I cannot fail. Not here.
Felix could feel them.
Insane as that was, Felix could feel the abominations rushing at him. He could see them, sure. They shone with some sort of twisted life Mana, a pus green twisted around a dark red core. But now, for some reason, their very presence was beating against Felix's senses. Like a sore tooth, an infection.
What is this?
He didn't have long to consider it. They converged on him, five of them heading directly for him, their senses stronger than the fog.
He fought. With a rising, ruthless joy, he fought.
It was madness. The ground shook and sounds echoed all around him as his companions used their Skills and special abilities, doing undoubtedly remarkable things that he did not have the attention to see. Instead he was overwhelmed by dark, scaly flesh and multiple sets of claws that raked and slashed at his vitals. He blocked and parried with his sword, using it one hand while making Corrosive Strikes with the other. But these creatures were smarter or perhaps just faster than the previous ones; one of them grabbed Felix's arm, wrenching him around and threw him down into the mud. The ground had gone soft with spilled blood and acid, their steps churning it all into a gnarly muck. Felix splatted down and was quickly pounced on by two of the Ofrenok.
Maws of stained yellow teeth set in blackened gums filled his vision, and he lashed out with successive Corrosive Strikes. He smashed them away, but more came, swarming his apparently vulnerable form. Their presence felt like a broken guitar string, twanging and out of place. So close, their Mana tasted like sickness, a corruption different and yet similar to the bloody Mana from the Orit and Archon.
It soured against his vision, befouling his senses.
No, get away!
Influence of the Wisp!
The three on him briefly froze as blue fire engulfed them.
"GET OFF!"
Reign of Vellus!
The creatures exploded away from him, launched up and into the air in twenty foot arcs even as Felix felt himself pressed deeper into the mud by the counter-force. Without a way to leverage his Strength, he could only endure the sudden mass of four full grown Ofrenok as they sailed away.
Groaning in discomfort, Felix pulled himself to his feet in time to see two of the four monsters reconverging on him once more. Then he heard screams from behind him.
Rather than look, he only frowned and yanked one of the Ofrenok toward him. At the same time, he used his right fist to conjure a Corrosive Strike; the combined force blasted his fist and forearm straight through the abomination's skull, shattering teeth and skull fragments in a shower of putrid green-black ichor. Throwing the body off his arm, he did the same to the next one, putting his fist up and into their chest before driving their newly-made corpse into the ground. The last one reached him too late, and Felix spun to his feet and backhanded it; he had aimed from its head, but its sudden evasion took the bone breaking blow against its shoulder and sent it tumbling away.
"Shit," Felix said, watching the chimeric aberration struggle to stand again. "I'll deal with you later."
He ran off. Back toward the others.
He had gotten caught up. His job hadn't been to kill as many as he could. He was there to help protect the others.
He arrived to a madhouse.
"AHAHA! COME! CHALLENGE MY MIGHT, FOUL BEASTS!"
The Tin Ranks were surrounded by black-scaled monstrosities. There had to be at least three dozen of them, each snapping and clawing at the pile. The only thing keeping them at bay seemed to be Atar's frantically conjured Sparkbolts, which whirled around him even as he laughed maniacally. The crown atop his head was brighter than ever, and the waves of heat pushed back at the Ofrenok; those closest even had their hide rapidly blister, scorching from heat alone. There was a manic gleam in Atar's eyes and his curled hair was sticking up in all directions as he laughed again.
"I AM THE GREATEST FIRE MAGE IN ALL OF TE'THYS! NONE SHALL SURVIVE!"
What the hell? He spotted Vessilia fighting a section of the Ofrenok, spear whirling near constantly as she sliced and stabbed and parried the long talons of the abominations. She was coated in green-black ichor, and as he watched arterial spray spouted into the air as she decapitated another monster. Of Evie he could only make out a swinging chain on the far side of the group. They were fighting for their lives, and Felix wasn't sure how much longer they could keep it up.
Then the earth thudded beneath him.
Once.
Twice.
Felix looked up and saw a different version of the Ofrenok, elongated and made somehow more upsetting. It had six legs, heavy scale plates on his limbs, face, and back, and was entirely black and slick with viscous slime. Its mouth still took up its entire head, but that head was now the size of Felix's entire torso. If the Ofrenok were infantry, then this was the tank.
Analyze...
Name: Umber Ofrehulk
Type: Chimeric Aberration
Level: 25
HP: 844/844
SP: 984/1100
MP: 150/150
Lore: Sightless behemoths, Ofrehulks are known to grow to gargantuan sizes if left unchecked. Not as fast as their smaller brethren, they are far stronger.
Strength: Endurance and Strength.
Weakness: Intelligence and Willpower.
SKKKKREEEEOOOOOONK!
The beast's cry reverberated through Felix's chest like biggest subwoofer he'd ever experienced. It dwarfed his own heartbeat, and for a second Felix forgot how to breath.
Then it charged.
"FINALLY! A WORTHY CHALLENGER!"
Atar spotted the behemoth heading his way, plowing through the skeletal Ofrenok that weren't worthy to fight him face to face. None of them could stand up to the Greatest Fire Mage in Te'thys, Apprentice to Sig'nyh Kel'lyv, Grandmaster of the Desert's Fire!
The six legged beast trumpeted out a cry, crushing more of its fellows as it sought Atar, who only laughed louder.
In a dim portion of his mind, Atar felt the stirrings of panic but it was overridden by an ecstatic anger and terrible joy. The Crown atop his head was the sovereign of true destruction, and he its avatar! Fear had no place in his mind, not so long as his magic sang in his veins. With a word and gesture, the young man's flesh went up in flames as Spiritual Immolation surged across his limbs.
A relentless, overpowering heat poured from Atar; the Crown amplified the effects of Immolation as he became subsumed in light. The beast slowed its charge, finally feeling the effects of Atar's primordial aura, or perhaps the resistance of the Ofrenok surrounding it. True fear must be surging in its primitive brain, he crowed internally. Only natural, for true destruction invokes terror in all.
"Face me, beast!" Atar sent a flurry of Sparkbolts out toward the monstrosity, each one a sizzling speck against its immense hide. But they did their job, driving the mindless beast into continuing its charge.
Rising up within him, a strident horn sounded, a call to arms and a rush of thunderous beats upon a drum the size of a mountain. It filled his body with a terrifying vigor even as that dim portion of himself cried out in despair; something was coming. Something he had never before experienced, a tearing within his soul that his compartmentalized self found agonizing. But confidence and rage poured from his Crown, and Atar laughed away the limb-rattling anticipation even as his Mana use surged.
The beast was within twenty feet now; it wasn't stopping, heat or no.