FMH ~ 51!

A hooded figure stepped out of the portal, and in an instant… the Scar was reduced in size by at least a third. The sheer amount of power this one being represented must be utterly huge if the stabilized portal weakened this much just to let it through.

“Wake her up, wake her up, wake her up.” Luke muttered in manic repetition, a strange desperation flowing through him. The hood on the creature made it impossible to understand what he was looking at, but a single glance made Luke feel like he was swimming through a pool of blood. The sheer killing intent bearing down on them screamed ‘massive Charisma and Capacity’. 

This was a Mage of a high order, and the only being that Luke had met that gave even close to the same feeling was Archmage Don. “Andre, do something.”

“How am I supposed to be able-?” Andre was cut off as Zed reached over and caressed Taylor’s face.

“Wake up, sleepyhead. You fell asleep in my arms and were here all night!”

“Noo!” Taylor awoke with a scream as one of her worst nightmares played out in reality. The shift between unconsciousness and fight mode was instant, and only Taylor’s exhaustion saved Zed from an instant Flame Lance to the heart. “What…! Did it work?”

“Yup, you nearly died though!” Andre cheerfully let her know. “Great to know your real feelings toward me, by the way. Also, it looks like the whole dying thing may still happen. Any idea what we should do about… that?”

Taylor directed her weary gaze to the Scar, and her focus sharpened instantly. “It shrunk… what came through? Oh… oh no.”

“I was really hoping to hear ‘that isn’t so bad, we can handle this.” Zed fumed from his position on a still-charging bear.

“That’s… it’s so strong. I’ve never felt a power fluctuation from a monster like that, except once. A sentient thunderstorm. The storm was a tier ten existence.” Taylor swallowed; her mouth too dry to say much more.

“Stop. It’s doing something.” Luke pulled them back to the moment, just in time to feel a mental shockwave pass over them. For an instant, Luke wanted to destroy his group, then himself… but he tensed his body and shook off the insidious demand. Still, in the next moment he was rolling his eyes as he held a rabid Andre off. The Druid was gnawing on the skin between Luke’s thumb and index finger, but couldn’t manage a single point of damage to the mana-armor of his gauntlets.

Taylor seemed to move… inward? Like a wineskin that was squeezed suddenly, then she was fine. Zed didn’t even blink at the mental order that had tried to control him, but the bear that he was riding on started bucking wildly. Were they not tied on, Taylor and Zed would have been tossed off and swarmed by the chimeras that were sprinting at them in orderly, neat rows. Luke noticed the difference, and let the others know. “That thing has control powers; it took direct control of everything.”

“Not possible. It must be directly controlling relays of some kind. Look for the most humanoid in any group and kill it. That’ll add a ton of strain to the boss over there, and it might collapse the entire structure.” Zed explained succinctly, even as Taylor fell forward on the bear, her eyes rolling back into her head as her overuse of mana came back into play. 

Andre came back to himself a moment after Luke slapped him gently, as did Arthur. “What…?”

“You two find me monsters to kill. Get close to that Scar!” Luke ordered as he devoted most of his mana to his left fist and made a slashing attack at a group of Scuttlers. The extended - overcharged - mana blade cut through their stone carapaces like butter, but a standard attack from one cut Luke’s bicep open enough that his blood began pouring down his arm. “Best defense is defense, blast it! I keep forgetting that!”

He evened out his mana flows, blocking the next few attacks that would have bit in deeply. His punches and slashes needed to remain single-target to make a kill with one blow, and in the following minutes Luke fought a desperate battle as the chimeras attacked from every direction with repeated, machine-like precision. Arthur roared as spears were used to puncture his energetic flank, and Zed screamed as he saw death approaching.

“There!” the words were practically forced into Luke’s ear as Zed managed to notice a black-robed humanoid a dozen feet away. Luke had moved as soon as his attention was called to the beast, and with a *crunch* the monster was decimated; the top one-tenth of its body just gone.

The orderly attacks fell away, and the monsters were just angry beasts once more. There was a moment where they appeared to have lost attention, and were confused as to where they were. Luke went through them like a hurricane, and his Sigil let him know that Walking Arsenal had reached level five. “Quantity over quality is fine… just be worth something!”

A slash to his side pulled Luke’s attention to another robed humanoid. The strange part was that the attack had gone into a joint between Luke’s armor, bypassing the protections they afforded him. He looked at the wound, then at the assassin. He could clearly see that the being had a human face, and on that face was a smug smile.

I Have Concerns has detected a new and potent poison! Assessing, assimilating… I Have Concerns has reached Tier 3, Level 1! Assimilating!

“Thank you.” Luke’s heartfelt gratitude made the monster glare and realize that something was wrong. “Without you, I would have had no idea how to level that skill up.”

