Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 138: Air

Jumo saw the question on Edge’s face and explained what was happening. “The gas won’t kill them, but it burns their soft tissue. They will instinctively fall back instead of forcing their way through, since they know it will disperse soon.”

“What’s the point?” he asked. “Are we just buying time?” In response to his question, Jumo pointed. Edge realized that the gas wasn’t climbing all the way up to the crew’s location. That the swirling yellow cloud was being held back by an invisible forcefield.

“It’s Trapper’s manipulate air skill.” Jumo moved to spear a nearby monster. “Over the last few minutes, she’s been setting up a filter to keep the chemicals from getting us too.”

Edge still wasn’t sure what the hunters’ plan was. However, he was thrilled not to be buried in a wave of monsters, regardless of the details. He worked with Jumo and Blue, taking out a handful of blightlings that had pressed forward instead of darting back. Thanks to the precision with which the team had unleashed the gas, the numbers were manageable for now.

That was when he saw a second bubble of clear air on the far side of the acid field. A space where most of the monsters were gathering while they waited for the fumes to dissipate. His confusion only grew when he grasped that instead of forcing the crabs further down the hill, Trapper had provided them with a place to rest.

Inside the air dome, scores of blightlings were crawling over one another, desperate to stay inside the barrier and out of the poison gas. When Edge looked over at Trapper, she was busy shoving the rest of the mana-seed into her mouth—keeping her reactor going while sustaining the twin air filters.

“Why is she protecting the monsters too?”

Jumo was in the middle of fighting off a stage-zero crab, so Violet answered his question. “She’s controlling their location. That’s the whole reason for this setup to begin with. Trapper is an amazing woman. Her mind is sharp enough to hold complex visualizations. She’s good enough to affect two separate areas at once, each with its own parameters. It’s natural to be puzzled, given what you’ve seen. But she can do far more with manipulate air than just filter out the gas. She can alter the oxygen content within the domes too.”

“Is she removing the oxygen from the area, so they suffocate?”

“No, she can’t create a vacuum, and it would take too long even if she could. Instead, Trapper is increasing the oxygen content, while the trap she set finishes priming. Now would be a good time to cover your ears.”

Edge wasn’t sure what was happening, but he took Violet’s advice and covered his ears with his hands. Everything became clear five seconds later, when Sasha drew back a flaming arrow and sent it streaking toward the concentrated mass of monsters.

The instant that the flame imbued missile entered the oxygen-rich dome, the world erupted into searing conflagration. First the air caught, then something that had been spread out along the ground started to burn, transforming the flames into an incandescent pillar that stretched a hundred feet above his head.

The flash was so bright that he had to shield his eyes. He had the sense that the searing air was being directed around the perimeter of the dome shielding the party, protecting them from the heat. When Edge lowered his hand, the place where the crabs had been standing was burning bright.

At that point, Trapper turned to them and said, “I’m out of mana, and I can’t hold our barrier any longer. Get behind cover, now!” With that, the air dome collapsed. The gas had been dispersed by the fire, but the superheated air was another matter. It was so hot that the crew had to retreat behind the wagon and douse themselves with water, holding their breath to keep the blaze from scorching their lungs.

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When the fire burned itself out a few minutes later, Edge peered out from behind the wagon to take in a scene of utter devastation. Holy shit. Most of the monsters had been consumed by the flames, either burned to ash or heated enough that their organs shut down as they cooked inside their shells.

It boggled his mind when he realized that Trapper had just killed over a hundred monsters at once. By now, the heat from the fire had burned away the rest of the acid, revealing scorched stone beneath. She must have been hoping that the padamas would see us up there and attack, which is why she was ready to bring out the big guns.

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It was an incredible move by any accounting, but the fight wasn’t quite over. Two of the stage-two monsters and a dozen of the smaller variants had survived the blast by hardening their bodies and running back into the gas before Sasha’s arrow ignited it.

The big blightlings were wounded. Scorched and seared, but ready to settle the score. Trapper collapsed into Violet’s arms—dazed from burning through an incredible amount of mana and completely draining her reservoir. She did her part. Now it’s time to do ours.

The rest of the team fell into formation as Edge raised his naginata, Jumo set his spear, and Blue lowered her horns. Now that their leader had thinned the monsters’ numbers to a manageable level, it was time for the crew’s brawlers to shine.

***

An exhausting ten minutes later, Edge drove his elemental blade into the big crab’s head, freezing its brain and stealing the life from its eyes. He sank to one knee, totally spent, as the crew sat down and recovered from their close brush with death.

He hadn’t been able to steal another skill. There simply hadn’t been an opening in the press of battle, even if he had been willing to risk the crew catching on.

The hillside was a scene of charnel carnage. Part of it was covered in melted monsters from the acid field, and another big section was littered with charcoaled crabs. Not to mention the blood-soaked ground near the summit where the creatures had been taken apart by the hunters’ weapons.

Though they had managed to survive their toughest battle yet, they had spent all their mana, including the seeds they were holding in reserve. Worse, the butte no longer had any traps to protect them from the padamas.

Since they couldn’t afford to camp here now that they were exposed, the hunters moved the wagon into the grove. They didn’t have any protection against smaller creatures, or any traps that could deal with the colossal beast. But at least the big lizard couldn’t pass through the dense trees without revealing its presence. Its stealth skill wouldn’t stop it from snapping trunks and branches in passing.

They set up a watch rotation and then Trapper, Violet, and Riller passed out. Edge took the first shift. He was bone weary but in good shape overall, thanks to regeneration. He drank his fill from the spring, washed himself off, and then went to check his updates.

As he had hoped, the fight had been enough to give him two more cycles, making today the fastest that he had ever advanced. But that wasn’t the only thing he’d gained from the fight.

For defeating a cored opponent stage 2 or above, you have earned 1 Mortium.

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [10].

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [11].

You have six attribute points awaiting allocation.

Given everything that had happened, he decided to put four points into Generation. His plans hadn’t taken into account battles of this scale, where having enough mana coming in would let him fight for far longer. He might even be able to keep regeneration running indefinitely if he got enough. Plus, more Generation would let him perform extra combos and use expensive skills like double strike more freely.

Edge sat down, enjoying the refreshing tingle of his mana-pores widening. Four points at once was enough to really notice the difference. When he sent his attention into his core, he could feel his reservoir begin to fill, at a rate far faster than before.

He put his last two points into Disruption. He had enough Durability to soak up some hits, but nothing comparable that would protect him from offensive spells and skills that could manipulate the body.

When the potentia was set free from his core, a hush fell over the world. Not a reduction of the noise around him, but a deepening of the silence between the sounds. It made the magicytes flowing across his skin feel smoother, like a sheet of velvet had been wrapped around his arms.

Now armed with some extra skill protection, Edge sat on a rock where he could watch over the sleeping hunters. He replayed the battle in his mind while waiting for his chance to rest, still in awe of the prowess of the crew’s leader. Trapper really is one hell of a hunter.