Pandora Unchained - B1C69: Rescue

Time slowed to a crawl as Sorin weaved through ten stunned boars, cutting three in passing to inject a lethal dose of poison. Due to the constraints of the Veridian Smoke Bomb spell, the paralytic poison keeping the boars in place was insufficient to support their stunned state; it wasn't long before he ran into a fully functional enemy that lifted its horned snout to gore him.

Sorin moved his dagger to defend but aborted when he saw a blade flick out of his shadow and pierce into the boar's neck. He hopped over the boar's corpse and slammed his dagger into the boar's side, injecting a generous dose of acidic poison into its spleen. Its innards liquified and spilled out onto the ground, creating a hazardous pool of poison further hindering the horde's movements.

Sorin caught a glimpse of Barbara's group through a group of intact boar demons. Two of her companions wielded swords to hold back the tide of crazed boars, while Barbara wielded a short spear and shield to significant effect.

As Barbara ran a boar through, Sorin angled his left hand and cast Threading the Spear at three adjacent boars. The three corpses melted as they fell, creating a gap in the encirclement that Sorin used to join the group of beleaguered adventurers.

"Look out!" Barbara shouted as Sorin reached their defensive line. A boar jumped out then and tried to cut him off. Fortunately, Sorin didn't just have Lawrence but Lorimer as well. The rat jumped from Sorin's pocket and flung himself into the boar's eye socket. It fell to the ground, dead, and a burning rat jumped out of its corpse and threw itself at one of its companions.

"You shouldn't have come," said Barbara through heavy breaths as Sorin joined her team.

"What are you going to do, send us back the way we came?" said Lawrence, popping out of Sorin's shadow. He took out a small crossbow and shot arrows from the safe center. "Do you need help, Miss Healer? Team 'We Don't Need a Life Mage' has a unique take on how to treat wounds, but I'm sure we could come to some sort of compromise."

"There's no need to bother yourselves," said the mage as she pulled bloody her hands away from her patient and pulled her clothes and armor back into place. "Do I need to kick you for you to get back to work, Suzanne?"

"I'm getting up," said the groggy tank. "It's just a bit of lost blood. No big deal." She picked up her shield and shoved it past Sorin. "This is my position, thank you. A lightly armored fellow like you shouldn't fight on the front lines."

Sorin agreed with that assessment. His new blood-drinker armor was still leather armor in the end. It would only give him partial defense against tusks and do nothing against hooves and head buts.

He, therefore, retreated to the center with Lawrence and summoned a ball of acidic poison. The Veridian Smoke Bomb shot past a tiring swordswoman, melting three blood tusk boars to the ground and creating a threatening area that no boars dared approach for the next five seconds. The moment of respite was enough for Audrey, Barbara's life mage, to cast a stamina restoration spell and relieve her fatigue.

Sorin and Lawrence's arrival created a chain reaction that significantly reduced the pressure on Barbara's team. They were then able to focus on killing boars instead of defending.

When only twenty boars remained, Sorin jumped out of the encirclement alongside Lawrence and Lorimer. The rat was in his element and had even single-handedly dispatched 15 blood tusk boars. Sorin turned a blind eye to the cores the rat 'accidentally' devoured.

"These boars aren't what's worrying me," Barbara said as she finished the last one. "They're cannon fodder. They're not even worth a second look. The real problem is that group of 200 flame antler deer. They're much larger and stronger than the boars and seem to be accompanied by a two-star demon. Wait, is that Gareth and Daphne riding on Stephan?"

Compared to Lawrence and Sorin, the rest of Team 'We Don't Need a Life Mage of their group was either extremely slow or fragile. Gareth, for example, was quick enough to outrun Lawrence and Sorin but wouldn't have survived charging into the encirclement of boars. The archer had, therefore, settled for shooting arrows from Stephan's back as the twelve-foot bear covered the ground. Daphne had similarly cast two well-placed fireballs to relieve pressure on Barbara's team.

"Sorry we took so long," said Stephan as Gareth and Daphne hopped off. He maintained his arctic rune bear form, complete with the half plate he'd modified using the minotaur's tusks and other armor pieces obtained from Daedalus' Labyrinth.

"That's a lot of flame antler deer," said the staff-wielding Daphne. "I hate flame antler deer. My fire spells won't even be half as effective against them."

"I'm less worried about that and more worried about their buck," said Gareth. "I spotted it hiding amongst the rest and can confirm it exists."

"They've finished grouping up and are readying for a charge," Barbara said to Stephan. "Suzanne and I can hold some of them back, but we'll need help against the buck."

"Don't worry about the buck," said Stephan. "I'll hold him back. Keep a safe distance from me, and everything will be fine."

