Nico eyed the Rider and croc he had killed. Only those two retained their Energy. The ones Atomic killed were Siphoned by his suit.

Nico dropped besides the corpses and Siphoned them, placing one on each hand to inspect. A slight gust of wind made them jiggle pleasantly in his hands. It felt like they were going to slip through his fingers, but their shape held. The crocodile’s Energy did not prompt the Locust to show him the Harvesting screen because it lacked skills. Nico absorbed the croc’s soul then turned his attention to the Rider’s.

Energy Of A Bog Rider

Infection (Common II) (Roll 5+)

Fragmentation Blast (Common II) (Roll 5+)

Fungai Growth (Uncommon II) (Roll: 7+)

Grow a round Shell containing the effects of one of your skills.

Its skills were easy to understand. Fungai Growth allowed it to make mushrooms. When combined with the Infection skill it created the poisonous mushrooms, while fragmentation was the explosive one. The interesting part was that its Trait was in the list of Harvestable skills.

I guess I am becoming like Jarl with this gambling and all.

Infection (Common II) (Roll 5+) = 5

Fragmentation Blast (Common II) (Roll 5+) < 4

Fungai Growth (Uncommon II) (Roll: 7+) < 9

“Got something,” Nico said, sighing in relief. Now maybe he could combine Fungai Growth with Fragmentation Blast to make something decent. The potential for that combination didn’t seem too good in the long run, but the Locust must have had a way to switch them out. The design would have been terrible if it couldn’t.

He accepted the prompt. The Energy shined bright before turning into a picture of the Locust holding a silver ball.

Fungai Growth (Uncommon I)

If Base Skill:

Grow a round Shell containing the effects of one of your skills.

You can hold up to 1 Shell as long as they remain in contact with the Locust. Once released or physically separated from the glue binding it to Locust, the Shell will become reactive to light touch after 0.5 seconds.

If Augment: Creates a shell of the base skill.

As the base skill, Fungai Growth can create Shell Of Fragmentation and Shell of Healing.

Shell Of Fragmentation

Consumes 1 Energy to create a shell that will 1 Shield Life damage in a one-meter range upon impact.

Cast-time: 1 second

Shell Of Healing

Heals the struck target over a period of 2 seconds.

Energy Points required: 1

Cast-time: 2 seconds

Set Fungai Growth as a Base or as an Augment For Fragmentation Blast?

Speaking of balls. Nico expected something like Shell Of Fragmentation, but he hadn’t expected the Locust to combine with his own skills. He guessed that Fragmentation Blast didn’t prompt that option because it didn’t have any combinations with his 1st skill. That made the Locust much more powerful than he initially thought.

Huh. You can make interesting things happen with something like this.

But would you look at that. Nico could become a healer now—a real one. Being able to heal his allies for 1 Energy was better than most healing skills out there. Not only was it easier to use than a healing potion, he also won’t run out like Rankers do. Whichever squad Nico hunts with could permanently stay in the Wilds, though they still had to return to the cities for Memory Cards to Rank up.

From what he understood, a skill can be used as a Base and Enhancer, but each only once. If he uses Fungai here as an Enhancer, then later on he can make it as a Base.

He made it as an Enhancer. That gave him access to the Blast from being the Base skill, and a Frag Shell from Fungai being in the Enhancer slot. Doing it the other way would have made him loose access to the Smoothbore and replaced it with a Healing shell, something that Nico didn’t need yet.

Now for the fun part. Nico activated his frag shell. A second later, the circle on the Locust palm opened. A smooth silver ball was pushed out. It was small enough to fit inside his palm, but his fingers were barely able to close around it.

He charged his Smoothbore for the first time. The pressure rose until his arm began to vibrate. It glowed an intense green yellow. Wisps of smoke began seeping from his palm. Good. The tricky thing was that Nico had to aim his entire arm, not just his palms. His wrists weren’t flexible enough to turn well.

Nico walked towards the Sky Rider. His heart instantly tightened. He’d never fought a 3-star Elite. Before today, he hadn’t even fought 2-stars. Not the dumbest thing I’ve done, and not the dumbest thing I’ll ever do.

