"Uh…why did they both go?" I asked, glancing between Korbin by the window wall, and Cassi toward the back of the room.
"Apparently, this is a 'team' exercise. Odd they didn't mention it…" Korbin replied, rubbing his chin with one hand and rolling the hunk of stone he got from Lonni in the other as he peered back down into the endless labyrinth. Shuffling over and joining him, the once infinitely twisting pathways had all come to a standstill. Instead, a massive circular canyon sat at the center of the labyrinth. A projection popped up beside my face, the glaring light irritating my eyes as I recoiled a few steps with my hand up.
"I suppose we should be glad to have allocated substitutes for one another. That also means we have no one to fill in for one of them now." Cassi pointed out, both verbally and literally with her hand to the projection on the window wall.
"I don't see a reason to pick anyone just yet. We're not even sure what the nature of this objective truly is." Korbin replied, taking a step back to watch the projection tracing Derrick on one half, fighting off a pair of flying one eyed demons between their pillar and the big red portal connected to a massive tower. The same portal in which these creatures poured out of. On the other half of the projection, Lonni was struggling to catch up to Derrick. Both because of his overall lack of any speed, and being forced to deal with the red winged demons Derrick let fly by. The same ones pelting their pillar with fireballs spat out from their fanged little mouths.
"Anyone else noticing some negative trends here?" Korbin asked, watching the projection with crossed arms.
"Derrick's getting way too ahead of himself. His mobility skills make up for his lack of overall agility, yet his willingness to spend all of his mana to increase his toughness in general is reckless. Now, he's left Lonni in the dust trying to get an early lead in their objective." Cassi immediately rattled off, staring intently up at the projection. I chuckled, feeling she was being far too kind in her assessment of Derrick's uncharacteristically reckless pace.
"Well, you took the words out of my mouth. What about Lonni?" Korbin replied.
"For how low his overall agility is, I'd say he's moving at a good pace. I'm impressed by how good he's gotten with using that flail at range." Cassi replied, a subtle half grin forming at the corner of her cheek.
"Either way, they're not going to get far if they don't regroup and make an actual plan. There's no way these pillars are easy to destroy, but I also doubt fellow competitors can't destroy each others." I added, watching at the corners of the screen as other fighters clashed at the surrounding pillars. It took a moment for me to feel the 4 eyes burning a hole in my face before realizing Korbin and Cassi were staring at me in genuine disbelief.
"That's…a really good point." Cassi said, after a pause.
"It's just what I'd do. Overextending like that only leads to you and your allies suffering from being spread too thin." I replied, shrugging my shoulders.
"Fair enough." Korbin said, with a chuckle.
"If they get their heads on straight, they should have more than a chance. They're strength equates to insane damage output at both close and medium range." Cassi said, furrowing her brow.
"True. Well, let me know how that goes. I'm off to meditate some more." I replied, waving my hand over my head and heading to the back of the room. Cassi scoffed, while Korbin didn't make a sound as I strolled away. While settling into my little corner where I felt the biggest clumping of passive mana in the air and closing my eyes, Cassi's stern voice echoed off the cold metallic walls.
"By the way, you still haven't gotten back to me about our deal." She said, though I was too far into my slow sways to risk opening my eyes and falling out of Flow Meditation.
"I make a lot of those Cassi, you have to rem-"
"The spiders. You promised me their entire wretched bloodline was mine to eradicate for erasing mine." Cassi cut off, elevating her voice.
"I told you, as soon as we're able to rationally pull yours away from the front lines, I'll personally see to it you have your revenge." Korbin replied in a far softer tone.
"You say that, yet I've heard no plans or preparations being made in Elysium for any operation of the sort. All the while we've plotted countless backup rendezvous points for traders, according to my reports." Cassi shot back. The sound of paper flapping through the air nearly jolted me from my meditation, yet I'd already extended my mana strings around some water mana passing by.
"Exactly why would I announce a plan to essentially target and eradicate an entire family of spiders to anyone in the ranks with access to our ops? How easy would it be to 'lose' that information, only for the public to find? I'm perfectly fine with upholding our deal, but I will not stir a rebellion against myself and risk countless innocent lives for you." Korbin replied, his voice far less affable and kind. There was a pause, one so long I almost opened my eyes out of fear they'd gotten into a fight. Or worse, somebody won a fight.
"Fine. But, that doesn't mean I don't expect to see this through. We both know what I'm asking only gets harder by the d-"
"The way I see it, we have plenty of time to discuss it right now. Or would you rather we continue arguing about how angry you are that it hasn't happened between nurturing an entire blossoming society and waging intercontinental conquests yet?" Korbin replied in a sarcastic tone. After another short pause, they both started talking about dividing up troops and what classes of soldiers they'll need to both find and wipe out every single spider related to the ones that killed Cassi's family. Something that might not have even happened in the first place if I got there a little sooner.
Doesn't matter now, all that matters is they pay attention enough to Derrick and Lonni, while I figure out how to make a bigger water droplet than this.
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What the hell are these things?
