Teddy saw it all in slow motion, he was inside Lucy’s Clarity aura and could see a few options of what to do. It was inevitable on this trajectory that he was going to end up inside the Wyrm’s mouth and that looked like it would hurt. But it also had opportunity. As he crossed the threshold into the mouth of the tunnel the desert sun was suddenly left behind. Teddy blended with the shadow, becoming insubstantial.
Ability: [Shadow self] (Dark)
Conjugation (darkness)
Base cost: Low mana
Cool-down: None
Current rank: Iron 9 (95%)
Effect (iron): Can blend self into shadows, much harder to detect with normal senses. Ignore all physical damage when struck however this will cancel the power.
The Wyrms didn’t hunt by sight but that wasn’t what he was using the power for. As he hit the sharp mouth of the monster he became fully visible again but he took no damage, he was perched on top of one of the many, many teeth. Quicker than the monster could snap his jaws shut he uttered a quick spell before back flipping out of the jaws of death, he had left behind a little present for the monster that was quickly making itself known.
The monster jerked a little, all forward momentum stopped as it dealt with what was happening inside itself. The hard armoured outside was almost an exoskeleton on the maggot-like body but still malleable, it rippled and pulled, sections getting ripped inwards while the monster fought against it. It’s jaws got slammed shut together and inwards, causing the monster to bite itself and cause more damage. In a short while the rear half of the monster collapsed inwards towards the centre of the monster. After the back half collapsed and the head had been distorted the whole monster exploded. Of all the times Teddy had used his black hole hand grenade this was by far his favourite, he was still on the way through the air from his backflip looking back at the monster and he had a big smile on his face. He kicked off thin air using his winged feet power to take himself back towards the tunnel. As he landed he held his hands out wide, the tunnel had been expanded by the explosion and he could see three Wyrms in front of him covered in gore from their brethren with more behind.
“The Reaper comes for us all but when you do not hold your hand out for him then he will still reach out with his.”
Phantom hands launched from the shadows to grab the lead Wyrm, Teddy had managed to rapidly level his Reaper power to make it a signature part of his suite of powers, unfortunately for the Wyrm the hands had nothing to grab on to as they were smooth ugly giant bugs. The hands ripped into the meat of the monster, tearing handfuls before re-attacking to grab another handful. While they were occupied with the hands Teddy used his next spell.
“From beyond our reality let beasts become made.”
His Unleash the Void power had also been rapidly levelled. The portal that appeared had rodent like beasts come out in a torrent. The team still could not get used to them, they made everyone’s hairs stand on end and gave an involuntary shiver down your back if you looked directly at them. Teddy jumped out of the tunnel and ran back to help Kyra.
………
After James had launched Teddy he and Lucy had been very busy, her powers were not well suited to the sightless simple monsters and she fell back into blasting from the back line with wands and her rune altered magic missiles. The front line consisted of just James. He was most powerful when he could let monsters come to him and he could stand and fight. He couldn’t afford to do that here though as he needed to keep distance between the monsters and Lucy. Fortunately the academy annex had thought about this and trained their pupils thoroughly to cover their weaknesses. The big man was far more agile than he looked, he ran across the ground, dancing around rock attacks like a dancer on ice, when he got to the lead monster he pivoted around a lunging mouth and drove both arms into the side of the monster up to the elbow. He had transformed his forearms into conical corkscrews, taken from an insect-like creature in this world that preyed on rock monsters. It was perfect for tearing into the creatures but he had to work hard to make it do significant damage. He and Lucy formed a plan together to produce results, he would rapidly penetrate the Wyrm down one side as far as he could then Lucy would hit it with an icy torrent from her magic missile transformed through a rune circle. James would then smash the brittle icy flesh off with either his tail or kick it with his massive boots. The monsters had huge chunks missing and rapidly bled out.
Both teams were now engaging multiple Wyrms and chewing their way through them, they were lucky the monsters were slow to exit the tunnels and only a few at a time were out in the open and while they were big and tough they weren’t fast or smart.
They had dispatched over half the monsters that James’ notification had counted. The tunnel that Teddy was covering had taken a fair share, they had no idea how many Kyra’s diamond golem had killed but it was still fighting facing inwards to the cliff and her wall had been broken through once before the power came off cooldown and she could reinforce it.
There was a horrific screeching from the tunnels all of a sudden. Scraping out of one of the tunnel entrances came a Wyrm that was no bigger than the rest except it was covered in metal plate armour.
[Gods damn it! Why the hell is that thing armoured?!] James exclaimed.
[I don’t think your Beedrill impression is going to work on that dude.] Teddy commented back.
[No I mean it, why is it armoured? That’s not a naturally occurring thing, what has possessed someone to try that?!]
[Kill first, ask questions later?] Kyra added.
