The Crystal Creature
-.
.-
I could see the thing's broken legs starting to regenerate. Linze hurried turned off her magic, but it was too late. The room was bright enough with the blood-red light coming from the now pulsating orb inside the odd creature.
DOUBLE SHITE.
Then it SCREAMED.
It was loud-high pitched sound that ripped through the room and reverberated off the walls, directly assaulting our ears with ringing pain. It rippled through us, leaving us twitching as if we had just been electrocuted. It was even starting to physically damage the stone walls and pillars around us.
The room began to shake and loose dirt began to drop from the ceiling. We were going to get buried alive!
TWO GIRLS ONE CUP!
"GO! GO! GO!" I shouted as a [Boom Tube] opened behind up. The Crystal Creature sprang up with monstrous and struck at me with a freshly-regenerated leg ending in a shining sharp spike. I dived for it, and rolled out the other side of the [Boom Tube], eating dirt on the Old Capital's surface.
-.
.-
-.
.-
I coughed for breath. "THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
Beside me, Elze sagged in relief. She still had Linze slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
The ground rumbled, and open shaft of the staircase collapsed with a cloud of dust and debris. The underground chamber just caved in, we had underestimated just how precariously it must have been built.
"I have not seen such a creature before, I have not," said Yae breathlessly.
Well this was a world with Crystal Deer, so Crystal Giant Crickets were not all that strange to me. But directly growing off magic? Even our theory of monster beasts getting strong from eating other magically potent beings was not that intense!
Well at least the damn thing's definitely crushed to pieces down there. We wouldn't have gotten anything from fighting it, there's no bounty for what the Guild didn't know. And even the lost historical records would not be so much an issue because we took extensive photographic evidence.
I exhaled roughly, the frantic hammering in my chest starting to ease off. "Well that's okay. Let's just head back now and-"
SKREEEEEEEEEE.
What.
SKREEEEEEEEEE.
That sound! It was definitely… getting louder? Getting closer!
SKREEEEEEEEEEE!
With a sudden crash of splitting earth and a shower of debris, the creature erupted from underground. Now, in the bright sunlight, we could actually see that it had an almond-shaped body with six elongated legs jutting out from underneath. Its translucent crystal body shimmered and shone like water under the sun. An oddly beautiful sight, if it wasn't a living thing – yes, some form of Crystal Creature.
It let out another air-splitting screech and began to move on sickle-ended legs. The slightest movement cut through the stones ruins like a hot blade through butter.
Magic absorption was one thing, but if that thing had a Vorpal effect on those bladed limbs, that was just bullshite. So much bullshite, and I would know, as an existence of cheatery bullshite myself! I call shenanigans!
"Okay, this is CLEARLY out of our Encounter Levels, let's just [Boom Tube] out of here and-"
/"I'm afraid we can't do that, Player."/
"What?!"
Monika flashed a section of the walls in a window over my HUD. /"Beetles and scarabs are a common feature of Egyptian art, and so we didn't think it unusual to see them on another world's hieroglyphs. But the beetle shows off a lot near to what seems to be a representative of a town being burned or sacked in war."/
"Waking up the ancient superweapon is /exactly/ par for the course for Lara Crofting," I sighed.
/"See, that's it. I don't think this is a superweapon,"/ Monika hummed. /"It seems to be the thing, or things like it, that was actually responsible for destroying the Old Capital. It seems people couldn't beat it so they had to wait for it to starve to hibernation. Or maybe it was lured into a magical formation that sapped magic power."/
The Night Baron was not meant to defend anything. It was to keep idiots OUT. The reason why that underground complex was so boring because any traps would have made adventurers even more stupidly determined to believe there had to be something valuable down there. With the Night Baron inevitably returning to rampage on the surface, perhaps powered by the magic dead zone underneath, it meant no one would try to stay around and deal with the hassle of re-settling the Old Capital. This made sure the Crystal Creature would remain dormant. For over a thousand years.