My mind swirled studying the strange nature of these…creatures emerging from the crimson portal. A beam of red energy hummed overhead, connecting our pillar's red symbol that hovered atop its winding, etched stone structure to the portal. Nearly a dozen one eyed little winged demons with red skin and sharp horns poking from every corner of their body flew out first, spitting balls of flame at me and the pillar. Luckily, they were willing to fly past me relatively close, making them easy to identify.
[Frenzied Adolescent Cherub (Level 9)]
Dozens of little devils flew about as fast as any other bird, with endless audacity as they made their passes no further than a foot overhead. A few well placed Void Spheres easily knocked a few of these monsters out of the sky, though I was only able to kill one via removing a softball sized section of their horned skull from existence. Their sporadic behavior translated to their battle temperament, firing sporadic barrages and cutting jagged and jerky flight patterns making it difficult for me to land my attacks.
Doesn't matter, it's what's necessary.
The tip of my boot planted onto the edge of our pillars winding etched designs, kicking off and leaping up into the path of a group of Cherubs. My body rose a full full before my upward momentum began to slow, indicating I wouldn't make it up high enough to intercept the winged demons. Clenching my hands tightly around my halberd, a sharp needling pain shot through my gut as I strained activating my Void Step mid-air. The world's color immediately dissolved, replaced with the violet glow of void mana highlighting the spaces between all objects and living things in my vicinity.
My newly weightless state quickly diminished as color abruptly returned to the world, finding myself listing through the air. Violet void mana illuminated the runes that covered the length of my polearm, swinging my halberds glowing blades edge with all my might towards a group of Cherub. Their flying bodies shot towards me in a blink of an eye, leaving me little reaction time to pick one. Instead, I slashed across my body burying my halberd deep into one of the Cherub's soft ribcage.
*ding*
A surge of pride at successfully swatting one of these monstrous little demons from the sky shot through my chest, one comparable to that I'd felt having discovered my love for Lithomancy at the beginning of the tutorial with my first group. The cherub at the end of my halberd body began barreling toward the ground, adding enough wait to lurch my body down and effectively ruining the moment.
Not willing to suffer unnecessary damage until I was sufficiently spent on mana, another painful Void Step repositioned my falling figure back beside the pillar. Wrapping my hands and legs around the thick stone pillar, my metal armor screeched a terrible high pitch causing my vision to turn as I slid down the side. Finally feeling my feet clap onto the dry, tan dirt underfoot, I pushed the ringing in my ears far into the back of my mind having spotted a squad of far larger monsters emerge from the scarlet portal.
Webs of golden light etched their flaking pale skin, their towering figure shining under the red ambient light emitting from overhead connecting our pillar to the much larger tower at the center of the canyon. Their countless small, piranha like teeth gnawed at the air, their severe lack of lips putting them on full display. Frustration boiled watching as the dark eyed beasts filed out of the portal, sprinting ahead hoping to keep them from reaching our pillar. Curiosity pinged Identifying the closest muscular monster before entering melee with the group.
[Frenzied Belpheili (Level 8)]
Giving the Belpheili's full figure a final inspection, their feet and hands bore insanely long curving claws extending from their digits. An extra joint between their knee and ankles curved their foot forward, with an especially long claw on the back of their heels. Clearly, these monsters were brutes by design, their willingness to reciprocate my haste sprinting into battle confirming my suspicion. One of the Belpheili slapped a Cherub hovering in its path before the little flying monster could spit a ball of fire my way, shattering the winged demons' emaciated facial structure on impact.
Channeling mana into my halberd, a primal battle cry blurted from my chest being sure to make my intentions crystal clear to the Belpheili leading their charge. The towering demon boomed its own guttural roar, leaping at me with its claws extending toward my face. Just as I began swinging my halberd around, all color was instantly replaced with a violet light show in a blink void stepping past the first Belpheili. My physical figure was never visible within the milliseconds of existing in this strange Void world, but I could feel my arms swinging my halberd over my shoulder all the same.
The full spectrum of color washed over my vision, plunging my halberd into the second charging Belpheili's thick, pale neck. Motion at the edge of my vision was all I needed to summon a void sphere from my open palm in that direction. A large pale claw disappeared in a blip of violet light, the momentum bouncing the Belpheili's severed fingers off the side of my metal helm. Its screech was drowned out by the squelch of my Halberd ripping free from the first Belpheili's throat. Void Step painfully moved me out from the center of these hulking demons as a pair clashed heads leaping where I once stood. Another pair ran right past the melee, beelining towards our pillar.
Recognizing the severity of pain after using my last Void Step, I gritted my teeth activating the skill once more to get past the group of Frenzied Belpheili actively trying to kill me. A heavy pressure smashed into my backplate as I reanimated behind the group, pushing me forward with a loud metallic clank. Ignoring I've clearly been hit, my head leaned forward entering a dead sprint toward the Belpheili heading towards our pillar. Lonni's wide figure emerged from around the other side of the stone pillar 20 feet ahead, his face and hands completely covered in horrific burns.
The spiked metal ball at the end of his flail launched forward, indenting one of the Belpheilis' heads in a spray of dark red mist. The edge of my halberd pierced into the second towering demon's exposed spine as the other collapsed to the dirt. My body flipped around hearing multiple sets of heavy successive thudding behind me, barely extending my polearm between a swiping claw and my torso. The strength of the demon's strike crumbled my arms, its claws digging into my armor as I flew onto my back. Rolling backwards with the fall, I popped onto my feet only to be tackled by the same demon again.
