And here we are! A new chapter, new situations, all around our lovable bony beansprout.
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Chapter 19: First Fallout OR Ashes, Ashes, Where'd the F**KING PRODUCE GO!
No one really reacted much when the last layers of dust finally settled, the light of Sacred Lines fading from view as Andrew collapsed to the ground panting in exhaustion, followed closely by the snores of Megumin. All was quiet, either awestruck by the sheer power they had witnesses, dumbstruck by the raw prowess shown, or unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed. All pretty synonymous reactions, but different to still count.
At least, Izuku certainly thought as much, feeling literally all of those things and more as he too stared at the field of destruction, not even hills anymore, a FIELD, that had been cut off, crushed, and then what amounted to vaporized. It was the plan, but...it worked a little TOO well.
The 'plan' as it were, was simple. Contain or Confine the Cabbages to a centralized area away from other adventurers, have Ivy and Sheer keep them locked in place while knocking down Cabbages to send the magic to the ground, where the Power Pointer, would harness it into a form for multi fire Explosions. Essentially turning the usual upload of Mana to be gained by eating the Cabbages straight into ready firepower. Short, simple, and easy enough to cancel or change in case one or more parts fell through.
To even call it much of a plan was stretching things really, given that every Adventurer present knew at what time the Cabbage would be arriving, along with strength levels, not even Animal level's of intelligence, and an inability to simply fly straight up when presented an obstacle. Izuku had just happened to make the most of these facts, which, at this point, he could officially state he over-planned for.
If Izuku could quote a now aged movie, 'Rats wouldn't have been trapped this easily. This is more like...Carrots. You're trapped like Carrots.'
And damn if that wasn't appropriate on several levels. If it were any other creature or even sentient ANYTHING, the trap probably wouldn't have worked. Sacred Lines, while strong, was and always would be a two dimensional barrier, stopping everything on either side of it, but precisely nothing under, above, or even over it. The only reason it was even able to reach as high as it did, was due to the sheer amount of Mana being pumped through the air and ground with each Cabbage taken down. It was this precise application against what amounted to walking Mana refills that kept Andrew from simply passing out foaming at the mouth from the sheer strain of a foot tall barrier over the battlefield. As it was now, he would still probably have to wait a while before even thinking of using magic, or Skills using Mana. On the plus side of it though, given how he'd survived the experience, Andrew'd also most likely get quite a good sized buff to his overall Mana pool, if use and training did in fact significantly effect stat gains like Izuku thought.
Still, that was just one part of the plan that could have gone wrong, and by Gods was he happy it didn't.
The power. The sheer, concentrated, evidently ready to erase whatever its facing power generated by the Power Pointer. It was the biggest worry Izuku had about the whole operation and damn if it wasn't for good reason. The Power Pointer was the most detailed and powerful thing Izuku had ever made. It was, in essence, just a giant hand big enough for a regular person to sit in, or a small girl to stand on. Underneath the ground however, it was thirteen feet down and fifty meters across of pure bone, acting as what was in effect a giant, Magical Lightning Rod. Or at least, that was the idea Izuku had for it.
Ever since discovering what a Lich was, it took less than three minutes to draw the lines of information into an actual pattern. Bones were the key to his magic, or at least, one of the main ones. Every Skill he had related to the Race was about taking in Mana through differences in the Bone Structure, this being the thick, deep fingernails on his hand taking in general free-floating Mana like a fish breathing water, to his Molars having thin holes in the back where if he breathed just right could feel Mana being chewed between breaths. Even his Chosen Skills, making Bones appear, harden, become more workable, find new sets of bones to add to his own, to MAKE his own with Spirit Balls, it connected and fit with the whole idea of 'surviving where others cannot'.
So, with all this in mind, Izuku decided to just make a giant version of his own arm. And it, kind of worked? The second Izuku took his hand off of it just became any other giant hand in a field, but when he was? It worked perfectly. But that was the problem. It worked TOO well. It sucked up EVERYTHING. If not for all of the Cabbages, every petal filled to the brim with Mana and apparently EXP from the centuries old Spirits piloting them, Izuku would be worried that every second he was using it would be drying the land out like a drain in a pool.
So this was NOT something that could be done again, if only because Izuku didn't want to know what a land with no Mana in the air or land at all would be like to live in. A shame, but it didn't stop it from being too inhibitive here.
"Wait a minute...WHO JUST GOT ALL THE XP!" A voice called out in the crowd, startling Izuku from his thoughts of what could have been, and doing a marvelous job of snapping the crowd from their collective shocks as well, making them all join in on the bandwagon of what, what, and the fuck happened.
This question made Izuku flinch as well, even as he backed away to his still panting students and rallied them to start fast walking back to the Guild Hall in town.
