The Fool's Freedom

This spawn was big. As big as a pickup truck, and as mean as its stereotypical driver.

Alan got close fast. Ashlyn was behind him, while the best Turtle could achieve was a slow jog through the debris.

The huge spawn was already fighting a group of unfortunate people. Alan saw one crushed, and another sliced in two. Horror could still be seen in the wide-open but lifeless eyes of the man.

Those alive tried to fight back and all sorts of projectiles rained in futility upon the large plates of pristine white covering the creature. There was a bit of damage, but it was negligible.

Alan took a stance and slowly swung with his staff, charging a [Shadow Slash]. It was a strenuous movement and he felt the weight of the staff in his hand increase along with the mana he put it; the burning in his muscles became stronger too.

He didn’t push to the very limit like he had the very first time; he didn’t want to take an exhaustion hit to his Vitality right now. It seemed that having 5 of it was the bare minimum of what allowed him to strain his body more often, without suffering. The earlier reminder had been scary, but it had passed for now. His other skills helped a lot too.

[Monochrome Armor] was great in this regard. It made each movement smoother, and easier and requiring less expenditure of stamina. Everything became better when he wore it. Alan wondered if he could make it permanent.

The thought sent tingles down his spine. Why not?

Feeling like he did with it on all the time would quickly become addicting. Alan shook his head and tried to focus on the creature before him as he released the skill.

The large blade of shadows shot out and crashed into the humongous spawn, forcing it to take a few steps to the side. There was a large cut left on its chitinous body, but it didn’t seem to be deep. It was more of a mark, than a wound.

This is going to be difficult.

Ashlyn took her time drawing her borrowed bow to the limit, and sending arrows that exploded on impact with the creature from the sheer force behind them. They dented the chitin and even made a few cracks, but a lot more would be needed to do actual damage.

The spawn swung its oversized blades at the nearest person, a large bearded fellow carrying a shield and an axe. To his credit the man managed to raise his shield in time, only to be sent flying in Alan’s direction.

Alan managed to move out of the way in time, giving up any thoughts of catching the man. He would be fine if he was half as durable as his now dented shield.

The monster instantly switched targets and rushed towards a woman who had been bombarding it with the debris around, using some sort of telekinesis. Alan used the opportunity to charge and sent another [Shadow Slash], only to curse as the skill exploded nowhere near the mark the first had left. Adding to the damage would be difficult.

He had enjoyed squashing the smaller spawn, but this one was impossible for him. Hell, even Ashlyn would probably struggle, mainly due to its size and her lack of a proper weapon.

There was another way though. Alan hoped it would work as his staff went back into the shadow inventory. Quite a few people were attacking the thing, and some were doing damage. Eventually, it would succumb to the attacks, but the army of spawn only grew in size and there was no time to waste.

Still, the distracted enemy provided an opportunity to test things and prepare for the future.

Alan took out the cat pommel dagger and its hollow eyes lit up as he activated [True Edge]. He rushed at the monster in a flurry of shadows and put some mana into his leg muscles, jumping high and aiming for its back.

He landed on shaky feet and stabbed his dagger into the carapace of the creature. Surprisingly [True Edge] failed to cut it as easily as Alan had assumed it would. There was resistance, but the enchanted blade still managed to slowly push through.

The fuck?

Alan swung widely again and barely reacted when the monster tried to reach him with a strangely bending limb. He ducked below the blade and stabbed his dagger to the side a few times, until finally, the shadowy enchanted blade hit a gap between the segments and sank easily. It didn’t seem to matter though.

The spawn didn’t become more agitated at all, as if the wound was of no consequence to it. It was already trying to reach Alan with one of its blades while using the other to attack the few people still around.

Standing on three legs seemed to be a challenge for this purespawn though, as each time it moved the body wobbled dangerously.

Who has designed these things? Aren’t Gods smarter?

Alan cursed and pulled out the dagger as he slipped from the back and rolled on the ground. A second later a limb bearing the full weight of the monster descended and he barely moved out of its way before it struck the ground and sank deep.

There was no way [Monochrome armor] would have tanked that. Alan got up, feeling the fatigue, and barely raised his dagger as another limb struck him. Shadows swirled but broke apart easily as the spawn’s blade hit the black blade of his dagger.

