Published at 16th of February 2024 2:23 pm

Chapter 2.4 Fungal Assault

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Baron Edelweiss had several Earth Shapers in his employ. Only a handful had stars stronger than apprentice rank and mainly used their magic to clear land for fields, dig trenches, or speed up the construction of dams. They had minimal combat experience but still lived relatively comfortable lives. Their pay didn’t make them rich enough to live in the same luxury as minor nobles or affluent merchants, but they and their families formed the bulk of the upper middle class in the barony.

Now, wartime had forced them into an alien environment. They struggled to maintain their concentration while projectiles rained around them. Several needed armed guards with orders to cut down deserters to ensure they did their job. It took a couple of examples—under Baron Edelweiss’ orders—before they did their jobs in earnest.

Going through the myconids front line wasn’t an option. The baron’s officers were more than willing to sacrifice their soldiers. However, Nox wanted to minimize casualties, and, fortunately, Kris agreed.

Besides building defenses, the mages had also been tasked with building tunnels under the battlefield. Baron Edelweiss had hoped to connect the defensive line to the surviving bastions. They would've served as channels to smuggle refugees without the myconids discovering the ploy.

Unfortunately, progress was slow, and the tunnels wouldn't connect to their destinations in time. The party got the idea to use them to come up behind the myconid line.

Kris's sensor spells let her gauge the distance and direction between her location and her tracers. She used them to determine the myconid ruler's location. The party got as close as possible in the production tunnels and then had the diggers burrow upwards. It took a couple of hours to do so silently without disturbing the earth too much. Nox assisted with all of his stored Rock Melter brew. Since it did nothing to metal or flesh, they could safely use it without worrying too much about it and cold slag raining around them.

Parts of the tunnels frequently suffered from dust or pebble showers because of the rain above or heavy myconids stomping about. The Earth Shapers had to restore sections often, and several soldiers had to be rushed back to the healers after Nox provided first aid. On a few occasions, they had to rely on Lillin's gravity orbs and Nox's Slow to deal with significant collapses while the baron's mages did their job.

The covert project took three painful hours. The party could do little more than hope the myconid ruler would stay in position during the time. It never moved more than three times a day. The boss-class monsters would arrive early in the morning, just before the assault started, and leave at sunset. His entourage would move him across the battlefield once, around midday. Not long after, fresh fungus-covered corpses would join the fray, bolstering the myconid's frontline. Noon was a little over an hour away. The monster didn't follow a strict timetable and wouldn't wait long before changing location.

Lillin and Ernest passed through the breach first. She had Gravity Armor and two orbs prepared while he carried a tower shield and battle axe. The myconids reacted straight away, and a shrill, high-pitched shriek filled the air. Booms and the sound of metal shearing cloth and flesh followed.

Kris and Wilson went through the opening next. Baron Edelweiss’ soldiers followed the pair. The chaos above grew louder, and screams soon joined the cacophony. Nox could do little but spray the passing combatants in the sterilizing solution to protect them from spores.

Only when all the soldiers had passed did Nox and Annabelle exit the tunnel. Baron Edelweiss’ Earth Shapers stayed behind, and the pair stuck to the hole, ensuring no myconids got close. Nox fired arrows surrounded by spiraling essence glass blades. Meanwhile, Annabelle and Otis, the gremlin familiar, watched Nox’s sides.

The tunnel’s exit had put them in the midst of the myconid army. Baron Edelwiss’ frontlines had increased their assault, keeping the shambling fungal soldiers and their giant artillery support busy, ensuring the larger threats couldn’t aid the myconid boss. Yet the party was surrounded on all sides.

Ernest charged the titanic luminous myconid. His giant axehead’s edge glowed a bright red as it sheared limbs off smaller specimens that got in his way. Lillin followed close behind him, ensuring he didn’t get overwhelmed. Her gravity orb-surrounded fists ripped giant chunks out of myconids with every swing. Meanwhile, Kris had disappeared into thin air. She needed her high-power attack spells to damage the myconid boss and entourage significantly. Unlike her stealth, detection, and heat ray spells, it needed time. So, the students stalled.

Nox wanted to help, but his powerful arrows—especially those capable of inflicting sufficient damage to the myconids—caused destruction in too wide an area, and he didn’t want to hurt his companions. So, he fired his projectiles in the opposite direction, ensuring any beasts that broke away from the frontlines to aid the boss didn’t make it to their destination.

The ordinary soldiers attempted to help, but their weapons did little to the titanic myconids. Unlike the shambling animated corpses, the larger specimens had hard, calcified hide underneath the frilly mushrooms growing on their bodies. Nox had them mostly throwing incendiaries and poking with essence-coated spearheads. It bought them time but did little to thin the offending forces.

Speedy, human-sized creatures burst from the myconid lines and charged the hole. The fungus around their limbs hadn’t just calcified but grown. They resembled heavy gauntlets and greaves, which ended in long, ugly claws. When the first of them reached the soldiers, a single swing separated the defender's left arm from the shoulder, tearing flesh more than ripping it.

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Fortunately, Annabelle’s Danger Sense had detected their power. She alerted Nox and the closest of the soldiers—the handful they had grown to know on a first-name basis. Then she joined them, wielding her extendable short spear in one hand and her shield in the other. The weapon glowed with the same light as the mana barrier. Ordinary weapons bounced off the armored limbs, but Annabelle’s spearhead sliced them like butter. Her evergrowing martial skills and magic helped her elegantly dance around threats, first disabling and then executing her opponents.

