The Sixth School Ch. 054

Without prompting, Olivia had already come out from between his brows and caught Greg's falling body even as he collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Despite the bone-deep fatigue that was threatening to sap away Greg's consciousness, a whole slew of system prompts crowded his vision. As soon as Greg had asked Olivia to find all the items from the shop that would help him beat this foe, she'd been ready to present him with a long list of options. Understanding the urgency of the situation and the fact that Greg couldn't afford to have his vision obscured, however, she had held off on bombarding him with it. If they'd had more time, Olivia would probably have conferred with him before coming up with a plan of action. The familiar preferred to be hands-off and let Greg learn and grow on his own. When the situation called for it, however, she wouldn't hesitate to help him. As such, while he was running, the familiar had taken it upon herself to come up with the plan and boil down the number of items they'd need to the seven windows before him

In the state he was in, barely clinging to consciousness, Greg didn't try to understand, let alone second guess whatever plan Olivia had come up with. Without even knowing what half of what he was buying was, he just clicked yes on every window that appeared before him. It was a good thing that when Greg had bought the storage ring from the magic shop, he'd used Olivia's mana to bind it. This made it so that, she could bypass him in accessing the contents of his storage ring. Otherwise, given his rapidly darkening vision, Greg was certain he would have passed out and whatever plan Olivia had come up with would have been moot. A second or two after he'd clicked 'YES' on the last window, however, Greg felt a vial pressed up against his lips.

Olivia tipped the vial up and then back down so fast that only a drop of whatever liquid was inside the vial made it inside his mouth. A second later, Greg understood why. That single drop had been more than enough. If the concept of vitality could be condensed into something tangible, then it was probably this, the weeping flower tincture. Even before Greg could make the motion to swallow, it had already dissolved into his tongue. Greg, who only a second ago had been about to pass out from overexertion, was suddenly so alert that it felt like his previous state had been an illusion. Not even a shot of caffeine straight into his veins would have had the mind-clearing effect that the white flower tincture did. Greg could feel it as the effects of that single drop spread throughout his body.

While Greg had managed to keep himself from having any major accidents while running, his body was crisscrossed with various scratches and wounds that he'd accrued in his escape. He even had a nasty cut along his left forearm from a tree that had low-hanging branches with hooked thorns. His clothes had helped to some degree in staving off the worst of it, but given their rugged and tattered state, they hadn't managed to hold on all the way. A fact that wasn't that shocking seeing as they weren't designed to handle the kind of ordeal he'd put them through. But while his clothes remained tattered, Greg watched as the wounds all across his body closed one by one, from the minor scratches to the cut in his left arm, to the wound on his side left by the earth spike from.

The healing, however, didn't just stop at the superficial level, his legs had been shaking, the muscles in them aching terribly even as they involuntarily twitched from time to time. Barely three seconds after the potion had begun its work, not only had all the pain vanished and his legs stilled, but even the fatigue that seemed to have sunk into his very bones was purged. Barely five seconds after the drop had landed on his tongue, Greg wasn't just healed, he felt like he was bursting with enough energy that it was almost uncomfortable. Greg suddenly understood why the familiar had only allowed a single drop of the potion to enter his mouth. With this level of potency, Greg was certain that the potency of the potion would have overwhelmed and killed him rather than restoring him to health.

"There are weaker potions that would have done just as good a job in healing you. They, however, would have taken far longer, and right now we don't have that time," Olivia who had noticed the look of dread that Greg was sending the vial in her hand, explained her choice.

The items that Greg had bought were materializing in his storage ring in the order that he'd bought them. The next thing that Olivia pulled out of the storage ring was the hive scroll. Already familiar with this one, Greg reached out for it ready to activate it. He, however, was shocked, his hand freezing in midair when Olivia used the scroll. Suddenly, ten different copies of the familiar were standing around Greg and the true Olivia. "Put this on," Olivia instructed him, never having paused in her actions. In her hands was an amulet with a black gemstone attached to it that, for some reason, reminded Greg of the dark of night.

