CHAPTER 157: You were a Brave Man
A Leputi very, very, VERY gently handed Lucas a round flask. He could see the glue around the cork, underneath some kind of super tape, sealed in wax, bound in cloth, with metal clasps holding it all together. Lucas eyed the flask while noting the bunny man backing away from him, trying to do it without seeming disrespectful.
“What does it require to set it off?” asked Lucas.
The Leputi froze, a guilty look as if he had been caught while trying to slip away.
“Lord commander, we are not sure. Some tests required fire, and some tests exploded when jostled or exposed to air. There was not enough time to stabilize the mixture.”
A heavy sigh shook Lucas’s shoulders.
“Thanks, you can…”
Lucas hadn’t even finished speaking before the Leputi turned and jumped off the base side of the wall.
The flask was slightly smaller than a basketball. The viscous material inside didn’t slosh or ripple. It oozed when he tilted the bottle, not wanting to break contact with the glass-like sides.
“Dumb? Check. Dangerous? Double check. Jordan, I don’t suppose you have a better idea?” Lucas spoke first to himself, then to the display.
The yellow Kukiolis was almost at the wall, yelling the whole way and cranking his arm back to punch it forward. There was a weight to his glowing fists, a feeling of inevitability. Lucas might not be able to get a second chance once that big brute struck the wall.
“Sorry, commander. I’ve got no idea here,” responded Jordan. “I’ll pray for your success.”
“Pray to who?” demanded Randall. “At least we haven’t had to deal with religious nutjobs since this whole thing went down…well, except for Tom and his guys.”
“True enough,” agreed Tom, nodding emphatically.
“Well, it’s just that…I’m not…sorry, I think there is a bad connection,” Jordan began hissing static into the display while hiding his face from it.
“Dude, it’s not a phone,” chided Randall.
“I know, I just couldn’t think of anything to say,” admitted Jordan.
“It’s ok. I’m doing this,” said Lucas. He pulled out a throwing knife about the size of a finger and handed it to Randall. “If the mixture doesn’t ignite from the air, I’m going to need you to [Lightning Tip] the knife to set it off.”
“Should I wait until you get away?” asked Randall, frowning at the knife in front of him like it was a snake threatening his friend.
“I don’t think there will be time. Just get it done,” ordered Lucas.
“Will do,” said Randall with a sigh after looking at Lucas’s determination.
Tom saluted Lucas. “You were a brave man. Are! You ARE a brave man. And you won’t be missed at all because I’m sure you will survive. Yeah, I’m sure that deadly experimental chemical explosive you’re carrying won’t kill you at all. It was an honor slaughtering invaders with you. Well, mostly an honor. Less of an honor than with the boss. You know what, it was mostly painful and sucky. Well, whatever. Go get ‘em temp boss. We believe in you!”
“You suck, Tom,” muttered Lucas. Everyone nearby nodded in agreement. “Well, here goes nothing.”
Lucas activated various skills. [Ideal Direction] and [Balance] to help him with body control while in the air. [Toughness] to increase his vitality. Finally, [Evade] just in case the big invader noticed him.
To himself he muttered, “Damn you, Adam! Heroics are your thing. You better believe I’ll pay you back when I see you next!”
A few deep breaths filled Lucas’s lungs. He leaned forward and waited. The yellow cyclops had just arrived at the wall. The arm that had been held back moved forward at a speed the giant hadn’t shown prior to now.
Lucas ran. The wall was fifteen feet between the parapets. He couldn’t go to top speed for fear of jostling the flask too much. As he reached the edge, he stepped up on the parapet and leaped.
While soaring about 10 feet above the giant’s arm, he still felt the wind caused by the punch it was throwing. The energy stored in its hand blew outwards as it made contact with the wall. The energy and fist impacted with a loud crash followed by a crack. The wall shook for a mile in both directions.
Lucas was almost thrown off course due to the shockwave and debris that was sent outwards from the collision. There was no way he could have accurately thrown the flask with how violently the wall shook, and the wind shear from the punch would have prevented it from reaching the monster before him.
