Triple Strength

251. Breathe: Wiremu

There were four people in the room/cell/cage with me. All of them were Lizardkin. The Lord was the largest. Then there were my two jailers. The fourth person was only about half the size of the lord, obviously a different subspecies. Zikr stepped forward to look me in the eye. My eyes had been closed the entire time, and I was tracking everything with Thermal Sensing. Lizardkin had a greater variation in temperature than other species, being cold-blooded. The two jailers were quite cool, and I think they will be quite sluggish. The lord and Zikr were radiating a lot of heat, not having been down here long.

I think Zikr was a bit annoyed I had my eyes closed. I was essentially lying there unmoving, apart from my shallow breaths. Breathe in, breathe out. Concentrating on breathing is supposed to calm your mind, and it did. My rage was breathing focussed, and with every breath out, I would poison them. Breathe in, breathe out.

Then I felt a sharp pain in my mind, and I linked Granite Mind Armour to my breathing. It didn’t change the skill, but it focussed my rage, linking my defence with my attack. Rage doesn’t have to be explosive in its expression. Tabitha’s rage is explosively expressed in her Intimidating Aura and her Rampage Skill. My rage is solid and immovable. The inexorable progression of molten rock and poison. Breathe in, breathe out.

“He has some sort of Mind barrier,” Zikr explained to his boss when I had no reaction to the probe.

Breathe in, breathe out.

“So break through it,” he demanded.

I could sense Zikr was not pleased. I guess he was hoping for some reaction from me as a show. Now he was aware it was not going to be easy. He settled himself and focussed. Now the fight would begin in earnest.

Breathe in, breathe out.

All around my mind, I felt pricks hitting my shield. It is like he surrounded my mind and hit everywhere at once. The pricks were not strong and didn’t even scratch the surface. I guess he was probing for a weakness. This kept up for several minutes, but it was using up his energy, not mine. Granite Mind Armour levelled to 4.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Zikr was obviously nervous, with his boss looking over his shoulder while he worked. He took a deep breath, and then a solid, sharp point smashed into my mind shield like a spear. It felt like some Granite chipped off the shield. He kept the pressure on the spear point, but my shield was highly resistant to pressure, just like Granite. He relaxed the pressure and slammed it back in at the same position. Another chip of Granite came off, but the continual pressure was easy to keep at bay. He seemed to realise what was happening and stopped for a breather.

This gave me time to spend some energy to relayer the Granite. Granite Mind Shield moved into the Apprentice Level. This reduced the mental energy to maintain the Shield, and it was easier to repair or relayer as that case was. The relayering came from the underlying layer of lava under the Granite layer of the shield.

Breathe in, breathe out.

“What is going on?” the boss lizard asked. “It wasn’t like this with the orc.” He was obviously expecting more than Zikr staring at me and me laying there unmoving except for the breathing. I had not moved since I was struck.

Zikr was breathing harder than before as this was taking effort from him, “I was probing for weakness, and now I am chipping through the shield. It won’t be long now.” He was obviously talking it up for his boss, but he had worked out how to get through the shield. Continuous chipping is what will get through, and now it is an endurance battle. The energy he takes to chip vs the energy I have to repair it.

Breathe in, breathe out.

zikr turned back to me and started chipping away at my shield. He was always working at the same spot, and it was working. I concentrated on strengthening the shield, but adding new layers from the lava to the granite added a layer to the whole shield, not just the damaged area. I got the feeling from the skill that patchwork repairs would only come at the Journeyman level. I think my inefficient repairs were using as much or more energy than his chipping. I sensed he tried different shapes at the point of his attacks to see what worked best.

Breathe in, breathe out.

He was chipping faster than I could repair. The boss lord was getting impatient at nothing seemingly happening, although zikr was breathing harder. I don’t know whether he was exaggerating for his boss or it was costing him, and either way, it didn’t matter to me.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Then zikr did something I did not expect. He grabbed a batten from one of the guards and slammed it down on the broken bones of my leg. A spike of pain shot through me, and I lost my concentration momentarily. He accompanied the smash with a particularly strong mental thrust at my shields and broke through the granite. zikr let out a yell which started in triumph but turned into pain and confusion. He had broken through my Granite layer, but instead of striking my mind, he struck my lava layer, which burned him, and he recoiled in pain and exhaustion.

“What happened?” the boss lizard said, not sounding pleased.

zikr needed a minute to collect himself as I think my lava damaged his mind attack skill. I took the time to reform the granite and start layering it to thicken it again. zikr was panting. I think it was partly at the effort but also that the Venom Vapour was starting to damage his lungs. He was the one breathing the most, although the two guards were getting increasingly unresponsive and slow.

Breathe in, breathe out.

