We weren’t in Mavriel anymore anyways, and our coast was clear. My minion skill was my lowest skill, at level one. While I was a more hands on type of guy, I still had to buff those mini bots up by using them more. So I drew them to the field—four of them total. They saw the second Demu and went to action, piling on the cyber beast but to no avail.
The creature kept charging at me, ignoring my bots like they were mindless ticks on its skin.
A laser beam here, a power punch there—all together, those bots drained 200 HP.
Such a long way to go, I said to myself, hoping this thing had a weakness. But if it did, Rufian would have definitely told me.
“All right then, let’s do this the hard way. Earthquake!” I slammed my fist into the ground, the surge of electricity spreading across. The Demu I was fighting stopped dead in its tracks, burning its heel while it looked left and right. My chest went tight at the thought of my Earthquake not fazing it one bit; my second strongest skill to blast shot. Immunity to electricity, another thing that would have been useful to know, but judging by the look on Rufian’s face, it probably came as a shock to him as well.
“Silas, don’t waste your mana on them!” he retorted. “Solely melee attacks! These Demu are upgraded!”
Shit, I didn’t want to, but he had a point. Hell, I wasn’t even aware that cyber monsters could even upgrade. But if I continued down this path, I’d burn through all of my restoration vials in a heartbeat.
“Maybe if I fused the bots and my Enrage, I could get somewhere fast,” I whispered to myself, watching as the Demu picked up speed again. I squared my fists and rolled my shoulder back, waiting for it to whip its tongue at me or spit a poison ball. “Let’s go you ugly bastard! I’m ready for you!”
The Demu charged at me, its razor-sharp teeth aching to bite down on my bones. As expected, it whipped its long tongue at me like a lasso trying to wrangle me in. I allowed it to wrap its slimy tongue around my fist, my cyber gear protecting me from the burning saliva on it. When I got my grip on it tight, I reeled in with all of my might, tapping into my Enrage mode. The strength boost allowed me to yank the monster off its feet, its jowls flying toward me with speed. I cocked my other arm back and swung at it hard, damn near knocking its head right off its spine.
The beast flew yards across the field, my bots still latched on it. When I noticed its head barely hanging on by a thread, I thought it was over, but when I drew close, it defended itself, my body instantly feeling a strange sensation taking over.
I grabbed my light head and staggered back, catching myself from falling. This must be the hypnotize ability, my willpower fighting the need to beam myself. The cyber monster wanted me to do its dirty work, my arm shaking as it resisted. Shit, this was more powerful than the time we were in the nymph forest, my body falling into massive sweats as my cyber hand fell on my chest for a clean blast right through it.
“Son of a bitch,” I growled. That thing was thrashing around and leaking blood like a busted dam and it was still able to hypnotize me?!
Keep it together, Silas! Just turn your arm around and finish it off!
My bots stopped attacking the Demu and took notice. With their eyes on me, they understood my dilemma, and surprisingly enough, helped. All four of them climbed on me and tried to turn my trajectory. I managed to dumb down my Enrage to some degree, enough to help them point my charging blast on the monster.
And then boom, a loud blast, followed by another, and another.
The successions ran my mana dry. The damn thing took more blast shots than I thought for it to fucking die and finally release its hold on me, a testament to a level 110 beast.
Exhausted from the strenuous effort of not pulling a hara-kiri, I dropped on my knee, my arm keeping my head up. I took a breath to recollect myself, but my break was interrupted by a ground-tremoring noise underneath me.
Before I could react, I saw a large set of teeth jump at me!
I sucked in a hard breath and stepped back, pulling myself off the ground, but it got its lock on me regardless. I was too late, my cyber arm being crushed by its strong grip. Its teeth were so strong that it began to dent metal. Desperate to get the beast off of me, I fed the side of its head a barrage of hook shots, my Enrage on, and my strength doubling. “Get off of me you piece of shit!” I growled, specks of poisonous spit splashing on my armor and clothes.
Damn it! There was no way I was going to let this monster shatter my gear and my arm!
In my inventory, I reached for my last bottle of sleeper dust, shattering the glass on the prick’s head. Within seconds, it was down for the count, falling victim to the drowsy effects of the dust. I held my breath and kicked its chest so I could pull away from the dust to save my ass, dashing a good distance away from it to assess my damages. For the most part, it seemed like my arm was still operational, except for my newly added machine gun feature.
Hell, it could have been worse. It could have torn clean through me, or snapped at my leg instead.
“Gotta count my blessings. But these freaks need to be put down quick.”
Reaching into my inventory again, I downed a mana restoration vial. The debate of letting this sleepy one go for now crossed my mind, until I pulled out my long sword and hacked away at its neck. No wasted mana, just good ol’ fashion brute strength. Noticing how easier it was to shave at their HP when fatally wounded, I finished this one off, shocked that none of its friends decided to step in, until I realized that the other six were engaging with Rufian.
“Shit! Rufian!” I called out, hearing growls and grunts behind the hill. A towering lava pillar shot straight into the air before cascading like rain, showering the battlefield below. That show stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t go anywhere near that and expect not to get burned. So I stood there and called out his name again, but he didn’t answer. Inching myself closer to see down the hill, I finally caught the arcane mage, but he was in way worse shape than I was.
“Rufian!”
Six against one—hell, when did he even relocate?! I could have sworn he was fighting right beside me. Ignoring the horde I rushed in, readying up my sonar ring. My four minions followed my sprint down the hill, and then dispersed to the cyber monsters circling Rufian.
Pulse by pulse, I divided their army. My sonar ring was a perfect answer to spacing enemies out, the burst of sonar energy expanding the perimeter by a long shot. It gave me an ample amount of time to unleash another line of bots, sending out six this time. With ten on the field, I tended to Rufian, sliding on my knees and checking his wounds. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, his one eye covered with the blood oozing from his shattered head. He had a limp arm he cradled to his side and it looked broken, Rufian covered in bites and slashes along his battered and bloody body.
“Rufian, can you hear me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
He struggled with a wise smirk. “You’re right next to me, aren’t you?”
“Rufian, why haven’t you healed? You have potions, don’t you?”
“I used all of them.”
“Here,” I said, offering him one of mine, but he refused.
“It’d be no good. I’m poisoned. Look at my HP…”
I did, noticing the gradual deterioration.
“Even though you heal me, I will continue to drain until you kill the one who poisoned me.”
“Damn it, Rufian, there’s six of them out there!” I cursed under my breath, then reached into my inventory, tossing him all of my vials. “Take these and slow down the process.”
“But—”
“Stop being proud and do it! You want to live, don’t you? Just teleport somewhere safe and stay alive. Think you can do that?!”
He chuckled. “You must have a death-wish. It’s best you make a run for it. I don’t even have enough mana to flee myself.”
