by A F Kay
Extra. Enemy. Need. Plan. Sift signed.
That sat in silence, and Ruwen’s Mana bar had completely refilled before he signed back.
I. Have. Plan.
Chapter 33
Ruwen stopped walking when the level four Fighter became visible with Ruwen’s Detect Temperature. He turned it off, and after a few seconds of searching with his normal vision, he found the green skinned Fighter.
The plan was simple. Ruwen would use his Distract spell on the far part of the clearing. When the Brawlers were distracted by the spell, Ruwen would kill the lowest level Fighter, and Sift would take out the level six Fighter on the left side of the clearing. When Ruwen finished his opponent, he would crawl to the edge of the clearing and wait for Sift to kill the Assassin. Then Ruwen would create an even louder distraction at the far end of the clearing, run out and destroy the hive, and then help Sift if he needed it.
Originally, Ruwen had wanted to kill the Mage first. Sift had signaled that the Mage’s magic would provide Sift energy while the Assassin’s blades were the real danger. Ruwen had wanted to know how Sift would make it to the tree undetected, and Sift had pointed at himself. Ruwen didn’t know if that was Sift bragging or if Ruwen had just misunderstood. It didn’t matter; Sift was capable of handling himself, and while Ruwen couldn’t see his level, he knew it was higher than any of these Brawlers’. The only person in danger here was Ruwen.
He focused on the Fighter again, and more information appeared now that he could see the Brawler better.
Name: Clapping Brawler, Fighter (Level 4)
Health: 124
Mana: 0
Energy: 98
Spirit: 0
As Ruwen snuck up on the Fighter, he debated between using his dagger or staff. The problem with the knife was he had to get closer, and it did less damage. The problem with the staff was he needed room to swing it, and if the chimes sounded when he did, it would give him away. Now that he was closer, he could see there was room to swing the staff.
The dagger did four to eight damage, but the staff did six to twelve. He wasn’t strong enough to get any bonuses, and his chance for a critical strike was just over 2%, so he couldn’t count on that. But with both Bleed and Backstab active, he could do up to seventy-two points of damage in one blow with the staff. Over half of the fighter’s Health. He wouldn’t swing the weapon until necessary, though, because he couldn’t count on the staff’s chimes triggering the Distraction effect.
The counter on his quest was down to four minutes. They were really cutting this close. He didn’t have any more time to waste. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Ruwen crept to within ten feet of the level four Clapping Brawler and noticed the Fighter’s small size. Ruwen nicknamed him Tiny and felt a little bad about ambushing him. Ruwen carefully raised his staff over his head, preparing to strike Tiny. Focusing on the area behind all the Brawlers in the clearing, he brought the Distract icon into his mind along with the desire for a medium-loud sound.
A dull boom made it through the wax stuffed in his ears. Tiny tensed and took a step toward the clearing. Ruwen sprinted at Tiny, the 20% force reduction on his Feather Boots of Grasping helping to make his steps quiet.
As Ruwen brought the Staff of Chimes down, Tiny turned, probably hearing the chimes. The staff smashed into the hollow of Tiny’s shoulder and neck and caused him to stumble to the left. Both the Bleed and Backstab icons appeared above Tiny’s head, and his Health dropped by thirty-five. Another two points disappeared every second as the Bleed effect took hold.
Ruwen brought the staff down again before Tiny could react, and his Health dropped another ten points. Tiny fell to the ground, and Ruwen knew he’d won. It had been much more straightforward than he’d thought, too. He raised his staff to smash Tiny again but discovered the Fighter aiming three blowpipes at Ruwen’s face.
A dart struck Ruwen’s goggles, the needle cracking the glass and making it hard to see. He felt a sharp pinch on his forehead and then his neck. The Poisoned debuff flashed under his bars. He felt a little dizzy, but the heightened resistances from his Cultivation Stage tempered the worst of the poison.
A two flashed every second on Ruwen’s Health bar as the poison tried to kill him. Another dart struck his goggles, cracking it even more, and he could no longer see out the right side. Sharp pain in each thigh meant two more darts had found a home. The damage from the poison rose to four per second, and Ruwen staggered a little.
Tiny had a blowpipe in three of his hands and used the fourth to reload darts. That didn’t seem fair. Not wanting to get struck again, Ruwen swung his staff at the two-foot blowpipes. He connected with two of them, and they flew out of Tiny’s hands.
Tiny brought both feet up and struck Ruwen in the stomach. It only did two points of damage, but it took his wind. He staggered back, gasping through his Scarf of Freshness. Tiny jumped to his feet and pulled a dagger and a whip from his belt.
