MM - Chapter 149 - THESE MOTHERFUCKERS

As Raine once more purposefully buried himself beneath a throng of monsters, two new issues immediately became apparent; he couldn’t see far past the blazing light emanating from armor and shield, and chasing his prey through so many heavy, chitinous bodies was impossible with his current Potency.

With a thought, the fires from Wisdom of Amanesh slithered back to his core, taking the blinding light covering his shield with it. What little he could see was now illuminated by the pervasive flames from his helmet, and Sharing is Caring.

Connection and muscles fueled by Discipline gave him solid footing to push deeper, but he wasn’t making any real progress, at least not when compared to the slippery vomicida. A thunderous crash and tremble through the ground announced the arrival of whichever bird was trying to ruin his day. A hiss of pressurized liquid and an indignant caw let Raine know he was running out of time.

The progress bar for Decree and Punishment was filling fast, thanks to his headlong charge. Raine honed in on what little sensations he received from bloodlust but lacked the training and experience to get an accurate read on the vomicida’s location.

He listened carefully, not hearing further sounds of their struggle through the swarm. The instant his bulwark finished charging, a phantom skull blasted away the mites between him and the last place he heard them. Neither were there. Raine bent his knees and Leaped, flying free from the pile. Two Lunges off condensed air dodged the falling mites.

The mound of squirming bugs was truly massive: wide as a city block and deep as a lake. The bird made it look small. It easily swept aside hundreds of beasts with every flick of its beak. Its tail feathers jutted high into the air, fearsome monuments of its towering form. The sparrow's head swayed back and forth, creating waves of chitin as it quested for the prize.

Yeah, following that damn moth in there was sloppy. Okay, new plan.

Raine bounced off the air a few more times, making sure to keep an eye on the canopy far above as he let the sparrow find his quarry for him. It didn't take long. Whipping its head back, the Golathean Sparrow emerged from the mites with the nasty spitter halfway inside its beak. The beast struggled pitifully, wing ruined beyond use. The vomicida was helpless to resist as it was tossed into the air, falling toward a gaping beak, ready to swallow it whole.

Pointing, Raine roared, “Umbra’s Snare!” 

[Fraction of Umbra: (Demonic Power +20%) (PTC +20%) Upon command liberate Umbra’s Snare to charm any living entity (Cost: DP equivalent to difference in level and class) (Cooldown: 5 minutes)]

Despite its overwhelming presence, the sparrow didn’t stand a chance. Over one thousand Demonic Power crashed into the beast’s fatuous brain, dominating any semblance of self and replacing it with the will, the need to serve Raine. The connection was formed, but at a steep cost.

Discipline wasn’t the only resource that took a toll when emptied, and the more you had, the more it sucked to lose it all. With 90% of Raine's Demonic Power milked in one go, he found himself on the verge of puking and passing out, all while a spike of agony lanced through his skull. There was no time for self-pity. Raine fought through the debilitating vertigo with a deep growl. He grasped at the link to his new pet with an iron will.

Instead of being swallowed, the vomicida was smacked aside by the hard beak. Just as it thought itself saved by some miracle, Flurry of One uppercutted its ugly face, blasting it higher into the air. It was already on death’s door after the brief chase, showcasing the sparrow’s Potency was just as colossal as its size.

As Raine and the vomicida were overcome by gravity’s embrace, he commanded the sparrow to clear a path for them to land. An oversized wing swept along the ground beneath them, devastating Mitesville and sending its inhabitants packing. ZionLine was never one to give away a meal for free. Expecting something to go wrong, Raine crammed his aching head full of Discipline to enhance his perception. Blood oozed from his eyes and ears as his health plummeted. The technique was still too much for him, and Raine's ability to shunt pain and discomfort was severely tested as he forced his senses to expand.

The expected trouble came, just not from the anticipated direction. Realizing Raine would be the end of it, the wounded vomicida focused on him. Its bulbous eyes lit up a moment before two crimson beams sliced through the air. The attacks were nearly instant and packed with energy that level 45 players would be challenged to tank.

Raine Lunged to the side, but the beams followed. With Discipline rampaging through his skull, it felt like his torso rotated in slow motion. He managed to get his shield in front of one beam. It careened off the bulwark, slicing deep into a nearby tree. The other sliced in from the side, cleaning cutting through his chest. [-814] [Critical hit! -2,391] On instinct, Healing Burst pumped through Raine, partially recovering his health. [+1,800]

He Lunged again, arriving above the vomicida with a bloody-faced snarl. They crashed into the harvesting nets together, Raine on top. Rupture, Debilitating Crush, Flurry of One, Uncanny Acceleration, and Life Drain comboed to finish it off. Thanks to the sparrow’s damage being done before it had the intent to help, the vomicida’s death wasn’t counted as an assisted kill.

