Invent (The Completionist Chronicles Book 7), page 33
Jaxon started tapping at the crystal, and Joe took a moment to look over the battlefield as a whole. Firstly, the waterfall of zombies had reduced to a slow trickle as they lumbered into the area. As for the golems, destroying the third crystal had slowed their attack speed significantly, and the fourth had decreased how rapidly new golems managed to come through the portals.
“When this one goes down, the portals should close!” Jaxon confidently proclaimed as he tapped away. “Major, what will we need to look for in the next form?”
“Next will be something with overpowered physicality and defense! It’s meant to hold off all attackers while any remaining defenders escape. Then the final form is always random!” she informed the group as she sliced the head off an undead Legionnaire. “Get ready; as soon as the last golem goes down, the next battle will start!”
“Here we go! Adjust!” Jaxon stood perfectly still with his finger on the crystal for a long moment, then exploded into chunks of meat and shards of bone as his mana-using skill rebounded on him.
Party member ‘Jaxon’ has been slain!
“Oh, for Celestial’s sake,” Cleave growled as she whipped around and started beating on the crystal, which instantly turned bright red. A half-dozen portals appeared within ten paces of the crystal, and golems excessively larger than the originals in the area stepped out. They turned as a unit to face the group as Cleave swung again.
Joe decided that it was time to get involved. He pulled out his icicle Ritual Orb and set it to attack the spire. After a half-second spin-up time, it shot forward and slammed into the final power source of the golems. The tip was clashing with the surface, its armor penetration working overtime as the Orb spun like a diamond drill. Sparks flew, and Cleave changed targets. Using the flat of her axe, she slammed it into the Orb and grunted as it broke through the surface and didn’t stop spinning.
“Keep it up, baldy!” She swung again and again as the larger golems were swarmed by zombies searching for the source of the dense ‘Dwarf smell’ that erupted from the steam-powered fighters. A final hit on the back of the icicle sent it deep into the center of the structure, and the crystal shattered.
Instantly, all portals closed, and Joe’s team retreated to the utmost of their ability. The white light that had compacted the garbage began to fade, and the heaps began to shift forward and tumble back into the arena space. Daniella saw that the walls were collapsing, and her eyes snapped to Joe. “We need a barrier! Now!”
Joe nodded and dropped a ritual tile on the ground, pulling out two Mana Batteries and pouring mana into them. The light of the arena faded faster with each golem that fell, and soon, the final one was starting to drop. It hit the ground and shattered. For a moment, all went still as the lingering effects of the Predator’s Territory trait vanished.
*Voom.*
The nearly inaudible sound of Joe’s stationary barrier activating couldn’t be heard in almost any other context. But in the eerie silence of the landfill, it was a dinner bell calling out to the far-too-close masses of undead. Their heads all turned toward the party of four, hungrily staring at the Dwarf in the center of a translucent bubble. An unholy screech came from one of them, and the hoard charged…
…only to stumble to a halt as a wave of bloodlust and fear washed through them. An apparently Dwarf-flavored bloodlust, judging by the way the zombies stopped in their tracks and whipped around in full salivation mode.
A mote of crimson light was hovering in the air where the center of the arena had once been, and it rapidly expanded out into a huge, spiked, armored form. Joe’s eyes narrowed as he realized that he recognized this creature. “Is that a Hammer Beast?”
His audible query was too slow; already, the creature had begun to spin in place. Hundreds of zombies charged at the armored Guardian, only for it to charge them. It rolled over the closest ones, then released a red mist that started to rapidly fill the area.
“No!” Cleave gasped as she recognized the tactic. “That’s the unblockable ability ‘Taunting Fumes’! Any creatures in range that are hostile to the Guardian will be taunted!”
The red mist hit them, passing through the barrier without issue, and Joe’s mind went blank… all but one thought.
“I will do anything to fight that creature!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Debuff ‘Taunting Fumes’ has ended.
