“Spread out.” Michael yelled.
Tom was already running to a position to flank the lizard as Legen charged forward. The tank was yelling as he did while waving the shield above his head to attract the creature’s attention. Legen, apparently happy with his positioning, had stopped charging forward and instead stood with legs spread and shield held high. Energy flowed over his limbs and into the ground.
Tom slowed down to a walk as his brain tried to map out how the coming clash might play out. Did he want to be ahead of Legen, level with the tank or ten metres behind? The lizard was galloping towards them. When it collided with the tank, what would happen?
It had not escaped Tom that Legan was using a momentum cancelling type of ability and while he had read about them during the trial he had never possessed one of them of his own and he wasn’t sure how they worked. Would it crash into Legen and push him back slightly, flip over him or be stopped dead?
Tom wished he had taken the time to discuss this with Legen, but he had been too busy. He checked the other fighters, and nothing he saw inspired him with confidence. They clearly didn’t know either. Some were behind, some level and looking like they weren’t going to move, and others who clearly wanted to rush forward but held their ground to avoid getting the lizard’s attention.
The lizard responded to the tank’s taunts. Its galloping stride hitched slightly as it redirected its focus onto the tank. Each step unleashed a noise that was almost loud enough to be physical. The stone did not shake, but it was close. It closed the distance, loping slowly, but its size meant it ate up the gap. As it approached, its mouth opened wide and angled sideways to allow it to swallow the tank. It would be a tight fit, but doable, and the neck was long and flexible, making that mouth the most dangerous part of the monster.
Legen was unconcerned and radiated control. The momentum ability continued to compound, the energy around the tank growing with every fraction of a second. Its density had increased to the point that it crossed into the visible spectrum. The energy draped him in a cyclone of lights and casually he lowered his shield and tucked himself up behind it. He had the large shield positioned in front of him like you would do when facing a charge of a monster smaller than you. His eyes peeked over its upper rim to let him watch.
Visually, the situation was ridiculous. Legen was too small to fight what was coming head on. Relatively speaking, he was a minor bug that would get splattered. Tom’s instincts screamed at him that despite the rapidly rotating magical energy Legen would be squished.
The lizard felt the same. It tilted its head a full ninety degrees so that its jaws would snap the man from either side and committed to a lunging strike.
It was what Legen had clearly been waiting for: A different ability triggered, and the tank swayed right. The lizard’s mouth followed and then faster than was physically possible the tank almost teleported a metre to the right. It effectively extracted him from the chomping jaws. Then all that rotating energy in the tank solidified. His feet seemed to sink into the ground and to Tom’s senses Legen looked as durable as a mountain.
The type of momentum cancelling spell the tank utilised became apparent at that moment. For a large fraction of a second, he was unmoveable.
The lizard’s galloped forward unable to stop. Legen was lined up so if the lizard did nothing his body would hit the inner half of the monster’s leg with Legens head basically being level with the lower part of its chest area. The lizard seemed to recognise the threat and moved to rend him with its claws rather than trample him. But its front talons hit the shield, and then they crumpled. The mass of the lizard kept going.
Legen was stoic. The leg and then shoulder, as directed by physics ran into the man.
Then…
Physics failed.
Through his feet, Tom could feel the boom of the collision. The very ground in the surrounding twenty metres rippled in response. Then the noise crashed over him. It was like a bomb exploding. The lizard charge was stopped dead as one shoulder was held from moving, the rest of the body kept going. There was the sound of squishing flesh, cracking bones, and it twisted, flipping around the point of impact.
Then rolled onto its back, landing in a space beyond where the tank had made him stand.
The effect on Legen was far less. During the collision he had been completely unmoved, but the moment it was over some of the violence transferred over. The tank stumbled backwards ironically toward where the lizard had landed. There were clear signs of weakness in his movement, but he kept his feet. While the magic had briefly made him immoveable and reinforced his body to ridiculous levels, it had not turned him immortal. He was both physically exhausted and probably injured. Two of his friends grabbed him and his team’s healer was sprinting toward him.
The lizard roared, and Tom refocused.
It struggled to its feet and failed. One of its front legs was broken.
It thundered again and forced itself upright this time without using the shattered leg.
Tom decided he had seen enough.
With a thought, the lesser elemental shot forward. The monster was swaying, and the elemental knew what to do. As the lizard spun and lunged for one of the approaching fighters, the elemental struck, driving electricity into the back leg while it was pivoting on it. The leg spasmed, and the lizard collapsed again with a crash and a puff of dust.