[Obtained 1,036,800 Superiority (1650% bonus for defeating a monster 18 levels above you)]

[Obtained 108% Attunement (1650% bonus for defeating a monster 18 levels above you)]

Upon mental command, the promptly dubbed Big Bird extended a wing, covering Raine in a canopy of feathers that blocked the still-falling mites. He wasted no time harvesting what he came for. His bulwark came down hard, cracking off the vomicida’s twig-like legs—each several times larger than himself. Due to not being a harvester, his chances of receiving a usable part were slim, but there was no helping it. The first three attempts were failures, and just when Raine thought his bad luck was going to strike again, the last leg dropped to the ground and didn’t vanish. After collecting the prize, he scraped off the fine hairs along its back and wing.

[Vomicida True Leg: (Lustrous Blue) Surely legs durable enough to carry the mighty Vomicida will have uses to the right craftsman]

[18 x Vomicida Setae: (Lustrous Blue) These hairs contain an unusual duality, being both flammable and resistant to heat]

The creature contained a multitude of other valuable and rare ingredients in its gigantified form. There was no reason to dissect the whole thing when a professional harvester would pay dearly for the potential Proficiency. Raine wrapped the bug inside the net and stored the corpse in his inventory.

[Golathean Vomicida Corpse (Partial): (Organic Harvestable - Master) Amateurs beware, the acid stored within this giant’s glands is capable of melting most metals]

Having finished, Raine couldn't hold it in any longer and hurled his guts across the ground. Even though he halted the Discipline technique the second the vomicida died, his headache was only growing worse. The negatives of overusing Demonic Power wouldn't fade any time soon.

Why was snare so expensive? I thought it was 10 per level with a multiplier for each step in tier. Since it's not an elite, or an evolved over level 50, the skill should have only cost around 300 DP. Is there a size multiplier as well? At least I had enough. If I ever pick the wrong target and it drains my DP completely, that's an instant death.

Let's see, one leg has enough material for about ten crafting attempts. I should expect a five percent success chance, and I need fifty boomsticks for the quest. So that’s one hundred legs total. Well, I knew this would take a while. Big Bird’s only going to slow me down. No way I can get more vomicidas to show up with him around.

The canopy in this section of the forest was nearly two kilometers above. Raine had no idea if Umbral Snare even had a maximum range but figured now was a good chance to find out. Big Bird took off with a mighty leap that left a tremble sweeping through the ground. Displaced air created a woosh of force that pulled at Raine and the nearby mites. Each flap of its wings created miniature whirlwinds. In seconds, the beast grew smaller with distance until it vanished into the treetops. The sight of something so large moving so quickly was both majestic and familiar.

Since the link was still active, Raine tasked Big Bird with keeping any other sparrows from scaring away his prey.

He had just enough time to replace the used harvesting net before the mites regrouped for round two. They came in a building-sized wave that Raine had no qualms running from. With his back against a tree, he braced, barely managing not to be swept away in the chitinous tide. By this point, being buried inside a mountain of bugs was almost comforting, at least compared to the eerily tall forest that made one feel like less than an ant.

An hour passed before the effects of overusing Demonic Power faded. A short time later, Raine heard the pressurized hiss of spraying acid. From the link with Big Bird, he knew there weren’t any other predators in the area, so he took his time crawling from the pile of mites the hard way. Breaching the surface, he sighted his prize and Lunged off a hard-shelled back. 

Halfway to the vomicida, he spotted a second one at the far side of the pile. It had clearly been there a while as several dozen hollowed-out mite corpses were cast aside around it. Currently, its long, thick tongue was sticking from its mouth, the end attached to a mite, the liquified juices being sucked right out of the critter. Seeing Raine, both immediately grew interested in expanding their palettes.

Not having counted on fighting two at once, Raine jumped high. Glancing down, he spotted the vomicidas squatting low to the ground and wiggling in unison before giving the large wings on their backs a hefty flap. Sonic booms detonated behind them, and they closed on Raine in a blur, only to be slammed toward the ground by an expanding ethereal skull packed with absorbed force. [-5,357] Decree and Punishment sent them straight into the mound of bugs, giving Raine a moment to prepare.

Unlike with the mites, the level difference with the vomicidas was vast enough that Raine’s damage was severely neutered by the innate defenses granted each five levels. The reason he dared face two at once was their non-elite status, meaning they only had a baseline 1% health regeneration per ten seconds. Well, that and the other surprises he prepared.

