Ebony's Fable

When Ebony charged into the mass of monsters earlier, he was assaulted from every direction. That was fine and all but his Layered Ice Carapace that was usually used to limit the number of attacks and the direction they came from broke in seconds.

He burst out a thousand or so mana into Frost Mist Perception Sphere, the thin layer of ice on their bodies didn’t do much but it was sufficient. It wasn’t like he didn’t know, but his attacks are too light. Other than a good stab or 2 into the worms which were softer, Ebony did little harm to the wolves and scorpions.

The higher level wolf’s hide was tough enough that a glancing slash only gave them a light cut and fur trim. There was no chance to give a good stab. In less than a minute his ‘indestructible’ shield shattered, Ebony used whatever ice mana remained for more Frost Mist. Hoping that it would slow their chase on his party members. Numerous tails, claws, fangs and pincers were coming after him.

Two tails pierce through the front and half of his shield, right through his robes and out through the back. He took it as the signal to get the heck out. The hardened ground was unplanned and made it possible to repel himself out of his mist and rejoin with Hector.

❅❅❅

Back to the present with Ryley crying in pain.

There was a barrage of drilling stone lances following above them as they ran. The monsters were hot on their tails, they were faster and even Scarlet may not outrun them.

Tuffock was not a conjurer. All the stone he used was reused whenever possible, if not it was drawn from his staff. Now, his staff was colourless instead of grey. Tuffock knew his stone shards would hardly be enough and went beyond his capacity as his face was pale.

Ebony was about to ask if he could control their fall to make a fence or wall with the lances but then with just the monster's body masses and speed of charge they would likely break through without slowing down. Ebony’s compressed ice was still tougher than Tuffock’s stone.

“Wh…when should I release this?” Tuffock broke out of chant and asked.

“Just fire! They’re right behind us!” Hector screamed.

The shadow over them disappeared at Hector’s call. Tuffock’s spell is more brutal in the sense that it doesn’t instantly kill them like Ryley’s and Scarlet’s attacks. Tens of lances stabbed down into a single Teen Giant Sandworm. A few scorpion legs crushed, desert wolves’ eyes scrapped out. Wolves tripping and falling over each other, worms who cried in pain straightened and slammed back down smashing scorpions to a bloody mess.

It was chaotic and managed to affect even more monsters behind them; the chain effect was desirable. It bought them even more time but Ryley and Tuffock seemed down for the count. Scarlet was obviously drained too, Hector could still run for a bit more. Ebony knew he had the mana for it, he usually just can’t keep many enhancements on for long because of his body and not his mana.

In a couple of minutes, they got over falling over and attacking each other and were gradually closing the distance.

Ebony gave one of his flying ice mana swings to a stray that was getting closer. It missed horribly.

“What are you doing!?” Hector was already stressed out. Ebony’s ice mana came out at the tip of his blade after he completed his swing instead of flying out as a slash. He wanted to cry and couldn’t help but ask what Ebony’s plan was.

“Oops? This is a new trick I just recently tried.” Ebony replied. That was embarrassing, he didn’t release the ice mana out in time together with his swing. He would have to practice if he really intended for this to be used regularly.

Hector really wanted to cry. Was this really the time to try something new?

“HOOO SHHIIIIT!”

“YAAAASS! LET’SS ELLING GOOO!”

“CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAPPP!”

“NO FRICKIN WAY!”

“HECTOR! EBONY! WHAT ON ELVA’S ASS DID YOU DO!”

“YOO! MIKE! WHAT’CHA DOING STANDING THERE, START RUNNING!”

“BOYS!”

“WHAT’S UP!?”

“A LUMP OF EXPERIENCE, THAT’S WHAT! ATTAAACCKK!”

“Damn! Didn’t think Mike was such a crazy guy.” Hector said. Panic Attack was coming in from the side, they were on a tall sand dune when they felt the ground shake and it didn’t take much to find the thousands of monsters coming. They were more excited at the sight than scared, none of them lagged or hesitated when their leader called for the charge. It was what they did best.

