CHAPTER 126
He wondered if hiding here was the best use of his skills.
Mentally, he whacked himself. Yes, it was! As much as he remembered differently, he no longer had the stealth abilities to sneak around and be unnoticed by monsters of similar ranks. This battle was going to go for a long time and even if he only contributed by killing those Everlyn brought to him, that was fine. Someone had to help kill the creatures. It couldn’t all fall on the rangers to wipe out the entire invasion. His best chance to make a difference was right here. While the bulk of the event percentages would probably end up with the scouts, the ambush parties or singular destructive forces like him were important. The longjoule’s needed to be taught to avoid the ravines which would create extra opportunities for the ranger’s to snipe them.
Tom settled down to wait. He was an old hand at staying perfectly still in these conditions. Earth Sense reached out to give him additional information and his ears twitched at every sound.
It was not a tranquil environment. There was the continual noise of spells detonating and low thrumming howls he was sure originated from the longjoules.
Minutes passed, and he did not move at all. Then he felt the human feet jogging through the ravine.
Everlyn!
Not that he could tell for sure through the vibrations that it was her, but he wasn’t going to break cover. It was definitely a human, moved completely silently and with swift, deliberate steps. She ran into the ravine and then went into a ferret tunnel she had not highlighted to him as a potential bolt hole. Curiously, he tracked her for another five metres through the tunnel till she exited his range.
Incoming Tom. she whispered through the party chat. Too many to fight. Skip them.
Then he felt the jarring sensation of clawed hooves landing on the opposite side of his sensing domain. The way the feet dug into the dirt and rock made the impact be far more invasive than Everlyn’s almost butterfly steps.
A monster.
Multiple hooves entered the space.
Monsters.
Tom felt the emergence of a headache because of both how far he was stretching the ability and the strange affect of the longjoules’ hooves on his ability. He suppressed the weakness ruthlessly. There were only five, six, or maybe seven of them. That wasn’t that many. To distract from the pain in his brow, he concentrated on counting the hostile bodies that were heading down into the ravine.
The leading one was following the exact line that Everlyn had.
Tracking her.
They had spread out slightly, which gave him a better count of what he was facing. Four entered and two stayed at the top in an over watch position.
Tom did not panic as he considered his options. Everlyn had told him not to engage and if he did nothing, the most likely outcome would be that he wouldn’t be noticed. That logic held apart from a single fact.
The enemy’s tracker had just paused unexpectedly. That was not Everlyn’s. She had only travelled in a straight line. If the tracker had hesitated because of a track then it was almost certainly picking up Tom’s earlier movements.
His throat became dry, and his assessment of his next action went into overdrive.
There was no way he could attack the four in the ravine with two in over watch. If he did anything, he would need to take out that threat from above immediately otherwise they would pick him off from a distance.
The tracker was drifting toward the exit hole Tom had investigated earlier. It was away from his current position, but it told him it was tracking him and had briefly suspended the search for Everlyn. Somehow, it had known that he was here.
Plans swirled. He calculated angles particularly those that would occur if the tracker continued to follow his trail. The longjoules on top of the ravine were thankfully, in his eyeline. His rocks could target them.
His heart beat faster and then stilled into calm concentration.
It was going to happen. This was not a fight that he could avoid.
Battle trance took over as all of his focus went into executing the next few moments.
Two stones appeared in his hands.
He mentally tracked the progression of the tracker and its minders that followed. He rehearsed the options he had to flee in case they were needed.
None of them were plans he would have accepted in the tutorial, but he didn’t have access to those daily questions and the trap was sprung. His only job was to survive. He wondered if Everlyn knew what was happening or if she would come back to help.
Tom pushed the thoughts from his head. They weren’t important. Fight, flight or a combination of both - what was clear was that there wouldn’t be an option to run until the enemy’s numbers were substantially reduced. Each longjoule’s fire rate was too high, and the angles were to open.
