I may be furious, armored and ready for blood! Just, not my blood. Being outleveled and outnumbered at least fifteen to one, I decided to go with stealth. The two V3 disks on both my thumb are modified to be my third and fourth set of eyes, both of which are currently closed. I had used them to scout the first floor for a good pathway in, a path I managed to chart and have since used.
My swarm is still running the optical illusion that renders me largely invisible to the less keen, less keen being a perfectly apt description for the two Goblins by the entrance.
---
From a random room nearby the Goblin nests, a faint zing slightly alerts the two guards before both fall to the ground, each sporting their own growing pool of blood. Not a moment after, the disks silently got back into the air, and gently made their way through the unguarded entrance. The nest remains unperturbed, noise from two bodies hitting the ground never had a chance to make it in due to all the ruckus.
I open the sights on both V3s giving me a wide panoramic view of the room, nothing much has changed. I begin from the outside, finding them from a combination of Mana Sense and visuals from the two disks. A drunk Goblin here, two roughing out a disagreement, several amid slumber… There seem to be more of them tonight.
Had managed to assassinate fifteen before a commotion broke, so I had the v3 disks hide among the ceilings and took a little break to check on the five human hostages using the old one that I've left on top of the cage, only to find one in the middle of getting raped. The disk flew in a circle to fly at the fiendish snot right at its face, it flew off from the blow and had its head broken. I lost control of the V2 disk then, totally worth it. I had one of the idle V3s sneak over to check on the hostages, only to find them unmoving and expressionless, even the one.
Looking at the remaining Goblins, I see them in a formation. The Hobgoblin and a slightly older Goblin in the middle, while the party of five surround them in a loose circle. All seven warily eye their surroundings, sometimes pausing to look at the corpse strewn around.
I left the two disks there, hovering high near the ceilings and made my way in, through the nest's entrance. Infusing my armor with mana on the way, bolstering the swarm count into triple its initial numbers. The armor bulks up, now more resembling heavy armor, slightly adding to my height and girth, then dropping stealth and taking on a blood-colored hue.
The seven didn't take long to spot me standing by the entrance to their home, the first to notice from followed the returning disks, hastily followed by the rest at its yelp. The Hob gave a few inaudible commands I deem unworthy of notice. The disks reach both my open palms where I further infuse them with mana, where they instantly grow into ten times their size and a jump in RPM, clearly indicated by the loud blender-like sound. About 25% mana left now, plenty enough, I hope.
I swung both arms forward, one at a time, quite like how a short noseless baldy in yellow training gi would. Each time, the associated disk would speed forth. The berserker bellowed in rage and jumped into the path of one, needless to say, the idiot is cleanly cut in two. The rest scattered at the sight, the two warriors made their way towards me on a roundabout path, the bandit faded into the background while the last three slowly made a retreat, one of them nocking an arrow.
The disk covered in the berserker's blood swerved to intercept one of the warriors, while another came from behind the perfectly visible bandit, courtesy of Mana Sense, instantly offing its head. The warrior managed to get its shield in position before making a desperate attempt to jump aside, sad to say he made it. Only for the banditgut covered disk to swerve down and pierce it right through the torso.
An arrow swished through the air at me, well timed to arrive just as the last warrior does. The swarm protruded to intercept the incoming projectile, losing a few pieces of itself in the process, but rendered the shot moot. Straight away, the warrior took a swing at me with its metal bat but also failed to deal any significant damage through the layers of armor before the concrete under its feet opened up to swallow the lower half of its body due to a sneaky Shape Earth. Meanwhile, the two disks managed to disembowel the scout and the older Goblin as they were distracted watching the warrior fall down an earthen mouth.
The swarm on my palms gained an edge along their wrist up and along the pinky finger, ending with a pointy tip, a weapon I then use to stab and cut at the trapped warrior, ending its miserable life. My eyes rose from the now dead goblin to focus on the Hobgoblin, this one looks like a coward, hiding behind its fellow snotty-green freaks all its life. Might be how it managed to survive long enough and evolve. I very slowly approached step by step, the two disks came to hover menacingly above me.
'Inspect.'
** DING **
Hobgoblin lv 15
Not that much higher leveled, but why did the party five refer to it as their leader, pretty sure they could team up to bring it down, maybe some racial hierarchy thing?
"KIYAAAAAAK"
Startled by the screech I had the two disks fly forth at that banshee wannabe, and watched the disk successfully hit it at chest and hip level. They managed to draw blood and cut almost a fourth of their diameter deep, but failed to go further. I forcefully had the top disk push the still alive creature down onto the floor, and then slowly saw through it, eventually having to cautiously approach and invest a bit more mana to give the disks a sharper edge. Finally, after suffering through several weird screeches, the Hobgoblin was trisected into three unequal pieces…
That was quite exhausting!
Tension slowly seeped out of me, as I took one look around at the corpses lying about and dreading the thought of manually harvesting them all, when familiar movements among the shadows really… really caught my attention, bringing forth unpleasant memories.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Oh god please no!
The shadows undulate for a few seconds before a flood of mutated cockroaches swarm out at me…
Holy damn freak'in right at me! WHY!?
At my commands and a slight swish the disks returned within reach, having exhausted the Latent Mana powering them, they are back in their original size of three centimeters. I infused about 30 mana to generate some more and made the two disks orbit about 1.5 meters around me to slice at anything that comes close. The swarm on my fingers elongated and joined together to form a triangular cinquedea-like blade.
