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  The building crumbled around him, with much of it dematerializing. The shield continued to take the brunt of all the damage, until the explosions subsided and his falling body landed in the rubble that the game generated for the destroyed building. There was plenty of debris and dust in the air. His shield lasted another two seconds before disappearing. If the shield wasn't destroyed, it had a total lifetime of five seconds. So it was mostly used for incoming attacks that were somewhat predictable.

  Riley turned his amber-goo arm into a fan, which he quickly waved about in order to shift the dust away as well as he could. He made out the form of a heavily damaged hand, and quickly threw an orange gem at it to destroy it. He felt like he was constantly spinning, trying to determine where any more enemies were.

  "System, how many hands are left?" he called out, just as a hand leapt toward him out of the dust. He sliced with the 'fan' he'd created and cut the hand in two, dematerializing it immediately.

  "One hand remains," the system told him a moment later.

  "Where?" Riley called out, glancing all around.

  "Above you."

  The hand smashed Riley into the ground, practically flattening him. He winced from the pain of the impact, but it only caused around twenty damage for such a short-range tackle. His body and chin hit the ground pretty hard, but with the less intense pain of previous updates, it was nothing compared to the anger he felt about the situation.

  The hand squeezed him with four fingers and kept him immobilized, while its ring finger drew back and smacked down into his amber-wielding arm, as if the finger itself were being pulled back by some unseen force, allowing it to come smashing down against him. He winced partially from the aggravation of the mild pain the creature was causing, but he was having trouble focusing in order to use the morphing ability of the amber. Just that little bit of damage was keeping him mentally off-guard, enough to prevent him from figuring out what to do with it, despite how he desperately wanted to lash out with the amber goo.

  He couldn't put his thoughts together quickly enough to morph the goo to his will, but it was a much easier thought to think 'create explosive gem.'

  The moment he created it, he smacked the gem against the nearest monstrous finger.

  The gem detonated and washed over him with heat and pain, as the explosion was so close that there was no way he could avoid it.

  But his hitpoints would hold out. The hand's would not. It had already been injured from the building self-destructing, and the explosive gem had taken the rest of its hitpoints away. It dematerialized and alleviated the weight upon him.

  Riley groaned and quickly stood up. The dust was subsiding, more quickly than it would have in real life.

  Riley's health and energy were at 2220 and 158 respectively. He was almost out of energy entirely. He couldn't throw many more gems, since the explosive ones took around 28 points of energy and the frost ones took 56. If he used Amber's powers, he would lose a slow trickle of energy for every second that he materialized the orange slime into anything. He had the hitpoints to continue this fight, but not the energy.

  He tilted his head and gazed into the sky.

  Where once he was able to see the somewhat cloudy star-speckled sky, now, all he saw was a mass of Golem Angler Jellies.

  They were roughly a hundred feet above him. Their tendrils writhed beneath their undulating forms.

  "System, threat assessment," he said as he quickly opened his inventory to see what he had available.

  "Nineteen hostiles remain."

  Which meant that the hands were definitely all gone and only a small army of anglers were coming for him. He shook his head, checking his inventory. The only thing that could possibly help him at all was the energy can that Ava had let him keep. It wouldn't do him a whole lot of good. Those items were meant for 'out-of-combat' recovery. The moment one of those monsters did damage to him, the recovery effect of the can would be lost. But…maybe he could get something out of it. He couldn't just give up.

  He quickly brought the energy recovery can out of his inventory and drank it down as the anglers converged on him from above, positioning and shifting, as if to trap him where he was in the center of the rubble.

  He wished Gem's powers allowed him to create a healing jewel of some sort so that he could top off his health. But sadly, they did not. Not to mention, even if it was possible, it was likely that it'd be more energy intensive than a shield gem.

  For now, he was low on options. He had to stall the anglers as long as he could, if he had any hopes of defeating them. It would only take one to eat and absorb him, granting the entity access to his powers to use on new monsters.

  The energy recovery can disappeared once its contents were gone. He gained a new buff that would rapidly recover his energy. Even though it was one of the faster recovery methods out there, it was still a long time to stand around with enemies coming straight for you.

  Second by second, the anglers drew closer. He couldn't even attack. The moment he caused damage would also take away his energy recovery effect. He had no choice but to let them get closer and closer.

  His energy was recovering quickly, but he was running out of time. With a glance to his energy, he figured he was getting around 60-70 energy per second. But with each second that ticked by, the anglers got closer and closer, now just fifty feet away from him. Then forty. Thirty. Twenty.

  Some loomed behind, while others came in close, as the space for them to move dwindled.

  He created an orange gem. And then another, and another. The moment he created the first, his energy recovery effect vanished. He had hoped it wouldn't, but using energy was counted the same as causing damage.

  He'd managed to recover a little over 1500 energy in the time it took the anglers to get in closer. He wasn't even sure if recovering all of his energy would allow him to win this fight, but he had to make do with what he had.

  With fifteen explosive gems in hand, there was only one option left to him. He just hoped he could pull it off before the anglers absorbed him, while also taking a few of them with him.

  He couldn't let Golem get a hold of his powers. If he was going to die here, he'd rather go out of his own accord than let Golem win.