In the next instant, the humanoid was bisected by his blade, and Luke had returned to his team’s side. Shrubberies had appeared around the combat Zone, their roots drinking down the blood that was spilling in the central area and keeping the ground firm and solid. Fungus and mold coated the fallen bodies, and Andre was allowing Bloodthistle to empower them to be even faster without needing to provide the mana cost. The residual mana in the creature’s flesh and blood allowed the plants to chew through the dead corpses at high speed. Andre welcomed Luke back with a nod, then refocused on creating an oasis in this spot before they were overwhelmed.

“On your left, Andre! Luke, behind you, left hand upward slash!” Zed called instructions, getting the others to focus on their attacks. Andre was protected by Arthur, and Luke slammed two charging centaurs together, dropping their broken bodies to put a barrier between him and the rest of their herd.

Over the next thirty minutes, they held against an unceasing tide. A full hedgerow had grown around them, covering them on all sides and gaining additional defense by incorporating the stone that a good amount of the Scuttlers had been coated in. With the ‘wall’ in place, Luke allowed himself a small breather and looked at the notifications that were waiting for him.

Walking Arsenal has reached Tier 8, Level 6!

I Have Concerns has reached Tier 3, Level 4! Assimilating!

“What was in that poison?” Luke grumped at the fact that it hadn’t even bothered to provide a basic hallucination. There was no answer forthcoming, so he continued on his rampage. A group of Scuttlers in front of him detonated into frozen shards, the first signal that Taylor had awoken.

“Welcome back!” Zed cheerfully stated as Taylor sat up, loopy from the constant twisting and turning that Arthur subjected him to. “What brings a pretty place like you to a girl like this?”

“Mana shift.” Taylor was clearly exhausted still, making Luke wonder exactly what had happened to put her in this state. “All the mana the Scar has been pouring into the world is getting drawn back to it. Something is about to happen. Something terrible.”

Luke looked to where the ‘boss’ was standing. The robe it was wearing, black with a series of red and gold trims, was whipping around it. It appeared that the creature was at the center of a whirlwind, and obscured by a heat haze. It became harder to see the creature over time as the mana became denser and denser. 

“Why are they leaving?” Zed’s question was the first thing that drew attention to the fact that the attacking waves of creatures were stepping back and away. “I’m not happy that they are attacking us, but I understood that… Taylor… why are they backing away?”

As much as she wanted to be able to answer that question, Taylor could only bite her lip and stay silent. Her eyes were searching for the slightest nuance that would explain the situation. This allowed her to see the exact instant that something did change near the Boss. “It’s creating a magic circle?”

“What does that do?” Luke shot the question at her sharply.

“Like what I do?” Andre was started, and tried to squint to see the far-away figure better. “That thing is a Druid?”

“No, it’s… a magic circle, for Mages, is how high-tier spells are cast when you want to use them at full power. Anything above Tier Five requires too much concentration, too many components, to simply cast it. Unless you are just… so powerful. A magic circle appearing means that the spell was cast correctly up to a certain point, then sealed so that the next portion could be cast.” Taylor launched a Flame Lance at a larger group of monsters, though they ignored their dying comrades for the most part. “Each circle that appears around the inner one means another layer of the spell being cast correctly. I only spot two, so… we have a chance to stop it?”

Zed eyed the distance and the army that separated them. “I have a doubt to throw into this optimism.”

“We could try to take shelter and hope that it won’t be able to hit us?” Andre chimed in hopefully.

“I agree with Taylor. Kill our way there before it can cast.” Luke started moving forward, catching the ire of a pod of Scuttlers. Almost casually, he slapped them to death in passing. After he had fought them a few times, he had learned the best way to massacre them. “Is it just me, or are they giving up less Potentia? Zed, you check that, I don’t want to let the Sigil into my head until I need it.”

Zed, happy to have something that he could do, looked into the distance. “Yup… looks like you are getting only about a third of what you were at the start of combat.”

“So, I need to kill three times as many for the same effect.” Luke’s Bum Rush directly at the Boss forced the others to scramble, coming out of the safer area and into the attackers once more. However, the response from the armies was… pitiful.

“Third, no fourth circle is up!” Taylor gasped, working to free herself from the clinging vines. “Andre, make these things let me go!”

“Done.” Andre fired arrow after arrow into the air, and spores and seeds rained down on their foes before turning into either thorns, Stink-sacs, or simply rooting vines. However, once more the response was muted, the creatures barely even attempting to fight their way free. “Something is wrong.”

“Fifth circle!” Taylor recoiled in horror as a massive tsunami of blood erupted out of every chimera they could clearly see, the epicenter being the Boss. Red washed out their vision as far as they could see, slowly settling to the ground. The beasts slowly fell to the ground, tens of thousands of bodies falling to the ground at once creating a strange, unique sound.

Zed looked at himself, then at the dripping blood around them. “Was that the attack? It didn't do anything.”

“No…” Taylor gulped loudly as the blood started streaming toward the Boss. as it moved, the red sea revealed thousands of desiccated corpses left behind. “It just killed its own army. That wasn’t the spell… it just used everything it was linked to as a component.”