The hole the tracker had just left was his best opportunity to escape even after factoring in that the choice meant going through the major group. It was deep, and he knew exactly how far the drop was. He could dive into it and if a spell hit his legs, he should be able to survive and get deep enough before the other spells reached him.
His tier three pants would help in that regard.
The tracker was approaching where he climbed the rock. It took all of his years of discipline, but he held his position. He had one chance to ambush, and he needed to make sure that he maximised damage for those starting critical couple of seconds.
Not yet.
He waited for them all to get to closer. To line themselves up perfectly like ducks in a row.
Now!
Tom stood and spent twenty fate. It rolled out of him and he could half sense it flying out to the various enemies.
The chameleon blanket falling away from him was forgotten as it was completely irrelevant to what was to come. The upthrust of the rock next to him hid him from the tracker and its companions. Apart from the rustle of his movement none of them would have noticed him.
He threw one rock, a second and a third. His Accurate Throw skill tweaked his aim, but unlike when he had first used the ability, his technical skills had improved so that adjustments barely slowed the throw.
The rocks whistled through the air.
Much like his meteorites, though not anywhere near as deadly or intimidating.
The first rock smashed against a magical shield before crumbling into tiny fragments destroyed by a property of the defence.
Tom winced in sympathy toward the longjoule. For it to have absorbed the full energy of his throw rather than deflecting, especially the destruction of the physical rock that was a massive magic sink. Its reserves must have been effectively sucked dry with that singular throw.
Sure enough, the shield wavered for a moment as visible vibrations ran through it, making it wobble violently before it shattered. Tom’s second rock whistled through the gap that had opened.
Red light had formed on the antenna’s of the monster his first two rocks had targeted but the reactions were too slow. The rock slammed into the face. He threw a fourth rock, knowing he was running out of time even if only a couple of seconds at most had passed and for most of that time they hadn’t registered the threat that he represented. He prayed that two rocks would also be good enough to take out the second one, but he couldn’t afford to watch. There was a closer problem to be solved.
His opponents unfortunately were of high rank and had heard him.
His grace period was over.
The four below were preparing to climb and swarm over the relatively small rock that protect him. They swarmed forward.
Now!
It was time for his second gamble. More fate flooded out of him, he needed this to work. The longjoules below had gathered about perfectly. One even had its head right next to the rock. Tom had imagined lots of variations of this situation and this aligned to his best case. He hip checked the shielding stone with Earth Manipulation flooding through the contact. Almost instantly, the solid rock cracked with thousands of fault lines expanding simultaneously. It went from a single solid piece of rock to hundreds of smaller ones.
The force imparted by his side, the Earth manipulation, and a little of gravity meant that they were all moving. That wasn’t enough for his plan, because he needed more. His mind picked out dozens, all of them small, out of the hundreds of options and deemed them critical. More mana flooded into him at his command.
Throw Rock.
He winced at the effort. A sharp brand of pain in his eyes. The Spell was not supposed to be used this way, but it worked when he kicked things, so he figured it would be no difference.
It wasn’t. The dozens of stones he was targeting instantly tripled their speed.
It destabilised the rock further.
There was a whomp and the multi tonne rock disintegrated and exploded away from him in a spray of magically accelerated shards.
The familiar presence of a mana headache hit him, but he still had energy left in his crystal so he wasn’t concerned. Rather than reacting he forced himself to reassess the situation.
Did he need to run?
Counterattack?
Fight defensively.
His eyes flicked first to the ridge and the dangerous longjoules on over watch. They were both down, with their faces smashed in. Luckily for him, their defensive abilities had not been optimised to resist the brute physical strike his throw rock represented. That had been clear when the first rock had been reduced to dust, but the fact the second had had a similar floor buoyed him with hope.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He could do this.
Tom’s eyes flicked back, and down to the carnage wrought by the toppling chunks of rock. He was glad that Earth Manipulation and Thrown Rock had combined to energise the stone. Physically, the fall was only a metre but there was a lot of mass behind it and the energy imparted by his spells increased the danger to the enemy by an order of magnitude.