EVERYTHING, after all, meant EVERYTHING. No Mana in the air to supercharge spells anymore...no Cabbage filled to the brim to with Spirit's to give EXP. Unless people were catching them with their teeth, chances were no-one would be getting easy Levels from this.
Which...even then, Izuku was kind of glad for. Levels seemed like serious business, and to have them granted so easily because of one lucky piece of vegetable...rubbed his sensibilities the wrong way. Nothing against it or anything, it was them choosing to get stronger faster, it just...felt empty, compared to pushing your limits mind and body to breakthrough and become better than the day before.
These Adventurer's obviously didn't feel the same though, so if Izuku and his students started to book it just a little faster as threats of violence started to erupt behind them, then that was just good caution after a tiring fight.
-Scene Change-
Luna stared blankly at them all. Her fellow Guild Attendants stared blankly at them all. The old looking man, projected from a pure blue crystal ball arranged in the center of a table, stared blankly at them all as he overfilled the teacup he was holding, piping hot liquid having long since passed the porcelain edge.
"You fucking WHAT." The old man, was the first to break out of whatever state the others had landed in, with Luna having met the Lich and his students at the hall with good cheer and mugs of juice and mead before Izuku had stated that the Cabbage Migration was now erased. Then Luna tripped hard enough to land on her face, change it into a somersault and, having abandoned the drinks at this point, immediately ran into the back and grabbed said crystal ball and any other Guild member she could grab along the way, before forcing all of them to sit the fuck down and explain themselves.
And now here they all were, tired, uncomfortable, and inside the barred from regular entry Guildhall explaining what happened to the third person in a row, each as old as the last.
"Like I've been saying. We stopped the Cabbage migration with a few barriers to hold it in place, and then used Explosion to destroy anything within the barriers. Simple, and effective." Izuku said again, even he starting to get annoyed and anxious, mostly due to the sheer repetition of it all, and the way Luna was wheezing off to the side corner now.
"No. No, no part of that was effective, or simple. HOW did you make a barrier large enough to hold multiple thousands of enemies. HOW did you use an Explosion Spell STRONG ENOUGH TO WIPE OUT THOUSANDS AND STILL LIVE." The old man snapped, throwing away his cup of tea off to the side, making someone scream off 'screen', making Izuku actually frown for a moment, both at the sudden yelling, and the violence on a person who truly didn't deserve that.
"The barrier was made by the Sacred Lines Skill, by my student, Andrew. The Explosion Spell was by another one of my students, Megumin of the Crimson Clan." Izuku tried to explain calmly.
"THAT MAKES EVEN LESS SENSE!" And was promptly disappointing when the old man screamed loud enough to blow Izuku's hair back somehow.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW INSANE THIS IS! THE FIRST STOP OF THE CABBAGE MIGRATION, ANNIHILATED! NOT EVEN BY A FRIENDLY LICH WHO HAPPENED TO LIVE BY, NO, BY HIS 'BEEN ADVENTURING FOR 2 MONTHS' STUDENTS DID! DO I LOOK STUPID TO DO! DO-!" The old man screamed and hollered at the shocked Lich before, up on the side, Luna pressed a part of the Crystal Ball, rendering the man mute, leaving only an old man screaming himself raw and making all kind of wild, and frankly lewd, gestures with his hands that nearly had Izuku laughing if not for the fact that he was being torn into for doing what he felt was right.
"Hmph. I'm sorry about Elder Heister, he's always been a bit of hard-ass about this area considering how much of it toes the line of Noble and Guild Properties, and how tight our budgets can get around this season because of all the new Adventurer's that start but don't earn much beyond what they need. With YOU though! Oh, hohoho, there's no issue at all! You, and your students, you're setting such good habits for people, and, and..." Luna tried to thank with tears welling in her eyes.
"BWWAAAAAHH! YOU'VE MADE US SOOO MU-MU-MUCH MOOONNNEEEYYYYYY!" Luna wailed as tears finally flowed like waterfalls from her eyes, bringing Izuku's head directly into her chest and doing a wonderful job of startling him more than a mob of blood thirsty Adventurer's.
Izuku flailed in panic and tried to reach out and spot one of his students ready to help him. Instead, all he was were malicious grins, hidden poorly behind raised mugs or capes before he was buried deeper.
TRAITORS! He had raised Traitors! HELP YOUR TEACHER~!
They didn't help at all even after Izuku went limp from a lack of air. He was a Lich after all, a little suffocation was nothing.
END OF CHAPTER
This was a fun one to write, and I hope you enjoy what I'm doing with this. Remember, I'm always open to powersets and characters you think could appear in this story. If you do, I'll be certain to credit you! Thanks, and have a wonderful night!