Seeds of Discordia

As the terrain exploded with creatures appearing after the dust settle, Liam got a better look at. There were a total of six oversized rocks the stuck out from the ground and the walls. Each one had different designs. One swirled upwards like an ice cream, another was blocky, another was circular, and more. Shortly after the dust settled, six long legs emerged from the hole underneath the rock-like shells. A pair of hook-like pincers came out and around with a pair of stalky eyes and four whiskers underneath them.

To Liam they looked exactly like oversized Hermit Crabs with rock shells for protection. He decided to assess them while they still had a moment to see what they were dealing with.

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 780/780 HP. 64/64 MP. Level – 10.]

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 825/825 HP. 85/85 MP. Level – 11.]

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 780/780 HP. 64/64 MP. Level – 10.]

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 825/825 HP. 85/85 MP. Level – 11.]

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 780/780 HP. 64/64 MP. Level – 10.]

[Stone Crusher Shell Crab. 780/780 HP. 64/64 MP. Level – 10.]

Looks like they are the same kind of creature, and their different shells aren’t indicators for something else. Liam thought. He then shouted, “Stone Crusher Shell Crabs. A couple are level eleven while the rest are level ten. Health between high seven hundreds and low eight hundreds.”

Liam’s words reached the others as they readied themselves for a fight. Ariyana and Mercer took a few steps backwards as Blair and Artem stepped in front of the group. Avery and Roman stood on the outsides of the two in front as Liam placed himself in the middle.

Before anything could happen, A purplish orb with a black center formed on the right side of Blair as an aqua colored orb appeared right behind Artem. These were the Gravity Sphere, and the Healing Sphere Blair and Artem were able to construct during their Mana Control and Manipulation training.

Brandishing his wooden shield and mace, Artem rushed towards the first Stone Crusher Shell Crab as Blair gripped her axe and ran towards the other hermit crab-like monster closest to that. Artem jumped up right before coming within attacking range and swung down as hard as he could on the creature’s shell.

Blair did the same as her fellow Defender, except before jumping up she had her Gravity Sphere bounce against the rock-like shell. A smile grew on her face as she came down swinging her axe as hard as she could while forming a rocky scale coating over the blade. Liam noticed the slight change in the creature after the Gravity Sphere had made contact with the shell, but waited to hear the results

After both Defender landed their attacks they jumped backwards to dodge the creature’s hook -like pincers from crashing into their sides. Without wasting any time, Blair announced, “Their shells act like armor. My Gravity Sphere acknowledges it as equipment.”

“That’s good to know,” Liam responded. Before he could map out a plan of action for himself, he felt several new things happening all around him. He looked at the others and noticed sphere made out of their chosen Mana had formed except for Roman. He had only made a Lightning Hand and after seeing the creatures they were about to fight had rock like shells he looked frustrated that he couldn’t use what he had learned. That didn’t stop him as he channeled Earth Mana before chanting a spell that caused Spikes to emerged underneath one of the Stone Crusher Shell Crabs in the back.

A low pitched tune with a strong hollow feeling to it suddenly filled the air, making Liam turn his sight back to see Mercer had a flute out and was already starting on the defensive buffs. To his surprise, the sphere that was next to him pulsed with visible music notes coming out from it. When the notes escaped the sphere, Liam felt the music Mercer was playing have a stronger effect. Instead of receiving the two point five percent buff to his Resilience he was familiar with, he received a twelve percent buff.

The surprise didn’t end there as the Resilient Defense song continued to play through the sphere as Mercer switched to a faster pace song giving him a seven percent buff to his Agility and Speed sub-stats. Liam wasn’t sure how he was able to pull off playing two songs at once, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

His focus then switched over to Ariyana as she chanted her Entangling Roots spell onto one of the Stone Crusher Shell Crabs no one had focused on yet. After roots shot out from the ground and wrapped around it, she channeled as much Plant Mana as she could before chanting another spell. “Seeds of life I spread and call upon thee, Root into the earth and sprout up for me. Unleash the power hidden within, attack and destroy all the vermin. Pods full of ammo, Shoot to your hearts content. Pod Shooters!”

Three seeds the size of Ariyana’s palms appeared before her as they materialized. She then threw the seeds not too far in front of the creature. Each seed drilled into the rocky ground, disappearing from sight. A couple seconds later three dark green stems sprouted from the holes made from the seeds drilling. They grew three feet before finally stopping as the buds turned a whitish color and opened up. In the center of the pedals was a dark hole. Each flower then looked like it was taking in a deep breath before spitting out a hard object that flew faster than Liam thought could happen and smashed into the creature.

After the first shots were fired, the flowers breathed in again and repeated the process over and over. At first they smashed into different spots of the shell, but after a few volleys, they were starting to land on the same spot over and over. Cracks started to form in these spots, causing the Stone Crusher Shell Crab to thrash harder trying to free itself.

