Chapter 38: Stone Heights

Chapter 38: Stone Heights

Vex was realizing that getting to that dark, oozing gate on the other side of the core-space was easier said than done.

That was what he'd decided to call it for now, since he had no other words for it, and there was no literature to explain what it was. Core-space an intermediary space between the world and whatever it was that created monsters during a dungeon break.

Not that he'd had all that much time to figure out the name.

"Watch out!" Sev shouted. Light blue flared across their vision as he cast, divine magic flickering into existence in front of them; a Gold-ranked Elite insectoid slammed into them just a second after the barrier formed. Thin, needlepoint legs stabbed into the surface of the barrier, poking holes through it easily but not quite tearing the whole structure down.

Derivan sliced through the limbs that poked through the holes, eliciting an angry screech. Vex tore through it a second later with a [Mana Blast], concentrated into thin lasers that burned holes in its chitin. But he could already see a problem: they needed a way to clear away a large number of enemies; fighting through them like this was slow, and would exhaust them long before they managed to reach the gate.

Fortunately, he'd had time to figure this space out. He'd had time to understand, thanks to Misa and Derivan's efforts in protecting the two more fragile casters. This space wasn't filled with ambient mana, not in the same way the Nucleus had been.

But there was something else he could take advantage of.

They were in an area that was highly spatially compressed. Now that they were inside the core-space, they, too, were being spatially compressed.

So what if he undid that compression at the moment his [Fireball] landed?

That couldn't be the only thing that he did, was the problem; if all he did was increase the size of a [Fireball], then all he would do was agitate far more monsters than the team could handle, for a single spell would be far from enough to kill all the Gold and Silver ranked monsters the spell would undoubtedly hit. He needed to scale up the damage, or else modify the spell so that it took out the monsters it hit in some way.

Manaburn would be useless. These insectoids were warriors, not mages, and unlike a lot of lower-leveled creatures they didn't rely on mana-based attacks to do damage; they had raw stats to fuel their strikes.

Sleep had no guarantee of working on monster physiology.

Which meant a different route. Something he'd seen before, even.

"Misa," he said calmly. "I'm going to make a [Fireball], and I'm going to need you to hit it with a [Paralyzing Bash]."

"What?" Misa winced as one of the insectoid-creatures crashed into her right as she spoke; she swung her mace wildly, knocking it away as it tried to cut and slice into her. It was a good thing they were light. "Fine. Ready when you are."

"Almost," Vex responded, and focused on his spell. [Fireball] was still his favorite for modifications.

He hadn't quite understood how the Overseer had managed to absorb and reflect Derivan's [Paralyzing Slash] back when it had happened. But now, with the fight against the Aberrant, he thought he understood.

Arcane mana was the key.

He finished the spell. It was a [Fireball], but it was not. The core was pure Arcane, and the inner layer of the spell was set to invert the spatial compression set upon it; the outer layer was linked to the core, to allow Misa's [Paralyzing Bash] to propagate into the core

Unknown skill attempted!

Parsing...

And there was no time limit here, unlike their time in the Nucleus. There was no defensive structure they could build; the barriers they had were instantly destroyed, because these monsters were smart enough to break them.

They needed to make their way to the gate at the other end of the core-space, and it felt like it was further away than ever. It didn't help that the gate was only producing more monsters, and it felt like they were struggling against an endless tide.

"This isn't working," Sev eventually said, his words grim. He was focused despite his words, though, divine magic flowing through him to keep Misa's and Vex's health topped up; at this point, it was more crucial to keep Misa's health high than Vex's, because she sometimes had to block as many as five attacks at once. "We need another plan."

"We don't have anything better," Misa growled out. The metal of her mace clanged against an insectoid blade, the monster letting out a frustrated chitter as it was blocked. "Derivan's lost most of his skills and I'm a defender. Vex"

"We could do that lightning spell a few more times," Vex said. A complicated spell construct hovered between his hands; he'd switched between a few different spells, now, trying to find one that worked best for the situation. "But I don't want to risk drawing another crowd this big."

If there was just a way to get them all to the gate. But he didn't have any teleportation spells, and they would all far exceed the amount of mana he had to him even if he had; teleports were the type of spell that required mana crystals to fuel. Prodigous as his mana stores and generation was, it wasn't enough to handle teleportation.

If there was just another way...

Derivan's eyes narrowed as two insectoids threw themselves at Vex at once, and the lizardkin watched in barely-disguised awe as the animated armor slipped between them both; for all that they were high-leveled, the chitin they were made of was just that ordinary chitin.

He didn't slice. He punched, dropping his sword so that he could drive his fist straight into the chitin; insectoid armor cracked in a spiderweb pattern before abruptly caving

Vex averted his eyes, looking instead at the ground.

And he paused.

If he could reverse the spatial compression on a fireball...

An ordinary [Stone Wall] wouldn't be enough to launch them. But it was a different matter entirely if the ground he was standing on was spatially compressed, and he undid that spatial compression as the ground was rising

"Actually," Vex said. "I think I have a different idea. Stand close, quick."

The other three glanced at him, looking briefly bewildered they were having a moment but didn't actually need much convincing. A [Stone Wall] was, thankfully, a relatively quick spell to cast, and all he needed to do was cut a few runes in the air to disable the spatial compression the same way the lightning storm earlier had.

"Derivan, grab everyone, please," he requested politely, feeling a little foolish even as he said so but Derivan was the largest of them all, and it was better than the four of them being scattered as they were launched. He squeaked a little as he was pulled close, with Sev on the other side of him and Misa in Derivan's other arm

"Better be quick, Vex!" Sev called, sounding vaguely panicked.

He cast.

Stone sprang into existence beneath their feet, tilted towards the gate.

Spatial compression failed as his runes countermanded it, and they were launched, straight towards the void gate.

"VEX GODSDAMMIT I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS"

The monsters looked up, puzzled, as a screaming cleric soared through the air with three others.

It was a momentary distraction. Once the party left their sight, they returned to their original goal the bright, shining light that called to the anger that burned within them.