[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 210 – A Monster Shower

“Time to split up!” Sam shouted to the gathered group, watching the sky rain down caustic meteors.

Kai had just managed to catch up, and already looked winded. “Yeah. Okay. Sure,” he grunted. “I’ll just…over…here.”

The militia mandragoras toppled each other over in their mad scramble to get into formation. The little guys looked at everyone, unsure who to follow.

Luckily, a dullahan stepped forward, guiding them towards one of the fallen meteors like a gentle giant.

“Oh no, please not again!” Lenal cried, knowing what was coming, still clinging to Raiko’s back. The elf barely managed to duck beneath the elemental scarf whipping around. It resembled an electrified river tied to Raiko’s neck.

Not the greatest combination of dual elemental mana to accidentally touch.

“Do you really want to run after that meteor on your own two feet?” Raiko asked wryly. When Lenal didn’t budge, she added, “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

“I could just stay here and–” Lenal began.

Sam waved, then quickly took off in the direction of one of those strange meteors by leaping out of the crater he formed. Naturally, he immediately formed another crater when he impacted the ground several yards away.

“You need the Experience points,” Raiko told her firmly, glancing at Sam’s departure. “You’ll be able to fight just as well as any of us.”

“...Yes, ma’am,” Lenal squeaked, squeezing even tighter. She was mentally preparing for the inevitable bracing winds that accompanied the awful stomach dropping sensation of hurtling at top speeds. The Academic hid her face in Raiko’s purple-black hair and tried not to scream.

I’m better off not seeing the landscape and sky lurch by, Lenal thought in desperate, almost feverish denial.

Raiko coughed. “Little tight,” she rasped.

“Sorry!”

Golden glyphs lit up along Raiko’s raised arm, casting another spell, [Glyph: Surgewalk]. Magical flitting symbols swirled around them both, sinking into the Ninja’s skin and armor.

Then they launched forward with great speed, leaving behind Matt and Kai. Lenal made the mistake of looking back and was hit with a wave of nausea. “Urk!”

The sound of Raiko’s katana carving through the mana resembled a long, thin violin note. It was beautiful in its own way. Too bad it was hard to hear over all the wind.

Maybe if Lenal’s Insight attribute was higher, she could pick it up easier.

“What was that?” Raiko asked, her voice partly trailing away on the wind. “If you’re going to hurl, better not be on me, yes?”

“No promises!”

“I swear if you–”

The line of light abruptly cut out and the pair fell, skidding and bouncing roughly across the downward slope of the land near the fortified wall. A meteor had crashed nearby, and malformed monsters were already forming out of it.

Something wasn’t right. Lenal looked down. Raiko had landed painfully, lying prone and face first on the ground. There was little chance the Ninja would miss the landing, unless something was wrong.

Lenal climbed off and turned Raiko over carefully.

She was unconscious and bleeding from the grinding impact.

The monsters began charging at the walls. A boar-like creature with tusks growing all over its body like cancerous growths slammed into the ironwood palisade.

The wall held strong, but it wouldn’t last forever.

“I can’t fight them on my own,” Lenal whispered, having used [Analyze] to examine the monster’s levels.

Most of the beasts were level 30 and over. Lenal’s combat Job was hardly up to the task. However, they seemed to be somewhat weak to fire mana.

Shaking with fear, Lenal poured a health potion into Raiko’s mouth, then took her wand out of her pouch. There was little she could do to rouse Raiko.

The soul affliction was taking its toll on the Sage. It was only a matter of time until it happened during combat. Though, it had yet to, until now.

Lenal launched spell after spell into the monsters attacking the walls. Despite the blazing fire singing their hides, they didn’t turn to attack her. There was something strange about the feverish, single-minded hatred the monsters had toward the wall.

And then Lenal realized the truth. They wanted what was inside, and her pathetic attacks wouldn’t be able to stop them.

***

Kai lumbered over to one of the meteors, readying [Vinebound Assault]. A new spell he was more than excited to test out.

Unlike Matt’s monsters, these were lizard-like beasts that walked on two legs and had long claws that they used with surprising effect.

Of course, Kai thought to himself as he dodged aside, smacking one creature’s grasping paw away and dropping to the ground to use [Vinebound Assault]. Boars are easy to deal with. I had a boar spear back home, but these? Why do I get the worst ones?

It was not like him to complain, but it was annoying that Matt, of all people, got the easiest of the monsters and still required the help of their king, Sam, to finish off the problem.

That would not be Kai.

Thick green cables lashed out of the ground and grappled with the nearest monsters. Their sharp claws cut through the vines, but more sprang up in their place, easily outnumbering the vicious monsters.

One by one, they were ensnared and slowly dragged deep into the earth where their bodies would nourish the Skyshard and improve the soil for generations to come.

It was the sort of spell that Kai relished most. Strong, violent, but ultimately subtle and beneficial. His Nature spells did not mar or harm the world around them, but enriched it.

More monsters were summoned by swirling electric tornadoes the size of a man. They dispersed the moment the creatures were spawned, but Kai was ready for them.

More vines sprang forth, whipping and beating the creatures into submission, while others wrapped and choked them, drawing them down into an early grave.

He would not sully the soil like Matt’s poison. He would nurture it. A field of food that grew here would have its yields doubled, fed by the turbulent mana that he was dispersing into the ground.

A grin spread across his deeply tanned features. An idea formed in his head, and rather than assault the meteor that seemed to be the source of his violence, Kai stepped back and summoned more vines.

He would create a wide field here enriched with the mana from the very Maelstrom that was trying to destroy his home. He would use it to empower his people and their crops for generations to come.

