Battlefronts

Blood Mold Ooze

Cultivated slime molds grown using animal blood infused with magical power and intent. Suffused with primal instincts, this ooze takes on the shapes of what it was fed and it has developed a taste for more.

“Oh, that’s not good,” John muttered as the oozes began to finalize their shapes, each a wild mix of predatory animals. Canine, feline, ursine, some that were clearly derived from some Abyssal animal that had no comparison to a mundane one. And worse, they seemed perfectly able to shift at will, many moving towards the stunned patrons like an approaching flood.

John saw one about to reach a fallen woman and reacted without hesitation, casting Hex at it. The negating magic kept the ooze from forming teeth or claws long enough for the woman’s companion to haul her back to her feet and run.

“John,” Kiera spoke up, her voice tight as they hurried behind one of the bars, “these things are attacking over at the other show! Verida’s fighting them!”

“It’s probably safe to assume they’re attacking everywhere,” Vivian said, a small stream of Shine Dust flowing around her, summoned from her personal pocket space. The air around them shimmered with her magic as she hid them from sight. “We need to get to the others.”

“I think we need to get to Argent Echo too,” John revealed. “I’m assuming we can’t just exit the barrier and they might be able to force their way out.”

“Too many things to do,” Teri muttered, her face drawn into a grimace as she fended off the waves of fear and panic that had to be flowing out from most of the people present. “I hate to say it, but we may need to split up. Some of us head to the Soundwave area and meet up with Verida and the others there, some of us find Aeolia and Beth, and the rest try John’s idea of getting help from those Echo guys.”

Splitting up was not a good idea, given their overall lack of equipment and preparedness, but it made a good degree of tactical sense. They needed to be in three places and being a smaller group meant they could slip through the enemy easier, in theory.

“I can make my way up to Aeolia and Beth,” Vivian offered.

“We know where Verida is and can coordinate with her,” Teri added with Kiera nodding next to her.

“I t-think I can do the same kind of disruption thing on these things,” she said with a slight note of uncertainty in her voice.

“And I can dull them for you to get their aura,” Teri proposed. “I’m keeping them from getting too interested in this general area well enough.

“That leaves John and I to find Aria and her gaggle,” Senka remarked before looking at Lita. “Lita, who do you want to go with?”

“Go?” the cat girl repeated, her eyes wide.

“We need to move and we’re not leaving you to fend for yourself,” John answered.

“I’ll go with you,” Lita quickly said.

“Alright,” John nodded. He wasn’t expecting Lita to be able to fight, but he was going to feel better being able to keep a direct eye on her.

“Think we shouldn’t waste any more time,” Vivian noted. While they had been protected by Vivian’s veil and Teri’s emotional manipulation, others hadn’t and the fighting had grown chaotic as people, both club employees and patrons, began to counter attack. Soon, it would be too congested to move without getting caught in the crossfire.

“We’ll go first,” John volunteered, equipping his armor and coat.

John looked at Lita to gauge her readiness. The cat girl looked less nervous than he thought she would have. Still looked utterly terrified, but in the way that would imply she would either run or fight instead of freezing should they get attacked. Which was of course preferable.

With a nod, John began to move, Senka and Lita following him into the melee. He felt Vivian’s magic flow around him, extending a bit from where they hunkered down to give them a few more moments of invisibility. They became visible right as a lithe elf man blasted one of the oozes with a gout of flame. The slime monstrosity took the blast with little issue, melting into its more liquid state before lunging at the elf.

A tendril shot out of the mass, and before John could try to help, morphed into a talon and ran through the elf’s midsection. Behind him, Lita let out a gasp of horror at the sight and the ooze shifted its attention to them, a portion of its fluid body morphing into a feline head to see them. It shifted once more, completing the feline look with something close to a saber tooth tiger and pounced at them.

Senka planted her foot down and Dark Veil manifested between her and the ooze. The speed of her defence left the monster unable to avoid the dark mana construct and it crashed against her shield with a wet thud.

Before it could bounce back, John struck. Seeing that Hex had some effect before, John led with that, the skill causing the ooze to begin to lose cohesion before he swung in with the knife. Steel cut into the mass like it was thick mud, but something in the way the ooze reacted told John his blow did damage.

‘Looks like we’ll need Hex to do any real damage.’

‘Don’t assume that until we know if normal attacks don’t work,’ Senka shot back before she launched a Black Thorn at the ooze. The strike hit with a wet splat as it dug deep, the dark elemental spike vanishing against the thing’s dark coloring. The ooze writhed in assumed pain, tendrils flailing about as they tried to form some kind of weapon.

‘Hitting it while it’s still affected by Hex isn’t proving anything,’ John pointed out.

‘Need something to compare it to,’ Senka reasoned. ‘It should be wearing off in a few seconds.’

The ooze began to regain its solid form and Senka struck it with another Black Thorn before it could fully develop any fangs or claws. The dark spike drove into the slime monster with the same strength as it had before.

‘Seems they aren’t all that resilient to direct damage,’ Senka remarked smugly.

‘But not by that much! Look out!’ John warned Senka as the ooze lunged at her. A quick Dark Veil protected her from the initial strike, but it seemed to have learned from its earlier attack and quickly surged to one side, the leading edge forming into a lupine head, jaws wide.

