Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“That’s enough, time to run!” Ceselee shouted as she grabbed Ben to keep him from being left behind and got everyone to start sprinting. Thera’s efforts had managed to cull the number by ten. They couldn’t be certain they were dead given just how tough they were known to be, but even if they weren’t they were out of commission for the time being and could be dealt with later. The issue now was how successful they’d been at gaining the remaining beast’s attention. Their eyes were firmly locked on them as they broke through the water onto land, giving Ben his first good look at the monsters.

Dragon was the only way to describe them. The smallest of them was as large as a two-story house, with the four adults making their way out of the water behind them feeling like small mountains to look at. He knew that was just the fear, but when coming face to face with a creature that overwhelmingly big, fear was persuasive. Though lacking wings, their powerful limbs looked ready to tear into the earth as their thick, dark scales kept them safe from damage. Not that anyone was trying to attack at this point. The goal had become putting as much distance between them and the town as they could to give those living there more time to evacuate and it was clear the adventurers were putting their all into that goal. The size difference alone made it so each step from one of the beasts shook the earth and made every bit of distance they fought to get meaningless as they easily caught up.

Unlike the others whose focus was entirely on speed, Ben got to sit back and watch the entire thing from the comfort of Ceselee’s shoulder, letting him see just how soon they’d be upon them. As the nearest ones opened their mouths, his first thought had been they were going to lunge and try to snap up those they could, until he remembered the detail that had stood out most to him in the briefing.

Oh son of a bitch.

“FIRE INCOMING!” he screamed, giving everyone seconds to throw themselves out of the way as hell rained down around them. Even without being hit the heat was blistering and just breathing the air itself burned. Thanks to the warning no one died, but half ended up injured, being too close to the flames they spewed, making it clear to all they could run no longer.

Seeing this Ceselee took charge, shouting out orders for all to hear. “EVERYONE TO YOUR GROUPS! IT’S TIME TO FIGHT, DON’T LET ANY RETURN TO TOWN!”

She put him down as everyone rushed together, letting him and Thera be greeted with Uzi’s laugh. “Man, this really didn’t turn out well, did it?”

“Gotta deal with what we’re given,” Zite said, trying to sound confident. “Uzi, Nobu, go help the other front line fighters with the large one to the left, there’s not enough people covering it. The rest of us will do our best to support you from here.”

The two gave a nod before running off, weapons in hand and ready to fight as they went in swinging, though it was hard to be sure if they were anything more than an annoyance to the beasts.

Eg did marginally better, firing arrows to the creature’s eyes, but few hit its mark as it flailed about, trying to attack those at its feet as many were flung away, only to be healed as Zite and the other light and life mages directed their magic to them. With so much distance between them, it was less effective than it would be if they’d been closer, but it was made up for by the volume of healers as the other groups nearby helped as well.

That left Thera to face a different problem while fighting them. Of everyone, she was most equipped to deal damage to the monsters thanks to the sheer volume of mana she possessed, but throwing boulders carried dangers for those around her. Even if she hit the creature it could fall and crush those fighting at its feet, meaning she had to focus more on her control than exerting power as she pulled a boulder from the earth, and instead of throwing it, imparting as much force to the act as she could, she needed to repeatedly bash it as the leviathan tried to fight it off, never letting the stone leave her magical grasp as she pushed the limits of her control.

Each time stone hit scale the leviathan shook and Thera had to struggle not to let it slip from her hold, lest those chipping away below it suffered for it, but it was starting to take its toll on her. She was pushing the limits of her abilities and felt sweat form on her brow as she questioned just what she could do. Things were so much worse than what they’d expected upon taking the quest that she wouldn’t ignore the options available to her no matter how much she might not like them, but both her charm and dark magic were all but certain to take in those around them as well, and she couldn’t depend on attacking with her life magic either. Considering its massive size it was possible attempting such a thing would have the normal healing effect one would expect of the spell instead of being any help.

It was as she was searching within herself, trying to find anything more she could do that it opened its mouth as the smaller ones had before, and they all knew what was coming. Cries to fall back came from all of the group leaders, for the adventurers to throw themselves away from the coming blaze, but they were too close. Some would escape, but many would be helpless, cooked alive and dead before they could scream.

It was as they watched it take a deep breath, seconds before fire and death would explode from its mouth that she acted, with all of the power she could squeeze out of herself, throwing the boulder into its gaping jaws, shattering its teeth and in their first true bit of luck getting stuck there, not going so far as to get caught in its throat and suffocating the beast, but not being able to remove it either as it violently shook its head, keeping any but the smallest of fires from leaking out.

A cheer went up, but the event only enraged it all the more as it swiped at those on the ground, flinging them through the air to land with violent thuds, bodies bruised and broken from the assault before they got back up to rush back into the thick of it.

