No Need For A Core? 312: Going Ape

Mordecai had been enjoying today's self-impoed challenges; creating short-lived arrows out of mana could be simple and crude, but he had been refining each arrow he shot for precise effects. So were needle-thin, designed to pierce through the target. Others had illusionary mass, designed to maximize the force of the shot.

He mixed these and other base arrow types with various elental effects, including stacking as many elental types as he could by spending his mana freely, and using a small, set amount of mana and dividing it between various elental properties as finely as he could.

These exercises were helping refine his mana control, whereas yesterday's continuous spellcasting had been more about pushing out as much power as he could maintain.

But it was ti to change his combat style, given their new environnt and foes.

That didn't an he wasn't going to still challenge himself, he was simply changing the thod.

Mordecai's senses had allowed him to roughly gauge the nature and power of their new foes before the first dire ape had landed even on the path, and he'd begun casting the first of the two spells he would be using for this fight.

It was a relatively simply prayer for divine favor, but this one created an aura around the priest that also aided nearby allies. Mordecai was taking it one step further; after the prayer itself was complete, he continued to weave his mana into the frawork of divine energy, encouraging the spellform to spread out further.

He had just begun that second stage when a dire ape landed nearby. Mordecai turned to face it with a smile. "I hope you weren't expecting a martial fight from ; I have other plans today." A short incantation and a snap of his fingers brought a mote of elental energy into existence, and the tiny little star started floating in a wobbly orbit around him.

Much like Mordecai's prayer, this spell could be fed a continuous supply of mana to amplify its effects. In fact, its utility was sharply limited if this was not done, as that was how more motes were summoned.

Now Mordecai was maintaining two continuous flows of energy, which took a fair amount of his concentration. The dire ape was studying him suspiciously, and Mordecai's smile widened as he spread his hands out to his side. "That's it," he said to the ape, "though I think you will want to begin soon." A second mote of elental energy flickered into existence.

The dire ape charged.

Mordecai slid to the outside of the punch aid at his head, then ducked under a backhanded swing as the dire ape twisted into a sharp spin before it had fully stopped its charge.

One of the motes of energy brushed the ape's shoulder, and it roared in pain. The mote winked out, but now there were small tendrils of tal spreading from the point of contact, growing into the ape's flesh. Or more accurately, they were the ape's flesh, but now converted into tal.

This spell was a little tricky and could be more difficult to use effectively compared to more common variants. Most spells of this type released a blast of elental energy or force. That sort of attack was aid at the flesh, and the target's spirit helped resist the magic.

The spell Mordecai was using attempted to convert the target into the elent of the mote. This put the spell in direct conflict with the physical vitality of the target and the target's spirit. Failing to overco both simultaneously caused the mote to flicker out harmlessly.

Of course, any given mote could only convert so much material at a ti, and there was a lot of angry ape-monk still to deal with.

Mordecai stayed on the defensive, letting his elental motes do all the fighting for him. It was easier to pay attention to both spells if he wasn't also trying to get an attack in.

The aura of his prayer continued to expand across the battlefield, enveloping the other fights. Each deity's individual nature affected how this prayer manifested when made by their priests. In Ozuran's case, it manifested as a combination of brief dream fignts, odd reflections, and subtle shifts in how shadows moved.

These were not random manifestations; each effect either attempted to distract or misdirect an enemy, or to guide an ally's aim more precisely. This was the sort of spell that could be maintained over a long battle and give an edge to allies while hindering enemies the entire ti, and sotis that was more useful than a spell that simply tried to overwhelm the enemy imdiately.

The dire ape that Mordecai was facing recovered quickly enough, then leapt away to grab a large rock and hurl it at Mordecai. He slapped it out of the air without moving from his position; Kazue was directly opposite the dire ape relative to him, and Mordecai was certain that the rock had been aid at her more than it had been aid at him. Even while maintaining his spells and defending against the ape, Mordecai was keeping track of where all of his allies were, though Moriko, Kazue, and Fuyuko were the easiest for him to simply be aware of.

