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Chapter 203

CHAPTER 203

Tom was falling, and he was struggling to understand the why or how. Desperately, he blinked his eyes to restore his vision. It didn’t help. The afterglow from that explosion of light had been burned into his retinas and blinded him.

He struck the ground hard, his foot striking first but at a bad angle that sent him sprawling forward. Coarse, rough dirt greeted him and he found his face smashing into it. His momentum was only partially absorbed by his flailing arms. Earth Manipulation instinctively reached out to seize control of the surface and it failed. The dirt was part of the underground and beyond his casual command.

Earth Maggots. He remembered what he had been doing. He had been fighting the earth maggot that had knocked him flying.

He couldn’t see anything, but he could deduce more than enough.

Combat did not automatically stop when one of its participants took a hard knock. Instead, it only finished then if that person froze and let the other party…

The maggot was coming for him, Tom realised with horror. He was blinded and in mortal danger.

He threw himself randomly to the left and into a roll even as his Spark domain spread around him to combat his blindness. A big shape rushed through where he had been lying.

Tom stood and realised he had dropped his spear. He retrieved his second one from storage while all his senses focused on where he had felt the monster go past. He didn’t understand what had happened to him.

Where had that massive noise come from? And the light and the world twisting?

He blinked. Some of the spots disappeared, giving him a small amount of vision. Healing Tranquillity told him that there was nothing physically wrong. He had been flashed blinded and would have to wait for it to clear.

But by what?

An ability? If so, why didn’t he notice it?

By another enemy?

But the other bits…

Something came at him from behind. Tom didn’t think he launched himself sideways and then triggered his teleport to increase his speed. His mind stretched, and he attempted to force it to take him further than usual and then instead of moving any part of him he tried to convert some of that potential motion into momentum to make him faster.

He wasn’t sure any of it worked.

The spell activated.

Then he was further away.

It wasn’t enough.

Something smacked into his legs and multiple abscesses burst. Tom screamed in pain. It felt like his entire limb had been torn off. He powered through the agony and stood gingerly on one leg with his head turning around to spot the enemies.

A maggot came at him, and he sidestepped it. His secondary spear parrying the mouth at the last moment and carrying him beyond its reach. Providing it didn’t bite him or squash him these things had little in the way of offensive weapons.

He kept searching and spotted a second maggot coming.

There were two?

Tom swallowed heavily as he understood what had happened.

He had died… well not technically, but Lightning Dodge had been activated. That second maggot had landed a surprise attack on him and without that teleport, Tom knew he would be dead.

It chilled him through to the bone, but he would have to assess root causes later. He guessed he had been too casual… unthinking… maybe it was the aftereffects of the decay energy or the running or most likely his own arrogance.

Excuses didn’t matter.

Anger flared through him. He had almost died.

The least damaged of the maggots was veering off and aiming for Rahmat.

No, he screamed in his head.

His arm went back, and he launched a piece of tier two rock. Throw rock activated as it left his hand and it accelerated to five times its initial speed. It slammed home into where he guessed the monster’s nostrils should have been.

The target rocked back, and Tom smiled when he saw that he left a hole in its outer shell. Its attention focused a hundred percent back on him.

Both maggots consumed by fury rushed him, but like he had figured out earlier. They were terribly limited, and this time Tom was strategic in his movement. He dodged in a narrow circle, keeping the monsters close and more importantly staying away from any of the mounds of dirt that might contain further enemies.

While he taunted them to follow him, his companions attacked the higher ranked creatures with their limited attributes and skills. It was slow going, but brackish blood ran from the cuts they were creating and then the first maggot died.

It didn’t change anything for Tom. Dodging two was just as easy as one, and he continued tracing his tight circle as they attacked their second enemy.

These weak things had almost killed him. Tom’s fury at himself was absolute, but none of that emotion was allowed to impact his actions. Every step was precise, and he was ready to dodge in any direction. The second maggot went down faster than the first because everyone had learnt to target the joints between the segments as opposed to bashing blindly.

