BT - Book 1 - Chapter 85

Jo’s wound knit together under Micah’s hands as Augmented Mending did its work.  She squirmed slightly, setting her jaw against the pain as the mana pulled the flesh of her thigh back into place.

“I had the drop on them Micah,” she hissed, her hands opening and closing as she squirmed up against the dungeon wall.  “The ember sloths were focusing on you and Trevor, they didn’t even see me coming.”

“I know they didn’t,” he replied, sighing as he stood up, spell done and wiping her blood off on his armor.  “I just don’t think you understand how far everything in here is above your level.  Ember sloths are slow for level forty monsters.  They’re still plenty fast when compared to level ten blessed.”

“I’m level twelve now,” she stood up, putting weight on the leg experimentally, “but that was still a lucky hit.  How could I have known that the ember sloths could harden their fur into spikes and kick that fast with their back legs?  One minute I was behind the thing, sticking a sword in it, and the next I’m on the ground with like twenty pinky sized holes.”

“You forgot to thank Micah for breaking formation to save your life,” Sarah interjected, crossing her arms.  “Drekt was barely able to pick up the slack while he stood over you fending the ember sloth off until the Luoca could show up and save us.”

“Isn’t that what he was supposed to do?” Jo looked at Sarah, confused.  “He’s the flex, if a party member is in a tough spot Micah pulls them out.”

“What your sister is trying to say,” Trevor glanced at her, a little frustrated, “is that right now you’re walking a tightrope like you know that there’s a net below you.  The problem with that is that the net is only supposed to be used for emergencies.  I might not be a scholar, but I certainly picked up on the seriousness of the situation when Micah gave his little speech. What would have happened if Telivern or Ravi got hurt when you went off on your little adventure?”

“Micah would have cast a spell to pull them out of trouble?” Jo looked away, unwilling to meet anyone’s eyes.

“What if it was Sarah?” Drekt crossed his arms.  “She was right behind me and I struggled to keep the sloths back.  One of them could have easily used the inferno spell that they kept casting to hit your sister while our healer was out of position.”

“But Sarah was wearing her ring,” Jo turned to her sister, only to wilt under the other girl’s stern gaze.  “She would have been fine.”

Micah shook his head, feelin an echo of his frustration with Jo.  He loved her because of her lust for life, her willingness to throw herself completely into a pursuit minutes after starting it was something he admired, but at the same time…

“The next chamber is the dungeon boss,” Micah sighed.  “The Decrepit Behemoth is a bit over a story tall and covered in rusted and poorly repaired armor.  Most importantly, it is physically hot enough to harm us even through the rings if we are close enough and it can spit out streams of steel quills hard enough to embed them in rock.”

“What I’m getting at,” he continued, “is that if any of you are out of position, it is very possible that the boss can kill you with one attack.  Jo and Sarah are gaining levels, but it’s not yet to the point where they can fight it seriously.  You will need to be in the room and you will need to launch at least one attack to maximize your experience, but actually attacking it seriously is a terrible idea.”

“Jo,” Micah put a hand on her shoulder.  “I want you to promise me that we won’t have a repeat of this stunt.  I’m going to be occupied.  If you get into trouble, I won’t be able to pull you out of it.  You will die.”

“I guess I’ll just have to avoid getting into trouble then,” she smirked back at him.  “Don’t worry about it, I’ll only try a sneak attack if-”

“No you won’t,” Sarah cut her off.  “Unsurprisingly, you were on your back and panting when you got yourself into trouble.  Unlike you, I got a pretty good view of what happened.  Micah had to burn through a lot of mana to save you.  Honestly, if I expected a straight answer I’d ask Micah where he got that much, but it wasn’t a casual thing to save you.  No one else could have done it, and pulling that much power away from a life or death fight isn’t a good thing.”

“Hey now,” Jo frowned.  “I said I learned my lesson.”

“No,” Sarah crossed her arms.  “You’re literally trying to concoct a scenario where you can sneak out and involve yourself in a fight far above your level.  You are my sister and I love you, but you’re being an idiot right now.  Give Micah his promise.”

