Chapter Thirty One - 031
"Help them, mage," Harn pointed at the flippy girl and the mage, who was just getting to his feet. The shield warrior was helping to steady him, and Felix noticed an empty glass vial in her hand.
Healing potions? Maybe I can get some refills.
"What about you?"
The man cracked his neck, small overlapping plates allowing his weird helmet to flex. "I'll be keeping this one busy."
Felix nodded, checking his Mana.
He was still over 80%. More than enough, probably.
Felix started running toward the giant, moving as fast as he could. The lightly armored young woman was fighting alone at this point, the mage still orienting himself as he passed by at speed. The shield warrior and mage gave him a strange look, but Felix didn't bother with them yet.
"Magda! Let's do this!" Harn called, apparently to the shield warrior.
The giant was fighting in a section of the ruined city that had several remnant walls and columns. The agile fighter was weaving in and out of them, trying to stay one step ahead of the powerful creature.
Analyze
Health: 344/890
Stamina: 210/488
Mana: 15/75
Felix reached out a hand and formed shadow Mana, Fire Within on blast as he shaped the Mana internally. The twists of Shadow Whip were strange to him, not as complex as Stone Shaping perhaps, but weirder somehow. The Mana pattern felt sticky and pervasive, yet tightly compacted in a way that made him briefly dizzy. Shaking his head, he dropped his attempt and kept it simple. Once he was within range he activated the Skill as normal.
Shadow Whip!
A tendril of darkness latched outward, tangling up the giant's legs. It was like a spider web, tacky to the touch and shining dully in the moonlight.
The giant, who was running toward the young woman, stumbled and fell to its knees.
Shadow Whip is level 12!
At the same time, the young woman with black hair flung her chain around a column, tightening it and somehow slingshotting herself around it, throwing her up in to the air above the giant. The chain unraveled, pulling back into her grip as she fell like a rock onto the giant's back. The chain, which he now noticed was definitely bladed, looped around their head with a quick flick of her arm, and Felix saw her grin.
It was a manic, irrepressibly gleeful sort of grin.
Then he was at the giant himself, who reared back, suddenly leashed by the small woman on his back and shoulders. Taking the opening, Felix wound up a Corrosive Strike, blasting the Risi Warrior right in the gut. The armor dented and the giant doubled over even as the woman on its back started choking it.
The giant slammed it's hands around, smashing into the ground and throwing Felix off into a wall. The wall cracked and the ice on it sheared off in large sections.
Armored Skin is level 15!
+1 VIT
"Uugh." His Health and Stamina were both down below 60%.
Wobbling, he got back up.
The chain fighter was hanging off the giant's back, who was now on its feet and smashing blindly into ruined pillars.
Felix ran back in, this time directing dual Acid Streams at the blue skinned warrior. His acid ate into its exposed flesh, burning it with an audible sizzling.
"UGH! That smells terrible!" The warrior gagged and did a running leap over a ruined wall, yanked her chains backwards with her. Using the wall as a fulcrum, the giant was leveraged back as it flailed his arms at the chain tightening around its neck.
Felix dropped his Acid Stream and darted forward, throwing Corrosive Strikes as fast as he could into the giant's center mass. After the fifth shot, its breastplate fell apart. It swung at him, but it was simple enough to dodge back, then close again. Three more strikes and he could feel its rips crack After the twelfth shot the giant's eyes rolled back into its head and it collapsed.
Corrosive Strike is level 16!
Corrosive Strike is level 17!
Corrosive Strike is level 18!
Physical Conditioning is level 19!
The chains suddenly tightened and cut into the Risi Warrior's neck, half decapitating the monstrous giant.
A Risi Warrior is dead!
XP Earned!
"Not a fan of that," Felix blanched as he saw clearly into the creature's ruined neck meat. A leather clad blur flipped up and over the wall, landing in a perfect gymnastic dismount next to him. She turned to him, pulling her hair out of her face.
"Hi! I'm Evie!" She beamed, her rounded face appearing younger than he suspected. The girl flicked her forearm and her spiked chain unraveled from the corpse, a second flick wrapped it back around her own arm. She had pale skin, green eyes, and straight black hair that hung from a convoluted braid around the crown of her head. "Who are you?"
"Evie! Your help, if you please!" Vessilia's proper voice shouted out from nearby.
Felix looked at Evie and shrugged. "Time to go, I guess."
He headed toward the voice. Evie followed after.
"It's just so weird to see someone out here! How long have you been fighting these things?"
"Uh," Felix ducked under a low column. "Like a half hour?"
"Ahh!"
Ever fight something like this? The massive giant jumped onto the shield warriors glowing magic shield, causing it to flare with power. The jump actually brought it into Felixs Analyze range, finally.
Name: Unknown Risi Commander
Type: Giantfolk
Level: 35
HP: ????/????
SP: ????/????
MP: ???/???
Lore: Giantfolk are known for their great strength, boundless stamina, and poor intelligence. But there are always exceptions. The Commanders are uncommonly intelligent and excellent tacticians, in addition to their physical might.
Strength: Strength, Endurance
Weakness: Unknown
Uh, Felix gulped. No. Sorta. Does a giant weasel count?
Hoarse laughter echoed from Harns frog mouthed helmet. "You've got more ranged spells than that lightning one?"
Lightning? Oh, he means Reign of Vellus. "Yeah, a couple."
He nodded, raising his twin axes. When had he gotten those out again? "I'll go in here, cover my approach."
"Wait, how--"
Harn took off, kicking the ground and launching himself forward.
