Mage Tank

Chapter 148: The Four Bugwomen of the Apocalypse

Once Explosion! had been countered, a lot of things happened very fast.

Fly was flanked on three sides by allies in a triangle formation, a gruesome menagerie of insectoid bodies. Their frontliner fell while facing me and wasted no time charging.

The creature was a hulking woman covered in a dark brown carapace. Her body was wide and oval in shape, with sharp horns growing from her skull. Before she’d even landed, broad wings shot out from beneath armored plates on her back, and I was reminded of a time I looked up to see a roach on the ceiling, only for it to fall toward me and fly away at the last second.

There are fewer things more terrifying than a flying cockroach.

Roach launched forward, wings kicking up a gust of air and sending dirt swirling around her allies behind her. She led with an 8-foot-long bardiche with a curved, bladed head half the length of my body. It was clearly a two-handed weapon and she was wielding it in two hands. Of course, she had 3 hands on each side of her body since she was a fucking roach, and the two hands she held it with were both on her right side. Her left side was guarded by a tower shield as tall as she was, which was only slightly shorter than her weapon.

She flashed through the room as fast as one of my hammers, the sonic boom her movement created even louder. I had my shield up and ready to block, but I could barely follow the arc of her bardiche as it crashed into Gracorvus.

Fortunately, I’d positioned myself with a Spectral trap between myself and the baddies falling from the sky. Roach’s ‘feet’ didn’t contact Nuralie’s rune, but the trigger had a spherical radius that could be adjusted out to 1 yard. Roach’s path took her over the trap, flying just close enough to the ground to set it off.

A small cluster of skeletal faces with yawning mouths swept out of the ceiling and bit into Roach with ethereal fangs. The warrior barely seemed to notice, already swinging her bardiche again.

To be clear, the time from when I saw Roach to when she was smashing into Gracorvus with her second attack was less than a second. This bug was fast. Her second hit knocked Gracorvus aside, and her third cut into the armor on my chest. I felt the blade carve through skin and muscle, but before my severed nerves could start sending pain signals from the damage caused by the razor’s edge of her bardiche, she was already making another attack.

I somehow managed to get Gracorvus back up in time to block, but I could already feel fractures in my left arm as the force of the beating traveled through my shield and into my body.

HP: 1220 -> 993

At the same time Roach was going absolutely HAM on my soft, fragile body, Necro Fly’s hands formed a series of complex mudras. They were the most human-looking part of her, but her fingers bent and distorted with impossible degrees of flexibility, and she completed whatever she’d been casting before Roach had gotten her third swing in.

Azure fractures spiderwebbed through the floor beside her, and a portal opened. A massive, thick hand grabbed the edge of the floor, and a hulking creature of stone and pure mana tore its way through the breach, rising nearly to the ceiling.

You have observed the Mystical Summon: Arcane Goliath spell.

The description of the spell added little information its name didn’t already communicate, but I did note that I could pick the spell up if I wanted to lean more into the minion game. I only hoped that Fly’s summons weren’t nearly as broken as my own, especially since the moment she’d finished the spell her hands dashed through the motions again, several times faster than the first instance. I was half-expecting for smoke to start pouring off the digits from sheer friction against the air.

Another portal opened above, and a rippling creature of fire and molten rock descended.

You have observed the Divine Summon: Infernal spell.

The second spell had gone off so quickly that the Infernal was hitting the battlefield only an instant after the Goliath. The Goliath’s crystalline head puffed mana vapor and turned to find its enemy, but the Infernal had already locked onto me with smoldering reptilian eyes. It moved to give Roach an assist by clawing my guts out, and I had just enough time to identify the creatures and get a sense of their power.

Arcane Goliath: Construct, Grade 12.

Infernal: Demon, Grade 12.

So, each one was about as strong as Shog was when he soloed the Lardigrey boss.

Not good.

As soon as Roach’s fourth swing landed, the Infernal struck at my midsection with burning claws that left my armor glowing where it hit. The smack made my teeth rattle, but my armor held up and I took the blow without losing health. After such a fast and furious opener, I began suspecting that my Speed stat may not have been high enough.

There was a gurgling, trilling scream, and I caught the briefest glance of one of the other bugs clutching a hand to its neck. It was a slim-framed woman covered in soft fur with a pair of vibrant blue and yellow wings. She floated in the air, a mist of yellow particles shedding from her body and beginning to spread around the room. She held firmly to a staff in her left hand–its end a vibrantly glowing hunk of amber–while her right was pressed against a wound that gushed blood. Her body was shrouded by a blue shimmer I recognized as Mana Barrier–the ability that Etja used to offset damage–but the fletched tail of an arrow was still sprouting from between her fingers.

Mobility was my best friend, so the moment I could process the situation I cast Shortcut to extricate myself from the whirlwind of attacks from Roach and the Infernal. I appeared before Butterfly, smelling blood in the water, and decided that with all the bugs around I needed more arms to fit in. Since the moment Explosion! had been countered, I’d been focusing to activate one of my oh shit buttons.

