29, 28, 27. I stalked forward, gathering shadows around her throat like a hand, and using them to lift her body into the air. I pulled a blade of pure shadows from the ball in my hands with my right hand and stalked forward. She had insulted my love. Me. Her existence was an affront to the dwarves who her people had attacked.
Would I feel bad for her death? No. I was the predator here, now.
I slid the blade across her forearm, blood dribbling from the wound and dripping to the ground.
“With all of you as witnesses, you see that my husband has won.” Maebe stepped forward so that she stood in front of the drow. “Well, are there any of you who would seek to try and stop me? None of you who would try to save your mistress?”
None of them moved, so I stepped forward. “None of you who would seek to betray us and kill us when you think it convenient?”
Some of them looked uncomfortable as the translator signed that question to them, one of the drow tried to slink away. James walked out of the shadows behind him with his fists clenched.
“Speak.” He growled menacingly.
“He wants to go home; he is tired of this charade with pretenders,” Balmur spoke up from my left.
Shadows solidified around his throat, and his head slumped from his shoulders. I turned to see Maebe’s hands moving up and down the captive drowess’s arms.
“I told you what would happen,” she whispered, shadows slithering up from the ground. “Now, this ‘pretender’s’ magic will consume you.”
They did just that, slithering up her body like ooze that pulled her into it, and then she was gone in seconds.
“All of you will be here when we wake, or more of you will die,” Maebe ordered, the translator’s fingers flying through motions. “And I will take it as an affront from your Queen. I tire of playing these games with you. Sleep well.”
With that, the majority of them sat down facing outward, inside the shadow barrier and began to meditate. Some of them looked up into the air, others out into the darkness.
Maebe touched my shoulder. “You did well. Thank you.”
I nodded once. “That was a lot of pressure, dearest.”
“And look at the diamond it created.” her smile widened. “I know that seeing this side of me can be alarming and that it’s not always the most presentable side—”
I held a hand up to stop her, “Don’t apologize. You likely just kept us from being murdered, and now they’re probably so terrified of you that you’ve earned their respect. Hell, that may be the only time.”
She stayed quiet for a moment, her gaze searching mine in the darkness. It was easier to see her this close. “I understand that we are the predators. I understand that you have to solidify your strength, and there are certain ways that you have to handle things like insults and slights against you. They’re against not just you, but our people. They have to be crushed.”
Her hand found its way to my chest. “Some of that lovely naivety I found cute has been replaced by a small amount of jaded wisdom, my love. You are proving to be a fine King.”
I lifted her hand and ducked my head so that I could kiss it. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for trying.” Her words quieted, and we laid down for a rest. Here in the darkness with so many potential enemies around, it was a little more difficult to sleep, but having her there with me and Kayda resting at my back helped greatly.
Chapter Twenty-One
Our speed through the last portion of the outer tunnels and caves had been slower due to a large number of creatures that inhabited them.
Goblins and other goblinoid slaves that the drow kept for the city littered the area, and the hunting party took great pride in moving around and through them as if they weren’t there. Unseen and uncaring. That meant lashings verbal and physical for any of the unlucky creatures who got in their way.
The city itself was supposed to take up an entire cavern itself, from what the books James had scrounged up said. But there was little else after that to describe them, and the drow had been rightfully tight-lipped after that contest. We had run into more patrolling drow, and other kinds of creatures that looked like stone, like the small one we had killed in the stomach before.
Around a bend, the drow froze in place, globes of darkness springing up around each of them. Maebe conjured one around us, as a large, deeper shadow passed in front of the tunnel before us. It moved slowly, slithering in great heaves of its body as the sound of crushing and cracking stone split the air.
Ten minutes later, it was gone, and the drow sprinted forward with everything they had. Gone was the silence. Gone was the reservation and stealth. They hauled ass, and we hauled ass with them.
It took another ten minutes of sprinting forward for us to see the large room that the drow had been leading us toward. An expanse that made the previous places we had been feel almost cluttered and closed off. The ceiling of the room was thousands of feet up and covered in glowing colorful crystals shining with magical light of differing spectrums.
The translator rushed to us; his voice raised to a normal volume for us as the sound was almost deafening. More voices rang out, crashing stone and metal tearing buffeted us violently.
Balmur spoke, his tone hurried, “The city is under attack by great worms. They eat the stone and are attracted to noise, but this has never happened before. You must leave.”
Then he was on his way back to the others, their cries and lamenting turning to rage and whoops of war. They rushed forward, their weapons drawn, and began hacking at the nearest perceived enemy.
“The fuck are we supposed to do?” Muu groaned incredulously. “Yoh’s been bitten by goddamn vampire bats, and now this?”
“We will assist them how we can,” Maebe stated coldly, then turned back. “If all of you are willing. I will not force you to do this.”
“It’s experience.” Balmur cracked his neck and cast a challenging glare at the others. “I’m in. I know that these guys are dicks, but that’s not to say that there can’t be something salvaged here, right?”
