The boss monster ground its mandibles together. Tension filled the room and Tom groaned as his assessment of the creature came back. It was rank twelve and immune to magic as well. The immunity made it far more deadly than its attributes would otherwise have suggested.
Its wings flapped but did not shift its body. Then it tilted its head as a signal, and every single wasp that remained activated at the same time.
Tom was tempted to give way to despair, but they had dumped fate. If they stayed in control of themselves and fought smartly, they should be able to defeat this monster. “Everlyn?” Because of her scouting skills, she was their tactician. If there was a path to victory, she would find it.
Everlyn hesitated worry on her features.
“Tom, kill the drones,” she stalked towards the humanoid wasp with the small axe she liked to use in her hands. Keikain was back on his feet and stepping forward with her. His mage staff with the capped end being spun in his hand. Of course, he had been number two with twenty years in the personal trial. To have survived that long you needed both magic and physical skills. Sonya looked more worried, but she held a similar spear to his own but much smaller along with a buckler shield.
The humanoid wasp made clicking noises and the mechanical versions turned en masse and charged toward the four of them.
Tom leapt forward into action. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the same a blue ripple effect wash over Everlyn and the axe she was wielding was suddenly far larger.
Then the wasps were too close for him to do anything other than focus on them. He remembered how the elemental had gone through these and Everlyn’s claim that the cores were vulnerable to electricity.
That was how he could destroy them.
Zap.
The closest wasp spluttered and fell. No explosion, and it was only stunned. Then Tom relying purely on muscle memory spun the spear around and slammed it home on the core of the falling creature. There was a satisfying crack and discharge of energy.
First down, the main swarm was next. Thoughts raced, more power… if he triggered the explosions that would cause collateral damage, and then Spark could stun any of the ones that threatened him directly after.
Tom stopped and braced, waiting to meet them.
The cloud of monsters split.
What?
That was not what he had predicted. Even as he stood there in surprise, he followed the trajectories of the min-swarms. Half kept coming for him and Sonya, but the others shifted to intercept Evie and Keikain.
Tom couldn’t have that.
He moved. His body was slow, and it felt like he was dragging twenty kilogram weights. But he needed to get close enough, so he forced as much speed into his legs as his body could manage. His head turned to face the boss who was almost thirty metres away, fighting Everlyn wielding a now massive axe, which glowed with a blue edge.
She had been cagey about her abilities, but it was clear that she had spent those unexplained contribution points on some form of enhancement magic. Tom hoped it sufficed to close their rank disparity. All he could do was to control his own actions, and that was to stop the mini swarm from interfering.
Another heavy step and then he was in range of the outskirts of the mass of enemies.
Not enough. He calculated angles even as he lifted a foot and shoved it forward.
Now marks the spot. If he waited any longer with their speed, they would get further away.
Zap.
Zap.
He targeted eight separate wasps in the opposing cloud. They were right at the limits of his range.
Boom!
The explosion blew him back almost two metres in the air, and then he slid along the marble. He pressed down to slow his momentum and barely stopped himself before sliding over the edge.
Secondary explosions shook the swarm he had targeted and fragments of sharp metal rained down on him.
“Shit.” He was going to need to walk on that.
When the blasts ceased, he forced himself to carry out a risk assessment. The floor was a writeoff. While he could and would have to avoid the bigger pieces, there was no avoiding the spread of smaller finer particles. Marble, metal, then his still soft rank six feet Tom’s mind assessed that interaction. He knew exactly what that outcome was going to be. It was not like he could refuse to fight, so he moved his attention further afield.
Of the twenty robots that had deviated to help the boss monster, only six had survived, and they all spun wobblingly to face him. One of their cores was even sparking.
A wince crossed Tom’s face. His mana was gone and a single glance told him he was about to have company in the form of a wave of robots. He started backing away, getting ready to use his own spear. He now lacked the mana to destroy them easily. With a bit of mana regeneration, it was possible that he could stun some of them through the coming melee. Battle instincts guided him and spun his spear. Relaxing himself to be as one with it.
The main pack dived forward.
Crack
They were swarming from every angle.
Zap.