Ranged attacks were landing and melee users were dancing in to attack the side the lizard was not facing while whomever the monster focused on scrambled away.
The monster tried to lunge forward, but its mobility was severely hampered by its damaged legs and it only partially caught its target. Still, when it flicked its head, a man went flying with an entire leg and a half missing.
The lizard swallowed.
With the monster’s back turned to him, it was an opportunity Tom couldn’t afford to waste. He dashed forward his mind mapping the muscular structure of the back leg. A connection like a human’s hipbone, then two knees and an ankle. All the joints below the hip bone looked vulnerable.
If he could cripple an extra leg…
Instinctively, he shifted the makeup of his ability Lightning Spears and converted them to contain the maximum amount of penetrating kinetic energy. Shifting away from electrical damage to physical. Then he released fifteen fate points with a simple direction. Ensure this specific attack injures it while ensuring he could escape.
The fate was sucked out of his systems.
Preparations in place, all that remained was to make sure he landed the strike. Tom focused everything on the task. His brain tracked his foot work. Lightning Steps flared to increase his pace for the final stride. His hand position shifted to accommodate for the fact he was going for an airborne lunge.
He leapt.
Power strike was fully empowered so that his true spear glowed blue. The muscles across his back rippled and his body twisted and thrust forward. With a creature this large, there was no point attempting a lesser strike. Mana flooded into Lightning Spears thanks to the knowledge he had got and his skill level in it using it was almost instinctive in its use. As the energy filled the spell form, there was a crackle of energy and ten phantom spears appeared clustered around his own glowing blue one.
With muscles screaming in protest, Tom brought his spear down toward the joint of the giant leg he was targeting. The leg, even down at this first joint, was still the size of a telephone pole. The ludicrousness of his thin spear making a difference hit Tom briefly but then he rejected the thought.
He had seen stranger things.
If his physical spear was alone, he might have tried to angle the spear to get between bones or some other similar folly, but with Lightning Spears empowering the strike he aimed for the centre of the joint without finesse.
The tip struck hard, and he felt scales give way, then flesh, and then his spear slammed into bone. The bone he caught cracked and did not shatter. Tom could feel the moment because it was like his weapon had run into a solid wall. Then the magic attacks landed, and it didn’t just break the bone, but pulverised it. The entire joint exploded under the combined force of the attack. His training kicked in and he withdrew the spear at the same angle that it entered but there was no need. The entire space was mush.
With his blow having disabled a second leg, he focused on safely retreating. Sure enough, crippling a leg had gotten him the monster’s individual attention.
The tail swung.
Tom started to crouch, but his eyes did not leave the deadly weapon that was hurtling toward him. It was thirty metres from base to tip, which was longer that a bus and thick as well. It started at what Tom assumed was its most comfortable position a metre or so above the ground, then it began to dip. The monster, apparently, was cognisant of the risk of small animals ducking under the tail and intended to deny him that opportunity. With no hope of going under, he took the only other option available.
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He leapt upwards.
There was a bang as the tail smacked against the ground where he would have been if he had ducked and for a moment, he thought he had evaded the attack completely and then his feet were clipped by one of the pointed scales running down the tail. Before he could tumble out of control, he used his spear to stabilize himself. He landed and continued to focus on retreating and getting space between him and the monster. As he ran, his eyes flicked between where he was stepping and both ends of the enemy.
Briefly Lightning Steps flared, which let him leap almost four metres forward. The lizard had its head up, watching him and measuring his progress.
The tail rushed back, but his new class skill had done its job successfully, accelerating him out of the danger range.
Unless it had magic, he was safe. The lizard had obviously thought it could get him, so there was a real risk that it possessed a Skill or Spell to lengthen its tail. If his first impressions were accurate, it didn’t but honed instincts disliked assumptions. He pulled himself to a stop and rotated to face the incoming tail and positioned his spear between him and the tail in case the monster had a surprise.
If anything unexpected happened, the spear would allow him to mitigate some of the unexpected strike
The appendage whizzed past him the spiked barb on the tip missing him by a comfortable half a metre.
Nothing nasty emerged!
Tom sucked in some air and he focused on what he wanted to do next. The lizard had felt his attack and had turned to face him. Tom glimpsed the leg that he had struck hanging limply. With two legs no longer functioning on a side, it was slowing down.
Those two eyes watched him, and cautiously, Tom started backing away.
One life, he reminded himself. If it attacked, he needed to go left, as it could not follow him effectively on its damaged legs in that direction.
