The woman who walked up to Hayumi, Kazato, had long and straight black hair, and dressed in dark and thick clothes. She had a sword, a katana, sheathed at her side, and seemed to glance back toward the loud noise they’d all just heard. As she approached, she adjusted blood soaked bandages wrapped around her left arm. “Is this something we should be concerned about?” She asked Hayumi.
“Oh most certainly.” The kitsune replied. Leo took the opportunity to use Appraise while they talked. “It is after me, most likely.”
Name:
Kazato Akaria
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: D
Class
Sword Saint
Reflex: D+
Element
-
Intellect: E+
Total Rank
D
Intuition: E+
Status
Health 100%, Mana 100%
Will: D-
Skills
Grand Sword Mastery, Blade-Honed Aura, Multi-Blade Mastery, Smithing Mastery, Iron Will
Luck: E
“A Sword Saint, hmm?” The seer’s voice echoed in his head. “Fairly rare for a class.” Leo immediately willed the window he was seeing to close, nearly forgetting that they shared vision at the moment. “Oh, don’t you worry, I’m more than capable of making Appraisals without you doing it first.”
He wanted to ask her to Appraise Hayumi and show him, since he wasn’t able to when he saw her before, but something Hayumi said caught his attention. “Wait, what do you mean it’s after you?” He asked.
“I mean what I mean.” Hayumi responded with a smile. “I am most likely the highest ranked Laborer in the city, unless there’s a real S rank hiding somewhere within the walls, and I haven’t been particularly quiet in slaughtering the lesser darklings by the dozens. It will most likely make its way to me, led straight to me by whatever Outsiders orchestrated this entire affair, and try to make sure I’m no longer a factor in the raid of this city.”
The rumbling continued on. The sound of something barreling its way through the city, getting steadily closer. “Then what are we supposed to do about it?”
“Unfortunately, without any knowledge of what’s actually coming, I can’t exactly say. It would be nice if someone could tell us, but we’ll simply have to wait.”
“We should try to get out of its way since it’s after her.” Rize offered, grabbing Leo’s arm. “I should be able to hurt it no matter what it is. Do you have any bombs left?”
“A few.” He answered, glancing back to Hayumi as Rize began to lead him away.
“It’s a good idea for certain. One you should also follow, Kazato. Just from the sound of it, you’ll only be crushed underfoot if you try to defend me.”
“Wait.” Leo stopped Rize before they could get too far away. He glanced toward Kazato while creating an E rank healing potion. “Here.” He tossed the vial Kazato’s way, and she caught it without missing a beat.
“Ohoho, so you were a Mixer, then.” Hayumi said. “I did wonder when I saw you behind the counter at that store, but the shopkeeper handled my purchase, so I didn’t think much of it.”
“Is that a problem?” Leo asked.
“Far from it. Quite the opposite in fact. I believe we’ll have words, should you survive the night, but don’t let me keep you from getting some distance, I believe it’s almost here.”
Rize practically dragged Leo away from the area, the thundering sound of the massive creature approaching continuing to grow louder and even shake the ground as it approached. That spurred Leo on to get away from Hayumi. He and Rize found themselves against the wall of a nearby shop in the square as the creature practically crashed into the square.
It kicked up a sizable dust cloud as it charged straight for Hayumi, slamming into the fountain she sat at the edge of with an earthshaking crash. As the dust settled, Leo finally managed to get a good look at it, and he swallowed hard at the sight. It looked like a darkling on a massive scale, with the same near-black skin with a more noticeable brown tint under the moonlight. It stood at least fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, with a long neck and tail that practically tripled the length of its body. Staying against the wall, trying desperately to remain unseen, Leo went to Appraise.
Darkling Matriarch
Element
Dark, Earth
Total Rank
A
Quest!
What Lies Below (Urgent)
Objective
Eliminate the Darkling Matriarch
Reward
A-Rank Unrestricted Karma (2)
He glanced briefly at the quest that popped up immediately after. One look at the matriarch, and he considered running for his life a better idea than actually trying to fight it. It sniffed around the remains of the fountain it had crashed into, and then rose its head up to give a loud roar that likely echoed across the entire city.
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“My my, this is a bit of an issue.” Hayumi’s voice said, bodiless, from somewhere nearby. “Both of my specialties are basically useless against this thing, so I’ll need to use more conventional magic. As soon as I start casting, though, it’ll likely come after me again. Could I count on you to distract it? I’m sure some of the other higher ranks will be on their way after hearing that roar.”
“We’ll try.” Rize responded, she drew her blade, and white fire started to swirl around it.
No turning back now, Leo thought. He pulled out a mana potion - one of three of C rank that he got from Zumra as payment for his mixing during the rush - from his storage, bringing it back to full, then grabbed one of the C rank bombs. He only had a couple of them left, but all of them would be effective against darklings, so they should distract the matriarch at least a little. The only issue Leo saw with this plan was that the Matriarch would probably kill him instantly if it so much as grazed him.
As he pondered how to deal with this, he heard Hayumi’s voice chanting a spell from a further distance away. He looked toward the sound, and watched as she became visible, frost spreading at her feet as magic swirled around her. The matriarch also noticed almost immediately, and with another roar, it started rushing toward her. Before it could reach her, something interrupted its charge. Leo saw sparks flying from its side as something collided with it, and he spotted Kazato running on the opposite side of the square. While it did that, Leo cast his spell with his wand and lit the fuse on his bomb, holding it for a couple of seconds while he watched.
The matriarch turned to roar at Kazato, but ultimately turned back to focus on the still casting Hayumi. As it started to charge again, it reared back as Rize sent a wave of white fire after it, and Leo took that moment to give the bomb his best baseball pitch, flinging it to the slam against the matriarch’s chest before exploding in a near blinding burst that shocked Leo.
