[too late]
Lu’s newly-mended heart went into overdrive as his senses sharpened in desperation. Sand started swirling up off the ground, and he could feel the air around his limbs thickening, trying to hold him in place. But according to his spiritual senses…
That weird ki/qi mix is still around, but it isn’t clinging to me anymore – can I..? Ki flowed through his body as he hurriedly molded it, and the strongest Space Ripper he had ever managed flung both him and Tai Sho away from the Grandmaster’s corpse.
They came out of folded space right in the middle of the naked forest, sharp branches immediately stabbing towards them while roots slithered up to restrain and strangle. Tai Sho stumbled a half-step before catching himself, and then a high-realm fire spell erupted around them.
Lu sent his own Fireballs out to help give create some breathing room, but even his senior’s wide-area spell didn’t seem to have the effect he would have expected – this was clearly not normal wood. It charred and blacked, but didn’t burn, didn’t fall apart into ash as it should’ve. The next few seconds were a blur as he frantically fought off the twisting limbs, circulating his body enhancement arts simultaneously to tear through wood where spells were proving less effectual. Another Space Ripper took him into a cleared area, the place where the other disciples had already beaten back the animate forest, and he took up a spot between Ging and Bone Softener. He sent a spell-controlled Ice Blade in to chop at the trees, but it wasn’t doing much either. Poison, maybe? Bone Softener seems to be doing alright. He was blowing a sickly dust over the writhing trees, which seemed to de-animate them.
“Lu.” Ging’s voice was steady, even as the needle-like tip of a branch attempted to spear through his faceplate. Behind him, his Hydra Conjuration was spewing different elemental attacks from its eight heads. “You should stay near the middle of the formation; these trees are extremely resistant to elemental attacks.”
Agreed, agreed, but… “Ging, I think we have a bigger problem. Tai Sho and I managed to kill one of them, but- you recall my reports, yes? I believe that was actually the psychic Grandmaster, puppeteering a body somehow.”
Ging’s eyes met his own for a moment before they returned to the battle. “The mindreader, no body?”
“That’s the one. I left him over-“ A glance back to where he had been less than a minute before, where a vortex of dust was forming an opaque dome fifteen metres tall. “-There. Ah, we should probably retreat; I have no idea how to attack a man without a body.”
Ging hmmed. “Soul or mental attacks.” One tree blew apart as his Conjuration focused on it, but another grew in from behind. “But yes, that sounds like a troublesome opponent. Sir Bone Softener, perhaps we should withdraw? These people have no bearing on our mission.”
Bone Softener replied, but Lu was to occupied to pay attention to his words. Ging’s mention of the mission had prompted him to check a few things, just on instinct.
Inside his right gauntlet, sandwiched between the ceramic and the skin of his palm, were two objects. One was the Birthstone Jadeite, the small piece of Junk that was even now keeping him perfectly oriented in relation to the distant Gate Array. The other, much more important object was also Junk; a breaching splinter, its sharp edges digging into his hand but not drawing blood.
It wasn’t the original splinter, the one they had… retrieved from his ribs. Nor was it the one he had used to teleport back to the sect and escape the Black Cloak Group. No, this was one of the other ones – the scattered fragments that had littered the land and sea, before the sect had gathered them together in an effort to achieve a monopoly on the Sixth Reality.
And unlike the Jadeite, which showed that home was still exactly where he expected it to be, connecting with the splinter told him that something had changed. Exactly like the first time he had used one, a vague elevation map unfolded in his mind’s eye in gradients of blue and black. There were little points of light, most notably a big cluster where Horrible Swamp was keeping their own fruits of consolidation. But the one they had been sent out to retrieve had moved.
“Apologies for interrupting, but I have bad news.” Heads turned. “Or perhaps good news? It seems that our target has come to us – according to my divinations, the breaching treasure is-“ Again, he gestured to where the Grandmaster’s body had died. The dome of swirling dust seemed to be inching towards them, very slowly, shredding any trees that had the misfortune of being in its path. “-Right there. The Grandmaster must have had it on his person.”
