FMH: Everything ~ Thirty-Seven

- Luke -

For the Murderhobo, it was a toss-up between which of the two methods he wanted to attempt. Did he want to follow the lightning or have a larger area carved out with a patch of thrashing vines? Eventually, he nodded over at Taylor. “Here's what I want to see. Send a bolt down a line, then move directly to the left and send another one. I’ll follow the first, then run back after the second.”

“What the Abyss, Luke? I can control my plants way better than she can control lightning!” Andre interjected, showcasing his control by crushing dozens of monsters at once with a single squeeze of his fist. “If you time it poorly, you're going to get hit by superheated arcane plasma!”

“Her lack of control is why I'm doing it.” The Murderhobo gruffly informed his friend. “I understand lack of control; I get it. She lets go of her Spell, and it does its effect, then vanishes. Your plants follow your rules, but only to a point. What's been going on back at the Hollow Kingdom now that you're not there to control the Dryad? Did you leave detailed instructions? Or did you just give it a general command?”

“Well…” Andre hesitated for a long moment before shaking his head and pointing at the monsters not very far away at all. “But I am here! Right now! I can do whatever you need.”

Luke shook his head and put out his hand, shoving Andre to the side. “I just don't trust trees. They’re too shady.”

“Ha!” Zed quietly laughed. “Guys! He is risking his life so he can make a joke. I think he's starting to get back into the swing of being human.”

The Murderhobo didn't deign to respond to that accusation. Instead, he merely nodded at the Mage then got down into a crouched position. “Whenever you're ready.”

“I'll count down from three, sending out the bolt of lightning at zero. In the next second, I will send the next strike down just to our left. Are you sure you're ready?”

Once again, Luke didn't bother answering. Taylor could only shrug and start her countdown, sending out a bolt of the strangely silent lightning exactly as she had said she would. Luke leapt into action, honing in on the corridor of falling monsters. He had plenty of room to maneuver, seeing as each of these burned-out husks was nearly five feet wide. He got to the dividing line of the Zone, ignoring the needles that were flying through the air at him, and activated Bum Thunder. For the first time in what felt like years to him, the Skill succeeded, and he penetrated deeply into Zone twenty.

As the Skill ended, lights appeared in his vision as the world attempted to explain his current situation to him. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to pause and read it, pushing off one of the falling creatures as a bolt of lightning crashed down to his left and opened a new path. His skin crisped up as the flash of light vanished, but it wasn't enough to deal any damage through his armor. Pushing off against the now falling creature as the first line respawned, he activated his movement ability one more time… slamming face-first into a freshly-respawned creature. “Abyss!”

Another creature appeared directly behind him, and the two monsters pushed together in an attempt to crush him between their bodies. Needles shoved forward in nearly the same attack pattern he had used, as monsters from all around attempted to jab him with their weapons, those farther back sending flying needles. Luke switched over to his Battering Ram Knuckles, unable to otherwise maneuver enough to use any of the weapons. A one-two punch landed on the creature in front of him, and he tried to take a step forward, only to be met with a brand new, undamaged version that had appeared on top of its fallen brother.

“Time for plan… punch!” Luke kept fighting until he was able to ever so slowly turn himself around. Now facing back the way he had come, he pulled his fist back as far as possible and launched forward with a full-powered Shockwave Cleave. Multiple explosions happened at once as he was tossed backward, bringing a monster with him across the Zone boundary. The detonation of the creature’s Skill Pearl nearly canceled out his momentum, and he dropped to the ground well within the range of the needles.

The next several moments were spent scampering along, performing acrobatic movements from a prone position that eventually brought him outside of their effective range. For a few seconds, Luke simply exulted in the fact that he had succeeded. Then, practicality took over once more, and he used the time to go over the information that he had been given.

Data packet from unknown accessed… updating log with provided data… cross-referencing with Source-cerer protocols… complete! Messages will be displayed in order of creation.

Welcome to Zone Twenty! This area is filled with creatures that are set to automatically return to life after a set period of time. Somewhere within the depths of this Zone, there's a respawn buffer! The longer you go without clearing out this Zone, the faster the creatures will return to life! Use the Skills you have learned in the previous Zones to fight your way through the Zone to a buffer point. Once you have destroyed at least one, the overflow buffer will be cleaned out, and the respawn rate will return to one creature per hour!

You have slain Towering Ossified Expedient Sentinel! (Several thousand repeating messages collapsed for convenience.)

Luke was once more staring at the sky above him, watching the blue gasses and liquid shift and stir. He was mightily pleased with himself, and there was something truly satisfying about being able to achieve his goal after so many attempts. “There's a long way to go, but now I know it can be done.”

His left hand unclenched, and he let his head flop to the side as he looked at the glowing Skill Pearl that he had been able to snatch off the ground from a falling sentinel. “Abyss, it's good just knowing what to call these things. Makes me wonder what kind of Skills I can pick up off of them… *nom*.”

