CHAPTER 212

The monsters had not arrived yet, but from the activity Tom could see all hell was about to break loose.

It wasn’t the babies that were coming for them it was the adults. All their attempts to estimate the risk didn’t matter. They had been wrong or unlucky, and all that was left was to fight and survive.

With a mental command, the lesser water elemental emerged and hovered at his shoulders. It had almost an hour left on the contract, but was limited by its available energy. There was only so much it could contribute in battle. Five to ten minutes was Tom’s estimate, and it depended heavily on how he used it.

“Twenty-two have entered the cave system.” Jingyi told them. “They’re moving slowly and I’ll call out if any more arrive.”

“Twenty is more than we can face,” Everlyn said professionally. “But we’re prepared, so we’ll be fine. We let the first one through to test out Harry’s fire ritual and its strengths and weaknesses. Thor and Clare will block the entryway with those shields. We’ll assess tactics once we’ve identified them properly and we know what we’re dealing with.”

“Maybe a third to hold the shield,” Thor suggested nervously. “If they’re rank twenty in strength… I don’t know…”

“Good point. Michael and Rahmat support them, please.” Everlyn decided brusquely. “Rahmat, after the first few seconds use your judgement.

Tom could hear scrambling. They were coming.

There were pre-planned actions taking place that he wasn’t aware of. Tom figured the others must have discussed strategies over dinner when he had been asleep. The four assigned to the entranceway had shifted a metre away and were crouched down behind heavy shields and the ranged fighters back against the far wall. Tom’s eyes flicked to the nearly fully charged ritual.

Nervously, he moved cautiously away to create extra space. He hadn’t had a chance to see what the ritual could do, but given the caution everyone else was exhibiting…

Tom took another large step back even as the noise of the approaching enemies grew louder.

He was interested in observing the coming explosion. He knew Harry was limited in the number of rituals he could select and fire was a good choice. It was genuinely very effective against a large variety of monster types. Beasts with fur or feathers, most faux sapients, plant monsters and amphibious creatures were all usually vulnerable to fire. Draconic lizards however would likely be a different story… that heritage. It was problematic and Tom figured the magical trap would have less than a twenty percent chance of hurting them. They were likely to possess fire immunity, but everything was a guess till they saw one.

That uncertainty was why he had chosen the water element. It gave them the maximum amount of diversity. If Harry’s fire, Toni’s air, Keikain’s Earth and his lightning were resisted, then water would probably be a vulnerability.

One of the draconic lizards burst through the narrow space.

It was slightly smaller than what Jingyi had estimated, but only a little. Instead of weighing as much as him it was probably on par with Everlyn.

Flames exploded out of the floor and wreathed the animal in dancing, blue and orange that radiated heat almost intense enough to singe Tom’s eyebrows even with him standing three metres away. Then it was past the fire storm, seemingly undamaged by them.

Tom thrust his spear without having made a conscious decision to attack its charge and lined it up perfectly.

His mind instructed the water elemental to see if it could blind it. There was a focused acknowledgment, and it floated off his shoulder. He guessed its personality was Lazy and determined. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to check, but if it was, that was not a bad combination.

The creature rammed into his spear hard enough to make him stumble and despite the use of Power Strike his weapon failed to penetrate the monster.

Tom cursed even as other spells struck out and hit the creature. None of them appeared to have done any damage to the monster. A spray of water smacked its eyes, but it blinked and the eye opened undamaged.

He swallowed and mentally instructed the elemental to desist from its attacks. He would wait till they were more effective. The monster’s eyes moved independently, scanning the room. It paused on each of the fighters with one of the four eyes focused on him the entire time. Now was the moment of truth. Would he be the target or would he need to use Lightning Enrage earlier than he wanted.

All the eyes snapped to face him. Inside, he did a jig and then threw himself to the side as it tried to make a snack of his thigh. It was an easy manoeuvre to avoid it with his dodge skill doubling his speed.

Once more, they faced each other. Almost fluorescent red blood was dripping slowly from the spot his spear had hit. Not a flood. It wasn’t sufficient to ever kill it, or even slow it, but it was evidence that his attack had hurt it. A single scale had broken off. Tom instantly focused on that fact. It was a weakness to exploit.

He didn’t want to waste his mana on taunting, but he needed to keep the monster attacking him exclusively, which meant out damaging it while dodging. He concentrated on his Spark ability.

Zap.

It flinched as the electricity ran over it and while it twitched in shock Tom thrust at the broken scale. This time, his spear penetrated further. Before hitting a wall. Not bone, he thought to himself. That was a form of magical defence.

