4.
The long trunk of the monster twisted and curled inward and the distant figure’s screams were faint and hardly carried in the air. Blood dripped out of the monster’s trunk, splashing on the ground as it continued on its way toward the heart of the small town. The rushing raiders stopped in fright, the fight they had been looking for larger and more dangerous than they were ready for.
Santi’s team was running in tight formation, their practice over the last week’s showing. Mom and Torin lagged behind while Grimv stuck to his place without need to be nudged in place. The dwarf was sturdy and ready for a fight with his axe in hand. Cameron, Bianca, and Chloe forming a wedge with Cameron in the center. Grmivr drifted behind them while Santi let them get a bit ahead of him. Tank, Torin, and Mom were the last of the group about ten feet behind him.
The raiders were running without looking, fleeing the monster as it ravaged a building and a slower moving man. The man was throwing around skills, blue blasts of ice exploding in bursts around the creature’s chitinous shell. It had little effect on the monster, it simply lifted a long leg and stabbed down at the man. Concrete exploded as the street shattered like a bomb went off as the man rolled and got away from the stabbing appendage.
While those two were occupied in the center of town, the first trailing edge of the raiders finally turned to see Cameron and the two women flanking him. They were fully armored and armed with weapons built by Grimvr and Torin. Santi was ready to step in if they hesitated as the first of the dirty raiders charged at Cameron, screaming a wordless warcry.
The raider was hoisting a heavy sledgehammer over his head, pale face coated in dirt and dried blood as his black eyes were wild with rage and fear. Cam’s golden shield was cast as the raider swung down, interposing itself between Cam’s slightly less dense head and the heavy steel hammer. The steel hammer hit the gold shield with a burst of power and the sound of a crunching glass, but the shield didn’t break.
The man stared at his weapon stupidly as Cam struck with a single minded purpose, his long hatchet slicing through the man’s stomach with no resistance. Cam shouldered the man off his feet, tossing him like a child as he kept moving forward.
Bianca slashed as the man passed by her, her blade tearing away flesh and finishing the man before he could even hit the ground. The whole interaction had been done in two seconds, their training paying off. Santi had been pushing them hard, making sure they knew how to fight as a team.
Then the main part of the fleeing raiders were overrunning them. Cameron held his spot without fear or hesitation, his shield and hatchet moving in tandem. Golden shields appeared in quick succession as attacks slid off of his defensive skills. The raiders were peak Intitaties, their skills and spells not having the oomph needed to break apart the defensive skills that Cameron was activating.
Bianca and Chloe were doing their parts, their weapons blurs as they chopped and hacked their way through the drifters like they were nothing but driftwood. Neither woman showed any reluctance as they took lives for the first time, killing without hesitation as the weaker fighters couldn’t hope to match them.
It took only a minute and the first batch of fleeing killers were laying on the ground in broken pieces alongside the road and they were pushing into the actual town. The ice mage was still dueling the monster, bursts of frozen power washing over the ground as the man hadn’t stopped casting. He was throwing around enough power faster enough that Santi could make the guess that he was at least a mid thirties Acolyte.
“Mage and monster!” Santi barked, steering the team toward the main fight. Cam was chugging forward like an indomitable train, angling toward the monster. Santi risked taking his eyes off the fight for a moment to [Identify] both the monster and the man.
Mutated Mole Crab lvl. 46
Cursed Ice Mage lvl. 38
“Careful with the mage, he’s cursed!” Santi told the team.
“Da fuck does that mean?” Cam asked without turning.
“There’s more than one way of evolving. He’s going to be like one of the cursed things we’ve killed.”
“Oh, shit.”
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[Air Manipulation] tugged the mage’s foot to the side as the mole crab stabbed at him again. This time he couldn’t move away fast enough and Santi almost ended the problem then and there. The ice mage made a wall of ice in front of him, water particles condensing into a misty wall before flash freezing. The crystal ice had threads of inky darkness in it, worms of corruption that wriggled inside the ice.
Ice exploded as the leg smashed it apart, spraying out the corrupted ice like shrapnel. Cameron cast a shield in front of Bianca and lifted his own personal shield up to cover his face as Chloe ducked behind the bigger man’s back. Santi cast [Gust] and sent the ice away from the group.