The demonic deer were much faster than the demonic boars. They crossed half the thousand-foot distance separating them in under 10 seconds. There was no time for advanced tactics, so Stephan placed himself just ahead of their group and prepared to receive the character. Barbara and Suzanne took his two flanks while Sorin and Lawrence remained on standby.

Three. Two. One.

Stephan launched himself forward at the last second, crashing into the front row of deer and knocking them backward. Barbara used her spear to catch a larger deer mid-charge while Suzanne raised her large shield and blocked a set of kicking hooves.

Fire erupted around Sorin and company as the deer, unable to adjust their charge on the fly, resorted to using long-ranged fire attacks against their team. Daphne countered by summoning a fire shield around their group and held on until the fire shield exploded, knocking back the dozen nearest deer without causing them much harm.

The charging deer were a problem for Sorin, who was used to fighting with a dagger at close range. He cast Threading the Spear to take out three charging deer as they approached. The 'spears' of acid caught them in the torso but failed to kill them. Clawed hooves stamped down on Sorin's arms, chest, and legs, thankfully missing vitals thanks to the help of his blood-drinker armor.

Sorin chugged a healing potion and trusted it to work its magic. A total of 17 bruises and accompanying crush injuries, he analyzed. Cracked bones, but none are broken. Setting of bones and removal of splinters is unnecessary.

Even with the potion, Sorin's vitality was significantly depleted. Fortunately, the initial charge was done, and the deer were no longer fast-moving targets. Instead, the nightmarish demons attacked with reckless abandon using their hooves, sharp teeth, and burning horns.

In battles like these, it was Lorimer who was most reliable. The rat had keen survival instincts, and thanks to its small size and sharp teeth and claws, he could burrow into his prey and eat it from the inside out. Sorin winced as he witnessed such a scene not more than ten feet away from him. A demonic deer let out an agonizing shriek as Lorimer burst out of its torso before diving back in to nibble at its insides.

Barbara's group had already formed a defensive encirclement around Gareth, Daphne, and Audrey. Arrows and fireballs blasted apart demonic deer, covering the battlefield in a slick layer of fresh corruption and gore.

Meanwhile, Stephan had already engaged the two-star stag. He matched the creature blow for blow, creating a zone that one-star demons couldn't help but avoid, stabilizing their group's defensive perimeter.

I need to conserve mana, thought Sorin as the battle wore on. He'd already expended a fifth of his mana in the previous fight. He was constantly expending mana despite taking a sip from his potion. Ophidian Eye, Viper Strike, and Adder Rush require very little mana, but they prevent my mana stores from regenerating. Still, they're the most efficient use of my mana for now. They will help us solidify our formation and mount a counterattack.

An added benefit to Ophidian Eye was that it highlighted a target's mana system and lit up when techniques were being utilized. This allowed him to predict when a deer was about to use their movement technique and use Adder Rush to dispatch them before the activation was finalized.

The technique also allowed Sorin to analyze the condition of his teammates. Suzanne, for example, had sluggish mana and was barely holding on, courtesy of Audrey's spells. Thankfully, Daphne and Gareth had diverted most of their attention to supporting the poor tank.

Stephan's condition is worsening, Sorin thought as he threw out another Threading the Spear. His mana fluctuations are about equal to the stag's. Still, the stag has a higher cultivation base and can maintain the expenditure for much longer.

"Gareth! Daphne! Cover me while I break out to help Stephan!" Sorin shouted. He rushed out of the enclosure like a winding serpent, coiling around the confused demonic deer trying to break through their defenses.

Sorin's movements naturally attracted the aggression of the demonic deer, and he soon became the target of sharp teeth, sharp hooves, and searing horns that had similar effects to a firebrand enchantment.

Arrows and fireballs flew in to support Sorin, but avoiding everything was impossible. His body became littered with cuts and puncture wounds; his armor, soaked through with his poisonous blood, did its best to regenerate and cover his vitals.

Not much farther now, thought Sorin. He dodged sharp hooves and rolled, only to find himself beneath another deer, provoking an instinctual stomp. He held out his left hand and cast Threading the Spear, spraying twelve acidic needles into the deer and melting the flesh off its bones.

Sorin dragged his body out of a pile of corrupted entrails and smashed a Veridian Smoke Bomb down on his location. A paralytic mist enveloped his surroundings, causing the demonic deer nearest him to stumble and stagger. Sorin was unaffected by the poison. He took advantage of their stunned state to dart between two deer and execute them with two consecutive viper strikes to the neck.

Sorin rolled away from the two corpses and found himself in a zone of extreme heat and cold. Fire was on the winning side. Ice was almost entirely restricted to a twelve-foot arctic rune bear mauling a two-star demonic stag with surprising agility.