by Ivan Kal
“Here?” Vall asked, gesturing at the ground.
“Yeah,” Morgan answered.
Vall nodded and raised his hammer over his head, then smashed it down to crack the stone plates. Morgan then raised the cracked pieces of the courtyard and revealed the ground beneath. He reached down into his satchel and pulled out two small pouches. He put seeds from one into the ground, then put the stones back in their place. They did the same to one more area. Lastly, he went to the base of the stairs and knelt using his Ward ability to create an exploding ward on the stone plate—wards being temporary enchantments of objects that could do many different things. Once he was done, Morgan called the end to their break and they got in positions.
Clara and Morgan walked a bit away, she standing ready to assist if needed and he focusing on the seeds he had placed in the ground. He used his skills and abilities to have them grow, extend roots into the ground, but didn’t allow them to grow out, not yet. Meanwhile, Vall and Ves took positions in front of them, leaving about a ten-meter gap between them and the base of the stairs. Lucius took a deep breath and started climbing the stairs. Once he reached the top, he disappeared out of sight. About a minute later they could hear a crash and then the sound of stomping feet. A few moments later Lucius appeared at the top of the stairs and then he jumped.
A wind caught him and floated him down. Like Morgan had Phytokinesis, Lucius had Aerokinesis, but he couldn’t fly just yet. So, while the wind helped carry him down, he still landed hard into a roll. Up above on the stairs, the terracotta guards appeared and started spilling down the stairs. The platform above them had a large amount of enemies, and Morgan had decided that the best way to deal with them was to set up a favorable position for themselves. The terracottas were strong and durable, but they weren’t really smart—more single minded.
Lucius ran behind Ves and Vall and pulled his swords out, getting ready. The terracottas spilled down the stairs, at least three time the number of the group they fought before them. As the first of them stepped down into the courtyard, Morgan’s ward triggered and exploded, sending pieces of three terracotta flying. At the same time, Vall put his hammer up into the air. It caught fire and then intensified until the flames turned blue. A moment later he lowered the hammer, letting it rest parallel to the ground, and pointed at the base of the stairs. A pillar of blue fire shot forward and struck the terracottas. Their stone surface was hard to damage with fire, but not impossible, and Vall’s attack wasn’t just heat—it was also kinetic. The force of the attack pushed the terracottas back, and they collided with those behind them. Soon, the terracottas coming down and those pushed back met and started tripping on themselves and falling in a tumble at the base of the stairs. Vall’s flames tapered out, and he fell to one knee, breathing heavily.
The terracottas were still there, but many of them were in pieces, the heat from his attack enough to crack their bodies and leaving many of the terracottas with missing limbs or chunks of stone.
Then it was Ves’s turn. While Vall was using his fire, she had pulled out a barrel from her ring of holding: a barrel filled with water. As soon as Vall’s flame stopped, she drenched her shield in water and formed icicles on its surface. With a bash, she sent them flying at the terracotta guards. The icicles impacted against the mobs and cracked a few, chipping pieces of them off. Then Ves turned the barrel on its side, spilling the water in their direction. Morgan saw her struggle as she forced the water to reach the terracottas with her Hydrokinesis, and then when it did reach them she used her ability Ice Wall. A wall rose from the ground, trapping some terracottas in it and the rest behind it. A few of the broken terracotta guards remained on their side: one with no legs that was pulling itself with its arms in their direction, and another without arms. Lucius sent several air blades in their direction, cutting their already damaged bodies down.
The terracottas on the stairs were trying to get by them. A few moved around, while others were stabbing their spears in the water, trying to break it, and a few had climbed over their own to get over it. Quickly, enemies were running toward them, but in nowhere near the numbers they had. There were only a few, coming one by one. Without their numbers they weren’t all that much of a threat. Vall stood back up, hefting his hammer, and Ves raised her shield while her demon bear roared. As the terracottas came, they attacked in tandem, one taking its attention while the other cracked them to pieces. After they destroyed the tenth terracotta, the ice wall broke, and the rest of the guards spilled through.
