Illuminaria [LitRPG Fantasy Healer Adventure]

142/57 - Teeth in a Pod

After ensuring the cooldown was complete, Joe prepared to invoke the [Mesmeric Command]. Just as he was about to do so, he felt the wildness surge forward to activate another skill instead.

Joe swung his head around and saw that the chimeric creatures were more clever than he was giving them credit for. A second akhlut was right on top of him as well. If Joe had managed to evade the primary attack, his move would have put him directly into the path of the secondary strike.

The two hunters were now just floating beneath the sea, staring at Joe. As he looked at the pair of black and white brutes, he realized he could sense their emotions. They were projecting a weird mix of ravenous hunger and mischievous delight. They wanted to eat him for sure, but first they wanted to play. Joe was one hundred percent sure he would in no way enjoy what they thought of as play, having seen far too many videos of orcas hurling sea lions around for the fun of it before feasting.

He could feel the monsters reassessing him. They were not quite sure what he was, but he could sense them moving him out of the prey bucket. Before they decided if he was an ally or a threat, Joe felt a more hostile presence in the waters. He looked past the bobbing duo to see the largest of the sea hunters bearing down on him. This big beast had no doubts about him being a threat, if not to their lives, it saw Joe as a rival to its place of dominance.

Joe was certain [Pack Master] wasn't going to cut it with this guy; he'd need his more potent controlling spell, [Mesmeric Command]. Pointing at the oncoming maw of teeth, Joe focused his thoughts into a spear. He would have to do this entirely with his mind and will. Typically, when he used his beguiling spell, he spoke the command, but Joe wasn't about to waste any of his bubbling air supply on even a single command word.

He flared [Crystal Mind] while the wildness did the same with [Pack Master].

'YIELD!' he mentally blasted at the beast bearing down on him. He felt [Mesmeric Command] slam into a wall of towering ego and ferocity. The akhlut slashed its tail through the surf, surging forward toward Joe, but the battle of wills was not yet over. Joe could feel the barrier of primal resolve cracking under his powerful spirit.

The beast loosed an echoing vibration through the water that made Joe's ears ring. It was as if someone had combined the sound of a dolphin with that classic T. rex roar from Jurassic Park, playing one sound on top of the other. He clapped his hands over his ears while the wildness raged at the challenge. Joe felt bubbles escape from his mouth as he involuntarily bared his teeth. He knew the feral spirit inside him desperately wanted to roar back, but that was an air loss he couldn't afford.

Instead, Joe pushed on his collection of wild skills: [Pack Master] primarily, but also [Hunter's Pursuit], [Savage Claws], [Morphic Form], and even [Efferous Endurance], leaving out [Night Eyes] and [Tracker] as they were too passive. He gave all that impetus to the beast within him, and together they smashed through the monster's defenses.

Joe felt the predator's will crumple under the combined mental attack. Wasting no time, Joe swam sideways to let the beast glide past him, not wanting to chance the air or breaking the enchantment by having the semi-stunned creature bang into his chest. He swam around alongside the beast and grabbed hold of the dorsal fin.

'Shore,' Joe ordered mentally. He checked his status window and saw he had only twenty-four minutes on his buff of air magic left. This might be his only chance to reach land in time. Unfortunately, he underestimated just how strong akhluts were. He was nearly left behind as the prime akhlut shot forward, almost pulling itself from his grasp. As it was, his arms felt as though they were almost pulled out of their sockets.

The rest of the pack followed. The creatures angled upward, heading upward to meet the crushing hurricane waves. Joe had his doubts, but he did not want to muddy his commands at this point. If he just had to hang on, then maybe he could survive the stormy surface.

The akhlut rejoiced in the towering waves and screaming winds. Joe could feel their savage joy as they rode the swells up into the sky before diving off into the churning seas below. He did not often use [Steadfast] on his hands, but he had discovered on his shipboard training with Hah'roo it was possible. He had needed all the grip he could get when she was trying to yank him off the rope-ladders. He needed all of it now, too, in order to stay on the back of the beast he rode.

Joe watched the lights of Fort Coral grow quickly before his eyes. Huge lanterns had been affixed to the storm walls around the beach. The beacons dulled every few seconds as the storm surge crashed into the barricades, swamping both the lights and the defenders.

The surges also pushed whole squads of scaly green creatures into the ranks of guilders and guards. These were Shellycoats, the most common threat in Coral Bay. The creatures were aquatic, goblin-like monsters; no more than three or four feet tall, but with inordinately long arms. The raiders had round faces with webbed hands and feet. They also seemed to be covered in tall, pointed barnacles. These shell-like spurs glowed lightly enough to allow the shellycoats to see even in the darkest waters. The clinging crustaceans were also armor and weapons for the humanoids. As well as their taloned fingers, the shellycoats utilized backhanded slaps that delivered slashing attacks with the sharp shells.

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On the whole, each of the creatures did not seem to pose much threat, but the sheer number of shellycoats was overwhelming. Hundreds of the squat terrors were climbing and clawing at those defending the storm wall. The wavering glow from the shells they wore overlapped and undulated to the point that it was almost hypnotic at the distance Joe was at.

A sense of voracious hunger grew among the akhlut pack as they charged toward shore. So much food had gathered at the wall: hundreds of the goblinoids and several dozen of the city guardians, all in easy reach. Normally, the sea wards would keep them from the shoreline, but if the feeble shellycoats could ride the waves over the wards, then surely they could as well.

'This might be a terrible idea,' Joe worried. He might be about to make the problems for Fort Coral much worse. Each of the defenders was worth far more than each of the shellycoat marauders. If the chimeras attacked the guards, then he would be responsible for tipping the tide of the already precarious battle away from the town.

