Book 3: Chapter 32: Enter The Dungeon 3
Despite the fact they fought more scourgelings, the second wave went far better than the first. They knew what to expect now, and none was surprised by the heavy shielding over their body and eyes. Joy took out two in swift succession before turning to help the others with their battle.
The third wave increased the number of scourgelings yet again, this time to ten. It was more difficult, yet still manageable. However, Arthur had to use his Phase In, Phase Out ability more than he liked. It renewed itself on a rolling one-hour basis, but if he didn't cut back, he was on pace to run out the timer.
This forced him to rely more on his newest card: His Metal Shot.
It proved to be a great distraction, and actually dangerous when he was able to hit one of the scourgeling's eyes.
As he grew used to shooting instead of ducking away, he became more comfortable with the card as a whole.
When the second to last scourgeling fell -- blinded thanks to an excellent double-shot, he received a new notification:
New Skill Gained: Metal Manipulation (Blacksmith Class)
Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 3.
In the middle of battle, he didn't have much time to think about it. Though... it seemed odd.
A few minutes later, as the last scourgeling of this wave lay dying, he glanced back through the notification to make sure he hadn't misread.
He hadn't. It... just didn't make sense.
His Master of Skills and Master of Body Enhancement card didn't give skills for spells or combat.
But... metal manipulation wasn't combat or a spell, was it?
One could manipulate metal in forging, for example, using tools or even bare fingers if the metal was thin and pliable enough.
And this did belong to a blacksmith class.
Time to experiment.
"Brix?" Arthur said, looking up at his dragon, "Do you have any thin pieces of metal in your Personal Space? Any wire?"
The dragon flashed him a toothy, knowing smile. "You've received a skill to accompany your card? Good. This opens up many other avenues."
"Something like this hasn't happened before," Arthur said. Except... it had, hadn't it? His Mental Blocking skills were even more of a borderline situation between magic and skill.
Brixaby had a different take. "You've barely begun to push the boundaries of your cards in combat." He shrugged a wing and then pulled out a thick coil of wire from his personal space. It was so heavy that holding it made Brixaby dip in mid-air. He managed to heave it over to Arthur who accepted it.
The moment the wire came within an inch of his skin, he felt it as if it were an extension of himself. He suspected if he pushed more metal skills -- perhaps even got a Metal Forging class in the future -- he might be able to easily perceive imperfections in the metal.
As it was, he was a long way from that. He didn’t even know what the wire was made of. Steel? Iron? Something like that.
But Brixaby was right. He hadn’t pushed himself in combat. He had to be more imaginative.
He'd been caught up on the idea of the second half of the card: Charging pieces with mana and flinging them at his enemies. But he also had control of the metal, didn't he?
He started winding the wire around his left wrist.
The fourth wave was even harder with fifteen scourgelings whistling for their blood.
Arthur used his Phase In, Phase Out card to loop a bit of the wire onto the base of a pincer. Phasing in, he stepped back and yanked the scourgeling's head to the side, then quickly swept around to the side of another creature that was just rearing back -- staggering from a one-on-one encounter with Cressida's flame bear. The wire coiled and looped any way that he wanted it as long as it was within an inch of his body, making it easy for him to manipulate and tangle up the creature. With his other hand, he continued peppering chainmail rivets to create space.
Then he got the brilliant idea to crimp one side of the rivet out to make a pointed arrow shape. They flew through the air with deadly ease and made that much more of an impact. They hit like arrowheads and sunk deep.
Leaning hard on his card, he managed to take down three scourgelings by himself, and helped with a fourth.
Brixaby was no slouch either. He used his mental ability to roar into a scourgeling's mind, briefly shocking it. His claws were too small to truly penetrate the chitin scales. So, Arthur had gifted him a small razor-thin knife from his Personal Space.
Not only did Brixaby have speed in the air as well as natural and skill-based dexterity, but he also had an uncanny sense of when he was about to be in danger. This was thanks to the danger sense he'd gained when he briefly consumed Prince Marion's time card.
And if all else failed, he had his own chainmail workings and a link to Arthur’s Phase In, Phase Out card.