“Fine,” Jo stomped a foot down delicately.  “I’ll throw one knife at the big bad monster to get my experience and after that I’ll hide behind the big manly men.  This time.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” Micah shook his head, sighing in relief as he brought up his status.

Age 15 [ERROR] / 29

Class/Level Divine Candidate 21

XP 31,827/40,000

HP 1527/1600

Class Specialty

Chronomancer

Attributes

Body 25, Agility 25, Mind 51, Spirit 50

Attunement

Moon 30  Sun 3  Night 23

Mana

Moon 1410/1635 Sun 217/1581 Night  809/1621

Affinities

Time 10

Tier V - Foresight 7, Time Echos 1, Temporal Transfer 2, Haste 8
Tier VI - Temporal Vortex 1, Temporal Stutter 1

Wood 7

Tier I - Refresh 11, Mending 9, Plant Weave 12

Tier II - Augmented Mending 18, Root Spears 13

Tier III - Heal 11, Paralytic Sting 6, Explosive Thicket 6

Tier IV - Regeneration 6, Healing Wave 6, Poison Fog 7

Tier V - Panacea 1, ComaI 1

Tier VI - Binding Vines, 1

Air 6

Tier I - Gale 8, Air Knife 18, Air Supply 4
Tier II - Wind Shield 8, Sonic Bolt 14

Tier III - Updraft 3, Pressure Spear 8, Sonic Orb 7

Tier IV - Flight 3

Blessings

Mythic Blessing of Mursa - Blessed Return, Ageless Folio

Skills

Anatomy  7

Arcana   11

Enchanting  25

Fishing   1
Herbalism  5

Librarian  5

Ritual Magic  26

Spear   22

-Wind Spear 13

Spellcasting  35

“Is everyone ready?” Micah glanced around the party, taking in their serious nods and white knuckles as they clutched their weapons.  “Remember, one ranged attack and then stay clear.  You’ll lose experience if you leave the room, so try and avoid that, but if there isn’t another option?  Do what you need to.”

He whistled, calling the Luoca over from where it had been stabbing a sloth corpse repeatedly with its sharp legs.  Maybe Drekt was onto something.  The daemon’s casual and alien sadism didn’t inspire much confidence.

Micah sighed as he began casting regeneration.  Once they defeated the Khan he’d dismiss the thing.  Elsewhere might contain enough power to reshape Karell, but between his own history and Dakkora’s autobiography, he would be an idiot to believe that power came without a cost.

This timeline, he wasn’t paying as much.  He didn’t feel the insidious weight on his psyche as the daemons altered him, leeching away his humanity, but still, they were a poison and he’d be surprised if he could keep the Luoca summoned indefinitely without that poison infecting him as well.

His first spell completed, Micah began reciting the words to haste.  For now? He was leveling almost as quickly as the last timeline but it wasn’t quite enough.  Things would slow down as he got closer to level forty, but he needed that second specialization.

Micah’s spear skills weren’t terrible, but his martial art was a bit weak for a major fight, and the possibility of going into Basil’s Cove and joining a guild to earn another martial art seemed to be beyond him.  He needed a better art, and he needed to evolve it.

He sighed, stepping back from the Luoca as it flapped its wings impatiently.  Problems for another day.

“Gods,” Micah smiled to himself as he waved the Luoca into the boss chamber with a free hand.  “It’s like meeting an old friend after years away.”

The metal clad centaur roared, shaking Micah as he strode into the room.  A stream of metal spikes tried to pin the Luoca to the chamber’s ceiling but the giant bug moved with deceptive grace as it wove in between them.

Micah began casting poison fog aiming at the behemoth’s leg as the Luoca swooped in, drawing a hand swipe from the Decrepit Behemoth.  The cloud of clinging yellow mist sprang into being around the behemoth’s feet, igniting almost instantly as it interacted with the boss’ intense heat.

The explosion knocked it to the side, providing an opening for the Luoca to dart close enough for its scorpion tail to blur forward and claim one of the Decrepit Behemoth’s eyes.

It screamed, not evening noticing the hail of weak attacks from the rest of the party, its body beginning to glow a deep cherry red as its internal heat increased.