His display caused the ape to pause thoughtfully for a mont. Then it nodded and whistled two sharp notes, which was not a sound one heard from most apes. Monts later, two more dire apes landed nearby, and the three of them spread out around Mordecai as they settled into their stances.

Air and lightning chi began to move around the first ape, while the other two had fire and tal for one, water and ice for the other.

That was a well-chosen strategy on their part for two reasons. The first was that if the ape had tried to continue to assault Mordecai from a distance, Mordecai could have simply closed in on the ape to bring it within range of the motes. The second was that the motes were created at a steady rate, and each disappeared after striking a target.

Having more targets ant that each one was going to be hit by fewer motes, giving them more ti to recover after being struck.

The number of apes was a good choice as well, given the size difference. More than three, and they would have gotten in the way of each other.

Being on the defensive against three dire apes was a tough challenge for Mordecai in this situation, though their need to try to avoid the motes did help.

His largest priority was to not be grabbed. While his body and spirit were tough enough to avoid taking much damage even in that situation, maintaining the focus on his two spells would be more difficult. Especially if one of them decided to slam him into the ground or sothing.

Other than that, Mordecai prioritized dodges over blocking or parrying. He was tough enough to avoid much damage, but he did take so bruising and battering from those blows, so it was best to avoid as much physical contact as he could.

He rarely took advantage of potential openings for counterattacks, though he did occasionally choose to parry a blow in a way that was more punishing to the ape than to himself, if he was in the right position. Striking the side of a joint to divert a blow was fairly painful for the owner of that joint. Still, most of the damage he inflicted was via the motes.

Though the wounds the motes left were relatively small, they were vicious. A burst of fire or bolt of electricity would burn a larger swath of flesh, but the converted flesh was no longer there, in addition to any damage that might be done to the surrounding tissue.

Which made water and air two of the more dangerous motes to be struck by, as the wounds they left tended to bleed freely.

While being attuned to either the sa or an opposed elent helped resist the effects of the motes, it was insufficient to prevent the damage all together.

Even though Mordecai was able to dodge most of the attacks, he steadily collected bruises all over his body from the ones he had to block. Few of those blows managed to damage much past his subdermal scales.

The dire apes fared worse; they may have been able to dodge the first few motes, but Mordecai kept creating more motes until they couldn't get in a strike without being struck in turn.

By the ti two of his foes were unable to continue and the third had been killed by a water mote that struck its temple, the rest of his party had finished their fights and were already starting the clean up. Mordecai's fight had not been efficient, but it had been useful practice for him.

Bellona shook her head with amusent and called out, "Showoff!"

Mordecai shrugged with a smile and replied, "Maybe a little, but it was a good exercise for ." He let the elental spell collapse and dissipate before he approached the others; it was too dangerous to maintain outside of combat. Ozuran's blessing, however, he kept up so that it would keep their group covered throughout the fights to co, though he stopped spending effort to increase the area it covered. It was going to take enough effort just to keep it active. He wanted to maintain that benefit for the entire group, and it took a while to spread it that far.

None of the apes were harvested the way other animals had been; even without the sapience of these, apes were close enough in appearance to most ancestries that it would have felt uncomfortably close to cannibalism. They did, however, take a few samples of bone and fangs from the battlefield to bring back to the Azeria nexus for analysis.

The next threat the group faced was a pack of awakened baboons ard with spears. Their spears were simple lengths of sharpened wood, but the wood in question was as hard and tough as steel. The baboons employed a mix of tactics, with so settling into a bristling formation while others stayed further back to throw their spears, which were enchanted to snap back to their owner's hand.

This enchantnt was a temporary imbuent rather than an engraved rune or such, which Mordecai discovered after he caught one and managed to suppress the magic when it attempted to return to the baboon that had thrown it. Once that initial surge of magic was defeated, the spear was simply wood, if high-quality wood.

