Cultivating Talents [LitRPG Mana-cultivation]

"All right then." Hector slapped both thighs and pushed himself to his feet. "Let's go deal with that, Indigo. Here's the plan—"

He walked them through it step by step. They'd isolate the larger Indigo from the smaller ones after all; they couldn't afford distractions. Lincoln would provide cover using the Mud Wall talent. Hector and Jodie would go for the kill.

Minutes later, their feet echoed against stone as they navigated the narrow passage toward the cave's exit. Jodie's flame wall from her [Flame Bastion] Talent flickered ahead, visibly weakening.

"Seems we're running out of time anyway," Hector muttered, shooting Jodie a sidelong glance.

"Yeah, it's strange." She slipped a hand into her pocket and shook her head. "I thought when the talent died completely, I'd know. Would've given us a warning before we got swamped."

"Not swamped," Jodie replied, though her lips trembled slightly. "But definitely... in a tight situation."

The cave mouth approached. Cooling afternoon air slammed into Hector like a physical thing, and he gasped involuntarily. The smell of lilies wafted up his nose, sweet and cloying. He lamented that such a pleasant scent might be the last thing they experienced before dying. He would have preferred something that didn't remind him of his sister.

Though he had zero plans of dying.

His sister was out there somewhere, no doubt getting herself into worse trouble than this.

"Jodie," he said as they stepped outside.

Her hand shot up immediately.

By the tree—the same one it had chosen before they entered the cave—the large Indigo stirred, rising onto all six limbs with predatory grace. A firewall erupted around them, a perfect circle encompassing the three humans and one massive creature.

It blocked off the smaller Indigos that had retreated into the tree's branches. The wall's flames licked skyward, and the smaller creatures that considered jumping through backed away, screeching and hissing their displeasure.

The larger Indigo seemed unbothered.

As if flames meant nothing to it whatsoever.

It beat its oddly sized wings—those impossible wings that shouldn't support its weight. Its front legs stepped forward with spider-like precision, each movement pressing deep into the grass, leaving impressions that would probably last for days.

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Well, the arena's set." Hector glanced at Lincoln. "We just have to make sure not to die."

Lincoln gave him a nervous look—that familiar expression of barely controlled panic. Hopefully, this wasn't him breaking already, not after their conversation, but Hector believed in his friend. He had to believe in him.

The large Indigo, as if deciding it had waited long enough, rushed forward.

Lincoln's grip on his spear tightened until his knuckles went white. He then levelled it toward the charging beast, the tip wavering slightly.

"Focus on the Mud Wall, Lincoln," Hector reminded him. That task was all he needed to think about.

Purple static crackled up Hector's arms, condensing in his palms, solidifying into twin daggers that hummed with crackling energy. He launched forward with a roar that tore from somewhere deep in his chest. Primal. Desperate.

Jodie charged at his side, her sword already levelled.

The Indigo rushed to meet them.

Metal thunked against flesh. The creature's limb, too fast, whipped toward Hector's guard before he could properly set his stance. Impact. The force rattled through his crossed daggers, sending him staggering backwards. At the same time, his skin erupted in that familiar shimmer, a metal carapace emerging across his flesh like liquid armour hardening in real-time.

He skidded. Stopped.

Charged right back in.

Jodie was already moving, somersaulting over a limb that could've taken her head clean off. She danced—no, that wasn't quite right. Dancing implied grace, beauty. This? This was survival wrapped in motion, her boots finding purchase on dirt and grass as she dodged, skipped, and twisted away from strikes that kept coming. Relentless. The beast pursued her with single-minded hunger.

Hector spotted his opening. The creature's back, exposed for just a heartbeat. He rushed in, daggers raised high, already imagining the bite of steel into whatever passed for this monster's spine.

The back leg caught him completely off-guard.

He jerked sideways on instinct, no skill at all, and blocked with one blade. He somehow smacked himself with the other as another limb hammered in from his flank, sending him flying. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

"Hector, focus!" Jodie's shout cut through the chaos, though her eyes kept that eerie iridescent white glow they always got when she activated Battle Intent.

She slipped under another attack and slashed at the creature's leg. Her sword thunked against flesh in a way that sounded wrong; too dense, almost metallic. The blade wedged. Stuck. Jodie screamed as frustration and effort combined, and she wrenched it free, stumbling clear just before another limb lashed out.

This was going poorly, to say the least.

Then Jodie stumbled.

Hector's heart lurched, his eyes going wide as he raced to intercept the blow he knew was coming. But then a wall of mud erupted before he'd covered half the distance, blocking the creature's strike. The wall shuddered under the impact, dirt flaking off in small avalanches that hit the ground with soft plumes of dust.

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Hector shot a glance toward Lincoln—kneeling there with one hand pressed flat against the earth, chest heaving, eyes filled with concentration. Their eyes met. Both nodded.

Some things didn't need words.

Hector rushed back in, slashing at the large Indigo. The creature, having lost track of Jodie behind that mud barrier, whirled on him. Both front limbs lunged. He ducked right, then left, stepped under another wayward strike and slashed at exposed flesh. His twin blades carved thin layers away, chunks that didn't seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things.

They needed to stop going for the legs.

He swivelled, attacked the leg again—the creature raised it to block falling for his feint. Hector sidestepped, shot for its head instead, blade rushing toward the cluster of beady eyes. The creature moved with unnatural ease, legs jerking to the side, dodging as if it could read his intentions before he fully committed to them.

Then it struck.

Pain exploded through Hector's ribs, and he gasped as the impact lifted him clear off the ground. A few feet of airtime before gravity remembered its job and slammed him back down.

Jodie landed beside him an instant later.

"This isn't going too well, is it?" Her voice held a dry edge that meant she was getting a little annoyed or found the fact that they were struggling so much funny. Probably both.

