Chapter 98: Chapter Ninety Eight

Sucking Mud was a solid and effective skill to use on a group. They  started sinking, and of course the puppet master had them scatter to  avoid the suction. of course, given the fog muffling their senses, he  also almost immediately lost track of where they all were as they left  the range of each other's Perception. I grinned to myself. I'd known he  would make them scatter, and since he used their own senses instead of  some overarching map, the fog actually prevented him from coordinating  them properly once he lost track.

Well, to an extent. They  could still hear, but I was in stealth so it was tough for them to  catch the sounds of my movement. Regardless I was now running at a huge  advantage here. I was sure he would find his people soon enough, while I  waited I took stock of who he had available to throw at me when he got  organized.

Bone guy was down still, limbs full of poison  fire, orange haired fire girl was still ok. Grey haired guy was shadowed  by a slim dark skinned guy with blonde hair and a massive olive skinned  woman with red teeth. The last two were a woman with purple skin and  pointed ears who I assumed was some sort of fae, and a muscular man  with  stitches covering his body. Along with the robed figure that was  all eight of them, and I did my best to mentally plot out their  locations and paths in my head to I didn't get survived.

One  thing that was different in a defensive battle like this was that I had  to keep track of them so they didn't slip past me. In offensive battles  there was nowhere for them to go but right at me, not to mention I  didn't have Callie watching my back. I had to worry about every little  detail of what they were doing and it was much harder than just taking  up a position with cover and wading in to kick some ass.

As  I kept track of all of them I had to focus on one over the others  though. If I got bogged down in details I would get buried in options  and never make a choice, which would end up wasting all my time and  screwing me over anyway. So I studied each opponent to see what I could  find that might help me narrow down my first target.

Each  of them had their own advantages and disadvantages. I was guessing big  stitches guy was Vitality geared. I couldn't think of a reason for those  that didn't involve some kind of regen or body modification. I counted  him out pretty early because I didn't want to engage with someone that  would never stop coming when there were other enemies to worry about.  Fire girl was out because of the Might. The others weren't really  obvious. Grey man might have been mainly in perception if he was stealth  based.

Regardless  of what their main stat was they would all have at least one similar,  probably more. They didn't have my ability to concentrate all their  stats into a single area, so they would be more spread out than my  friends, though much less evenly distributed than me. Which...didn't  fucking help me at all. I was doing exactly what I had been trying to  avoid. I was too indecisive and wasting time. So I just decided to say  fuck it and attack the closest sleeper. I drove myself forward towards  the purple skinned woman, lashing out with my glowing green tonfas,  apparently she was first.

I  expected to just land my blows and move on like with the bone guy,  considering how off balance they all were and how they couldn't see, but  the dark elf girl seemed to sense me coming. She turned her head and  exhaled a cloud of smoke. Unlike the mist though THIS I couldn't see  through, and even seek hidden didn't seem to be able to pierce the  concealment. So I did the only viable thing I could think of. I had  plenty of experience with concealment like this, and options other  people didn't.

So  I did what I would do if I was stuck in my own cloud of smoke. I used  Leaf on the Wind and Cloud step and I went straight up into the air. I  then moved onto my next opponent. I'd leave elf girl to flail around in  the smoke. It would convince the puppet master I was somewhere I wasn't  anyway. I arced up over the battle field and headed for the blonde guy  with dark skin. I didn't fuck around either, I came in from above  swinging and actually made contact with the first blow.

I  hot his collarbone full force with all the power both my Might and  momentum could muster, and I was stopped cold. It felt like I was  hitting a steel wall. Some variation of Benny's old iron hide ability I  was guessing. Using the hit to trace me he lashed out with a brutal  punch and still being in the air I could only brace and take it. I was  expecting my suit to tank most of it, but this guy was a G ranker, and  clearly focused on Might a decent amount, because the punch hammered  into my short ribs and sent me sailing away.

I  was still a Leaf on the Wind so I flew pretty damn far, which was good  because a wave of flame crashed down on the spot I would have landed  otherwise. The puppet master had used that moment of contact to zero in  on me and was clearly able to get his people back in order at least  enough to use the orange haired fire girl to try to burn me alive. I  kept my distance, nursing my almost definitely cracked ribs. This fight  was not going my way. I needed to take a breath (ignore the sensation of  knives in my side) and think.