Until we bollixed it up. I groaned and palmed my face.
The Crystal Creature turned around and seemed to have noticed us. It let out a loud screech, but didn't approach as long as we kept still. It was bigger now, about the size of an elephant.
"So why can't we just GTFO away?"
/"Because then it will likely head for the nearest and largest source of magical energy to devour… which would be the New Capital."/
"Oh goddamit."
"This… this our fault. No… this is MY fault!" Linze mumbled. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have… I should have listened, Elze! It was too greedy, this is what happens to people who get too greedy! The gods punish it."
"… I don't blame you," her twin replied. "I also don't quite believe that, because dammit Playa here still isn't on fire for all his greed, so clearly as long as you can get away with it, it's FINE." She turned to me and asked. "What do we do now? We fight?!"
"[BOOM TUBE] to THE SUN!"
/"Ahahaha, let's try something more modest, shall we? [Boom Tube] to the heart of a volcano for now."/
"Is there even one nearby? I thought this place was roughly analogous to Europe, which is mostly tectonically stable."
/"Is not Italy a part of Europe?"/ Monika showed a part of the known map. /"The southern portions of Belfast are formed from meeting continental plates. There's loose islands born of volcanic activity."/
"Player, whatever you're doing, do it faaast!" Elze hissed, because the Crystal Creature dipped its front with the 'head' as if preparing to pounce.
"Scatter!" I shouted. "Go! Wind! [Burst Leap!]" I roared out next, blasting wind from under my boots and cape shooting me forward to meet its bladed limbs.
SKREEE!
[Boom Tube] normally had an automatic foe-denial function. But since clearly we could throw cargo through, it could discriminate against neutral or no intent. We just had to find a way to turn it off and treat enemies like inanimate objects.
"[Shunt!]" I breathed out and a strong blast of air from the left flung me over the right, narrowly dodging being impaled and allowing the Crystal Creature to pass me by straight into an opening [Boom Tube].
But that alone would not be enough. The ground exploded under my feet as I landed and pivoted and kick-jumped back just to be able to touch its body. An enemy could not follow behind us into a [Boom Tube]. To mark something as a 'friendly', I had to take it with me.
I could only hope that Monika could target the exit point of the [Boom Tube] a good distance out from lava so I could try to rocket away to safety.
The Crystal Creature ran through the open Boom Tube. At the other side were Elze and Linze.
SKREEEEE!
/"Player! This thing is Dimensionally Faceted!"/ Monika screamed out in panicked realization. /"We can't pull through something that exists in multiple dimensions at once!"/
'What like an Endbringeeerr?!' I almost screamed out in panic.
Linze screamed too as the creature emerged out of the bright haze of the [Boom Tube]. Elze stumbled trying to run away with her sister still slung over her shoulder.
"Elze-dono!" Yae yelled and lunged. She put herself in the way and slashed up. If her blade failed to cut through, at least she could knock it away from her skewering her friends. The impact sent bone-jarring force down her arms, but for the same reason her sword could cleave through boulders without chipping, infused with her warrior spirit it managed to withstand its strike without snapping.
But Yae didn't have the equivalent mass, so though at least it bought Elze and Linze enough time to get out of its path, the creature just barreled through the rest of way and knocked her down to the ground.
And then it began to stab down, again and again, almost dancing in place as it aimed to reduce her to little more than shreds of meat.
Yae rolled this way and that, narrowly avoiding its strikes, but she couldn't do that forever. An impossibly sharp and hard crystal leg pierced through her shoulder.
Yae screamed. And now that she was literally nailed down into the ground unable to move, the Crystal Creature raised another forelimb to finish her off. Yae only had the remaining time to see a shadow pass over her face.
Crunch.
-.
.-
"NO YOU DON'T!" Elze screamed and leaped overhead and punched out with full force. "TAKE THIS!"
Wham!