The Behemoth staggered after the Luoca, missing it with another stream of metal needles that ripped apart the stone of the dungeon ceiling as it tried to tag the dodging daemon with the beam of gleaming metal.

His eyes focused on its rear left leg.  It might have been his imagination, but it seemed that the monster was a bit ginger, almost hesitant to put weight on the limb.  Not giving up on what worked, Micah aimed another poison fog at the potentially injured leg.

This time the explosion brought the creature down entirely.  There wasn’t much visible damage beyond the destruction of the metal plates on the limb, but the explosion must have done some sort of internal damage, as it left the Decrepit Behemoth unable to support even a small fraction of its weight on the wounded limb.

It turned, screaming at Micah in rage as its heat increased another notch.  Even with the ring on, Micah could feel sweat beading on his forehead as he began to cast haste on himself.  Given the way the monster was staring at him, he suspected that he’d need to be able to dodge fairly soon.

The Luoca pre-empted his concerns, slamming into the side of the monster’s head and digging in with all of its razor sharp legs at the same time.  The behemoth reached for the daemon, frantically trying to rip the Luoca off its face only for its gauntleted hand to run afoul of the insect like monster’s tail and wings.

Hot blood sprayed from the mutilated hand, evaporating into a red mist almost before it could hit the dungeon floor.  Distantly, Micah heard the sound of the metal plates armoring the behemoth slamming to the ground as his daemon shredded its way through them.

The Luoca was taking damage, Micah knew that even as he sprinted, moving almost two and half times as fast as normal under the power of haste.  Even if the Decrepit Behemoth couldn’t hit it with its clumsy bludgeoning hands or the needle stream, the heat from its body and scalding blood were more than enough to overwhelm the daemon’s resistances and the effects of regeneration.

Unfortunately, a ring of heat resistance would be wasted on the monster.  Mostly because its aura would melt anything, even heavily enchanted equipment, given enough time.  Sure, enchanted gear lasted longer, but that was more a matter of ‘one dungeon delve,’ than weeks.  Not enough to justify the expenditure of resources and attunement needed to create them.

It leapt into the air, wings buzzing as it opened the distance from the behemoth to give regeneration time to work.  The boss didn’t even look at Micah, the scars and empty eye socket in its face all of the incentive it needed to focus its attention on the Luoca once more.

Steeling himself, Micah began casting Temporal Vortex.  It began sucking the night mana from him as he concentrated on the spell.  Each word delivered with a precise inflection as his hands shaped and directed the energy into its proper spellform.

This time, the needles found the daemon, digging deep into its right flank and shredding one of its wings.  The monster screamed incoherently as it spiraled toward the ground, landing eventually with a heavy thud.

The Decrepit Behemoth dragged itself forward, it’s rear left leg lifeless behind it.  Its moves were slow and labored, steaming blood still flowing down its face as it approached the injured Luoca, intent on using the weight of its great armored bulk to finish the job that its metal needles had started.

Micah’s spell finished, and a swirl of energy sprang into existence, swallowing the rear half of the monster.  He’d initially aimed for its front, but Temporal Vortex simply took too long to cast and it was almost impossible to alter its trajectory dramatically during casting.

Really, it was more of a siege spell, meant for castles or great formations of men packed together, but that didn't’ change the damage it could deal.

Crackling white and pink energy ravaged the monster, stealing and reapplying energy haphazardly as it sought to turn the dungeon boss inside out.

Its bulk and armor meant nothing before the spell, instead transforming into more fuel as their temporal energy drained into the tempest of magic as it pulsed around the creature.

The Decrepit Behemoth made it one more step before it collapsed entirely, the rear half of its body unresponsive.  It tried to scream, the sound only coming out as a cough as bloody mist expelled itself from its mouth, the creature’s organs both aging and shrinking simultaneously until they were a knot of disconnected arteries and scar tissue.

Its hands reached out, trying to dig into the dungeon floor.  Its goal, no longer to attack the downed Luoca, but to escape the attack consuming it.

Its efforts ended in failure, body slumping entirely to the ground as the red glow of its superheated corpse began to fade.

“Huh,” Micah shook his head, panting slightly at both the heat and the expenditure of mana, “that was enough for level twenty two.”