"You think?" Hector replied.

The creature charged again. Another mud wall erupted in front of them, and the beast slammed into it with a heavy thud that Hector felt in his bones. The wall shook, started crumbling immediately as the large Indigo raged behind it. Chunks of dirt tore into the sky, its front legs already smashing holes through Lincoln's defences.

"It's breaking through," Lincoln said, stating the obvious in that way people did when panic started creeping in. "Should I use one of those runes to summon fog?"

"Lincoln, we don't need fog right now!" Hector yelled back, maybe sharper than necessary. But come on. They were already facing this thing down with their sight and losing. Adding blindness to the mix? That'd make everything infinitely worse.

Hector glanced over his shoulder. "I need you to time this well, Lincoln. When you see me going for it, and it reacts, I need you to block it. It's going to require some tight control from you."

He paused, met Lincoln's eyes fully. "But I believe you can do it."

Lincoln's eyes went wide. He shot a glance toward Jodie, who just nodded at him like this was perfectly reasonable.

"You sure it's going to work?" Jodie turned back to Hector, scepticism etched across her features. "I'm not exactly loving this thing's reaction speed."

Hector nodded. "Yeah. It's a little faster than I'd like."

The wall exploded into chunks in front of them, conversation over. Hector and Jodie split apart, both arcing toward the creature's back. It swivelled, lunged for Jodie. She sidestepped with a beautiful motion, and Hector immediately went for its abdomen.

The thing swivelled toward him in an instant.

Its limb lashed out. The mud wall erupted right where Hector needed it, blocking the blow and sending him staggering sideways. A screech tore through the air behind the barrier, one that sounded like it was born of genuine pain rather than rage.

Hector circled the wall to find Jodie slashing at the creature, one of its large front mandibles cracked, green ichor leaking from the wound.

"Jodie!" Hector skidded under a limb, slashed toward the creature. It stepped away, unnaturally fluid. Jodie staggered back.

Hector skidded across the dirt, got to his feet, and raced to her side.

"Alright, so you managed to hurt it."

"Yeah. Those mandibles aren't as tough as they look." Jodie's breathing came harder now.

The indigo clacked its jaws, those tiny beady eyes watching them with what Hector could've sworn was wariness, focusing mainly on Jodie. Smart creature. Knew who'd actually wounded it.

"I'm going to give you another opportunity." Hector's mind was already racing through possibilities, tactics. "I think if you can get behind it, you can do some actual damage."

"You think? Just think?" Her tone held doubt.

"It keeps protecting its back. Desperately, I might add." Hector nodded. "I think that's its weak spot."

"You sure it couldn't just be paranoid?"

Hector shook his head as a light wind blew through his hair; an oddly peaceful moment in the midst of violence. "It's not that."

The creature let out a shriek, and then it charged toward them. Hector and Jodie split up again, but this time Hector rushed in actively, drawing its attention, slashing with his swords at the indigo's spider-like form with reckless abandon. The creature lunged at him as he nicked one of its front legs.

Hector stepped to the side, willing his [Force Cry] to life.

Energy gathered in his throat, ballooning, pulsing, before exploding free in a shout that rocked the air itself. Sound waves slammed into the indigo, lifting it briefly before dropping it back down. Its beady eyes looked dazed in a way that didn't quite seem normal—sure, they were as black as ever, but they seemed unfocused. Distant.

Jodie reached its back a second later.

The creature didn't whip around. A smile split Hector's lips as she plunged her sword in. It sank into flesh with a wet squelch and the grating screech of metal on metal. Jodie's eyes went wide as the sword stopped halfway, and the creature shook free from its daze, spinning on her with a screeching roar.

One front limb went for her head.

A wall of mud erupted. The creature's claws punched straight through it anyway, sending Jodie stumbling backwards. She landed, rolled, and skidded to the side. Her eyes met Hector's. She raised an arm.

Her plan synced up in his mind instantly, clear as day. Heat bloomed at his back, the magma pool behind him bubbling and writhing as flames gathered above it. Jodie's [Blazing Arsenal].

Hector raced forward, charging toward the creature still pursuing Jodie. His lungs burned. Couldn't get too close too quickly, or it would whirl on him, and he'd miss his chance.

Time seemed to slow—that strange clarity where seconds stretched, and every detail burned into memory. Each step registered: grass and dirt crunching beneath his sandals, the creature's limbs moving, Jodie's blade still wedged in its back.

Then it hit.

A wave of heat slammed into the ground behind him. The explosion's force took him off his feet, but he leaned into that momentum, used it, and angled himself heel-first toward the sword still stuck in the large Indigo's abdomen.

And then he connected.

Heel cracked down onto metal. His force carried through, slamming into it like a hammer driving a nail. The blade punched through the creature's abdomen, his heel right behind it, smashing through metal-like carapace with a satisfying crack and wet squelch.

The creature's forehead exploded a moment later as force carried through, bits of flesh clinging to chunks of exoskeleton splattering onto the ground. Gurgling green blood dripped onto the soil and dirt below as the creature slumped down.

Hector's foot was still wedged in its back.

His twin swords vanished as he gripped its abdomen tightly, wrenched his heel out with a cracking crunch, followed by a wet slump. He rested his foot on the creature's back and came to stand on it.

He glanced down at the body beneath him.

Dead. Properly dead.

"I can't believe that worked." Jodie approached with shaky steps, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Her eyes flickered between the creature and Hector standing atop it. "It actually worked."

Hector nodded. Movement caught his eye in the treeline—the small indigos that had witnessed the entire fight began scurrying away. Cracks and crunches of bushes signalling their retreat, tiny wings beating, adding to the distant screen of noise that slowly faded.

They'd won. For now.