A punch that would have shattered rock and bent inwards steel plate only staggered the creature. But that was enough. Yae let out another grunt of pain as the piercing limb was removed from her body. She rolled away quickly, and left behind a ribbon trail of red blood on the dry dusty-gray ground.
SKRRREEEE!
"Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!"
Whoosh. Whoosh. Bang!
The Crystal Creature didn't even notice Linze's attempt at drawing its attention. The dual explosive Fire Arrows with a limited homing ability, burst against its shell and faded away quickly. Linze scowled. She did that while fully knowing that it was pointless and might be making the enemy stronger, but if it was a magic-eater then she was making herself the better target.
Elze was having none of that, and darted in and out punching and making sure that the creature focused on her instead of her much less physically capable sister.
Wham!
But even Elze's brute strength was reaching its limits. It was absorbing the magic inherent to the [Boost] and making every subsequent punch much less effective as its crystal body hardened.
"[High Frequency Blade!]" I shouted out as I crashed into it from above, smashing my sword onto a leg joint. My sword just slid right off the crystal, leaving at most a small scratch that quickly regenerated. Rules of Nature, why have you failed me?!
In response, it swung the whole limb while I was inside its guard and it couldn't reach me with the bladed tips. "Ugh!" I absorbed the blow by crossing my arms together, and its swipe flung me across the clearing.
In mid-air I made another [Air Burst] to throw myself towards Yae. The samurai girl clutched a hand to her left shoulder, trying to staunch the bleeding. Her pink silk kimono was starting to stain red, a color crawling out in intensity like a flower blooming.
"Over here! You! Come at me! You creepy bug!" Elze yelled and began to throw rocks.
SKREEEE!
The Crystal Creature chased after her. I slid to a stop right beside Yae. "Yae! How are you holding up?"
"M-my apologies…" Yae gasped at me. She sat up, grimacing in pain, but her eyes were still clear and undaunted. "Playa-dono… Monika-sama…"
"For what? You saved Elze and Linze's lives. I should thank you… and I should poke you in the forehead, what the hell was that?! It looked like you were throwing your life away!"
"But… that is my role in this f-formation, is it not? It is an honor to give my life to protect the more important members of the formation. That is the role of the vanguard, it is."
I narrowed my eyes. I flicked open the casing to my VR headset so I could look at her directly with the rear phone camera, a gesture that everyone understood was equivalent to staring them directly in the eyes. "Kokonoe Yae, I value you just as much as Elze and Linze. Don't you DARE consider yourself any less important in this team."
Her gaze didn't even waver. I shook my head, finding that sort of fearless self-sacrifice disturbing.
"Now don't move… I'll get you back to the fight right quick." I put my hand over the wound and winced. The creature's swipe from before also cracked the bones in my left forearm. I quickly muttered the spell [Cure Heal] to close her wound, and then again over my left arm.
"Thank you, Playa-dono. Battling with a healer in the team, that is indeed most… convenient, it is." She touched at the bare flesh of her healed shoulder. The wound had gone straight through and out her back, and had cut the upper portions of her chest bindings. It still stung with phantom pain, but at least she could hold her swords again. "But I understand my role in this formation, please allow me to stand in front of Linze-dono again. All I can do is to put my body in between her and the enemy. My sword is ready. I do not need any more than this, I do not."
I winced again, but this time in worry. I looked away to see that Elze was leading the Crystal Creature into a merry chase through the was just smashing through the buildings without even being slowed down. I could feel that Monika's attention was not on me, but that that she was instructing Elze where to run without having to look behind her. Linze must have given one of her earbuds to Elze when they separated.
"Don't thank me yet. This is way, way, way too high for our level. How do you beat something that eats magic and is composed of such a stupidly hard material that our swords are just useless?"
"I.. I do not know. Blunt weaponry?" If only we had some heavy war maces or a kanabo.
