CHAPTER 177

“Fight what?” Keikain asked immediately. “And why wouldn’t we carve our own shelter?”

“Because of permanency,” Jingyi responded. “And tier fourteen FleshEarths are not that dangerous.”

Keikain hesitated. “Fine, and for the record, permanency is not an issue because between Tom and I and all the void spaces in the gaps between these boulders, it’s easy enough to fuse a cave structure that is as good as the natural versions.”

Jingyi chuckled at that. “I’m not doubting your skill, but if we can avoid risking it, why wouldn’t we?”

Tom wasn’t concerned about the back and forth. The argument was purely a result of the frayed tempers from the ridiculous pace they had set and those damn mountain birds that had harassed them for the last seven hours. He did however have a persistent headache from exhaustion that Touch Heal was no longer holding at bay that he wanted to address as soon as possible. “How many FleshEarths are there?”

Jingyi turned to face him. “We don’t know. They had tremor sense, so Everlyn couldn’t get in.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s on over watch. Making sure there are no other monsters to threaten us.”

Tom shook his head at that. It was clear she was avoiding him, or possibly just the killers, but he was so exhausted that he didn’t have the strength to do anything about it. Maybe after he purchased some of the skills Michael suggested he would have the energy to deal with it.

“Weaknesses and strengths?”

“Weak to fire, strong against concussive damage. Your rocks, Tom, won’t do much, but they can be picked apart if you concentrate on cutting the fleshy bits around the joints.”

“So we have exactly one person who is set up to fight them.”

“I keep telling you swords are awesome.” Sven volunteered.

Tom produced his spear. It was still the one Sonya had made him. Effectively a pointed stick, but with its construction and tier it was effective against most monsters. Usually with a spear you were poking holes into things, and this weapon was perfect for that. Unfortunately, it would be useless against FleshEarths. They needed to be disposed of with slashing attacks.

“I’m going to buy a spear with a cutting tip.”

“Do you know how to use it?” Sven asked, apparently amused by the whole situation.

Tom gave him a flat look.

“You don’t have to be like that, man.”

Rahmat laughed. “Well, the question was pretty stupid.”

They stopped talking for a moment. “Does anyone else want me to purchase them anything?”

“A sword, if possible.” Clare said finally. “A cheap one.”

“Umm, Clare, they’re rank fourteen. Do you really think it’s safe for you to be in the front lines?” Tom asked, because no one else was.

“I’m rank eight physically, but the bloodline takes me up to rank ten. That means I match them with agility. Sure, they’re twice as strong as me and ridiculously durable, but if they don’t have a speed advantage, they’re not hitting me. What?” she protested at their looks. “I know how to fight.”

“Fine.” Tom conceded. “Anyone else.” No one asked for anything. Thor only had his hammer, but he got the sense that he was a one-trick pony and couldn’t switch to a bladed weapon. Rahmat’s main spear already had a cutting edge. Even if the throwing ones didn’t, Toni’s and Michaels likewise were closer to glaives than spears. Jingyi fought with bow and knives. Keikain would use his super sharp earth attacks to do his damage.

With a side step, he appeared in the system room. Four hundred credits and another four hundred for cost of transportation got him a cheap sword, and what felt like a reasonable spear. Particularly when he was wielding it and his skill was reinforcing it.

The portal was waiting when he opened his eyes. He pulled the sword out first and handed it to Clare. While he got out his weapon, he noticed her taking practice swings. Swishing the sword around and shifting her feet smoothly from stance to stance. She at least seemed to have some capability with the sword, which was good. The staff she usually used would be useless against the FleshEarths.

Tom went through a couple of his own kata’s to get acquainted with the unique balance of his new weapon. While it was built solidly, its balance was terrible. He was forced to hold the shaft closer to the spear head than he would like, which effectively shortened the spear by a foot. It was annoying, but nothing that he couldn’t easily adjust for.

“Ready,” Jingyi asked.

They all nodded and headed off. Five minutes of walking later, they arranged themselves in front of an unlikely-looking entrance.

“Should I build choke points.” Keikain asked.

