Striding forward was, now that they'd all seen how simply they could deal with a yellow and its lackeys, a much simpler task. Before, their path was one only taken with the utmost of caution, ensuring that they couldn't be surrounded by an unknown element. Now, there were only two tiers that they hadn't seen or fought, and given that there were no red vine-trees around, they almost certainly didn't need to worry about any of the reds while the oranges might only present a worthy challenge.
Two more yellows with their squads were killed as the party continued following the faint trail that Muti could follow. None of the yellows were ever alone, always with at least three greens and a handful of blues. Given their obvious role as a leader due to their ability to use the strengthening aura, it wasn't a surprise. Alone, it couldn't be even half as dangerous as it was with its group.
"We really need to find a swarm of the bugs that's got more than one yellow," Skandr said as the party moved past their latest fight. "Most auras can't layer over each other, but we don't know if this is one of the exceptions until we actually see it. It'd be pretty bad if we learned that they could group up like that only when we were already overwhelmed."
"All we can do is keep going to learn that," Astrid shrugged, looking at Muti. "Have you seen any more of the tavari?"
"No," she answered. "Though they hunt the shimmerbugs, we've never found one that can reliably hunt even a green, much less those of a higher level. Perhaps our guess that the tavari keep the shimmerbug population under control is incorrect. Maybe they are simply an incidental hunter, not one suited for killing those of higher tiers."
"I guess that wouldn't be too surprising," Astrid agreed, "since they're so focused on a blistering ambush, they would probably struggle with the tougher, more resilient shimmerbugs at higher levels. We've never seen them hunt one of the shimmerbugs, so we don't know if they do, but I would imagine that they only hunt solitary shimmerbugs. At higher levels and tiers, the bugs never go alone, so it would be suicide to try to test themselves against even a green. With a blue, if they can hit before the monster gets its shield up, they should be fine, but a green's recovery combined with their probability of always living with and near others means that a tavari can only hunt when the perfect opportunity presents itself."
"Which should also explain how few of the tavari there are," Skandr said. "If they were making any meaningful dent in the shimmerbug population, there'd have to be a whole lot more of them than we've seen."
The conversation about the only other monster that they'd seen around died off before long, and in its place, the party continued forward. As soon as they moved away from the location of their latest fight, they all habitually fell into silence, since the sounds of battle were significantly louder and carried so much further than a spoken conversation, and if talking would draw attention, they'd already have that attention from the fight. When moving, though, caution prevailed. Kilometers passed behind them, bringing the party further and further until they witnessed an opportunity that largely answered the question about if the aura could overlap.
Two small swarms of shimmerbugs stared at each other, chittering and posturing. Each was led by a single yellow, and their underlings mashed together, scratching and fighting, but never inflicting any real damage. Between the two, there were at least sixty shimmerbugs in total, to Astrid's surprise, th largest swarm they'd ever seen outside of the "high tide" days.
"If they could work together," Benedict said, "then they probably would. It's gotta be something to do with maybe their evolving that they aren't getting along?"
"Who knows," Astrid answered. "For now, though, this looks like it could be a pretty good fight. Is everybody ready?"
Obviously, everybody agreed, and Astrid looked at Muti, who nodded in assent. Astrid smiled, welcoming the opportunity to test out her helmet, as well as one of Muti's lesser-used Skills. She rolled her shoulders a couple times before nodding at Muti, who became shadow and then surrounded Astrid while using Shadow Teachings. She could feel her Alacrity and Power specifically grow, and then, under Muti's direction, she flashed with darker shadows before teleporting out to the back lines of one of the groups of shimmerbugs.
The shadows still surrounded her, and Astrid felt herself smile widely as she pushed fully half of her mana into her helmet. She had never heard of icitanium, the material that made her helmet, but it was not difficult to figure out what it was intended for: the "ice" in the beginning of the word was very literal, and as the mana compressed and coalesced in front of her face, Astrid felt like the irregular dragon Bosses that the party had fought. As the mana roiled in front of her, the shimmerbugs that she'd flanked turned, seeing the threat, and screeched. The contest between the two squads of yellow-commanded shimmerbugs stopped their hostility as Astrid's attack exploded forward.
Crackling ice and wind flew forward from her helmet, the draconic mask blowing refreshingly cool air into her face while attacking everything in front of her with deadly force. While the sweat on Astrid's brown cooled, every shimmerbug within ten meters was crusted over with ice from her attack. None died, but their reactions were slowed as they tried to turn towards her. The blues and below were largely immobilized by her sneak attack, trying to confront her but unable to reach her, while the greens and yellow that were closest to her had no issue throwing themselves at her.
