in the arena must have been the newbies or something, because these guys were on a different level.
They reacted immediately and lept into a new formation, splitting into tidy groups of six in a 1-2-3 triangular formation; the 3 person side facing Seren.
Every single group had someone holding at least one shield in the front row at the front guard, being flanked either side with others wielding a large weapon in a defensive posture. The second row looked to have a lot of weaponless or ranged weapon holders and then at the very back it was difficult to see but they each sent a stream of swirling silver shimmer that created a mesh shield at the front of each group so it was fairly obvious if you were in the know how.
I see the pattern. Fighters at the front, ranged in the middle, support at the back. Careful Seren.
Yup, I see it too. Clever little clogs aren’t they. Oof! VERY feisty too!
She was getting peppered with projectiles as she closed the distance, and I could feel her taking increasing levels of damage; even when detached, I had a strange phantom sense of the hits.
Let's see how they like thhhi-ughhh-nnnn-aghh! ASSHOLES!
Seren!!
Seren dashed forward and slammed into the closest group's frontline shields but it looked like she hit a brick wall and was immediately jumped on by the other two fighters who savagely unleashed strikes and abilities with the ranged attackers taking carefully aimed shots.
She plummeted to 25% DS in a matter of seconds. Not good.
Seren! Come back!
Something wasn’t making sense. We had dropped all those guards in the and yet these hardass bastards are standing firm like they are fucking Spartans!
She slammed her shields defensively in front as she jumped back. The enemy immediately returned to their formation and continued to steadily throw out ranged attacks at everything surrounding them, including us.
Agh! How frustrating! It’s that defensive skill! Look at this-
Seren used Shard Strike and was negated by [III Phalanx Guard].
Existence be damned! I don’t think I’m strong enough by myself Godu, you’re going to need to disrupt that back line!
Alright I think I can do that easily enough! Let me get set up and then tell me when to go!
So I said, but when I tried to place Slipfold points behind them, the skill repeatedly failed, telling me that interference was stopping me.
Anchor placement failed due to active interference.
TITS!
GRR! BLOODY INTERFERENCE CAN FUCK ITSELF WITH A SHOVEL!!
Seething, I glanced around, hoping for a divine, or even a mundane inspiration of what to do next.
We’re pretty fucking borked! What the hell can we do Seren?
We..the others may be able to help. Try and get them all to where that guard and Vamp are. Ohhh but we’ve got incoming from behind as well!
Go to Kjell and his family and I will help the other two! We're going to need them in order to break through before the corrupted flood the area!
DAMN this accursed place!
I looked over and sure enough there were leather twigs pottering out the woods towards our direction, with a few brave heroes amongst them more interested in the bigger group, but we were closer so naturally they came to ruin our day first.
It’s always raining in Shitville..
Slipfolding towards Kjell, I immediately Surge-jumped up on my exit and deployed my boots null-armaments, aiming for two of the creepy twigs that had made their way dangerously close. The first took a surge integrated talon to where its face should have been if it had one, and the effect was devastating. The azure glowing razors edge sinking into its leathery bark flesh creating extremely deep gashes that oozed out gallons of a very dark green ichor.
The abused thing screamed out in short muffled bursts, unsettlingly like an animal being smothered to death with a pillow, and it swung violently around in retaliation, accidentally conking his friend down to the ground. The noise nearly made me bark out laughing but instead it came up as a grunt as I ducked under another swing, struggling slightly as I was still princess carrying Siya, but managed to pull off a leap and successfully jump-curb stomped the fallen one.
“COMING ON YOUR RIGHT GODU!” Kjell boomed out and I flickered my gaze over expecting to see his large frame, but instead, I saw Erika, his granddaughter, charging in with her skin and hair rapidly changing as she gracefully bound towards me.
Her hair changed from blonde to ashy white with her eyes filling up with a UV purple light and her entire body grew a dark slate-like suit of organic armour, giving her raised feet and large clawed hands. And to top it all off, her head had a thin layering of this armour, in the style of a sleek single mask piece that had geometric angled horns with a jagged mouth line.
She looked like a literal demon.