Jingyi shook his head. “They’re already aware of us and the moment you do something with rock they’ll come running. Better to lure them out by making a non-threatening nuisance. I’m thinking an arrow through the entrance might be enough. That way, we have a chance of only a couple responding at once. We don’t want to be swarmed.”

Crack.

A blaze of light flashed past to bounce noisily into the cave. When he glanced over, Everlyn was behind them and to the right. Her bow was ready and the long daggers were visible on her side. She was standing five metres away, which provided her space to use her archery without the risk of being immediately swarmed by monsters. Then, if they got in trouble, she was close enough to jump in and support. He knew the way her trait functioned. If they required it, she was the safety valve ready to boost her speed and strength significantly to allow her to challenge whatever threatened them. The prudent play, as always, was not to use her trait. It was best left intact to be available in an emergency.

There was a scrambling noise from the tunnel and a single abomination burst out. It looked like two types of cancerous growth fused on top of each other. Feet to head they were in competition in an amoral battle that at any moment would tear the creature part. Half made of random growths of blood, tendon and muscle and half made of some sort of rock like by-product that grew in almost haphazard patterns.

Bile rose in his throat, but Sven charged it and Tom suppressed the bodily instinct. It was horrific, but nothing worse than anything else he had seen. That was suspicious. He licked his lips and then nodded. It was a trick and not a threat he needed to explicitly deal with. The taste in his mouth probably resulted from an aura. A cheap trick and while a mildly distasteful, it was not something to sap his fighting ability. He moved to support the spellsword. He flanked it from his side while Rahmat took it from the other.

Identification told him that it was a single rank thirteen, FleshEarth. Which would be easy enough to deal with.

Tom lunged forward, slashing the blade of his spear down on the weeping muscle mass that linked two bits of rock. The blade that would have chipped against rock cut easily through the flesh that connected the limbs. A single unempowered blow partially disabling the arm. As he watched, the wound he had imparted was visibly healing. Sven appeared to be hacking at the creature, but there were no sparks. Despite the flurry of strikes, they were all landing perfectly and carving up the susceptible flesh parts of the creature. He was making a significant impact along multiple fronts.

Tom hesitated for a moment. Compared to what Sven was achieving his slower spear strikes would do nothing. He needed to make sure each of his strikes counted.

The thing stepped forward and momentarily stretched out a leg.

Tom was already moving. His spear edged glowed blue temporarily as he brought the weapon down on the opportunity he had noticed. The rocky segments of the leg had briefly separated, with the exception of the linking muscle. His spear head slashed down on the exposed gap. There was no skin, no frustrating bone and his weapon was empowered with a partial Power Strike. The bladed end cut through the flesh, tendons snapped once they were partially cut and the lower section of the leg fell away.

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It was a small contribution. After all, the monster had four other legs, but every bit helped.

Sven cheered, and one of the three arms fell off. It had been separated at the shoulder joint. Tom focused on his own job and an arm flashed towards him, not trying to physically hit him but it released a spray of blood. He dodged instinctively, and fate was created around him. He doubted the blood itself was dangerous, but dodging bodily fluid projections was always a good idea.

This time it was an arm and not a leg that was over extended. His spear glowed blue, and he struck it at the shoulder. It was not a perfect cut, but it did sufficient damage to cause the limb to fall limply to its side. Disabled for a few seconds.

It never had time to heal. Sven’s sword crashed into it and finished the job that Tom had started.

With no other effective options, presenting themselves. Tom kept moving and concentrated on cutting away at the hip area with non magic enhanced blows. He was outpacing the FleshEarth’s healing, but only marginally.

The monster died with the hip he was attacking still intact.

“Good,” Jingyi declared as it fell. “Any lessons?”

“Need to get more efficient,” Rahmat said. “Less cutting flesh and more tendons.”

“That is what I was going to say.” Sven agreed joyfully. He was clearly happy to be fighting once more.

Tom shrugged. He didn’t have any points to add.

There was further rumbling from the caves and this time four FleshEarths came out.

Tom swallowed and peeled off to take the one on his side.

“I’ll tank one.” Thor screamed, which meant all four would be engaged and it would allow the more fragile members free space to do damaging attacks.

“Those not tanking focus on Sven’s targets,” Jingyi ordered.