Amongst the faster smaller chunks, there was an extra payload comprising three slabs of rock each weighing over two hundred kilograms. They tumbled with eerie accuracy at the closest longjoules.
In a blink of an eye through the raising dust, Tom assessed what was happening. The monster’s shields were already flaring in response to the smaller Throw Rock accelerated pebbles and that filled Tom with quiet confidence. His enemies were high ranked, but they specialised in artillery not close in fighting. That made a difference because a more physical creature would have avoided his trap altogether, but these creatures physically were probably no faster than he was, so they had chosen to just weather the trap without understanding the danger.
They had no concept of the level of control he could exert, so they hadn’t bothered dodging.
The boulder crashed into the tracker, whose shield had already been popped. It was a headshot, but instinct had it ducking away moments before the rock hit. The attempt at evasion was only partially successful. The head area was not crushed, but both antennae were sheared off and one of the front legs was shattered.
Tom did not feel a flash of glee. Against this level of opponent, it was not a lethal blow, but it would restrict its magic, however briefly. The other two chunks of rocks were less effective. One was repelled by a shield that broke, the other was deflected without even stressing the monster’s magical defence.
Two shields down, one enemy crippled and minor to major damage on the remaining two shields was literally as good an opening salvo as he could have wished.
Magic arced out from his opponents as they reacted instinctively, like the animals they were. A lightning bolt struck one piece of rock just before clattered harmlessly onto the ground. Other magic blasted straight up into the air. He guessed it was some type of vitality cancer attack because the pieces of rock flying upwards were growing strangely coloured moss and lichen. The rock wall beyond him groaned as a sound missile smashed into and caused cracks to radiate outwards from the impact side. The rush of air from the sonic boom pushed him to the side. He had seen the earth missile that had struck Everlyn, but the power of all three attacks was impressive.
Tom leapt off his now exposed ledge with the spear in his hand toward his disorientated enemies. The situation was fraught with danger so he spent another parcel of fate. Everything was about surviving. He fell through the air like an avenging angel of death. His leap took him straight at the tracker. His spear tip glowed blue as he engaged Power Blow and he plunged it through a compound eye even as it attempted to jump backwards to avoid him.
The spear went in and he felt it strike the back of the thing’s skull before his spear was pulled out of the wound just by the action of him holding on tight as its last act launched it back almost four metres. Tom measured its flight path and catalogued its injuries. It would crash in the opposite wall or ravine and then slide down far enough away from the exits that specifics did not matter.
Tom didn’t wait to watch. He was already spinning to meet the next challenge.
Throw Rock.
The missile slammed into the beast that had been the next most extensively damaged in the first encounter. Tom’s strategy rested on getting quick deaths. These things were primarily magic dealers, which probably meant healing. Near dead meant that one or two offensive spells might be missed before they would come back patched and as deadly as ever.
Dead was the only definition that mattered.
As the rock flew, his spear lashed out at his healthy opponent. The non-enchanted end scratched over a defensive shield that seemed to be standard for the longjoules. Plans and tactics updated in his head. He would have to coordinate puncturing the shield before finishing each of the monsters.
His stone hit but did not implode the protection only cracked it so he kicked at one of the monster’s legs and made a point of flaring his lightning feet as he did so.
The damage of his movement skill against physical enemies had proven to be almost non-existent, but against shields was another manner. The explosions of sparks and light were impressive, and the shield collapsed as it was finally overwhelmed.
It leapt backwards to avoid the follow-up, but Tom had been expecting that.
Spark.
A bolt of lightning arced into its eyes.
They popped.
The electricity coursed into the skull and out via the left antennae. Smoke billowed out of its eye sockets.