Ryley gave an approximate estimate of 7.5 to 8 thousand of them after they stopped popping out from the pyramid earlier. Scarlet and Ryley took a few hundred each, Tuffock got less but injured way more of them. In that sense, there were still more than 7000 monsters after them. Yet, Panic Attack charged right into them. They went in from the side and were already engaged in battle.

The people at the back could no longer be seen and they didn’t chase after either. Whether they were in battle with a group of monsters of their own or just left after none of the monsters went after them was unknown to Ebony.

Quite a large portion of the horde was attracted by the attacking party and stopped to eat prey that served themselves.

He shared a look with everyone except Tuffock who was unconscious after casting his spell. Ryley’s condition stabilised and he drank one of his own potions. His injured arm was still shaking but he claimed to be able to shoot one more shot if they really needed it. Ebony was impressed that he was okay with that even though he obviously couldn’t handle much pain. He would likely sustain injuries that were hard to heal from as a human as well.

All of them slowed to a stop. This could be said to be a chance. There was no guarantee that the horde wouldn’t follow them down to the previous floor. It was all desert floors with the same monster types and even though monsters usually don’t move out of range from their spawning nodes and whatnot, the fact that there were dungeon breaks meant that they could go anywhere as long as the dungeon let them. Even out of the dungeon.

Panic Attack was strong, they were all Master Class and could easily take hundreds of these monsters not much stronger than themselves. Individually.

Ebony didn’t doubt their strength after sparring with Mike. It was painfully obvious how much Mike held back against him. A nice training partner.

Nonetheless, they would tire.

Their party could see flying blades flying out from the cluster where it was hard to spot a single Master Warrior. Even with all their screaming and shouting. The real flying slashes. Slicing 2 or 3 bodies apart in their path. They were using skills unlike the first battle Ebony saw them in.

❅❅❅

Michael and his party used their measly ability in controlling mana to seep into their weapon and shield. A simple trick of keeping damage off their equipment Michael had learnt in his Academy when he was younger. Equipment maintenance fees have been kept much lower thanks to this little trick.

After evolving to Master, perhaps only the completely retarded in all things magic and mana could not attempt to move and manipulate their own mana. The evolution made one more complete after all, so Michael had not seen even the dumbest Master Warrior not be able to utilise mana at least a bit.

Michael kept in mind his party’s conditions. They were graduates from the same Academy and as their party leader he was very aware of all their skill sets. All being the dumbos he knew, they only managed to learn the simplest mana reinforcement. It made them a little tougher, stronger and faster. Their Intelligence was questionable. Their small mana pool meant he should only get them to use the sole enhancement magic they knew at the right time.

Michael thought they were extremely lucky. They were not young nor were they old. Working as a freelancer party with a decently growing reputation in the surrounding couple of cities for many years. The escorts, slaying and collection quests were just a slow grind. There were few dungeons around their region and those were too dangerous for them. They went to one before and were lucky to make it out of the first floor alive. A few monsters a day brought them a long way, they didn’t give up but the ranks of a Grandmaster was no longer in sight.

Leaving the region was a difficult choice to make. It was a long journey to the closest feasible dungeon. A long and dangerous journey was one thing. Their families here were another, Michael couldn’t make the decision to pull his fellow men away from their families.

Cori was married and even had a son. Henrick also got himself a wife not too long ago. Bilton had ageing parents who gave birth to him a bit late to take care of. The last, Rodrig, was an orphan like him but he was too attached to the kids in the orphanage he came from and even fell in love with the current caretaker's daughter. The fool.

He knew they would follow with a single word from them. That’s why he couldn’t betray their trust, he had no confidence he could bring all of them back home safe and sound. Ordina was a blessing to them. Their hope that they can reach Grandmaster within their lifetime.

Every single spawned monster was a lump of experience to speed their growth. Michael was not willing to give up now that that hope of his was right in front of him. Every one of his party members knew that Michael dreamt of reaching Grandmaster. They knew he stayed here because of them as well. They wouldn’t disobey a single order, not to mention a simple one called ‘attack’.

