CHAPTER 190

Tom knew that constructing intricate plans when he knew nothing about the enemy was a waste of time. That didn’t stop him.

His mind faithfully catalogued his options.

There was a five-metre straight section of tunnel that led into the cave they occupied. That could be turned into a killing field, and he had his usual supply of throwing rocks to utilise. When and if monsters filled that space, then he could imagine a single rock eliminating multiple enemies with fortunate ricochets. Unfortunately, Throw Rock was the only earth ability he could see that might be useful. There wasn’t enough time to create a golem, but if he could then he could imagine Golly number three filling the passageway and delivering death. The rest of the earth abilities were useless. His manipulation skills were nerfed because of the permanency of the rock and Harnessed Meteorite needed long lines of sight and slow enemies to be effective. Here, the slight defensive boost it gave him was not worth the mana that he would need to invest to cast. Finally, Partial Stone Skin while a good ability would just impede his dodge skill. It was definitely in the category of only ever being used if he was sure something was about to kill him.

Healing was the same. With both Michael and Clare as dedicated healers, he would only use Touch Heal for emergency self-heals and even then, in most cases he might be better leaving it for the experts. As much as he loved Touch Heal, even he had to admit that Michael beat him handily across all aspects of healing and Clare would match and exceed him in spots.

Finally, there were his electricity skills. He was the tank, so Mana was going to need to be directed into Lightning Enrage. At a cost of seventy for maximum range, a sizeable chunk of his mana would be reserved for that. Lightning Spears and Ball were primarily damage abilities and he would use them if opportunities presented themselves, but he doubted they would. Neither skill countered fast, small, agile monsters. That left Spark, and it was flexible enough to trouble a monster like a kobold, providing they were not resistant.

Tom smiled at that thought. Spark was the little spell that could. It could be applied like a scalpel to paralyse limbs or as an emergency blast to electrify everything around him.

Almost subconsciously, electricity crackled between his fingers. Then the firm shaft of the spear that Sonya had created for him appeared in his hand. As always, holding a weapon reassured him.

Through his Earth Sense, he felt monsters entering the range of his domain which he had stretched down the tunnel.

From the spots of pressure on the ground, he counted. “Seven incoming,” he warned everyone else.

It was a manageable number with so few approaching he was confident they would not overwhelm him. Tom decided to tank the creatures and let his companions kill them. Hopefully, it would let them get a better understanding of their capabilities.

“I’m going to tank them.”

They burst into view in a tangled mess. They were packed together almost to the point they were one creature and then they charged toward him.

Tom’s brain correlated his Earth Sense information with visual and the moment they were all in range he cast Lightning Enrage. Sparks exploded from him and showered the incoming monsters. The lead one tanked six or seven of them but the sparks from the skill did not behave like electricity. Instead, they acted like they were alive with a mind of their own. They swarmed around the first kobold to target the creatures running in its shadow.

There was a crackling sound as the sparks dived in and fried each of the monsters’ nervous systems. From the Spell description, each of those sparks - and all of them had been hit by at least three - would cause immense, agonising pain.

As one, they all hesitated.

The lead one came to a halt just out of range of a safe spear lunge. Tom considered attacking anyway, but a twinge of concern made him stop. The kobold’s face that had been filled with general anger transformed to reflect sheer hatred and all of it directed at him. That didn’t give him pause. It was a common enough skill amongst monsters. What set the alarm bells ringing was the way the muscles of all the kobolds were twitching.

They were about to explode forward and swarm him.

The lead kobold’s eyes focused on him. It was an ugly creature that only came up to his waist. Mismatched yellow and brown scales covered its face and upper limbs before transitioning to dirty cream patchy fur on the lower legs. Its face was rat-like, though scaled and created a feeling of repulsion in Tom at a fundamental level. It was the sort of monster you expected to see wallowing happily in the sewers. It was holding an axe that had the same construction as prehistoric humans: a flint stone blade attached to a rough wooden stick by twisted vines. It appeared primitive, but Tom was not fooled. That weapon would cut him up just fine.

Its beady eyes glimmered with a mix of madness and animal cunning. Two eyes with an iris that was human-like despite the head it was set in.

The instant passed.

They unleashed high-pitched squeals and leapt at him as one.

Tom reacted like he had rehearsed in his head. The moment they began moving again Spark pulsed and sent out a spreading net of electricity that hit the closest monster and the ones following it. It did not cause pain, but locked up their muscles and turned them into flying statues.

Fate was released by the kobolds en masse.

His perception of time slowed, and it took him a moment to understand that his dodge abilities were activating. Eyes wide, he searched for the culprit and noticed that the axe of the lead kobold was flying in an arc to cut off his foot. With the electricity locking up its limbs, it could not have actively thrown the weapon. Instead, it had slipped out of the convulsing hand and… ended up on an arc to hurt him… that was more than sufficient to identify the nature of the kobolds’ natural fate use.

