Phon refocused her attention to the foggy cloud over her replica of the compound. Surprisingly, it was a bit less foggy than when she last looked, in certain pockets at least. “Just to confirm, you all aren’t killing everyone, right?” she called out to the fighters. “I don’t particularly care, but someone else will.”
“Nope.” “Nah.” “Maybe 1 or 2 casualties.” “Don’t think so.” “Haven’t been checking.” “They’re lucky to be alive!” She got a myriad of responses, none of which made it sound like their compound had turned into a mass grave. So why were the auras starting to fade? The logical explanation was they were weakened when the owner was knocked out or paralyzed.
They weren’t the easiest to find, but Phon eventually scouted out Tize and Nachi. Tize was near the entrance, halfway to Mallea’s shack, and Nachi was still hanging around where the gym had been. She observed them both for a while—the most reliable factors since Tize would exclusively be paralyzing people while Nachi would be knocking them out.
Interesting. Phon had always somewhat suspected that auras might be made weaker due to the state of the body, but never cared enough to dig into it, and never really had a big enough sample size. “New orders everyone, though most of you were probably doing it already. Knocking out and paralyzing are better than subduing the enemies to help my Curse, so do it as much as you can.”
“And Itsy, guessing you’re in your monster truck?”
“Course.”
“Then can you try to push as many soldiers out of the compound as possible. It’s fine if they get a little mangled.”
“Can do, boss!” Itsy sounded practically giddy. “Been wanting tuh use my plow for something. Ain’t get much snow ‘round here!”
From there, Phon went back to stuffing soldiers into holding cells. She prioritized the conscious ones she could grab in the new pockets of clarity that were forming. When the cells started getting full, she’d grab as many soldiers as she could and then focus as far away as possible to one of the mountain tops to isolate them. Looking at the cloud getting thinner and thinner, she was starting to really feel like they were making progress even if there was still a lot to work through.
But then things started going wrong. “Is it just me, or did these guys suddenly get a lot stronger?” Nachi called into the comms out of the blue. “I can still take them down but… It’s like these cannon fodder suddenly leveled up to an actual challenge.”
“Thought I was going crazy,” Tize chimed in. “They’re taking several shots of paralysis ammo to go down now.
“There are similar issues on my end,” Mallea confirmed. “I was sewing their uniforms into straight jackets and then knocking them out, but now they’re getting much harder to restrain for the duration.”
“Weird, no issues here.” Feyj reported. “They’re still going down in a single strike.”
“The enemy falling to my blade is still a trivial matter.” That must have been Gatrim.
“Hard to tell, they just keep crying any time my water gets close.” Niloy wasn’t having issues.
How odd and how sudden. Phon confirmed everyone’s locations. Those having problems were all on the south side of the compound.
“Dagnabbit, that weird obelisk thing is blocking the front gate! Can’t push them out anymore!” Itsy had hit a snag too. Weird Obelisk? “Wait, now they’re pushing my truck back! When’d these fellers get so strong! Ah, zjik, they EMP’d it! Dead in the water. Guess I’ll have to get out and push!”
“Pull back away from there Itsy, that’s a Fiend!” Phon suddenly realized. “Take your truck and go on a rampage on the north side where they’re still weak. Try to take out as many as you can there.”
It all clicked once Phon figured out what Itsy was talking about. The aura for the fourth Fiend had just passed the threshold of the compound, and they must be inside whatever the obelisk was. They had to be the cause of whatever was happening.
Phon tried again to grab hold of their aura, or get Phontext to pull up any information, but to no avail. They were just too far away from where she was holed up and surrounded by too many others. Phon needed to get closer, but then she’d be vulnerable while she investigated.
Ah, Tize is the closest to them, perfect. Phon teleported behind Tize’s back and crouched down to the ground. “Protect me,” was all she said before she was lost in her own consciousness once more.
Phon focused as hard as she could on the Fiend’s aura, trying to isolate it from all the noise around it. Phonscience had been right, their aura did look weird, but it was also far more solid now than any moment before. She cupped her hands around the aura and squeezed tight.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hahaha, I got you!” she laughed to herself, filled with glee that she’d finally gotten a firm grip on this Fiend’s aura. “Off to the holding cell you go.” She tried to move the Fiend’s piece, but her arms didn’t come with her. In fact, her hands hadn’t even moved an inch.
Phon tugged as hard as she could at the aura but it just wouldn’t budge. She continued to pull, straining her arms, and finally, it moved just a hair. That at least showed her the problem. The aura was being restrained—shackled—rooted. When she pulled, several fibers of the aura stayed behind as if they were caught on something.
