Saturday Grind Day

“So how are we doing this?” Aeolia asked from her perch on John’s shoulder as they exited Vivian’s car. The early morning light cast the park in dim light and the dew covered grass squelched under their feet.

“I think sticking with the machines is the best bet,” John replied. “They got a good mix of loot and we know how they work at the levels we’re going to be facing them at.”

“Maybe this time we won’t have to deal with an underground level,” Beth joked.

“At least we know about their option to field artillery,” Vivian said as she adjusted her ponytail. “And this time we have the ability to better scout for them.”

A blur of distorted air flew from John’s shoulder to Vivian’s and Aeolia’s voice sounded, “‘Scout’? I’ll take them out before they know what hit them.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” John cautioned. “There’s no way to know if the environment will be the same. There might not be high ground for them to use.”

“Won’t know until we get there,” Beth remarked, rocking back on her heels. “So fire it up!”

“One barrier, coming up,” John said as he cast Instant Barrier.

Skill Level Up: Instant Barrier Lv 3. Combat Selector Unlocked.

‘Looks like we aren’t getting in for a bit longer,’ Senka joked as the setting screen manifested in front of John.

“That one sure levels slowly,” Vivian commented as John cleared away the notification.

“I’m thinking it might only have a small number of levels, like ten or twenty, and not a hundred,” John said. “Since enemy power is tied to our levels and not the skill itself, it’s more to unlock modifiers like whatever I just got.”

Combat Selector: Choose the behavior of encountered enemies.
Default (Enemies will act as if encountered in real life)
Seek and Destroy (Enemies will prioritize hiding and hit and run tactics)
Tower Defense (You will be beset by waves of attacking enemies)
Level Up to unlock more options

“Yep, more stuff after a later level up,” John said. “I think ‘Seek and Destroy’ isn’t right for us right now. Sounds like it’d take a lot of time if a cityscape is the backdrop.”

“The last one probably is the best idea if our goal is to do as many rounds as possible,” Vivian remarked. “We wouldn’t have to waste energy or time looking for enemies if they came to us.”

“Yeah, but this sort of thing often has an increasing intensity scale,” John explained. “It won’t just be enemies of the same level every time. It could even reach a point where we’re super outgunned.”

John pressed the option and held his finger there for a moment, hoping a tooltip would appear. Thankfully, it seemed Gaia was being nice and provided one.

Tower Defence: You will spawn in a defensible position and waves of enemies (numbering between 4 and 10) will attack. Defeat each enemy to complete the wave. Enemy level and numbers will increase with each successful wave and exp and loot will only be distributed once you quit the barrier or are defeated (you are considered defeated if an enemy manages to reach and attack the flag at the center of your camp). You will only receive loot from completed waves.

“Sounds a bit like the first barrier I did with you guys,” Beth remarked. “Ya know, the mech spiders.”

“A bit, yeah,” John muttered.

“I say we give it a go,” Aeolia said. “We get loot and experience either way and we can get an idea at how high above our weight limit we can punch. And if we can just quit once we start getting outmatched.”

‘That does sound like a good idea,’ Senka made her opinion known to John. ‘And I think it would be best to see how effective you can be with both me summoned and a spirit in Overlay.’

‘Yeah, this setup lets us see where I stand at full power,’ John thought. ‘Or well, at full utility. Maybe after a recharge, I can switch to the hot spring spirit to see what water does to my mana.’

He felt Senka’s approval of his plan and he relayed her opinions to the others.

“I think we’re all in agreement to give this a test,” Vivian said. “I hope there’s a bit of prep time. I’d like to try and make some trap arrays at openings and weak points.”

“If we have to, we can try to bottleneck them and give you time to whip one up,” John mused. “Maybe even lead them to one.”

“Probably not the best idea to plan before we see just what we’ve got to work with,” Aeolia brought up. “Let’s get in there already.”

“Alright, punching it in,” John chuckled at her enthusiasm and finally activated the barrier.

Tower Defense Mode selected. Protect the central communication tower from attacks.
Wave 1 (4 enemies) will begin in 1 minute.

John looked away from the display in front of him to take in where they had appeared. They stood in the courtyard of some complex constructed in the same vaguely futuristic style as the last construct barrier and with imposing metal walls surrounding them. Several openings had been torn through three of the walls, revealing the ruined interior of whatever building they were at the center of. Behind where they stood, a large metal obelisk rose into the air, currents of mana racing up and down its surface.