Linze was standing a short ways away, completely ignored by the enemy, her face likewise set in worried concentration. If Yae was feeling less than useful, Linze had to be feeling worse than useless. Anything she could do here was actively detrimental.
I had the same problem, and how ironic it was to feel 'with great power comes great responsibility' at the same time as having that power be so completely worthless. But if we only tried to save ourselves, we would succeed. If we just were willing to accept that would get a whole lot of innocent people killed!
Crystals. Gems. Diamonds. Hard but brittle. My thoughts whirled looking for a solution, but there was nothing around us that was just hard enough to take the punishment of breaking past that magic-eater defense.
Wait. Maybe that-
/"Elze, try to get it to chase you through that corner!"/ Monika shouted out suddenly. /"I've got an idea! Player! I'm putting a targeting reticule up! Keep your eyes on the monster!"/
Elze ran with the crystal creature still on her heels, then zigged into a corner. The creature just punched through the building in the way of the L-shaped intersection, and the Elze zagged into another alley and out into the open.
The Crystal Creature emerged in a shower of splinters and stone. /"[Slip!]"/ said Monika, and magic circle appeared under the creature. Its sharp pointed legs abruptly failed to find friction onto the ground and it slid off. The magic circle moved under it, and carried by its initial momentum the Crystal Creature continued to slid right off the clearing to crash into some free-standing curtain walls some distance away.
"Hell yeah!" I stood up and pumped my fist in joy. "Monika, that's awesome!"
"Miss Monika! I thought it absorbed magic?! How did you make it work?!" Linze asked breathlessly as she ran over to us.
/"Any magic that hits it directly it can absorb. But indirect attacks apparently could still affect it…! It's… still just something that buys us time. It's still going to be absorbing the ambient magic from that."/
"But at least now we have a fighting chance. That's still amazing, love. Thank you."
Monika fell silent.
SKREEEEE! The Crystal Creature was starting to sound annoyed.
"Hey Monika!" Elze yelled out suddenly, while holding up her sling. "I need you to make this thing as strong as you can. I'm going to try something too!"
/"[Amplify: Durability] [Stack] … [Application: Reinforcement]"/ Monika stacked and reinforced the sling repeatedly until it was practically indestructible without losing its inherent qualities.
Elze reached behind her to the belt-bag on her back, a similar thing to my fanny pack. All of us now actually had belt bags for sundry items, because pockets were so useful and skirts didn't have any. Elze's was an ammo belt.
She took out a conical lead slug and placed it into the sling. She began to whisper quickly as she spun it between her fingers "[Boost.] [Boost.] [Boost.] [Boost.] [Boost…]"
SKREEE!
The Crystal Creature charged at us. I stomped my foot onto the ground in an Earth Bending stance, pointed my flat right palm at it and shouted "Come forth, Earth! Staunch barrier, [Earth Wall!]"
A thick rock slab rose up out of the ground. The creature simply smashed through. But then I clenched my right hand into a fist, swiftly brought it down to my waist, at the same time raising my left palm out as if slapping a post with a Buddhist Palm. Again, "[Earth Wall!]"
It slowed the creature's charge enough for Linze to finish chanting "Come forth, Ice! Grand Frozen Mass: [Ice Rock]!"
The air cracked over the creature, and with coruscating brilliance under the noonday sun a great mass of solid ice appeared overhead. It came down onto a point, a building-sized ice spike that drove the Crystal Creature straight down into the ground.
It tried to push off the ground, but Monika applied [Slip] again under it, and the Crystal Creature crashed down again.
"[BOOST!]" Elze shouted. "Take this! [BOOST BULLET]!"
Elze pitched forward, letting one strap of the sling free. There was the cracking sound of something breaking the sound barrier. The heavy lead bullet smashed into the Crystal Creature and actually blasted off a small crater out of its shell.
SKREEEK! SKREEEK!
The crater began to shrink and heal over as the iceberg pinning it down began to melt. Nevertheless, it was wounded and in pain.