Panic Attack yelled their lungs out. The monsters here were only slightly stronger than them, but every one of them already familiarised themselves with their attack patterns over the last few floors. They never worked together but it worked. They just have to watch each other’s backs and react accordingly. Their minds didn’t work well but their bodies will carry them forward. Adequate.

❅❅❅

“We’re not really going to fight all that are we?” Hector asked.

“The 3 of them took hundreds already. It’s our turn.” Ebony replied.

“That’s hardly enough. I mean, Mike and his party should be able to take the thousand or so that diverged and went after them. Every strike of theirs could lop the head of 2 or 3 of these suckers. But…”

“I bet your mega punch would take down less than any of their spells and attacks.” Ebony poked.

“It's Mega Panch! Why don’t you line them up in a straight line and I’ll show you I can take just as many of them in a single punch.”

“Alright. Take care of Tuffock. Scarlet, do you want the left or right?” Ebony left Tuffock on the ground.

“Right.” Scarlet randomly picked.

The two of them moved while Hector stayed there with Tuffock and Ryley. Ryley moved to the left a little and got arrows ready to help Ebony. He hoped he didn’t have to strain his arm but a few normal arrows should be fine. It’s not like he has much mana left to shoot another of his enchanted arrows.

Ebony cast as many Layered Ice Carapaces as he could, 3 layered ones and uncompressed. He just wanted a wall or such to push the monsters into the centre. He could feel an intense increase in heat from where Scarlet went towards.

Unlike Ebony who had trouble hurting these wolves and scorpions, Scarlet had none of that. She blasted them into the centre with fire magic and sliced off those that got close to her. Luckily her Violent Heart Acceleration kicked in quickly.

What they didn’t expect is for the large majority of the horde to change directions and go after Ebony.

“Give me a heads up when you’re ready.” Ebony used Mana Vibrations to send his words over. He could have used his callstone but it would take more time to connect than what he did. He changed his plans and just hunkered down again. Drowned in monsters. Ebony quickly stuck the Layered Ice Carapaces he cast, merging and strengthening them.

Ebony orbed himself up as he constantly compressed his orb as fast as possible. He connected his myriad bracelet’s callstone to Hector. Then he cast Magnified Gravity Field, maximising the spell range to his limit of 15 metres. It was a huge drain on his reserves but it was necessary to slow as many of them as possible.

“Can you jump out of my punch’s range in half a second?”

“Yes. Time it well, I’ll shoot right out from the top when you say so.”

“Alright.”

Hardly a second passed after Hector said alright did he yell “NOW!” over the call. Hector needed no such thing as casting time or charge up time. Minus the time to punch multiple times, his enhancements switch on practically instantly like Ebony’s.

Ebony repelled himself out of his breaking prison, shooting right up into the sky. He never tested how high he could jump with his superhuman body. It was really high, he even took the chance to look far back where they ran from. He took mental note of the unharmed people, just watching from a high vantage point.

Ebony trusted Scarlet to a certain degree, despite only knowing her for months. He never forgot her words either, keeping his guard up and watching Tuffock more closely. Him killing the 5 people in the walkway tunnel made Ebony more suspicious. The latest group that attacked them let Ebony see that the reaction was not unwarranted. None of them really cared about the lives of their attackers. It might have been a cultural thing or so he thought.

Coming to this floor, he was insistent on them climbing higher even though he was the least capable of dealing damage. But then, he backed down and said he was okay with stopping their expedition here. Coincidentally getting attacked then pushed into the pyramid. Tuffock wanted them to go deeper into the pyramid to escape but none of them felt the need to.

Then, Tuffock changed to Tuffock 2 all of a sudden and changed tune. He fought seriously and attacked with the intent to kill. And he really did kill one of them himself, voting to kill all the others as well.

No. Did he shut the man up?

Ebony remembered something else Tuffock said but he wanted to confirm some things with Scarlet.

