Chapter 345: Arm and a Leg |
An overwhelming power pinned my arms down to my chest and tried to hurl me away. I used Gravity Anchor to force myself to stay where I was, my armor and bones groaning as the powers collided. Kai let out a hoarse shout as all the air was squashed out of his lungs. Both he and his sword flew directly away from us, descending to drag through the debris. It rose like a tidal wave as Kai’s body was forced through it without being allowed to slow in the slightest.
Guar grunted as he was snagged, but as the force shoved him away his body erupted in golden light and he leapt forward. Despite the skill’s brief reprieve, Guar was immediately back to being pushed away. Varrin growled, and a worrying groaning sound came from some of his equipment. Despite outputting everything his Strength could muster, the force hurled the big guy away like Kai, burying him in the mess of gravel, dirt, and wood.
To put that into context, the man’s Strength was currently at 70. While we hadn’t tested how strong this made him ourselves, other people had done that work in the past. There were fucking charts for this shit, and Strength 70 meant Varrin was just shy of being able to deadlift a million fucking pounds. Despite how absurd that was, even that much raw power hadn’t been enough to push through the Davahn’s attack.
For some reason, likely a dysfunctional one, I found that fact thrilling.
The crushing force smashed through massive chunks of the Shielding I’d granted, transferring a hit of damage my way from everyone but Grotto, who’d thankfully been left alone for whatever reason.
Shielding: 1,407 -> 567
The force being exerted by the United looked like a simple, albeit powerful, execution of Telekinesis. Telekinesis was a spell, meaning that I could Dispel the effect, but this ability was fueled by a different kind of resource. My mana sight could detect it, but Dispel couldn’t get a hold of it, the skill feeling slippery and evasive. There was something else mixed in with the mana, a raw sense of exertion like the United was bending reality with pure flex.
While I dedicated an instance of focus to studying the phenomenon, Aura of Persistence was already working on getting my allies shielded again. Therianthropy came online, and the transformation gave me a massive boost to movement speed. That came with some benefits to my perception speed to keep me from plowing into shit, which made following the United’s moves a little easier.
Guar’s eyes flashed into a golden brilliance that lit up his helm, pushing back the gloom cast by the dark clouds overhead. With it came a sense that the United had been marked, and even if my eyes couldn’t keep up, I gained an instinctive sense of where the danger he presented was about to come from.
“Come on, dude,” I said. “Are you still mad that I asked you to munch on my–”
The Davahn blurred forward, creating a storm of detritus as he rose from the mess. Gracorvus snapped back onto my armguard, and the combination of Therianthropy, Guar’s mark, and my Rapid Blocks evolution gave me just enough reaction speed to bring my shield around to intercept the flurry of attacks the man made. My staff was gripped in my main hand, a second point of contact being kept by one of my feelers, and I brought the Clockwork Lifewarden up to reinforce Gracorvus. The staff rang as its block bonus manifested by layering brief-lived barriers between the incoming attack and my shield.
The hits were thunderous, tearing the air and kicking up more torrents of dirt, stone, and splintered wood. The hits resonated through Gracorvus, shredding what I had left from the 3,000 Shielding I’d walked in here with, then tearing the amalgamated flesh of my arm and rocking me with pressure waves.
Each block threw out a burst of Shielding, and while I’d tossed the first to Varrin, I quickly pivoted to layering it onto myself for the next three strikes in the United’s combo. With the bonus from my new staff and Body of Asclepius doubling all the Shielding applied to me, I was getting 250 points added back to my exhausted total with each punch. Despite the outrageous chain of defenses, the guy was still starting to chip into my health as he hammered into me with the force of falling boulders. Gravity Anchor was the only thing keeping me from being hurled around like a cheap plastic toy.
HP: 3,185 -> 2,737
The damage triggered We Can Do This All Day, granting an ally health or stamina equal to half of what I lost. It converted into life force that flowed into Varrin. The big guy had overcome the United’s odd telekinetic force with his massive flight speed and was rushing in our direction. He was still moving vastly slower than normal, but for Varrin, that was still breaking the sound barrier.
