When Larek had been considering Fusions that might be beneficial for the upcoming campaign against the Gergasi, he had thought about how he could possibly face a situation where he would undoubtedly be outnumbered and at a disadvantage in terms of strength and environment. While he had succeeded in creating Fusions that were – or could be – offensive in nature, such as the Focused Light Beam and Mass Energy Absorption, as well as defensive protections, such as the Absolute Protective Fields and Flood of Domination, none of these were necessarily something that would help him win against the odds that he was likely to face.
Sure, they could keep him alive for longer and they – along with his existing Fusions – might be able to kill a few of the Gergasi before he was ultimately overpowered, but that was about the extent of their usefulness. While, at the time he was designing Fusions, he hadn’t yet fought the Gergasi around the central Calamity, even now he had to agree with his thinking back then that he would be able to succeed against more than a dozen Gergasi simultaneously. The advantage he had against those who had ambushed him at the Calamity was his surprise counterattack, along with access to massive amounts of Primal Essence to fuel a temporary Fusion built in the very air itself.
So, that begged the question: How could he win when the odds were so far out of his favor as to be nearly nonexistent?
The answer wasn’t a super-powerful weaponized Fusion, though he did think of that at first. The problem was that anything he created that might be strong enough to overwhelm the defenses of a Gergasi could potentially cause incredible collateral damage, which was something he wanted to avoid if he wanted his family back in one piece. At the time, he could only assume that he would be fighting the Gergasi in their Enclave, where he figured his family was, so that made sense to him. Even at this point in time, when facing the Demon Queen and the full might of the Gergasi, if he had a weaponized Fusion that could do enough damage to them all, there was an even greater chance that Nedira and the others would be caught in the blast or whatever it ended up being, potentially even killing himself in the process. Another defensive Fusion would be nice, but even that could only keep him alive for so long before the Gergasi – who were far from unintelligent – figured out a way around it.
Therefore, the Divine Fusionist had switched his thinking and had gone in an entirely different direction altogether. Instead of something offensive or defensive, what if he made a Fusion that simply leveled the playing field a bit? It wouldn’t necessarily be something that would cause damage or protect him, but it would affect everyone within its effective radius equally.
He thought about it for hours, even while he was monotonously duplicating other Fusions, and he finally figured out something that might work. In short, he mentally designed a Fusion that would do two main things. First, it would somewhat mimic the aura-like effect of the Bereft that he had put into his Mass Energy Absorption Fusion, but instead of absorbing or negating all energy within an area… it would freeze it.
What did this mean? Well, in short, it prevented the spread of all energy within the area, by stopping it from moving with a near-complete blanket of restriction. This even included energy within a person or a monster, so trying to cast a spell – which would require moving Pattern Cohesion into a spell formation and Mana out of the body to power the spell – would fail, as neither of those things would happen. The same went for Battle Arts, as one had to move the Stama within the body to where they wanted it to affect, so those, too, would be essentially useless.
But that wasn’t all that it did. The name it gained after he created it was Area Suppression, and it wasn’t just energy that was frozen and suppressed. In addition to freezing energy, it also suppressed the energy that infused a person or a monster, which made them stronger, faster, and able to comprehend the intricacies of the mind at high levels. Larek had figured out, after studying different types of energy for so long, that it was the combination of energy within a person or a monster that provided those increases to them, which was why his Boost Fusions worked in the first place; they artificially increased this energy, which translated to superior strength and speed as the body was able to handle more of the energy.
In short, his Area Suppression Fusion significantly cut the inflated stats of every living being within its range. It couldn’t eliminate them entirely, as he was fairly certain that that would take something even stronger than the formation he created, but it would still do a lot to help even things up.