"BUT OF COURSE!" I shouted in excitement. "THAT'S JUST PURE KINETIC ENERGY! IT CAN'T ABSORB THAT. Magic is making it happen, but once it's under way it's nothing but pure physics. I could understand maybe absorbing energy in the form of lightning or heat… but just things hitting other things? ELZE! YOU'RE A GENIUS!"
"Ehh, for someone who says 'Speed kills' so much, I'm disappointed you didn't figure this out any earlier."
"I could kiss you. Now we have a way to deal with this thing."
Elze scratched at her cheeks with a sheepish look on her face. "Eheheh. Don't say things that can be misunderstood." Then her expression firmed up back into the focused calm of battle. "I can try again. Just keep it distracted."
"Mister Zah… look!" Elze pointed.
The red orb inside the Crystal Creature's head was now glowing almost fire hot.
-.
.-
"That core… that's got to be a weak point," I said, even as I spread open my palms in preparation for casting more spells.
"Can you even really call something a weak point when it's covered by a magic-eater shell? I mean, it's like saying someone's brain or heart is a weak point," said Elze. "Which is kinda true, but at the same time…"
SKREEEEE!
We all winced in pain as the Crystal Creature's scream rang throughout the Old Capital. I breathed out roughly and sent out an [Air Wall] before our eardrums burst. Audible sound was just vibration traveling through the air after all.
What the hell is up with something made out of crystal using sonic attacks?! Are you trying to kill us with irony?!
The Crystal Creature, with one last surge of strength, broke free of the weight on its back and launched itself at us again.
/"Slip-!"/ Monika cast her Null Spell again. The Crystal Creature dug its feet into the ground, outside of the spell circle, and flung up a cloud of dust. /"Oh no!"/
Was it even smart enough to realize our spells worked via line of sight?!
"[Earth Wall!] [Earth Wall!] [Earth Wall!]"
The creature just smashed through them with barely any resistance whatsoever, showering even more dust and stone fragments into the air.
/"Player, that's not helping!"/
But it slowed the Crystal Creature enough to allow Yae to pick up Linze in a bridal carry and scarper off to the left side of the field. Elze and I ran to the right.
"How many of those bullets do you have left?" I asked.
"They're still heavy, so… a dozen? No, eleven." Whip- crack. Another pit was blasted out from the Crystal Creature's side. It screeched again in pain and frustration, and spun around to face Elze. "Ten now."
"Let me have a try." Both of us were still running for our life, Elze running ahead. I reached into her belt bag and took out one of the lead bullets. It floated over my palm in invisible currents of electromagnetic force.
Hm. Pure lead was only weakly magnetic, but this was not pure lead. Iron was cheaper than lead, and the little bit mixed in as filler and hardening without compromising weight or ductility made it responsive enough as long as I pumped extra power into it. Monika had to spend another spell slot to harden our electronics against the intense electromagnetic field.
I spun around with my arms outstretched, zeroed in the Crystal Creature in the gap between my thumbs and let loose the "Come, Wind! Opposing forces, Throw! [Rail Gun!]" Fzz-CRACK!
The bullet shot out from between my arms, and smashed out a crater in Crystal Creature's head. It was about the size of Elze's own [Boosted] sling. There were geometric limits to how fast a sling could spin its projectile no matter how much [Boost] could be applied to it or velocity imparted from the length of the launch rail.
The recoil pushed me back off my feet. Elze stumbled.
"For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction," I said. "The faster we can throw, the more damage… but didn't you feel it? The more your tried to spin your sling…"
"Yeah, I was starting to lose my balance." She calmly stared at the Crystal Creature as it screeched again in pain and rage. The red globe inside glowed brighter again, and the air in front of us misted up as the [Air Wall] absorbed its sound pulse. Had it been facing an army or regular mages, ears would be bleeding right now. Helpless, disoriented people, soon to be dead meat.