I used Therianthropy, and a pair of violet and blue wings burst out from behind me. They passed through my cuirass as though it didn’t exist, their forms otherwise solid, and two downy tentacles rolled out beneath them, coiling around my sides.

Now, there were many things I could do with these tentacles. I could slap people around with them, but unarmed attacks weren’t my strong suit. I could grapple people with them, but I wasn’t built like Shog and didn’t have the experience to really muscle these bugs into submission. The tentacles were also excellent for tickle fights, but I’d only just met these ladies, so that felt impolite. I’d had a good bit of time to practice having extra limbs while in the maze and had found at least one curious way to use them that was terribly effective.

Throwing more hammers.

My inventory opened in a flash and the tentacles pulled out a pair of my old throwing hammers. Butterfly’s body had begun to glow, forcing the arrow back out of her neck as the wound closed. I whipped my tentacles forward to huck both hammers at her, their sonic booms adding to the cacophony of the battle. The shockwaves were already knocking dirt and dust from the ceiling.

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Before I could see the outcome of my point-blank hammers, I was struck by lightning. And an arrow. Then another arrow and more lightning. Then another arrow and yet more lightning.

A storm of projectiles crashed into my shield as the fourth member of the enemy crew leapt through the air. She had spindly legs that belied their strength as she kicked from the ground. Her body was green and wings were tucked in close at her back, although she wasn’t using them, seeming satisfied to jump where she wanted to be. The sound her bow made as she fired was a rattling chirp, its length covered in leafy adornments and small, strange bells that crackled with electricity. She fired an arrow every second as she leaped away, twittering like a cricket.

The first arrow thunked into Gracorvus, detonating a charge of lightning that coursed through my muscles, making my arm seize up. A flash of light and crackling thunder struck nearly at the same moment, a bolt leaping from Cricket between each arrow. By the time the third arrow landed my body was locked in a spasm of electrocution, health melting beneath the onslaught.

You have observed the Lightning Bolt spell.

Lightning Bolt

Physical

Cost: 10 Mana

Requirements: INT 20, Physical Magic 20

You create a bolt of lightning extending in a 1-foot wide line from you out to a number of feet equal to 40 + twice your Physical Magic skill level.

Make an INT spell attack against the first entity in the line of the bolt, dealing lightning damage with a damage bonus equal to your Physical Magic skill level. If the attack hits, the remaining length of the bolt is halved, and you can have it arc to a new target. You may repeat this until the length of the bolt is exhausted. You cannot attack the same entity more than once per bolt.

You are being electrocuted!

You have gained three stacks of Shocked!

Stacks of Shocked have imposed the Stunned debuff!

Body of Theseus has reduced the Stunned debuff to the Immobilized debuff. You are rooted in place for 6 seconds.

Critical Damage reduced by Body of Theseus!

HP: 993 -> 768

Cricket’s hits were fast, but each of them alone wasn’t remarkably strong. By the time the first bolt of lightning hit, I was barely registering her arrows. Still, being Immobilized was a big issue, but not nearly as bad as becoming Stunned. That would have left me helpless. I had ways around not being able to travel using standard locomotion, but it was far from ideal. I took solace in the fact that one of Cricket’s leaps had taken her into a poison trap and the insect woman was starting to cough her lungs out. Also, that spell looked pretty good.

While I took enough lightning up the ass to shit sparks for the next 3 weeks, my hammers had found their target. Both hammers had gone out with Homing Weapon, but I didn’t have the time to layer on Oblivion Orb. They were normal throwing hammers, so they didn’t have the multi-copy oomph that Somncres could deliver, but they were still supersonic hunks of metal flying at tender flesh.

Unfortunately, Butterfly soaked the hits with Mana Barrier at the cost of a healthy dollop of mana. The least visually offensive bug apparently had mana for days, however, and not only did my hammers fail to do more than leave a few cracks on her thin carapace, but energy swelled around her, healing the damage that had been dealt. Even so, while her wounds closed, the creeping toxic veins of Nuralie’s poison only grew.

As mana filled the cracks in Butterfly’s chest and continued sealing the hole in her neck, her wings beat forward and showered me in glowing spores. A hypnotic bloom of particles filled my vision, humming and spiraling in a circular motion. I became lightheaded and felt magic digging into my mind, convincing me that my sick biceps were puny and that my perfect X-frame body was as feeble as a newborn lamb.

You have observed the Curse of Weakness Spell.

Curse of Weakness

Divine

Cost: 5 mana per target + 1 mana/second per affected target

Requirements: CHA 10, Divine Magic 10

Target a number of entities up to the number of evolutions you have in Divine Magic. The targeted entities must pass a WIS check opposed by your CHA or become Weakened. Maintaining this ability requires Focus.

Weakened: Whenever a weakened character would deal damage, that damage is halved.