The Ravvenblaq berserker became a ghost that stormed across the last bit of distance faster than I could perceive. He flanked to the left of the United, his soul clone manifesting to flank to the Davahn’s right, the three of us forming a triangular assault just as I blocked the fourth hit. Varrin hit with Soul Strike, his material blade closely followed by a Spiritual copy while his clone did the same, his Spiritual blade simply striking twice.
As all of Varrin’s attacks landed, I dropped an Elemental Barrier on top of us, creating an icy blizzard that pulsed with screaming sonic waves. My staff erupted into off-kilter harmonies. Grotto coordinated to make a simultaneous psychic assault, dumping resources into it to make a supercharged Fear attack that Stunned on a success. That layered with my Slowed, Deafened, knockdown combination from Elemental Barrier that also Stunned.
Varrin’s four-blade attack worked some kind of mojo because the Davahn’s debuff defenses were momentarily weakened. Our swarm of debuffs still hit a wall of negation, but one of the stuns took hold and frost began to coat the United. That broke the telekinesis on all of us, and I took a deep breath to help my ribs pop back into place.
Guar appeared in a streak of divine light, slamming into the slack-jawed United with his shield and unleashing his Stormbreaker stacks. The Davahn tumbled away, body skipping across the churned up ground as thick bolts of golden lightning struck him with such potency it cast him about like god-fueled suckerpunches. Guar followed it up by raising his hammer and throwing it at the enemy, the weapon wrapped in glorious light and no small amount of the Godqueen’s disdain for the United. The ground exploded as the hammer landed.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
A portal opened over the freshly dug crater, and ghastly green fog poured out of it. The emaciated dead roiled about inside as they crawled over one another, vying to drain and wither the Davahn’s flesh. Kai dropped down after them, holding a haunting lantern aloft from which the mist poured. He pivoted to bring his greatsword from where it rested on his shoulder, driving it down in a ground-shuddering executioner’s arc. The murky haze boiled outward with the strike, erupting into a cloud that swallowed the air for hundreds of feet.
The telekinetic force reached out to grasp us again, sending Guar flying back while he let out a frustrated shout. Varrin stumbled back, then pressed forward as his bedazzled cloak billowed out behind him. I still had Gravity Anchor going and teleported closer to drop another Explosion! I wanted to see if we couldn’t keep juggling the United.
Diseased hands reached up to take Kai by the leg and the Davahn tore out from the hole before Explosion! detonated, carrying Kai with him. Rotting flesh fell off of the United in chunks as he released an ear-splitting battle cry. He heaved and drove Kai to the ground, grappling and wrapping his body around the Littan officer. The United’s upper body twisted Kai’s leg and the man let out a pained cry.
Then the Davahn’s body split open at the seam.
The man’s chest bloomed, becoming a gaping mouth filled with rows of teeth. The first were a set of wide incisors, ends tapering like sharpened chisel points. The rows behind it were like sharks teeth, made to dig into their prey and make escape impossible. In a single sickening bite Kai’s entire leg disappeared into that horrible crevice.
Kai’s screams rose to a new pitch, and my Shielding dropped from the protective damage transfer, for all the good it had done him. Before the Davahn could take another bite, Varrin fought through the telekinetic power to reach and skewer him while I shaped and fired an Elemental Barrier in a cone. The United’s feast renewed his debuff resistance, and my spell did little more than a splash of damage. The United rolled off of Kai to avoid the worst of Varrin’s blade, taking a cut to the ribs while delivering a spiteful kick to the side of Kai’s jaw as he tumbled.
Kai’s pained cries immediately ended. The force sent the Littan flipping through the air as he flew off for a hundred feet. Once he landed, he didn’t get back up.
The Davahn ignored Varrin and put on a burst of speed as I tried to land another Explosion!, avoiding the spell despite its considerable size. The man’s enormous mouth was mostly closed, but I could see it moving back and forth as it chewed on its grisly meal. The Davahn’s regular mouth was open wide as he let out a joyous, bellowing laugh. The sound was so jubilant and free that it felt utterly wrong and out of place.
He dashed towards Guar, and the telekinetic force shoving the Littan sergeant away reversed, sending him flying back towards the Davahn. Guar brought his shield up and swung his hammer, the United crashing into both with little care. The Davahn wrapped his arms around Guar’s shield, his central mouth opening and biting down on the object. He tugged and shook his entire body, jerking Guar like an angry pit bull. Then he wrapped his legs around Guar’s arm and neck, taking him off-balance with a fierce jerking motion. As they fell, that mouth opened wide again and bit into Guar’s limb, tearing it away at the shoulder.