“Looks like we're in some kind of base,” Senka remarked as she manifested.

“Given that we have to protect this ‘communication tower’, sounds like some military base,” John clarified as he used Overlay on the wind spirit. The combination of the two spirit-related costs brought his mana down to an even one hundred.

“Sure looks like there’s been a war in there,” Beth muttered as she peered through one of the holes.

“Looks like there’s another city outside,” Aeolia shouted as she flew to the top of the comm tower. “Can’t see anything moving.”

Vivian bit her lip as she took a bottle of Shine Dust out of her choker’s pocket space. “One break in each wall is enough for something humanoid to get through without issue and they could also go for the door on the one that’s still whole.”

“Want to trap the door?” John asked, quickly trying to gauge how much time they had left before the wave started.

“It is the least likely point of initial entry,” Vivian replied as she began to weave an array out of the silvery dust. “For all we know, there’s something keeping it closed.”

The clang of falling metal caused all their heads to snap to the hole to the left of the one good wall. Then more noises rang out around them, coming from all directions.

“Guess that means we’re surrounded,” Beth joked as she unfurled Thornbite.

“Beth, can you stay close to the beacon?” John asked, summoning his sword. “Our loss condition is them getting to it, so…”

“If they can’t reach it, they can’t win,” Beth finished for him. For a moment her expression darkened then she shook her head and firmly planted her foot down. “On it.”

“Great.” John smiled at her. “Beth’s the cornerstone to our victory but we can’t just let these hunks of junk get close. Let’s go!”

The first enemy chose that moment to step out through the hole to John’s right. Before Aeolia dropped down on it blade first, John fired off an Observe finding it to be a level 12 sword drone, right on par with him. Green wind and steel cleaved into its head, forcing it to bow slightly.

The damage notification popped into his vision but John ignored it as three more drones, another sword model and two shield ones, came through the other openings.

‘These guys don’t have the best naming convention,’ John thought as he moved to attack the other sword model. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Senka trap her opponent in Snaring Shadows while Vivian and Beth moved to confront the last one; the shorter girl remained close to the beacon while lashing out with her whip as Vivian threw some array at the drone.

Focusing back on his opponent, John put his hand out and fired off a Wind Shot. The blast of compressed air launched with a dull pop, striking the drone hard in the chest.

44 DMG

The blast knocked the drone back several paces into the wall, a dent appearing on its chest. John fought the urge to look down at his extended hand and instead moved to deliver a two-handed blow while the drone was off balance.

‘It’ll only take me three shots to take these guys out with Wind Shot,’ John thought as he ran the numbers, using the past fights to gauge the drone’s HP at around 110. ‘But twenty mana is a heavy cost. That’s a fifth of what I’ve got to work with, and even with a full battery to recharge with, I don’t want to burn too much.’

29 DMG

John’s sideways strike drove into the construct’s side, knocking it to the side. John dashed after it, not wanting to give it any chance to recover. Unfortunately, it had and hefted its shield to block his next blow, metal and wood meeting with a loud smack.

John stepped back as the drone swung its blade in a sweeping counter. His moves were just short of perfect as the tip of the zilhavrum sword nicked him.

-2 HP

The slight flare of pain vanished in an instant and John danced away from a follow-up swing. As he moved, he caught sight of everyone else’s fights. Aeolia was flying circles around her opponent, shifting between her sizes to dodge and attack, whittling down the construct. Senka was gracefully toying with the enemy, tripping it with snares before using Black Thorn to stab and slice at it.

Beth and Vivian were effectively keeping the final drone at bay; a mix of Beth negating the ground's friction, Vivian disrupting its line of sight and liberal use of Thornbite on the machine’s ankles made it so they were in no danger of being hit.

‘This isn’t so hard,’ John thought as he parried a thrust by his opponent. ‘Even if Senka and Beth are a lower level, their abilities give physical attackers a hard time. But I don’t think we’re going to have a good time once the levels or numbers go up.’

Gritting his teeth and tightening his grip, John answered the machine’s thrust with his own, the wooden tip of his greatsword piercing the dented portion of the construct’s chestplate.