He didn’t have time to look back, or to see how bad the damage was. A flex of his abs and shifting his body weight occupied his focus as he began falling towards the boss Kukiolis. Lucas gripped the flask like he was doing to dunk. It was held to his side and above his head. He had aimed his jump to land on the giant’s shoulder, but its punch had turned it too much.
“Hands off our wall,” Lucas bellowed as loudly as he could.
The Kukiolis had been panting, taking pleasure in the destruction it had caused. After the loud noise that its punch had caused, there had been a brief moment of quiet as everyone from the soldiers on the wall to the Scyrric soldiers on the ground had been silent, trying to figure out how much damage had been done. The voice that came from above was able to draw its attention.
“What did yo…” the giant spoke.
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With the one massive eye looking up at him, Lucas threw the flask as hard as he could. He watched it fly towards the eye, moving exactly where Lucas had intended.
The flask struck the eye, but the flask had been made of alien materials to prevent breaking. It wasn’t normal glass. Lucas frowned as he saw it bounce off the eye, his own body hitting the head and sliding over the hairless scalp. His balance was broken from the unexpected impact and Lucas was flung sideways. As he began to drop, he looked to the flask, slowly moving away from the invader. He didn’t have the control or speed to do anything about it.
“[Lighting Tip]! [Shock Lance]!” Randall’s voice shouted.
Quick as lightning, the dagger shot towards the flask. Lucas was not prepared for what happened next. The flask was not shattered by the knife, or by the lightning. It remained whole as the dagger barely pierced the clear container, and the electricity touched the mixture inside. Then the gelatinous chemicals inside ignited.
The flammable solution expanded outwards. The flask was incinerated. The air was incinerated. Burning gel expanded to take up the space around it and burst in all directions. First it sounded like an explosion, but as the gel was propelled outward, air rushed to return to the space it had occupied. Whatever chemical or magical process forced the gel outwards while pulling everything else towards it.
Lucas felt the pressure push him away and then an implosion pull him back, slowing his fall. While still in the air, he was drawn towards where the flask had exploded.
The Kukiolis screamed in pain. The sound shook Lucas, who was near its front and slightly to the side of it. The volume of the yell threatened to tear his eardrums and reap his consciousness. But he didn’t have time for that.
Lucas grabbed the great sword he kept on his back and held it over his body and head. It became a shield to protect him from globs of burning gel moving towards him. At the same time, he turned his body so as little of it was facing the oncoming fire as possible, streamlining his body like a swimmer would.
The flat of the sword was barely enough to cover the top of his head and shoulders as the shifts in the air ceased and he began falling again. Globules of the burning mix splattered against his sword and stuck to it.
He was so focused on avoiding getting hit that the ground met him sooner than he was expecting. Not realizing how much his balance was thrown off by the screaming giant, he crash landed awkwardly and rolled away from it. He flung the large sword away from him, as one side of the blade was burning from the adhering gel.
A little had gotten on his left glove, made from Feral Behemoth skin. Up to this point the leather had been fireproof, resisting all heat they had tried on it. The burning gel was eating through the fingers, and he could already feel the heat burning his skin. This was so much worse than direct fire.
Yanking a knife from his belt, he cut the straps holding his wrist guard on. It fell to the ground, and he had to drop the knife to pull off the glove. It was difficult to withstand the burning without touching any of the blazing mixture that was adhering to it.
Once the glove was away from him, he rolled to his feet and looked around. A longsword was drawn into one hand and a combat dagger into the other. The scene before him was apocalyptic. Everything shook as the wailing Kikiolus rolled on the ground in pain. The burning mixture was doing its job, sticking to the creature’s eye and face.
Lucas could see the skin that touched the fire trying to heal and close, but the burning just continued to damage it. Rolling was just spreading it around on the creature and its surroundings. Instead of falling off or being smothered, it spread out, adhering and burning.
The area around it wasn’t spared either. Some of the gel was reaching further out and everything it touched ignited or was incinerated. Several of the Scyrric that had crept too close were lying dead, holes burned into them as parts of their body were consumed.