Fortunately, the “near-complete” blanket of energy restriction and stat suppression had one caveat. Fusions that were already active or could be activated with their ambient energy being pulled in from a distant location – which all of his Fusions did – were still functional, as they were differentiated enough from people to work properly. At the same time, any external effects that they might produce which required energy movement – such as projectiles from his Multi-Purpose Arsenal – were stopped before they could even form. All of that meant that his Boosts were still active, though he immediately felt his base stats drop significantly as a result of the Area Suppression Fusion. Now that he was able to see the results in a live test, he discovered that it cut his stats a total of 80%, meaning that where he had 750 Strength before, he now only had 150 – though that was tripled by his Boost Fusion to 450. If this effect worked the same on everyone else within range, then the Gergasi facing him would be similarly affected, with base stats likely within the 200 to 300 range, if not a little lower.
Other Fusions were still active, as well. For instance, the static form of certain Fusions, such as Strengthen and Sharpen Edge on his halberd and the void and energy negation Effects on his Absolute Protective Fields, would still function, though the air gusts from the latter Fusion wouldn’t trigger. In addition, it was likely that once the energy negation Effect on Absolute Protective Fields was interrupted, it might not reform, because of the energy restriction coming from Area Suppression.
Inevitably, there were some additional downsides to the Fusion. First, Larek was unable to utilize his Pattern Cohesion outside of his body, so he couldn’t create any new Pattern constructs while his new Area Suppression Fusion was active. The platform under his feet was still active, but he couldn’t move it from where it had already been created – so he would be unable to move around in the air. This wasn’t as detrimental as it might seem, however, because he wasn’t the only one affected. Whatever spell the Gergasi had been using to keep themselves aloft was also negated by his Fusion, and they immediately began to fall. The same went for the Demon Queen, who – to this point – had been moving around quickly without once actually utilizing her wings, and Larek watched as she plummeted to the monster corpse-laden ground below. When she was halfway down, however, she managed to catch herself as her wings snapped open, but even as she hovered in place, Larek could tell that her maneuvering ability in the air had been significantly cut.
What was even better, however, was that her void sword had disappeared completely. Whatever had been keeping it in existence must have been a moving spell of some kind, rather than it being a real weapon, so now the Queen was no longer armed with a weapon that scared him more than anything he’d faced before. In addition, it appeared as though whatever had made her giant to begin with had also been a spell, and even as she descended after her flight was cut off, she shrunk down even further than her current form. Once she finally started using her wings to hover in place, she was down to only about 10 feet tall; the height was still taller than Larek, but was fairly similar to the Gergasi, who slammed down into the corpses below without anything able to stop their fall. They were unhurt, as a simple fall like that was unlikely to injure them despite their reduced stats, but he could also tell that they were disoriented because of the sudden turn of events.
Another major drawback to Area Suppression was the same reason he hadn’t even considered using it against the Gergasi near the Calamity. Because of the incredible power the Fusion possessed to halt energy movement and suppress the stats inside of living beings, the formation required approximately a full minute to draw in the required amount of energy to power it. It utilized Primal Essence similar to the Traveling Gates he created, so that meant it had to pull in all types of energy and convert them to the uniquely suitable and superior Essence, which wasn’t quick. Fortunately, it didn’t take nearly as long as the Traveling Gates did to reach the size needed to transport people from one place to another – but a minute was still a lot of time when in a battle to the death.
Thankfully, the Gergasi’s arrival had afforded the half-breed the time to get it up and running.
The last drawback to the Fusion was related to range and time. Because of the inherent strength of the Fusion, it was only able to create a spherical range of effect with a diameter of a mile. Even that far was almost too much for the formation to manage, and expanding it any further would require additional safeguards and redundant sections to handle the extra load of power running through it – which would require an even longer activation period. The limited range meant that anyone who managed to escape its reach would be able to utilize their stats once again and cast spells, making them just as deadly as before – though with the Area Suppression active, any spells cast from outside would simply freeze and stop working once they passed over the threshold.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Finally, time was also a factor in the use of this item. As discussed when evaluating its range of effect, the formation was already stressed from the amount of power running through it, so it had a limited amount of time it could be active before it shut down to keep it from breaking outright. While the Traveling Gates used even more Primal Essence to power them initially, he had created their formations with that in mind, which was why they had a gradual buildup of power rather than the relatively quick activation of the Area Suppression Fusion. There was a tradeoff between speed and function that he had to balance in order to get it to be even relatively useful in a fight.