25 DMG

John’s blade sank in several centimeters, its path shifting slightly as it hit the machine’s internal systems. He wrenched his weapon free, inflicting another few points of damage. A small amount of shattered metal pieces and black oil spilled out of the wound and the construct jerkily tried to attack back.

‘Yeah, it’s almost done,’ John thought as he brought his blade up and delivered one final blow.

78 (4) EXP Gained!

78 (4) EXP Gained!

John looked back to see Aeolia standing atop the fallen form of her opponent, her glaive stabbed through its head. It began to fade away a second before his did. She shot him a grin before leaping back into the air and darting towards Vivian and Beth.

John let out a chuckle and followed suit, dashing to aid Senka. He felt a touch of amusement come from the spirit as she used Snaring Shadows to arrest her drone midswing, the dark thorns biting into its armor.

‘Having fun?’ he asked.

‘It is nice to be able to fight on my own from time to time,’ she answered as she let her binding magic fade, gracefully moving as the drone clumsily tried to attack her. She jammed the Black Thorn she held into its shoulder, wrenching out the spike of dark mana before swiftly disengaging. ‘But I am ill-suited to fight enemies with mana-disrupting qualities.’

‘Guess that’s where I come in,’ John thought with a grin. ‘Never thought I’d be muscle for something.’

‘Less banter, more smashing.’ Senka laughed.

‘John smash!’ he mentally cried as he brought his blade down on the drone’s wounded shoulder before it could recover from Senka’s attack.

24 DMG

Much to John’s surprise, his attack cleaved right through the machine, severing the arm from the torso and leaving the drone without its weapon.

“Didn’t think that such modest damage would result in de-limbing,” Senka remarked with a grin.

“I’m going to guess that without blood, taking off a limb isn’t as much of a problem for its continuing operation,” John theorized. “So it falls in line with the rest of my sword strikes.”

Ponderings on how damage was reflected on the bodies of their enemies done, John pulled back slightly before putting his all into a high horizontal sweep, aimed for the construct’s head.

40 DMG

78 (4) EXP Gained!

Skill Level Up: Large Blade Proficiency Lv. 5. Damage Increased from 8% -> 9%.

John’s blow ripped the machine’s head clean off, sending it flying through the air before it and the body it left behind faded away.

“Now that’s a nice thing to see,” John said as he cleared away the notification. He pivoted towards the last enemy, ready to test his new upgrade in strength…

78 (4) EXP Gained!

Wave 1 Completed. Wave 2 to begin in 2 minutes!

…Just in time to see Aeolia scalp the robot, cutting its skull in half. As the lobotomized construct toppled over and faded away, John shook his head.

“Yeah, should have expected that,” he muttered before more loudly announcing, “We’ve got two minutes before the next round. We feeling up for it?”

“Barely winded, dude,” Beth remarked.

“I wish we had more time between rounds to set things up,” Vivian said. “I’m not all that convinced that just distorting their line of sight is enough of a contribution.”

Beth hooked her arm around Vivian’s shoulder, pulling the redhead down closer to her height. “Nope, not taking that from you, Vi. You did a great job keeping that bot dizzy.”

“I do think we should adjust to better play to your strengths,” Senka added. “Not that what you were doing wasn’t helping, but I think it would be better for the long term for you to make arrays. I believe that Beth and I can keep any that try to approach the comm contained while John and Aeolia handle the bulk of the recycling.”

Aeolia and John shared a look. “If they don’t jump levels too much, I think we should be able to handle that,” the winged woman said as she moved to stand besides John.

“I’m doing about thirty damage with a good hit, which should take them out in about four or five strikes,” John remarked.

“I can do it in three.” Aeolia grinned and playfully elbowed John’s side. “I’d be able to do it in two, but that zilhavrum keeps fucking up my mana.”

“Oh no, how horrible,” John exclaimed in an overly dramatic voice. “You’ve got to operate close to my lowly level.”

“Want to spar later and I’ll show you how far you’ve got to go to reach my level?” Aeolia challenged, a gleam in her eyes.

“I think you two can flirt later,” Senka laughed. “If my count is right, the wave’s about to start.”

The clang on heavy footfalls proved her right a moment later and John shook his head to focus his mind.

“Guess we’re going to need to schedule that spar later,” John said.

“Just don’t chicken out on me,” Aeolia shot back as the drones began to emerge through the broken walls.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”