That was actually somewhat clever. I had no idea if it was sapient, but it was clearly something that leveraged its strengths well. Its leg movements began to jerk about erratically, to throw off our aim if we tried to hit the same spot over and again.
Tch. What could we do? Should I boost up to suborbital height for a Kinetic Kill Vehicle? Accuracy problems on landing means we need a better way of immobilizing the enemy. Mmm. Something something, the shaped charge jet of an anti-tank rocket? How could we possibly apply that in this fight?
Wait.
"I have an idea. I've got to tell Yae. Elze, keep it busy for a little longer."
She grimaced, and nodded as I asked for half her remaining lead bullets. I took four out of the nine remaining bullets.
We broke off running in opposite directions. Elze threw another bullet to take its attention. Four remaining.
-.
.-
I put my hand on Yae's shoulder and asked, "Kokonoe Yae. Are you ready to be strong?"
She actually looked puzzled at why I would be asking such an obvious question. Then I explained my plan. "But that would leave Linze-dono unprotected…?"
"I'll be fine by myself," said Linze. "Mister Zah, you're not going to miss, right?"
"Linze, we don't know what killing the enemy by cracking its core will do. It can maybe just kill it quietly, or it explodes from all the magic it absorbed. I'm not the most important piece in this plan. I won't fire until you're ready.
She smiled slightly and shook her head. "Don't worry about me. As long as I can help in that little bit…"
Yae and I stood up at the same time. And behind us Elze screamed "DAMMIT YOU GUYS I HAVE ONLY TWO SHOTS LEFT! GET THIS THING AWAY FROM MY BUTT!"
Elze ran for her life, and if it had been any other situation it would have looked funny as hell with her full-length strides making her look like the Roadrunner being chased by Wily E. Coyote. But as much as I trusted Elze most of all to survive on her own, we were out of time.
I nodded. "Keep it distracted. I'll be right be right back."
-.
.-
Boom.
Klang. Klong.
Out from a [Boom Tube] oriented horizontally dropped the pair of heavy steel doors from before. The tunnel to the underground installation had collapsed inwards, but the heavy steel doors remained intact. And fortunately for me, also ripped out from its hinges. A vault door was only as strong as the frame and walls it was attached to, after all.
I emerged to see Yae desperately trying to cut at the Crystal Creature's legs and Elze on the other side. Her punch could actually shatter a leg, but only one at a time. The creature slumped, and began to whirl around like a dervish, two its legs held out like blades.
The shattered leg regenerated quickly.
"Over here!" I shouted as I dropped out the the [Boom Tube] and closed it behind me. The noise and the swell of magic power instantly drew the Crystal Creature's attention. Elze and Yae ran towards me, the creature following close behind.
I stomped on the ground, raised both my arms with my palms facing upwards and shouted "[Earth Pillars!]" Two rock spikes rose from the ground to tilt up the door slabs.
The Crystal Creature could smash through rock slabs and icebergs. What about actual solid metal, then? Could they be effective brute barriers to trap and bind it then?
No, that was not the plan.
Fzz-CRACK! Fzz-CRACK! A pair of [Rail Gun] shots struck at a single spot in close succession. The much deeper crack made it flinch, and it moved to prevent any more strikes at that weak point in its shell while it regenerated.
/"[Amplify: Strength. Amplify: Endurance.] [Stack.] [Amplify: Strength. Amplify: Endurance.] …"/ Monika began to compile her spells.
Yae and Elze reached out and each grabbed at the edge of a heavy door slab. And heaved.
[Amplify], unlike [Boost], was a linear instead of an exponential increase. It did have something going for it that it was possible to ramp up much faster in multiples of existing strength even though it could never ramp up as high as [Boost]. While the latter remained superior as a general strength enchantment, there was also how [Amplify] didn't need to be muttered quickly under one's breath like Elze's rapid chants of [Boost].
