Chapter 148: Weight

Chapter 148: Weight

Many thoughts crashed together in Rain’s mind all at once, warring for his consideration, but he shoved them all aside. There wasn’t time to think.

Purple light flashed, and an asshole puckered.

“Down!” Rain shouted, Ameliah’s voice mixing with his as she yelled the same thing. He was already bending his knees to jump, but a push from Tallheart sped things along. As he tumbled through the air, trying to control his fall, he saw an enormous boulder crash through the branch where they’d been standing moments before. There was a ripping crash as the stone struck, and the branch disintegrated into jagged shards of shattered wood.

It was a quick trip to the ground, and Rain landed hard on his back, not having managed to get his legs under himself. He didn’t let the impact faze him, however. The fifty meters from the canopy to the ground was nothing. He scrabbled to his feet amid a downpour of rock and splintered wood, placing his shield between himself and the danger. He pulsed Refrigerate at maximum power to flash freeze the underbrush and started moving before his senses even returned. Frozen foliage snapped, then shattered as he sprinted for cover.

More stones hit, the impacts high above him, and Rain cursed, crouching behind one of the enormous trees. There was a purple flash, much larger than any of the others so far. The world darkened in a wave, and simultaneously, the saturation meters on his HUD jumped by over five thousand points. Shards of rock and wood pelted down on him like bullets, slamming into the ground and shattering the frozen underbrush into icy powder.

No, wait...

The foliage had been flattened BEFORE the impact of the debris. All around him, Rain heard the creaking and snapping of wood as branches were torn from the trees, but he couldn’t spend even a second to process that, as he’d just seen something that made his breath seize in his throat.

Ameliah had hurtled out of the sky, crying out as she hit the ground with incredible force. Rain cursed, fighting to stop himself from running to her aid. He knew he couldn’t. There was nothing he could realistically do to help her other than to stay out of the way. He watched helplessly as she pushed herself back to her feet, struggling against the same unseen force that was affecting the trees. Branches were still breaking, one after the other, and Rain raised his shield above his head, hearing alarming creaking from the large limb directly over him. It was bowed down as if weighted by an incredible amount of snow.

Ameliah took a few halting steps, then straightened her back with a grimace and looked up at a nearby limb. She jumped but got nowhere close to reaching it, landing in a crouch with a heavy thump that was much louder than it should have been. The frost that had been kicked up by her landing was sucked back to the ground like iron filings to a magnet.

Rain’s eyes widened as the full implications of what he was seeing settled over him. It can control fucking gravity!? Arcane bullshit!

He looked around, then up. The air around him for about a meter was clear, but outside of that, the darkness extended as far as he could see, both through the trees and all the way to the ceiling. It wasn’t like smoke, more like shadow—as if the light of the Fire Moss was just that much dimmer.

Just how big is this spell?!

Rain’s attention returned to Ameliah as she rose, moving with more certainty now. She dashed forward, heading in the direction of the monster, snapping the fallen branches as she plowed right over them. Her footsteps were loud, a testament to the amount of force she was putting behind them.

“Hmm,” Tallheart said from beside Rain, making him jump. He turned his head to see the antlered smith standing unbowed beside him at the center of his own, larger sphere of clear air.

He motioned to Rain, then began walking briskly after Ameliah. “Come. She will appreciate my assistance, and I cannot leave you behind.” As Tallheart moved, the shadows seemed to flow into his armor, leaving a tunnel of clear air in his wake. What few branches hadn’t been completely shattered by the impact with the ground sprung back slightly as he passed, the enchantment broken.

Rain stood, hurrying after him. This spell isn’t like an aura. It isn’t replenishing itself. It’s an AOE curse, probably with a set duration. He shook his head, increasing his pace to catch up while making sure to stay as far from the darkness as possible. Tallheart’s armor would have an incomparably higher saturation point than his own, given what it was made from.

A chill ran down Rain’s spine as he considered what would have happened to him had he been unarmored. He’d have been subjected to the full force of the spell, which wouldn’t have ended well for him.

It’s affecting Ameliah, and her Arcane resistance is in the thousands... He glanced up. The branches are bending despite how stupidly tough the wood of these trees is. Just how strong is this spell? Ten times gravity? A hundred? His steps slowed as he neared the edge of the trees, then he stopped. Maybe I should stay here.