Your WIS check is successful!

You have resisted the Weakened debuff!

I said a silent thanks to the gods of massive resource pools that my Wisdom was as outrageously high as it was. I had no good way to know how close that save had been, but I could feel my strapping musculature deflating for a moment. Usually, I shrugged off effects calling for Wisdom saves without noticing a thing, so having any piece of a mental attack take root was worrying. In fact, now that I knew Butterfly could both heal and debuff, I resolved that Nuralie had picked the right target. Butterfly absolutely had to die first. I would allow no psychic attack to rob me of my swagger.

The next thing I saw was a giant, blue fist swinging at my face.

The Goliath had finally gotten up the steam to enter the fray, and as its enormous hand connected with my helm, a wave of force pulsed out with the strike. I was sent careening backward, body spinning from the Goliath’s hook. I crashed into one of our barriers, the metal warping with a groan and I bounced off of it to hit the southern wall with enough power to leave cracks.

HP 768 -> 718

The punch itself hadn’t been that strong, but the kicker was Mystical Force damage against which I had little defense. My resilience from Fortitude was enough to make the high-speed collisions with metal and stone feel more like aggressive encounters with foam and rubber. But I was across the room and knocked on my butt, muscles still seizing from Cricket’s lightning. To make matters worse, Roach was already on top of me again. She’d even probably had to slow down to follow my flight.

Roach was an aggressive, high-Speed tank with enough Strength that the hulking towershield she held looked like it was made of cardboard and the bardiche she was swinging at my chest moved as though it were light as a reed. Cricket was a mobile turret that output a constant stream of arrows enhanced with lightning and accompanied by bolts that locked people down with Stun and Immobilize. Butterfly could heal, debuff, and had so much juice for her Mana Barrier that she barely looked like she’d taken damage. Finally, Death Fly was in the backline, summoning bruisers to keep enemies on the back foot and place a meatwall between the enemy and her softer allies.

It was a good fucking party comp. I had to give that much to them. My respect for their synergy did little to take the sting away as Roach hit me from above with a spiraling strike from her bardiche, then spun her body to strike me again. Both blows landed within a tenth of a second. My armor tore, ribs severed, one of my lungs collapsed, and I was sailing across the room once more.

HP: 718 -> 522

Fly was finishing up her next summon, calling out a ghostly wraith with tattered robes that looked like it bought clothes at the same Necromantic Outfitters boutique as Fly. The wraith scanned the room before it charged off toward a fortified barrier in the dark. I assumed that it had found Nuralie, and despite being more than half dead, I wasn’t going to lose the aggro that easily.

Before Roach’s beatdown could introduce my face to another wall, I cast Shortcut and appeared right beside Death Fly, Somncres raised and ready. Fly flinched, then looked down at me from atop her skeletal horse with a cold gaze. The wraith stopped its charge, spinning to see me a handful of feet away from its master. The Infernal was on the other side of the room but had spun to rush at my new position. The Goliath did the same but struggled to stop its momentum from charging toward my prior location. Roach was also on the move, but I had a brief moment alone with Fly, and the wraith abandoned its hunt for Nuralie to try and come to her master’s defense.

But my move was a feint.

I spun and hurled Somncres into Butterfly’s back, the insectoid woman too slow to have reacted to my disappearance. I copied my hammer three times, each one gaining all the buffs of my Void Hammer combo, then threw both hammers from my tentacles as well. Six blunt instruments and four Oblivion Orbs found their target.

A hardened shell instantly formed around Butterly, the insectoid woman aware enough to barely react in time to the danger with a skill, but it was hastily cast and quickly shattered under the first hammer. The next five shredded her torso, hammers crushing exoskeleton and Oblivion Orbs blinking muscle and organs into the nether. Her body flashed blue over and over as her Mana Barrier struggled to absorb the extra damage, but by the end, she was left sagging to the ground, wings broken and blood freely flowing.

She continued to struggle for a moment, body swaying, and I was amazed she wasn’t dead. However, she only held on for a moment before collapsing.

The battlefield went still as the bugs looked at their deceased comrade. Hammers slapped back into my hand and tentacles as they returned with Homing Weapon and I readied for the rest of the fight. I was surrounded, unable to keep every enemy in my view, but Soul-Sight had long been active and helped me keep up with whoever was behind me.

“One down,” I mumbled. “Six to go.”

Somehow the number of enemies was going in the wrong direction.

Everything that’d happened had occurred in 10 seconds or less. The pause in the fight was probably less than one, but it felt like it dragged on for a minute.

An eerie quiet filled the room now that hammers and bodies weren’t warping around at more than 800 miles per hour, but it was broken by a guttural chuckle. I peeked back at Fly to find her quietly laughing with a voice that was the envy of bog witches worldwide. She slowly raised a finger and pointed it at Butterfly, uttering a spell that should have been entirely expected, but which still caught me flat-footed.

“Raise Dead.”

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