Adam expanded the wall of kinetic force, a new technique he had previously played around with in a very small capacity while playing around with rocks, this time it came out of necessity and with his growing raw strength, seemed to come gains in his ability to manipulate the force. Now he had two of the blobs surrounded by dark auras bashing themselves at his wall of mental force unable to get to him with their gaping maws, they weren’t quite mouths but large holes in the bottom of the formed blobs full of rows and layers of sharp teeth.
Adam looked around to make sure they still had a full team, he saw Matilda blasting her Radiant Bursts at the creatures, they were keeping them at bay but they didn’t seem too damaged by the direct hits of the golden energy.
It was taking a lot of focus and exertion for Adam to keep the creatures at bay, he was frustrated that he didn’t have something more offensive, he had gotten away with pushing the rock onto the hound to make up for no raw damage potential but he had nothing like that right now.
Chaotic Form slain! 200 xp granted.
Level 2 (600/2000 xp)
His wrist popped out with this message seemingly out of nowhere, glancing around he found Tob plunging his blade deep into one of the Chaotic Forms, right in the middle of the top of its head down into the dirt.
“No use just standing there trying to stop them from moving, they have to die.” Tob said with a wink, he seemed in his element now compared to before, almost like he was calmer now that he was fighting and killing.
Adam tried splitting his efforts into forming thinner slices of psycho-kinetic force but it seemed his own imagination, willpower and thoughts had their limits. He kept fumbling the strands of force that he was trying to sharpen to lethality and his own wall holding the creatures back quickly faltered whenever his attention moved. He also seemed to perform worse in his efforts as his frustration grew and emotions clouded his ability to accurately craft his psychic forces to his own requirements.
“If I’m going to fight, I’ll have to drop my wall and it’s going to get messy, I haven’t even used my ability as a weapon yet.” Adam tried to explain to Tob and the others as Matilda continued blasting her radiant bursts. She also seemed to have limits, only being able to fire one every so often as she charged up the next. It didn’t matter how dire the circumstances were.
“Vincent, please help us, you can kill them easily can’t you?” Adam demanded at the busy healer, the body of Joluf was floating in the air as different coloured streaks of energy and magic swept over his body and throughout his wounds.
Tob shook his head “Vincent won’t do it, he swore an oath to do no harm, in absolutely any way, to anything, this isn’t he first time we have had lives on the line and he has only helped through healing and defenses. We still don’t know what happened to him. “
Adam’s barrier started collapsing as the Chaotic Forms began to breach through closer to being able to attack him.
“That’s ridiculous! Fight Vincent!”
Vincent either couldn’t hear him out of his focus or was simply ignoring him. Adam would not have been surprised if it was him just ignoring the pleas.
“Fine then, defend us!” Adam dropped his efforts onto his barrier and pushed forward all of his might into a more explosive circle of energy to send one of the forms flying far through the air. The second form that was attacking his barrier leaped straight at his face with that maw of teeth. Adam barely drew his power in time, not to even move the creature but simply to just stop it just an arms length from his face. Jumping back he quickly tried drawing sharp, thin lines of force to cut through the mote. He kept focusing, make it thinner, make it sharper, it has to cut right through and kill this monster.
As the creature jumped up he pushed forward his tightened string of kinetic force into the creature. The chaotic form squealed as the bottom third portion of it’s entire body started flapping around, Adam was hoping it would have cut cleanly straight through but he had only actually cut through it’s body deep enough to hinder it.
He saw Tob chasing after the one he had sent flying before, cutting it cleanly in half as it landed, still disoriented from the force of the blast.
Chaotic Form slain! 200 xp granted.
Level 2 (800/2000 xp)
He tried to do the same to the mutilated one in front of him, he could see the flesh inside was a dark grey. He focused another explosive punt of force but grew dizzy, he had pushed himself too far. He decided to try and make use of his wrist menu.
Magic Pool- 0/100
Conditions- Panic, anger.
Well, he knew he was pissed and panicking, he doubted how useful that feature was, completely out of magic he fell onto his back as he scrambled for anything to help save him. It was just open ground near these city gates so he had nothing but a couple of pebbles to fling around, it wouldn’t do much to these abominations.
As the creature went after him yet again, it hit into another barrier, this time it wasn’t Adam’s. Looking around, Vincent seemed to be doing exactly what he was doing before but no one else would have been capable, he supposed Vincent was defending like he had asked him to.