Astrid smiled widely as she activated Body Surge and Unconquerable Aura. The nearest attacks couldn't manage to pierce through her defenses, and, as one green threw itself at her shield, she ducked low and swung her hammer in a massive uppercut. Despite the defensive aura of its charging and shielding Skills, she smashed its head clean off in a single blow, laughing aloud as she gloried in the power of her level and Class.
Two dozen more shimmerbugs rushed her, uncaring of the single death she'd dealt. With the gravity aspect of Spectral Graviton largely useless against these monsters, Astrid infused her hammer with pure, deathly energy and started the slaughter. With Indomitability grounding her, she stepped forward only as much as she needed to continue dealing deadly blows. With how much her Power and Alacrity were compounded by Body Surge now, she had to continue to reacquaint herself with how much things had changed. Now, with the Skill being Steel tier, it gave an even greater boost to her attributes, and, most importantly, to her Fortitude as well. That last boost was the smallest of the three, but it was enough to make sure she wasn't quite so easily hurting herself.
The entirety of the swarm of shimmerbugs rushed her, and the aura from the yellow pushed them to greater strength. Surrounded and attacked by dozens of arms at once, Astrid began to take small wounds through the smallest chinks in her armor. Even so, she was largely untouchable, the bugs she was facing far too weak to be able to get through her defense. A part of her wondered how difficult to damage she would be if, way back in the beginning of Bronze, she had taken Armor Mastery or Tough Skin instead of Steady Load. After all, those would much better complement her armor's defenses now, but she didn't mind, given how much her boosted Alacrity helped her in her everyday life.
Even anchored with Indomitability, Astrid's Alacrity, especially boosted with both Body Surge and the Shadow Teachings from Muti, helped her to twist every attack away from the smallest vulnerabilities in her armor. Surrounded by a dozen bugs, she killed at least one with every swing of her hammer, and she felt dozens of cuts appearing wherever the monsters could manage to make them hit.
They weren't even enough to merit a charge of Physique.
Astrid, in a moment of insanity, lowered her stance and pushed almost all of her remaining mana and stamina into her hammer, the spectral energy there thrashing in an explosion of death as she spent two charges of Physique and brought herself back up to her peak. Then, she abandoned all thoughts of a steady stance.
With Indomitability keeping her from flying too far, Astrid leapt from one side to the next, her hammer screaming through the air. It smashed into enemies repeatedly, the echoing rings of the multiple waves of strikes filling the air as she noticed Felix crashing in from the other side. The other yellow rallied its troops against the frontliner, and then Muti disappeared from Astrid's side. Instead, she danced between the bugs, her blades flickering and cutting through every shield to open them up to Skandr's attacks. In mere moments, the defenses were broken, and Skandr brought out another one of his newer tricks.
A storm started forming overhead, but instead of being pure mana or any of the other storms that Astrid had seen from the Wizard, it was what he jokingly called a "hailstorne." Instead of a hailstorm, a cloud that somehow rained actual rock pattered down from above, the rocks falling with supernatural speed into the densest clump of monsters. The stones, about as big around as a child's fist, screamed from the sky, and Skandr controlled their fall to focus entirely on the greens. Instead of a regular spell, which the bugs and especially their shield Skill naturally resisted, the stones shaped themselves into bladed discs as they fell out of the air, sharp cutting edges slicing through all resistance.
The two yellows seemed to come to a decision and worked together as they threw themselves at Astrid, thinking her the weakest link. All that greeted them was a hidden, maniacal smile on the face of the Immortal Champion.
Before, she hadn't had much of an opportunity to face the yellows alone. Felix had taken the brunt of that, and by the time Astrid had gotten to them, each of the bugs was worn down. Now, the yellows had been in the middle of the press of monsters, so had been largely protected from Astrid's initial assault. She welcomed the first one against her shield, its jaws snapping at the edges of her protective equipment while both scything legs attempted to hamstring her.
For the first time in a while, Astrid flared Fortitude-aligned mana strictly to protect herself as she swung her hammer down onto the juncture of the beetle's jaw and head. The long, spiky mandible was strong enough to cut through Felix's shield, but not hers. His was made to grow back and was therefore less resistant than hers; hers was meant to endure. Her hammer smashed into the joint of the jaw and snapped it clean off. The bug shrieked in response, and Astrid saw that the ichor there stopped dripping surprisingly quickly as the beast hooked both of its forelimbs behind her knees and pushed forward.
It was a nearly unstoppable force, and applied perfectly.
The attack was only nearly unstoppable.