Joe closed his mouth, which for some reason was hanging open and ached terribly. “What in the…?
He scanned the open space that had been cleared, spotting the massive Hammer Beast, which was still zooming around squishing zombies. His team was holding their own, their health keeping them together while their strength was put to good use against the heavily armored sides of the creature. They even managed to pin it for a moment, and a few zombies took that time to wedge their entire bodies into the small openings in the shell of bronze that the Guardian was protected by.
Then the Guardian broke free and started bouncing as it rolled, creating tremors that not only knocked over the zombies, but destabilized the walls of detritus. The last Joe recalled of the fight was a dozen zombies reaching up and catching the Guardian in midair, holding it there while others started scaling the spikes that coated its body. Then their small space was buried under the tsunami of slop, and he looked around at his equally confused teammates. “Why does my jaw hurt?”
“I think…” Daniella was rubbing her own face as well, “I’m pretty sure I remember trying to bite the barrier?”
“Taunting Fumes makes you forget your weapons and skills, then use brute force in an attempt to take down your target,” Major Cleave informed them as she peered around the dark space, which was lit only by the soft blue glow of the screens of energy holding a mountain of muck off of them. “This bubble saved us twice there. Once from the collapsing rubble, the other by keeping us from charging in and attacking that Guardian with melee attacks. Excellent usage of your abilities, Joe.”
“Thanks!” Joe turned and fist bumped the Dwarf with a wide smile, hoping that it could be a turning point in their relationship. He turned to Kettlebell next. “How are you holding—wha~a~at?”
Letting out a whine like a kicked dog, Kettlebell wiped his face clean of blood and bone chunks. “Why isn’t it getting cleaned? Everything else vanished!”
“Wait… I recognize that finger… this isn’t filth, it’s a usable material.” Joe’s eyes went wide as he saw the largest chunk, which was a long middle finger. He took the flesh and held it in the air, hoping that he had enough to work with.
“Are you… are you gonna eat that?” Kettlebell looked positively green at the thought.
“No! Ew! Why would you think… why would you say something like that?” Joe shuddered and set the finger down, moving his hands through the somatic portion of casting Resurrection. Power began to gather in the air and mana started to flow through his body, forming a connection to both his deity and to Jaxon’s respawn waiting room. Over the next few seconds that it took to complete the spell, Daniella voiced a concerning issue.
“Joe, I don’t know what you’re doing, but what happens if that spell backlashes on you because of our new title?” Her question was enough to make Joe tense up, but he did his best to simply complete the divine spell.
He did manage to speak quietly, though haltingly so that he didn’t mess up. “Can’t live in fear. Gotta go ahead and keep living. Things can always go wrong, so we just gotta do our best and hope it’s enough. Resurrection!”
A swirling, golden portal appeared over the finger, which vanished as soon as Jaxon’s foot touched the ground. Kettlebell sighed in relief as the tacky blood covering his front turned to vapor and left his body and gear clean once more. “Well, that was unexpected, wasn’t it! How did you beat the next two forms already… never mind, I’m all caught up. We’re in a bubble, and the thing is rampaging, yes?”
“Got it in one, Jaxon.” Joe waved in the direction of the pounding noises. “I’m always glad to be around a quick study. The boss is over there somewhere, going to town on zombies. We have a couple minutes to prepare, but I think we should get in there sometime soon. This place has got to be running out of zombies by now.”
“Thank the Celestials,” Cleave muttered with great discomfort. “Anyone need gear patched up? Weapons sharpened? Spells touched up?”
“Oh, yeah. Good idea.” Joe dropped his Exquisite Shell and allowed his mana to return to maximum before he started rebuilding it, wary of whatever spell failure would look like. When it was back to max capacity with no complications, he let out a small sigh of relief and shuddered. “This title is unpleasantly insidious. Makes me think about it all the time, and do everything extra cautiously. Here’s a thought, though… do you think the fact that it makes skills and spells unstable perhaps means we’ll progress in them faster when we are successful? Since we need to hold the mana structure with more control to counteract the new inherent instability?”
