The battle against the remaining Junk Dog was not very interesting. That was not to say it was easy, or entirely one-sided; the many-eyed warrior fought fiercely, twisting his wooden body uncannily to strike out in unexpected directions.
But Lu felt it was more or less cleanup. He was outnumbered one-to-nine, and Bone Softener in particular was ravaging him more with each passing moment. In terms of combat ability, I would say he’s a bit above Ging – though the comparison is rather tenuous, given that they have completely different abilities. Less finesse, lower variety of arts, but more survivability and endurance. One-on-one, he might be able to defeat any person on the field.
But Lu’s allies had come to the same conclusion, and weren’t going to let him single anyone out. The lower realm disciples and Bo stayed mobile, making a nuisance of themselves, while the higher realms controlled the battlefield, forcing the giant construct to stay engaged with at least one of them at any time.
Bone Softener and Tai Sho were the bulk of the offense; the warrior’s attacks were able to negate the construct’s regeneration, while Tai Sho bypassed the armour directly with mind-shattering illusions.
It was a strange experience for Lu to watch, completely detached from the situation. It was obvious his side would win, so he felt no real need to waste effort with his comparatively weak spells, and merely stayed back to observe.
Some attacks are coming out of nowhere. Multicoloured powders alighted on the tree’s outstretched limbs and pooled in crannies on its surface, to seemingly little effect. Dreamfever, most likely. Potions and powders – is he a poison specialist? That seemed like the sort of thing Horrible Swamp would have. He doesn’t seem to be doing much, though… To his senses, the powder seemed almost… alive? There’s a lot of ki in it. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call him an alchemist.
But from his detached position, Lu also noticed something else, unrelated to the fight. Is there a rumble going up my legs? Yes, very faintly. It was coming from…
Eagle Eye extended his vision, and with the aid of the spell Lu could just barely see a trail of dust smudging the horizon.
“Ah, reinforcements.”
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Bo hit the Dog again, denting the wood just a little with a sour look on his face. Man, I’m kinda dead weight here, huh? At least when the trees were all spread out he could take them down mostly on his own, but this big guy was on a different level. Gotta be a Warboss. Who sends two Warbosses out on their own without support? Dumb move. Gonna slaughter ‘em.
The thought didn’t lift his spirits much. He debated tapping out and just watching on the side like Lu was, but then a familiar voice sounded out.
“[Bros, my dogs, we are gonna be up to our necks in it in about two seconds. We gotta skedaddle, yesterday.]”
Oh, Lu was doing the voice again! “[What’s that man?]” He punched again, water compressing between his fist and the building-sized tree before expanding explosively – it left a few pulpy cracks.
“[Someone let the Dogs out, bro. They’re all up in our business!]”
Softy threw out a handful of his iconic Bone Softening Dust before backing off. “Reinforcements?” He scanned the horizon. “Hmm, a pity. This one seems an even match; I would have liked to go all the way to the end.”
Speak for yourself, Softy. “[Yeah, yeah. We can kill this guy before they get here, right?]”
One of Lu’s brothers – Bo thought his name was Ging, but they all sort of blended together a little with their identical clothes and hair and skin – gave a negative grunt. “[Doubtful. I am beginning to run low on pills, and we still need to retrieve disciple Bull; there is no reason for us to continue fighting such a resilient foe if we can simply leave.]”
Bo’s face scrunched up at the thought of running away, especially when they were clearly- a huge limb smashed down to his left, nearly crushing him- clearly winning. “Boss? Orders?”
The Warboss was a haze of energy flitting about the edges of his vision; he was probably completely invisible to the enemy, who didn’t have any resistance to the swamp poisons. But despite his invisibility, his voice was the same barely restrained bellow. “…Yeah, this guy isn’t going down for a while. Good match-up, but we don’t have the time; don’t feel like fighting a whole army today. Bones, get the speeder up and running. Bo, human guy, we’re distracting this thing.” Then he said something that made Bo’s eyes light up. “Go all out, warrior. The Hag and patriarch both gave me the good shit, so don’t worry about recharging after.”
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To Lu’s eyes, it almost looked like the fight was choreographed. The enemy had obviously heard the plan – sloppy on Dreamfever’s part to speak it aloud – and immediately shifted his attention to the parked speeder. But the rescue squad took advantage of the tree’s shift in priority, hammering it with spells and techniques without the need to dodge or otherwise defend themselves. It lashed out in all directions with wide, sweeping strikes, but the disciples danced just out of reach.
Water congealed all about the huge construct, coating it head-to-roots before Ging, No, and Scarlet let loose a sea of lightning. The giant staggered but didn’t stop, and Bone Softener heaved the speeder up in his arms, carrying it away from the approaching construct as grasping limbs lashed his back.
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I suppose I should contribute; the speeder will be useful. He squeezed out a good amount of ki, and shaped it into a Spacial Freeze overlapping one of the thing’s legs.
It tried to take another step, but the sudden resistance caught it by surprise, and with a terrible crunch it toppled over, splinters flying everywhere. Water began to cover it in a huge bubble, and Lu idly wondered if the warrior encased inside could drown. I didn’t spy any air-holes for him to breath, but I suppose they could be microscopic like a plant’s natural breathing apparatus. Or maybe he takes oxygen right from the tree? Plants can drown, but I believe it takes a long time.
But Bo wasn’t done; with a roaring yell, he brought his hands together and compacted the water enough that the tree started to resemble a ball – and then the disciples hit it with lightning a second time, and the whole thing disappeared behind a cloud of steam. Bo staggered, his eyes unfocused.