Liam took in this information before looking at Avery. Avery, while having a small fiery sphere follow behind her, raced over to a different Stone Crusher and swung her sword along certain divots and lines barely noticeable. She cursed before ducking and dodging a horizontal swing from one of its pincers, jumping backwards and channeling some Fire Mana. She then chanted a spell, forming a ball of fire on her palm. The fiery sphere that hovered by her side flashed a couple of times before sending a few small motes of fire into the fireball on her palm.

Liam was surprised to see the ball of fire burn glow brighter and looked to be hotter than it was just moments before. He then watched as she threw the ball of fire right at the shell of the creature. As the Fireball made contact, it exploded and wrapped around the swirling rock-like shell. A charred black spot showed where the fireball had landed as steam rose off the location. The creature let out a screech as it flailed its hook-like pincers up and down while shifting left and right, almost like it was trying to put out a fire that wasn’t there.

As he stared at the creature’s behavior, Liam came to the conclusion that the heat the fireball had left, must had heated up the inside. The more he watched the more he noticed little things that started to buzz inside his mind. The way the shells could have fire felt within even if the shell blocked the fire. The cracks that were forming on the shell of the Stone Crusher Shell Crab Ariyana’s Pod Shooters were striking, and even Blair’s announcement of her Gravity Sphere acknowledging the shells as equipment.

If that was the case then maybe his Blacksmithing ability could be useful. He looked at the Stone Crusher Shell Crab Avery was fighting, activated Spot Frailty, and grinned. During his time thinking things over, Avery had landed three more Fireballs. Each spot had a yellow color signifying that the shell was starting to lose durability in those locations. He turned to look at the Stone Crusher Shell Crab Ariyana was fighting and saw the cracks were turning a dark red. Even the spots where Blair and Artem were hitting were catching up to the same color.

“Alright,” Liam muttered as he reached his right hand over the hammer on his belt loop. He then races over to the Stone Crusher Shell Crab Avery was fighting against and yelled, “Heads up.”

Avery jumped back to dodge an attack from the creature, turned her head to see Liam leaping forward. He pulled the hammer off the belt loop and gripped the small handle with both hands. A couple seconds later, the hammer’s head bulked out as the handle grew in length. It went from a small construction like sized hammer to a small single handed War Hammer. Liam brought the weapon over his head and then back down as hard as he could on the spot he noticed was turning red. The force of the attack shattered the rough stone structure of the shell, revealing pure white fleshy skin.

Not missing a beat, Avery chanted a Fireball spell, allowed the rest of her Firey Sphere to infuse with it and threw it at the exposed skin. Liam pushed against the shell and jumped away before the fireball landed. As the ball of fire collided against the skin, it sank into the shell and washed over the creature hidden within.

As Liam’s feet touched the ground he switched direction and ran towards the next creature. He locked on to the spot that was closest to being destroyed, swung his hammer behind him, got in as close as he could and then swung. A giant amount of shell exploded upon contact.

Liam went to turn to rush towards the next creature, but as he did so his eyes widened as Blair’s axe was heading for the spot where Liam had exposed. Blair tried to pull back on her swing and voiced a complaint as Liam dropped to his knees and slid up the swing of the weapon.

“Dude, watch where you’re moving,” Blair complained after her weapon crashed into the monster, slightly above where she was aiming.

With a grimace, Liam called out, “Sorry, my bad.” He ran away from the fight and decided to head towards the next creature. It had several spots ready to be exposed and thanks to Ariyana’s Entangled Roots holding it in place, the monster couldn’t dodge the attack.

However, as Liam jumped to hit one of the spots, he heard Ariyana shout out, “Look out!”

Liam turned his gaze to see an object flying straight for him. One of Ariyana’s Pod Shooters had decided to attack the same spot he was aiming for and didn’t stop when Liam jumped in to help. He took the attack on the back of his left leg as he continued forth with his own attack. He wasn’t sure what these plants were shooting, but Liam found out first hand they were solid and hurt… a lot.

“Shit! Are you alright Liam?” Ariyana called out as he landed. Liam moved out of the way as fast as he could before getting hit once more. He was glad he did because the Pod Shooter didn’t care if he was in the way or not.

“They don’t distinguish friend from foe?” Liam asked, slightly annoyed, but at the same time understood he was an idiot for not asking first.

“Apparently they don’t,” Ariyana stated. “I didn’t know that. Sorry about that.”

Liam waved a hand as he used his other to rub where he was hit. “No, it was my fault for not asking first. But now we know. I’ll leave this one to you.”

Ariyana shook her head as she said, “Sounds good.”

