“I will try to keep them all in this zone and cover the left side. If they get out to the right, try to slow them down or distract them. Stay behind me no matter what.” Monty said.
Jack nodded and locked his view on the area Monty had pointed at. The sound of claws scraping the dirt and rocks got closer.
With the change to his vision the ring of soothing gave him, he noticed the movement well before it reached the area that their light covered. A mass of small dog-sized rodent creatures raced towards them, moving so closely together it seemed like the earth itself was racing towards them in a wave.
Jack locked focus on the section Monty told him to and waited. As the swarm approached the cleared area Monty hoisted the log forward, aiming for the centre of the clearing. As it sailed through the air he reached back and pulled one of the spears from the ground next to him.
The spear glowed green for a second and thickened and then expanded until it was at least 4 meters long. It was still as thick as an arm and looked unwieldy to hold but Monty managed it without a struggle. As Monty took a position with a firm foundation and set up to thrust the massive spear forward, the log landed.
Once again it exploded outwards in a large cone-like area directly towards the oncoming swarm. The thousands of tiny wood splinters were shot forward and like needles they pierced through everything in their path.
The creatures had been compressed so closely together that over half their number were decimated by that one attack, an almost perfect triangular shape in the centre of the rush was left flattened and clear of moving bodies.
Still many more than they had encountered last time still survived and avoided the shrapnel, racing forward towards Monty. Jack kept his eyes on the area Monty had assigned him. His heart raced but mixed with the fear was a slight sense of anticipation and excitement.
Without the death mana surrounding him amplifying his fear he knew there was a part of him that wanted a chance to see himself contributing. A group of the rodents started to break towards his side, avoiding the corpses in front of them.
Jack prepared a shockwave, pulling mana from his vortex and focusing on keeping his shape tight as he held up his palm. The first creature broke into his vision and although he knew he should have waited until more were in the zone, he released his [Shockwave].
The blast that shot forward was much weaker than the last one pulling in only one cycle of mana. His shape was much more directed and the resulting force was similar. The one rodent along with two more that entered his side were hit with the wave of force and shot backward into the dark. Jack lost sight of them.
He hoped they collided with something and were killed or injured. But he had no time to think. The rest of the group that had escaped to his side kept fanning out. Monty was doing his best impression of a sewing machine, thrusting his giant spear forward at an insane speed. The body strength that must be involved to even thrust something that long and heavy once, let alone constantly at the speed he was doing was mind-blowing.
A pile of corpses started to pile up in a circle around Monty, showing the range his spear had; any creature that entered his range was immediately pierced and dropped dead. Four more rodents seemed to break through onto Jack's side, avoiding the massacre zone.
Jack was ready, he pulled the mana back in and held the same shape as last time activating his [Shockwave] one more time. Three of the creatures were blasted backwards into the dark, he had pulled his shape too tight and missed one of them.
The rodent's teeth flashed large and pincer-like as it got closer than any other of its brethren, it crouched preparing to pounce as it was about five meters away. Jack tried to pull in mana for another shockwave, but the panic set in and he lost his grip on it.
The creature pounced. It sailed through the air heading right towards Jack who flinched as his hands shot up to protect his face. There was a brown wooden flash and the creature's momentum was halted and it fell to the ground. Monty had pierced and retracted his spear before Jack could notice.
Jack turned to look back on Monty’s side and saw a pile of bodies in an almost perfect half circle; they were piled up to above his knees. Nothing was moving or approaching anymore. Jack sighed and collapsed to the ground.
“Up Jack, it’s not over, that was just the first wave. Fuck. I am going to have to do something a little risky.” Monty looked at Jack as he helped pull him to his feet.
“I am going to need you to stop purging for a moment. Try to hold as much mana in your body as you can, let it build up. It might hurt but try to keep it going as long as you can. I am going to draw in all the mana around us but I won't be able to control the amount. After you feel me draw in everything you can purge it all again. Stay DIRECTLY behind me. Got it?” Monty said, emphasizing the position he needed Jack to take.
Not having any reason to say no, he nodded his agreement and stood directly behind Monty as instructed. He stopped purging mana from his body. It didn’t take long until he started to build up a heat in his veins. The pressure kept building, but Jack had done this a lot recently and he knew he could hold on a fair while longer, it would hurt but he could push through.
Suddenly he felt a pull around him, this was different to before. This felt like the mana in the area was being forced towards Monty. He even felt his body pulled forward slightly as the mana inside him reacted slightly.
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Jack heard Monty sigh, and as he peeked around his body, he could see another swarm approaching. From this distance he wasn't sure if it was bigger than the last one or not, but it was at least the same size.
He felt something strange from Monty. Normally he could feel when the man had mana in his system and he had a vague idea of how much. He knew Monty should have a lot after just absorbing everything around them, but it suddenly felt like the amount dropped by a significant amount.