Wisdom +2!
“That would make sense,” Jaxon agreed as he rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Can we go and take our revenge against whatever is out there now? I’m hoping to catch a few zombies and test their reflexes to see what sort of differences need to be accounted for.”
“I think we should just wait until all the sounds have been gone for a while.” Joe offered his two cents, his hands twitching. He needed to continuously stop them from pressing together and rubbing against each other greedily.
“No, the creepy Chiropractor’s right. How about we keep our eye on the prize,” Cleave grumbled as Jaxon began limbering up. She watched him for a few moments, the discomfort on her face growing more apparent. “I don’t know how you’re moving like that… but when you get to the Master rank, I’d love to learn.”
“Really?” Jaxon paused and regarded her with bright eyes. “A second student even before I’m officially practicing? Absolutely!”
“Fine. Then I’m going to shut off that side of the barrier and start melting our way out of here,” Joe informed the group as the discussion turned to fees, expectations, and accountability when training someone. He was glad they could talk, but… they were in a boss battle! “Who talks about cash flow when there’s a major moment happening?”
The duo didn’t acknowledge him, so he looked at the other two and shrugged, then got to work. Joe only removed enough of a section for everyone to squeeze out of, then began casting Acid Spray over and over. Soon he was creating a tunnel, even though acid washed over his Exquisite Shell three times as the spell rebounded against him.
He wasn’t concerned, but instead felt pleased that his shell was what was drenched. There had been a concern in the back of his mind that the spell rebounding would hit like true damage, bypassing his preparations. As he wormed his way through the midden heap, he tried to think on the bright side of being hit by his spell. “You know, all this is doing is helping my Neutrality Aura to keep me clean. It’s nice, like a shower for my shell.”
With that thought helping stave off claustrophobia, he kept worming forward. A final cast allowed light to filter through the hole, but it wasn’t like he could shout that back to his team without alerting his enemies to his location. Joe pushed his head out of the cavity and looked around, his eyes landing on the Guardian as it ever-so-slowly rolled over the last zombie still standing.
The Guardian was leaking fluids from all sorts of cracks in its bronze carapace, and terrible grinding was coming from its internal components. Turning his attention to the arena floor, Joe found that thousands of zombies had been ground to paste by this last defender, and he was truly impressed. As the Guardian steamrolled the final zombie, it came to a halt with a shuddering *hiss*. If he were ascribing human emotions to the machine, he would have absolutely called that a sigh of relief.
“No time to waste… who knows if that thing has a self-repair function?” Joe tossed his Ritual Orbs into the air, directing them to attack as he pulled himself fully from the heap. Hands held out, he prepared to begin casting.
The icicle Orb shot forward the fastest, guided by his intent into the largest crack in the armor, specifically where Joe had been hearing the cacophony of damaged gears. Upon shooting into the space, the scream of tearing metal was all that could be heard.
Damage dealt: 168 penetrating cold!
“Cone of Cold!” The spell, which originated from an object and not himself, didn’t seem to be under the same restrictions as he was with his Excommunicated title. A frigid blast of arctic ice coated the internals of the steam-and-magic-powered Guardian, preventing it from speeding into action once more.
Damage dealt: 1,394 (268*520% Magical Critical hit!) cold damage!
While he wasn’t sure what the battle had looked like until this point, and he was somewhat glad to have missed out on it, he was pleased to see that his enemies had devastated each other to the point of total impairment. The Hammer Beast crumbled open, displaying its internals as it powered down.
Trait gained: Karmic King! You have avenged over a thousand creatures killed by a single opponent in less than an hour from their death! +5 to all stats! The secrets of Karmic Luck will be far more receptive to being understood by your fragile mind.
Last hit! You have killed an enemy at a much higher level than yours, which was taken to the brink of death by unaligned parties. Solid kill steal! Luck +5.