In a second, Yae and Elze acquired fifty times their strength. Assuming they could lift 30 kilograms quickly in a hurry just with one of their arms, now each girl's fingers dug into the metal and quickly picked up the door. With the power to carry 1.5 tons in each arm, they spun around and just SMASHED the incoming Crystal Creature in between the two thick metal slabs.
Spindly-looking yet unimaginably hard crystal limbs splintered inwards and broke. The Crystal Creature slid to a sudden stop, its head carving a furrow into the soil.
It started to pick itself back up and –
Wham.
Elze and Yae, Superwomen of Belfast, struck at its back legs, shattering them, and sending the rest of the creature crashing down.
It began to use stored magic power to regenerate and –
Wham.
Elze and Yae reared up and smashed the heavy steel doors over the spot protecting its core. It had to focus on regenerating damage there instead.
SKREE-
Wham.
SKRE-
Wham.
SKR-
Wham. Wham. Wham. Wham.
The Crystal Creature let out this single sustained high-pitched note that somehow communicated a state of being so grievously /insulted/.
"Ahahahaha!" Yae began to laugh. She hammered down at the Crystal Creature in a smooth alternating cadence like pounding mochi on New Year's.
"Ahahahaha!" Elze joined in. "Why are we laughing?"
Wham.
"Is this how you feel all the time, Elze-dono? This power! This… ease! This knowledge you could destroy anything you touch. I feel like I understand now why you are always so relaxed."
Wham.
"I wonder if this is why Playa-dono is likewise always so… impetuous."
Wham.
"No, I'm pretty sure he's just a big ol' manchild," Elze answered. Wham. "Wait, where is he now anyway?"
SKR-
Wham.
WREEEE!
-.
.-
I had retreated about a kilometer away. Once again I was holding my arms straight out, palms open and thumbs up. Invisible currents of power writhed in between the gap, and through anchor points all the way out there. My sword levitated within the confined magnetic field.
I waited for the signal. Not even the steel doors could withstand being hit with such force, were it not for Monika also [Amplifying] its own structural strength and density. The Crystal Creature could sap that magic power to heal itself, but we hoped that the damage was happening too fast too often to overcome its regeneration rate.
"We've broken through!" I heard someone shout.
"/Now, Linze!"/
Elze and Yae hammered at the Crystal Creature one last time, and then rammed the doors into the ground on either side of its head, pinning it in place.
They leaped backwards, and almost immediately overpowered and overlapping [Aqua Shell] ice shields covered them.
"[LONG RAIL GUN.]"
SHRECK.
The recoil flung me backwards, almost ripped my arms out of their sockets. I could feel some bones crack. I was on fire. The air was on fire.
And Zanzibar, my sword-spear, sprung out at around Mach 7.
Boom. Although weighing only about 2 kilograms, but traveling at almost 8500 kph, the sword struck with the force equivalent to the main gun of a main battle tank. Crystal shards just burst out all over the place.
An echoing rumble passed through the Old Capital.
As I landed flat on my back, my last thought was /'I should think of a more impressive name for that spell, rather than just [Long Rail Gun]. Maybe [Spear of Lorentz]? [Hypervelocity Driver]?'/
"/Player! Heal yourself!"/ Monika was shouting. /"Player! Listen to me! Don't- don't fall asleep!/"
"… gotta have... make... auto… doc…"
Everything was red. I closed my eyes. I was still on fire.
-.
.-
"Sir Zah!"
"Ow. Ow. Oww…"
I slowly sat back up. This was why should you always have at least two healers in the party!
"Dammit, Playa!" Elze grabbed me by the collar and hauled me up. "You didn't tell us the backlash to you would be this bad."
"That's to be expected. I turned off the spell protections that would normally isolate the magic channel from the environment," I explained reluctantly. "I couldn't risk it absorbing any extra magic energy from the attack. It had to be nothing but pure speed. Pure kinetic energy."