The flood of fate that had just occurred was them expelling all their fate to hurt him even at the cost of their own survival.

That was both good and bad news. It would make the fights shorter, but massively escalate the risk of serious injury and death.

He pulled his leg back to avoid the axe. The doubling of speed that he got without suffering a blow was enough to evade the free flying axe. The fight was not over, even with the majority of the opponents being paralyzed. Weapons were flying at him. Tom held his position and partially dodged a spear that was launched on a trajectory to hit him despite its owner being incapacitated. He swayed backwards to avoid a critical wound from it and felt a sting as the weapon cut a gash in his shoulder.

The monsters were coming at him in a wall of bodies caused by their initial leap. Tom triggered Power Strike and thrust his spear through the leading kobold. While he had targeted its chest, the primary reason for his actions was not to kill it. The moment the spear was in the creature he jerked upwards with all his strength. It might have been rank eighteen, but this was about physics and not attributes and the physics favoured him. His feet were grounded, and it was light. As planned, it went flying over his head and successfully knocked several other monsters away from him.

While they were unlikely to be paralysed for long given the recovery that their vitality would grant, Tom put them out of his mind. His companions would dispose of them quickly. The only remaining threat was the ones his Spark had not disabled.

Tom was conscious that he could trivialise the remaining fight by using Spark again, but he knew Jingyi had referenced a pack of thirty; with the prospect of a larger battle Tom was loath to waste mana. He focused on fighting the Kobold that was coming at him with hate radiating from it.

Its sword slashed.

Time immediately slowed down by a factor of a third. The damage was unavoidable, and the strike opened a cut on his bicep even as he avoided most of the blow. Then he was ducking another kobold with a sword. This time completely successfully, but there was nothing he could do against the seventh, which swung a hammer that, despite his best efforts struck his hip and sent him sliding over the ground.

His armour and his dodge skill did its job and the blow that should have cracked his hips only left a bruise. The three of them kept slavishly attacking him as Tom dodged backward having seen enough of their fighting style to avoid their strikes. His allies closed upon them. One was caught by a glowing hammer another got cut in half by a wind blade, with the last dissected by Sven’s sword.

Tom glanced around and was not surprised to find the rest had already been butchered.

“Any chance you can use these?” Tom asked, glancing at Keikain.

The earth mage burst out laughing. “Of course not. They’re monsters.”

“Partially sapient,” Tom hedged.

“Doesn’t qualify them as sapient…” Keikain told him sadly.

“Yeah, I feared as much.”

Curiously, Tom examined the entire battle scene to get a feel for who had contributed what. The archers had landed a couple of arrows even if by the looks of things they hadn’t got any actual kills. Michael had dispatched one of the paralysed ones, Rahmat had taken out two of them. Only Harry hadn’t got involved, but he would if he was needed. The ritualist had proven more than willing to get his hands dirty. Not that he wasn’t active. Now that the battle was done he had already bent down to put the finishing touches on a second mana recharge ritual.

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“Thirty right?” Tom asked. “So what? Twenty? Twenty-five more in the next wave?”

Jingyi nodded.

“They won’t trickle in piecemeal?”

This time, there was a firm shake of his head. “It’s lucky they split up this much.”

“And only this group saw you?”

“Yes… But the hunting party will leave signs. Other Kobolds will follow them.”

“What? Are the kobolds smart enough to notice a missing party?” Tom said sharply.

Jingyi raised his hands. “Not explicitly like in a human army, but instinctually… yes… they’ll check it out.”

Tom frowned. “Harry, can you install a camouflage ritual over the entrance once the next fight is done.”

The ritualist nodded and made the classic sign of money.

Tom laughed at that. “You trying to extort me?”

Harry smiled. “No, but it’s ten thousand credits. I can’t fund more than one myself.”

“We’re still doing it and it’s not on you. We’ll all chip in.”

“Definitely,” Jingyi agreed immediately. “This hiding spot is compromised and we can’t shift positions. If the main pack notices us...” The scout shivered.

There was pressure at the far end of his domain. Then lots of pings as the second group of kobolds rushed forward. It was almost enough to give him a headache, and Tom instinctively put a hand on his temple. “Incoming. Over twenty.”

With that many, they had to delay them getting into the cave proper as much as possible. The others had worked that out, too. Sven was right up at the cave entrance, and Thor was jogging over to join him. While the two of them might lack the attributes to compete with these creatures, they could fill up space, which would be useful, especially if Tom could force them to focus on him.

Then Tom remembered the nature of the monsters. They were a hundred percent offensive, and both the slashes on his bicep and shoulder were burning even though they should have been healing. He had a sinking feeling.