Now that I think about it, it does seem to fit together. The Black Cloaks used mental arts, the Psychokinetics used mental arts… Yes. And further, if any brotherhood has spacial experts, I would assume it would be them! Junk Dog must have put them in charge of contacting our world. He still wasn’t sure why only he could use the splinters so easily, but his space-based consumption topped the list of possible explanations.
Jiang sniffed, sending a bolt of black lightning arcing through an encroaching copse. “Well, that makes things simple. We just have to grab it off the body, then we’re done. Better yet, we have Tai Sho; have him pull his seventh realm weight.”
----------------------------------------
Tanglebud was flourishing, his body expanding, reaching, leeching nutrients from the soil and air. Even the attacks of the enemy were being drawn in, turning to strength in his stomach.
Only the rot-eater was a real threat, and he was only a single man. Tanglebud was a legion, his thousand arms each moving with purpose, a steel-hard net that had already ensnared his prey.
Don’t get drawn in. The forest is not you; you are the controlling mind, the animal will that binds it together. Your flesh is still vulnerable, don’t forget yourself.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Right… Right. With a twist of energy, new growth sprouted to harry the invaders from the other world. The two from Horrible Swamp were a known quantity; they were dangerous, yes, but the aliens could do anything, he had little idea how their consumptions functioned.
The grandmaster would know better, but it was difficult to reach him with Tanglebud’s mind spread out so thinly between each tree. He tried anyway.
[Grandmaster? I can feel you disintegrating some of me as you move – can you hear me?]
His mental voice was weak, barely audible even to himself. But even so, he received a response.
[tanglebud]
[very sorry]
[but]
[this is the only movement available to me]
[for the moment]
Understanding flooded in as the grandmaster shared his senses. [You died? Unfortunate; that body took a great effort to prepare.]
[we can make another]
[better]
[the second time]
Yes, we certainly know a lot more now. The nameless sensory organs that his forest possessed swept over the invaders. And we’ll know even more, soon. He withdrew his trees from the grandmaster’s path and engaged the battle furiously; his limbs lashed and entangled, sharp-edged leaves angling to slice. And at all times he fought a second war, against the instinct to lose himself to the gestalt formed from the mass of plant life.
Don’t overextend. This is a battle of exhaustion – neither side can out-damage the other. To win, I need to drain them of energy.
The Swamp clansmen are simple; their energy will run out in time, so long as I don’t foolishly let myself- let the wood rot away. The Steadfast Heart warriors are more troublesome. In theory they shouldn’t be able to replenish themselves at all, but I also don’t know if they’ve copied that strange half-consumption that Lu used. I might be trying to dig a well in loose sand.
[Grandmaster, can you tell if the enemies are using the hybrid consumption?]
[not unless they are within my bounds]
Irritating. [What if we connect properly, and you use my senses?]
The grandmaster contemplated it for a moment, while the battle raged on. Things seemed to be going against them; his branches and roots were being cut away just slightly faster than they regrew – but that was an illusion. He was anchored in the ground, drawing strength from each attack; he would outlast any normal assault that wasn’t completely overpowering, as long as his mind held on. So I need to know if this is a normal assault or not. [Grandmaster?]
[yes]
[that might work]
Tanglebud and Two Worlds Gestalt dissolved into each other; where before there were two, now there was one. For a fraction of a second the entire wood ceased moving, the greater mind taking stock, before it surged forth with twice the intensity.
----------------------------------------
The battlefield went suddenly still, a surreal moment seeming to hang forever. Ah… did we hit the main body, or perhaps some sort of core? But then the effect shattered. The murderous forest changed, morphing rapidly; where before there had been relatively mundane trees, lack of bark and violent tendencies aside, there were now grasping arms, eyes, and mouths with gnashing teeth.
“Holy-!” Lu’s exclamation was paired with a stream of fire, a low realm version of the proper Violent Firestorm that Lady Scarlet favoured. It was less efficient than the more popular Fireball – but there was a time for efficiency, and it wasn’t now.