Between Cressida's Flame Bear summon and her Mana shield, she could both do a good deal of damage to the scourgelings and keep herself safe.
The real powerhouse was Joy. One scratch from her venom claws or bite from her green fangs was eventual death to any opponent. Unfortunately, she didn't receive a further quest to kill scourgelings... but she certainly fought like she did.
Working together, the fourth wave was exhausting, but manageable.
The fifth wave, with twenty scourgelings, was almost a disaster.
Arthur's Phase In, Phase Out had finally run out. The last second expired at exactly the wrong time and he was forced to duck into Cressida's mana shield to avoid snapping pincers.
Each wave had taken longer and longer to complete. Arthur sensed he would soon have five seconds of phase time returned to him... but he wasn't sure he would make it that long.
A group of scourgelings had gathered to batter at the mana shield. Each hit was a direct strike to Cressida's mana pool. From her pale face, her mana was running low.
For a few minutes, it was a question of which would happen first: Cressida's shield falling or the hour to roll over and allow Arthur five precious seconds of phase time.
Brixaby and Joy were the ones who bought them the minutes that they needed. Brixaby pulled every trick of aerial dexterity he had to buzz and harass the creatures to keep them away from the shield. And, when they presented a target, he plunged his knife into the spine from above. If he managed enough power behind it, he'd literally cut the legs out of every scourgeling.
To fight Joy meant to fight death, but she couldn't handle so many on her own.
Finally, Arthur gained his precious seconds. He stuck his arm out of the shield, not disrupting it because he was phased, and pelted several of the still attacking scourglings in the eye-slits. Blinded, they staggered away, which made them easy prey for Joy and Brix to pick off.
Finally, the scourgeling staggered and fell, bleeding and poisoned.
With a triumphant roar, Brixaby descended on it, knife gleaming.
"No!" Arthur barked. "Don't kill it!"
It was a testament to Brixaby's trust in Arthur that he pulled up short to hover above the creature. Though he didn't look happy about it.
"Why not? Don't tell me you're taking pity on it?"
"No," Arthur agreed.
Cressida's shield fell. She sat on the ground, exhausted. Meanwhile, Arthur bent over, hands on his knees to gulp air. "No," he said again. "It's going to die anyway, and once it does, it’ll start disintegrating. We need... a few minutes."
That had been too close.
Cressida had a mana card that allowed her to quickly regain her mana, though not at the rate she was losing it in combat.
Everyone was exhausted. Even Joy settled on the ground, flexing her green arm as if the claws were cramping.
"Arthur," Cressida said, low. "I don't know how many more waves we can take."
Arthur nodded and glanced at the dragons who were chatting to each other, oblivious.
Now he had a moment to breathe, he looked into his Personal Space to see if there was some hidden tool, something else that could give him an advantage.
He could throw the remainder of his flour bombs. He'd been saving those, knowing they would be more effective with grouped-up opponents.
But other than that,... nothing struck him as useful.
"Ideas?" he asked.
The dragons turned to him and Cressida bit her lip. No one suggested anything.
"We should be fighting these like proper dragon riders, from up in the air," Arthur said. "Joy, do you think you could take Cressida and me up?"
"Yes!" she said immediately, but then paused. "But that will make me really heavy when I have to swoop down and poison the scourgelings."
"No," Cressida said. "That's too much weight on you, dear. You have to be nimble to get away in time. If you fly us, you can't fight."
"Then how do we kill them? I can't keep flying forever, especially with two people. No offense, but Arthur is kinda heavy."
Brixaby growled. "I should be strong enough to carry my own rider. Why don't these useless scourgelings have card shards?"
"We can't change that," Arthur said. "Focus on what we have control of."
Several dozen yards away, the final scourgeling fully collapsed, on the verge of death. Soon after, it would start disintegrating. Once that was done, the next wave would begin.
"Do you have anything in your Personal Space that will help?" Arthur asked his dragon, a bit desperately.
"Yes," Brixaby said, "I have simply been keeping it back until the optimal moment."
Joy brightened. "Really?"
"No!"
Arthur cast one final glance into his own Personal Space and then stopped.
"The enchantment books," he breathed.
Then, without another thought, he flung himself mentally into his own Personal Space.
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