  He focused on the remote-detonation gems in his hand.

  His lips curled as he stared up at the anglers. He supposed Relinquisher had survived longer than Riley figured he would've. He'd had a good run. But it was over. He knew what he had to do.

  "Screw you, Golem."

  Chapter 19: Boom

  While the rest of the anglers loomed fifteen feet away, one of the creatures ebbed in closer and reached out with its tendrils.

  Something ripped through the angler above him, tearing a hole into it and dematerializing the angler outright.

  It all happened so fast.

  With a loud boom, the object slammed into the rubble beside Riley, knocking him away and actually closer to several of the anglers. He clutched the gems in his hand too slowly and some of them clattered to the ground. A gust of air washed over him, which quickly dispersed the dust that had momentarily kicked up from the sudden impact.

  At first, all Riley could see was a white figure.

  In that instant, his eyes widened. Had Aaron come to save him? How would he have known? How would he have gotten there that quickly?

  But no sooner had those thoughts entered his mind, before they were quickly dashed away as a cow-skulled hellion with purple gleaming specks for eyes looked at him. Taurus's form was made up of a single cow-skull with a dozen bone-spines writhing beneath it, much like the angler's tentacles around them.

  "Taurus has arrived," came the raking voice of the cow-skulled hellion. It was the same one that had inadvertently helped him achieve tier three by trying to kill him back in a cave in the hellions expansion.

  The resurgent leader of The Pale Ones clan rose from the debris, as if having the power to hover. Without further words, it rushed toward Riley.

  Riley
was too shocked from Taurus's arrival to even realize that Taurus was coming toward him.

  The bone-tendriled hellion flew over him. Riley turned to watch as Taurus's spike-tipped tendrils lashed out in a flurry of sharp blows. Its almost fang-like tendril tips cut deep gouges into the closest anglers. The mass of creatures shifted and writhed. Some withdrew, while others pushed in closer from all around.

  Taurus swiftly decimated three of the anglers.

  Riley pulled himself up and threw his explosive gems at the anglers, one at a time. The ground shook with each detonation. Luckily, despite the heat he could feel, there was enough distance between him and the explosions so that he wouldn't take any damage.

  Scaled tentacles lapped against his shoulders and wrapped under his arms. He looked up in time to see a maw of jagged teeth.

  A bone tendril stabbed through it, going through the opening of its mouth and then out the other side. The creature was flung away as Taurus's spikes tore into it, before moving on to the next closest threat.

  Something pierced his back, causing a tiny bit of damage and stinging slightly. He winced from it and reached back to feel what had hit him. Even as he felt around for the cause of the mild pain, he could feel something happening to his body.

  His skin shimmered, but he realized it wasn't quite his skin, but the space above his skin and clothes. Pale white bone armor materialized over his body and created curved sections to allow his joints to continue to move. In seconds, his body was covered and a helmet, or skull, was formed over his head. There was plenty of room to see out of it, unlike what a metal helmet might grant.

  "So that's what that's like," Riley murmured. He didn't waste any time and rushed for the nearest angler, since his body was now well-protected and damage-boosted. He cut into it with the amber blade formed from his arm. He was becoming quite fond of Amber's powers, even if they weren't as strong as what Amber Impaler could do himself.

  One after another, the anglers were decimated by the two of them. When the anglers were down to only five, they started to flee, but with Riley hooking them with an amber harpoon and Taurus leaping after them like some sort of air-squid, they were able to catch them before they got very far.

  Riley stabbed one of the last anglers as Taurus slammed another into the debris of the destroyed building, killing it with the impact. The creatures died simultaneously, leaving Riley and Taurus in the rubble.

  Riley's energy was getting a little low again. Using Amber's power slowly drained it over time in small increments, but it was more damage-efficient than Gem's ability.

  "Were there any more?" came Taurus's hellion-centric voice.

  "That was it," Riley sighed, glad that the worst was now over.

  "Twenty-five hand things bombarded the facility. Or were there thirty?" Riley tried to remember. "Then there were about thirty of those angler things we just killed."

  Taurus surveyed the area. "The outpost looks to be in pretty bad shape," he commented.

  "Yeah, thanks for noticing. Uh…system, go over our losses for Taurus here."

  "In the past twenty minutes, the base has lost all four machine-gun emplacements, three mortars, twenty-two troopers, and one surveillance drone, and sustained damage to the solar array and damage to all structures, with the destruction of one storage facility."

  "But I'm still here," Riley said with a smirk.

  "Thanks to me," said Taurus, who set his sights back on Riley. "So that was Golem?" he asked.

  "Yeah, you're one of the few other people who has actually seen it so far, besides me. So at least now you can tell everyone I'm not crazy and the threat is real."

  "According to Chrono, Sage believes the threat is very real, but obviously, the rest of us were skeptical."

  "Oh yeah?" Riley asked as he crossed his arms. "Not so skeptical now, are you?" he asked, gesturing to the base. "I was about to head back after I transferred resources to HQ, but something was blocking the teleporter."

