FMH ~ 45!

“I heard you clearly when you stated that there was a huge amount of enemies waiting in there,” Zed weakly smiled as they huddled all together in the cramped tent that he had managed to set up before the rain began falling, “but what does that mean for us? Do we flee and bring back an army? Two armies?”

“There is simply not enough information.” Taylor replied after a moment of thinking. “We don’t know where they are coming from, we don’t know where they are going. We need to, at the minimum, keep an eye on them.”

“We can take them! Look at how powerful we are as a group!” Andre waved at the vast forest of thorny death that was even now creeping toward the center of the pass. “I think that together, we can do anything we set our minds to!”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing if I can get some Potentia from them.” Luke shrugged and went back to watching the rain fall, fascinated by the sight. He hadn’t seen anything like this for decades, and it brought forth a strange nostalgia. “The waterfall! That was kind of like this!”

By now, no one flinched at his random outbursts. Zed reached out and patted Luke on the arm. “Yes, waterfalls and rain are very similar. The big difference is how concentrated the water is in any given area.”

“Stop being condescending, Zed.” Taylor turned her head and took in the whole group. “Look, I don’t think that you are all taking me seriously when I tell you that there are tens of thousands of monsters in there right now. Luke, you can be swarmed to death just like anyone else. Andre, you can’t kill the leader, he’s got to be sapient.”

“And Zed shouldn’t be forced into the fighting.” Andre blinked in shock and looked around.

“What the…? I didn't say that! Wait, is that really what I sound like?” Andre looked suspiciously at Zed. “Did you just mimic my voice?” 

“May~be.” Zed winked at the huge Druid. “It wasn’t an incorrect statement though; my fighting skills are basically nil. I can charm people for a while, then lull them into false security, but then I need to rely on killing them while they don’t see me as a threat.”

“You should focus more on stealth, if that’s what is keeping you alive.” Taylor ordered him sternly. Zed waved her off with a non-committal grumble. “I have serious doubts about our ability to fight this horde, and yet I can’t imagine that the Kingdom has no idea of what is waiting in here. I think they have some data, and think it is a minimal risk, but not that it is this bad.”

“What do we do?” Andre sat upright and gazed at the person who had become the unofficially official leader of the team.

“First, we set up defenses and a fallback point. You’ve already started by getting the thorns going, but we need a secure area as well that can keep us safe if we need to hunker down. As fast as we are, monsters tend to be more powerful overall if they match your level. Remember, they’ve spent their entire lives in high mana concentrations, we only visit.” Taylor took that moment to stand and walk to the edge of the tent, right where the tent met stone. “I can make the last-resort fallback point, but I’ll need to concentrate on this really hard. If anything happens, you all need to handle it, or I might accidentally drop the mountain on us. Just so you know, this will likely alert them that we are here. I think it is necessary though.”

“Sure, but what are you-” Zed was cut off as Taylor whispered a word.

“Fissure.”

Purple mana tinged with black streaks erupted from her hands, flowing into the stone and causing the ground to grumble. It was soft at first, but over time became loud and insistent. Zed was knocked to the ground as a line of broken stone opened in the mountain wall and a stone room slowly formed.

Very slowly formed. The shaking continued, and the noise was maintained, but after ten minutes the process was very boring to watch. So, Zed and Andre’s head instantly snapped around to look when Luke spoke up. “There. That stone I was looking at earlier. I was right.”

“Yes, Luke?” Andre prodded when Luke went quiet.

“It moved.”

Zed blew an exasperated blast out of his nose. “Lots of rocks moving in the area, Luke.”

Even so, all three of the men watched the boulder with varying levels of intensity. So, when tiny legs popped out of the sides, all of them saw at the same time. There was no delay between the legs appearing and Luke getting on his feet and rushing at it. “I knew it!”

The fist of the Murderhobo met the side of the rock with a ringing *boom*, and a pile of stone fragments and dust exploded out from the point of impact. There was a *clack*, and Luke came flying out of the cloud. A hasty vine whipped from Andre and slowed Luke enough that he was able to get his balance, though the plant was pulped by the force. 

What had been a ‘boulder’ was now fully revealed as some kind of humanoid hermit crab monster. If a centaur was a cross between human and horse, this was a cross of crab and man. Instead of human hands, there were oversized pincers. Little legs allowed it to scuttle around at surprising speed, and it had eye stalks coming from the top of its otherwise human head.

