25
1348 Words
The spirit had sovereignty in the body, and one’s will would always be able to influence reality if fine-tuned enough. Even a small amount of power could counteract an attack like this, if one was properly trained in the use of will. In a rift, the monsters had the advantage of numbers when it came to fighting with concepts. The ability to counter Concept based attacks, like that of the troll, was fairly simple, but it was hardly efficient.
The use of will was taxing, especially to those inexperienced with their Concepts. The monsters’ sheer numbers generally gave most Concepted but low Tier delvers problems. Not to mention the fact that monsters usually had larger, stronger wills at those lower Tiers.
Both of those issues were somewhat alleviated with this being a single monster in the open, rather than a string of monsters that they had to kill while being ambushed.
“Back up! Let the three of us handle it. Use your ranged attacks.”
Camilla frowned but did as Matt asked and started to pull back.
Without Camilla to take the pressure off, Matt struggled to both deal damage and dodge everything. Without him dealing damage, the monster took more notice of the four people slinging spells at it.
A kick aimed at Liz was quickly countered with a blow from [Mana Charge].
It completely blew off the monster’s foot and when the troll went to stomp down, but when it fell down farther than expected, it ended up stumbling to the ground.
Matt narrowly dodged the falling troll, solely because he had been counting on his explosive blow to do exactly what it had, thanks to the prediction of his AI.
Wanting to take advantage of the troll’s vulnerable position, Matt lowered both of his active skills, and re-cast [Hail] on the monster’s prone form. Aster also cast her final spell, [Frost], which increased the damage dealt from all ice affinity damage spells in the area. Keeping his distance, Matt put as much mana into [Hail] as he could spare. The skill produced more ice as more mana was channeled into it and a virtual blizzard ensued. He was hoping to essentially bury the monster in a cascade of ice.
No one needed the plan spelled out, and they all attacked its arms and legs as it tried to get to its knees. Cut muscles couldn’t do anything despite its insane healing factor.
Aster let out a yell that caused the surroundings to flash freeze, and most of the surrounding trees split and cracked under the sudden temperature change. The troll suffered the worst of the attack, as it was struggling to stand under the storm of ice raining down. The fox’s use of her Concept turned the loose ice into a solid form, completely encasing the troll.
He felt her pass out from the overuse of her will, but his AI also noted Camilla scoping the spent fox up and depositing her into Liz’s backpack. To his horror, Matt saw the flesh wriggle back together while completely frozen in the solid ice.
“f**k—” He didn’t get it out all the way before needing to take a deep breath.
He pointed at the missing foot. “It’s not dead.”
Camilla looked at it and asked, “Fight or flee? I say flee.”
Malcolm instantly shouted, “Flee!” But Matt noted that he waited for one of them to answer.
Liz shook her head. “No, if we do, it’ll just regenerate its mana, and become a problem for someone else. Or worse yet, follow us.”
They all looked to Matt. He was the deciding vote, with Aster asleep.
“I think we need to try. If it attacks us while we’re camped out and sleeping, we are royally fucked.”
He thought of a plan while using his AI at full draw.
“Let’s just make a bonfire around it. The ice should take a while to escape from either way. The fire will speed that up, sure. But the troll can’t regenerate any wounds caused by fire. That’s why people debate if it uses actual [Regeneration], and not some variant. The true skill has no problem with any wound type.”
Malcolm still looked like he wanted to flee, but when Camilla nodded, they each pulled out axes and started chopping. Matt started to layer the already knocked down trees on and around the beast’s icy prison.
Malcolm was still staring at them when Liz asked, “Are you going to help?”
That seemed to snap him out of it, and he said, “I don’t have an axe.”
“Well, get a fire started. And collect more dry wood. We only have so much time before the beast breaks out, so we need a hot fire as soon as we finish stacking this wood.”
They all worked frantically for the next few minutes, and soon had a smaller fire going off to the side.
They had piled the wood high, but with so much greenwood, none of them were completely confident. Just in case, they had made smaller fires in a few places they could retreat to. If it came to that, they could return to one of the fires, and try to shove burning sticks into the beast’s wounds and cauterize them.
“Here goes nothing.” With that, Liz dropped her burning stick into the dry leaves they had gathered. They only had so much deadwood and were hoping to use it to get the rest of the wood to ignite.
They watched the flames start growing, and soon they could tell that even the greenwood was starting to ignite. The smoke turning black was the telltale sign that they were hoping for, and they could see the ice melting and hear the wood popping.
Then, the troll’s screams added to the cacophony. Matt readied his blade, while Camilla and Liz did the same with their own weapons. Malcolm seemed as if he was one more scare away from bolting away altogether.
Soon, they felt the rush of essence that indicated the fight was truly over.
They all breathed a sigh of relief at that, and Matt used [Hail] to extinguish the flames.
They kept on their path, and night was approaching when Malcolm told them they were getting close to the entrance. They were all exhausted and decided to make camp and rest before pushing on to find the entrance to the ruins.
They were now inside of the mountain range they had been journeying toward. They had come to a small valley, and quickly found a spot to set up camp for the night. Malcolm set up his tent and passed out immediately, but no one minded. Even with [Endurance], Matt was feeling it after that last fight with the troll. They had all earned a good night’s sleep. Well…most of them had.
7
The next morning, Matt woke to find that breakfast was ready, and that there were two odd corpses of what seemed like badger-lizard hybrids off to the side. That he had slept through the noise that such a fight must have caused was slightly worrying. Using one’s Concept would wear anyone out and battling others’ wills was distinctly different from using your Concept for its intended purpose. It was no wonder that he was exhausted.
He made a note that he, Liz, and Aster needed to practice that and work on more than just using their actual Concepts.
With a mental query, he found that Aster was off somewhere in the forest. She had found a scent similar to rabbit and was searching for its burrow. He wasn’t too concerned. Aster could take care of herself against even a Tier 6 rabbit. At worst, she would run back to them.
Liz sat on a chair she had pulled out of her spatial bag. She was watching Camilla spin a chunk of meat on a stick. One side was noticeably burnt, and the other looked raw.
- Writer