Focusing on the creature in his grasp, Joe tried to work his way into that connection the creatures shared. He could hear them, but he needed all of them to hear him now.

He pictured the shellycoats and projected his thought.

'THESE! Only these!' he ordered through the link the pack shared.

A fierce surge answered him. There were a few stray hints that the beasts felt people were tastier than the sea-raiders, but overall, the akhlut were more than happy to gorge themselves on shellycoats.

Joe looked across the wall to see if there was someplace he should aim the pack for.

He spotted Edror with a pair of heavily-armored guards and the ogrish gardener holding a thirty-foot section of wall by themselves. The old monster-hunter was tearing through the small predators. Everywhere he moved, the monsters fell. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked like Nard was wielding a shellycoat in each hand, battering the invaders with their own brethren. The two soldiers beside the pair of guilders seemed equally as capable.

The middle of the wall was held by the main ranks of the city guard. They seemed hard-pressed but were holding.

On the other side, he saw a bunker of red energy walls being defended by a warrior in shining armor with a small squad of guards. Joe caught a glimpse of a devilish-looking figure inside the crimson fortification. If Vexor had been called from the guildhouse, then things must be going very badly for the beach battle. It looked like his friends were the ones who needed him most.

Joe directed the pack in that direction. He again projected his command, stressing how they were not to attack his allies. He was very clear about how furious he would be if they harmed his friends. He could feel the wild part of his soul enhance that order.

The chimeras understood. He felt them shiver under the domination of his Spirit and the skill. Joe might feel bad about this later, but he was not going to relent or feel guilty now. He usually did not train with such a heavy hand, but this time he was not dealing with domesticated pups. He was bringing wild creatures to a fight. He was not taking a chance that any of them would consider disobeying him.

As the pack rode the surge over the submerged beach, Joe could hear shouts of alarm. Most were in the common tongue, but some had a strange, bubbly guttural timbre to them, sounding like large, angry frogs.

Joe was surprised when it became clear the shellycoats thought the pack would go for the defenders. The green raiders scrunched to the sides, opening a channel to Vexor's magical ramparts. They were completely unprepared when the chimera ignored the opening and scythed through their ranks instead of into the defenders.

"Incoming," Joe shouted to the magical bunker, forgetting he had the last traces of the potion left. A large belch of bubbles popped out of his mouth as he yelled. He gave himself a mental kick before grabbing a deep breath of air and diving off the akhlut's back. His still aquatically configured digits pulled him to the wall, and [Hunter's Pursuit] helped him bound up out of the surf.

"Who are …," the pink-haired knight began before recognition lit up his expression. "Oh, wait. Vex's friend. The healer."

"Yeah," was all Joe managed before the warrior vanished his weapon, grabbed Joe's gambeson, and practically threw him around his plate-mailed body into the forcewall bunker. "They need you," Kerrig shouted, resummoning his sword.

Joe's first sight was Vexor with a glowing stylus, scribbling sigils into his red energy walls.

And then he spotted Kendell trying to hold her stomach together. There was so much blood. Several loops of her intestines were tangled around her fingers. Earcellwen was with her, trying to help her friend. The archer had a red vial in her hand, but she was clearly torn between administering the healing potion and getting all of Kendell's guts where they belonged first.

The wildness in him screamed, and outside in the ocean, the pack howled in a sympathetic, primal rage. As the shrieks of the shellycoats outside grew in terror, Joe dove forward.

Kendell's tear-filled face nearly broke Joe's heart, but for once, his focus was absolute. He knew exactly what he needed to do. He slipped in front of Wen and got to work.

"Kenda," he shouted over the battle and storm. "I'm here. I need you to move your hands. I got this."

She was in shock and didn't seem to understand, forcing Joe to change tactics, using [Purge].

"Hey, Kendell! It's Joe. Can you move your hands carefully for me so I can heal you?"

"Joe?" she uttered in a shaky-sounding voice.

He cast [Deaden Flesh] to ease the pain of the wound and to numb her hands, allowing him to slip them out of the slick, bloody coils. Once that was done, he used his actual hands and his ghostly one to gently ease the organs back to where they belonged.

He found he could alter the shape of his [Casting Claw] almost entirely by accident. He needed to slip one tube of the digestive tract under another section of intestine. As he considered how to do so, the fingers of the force hand automatically elongated and thinned. The magical appendage moved the dislodged flesh perfectly, without stretching the wound any further. Joe suddenly understood that while the spectral digits were always going to be in the shape of a hand, it could be any hand he needed, from the fine fingers of a pianist to a burly bruiser's paw.

Once the organs were all where they belonged, he started applying his heals. The rest of the repairs only took a few more seconds.

"Joe," she breathed. Her eyes cleared and focused on his. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. Your midsection was a mess. It's numb now, but I can remove the numbness if you need me to. If I do, it's going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, but if I don't, moving is going to be awkward. I need to get back out there and see who needs me down the line. Which one? Numb or no numb?"

"Leave it," Kenda replied. "I can clear the debuff in a minute. You should go. Be careful. It's almost impossible to move around out there. Vex made us a bunker, and the guards have Formation magic to help them stay together. You'll get hammered by the typhoon outside this," she stated, weakly waving a hand to indicate the magical scarlet shelter.

"Good point. I need something big and heavy to shield me."

"We don't have anybody in here like that except Kerrig. And if he leaves, we'll lose this end of the beach."

"No worries. I have somebody else in mind." Joe replied with a smirk, letting the wildness in him call out to the akhlut prime.