Chapter Fifty - 050They came, like a midnight wave, surging from the vile muck.
Evie spun toward the three of them. "Get into a circle! Atar, make with the fire! They fear the heat, so keep them from surrounding us!"
"Got it!" Atar immediately began conjuring Sparkbolts.
"Vess! Guard the mage! Anything that gets too close get stabbed, yeah?" Vess nodded grimly, leveling her spear and stepping in front of Atar. Evie turned toward him then, grinning wildly. "You'n I are on long range. Wreck em before they step too close!"
Felix felt his face grin back, almost against his will as a surge of energy flooded his veins. Blinking, he noticed a small icon flashing: a head and torso, arms akimbo and chest pushed out.
Affected by Skill: Rally The Troops
Effect: +2% Combat Regen, +0.5% Endurance
Felix laughed, the joy bubbling forth despite knowing the monsters were only seconds from crashing into them. This is extremely cool. She's better at this than I thought.
Six of the abominations lunged out of the dark, ebon claws grasping toward their shouting, and the four of them burst into action. A crown of fire manifested above Atar's head, and from this close Felix could feel the searing heat of it. How the mage was able to withstand it only inches above his hair, he had no clue. Five more Sparkbolts whirled into existence, joining the previous ones and spinning out thirty feet with a gesture from Atar. They began to rotate quickly around them, forming a loose barrier.
"It'd be better if we had flammable materials I could set on fire!" Atar grunted. "This won't be a perfect defense!"
"Doesn't have to be perfect. Just has to give us room to breathe," Evie insisted, nodding at the mage. "Vess, hold the fort. Felix, c'mon!" With that she ran forward, her chain already unspooling from her shoulder. Glancing quickly at Vessilia and Atar, he followed. At the same time, the first of the Ofrenok reached the whirling barrier.
SKREEEEEEAAAA!
The creature took a fiery orb to the shoulder, skidding to the side as it screamed in pain. Evie got to it first, her chain whipping forth to smash the Ofrenok directly in the face. Their head snapped backward and they stumbled, giving the woman enough time to sling the chain back and lash it forward again with preternatural speed. The Ofrenok got an arm up in time, somehow sensing the bladed chain, but it only entangled itself; it suddenly found the chain difficult to hold up at all, falling into the dirt arm first.
Felix focused away from Evie as he spotted two more of the monsters heading his way. He cleared his mind and shaped his Mana, tracing pathways that felt more than a little familiar by this point.
Reign of Vellus!
The lightning surged from the ground as the chimeras were immediately smashed forward into the earth; Felix hadn't even felt them resist it, likely due to their forward momentum. He didn't stop to ponder though, instead pouring dual cast Acid Streams all over their prone forms. The powerful corrosive ate into their bodies rapidly, dissolving large portions of their hide and revealing orange muscle and blood beneath.
Sick. He stomped on their prone bodies, shattering the skull of one and feeling something crack in the chest of the other.
You Have Killed An Umber Ofrenok (x2)!
You Have Gained XP!
That was easier than the first time. He looked up, seeing Evie flip around three different opponents as she used her chain to bash and bind by turns. The bladed links would slash open their bodies even as they caught and redirected blows meant for her, and her strange Born Trait made it all the more unstoppable. His fight had brought him closer to her and for a brief moment he felt the concussive wave of clashing metal, like cymbals the size of city crashing together. Felix blinked, alarmed, but the sounded faded just as quickly; it was replaced by Evie's face, lit up in a manic smile, her joyful spirit unimpressed by the increasing odds.
And they were increasing. Felix's quick scan noted at least a dozen of the creatures either arrayed against them or emerging from their mud tunnels. It was strange. None of the Umber Ofrenok carried with them the same dread as he experienced previously. Their features were still terrifying, but that familiarity had faded.
The Dread is only a Memory. You escaped it. He shook it off, clenching his fists.
Four more chimeric aberrations rushed toward him, and Felix went to meet them. This time, he brandished his hooked sword and flared one of his lesser used spells.
Influence of the Wisp!
Blue fire burst across his body before echoing across distance and ensnaring one of the creatures. Body limned by flickering, heatless fire, he felt its weak Will crumble before him.