Healing Tranquillity kicked in and he noticed the weapons had inflicted some sort of magical poisonous damage. Touch Heal had already quarantined it and he strengthened those seals, but he was not looking forward to purging the magic. While it was slow acting, it felt thicker than the wasp venom ever had.

The kobolds were offensive orientated. These were not the goats where he could fight for ten minutes building up fate. The coming battle would be fast and furious and in the first few moments hundreds of fate would be unleashed with the sole purpose of killing him.

He was an idiot. They had no real defences. This was not the type of fight where they were best served by being on the defensive.

Twenty fate left his system as he focused on a need to maximise the damage and kills he could achieve in the first two seconds of the battle.

Three rocks appeared in his hand. There wouldn’t be time to throw more.

The enemy burst around the corner and as the first one emerged he pulled back his arm muscles straining. The tier three stone fit perfectly in his hand, and he launched it, channelling as much power into it as possible.

Accuracy was not important, and he didn’t even bother aiming. Instead, he focused on power trusting in his fate investment to make the difference and ensure the rock hit the enemy.

By the time the first rock left his hand, the leading kobold had crossed three of the five metres. Tom had fallen into a battle trance. He was hyperaware of every single one of the scaly rat-faced monsters that were rushing down the passage. Lightning Engage was fully formed and a slip in concentration would see it triggered. He launched the second stone and felt muscles on his arm twinge and complain at the force he was channelling through them and the rock flew wildly off course.

Clinically, he watched as the first rock collided with the closest kobold. Its snout crumpled even as the stone bounced sideways into the temple of the next monster in line. It was like there was a magnetic attraction between monster skulls and the stone. On his estimate, eight got hit and six went down, hopefully permanently. The second stone slammed into the roof. There was a rumble and chunks of the ceiling crashed down pinning and potentially killing more monsters.

It was chaotic. Kobolds were scampering along on four limbs with their noses on the ground. Others ran normally and some were running up the sides of the walls overtaking the creatures dying in the middle of the passage.

The third stone was in his hand and his internal alarms went off.

His dodge skill triggered, and he teleported to the side to avoid three weapons that were launched at him. Fate thrummed in the air and the small amount of defensive fate released by his dodge did nothing. Time slowed, but there were too many objects flying at him. He felt an axe clip his head, cutting off part of his ear. Tom threw the last rock with far less power than the first two.

He didn’t have time to see what it achieved, but the devastation of the ceiling fall and his first rock was impressive but not absolute. Monsters still swarmed forward. Everlyn’s magic arrows were flashing past him along with Jingyi’s more mundane ones. He even spotted one of Rahmat’s throwing spears, which had skewered three at once.

Tom realised he was not the only one who had applied fate to front load damage.

Almost fifteen of the creatures’ bodies lay dead or dying in the narrow corridor, but there were still at least eight coming for them. Four on him, three targeting Sven and two going for Thor.

With a thought, he triggered Lightning Enrage. Nine attacking him was too much, but he had no choice. Against three kobolds, Sven, at best would last seconds. Their offensive power and the attribute disparity was too much for there to be any other outcome.

Sparks exploded out of him. Swimming through the air and targeting the surrounding monsters. There was no collective shock from the creatures as the sparks dug into them like happened the first time. They were too enraged for that, but suddenly, nine of the little terrors were coming for him.

There was no time for thought.

Instinct took over, and he retreated.

There was movement out of the corner of his eye and he rolled backward instantly.

Something smacked against his leg, cracking bone despite the tier three armour. He weaved to the side, and a sword slashed open his cheek.

Touch heal, fixed the problems, even as a teleport let him avoid a spear thrust. His body twisted and showed flexibility that was analogous to dodging bullets in the matrix, but the agile, speedy kobolds were landing blows despite his movements.

The mathematics of it didn’t quite work out. The base of his dodge skill provided him with a speed bonus of two, which more than closed the attribute gap. Then, when the bonus from the black dodge component kicked in, he should have been moving more than twice as fast as the kobolds. It didn’t feel like the advertised benefits were working because he could not avoid the attacks. Part of the equation was the quantity massed against him and the other was that they seemed to coordinate in unusual ways. He would evade one blow and suddenly, once committed he would run into two strikes coming at him from his blind spot.

Jingyi would have told them all if the kobolds had a hive mind. That was a detail a scout would notice and not forget. The fact he hadn’t mentioned anything like that meant that option didn’t apply. The unnatural coordination therefore had only a single explanation. It was not training or animal instinct it was luck. Annoying painful luck that was causing the damage Tom was suffering to pile up. Tom, however, didn’t feel like he was at risk of dying, so he didn’t counter it with his own.

A kick to the guts that he couldn’t avoid sent him flying backwards. His spear let him push off the roof and change trajectory mid flight. An axe only partially parried with the flat of his palm buried itself in his shoulder.