Tom was surprised by that decision but he guessed it was because Sven would be doing the most damage and if they needed to burn one down quickly that was the one to target.

It was a moot point for Tom.

Alarm bells rang in his mind as he switched into a battle trance immediately. The monster he had been given to tank moved nothing like the first creature they had fought. Not only did it move faster it was twice as tall as the previous one, though admittedly its height, was more of an illusion than anything and was caused by how it held itself. It had six legs that provided it with a crab like base and then its arms stretched into the sky. Limbs which were composed of segmented flesh and rock that thinned as it rose above it. At the connection to the torso, it was as thick as his thigh, but by the top it had thinned to be thinner than his wrist. Dangling from the top was a thick cord that looked like it was made of some sort of fleshy material with hooks and barbs running down its full length. The whole thing was a wet red, and he recognised it as a whip and from the number of sharp points all over it, a nasty version of one. There were three of them in total.

Tom could instantly see that this particular FleshEarth was a higher rank than the other three that had emerged. He did not want it focusing on any of his companions. It would chew through even Sven if it took him by surprise. A tier three piece of granite appeared in Tom’s hand. He was loath to use the precious stone because in his mind it was dedicated to the next Golly version, but he also knew he had no choice.

“Tom?” Everlyn asked quietly, offering her assistance.

He didn’t need it, but he had to make sure it’s attention was focused fully on him and any lesser material might not do sufficient damage to attract its ire. After all, he needed it to willingly follow him while he retreated away from the others.

Arm back, hand behind his head, and then he launched.

Throw Rock.

There was no precision in his throw, but the piece hurled away and slammed sort of into the centre of his target in an explosion of blood and chips of rock.

Instantly, its direction of movement altered to be straight at him.

All three whips waved threateningly and broadcast an intention to seek blood. Tom hoped they would be restricted to attacking only vertically because if they could whip horizontally he might be in trouble with three striking him at once.

With a thick swallow, he scampered backwards to avoid it getting too close to him.

A single probing whip lashed at him. There was no subtly in the strike as it tried to use sheer power to cut him in half. Straight down the middle, from the hair of his head to his groin. Luckily, it had struck right at the edge of its range.

It was easy enough to step aside, and that thought about dodging caused fate to be created around him. The whip slammed past him and only grazed his pants. It would have been hard enough to shred flesh, but the armoured pants were, as he had suspected completely unaffected.

The whip smacked into the hard stone next to his foot with a crack. Chips of rock were spat out and cracks snaked away from the impact spot.

He did not want to be hit, but his frown turned into a smile. His skill was working, and to test his opponent further. He stepped forward, watching the three limbs closely. The other two whips lashed down toward him and he threw himself backwards, cursing lightly as he did so.

They had moved so fast, too fast, if he was being honest, and he was forced into a backward roll to avoid them. Fate swept around him, and he was too slow to avoid the attacks in its entirety. Once more, one of the whips smacked against his pants and did nothing.

He rose ready to fight, and frowned. The monster, for some reason had switched its focus. Another chunk of granite appeared in his hand, and he launched before he could think about it.

Throw rock.

The missile slammed home. Scoring a strike on a hip joint. Some of the cancerous looking flesh was mulched, some of the rock crumbled and two legs stopped working.

The FleshEarth rotated to face him and, being unwilling to close because of its speed Tom retreated.

Crack, crack.

The whips smacked to the ground on either side of him. The attacks were easy enough to avoid at this distance. Fate was released and he could feel it pooling around him, and influencing future actions in his favour. The longer the battle went…

The enemy surged forward, moving as if unhindered despite two of the six legs being broken. Suddenly, instead of avoiding the strikes by being able to step out of the range if threatened he was right in the middle of the creature’s strike zone. Two swings came on the vertical plane and another parallel to the ground targeting his knees. He leapt sideways over one whip and used his spear to parry the third.

He got a perfect angle to deflect it, and the force went through him. Shifting to the side he landed with his weapon fortunately positioned above his head.

There was an opening.

Acting purely on instinct, he lunged forward, infusing the edge of his weapon, and struck. He almost took the leg he targeted right off. Hopefully, this and the earlier damage would slow it.