"I'm guessing that this is the obfuscation amulet?" Greg posed, taking the amulet from her hand.

Olivia nodded in confirmation. "Unless they have extraordinarily keen senses, it'll hide you from the perception of any creature or person in the third tier or below," She explained.

Greg who was about to put it on, paused in his actions. "Wait, aren't you at the second tier? Won't this thing hide me from your perception?" He questioned.

A small smile crossed Olivia's lips. "On practically anyone else, that would probably be the case. I, however, am your familiar. You and I are connected at the level of the soul. Unless someone has the resources to obfuscate any soul links, then something as simple as this won't be enough to hide you from my senses," She explained, assuaging his fears. As soon as she was done speaking, Olivia reached forward and withdrew seven round, metallic discs the size of dinner plates, each an inch thick. There wasn't a single inch on any of the discs that wasn't covered in runes. One by one, her copies wordlessly reached forward, picked a plate from her, and shot off in a blur to the edge of the clearing.

As he watched them work, it clicked in Greg's mind why Olivia had used the hive scroll as opposed to having him use it. Each of Olivia's clones seemed to wordlessly understand what it was they were doing. Greg didn't even know what the discs were, let alone why they needed to be buried at specific points at the edge of the clearing. They only had about twenty seconds before almost seven tons of fury in the form of the obsidian earthmover barreled down on them. They didn't have any time to spare for him to learn all that he needed to know to make the plan work. Even as her clones continued to come for a few more discs from her, the real Olivia explained the basic outline of what she was planning.

"The obsidian earthmover poses two main threats to you. The first, as it's already demonstrated, is its ability to use the earth below your feet as a weapon. To counter that, we'll be using the Earth-lock formation," She explained as she pulled out a final plate from the storage ring. Unlike the others, the clone that took this plate placed it above the surface right at the center of the clearing, next to where they stood. "As soon as I supply mana to the control plate," She said, placing a foot on this last plate. "Then even a fourth-tier earth mage will have a hard time controlling the earth within the boundaries of the formation. Mages in the third tier and below won't be able to so much as move a mote of dust within the formation boundaries with their magic," She explained.

Olivia didn't pause in her motions even as she continued to lay out her plan. While she spoke, she had produced another five discs, only these seemed to be different from the first ones. Like the first set, these discs were covered in runic inscription. Unlike the first ones, however, these weren't metallic. Instead, they seemed to be made from some kind of white stone. Some of the clones that had returned from burying the first set of discs picked the five stone plates and placed them in a V formation with the fifth plate right next to the control plate for the earth-lock formation, allowing Olivia to place her other foot on it. This second formation was far smaller than the first. From the first plate close to the center that Olivia was stepping on, it extended in a ninety-degree cone toward the edge of the clearing.

"The second danger that the beast poses to you, as one might easily guess, is physical. Even inside the earth-lock formation, should it catch hold of you, your fate would be sealed. This second formation will address that. Given its name, I don't think that it requires that much explanation. As soon as I activate it and for as long as it's supplied with mana, anything tier three and below caught within the formation will be stopped dead in its tracks," She informed him, causing Greg to notice that the formation was indeed placed in the direction of the fast approaching beast if the sounds of destruction were anything to go by. "The obsidian earthmover won't be able to move a muscle once it's inside the formation. Which is where this comes in," The familiar continued to lay out her plan as she held out a round glass orb full of a muddy-brown liquid to him.

Greg didn't know why, but even just looking at the vial filled him with so much revulsion that he almost knocked it out of the familiar's hand. From the way Olivia sharply withdrew her hand, it seems that she too had expected Greg to try and knock it out of her hand. There was a look of surprise when it turned out that her caution was unnecessary and Greg hadn't lashed out at the orb in her hands. Greg suspected that without his willpower training under the familiar, then he would probably have given in to the impulse. He, however, had gotten so used to fighting off sudden strong urges as a result of his training that, even without having to think about it, he immediately resisted the sudden urge as soon as it had hit him. "What's that?" Greg asked, fighting to keep his expression straight and not show the deep revulsion he felt towards it. He wasn't succeeding.