Tob was running back from the last Chaotic Form he killed back towards them at the gates to help with the one Adam was struggling with but suddenly bounced off of a wall, falling down to the ground.
Tob banged his fists on the invisible wall.
“What the hell is this, if this is one of you two, stop it right now. There’s more out here and you obviously need help right now.”
A booming voice flew over the field outside of the city gates
“I have zoned off each person, follow the walls by touch, there is a path back. It’s to keep all of the chaotic forms, these creatures at bay. Meet back up near Adam.”
So Vincent knew they were named Chaotic Forms as well, Adam supposed he received the same quest from their hiking menu.
The scene that Adam now watched was a sight to behold. Tob scrambling through the constructed maze, smashing into invisible walls every few moments as new twists and turns were part of the path he had to take to get through around all of the remaining Forms. He tried to glide his hand along the edge of the wall after his third time falling on his rear. Matilda more cautiously paced through her own maze, hesitating when there was a Chaotic Form biting at the maze wall just an arms length away from her body, gulping and trusting in Vincents defenses. The level of detail amazed Adam, he managed to conjure up an intricate maze designed for each person to get back to the safe spot and to keep every monster out.
As the team came back together in one spot Tob put his hand on Adam’s shoulder.
“You have done well. Let’s make a game plan for the rest.”
Adam nodded.
“Matilda, check your status, you have any magic pool left?”
“Yeah, I know how to check that already Adam.” She replied, shaking her head, seeming quite stressed.
“I have uhh, 8 of 100. I’m pretty low but a few more bursts. Not that I seem to be able to do much, I haven’t even killed a single one.”
“That’s fine, we combine what we have onto one and it will help.” Adam said planning out their attack.
“Vincent, we need you to lower the barri-“
Tob was cut off in his request to Vincent as some form of gateway opened up, crackling with red lightning, a void that seemed completely and utterly black inside. It was loud with the static thunder noises. All of the remaining Chaotic Forms exploded into a splat of purple fleshy mess as the red lightning struck each one at once.
Six Chaotic Forms Slain! 1200 xp granted.
You have reached level three! (0/4000 xp).
They stared in confusion. Vincent had left the maze window up for their safety, some of the purple exploded flesh had now smeared across his constructed wall of kinetic energy.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Vincent yelled with the same booming voice as before, amplified by his abilities somehow.
“Get out of here now! I’ve seen this before, this is not good. Run, back into town. Now!” This was the first time Adam had heard Vincent so full of emotion, the first time he had fear in his voice.
Adam responded to the fear straight away, running back towards the inside of the town while calling his allies with him “Let’s listen and find out more later, run!”
Stepping out of the crackling gateway was a woman, wearing an elegant gown with a plunging neckline, she stepped onto the grass of the field in front of them barefoot, Adam had turned around to see who it was and the turned around and continued to run back into the city of Oak. There wasn’t anything appearance wise that distinguished her as odd, or a threat, or violent, however, the expression on her face certainly set her apart, a scowl of arrogance was obvious on her face. Vincent was still standing there and still healing Joluf, he seemed to ignore the woman.
As they scrambled to get back into the gates Adam was surrounded by a black circle. Some kind of shell holding him in place. He struggled, trying to push the last remaining drops of his magic to break it to no avail. He looked around watching each person floating towards the woman in the dark shells of magic.
Regret filled his heart as he thought of what he was fighting for and the fact that he was about to lose it all, even Vincent was being dragged towards her, he could see Vincent without any of the auras of power ups he had before, had he given up? The body of Joluf lay on the ground lifeless. Who was this woman anyway? Would he even get to find out? Would he even receive a swift death or was there a worse fate in store for them all? These were all the thoughts racing through Adam’s mind.
Being pulled closer towards the woman he could make out more of her appearance and features, she was quite attractive but the expression on her face was so negative and so angry that he was scared more than anything else.
“This is more involved than I ever would have expected you to be in something like this Vincent” She said in a deep growl.
“Well Abbey, I was called here to heal and that was all, it turned into this and I did my best to protect and heal.”
“Of course, of course. As expected of my little pacifist.” She said with a smirk and widened eyes.
“I’m not yours, I’m not anyones’ and you know that.”
“Yes, of course.”