Then he was dancing back. He slipped and fell, but that meant a whip he had lost track of flashed harmlessly over his head.

Sweat dripped from him as he tried to escape the flashing ropes. He was very much aware of the long sharpened hooks on their edges. That meant they would rip through skin and flesh easily. Best case they wouldn’t hook on bones, worst case, well he didn’t want to imagine that. If one entangled him, the other two would have free rein to attack and that could get messy.

His worst fears didn’t come to pass. Every now and again, an opportunity would present itself and he would use Power Strike to inflict material damage and slow it for a few moments until it healed. More and more, he felt like he was getting on top of the battle. It would slip at an unfortunate moment, or multiple thorns would snag on the ground and keep a whip out of action for a short period, which opened a chance to cripple the leg for the next stretch of the fight.

Despite its impressive regeneration, his damage ensured it was too hurt to gain its full range of motion and speed back.

With no other choice presenting itself, he deflected a whip with his elbow. It stung something shocking, but none of the nasty hooks cut into him.

He kept fighting.

A fifth, sixth and seventh FleshEarth emerged from the cave but the others were burning them down quickly enough that it was not a concern. The combination of Clare, Sven and Keikain was actually deadly against these creatures. That trio, also unsurprisingly, rode their luck. Their rushed blows seemed to do more damage than expected and their enemies, on two separate occasions got caught up with each other. More flowed out of the cave and were blasted down.

With the fight stabilised, Tom took a moment to do a more complete identification of the monsters. His opponent was rank sixteen and borderline seventeen, and none of the others were above fourteen.

He must have dodged hundreds of times in the fight, and his skill kept creating fate with each attempt. He parried the whips regularly and stayed ahead of the flashing attacks. Closer to the cave there were literally piles of bodies.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the others gathering. A whip slammed down, hit the ground, kept going and then when it tried to pull back the earth solidified and trapped it.

The second whip got struck by arrows, with Everlyn’s magical projectile successfully pinning it to the ground. It was an amazing shot and probably been enhanced by a small amount of fate. It was inconceivable someone could be good enough to pull that off by themselves. Then Rahmat leapt to attack the briefly pinned whips, while Clare butchered the one that Keikain’s trap had caught.

The last whip flashed at him, and he blocked it with his spear. The force almost knocked him off his feet, but the collision froze it for a moment. The whip’s motion was fully arrested, and he spun his spear up and down on a joint that was suddenly right in front of him.

Power Strike

At the first joint in the main part of the limb, a spot two-thirds of the way up the whip’s length was lobbed off by the strike.

Then Sven closed with it. His weapon slashing and professionally cutting the flesh bits without catching the earth sections. Rahmat and Clare joined him. Tom sagged back to watch as they ruthlessly butchered the monster that minus its whips was suddenly as good as helpless.

It crashed down dead.

Tom wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Well, that was a screwup.”

“My fault,” Everlyn said. “I wasn’t expecting one of them to be elite.”

“It doesn’t matter we coped. Might have been a different outcome if it had come out on the left flank instead of the right. If that happened, people might have died before I reached it. But as it was, we beat it without forcing me to touch either my fate or practically speaking my mana pool.”

She laughed. “Only because of your new skill - if you hadn’t had that…”

“I would have spent my fate and cast harnessed meteorite for the defence and attacked it far more aggressively. It was never a question of beating it, as I always had the firepower available. I was just conserving resources in case something unexpected happened. Like you were.”

“We should have planned for something like that.” Everlyn disagreed. “Even if it was ‘let Tom tank anything that was above rank fifteen’. It was arrogant to think they were limited to rank fourteen. In hindsight, we should also have got you to summon a lesser fire element, as it would have almost trivialised the fight.”

Tom cursed himself in response to Everlyn’s suggestion. He should have thought about that. Jingyi had even stated that it was vulnerable to fire.

“Maybe next time we don’t have full visibility I can send a wisp or a small golem in to scout.” Tom suggested.

“Agreed. But I wasn’t expecting a lair.” Everlyn said.

“It’s a lair?” Tom asked in sudden excitement.

“Yes,” Michael said with exaggerated patience. “We’re waiting for you to vote on the type of loot.”