Senka couldn’t bring up another shield in time and a hastily formed Black Thorn wasn’t able to keep it from clamping down on her arm. Senka let out a pained scream as sharped fangs dug into her flesh and John surged to her defense. He brought the knife down to stab into the ooze’s neck, forcing it to release Senka.

The spirit didn’t let her injury keep her from missing the opportunity and she struck out with her conjured weapon, driving it deep into the monster’s eye, popping the simulated organ like a grape. The pair of attacks forced it back, its body melting to escape their twinned weapons.

“S-Senka, are y-you o-okay?” Lita asked in a slightly unsteady voice.

“I’ll be fine.” Senka smiled at the cat girl, but John knew it was a facade for Lita’s benefit.

‘So much for getting out of this unscathed,’ she bitterly thought to him. John couldn’t help but look down at her arm. He knew the bite only took away a dozen hit points, her hardy spiritual constitution making the impact less damaging than if it had been to a flesh and blood person, but he was still concerned for her. Her clothing and skin showed no sign of the injury, but that was more due to her ability to choose her clothing.

The ooze reformed and lowered itself, readied to pounce with the full might of its feline form. Getting to Argent Echo was going to be a greater trial than they had thought.

Verida felt a snarl work its way across her face as she forced aside an attacking monster. The show had scarcely ended when the whole venue shook and the ambient mana turned fetid. And a moment later, viscous black oozes fell down from above them and began to attack everyone.

The intensity of the show had slowly separated her from the rest of the group and now the goddess was moving to where she sensed Anita and Estelle. She couldn’t sense Tok, Goe or Tamia in the confused din, but she was sure they could handle themselves for now. She had her own loved ones to protect.

Information from Kiera flowed into her mind as she blocked a strike from one of the monsters with her summoned sword. This was happening all over and John had come up with a plan to employ the skills of Argent Echo to hopefully escape. From what she knew of them, it was a sound idea and at worst forming a solid core of fighters wasn’t a bad second place notion.

She was about to keep marching forward when a young woman was thrown against her by one of the slimes. Her top had been torn to shreds and jagged, bleeding cuts raked down her front. Her breathing was shallow and labored, her skin turning pale. Verida held her with one arm as gently as she could.

Anger boiled through Verida at the sight and she let her power flow into the woman. She couldn’t bring the full might of her power out, doing so would overload the manifested construct Kiera and Teri held in place and could even backlash onto them, but she could still soothe the woman’s wounds and heal them enough to not be immediately life threatening.

The healing was not as quick as she would have liked and one of the slime monsters took her lack of movement as a sign of easy prey. Before she could try to defend herself and her patient, a wide circle of pink light manifested between it and them. The monster hit the event horizon of the sudden object and ed through it, vanishing from the immediate area.

“You should be more aware of your surroundings,” a flat voice prompted Verida to turn around. A blue skinned elf-like woman stood with a complete lack of tension, dressed in an oversized purple hoodie and black sweatpants. Short white hair covered one of her eyes, the visible one a bright glowing blue. One of her arms was extended out, crackling pink energy flowing down it to her fingers. Mechanical fingers.

“I can send her to the backstage area,” the seemingly machine woman said, a ball of pink magic appearing over her open hand. “My mistress is back there and is creating a safe zone.”

“Backstage is probably a safer place,” Verida said. She had no way of knowing if that was true, but leaving this woman here, unconscious and wounded, was something she couldn’t allow. The mechanical elf nodded then flicked her wrist. The ball of magic floated over to the woman, and in a flash of light, she vanished from view.

“My mistress will make sure she remains safe,” the elf said in her monotone voice. “I will continue to evacuate the injured. Be well.”

She nodded her head then vanished in a flash of pink light. Verida took a moment to collect her thoughts then turned her senses back to finding Estelle and Anita.

“I’m coming,” she muttered as she pinpointed their location. The space between them was crowded with monsters, fallen victims and those who were still fighting. The sight of the dead and dying twisted her stomach.

‘Verida,’ Kiera’s voice cut through her dark thoughts. ‘Teri thinks we can make your avatar stronger. And we’re kind of cut off from you. We’re safe, don’t worry ! Found a room we barricaded ourselves in. But, you can let more of your power through. Help these people.’

Verida felt the link to Kiera shift into the background of her mind and a surge of renewed power began to rush into her. She wasn’t sure if this was the right play from them, but she couldn’t deny the combination of them being safely hidden away and their efforts to summon forth more of her power bolstered her confidence of all of them being able to make it out of this alright.

“Time to show the world what I can do,” she resolutely said as she took her first step back into the fray.

The ground shook slightly as she moved, her power seeping into the ground with each footfall. She shaped that power as it spread out until it reached as far as she could maintain it, a good dozen or so meters. In that space around her, light purple flowers bloomed into being, their petals glowing with a soft light.

Within the space of her magic field, vital energy flowed into everyone save the monsters attacking them. The surge invigorated those it touched, boosting their physical strength and knitting their wounds closed.

The attacking monsters honed in on her and Verida squared her stance. It was time for her to weather the storm and provide shelter under her boughs.