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I  had to start taking them out one at a time. But I also needed to do it  fast, because now he was able to home in on my position when I dropped  one. Afterburn would help, but was also a really bad idea in the middle  of a drawn out siege given the period of weakness after. I really needed  healing honestly, but I wasn't going to leave them unattended and run  off to see Jessie, so I'd have to deal with it.

Mercy  kill would work, and mobility was clearly key. The blonde guy was  clearly not an ideal first target either. So, pretty sure I'd been  overthinking everything I just went for the big one with the stitches.  I'd clearly overcorrected because I was nervous, so fuck it, I would  just hit the biggest guy first. When I sailed in this time, ignoring the  pain, I didn't bother with the collarbone. Assuming this asshole had  high vitality I just smashed my tonfa into his fucking head.

On  the upside he didn't just die, so I was right about the Vitality, but  unfortunately he also didn't go down. The guy was easily seven feet  tall, even huge to me, and when he took the hit he stumbled back a few  paces, dazed, then got pissed and came after me. I tried to leap away  using Leaf on the Wind. I wasn't bothering with Cloud Step when I didn't  have to so I just jumped from ground level.

The  giant bastard had a wing span like an air shuttle though. He grabbed my  ankle as I leaped, then hauled back and swung me overhand like a damn  baseball bat and tried to smash me into the ground. My suit managed to  soak most of the damage, and Leaf on the Wind slowed my descent, but my  teeth rattled and my ribs screamed when I hit the dirt. I activated  Double Trouble, vanishing from his hand and appearing behind him. The  illusion did basically nothing in this mist, but the entrance put me  behind his guard and I triggered Mercy Kill and Flurry or Blows, putting  a bunch of  amped up poison fire strikes into the giants head.

He  wavered for a minute and then toppled over, and I leapt away in time to  avoid the flames I knew would strike the spot I'd been in. Two down,  six to go, and I felt myself calm as I made a noticeable dent in their  forces. I took a breath, fighting down the pain. Vitality did good work  on cuts and bruises, but wounds left by high Impact Ascendants and  broken bones both healed more slowly. I channeled my Focus as best as I  could. Burying myself in analysis and trying hard not to feel every  stabbing spike of agony as my bones ground together.

Once  I settled my head a bit I dashed back in to hit the flame throwing  girl. I needed her out of the equation. I'd been avoiding hitting her  again the last few attacks and I was hoping he would assume I was going  for the next closest. I had been thinking over how he knew where they  were in the fog and I was pretty sure I knew. I'd been hearing low  whistles from each direction. I hadn't considered what it was at first,  but looking back he was obviously using the sound to convey the  locations of each of his people.

The  Prophet wasn't as big of an idiot as I'd hoped. He was inexperienced in  direct combat but he was also fucking wily. Luckily not wily enough, I  made it to the fire user again in silence, sailing in from the side  after bouncing off a tree and I triggered Mercy kill and Flurry of Blows  again. I rained down poison fire attacks on her head and shoulders. She  blasted me with flames to get away but I countered with burst of steam  via Boiling Cloud, the water vapor dispersing the flames since she was  so distracted.

I  caught her in the shoulder, then the elbow and finally the temple. She  snarled, her fire ability giving her some resistance to the poison fire,  but not enough to counter the searing pain. It was still eating away at  her, just slower, and I saw her hands light up as she engaged me in  melee. My mobility was compromised by my busted ribs, but Flurry of  Blows let me counter the hits pretty well despite the pain, so I was  able to avoid getting char broiled. Without the flame girl in play  standing still was less dangerous but I could still feel the other begin  to close in.

I  was worrying about what the hell I was going to do as I reflected that  maybe seven to one odds against a team of perfectly synchronized G  rankers was a bad idea, when the girl with the orange hair widened her  eyes and dove back from me. A wave of crackling blue fire poured over  the spot she'd just been standing, and I turned to look at the person  who had thrown it. Cark was standing a few feet away, hands at his sides  and blazing with blue fire. He grinned at me widely. "Sorry I'm late.  Had to help Clockwork with his group."

I  gave him a weak thumbs up as I retreated to where he was standing,  trying to breathe as shallowly as possible. It was much harder to ignore  the pain with the fear endorphins flooding away. Still, I couldn't  fight down a grin as the bounty hunter took up his position next to me.  "The boss isn't a threat from what I've seen. Kick the shit out of the  lackeys and we can rough him up until he tells us what we want to know."  I expected him to argue, but Cark just roared and hurled a huge wave of  flame at the nearest three minions. Huh, guess he had some stuff to  work out.

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