It was similar to how Drim could stop himself from being teleported by literally rooting himself to the ground with his plants. But how was this Fiend doing it? That’d have to wait since an influx of information was pouring into Phon’s head.
Phontext had finally been able to do a search on the Fiend. Her name was Izma Ronk, also known as The Buried-Alive Buffer. Apparently, the ‘obelisk’ as Itsy called it, was referred to everyone in the Central Peace as Izma’s coffin—one they never left when in public—hence the nickname. Now it made sense why Jaid wouldn’t know the color of her eyes, if she’d never actually laid her own eyes on Izma before.
『Curse: Power in Numbers』 『Grants all nearby persons whom the user labels as ‘allies’ a buff to their strength, dexterity, and agility. Furthermore, when several ‘allies’ surround a person designated as an ‘enemy’ the buff is increased depending on the number of ‘allies’ in the surrounding formation. The user itself gains no benefit from this ability, and the ability is weakened if the user performs any actions themselves.』
Everything was starting to make sense, but first, Phon needed to share this intel. “Everyone, try not to let them surround you. The more on each side of you, the stronger they’ll be. Right now it’s only affecting the south side of the compound, but I’m guessing they’re going to try and move the Fiend to the center so it’ll affect everyone. I’m going to focus on taking them down, but keep an ear out in case I need any help.”
Phon abandoned her mental space entirely, back to her own blinded vision. She’d need both Phonscience and Phontext at full capacity for what she was about to do. Phonscience, you drive, and keep my piece ready to move to safety with a single tap. Phontext, keep an eye out for danger and if anyone acts erratically, cover the rear.
After elaborating a bit more on the orders, Phon bolted from behind Tize’s shield and made a mad dash towards Izma—what could only be called a death march. She wasn’t going to attack anyone, just sprint past them, but that left her completely exposed, relying solely on her own physical abilities. Thankfully, she’d been doing a lot of training in that regard.
While they weren’t as effective as Tize’s shield, she had some of her own. Phon swapped her yoyo to its green setting and then split it in two. Both metal discs thinned out into large plates, and she swung one in front of her face just in time for a bullet to plink off of it.
Gun aiming at you. Throw 246° shoulder height. Phon launched her idle shield according to Phontext’s instructions and knocked the gun out of the soldier's hands. She charged forward without missing a step, keeping the other shield primed in front of her body—barging any soldiers she made contact with and forcing them out of the way, like she was plowing a trench through the fields.
Phonscience did her best, though, to avoid as much direct contact as possible, looking dead ahead and steering Phon in between the cracks of their bodies. They’re aiming for your legs. Jump in 2, 1, Now! Phon leapt on command and a swarm of soldiers all tackled into a pile under feet, slamming their arms and faces into each other.
She stomped back down onto one of their butts and kept on running. Target in sight, Phonscience could see the tip of the obelisk—err, coffin—in the horizon. It was still too fuzzy with too many bodies around for her to focus on it with her vision, but it gave her a good gauge of the distance left to go.
They know you’re coming. They’re setting up several buffed circles ahead to try and trap you, Phontext reported.
Alternate routes? Phon inquired.
Not without jumping over the wall of the compound and fighting through the just-as-buffed soldiers on the other side. Phonscience quickly dashed those hopes.
Then we charge right through! Phon found herself in a sudden open space after breaking past a line of soldiers. Thankfully, she had forewarning or the change may have disoriented her. Find the gap! Phon ordered while she bolted ahead without breaking her stride. All the soldiers raised their guns at her. She only had a moment.
Found it! Phonscience suddenly steered her body hard to the left and Phon saw the opening. One soldier was taking their stance too wide—one foot far in front of the other. When Phon got close, she dropped to the ground and slid, certainly ruining her clothes with stains of fresh grass.
The soldiers took this moment and opened fire since their sights finally weren’t aimed at friendly operatives. Phon pulled both of her shields over her body as she glided on the ground, reflecting every shot fired at her—well almost every shot. Two made it through the gap between her two round shields and clipped her waist.
They got their drop of blood, but Phon still counted it as making it through unscathed. She veered her body through the legs of the poorly-trained soldier and hopped up on the other side. There was no need to worry about getting shot for the moment, all the soldiers had either emptied their clips or were dealing with the ricochet damage.
Quite a few moans of pain and yelps of agony filled her Phon’s ears. Clearly, they had done more damage to themselves than they ever anticipated. From their words, it sounded like a couple may have received fatal wounds, but she had no time to worry about that now—certainly her brother wouldn’t hold her accountable for deaths they inflicted themselves, right?