Minutes felt like hours as the battle waged on, Ben standing to the side, all but useless as he watched. Even if he wanted to do as he was suggested and help pull away the injured, he had a better than not chance of just getting in the way of the healers as they did their work. There simply weren’t enough people around to spare anyone from the front line, healers had no choice but to do their best to keep them in fighting shape. Worse, when he looked around at the others it was clear that of all groups focusing on their own leviathans, they were having the best luck, at least compared to the others. Even though they were going against one of the largest he could see damage building up, but as he cast his gaze to those around him, more often than not what he saw was people collapsed on the ground with nothing else to give. It was a losing battle, and if they didn’t do something soon then it would be the end for them.

As he stared on, knowing just how hopeless it was a single idea came to him. One he hated and knew that Thera would too, but with each passing moment putting them in a worse position he had to try.

As chaos spread around them he didn’t have time to try and explain, so instead he took her hand and connected to her, keeping hidden mind up around all but one he possessed to let him express just what he wanted to do, leaving her to pull back in horror when he was done.

“One of these days we really need to have a serious talk about how badly you seem to want to die.”

“I wouldn’t be suggesting it looked like we had a chance of winning. Now can you do it?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried to use my magic that way before. If you’re right I’m pretty sure I could kill this one instead.”

“Yeah, but that leaves the others. Come on, give me a little trust here.”

She didn’t want to give in, but it was obvious things were far more dangerous than any of the guilds had expected, the lack of manpower simply couldn’t handle the overwhelming monster presence surrounding them, so rather than try to argue any more she did as he asked and pulled even more stone from the earth and bringing it to the leviathan.

With the greater amount of mass came a loss of speed and control, but since she wasn’t trying to attack it wasn’t an issue. Instead, she brought it to the thick neck of the beast and tried to use her magic to alter the physical properties of the rock itself, forcing it to flow like a liquid as she fashioned it around its neck while the leviathan struggled and fought to avoid it with all of its might, not knowing what was happening but understanding it was the fault of the same creatures attacking it.

Thera kept pushing, doing her best to keep it from getting away as the rest kept up the attack, until in a moment of vulnerability she succeeded, canceling her magic and leaving a thick stone collar in place around its neck.

He gave a small cheer as the people fighting with them didn’t have time to question what the point of it was. Zite looked to them both briefly for an explanation as he cast his healing spells on the others around them but before any words could leave his mouth, Ben rushed over, grabbing both him and Eg as he gave Thera a shout.

“Alright now!”

“Now what?” The skeletal slime question, with Eg looking just as confused when the earth under them began shaking and rising into the air, Ben casting them a mad grin as he did.

“Sorry to drag you into this but we have an idea to end things now, just gonna need your guy’s help. Hope you’re both good at hanging on to things.”

With no more explanation than that they were carried through the air towards the beast until they were right behind its neck as it focused on fighting off the others around. Zite and Eg looked at their temporary teammate, wanting to know just why they’d been brought so close to the beast, but the next words that came out of his mouth were nothing but insanity.

“Jump and hang on tight!” He yelled as he did just that, throwing himself from the stone platform Thera controlled to hang on to the thick stone caller adorning the leviathan’s neck.

Neither of the two wanted to follow suit. Just because they were adventurers didn’t mean they were suicidal, but it was obvious to see that with the way things were going, they wouldn’t be winning this without a gamble, and if the boy thought he had an option that made him push so far then they’d trust it and followed him, throwing themselves from the relative safety of the platform to hang from the collar as well, holding on for dear life as the beast tried to shake them off while Ben got to work.

As one of his minds was dedicated to nothing but hanging on, the rest were absorbed in connecting to his magic rings, using them to build his enchantments as he did. As things stood they might be able to beat a few of the leviathan, but it would only get worse for them the longer it stretched on given their size and power, and as far as he was concerned, the perfect solution to that was to have something just as big and powerful on their size as well.

With that in mind, he made the base of his enchantment out of dark magic, while blending in what he needed from both his other rings and what existed within his status to make something he was getting more and more experience with, much to his god’s displeasure. He was creating an enchantment loaded with mental compulsions.

The compulsion was simple, attack its own kind, but to that he tied in aspects of rage and hate, hunger and a desire to inflict violence, all in the hope of making it cause as much harm as possible to the leviathan around it.

He couldn’t know how long he hung there trying to set them up. His work was sloppier than he’d like for the sake of speed and his fingers ached from the effort of holding on, but after what felt like an eternity he finished.

Given the situation he barely acknowledged the level up, instead he focused on passing the news to the others. “I’ve built an enchantment, flood it with your mana then let’s get the hell out of here!”