A fire ball splashed the lizard’s eyes and forced it to blink. When it opened its eyes, the eyeball was unaffected by the energy in the spell, too low to do noticeable damage.
Tom was almost backwards and the bloody thing was only watching him, but his instincts were screaming at him to open up distance. Humans sprinted away on either side of Tom not wanting to be in the way when the giant monster attacked.
It pranced forward. Its first stride was so lopsided that it almost fell, but its second was more authoritative. In moments, half of the gap that Tom’s continual retreating had created was eaten up. Almost in lockstep with them, the entire community of fighters swarmed to attack its exposed back while it was fixated on Tom.
Sweat ran down Tom’s face.
Lightning dodge was an escape ability that theoretically would pluck him from mortal danger, but it was untested. Lightning Steps had already shown its utility during this fight. Without it being active, he would have missed the first strike and wouldn’t have escaped the tail so easily.
It was one thing to dash forward and land blows on a distracted enemy from its blind spot. It was quite different facing it straight on when something the size of this monster was fixated upon you.
If he was by himself, this was a monster he would have run from. Once it reached him, his best plan was to dodge into its weakened left side and stay close. While risking getting under this thing’s feet was stupid, it was not like he could run from it. He had three seconds, then it would be upon him.
The plans danced in Tom’s head and then the lizard abruptly spun to attack the fighters who were hacking at its back. There were screams of surprise, fear and pain as they broke and the monster defended themselves. When it spun, Tom saw why the monster had reacted and abandoned its chase of Tom. Someone had taken an axe to the joint he had softened and the entire limb had been sheared off.
Tom knew he could continue to run to safety or he could take advantage of this opportunity. He was the only one who could, as no one else was on this side of the monster.
Lightning feet let him charge forward. The ground crackled with each step and each stride ate up a couple of metres more than normal. He was more leaping from spot to spot than running. That fourth leg was damaged up near the hip joint equivalent, but Tom aimed for the more central rent in the skin on its back almost two metres off the ground.
He leapt the last five metres, twisted his body and then thrust forward, timing the point of maximum power for when the tip would hit the creature’s body.
Once more ten phantom spears thrust with him, and struck the cut in the skin. A wound that to the lizard was no worse than a minor graze, but physically was large enough to push a football through.
It was a gap in the scaly armour that he had to take advantage of.
His spear hit with an explosion of sparks. Then hit bone, which gave away and by the time his thrust had finished his spear was embedded over a half a metre into the monster. Blood poured out of the holes that the phantom spears had left, and Tom with one hand on the spear pulled back. It did not shift. It was like it had been welded to the monster. The tail flicked towards him, trying to knock him off, but he was already running, leaving the stuck spear behind.
Every step sending lightning into the lizard as he ran because stillness in this type of fight was death. This was suicidal. If there was ever a time for luck, it was when you were dashing along the back of a monster this large. Another twenty fate points vanished instantly.
His sprint took him right to the base of the head. An eye rotated to watch him and Tom slowed himself down, knowing that if he went airborne, that head could snatch him out of the air and chew him up almost as fast as he could blink. His feet dug into the ridge of the creature’s neck, pulling him to a halt.
The lack of a weapon didn’t matter when you had mana and he was close to the creature.
Tom focused on that extra knowledge that had accomplished the evolution of the skill. Rather than thinking of the created spears as an offshoot of his own weapon he used them in their more pure form. They were a spell, and he created them where he wanted them to manifest.
Eight of them.
He swung his arm for emphasis, even if it was unnecessary. His imagination was already guiding the spell to conjure them in the right spot with the right velocity. Eight of them, just above the creature’s eye and because it was magic, and the eye was in range of his ability, they manifested at full power centimetres in front of the orb. Any closer, the natural defence of a lizard body would have neutered the spell. Instead, there was a small gap but it was nothing relative to the speed of the conjured weapons.
Tom smiled when it took the monster a crucial micro second to realise the danger. The lid started to shut, but it was too slow to defend against the Lightning Spears.
Tom didn’t wait to see how effective the blow was going to be. He was already completing his hundred eighty degrees and running down the back of the lizard away from the lethal head. The ground underneath vanished as the lizard lurched to the side and he half leapt and half fell from the creature. He tumbled through the air, wishing he had Acrobatics and knowing instead he had to rely purely on his technical abilities. The ground smacked into him and he tried to roll. His low ranked body was not up for the task and with no Skills to help him his luck ran out. His shoulder blade landed on a rock and in a wrench of pain his controlled tumble became painful bounces.