He looked down to see the sandy ground split apart and filled with all the gore, crushed internal organs, separated limbs and pulpy flesh. Nothing any of them were unfamiliar with. The smell was pretty disgusting but he could handle it.

The long stretch of destruction reached far and into a random sand dune that got blown apart and scattered onto the desert floor.

Ebony landed and then they started retreating again. They couldn’t copy Panic Attack and take the horde head-on, they would be dead before they knew it.

Ebony quickly put Hector’s arm around his shoulder and got moving with Ryley and Scarlet. Tuffock was still laying there on his last shield that he didn’t bring into the mess. Hector had grown a lot stronger as well and a single mega panch did not knock him out.

“Let’s join their party’s battle,” Scarlet said.

“They are strong enough to survive the horde but won’t last. They can take the main force and we can keep the pressure off them.” she continued.

Ebony didn’t have any complaints. The others knew they didn’t have anywhere to run or hide either. They made their way around.

“...Won’t we be bringing the bigger horde to them?” Hector, who slowly stabilised but not enough to run by himself, rose and said. He only had 5 enhancements cast for a very short time but the pain never got old. No one had a reply to his question.

Ebony muted the vibrations in the air between him and Hector.

“Hector, do you remember if Tuffock’s callstone was in use when he said, ‘Come on down. All of you. We’ll tear apart everything you throw at us.’?”

“What? How would I know? I wasn’t looking closely. Why are you as…king. Oh.”

“The 60 or so people who came down along with this horde are just watching us from afar. Though I bet not all can see us, their archers and maybe rogues with the right skills could.”

“The swordsman said their boss was on their way. None of them acted like they knew Tuffock either.”

“Does he need to be the boss? Or maybe they have never seen him? Tuffock killed him immediately when he tried to say more.”

“...”

“Alright watch yourself, I can see Michael already.” Ebony ended the conversation.

“OHH NOOOO! WE’RE DOOOOMED!” Cori cried with over exaggeration.

“GAHHH! WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT MORE!?” Henrick complained.

“GREAT! GREAT JOB KIDS! WE SO NEEDED MORE ON OUR ASSES!” Bilton said with bleeding sarcasm.

They complained but none sounded angry at them, then they laughed. Their arms and feet didn’t stop or pause. The numbers here had more than halved in the time they were gone and got Hector to mega punch.

“HAHAHAHA! CAN’T EXACTLY LET A FEW KIDS DIE IN FRONT OF US CAN WE!? BOYS! MEDIUM MANA GARB! Journeymen. Don’t hold us back.” Mike ordered before looking towards the crazy group of kids.

Panic Attack heard and roared with strength at the command. Being warriors with a small mana pool, they never used mana enhancement at full power if it was unnecessary. They had made an easy way to control their mana usage and power output. It should be no problem for them to keep a medium output for 8 to 10 minutes.

“Mike! This area is too open, is there any way we can limit the number of them attacking us!” Hector asked.

“You’re the mages, you tell me!” Mike retorted. Thinking and coming up with plans were not their specialty.

Without a solution for that, Mike took charge of giving orders. Ryley didn’t try to challenge his authority. Panic Attack surrounded them in a circle. It wasn’t possible to make it an extremely tight circle with the 5 journeymen in the centre.

Ebony and his fellow vanguards would deal with whatever went through the gaps. Supporting them with their magic and fire support was the main duties Mike gave them. Hector was left to be the actual second line of defence with Ebony and Scarlet providing the magical support.

Mike couldn’t forget their magical abilities, it would honestly be a great boon and addition. He was worried that the journeyman couldn’t last because of their small mana pool and the big problem of all journeymen mages. But then one of them was a Meditative Class and the other was the legendary Xeng. He could only hope they can take as many down as they can.

Panic Attack lashed out with power but found themselves hindered and not able to push further because they had some children in their midst.

“FOOLISH! DON’T TURN BACK, RUSH OUT WHEN YOU CAN OR WANT!” Panic Attack was stunned by their leader’s words. Then they realised that the few wolves and scorpions they let through were already taken care of. They only realised that their leader wanted them to thin the horde as much as possible while they were still able too, in their enhanced state.