It snarled at him and attacked in a flurry of strikes. Tom was conscious of the surrounding room. Harry placing down a ritual. The almighty bang from the entrance and the curses of the four people holding the shield steady. It seemed they had sufficient strength together to hold the line, and he prayed the shield they had purchased would last.

“Vulnerable to ice.” Everlyn reported. “Every scale is enhanced with a shield skill. You need to target the same area and break the scales to create a true vulnerability. It also possesses a tight focus fire domain.”

Tom listened intently. The knowledge didn’t change anything in how he was fighting. He was already targeting the same spot. He kept dodging and tested with his spear how much power was required to crack a scale. The answer was not a lot.

“They’re going to boil us alive.” Thor roared.

Negate, Tom, ordered the elemental instantly. While sending pictures of it going over to where Thor and the healers struggled to hold the shield. Then it needed to use its water magic to alleviate the heat. The presence of the fire domain was interesting. He hadn’t even noticed, but he guessed it was because he was moving too quickly for the fire domain to catch him. Nevertheless, the room was heating up and sweat was dripping down, threatening to get into his eyes.

Crack.

An arrow exploded through the spot he had been targeting. Everlyn had waited until she had the opportunity to line it up perfectly. The angle she had chosen allowed the projectile to penetrate right through the lizard’s body, including going through where the heart must have been situated.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Tom made a mental note of the location. It was higher than he expected, but from now on that was the killing blow he would target.

The creature staggered and then turned to face Everlyn. Tom, for the first time had an opportunity to examine his opponent properly. It was sort of like a cross between a goanna and a crocodile, but with eight legs and short stubby wings that weren’t for show. In the time they had fought, those wings had converted their struggle into what was closer to an aerial battle than a ground one.

It’s eyes were fixated upon Everlyn and Tom knew that look because it was the same single-minded determination that had targeted him. It lowered itself to prepare to spring forward. Tom did the calculation was already running in the right direction. A teleport sped him up.

It sprang, leaping into the air clearly intending to close the distance between it and its target via flight.

Lightning Feet flared. Electricity was like a fountain out of his planted foot. He launched himself to intercept it.

The monster spotted him and tried to lash out with its feet, but he blocked on one side with his elbow. Luckily catching it just under the claws and successfully pushed the razor sharp items away and his spear stopped the leg from the other side.

Then his shoulder struck hard in the chest of the leaping lizard. The collision was not as violent as he expected, and he heard ribs crack.

Hollow bones, he thought triumphally even as he squirreled the information away for later. It felt like it would eventually be important, but for now…

Still effectively entangled with the monster they crashed to the ground together. Tom made sure to be on top and there were sounds of more bones breaking. It lethargically tried to use its legs to swipe him, but a teleport took him clear of the flashing claws. Then he scrambled clear, spear at the ready in case it chose to follow him or continue to try to reach Everlyn.

It did neither. Instead, it slumped down. There was a growing pool of bright red forming under him.

Dead, Tom concluded after tapping into his extra senses, or at least about to reach that state. He took a moment to catch his breath.

“Let another two through.” Everlyn ordered.

“The ritual?” Tom asked.

“I disabled it while you were fighting.” Harry volunteered. “It was clear it wasn’t capable of hurting the lizards.”

“Guys,” Everlyn interrupted. “Let them through.”

The three manning the shields immediately began a countdown to coordinate their movements and Rahmat repositioned to help.

In between the regular thumps as the monsters tried to get through, they yanked the shield up.

There was a blur of motion as multiple lizards burst into the room.

The three of them attempted to slam the shield down but were too slow. With a number of expletives, it got knocked upwards and a fourth creature snuck through. They banged it onto the ground and sealed the tunnel.

But four had already made it through and there was no time to be cute about these things. Lightning enrage blazed out from where he stood. Sparks moving with deceptive speed struck the lizards and no matter where they hit they burrowed into them. The monsters who had been aiming for four different targets roared in agony and then spun to focus on him.

Tom did not feel at all threatened. He could sense the fate lingering around him, and the first monster had not actually been that challenging. The Black Dodge component of his skill had not activated once, which was a change from recent battles against stronger foes when it had been permanently blazing away. Not only hadn’t it been required he had also barely had to use his teleport spell, excluding the end when he was protecting Everlyn.

Four would change things, but he suspected not sufficiently to threaten his life. One of the lizards leapt into the air and its wings brushed against the ceiling, forcing it to abruptly abort the attack.

Tom smiled.

He hadn’t realised the roof would be an asset. After all, it was high enough that no one could accidentally bang their heads against it. In fact, on earth, Tom doubted he would have been able to touch it even if he jumped as high as he could. Yet, long flying creatures with stubby wings had different rules of engagements and to them it was an environmental hazard. They could not consistently attack from above his head, which evened out the battle further.