[Kyra, we’ve spoken about this before, try to be less bloodthirsty as the team healer?] James said as he almost casually flung a fluted snaked from the end of one of his bloody drill arms. It sailed through the air and hit the metal covering the Wyrm and the tell-tale flickers of electricity from James’ vambrace power suddenly erupted from the snake all over the armoured monster, it rolled and rolled, thrashing in helplessness, when the attack finished it was faintly smoking and moved forward with much less power. [Well that was definitely worth the shot.]
The screeching they had heard before for the first one intensified, four more of the armoured Wyrms came out of the tunnels before them.
James’ Animage power had levelled to bronze rank, meaning that the individual body transformations cost less mana and lasted longer. However using his Snake Sorcerer power as well as imbuing it with electric power from his vambrace was going to take a heavy toll. When the drill arms timed out he let them go without re-transforming and set about launching snakes to cook the monsters from the outside in.
Lucy was also highly versatile and switched tactics on the fly, as James was no longer giving her the opportunities to freeze the monsters from the inside out she switched to helping him barbecue the slugs from the outside in. She dismissed her rune circle an re-summoned another, the variations that she had changed how the magical energy was manipulated. The Magic Missile was a pure form of magic attack, a mage class fighter could have a suite of different spells that used their own mana stores in different ways, what Lucy was doing was no different except the process was external to the body rather than internal. The benefit was that her imagination and intelligence was the limiting factor on how the energy was changed, not the limited amount of essence power spells that could be unlocked. As the bight blue missile hit the rune circle it flared then a bright crack of light flashed and a lightning bolt shot across the battlefield and struck a Wyrm sending it into spasms.
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Teddy and Kyra couldn’t be as effective as the others in their new attacks, the armour that at first seemed to be a nightmare turned out to make Lucy and James’ lives easier, opening a way to inflict massive damage even though the monsters naturally tough hide protected them. Teddy moved the team into a two up, one, two back formation with Teddy and Koda stalling the monsters advance, Kyra running interference with her earth shaping powers in the middle and James and Lucy bringing the thunder from the rear. Every time his power came off cool-down Teddy used his Hands of the Reaper power to perform executes on the smoking monsters.
They had just fried the last Wyrm when it seemed that the whole cliff face exploded. The diamond golem summon that had been blocking the middle tunnel was consumed by a colossal maw. Four times the size of any of the Wyrms before; the Matriarch had joined the battle by swallowing the familiar as it burst out the rock. The bronze rank monster looked like the Wyrms that it spawned, the mouth took up most of its head, concentric circles of teeth disappearing into its throat still grinding the rocks from the cliff. It’s eyes were more prominent than the iron rank monsters and it could clearly use them to hunt. The maggot-like body ended into a double tail side by side, one end was a massive orifice that looked like it was how it birthed the lesser creatures, the other was a wicked scorpion looking tail dripping in venom.
“Eww” Kyra said, a sentiment felt by the whole team.
Disturbingly the creature was covered in what looked like magical tech, tubes and pumps that hadn’t been damaged by exiting the rock still stuck into the tough armour. There were sections of metal plating as if someone hadn’t quite finished dressing the monster.
The team reacted automatically, they had drilled in fighting above their rank and knew their starting point. They moved to a two up, two back formation, James coming forward and absorbing Koda for the extra strength to help punch through bronze rank resistances.
As they moved the monster spun in place and swiped at the team with its tail before they were set, Teddy managed to jump the tail but Kyra wasn’t so lucky. As she saw it coming towards her she activated her Encased power, a solid diamond clad Kyra was smashed flying into the cliff, leaving a cartoonish dent. Teddy jumped through a rift from where he was to where Kyra landed, just as the Encased power finished he teleported them back to within range of the monster and Kyra slapped it in the side of its head.
Ability: [Self reflection] (Mirror)
Special attack (retributive)
Base cost: Moderate mana
Cool-down: 30 min
Current rank: Iron 9 (10%)
Effect (iron): Once activated any damage taken can be reflected onto enemy within 5 seconds, must touch enemy.
The slap rocked the monster sideways, most of the force of the bronze rank hit transferred back to it without Kyra being injured, Teddy and Kyra beat a hasty retreat to the others.
The counterattack gave the team a chance to take stock. Lucy was in place with James just in front of her. He was holding his right arm out in front of him and staring in shock. The vambrace was smoking. He had been out of range of the tail whip but the venom that had been covering the tail had flung off towards Lucy and himself, he had dodged most but had thrown his arm out to catch some of the venom before it could hit Lucy. It speckled the side of the armour and had released a burning smell, he quickly knelt and scraped it off using the sandy floor, checking to make sure it was all off and wasn’t going to drip on him.
Whilst James was dealing with his minor wardrobe malfunction Teddy pulled a trump card to hold the line. He used his Dimensional Warrior power. It was pot luck what kind of warrior was summoned and what effect they would have, the power and duration was always conveniently what they needed even though Teddy couldn’t control it. They’d had everything from a massive barbarian swinging a dimensional double headed battle axe who swung once and disappeared to a lithe archer who fired bolts of dimension rifts who stayed for a prolonged amount of time. The warrior who stepped out this time was robed in flowing cloth that stirred without a breeze, his face was hidden in a deep hood but he turned towards Teddy. There was a flash and in his hand a blue edged dimension blade extended. Teddy grinned and a crimson edged dimension blade extended from his own, he had learnt how to manipulate characteristics of the blade using his aura and had found no use for the colour change until now.