The force behind it was reduced enough after breaking more than half of [Monochrome armor] that Alan managed to block the rest by gritting his teeth and sliding on his comfortable boots. As soon as he saw an opportunity he jumped backward and took a deep breath.

His arms were tingling and his body felt exhausted. He would need some time before the conversion of mana to stamina from [One Mind, One Body] alleviated the fatigue.

Maybe bombarding it is the only way?

He didn’t want to get close enough to use his daggers, especially since [True Edge] was oddly ineffective against the thing.

Ashlyn was nowhere to be seen and Alan frowned in confusion.

Turtle, however, finally joined the fight and looked toward the creature with a sparkle in his eye. Without saying anything the man walked forward.

“Hold up!” Alan called, making the weird man turn. “Are you just going to stand and take a beating?”

“Yup.”

“You cannot attack, at all?”

“No.”

What a bizarre class. What’s the point of it?

“Man, do you have any way of harming those you fight?” Alan finally asked and watched as a woman who had just joined the fight weaved between the slicing legs, concentrating on grabbing the spawn’s attention. There seemed to be some sort of silent understanding between everyone involved to take turns distracting the thing. Alan had unwittingly become part of it.

Turtle watched too, while thinking over his answer.

“I tire them out.”

“You… ah, fine. Distract it then, you might do better than whoever that is. I will just spam my skill and hope I don’t hit you.”

“Don’t mind if you do,” Turtle said and walked right into the path of the creature’s blade. The hit wasn’t meant for him, but despite his nickname, he moved quite adeptly to meet it.

Turtle’s flesh didn’t warp like it had before, but it seemed that the blade met a hard barrier. The full force of the impact still forced the young man into the air, but he fell on his feet and went back for more.

The woman the hit had been meant for had retreated and watched with wonder not lesser than Alan’s own.

“Is he going to be, like, okay?” she asked loudly, between breaths.

Alan shrugged, “Sure, I guess.” The woman didn’t look convinced but didn’t seem to care much either.

The purespawn continued with its attack, uncaring about the change of opponents. Another small one fell nearby and Alan sighed before quickly sending a barrage of [True Edge] charged shadow blades that didn’t seem to do all that much on their own.

Alan was wary of using [Synaptic Failure] on the things as it seemed that the defense of the Sanctuary would be a long thing, but he almost felt tempted just for the opportunity to find a consistent weak spot to aim for.

It was at this moment that Ashlyn appeared on top of one of the nearby ruins, holding a large hammer. She smiled to herself and Alan watched as she ran up to the ledge and jumped aiming her hammer toward the back where he had failed to do damage a minute ago.

There was a loud crack, and then another as somehow, she managed to balance on top of the bouncing monster and hit it again and again. Her strength coupled with the heavy weapon was enough to create a large hole on top of it.

But [True Edge] couldn’t?

She jumped down right as the spawn started thrashing wildly, finally aware that something was wrong.

“Go and finish it? I don’t have anything suited for the job,” she asked as the enraged spawn once again aimed its attention at Turtle, who was only too happy to receive it all.

Alan frowned. His [Monochrome Armor] timer was ticking down and most of the armor was exhausted.

A newly arrived spawn was closing in, having heard the commotion. It was the size of a sewer cover and one hit from Ashlyn’s hammer splattered it over the ground. She seemed quite happy with the weapon.

Quite the weird ass [Hunter].

“I will help,” Ash said and rushed at the thing. Alan followed behind, clutching at his dagger. He considered activating the other one too, but it seemed like a waste of mana against those things.

He had seen the fire skills of people bounce off the thick chitin harmlessly.

Ashlyn’s hammer though was another matter entirely. She roared and with a nasty crunch, the hammer broke one of the spawn’s support legs, making it topple over and reveal the hole she had made.

There was a disgusting mess of nonsensical organs clustered around a large white pearl inside. Alan took his chance and sent the [Shadow Slash] he had been charging at the thing, then cast it a few more times for good measure.

You have slain: Suppressed Purespawn (56)

Nice

Energy harvested: 4.7%

“Imagine all the levels we could have gotten from this…” Alan grumbled. He hoped the damned System had huge rewards in stock for them, as it was simply painful to kill so many high-level enemies without getting a single level in return.