Zed felt his hair whip around as Luke zipped past him, and a second shower of stone - and this time ichor - blasted from the impact point. “Where is your weak point, crab man?”

An arrow followed closely behind the hobo, bending around him to slam into the monster and detonate into spores that defied natural distribution; instead coating the creature and bonding there as if they had been applied with glue. 

Interaction between a Binding ability and a concentrated mana source has created a temporary overlap.

Damage: 222 (Blunt damage). 

“You can do it! Take that bad beasty down!” Zed called encouragement as he tucked and rolled from the high-speed stone that was flying everywhere. His next words were tinged with surprise. “Also, not sure if this is normal, but I can see the damage that you’re doing!”

“I can’t see what he’s doing? Or are you talking to me?” Andre’s voice was calm as he focused on controlling the root system of the ferns that were sprouting all over the creature. There was a sharp *crack* as they managed to tear off a section of stone armor.

Damage: 36 (armor break). 

“Oh, I can see yours too!” Zed was ecstatic, “You can’t see each other’s notifications? Yes! I can be our group tactician! I’m useful! Luke, that section that just fell removed all the armor from that spot, hit there!”

Luke was in the air in an instant, pouncing like a starving tiger. His left hand came down on the small open section, and a ghostly sword sank a full meter into the fleshy area that had been exposed. Spine severed, the beast stiffened, then went limp.

Damage: 149 (Piercing damage). Coup-de-grace! Overkill! Exp gained: 14 (42 split by three party members. T1 Stone Scuttler destroyed.)

Recently gained Potentia has been absorbed to induce the formation of a Mastery based on previous interaction!

“Celestial Saints and golden lyres! I got a Mastery! Oh, I think that it was nearly dead already, but that attack was extra effective, Luke.” Zed was cheerfully looking over the notifications. “How many times did you hit it?”

“Three.” Luke rumbled at him, examining his own status. “I got Potentia for that. But we are on the base world… nothing here has given me Potentia. How did?”

“Well, to be fair all you have killed so far are some random soldiers and a tree, so it should be hard to make a judgement call on Potentia. Also, please use full sentences.” Zed looked at the mess that was coating Luke and frowned. “Didn’t you say you had armor? Where did it go, why aren’t you wearing any?”

“I am.” 

“Right, but see, you aren’t. You have a bloody canvas shirt and pants.” Zed lightly shrugged and held his hands in front of himself. “There’s a really easy way to see if someone is wearing armor, and you are clearly not. Visual sensory organs are usually pretty accurate about this.”

“Throw a handful of sand at me.” Luke ordered after a small snort of annoyance left his nose.

“No.”

“Zed. C’mon.” Luke motioned at himself, so Zed grabbed some sand and stone shards and tossed them at the Murderhobo.

“Happy, you-” Zed’s words stopped as Luke lit up in a mismatched blue armor, which faded away in less than a second. “It appears you have armor. However, I was not wrong, you aren’t wearing any.”

“A speechless Bard is something I’d pay to see normally.” Taylor walked over from her pet project and looked at the twisted remains of the Scuttler. “Fallback point is set, it has water, air supply, and is designed to hold off anything up to tier five for at least an hour. We can rest there tonight, tomorrow we need to make our final call on what we are going to do about this situation. Zed, can you share any information on your Mastery?”

“Taylor, I can see everyone’s notifications in combat! I lost all the Potentia I somehow gained, but it turned into a permanent feature!” Zed proudly announced. “It’s… oh. Oh, my goodness. It’s tier four! Multitarget! I can talk to all members in my party at up to five kilometers away, see their health and mana values, and the damage they take and deal! Damage types, as well!”

She looked at him and nodded. “Good to know. Group-style support powers are a rare thing, according to the records of the Hollow Kingdom. You just became useful. If I don't need to handle coordination, I’m freed up to be more active in combat. How far away can you be?”

“No idea! I can talk up to five kilometers, but can I hear you? Ambiguous!”

“Just to be clear, you figured out a way to handle long-range communication?”

Zed’s voice seemed to speak directly into her ear. “Oh, yes. I can cast my voice, and I’ll work on improving this Mastery even higher when I can.”

“Well… congratulations. You now have a combat role, and now I can’t justify leaving you in a safe location when we go off to fight, like we had all planned to do.” Taylor walked into the stone safe room, followed by Luke and Andre.

Zed simply stood outside, his face frozen in shock, and a single finger pointed in the air as if he had wanted to point something out… but couldn’t.