“Lu, in the centre! Jiang, Scarlet, with me! We’re breaking through!”
Lu followed Ging’s hurried order, withdrawing to near the parked speeder. A ring formed around the vehicle; Lady No and Hu Kuon on one side, Bo and Bone Softener on the other. Wait, where’s Dreamfever? I haven’t seen him once since we hit the ground – is he invisible like Tai Sho was?
Actually, that’s a good idea. “[Fellows, I’m going to use my invisibility art. Don’t panic if I disappear.]” The disciples didn’t react, already familiar with all his spells, but Bo gave him a strange look while smashing a disgustingly head-like appendage with a water-coated fist.
He built out the forms, then disappeared from all mundane senses in a surge of qi. Hopefully from most other senses as well – none of the other natives have seen through me, after all. But telepathy might be an exception… Ah, I forgot how expensive this spell is to run continuously. I’ll have to be frugal; don’t want to use up all my replenishment pills. He still had to find Bull after this. But I should be mostly safe now.
Now… how do we get the splinter out of that? The dome was creeping closer, a tight hurricane of dust and wood chips. I have a sneaking suspicion that anything I stick in there won’t be coming out. Having my organs crushed once was enough.
A sufficiently quick use of Space Ripper might get him in and out well enough, but that seemed rather risky. Let’s call that plan B for now. Maybe I can just bring it directly out..? Theoretically possible; he could tell almost exactly where it was, and he could take things right out of his purse just fine. But I need to get close.
[Lu?] He started, almost mistaking the mental voice for the Grandmaster again – but no, it was Tai Sho. He must have cast Telepathic Bond on me at some point. Right after he killed the puppet body, maybe?
[Yes, senior?]
[I’m inside the storm. I’m convinced that native managed to survive somehow – my divinations keep telling me he’s still alive, but I can’t seem to pinpoint him beyond ‘somewhere inside the whirlwind.’ There’s a very strange presence-]
[Pardon, senior, but I believe you. I’ve encountered the man before; he can exist without a body, somehow. Also, the splinter should be in there with you – you wouldn’t happen to have seen it, by any chance?]
Tai Sho was silent for a moment, and Lu distractedly sent a few more blades out to hack at the 'foliage.' His fellow disciples were doing well, but Bo was visibly flagging, blood soaking into the sand from numerous puncture wounds. [No, it isn’t on what’s left of the corpse.]
[How are you even in there undetected? He’s a user of powerful mental arts!]
The texture of the Bond changed slightly. [I’ve been using Mental Fortress ever since the swamp. Just a… bad feeling.] Mental Fortress? He wasn’t familiar with the spell; it must be restricted somewhere above outer disciple. [But never mind that. If what you’re saying is true… I might have an idea of how to kill this creature, or at least damage it. There’s a second person somewhere on the outside, the one controlling the trees - if I can land a mental attack at the same time you destroy that person, I think that will… do something.]
[What makes you think that?] As much as the man might have saved his life, Lu was still hesitant to tie all his hopes to that particular horse.
[I can’t quite explain – the divinations are giving strange results, I only started to put things together when you mentioned he used mental arts; I thought he was confusing me with counter-divinations, but this makes much more sense. The two are connected so strongly my Eight Directions of Fate think there’s only one person – that connection must be unfathomably intimate.]
Lu worried his lip. [I’ll… do what I can.]
Looking at the state of the battlefield, it was obvious that they would start losing people if something didn’t change. We'll be safe with our armour and greater mobility, but the moment the speeder is lost the Swamp clansmen are doomed. “[Everyone, Tai Sho has a plan!]” Heads bent subtly his way as people listened without turning away from the nightmare body-forest. “[Somewhere in this mess is the person controlling the trees. If we can strike them-]” And I think I can locate them, if my Comprehension works like I think it does. “[-Then we should be able to kill both enemies at once!]”