His mana was almost at zero.
He wondered if he should use more fate, but before he triggered it, hands grabbed him.
Recovery crew, Tom realised as they lifted him to extract him from the battlefield. He screamed as an armoured arm around his shoulders stressed his shattered shoulder blade. Why would they bother being gentle? When most things could be healed, you were rarely escalating problems when you moved ruined bodies. And speed was far more important than comfort.
Tom tried not to scream as he let them do the job. The only real risk at this point was a mortally wounded lizard accidentally squishing him in its death throes. He was unceremoniously dumped and footsteps retreated. The ground under him vibrated as the monster continued to fight.
Almost absently, he used his regenerating mana to kill the pain and then heal his ears.
An enormous cheer went out.
“Cautious!” Michael thundered. “We’ve got it. No unnecessary risks.”
“Do you need healing?” he heard a familiar voice ask right as a soft hand touched his cheek.
He entered the system room.
Everlyn was standing across from him, looking worried.
“Just broken bones. Nothing critical.”
“Should you stay in here for pain?”
Tom shook his head. “You know I can suppress pain. I’m fine.”
The room vanished, and the hand removed itself from his cheek but he could feel her presence nearby. She stood above his body, looking around and searching for any threats. He understand why she was being so vigilant. The ferrets, while they hadn’t been spotted since they had fled after that first attack were still out there. An injured human might be an irresistible lure to them or their instincts might even drive them to attack the victor of the clash between humans and the lizard.
There was another huge cheer and the sounds of people celebrating.
His interface chimed to announce the arrival of notification. Hurt and waiting for mana to regenerate Tom checked immediately.
Declabog Lizard slain by raid group.
Contribution to kill 6.9%
Personal experience awarded 4,140
Tom smiled at those numbers. Despite being taken out of the fight early, he had got over a twentieth of the credit for the kill. It was better than he had hoped. Over forty people had been involved in the fight and he had only landed three effective blows. Plus Legen doing so much damage in the opening salvo must have gained him a contribution of over twenty percent, if not closer to fifty. It was him partially crippling the lizard early that had made the fight relatively achievable.
Tom drifted back to his body.
“You’re back,” Everlyn teased. “I got three hundred experience from the fight. Yay!” the false excitement made him smile despite himself. “As far as I can see no casualties though the warrior who lost a leg is in a bad way.”
Tom looked, and Everlyn was not understating the problem. She was a ranger druid and from what he had gleaned had possessed the same class in DEUS’s trial. Even if she did not have the full set of skills in Existentia, she knew how healing worked. Tom tried to estimate how long it would take him to regenerate a leg for himself or someone else. Four or five days of continuous effort at a minimum, and that presumed that Harry kept him continuously supplied with rituals. There was a reason he had been willing to fuse that lump of flesh back to the leg, despite the risk of infection missing body parts were hard to fix. For this guy, if all the healers dedicated their time, it might be one or two days, but they could not do that till they were more established.
He had thirty mana, and he engaged Healing Tranquillity and promptly healed the various scratches over his body and the internal cuts. For now, he left his shattered shoulder blade alone. That needed significantly more mana.
“We’re just moving you indoors,” Everlyn told him and then hands grabbed him and he was shifted onto a stretcher.
“Tom, are you okay to heal yourself?” He heard Michael asking.
“Yes.” Everlyn answered immediately. “Save your mana in case another one of them comes?” She was obviously referring to the giant lizard.
“Let it,” Michael half joked and partially blustered. “Now we know how to fight them. The next one will be easier.”
Tom laughed and then cut it off when the sharp pain from jostling his back hit him. With a flick of his mind, he reset his pain dampeners.
“Sorry Tom,” Michael said, but did not sound at all repentant.
The stretcher was placed down on some hard ground, and the heavy footsteps left.
“I can’t stay.” Everlyn told him sadly. “I’m needed on lookout duty.”
“Okay,” he croaked, trying not to jostle his body. She left and once he had sufficient mana with Healing Tranquillity, he reconstructed his shoulder and stood up. There was only one other person in the room with him, which was the guy with one leg torn off just under the hip and the other one at the knee.
It was nasty. Tom touched him and Healing Tranquillity spread throughout him, assessing the injury. Someone had hit him with a sleep spell, but apart from that and his missing limbs, he was fully healed.
Tom dropped his hand. There was nothing he could heal. He would need to wait till they got the time to restore the limb directly.