Jingyi looked at Tom with wide, incredulous eyes. He had obviously caught Tom’s mistake. Then the scout shook his head. “We need to move. Their carcasses are almost worthless, so no point harvesting.” They set off once more. “Tom,” Jingyi said carefully. “You can’t be that careless…”

“I know.” Tom interrupted angrily. “I know. I screwed up.”

They jogged in silence along the dirt winding between the mounds.

Tom checked his system space.

Skill: Lightning Dodge. (6) (Tier 4)

Life saving skill. Lightning is your friend and you will automatically be zapped to a nearby location to avoid an otherwise fatal blow. At higher skill levels, an active ability to use the short-term teleport during combat is enabled.

There was no doubt that was the skill that had saved him. Then, more hopeful than anything, he checked the description and status of his teleport spell, but nothing had changed. When he had tried to extend the range of the teleport, it had felt like something had given but if it had; the change was not material enough to change the teleports description.

Tom returned to the real world.

His mind kept going through those first few moments of the fight. Remembering how easy it was to stay in front of the maggot. Yes, they were reasonably fast, but nothing that he couldn’t handle and then…

He shuddered.

How did someone of his experience make that sort of mistake?

People, it was the only explanation because there was no way he would have done that in the tutorial. Jingyi had even warned him mid battle of the danger. Not to mention he had seen the risk when the first one had emerged. It wasn’t lost on Tom that it had been silent until it landed on the ground. Yet despite that foreknowledge, he had stuffed up and but for his special class it would have been fatal.

It had to be people; they were making him slip. He could abandon them, but then… could he do his self imposed quest by himself.

The answer was no he was better off with this team, but why then had he made that mistake?

Ahead of them, a maggot burst out of the ground. He watched it and was impressed with the speed it emerged with and the magic that enabled the strike to be completely silent.

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It landed with a crash five metres short of them and before it could hump forward more than once. Tom was in its face and released Lightning Enrage from point blank range. This time, while he tanked it, he kept track of the nearby mounds. He was careful not to get within ten metres of them as he paced a narrow circle to let the others land their attacks more efficiently.

It died, and they ran. They eliminated five more of the earth maggots before they reached the end of the field.

Jingyi paused before entering the fungal jungle in front of them. “Everyone make your purchases. We’re out of time.”

He pointed the way they were going, and they could see monsters flapping above the vegetation. They were flying gracefully through the air and looked like giant stingrays. Then the scout pointed the other way to where the antelope herd had appeared. There must have been a thousand of them.

Tom licked his lips. He had known that this was the plan, but seeing those two forces converging on each other was humbling. They had ten minutes at most, then this area would become an apocalyptic battle field. Internally, he prayed that their plan of hiding to the side while the two stronger forces annihilated themselves would work, or at least if it went wrong something miraculous would occur to let them survive.

They were fleas against the power of these forces, and this was Existentia. Something would go wrong.

“Tom, buy your defences.” Jingyi snapped at him.

Tom stepped into the system room to see what he could afford.

The maggots were lucrative, and he had sufficient experience to get everything he wanted. He purchased both the skin and lung barrier tier zero skills and then upgraded Decay Resistance. Because it was a straight upgrade, half the cost of the tier two purchase was refunded. It was the only reason he could afford it and the discount was nice, but on another level… it stung. Effectively renting the tier two version for twenty minutes had cost him ten thousand experience points. It was a lot but also Tom guessed worth it because it had saved his life as he might not have survived the second antelope skirmish without it.

He reappeared in a real world and glanced around to try to interpret how everyone else had gone.

“I got tier two resistance and both barrier skills.” Michael called out.

The entire group rapidly yelled out their own gains. No one was surprised to discover that Harry and Thor had the least experienced to spend. Harry, because of his role and build robbed him of any strong offensive attacks and his rituals had been useless during the running skirmishes and Thor because his hammer was nearly useless against the earth maggots who had a natural resistance to blunt force damage.