I tapped at her hands and she let go. I didn't let go of one of her hands, and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry about it. I'm not suicidal. There's only about as much risk to me as your [Boost] punching through a load bearing wall and collapsing it over yourself.
This dainty yet powerful fist should know. "The magic itself isn't dangerous, we just have to pay attention to what we want it to do."
Elze pushed at me and pouted. "W-well… fine. At least everyone's okay now. Nobody got hurt except the idiot."
"Are… are you okay now, Mister Zah?"
"I'm fine. Thanks for healing me, Linze." My clothes were somewhat singed, but only the parts that weren't armor weave. Yay for Zanac.
/"He's fine."/ Monika sighed. /"I am fine with this. This really doesn't give me much confidence about your future battle plans… but at least it worked. Elze, Yae, thank you for your efforts too."/
Elze just gave a nonchalant shrug. Yae let out a humorless little laugh.
"Strong…" Yae whispered numbly. "You are all too… strong." The samurai girl smiled sadly at us and turned away.
I blinked. "Um. What's wrong?"
"Magic… is very powerful. My road to finding my own strength is still long, it is." She took a deep breath and turned back to face us. She bowed at each of us in turn. Me, then again towards me for Monika, then Elze and then Yae. "My sword… is still at your service, meager as my strength may be."
"Um. Okay. Thank you? Don't sell yourself short, it's good to have you fighting with us. We couldn't have done it without you."
Her fists began to clench, but she opened them again forcefully. "Hai."
-.
.-
We made our way back towards the clearing, and the blasted remains of the Crystal Creature. Such was the devastation none of us was sure if the core actually exploded at all. Even the metal door slabs were bent and misshapen.
Elze whistled. "I can't believe we did all this."
"And no one can ever know. We saved the kingdom. From a danger we made ourselves." Now I was leery of even accepting the reward for clearing the Old Capital, because much of the ruined city was now just *gone* and I was not sure if the Night Baron would still return.
On the positive side maybe this place could now open to resettlement? Reporting it would subject us to a lot of annoying questions though.
I looked around again and rubbed at my chin. "Well… crystal is crystal. Maybe these Crystal Creature shards could still be useful? It's difficult to find large enough pieces of crystal for sculpture, I think. Maybe I could have a prize goblet made, or something."
"Dang it, Playa!" Elze moaned.
But we all picked up all the shards we could carry. We found a large chunk of the creature's abdomen, looking like a crystal boulder. There were also some leg pieces that we could maybe grind into blades. If the crystal retained the ability to become stronger in the presence of magic, that would be cool too. If not, decorative crystal daggers and swords would surely sell.
Carrying the crystal pieces into town would be too eye-catching. Specially the largest piece, it wouldn't fit into any doors. So it was decided we would have to [Boom Tube] directly into the Silver Moon Inn's back yard. We all wanted a nice warm bath soon after.
-.
.-
Boom.
And shortly after we exited, Micah rushed out and angrily shouted "I THOUGHT TOLD YOU TO STOP DOING THAT?! STOP DESTROYING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD PROPERTY VALUES YOU MOROON!"
Wow ever since we became business partners instead of customers, Micah's respectful behavior sure just disappeared, huh?
And then from behind her, a tall, thin man with long stringy hair very much like a younger Severus Snape appeared and pointed at us accusingly. "ZAH PLAYA! ZA PLAYAH VON CHARA!"
Then in a softer much more friendly tone "Also, Misses Silhoueska, Miss Kokonoe, hello."
And then louder again "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING?! WHILE YOU WERE OFF HAPPILY GALLIVANTING SOMEWHERE, THE KINGDOM IS IN DANGER!"
-.
.-
-.
.-
-.
.-
AN:
Sorry for the delay in updates.
This is the consequence of Playa and Monika not having the convenient skill of 'Aports'. Everybody has to contribute and get to feel good about their victory.