The roach swarm came at me from all sides, lucky me, I have my own swarm. I kept 5% just in case, the rest of my mana is infused into my armor to make it as durable as possible. My disk took the first few that jumped at me, while I started swinging at any that came into view. Unlike the disks that would pierce right through one roach and into the next, disabling or outright killing them. My slices could barely hurt them, merely giving them a cut, some deeper than the other, fortunately, my attack still helps enough to keep them at bay..
After the first few minutes, I figured the best way to damage them was a two hit combo, first a slash to ground or stop them then a downwards stab with all my weight behind it. I could feel a few bumped at me right through my armor, some among those even managed to bite me. After a few of those painful stings, I had my swarm wrap tighter around me, which managed to stop the bites, but I still felt the occasional touch. How are they coming through?
Eventually all the action blurred together, my mind entering a dreamlike-trance, defend, slash-stab, evade-slash slash-stab, defend my face, evade stab-stab, Lesser Heal, infuse armor, evade slash-stab… rinse and repeat. Around halfway through the battle, the trance was broken when my body suddenly felt heavier and my movements slowed, my resources were spent. Pretty sure I would've died then if I didn't have this armor spell and the permanent disks to steadily thin the hostile army.
Some memory flashed through my mind as I stand there, unable to do anything, "I don't like it when you go off on your own." Jennifer..? "I'll be back, Jen. No gamer worth his set up will go get himself killed when the real world is turning to become like his wettest dream." That's me, but something's missing… I need to make it to the Green Garden shelter!? "Breathe, you'll be fine," ah, there it is, Henry.
Breathe, sttt-haaa, slash-stab, sttt-haaa, slash slash-stab… slash-stab-stab stttt slash-slash stabslastab hahhhh… my mind calmed and achieved a state of zen.
---
Looking around me now, my lucidating mind registered a familiar scene, the only difference with this one is me being part of the picture. I stand above a small mound of corpses, in various states of dissection. Some still visibly twitching, not quite yet a corpse. The two disks still maintain orbit around me, every part of my armor drenched in… something.
Checking my resources, I find my health to be at about 80% and healing, my mana at about a third full and my stamina almost depleted at about 10%. That doesn't seem right, pretty sure I was out of both mana and stamina way before these things were all dead… slowly but surely, my sense of touch began feeling several sensations of something dripping off me while I pondered the state of my resources, which made me switch priorities! To casting unsoil on myself and trusty gears as I made my way towards the corner, the jail.
None of the women survived… so I made a separate two by two cube in my repository to store their corpses, wanting to give them a proper burial later. This, might be for the best.
Exiting the jail, my eyes roam the hundreds of corpses strewn about and once again dread the idea of harvesting them all, alone.
"They're not gonna carve themselves." I said to myself aloud. So I got started with the one inside the jail, then made my way out. I've just about had it by the fourteenth or so corpse, ain't got enough mana to clean all this shit! Might be better to just burn them all, I entertained the thought of using Will-o'-Woe. Hmm, there's an opposite to that word, feels familiar. I took out my phone to open a browser and searched for it, also noting the unread messages for later.
Weal or Woe, that's it! I even checked their definitions. Making a reversed will-o' themed spell feels like a good idea, I like it! Hmm~, 'inspect, skip the incomplete part please'
** DING **
Will-o'-Woe - Early. Novice Rank. 75 mp. Infuse your mana with a great passion for extermination. The mana will slightly attune to the target, taking on a sliver of its magical affinity to more easily prey on them. The attuned flames would then chase after its target, be it on land, or in the skies. They will hunt every single target within an area, using the prey's own mana as fuel to cook them alive from the inside, multiplying themselves in the process. Nothing but prey shall taste the blazing passionate touch of Woe.
The spell sounds so cool~, but it can't be that good with such a low mana cost. I remember seeing the flames diving into the shadows to chase the roaches yesterday, is that what it meant by taking in their magical affinity? Damn, not sure what to think about this, not even sure how much damage it does, nor how far it goes. Though, that mana eating part should mean the spell might also work as a mage killer.
Now how about weal, defined as; that which is best for someone or something. So like a summon helper spell that provides conveniences to the caster. Maybe heals and cares for them too. Healing, help and care, that's the best for anyone right. Lets see, land and air, I'm gonna add water creatures to that… repairs, cooks and cleans… harvest and dispose… my thoughts wanders as I go about carving up corpse after corpse. Getting who knows how much more done before I feel ready to attempt creating the spell.
I collect about twenty five points of mana in the usual palms up pose, I want this spell to summon more and/or last longer with each 25 mana invested into casting it. Owls, dogs, and Jellyfishes, because why not. Might also need something bigger and with multiple sharp limbs… Now, I want them to provide life's convenience for an adventurer regardless of his or her situation, or at least, for as many different situations as possible. Hmm~.
So those forms, the exact species unspecified as I'll leave that up to chance. First of all, I believe that I want each to glow with a white hue ranging from the brightness of a firefly to something slightly stronger than a candle. It's also important that they are capable of igniting a fire, so some kinda igniting breath. Their touch may also cleanse anything and very slowly heal minor injuries, the effect getting stronger as more creatures gets involved. And the most important function of all, at least five may fuse together into a basketball sized spider form with two extra bladed feet used for carving up and harvesting materials from a corpse. Not a big fan of spiders, but it feels like a good fit to me. Lastly, all these functions will of course be supported, once again by~, ambient mana! It would be stupid to know of a freely available source of energy and not make use of it.
I allow the spell to form and watch as The System, or maybe the archives, or both, fill in the tiny details and assist in the creation of this spell. Positioning my palms to face forward, a bright cone of mana erupts forth.
** DING **