She launched herself at the wounded leather twig and crawled over it as if she was doing an elaborate pro-wrestling move, but it became clear it was more because she wasn’t strong enough or heavy enough to push it over, but she was very agile. So instead of using brute strength, she neatly slid onto its back and shoved her sharp clawed hands into its wounds and ripped its head apart like peeling open an orange and impressively rode its dead corpse like a surfboard as it toppled down onto the ground.
“H-o-l-y shit! Nice! Can you keep doing that?” I asked her and she just stared at me and spread her jack-o-lantern jagged mouth into a wide grin.
“Uhh-”
“YES GODU! WEAKEN THE MONSTERS! ERIKA WILL FINISH THEM OFF!” Kjell yelled out as he started clubbing back a couple of the leather twigs that were trying to attack their shield with…one of the leather twigs severed arms.
Nice.
As I looked for my next target, I did a double take as I happened to glance at Viki and Sonny, catching them making complicated gestures inside their shield bubble and saw that they were raising a solid looking structure from the ground, with streams of Majik flowing from their hands to the construction in progress.
No time to ask what’s going on there-oh found my next targets.
Surge jumping from monster to monster, I carefully held onto Siya and switched things up by using powerful kicks and a little help from gravity to slash deep gashes into the twigs as they started to steadily rise in number. For every one we took out, another three would creepily shamble out from behind a tree or just appear through the mist. When things got too much, I would use Slipfold, but Erika’s close proximity made me nervous about using it too much lest I accidentally bring half of her with me..
Unknown time past and Vamp, Kate and Seren were getting harassed by projectiles and a large amount of leather twigs that weren’t a problem for Seren, but she couldn’t be in multiple places at once.
Things were slowly spiralling out of control.
Godu there are far too many for everyone to sustain ourselves much longer, we MUST get them all together and act as a single team. If we can just get a single moment where that skill is down and get at their flanks or rear…Perhaps you should try and set up a team using group up? At the very least it will help us organise this chaos a bit better!
A team?..Oh! OKAY. Understood. On it!
My [III Group Up] ability, the upgraded version of VoIP.
[III Group Up]
Allows team creation.
Enables visual cues to indicate team status and other information.
Shows realtime MAGN, Health, Majik, positive/negative effects and cardinal direction.
I had to look at them to mentally send the requests, and aside from a few startled looks they all accepted. The information materialised in my black thought space. Clear to read and interpret. Exhibited as a small portrait of their faces, the mag level was a rounded integer plonked in the middle, HP and MP showing as percentages on the side and the status effects as simple text. The cardinal directions were unique in representation by having their status profiles move in the direct direction they were currently at, in comparison to my field of view.
But a rather amazing nice hidden feature was that all team members were now able to communicate.
#Team#
Godu: No time to explain everything but we need to work together, do you read me.
Kjell: How the hell do I-WOA! This is new and crazy!
Viki: Understood Godu.
Sonny: I think so.
Erika: YESS.
Kate: Yes-argh! That asshole! I want to KILL THEM ALL!
Vamp: Oh wow this is EPIC. Godu, you are god tier dude.
This is great Seren, can you see it as well?
Yup I certainly can! But I can't communicate myself…although, as a Daemon.. I wonder if..
#Team#
Daemon Seren winks at Godu.
Every single person's head snapped to Seren, regardless if they were mid-fighting or not.
Oh it does work.
I groaned and swiftly moved on.
#Team#
Godu: OKAY. Listen everyone, we need to group up and try to use all our available skills to push through their defences. So for the sake of saving as much time as possible I'll ask a question and if the answer is yes, let me know.
I communicated with them whilst fighting; me and Erika becoming increasingly efficient in dealing with the leather twigs. A surge leap into a surge talon kick inflicted massive damage that enabled her to wedge her claws in and rip them open, and occasionally her claws would pulse with a violet glow and her speed would go through the roof and proceed to devastate a couple by herself.
#Team#
Godu: Firstly, does anyone have healing abilities that can heal others?
..
Viki:Yes.
Sonny: Yes.
A brief pause whilst I Slipfolded and took an arm and a leg with me.
I also noted there had been a lack of heals offered to Vamp in his time of spaghetti-armed need, and felt somewhat offended for him.
