Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]
2.67 Against the Cultists V

I rush off toward the main part of the battle, joining up with Chloe and Kristil. I don’t turn around to mourn. I don’t shed a tear.

Theo might've been my father at one point. He might have come back to his senses in his final moments. But the man who raised me, the man who Mom loved, would never have stooped to the depths of depravity of joining a glorified murder cult. He wouldn’t have forced me to put him down like a rabid dog. And he wouldn’t have smiled as the life faded from his eyes, proud that he got to ruin so many lives then escape culpability with nothing but death.

I will do better. I will be better. Maybe not today, maybe not next week. But I will find a way forward, a way to protect people, to be the [Mechanical Angel] that I need to be. And I will do so in a way that doesn’t rely on literally farming human beings for Experience points!

I rush toward the center of the compound. The first thing I see as I approach are four giant monsters. One which looks like a giant brown slug, some forty feet tall and double that in length. In its wake is a caustic yellow sludge that infests my nose even from a quarter mile away. The second is another silver-cerulean ooze. Smaller than most of the ones we’ve faced to this point, but somewhat greater in level— maybe 36 or so. Third, a snake, winding in and out of the adventurers’ attacks, striking just as quickly. Of the four, it appears the most immediately dangerous. My [Angelic Insight] suggests it is the highest level as well.

Finally, a hawk or some other bird of prey. Of the four, it appears by far the most injured, numerous ranged attacks having grounded it. It is currently being surrounded and attacked with relentless fury, though it’s far from being on death’s door.

The cultists, though outnumbered slightly, seem to have the upper hand in the battle thanks to the bonded companions both large and small. But the Red Pack Adventurers are far from being routed. Stefan continues to rally his comrades. And on the edge of the battlefield, away from the main forces, I see Chloe, hands folded, conjuring orbs of light that stave off the most grievous of our party’s wounds.

Lindsey fires another of her [Light Arrows], scoring a glancing blow against the snake before curving to hit the hawk square in the chest. The sound of a pained squawk bellows forth as the creature’s life force grows that little weaker. It flaps its wings, sending sharpened feathers and clay-filled debris bursting all around it. It takes to the skies despite its injuries, despite the one man stubbornly clinging to its beige plumage, trying to keep it on the ground.

But the tyranny of stats, coupled with the hawk’s larger size and weight, allows it to resist the man’s attempts to force it down.

I shape [Fire] and [Repulsion] with a [Solidify] glyph, forming a flaming sphere that I hurl at the creature as I fly toward it at top speed. My attack connects, lighting its feathery wings on fire. It tries in vain to put my fire out, but I maintain the [Fire] glyph with my Manifestation, leaving just a trickle of my [Ether] behind to prevent it from fully extinguishing. The subtle ploy works, the fanning of its wings intensifying the roaring flames rather than putting them out.

And one more [Ether Bullet Barrage] strikes home, right in the creature’s head. If the bullets didn’t eviscerate its gray matter, the concussive force will leave it comatose until it succumbs to its injuries. It collapses to the ground.

I dive after its flailing soon-to-be-corpse. Thanks to what I have to assume is my [Speed] stat coupled with my Skills, I’m able to outpace the hawk’s free-fall. I tackle it from the side, adjusting our combined trajectory to slam into the ooze with greater-than-terminal velocity. It fails to kill, even when aimed directly at the core that I can now see. But it sends the thick, viscous fluid splattering everywhere. Including my arms and wings.

I finally get the System notification for the hawk going down.

[Your party has slain a Soaring Greathawk (Level 35). You have gained a boosted 35,000 Experience]

My wings and armor, being System-registered and reinforced by [Cybernetic Body], do resist the acidic splash. But that doesn’t mean my arms fare quite as well. Three hundred points of [Health] and a lot of pain later, I manage to shake off the worst of the damage to myself.

The better outcome is that the splash managed to singe the snake in several places, the eruption of caustic goo impossible for it to fully dodge. And that momentary stagger gives Lindsey just enough time to fire a [Force Arrow] into a weak spot in its scales. She looks even healthier, stronger, and more vicious than before, her arrows flying that much faster, hitting that much harder, and her reload time that much shorter than I remember.

Just how many cultists did she incapacitate during her little excursion before rejoining the main group? And how do I feel about having such an assassin as my friend and mentor? Glad she’s on my side, but… Truly a soldier through and through, with no qualms about any of the moral questions I’ll be struggling with for months.

For now, I force the issue out of my mind, eager to do what I can to take out the other three beasts. Of them, I suspect the slug will be the easiest to take down quickly. It uses a similar acidic slime as a weapon, with the notable difference being that it seems to possess the ability to heal from many types of attacks. Not unlike the worm from a few days ago.

However, I’ve since realized that its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Its healing is limited, and fueled by a combination of [Ether] expenditure and natural biological processes, much like my previous self’s [Etheric Self-Repair]. It can be overwhelmed, and if it is, it will succumb to [Ether] strain just like anyone who doesn’t have a resistance or immunity Skill.

So I redouble my efforts, launching a pair of [Ether Bullet Barrages] into the slug. Unfortunately, my previous antics have not gone unnoticed, and now I’m forced to divert my efforts to sidestepping and flying around the multitude of projectiles and other attacks aimed at me. I’m once again grateful that my [Angelic Insight] works as well as it does, helping me sense the Etheric attacks invisible to the naked eye and coming up with general ideas on how to avoid them. It doesn’t dodge for me subconsciously, only giving me glimpses of possible dodges and what might follow in the immediate future.