Morgan waited until they reached the place where he had planted his seeds, and then he forced them to grow. Plants exploded out of the ground, roots stabbing in the cracks in the terracottas’ bodies, grabbing for their legs and bringing them down. Quickly, their charge halted as those coming in behind were forced to trample the others, tripping themselves in the process.
Then he activated his second trap. Vines slithered out among the cracks and crawled across the ground to reach the terracottas. They twined around them, growing thorns that stabbed into the stone, tightening and slithering in all the small cracks in their bodies, forcing them to widen. Terracotta guards were shattering under the pressure while Morgan struggled to keep himself calm and concentrate on controlling so many at once. The drawback of being able to control so many of them at the same time was that he was basically helpless—but there was little danger to him right now with Clara protecting him and the others between him and the terracottas. Then Clara raised her staff and recast her armor spell on Vall and Ves, and the two of them jumped in to fight.
The hobbled terracottas started dropping from their combined efforts, but there were a few still up on the stairs. As they came down, Morgan saw Vall stumble as one of the terracottas that Morgan had tied to the ground grabbed his leg. Vall fell to his knees and several terracottas came down from the stairs and attacked him. He managed to roll out of their way and then get to his feet, but he wasn’t fast enough to block one of their attacks. A terracotta stabbed with his spear and hit Vall directly in the chest—Clara’s shield saved him as he was sent flying back and the light sheen of light around him shattered.
Morgan took a step forward and opened his mouth to warn him, but it was already too late. Vall fell to the ground and rolled backward, away from the stairs and toward the pack of dark-iron terracottas. All of them turned their heads in Vall’s direction and, as one, turned and charged at him. Vall was still not recovered from the fall and hadn’t even noticed them.
“Ves, Lucius! Go!” Morgan yelled out, and both of them listened.
Ves jumped on the back of her bear and smashed a terracotta that tried to stab at her while the bear charged toward her brother. Lucius jumped and wind picked him up, sending him forward behind her. The last few stone terracottas tried to stop them, but when they couldn’t reach them they all turned toward Clara and Morgan. The vines and roots he had used had mostly been ripped and trampled now—he couldn’t use them to stop them.
“Clara, up front!” Morgan said as he quickly thought about his options. The terracotta were nearly on Clara, so he couldn’t use any of his explosives. He hadn’t brought anything else that would be useful against them, because he didn’t really have much that could hinder them. His orbs were mostly for distraction and tricks—smoke grenades wouldn’t work against this type of opponent, which meant that he would have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Clara cast a slowing field in front of her, catching the oncoming terracotta. She swung her staff from above, hitting one on the shoulder and cracking the torso nearly in half, but it was still moving as its core was still whole. Morgan pointed with his crossbow and fired, sending a bolt into its chest and destroying its core. Clara then stabbed her staff into the ground, sending a wave of earth rolling away from her.
Morgan jumped forward next to her, firing three more bolts into the backs of downed terracotta from nearly point-blank range with his Piercing Shot, destroying them. By then, the last four reached them. Clara’s slowing f
ield expired and she readied her staff as Morgan ran forward and jumped into the air, doing a front flip over one of the terracottas’ heads. With his stats and his Acrobatics skill, he executed it nearly perfectly. As he was flying over it, he summoned his Energy Blade and cut into the terracotta’s chest from the shoulder to the heart, where the core was. The terracotta collapsed as Morgan came to the ground.
Clara parried one of the terracottas’ attacks and then counterattacked by swiping its legs and smashing its chest. The last two turned toward Morgan. They snapped their spears toward his chest, but he jumped back, evading. His Energy Blade flickered out as he tried to conserve his energy—he was already dangerously low. He raised his left hand and fired a bolt point blank, destroying one of them. The other attacked and Morgan jumped to the side and rolled across the ground in Clara’s direction. He ran to her and the terracotta followed. As he reached her, he turned and fired, barely aiming, hitting it in the shoulder and staggering it. Clara took advantage and attacked, smashing her staff in its chest and sending it back. The terracotta’s chest was cracked, but not destroyed, and it recovered and attacked again.
