Vraxious- Hopes Path
Vrax was quickly fashioning a symbol of the cycle for Stereos to wear during their upcoming fight. They were sitting in a small prep room set beside the arena floor itself and could see the battle raging just past the observation window. A grand melee between a full party of adventurers and a squad of knights spells and arrows streaking back and forth as the first ranks of armored warriors clashed in front of the largest ruin in the center of the arena.
Vrax was trying to ignore it all. He had at least a few hours before they got to fight, and he intended to use this moment of seclusion to improve his monsters before the fight, and with Torvald and Stereos both adorned with adapted marks, he was free to do so without worrying about friendly fire.
[Stigmata Garden 7/12]
[Acidic Lurker Mushroom]
[Acidic Lurker Mushroom]
[Acidic Lurker Mushroom]
[Maneater Daisy]
[Retriever Hive]
[Vein Diver Dandelion]
[Vein Diver Dandelion]
Oh good, it looks like the dandelion and mushrooms have already propagated themselves. What to start with today? I will only have time for a few alterations if I want my mana topped off for the fight. The Maneater I almost certainly can’t do much with, especially now that it’s level seven. The hive is untouched, however, and I bet I could make the lurker mushrooms even more devastating.
Vrax summoned the hive out to look at it; it was a squat plant the size of a large watermelon low to the ground, and there were ten of those deep holes in its surface housing the hungry forms of the retrievers. He put his face right up to the edge and pushed a retriever aside with his finger to get a better look; it hissed at him but shuffled out of the way. Ah, yep, all the holes just lead to a central cavity where they congregate when they aren’t hunting. But how do I leverage the fact that these normally latch onto something and send nutrients back through the umbilical? There is one obvious change to start with: make it bigger.
So Vrax did, focusing mana into [Adapt Life]. He shaped the Retriever hive to become larger with a few more holes on its surface to give the scurrying retrievers more angles to strike from. By the time he was done, around twenty minutes had passed, and it now came up to his waist. The retrievers were now wretched, fleshy things still glowing his signature green and around the size of a clenched fist. He observed the hive for a moment. It was disconcerting to watch as the little retrievers plodded in and out of holes and across the surface on their short tentacles, all the while making quiet hisses and chatters as umbilicals wound across each other and then untangled again as the retrievers instinctually carved paths that wouldn’t cause knots to form.
[Mana 76/122]
That was surprisingly mana efficient to adapt. That means I can make some more changes. Vrax reached into one of the fleshy tunnels in the cap of the hive and grabbed a retriever, taking several steps back to see how long the umbilical could reach. It was about four good strides. His back was all the way against the preparation room wall before the umbilical tugged taut and the fleshy mass in his hand hissed in discomfort. There is an easy one: I can strengthen the umbilicals, maybe even sharpen them some. Vrax used Adapt again, still standing with the retriever squirming in his hand. He focused on the umbilical tether, wrapping them in a fibrous muscle that bucked powerfully in his grasp. Then he focused on the sinuous curves of that muscle, and it slowly began growing a helix-like pattern of sharpened edges down the length of it, now similar to a razor grass edge on the spiraling muscle. He ran a hand along it, and it cut him, but only slightly. With a frown, Vrax started again, refining the edges of the sharpened helix surrounding the umbilical, compressing it more, tightening the cutting edge farther and farther. This time he took a piece of cheese from his pack, and it cut in two cleanly against the edges of the bladed umbilical. Vrax very carefully let the retriever go, and it scurried back to the hive.
[Mana 40/122] still have room for more. That took me a bit over an hour, so mana was regenerating the whole time, but the changes aren’t prohibitive yet. The best thing now might be to give them some more oomph when they leap out. Vrax spent another half an hour slowly focusing on reinforcing the retriever's legs, adding muscle and helix-like blades in a similar way to what he had done to the umbilical. By the time he was done, he had a waist-high, mushroom-shaped plant that launched awful, bladed, sinewy octopi at a considerable velocity at anything edible within four strides. And if you tried to detach them by pulling on them or the cord behind them, you would probably chop your own damn hand off. Vrax didn’t even want to think of the damage these would inflict if someone ran into the tangle of umbilicals that would be all over the place if the retrievers were all out at once.
Mana 8/122
He left it out for now, just menacingly quivering in the corner of the room as retrievers peeked out occasionally. Stereos was surprisingly unbothered by them trusting his bracelet of the cycle to protect him as he leafed through a book in a language Vrax very much didn’t read. Vrax pulled out the daisy briefly, and Torvald backed against the wall, eyeing it warily as it prowled the room, slowing before Stereos for a moment. Vrax took that opportunity to do some cosmetic adaptations to it. Firstly, adding a faint green glow around its petal mane. Then one that he thought was just funny for sheer intimidation factor, he added a fake eye to each of the main petals, giving it an even more disconcerting, eldritch appearance, as twelve malevolent, unthinking, unfeeling, unblinking eyes with red irises now peered in a circle of hate from its face.
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“Vrax, come on, man.” Torvald said from as far away as he could get.
“Effective for psychological warfare, I think it's a prudent addition against human opponents.” Stereos chimed, peering over his book at the daisy as it practically heaved with unused aggression a few feet from his face.