A wasp that had been targeting his chest seized up and crashed into another. Two more landed blows against his leg. His reinforced skin partially protected him, but medium-sized cuts were opened up. They did not inject poison, instead they possessed a mini chainsaw in place of the stinger. He knocked them away with his shaft even as his elastic skin slowed the bleeding.
A different one aimed for his head.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He ducked.
Lashed out with a spear. A core cracked, and the victim sparked dangerously.
A rolling forward dive removed him from the crush of wasps. Not that it bought much time, as they all immediately reorientated onto him.
Zap.
The wasp he had targeted dropped like stone, bouncing into a second then third. The fourth, the only other one within easy range was skewered. It was only two confirmed kills, but it was a roadmap. He dispatched two of the three at his feet, then he was moving again. He ran from the wasps as they swooped down and tried to stab him with their plunging chainsaw stingers.
He spun. The end of his spear thumped into one targeting his neck and sent it spinning away.
Zap.
The stinger still opened up against his shoulder.
Too many.
Another roll to create space. It barely worked, but life was a game of centimetres, at least in this type of fight. More superficial gashes were opened up. Without touch healing dealing with the nicked artery he would have been in trouble and of course his elastic skin, which acted to reduce the number and severity of the cuts.
Anything that threatened his neck got stunned. The rest he battered and dodged until they exposed their core and then he would stab out with his tier three spear to crack their energy source and guarantee their removal from the battle. They kept landing blows. His mana got used the moment it regenerated, and because of the mounting number of cuts he dedicated the regain to healing.
He tumbled, ending up flat on his back. Three wasps plunged towards him. His spear spun to intercept the two of them. There was nothing he could do to the third targeting his leg.
The two blocked bounced away, righted themselves with their wings buzzing furiously and came again. The pain in his leg never materialised.
He wondered which to target and then a spear slammed into the one of his right. Sonya was behind him, her face a mask of concentration.
The last wasps plunged toward him and with only a single enemy left he knocked it aside with a slight tap of his weapon while leaping to his feet and then panted his spear tip into its core.
There was a sharp crack and then silence in their immediate area.
Bodies littered the surrounding ground. Three quarters of them were dead with minimal damage, which was the ones he had killed with the rest, looking like they had been smashed by a mace instead of the spear that Sonya wielded. At times, she had clearly resorted to clubbing rather than focused thrusts.
Desperately he sucked in air and wiped sweat off his face and looked towards the others.
The humanoid wasp was alive, but obviously injured. There was a massive gash down its side and one of its middle arms hung limp
Attack or wait for mana to heal?
His feet stung from the pieces of metal that were embedding there. It would take a lot of mana to remove them, and he probably lacked the time.
The monster kicked out straight through Keikain’s defences and sent him sprawling on the floor with his staff clattering from him. Sliding on the marble floor almost five metres away from him.
That single moment decided his strategy. If he delayed, people were going to die.
He started running. Every step made his feet sting as existing or new pieces of metal dug in deeper. There were metal splinters on top of splinters, however, Tom powered through it.
Everlyn who had been flanking could not help. In concern, he noticed that the strange blue effect had gone. That meant they had to finish this quickly. The humanoid wasp leapt into the air its wings barely holding its weight, and flew toward Keikain who was scrambling backwards on his bum, trying to avoid the monster and or to get his weapon.
For once angles benefited him.
Tom leapt forward, thrusting with his spear with all of his might. The creature was so focused on finishing its enemy that it did not see him and the spear slammed into its torso unimpeded and driven by both its and Toms momentum along with an existing rent in its carapace plunged almost all the way through its chest.
It’s attempted killing blow on Keikain was knocked away and as it fell backwards, the spear was ripped out of his hands, but not before he felt it tearing the insides of the wasp.
He went sprawling and got to his feet ready to fight hand to hand, but Everlyn fell onto the back of the defenceless wasp. Her axe sheared off the already tattered wings on one side and Tom saw a chance to end it. With a curse, at himself he leapt on top of the monster and pinned it with his body weight. The lower legs were trapped, along with the one functioning middle arm, but its upper two arms and mouth were free. His left hand pushed up on its nose to stop its mandibles from being used against him, while his other hand grabbed the nearest arm. It was an appendage that was half blade and immediately cut deeply into his palm. Tom actively removed blood supply to the area and hoped that the hand would keep operating long enough to end this. He had leverage on the arm and he twisted it away, straining the shoulder joint to the point it was no longer resisting him. The awkward angles letting him overcome the strength rank disparity between them.
