Fate Points - Ch 42 (Patreon)

Tom almost stumbled as he appeared at the trial. His new elemental buzzed around him, raising the hairs on the back of his neck and dimly he was aware of the others appearing behind him. He found himself in a cave format, glowing crystals on the roof that lit it up like it was daylight. A large sized room with no enemies and whose only feature was a single small tunnel dead set in front of where he had been portaled too.

Fast, he reminded himself and then spear tucked under his arm he sprinted forward.

This was a speed run, and if he was lucky, the elemental would do all the killing. His feet thumped along the hard packed dirt floor. The rock was shiny and wet and it felt like home; the rough sandstone walls, the mix of wet dirt and stone at his feet, it felt identical to the massive interlinked cave system that he had spent years exploring.

Twenty metres and there was a turn, and it opened up into a cave that was fifty metres high and larger than a football field. There was a splashing stream through the middle of the room and giant mushrooms crowding the floor, which sloped upwards.

Wasps, each of them the size of his head darted around the fungus. There must have been almost a hundred.

Everlyn was next to him. “Lightning for the green striped. Earth for the red.”

Instinctively, Tom sent the information to his elemental.

A series of thunderous booms reverberated as flashes of lightning leapt from wasp to wasp. It was the elemental he had summoned physically jumping from one insect to another and, as it flashed through the air; it left only the wasps with red stripes untouched. He had heard Everlyn’s talk about red being for Keikain but he had noticed the different till they had been left still flying while their less fortunate brethren fell their insides fried.. The green striped wasps were falling with smoke coming out of them, while the drab red ones were left completely untouched.

“Run,” Everlyn yelled, tugging on his hand. Tom hadn’t even realised that he had paused.

Speed Run. That was their purpose.

There was no time to spectate. Everlyn and Sonya were running past him, and the closest, now solitary wasp died as a brown missile hit and burrowed in.

Another red stripped wasp was targeting Sonya and Tom did not hesitate. He may not have the official Skill but he still possessed over thirty years of extensive spear use in life and death situations.

He lunged forward, the light spear singing as it moved. The wasp tried to duke to the right, but his footwork had fallen into deeply engrained old habitats and his hand grips were perfect, which allowed him to re-orientate the point on the new position. As the tip penetrated the insect, Tom was already pushing deeper and spinning the spear to drag it to the floor.

The wasp hit with a thud and vibrations went up through the shaft.

He had a weapon again. A grin split his face. There was nothing better.

Tom bunched his legs and leapt. He used the weapon to pole vault over the wasp and the tip that had not fully penetrated the carapace suddenly had all of his weight, plus the force of his jump being driven into it. Internal flesh gave way, and it plunged through the wasp till the point smacked against the dirt floor then Tom was reversing the pressure. He pulled the spear towards him. The wasp was stuck firm, but once it was airborne he spun his weapon, his muscles straining with the extra weight, but it spun. Then faster and then the wasp flew free to slam into the base of the mushroom.

A rock would have been better as the mushroom trunk cushioned the blow, but the environmental damage in his case was unnecessary. His initial thrust had severed the key nerve cluster behind the brain. The human equivalent to a backbone and, if the bleeding was not sufficient at a minimum, it was disabled.

“Sonya, hurry,” Everlyn was yelling, pulling the red head along. “Open the door.”

They both hesitated briefly. There was a swift-flowing stream. It was not deep, and it had six stepping stones just under the water you could use to ford it.

“Go.” Everlyn insisted.

With a look of distaste, Sonya began crossing it.

Tom’s eyes gazed around, searching for a threat in the air or on the ground.

There was a squeal and a splash. When he looked, Sonya had slipped on the fourth rock. That was the problem with this transition Skills and rank that they used to possess had vanished and not everyone was used to their weaker bodies.

The red head flailed in the water, and Everlyn, without hesitation jumped behind her.

Waist deep and hampered by the swift current Everlyn shoved Sonya toward the exit point. “Open the door.” With a final heave, she shoved Sonya clear and then was pushed back away from anything to hold. There Everlyn held her position, leaning aggressively forward to prevent being swept off her feet. Most of Tom wanted to jump in and help, but there were bigger issues. Sonya, as ordered, continued to sprint to the locked door while he split his focus on his girlfriend and ensuring that there were no enemies coming to kill them. There was no need Keikain had eliminated all the red stripe wasps near them and both he and the elemental had switched their attention to eliminating the rest of the monsters around the edge of the cave rather than his initial effort to destroy those between them and the exit.

With his immediate safety assured, he focused on Everlyn while wet. She was not in trouble. From what Tom could observe and the speed she had jumped in after Sonya, there were no monsters in the water. She was currently stable.

