by Cheek, Jason
This time its soulful cry of agony was in a higher-pitched tone that made my teeth ache as the monster smashed a clawed foot into Fylreh’s face. As it flipped around to yank the dagger from its ovipositors, Neysa leaped atop of the Elite Dil-Hilth. Snapping her jaws over its bloody face, the massive Silver Dire Wolf struck with all four of her razor-sharp claws, shredding the monster's torso and legs for all she was worth.
Even then, a ten level difference was nothing to sneeze at. While she’d gotten the jump on the monstrous enemy, the Elite Dil-Hilth was still strong enough to snatch her up in one clawed hand and hold her out at arm’s length. Not that such a move stopped the Silver Dire Wolf’s attack as her deadly claws continued ripping away at the monster’s body and arm. Letting out an enraged roar, it flung the massive Wolf away like she weighed nothing. As Neysa smashed against the far wall, the Elite Dil-Hilth once again reached for the dagger pinning it to the conference table. Before it could yank the blade free, the horde of Elite Orc Warrior Zombies surged through the open doorway and dogpiled the monster in an undead feeding frenzy of claws and fangs.
Even then, the Elite Dil-Hilth fought back with devastating bone crunching blows as it sought to hold the mini-horde of undead at bay. Fortunately, there were too many zombies for the monster to quickly stop them all as its hit point bar began to plummet. Even so, Grimblood still managed to cause massive damage as a tongue-like proboscis began shooting out of its mouth with the force to punch through solid bone. I swear, it was like something right out of an Alien movie.
Snatching up a feral zombie in its vice-like grip, the Elite Dil-Hilth dragged the undead creature’s head up to its bleeding circular mouth as its proboscis-tongue shot out to punch a fist-size hole through its skull. Three or four shots was all it took to utterly pulverize the zombie’s head to nothing. Tossing the useless corpse away, it continued shredding my zombies one by one as I began to worry that I’d run out of undead pets before the thing was destroyed. As the third zombie was being shredded in the monster’s iron grip, I laid into Grimblood the best I could with the pack of zombies blocking my thrusts, when I saw a flash of silver fur on the far side of the room.
Rolling back to her paws, Neysa’s golden eyes flashed in fury as she once again sprang at the Elite Dil-Hilth’s head. This time, she grabbed ahold of the Elite Dil-Hilth’s muscular neck in a death grip with her jaws as it tossed the ruined zombie away with a flick of its wrists. The Silver Dire Wolf’s vicious growls filled the room as she began shredding the creature’s thick muscular neck with her razor sharp claws while Grimblood went berserk. Forgetting the zombies shredding its body, the Elite Dil-Hilth urgently began slashing with its free hand at the Silver Dire Wolf’s head and shoulders to no avail. As it desperately tried to break the Silver Dire Wolf’s hold, the creature’s proboscis-like tongue uselessly lashed out at the air trying to line up a kill shot.
Knowing she had control of the fight, Neysa kept Grimblood’s focus on her as she tested out all four of her new claws while the remaining zombies relentlessly continued their savage assault. Ripping out chunks of bloody flesh from the Elite Dil-Hilth’s torso and legs, the undead slowly began working the monster’s hit points down by literally eating it alive as it shrieked in helpless fury. Seeing the battle was under control, I stepped back from the scrum and hurried over to my soulmate’s side.
‘Thanks for the save,’ I said, hugging Helgath to my chest as the tears ran down from my eyes.
‘Everything for you, War Leader,’ Helgath’s mental sigh of relief sounded in my head, as her arms hugged me tight.
‘You’re the best,’ I murmured back.
Holding Helgath against my chest, I stood up and slid the Vicious Executioner's Axe of Cruelty into my belt, before helping Fylreh back to her hooves while hitting her with a Regeneration and a Minor Cure Disease. You know, just in case something nasty was on the Elite Dil-Hilth’s claws. Taking a quick scan of the rest of the party and making sure they looked to be recovering their senses properly, I began making my way over to Reeva’s side of the table.