All of that was to say that he could only keep the Area Suppression Fusion active for 20 minutes before it had to shut down. He just had to hope that it was enough.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” the Demon Queen shouted as she stared with hatred suffusing her face up at Larek. He didn’t answer as he leapt off his Pattern platform, abandoning the Pattern Cohesion in it as he fell toward the winged monster, his halberd perfectly aligned to cut her in half once he got close enough. Unfortunately, despite losing access to whatever effect had previously allowed her to zip around at incredible speeds, she was still able to maneuver backwards using her wings, and he was unable to reach her even when he stretched his weapon out ahead of him. Normally, he would’ve stopped his fall and pushed off of a Pattern platform to continue his attack, but he was unable to form any Pattern constructs with Area Suppression active. As it was, all he could do was tuck the spherical ball of steel onto which he had placed the Fusion formation into his pants pocket, where he intended to keep it safe, while bracing himself for impact against the monster corpses below. Thankfully, almost all of the smaller monsters that had been in the Diregate cavern had already left, escaping out of the exit to go harass the people outside.
As he landed, he threw himself backwards almost immediately as the Demon Queen swooped down upon him with a scream of incoherent rage, her hands transformed into claws that seemed sharp enough to eviscerate him within seconds. While he was fairly confident that the void Effect on his Absolute Protective Fields was still working, he didn’t want to necessarily test it immediately. As the Queen quickly swooped upwards with the intent to dive at him again, the way she was able to move told him that she was still extremely fast, despite the suppression of her power. Possibly even faster than Larek, even with his Boost still active.
Out of the corner of his eye, the Divine Fusionist watched as The Hopper bounced off an equal measure of stone and monster bodies as it descended from where it had been floating, the Buoyant-Thrusters not working anymore, but the Buoyant Sphere still intact. Even before it stopped moving, he saw Nedira, his friends, and the Volunteers on board jumping off the top deck, heading toward the Gergasi, who were looking over at Larek with murder in their eyes, but they didn’t interfere with the fight going on between Larek and the Demon Queen.
But that didn’t stop his friends from interfering with them. Larek had told Nedira about Area Suppression, and she likely had understood immediately what was happening, so she knew that they had a small advantage if they knew how to apply it properly. They all had Boosts at the same Magnitude as Larek did, and while they might not be stronger or faster than the Gergasi, they had the protective Fusions that would keep them alive in a fight.
Out of the corner of his other eye, Larek saw more figures moving among the wreckage of the other transports, and it took him a half a second to realize that they weren’t monsters. Instead, it appeared as though there had been survivors from the Demon Queen’s attacks on them earlier; there weren’t many of them, perhaps 40 all told compared to the hundreds there had been before, but they began running toward the Gergasi from the opposite side as Nedira and his friends, attacking from another direction. His senses told him that these particular survivors also had Absolute Protective Fields around them keeping them safe, which was potentially how they had lived through the Demon Queen’s earlier attack, and so he didn’t worry about them too much as they sped forward to do battle against the power of the Gergasi.
His distraction nearly cost him a face full of claws as the Demon Queen came for him again, but he managed to move his head out of the way just in time. Even so, he could feel the air being displaced as the incredibly fast strike passed by his ear, which was worrisome as it meant that she might be able to bypass his protective void. He wasn’t completely sure of that, however, but he was inclined to err on the side of caution rather than test the supposition that he would be fine.
“I’m going to kill you and feast on your flesh!” the Queen shouted in annoyance over being unable to hit him, before she landed 20 feet away from him, folding her wings up behind her back. It seemed as though she had become tired of trying to match his speed when airborne, which was proven to be true a second later as she appeared in front of him, having moved nearly faster than he could follow. Fortunately, he was still quick enough to block the double strikes heading for his throat with the haft of his halberd, the talons on her claw-like hands sharp enough to cut through steel with ease.