The demon's claws grasped onto my forearms, pinning me with insane strength. Its gnawing teeth began lunging for my face as Lonni's huge shield bashed into the Belpheili. Scrambling to my feet, my eyes locked onto the group of Cherubs and Belpheili laying into the pillar with fireballs and powerful claw strikes. The pommel of my halberd smashed through the eye of another charging Belpheili as I changed course back toward the pillar. Its thick forearm bashed into the back of my head as I passed by, worsening the constant ringing in my ears. A wave of exhaustion rushed through my body, compelling me to stop and deal with the demons still on my ass and call it a day.
No, don't fucking quit.
Willing a surge of energy, a growl escaped from my throat plunging my halberd into a Belpheili's arm as they attempted to block. Lifting my pommel side up, the wounded demon's second claw clasped around my polearm attempting to slash my chest. The demon's chest compressed under my boot blasting a front kick into where a sternum ought to be on this thing. A curved sharp pain sunk into my shoulder as another Belpheili clamped down its jaws from behind, my body spinning around and slamming its insanely heavy body into the stone pillar.
After smashing the demon on my back into the pillar twice, its jaws relaxed enough to rip my shoulder free. My foot stomped onto its skull as a fireball exploded across the dirt beside me, a wave of heat wafting across my face. Blinking away my watery eyes, I stepped into another attacking Belpheili's chest blasting my pommel across its snapping jaw. Its head snapped to the side, leaning into my follow up slash to its ribcage. My muscles strained twisting my halberd around, pulling the Belpheili's body in between myself and an incoming fireball. The impact sent a shockwave through its body, allowing me to free my Halberd from the demon's side.
In one motion, my halberd spun around into an upward slash that shattered the flanking Belpheili's jaw. Looking up, my eyes shot wide open before ducking under a Cherub jetting through the air at my head. Its body practically sundered in two by the last Belpheili by the pillar lefts' massive claw. My legs wobbled under me, indicating I was running low on my stamina now as well.
Come on Derrick, we just fucking started!
My eyes narrowed watching the charging Belpheili approach. Its claws extended out as it leapt forward, my legs shuffling to the side to avoid its reckless attack readying a heavy slash of my own. One of its massive clawed hands pierced into the dirt underfoot, pushing off and redirecting itself towards me. It's oddly shaped leg extended up at my chest. Knowing full and well my increasingly heavier halberd wasn't going to whip up in time to block, my teeth chomped through a chunk of my inner cheek forcing Void Step to activate once again. A completely new level of stabbing pain shot through the pit of my stomach as the world dissolved into violet light.
An immense weakness followed my return to the regular world, wobbly landing like a baby deer directly behind the Belpheili. Letting out a deep, guttural roar, my Halberd pierced into the demon's skull as its claws smashed into the side of my helm. My hands locked onto my polearm as we both spun to the ground, my vision spinning as I collapsed. Pulling a health potion from my storage space, the world settled around me as the tart liquid poured down my gullet. Looming over, the Belpheili that nearly knocked me out lay motionless in a pool of dark crimson blood around its disgusting pale head.
"D-..Derrick.." Lonni's booming mumble carried on the gentle wind, pulling my attention toward the back of the pillar. Serval dead Belpheili and Cherubs covered the tan dirt ground surrounding Lonni. One final Belpheili swiped wildly at his shield, while a group of live Cherubs pelted him with fireballs from behind.
Ah FUCK!
My legs rebelled against my will to sprint, barely mustering a frustratingly shaky jog headed to assist Lonni. His flail blasted into one of the Cherubs shooting him with fireballs behind, ripping through its chest like firing a cannon into a blood-filled waterbed. The Belpheili switched from ravenously slashing at Lonni's shield to pulling hard, nearly yanking it from Lonni's arm.
Come on, fucking RUN!
Screaming at myself internally, another fireball exploded against Lonni's chest plate as the Belpheili pulled away his shield. Lonni stumbled back towards me, sparking hope I'd be able to reach him. Pulling from whatever reserve of energy left, I lunged at the demon with my Halberd at the ready. My eyes slammed shut as I swung through the pain, activating the runes in my Halberd with what little mana I have left. In a violet flash, the final Belpheili's skull concaved around my halberd's axe blade.
My legs crumbled, forcing me to release my polearm and fall to my hands and knees. Lonni's towering frame remained standing still at the edge of my vision, rather than turning heel and finishing off the Cherubs that'd been harassing him. As my head flipped around however, both the Belpheili's bloodied body and Lonni fell to the floor.
"Lonni?" I said, struggling back to my feet. My heart sank as I stood up, seeing over the demon's body. Its claw was pierced directly through Lonni's face, leaving only his bloodied mouth and forehead visible.
"Hey! They only have one over here!" A man's grizzly voice announced from the green glowing pillar next us roughly 300 feet away. I didn't bother learning the source, staring down at Lonni's motionless body.
…how? How did I fail?
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