A drop of blood splattered the ground as the monster’s leg dripped blood, its tough chitinous shell finally broken. A trickle of darkness swirled around the ice mage, darkening the air around the man as the iron scent of blood consumed the area. The monster froze, leg frozen high in the air as the swirling chaos around the ice mage flowed around it, seeping into the wound.
The monster stopped, frozen for a long moment,and then it fled, retreating as fast as it had come. The mage turned around to face them, his face haggard as he lifted his hands up to them. Whatever curse he had, it was powerful enough that he had managed to corrupt a higher level monster than him with only one wound. Not something that Santi wanted to have around his people.
[Gust] picked up the thin mage and threw him like a baseball, flying through the air until he crashed into the building across the street. The wall didn’t break, but the mage did. One of the problems with only putting stat points into one area. Bones were sticking out of the mage’s body while limbs were twisted in the wrong way.
“Careful, no kill notification,” Santi warned as the team slowed down. Black and red energy spread around the downed mage’s body. Bones snapped back into place, limbs twisted and ground as they fitted together properly.
“Shit, that’s gross. Kill him, skills only!” Santi barked his last order and Bianca stepped forward. Of all of the rest of the team she had the closest to a long range attack. A skill she had picked up and been working hard on since Dad’s funeral.
A simple spark ignited off the tip of her weapon, blue-white and burning with an intensity that Santi could feel from feet away. She flicked her wrist, the macuahuitl snapping like a baton to send the flickering ball of fire away.
It crossed the distance in a blink of an eye and ignited with a whoosh and burst of intense heat as the body was consumed in a heartbeat. The kill notification dinged a second later.
Cursed Ice Mage lvl 38
(Blood Thirst)
“Don’t get close to any of the others who are marked as cursed. You don’t want an infection like that,” Santi warned them.
“What was that?” Tank asked, having not been able to see what was going on.
“Its another way of evolving. It’s not advised,” Grmivr said stone faced. Santi was sure there was a thread of humor in there.
“Stay focused, there’s still plenty more of the raiders around here. And the monster,” Santi chided the team.
“Where’s Daniel and Hana?” Chloe asked, looking around carefully. Bianca hadn’t taken her eyes off the burning wreck she had created.
“Who knows, they’ll show up soon enough. Shit, behind us!” Santi caught sight of a new wave of ragged raiders wielding a motley mix of weapons as they came screaming out of hiding now that the crab had been pushed back.
Mom spun, shield rising to cover her body as her spear rested right above the edge of the shield. Santi watched as time seemed to slow as she stepped forward and lunged, spear point glinting in the light as it passed in a blur toward the leading attacker.
The spear spun and turned, broad leaf point parting flesh with ease, shattering bone like dry wood, and ending the raider’s life with ease. Mom twisted and pulled the spear free, using her shield to stop a stray blow while she stepped back to avoid a second attack.
Tank stepped forward, covering Mom’s blindside as his maul proceeded to obliterate a human into just paste. Torin watched with his hammer, eyes alert and ready to step in if Mom floundered or hesitated.
She didn’t.
She attacked with economical precision, no wasted movements as she butchered the enemy Initiates with ease. Their makeshift weapons hardly scratched her shield as with every strike she killed. Tank backed up as the pressure lessened and Chloe and Bianca stepped up to cover her sides while Cameron waited to slide in to replace her as she tired.
She didn’t use any skills or spells, just her own endurance and strength with plenty of practice. The two girls didn’t simply slaughter the enemy, but rather let Mom get the kills, harvesting potential and experience. Santi watched in awe and horror as his quiet, iron-willed, patient, and kind mother, killed and killed and killed.
The newest wave broke as fast as it had come, nine bodies laying on the ground felled by Mom’s spear. It was like watching a machine complete a task, a testament to Torin’s training.
“Mom, you ok?” Bianca asked as they stared down at the dead bodies.
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?” Mom asked, her voice soft and clipped as she wiped the bloody spear clean on a dead man’s shirt.
“No reason,” Bianca said, but she stayed close to Mom’s side as everyone milled about in the center of the town, looking for Daniel and the other’s. There was movement here and there, people moving about as they darted around the buildings, more of the weak raiders who hadn’t died yet.
“There's got to be a few more of the Acolyte level fighters around here somewhere. Stay on guard, but let’s start moving to try to find Daniel and Hana.”