With a small prayer to DEUS Tom danced across the stones, relying on speed to minimise the chance of himself from falling. His feet splashed into the cold water and onto the first rock. Being shoeless gave him a superior grip to most, and he used his spear like a balancing pole. He pushed off landing on the second and the third. The fourth he hit more cautiously and immediately discovered what had caused Sonya to fall. There was a deceptive layer of slippery algae that hid the fact that there was no flat spot for support, just angled stone. Like Sonya, his foot slipped on the fourth stone, but he had been ready for it and jammed the spear down to balance himself. Its length meant even with the butt of the spear hitting the river bed there was sufficient shaft above the waterline to let him recover. That allowed him to push off and past the last two stones, and he leapt onto the bank.

Tom took only a moment to ensure that his feet on the bank were resting on stones rather than crumbly dirt, and then he held out the butt of his spear for Everlyn to grab. She seized it gratefully and with that tiny of extra support allowed her to take one small step against the current. Then a second and then, obviously deciding that she was close to safety she leapt, propelling herself half out of the rushing water.

She grabbed a stone at the top of the bank with a gasp. “I’ve got this. Get to the door.”

Tom remembered how much faster she was and the thirty metres he still needed to over and he accepted the order rather than trying to help further. Sonya ahead of him and reached the wood that had been covering the door and her hand touched it and the interlocked wood shivered and then expanded, opening up.

“Tom first, Sonya last,” Everlyn yelled, having caught up to them.

There was no reason to argue, they were a team. He ran through the cramped entrance. His final glance having revealed everything in the room they had left had already been dealt with.

There was another winding tunnel, and when he emerged, it was in a totally different situation. Blue sky was above and they were in a narrow gully, forty metres wide with cliffs that must have stretched over a hundred metres above him. The landscape was intimidating just as much as the massive wasp that was ahead.

Tom was not worried about that thing stinging him. Instead, its front legs ended in spikes that were longer than Tiny’s sword.

“It’s vulnerable to lightning,” a soaked Everlyn said behind him.

Tom was not sure he even thought anything, but the elemental exploded forward. With a single flash, it crossed the forty metres separating them from the giant wasp.

Boom!

The sound wave from the elementals movements almost knocked him off his feet. Then the wasp started keening as electricity crackled all over it.

Hurt, but not dead.

“Faster,” Everlyn yelled, pointing to a spot just past and to the right of the giant wasp. They could see the door there and during the approach and when they reached it, they would be vulnerable to an attack by the guardian monster, which made sense after all it had been guarding the exit.

Sonya hesitated. “Should we wait?”

Everlyn pushed her, which caused her to stumble for a moment before she got her legs under her and took off running.

Remembering the red wasp, Tom sprinted to match her speed. Their enemy would not target them. It’s massive compounded eyes had already been burst by the first attack from the elemental.

It’s wing buzzed helplessly, and it was stumbling about. Thirty metres to cross and the path was solid, so it was a matter of less than a handful of seconds to reach the door. Sonya slammed straight into it and then leant down to work her magic. Tom bounced off less yielding rock and was torn between the choice of healing himself or preserving mana. When he lifted his arms, he still had full freedom, so decided there was no need to do anything immediately. Dull throbbing pain was not at all concerning.

Tom, while he stood guard next to Sonya watched the wasp. The elemental was buzzing around it but was finding it difficult to land a decisive blow. The first attack had been a surprise one and landed in full, but now the wasp had a shield of dirty brown energy that it was using to protect itself.

One of the massive legs spun towards him. With a curse, Tom leapt forward, parrying the blade on the end of the leg with his staff. He was pushed back almost two metres by the force of the impact his bum smashing into a rock and arresting his momentum.

The leg withdrew, and he staggered but the beast had apparently worked out where some of its enemies were. It rotated blindly to face them and struck with one of its front legs. Straight at Sonya’s back.

Tom wasn’t convinced he had the strength to parry, but he swung the spear as hard as he could to at least deflect the attack. The tip of the leg smashed into a stone that manifested in thin air directly in front of it. Almost instantly, the stone pillar having served its purpose vanished.

Sweat ran down Keikain’s brow.

There was the sound of creaking behind them.

“Open.” Sonya yelled.

Boom!

When he looked up, the lightning elemental was once more at his shoulder, having obviously successfully killed the giant insect having found a way through the shield potentially aided by the distraction that their blocking of legs had created.

“Go,” Everlyn pushed him and Tom ran through. This time the tunnel went up and after springing up thirty metres he was puffed and he got to the lip of a cave with a meter drop onto a lot of densely packed mushrooms. Eleven fist sized bugs were flittering around the cave.

“Keikain wasps. Tom.” Everlyn grabbed him and pointed down. “Kill the mushrooms.”

The elemental burst into action, dropping and electricity spread out, jumping from the top of one mushroom to another. The caps would suck the energy in and then explode.