#Team#
Godu: Okay. Does anyone have abilities that let them block damage whilst moving?
Viki: Yes.
Sonny: Yes.
Kjell: Yes.
Erika: YES.
Vamp: Yes but I can't use it right now I'm afraid.
Godu: Okay, Vamp you are exempt here due to the collar.
Seren, I'm thinking you are at the front with Kjell, Viki and Erika, then me Sonny and Kate behind in that order, with Sonny focused on healing any damage. Vamp will keep a lookout at the back and I'll jump into their backlines when I can and go apeshit with Slipfold.
It should work but let me go in front on my own as I can take the brunt of it. Put the other three in line behind me to absorb any flank attacks-
Seren abruptly stopped communicating as she frantically blocked a storm of blue lightning bolts that homed in on her and not wasting a moment, impaled a row of leather twigs straight after.
Ugh, and put Viki in the middle so that she can pop her bubble shield if things get really bad. I’m sure it will be fine though!
I like optimism.
There hadn't been any fights like this in the arena to benefit from, but I'd grown accustomed to having a battle plan for every fight so it felt reassuring to have one, even if it was not the best.
This will work. It has to.
I explained the idea as we moved and even managed to convince a reluctant Kjell in mere seconds. He had valid concerns, but I insisted and merely pointed out that once the corrupted reached this area, there would be no escape for anyone; do or die.
Well, that isn’t STRICTLY true for me, I could fold back to the start and maybe hide in the mountains and wait for this to blow over, but my gut was screaming at me that if those gates didn’t fall now, there’d be no escape.
Ever.
Family Kjell and myself quickly gathered up and used the wall structure that Viki and Sonny had raised to provide protection as we got into a rough formation and watched as Seren covered Vamp and Kate whilst they sprinted over to us to finalise it all.
#Team#
Godu: Okay everyone ready?
A round of grim nods.
I am ready too!
#Team#
Godu: Okay then. Follow our armoured Daemon friend here.
If things go bad Seren..we run. We have our own family to look after right now.
Of course.
Alright.
#Team#
Godu: Let’s go.
Seren marched out with her shields fanned out creating maximum coverage and started to walk with powerful, mechanical strides.
The entire situation felt surreal, from the strange burning smells of scorched earth and air, the fearful yet determined faces of a rejuvenated elderly couple and their demon granddaughter and boyfriend, an ex-guard and a pale weirdo pushing through Majik and exotic projectiles, to the sight of Seren’s large unnatural frame blocking-
EXCUSE ME? LARGE?-
-Tall. I meant tall.
Behind her, Kjell was on the left, Viki in the Middle and Erika still in her demon armour. Then me on the left with Sonny in the mIddle and Kate on the right. And then finally Vamp was at the back, keeping watch for anything that looked like it would catch up to us.
At the first few metres I almost started to believe that our duct tape team and tactics would actually be able to pull this off. That we would reach their frontline and smash through without any issue.
GODU! INCOMING ABOVE US!
#Team#
Godu: SHIELDS ABOVE!
It was like hell itself had opened up and projectile-vomited in our direction, as a tsunami of energy, electricity, ice, fire, acid and metal came crashing down on us like an avalanche.
Viki immediately threw up her shield and Sonny started to low-key sing as his eyes embered with a bright glow; Majik streaming to hurriedly sew up the shield's faults and fractures that clinked and cracked under the relentless intense bombardment.
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS-
NNNNGGGGGHHH-ARRGGGHH!
What initially felt like a torrential downpour, turned into a mountain's worth of hellborn rain being dumped on us. Even under the white lattice shield I struggled under the pressure, heat and I could taste the burnt air that stuffed my nostrils full of ozone.
My legs buckled under it all, and I clutched onto Siya and held my breath whilst existence all around us screamed and roared curses at our presence.
Do I Slipfold? They will 100% die! They will all die! Do I care? How will I get out!!! Oh shit oh shit oh shi-
Then abruptly everything stopped, with only the crumpled sounds of dirt thumping back down and the cracking and splintering of broken trees and branches finding a resting place.
And we were still standing, unscathed.
…
..
.