“If Balmur’s in, I am, too,” Bokaj added with a heavy sigh. “But how the hell do we fight these things?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t forget that there’s a good chance that a minion or a general is here somewhere,” Yohsuke reminded us with a hand on his astral adaptor. “We need to stick close together. And use our surroundings to our advantage.”
“Dude, I don’t think you heard the part where they eat stone.” Muu thrust his head forward and motioned toward the worms rising in the distance. “Because they do.”
“Yeah, and we have a fuck ton of magic on our side.” James smacked his arm gently. “We can use that to our advantage. I say we have our casters start the show. Between Maebe, Zeke, Balmur, Yoh, and Fainnir, we can do this, right?”
“Well, I can help to enlarge some of the magic that they use,” Balmur shrugged. “And all of us have Shadow Magic. What if those of us who have Shadow Magic summon a bunch of the shadows in the area to us for Maebe to direct and use?”
“What will the rest of us do?” Jaken had his shield and sword drawn as he cast his gaze about. Goblins flooded the area, fleeing from the threat and dying in droves under the weight of the massive earth eaters. They were too far away to see their level, but being the size of a small skyscraper had to lend some serious strength, right?
Here was hoping that they were bigger than their level, or we were fucked.
“You guys and Fainnir can keep the goblins from swarming us and by being a distraction.” I motioned to one of the little things that had wandered too close and tried to lash out at Fainnir. Grav’s arms exploded from the earth and pulled it, screaming down to its doom. “We will do what we can, but we need all of you to keep us safe.”
“You got it.” Jaken thumped his shield with his sword and pointed to four different locations.
Muu to the east side, Jaken north, James south, and Fainnir to our western flank with Bokaj to keep him fr
om being overrun.
Kayda grew to her full size, and stood behind her Uncle Goblin, stubbornly watching his six, and I allowed Bea out of my collar with a warning and a promise.
“If you are good, and stay close, I will give you that crystal that you want so badly.” She cocked her head to the side and sent me an image of it, drool pooling in her mouth. “Yes, that one. But you have to protect us and stay close. Do you understand?”
Want, her mind butted against mine, and I gruffly snatched her up by the back of her skull, forcing her to look into my eyes.
“You will earn it, and only by doing what I say,” I said, then growled at her. “Do you understand?”
Kill. She gave the affirmative and squawked once. She would listen. For now.
I let her go, and she bumped my leg affectionately before turning her back and watching for prey to come too close.
“You done fucking about?” Yohsuke raised an eyebrow. I flipped him the bird, and he grinned. “Good. Head in the game. Maebe, take the center. Balmur, you’re in front of her, I’m back left, and Zeke is back right. Grab as much shadow as you can and pull it to Maebe. We all good?”
Everyone nodded, the light in the place making it so much easier to see, and the plan began.
Gathering the shadows in the cavern was much easier than it should have been. The area was steeped in them, and they seemed to be almost as magically charged as pure mana, but I paid it no mind. Once we had gathered enough shadow energy, a ball of it roughly the size of the boulder from Indiana Jones, Maebe took full control of it and weaponized it. She compacted it, lengthening it into a spear with a tip of frost so cold that I could see my breath from forty feet beneath it.
“Ready Balmur?” She motioned to the other man politely.
The newbie wizard raised his hands and began weaving through a series of complicated gestures, muttering arcane words until he snapped his fingers, and the spear grew slightly larger.
Balmur’s chest heaved as he dropped to a knee and consumed a couple mana potions. We had a decent stock, but we would likely need to restock once this fight was over. If we made it.
Maebe lined up her shot, held her hands up, and spun the spear like a drill. It blurred a second later, streaking forward with a cannonball-explosion-like burst of speed, the frost leaving a winter’s trail behind it when it struck its target.
A rumbling, ear-piercing screech of pain and anguish crashed into us, and the worm crashed to the ground, drow and other creatures clambering all over it like ants on a fallen foe, ready to take it back to the nest.
“Again, let’s go,” Yohsuke said, his voice a sharp bark of tension.
We gathered more shadows, the ease of it still startling, but I ignored it and pressed on.
The others kept the goblins away from us, their weapons bloodied, but they seemed to be doing well. Bea had dragged a goblin’s leg to me as a present, like a cat with a bird, and then ran off to kill another that had come too close to James.
We fired off three more rounds of icy shadow-spears before a large inky-black glob of energy swirled into the air and split into six swords. Each glowed with spectral-purple energy from tip to pommel as they tipped toward the remaining worms and slashed forward, their tips crashing and splitting the worms in two in some cases.
The last worm fell, crashing to the ground with a screech that cut short when the sword slammed home into its head.
“That will likely be the Queen and her priestesses,” James whispered in awe.
Screams and shouts came from the city for another ten to twenty minutes as we rested where we were under the cover of a shadow dome that we erected together. We were tired. It had taken us a good three minutes to gather enough shadow for that final spear. We had gone to the point where Balmur’s nose had bled, and Jaken had to heal him to keep us going.
Yoh wasn’t looking too hot either, his gray skin seemed more pale than normal, and he was sweating profusely.