A dome of light sparked around Clara and the terracotta’s spear struck and rebounded. Morgan took advantage of it being off balance and grabbed its spear with one hand while he snapped out with his leg, hitting the knee and breaking it. The terracotta fell to the ground, its spear wrenched from its hands by Morgan. He then raised the spear and stabbed it into its chest.
Clara cleared her dome and wiped the sweat from her brow. Morgan turned his eyes to the battle on the other side of the yard. It was immediately obvious that the three were having problems. The dark-iron terracottas were slower, but far more durable than the stone ones. Morgan and Clara both immediately started running toward them. As they came close, Morgan could see that Vall was bleeding from his leg, and Ves and her bear were barely holding on. A few of the terracottas were lying down on the ground, but there were many still active. Lucius was distracting them, but his blades couldn’t do much damage. All he could do was keep them from surrounding Ves and Vall.
Morgan put his hand into his satchel and brought out a woven pouch, pulling out a plant. Looking around, he saw that the side of the mountain next to them had some patches of grass and dirt in the rock, so he threw the pouch at one of them. The plant fell close enough, and then Morgan sat on the ground with his legs crossed.
“Clara, keep me safe,” he said, and then made his mind calm. Using both domination and discipline alignments in combat at the same time was possible, as he had learned from Azil—but he was not yet sufficiently proficient at swapping his mind states in an instant. He used Phytokinesis and forced the plant to grow out of the pouch and into the ground that was in the mountainside—there was not much food there for it, so he had to supply his own energy, which was already dangerously low. Quickly, roots spread and grew, tying themselves around rocks and grounding the plant, making for a strong foundation before the stem quickly grew to become a trunk. It grew out of the mountain’s side and curled upward, dark red in color and thickening, getting as about as thick as Morgan’s torso in a matter of seconds. He was expending a lot of energy to get it to grow that fast, but quickly it reached the stage he needed it to. The tip split into three separate branches and on the end of each a blossomed a flower, and from it extended a wide, straw-looking bud.
Morgan released a deep breath as he stopped feeding the plant, and then turned to control.
“Clara,” Morgan whispered, not wanting to break his concentration.
She understood what he wanted immediately, and so she yelled out, “Get back!”
The others heard her, but didn’t respond or acknowledge her. Instead, a few moments later Ves screamed and activated one of her more powerful abilities. She put her hand on her bear and triggered Eldritch Abomination before turning around and running, grabbing Vall on the way. Her bear transformed, tendrils growing from its neck, its limbs elongating and its jaws unhinging and expanding. It roared and started smashing the terracottas around. Lucius disengaged and wind carried him back. The bear fought for a few moments—a terrifying foe, but it was only one. Terracotta pole-arms slashed and stabbed into it, and it collapsed, then dispersed. Ves cried out and collapsed, but Vall held her up. The terracottas didn’t even pause as they simply continued after them.
Then Morgan used his plant. The three buds opened up and streams of liquid exploded outward at high pressure, splashing across their front line. Immediately, a sizzling sound filled the courtyard as smoke rose from the impact points and acid ate into them. It was fast acting, and quickly some terracottas fell to the ground as their cores were destroyed, and others continued while their limbs melted and fell off. One was left without a head, and others with holes in their bodies. But Morgan’s plant—or as he had proudly named it, the De-armoring Plant—shot more acid at them. It was a mutation that he had managed to achieve almost a year ago, one of his first real successes; he had taken a plant commonly found near Irus that spat acid at anything that dared try and eat it, and made it much worse. The De-armoring Plant’s acid worked only on metals, which was how it got its name. It didn’t do nearly anything to flesh. Well, if you left it on your hand you might get a rash, but whatever. It was perfect for this type of enemy, however.
As the terracottas fell and his plant stopped shooting as it emptied its reserves—Morgan having too little energy to replenish it—Lucius and Vall stepped in and dealt with the last few survivors. Vall would use his momentum ability to smash his hammer into the dark-iron terracottas, denting and cracking them, and Lucius would dart forward and stab through to destroy their cores.