Finally, Vrax pulled out the lurker mushrooms. For now, he just added a more extensive root structure to each of them to help with stability against what was sure to be considerable strength on the knight's part. He didn’t have enough time to add any more and be sure his mana was topped off before the fight. He watched the last few exchanges of the current battle with his teammates. Torvald was utterly enthralled, pumping his fists every time the adventurers landed a blow and flinching sympathetically as the final adventurer was surrounded in a protective bubble by the staff after a particularly clever archery skill wrapped an arrow around a corner and straight into his collarbone.
They gathered on the floor of the arena. They had a rough plan of battle, but if it would work remained to be seen. Vrax left his armor dismissed for now to hopefully help sell that their team consisted of a mage, a druid, and a warrior. The arena looked even more vast from ground level, designed like an ancient ruined city edge. The left side held a smattering of scraggly trees long starved for sunlight and hard-packed soil. A single small building that looked like an open-topped barn broke up the sightlines on the left. The center was a cobblestone strip; four small ruined brickwork buildings spilled into the road, and a single large two-story manor built of larger stone chunks sat dead center in the road, more intact than the rest of the surroundings. The right side was an artificial lake with three islands built into it, each island housing a towering tree and a small dugout fortification facing the narrow bridges that led from island to island and then to the shores on each end.
On the opposite end, they could see the opposing team step out and give a wave up to the observation area. The first was a stalwart giant of a man in full plate armor and a staff in his hands; even his gait carried a sense of force to it. The second was a lithe woman, the absolute stunning picture of a noble family’s prized daughter, wielding a thin, long sword nearly as tall as she was, red hair dancing behind her as she dramatically flourished her blade with concerning levels of precision. The third looked like someone had just dragged him from a brothel somewhere; long brown hair tousled over a dignified face, eyes slightly bleary, he was wearing light leather armor and had a frankly absurd number of small throwing knife sheathes strapped across his body and a short sword on his hip. All of them shared the silver and white armor color scheme along with the flowing cape despite the variety of armors that bore it.
A good few moments passed as they both sized each other up, and then the announcer's voice boomed out, assisted by magic. “On the side of Kings Call Academy! You know them, you love them! It’s Ochal, Serenity, aaaannnnddd Charles! The brutal knight squad known as the Indomitable Few! Their challengers tonight are all first-time fighters! Who formed a last-minute squad to challenge our knightly friends. One is the son of Cedric the Dream Breaker! One is a nightmarish mage from the capitol, and one had to triple-check that our healers were good enough; he was so worried about murdering his opponents! We have Torvald, Stereos annnnndddd Vrax! Fighters, ready, set, fight!” Vrax and Stereos rushed right, heading for the first island, while Torvald stayed ahead and slightly left, edging into the cover of the city ruins on the rightmost side and climbing to a rooftop a few dozen strides from the first lake island.
Vrax thundered across the wooden bridge, stereos in tow. As soon as they set foot on the island, he lunged for the tree, pumping adapt into it, and it began a coursing rainbow of colors as the leaves cycled through the color spectrum. He wasn’t actually doing anything to it other than making a show, but the opponents didn’t know that. Torvald carefully took out the jar Vrax had given him, and with a slightly shaking hand, he dumped the dandelion onto the rooftop. An explosion of flickering green dots began to aimlessly wander over the ruins. Torvald heaved a sigh of relief as the dandelion seeds ignored him.
The other team hadn’t moved, watching their battle plan with interest, up until the dandelion seeds began spreading around the arena. Ochal stepped forward, bringing his staff into the ground with a booming chime, and thin barriers of black-blue light settled over him and his allies like a second skin before fading to invisibility. Serenity streaked forward towards the city, her hair whipping behind her and the air around her turning into a heated haze. Ochal and Charles began jogging towards the lake, a thick fog of white-grey mist billowing from around Charles and obscuring them.
The fog bank reached the lake's edge just as serenity hit the edge of the city and suddenly veered off, now sprinting towards Vrax and stereos like the other two were. Yes, that's right. Come stop the two helpless magic users. I'm casting a big spell with this tree; you need to stop! Vrax chuckled to himself and prepared to summon his armor. The enemy team had fallen for it, and all of them were now descending on what they thought were easy targets.
The fog bank rolled onto the edge of Vrax’s island, and he summoned his armor, putting himself slightly between stereos and the pincering trio of knights. Not a moment too soon either, as a hail of daggers sailed from the mist towards his face. Vrax caught them on his upraised vambrace and dashed to the right slightly as Ochal loomed out of the fog, staff in hand, and leapt over Vrax onto the center of the island, a skill flashing as he prepared a mighty swing at the “enchanted” tree.
“Oh no, whatever will we do?!” Vrax sarcastically spat at Ochal before lunging towards him and summoning his garden to the small span of the island. Ochal staggered as the creeping rot expanded from Vrax, turning the tree into a half-rotted husk, the top half falling into the lake. The grass over the entire island turned to a black soup and began dribbling into the lake around them.
The retriever hive was placed on top of the broken tree stump in the center of the island, and the Lurker mushrooms circled the edges, hemming in Ochal. Finally, the daisy rose from the rot at the base of the bridge like a beast from the tales of old, twitching in anticipation. Ochal’s eyes grew wide as Vrax dropped his cloak and pulled his spear from where it had been hiding within, his cape flaring out behind him like the tail of a peacock as it sensed nearby moisture.
“Sorry, buddy, no one on this team is really a “ranged fighter.” Welcome to my garden.” Vrax quipped as the daisy launched itself at something unseen in the mist.