Infinite Farmer

The next room was small in comparison to the last. That didn't mean it was small in absolute terms. Back home, it would have been by far the biggest open space that Tulland had ever seen. Even in The Infinite, it was plenty large for a fight. Tulland pulled a handful of grain from his pocket and chucked it hard. It didn't go as far as he would have liked, but it did sail unimpeded.

"Looks open. Do you think there's something to fight in here?" Tulland asked.

"Yeah." Brist put up his fists. "It's coming."

"How do you know?"

"You don't feel that?" Brist's eyes darted back and forth. "The air is moving."

Tulland suddenly did feel it. The entire time they had been in this place, the air had been more or less stagnant. There hadn't been any drafts or breezes, which he had hardly noticed. No breezes made sense for a big enclosed area, but it had stopped now. As he brought his weapon in front and summoned what vines he could to his arms in preparation for the fight, the airflow went from the power of a slight draft to a good, solid breeze with no signs of slowing down.

Eventually, the wind grew strong enough that Tulland could feel it pulling on him, upsetting his balance ever so slightly. At the same time, the source of it finally became visible at the center of the room.

Tempest of the Maze

This monster is an elemental, a system-generated representation of one of the fundamental forces universal to all worlds. As an avatar of the wind itself, it has powerful control of the movement of air.

Infusing the atmosphere of this place with its magical powers, it will attempt to move you to angles and areas best for it and worst for you. Its body is vulnerable to attacks much as a conventional beasts would be, but the composition of its body makes it difficult to locate and it's more evasive than its level and stats might otherwise indicate.

The archway leading out of this level and the rewards associated with leaving it will not be available until the enemy is vanquished. Good luck!

"Damn. I hate things like this." Brist stepped forward in front of Tulland, taking the tank position he was used to Necia occupying. "I can barely see the thing. Any ideas for that?"

"Not yet." Tulland threw a Chimera Sleeve at the ground, giving it an instruction to inch forward while keeping what grip it could. "And I got two notifications. We are going to want to make this fast."

Farm Power Waning!

As a one-time courtesy, The Infinite informs you that your grace period will end within the next five minutes, severing your connection to the power flow from your safe zone farm.

"Then let's do this." Brist burst forward. Tulland was shocked to see just how fast the fist fighter could move, even with the wind pushing against him. Apparently, he had never shown Tulland every single trick in his arsenal, even when losing the spars. "Follow me!"

Brist hit the ground near the elemental, which looked like a vaguely whirl-wind shaped mass of moving air. Tulland's guess was that The Infinite had determined it had to be visible and had solved that problem by giving it the faintest tinge of dust-toned color, despite the lack of any actual dust in the maze up to that point. As Brist reached it, he gave it a good swipe to where the ribs would have been on a human, impacting with the shape hard then moving through it as the air parted around the strike point.

Brist went tumbling a few steps, off balance from the remaining force of his own blow. The elemental took full advantage of this, hitting his back with a gust that sent him off his feet to the ground and following after him to hurt him more.

Tulland got there before it could. Taking a lesson from Brist, he switched his weapon to pitchfork mode and went after the tempest with more restrained, controlled blows than he usually used. It helped him keep his feet, but he found that The Infinite had been accurate when it said the tempest was hard to hit. He clipped it a few times, but failed to make solid contact with the monster as it weaved around the strikes, disrupting Tulland's balance all the while.

Even without doing much damage, the ten seconds Tulland spent fighting the thing alone weren't without effect. He took a couple strong blows from the tempest, finding that when its main body made contact, it did so with a force similar to any single one of Brist's punches. Tulland was able to weather them, mainly because he was so used to Brist chaining those kinds of punches in an unending combo that just one of them didn't seem like that big of a deal. Despite not doing or taking much damage on the whole, the delay was worthwhile as soon as Brist found his feet again, charged some kind of powerful punch, and absolutely walloped the wind monster with it.

Tulland watched as the monster took the impact then faded out of Brist's way, sending him tumbling again. There was no apparent damage that Tulland could see, but the monster felt ever so slightly slower to him as he began working on it with his pitchfork again. He still wasn't making solid contact, but the glancing blows were catching the monster a bit more solidly every time.

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"Keep going just like that. It's fast, and it wreaks hell on footwork. But it's not smart." Brist charged up another big shot. "You distract it. I'll do the big damage. Should work fine."

The next strike Brist threw was not a head-on blow, instead angled upwards like an uppercut. The tempest still got out of the way of it after the point of impact, but this time Brist's excess energy just pulled him off the floor upwards instead of sending him rolling along the stone floor. The tempest took advantage of this, hitting Brist hard while he was midair and sending him back a few steps, but took a full-force blow from both Tulland and his two arm-mounted Chimera Sleeves as the last vine on the floor finally got close enough to try to swallow what amounted to the single, central whirlwind leg of the monster.