I’m sure some people would think of me as not caring about Neysa and her plight against the Elite Dil-Hilth. That, most definitely, was not the case. Through our link, I could feel the Silver Dire Wolf’s savage glee as she practiced with her new claws on the hateful creature that had threatened her soulmate. She relished every bellow of agony and shriek of defeat as her claws worked deeper and deeper into the Elite Dil-Hilth’s thick neck.
Clearing my mind of the intense emotions and bloodlust, I stayed clear of the vicious battle as I went to Reeva’s side. Giving Helgath a final squeeze, I set her down and gathered up the Queen in my arms and backed to the rear of the conference room. There was something definitely wrong with the woman since her body didn’t bend or anything. As I squatted down and propped her up on my knee, Helgath explained what was wrong.
‘Dil-Hilth’s tentacles exude a paralyses poison when it comes into contact with skin.’
‘Or ingested?’ I asked, remembering the tipped over wine glass.
‘That too,’ Helgath agreed, before continuing. ‘I verified that she’s also clear of any seed-worms along with the rest of the Guardian Knights.’
‘Seed-worms?’ I hesitantly asked, as an uncontrollable shiver went through my body. I had a feeling I was going to have nightmares about Grimblood DeKhayed threatening me while stroking his disgusting dual ovipositors.
‘Like I’ve said before,’ Helgath mentally said in a tone full of meaning, ‘there are many monsters that will impregnate males and females of any race with their seed or eggs around here.’ I felt the Half-Orc dig for a term from my world to better explain what she meant, before continuing. ‘They start out like Roundworms from your world, but grow inside the victim’s bodies until they are born.’
‘You mean that explosion of Olin DeKhayed-’ I began to ask as Helgath cut me off.
‘Was the Dil-Hilth’s birth.’
‘You mean that was a freaking baby Dil-Hilth?’ I asked in sudden horror at the thought.
‘A Level 50 hatchling, but yes, a baby nonetheless,’ Helgath confirmed, as I blanched at the thought of what an adult Dil-Hilth would be like to battle. There were a lot of questions I had for my soulmate about the psionic abilities of the creatures and how their attacks seemed to bypass our magic, but that would have to wait until later.
Focusing back on my patient, I cast a Minor Cure Disease and a Regeneration just for good measure on Reeva. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Slowly though, the woman’s face began to unfreeze as she let out a heart-wrenching sob. A moment later, her body had cleared out enough of the poison for her to wrap her arms around my neck while she sobbed uncontrollably. Looking up, I saw the grave-faced General Dell, Lance Leader Warf, the Guardian Knights, and the rest of my companions as they came running up to us while a final shriek from the Elite Dil-Hilth echoed throughout the room, just before a system window popped open before my eyes.
Congratulations! You have successfully completed the secret quest “Finding the Evil Within that’s tearing apart the Kingdom of Kader!”
You have gained 50,000 Experience Points. You have gained 5,000 points to Reputation. The citizens and the Royal Forces of Palnisdale will praise your name for defeating the growing darkness that had taken root in their city. The people of Palnisdale will now accept you as their Overlord and the Royal Forces will gladly swear their oath of allegiance to you. You have gained access to the resources of Palnisdale. You now have an additional option for purchasing Humans from within the NPC Recruiter. You have gained the title, Enemy of the Dil-Hilth Race.
Congratulations! A possible clue has been found for Discovering the reason why the High Priest of Light in Amyalneas has forbade training Light Magic to anyone who has mastered Dark Magic!
Below that, there was another pleasant message.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 44!
You have 7 Attribute Points Unspent!
Without hes
itation, I put all seven Attribute Points into Spirit. While my Spirit was obviously way too low, maybe it would be enough to allow me to take a Psionic Paralysis in the future with Helgath’s help while hopefully avoiding being stunned as well.
Statistics:
Hit Points: 2,670
Mana: 3,760
Endurance: 2,670
Attributes:
Strength: 114 (+91)
Intelligence: 200 (+176)
Spirit: 113 (+71)
Agility: 141 (+30)
Stamina: 160 (+87)
Charisma: 80
0 Unassigned Attribute Points.
Taking a final glance at my Attribute Points, I hit accept and closed the window.
