FMH ~ 48!

“Abyssal Murderhobo!” Taylor shouted in a fury, then forced herself to a calm state. “Andre, we need a wall at our backs. We need thorns for the fleshy foes, and thickets to force the armored enemies to come at us how we want them to come at us. Zed, sit.”

“Sit?”

“Sit.” Zed reluctantly sat, and a column of stone lifted him into the air. He shouted once, then went quiet as the stone surrounded him and left him with small viewing holes. Now Zed could look out into the area and get a bird’s-eye view, without too much fear of the fairly inaccurate bolts that they had been attacked with earlier. “Keep us up to date.”

“Please make sure to let me down if you think you are going to die.” Zed’s voice appeared in her ear. “How high up am I?”

“About forty feet, stop whining.” Taylor looked over to where Luke was already engaged in combat with dozens of enemies. She took a deep breath and stomped her foot, vanishing from her position and appearing next to Luke just in time to slash out with an unreleased Scatter Shot. Using the spell like a sword, she began hacking through the tough shells of the Scuttlers. She alternated between releasing the power as a full spell and containing it, making her an excellent mid-range fighter that could support her teammate.

Luke - unlike Taylor - was having an excellent time. This constant swarm of enemies felt nostalgic, and brought him back to the fun parts of killing the goats in Murder World. “I wonder if I can turn this area into a slide…? The pass does slant downward here.”

“Head in the fight, Luke!” Taylor demanded even as she released a Flame Lance into a tight cluster of Scuttlers. The spell detonated, tossing charred monsters into the air and filling the area with the scent of baked lobster. “Ugh… I’m never going to enjoy seafood again.”

“Never had it before.” Luke slammed his right fist into a Scuttler. He had cancelled his shoulder and leg armor, giving him a total of fifty percent mana that he had been able to devote to his attacks. That gave him a total of a forty-five percent damage increase when it was devoted to his Battering Ram Knuckles, meaning he could potentially hit for five hundred and ninety-two blunt damage if he landed a perfect attack.

It wasn’t going to happen. Not with the wild flailing and dodging that he needed to also focus on. Maximum power meant that you needed to focus and bring your entire body into alignment for an attack, and that usually only happened under controlled circumstances. Still, a glancing blow could deal over a hundred and fifteen points of blunt damage, plenty for these basic creatures. Luke punched it in the face, and the stone covering turned into shrapnel that drove deep into its head.

Potentia gained!

“Celestial abyss, shut up.” Luke snarled at his constantly chiming Sigil. “Devote all Potentia into Walking Arsenal until I say otherwise. Turn off Potentia gain notifications!”

*Ding!*

Please confirm-

“Yes!”

*Ding!*

This is your confirmation that all Potentia-

“Ahh!” Luke screamed and ignored the Sigil, shifting his mana to empower both hands evenly and slamming them into the next target over and over. The nice thing about his ability was that he could fight like a brawler. Luke had been worried that equipping a sword would mean that he would need to hold it like a sword, and he had been glad to find out that he wouldn’t need to do so. A punch, and a meter-long blade appeared over his fist and stabbed things. Perfect for what he needed.

Over the next twenty minutes, Luke and Taylor had been able to move forward a net total of five feet. They had constantly needed to abandon their positions in order to maintain firm footing, even though both of them had powers that granted balance and sure-footedness. All of the blood and carcasses made footwork treacherous.

Walking Arsenal has reached level three! 0/500 to level 4!

“We aren't making any progress!” Taylor stated coldly as yet another blast of ice shattered Scuttlers in a line. “We should fall back and regroup-”

“What are you talking about?” Luke laughed at her stricken expression. “We’ve only been fighting for twenty minutes! We already moved forward! At this pace we will only need another… thirty hours! We’ll be to the Scar in no time!”

“Thirty hours of constant fighting?” Taylor spun up a Flame Lance, letting it blow away a squad of reinforcements.

“Way less than I thought we would need!” Luke’s bright smile brought Taylor right back to her childhood, but she got ahold of herself and shook off the strangeness. This was the first time Luke had seemed actually happy since coming out of the portal, but she was already practically out of mana.

“We need to fall back so I can get my mana back, Luke!” She hated to interrupt his happiness, but she wouldn’t die so that he could get a few chuckles. 

“Go ahead, I’ll keep at it! Come back when you have a full arsenal ready again!” Luke activated Bum Rush and slammed into the line of attackers, creating an opening that Taylor used to zip back to the… forest?

“Welcome back, Taylor!” Andre called out as she entered the oddly silent copse. “I set up a meditation area there. Should boost mana regen, especially with the mana density in the area!”

“Meditation area…? Andre, this place needs to be defensible!” Taylor still sat and worked on calming her mind. She felt her mana regen kick into high gear, pleased with the result even though she was still lightly fuming over the seeming lack of protections.

“Don’t worry.” Andre’s voice turned hard. “Nothing under tier six could walk into this core area without destroying every plant in the way.”

“I don’t… how can you be sure?”

“I can’t move from this spot, but everything in thirty meters that grows is actually considered the same plant. This whole place shares the same health, which means they would need to be able to destroy this area in a single hit if they want to get in.” Andre let his eyes flutter closed as he returned to making a cycle. Mana and Potentia flowed into him, out into the plants, and back to him since they were a part of him. 

With every second that passed, more plants sprang out of the ground. Andre had also been spreading grass seed along the path as they walked, and was hoping that there would soon be a verdant path that connected him to the rest of the area in the Kingdom he had bound to himself. Then this small area would be really hard to crack. “Abyssal Murderhobo. If he had just given me a few days to get all of this ready…!”

“Speaking of ol’ Lukey,” Zed’s voice spoke to the two on the ground, “any idea why he is doing more damage over time than he was doing before? It isn’t a lot, but while you were out there, his damage average increased a few times, and really suddenly.”

“He’s devoting all the Potentia he’s getting directly to his abilities.” Taylor stood and got ready to return to the fight. “It’ll peter off, there are so many of the same type that he’s gonna stop getting much Potentia soon.”

“Shoot! Andre, Taylor! There’s a calvary charge coming!” Zed’s words made Taylor speed off, and Andre closed his eyes. “People on horseback, holding lances!”

A wave of mana exploded out from Andre, forcing the growth of thorny vines all around his defensive copse. Andre began to pant as his mana slowly refilled, but his mind was focused on binding the vines with a singular purpose: anything that came into the area needed to be beat to death or torn open. Scuttlers started dying in droves around the area as the plant life pulled them apart or suffocated them. The Potentia they released was sucked up by the plants, making them stronger, hardier, and finally… more numerous.

As more appeared, Zed began to notice a strange message appearing over and over. He traced it to Andre, and blanched.

Damage taken - health regained - damage taken - health regained… 

A glance at Andre revealed that there were small vines that had latched onto this arms and legs. They were thorny, and Andre was clearly bleeding heavily. Zed swallowed as he watched the fighting, only now truly realizing exactly how invested his team was in growing more powerful.

“One sacrificed his mind. Two offers her life to protect others. Three is eaten by his creations to bring life and death. What is four… what am I willing to do for the power to change the world?”