“Let’s go. Don’t waste time,” Ashlyn said.

Alan nodded and turned toward Turtle only to see him wiping blood from a wound on his naked chest.

“The fuck?”

Turtle turned toward him, the lazy expression on his face gone for the first time.

“They have a bit… of divine energy. It can harm me,” he said.

Divine energy? Is that what stopped [True Edge]?

“Well,” Alan replied, “Better be more careful then.”

Turtle nodded.

Finding more of the creatures was an easy task and soon they got into a rhythm of killing them and watching the gathered energy grow slowly.

The smaller ones were easy prey to Ashlyn, while Alan returned to using his staff and trying to emulate what she had done on the big one, crippling the things by breaking their bladed legs. It worked well.

When he could not do that, he opted to spam [Shadow Slashes] with his staff which made the skill have further reach and speed. Its other passive ability allowed him to regenerate quite a lot more mana between the skirmishes, so he felt better and better about his choice of reward.

He saw groups of children and elderly move toward the world temple and even assisted with slaying another giant spawn that seemed to target one of them.

He and Ashlyn were a good team, as his skills had enough reach and destructiveness to obliterate the soft insides and fragile core of the monsters, while Ashlyn’s brute strength was enough to maim them and break their armor.

Turtle had disappeared somewhere, too shocked that he had been hurt. Alan still couldn’t quite grasp the man’s deal.

Like that they continued walking around, uncaring about anything but slaying the invaders. At one point they saw Cole, surrounded by his people. They were fighting as a group and seemed to be doing quite well. The two groups promptly ignored each other and continued down different pants.

Their slaughter led them to the Enchanter’s bane, as Ashlyn wanted to check on her new bow. Just in case there was no Sanctuary left later.

Alan preferred to head to Emerson’s and see if he truly was responsible, but he decided that could wait a bit more. He needed a rest and he liked Mr. Muge and his enchantments. Losing such a valuable individual would be a great tragedy.

The strange building seemed to have suffered a few falling spawns judging by the holes in the roof of the smithy. There were also some corpses lying around. Most of the falling spawn were concentrated around the other side of the Sanctuary though, closer to the beam and Emerson’s house.

Tullis was lazily poking one of the dead spawn with his oversized sword and Alan noticed with curiosity that the carapace had been cut. A feat he hadn’t been able to achieve even with [True Edge] active.

“Hey, Tullis,” he greeted and held his breath.

The man turned toward him with a thoughtful look and took his time much like Turtle did. There was a stark difference in the way the two men utilized their silence though. Turtle’s was lazy and unbothered, while Tullis’ was intense.

“I’ve seen you before!” The man finally stated with excitement. As if remembering was a great achievement deserving of a pint.

“Yeah, you have!” Alan replied enthusiastically.

“Dylan?” The man said, unsure of his guess.

Alan sighed.

At least he remembers my face.

“Close. Is Mr. Muge around?”

Tullis nodded, “He is inside, working. We kill the stuff that comes.”

We?

There was a flash of color as a thin man appeared behind Tullis, seemingly out of thin air. He had what looked to be a crossbow in his hands, which instantly grabbed Alan’s attention.

He nodded toward them and threw Ashlyn an arrow, surprising them both. She caught it in time. The tip was a dull piece of metal that didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

“Thanks?” she said, uncertain. The thin man nodded and disappeared again.

Invisibility? Different than Nadia’s.

The two thanked Tullis and entered the Enchanter’s Bane. Mr. Muge was inside, trying to put on a strange piece of armor, cursing all the while. There was a corpse of a small purespawn on the counter in front of him.

“Piece of shit. I’m not that fat anymore! I should fit.”

Alan coughed to grab his attention. Mr. Muge instantly abandoned what he was doing, instead raising a strange iron rod with a perfect ball on its end that gave off a faint glow.

“Oh, it’s you. Come for the bow? Come, come. I am a man of my word. Sorry for the mess but apparently it’s the end of the world. Again. Need anything else?”

Alan thought about it.

His boots were all splattered with the remains of the spawn though, and the cleansing charm was all but used up…