“Join me! Together we can rule the galaxy!” Teddy called out to the warrior. Smiling at his own joke.
The voice that answered was not out loud, nor was it on the interface, it was an alien, rumbling, vibration form of communication that none of the Mitchells would afterwards be able to accurately describe.
“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. When you look at the dark side, careful you must be for the dark side looks back.”
For an incredulous moment no one spoke until Teddy threw his head back in laughter. The blade changed in his hand from red to green and he spun it around himself.
“May the force be with you.”
“And with you.” The summoned warrior replied.
Then both robed figures dashed towards the monster with their sabres. The ensuing light show was hard to track, blurs of colour dashing all over the monster, chaining attacks that were getting faster and faster from both attackers.
“Am I going crazy? Did he just summon a mysterious warrior from another dimension that happens to have a very similar power set to himself, then they quoted Star Wars at each other before they attacked?” James asked the girls.
“Yup.”
“Sure did.”
“This is a crazy day.” James said, shaking his head.
The attack on the monster culminated with a synchronised attack on the stinger tail, severing it at the base. The stump pumped a string of venom into the empty air and then stopped, bleeding into the sand. The warrior turned and locked blades with Teddy. Surprising him.
“Remember… the Force will be with you, always.”
Then the summoned warrior faded from existence.
[Best fight EVER!] Teddy commented on the interface.
They fell into a rhythm of Teddy occupying the monster up close, not able to deal out the damage he could in coordination with the summoned warrior but enough to keep the monster busy, the others all continued firing, targeting the weak spots where machines were bolted on or plates of metal to attack with lighting.
After a while Kyra had a revelation.
[Teddy, watch out, I’ve just thought of something.] Kyra said.
She remote detonated her diamond golem. The blast took out a section of the middle of the giant Wyrm. there was the sound of three smaller explosions as she detonated the three smaller golems produced. This was the turning point of the fight and it turned into a mop up after that.
James felt the right moment and used his execute power; Peregrine Dive, Last Shadow. He transformed one foot into his signature eagle claw for the attack and he stoved in the top of the monsters head. He had to hop out from where he had buried himself in the Wyrm.
The team met up in the middle, Lucy released Lechuza to take off and check the area for any more monsters. James and Teddy used vials of crystal wash as they were the only ones covered in monster gore. After they had they accepted the loot notifications and the wave of rainbow smoke rose from the area, all the metal plates and the machines attached to the Rock Matriarch fell to the floor. Before they had a chance to go over the loot notifications a dirty, injured, emaciated, wild man was climbing out of the wrecked cliff. He looked to be wearing a mixture of medical staff clothing and mechanics apron.
“You bastards! Months of my work!”
That was all the man said before he started summoning liquids out of the many vials he had crisis-crossed around his body, they mixed in the air and he started flinging them at the team. His aim was poor and he was obviously not in the best shape from malnutrition and injury.
[Lucy, see if you can hit tie him up in illusions, lets not kill him if we don’t have to.] Teddy said on the interface.
Just after he made the non-lethal suggestion, Kyra used her earth spike power just between his legs, coming up at an angle to pierce him high through the top of his thigh. In a quick one-two motion she had a boulder smash him in the side of the head after he was pinned.
[Damn girl, thats savage.] Teddy said.
[What? I’m the one with healing magic remember?]
The man was unconscious, not having been able to take much more abuse. Lucy took a large coil of toughened rope out of her storage and James lifted the stranger off the earth spike before tying him up.
[I tried to hit him with a spell but he shrugged it off, he’s bronze rank.]
[Right, lets get him on the cruiser, the spare room should be able to hold him, it’s aura locked and if he wakes up he’ll be contained.] Teddy took the land yacht out of a rift and placed it down and it started to unfold, he also took the buggy out and deployed it.
[We need to actually think of a name for the ship, boat, yacht thing at some point.] Kyra pointed out.
[One problem at a time. Current problem we need to deal with is what to do with this guy once we have him locked up?] Teddy nudged the man with his foot.
[He seemed to be the one doing some sort of experimentation in there, I’m pretty sure that is taboo, especially as he was doing it way out here in secret, I suggest we turn him into the adventure society?] Lucy said.
Everyone agreed that it would be in their best interest to make best possible speed to Greenstone and turn the man over, they weren’t powerful enough to question him and they weren’t sure what they would do with the information if they were. They collected what they needed to from the area before heading out. Teddy drove the buggy onto the drop deck on the back of the cruiser and showed the others how it folded into the side panel for easy storage. They all got on board and they set off home for Greenstone.