An Umber Ofrenok is Enthralled for 2 Seconds!
He ran forward, using his sword to decapitate the monster before it could recover. Before the body even fell he moved onward, engaging two more of the beasts, one with a parry and the other with a point-blank Reign of Vellus that swept its feet out from under it. A swift knee smashed the Ofrenok's face into his leg, shattering teeth even as it tore his pants further. It went down and he dismissed the kill notifications as he focused on the remaining two.
Felix was grinning now, his blood singing and muscles warm. He dove and ducked beneath the monsters' blows, though a few times their smaller arms caught him on his shoulders and forearms, slicing neat lines into his toughening hide. Yet still. The combat called to him, like when he had fought his first giant, and he felt an inexplicable need to laugh.
Strange. He blinked, wiping away sweat from his brow. I think I'm having fun now.
Vessilia was not having fun.
She ranged about, circling Atar as he conjured bolt after bolt of arcane fire, making sure to keep well away from his crown of intense heat. His circling ward did some good against the mounting odds, but as more of the disgusting creatures poured from their fetid lair she could see it weakening. She jabbed her spear into the throat of another creature that had made it through, spinning into a slashing sweep to trip up two more. She dispatched them too, an efficient motion that penetrated the heart of the Ofrenok with brutal speed. She moved on, unable to pause, to catch her breath. Five minutes had passed, an eternity in battle, and Vessilia found herself flagging as she moved through the forms drilled into her since childhood.
Step, half-step, turn, evade, thrust...
The movements weren't so rigid as a dance, but the Seven Steps of the Dragoon were infinitely versatile, able to be combined endlessly. She chained her movements, if for nothing else than for the conservation of her own Stamina; without her movement technique and spear mastery she'd have fallen to the ground minutes ago.
Which is why she was especially jealous of her friend Evie, who despite her weaker Endurance, had enough Skill in Acrobatics that she had Stamina to spare. Even after evading the multiplying attacks of the Ofrenok, her friend was like a ghost, unable to be touched. For all that Vessilia was touted as a genius, she felt that Evie outshone her in battle ten times over.
Felix, on the other hand, was simply impossible.
He was barreling through the monsters, taking them out with spells and sword and more of his insane fist fighting. He had been at it the entire time, his Stamina apparently endless as he moved quickly but gracelessly between enemies. Once she even saw him barrel bodily through one of the monsters, knocking the both of them to the ground, where he simply pummeled it to death.
His Skills are unpolished and wildly inefficient, but he has such raw power. She frowned. He must have come across quite the collection of Titles to amass such stats at level 19. It is the only answer.
Then it went quiet.
Evie landed next to her with a soft thud, bending her knees to absorb the impact. "Is that it?"
Vessilia looked around, her eyes (normally so sharp) were of limited use in the Foglands. Even here, inside this stone structure the thick mist was ever-present. "I am not sure. I somehow doubt it."
"Yeah," Evie grunted in agreement. "Can't see this being Magda's real test anyway. Too easy."
"Maybe...for you," panted Atar, who still wore his Crown of Ignis. Despite the lack of enemies, he was playing it smart and still had Sparkbolts circling them. "I can't...keep this up...forever. Those BASTARDS took out...nearly half of my...Mana pool already!"
"Incoming!" Felix's voice shouted out from the fog. He sounded close, but that was never a sure thing in the murk. Then she heard it. Not the wet squelch the creatures had been making as they left their muddy burrows, but a distinct bubbling noise.
The mud all around them was boiling with movement.
"Night! Redouble that barrier, Atar! Vess, take the left side. I'll take the right! Felix!" Evie shouted into the fog.
"Yeah?"
"Get the back side of the chamber! How many are out there?"
"At least...twenty!" He replied.
"Shit," Evie cursed, looking to Atar and Vessilia. "This is gonna be hard. Whatever Magda did stirred up a whole nest of these bastards, and they're hungry. The fight before was just a snack. Time for the main course, now!"
Vessilia could feel Evie flare her leadership Skill, Rally. She let it wash over her, as did Atar, feeling the small bump to her Endurance and regeneration. It was not much, but it could make a difference today, and would only grow stronger in the future. Spinning her spear and resetting her grip, Vessilia nodded at her friend before taking her position.