When Nox first met the woman, she was little more than a damsel in distress. Her brother and fiance kept her under close supervision, controlling how she spent her time. Annabelle lacked a voice and the confidence to pursue what she desired. Now, Kris claimed she was amongst the finest detection support mages the department had ever produced, and they compensated for her martial inexperience. Nox believed her skills were better suited for a war mage. Her Danger Sense and its positive counterpart would undoubtedly prove useful in adept and expert dungeons. However, she needed more defense. Her speed and agility were potent but needed to be more. Nox worried for her safety. For the time being, she had Wilson watching her back.

The Oakheart employee used his time magic to freeze myconids approaching from her blind spots. Occasionally, he laid his hands on injured soldiers. He reversed time for the recently wounded, restoring them and their equipment to near-perfect conditions. If his subject had grave injuries and had spent more than five on the ground, he put them in stasis.

The Artisan’s Arm came alive as the melee reached Nox. He continued to fire projectiles that shredded columns of racing myconids while the tool protected him from anything that got past Annabelle and the soldiers. Gore and sludge sprayed Nox, but he continued firing. Occasionally, he threw bombs made of fire essence into the hordes, incinerating dozens at a time. Otis, the gremlin familiar, kept Nox wary of any unavoidable threats. He repositioned accordingly, escaping blows too powerful or quick for the Artisan Arm.

Five minutes felt like an eternity. The myconid boss recovered from the surprise and rallied its forces. He advanced, whipping large leathery tentacles at Ernest and Lillin. The royal guard protected their ruler from attacks while pushing the attackers back. All the myconid lines advanced, forcing the party and soldiers to retreat toward the hole. Someone fell every handful of seconds, thinning the numbers significantly.

Over the last couple of weeks, Nox had grown to know the fighters and even met some of their families. A pit formed in his stomach as their numbers thinned. Most knew the assault would result in their deaths. Yet they volunteered to protect their homes and loved ones.

One speedy myconid got past the defensive line and charged Nox from his flank. He didn't see it coming until Otis chirped, and rammed his light furball body into Nox's side. The force was insufficient to push him off balance, but sent the nocked arrow flying far off target into the thick mass of fungal surrounding them. He just about avoided the incoming attack and threw up two layers of Slow fields. Much to Nox's surprise, the myconid didn't charge through it. He guessed the myconid was either smarter than the shamblers or instincitvely detected magic and knew to avoid it.

A clawed gauntlet almost raked Nox's chest. The digits' jagged tips ripped his coat and he felt one break skin. Nox conjured a Slow field on top of the myconid and fell backwards. It helped him avoid the following blow and then his opponent lacked the speed to target his Haste-less form. He resolved to adopt the cantrip into his mana system as soon as possible while firing point-blank arrows at his opponent. The first shattered against a calcified arm, shocking Nox. However, blocking further slowed the myconid, letting Nox create and fire projectiles surrounded by rapidly revolving essence shards. The first ripped through the pelvis, shearing off a limb. The next shredded the creature's head into countless fragments of bone, calcified hide, and remnants of tissue that was more fungus than flesh.

Then the world darkened, and three head-sized golden orbs manifested overhead. Kris had completed her spell.

“Close your eyes!” She yelled, appearing underneath them.

The soldiers swarmed around Nox, Annabelle, and the hole. They raised their ward-scribed shields. When Nox channeled his defense spell, the runic script extended its range, feeding on the mana gems they all carried.

The air grew warmer, and screeches surrounded them. When they rose a moment later, flames covered half the advancing myconids and the royal guard. Each of the orbs fired a beam of blinding light every five seconds, burning holes through multiple beasts at once.

“I’ll protect the exit!” She yelled. “Focus on the boss, Nox.”

He left Annabelle behind and raced to join Kris. Nox nocked an arrow made of frost essence, fed Ratra's Bow a monstrous volume of mana, creating a couple dozen of drill-shaped essence glass shards, and fired it at the giant, glowing myconid. The spiraling accompaniments shredded the flesh enough for the explosion to inflict significant damage and freeze two of its six limbs off. Several whipping tentacles went with the pair. The Artisan’s Arm withdrew a jar from his satchel and threw it at Lillin. Gravity Armor enhanced her jump, helping her rise twenty feet into the air. She grabbed it and then fell on the boss.

Lillin’s free hand ripped into the frozen and damaged flesh while Ernest kept the remaining limbs and tentacles rat bay. Kris burned royal guards who attempted to aid the boss, and Nox dropped any she missed.

Soldiers shouted in horror when the myconid boss successfully grabbed Lillin and stuffed her into his mouth. The party didn't worry. Gravity Armor forced her to reinforce her body with subdermal layers, and her mimic physiology ensured she'd recover from any damage she suffered. If anything, she'd have a better chance of attacking the brain stem from the inside.

It didn't take long before the myconids slowed. Their assault lost organization, and some collapsed altogether. Lillin emerged from the boss-class beast's bulbous belly just as it collapsed. The jar in her arms still had its glowing, orange contents. When Nox felt a rush of energy pulse from his core, he was sure Lillin had consumed the creature's arcane core. She threw the container at the remaining royal guards.

It shattered, and the viscous slime splattered on them. The myconids attempted brushing off the slimes as they crawled up their body, singing mushrooms and calcified hide along the way. Fortunately, their giant, clumsy hands failed to save them. The alchemically created entity disappeared into wounds and orifices. They shuddered, screeched, and writhed for a couple of minutes before going still. Meanwhile, Nox and the soldiers put down the myconids that still put up a fight.

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