Mordecai stored it in one of his bracers for later examination; the baboon in question looked annoyed as he fell back, but there were several more closing in for Mordecai to deal with. For this fight, Mordecai chose to focus on his speed, weaving past thrusting spears to close in on the baboons and engage them in unard combat.

Not that his 'unard' was much different than being ard, even without forming claws. The baboons were much stronger and tougher than normal ones, but they were also a lot weaker individually than the dire apes, and most of them went down with a single well-placed strike or kick.

During this battle, Mordecai almost had to intervene in soone else's fight; Fuyuko had been thrown off balance and was briefly unguarded against a thrown spear aid directly at her. The only thing that kept Mordecai from shadow-stepping to her side to block the spear was his noticing other movent.

So twenty feet away from Fuyuko, Amrydor had spun in place and leapt with a speed and power not normally available to him, and on the downward arc, cut the spear in half with his war scythe. The boy stared down at the broken spear in confusion for a mont, and several other people stared in shock as well. This included both Fuyuko and the baboon who had thrown the spear.

The tableau only held for a mont before Amrydor shook off his surprise and turned to face the baboons. Bellona shouted at him, "Get back to your assigned group!" Then she waited a mont before adding, "But good job protecting your friends."

Mordecai simply turned his attention back to his opponents with a feeling of satisfaction. He'd recognized the nature of the power that had surged around Amrydor and been certain that Fuyuko was safe. While Amrydor may not have yet officially graduated from his training, it seed that Zagaroth had seen fit to imbue a portion of a champion's power into the young man.

There had also been a different flare of energy, right before the one he'd recognized. Mordecai wasn't certain, but he suspected that it had been Amrydor's second mark at work, ensuring that he was aware of the sudden danger to Fuyuko.

However, Bellona had been right to yell at Amrydor to get back into his place. Being out of position ant others were less guarded, and Fuyuko had already recovered her balance and stance. Reacting was one thing, but he needed to be almost as fast at returning to his original place in the battle line.

The fight with the baboons was over faster than the one with the dire apes. Their third fight was more of a running skirmish with smaller monkeys, who were ard with blowguns and used poison darts. From there, the fights mixed the different types of primates until the party reached a large clearing.

At the far end of the clearing was a tightly woven barrier of trees and vines that glowed with a protective ward. Beyond that barrier was the source of fae energy they had sensed previously, and Mordecai was pretty certain that this was one of the few safe spaces that Dersuta provided.

There was also a trace of another aura that Mordecai decided he would try to puzzle out later.

Between them and the barrier was a small army of apes, baboons, and monkeys, with a single figure standing out from the rest. A dire ape that stood sixteen feet all, ard with a proportionally sized bo staff and wearing a few key pieces of armor: bracers, greaves, and a helt.

Despite the size difference, Mordecai was certain that Paltira or Orchid could take on the giant ape by themselves, though he'd feel sorry for it if Orchid had to whittle it down with toxins and spells. Bellona would likely need at least a little bit of support, but Xarlug could provide that. Moriko and Kazue could coordinate well enough that they should probably be able to win, though it would be a bit risky.

None of that would satisfy Mordecai.

"I'm sorry, but I think I need to be selfish and ask that you allow to indulge myself," Mordecai said as he moved to the front of the party. "I want to take our large friend on by myself. Though, if there are objections, I won't — we need to agree on a plan."

There was a brief discussion amongst the others, but they quickly decided on letting him have the first shot. He and the giant ape studied each other while everyone else prepared themselves. When all were ready, Mordecai started walking forward, changing into his ambassador form. This thickened his scales and brought them to the surface, give him wings and claws, and created an aura of light around him that would help with healing. It also significantly increased his height, but Mordecai found he needed to manually increase his height beyond that default to almost match his opponent's. Fourteen feet seed to be his maximum for now, at least, even if he changed into his more dragon-like battle form. The full dragon shape of his war form, however, was significantly large and should continue to grow with his power.