One-hit kill! You killed an enemy at a much higher level than yours with a single blow! Once combat is concluded, all experience gains for the entire battle will be increased by 5%!
“That counted as a single attack?” Joe lost focus and took a deep breath as his body became heavier, denser, more perceptive, more reactive; his mind cleared of fatigue and showed him the next steps forward more clearly. He hadn’t passed any thresholds, but he was happy to see that he was finally getting close to the Luck threshold. He was almost certain that things had gone wrong due to the differences in tier among some of his characteristics, but he hadn’t been watching his notifications as well as he should have been lately.
He looked over his character sheet as he waited for his team to join him and for the final Guardian phase to begin.
Name: Joe ‘Excommunicated’ Class: Reductionist
Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)
Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (1/20)
Profession III: Grandmaster’s Apprentice (14/25)
Profession IV: None.
Character Level: 21 Exp: 237,109 Exp to next level: 13,296
Rituarchitect Level: 10 Exp: 53,700 Exp to next level: 1,300
Reductionist Level: 3 Exp: 8,836 Exp to next level: 1,164
Hit Points: 2,122/2,122
Mana: 3,662/7,585
Mana regen: 63.2/sec
Stamina:1,698/1,705
Stamina regen: 6.56/sec
Characteristic: Raw score
Strength: 158 -> 164
Dexterity: 161 -> 166
Constitution: 152 -> 157
Intelligence (bound): 169 -> 174
Wisdom: 153 -> 158
Dark Charisma: 102 -> 109
Perception: 155 -> 161
Luck: 85 -> 95
Karmic Luck: 3 -> 18
“That’s… that’s a lot.” Joe let out a low whistle as he looked over all the changes. “That Karmic King thing… I got that for avenging zombies? Maybe for working to put them to their final rest as well?”
Someone popped through the tunnel he had made. Joe looked back, expecting it to be Jaxon, but found Cleave instead. “Everyone okay back there?”
Major Cleave’s face was as pale as a sheet, and she raised a shaking finger to point behind Joe. He whipped around, finding himself inches away from a pair of flaming eyes that seemed to be staring into his soul.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
“Interesting.” The Guardian took a step away from Joe, the glowing ruby eyes being hidden for a bare moment as he blinked. His beard was intricate and tasseled, his hair thick and well-arranged. Every bit of his body was made of some kind of metal, though it was so well done that his bronze hue was the only thing keeping him from appearing as a regular Dwarf. “Singularly interesting.”
Joe looked over to Cleave, who was still pale and staying far away from the Guardian. She met his eyes and drew a finger across her neck, shaking her head at the Reductionist as if to show her apologies for not coming to help him. The human turned back to the automaton, gathering his courage. “You are the fifth form of the Guardian?”
“I am.” The metal Dwarf rubbed his beard consideringly. “Your friend there is staying back and holding back your other companion, because she recognizes me. Somehow, miraculously, this is the form that managed to manifest in the random rolls that decide the fifth manifestation. I am Corey Digger, the concentrated will of the first Dwarf to sacrifice themselves for my people. You aren’t dead right now only because you have three things going for you.”
“I’m-” Joe swallowed so that he could moisten his terribly dry throat, “-so happy to hear that.”
The Guardian didn’t make him guess what he meant. “I’ve reviewed the information that I’ve missed out on while I was trapped by the tacked-on enchantments in my previous forms. First, you released me from the shackles which others imposed on me, simply by adding another trait to my earlier forms. This broke the enchantments that had been in place by creating a variable they couldn’t account for. For the return of my sanity, I thank you.”
Joe bobbed his head without saying a word. How was someone supposed to respond to something like that?
“Second, you were instrumental in releasing thousands of my brethren from a state of undeath. Even if they are to come back as Elves, it’s so much better than the cursed life they had been living. For breaking through the horde and saving my cursed brothers and sisters, I thank you.” The Guardian’s ruby eyes leaked a small tear of purest fire that vanished in a flash of light.
