After a mistake that cost him his weapon, the Beast Tamer finished off the Steel Silk Centipede just in time to see the smile on Sage’s face. The group had no idea who this man was, but he’d obviously already taken the treasure they were here to look for. They were all waiting to watch the smile get wiped off his face when their Leader ordered the flowers to attack.

They didn’t have to wait much longer, wiping off the goo from the smashed up bugs the three men all watched as the flower’s suddenly convulsed. Each of the dozens of flowers shot out hundreds of tiny black seeds faster than arrows. Pulverizing the stranger in front of them and most likely the rock beneath and behind him. The man who had summoned the huge palm had even held up the energy hand in front of himself to block ricochets and closed his eyes to avoid from seeing the gruesome death of the man who opposed them.

“What… how?”

When that man opened his eyes, he didn’t see a puddle of blood and mush… that man was standing there completely unharmed. There was instead a dome of blue energy shielding him completely. The stalagmites and rocky ground in front of him was utterly destroyed, looking like a bomb had gone off, with holes punched through the rocks by the thousands of seed bullets. A moment later the blue dome lifted into the air and tilted towards the four men. The dome flattening out and turning into a disc. Then, eight points around the outside of the Formation Disc lit up with red light and balls of flame formed a few feet off the ground above the red lights.

The four men didn’t just wait around, each of them releasing another attack towards their enemy. When they did, the blue disc started to rotate in place like a clock face. Each of their attacks smashed against the disc and were knocked aside by the spinning force. At the same time, the balls of flame shot through the air, taking different swerving arcs towards each of the four men. The flames were knocked down by the group with some difficulty, but they just kept coming. The room full of stalagmites made the room hard to move in, so if they wanted to rush in their formation would be disrupted. The Leader made a quick decision.

“Withdraw. Stay in formation!”

He pointed to the wolves and tapped the Beast Tamer’s shoulder. The roughly dressed man looked depressed, but he didn’t hesitate. The three huge wolves rushed towards their target, weaving through the obstructions of rocks like they weren’t even there. At the same time the group of four men rapidly backpedaled, a set of huge leaves unfolding in front of them like a fan and blocking the bolts of flame peppering them. With the trio of wolves that would make most feel swiftly approaching terror, the ‘thief’ merely shook his head.

Unfortunately for them, they had no idea that as soon as that array was fully activated none of them had a chance.

Sage had improved to a five star Formation Master shortly after completely merging with the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent. He had improved in nearly every area: mind, body, and soul. The only question was what pushed him over the edge. A five star formation could contend on equal ground with someone in the fifth rank, so even with just a Formation Plate, it was more than capable of handling a level 43 and 41. The other two were just unlucky.

When the group tried to escape the flames stopped firing at them and a deep mist suddenly appeared, flooding the cave and the path to the exit. At the same time, Sage disappeared from view. Both groups found themselves suddenly colliding a moment later, each of them rushing at high speed and getting trapped in a bewildering array. Sage didn’t even have to do anything at this point, simply maintaining a flow of energy into the Formation Plate. On the other hand, this was another good opportunity so he released his Twin Soul. The incorporeal figure slipping into the ground and leaping out again beside one of the wolves, diving into its body and starting to battle.

Once the group was trapped, the array transformed again. The members of the groups got separated by illusions of terrifying monsters, each of them seeing the others getting carried off into the misty darkness. A few minutes later, the illusions shifted. The people saw each other as demons, just like the ones that had stolen their comrades. The four men were paired off, fighting the other at their own rank while Sage merely watched. He used a little manual control on the wolves, putting them into trapping arrays rather than letting everything run on its own. Each of the three eventually falling to the predation of his Twin Soul before he stored away their bodies. Demonic Beasts were valuable even after death. The other four men soon followed, once they began to grow weak, the array made them look like they triumphed in combat. Showing them visions of killing the demon, who in reality saw something similar themselves. The two then stopped to rest and they soon became prey to Sage’s Twin Soul as well.

Sage initially felt apprehensive of the Twin Soul’s abilities, he wasn’t sure what effect it might have on him to absorb souls. At the same time, he felt it might be too sinister to not even give mercy to an enemies soul. After absorbing so many of the mindless Crystal Spiders, Sage had a better understanding of the technique and realized that it didn’t condemn the victims. It didn’t stop the souls from going wherever they went upon death, it merely drained the energy that kept them on this plane. The body and mind were the housing for the soul, if they became too damaged then the soul would leak energy until it became too weak and eventually left. With this new discovery, Sage no longer felt any worry towards the technique and was now eager to use it as much as possible.

The array finally deactivated. Sage carefully examined the Formation Plates and saw a few flaws already starting to form. Shaking his head as he confirmed that the cheap Spirit Steel they were made out of was only good for a few uses. Normally, they wouldn’t wear out this quickly, but it seemed there was a drawback to his Formation Plate combination after all.

The Formation Machine is powerful, but not without its cost.

It wasn’t the best name, but it was his first attempt at creating such a thing so he didn’t waste too much time on a name. It wasn’t just a set of formations, it was an idea that Sage had long ago and only just now had reason to put into use. Since its creation, he hadn’t been truly as threatened as he was now. He’d almost used it against the spider horde, but never reached that point. Against the Demonic Plant he thought that even using the Formation Machine he might not succeed, so he didn’t even bother.

The Formation Machine was a concept from his old life. A State Machine. It was a concept from certain mathematics, and also Computer Science. A system would start in one state and depending on its input, it would switch to a different state. The new state would then use inputs to switch to another state, and so on. For example, a vending machine. It would start in an ‘idle’ state. Displaying advertisements and waiting for input in the form of coins. Once a coin was entered it would change to an ‘ordering’ state, now it waits for keys to be pressed and an item picked out. Once there was enough coins inserted and an item picked it would switch to a ‘dispense’ state, giving out the item chosen, dispensing change and then finally returning to an idle state.

Sage used the foundation of his successful ‘if’ check targeting Formation Plates and used them to provide the input for his Formation Machine. If an attack was coming his way the array would trigger a defense formation. Once there was a gap in the attacks it would switch to a counter attacking state and attack while still defending at a reduced level. If the enemies moved too far away, it would trigger a trapping array to stop them. If they got trapped the array would transition to illusions and pit the targets against each other. If they were weak enough and non-moving the array would leave them be, targets for Sage to capture or prey upon.

The main large Formation Plate was broken into eight smaller circles. Each of them linked to two other circles and also in the center. Essentially, it could move through eight different states. The design was somewhat limited, but it was simple for now. Each state could switch clockwise or counter-clockwise and trigger its two adjoining states. Each state could also get triggered by any other with its singular center array plate. Sage still hadn’t figured out a real way to store any information so this was currently his most sophisticated creation. It could change states sequentially, or go directly to a certain state when necessary. That was how he accomplished chaining effects, and also triggering capture arrays and defensive techniques.