When they didn’t even leave a mark on his weapon, however, he saw the hatred on her face slip a little as a hint of confusion seeped in. This confusion was enhanced when she attempted to tear through his shirt in a rapid swipe at his midsection, only for the Multi-Resistance Fusion on his clothing to prevent that from happening. The attack made him grunt a little at the force behind it, and she definitely left his torso bruised, but as she was attempting to eviscerate him, her strike was wildly ineffective. Of course, if she had hit his bare skin, that would’ve been another matter, as his Body stat could only prevent so much piercing damage; but as it was, he was largely uninjured.
It was Larek’s time to retaliate, however, and he took advantage of her slight confusion to snap the halberd’s haft forward, driving it straight into her face, right between the eyes and along the bridge of her nose. Her head snapped backwards from the blow, and he thought he might have broken her nose, but it was hard to tell as she recovered quickly and slashed back at him, driving a fist into his shoulder, pushing him back. Separated by about 10 feet, they stared at each other for a moment, before both snapped into action, the Queen darting forward to cut his head off with her claws, while Larek simply ducked low and swiped with his halberd at her legs.
She was too quick to be caught by such a telegraphed move, however, and she leaped over the swipe, intending to land on him as her forward momentum brought her within range, where she would be too close for Larek to fend her off. Unfortunately for the Demon Queen, the Divine Fusionist was more than aware that his attack had no chance of working, so he had let the halberd go in mid-swing, while at the same time slipping his right hand down to his hip. Pulling out the Logger’s axe with a fluid motion, he was able to cock his arm back just enough to get some momentum behind it, swinging it directly at the Queen’s face, intending to split her head right down the middle.
The royal Demon’s eyes widened as she realized what he’d done, and just before it was too late, her wings snapped open, allowing her to avoid the attack – at least somewhat. Instead of her head being bisected down the middle, the axe blade struck her right shoulder, shearing through the flesh and bone with ease thanks to the Sharpen Edge Fusion on it, and he followed through with the strike, cutting off her entire right arm and a portion of her chest. She flew past him, tumbling to the ground with a scream of agony.
Larek didn’t get out of the exchange unhurt, unfortunately, as even as she was flying past him, she struck out with her elongated claws and swiped her talons across his face, ripping the skin down to the bone and destroying his left eye in the process. The pain slammed into him briefly before being nullified by his Pain Immunity Skill, but being blinded in one eye wasn’t something that he could easily shrug off. He activated his Healing Surge Fusion to heal himself—
—but nothing happened.
Oh, no. I guess this is one of the things that experimenting with Area Suppression beforehand would’ve let me know about.
Bleeding profusely from his face – with blood running into his only good eye, making it a little more difficult to see – Larek steadied himself as the Demon Queen somehow recovered from losing a good portion of her upper body and threw herself at him with no regard to her safety.
Almost blindly, he swung his axe at her approach, expecting her to avoid it once again, but he felt the impact in his hands as the blade slammed into her side, passing through the stitched-skin dress and into her flesh, stopping only when it had cut through her spine. He was dragged down slightly as her bottom half fell limp, her left claw scraping along his arm as she fell, ripping chunks out of it that hurt momentarily before it went numb. Kicking her off his axe, he tore it free from her torso, and he could see that the flesh was already starting to knit itself together; it wasn’t just her stomach that was healing, but her shoulder was starting to regrow, as well. Rather than let whatever insane Health regeneration work in her favor, he struck out with his axe once again, cutting through her entire arm that attempted to block his attack, before slicing through the majority of her neck. It took another hit to decapitate her entirely, and even then her body twitched as if it wanted to defy the death that was inevitable.
With a few swift chops, he cut off the rest of her limbs, before splitting the head in half like an overripe melon – just in case.
The bleeding stopped from his numerous wounds, though it would be some time before his natural Body Regeneration was able to heal his eye – or if he ended the Area Suppression Fusion early, so he could use his Healing Surge Fusion. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wait for his Skill to do it for him, and he couldn’t stop the Suppression Fusion, because there was another type of battle going on between the Gergasi and his friends.
Larek needed to help end that fight before his Fusion ran out of time, or else things might get even more messy than it already was – eye missing, or not.