I noticed there were a lot of people in the room as I dismissed the windows before my eyes and looked back at the commotion going on around me. It seemed like the entire Royal Guard contingent from below was there along with Domenic and all of his Dwarves. Not only that, Scout Leader Tanner and Lance Sub-Leader Brewster had also arrived during the excitement. For some reason, the one person that stood out to me more than anyone else in that split-moment was Lady Trinder who was staring at the gore covered room with a look of absolute horror. At least, we’d been in the Red Room, I thought with a chuckle as I helped Reeva Isolde to her feet.
Refusing to move everyone into another conference room, I had us all go down into the courtyard to finish off our discussion. Though, not before I collected the loot on that monstrosity's corpse and its soul stone for my bag of bosses. In truth, the courtyard was the only place that could hold everyone present and, trust me, there were a lot of people who wanted questions answered or orders given. Besides that, it allowed Lady Trinder a chance to clean up the Red Room and a chance to get the baths for our group prepared.
I think that almost everyone was just shocked about how all of us were covered from head-to-toe in dried blood and viscera. It was like we’d purposely bathed in the blood of our enemies. It was probably worse for the women. Really, it was more like anyone without a helm since long hair was great for collecting sticky particles of questionable origins.
Queen Isolde didn’t stay for long. She officially thanked me for saving her life and that of the people of Palnisdale by removing a terrible evil that had been plaguing her domain. She also approved of my initiative to reinstate the Royal Forces that had been laid off. Basically, from what I got from the conversation, is that it would resolve the homeless situation of the city overnight, besides making a number of wrongs right again. Promising that we’d talk in the morning during the oath taking ceremony, she excused herself while Lady Trinder led her away.
“Do you mind if I get working on repairing your shield while you take care of this?” Fylreh asked in a low voice, as Queen Isolde was escorted away. Explaining my need to Guard Leader Cleaver, he had one of his men escort the filly to a nearby blacksmith’s building for her to do her work, while I dealt with everything that came up with Sir Hemmet, Sir Anon, and Lance Leader Warf’s help.
“Overlord Ironwolf, we found that fifty yards of the gorge to the Isolde Line has been completely destroyed as you reported.” Scout Leader Tanner said, coming to attention as she made her report. The incredulous look she gave me made me feel somewhat uncomfortable as she continued for all to hear. “We were able to confirm that the major Orc incursion has rerouted their forces to the main pass up to the Palnisdale highland. I would expect their vanguard to be outside of the city walls by sometime tomorrow late morning or early afternoon.”
“Do we have any mounted archer units?” I asked, looking between General Dell, the Guardian Knights, and Lance Leader Warf.
“Not any longer,” Sir Hemmet apologetically said to both General Dell and me. “That was one of the first units General DeKhayed had removed upon your demotion.” He nodded towards General Dell sadly. The angry faces of the hardened veterans around me grew dark as they realized how severely they’d been betrayed by the traitor that had been within their midst.
“The Royal Guards are re-activating as many of the homeless troopers as they can, but there’s no way any of them would be ready to ride out right now.” Guard Leader Cleaver said, as the rest of the veterans around me nodded in agreement, when Scout Leader Tanner spoke up.
“What about using the Royal Guard Archers?” she asked, holding her hands up to Guard Leader Cleaver and Lance Leader Warf to forestall any arguments until she’d said her peace. “They don’t need to fight from the saddle. The Scouts can find the best location for them to set up their ambushes and run defense, while the Heavy Cavalry defends them. If it looks like they’re going to overrun the Archers, we have my Scouts harry the enemy while you're setting up the next ambush.
“By the time they make it up the slope, they’ll have lost thousands,” General Dell approvingly said out loud, as the officers nodded in agreement.
“We’ll have to head out now if we want to get the maximum effect,” Lance Leader Warf said thoughtfully. “It’ll be too late if we wait until morning.”
“Work with the on-duty sergeant at the gate to get the Archers you need,” Guard Leader Cleaver said, with a nod of respect to Tanner. “We’ll be a little shorthanded tonight due to the lack of personnel, but that will be a different story starting tomorrow once we get our people back into uniform.”