That was a good combination attack. I should learn more water arts- ah, that didn’t last long. The man-shaped tree was already up again; it had shed its trapped limb entirely, and the charred sections were regrowing. Ging wasn’t wrong; this thing is monstrous. It isn’t quite as threatening as the Grandmaster, but its staying power is insane. He could feel the ki coursing through its wooden veins; despite fighting intensely for so long, it was still far from depleted. Perhaps I was wrong to predict us beating it so easily; I forgot that not everyone has access to all the resources I do. They likely have a fraction the number of pills as me.
“[Mind giving me a hand, brother?]” Turning his head, he saw Bone Softener placing the speeder down. One of his arms was hanging by a thread, smashed to pulp by an errant branch. It was knitting itself back together with a speed visible to the naked eye, but it would still be minutes before it was usable.
“[Certainly. What do you need?]”
Bone Softener frowned. “[I have- just keep yon depression depressed. Why do you speak so ill of tone?]”
Lu pressed the indicated button, while Bone Softener cranked a lever. Ah, I should switch to Interpreter. Numbing Illusion is a waste of qi, now that the Grandmaster is dealt with.
He allowed the spell to cease, and-
“[Ah!]” Lu’s legs almost gave out as the pain of his fully-extended spiritual sense began registering. Insane, insane, the numb version of me is insane! Dear Heavens, my poor soul! His sense retreated back into his body, his ability to keep track of the surrounding fight diminishing.
“[Brother? Your humours, are they balanced?]”
No, not really. He switched the spells, and put up another shield for good measure. Was I really just standing there while my friends were fighting? Maddening. “[I’m fine, thank you. Anything else?]”
A shake of the head. “[No. Just be ready to run.]” He flicked a switch, and the engine roared to life. With an explosion of sand, Bone Softener took the vehicle to full speed, doing a tight loop in the air and diving for the fight. “[Bo! Warboss!]”
Bo sent one more spear of water into the still-steaming wood, and then he lunged to grab the speeder as it passed. He caught one of the metal plates coming off the bottom, and was dragged swiftly into the air.
Feverdream was still invisible; where he was, Lu couldn’t tell. Can’t sense him with my Comprehension either. Is he on the ground? On the speeder? He shook his head. No, no, he can take care of himself. Let’s get to safety ourselves, before worrying about other people!
The tree reared up and let loose a terrible screech, the sound making Lu’s ears water even through his helmet. His shield flared into visibility, wobbling precariously, and the other disciples backed off, casting their various movement arts in retreat. “[Ah..?]” The sound continued to build. Likely some sort of desperation move – time to go!
Desert Crossing Fist assembled itself in his mind, and Lu bounded away.
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Warmastra sent out a pulse, catching rad-sight of a large, hard shape just over the horizon. His slaved cores got to work analyzing the data, while he tweaked his heading slightly to hide their approach behind a convenient dune.
Behind him, his six cohorts fanned out in a tight V-formation. He pinged each, updating them with the new information. Their wheels, treads, and hoverplates drifted to the side in sync with his.
His was a proper hit-and-run raidgroup; there wasn’t a single one of them that couldn’t outrun a diving bird. Radio chatter sparked from chassis to chassis as his subordinates communicated.
“Think the psyboys bit it, boss?” “I smell wood; Hem’s End Clan?” “Fucking hot out here.” “No, they don’t like crossing the desert. Horrible Swamp, probably.” “Seriously, I can barely keep my eyes open.”
His own radio cut through; a proper bolt scattering the sparks. “Contact in two minutes. One grounded; unknown. Eight grounded; fast infantry. One airborne; hovercraft with passengers. Energy concentration suggests at least four Warboss-tier entities. So don’t get hit.”
There was silence for a moment, but for the roar of their engines.
“Four? Did we miss an army, boss?”
“I’m just repeating what my sensors say, Jim. Could be just one really strong guy and the Psychokinetic grandmaster – I’ll say again: don’t get hit.”
The irreverent tone slid off his warriors as they readied themselves for combat. “Air first or ground first?”
His cores processed furiously, whining as they overheated. “Ground. Cloudboys want the sky meat. Contact in one- contact in thirty seconds, they just sped up.” The shapes in his rad-vision blurred, some of them moving nearly as fast as his own group. “Make that ten. Looks like they see us back. Weapons free, boys.”
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Lu cast his movement art at maximum power, swallowing down any concerns about qi cost. One look at the new enemy told him he wouldn’t be able to conserve himself; they were all mounted, perched on – in? Mingled with? – a menagerie of different vehicles, no two the same. The lead was particularly menacing; the wide low rectangular body was studded with white spheres, like oversized eyes imbedded in a mirror-polished face.
Some of them were stranger – a comparatively tiny speeder-like craft rocketed forward with no rider, just a metal skull mounted to the front like the figurehead of a ship; a man skated on the sand with ski-like appendages, his arms long and over-muscled; there was what looked to be a dragonfly, or at least something modeled after a dragonfly, flying with four independently-moving wings – but none of them had an aura of danger quite like the leader.
“[Hey Lu,]” Bo’s voice appeared in his ear, “[Warboss says to hit ‘em once, then just keep going. Don’t bother to go in for the kill if it’ll slow you down.]”
Wasn’t planning on it. “[Understood.]”
The disciples fanned out, and Lu found himself in roughly the middle; his above-average movement art overpowered by a difference in realm. Hit once, break through. Hit once, break through. Hit once…
With a trio of Snowballs orbiting one hand and a Dancing Blade-controlled rifle clutched loosely in the other, Lu braced for yet more combat. I was hoping for a bit more stealth on the way in, but I suppose no plan survives contact with the enemy.