“Gotta make sure it dies,” Lucas sighed while breathing heavily. The impact after the fall, plus the panic from trying to avoid the alien napalm had shaken him up. He even had to cast [Balance] to offset the unsteadiness he felt from his ears. Fortunately, no enemies were getting closer to him since they all seemed to be trying to back away from the unending flames. A few Scyrric were even using water and ice magic, but the flames were not reducing.
Forty feet was the distance between the rolling Kukiolis and Lucas. It was big, and while its movements were slow, there wasn’t a pattern to how it flung its limbs and thrashed its body. Activating his skills [Ideal Direction] and [Evade], Lucas ran. He saw his burning great sword and sheathed his longsword. The handle hadn’t been hit with the mixture, so he ignored the heat coming off the blade and scooped it up with his right hand, ready to take off that glove as well if any of the fire touched it.
As he approached the giant, he allowed the instincts provided by his skills to guide his motions, relying on them to lead him through the safest path. Lucas knew that the eye, and what was inside, was the weak point for the Kukiolis, but he wasn’t about to climb on top of it or brave the patches of fire that were tormenting it.
Instead, he ran for the neck. He held his still burning great sword, used the skills [Empower Blow] and [Reduce Obstacles], then plunged the sword into the invader’s neck, angling it under the jaw.
The already screaming monster stopped thrashing and shrieked, arching its back, raising its torso off the ground. Its arms, partly on fire, came up and clawed at its neck and throat. Fire must have spread inside it as smoke was released from the wound Lucas had caused and the creature's mouth. The smell of cooking meat spread through the battlefield.
Lucas backed out of reach of the boss Kukiolis. He gave plenty of room as the smoke rising from the creature was increasing while the noises it made decreased. What had been screaming was now whimpers and whines. The giant lost strength, no longer arching its back. Its limbs were twitching and settling to the ground.
A few spasms wracked the invader before Lucas received the notification.
Kukiolis “Castle Destroyer [29]” slain. 37,514 XP gained.
A heavy breath of relief came out of Lucas. The creature was dead. That mixture was a potent weapon, if they had more of it and could deploy it easier. Unfortunately, a lot of damage had been done.
The magically enhanced chemical fire that had spread through the area wasn’t reducing. The gel had splattered all over the area, including on the wall. A wall that was already crumbling where the Castle Destroyer had punched, and chunks were falling from where the remaining blue Kukiolis were still wailing away at it.
A thump sounded next to Lucas, and then two more sets of feet landed nearby.
“Nice job, temp boss. Not even the real boss could have done it better, though really, he would have done it MUCH better. What I’m saying is you did a decent job of it. And better you than me in this case.”
“Thanks, Tom,” grumbled Lucas insincerely. “Since you’re down here, I guess you’ll be joining me for a bit of mayhem?”
More stomps were heard as additional people dropped down behind him.
“That wall might not last much longer,” said Randall.
“Better to jump then fall,” added Joseph.
The rest of Joseph’s unit, the Reapers, had landed with him. A few defenders and warriors had seen them, and more were coming down now too, forming into their groups.
“Let’s get to it then,” said Lucas, grabbing his long swords and heading towards the nearest Scyrric.
***
Sgolkr had stopped to watch as that insane native had jumped from the wall towards the boss little giant. He had chuckled, waiting to see the native's despondence at being unable to hurt the creature. To Sgolkr’s surprise, and fury, the native had used something that didn’t seem to be a skill to create a blaze strong enough to kill the monster.
Killing that Kukiolis was not something that Sgolkr would have even considered possible by the natives. The ingenuity and bravery of that one native even impressed Sgolkr. At least in the way a puppy learning to shake hands might impress a bystander. But that was enough to earn the native a reward.
Sgolkr changed the angle of his run. The impressive native and a few others were heading towards his troops now, moving away from the flames of whatever he had done while protecting the wall. He might kill a few Scyrric, but not many before Sgolkr would face him directly.
The native would have the honor to die by Sgolkr’s blade.