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take even with the Iron Falcon Mercenaries that are still out and about,” General Dell said weighing the issue as he met my eyes. If it came down to a fight, we both knew we had more than enough troopers to call upon if needed, but neither of us wanted to stop our people from getting as much rest as possible, before tomorrow’s push to Darom. Giving me a nod, General Dell continued to the group.
“Once Lance Sub-Leader Brewster makes his report, we’ll gather up the rest of the Heavy Cavalry units and meet up with Tanner at the main gate.” Seeing that everyone was in agreement, General Dell turned to the Heavy Cavalry Officer next.
“What did you find at Olin DeKhayed’s residence?”
“An absolute horror show,” the large man said with a haunted look in his eyes. “I’m sorry, General, but,” the Heavy Cavalryman gulped in a deep breath of air, “your sister was slaughtered by that beast. Don’t ask how she died, I beg you,” the hardened warrior choked up for a moment before continuing. “Just know she’s at peace.” Though his face turned pale at the other man’s words, General Dell’s soft voice only asked one question.
“And my niece?”
“She yet lives and her body is whole,” Lance Sub-Leader Brewster said, as the horrified look came back to his face. “Though, I fear she’ll be scarred for life.”
‘They must all be checked for seed-worms,” Helgath’s mental voice sounded in my head, as I explained what the Half-Orc had said to me earlier about Dil-Hilths. I finished by explaining that she must heal any survivors that have been implanted. That included the man’s son, Cedric DeKhayed. Blanching at my words, General Dell almost collapsed in his grief as I looped an arm around his shoulder to support him.
“She’ll be in good hands with Helgath, that I promise,” I said, as General Dell choked back a sob, before getting control over his grief. “We’ll also be taking her with us back to BrokenFang Hold.” I promised, as the veteran swordsman gave me a nod of thanks.
“Tell them what they need to do and to make sure everything that needs to be destroyed is properly burned,” I said to Helgath, as a wordless mutter went around the group. Ignoring the Humans’ nervous shifting as they focused on the green-skinned Half-Orc, I nodded for her to continue.
Taking a deep breath, Helgath gave the detailed instructions as to what needed to be done. Mostly, it was warnings about how to destroy seed-worms and whatever other evils were in the Dil-Hilth’s laboratory of horror. In short order, any prejudice seemed to fade away as they listened to the pertinent information with rapt attention as Helgath logically laid out the steps they needed to follow. While I wanted to look through everything that was there myse
lf, I just couldn’t manage it with how late this day was running. More important than any loot, I needed to clean up and log out so I could get some decent sleep before the shitstorm started up tomorrow or I’d be worthless.
Once Helgath had finished her spiel, I asked that any books, maps, manuscripts, or scrolls be collected up so I could take a look at them. Everything else, I told them to return to the victims’ families if that could be identified. Anything left over from that, I told them to make available to the homeless soldiers that had been the creature’s next victims. The house, I explained, would be made available for homeless troopers to live in until they were accorded proper space in the barracks. Sir Hemmet and Sir Anon promised to assist in getting that set up, since they knew I’d be leaving in the morning. Nonetheless, the generosity of my act caused a stir amongst the gathered soldiers.
The meeting broke up after that. My companions immediately headed off to the baths together talking and laughing. I was just going to head after them with Neysa and Helgath, when Domenic came walking up to me. Seeing my questioning look, he gave me a brotherly clap on the shoulder.
“I heard that Grimblood DeKhayed thought that the two of you would make a cute couple,” Domenic laughingly said, as I elbowed him in the ribs.
“Dick,” I shot back, as we both laughed. “That was some freaky ass shit, though,” I said, turning serious.
“Didn’t you have your shields?” Domenic asked, somewhat concerned.
“It was a Psionic attack,” I said with a frown, “didn’t even touch the shields.”
“That’s pretty messed up,” Domenic thoughtfully said. “Sounds like some crazy old-school Dungeons and Dragons rules.”
“Sort of,” I said, trying to put into words what I meant. “The attack functioned differently from anything in Dungeons and Dragons, except for going through magic shields.” I nodded to my soulmate at my side as the two of them traded an uncomfortable look. “Helgath linked her Spirit with me so I could resist the attack, but even then I was still inflicted with a lesser version of the Psionic attack.”