“He has some sort of second layer to the shield that felt like I was being burned. I can deal with it, I just need to change the type of attack when I get through the hard layer.”

The boss lord looked at me, “You have surprisingly skilled defences. I look forward to finding out where they came from.” he turned to zikr again. “How long will this take?”

I hope the Boss Lord is not thinking of leaving. I need to keep him here if I want to kill him. While I had some time, I re-looked at the walls and door. The Spiritual layer that was stopping me was sandwiched between two layers of rock, but the door was metal with the spiritual component. I assume the Spiritual metal was the same as that embedded in the walls. I used my new Stone Shaping Skill to shift the normal stone adjacent to the door to cover the edge of the door, including the handle, so they could not turn the handle. Stone Shaping used less energy than Granite Manipulation for this, even with its low level.

There were no hinges on this side of the door, so I assume it will open into the hallway, so it can still be opened from the other side. I strengthened the stone around the handle to make it harder to open and harder to break and use the handle. The stone will grip the door like someone is holding it closed if it is attempted to be opened from the outside, but anybody with a warrior’s strength will be able to open it. It is the best I can do, and it will slow them down.

“I will have a few minutes rest to recover some energy, then we will break through,” zikr told his boss.

Don’t try to leave. Don’t try to leave.

Breathe in, breathe out.

“One more attempt and I had better see some results this time.”

I also need to gather my energy as this will be it. Everybody just breathe.

Venom Vapour levelled again, adding to the potency and reducing the cost. I needed to be able to get out of these straps holding me down. They are spiritually enhanced material, so it will take time if I have to cut them. They had not thought it through as the straps were attached to the table/bath I was lying on, which was ordinary metal. They are outside the water that I am lying in, so my lava should melt without difficulty. I started doing that, leaving just the smallest slither of metal, keeping the straps down.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Zikr had another coughing fit. Maybe he is allergic to my poison. Thermal Sensing indicated that the body temperatures of the two guards had dropped dangerously low. I suspect their body is trying to fight the venom while low on energy, but I don’t know much about Lizardkin. Maybe my Venom is affecting them differently? Zikr is coughing, and I am sure it is my venom. He is a different subspecies from the others. I am surprised the guards are still standing. It is time to make a move before they are noticed or keel over.

I gather the energy I have and start mending my bones with Molten Rock and Granite manipulation. There has to be a better way to do that. At the same time, I focus Regeneration on the muscles and tendons attached to the bones I mend. I feel this type of focus for Regeneration could well push it into the Master levels.

I focus on the upper body first. Arms and chest, which will help if I am attacked. I started on the arm of the side away from the boss. The guards were beyond noticing things now. The Granite Bones straightened the arm from the unnatural angle it was in, and Regeneration was basically making new tendons. This was definitely pushing it to the Master Level, which was the level Regeneration started being able to regenerate limbs. I still lay there as unmoving as possible with my eyes closed.

Breathe in, breathe out. My lungs were working better now, and my ribs and chest muscles were fixed.

“Get on with it,” growled the boss.

Zikr got up and approached me, coughing again. I saw the boss eye him, and I thought he was catching on. My energy levels were still too low. I was being as economical as possible in fixing my body, but it still used energy. I created a knife in my good hand as one weapon I held onto is more economical than single-use spikes or darts, even if the initial cost is greater.

Zikr’s first mental spike was stronger than previously and dug over a third of the way through my Granite Layer. Mental energy is one thing I do have a lot of with all those attribute points, so I used my mental energy to simulate throwing a Granite Spike at Zikr. To my utmost surprise, it worked. I didn’t have control over it like Zikr. It was a one-off thrown spike of Mental energy. It might be infused with my Granite affinity. I didn’t have time to sort it out now as Zikr fell backwards onto the floor, where my Venom Vapour was the strongest. He had a look of surprise on his face. Breathe deeply.

The boss reacted fast by throwing a knife into my gut. “Knock him out,” he commanded the guards.

They took one step forward, and the one on the left tripped the other, and they both went down. It would have been a comedy routine worthy of Tabitha, except I had a knife in my gut and was frantically trying to get my other arm working.

The boss grabbed at the door handle and was surprised to find solid stone blocking the door. He snarled at me as I was the obvious culprit even though I lay there unmoving and with my eyes closed.

“Guards!” he yelled at the top of his voice, calling the ones outside the door. “Break in here!” Then he looked at me. I was almost ready to sit up, but I didn’t. I still had not moved, except for my arms straightening. I was lying still, one eye swollen shut and the other still closed, with a knife in my gut. I now had two knives, and I didn’t have to make this one. The boss looked around the cell. The two guards were comatose on the floor, and Zikr was coughing his lungs out, spitting blood. Bossman must have high Poison Resistance. The door rattled as the guards outside tried opening it.