“Come,” Tallheart said, turning to look at him. Firelight flashed from behind him. Ameliah had engaged the monster.

“But—“ Rain began.

Tallheart cut him off by grabbing his hand and pulling him forward as he turned to continue. “You must remain near me. We do not know what else it can do.”

“Right,” Rain said, shaking his head. If it has more AOEs, hell, even if it just casts this one again, I could be in trouble. He glanced at his HUD, where the saturation bars were decaying incredibly slowly. If my armor saturates, I’m done. Pancaked.

They passed through the final trees, then stepped out into the clearing. Here, too, shadows hung in the air, the normal crimson cast from the Fire Moss darkened to a bloody red by the Hababa’s spell. Ameliah was sprinting along the ground through the flattened remains of the colony. As Rain watched, she suddenly changed direction, dodging a car-sized stone that the Hababa had sent hurtling toward her. She retaliated with a trio of Fireballs, and a detonation rocked the cavern as the cloud of stones surrounding the monster was blasted away. Gravel pelted the ground like hail, only the largest stones remaining aloft.

The Hababa’s health bar was down by a tenth. Ameliah had been busy.

“Hmm,” Tallheart said, stopping near the edge of the Meteor crater, the walls of which had slumped down under the gravity. He released Rain’s hand, then bent to pick up something that glittered metallically in the ruddy light. Rain recognized it after a moment as a jagged piece of a Hababa blade.

Tallheart straightened, turning the shard over in his hand as he inspected it. He looked up, then pulled back his arm and whipped the chunk of metal like a Frisbee so hard that there was a blast of wind from the motion. The shard flew too fast for Rain to follow its motion, but he did hear it shatter as it struck its target.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Ahbahabam shrieked, blasted backward by the force of the impact. The path the shard had taken was visible as a thin line of light through the shadow. It didn’t curve in the slightest, telling of just how fast the shard had been moving. The metal probably hadn’t even had time to saturate.

“Hmm,” Tallheart said, sounding satisfied.

Holy shit. Rain could only stare. The monster had already recovered, swooping as it dodged another blast of fire from Ameliah, despite the way the missiles curved to follow it through the sky. I am so out of my league.

“Find more shards,” Tallheart said, laying a hand on Rain’s shoulder. “Use Detection.”

Rain nodded, doing as ordered, then pointed. “There.”

“Come,” Tallheart said, moving in that direction. “We must— One moment.“ He leapt diagonally, intercepting the boulder that the Hababa King had sent hurtling straight at Rain’s face.

Deepstone shattered before the might of Tallheart’s kick, but he wasn’t able to block the boulder completely. A large shard struck Rain in the shoulder, exploding into powder and sending him stumbling back. His armor had easily withstood the hit, though its durability dropped by a few hundred points.

“Ah,” Rain gasped, raising a hand to his shoulder.

Tallheart skidded as he landed, then reversed direction and placed himself between Rain and the Hababa King.

“Hmm,” he said, straightening and dusting himself off. “That was unexpected. Its retaliation should have been toward me, not you.”

A Fireball detonated, and the Hababa screamed again. The sound was just as piercing as ever, but not nearly as rattling to Rain as the realization of how close he’d just come to death.

If that had hit me, I’d have been paste... He lowered his arm, marveling that his shoulder didn’t even feel bruised. Actually, maybe not, but still. It would have HURT.

“Come,” Tallheart said, tilting his head forward. “We must retrieve the shard.”

Rain nodded. Worry about that later. He moved, careful to keep Tallheart between him and the fight.

Ameliah landed heavily nearby. She looked up, searching for the Hababa, and her stomach flip-flopped as she beheld the entirety of the cavern laid out above her.

This spell is bullshit. It’s like Levitate, but enormous and undodgeable. It’s no fair.

She shook her head to clear away the momentary disorientation, then stood, ready to dodge again if needed. She was used to sudden changes in perspective thanks to Redirection, just not on this scale.