The second freed limb came for him, and there was nothing Tom could do to stop it. It targeted the middle of his chest and Tom desperately lurched to the side. The blade slid through his shoulder, entering from the front, bouncing off his shoulder blade and out.
He bit his lips.
It was a flesh wound, as there were no organs shredded.
“I hate this.” He screamed as he shifted his weight the other way. His body sliding deeper onto the blade but pinned against the ground the wasp couldn’t pull its arm free.
Tom smiled grimly.
“AHHH.” He roared as it bucked and its legs waved, trying to break his grip. Everything was focused on not letting it go. Its legs were so sharp that if he let it free, then it could destroy him and he just needed to keep it out of action long enough for Everlyn or one of the others to finish it.
Tom shut his eyes. Clenching his mouth to bite off his agonised sobbing, he focused on keeping the tension he needed. Leaning to the side to stop the arm in him from escaping. He push out with both of his arms to maximise leverage and stop the restrained limb or mouth from entering the fight. Using his abdominal muscles so that his weight moved to stop the lower half of the boss from twisting and throwing him off.
Vibrations regularly pulsed through it, which he hoped was from Everlyn cutting it to pieces. His hand became sticky. The blade in him kept moving, and he was worried that his right arm that was holding the mandibles away would get a key nerve severed and stop working. The arm inside him twisted widening the wound. If it wasn’t for his unique healing abilities, he would have bled out by now. Luckily for him and, unfortunately for the boss, he could immediately heal any major artery or vein that got severed.
For another person it might have been fatal, but Healing Tranquility let him turn off blood to that area. The mouth snapped at him but could not reach.
Abruptly, the fight dropped out of it.
“God,” Tom groaned, letting go of the arm that had shredded his hand. Touch healing closed that wound even as he assessed the rest of him.
Unsurprisingly, his mana was at zero.
“Is anyone?” He stopped talking due to what it did to the leg still inside him. Even those slight movements were opening up his wounds.
Everlyn was next to him. “Shh?” She rested her head against him and her features went blank.
He understood the invitation and instantly he was standing in her system room. The pain was gone. “Is anyone else hurt?” Tom asked immediately.
“You’re the worse.”
Tom nodded. “I’m currently skewered.”
“I saw. What do you want to do?”
“Let my mana recover to thirty so I have enough healing, and then we can pull it out.”
“I’ll tell the others.”
He was back in the real world. Everlyn was shouting instructions while supporting him.
“Keikain get here now!”
“What’s happening?” the other man asked, coming up behind him.
“The monster’s put its arm through Tom’s shoulder.”
“Shit.”
“It’s not that bad,” Everlyn assured him. “He just needs to recover some mana, then we’ll pull him out.”
“How long?”
“I didn’t ask. But probably a minute or two.”
“You okay there Tom.”
“Yes,” he groaned. “Sonya?”
“She’ll need healing too.” Everlyn told him. “But she’ll survive. We’ll get you stabilised first.”
“That was damn intense.” Keikain said finally. “I wonder if we got any records?”
“Can’t tell till you leave.” Sonya told them. “But given how long Legen took, then no.”
“I’m hopeful,” Keikain told muttered
Tom wanted to participate, but talking hurt too much. From his calculations, they had taken five to six minutes, which wouldn’t be quick enough.
“I think we were slow,” Sonya said finally. “For some reason, the fights seemed harder than the other groups suggested.”
“I agree. On both points. If the elemental had lasted a few seconds longer.” Keikain said sadly. “Then we probably would have got it.”
“My mana’s ticked up enough,” Tom declared, wincing at the pain.
Everlyn’s hand went to his forehead, and he knew exactly what she wanted and he shifted into her system room.
“Plan?”
“You hold the wasp and the other two pull me off.”
She smiled and then he found himself back in his body.