“Auction credits?” Michael asked Thor immediately.

“Thirty thousand saved up.”

“Spend it and split it between the two of you.” Jingyi ordered.

The animation instantly left Thor’s body as he hurried to query the auction house.

Tom glanced at the approaching threats and shook his head. Their current location was almost directly between the advancing forces. It felt like suicide to meet them in the open like this because he doubted earth maggots would slow the antelopes at all. “Should we move closer to the cliffs? Get somewhere a little more defensible?”

For once the scout hesitated, sending anxious glances toward what to Tom appeared to be pretty innocent rock walls. “Everlyn do we make our stand near the cliffs or where we are?” Jingyi asked through Everlyn’s voice chat.

“Have you scouted the cliffs?” She asked immediately.

“No, I haven’t.”

There was a long pause.

“Then I don’t know… pretty dangerous to get closer if that’s the case. But…”

“We can’t be caught in the open like this.” Tom interrupted. “I gather you’re worried about a third monster type getting involved, but if either of these forces hit us we’re dead, anyway. Better to gamble on the cliffs.”

“I’ve seen rank thirty monsters making a home on a canyon walls.” Everlyn said.

“Doesn’t matter.” Tom snapped this time, letting he’s annoyance shine through. “If we stay here we die. I’d rather take the chance.”

“It’s not that black and white…”

“And we have fate on the line.” Tom said quietly.

“Not to protect us from cliff monsters.”

He glared at the sky in exasperation. “Correct, but the more general purpose we invested it for will still protect us just not as efficiently.”

“Everlyn! Stop. He’s right,” Jingyi interrupted to support his position. “We’re going to have to risk it.”

There was a pop and a crackle of energy as a loot portal appeared. Thor immediately stuck his hands in and pulled out a necklace and a ring. He tossed the ring to Harry and Tom got a glimpse as the ritualist shoved it on his finger.

Ring of aura protection - tier 2.

This ring will materially reduce the impacts of all tier 2 auras and below.

“That’s a magnificent ring.” Tom said, impressed.

“Yes, it was a bargain,” Thor agreed. “My amulet is much less impressive. It’s only for decay and gives me five minutes of protection per day, but given the circumstances…” The remainder was left unsaid, that long against the antelopes was almost an eternity.

“Let’s reposition.” A visibly nervous Jingyi turned and jogged toward the cliff face. His eyes didn’t pause. They continued to flitter from spot to spot, searching for a threat that might or might not be present.

“Aim for the yellow boulder.” Everlyn commanded over her telepathic ability.

The scout leading them did not directly respond to the order but shifted his trajectory. As they got closer, it was clear the landmark Everlyn had chosen was huge. It was the size of a three-story mansion and its shape would provide them with a small measure of protection from attacks originating from the cliffs proper. It would not stop a determined monster from reaching them, but it would at least ensure they were visible as they crossed the line from the standard grey to the sandstone yellow.

They arrived at its base.

“Wait here.” Jingyi ordered. Then with a frown he ran up the boulder, moving with the aid of some skill so that he almost faded to nothing and Tom heard no noise. He efficiently angled toward crevices and checked them carefully before climbing to the top. “It’s safe.” The relief in his voice was palatable. “I hate the underground.”

Now that the scout had proven the boulder didn’t contain hidden monsters the rest of them started scrambling up to the obvious defensive point. Unlike the other spots that Jingyi had picked for their battles, there were no convenient choke points for Tom to hold. Instead, they climbed about a third of the way up and to the side where there was a section of rock that formed a natural platform that had eroded slightly into the main mass of the rock. When they looked up, there were steep walls and even a sort of roof caused by overhang.

It was far from perfect, but it provided a small measure of protection and given their lack of time to prepare Tom was thankful of Everlyn’s eye.