She continued in her deep voice, flipping her hair back and giving an odd smile to Adam, showing her teeth.
“Tob, I don’t think the council head would be pleased to hear about this.”
They all looked at Tob, perplexed.
He noticed their looks and stammered “I have no idea what you are talking about you crazy lady. I’ve fought proudly with these people. I’ve never heard of a council in Oak.”
She ignored him.
“I came here to put an end to this. It is not in the plan for any of you to die right now, which you might be relieved to hear.”
“Vincent, fight! I know you can fight, black hole pulse, your mega ability? Do something!” Adam shouted, he knew there was a lot more to Vincent and his potential than had even been led on so far.
She cackled “Don’t worry about that, he won’t do a thing. Though you aren’t wrong in your observation that he could at least do something and put up some form of a fight if he really wanted to. But, he doesn’t. It’s the right choice here anyway. Though probably not the right choice in a lot of other cases where people have died pointless deaths that he could have stopped.”
Vincent stared down at the ground, speechless.
“I think we might be alike in our disgust of his philosophy actually.” She said, walking right in front of him and the shell surrounding him.
She gasped slightly and began laughing loudly. Adam sweated nervously. “Vincent, did you sense what he just tried to do to me?”
“I wasn’t paying attention” he replied in a monotone voice.
“Some kind of compulsion, designed to make me speak and to speak it with truth. It’s very impressive, very unique, well, I’m not sure if it even would be considered impressive but it’s definitely unusual for someone of your stature to do so. I’m really not used to an attack of that nature coming from a base of power that is so small and weak” She stated plainly while laughing to herself.
Adam for the first time felt hopeless in his situation. His hiker menu had enabled him to quickly choose his new level three ability before he was brought over to the woman. He had barely any time to decide but he decided that Truth Compulsion seemed like the only possible option to confuse or distract the situation with this new foe who was clearly more powerful than all of them combined with little effort. Clearly he was way out of his league here.
“If you aren’t taking our lives right now, you may come to find yourself regretting it in the future.” Vincent said, looking up now with fierce eyes, staring her down.
She shushed him. “Oh you don’t really think he has that sort of potential do you? There’s no way you can tell a paragon from this early on.”
“Well, I never said anything about paragons. That is just a big trap anyway and you know it. I’m just saying I don’t think either of us have seen his class before” He said, some of that sudden passion faltering again.
“Maybe.”
The woman, Abbey held her hands out as that glowing red lightning crackled at her fingertips, the guts and remains of all of the Chaotic Forms began to siphon into her hands, disappearing as she absorbed all of it. Did she summon these or what exactly did she have to do with them? Why did she even want to absorb them again after they were a bunch of exploded corpses?
“Why are you here?”
“Just a cleaning up for a change of plans. That’s really all, I assure you. Now hope for your sake we never meet again.”
Just like that, Abbey floated backwards into the gateway she first stepped out of, disappearing as the portal blinked out of existence. The shells around each of them faded out as they fell down to the ground.
“Care to explain that one, Vincent?”
“Just be extremely grateful you all still have your lives, her kind have killed for absolutely no reason before, maybe she was having a good day, who knows.”
“That’s all you have to say? Of course we are glad to be alive. Who is she, who are people that are ‘her kind’?” Adam continued to grow frustrated and struggled to find a common ground with Vincent.
“In due time, let us attend to the dead. Look, Matilda is already making preparations. Sensible girl that one.”
Adam watched as Matilda dragged several of the bodies just outside the gate into a line. She placed her hand on Tob’s shoulder as he grieved the loss of his close friend that he had for a moment, built up hope in still being alive. He took it all in, trying to process all of the loss of the men he had fought with and worked with for years.
Vincent had made his way over to Joluf’s body as well. He knelt down and stared. Tob explained to all of them that since they were city guards the state would organise their funerals and he would make a full report on events here to the relevant bodies. He also warned that a lot of what had happened to them was best not spoken about if not to cause a city-wide panic after the lock down that will already have the city spreading rumours.
Heading back into the city, they headed straight back to The Cats’ Cradle. Tob had been shouting to all of the city folk that the lock down was over and everything could proceed back to normal and had a few other men he stumbled across spreading the word.
Arriving back to Vincents’ room it had now become pretty late into the night, ready to rest for the night there was just one sudden question on all of their minds.
“Where is Brian?”