As he fell, a hammer slammed down, but he was able to get his spear between it and his chest. He landed hard on the ground the momentum from the blow magnifying the force of the collision. Air was blown out of him, leaving him winded.

Time was slowing down too much, and he had lost track of too many of his enemies. The level of time dilation meant that he was about to get hurt. Wheezing for breath, he blindly teleported to the side.

A spear went through his shoulder.

That had almost gone through his heart.

He wondered what the others were doing. He would have expected them to have thinned the numbers by now. Kobolds were coming at him from all sides. He was injured, partially pinned to the ground… exposed.

Spark exploded around him like a bomb going off. The kobolds that had been descending upon him were knocked back. He saw Toni go down electricity sparking across her.

Tom knew he needed to keep moving. He launched himself up and sideways. The spear that had gone right through his shoulder luckily had not pierced the bedrock, because if it had… that was not something he wanted to think about. His vision was impaired by the blood dripping down from a cut above his eyes. There was a blur of movement and he dived to the floor and then screamed as the spear got caught on something.

Then he leapt blindly sideways.

Healing magic hit him.

He wiped the blood from his eyes and saw no immediate threat. He spun one hand clutching the spear in his shoulder to avoid it moving unexpectedly. There were no active enemies.

Everlyn was next to him, pumping him full of magic. “Tom, what were you thinking?”

The situation appeared to have been dealt with, but it had all happened so fast. Instinctively, he retreated until his back was against the wall. His eyes noting each of the dead kobolds. Keikain and Harry were stalking from one to the next and making sure each of them were dead.

Michael moved in and shifted Everlyn to the side. “Stop, you’re over healing him and not addressing the poison.”

She nodded and dropped her hands. She was breathing deeply, with concern etched across her face.

Michael moved, so that he was right in front of him, and forced eye contact, which broke Tom’s line of sight with Everlyn.

“First Tom, we need to address the spear.”

He sensed Everlyn moving away. “Keikain,” she snapped. “Let the warriors do that. Start narrowing the god damn entrance. We can’t afford them to break through like that. Jingyi take Harry to hide the front entry.”

Michael crouched down, guiding him down, so he too was sitting on the floor.

“Tom, the spear. I suspect you can help.”

Healing Tranquillity kicked in at Michael’s prompting, and Tom assessed the damage. Everlyn’s rushed healing and probably Michael’s as well had already dealt with the many cuts that he had partially fixed during battle. The poison was still there, malignant, contained, but he sensed that would not last. It was the type of magical infection that would lay dormant till it thought it could overwhelm the person it had infected and then it would spread rapidly and, without outside assistance the person would die in minutes.

“The weapons left a…”

“Yes, they did.” Michael interrupted. “I’m aware, and I’ll be able to deal with it. So could you I suspect. But there’s a triage order, so spear first.”

Tom focused once more. Time stopped, and he shaped his internal tissue to move away from the spear. Then smoothed the bone it rested against so that it wouldn’t snag, pinching off the nearby blood vessels to prevent bleeding when the wound was jostled. With everything prepared, he yanked it free. The weapon slipped out easily, and then he started mending the flesh.

“Not so quick. Leave me a way in.”

Tom nodded and didn’t finish the healing. He could feel Michael’s magic and the poison that he had partitioned off was burned away.

“Ear, cheek, stomach, three cuts on the back.” he told the other man as he felt each source of poison momentarily resist and then crumble to nothing under the healer’s power. “Above the eye, multiple cuts on the arms.”

“Did you actually dodge anything?”

Tom chuckled. “Their speed was a little overwhelming.”

While Michael finished healing him, he studied the rest of the cave. Sven’s armour had been torn apart around the stomach. The culprit was dead at his feet with the spell-sword having stabbed the creature repeatedly.

Clare was currently tending to him.

Toni and Rahmat had both been taken down by his emergency Spark but they were up on their feet once more and confirming the kobolds were dead.

“That was horrible.” Tom said, looking around at the dead bodies. They were rank eighteen, and they had cut him at least ten times in the very few seconds the fight had lasted. “I hate pure offence builds.”

“They were dangerous little things.” Sven agreed. “I can’t believe you danced with nine of them simultaneously. The one that went after me almost killed me and it was missing an arm from the cave fall.”

“I’m sorry the taunt spell missed it.”

“No, it was good to do some proper fighting.”

Michael, who had finished with him, went over to Sven, presumably to burn away the poison there as well.

Tom walked over and sat in the ritual circle that Harry had put down. His mind raced. That fight had been eye opening.

Hopefully Harry’s ritual would protect them, but if it didn’t he was not sure how the coming fight would play out. Narrowing the entrance might not be enough. They were too fast and too agile if a hundred swarmed them. He was uncertain what that would look like.

Tom studied the cave, searching for inspiration. What strategies could be used to save them if a hundred attacked at once?