“That went well,” Morgan said once they were all finished. The courtyard looked like a battlefield, with broken parts all over the place. He turned back from his study of the carnage and saw Ves glare at him. “Sorry.”
She shook her head and stood up. She had been trying to train herself so that she could better handle her bear being forcibly dismissed. She was getting there, but it still hurt. Finally she walked over to him.
“Good job at the end there,” she told him.
“Right,” Morgan said as Lucius and Vall walked over to them. “I wouldn’t have had to do that if Vall here hadn’t pulled the mobs.”
Vallsorim grunted. “It’s not my fault, I tripped,” he said as Clara stepped up to him and put her hand over the wound on his leg healing him.
“I’m joking, it happens, if I had a nic—er, a coin for every time I pulled some mobs, I would be rich!” Morgan laughed.
The others frowned. “I don’t remember you doing something like this, not if it wasn’t planned,” Lucius said.
“I mean back home,” Morgan said, reminding them of his world. He had spoken with them at length about the video games on Earth.
“Ah, I forgot,” Lucius said.
“We should take some time to rest,” Morgan said. He was feeling quite drained. He glanced to the sky, seeing that the sun hadn’t really moved since they entered. He wondered if they were perhaps inside some kind of a pocket dimension or something, but he dismissed the thought. It doesn’t really matter.
They moved to the stairs and sat down, pulling out some food and drinks from their inventories. They spent about an hour recovering, the orb of farsight hovering above them the whole time. They knew that they were being evaluated, but they didn’t know much about the observers’ criteria. Still, their plan prior to getting in was to treat this as any of their previous dungeon dives. They went slowly, taking time to rest and heal up between fights. There was no point entering a dungeon if they were going to risk death out of pride.
After they rested enough, they walked up the stairs. The platform was now cleared of any mobs, so they walked over to the large, two-sided doors. Once they entered, they would be heading toward the boss chamber. They did last-minute checks, made sure that all of their equipment was ready, and then opened the doors. They fought three more groups of terracotta guards in
a wide hallway. There were several adjacent rooms that had some loot, but they left that for later. They fought slowly, taking the time to minimize the risk, as well to avoid the few traps. Once they finished clearing them all, they reached the boss chamber.
It was a round chamber, illuminated by glowing orbs on the ceiling. It was mostly empty; whatever used to be there had long since been broken, with pieces of wood scattered across the room. In the center was a large terracotta guard, looking the same as the others, except that this one was almost twice the size. The guard stood with the spear in one hand, waiting. The boss’s name was simply Stone Guard Commander—Morgan and the others had familiarized themselves with its abilities and manner of combat. Morgan had of course devised a plan for it, as well.
He looked at the others and nodded.
Morgan took one of his wooden orbs and put his hand on the wall next to him. As soon as the orb gained enough weight, he threw it, activating his phasing ability and shooting it forward. The orb smashed the terracotta boss in the chest and staggered it back, but the impact left barely a crack. Immediately, Clara cast her armor spell on top of Ves and she stepped forward, summoning her bear again, and then they advanced on the boss. As soon as she got near, it immediately focused on them. She ran forward as the boss raised his spear and swiped at her. She put her shield up and blocked, but it sent her staggering to the side. Her bear attacked, swiping at the legs of the boss while it was out of position. When it turned to attack the bear, it jumped back out of the way and Ves was there to smash her shield into the boss, staggering it.
“Go,” Morgan said as Ves had its attention.
Vall jumped forward and, using his momentum ability, swung his hammer at the boss. Halfway through the swing, it suddenly blurred as its momentum doubled. His hammer smashed into the boss’s hip, sending a web of thin cracks spreading from it. The boss turned and swiped with his hand at him, but a dome of light appeared and shielded him as Clara cast her spell. Vall jumped out of range, and Ves took the boss’s attention again. Then Lucius swiped with both of his swords crossed, sending a wave of air at the terracotta. The wave hit and made it take a step back, which Vall took advantage of again to smash his hammer, this time at the knee.