In his haste, Tetsu downed an entire stamina bottle, and now he wandered around like a lost ghost pumped with vigor, transitioning from one battlefield to another. He needed such an environment to explore the intricacies of the potion, yet he also required some breathing room to better grasp the insights.
Tetsu halted, recoiling in fear, and the next moment, a claw emerged from the path he was digging, causing him to shoot up as two [Mole] creatures clashed with their claws.
"No more groundwork for me," Tetsu blinked, sidestepping and redirecting an ape's punch into the ground.
The mole creatures exploded into bits upon impact, while the fist continued to dig deeper, creating a crater in its wake.
Tetsu maneuvered around, rolling over the ape's back before several spikes shot up from the ground, transforming the once plain landscape into a spiky terrain.
With a powerful vertical jump, Tetsu ascended higher, leaving everyone in the area skewered and unable to adapt to the sudden shift in landscape, whether above or below ground.
Two moles emerged from the gap between the spikes, targeting Tetsu. "Neither for you?" Tetsu grabbed one with a rune, altering its trajectory mid-air, then stepped on it to pin it down. He dispatched the other [Mole] with a well-timed kick while using [Info] to assess the situation better.
{Quaketail. Lvl3. Earth, Flash. Weakness: Above-ground battles.}
Just one level higher, and Tetsu would have found himself among those who had dug their own graves.
"Where did you guys come from?"
The elite Quaketails extended their claws, forming four long blades. While none of them aimed for Tetsu, they moved closer, marking him as their next target. They drilled through the spikes and saved their comrades, with lightning-fast movements, the stronger ones diving deeper to confront the greater threat lurking below.
Tetsu counts the different groups encircling him. 'Two below, three above, four in the middle,' he blinks to note.
*!BIZ!*
A thunderous onslaught of the Quillspire horde reverberates through the air, a relentless tide of spikes and mass creating a deafening crescendo of screeching and rumbling that echoes with an overwhelming, almost primal intensity.
"Why the hell not!" Tetsu exclaims as the hoard spins straight for him. "Is it just me, or is everyone moving toward me?"
Tetsu moves toward the [Alloyhide Horrors], who are the best match for these monsters.
He had been employing the same tactic since the peaceful scavenge mission had turned into chaos: pulling one group into another so that he could use their defenses for offensive skills he couldn't handle and vice versa. One misstep was enough to trap himself between two groups, yet only this technique could keep him alive.
*!BOOM!*
The Leaders of the groups aimed for the approaching horde of Quillspire as explosions rocked the terrain, buying Tetsu more time to escape.
The Quills bounced off each other before the spell reached, sacrificing a few of their own to reduce the blast for the rest.
Tetsu deflected a barrage of flying quills, his brow furrowing at the sight of the unfamiliar Quaketail species. "Insufficient data," he murmured.
Before he could divert the quill, the huge Quaketail zapped into him, and Tetsu found himself caught in the midst of the leaders' scuffle.
In a fleeting moment, Tetsu yearned for the convenience of teleportation, but the troublesome Electric Snowman entered the fray causing chaos. For every strike it endured, creatures were scattered across the battlefield.
Four skills--Four leaders, redirected their attention toward Tetsu. None liked their secrets being exposed by a mere human.
The other leaders wanted Tetsu dead too, but chose to eliminate the real threat to their ruling—The leaders who focused on the insignificant level four human.
"Ah, that's how," Tetsu grinned.
Lower-level creatures crumpled to the ground, emitting anguished screeches as the conflicting auras of the leaders clashed for dominance. The leaders considered Tetsu to be stuck and aimed with divided attention, a miscalculation he exploited.
Two elongated fangs descended, dispersing the concentrated aura above him in all directions. The disoriented leaders lost focus on multiple fronts, allowing Tetsu to wrest control of their skills.
A massive metal spear, dwarfing him in size, soared past Tetsu and collided with a towering fireball, erupting into a cascade of smaller flames, while a shimmering pool of silvery energy encircled Tetsu, enhancing his defenses.
The Alfa Warg's maw shifted direction and a sonic boom broke the Lead Simian's concentrations, which made its ultimate attack serve as Tetsu's safe zone.
Caught between a barrage of fireballs and the undulating force of the moon's wave, the Horror Leader found itself besieged, fissures spider-webbing across its form.
Four colossal explosions rocked the battlefield, centered on the four leaders. Although Tetsu's intervention mitigated their impact, and all survived, albeit barely.
Instead of dispatching the leaders, their attention turned once more to Tetsu. They unleashed their auras toward him, and once again only wasted their time, granting him more time to plan out an escape.
