Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 49 Eight-Legged-Freaks
🕑 Added 2024-10-31 15:16:54 +0000 UTCThe press of bodies flinging themselves at him was increasing rapidly and the defense of his shroud was about to be overwhelmed. The sheer weight of their numbers resulted in the uptick of another few percentage points of experience, but it would be nearly enough… Tilly sighed deeply and activated Mana Overdrive. The armor-linked Ability locked into place, overlaying his Pathways with a new meta-network of reality-bending patterns, that reached into whatever space the System banked his experience and began to convert it.
Unfortunately, the change in energy sources was not seamless. His shroud flickered briefly as the mechanism for its output shifted. In that brief moment, the nightmarish creatures pressed in, actually landing on him and immediately attempting to dig into his flesh. All over his body, the creatures tried and failed to shove their proboscis-like tails into his extremely tough skin. Tilly roared in disgust, reigniting his shroud, and then seamlessly shifting it into a full Flame Expulsion.
In that moment of desperation, Tilly realized just how closely linked each of his abilities was. Each one was just an extension of the other, and in a brief moment of insight, he felt the potential for the empowered pattern in his pathways to build in complexity. The force of the expulsion flung the creatures back, incinerating every living thing within fifty feet of his position and the moment was gone. His flames even rolled over the statue, causing hissing sparks to fly as his purifying flames met with the caustic magic empowering the thing and began to react.
He felt the rest of his Mana bottom out accompanied by the eerie sensation of the patterns embedded in his armor whirling to life. Experience was pulled in and converted to Mana before rushing to fill the pattern being empowered by his will within his pathway network. He shoved more of his newly gained energy into his Ability forcing the normally explosive technique to put out flames in all directions continuously.
Arachnid Parasites started to form living waves of mindless fury as their numbers built up all around him, crashing against his sphere of flame and attempting to press in and destroy its source. The statue leered at him, mouth held agape in a silent scream. Tilly’s flames danced and sparked all around form and he could see the aura of energy, especially around her staff, warping and sparking as it struggled to deal with the power of his flames which were so perfectly suited to counter her own.
Tilly grit his teeth as something reminiscent of a cramp started to form in his metaphysical network of pathways. The strain he was putting on them was unique, like holding your leg in an unfamiliar position for too long, forcing them to endure magical pressure from vectors that were novel to his system.
Even with thousands of the creatures dying pointlessly by the second, they continued to leap into the furnace that was his Ability. However even with their deaths adding to his experience bank, the conversion was too wasteful, and he watched in growing concern as the percentage on his HUD slowly dropped. It had only been half a minute, but he had already lost the experience he had gained before activating Mana Overdrive and now it was dropping below ten percent.
Most of his focus was on maintaining the pattern for his Expulsion, but he distractedly reached down and found his Wisdom-boosting solution. His hand froze on the vial, hesitant to use it even in the midst of this nightmare, for fear of even more dire situations in the near future. It was another Legendary Quality item, and if he spent it now, the belt might not be able to reconstitute it in time for their next raid… or hell, at Brokenridge’s insane speed, anything he used above Epic quality, might not even be available when they arrived at the Contested Lands.
Further crashing sounded from above, emphasizing that this was not the only battle occurring at the heart of this Faction. Tilly’s eyes shot up to the gaping hole in the ceiling, before falling back to the masses churning at the edge of his Ability. Thankfully, they were clearly not very intelligent and continued to fling themselves against what had essentially become a huge version of Wrath’s Shroud. Yet even with all of their deaths extending the life of his Ability, the 100:1 conversion was just too steep, and his stored experience continued to slowly fall.
The statue's silent scream suddenly shrieked back to life, its form blazing with caustic green energy, temporarily pushing back the flames. It raised its staff in an offensive gesture and a spellwork formed over the huge emerald embedded in its top. A sickly-looking sphere shot forward threw the curtain of flames and exploded only a few feet from Tilly. Several tons of webbing erupted in all directions, temporarily blanketing the flames in that direction and providing a cover for the mindless charing creatures beyond.
Tilly pushed out the ability for all it was worth maybe increasing its intensity slightly, but the experience readout on his HUD ticked down to 4% in response. Something like a shearing tear ripped threw his Pathways and he swallowed back and screamed, staring down the tendril of enemies pushing through the eroding webbing network to reach him. The Ability held, but he could tell that even with more experience he would not be able to keep this up much longer.
The intensity of his flame output began to die down and thousands of the creatures pressed in eagerly. No matter how hard he pushed, he could not break the funnel of parasites burrowing into the center of his defense. His Experience dropped to 3% as the press of creatures reached him.
Kindle shrieked in defiance above him, swooping in and shooting a stream of liquid plasma right through the center of the protective web spell, cutting through it like butter. Tilly had never seen her use something so powerfully offensive, but it broke the path the parasites were using to press into him, eradicating hundreds of the creatures in one attack. His Ability rushed to fill in the gap, erasing the crack in his sphere of flames in a moment.
She wheeled through the sky drunkenly, barely staying within the protection of his flames before landing at his feet exhausted. Through it all the arachnid parasites kept coming, pressing their way through his flowing barrier of flames, using the sacrifice of those before them to gain inches at a time.