Liam made his way away from that creature and towards the one Roman was fighting. It seemed that the attacks Roman was landing were doing damage both to the creature and its shell. He aimed for one of the spots on the shell that was ready to be exposed and ran for it. He yelled out a warning as he approached it and was thankful Roman heard him before he started chanting a spell. The spot he smashed his hammer on shattered a small area of the shell, revealing the creature’s unprotected flesh.

Feeling good about not getting in Roman’s way with that attack, he went to make his way to the next creature until he noticed the Stone Crusher Shell Crab he had just attacked focus its ire upon him. The creature brought one of its hook-like pincers to the side and swung. Liam switched from using his Spot Frailty to Cleave. He locked on to a spot he could attack to cleave as he went to put his Hammer back and switch it to his meat cleaver. However, upon switching he felt a sharp tingle zap his fingers. He lost focus on what he was about to do to see what happened right as the hook-like pincer rammed right into him, knocking away from the fight and into the rocky wall.

After colliding into the wall and sliding to the ground, the Stone Crusher Shell Crab charged Liam. He went to get up and was about to move out of the way but stopped as Artem rammed into the side of the creature’s shell. He used enough force to knock it on its side. Blair took that moment to attack it with Avery by her side.

Artem ran up to Liam and asked as he looked him over, “Are you alright? What happened?”

Liam thought back to what had happened as Artem chanted a new healing spell he hadn’t heard before. Not really listening to his words, Liam remembered placing the hammer back on his belt loop and went to grab his meat clever tool weapon. That weird feeling he had got only happened when he went to pull out the meat cleaver. However, no matter what Liam tried to think, he couldn’t figure out what had actually happened.

A notification suddenly appeared in front of him before he could think any more on it. What was written on it gave him what he was looking for.

[Warning! User cannot wield two different Weapons at the same time. User does not have a high enough level in Weapon Skill – Hammer and Weapon Skill – Cleaver to be able to wield both at the same time. User does not have appropriate skill or ability to wield two weapons of different calibers.]

So the reason why I felt that zap was because I tried to use both the hammer and the meat clever? Liam thought as he raised a brow. That doesn’t make sense. I know that I had put the hammer away before… Before Liam finished that thought he remembered how long it took the hammer to take its actual shape. He hadn’t thought there was a possibility of the same happening in reverse. This was the first time he had used the equipment as well as taking and placing the tool weapons in and out of the loop. They were already placed there when he received it.

“The possibility of that being the reason isn’t low enough to discount,” Liam muttered as he slowly stood back up.

“There, all done,” Artem said as he looked at Liam who was brought out of his thoughts. “Did you figure out what happened?”

Liam shrugged. “I have a vague idea I can go off of, but not entirely sure.”

“Well, whatever it was, don’t let it distract you like that again,” Artem stated. “We can’t have you taking big hits like that. Also…you need to keep a better view of your surroundings. I know you’re trying something new due to the restrictions given, but…we can’t have you jumping in front of everyone while they attack. It’ll cause friendly fire.”

Liam shook his head. While he wasn’t entirely happy about the comment, Artem was right. That hit alone took out a little more than a quarter of his health. Even if his resilience grew higher and he wore better armor, it wouldn’t do much for his lower Health Pool. He was kind of like a glass cannon except he wasn’t the heaviest hitter there. He was just glass.

Not only that, but he didn’t have any excuses for not paying attention to what his teammates were doing. He had just assumed that they would sync with whatever he was doing, or their attacks wouldn’t hit him, but that assumption almost cost him his head and some lumps.

“You’re right. I’ll have to do better,” Liam stated as he looked back at the battle field. As both he and Artem turned to look, they felt a tremble shake the ground beneath them. the last of the Stone Crusher Shell Crabs had just fallen. A little down the path an explosion of dust shot out into the air revealing six more of the same creatures.

“Hm,” Liam stated as he looked at them. “I wonder how many we will need to fight before the first wave boss arrives.”

It didn’t take long for him to get his answer. Liam didn’t attempt to switch between his tool weapons, opting to stick with the hammer. He focused on making sure he didn’t in his teammates way as he attacked spots until they shattered and revealed the flesh underneath. This time he focused on a single target and created more exposed areas instead of switching after getting a single area before moving on to the next target.

After they had finished fighting this next wave of Stone Crusher Shell Crabs, a new rumble shook the ground. This one was different from the last two. The reason for that became known as a single creature emerged from the left wall. This one was taller than the last creatures and was wider as well. The shell was completely different from the others as it looked like one massive piece of rock instead of a shell.

Six long legs emerged and spread out from the hole as two long eye stalks came out with two meaty pincers and a gapping maw full of razor sharp teeth. As the creature revealed itself, Liam took the opportunity to assess it.

[Mud Shaper Hermit Crab. 1,200/1,200 H.P. 540/540 MP. Level – 13.]