An open smile spread out on his face as the draconic lizards all charged forward to kill him.

This is what life was about. The simple elegance and joy of combat.

He stepped to the side, effectively causing two of them to crash into each other. Time slowed dramatically and a teleport let him avoid the claw that was going to severely cut his arm. He launched forward with his spear. There was no attempt to unleash a devastating battle ending blow or concentrated Power Strike to enhance the penetrative ability of his spear. There was no need. The scales would block those blows just as readily as a tap. All he had to do was to deliver the minimum force required to trigger a defensive charge. That and continuously hitting them in the same spot was all this particular contest called for.

When what was little more than a light tap landed, a scale broke. He had barely invested sufficient force to cut his own skin. But the scale fell off because magic defences while incredibly potent could be exploited.

He spun, rolled, then dodged. There were so many legs continuously swiping at him. With every engagement, he had to avoid at least three claw slashes and usually a darting mouth, and that was from each lizard, and they were unceasingly attacking him. Black dodge activated regularly, but the fight never felt like it was out of control. He had to accept the occasional cut, but that was the price that his dodge skill levied for its utility. The unique nature of his dodge skill ensured that they were never more than the lightest of scratches and a point, occasionally two, closed the wounds almost as they opened. Yet despite the hectic constant movements, numerous opportunities to poke the monsters presented themselves. Or even more amusing, were the times he did it by accident. The number of times when he had been focused on avoiding an attack from one monster only to have a different lizard run into the tip of his spear with sufficient force to break a scale was incredible. Especially when every time it was on the creature’s chest exactly where they had been creating a hole in the creature’s armour.

As he spun and weaved between them, his spear was continuously in motion, taking opportunities when a monster ended up perfectly positioned for him to strike. He wasn’t the only one contributing to the fight. Finely, controlled air blades thumped into the targets. The ethereal arrows of Everlyn kept striking into the lizard bodies only slightly more frequently than Jingyi’s. Rahmat was also there right on the edge of the combat his spear flashing forward when he noticed the opportunity. With the lizards moving twice as fast as him, it meant that getting so close to them even if they weren’t actively targeting him was dangerous. The man’s lack of a defensive skill was telling. On more than one occasion, a lizard would crash into him. He was repeatedly knocked off his feet his armour having multiple rents from it. Clare and Michael healed him and then he got up and gamely continued the fight.

Crack.

The enormous sound of Everlyn using her magical bow to its full extent rocked the room. One of the lizards was knocked out of the air and landed with a thud. Bright, almost fluorescent, red blood poured out of its chest. It didn’t even try to get up such was the damage done.

Tom kept dodging, a process that immediately simplified.

With three instead of four, Black Dodge still activated occasionally, but now a teleport let him completely avoid the damage.

Crack.

Another died.

He saw an option and his spear tore through the third. His foot was instantly on the creature’s chest and then he launched himself backwards to yank the spear clear. Then he rolled to the side as the fourth monster crashed down next to him. It had attempted to impale him with six of its eight legs.

Tom was on his feet. Dodging towards Jingyi and then throwing himself flat when the scout coldly raised the arrow and fired straight at his heart.

The arrow sped over his head, and Tom immediately spun to face the last lizard.

It was dying and he could see Jingyi’s arrow poking out its chest with the monster clawing at it uselessly as it’s life blood leaked away.

“Thor, how are you guys holding?” Everlyn asked.

“We’ve got this. They can’t break through.”

“Thirty seconds then.”

All three of them were pressed up against the shield then every three seconds they would rock back as an immense force crashed against the barrier they had created. The shield was now better described as a slab of metal and heavily deformed. It might last another round of battles, but no further. It wasn’t an exposure. Thor had thoughtfully purchased five of them and with only sixteen monsters left they would outlast the enemies.

His water elemental indicated that it was running out of energy and it wouldn’t be staying for long.

“I need more time.” Tom called out while he assessed his own mana. There was good news his mana was close to full. It had taken them almost ten minutes to wear the four enemies down, and he hadn’t needed to reapply Lightning Engage. While they had been hitting him regularly, the drain of Touch Heal had been less than his mana regeneration.

“Why?”

Tom glanced at Everlyn from where he stood unbothered in the mana recharge ritual circle that Harry had put down. “It’s the fire aura. My water element is protecting them,” he pointed at the three crouched near the exit. “But it’s almost out of energy. I need to summon an ice elemental to help them. Has to be lesser and I want to recharge…”

“That’s fine.” She said immediately. “So five minutes?”

Tom hesitated. “If it’s possible.”

“You’ve got it.”