He's pretty fast. Was it his Strength or Agility that did that? Felix mused, but as the armored man approached, the Risi Commander spun away from its assault. It swung it's massive ice axe as it did and a sudden flurry of icicles filled the sky, launching in the path of its strike.
Reign of Vellus!
Felix had no intention of moving all of those icicles, some of which were the size of his entire body. Instead, he altered the pattern of the spell and focused on the narrow corridor containing Harn and himself. A spike of pain lanced across his head as azure lightning sparked and jumped between frosty spears as several dozen were acted on all at once. Felix strained, sweat beading on his brow, the icicles speeding toward Harn first and Felix second.
"YRRRRAAGH!" Felix screamed, blood pouring down his nose as his Mana drained. A storm of lightning erupted all around him, and the icicles shifted slightly to either side of both Harn and himself. Icy spears struck the ground all around him like bullets. Their impact shook the earth, splintering the stone itself and cleaving into the ruins all around him.
Fire Within is level 27!
Reign of Vellus is level 26!
"Gah!" Felix panted, gulping big breaths as a headache mounted behind his eyes. That one had drained him. His Mana was down to less than 30%, but if he used it properly it'd be enough. He hoped.
Meanwhile, Harn kept running. The metal bastard never stopped, turned out. Whether that was because he had faith in himself or Felix was uncertain, though Felix was sure it was the former. The axe warrior kept leaping powerfully forward, the earth splintering beneath his feet, his body low and weapons extended to either side. The shield warrior, Magda, suddenly dropped the yellow-colored magic shield she had been maintaining all this time and rushed forward. Somehow, Felix couldn't tell how exactly, Magda shield bashed the Risi Commander from a dozen feet away, throwing the massive blue bastard onto its backfoot.
Harn kept running, drawing closer and closer.
The giant wasn't a fool, though; with a roar it slammed it's immense ice axe down into the ground and a twenty foot wall of ice spikes erupted from the pitted causeway. It instantly cut Harn off from the battle between Magda and the Commander. Felix could hear the sound of repeated impact from the other side.
Shit. Can that lady survive long enough for Harn to get over this wall? The warrior had started violently attacking the wall with his axes, but aside from a slew of ice chips, the wall seemed unharmed. Can't lift him, but maybe...
Stone Shaping!
Altering his Mana flow in the pattern he'd previously discovered, Felix was able to keep the spell more efficient. But he needed speed too; so Felix dumped nearly 100 Mana into the spell and pushed.
From beneath a startled Harn, a rounded stone ramp exploded forward at an angle, shearing through the top portion of the ice wall. Harn rode atop it, wobbling as he kept his balance, but by the time it stopped growing he was already running up its length. At the top, he vaulted over the last ice spikes and landed somewhere beyond the wall with a deafening BOOM.
Felix ran forward, unable to see any of the action. As amazing as spellcasting was, he couldn't do anything if he couldn't see anything. He awkwardly navigated up the rough stone ramp, stopping just shy of tumbling off the edge. Beyond he could see the massive giant, currently in a fierce altercation with Magda and Harn. In fact, Harn was trading serious blows with the Risi Commander, coming away from them the worse for wear.
"Step back!" Magda shouted, throwing several fist sized stones at the giant. They each exploded on contact, sending a sharp rain of shrapnel in all directions. Harn and Magda covered their faces and the giant commander flinched back, but then it returned to swinging its axe.
Felix had an idea. He waved frantically at the shield warrior until she looked up at him. She seemed surprised to see someone else there at all. Felix exaggeratedly pantomimed looking at the ground beneath her. She glanced down, and Felix began to cast.
All around Magda, the ground erupted into irregularly shaped columns, each four to five feet tall and six inches in diameter at least. Shaping the stone at such a distance was painful, and it ate away at the majority of his Mana pool, leaving him with barely 5%. Felix's nose started bleeding again, the coppery taste creeping into his mouth. He gave a tired thumbs up to the shield warrior, and sat down.
Stone Shaping is level 24!
Magda hesitated a moment, before snapping off the nearest column and throwing it, javelin style, straight at the giant.
"Stone Break!"
The five foot stone exploded, littering the Risi Commander's back with lacerations. It snarled in pain, half turning from Harn who was assaulting it form the front. That was a mistake. The heavily armored warrior exploded with ferocity, swinging his axes like a machine of death, drawing gouts of thick blue blood with each strike.
"RAAAAAAARGH! AKTA RA FOLUU!" The Risi screamed, its white beard dyed blue as it literally spat blood.
Harn roared back, spinning like a whirling dervish, driving the giant backwards even as two more stone spears exploded at its back. The giant threw itself into a forward roll, smashing violently against the earth and nearly pancaking Harn. It recovered, spinning on the two warriors and brandishing it's immense greataxe.
"Korta jav riktanu, tor atta!" The Risi Commander growled, its voice so deep Felix could feel it in his chest. A haze of purple white began to gather on the icy greataxe it wielded, congealing around it like stormclouds of Mana. Felix glanced at the others but they only stared down their opponent, using the moment to rest.
"Hey Harn," Magda spoke as she rolled her shoulders.
"Yeah, Maggie?"
"Do you speak asshole?" She asked. The Risi snarled, hands tightening on the shaft of its weapon with an audible creak.
"No, can't say that I do," Harn replied lazily.
Magda grinned, her teeth very white and perfectly straight. "Good. I'd hate for anyone to say we didn't try." The two of them advanced as one, rushing across the cracked causeway.