They’d tested a couple of the D rank bombs before to get an idea of the radius of the explosion, but since the C ranks came by luck, they decided not to waste them in testing their power. This was an order of magnitude larger and more powerful than the ones he’d been throwing so far, which he supposed he should have expected from the increase in rank. For a moment, Leo stood stock still, as the mildly injured matriarch turned its attention to him.
Thankfully, Hayumi finished casting her spell. Waves of cold air blew out from around her as multiple massive twisted spires of ice formed just above her. Longer than her body was tall, and she wasted no time firing them out, sending them flying toward the matriarch. Said matriarch whipped its tail around, shattering some of the spires, but also letting out a roar of pain as others pierced its tail and drew dark blood. With its attention thoroughly wrenched back to Hayumi, the matriarch charged toward her, and the kitsune quickly disappeared as the creature crashed into the building she’d been standing in front of a moment before.
Hayumi didn’t deliver a killing blow by any means, but Leo could see that it injured the matriarch better than anything he and Rize managed to throw at it. If she could keep casting spells of that level and continue to avoid the matriarch, maybe they could actually beat it. Just as those thoughts passed through his mind, Leo heard the thundering noise of yet another darkling horde approaching the square. “Seriously?” He said to himself. He was practically tripping over their corpses at this point. Maybe the matriarch was drawing them in. “Rize, hold them back.” He called to her.
“Stay alive!” Rize ran to intercept the darklings. As far as Leo knew, she’d be the only one who could actually hold them back on her own, and she’d be fine as long as they were only coming from one direction. The area where she hunkered down was much wider than the street they’d picked, as well, so she might have more leeway to use her magic in general.
Glancing back, he finally managed to see Kazato in action. She also held a sword and chanted, and Leo watched as energy swirled around her and manifested in the form of another sword that hovered over her briefly, before flying at the matriarch and slashing downward. The spectral blade drew sparks where it clashed against the matriarch’s skin, but failed to draw blood before disappearing. It did, however, draw the matriarch’s attention with the absence of Hayumi.
Rapidly, Leo pulled out the ice bomb from his storage and lit it, aiming as the matriarch began to stomp toward a backpedaling Kazato. It turned its head to look at him just as he threw the bomb, and managed to take a couple of heavy steps back before it was pelted with a sizable amount of frozen shrapnel.
They had its attention for now, but this couldn’t last forever. Leo only had a couple bombs left, and with Rize now burning away approaching darklings, he didn’t think he and Kazato could distract it long enough for Hayumi to cast that powerful ice spell from before. At that point, he pulled out his two remaining C rank bombs, another ice bomb and a metal one, and prepared to light them both. With the C rank bombs, he felt like he could collapse a building with a single one, and the matriarch seemed to be giving them a wide berth now that it had been hit by a couple of them.
This time, Hayumi’s chanting continued as she reappeared, drawing the matriarch’s attention back to her, and causing it to charge her immediately. This time, she didn’t move, so Leo hoped that it was some kind of illusion while he lit his last two bombs. The matriarch stayed in place as it reached Hayumi, rearing up and slamming down on her, only to reveal that it was an elaborate illusion. Leo threw his bombs, one towards its head and the other towards its tail, and watched as they exploded one after the other, causing it to cry out in pain once more and stumble backward. Based on its continued shrieking and mobility, it still had plenty of fight left in it, and Leo was out of bombs.
“As I suspected, this becomes much harder without the ghostflame…” Hayumi appeared next to him, watching the matriarch in case it noticed her. “The three of you could at least give it enough pause for me to cast a spell, but without her the window’s become too short, and I won’t kill it any time soon if all of my mana’s used on illusions.”
“It might come after me next, after that, but not for long, I’m out of bombs.” Leo admitted. As the matriarch recovered, another floating sword came flying its way and slashed across its flank, leaving a shallow but noticeable cut.
Hayumi clicked her tongue, keeping her gaze fixed on the matriarch. “You’ve been collecting materials, haven’t you? Don’t you have anything else to mix together?” She said, and sighed. “Though, of course you wouldn’t be able to make something particularly effective if it all came from the darklings. Very well, I suppose stalling is the plan until I can figure something out.”
She disappeared again, and Leo brought up his Storage in list form, trying to look through what he had to see if he could make any use of it. His eyes flicked toward the top, which would have everything he collected before having anything to do with the darklings, and they widened as he realized he did have something he could use.
It took three quarters of his mana to use Combine to create a C ranked item, as he mixed together the Drowned Heart and the Soul Husk he received from the corpse of Oorden. He held up the vial in his hands, hoping he could actually use it.
Potion of Aqua Cannon (C-Rank)
Grants the user the ability to continuously drain mana to create a torrent of pressurized water.
Lasts for 10 minutes.
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: E (0/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (0/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
E
Intuition: D- (0/10)
Status
Health 90% Mana 21%
Vision Sharing, Barkskin (D Rank)
Will: E (0/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage
Luck: D (0/10)
Skill: Combine
Mix different raw materials into a new item. You choose the shape of the form. Final form is affected by rank and element of materials.
Store Combine results into a mental guidebook that grows based on Intellect rank.
Skill: Auto-Loot (Mixer)
Automatically separates mixable materials from slain creatures. If the [Storage] skill is active, automatically places loot into storage space.
Skill: Appraise (Mixer)
Look at a creature or material and gain information on them. Information includes: Rank, Element, Class, Statuses, Titles. May have difficulty appraising creatures of higher rank, or creatures hidden by another skill or effect. Skill affect boosted by Intuition Rank.
Skill: Storage (Mixer)
Creates an inter-dimensional storage space that only you can access. Storage increases with Total Rank