Two vs one. Tom concluded in his head. Already dodging to a new location. The fight was not over by a long shot. All four deaths he had achieved so far were primarily as a result of catching them by surprise. He was not sure he could overcome a fifty percent gap in rank given they had the advantage of what felt like an innate shield trait and devastating ranged abilities.
There was an explosion of heat originating right where he had been standing a moment before. Then the wave of expanding air caught him and casually tossed him almost two metres backwards. Tom’s technical gymnastics skills let him re-orientate so that his legs took the bulk of the collision against the side cliff but his back slammed into it, with one pointy rock digging uncomfortably into his kidneys.
Mentally he spat curses and as he sprang away from the wall toward the battle a rock was in his hand. Mid-flight, he threw it.
Throw rock.
It shot outward right at one of the beast’s head only to be stopped by a flare of shield energy. The shield did not pop as the rock he had launched lacked most of the kinetic energy that he had imparted on the stones that had taken out the monsters on over watch. For those throws, his feet had been planted and his posture was perfect unlike his throw with the latest rock. The act of being in the air had robbed him of over half his power.
He tossed a second rock and grimaced at the tug on his depleted mana. The crystal still had juice but each new spell first pulled on his personal reserves.
He was already dipping deep into his crystal pool. But the efficient use of mana in this situation did not mean finicky optimised spells it meant to kill quickly, no matter how much magic each individual spell wasted.
The black energy gathering on both of its antennae’s focused on the stone hurtling towards it.
Tom’s feet landed, and he sniffed an opportunity. Rather than circling the monster he charged forward at it, following his own stone.
There was an explosion in front of the creature’s shield as its artillery spell struck the stone he had thrown and won the argument by dint of sheer energy. It eliminated the rock and black power billowed outward that hopefully hid him from the monster’s sight. Tom leapt forward and felt the decay energy ineffectively attempt to burn its way through all of his exposed skin, and shrapnel from his own stone pelted his face. The thin shards of rock created pin pricks of pain across his face and down his arms. The decay energy attacked effectively at those points.
His spear manifested in his hand and it glowed blue as he thrust it forward.
Distract it and then…
The spear slammed home and momentum forced him to a stop and then pushed him sideways. Something tugged on his spear as it seemed to come alive in his hands. Tom let it go, guessing it was some type of disarm spell or skill and he lacked his own counters to stop it.
Luckily for the next stage of his plan it didn’t matter. The direction shift had already occurred, and he rolled with it and ended up in front of the second creature. This one’s shield was fortunately still cracked and his momentum took him through that gap and right next to the enemy. Both of his smaller back up weapons appeared in his hands. He swung his mini axe and dagger, relying on his approximation of ambidextrous skills to ensure that they were both successful. The axe in his weaker left hand hit at a bad angle and skidded off the carapace before slicing through the antennae he had targeted. The heavier weapon meant there was more room for mistakes and it luckily cut, despite having been deflected first. The more delicate knife had no such issues. The strike landed perfectly, and the antennae fell to the ground.
Tom was already moving very aware that the uninjured creature had two antenna’s and it had probably only used one to disarm him. Tom dived forward so that the longjoule he had just mutilated would be between him and the fully intact enemy.
Boom!
The explosion sent the monster he had used as a shield flying up and over him.
Tom sprinted straight through the still hot flames.
The arms on his magical skivvy were unprotected, and it smouldered. Dagger and axe vanished, replaced by throwing stones and the moment he was through the flames, he focused on the monster’s changed position. He threw two rocks one with each hand, the left a split second after the right.
He was sure the insect like monster looked surprised by his emergence and while it had smartly shifted two meters to the right that only helped if he had thrown blind. Instead, the manoeuvre was pointless and in fact, if anything it had worked against it as it gave Tom an extra fraction of a second to balance.
Throw Rock times two shot like missiles from his hands.
Then his brain processed the other pertinent details of the situation. His spear on the ground and that the left antennae of the enemy already glowed a chilling blue. He ducked and rolled to the side his foot dragging along the stone.
His reaching toes touched his spear.