They formed up into their battle formations. The healers and ranged stood at the back and then Tom, Rahmat and Thor at the front next to each other. They were ready to stop anything from passing.

Harry was already scribbling away to get his standard rituals down, and Keikain was on his hands and knees, his face almost kissing the yellow rock as he worked his magic into it. The earth mage had discovered that if he infused his power into the underground rock over time, then it would fall under his domain and allow him to use it nearly as easily as he did surface stone. Unfortunately, Tom did not seem to have the same capability as the more dedicated caster and when he attempted similar feats, he had failed.

Everlyn appeared her face red, and she was puffing heavily. She took up position behind them and then, as prepared as they were going to get Tom shifted his attention to the coming fight for survival.

He studied the enemy.

The boulder gave them a slight elevation relative to the rest of the canyon and they could see the two approaching forces.

The innocent-looking antelopes bounding along. The devastating aura apparently did not extend to plant life because nothing was dying around them and Tom knew how quickly even the probably decay resistance fungus would be destroyed if the monsters willed it.

Opposing them moving as often on top of what was effectively a fungus jungle as within it were the flapping forms of the stingray like beasts.

Number wise, the antelopes had a slight advantage, but they all knew those sorts of calculations were meaningless. The most important aspect was match up. If one countered the other than it would be a bloodbath, no matter what the relative strength on a neutral measuring suggested.

“What’s going to happen?” Harry asked Everlyn.

“They’ll fight. The flapping scorpoise are likely to win, but it will be close.”

“But the decay field?”

“Is counted by the scorpoise… but likewise, the venom in their stingers won’t kill an antelope. This will probably end up as a pretty nasty melee.”

They could see eight advanced scouting parties from the antelopes and four from the scorpoise. They watched in interest as the first two groups clashed against each other.

There were three scorpoise versus seven antelopes and Tom guessed from how the wider battle was supposed to go that meant the antelopes had a slight advantage in the encounter. The stingray like creatures saw the monsters coming and immediately flew higher to establish the high ground and crimp their opponent’s ability to attack them.

It failed.

The leading antelope jumped three metres to easily get above the first sting ray and then fell upon its back. Its hooves flashed. The first kick bounced off but a moment later the back legs targeted the same spot and this time they plunged through the srorpoise’s skin and embedded themselves hoof deep into the other creature.

It was chaos as all the antelopes sprang to attack. They seemed to be able to time their movements to sprint off one scorpoise’s back to launch a strike at another.

The stingers flashed.

Two missed, but one landed. The one that hit stabbed deep into an antelope in its haunches. It squealed, stumbled from where it was walking on its enemy and fell to crash to the ground. A moment later, it was up with a flesh wound, but no apparent lasting damage from the venom that Tom knew must have been injected. The description of it being an ugly melee was accurate.

The antelopes bashed the scorposie into submission while the scorpoise demonstrated three offensive abilities. The first was when one of the three enveloped a helpless antelope completely as its wings folded over and drew the antelope up to its chest. When it opened up the beast it had caught had been reduced to mush. Then there were the stingers which failed to get a clean kill and their final method of attacks was the hard edges at the far end of their wings. Which it used as a bashing tool.

It took a full minute for the fight to complete and afterwards there were three injured antelopes left standing.

Jingyi cleared his throat and pointed. “We have company.”

Tom glanced toward where the scout had gestured. Three of the antelope hunting parties had apparently been tracking them and were just emerging from the earth maggot territory. They had combined into a single unit of around two dozen and were in the process of charging toward them.

Tom smiled. In some ways, this early challenge was good news. They were going to get a chance to test the effectiveness of their aura resistance. If their decay resistance failed against this small number, then they would have to find another way before the main pack reached them.

Maybe a ritual, Tom thought, glancing at Harry. He hoped not. It was bad enough they had all been forced to purchase these annoying skills. He didn’t want to force Harry to spend even more of his limited experience on pointless knowledge.