Below her, a bare patch of stone on the floor corresponded to the circle of dirt around her. The two circles were connected by a pillar of shadow that made making out details difficult. The darkness was partly from the spell and partly from the simple fact that the Fire Moss below—above?—her feet was now buried. Outside the circle, the rest of the moss was still glowing brightly, and her eyes were quickly adapting. The river of lava was visible below her as a crimson snake winding through the trees. Where it touched the boundary of the spell, it fell into the air in a torrent of glowing droplets—droplets that were now raining down all around her. The molten stone had spread as it fell, and with a thought, she activated Shrouded by Flame to protect her clothing, though it was already ripped practically to shreds after her passage through the rising ground.

Damn bullshit spell.

Ameliah’s eyes latched onto the Hababa King, tracking it as it smoothly descended toward her. The monster was glowing clearly in the magical spectrum, despite the gloom. Good. It’s coming for me. Looks like it’s at half mana. She shifted her gaze, searching for Rain and Tallheart and finding them standing on a small island of dirt, upside down from her perspective. The area around them was brighter than the rest of the circle, clear of the spell. She nodded to herself, relieved, though she already knew that their armor would have protected them.

They’ll be fine. I need to worry about myself. I’m on my own until this expires, but as long as I’m careful... Oh shit, it’s going to expire.

Quickly, she used Message, forming a connection to Rain.

[I’m planning to stall until this spell wears off. Make sure you’re not standing where you are when it does.] She paused, then recast Message, judging it worth the extra mana. [Oh, and I’m fine, by the way. This is some major Arcane bullshit, though, for sure. Did you know that you’re standing on the ceiling?]

She let the connection close, focusing once more on the Hababa Shaman, which was falling quite quickly now. She tensed, watching as mana built in its fingers. The signature appeared to be similar to that of the void spheres, yet subtly different. Wary of what that might mean, she dodged backward, but when the monster loosed the magic, it didn’t aim it at her. Instead, the spell struck the stone directly below its feet, creating a perfectly circular hole through which the Hababa vanished.

Oh. Ameliah blinked. So that’s how it dodged my Meteors. Void tunneling. She shook her head. This thing would be a nightmare if it was a higher level.

A tremor ran through the stone, and Ameliah jumped away just in case the Hababa was able to tunnel horizontally. The ground erupted while she was in mid-air, though not below her as she’d feared. Ahbahabam had emerged right where it had entered, just as it had done the first time. Also as before, it was surrounded by Arcane energy and countless chunks of debris.

Ameliah narrowed her eyes, waiting for the trick as she prepared herself to dodge. It can’t be just planning to do the same thing as before, can it? It doesn’t strike me as being that dumb. It has to have realized by now that it can’t hit me with one of those.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The monster screamed, releasing a pulse of magic. The stones around it shattered into a cloud of tiny shards, about the size and shape of arrowheads. It whipped its arms around, the stones trailing after its hands and forming four spinning rings around its body. The magic built further, the individual stones beginning to glow independently of the magic field surrounding them.

Ah. Something new. I’m guessing it’s going to spray them at me, and they’ll explode on impact. Dodging that’s going to be tricky.

The Hababa smiled, pulling back its lips to reveal its jagged yellow teeth.

Ameliah crouched down, preparing herself. The glow was getting brighter as the monster’s mana continued to drop, and concern started to worm its way into her heart. That’s...quite a bit of mana it’s using there. It must be trying to finish me off. Don’t tell me they’re homing. That would be just unfair. Damn it. Should I just run out of the field? No, I can’t do that. It might go after Rain and Tallheart.

Ameliah looked up to check on them, then smiled. They’d come up with a plan, it seemed.

Brace.

The Hababa’s magic flared, but just before it launched its spell, a boulder the size of a black bear landed on its head. The stone was moving with ridiculous speed after its fall through the weight-altering spell. Ahbahabam was hammered out from the center of its rotating stones so quickly that it seemed to vanish, leaving the spinning rocks behind. The ceiling shook beneath her feet from the force of the impact, and tiny explosions of magic peppered the air as the rings broke apart, each stone detonating impotently in the air.

Ameliah smiled. That looked like it hurt. She sent a quick message to Tallheart. [Nice shot.]

Walking forward carefully, she began chanting the incantation for Fireball. She’d have prepared a Meteor instead, but she wasn’t sure how the spell would function inside the Hababa’s field. Meteor normally appeared high above the target, and it wasn’t clear how that would work given her present situation. Besides that, she didn’t think Tallheart’s improvised version of the spell had injured the monster badly enough to prevent it from dodging. Meteor was slow.