"Earth's bane," she answered concisely. "An insidious potion that turns any mana tinged with the earth element against the user. We don't have the time for me to give an in-depth explanation of how it works. Suffice to say, however, that the results aren't pretty. To any earth element mage or beast, the very sight of it will cause an instinctual revulsion and desire to be rid of it. Fight it," She said, once again holding it out to him. A shudder of revulsion coursed through Greg's body, goosebumps rising on his skin even as his fingers closed around the glass orb.

"Now, listen to me closely," Olivia's grave tone of voice mercifully turned Greg's attention away from the orb in his hand and back to her. "We have a very small window to make this work. As you pointed out before, I am only at the second tier and these are tier three formations, and high-grade ones at that. They will drain me dry of mana in a matter of two to three breaths. After that, we'll have no way of restraining the beast anymore. Your part in this is rather simple. As soon as the beast is immobilized, I'll need you to throw the earth's bane at it hard enough to break the glass. Whether against its body or on the ground, doesn't matter, the potion will explode into a brown cloud that will engulf the beast," She explained.

"Once you've done that, you turn around and run away as fast as you can. Earth's bane is fast-acting. Within ten breaths of being exposed to it, the beast will be dead. In that time, however, it'll go on a mindless rampage as a result of the excruciating pain it'll be subjected to," She informed him. "With the obfuscation amulet on, it shouldn't be able to pick up on your presence let alone target you. But should you be unlucky and the beast comes in your direction, then there is still the last item inside your storage ring," Olivia said, causing Greg to become aware of the thick tower shield that had materialized inside his storage ring. "So long as its lower edge is planted on the ground, then not even a full-speed charge by the obsidian earthmover will be enough to move it," She relayed.

He knew that they were cutting it real close, but Greg had to ask. "Can't we just blow it to smithereens?" He questioned, producing the last contained alchemical bomb he still had in his storage ring.

Olivia shook her head. "A rule to always keep in mind, master, is that the higher the tier of the creature or monster, the smarter it is. With few exceptions, most creatures start to gain some measure of sentience at tier five and up. It, however, isn't something that happens all at once but has been building up from the lower tiers. At tier three, most creatures as smart enough to sense danger of the magical kind and avoid it. If you try to throw the bomb from afar while it's outside the formation, the beast will probably use the earth to knock it as far away as it can manage. If it's within the formation, then I'll be within the blast radius of the bomb. If one of my clones tries to run towards the creature while it's outside the formation with the contained alchemical bomb in hand, the creature will probably turtle up, covering itself with layer upon layer of hardened earth to protect itself. If it's inside the formation, then once again the issue of my proximity comes into play," She relayed.

"But..."

"The only reason it worked with the dark crawlers was because they had a weak link, their summoner," Olivia replied, anticipating his objection. "Woven into most summoning contracts of most creatures is the compulsion to protect their summoner at all costs. This, however, is often the last resort. Summoners aren't blind to the fact that they are most often the weakest link among the creatures they summon. Most of them will often have several ways of protecting themselves from direct attack. Luckily for us, your uncle was a mundane human before he became a tier-zero mage. He hadn't developed any strategies to deal with direct attacks, compelling the dark crawlers to come to his rescue time and again," She explained.

"Now go," Olivia spoke up before Greg could ask any other questions. "I want you at the edge of the formation. As soon as you throw the earth's bane, don't wait to see if it hits or not, just turn around and run," She instructed.

Understanding that the time for questions was up, Greg quickly moved to the edge of the clearing ready to carry out the agreed-upon plan. As it happens, this was none too soon as barely three seconds after he'd reached the edge of the clearing, the obsidian earthmover burst through the bushes at the edge of the clearing, running straight at the familiar.

A small burst of light came from the plates below her feet as Olivia activated the two formation plates. "NOW!" She shouted.

And that's when everything went wrong...

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