Then he saw the second meteor, and the third, and even Kai’s plans for improvement paled compared to the growing threat all around him.

Perhaps it would be most prudent if I destroyed the threats first, Kai thought to himself. His spells were less flashy than his friends’ but they were no less potent.

The levels he had gained recently were replete with powerful forces that he was eager to try out. None were quite as useful as [Vinebound Assault], but he could always bury the bodies later.

Perhaps he could grind up the meteor and use it as fertilizer?

Kai stomped his feet, spread his stance wide, and cast [Anger of the Earth]. The ground rumbled all around him as the creatures spawned forth from their horrible electric tornadoes, but they did not last long.

The earth, roused to rage by Kai’s call, cracked and jolted all around him. Sprays of Nature mana, practically invisible to the naked eye, doused the creatures as fissures opened up and swallowed others whole.

All around him, the land broke apart, and the creatures failed to find a footing, much less make it more than a few feet toward Kai as he continued his dance.

It drained an incredible amount of mana, but it was his best area attack. Even the meteors started to crack and splinter, eventually shattering into large chunks of slag.

Experience notifications rolled in, but Kai only paid attention to the first to catch the creature’s name.

You defeat a [Blighted Saurian (Level 30)].

You gain additional Experience for slaying a Tough monster!

And its level. All that training has paid off, Kai thought to himself.

He never would have thought that he could take on a group of level 30 monsters and not only stand firm against them, but destroy them as well.

It felt good to be strong enough to protect his new home.

The levels would help him to close the gap between himself and his king, but he knew it would never be enough. Even if he stayed out here all day every day, Sam would find a way to keep going.

Kai looked at the roiling earth around him as its various cracks and fissures sealed up at his behest. The monsters were defeated. Their carcasses would feed the land for a mile around.

How he had bungled his relationship with the man he had once hoped would be his brother was unconscionable. He dearly missed his family, and his little sister, Leilani, most of all.

Perhaps if I had been a little less abrasive, they would have gotten together, Kai thought to himself. He looked to the horizon, where brilliant flashes of light signaled Raiko’s battle was still underway.

Not that Raiko would make a poor queen, he added. She is a nice enough woman, though I fear that Sam is too focused on everything around him to see the looks she gives him. The tenderness and care she lavishes on him at every opportunity.

There might be a way he could repay his debt to Sam. A talk might just be what was needed. Sometimes men could be so unaware of these things. He had seen it firsthand with Leilani, and his maternal guardians gave him unending grief about it.

Kai swept his arm to the side and a wave of earth and stone rolled over the corpses, burying them deep below and spreading them far and wide. Raiko could handle herself, though he should probably go see what Matt was up to.

Leave that man alone for a minute and he was liable to wind up dead. Even if Kai couldn’t heal him directly–he was working on fixing that–he could at least make sure his ally wasn’t ripped to pieces.

***

Sam was in his element. With Komachi buffing him, and his massive sword swinging around, occasionally spewing gouts of molten lava that burned the blighted creatures to their oddly metallic bones, he was untouchable.

The creatures were an unholy cross between a zombie, a hunchback, an orangutan, and a mummy. They were low to the ground, hunched severely, with arms so long they dragged on the ground, and yet they had impressive strength for being rotting creatures wrapped in bandages.

They also came with curved daggers that they were exceptionally eager to drive into Sam’s chest. The [Blighted Qultrub] were not the kind of creature that Sam would have preferred to fight, but they were what he got.

He had seen other creatures spawn from different meteorites and wondered if somehow the monsters were adapting to their opponents. There was a hint of malicious intent behind the meteors, which the qultrub were eager to defend with their lives.

Being undead creatures, they were a perfect counter for Sam. His overwhelming strength could damage them, but unless he completely destroyed them, they would get back up again. Being hurt or getting a limb cut off did little but inconvenience them.

“Cast healing magic on them!” Sam called as he raised his sword and blocked a knife strike. He pulsed mana into the blade and a spray of lava incinerated the qultrub, but another quickly took its place.

Playing her harp, Komachi sent out a wave of healing magic. The effect was immediate and severe.

The qultrubs’ bandages blazed with an odd silvery flame that ate through their fetid flesh like dry grass before a forest fire.

“Dang, light mana plus healing magic does tons of damage to these things!” Komachi said.

Sam gave a few token swings to keep them away, but it was hardly necessary compared to the overwhelming power of Komachi’s attack. If she had a powerful single-target cure, she likely could have killed each creature with a single cast.

Unfortunately, she was built more for healing-over-time and area-of-effect, but it was the opening that Sam needed.

Using [Heavy Blade], covering his sword in silvery metallic light, he extended the reach of his sword several times over. Much faster than he ever could have before, thanks to his enhanced Control stat.

The difference between using mana before and now was insane. If this was what Mages felt like, no wonder they were all so obsessed with magic!

Sam let Komachi focus on the creatures while he cleaved each of the meteors in half. A single [Heavy Blade] was all it took. Before he would need to release the mana after using the attack once, but with his enhanced Control he could keep the mana flowing.

It continually drained his MP, but it was a small amount compared to readying the damn thing every single time. He could keep the sword sharper and extend it far past the sword’s impressive 8-foot-reach in a flash, then retract the mana when he didn’t need it.

I’m going to need to change my entire way of doing things now, Sam thought as the last meteor was cleanly sliced in two.

The last of the qultrubs fell to the ground in a pile of silvery ash. Sam speared the tip of his sword into the ground and surveyed the battlefield, reaching up a hand to scratch Komachi’s chin and congratulate her, when he saw the fires.

His home was burning.