I am definitely not using it to its fullest potential as I am.

Still, I emerge largely unscathed as blasts of acid and venom attempt to ground me. A web from a giant spider— one far larger and nastier than the one in Chloe’s basement— grazes the back of my wing. It doesn’t ground me, but it does throw my center of mass off a little bit and disorients my flying slightly. My movements are now sluggish as I attempt to continue dodging and counterattacking.

I’m forced to switch to a fully-defensive fighting style sans opportune attacks. But even though I’m not dealing damage and am burning through my [Ether] far faster than would be optimal, I am keeping the three most dangerous beasts focused on me, giving Chloe valuable seconds to patch up the wounded. Of which there are far too many. Even Stefan is getting beat up pretty badly, though he still remains standing and resolute at the vanguard.

Among us, only Lindsey still seems fresh, darting in and out of melee, kiting the somewhat undisciplined cultists and picking them off with machine-like precision. She must be close to level 40 by now. Which, ethics aside, means we at least have a shadow of a chance against the cultists.

Right until she takes the most ill-timed, cliche arrow to the knee. Damn you, Murphy.

She’s still on her feet, ripping the metal rod out and blasting her own flesh with a beam of light to cauterize the wound before returning to her task. But, I can see that she’s slowed down by a good quarter as she continues her assault. Still stronger and faster than most of the forces, but she’s not going to last. Her [Vitality] is barely higher than Chloe’s despite the better part of a dozen levels and a class change on her.

And with Lindsey’s combat effectiveness neutered, Stefan is feeling even more pressure as he faces numerous attacks head-on. Each blow he suffers, he retaliates in kind. His Skills, his high stats, probably close to Lindsey’s, and Chloe’s [Angelic Sanctuary] are keeping him on his feet and protecting the weaker adventurers behind him.

But he won’t last much longer. Chloe’s healing is starting to fade, Kristil’s lightning is losing its intensity as she starts feeling what I imagine is the second stage of [Ether] strain. And though I might have [Ether Strain Immunity] preventing me from the fatigue I’d normally be feeling at a quarter of my maximum, I have to be even more cautious of what happens when I hit zero. I’m not sure if it’s death, but I know it’s not anything good.

I drop down to the surface, to conserve what [Ether] I do have. Wave after wave of [Ether Bullets] launch from my [Mechanical Arm Cannon], bludgeoning the opposing side with power but no finesse. A couple of cultists attempt to use shields to block my assault. Anything not System-registered crumples, the unreinforced scraps of metal, wood, and even Kevlar shredding before my minigun. And my attack is hardly less effective against many of the lesser pieces of banded leather and bronze plating that actually have some semblance of Ethertech built within their designs.

Unfortunately, the half-dozen or so leaders of the cultists are faring a lot better. They each wear nearly full suits of Ethertech armor as I do, and yes, it does look as goofy as mine does. But right now, in the midst of battle, as screams of injured soldiers and the hiss of the viper in front of me rattle me to my core, fashion matters not.

I turn my attention to the slug. My previous assault had done quite a number on it, and though it lurches about, its sprays of caustic goo are, well, sluggish. Sluggish and tepid and watery and not quite as stinky. It’s definitely relying on a less toxic compound now to conserve what little [Ether] it has left.

Reasoning that I need to take out the slug before it can regenerate its [Ether] pool further, I turn my attention solely to it. I suffer a few glancing blows from the cultists who see a preoccupied and therefore vulnerable target for their attacks. Nothing that does more than low-double digits to my [Health], thanks to tiny movements I make to cause the attacks to hit shielded and armored parts of my body.

But even still, the damage adds up, bit by bit as I focus-fire the slug. It’s on its last leg, and after another twenty-one shots, I manage to collapse it onto its side. With what little [Ether] is still sloshing through my nearly-empty core, I rush forward and jump onto the creature’s head, firing bullet after bullet until I’m completely spent and the System notification finally alerts me that I’ve vanquished the beast.

[You have slain a Giant Corroslug (Level 34). You have gained a boosted 34,500 Experience.]

I stumble off the creature’s disintegrating corpse and look around. The battle is rapidly turning against us. Even though the hawk, the ooze, and now the slug are destroyed, the viper, together with the last half-dozen cultists, has the clear upper hand. Stefan is barely standing as he resists the enemy onslaught. Chloe is nearly spent. Kristil is staggered, having fallen to one knee. She clutches her chest, a sure sign of advanced [Ether] strain setting in.

Only Lindsey continues to put up more than a token resistance, but with numbers against her, she’ll succumb sooner or later.

My [Angelic Insight] alerts me to an attack fast approaching, but in my weakened state, I’m too late to dodge. A silvery blade stabs through my stomach, spraying my crimson life onto the ground at my feet. I collapse, unable to speak, unable to move. The outside world goes dark. I grow cold.

I think I hear a voice calling for me. A light shining in the darkness of the endless void. It’s so calm. So comforting… I… I’m sorry, Chloe, I failed you. I failed us all.

[Current Stats: [Health]: 34 / 3,709; [Ether]: 41 / 2,553]

[You are affected by [Bleed, Stage 2]. [Health] will continue to drop until it hits zero.]