Spatial storage activated, and he continued the movement to leap back to his feet. The spot that he had jumped over to begin the attack that had been categorised by a carpet of flames had been struck by the next attack of the longjoule. Those flames were much diminished and were perforated with dozens of icy shards the size of ninja stars and the space beyond it by a hundred more.
Artillery magic, and this stupid monster, had no concept of blowback and self-preservation. If it got a chance to kill Tom, it was taking it, even if it killed itself in doing so.
Tom lunged at it. His spear reappearing mid-way through the motion. He was targeting its body mass, and the spear skidded across the carapace without catching on a joint like he had been aiming for a last moment half step, denying him the clean attack.
Missed.
Tom rolled forward into the creature, trusting that it stepping on him with its sharp pointed feet was a better outcome than being hit by its magic.
He crashed into the monster’s legs. There was an explosion behind him and a wave of pressure that pushed him into the legs. They felt like metal bars.
Over.
He thrust with his knife and kicked up at the same time; he needed to change the battlefield dynamics and switch sides. A claw slammed into his leg. It was as if a sledgehammer had struck him, but his magic pants deflected the piercing damage. Tom knew he was exposed. His Earth Sense was still engaged, and he knew where his enemy was so he oriented toward it and then he sensed the movement from his side. The creature he had hacked the antennas off was charging him.
Without hesitation, he dumped thirty fates hoping for miraculous aid or inspiration.
A thought occurred to him, and he regretted the drop of fate. The solution was obvious, and he triggered the active ability of Hard to Move, which left him with twenty mana in his crystal.
Threshold bonus 256 - Active Spell. For fifty mana, double effective weight and improved damage resistance for five seconds.
Threshold bonus 512 - Active spell. For an extra forty mana, become immovable and immune to all collision damage for 1 second. Cannot be used offensively (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))
His spear appeared propped up against his boot, it rested on his ankle, angled to skewer the rank fourteen creatures charging at him. Without the skill, Tom knew his ankle would be reduced to smithereens… but with it….
There was a crash. Tom, with his hand on the spear felt its shaft bend alarmingly but did not break.
His mana was too low. The spear had skewed the monster, but that was not his only enemy. Battle instincts made him sprint forward.
An explosion behind him almost knocked him off his feet. It could dual cast, so instead of continuing running he rolled. Energy crackled over his head.
Tom did not hesitate. He was out of options and there was no way he was winning the fight even if he had already killed five out of six. Without hesitation he cashed in another ten fate and dived into the bolt hole headfirst.
Five out of six was good enough… and Everlyn had told him to leave them.
He was falling headfirst down a two-metre drop. There was no slowing himself. Broken bones were better than being hit by any of those spells. He tucked his head in and stuck out his arm and when he hit the ground; he pushed to deflect the force of the descent.
Rank ten vitality was not quite enough. His arm shattered, but the collision changed the direction of his momentum. His shoulder hit rock, and he rolled once, then twice and then slammed into a wall. He kicked off the wall to redirect his motion to take himself further down the tunnel and bit back the almost involuntary scream of agony.
Trumpets were going off in his head to tell him he had been awarded something for his recent actions, but the first step was survival.
Boom.
There was an explosion in the tunnel behind him. Air buffered him and heat baked him.
He allowed Healing Tranquillity to activate and accessed his injuries. His ulna was shattered, the radius broken in two spots, the right hip cracked and a chipped bone in his ankle.
Boom.
Another wave of heat hit him. It had only attacked twice, but the ambient temperature was already increasing.
Tom couldn’t stay where he was, or he would be cooked. Suppressing the sobs, he crawled in the narrow tunnel and around the first bend.
Boom.
Hot air rushed past him, and then a wind from the opposite direction pushed it back. The wind equalised the temperature.
Tom chuckled to himself. For now, he was safe. The question is whether the monster would follow him and as much as his various broken bones hurt he was not healing them till he knew that mana was not needed to fight.