The Sky Rider flinched. It looked up towards Nico, crunching a Bog’s head within its maws.

Yen is still a bigger psycho than you. He stuck his middle finger at it.

In a growl it burst into the air, knocking aside its surroundings. It dashed towards him in a zig-zag around the trees, the explosions emitting from its wings propelling it at high speeds. When it turned left it burst a mushroom on its right, when it turned right it burst one on its left.

Abomination Sky Hunter Of The Twisted Bogs (Elite ★★★)

Energy: 6/6

Trait: Rubber Fungai (Epic III)

Grows Rubber Shells containing the effects of your skills. You have Rubber Flesh.

1st Skill: Transmogrify (Rare III)

Allows the wielder to Siphon corpses, providing healing and regaining Energy based on the Siphoned target. Only usable if you have a Rubber Flesh variant.

2nd Skill: Kinetic Burst (Rare III)

Transmutes 1 Energy to provide 2 Charges of a burst of Kinetic Energy. These last 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 1 second

3rd Skill: Flight (Rare III)

Nico turned around and ran the hell away. He wasn’t going to land anything on something like that. If he knew what he was doing, he would have ran around the trees, tossing the frags up in the air to have them explode in the Sky Rider’s face as it hunted him down.

But the difference in Ranks were far too vast for him to execute something as difficult as that. It was too fast, and he was too slow and far out of practice

Even with two arms, there was never elegance to him. Either his gambles worked, or they didn’t. He thought there was beauty in that.

So he kept near the trees, limiting the directions the Sky Rider could come in from, and stretched his right arm to the side as he ran. The Locust was pressed against his stomach and pointed at it with a fully charged Smoothbore. In its palm was the frag shell.

Come on, take the bite. Nico didn’t need to see the Sky Rider coming, he could sense it, and with his healing he can reattach his arm after it bites it off—hopefully before it chumps it into pieces and swallows it.

The Sky Rider flew until it was just a few feet behind Nico. Before it pounced, it jetted a few mushrooms for an extra burst of speed. That was when it blew two on its right wing, sharply angling to his left side at the last moment.

Nico spun to the right. Th e Sky Rider burst another mushroom, choosing to stay in his blind spot rather than taking a bite off his harmless right arm. He ducked and tried to dodge, but he was too slow. It exploded all four mushrooms forward, its maws sinking into the elbow of his Locust while its claws pierced Nico’s shoulder.

But where bone was supposed to be there was hard metal. The Sky Rider’s claws didn’t penetrate and its teeth fruitlessly grinded against the Locust. It ended up dragging his hapless body across the ground, through a couple dozen branches, and up higher than any wingless creature should go.

Of course, none of that was according to plan.

He started kicking, wrestling, and screaming with it as it burst in wild angles, its maws yanking him back and forth. A line of red trailed them as its claws swiped Nico’s flesh off like it was mud. He used a Heal, but he lost blood than his body could recover. It spun him in the air as he tried his best to point the Locust at it.

Nico knew he was in the sky, but it still surprised him when its teeth lost hold of the Locust. It tossed him away, and after a slight pause in which he was supposed to aim and fire at the fairy, he plunged head’s first towards the ground.

That was the first opening he’d gotten. The second was when the Sky Rider pointlessly dove straight down with him with one claw reaching for his leg.

Stupid. He was saved by his enemy’s stupidity. Falling head’s first meant his arm pointed down, which was the direction the Sky Rider was coming from, something its simple brain couldn’t put together. He let the Frag shell slip through his fingers and released the Smoothbore. Me and you.

The Smoothbore blasted the area in a yellow cone. It blasted the Frag shell too, causing a circular yellow explosion to erupt within the cone, with the Sky Hunter being in the center of it. Nico was falling too fast for the Locust to show him whether the fairy died or not, but he felt like having the upper half of the monster’s body be turned into purple goo was a fatal hit.

There was just a single issue with all of that—he hadn’t planned a landing.