Landing, Raine withdrew a long, thin rod and slammed it into the hard dirt. Placing a hand atop the roughly-cut gem at its tip, he injected 300 Elemental Power into the device. It buzzed to life, releasing a visible sphere of energy that expanded for a hundred meters. Besides feeling lighter inside the sphere, there wasn’t much noticeable difference. But that was only because Raine’s experience using Atmospheric Spreaders could be counted in the tens of thousands of hours. To the bugs, their entire world may as well have flipped upside down.

[Atmospheric Spreader: (Common Grey) Thins air composition in a radius based on Elemental Power provided. Projected Durability decreases as range expands (Durability 99/100)]

The entire hill of mites exploded as the strength typically required to move their bodies suddenly became ten times too much. Each tiny movement they made sent them flying and bouncing off each other, turning the air above Raine into a smorgasbord of pure chaos. 

Despite the havoc all around them, the vomicidas zeroed in on Raine standing calmly on the ground. They angled their bodies and flapped, both activating an Aerial Charge that should have sent them crashing into him like a pair of laser beams. Lacking air pressure to push against, all their wings managed to do was send them spinning wildly through the air. 

Unlike Travelers, the locals of ZionLine didn't have a Connection attribute, so they lacked any way to alter their environment. Raine solidified the ground beneath his feet and blasted off, the soil cratering behind him. His speed was far beyond what he could normally achieve, almost reaching his past maximum. The euphoric moment was too brief. He slammed into his target bulwark first, which in turn was jettisoned into the side of a tree, where it was buried a meter deep.

Lunge brought him to its side, simultaneously dodging two crimson beams that sliced through the space he’d been a second before. Rupture and Debilitating Crush set the buried vomicida's Defense to a minimum, and Flurry of One turned its ugly face into a gory mess. [-11,190] [-9,941] [Critical hit! -14,423] Unfortunately, his skills were still dealing less than half damage, unable to overcome its level-granted resistance. Only Cassidy’s Comet was broken enough to bridge that divide.

The vomicida tore itself free with a snap of its powerful legs. The excess force sent it spinning madly through the air. Raine stayed on it, Connection thickening the air around his feet, shoulders, and hips to perfectly manipulate his flight. His shield and flaming fist were a blur as he struck several times faster than his listed Attack Speed. By utilizing bursts of pressurized air that he’d spent a lifetime perfecting, Raine rebounded his elbows without having to draw them all the way back between each attack.

Crazed laughter burst from his lips. For the first time since coming back, he felt entirely at home in his skin. His body responded instantly, the force and speed behind each movement exactly what his brain knew it should be. Despite the individual blows dealing a measly thousand damage, he struck over fifteen times per second.

All the while, he danced around the uncoordinated creature that couldn’t even turn in the direction it wanted. Its flailing limbs were a joke to dodge; the only genuine threat was its eye beams. If Raine got sloppy and was hit by all four from both vomicidas, he would be dead before realizing why. His blows carefully countered its rotational force, keeping him at its back while simultaneously forcing its body between him and the other vomicida.

In the six seconds it took for them to cross the clearing and reach another tree, the vomicida’s 230,000 health was reduced to less than half. Raine couldn’t have cared less. He was having the time of his life, exhilarating in the brief return to his prime while thousands of flailing mites zipped all around, filling the air with riotous screeching.

The punching bag was dead before he was done with it; luckily, there was another. With an upside-down flip-kick, Raine sent the first careening to the ground, where it stuck fast into a waiting net. He was ready for the two beams that lanced out to catch him in the moment of supposed weakness. A sturdy bulwark sent them to the sides, where they sliced through several helpless mites before running out of energy.

Raine’s grin was a kilometer wide as he braced off the air and Leaped with all his Potency. A flash of crimson at the edge of his peripheral vision had him reacting on instinct. Fraction of Solidity boosted his physical attributes while Unassailable Aegis coated his skin in a layer of invulnerability right as six energized beams slammed into his side.

Three vomicidas had been lying in wait for him around the edge of a nearby tree. All three stood unmoving on the ground as though they knew exactly what would happen if they tried to move closer.

No way they learned that fast. Unless… A hive mind? It's certainly possible. CronGate gave up on this place long before we discovered all of its secrets.

If Raine was right, then more vomicidas could be surrounding him at that very moment, waiting for the perfect chance to shoot him in the back. A tingling shiver raced up his spine. His cells absorbed the tension like microsponges as the thrill of a life-and-death battle overtook his senses, pushing him to the very edge of his rapidly growing capabilities.

Damn, I love my life.