Tetsu descends with grace, his palm meeting the ground. But before he can take action, the Quaketail leader seizes the opportunity and smashes its fist onto the ground, obstructing Tetsu's ability to dig.
Undeterred, Tetsu transitions into a handstand, executing a series of agile cartwheels as he navigates between two snake trees. Just as a branch, as thick as a tree trunk, swings towards him, he reacts with lightning reflexes, meeting the oncoming trunk head-on.
In a split second, Tetsu anchored himself using runes on the side, executing a powerful roundhouse kick that connected with an Apexian's face.
*!ZAP!*
Latching onto a passing Raptor, Tetsu seizes the bird in a shock hold. "To the right," he commands, pulling on its wing to guide them both into a pulse of lightning, before zapping away to another location.
The [Electric Snowman] possessed a repertoire of peculiar movement abilities. One propelled him at lightning speed, which led him to the casual meet with the gods. The other, currently in play, involved swapping individuals between locations.
The latter skill showed no regard for its passengers; any interruption caused it to drop them and carry the obstruction instead.
Despite the snowman's deliberate, unhurried movements, armies struggled to impede its pace. Attempts to approach or touch the creature only led to being flashed even farther away.
With no one possessing senses sharp enough to catch a glimpse of the lightning-fast transportation orb, Tetsu placed eyes around the snowman, inferring its direction from the angles of these orbs.
Tetsu became the obstacle and got carried around the battlefield. Some were deliberate while others were happy accidents.
"This is fun," Tetsu exclaimed as he sank his fangs into the neck of the [Alloyhide Horror] leader. With a mumbled apology, he added, "Had to indulge my childish fantasies, satisfy my famished fangs, and settle my scores in one fell swoop."
Seizing another opportunity, Tetsu snatches the [Horror] leader's spear, steps into a lightning orb, disrupts the spell, and with precision thrusts the blade into the lead [Simian's] back. Reacting on instinct, the leader grasps the spear, but before he can make a move, Tetsu zaps away with him onto the Alfa Warg.
"Incoming," Tetsu declared, hurtling the Simian onto the Warg with a playful remark, "Bad dog."
The Simian collided with the Warg, creating a small crater upon impact. The force of the collision propelled it back upward, causing it to rebound off the Warg.
Tetsu landed and darted between the gap, using [Pave Path] to link himself with both leaders before he caught another lightning orb. The orb deposited a bewildered ape amidst the leaders before whisking the trio away into the oncoming horde of Quillspire.
"I don't like repeating dialogue. But Incoming..." Tetsu tosses the wolf into the stampede of spiky death.
"Now, where is my last target?" Tetsu pondered as he swung around a branch and launched himself into the air.
The horde rolled over the alpha, then clashed amongst themselves to alter their trajectory. A small faction remained behind, intent on hunting Tetsu, while the majority dispersed to pursue different targets.
The initial trio of [Quills] entangled with the second group and moved in an astonishing display of physics-defying motion. They both rotated on their axis while pushing the other to move in a different direction, forming a rotating, slithering snake-like formation.
At the helm, the lead Quill directed the snake-like formation, while the rear one launched the [Quills] in the middle, who were focused on charging skills.
Tetsu dodged and waited for the broken snake to reform while blinking to find his last target.
"I don't have all day. Move faster," Tetsu urged, spurring the snake to slither and reform faster.
The pursuit lacked excitement until Tetsu identified the right lightning orb. Rather than fleeing, he stepped back towards the Snake Quill, drawing it closer with [Pave Path], before reaching out to enter the orb.
The lightning orb dropped a Mole and whisked the group away. Later, Tetsu drove the Snake Quill into the [Micro Raptor] leader, a creature twice the size of a standard Raptor, and ablaze with double the flames.
"Found you," Tetsu smiled.
Before the closest Quill reached the bird, it incinerated, but Tetsu had invested too much time in acquiring a remarkably long stick or snake, depending on one's perspective, and Tetsu only saw payback.
The fourth Quill pierced the Raptor, eliciting a pained shriek. Tetsu landed on its beak, snapping it with a decisive motion. "Stop throwing those darn fireballs at me. We get it already," he yells into the bird's ear before zapping away to confront the Quill leader with a massive fireball—the Raptor's ultimate move.
The Quill leader transformed into a sphere in an instant, but the expanding fireball grew more immense, latching onto it like the relentless gaze of the sun.
"Next time I catch you stalking me, I'll consign your entire species to the flames of hell," Tetsu warned the medical support.
Witnessing their leader engulfed in flames, the remaining Quills surged towards Tetsu in a frenzied assault. Yet, he flickered in and out of existence, summoning forth an entire army to repel their onslaught.
The QuillSpire were forced into a bitter conflict with the Raptors as their leader dueled to their death.
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