  "I arrived at HQ a little after you left. Chrono mentioned what you were up to, and that you'd be back any minute. But the minutes kept ticking away and he wondered what was taking so long. When we couldn't make a teleport connection, we figured something might be wrong, or that you were stuck here."

  "So, you…arrived?" Riley asked, glancing over to the small crater Taurus had left.

  "Yes. I used my long-range strike ability to reach here."

  "I remember Paladin having something like that, but his happened with lightning, I think? How does that work? Is it an item or an ability? Can you go anywhere you want?"

  An inhuman chuckle came from the cow skull. "Now now, just because we're in the same alliance doesn't mean I owe you all my secrets. After all, you wouldn't be willing to share with me the breakdown of energy requirements of the powers you take, right? Because that's something I'm rather curious about."

  "Alright, alright, you got me there." Riley sighed. "My bad. So…ok, you were able to come to my rescue. Thank you, by the way. I was a couple seconds away from blowing myself up just so Golem couldn't get me."

  "Hmm, a respectable decision," said Taurus. "Apparently Golem can acquire our powers if it kills us, correct?"

  "Yeah, that's the theory at the moment. At least, if it absorbs us with one of its creatures that can digest us. I think if it kills us outright with damage, then it doesn't get our powers."

  "Interesting," Taurus murmured. "And this Golem thing just attacked you out of nowhere?"

  "Did Chrono fill you in on why I was out here?" Riley asked.

  "Kind of," Taurus replied.

  "Well, I found an aerial combat unit schematic. But while I was here, I decided to test my theory that Golem might be in the sky and not the ground or some tunnels. So I went…fishing. I threw some explosive gems in the sky, then sent the aerial drone to scout. I don't know if my first detonation lured them in, or if they were already waiting up there. But there were a bunch up there and after a short while, they attacked. But I didn't see where the hands came from. It was very strange, since the indicators I saw seemed to be the anglers. I don't know if the anglers had the hands inside them…or what. It's all very confusing and I don't have any solid answers. My best guess is that either Golem is positioned around numerous bases already, or it's hunting me, or other players specifically, to gain our powers."

  "System, show me an image of these hands," said Taurus, as he floated in closer to Riley and leaned his head down to the band on his wrist. The band created numerous images of the hand creatures. One where it was in the falling stage, another where it was leaping, and another where it was crawling along the ground. "Interesting," Taurus murmured. He leaned back and then tilted his head to look into the sky. "My stealth vision isn't all that great. I imagine yours is only slightly better with those goggles, right?"

  "Yeah," Riley commented. "I have no way of knowing if there are even more of them up there just outside the sensor range."

  "If they wanted you badly enough to send as many things as you said, then I'm sure they threw everything they had in the area at you. Why hold anything back?" Taurus mused.

  "You're probably right," said Riley. "But as it stands, this base is severely compromised and if I hadn't been here, we would've lost it. The defenses it had weren't nearly enough."

  "According to Chrono, we desperately need the resources this outpost offers. We can't go losing any outposts at this stage. We're spread thin and with Golem, I feel it's going to get worse."

  "I certainly don't doubt it," said Riley. "But what are we going to do?"

  "System, is there enough poryte to transport two occupants to Crimson HQ?" Taurus asked.

  The system chimed up. "Yes."

  It made sense that the base's system would respond to Taurus as well as it did him, because Taurus was an officer in the alliance, and the base was set to alliance control. Riley and Laura were both officers as well, but Riley was actually lower status than Laura since he wasn't a guild leader. But he was higher status than the r
est of The Bunker Brawlers, which made him a prime candidate to go out and claim outposts.

  "Are you able to make a teleport connection to Crimson HQ?" Taurus asked.

  "Yes," said the system.

  "What the hell?" Riley asked with furrowed brow. "System, what happened to the interference from earlier?"

  "The interference from earlier has alleviated and is no longer preventing transport."

  "When did it stop?" Riley asked.

  "Unknown. I was not advised to continually check the status of such a connection."

  "Might've had something to do with the attack," said Taurus. "Perhaps there's still some invisible thing out there that's preventing teleportation. That, or…hmm, could just be another bastion out there that's causing the interference at different times. But it's weird that it comes and goes. I'd lean more toward it being because of Golem."

  "That's what I was thinking," said Riley. "But we're short on ways of finding out what's out there. We need aerial units and better surveillance on these wild regions."

  "The open areas outside the cities are pretty vast," said Taurus. "We're just one alliance. A powerful one, but one that isn't able to deal with all the tasks ahead of it."

  "Sounds like we need to gain some serious ground," said Riley.

  "I'm sure Sage is already ahead of us in that line of thinking," said Taurus. "But for now…we need to re-establish this outpost."

  "Well, I just sent everything off to HQ. We've got nothing here. Chrono's going to have to transfer some things back if we're going to be able to build anything."

  "Hmm," Taurus murmured. "You've been on most of the day, haven't you? How about you head off for the night. I'll handle the outpost. I'm going to be on for a while, I'll appropriate its resources for defense. If something bad happens, I have a way of escaping without a teleport."

  "Really wish those one-use teleporter stones hadn't gotten so expensive," Riley sighed. "They were bad before, but now it's even worse, since some of those guilds have a stranglehold on the required materials."