Their pressure was almost a physical weight on him as his Expulsion was pushed closer and closer to his body and his stored experience ticked down to 1%. Realizing he was out of options, Tilly pulled the small vial free and lifted it to his face. He had hoped to save it, but it was either this or boost his wisdom stat with his celestial bracelets and he didn’t want to drop his Endurance with these things trying to crawl all over him.
Just as he was about to pull the vial free, the pressure let up and his flames exploded forth unimpeded, washing over the surrounding area unopposed before dying out along with the last of his stored Experience. Tilly was left gasping for breath in the oxygen-poor chamber, with an exhausted Kindle at his feet, surrounded by a fifty-foot circle of blackened metal and melted stone.
As the flames around him died down, his eyes found the statue, through the settling cloud of ash. Its life-like artistry had become waxy and unformed. The once blazing crystal at the top of its staff was now cracked and dark.
Still wary, Tilly held one hatchet at the ready as he took another scan of his surroundings. Staying alert for any parasitic stragglers, he carefully scooped up Kindle, tucking her protectively in the crook of his arm, and moved closer to the treasure piles.
The immense chamber had darkened considerably along with his flames, but he had no trouble moving forward carefully, even though his body was leaden with fatigue. Tilly stepped up to the nearest glowing mound of treasure and moved to lay his hand on it hoping the stupid, snitch ring would work this time. His armor shifted to its sun salamander form seamlessly as his hand reached the still-hot metal, something he hadn’t thought to do himself.
The familiar pounding headache of mana exhaustion was becoming distracting, and his notification icon was blinking urgently. But after a quick look to confirm that he definitely had not somehow gained a level, he decided the rest could wait. He reached deep into his well and found a tiny spark of mana at the bottom, already reforming. He sent it to the ring with another mental demand to loot.
He still had a job to do if he didn’t want to get eaten.
Something like a funnel formed over his hand, sucking in the nearest coins and reaching out further and further into the pile to pull in more of the treasure. Tilly had expected to have to run around laying his hands on everything, but with the chamber emptied of combatants and the statue ruined, the ring seemed capable of absorbing every continuous piece of treasure as long as it was touching the pile he was already depositing.
The dim light above him suddenly darkened, and Tilly’s head whipped up to see a shadow filling the new skylight, before something crashed to the ground near him, just outside the treasure space.
“Two-leg, you perform your duties with the barest hint of adequacy… you have had minutes to claim my treasure and you are still not done?” Tilly’s eyes adjusted to the light’s return and Brokenridge’s figure resolved a few yards away. Many of his previously perfect scales were pockmarked and corroded and there was a tear along the membrane of one of his wings. Thankfully, the treasure was almost completely absorbed by the ring, and Tilly took the criticism with a tired scowl. He couldn't even imagine the amount of income he had just deposited.
“It looks like we both had a harder time than we thought… But I’m sure this will serve both of our purposes well enough” He answered, gesturing tiredly at the disappearing treasure.
It was the dragon’s turn to snarl at Tilly’s implication of his underestimation of the enemy but said nothing as some sort of energy began to gather around his body. Tilly watched as the scales began to fix themselves, and the tear reknit before his eyes. The last of the treasure disappeared into the world ring leaving a large open area at the center of a sea of shattered eggs and ash.
Fully returned to his smug superiority, Brokenridge lowered his head to Tilly’s level,
“You know nothing, ape. Yet despite your ignorance, I am pleased with this arrangement, I can feel the depth of my hoard increasing even as we speak. My destiny is at hand.” He finished with a smile that was all teeth and hunger, before tilting his head to the side, “Gnat, come out of hiding, there are none here to see you, and magic another rock. That one is broken.” He continued, following his statement with a disdainful sniff.
“As you wish,” Erash said, popping into being before the melted statue, “This stone is actually a very high-grade material and would hold the enchantment quite well if you do not mind carrying it… as a trophy, Great One.” She added bowing her head submissively.
The still smoldering fires around the chamber dimmed, and then winked out, as Kindle stirred back to consciousness, growing heavier in Tilly’s arms. He was surprised to feel the lingering heat rush past him in invisible streams, as the phoenix somehow absorbed all of it.
‘I am beginning to remember again, Bonded’ She sent him, looking up to meet his concerned gaze. Her eyes suddenly held a new depth, and her use of language marked her passage from the adolescent stage of her evolution before his eyes. Seeing her change in his arms, brought a feeling of pride mingled with an illogical amount of sorrow.
“Yes, that will do nicely, Gnat. Do not leave me waiting, get it done. The smell of this place is disgusting, and I will dirty my clawing in this filth no longer.”
Erash began her spellwork, and Tilly’s armor returned to its basic state, with the exception of a new back pouch that reminded him of a sling or backpack. Tilly was once again surprised by how much initiative the armor could show when it came to little things like Kindle’s increase in size. Seeing the change, she bobbed her head in thanks and he tucked her behind his back, ‘I will soon have no need for such a thing, but for now, my speed cannot hope to match my elder’s.’ she sent as she curled up to continue to rest after her impressive attack.
Maintaining a cold demeanor before the dragon, Erash wordlessly gestured at Tilly to move to a correctly aligned position before she started laying the same enchantment, linking him to the statue without looking up from her work. Knowing the game, he made sure to huff back at her gruff manner, before ignoring her entirely and pulling up his notifications.
He spent a few seconds filtering the information until he was left with two lines of interest that almost made up for the fact that he had just blown his chance to rebalance his stats.