“I’ll go do my thing,” Ebony said.

He was not used to just standing there and being protected. He was more useful if he went dashing around, freezing and slowing down as many of them as he could. Ice was more of a crowd control element and he was going to have to make use of it. Magnified Gravity Field would be pointless if his own allies were affected by it. Ebony wasn’t proficient enough to keep so many people out of the effects of his spell.

How much mana did Ebony have left? Not much. Perhaps only enough for an Ice Sword or 2. His mana regeneration on the other hand had reached 236.285 MP/Min. It might be a little risky but he didn’t cast Icebody Enhancement, which took 20% of his Agility away. It did take quite a portion of his mana when compressed, so that was another reason.

Magnified Gravity Field consumed roughly 125MP/Min when used in a radius of 5 metres. A whole lot more if he increased the range and he couldn’t afford to do that now. It was levelling at record speed in this period of time.

The other 75MP/Min was just enough for his Chaotic Repulsive Membrane for a little insurance, together with the almost costless Battle Song that increased his mana regeneration by a now noticeable amount. A 3.72 Wisdom mana regeneration buff was miniscule to anyone but to him, it was pretty good. Even just taking the number 3 to calculate it would mean an additional 30 to his mana pool or, in terms of his Fortified base mana regeneration, 10.5 MP/Hr instead of 3 MP/Hr. With his Core Skill at its current level of 162 or 810% increased regeneration, that would be 10.5 x 9.1 = 95.55MP/Hr or a little under 1.6 MP/Min. Better than nothing.

One of Panic Attack’s members that saw Ebony jump over them yelled for him but Ebony ignored him. Mike also didn’t interfere; none of Ebony’s members seem to care, and he has seen some of the boy’s power.

Ebony figured he shouldn’t use Magnified Gravity Field so much and only limit it to surprise the monsters that got close to him. His main objective was still to use ice magic either through Frost Mist Perception Sphere or Frost Injection. He decided to reduce the range of the increased gravity to 2 metres while casting Frost Mist Perception Sphere with most of what mana he freed up. Ebony told himself to just run around to weaken and slow as many of them and as much as he could slow them down. So Frost Injection was put aside. He held his blade but didn’t intend to use it.

Scarlet followed Ebony’s example but left on a killing spree instead of a crowd control spree. Violent Heart Acceleration kept on the level that let her roughly equal Hector’s quadra enhanced strength but a little faster. Only a little faster, that was how strong Hector was. Then he revealed that that wasn’t even his strongest state.

Hector was the only other person on the party that Scarlet acknowledged the strength of, besides Ebony. Since he was so open with his knowledge, she had started conversations about his fire enhancement skill, clearly sensing fire mana flowing through his veins. She could attempt a similar skill when her body got tougher, hence all the Constitution she had been adding.

Mike caught on to what Ebony was trying to do and had to admit that it would ease up the pressure on his party a lot depending on how much the wolves and scorpions were affected by the cold mist. The worms were mostly dead. They were the foremost group that charged after Ebony and his party, repeatedly getting hammered by large spells, explosive shots and a burst of physical force just as explosive if not more. They were the least numerous of the horde as well.

Ebony circled around once, close enough to affect the monsters near their 2 parties’ formation but not near enough for friendly fire. The Arrowtail Scorpions did try to pinch or stab him with their tails and too many wolves tried to come in for a bite but he could see it coming a mile away.

Seeing and predicting was completely different from dodging it and Ebony still wasn’t fast enough if he didn’t utilise the intense burst of speed he got from his repulsion of the ground. That brought him further away than he liked but it actually worked out as he zigzagged in and out, closer and further.

‘A few thousand actually doesn’t take that much space huh?’ Ebony thought. He could easily see the end of all the wolves and scorpions. A couple worms a little further back. With Panic Attack’s help it was probably all too possible for them to take them all on.