Chapter 328: Sickles

The Melodians weren’t the only ones operating on a strict schedule. Percy was too. He’d already spent over six years inside the Valley before coming here, and his main body only had about seven more: give or take: until his confrontation with the Holy Child.

By then, he should have ideally mastered both versions of the Dance, and retrieved his clone, so that he could possess Micky and extricate him from the battle. He still hoped he’d open up a third cord upon reaching Yellow, but it wasn’t a certainty.

Thus, he had to wrap up his business here quickly. Due to the time dilation, he only had around three months to do so, of which one had already passed. They were still another month away from the Mirror Lake, so the plan was to spend his third and final month there with Sol’s people, before leaving.

But that would only matter if they survived long enough to get there. With just fifteen hunters left, things weren’t looking great.

‘Are you sure you don’t have any ingredients rich in life mana?’

he asked his host.

He wanted to slap himself. They’d sold millions of mushrooms before leaving the city, and he hadn’t thought to save a few hundred thousand to bring with his clones, for cases like this. Sol was already the second strongest person in the expedition. Doubling her strength would have placed her above Doh, making their lives easier.

‘I’m sorry, Percy… Plants of other affinities are really rare on Melodia. Even back home, we don’t have nearly that many…’

He sighed.

He did have a few mushrooms and some potions in his seal, but not enough. Sol couldn’t even use the potions without the Decree draining the mana. They’d considered growing more mushrooms, but it wasn’t easy.

Going by the sheer number of beasts they’d slaughtered over the past month, they’d definitely had enough meat to get the number they needed.

Sadly, the mushrooms took a full day to grow on the Yellow beasts. It was much faster than the mundane meat Percy had used in the city, but still too slow. The hunters couldn’t afford to stay at a single place that long. At least, not very often. And the carcasses were too heavy to carry with them. Having only a quarter of his seal on him, Percy couldn’t fit that many in it either, nor did the mushrooms grow while stored.

The good news was that the mushrooms grew a lot faster on the Greens. They only took a few hours. And Doh killed at least one every night. Like that, they’d steadily amassed tens of thousands of mushrooms, but it would be another couple of weeks before they reached the required amount.

‘Alright, then our only option is to improve our spells and our teamwork. And we need to do that fast.’

Taking one deep breath after another, he activated Circulation. Next, he took some time to explain to Sol how the next part of the technique was supposed to work.

Or at least, his best guess at it.

He’d need her help to complete it.

Percy had several advantages going into this project of his. For one, his several years of experience with the pure part of the spell would definitely work in his favour. The abundance of soul mana on Melodia would help too, as would the fact that soul cores: or most type of cores, really: were better at converting ambient mana than pure cores. Finally, he had an assistant to work alongside him.

Still, it wouldn’t all be smooth sailing.

Earlier, he’d copied Tlaloc, linking the whirlpools with the cyan lines on his skin to draw ambient mana into his channels. Unfortunately, the pattern for the soul version of the spell wasn’t static. The maelstrom constantly shifted around his soul, the silver lines ever-changing.

‘How am I even meant to establish a stable flow like that?’

Solving that riddle could easily take years. Hopefully, the Mirror Lake would accelerate the process several-fold, but he had to at least try and get a head start.

Besides, two minds were better than one, and all that. He wasn’t used to having a host who shared his primary affinity. Sol wasn’t as skilled with the boosting art as him, just like he wasn’t as good with the homing attacks as her. That said, they’d spent enough time fighting together that they could meaningfully contribute, helping each other improve rapidly.

‘Ready?’

he asked, getting a nod back.

Next, he mirrored the pure version of the spell, trying to form a series of whirlpools linking to his channels, pushing the ambient mana in. It was hard, because he had to keep moving them around.

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He barely lasted five seconds before it all fell apart.

‘Are you sure this is how it’s supposed to go?’

Sol frowned.

‘Of course not.’

he rolled his eyes.

‘If I was, I wouldn’t have asked for your help, would I?’

She fell silent, as did he. The two spent a few minutes brainstorming, trying to come up with a solution. They both understood that everything they cared about hinged on their success. Circulation alone might not be enough for the hunters to return home or push back the beast tide. The Melodians’ survival could very well depend on their ability to perfect the spell.

Percy, on the other hand, wasn’t looking forward to challenging a Blue with an incomplete boosting art. But cracking the riddle wasn’t easy: it was definitely a Masterful spell, and he didn’t have anyone to hand him all the answers this time.

‘What if we split the task?’ Sol suggested. ‘I’ll take care of the internal flow, and you focus solely on keeping the whirlpools spinning. Each of us will be responsible for converting the ambient mana on our end.’