Exploding Mushrooms.

When hurt, these fungi explode with significant force.

“Ouch,” he commented.

Everlyn held tight to both their arms as the mushrooms exploded in a wave away from them. “Ten of those going off at once would strain even your healing.” She pushed Sonya. “Door.”

Tom followed and noticed that Keikain had already eliminated this rooms enemies through the exploding mushrooms had killed almost as many as the mage.

None of them had great physical skills and all of them were panting. His mana was only a quarter full all of it from regeneration, and he did not know how the others were faring. Keikain in particular must have been using a lot.

The door opened, and without prompting he sprinted through it with the others following him.

They emerged into a massive, marbled room. It was the size of three or four gymnasiums placed next to each other. You could almost have fitted a footy field within it. There were columns holding up the roof and a chasm between them and the familiar glow of a trial’s exit right on the back wall.

Of course there were challengers between them and it. The most prominent was a humanoid wasp, that had to be the boss of the room. It was large, maybe two metres high and currently facing away from them. To thick legs supported it and it had four arms each holding a sword.

Furthermore, the boss did not appear to be the only threat in the room. The walls had a series of shelves built into the marble. Perfect spaces that could fit a microwave in them, almost a hundred of them, and each of them contained what looked like mechanical wasps.

Their task was simple: they needed to get across the gap and kill all the enemies.

“The mechanical contraptions,” Everlyn commanded, touching his arm and pointing at the wasps. “Destroy them.”

Tom paid them more attention. He had assumed that the boss would animate them with some special skill, but that was not the case. While they were currently static and un-activated, they had a glowing energy source in their chest. There were dozens maybe over a hundred of the metallic wasps. Each one sitting by themselves in the alcoves.

“The cores are susceptible to electricity.” She told him.

He framed the required thoughts and once more the elemental burst into action.

It hit them like a god of lightning.

A continuous boom of sound buffered them. Lightning spat from one spot to another. The wasps did not let out a little smoke like what would happen if you fried a drone from earth where the circuitry would have melted and then smoked afterwards. Instead, they exploded violently. Shards went flying every which way.

The one sided massacre continued. As the elemental moved from target to target, appearing to be a diffuse cloud of sparking electricity with an occasional stronger flash.

The exploding bits hit the boss and its wings trembled.

An entire side was cleared, and it started on the wall behind the boss. Tom, via his link to his elemental could feel its flagging energy. Four minutes had seemed awfully short when he had agreed to the renegotiated terms, but it was not even going to make it the full time, instead it was going to expend all its energy in this single furious barrage.

Tom wanted to push for efficiency, but the elemental was not like a wisp. It was smart and was already actively trying to maximise its own experience gains. Micro managing would help nothing.

It finished the back wall and then started down the side, but it wasn’t going to get close to destroying all the mechanical wasps. He felt the distinct feeling of his elemental summons ending. The lightning elemental, with one last explosive boom vanished from his perspective, leaving a glowing impression on his eyeballs where it used to be.

Silence momentarily descended upon the room.

The boss shifted and creaked, breaking the moment. It turned and regarded them, but held in place by the rules imposed upon it by the trial it did nothing further.

“That was…” Sonya stopped talking.

Everlyn strode forward into the room properly. “I imagine we’re on a timer.” The chasm that separated them was still a concern. She pointed. “Keikain can you get us across?”

The spell user hesitated. “Yes, but it will take all my mana.”

“That’s not a problem. The boss is immune to magic.”

The boss might have been humanoid, but its face was all wasp. Compound eyes and its mandibles produced the noise of grinding stone as they shifted.

Together, they approached the chasm while they all watched the monster worriedly. A creature that seemed tailored against their group given its immunity to magic.

“I have some tricks.” Everlyn told them. “But first we need to get to a cross because if it becomes a ranged engagement we’re in trouble.”

“I can do it,” Keikain assured them. “Stay close.”

They reached the chasm. It was on the borderline on whether they could jump over it. Three metres wide Tom suspected that with a run up he would make this distance comfortably.

“We can jump,” Tom offered even though he didn’t want to.

“No.” Everlyn said her eyes flicking to the still present mechanical wasps. “If all of them were taken, maybe.”

Keikain at the chasm’s edge took a deep breath and brought his staff down right on the lip of the stone. A bridge three feet wide snapped into existence. “Move! I can’t hold this for long.” He ordered and then followed his own advice sprinting across it.

Tom had seen the man’s conjured stone stop a wasp’s leg that hit like a truck. He knew that this bridge even though it looked as delicate as a porcelain cup would support his weight. He sprinted upon it with the other three around him. Behind him, the stone bridge vanished, and the mage squatted down physically exhausted and drained of mana.

The humanoid wasp took a step toward them.

If it had a face, it would have been smiling.