“Come on!” Guar shouted. “Not again!”
I swore at Life Warded failing to save my target once more as I ate the damage transfer. The Davahn rolled off the sergeant to skitter about and diminish Varrin’s incoming attacks. He took up Guar’s shield and spun to smash it into the man’s face. The United continued to rotate as Guar slumped over, the Davahn bringing his foot across the stunned man’s head even as Varrin carved into him. Guar’s helm crunched inward and the hit sent him ragdolling away much the same as Kai. Guar didn’t get back up either.
Still, neither man was dead. Guar was a tank and Kai was a heavy brawler. They were built for this kind of abuse, and despite the United’s brutal attacks, they both still had enough health to survive. Guar was immune to Bleeding due to the same Fortitude 40 evolution that I had, and Kai had something similar if not the same.
Normally, a Delver would rapidly recover from a loss of consciousness unless some skill or effect had come into play. Since Kai and Guar were both staying down, I had to assume the United had a way of keeping them that way. It may have had to do with eating one of their limbs, potentially ‘uniting’ and giving him some control over the pair. Or it may have had to do with the way he chained stuns. I could only speculate, but the safest thing to do was to avoid getting a piece of me bitten off or getting my brain rattled again.
Well, 30% of a brain. Could I even get a concussion? I doubted it, especially with my health regen, but that didn’t stop the stuns. I just had to make sure to have some amount of shielding up every time I blocked. Really this was all just good, basic advice to live one’s life by. Don’t get cannibalized, avoid head trauma, make sure you’re always wrapped in a powerful magic barrier whenever you leave the house…
Moving on, Guar’s mark didn’t end when he went down, and I could still track the United’s movements, not that he was moving much. The man squatted low on the ground as he chewed Guar’s arm. The poisoned and diseased flesh continued to rot and fall away in chunks, but it grew back just as quickly. It seemed cannibalism gave him some solid healing, although Kai had managed to stack a ton of Toxicity on the Davahn from the looks of things.
Our foe didn’t make a move towards either downed opponent, instead munching and staring at Varrin and I. The big guy had walked up to stand next to me, looking at the Davahn from behind his completely enclosed ravenskull helm.
“Should we push?” I asked him.
“I don’t mind if our enemy stands around while plague and poison ravages him.”
I glanced at our party interface, seeing that Varrin was close to full on health. I was as well, although the loss of my 3k Shielding sucked.
“You know,” I said, “I’m not using much stamina this fight. I’m mostly relying on spells.”
“You believe he’s too tough for your hammers to make much difference?”
“Yeah. I figure the debuffs are more useful.”
“I think I agree.”
“I know I kept saying that Wall of Force wasn’t super useful in a fight, because of how much it costs to use.”
“It has a variable cost,” said Varrin.
“Sure, but I’m gonna spend 300 stamina on it.”
“How much do you have left?”
“Around 800.”
Varrin grunted. “Sounds good to me.”
“Think I should charge up a bigger Explosion! cast?”
“Save your cooldowns. This isn’t that serious.”
I looked between our two unconscious allies. “Seems serious for them,” I said.
“You could have portalled them out at any time.”
“True,” I said. “I wanted to let them in on the action, but I should probably get them out at this point. Think he’ll try to stop me? There’s some risk he’ll run through the portal before I get it opened and closed.”
Varrin shrugged. “Why would he? The man wants to fight us. If you’re worried, you could call in more help.”
“Not unless I have to,” I said, then started thinking over our strategy. “Does going berserk make you immune to stun the way it makes you immune to mental effects?”
“No, but I can use wallbreaker charges to become immune for 18 seconds.”
“That should be enough to end things, I suppose.”
The Davahn stood and spat out several chunks of metal; the remnants of armor from Kai and Guar. He held out his hands towards the two of us, and we prepped to dive back into the fight. Then, like the man had flipped a lightswitch, all the corrupted flesh and blackened veins on his body vanished.
You gain half of Davahn United’s debuffs!
Davahn United has stolen your buffs!
Good thing you hadn’t applied that big Shielding buff yet.
“Son of a bitch!”