With a roar, Astrid flared power mana through her body, drawing heavily on Indomitability as she spent another charge of Physique to make sure that she had plenty of mana to spend. She bent, but did not break as her hammer swung again into the broad side of the yellow beetle. Its shield attempted to shimmerback into existence, but her attacks screamed forward again and again, rapping out an incessant toccata as carapace crunched under her flurry of blows.
More than the greens, the yellow was remarkably resilient, and as she focused on it, its companion bull-rushed past. Its cutting arm snapped at her neck, and Astrid forced herself to bend down to avoid the attack, wondering if that would open her up to being knocked down by the yellow wrapped around her legs.
However, despite the yellows' regeneration obviously being better than the greens', it was far from enough to have it recover from at least a dozen echoed strikes directly into and destroying its body. It lacked the strength to push her down now, and as the mostly untouched yellow shimmerbug attempted to escape, Astrid roared in effort while she tried to escape from her current opponent. She was unable to, and the healthy yellow started to flee, its charging Skill obviously working as its legs tore the stony ground under it into dust.
It couldn't escape. A bolt of lightning exploded into existence, smashing into the escaping yellow and slowing its escape as Muti appeared underneath it. Her helmet belched out flame, scorching the insect's legs and causing it to stumble as a quick swing of her blade also cut off three of its legs. She set on dispatching the beast while Astrid returned her attention to the one that had attempted to sacrifice itself for its rival.
With a grunt, Astrid made a decision and dismissed both her shield and hammer, raising her fists. The head of the beetle was pressed against her stomach, just below her breasts, and she interlocked all the fingers of both hands in a fist over her head before smashing it down on the top of the bug. Its legs buckled, and it fell prone as Astrid started grinning once more.
Her gloves were enchanted to strengthen the effects of Power-aligned mana by 25%, and Astrid allowed herself a grim moment of enjoyment as she pummeled the bug's defenses. Obviously, she had taken a hit to her combat effectiveness with the dismissal of her hammer, but the bug was so close to her that she didn't mind justifying it to herself as being too close to hit effectively with her hammer. Her fists crunched through defenses until, after less than a second, at least two dozen punches reduced the monster's head to pulp.
Yellow Iridescent Shimmerbug slain. 3,630 experience gained, split among party.
Astrid shook the gore from her hands as she turned and saw Muti dispatch the other yellow bug. Unlike herself, the Barbarian used a quick slice of her blade to dismember all defenses and then decapitate the beast. Another kill notification flashed in Astrid's vision as she looked across the remains of the battlefield. Felix, Skandr, and Benedict had all dispatched the others, with just the two yellows being the final remnant.
"Damn, Astrid," Benedict said, looking at her. Unlike her old helmet, this one had a grill in the front that allowed some of the misting blood to get onto her face, and she tried to discreetly get the taste of popped bug out of her mouth as the bard continued, "I'd say that was pretty unnecessarily brutal. Why not just use the hammer?"
"I've never really tested this new pair of gloves in what they can do as weapons," Astrid made an excuse before shrugging. "Plus, I just kind of wanted to do it. No reason not to, you know?"
"Is coating yourself with its blood all the way up to your elbows not a good reason not to do it?"
"I get bloodier when harvesting materials," Astrid answered.
Benedict shook his head, chuckling a little bit as he stepped aside. Skandr also walked forward and nodded, perhaps appreciatively, perhaps with a hint of fear at what she'd done. Then, he shrugged and turned to investigate the results of his "hailstorne." He started mumbling to himself about potency and aspects of control, something that Astrid didn't care to learn the minutiae of, while the rest of the party confirmed a few findings.
"The aura doesn't stack on itself."
"The yellows don't seem to be willing to work together. Maybe it's something to do with becoming green?"
"Their regeneration is much faster. We'll have to see if it continues to grow at this rate to orange and then red."
After only a few moments of consideration, Skandr seemed to be done with his investigation of the results of the fight, and he stood up.
"I think we're done here. We're seeing that there's a higher-density population here, plus both of the yellows were level 80, at the very peak before crossing into the next watershed, and before, we expect, evolving to orange. Maybe they need to defeat another yellow to become orange?"
"Do you think that the defeated yellow will join the new orange's swarm? Or will they wander off to attempt to defeat another?" Benedict scratched at his chin.
Astrid started to open her mouth to answer when, suddenly, she saw Skandr stiffen, as if he'd been turned into ice. Then, a bellowing cry filled the air, and dozens and dozens of shimmerbugs sprinted straight towards the Wizard, their shields already active and their charging Skills pushing them even faster.