The others sat with us, covered in goblin blood and gore. James had fallen prey to a larger goblinoid who had smacked him hard enough to blacken his eye with a sucker punch. Luckily Fainnir had been there to use his axe and slice cleanly through the bastard’s leg, giving Bokaj and Bea enough time to step in.
Muu’s short spear had shattered when he had attempted to throw it through one of the worms as it slithered too close. He’d been supremely angry about that, but we promised him a new one, and it placated him a little.
Fainnir, the poor kid, had been blindsided by so many goblins after saving James that Bokaj had to have Tmont drag him out of the pile by his cloak as he swung and cursed wildly. He was still shaken from it but seemed to be recovering well.
The tide of goblins had stemmed closer to the fall of the fourth worm, as they had been either crushed or were well into the tunnels outside the city.
With the calm, my gaze fell on the city. Ruined as it was, it likely would have been breathtaking if we had come upon it before the attack. Speaking of attacks, I opened my status screen and notifications.
I had received a whopping 33,600 EXP from the fight, the majority of it coming from the worms, but the others had slain a mountain of goblins that added to the experience we had to sacrifice to each other and Maebe.
That had been enough to send me over to level 39. So close to the second twenty level milestone, I could taste it. Most of the others had gained a level as well. Yohsuke, Jaken, and Bokaj made it to level 39 with me. James to level 38 with Balmur almost making it to level 41. Our pets had leveled up, too. Tmont and Kayda had both made it to level 24 with a good chunk of experience toward the next level.
Hell, Fainnir had leapt up by eighteen levels, putting him up to level 27! He told us that his strength and constitution had been bumped up by six points each naturally, and his dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom all by three points respectively as well. That left him thirty-six points to use to better himself.
“How should I go about it?” He looked to the rest of us with a look of gleeful excitement plastered on his face. “Never had this many points!”
“Well, what do you feel like you use the most?” Muu finished tinkering with his own stats. “For me, it’s my strength, constitution, and dexterity.”
The young dwarf thought for a moment, “It would be all five of me abilities but for charisma. I do nae—not, thank ye Pebble—plan to go into merchant work, so I feel that one a waste.”
“Then focus your stats in those areas where you think they will do the best work for you,” Yohsuke advised tiredly. He looked a little pale, but that had been a lot of magic we had worked with.
Fainnir nodded and set to work, finally coming to a decision he was proud of. None of us pried, he took his privacy seriously and I had no doubt that he would reveal his hand soon.
Kayda’s three natural points went directly into intelligence for some reason, making it twenty-two in total. As I thought on it, she had been helping to reign in Bea a lot, I guess, so that had to help. I added one to wisdom, taking it to fifteen, then added two to strength and constitution. That brought each respective stat to twenty-seven and thirty-three with the final four going into dexterity for a total of thirty-three.
Bea had leveled up like crazy, making it to level 17! And was almost on the cusp of Level 18. That meant that she had gained ten natural points and thirty points for me to spend on top of that! Holy hell. This had to have been how Muu felt with all those points to spend on weapon skills. Jesus.
Her ten natural points had gone several different directions. Two to intelligence, strength, and wisdom. And four points to dexterity. That was incredible, but I wanted to make sure I knew what she wanted.
“Bea, you have a lot of points to spend on your levels, how do you want to grow?” She seemed perplexed for a moment until I showed her how I went through Kayda’s leveling up and the last time she had leveled up.
Faster. Smarter. She rubbed her bloodied muzzle against my hand.
“Okay, but I have to make sur
e that you won’t die in one hit, okay? So, I need to make sure your health goes up, alright?” She nuzzled my hand and leaned against me.
Okay, so I threw an even ten into the stats that she wanted me to, and to her constitution as well, somewhat against my better judgment, but hey—maybe she would listen if I did, right?
Name: Bea Arthur
Race: Gust Raptor (Hatchling)
Level: 17
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 29
Constitution: 21
Intelligence: 22
Wisdom: 6
Charisma: 3
Unspent Attribute Points: 0
That was much better, and I had to admit, I could feel her getting smarter as I added the points.
Tell me why I felt that was dangerous.
Father, Her voice interrupted my anxiety over the potential mistake. I glanced down at her, her eyes seeming just a tad sharper than normal, she seemed a little healthier and much lither than she had been before.
Father, I was good. I would like my reward now, please. She chirped at my hand and bumped me with her clawed hands as if she were trying to shove me into moving faster.
“You did earn it.” I glanced about, making sure the coast was clear so that I could reward her.
A large host of drow broke through the city walls with weapons in hand, a good majority of them being women.
“Soon, dear heart.” I could feel her indignation, but I tugged her muzzle toward the procession. “We have to wait until it’s safe for you to eat it, and that means that we need to have privacy. I will reward you, I promised. Just not when I would give it to you.”
She snorted and touched the collar at my throat, filtering into it on her own, disgust invading my mind as she left. The little shit had stormed out on me!
What the hell had I just done to myself?
Maebe collected herself, smoothing her hair back away from her face, but doing little else to hide her involvement in the fray, before she dropped the dome of shadows that protected us from sight.
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 50