The whirlwind turned to face Tulland, but this was a mistake as Brist found his footing again and unleashed a combo of purely conventional punches at its back. Tulland got out of the whirlwind's way, dragging his pitchfork tines through it as he did. In the distraction, the tempest failed to react in time to another one of Brist's heavy, charged hits.

"That's it, kid. Just keep it up like that. This shouldn't be hard at all… shit." Brist watched as Tulland impacted with the wind, going flying in a way he just hadn't before and crashing painfully into the ground. "Did it get stronger?"

"No. I got weaker." Tulland felt every bit of competency with his weapon and most of the protection from his armor leech away as a new notification hit. "It's bad news."

Farm Effect Neutralized!

As warned, you have lost the effect of your safe zone farm's enhancement. Be cautious, as the effect will not return until you either return to the safe zone or grow another farm.

"How bad?" Brist backed up as the now undistracted tempest came after him in force. "Real bad?"

"I can't take a lot of hits like the one I just took." Tulland spat out a bit of blood from his mouth. "But I can take some. I'll…"

"No." Brist tore into the tempest with a quick combo of punches, then jumped out of the way. "Do what you can from back there. I'll handle this."

Tulland tried. His vines were no longer strong enough to resist the pull of the wind, and were thrown this way and that as he tried to command them to swat at the lower body of the whirlwind. He tried throwing a Silver Sun, unsurprised when it failed to hit. Beyond that, he had almost nothing in his move set that could help.

Brist was amazing, but still clearly fighting a monster meant for two. Tulland watched helplessly as the fighter gave as good as he got, pouring constant damage into the whirlwind at the expense of his own body.

"I need to get in there!" Tulland took a step against the wind. "I'm coming!"

"Don't you dare, kid." Brist held steady long enough to charge a punch, taking several small hits from the tempest as he did before laying one huge, downward-looping punch from top to bottom through it. "You aren't dying to save me. It would be embarrassing."

Tulland's nerves burned with stress as he watched the balance tip this way and that, in favor of the whirlwind one second and Brist's the next. Then, suddenly, blessedly, Brist landed the biggest punch Tulland had seen from him yet and the wind monster actually staggered back from it. After that, Brist pushed in punching for all he was worth, lost in a berserker fury of boxer anger that never let the whirlwind recover.

"Yes! Do it!" Tulland's own fists were so tight around his weapon they hurt as he watched Brist finally take the lead for good. "Keep it up!"

Another thirty seconds passed. Brist took minor damage, but nothing like he gave. Then, suddenly, after one last big hit the monster winked out, like it had never been there at all. Brist stopped a punch midswing in confusion. "That's it? Thought it would be more exciting than that. I almost want to complain."

Tulland laughed, then had the laughter catch in his throat as another notification popped up.

Last Phase!

The Tempest is not gone. It's hiding, now practicing its own form of stealth in the air around you. It is damaged, and cannot take much more before it perishes in actuality. However, catching it to apply that damage will be difficult beyond words.

"That's not good." Brist put his fists up, but immediately took a blow in his back. "Not good at all."

If Brist couldn't see the thing, Tulland had no chance. He watched as it threw attack after attack, all hitting Brist from unexpected angles as the boxer swung here and there around himself, making contact with nothing at all.

"Kid, I know I said not to help, but…" Brist took a hard hit to his face that sent him reeling. "Now would be a good time if you have any tricks."

Tulland stepped forward, ready to fight the thing to the death in melee even if it wouldn't do much good. He was halfway there when a better idea finally sprung to mind.

"Brist, charge something." Tulland reached into his dimensional storage and withdrew as many Acheflowers as he could. "Cover up, charge something, and hold your breath. We'll only get one shot."

Scattering the flowers wasn't hard. When it stealthed, the tempest apparently had to abandon roiling the air in the room as part of the bargain. A second later, there were dozens of the flowers everywhere, so weak he doubted they'd do anything to the elemental or Brist.

Those likely won't have an effect on a monster of that type.

Not the normal one, but… Tulland waiting until Brist's hand reached its brightest shine before sending the detonation order to the flowers. The exploded all as one, sending thin yellow fog throughout the room. Yes! I thought so.

In the center of the room, creeping up on Brist, there was now a fully visible, yellow-tinged elemental, just solid enough to get coated with the powder in its own characteristic shape. Brist's bloody mouth parted in a maniac's grin that made Tulland's skin crawl, then he roared as he unleashed his fully charged punch.

Tulland watched that same punch hit not once but three times, blasting away the yellow in three circles, each slightly off center from the other. Whatever ability to negate blows the tempest was using, it apparently didn't work with that much force. This time, as it died, it was absolutely clear what was happening. A sound like a creaking filled the air as the shape slowly came apart, growing more indistinct until the powder on it dissipated away through the air freely.