Without further preamble, he shoved the Skill Pearl in his mouth, washing it down with a generous pull of liquid mana. This had the effect of letting him easily swallow the pearl, as well as the side effect of healing his body from the massive damage he had just inflicted upon it. As his flesh and bones mended, he waited for the Pearl to be fully integrated.

Skill gained: Aerial Grift. T5, level 0.

Effect 1: When catching a projectile out of midair, you're able to immediately halt its momentum entirely and set it on the nearest flat surface or the ground within 1n feet of your body, where n = Skill level.

Bonus 1, at range: you're now able to autonomously catch 2n projectiles from midair and deposit them on a flat surface or in a pocket or bag within 1n feet of your body without needing to use your hands. Cost: 1n mana per second, 10 mana per item caught.

Effect 2: You can automatically construct preset arrangements for collected projectiles. This can be anything from creating spiked traps, to caltrops, to small structures created entirely from projectiles. You can place 5n items per second into a preset arrangement.

Bonus, Multitarget: You can now set a no-fly Zone within 3n feet of your body. All projectiles that come within that range will be automatically collected and placed into either storage or a preset formation based on your settings. Cost: 50 mana to activate, 10 mana per second for upkeep.

Effect 3: Collected projectiles may be assigned to return to their point of origin. They will be returned at 5n% velocity, where n = Skill level.

“Exactly what I needed. Thank you, Murder World.” Luke closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before getting up and activating his newest Skill. Then, unafraid of the mana upkeep cost, he simply walked up to the nearest Sentinel and started attacking it.

Needles flew at him by the hundreds, only to vanish as they came within touching range of his body. Fractions of a second later, those same needles returned at the same angle they had come in. A series of *clanging* filled the air as needles slammed into each other, like the world's largest wind chime warehouse on ‘bring your child's entire school to work’ day. The needles were exceptionally effective at drilling into the Towering Ossified Expedient Sentinels, and when they met the monsters, they usually went right through them, thanks to their void-tipped attribute.

“So, Luke, how are things going?” Zed's sing-songy voice popped into Luke's ear, the conversational tone completely out of synchronization with the situation they found themselves in. “Looks like you're doing something pretty neat, so do you mind if I get some information off of you?”

The Murderhobo didn't mind at all, and in fact relayed all the data that he had been given. Zed listened patiently, asking only a few questions. “The gist of it is we're looking for something that is constantly spawning these, and we need to smash it? That makes perfect sense to me. Seems a bit extreme to create this many monsters, but who knows with this world. Now, tell me… is that a new Skill I spy?”

“Yup.” Luke was enjoying pummeling the monsters in front of him without fear of the longer-ranged enemies being able to do anything about it. “Collects projectiles, returns to sender. Mana-intensive anywhere except here.”

Zed made small happy noises as Luke spoke. “That's very interesting! Mind if I listen in on it?”

“All you need to do is get within three feet of me, and the Skill will take care of any of these needles. Go for it.” Even Luke didn't expect what happened after making the casual comment.

The Bard came sprinting down the slope, predicting the flying needles and moving to evade them at top speed. As he got closer, the Sentinels' aim became more accurate, and Zed was forced to dive into a flying tackle to escape. He wrapped his arms around the Murderhobo from behind and brought his momentum to an instant halt. Luke felt almost nothing, even though Zed sounded like he had hit a wall. “Ow. I hope this shows my devotion to getting cool things. Also, that was perhaps the most terrifying thing I have ever intentionally done in my life.”

Luke actually paused in his killing to take a look at the smug Bard who was sitting on the ground next to him, his eyes closed as he listened intently to the magic flowing through the Murderhobo. “Alright. I admit it. That was impressive.”

Something about the Skill was apparently subtle, as the Bard needed to listen for nearly five hours before it transformed into a Mastery for him to use. Luke could tell the instant the Bard figured it out, because he jumped to his feet and *whooped* for joy. Focusing on the young man beside him, Luke watched as something in the air around him shifted ever so slightly.

“Moment of truth!” Zed’s normal cheerfulness was replaced by apprehension as he ever so slowly inched toward the edge of the safe Zone Luke had generated. He seemed to be psyching himself up, as he continuously repeated the words, “It will only end when I run out of mana or actively cancel the Mastery. It will only end-”

With a strangled yell, he squeezed his eyes shut and ran forward, then paused, expecting at any moment to be skewered on the spot. When no pain came, he opened his eyes and watched as dozens of needles were absorbed what felt like inches from his face, only to be returned to the assailants. “Yes! I'm pretty sure I'm not dead! Wow! I'm also earning Potentia when they spear themselves! Alright, Luke… proof of concept complete. Let’s stomp these T.O.E.S.”