He shrugged, agreeing to give it a shot.

Not that he thought it would work in the long run: there was clearly some other trick they were missing. But it might work here, on Melodia, since they could collaborate, and because the ambient mana was so much easier to digest.

By the time the sun set, they’d barely made any progress. At least they’d managed to keep the prototype Dance active for a prolonged period of time, but the flow wasn’t nearly powerful enough to provide them with a noticeable boost just yet.

In the end, they had to call it a day. The next wave of beasts would be upon them soon.

Sure enough, it was barely half an hour later when they got attacked. Though it wasn’t a large pack this time. Nor was it homogeneous. In fact, the Melodians got caught in the crossfire between some Green beasts fighting each other. There was a massive bear-like creature covered in bony plates. It was under attack by three wyverns, harassing it from above.

The hunters had no idea how long the four creatures had been at it, but the battle had rolled all the way to their camp. Even worse, the beasts seemed to reach a tentative understanding upon seeing them. Probably thinking that the Melodians would make for easier prey, they stopped fighting each other, attacking Sol’s people instead.

Doh took it upon himself to keep two of the wyverns at bay, leaving the third one to Sol and Percy. Meanwhile, the remaining hunters ganged up on the bear, trying to take it down.

‘Shit. It’s too fast. I’m not skilled enough with ranged attacks to hit it.’

Percy groaned.

His go to move when dealing with such opponents was to spam projectiles from his shroud. He could fire dozens of them that way, but he couldn’t vary their trajectories much, and he could only control them in bulk. Most of them would miss, so he usually relied on the extreme lethality of his mana to take his enemies out.

This wouldn’t cut it on Melodia. Not against the sturdier souls that the beasts here possessed. Certainly not against a Green. His new spell helped a little, but it was still Crude.

That said, he did have a Soul Harvester in his spatial seal. It was far more lethal, and he could control a couple of those better than a rain of throwing stars. The problem was that the self-repair enchantments had to be fuelled by his fused mana, and he didn’t want to waste his dwindling stash unless absolutely necessary.

‘Okay. Take care of defence. I’ll handle offense.’

Sol said.

Hurling her sickles at the creature, she forged two more, before throwing them too. They’d already agreed to use the same weapons for both melee and ranged attacks, so that they could cycle between them more easily.

The blades spun towards the wyvern, but it flew out of the way with a powerful flap of its membranous wings.

Luckily, that wasn’t the end of Sol’s attack. The second pair was about to hit, as the first pair was already on the way back, chasing the creature from behind. And she was already preparing a third one in her hands.

This time, the beast dove downwards, barely avoiding the constructs by the skin of its fangs. But it seemed to realize that this wasn’t sustainable, so it flew towards them, aiming to take them out before they fired more spells at it.

Percy took over their body, sidestepping the lunge as he sank his blades into the beast’s soul. This time he was met with a lot more resistance, the wyvern’s soul being among the sturdiest he’d ever tried to cut.

In fact, the weapons snapped, lacking the integrity afforded to them by Reinforcement. Still, he’d dealt

some

damage, the wyvern letting out an agonized cry as it put some distance.

Meanwhile, Sol hadn’t paused for a second, sending the other four sickles after it. Of course, Percy could still control that many by himself, but not with as much finesse. And the girl was already forging another pair in their hands, and one more floating beside her.

Soon, eight crescents spun towards the monster, flying towards it from every direction. Percy took the chance to launch a fifth pair at it too, controlling this one himself.

The wyvern avoided as many as it could, but it still got struck by several. Unfortunately, it suffered even less damage this time, the attacks not having as much force behind them. It ignored the pain again, trying to pin the pesky Melodian down.

Percy feinted to his left, leaping to his right instead. At the same time, he hacked at the beast’s wing, guessing its soul was weaker there.

Sure enough, the sickle lasted longer before crumbling, leaving a nasty tear in the silver flame. Partially losing control of its limb, the beast hit the ground, carving a deep trail as it slid for dozens of metres, raising a cloud of dirt and leaves in its wake.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The creature was more than capable of fighting on the ground too, apparently. It only took a second to brush off its disorientation. It even ignored the pain from the next round of sickles Sol had hurled into its soul, already charging at them on its three good limbs.

The good news was that it wasn’t much faster than them without its wings. Certainly not as nimble. So it wasn’t hard for them to keep it at bay, pelting its soul with more attacks, slowly gnawing it down.

By the time the beast’s eyes glazed over, the other battles had also reached their end. Doh had won too, killing another wyvern while scaring the second away. The other hunters had also slain their opponent, but not without paying a steep price.

Another Yellow had fallen, along with three Oranges…