He felt the vibrations for the man's body change slightly as well, they seemed to speed up and the feeling he got from being so close to the man was heat. He sensed fire.
Monty took a step forward and this time his stance was completely different, gone was his direct punchiness. It was replaced with wide sweeping motions. His hand swiped up over his shoulder and then he swung it down and across the front of his body, palm upward almost like he was swinging a tennis racket.
In the path of his swinging palm, a line of condensed red flame appeared and hovered for a second before erupting forward. Monty swung his hand back in the opposite direction and another line appeared before shooting flames forward.
The X-shaped flame raced towards the oncoming swarm, the heat that radiated from it was immense and Jack almost had to turn his body away. As the flames passed the remnants of the uprooted husks of trees they immediately burst alight as well.
When it hit the rodents it acted more like a laser than a traditional flame. Being compressed as much as it was it cut straight through the approaching creatures, setting them alight as it passed. Only a few were spared as they avoided the fire coming towards them. As they continued their approach they could not avoid the flames of their allies or the environment and were set ablaze as well.
Jack realised he had forgotten to start purging again. The mana was building up to an extremely uncomfortable level but the flames had distracted him. He purged his system and Life mana was released back into the area around them.
They both watched as a few of the rodents fled while on fire, a couple kept pushing forward however. Monty picked up the spear he had set down before lighting the area up and with a practised thrust ended their struggle.
Jack, assuming the danger had passed, looked up at the back of Monty’s head. Up until this point he had thought Monty had just the one frequency like himself. He assumed everything Monty did was something he could potentially do one day. But that… that was fire, not a fireball but close enough.
“Yoooo, what the fuck was that Monty. That was fire? How?” Jack sputtered.
“Quiet for a moment Jack, I think we are ok but let's not be too reckless.” Monty replied in a whisper that was almost lost over the crackling of the spreading flames.
Jack looked around, now being able to see much more with the flames lighting up the area around them. He was worried the flames would continue to spread, however, the damp solid and rotted wood seemed to sputter out quickly once Monty’s wave had passed.
“Fine,” Jack quietly huffed as he waited for Monty to respond.
After the longest two minutes of Jack's life Monty answered.
“Okay, long story Jack. Yes, it was fire mana. I think I mentioned this before, my strength is not dealing with large numbers of enemies. I am not a ranged fighter, I focus on body enhancements and like to fight close quarters. It is very hard to do that while my priority is to keep you safe.” Monty replied.
Jack stared, while he was interested in this and wanted to know how Monty could appear to be even stronger than he already saw him. The fire of passion had been ignited. He had to know.
“Monty... Fire... How?” Jack said.
Monty stared at Jack for a moment and squinted his eyes as he pursed his lips.
“This is one of those things that is rude to ask, Jack. I will have to trust you a little... You have already seen it and I know your secret too. I received a special trait at Tier 10 as most people do. It has an active ability that allows me to temporarily transform mana from one frequency to another. It has a terrible conversion rate so it is not efficient for normal use. But it does give me many more options in combat. Now can you get it? I have no idea.” Monty said, still staring at Jack.
Jack thought about that for a second. Turrel had gone over what was required to get to the different tiers. The shards required to get to Tier 10 were insane, it was over 1,500. Given most people would be getting about 1-2 shards per rift, unless they were running the expedition, that was unachievable for most people.
If their hunch was right about Jack and skipping the first tier, well that would put his requirement at around 1,000. Still a far-fetched number, but more likely and with the way Monty was treating him now there was every chance he might be able to get more than the 1 shard per rift.
He thought back to his mental list of goals. It was a short list and there was only one thing left on it at the moment.
Jack’s New World Goals
- Learn to Hulk Smash
- Destroy Testing Machine
- Pass Induction Retest
- Summon a Fireball
- Learn to manipulate other frequencies
Jack knew it was silly and to set the course of your life on a childish whim was probably not the smartest decision he could make. If he was honest with himself, as soon as he knew magic and power was an option, all he had hoped for was to summon a fireball, to look at that spinning orb of fire in his hand and throw it.
He was 34, but his inner child couldn't let it go. He had no other motivation for the moment; he couldn’t go home and had no desire to be a hero. It couldn't hurt to be powerful. And if he maybe found a way to achieve a dream for himself no matter how childish, how could that be a bad thing? He added a new item to his list.
Jack’s New World Goals
- Summon a Fireball
- Learn to manipulate other frequencies
- Become a Shardlord [Achieve Tier 10]
Jack looked back at Monty with a strange new determination on his face.
“Okay, how many shards am I getting for being your mana battery? How quick can we get me to Tier 10?”
Monty smiled and patted Jack on the head.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now Jack. Let’s see how many the core shatters into but I think 50 / 50 is fair?” Monty laughed.
Jack did the maths; that should be enough to get him to Tier 3 if his requirements were what they thought, and almost to Tier 3 if it was normal. It was a start at least. He nodded and started asking Monty questions about how one might hypothetically make a fireball.