Debris exploded upward, and Ameliah leapt back. The Hababa King was bleeding, and its health had dropped, but the damage was even less than she’d expected. Its mana was the real casualty. The disruption of its spell had left it with only a quarter remaining.

Not seeing a reason to wait, Ameliah launched her Fireball. The Hababa raised a protective screen of debris with a wave of a hand, then tossed a rock at her in retaliation. She dodged easily, smiling.

Got any tricks left?

Apparently, the answer was no. After a half dozen more exchanges, interspersed with two additional gift boulders—neither of which hit, unfortunately—the Hababa King seemed to decide that it had had enough. Its mana almost empty, it turned, then flew toward the edge of the field.

Ameliah jumped—not after the Hababa, but backward, out of the magical field. Watching it flee, it had occurred to her that there was another explanation for its sudden departure. She was proven correct seconds later as the field expired and the circular slice of dirt dropped.

[Get out of the circle!] she screamed to Rain with Message as she began to fall. Quickly, she reoriented herself, then used Airwalk to leap after the Hababa. In the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of white light from off in the trees.

That’s Purify. Ameliah smiled as the falling dirt crashed into the ground below, happy in the knowledge that Rain had heeded her first warning. She wasn’t worried about Tallheart. He’d obviously been the one who’d remained in the area to do the boulder chucking, but he wouldn’t be hurt by something as minor as a tidal wave of dirt. Worst case, they’d just have to dig him out.

She began chanting up a Fireball, dismissing Shrouded by Flame as she locked her eyes onto the fleeing monster. It was angling for the treetops, which was unacceptable. She kicked herself after it with Airwalk, shoving against the air as if climbing stairs two at a time, only horizontally. Landing would be interesting, but that was a secondary concern. You are NOT getting away.

The Hababa King crashed into the treetops, breaking branches and ricocheting off a tree before thudding heavily to the ground. Ameliah arrested her own fall with considerably more grace, surprising even herself by landing adroitly on a branch. The Hababa was just getting to its feet below her, so she promptly blasted it with the Triplicate Fireball she had at the ready.

Without a stone to block, nor the mana to raise one, the monster took the full force of the spell right in the back. It was slammed roughly into the ground as the surrounding vegetation was blasted away, burning from the flames. The monster got to its feet slowly, limbs shaking as it looked around. After a moment, it tilted its head to snarl up at her.

Ameliah paid it no mind, busy preparing her next spell. The monster seemed to be having difficulty standing under its own weight. Looks like it’s done. I can’t see its stamina, but there’s no way it ran out. This has to be essence starvation. She finished chanting and immediately fired. Too bad, Ahbabawhatever. You’ll get no mercy from me.

It took more than one cast to finish things, but Ameliah didn’t move from her branch as she ruthlessly hammered the Hababa with Fireball after Fireball. There was no need to use anything else, and soon enough, the Hababa King died. According to the system, her contribution was eighty percent, and she was sure that some of the remaining twenty percent was Rain’s. The boulders had probably been his idea, and even if they hadn’t been, he’d given her mana. That was more than enough.

She dropped to the ground, then walked over to the charred body of the Hababa. Its crown was lying nearby, having finally tumbled free during her barrage. The silvery metal was glowing to her eyes, saturated with magic but apparently undamaged. She knelt to pick it up, finding it warm to the touch, but not unreasonably so.

She raised it to her head, then sighed. It was far too large, of course. Besides that, the system had nothing to say about any enchantments that it might hold. She was reasonably sure that monsters couldn’t bind items, which meant there was nothing there. It was only metal.

Oh well. Tallheart will want it, I suppose. Is it silver, or something better? It’s heavy, I can tell you that. After another moment of consideration, she shrugged, then looped the band of metal over her shoulder. She turned to face the corpse, then activated Purify and watched as it began to dissolve away.

Level twenty-four, huh? Poor Rain. She smiled. I guess this just means we need to keep going. If this is the kind of thing we’ll be fighting, though, I’m not sure how far we’ll get.

Light glinted from within one of the monster’s evaporating bones, and she looked to see a purple crystal about the size of a robin’s egg fall to the ground. She smiled, adjusting her grip on the crown.

That should help.