The only reason he grabbed them was that he didn’t trust there was any way he alone would have enough to provide the power it would need. With a creature of such a size, the mana cost to manipulate its mind had to be huge, no matter how dumb it might be, which meant grabbing the extra hands he could. Giving it all he had, he poured in all of the mana he was able to spare, only stopping when he feared he was close to passing out and saw the others do the same.

They looked at him with hope and expectations but all he could do was wait and see, an act that didn’t take long as after a few more moments the beast’s eyes strayed from the insignificant attacks on the people around it, instead shifting to its own kind. From there the change was obvious as it took its first step towards the closest one, a juvenile of the species, and made it clear that it was time for the three of them to get off and fast. It was only as he stared at the ground that he realised that might be easier said than done.

Oh boy, this sure does look pretty far from the ground from where I’m standing, He thought with more mirth than he’d have expected as he cast a look to the other two and released his grip from the collar, feeling himself slide along the beast’s body before picking up speed, unable to get a grip on its smooth scales and freefalling multiple stories as he did.

Guess this is it for me. He thought, resigned to the fate of hitting the ground in a few seconds. Maybe I’ll be lucky and Thera will be able to put my pieces back together if I survive the landing. You’d think defense enhancement would help with that, right?

His acceptance of the situation ended up short-lived however, as one of the mages from the other group fighting with them seemed to be of the air affinity, casting a spell to help slow the descent of the three of them to a much safer speed. He and the others still crashed into the ground, and violently at that, but the worst he experienced was the air being knocked out of him and he was on his feet again in seconds, ready to run if need be.

Before he could do anything else though Zite grabbed his arm, demanding an explanation as they went to regroup with the others who were staring on, trying to understand what was happening.

“Alright, as horrifying as that was, what was the point and where’s it going now?”

“The short of it is that I just did some minor mind control and now it’s hopefully going to attack the other leviathans instead of us. For now gather the others, we shouldn’t weaken it anymore if it’s going to be acting on our side and we can all move to focusing our attacks on some of the other ones instead.”

He wasn’t sure what the look he was getting from both Zite and Eg meant, but they both did as he asked, spreading the word to not just those they were fighting with, but also to those handling the far smaller monster it decided to aim for first as they all took a moment to watch in awe as the attack began before focusing on where they were all needed most for the time being.

“Please tell me you’re not going to do that a second time,” Thera all but begged as she ran up beside him, placing her hands on him as she applied her life magic. “I think you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“Thera, if I can help it I’m never going near a creature this size again. After this, I want a vacation from hunting for like a month.”

“Ha, yeah that sounds pretty good right about now actually,” She couldn’t help but feel relief flood her as the battle waged on. Once Ben was left in a better state she followed his advice and removed the stone trapped in the controlled creature’s jaws to give it a greater means to attack before going to help the others fight against the remaining ones, leaving Ben to focus on the clash of titans taking place so close by.

He knew that when it went against the three larger ones the adventurers would need to provide it aid to take it down, but things had just shifted heavily in their favour, all the more so as he saw the larger beast strike a powerful blow against the smaller one’s neck, tearing through scales as blood gushed out, leaving it to collapse to the ground and move on to its next target a few moments later.

He felt his eyes glow at the implications of the notification in his mind. He knew that by having his job pool combined with the others in their temporary party that he got experience for hunting monsters, and given just how powerful they were he didn’t doubt it was a massive amount. If that was the case and they all got experience when the one leviathan killed the other then it told him two very important things.

The first was that the ten that Thera had successfully suppressed before they came to land were almost certainly not dead. He was sure that doing so would have given him and the others the experience he needed to finish their jobs before anything else happened. Beyond that though, it told him that if he played things right, sharing his personal job crystal with the others to use and forming a party again and again, they all might be able to finish off multiple jobs by the time the battle ended.

He was almost licking his lips in excitement at the prospect if it worked. Despite the devastation around them, if he could move things to his benefit from the situation then he happily would, and with no other way he could contribute to the ongoing battle he reached into his pocket, touched his personal job crystal and let the options fill his mind.

AVAILABLE JOBS

So many options available, but just to be safe let’s take the one I was planning on taking anyway since there’s nothing new.

Silently, he selected the fractured mind user job, feeling certain that he’d be able to finish it easily enough if things didn’t work out as he’d hoped as notifications exploded in his head.

Name: Ben Heph

Race: Human

Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner

Jobs: Fractured mind user (lv 4)

Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker, Magic weapon maker, High enchanter

Attributes:

Affinities:

Resistances:

Blessed skills:

Passive skills:

Active skills:

Blessings:

Trials:

As he made his selection and the notifications filled his head, his thoughts exploded in pain. He didn’t understand what was happening, but it felt as though his various minds were being ripped apart, and before he could yell out he felt his consciousness fade as the world grew dark.