Ruwen regained most of his breath and faced the Fighter. Tiny brought the blowpipe to his lips, between the jagged yellow teeth, and shot another dart. Ruwen tried to dodge it, but it struck him in the shoulder. He raised his staff to strike Tiny, but before Ruwen could attack, the Fighter flicked his whip up into the trees and used his two free hands to climb. In a blink, Tiny had disappeared into the trees, taking the whip with him.
Activating Detect Temperature, Ruwen scanned the trees but didn’t see Tiny. Ruwen had lost thirty-seven Health points and had nothing to show for it. He felt a pinch on the back of his neck and pulled a bone needle out of his skin. The Poisoned debuff flashed again, and Ruwen realized Tiny’s strategy. The Fighter planned to harass Ruwen from above, slowly poisoning him to death.
Ruwen moved behind a trunk and scanned the tree branches again. He only had two minutes left on his timer, and Sift was probably waiting for Ruwen to start the next phase. A long delay here could jeopardize Sift’s safety. He looked out into the clearing, searching for Sift, and gasped.
A crouching man-sized form moved slowly across the far side of the clearing toward the three Brawlers in the middle. Was there another creature here besides the Clapping Brawlers? Whatever it was gave off a lot of heat. Ruwen turned off his Detect Temperature, and his normal vision saw nothing but an empty field. When he turned it back on, the red form appeared. It looked to be the same size as Sift. Could that be Sift? If so, how was he doing that?
Then like a puzzle, the pieces fell in place. Sift ‘sifted’ through the energy that touched him, which included light. Ruwen had assumed Sift absorbed all this energy to power his abilities, but he didn’t need to. He could sift through the available energy and let some of it pass through him, unabsorbed. Ruwen’s normal vision couldn’t see Sift because Sift let the light that touched him pass through his body. Nothing was reflected back to be seen by an observer. But his clothes would still reflect light. Which led to the logical conclusion that once again, Sift had abandoned all or most of his clothes.
Sharp pain on Ruwen’s hand made him jerk. He removed another bone needle as the familiar Poisoned debuff appeared, and moved around the tree to put Tiny behind him. Glancing around the trunk, Ruwen searched the branches but couldn’t see anyone. Another dart struck his goggles, and they shattered. Small pieces of glass hit his eye, and a five flashed on his Health bar.
Ruwen crouched behind the trunk and removed the goggles. His eyes stung and watered, but after a few seconds, his vision cleared. Looking back into the clearing, he noticed Sift had already climbed the tree containing the Assassin.
The timer on Ruwen’s quest read fifty-nine seconds. There was no way he would find Tiny in the trees above him and make it out to destroy that hive in less than a minute. Not finishing this quest meant he might not have enough experience to level, and he didn’t know if there would be time to gain more. He doubted his level was high enough to survive Blapy’s level four. That left one option. Proceed with the attack on the three Brawlers in the center and come back for Ti
ny later.
With fifty-five seconds remaining, Ruwen confirmed Sift had made it near the Assassin in the tree. Concentrating on the back of the clearing, Ruwen created another Distraction, this one louder than before. All the Clapping Brawlers turned in that direction. Ruwen dashed out of the trees and sprinted toward the group, and the Exploding Burrower Hive hanging from the tree above them.
Ruwen had made it halfway to the tree when the Mage, and the Chief they’d named Clapper, looked up. Sift and the Assassin battled in the branches. The Mage pointed upward, and a stream of fire surged into the tree. Clapper slapped the Mage and yelled at him. A moment later, the Mage pointed a different wand upward, and ice shot into the tree.
A tiny cloak flashed at the top of his vision, and four areas turned red on the ground between him and the tree. Ruwen slowed to a jog as he processed this new information. They were all roughly square-shaped, and they seemed to be staggered outward from the tree. He realized his Pacifist’s Cloak’s Detect Trap passive ability had triggered, and he slowed to a stop. There were traps all over the clearing.
Ruwen immediately channeled his Detect Traps spell. His Energy bar barely moved at the two Energy per second cost. It gave him an extra 10% chance to detect a trap for every minute he studied. He didn’t have a minute, but he wanted to take a few seconds to try and find any additional ones. The last thing he needed was to get trapped.
Another two red areas appeared on the ground. The tree was only forty feet away, but there were traps everywhere, and Ruwen’s quest counter was down to thirty-five seconds.
A dart struck Ruwen’s neck, quickly followed by one to the back of his head. He’d lost almost half his Health to that irritating dart blower. The Mage and Clapper faced Ruwen, and he guessed that Tiny had alerted them to Ruwen’s presence. Ruwen wished his ears weren’t plugged. Losing his hearing wasn’t making this fight any easier. Neither the Mage or Clapper moved toward Ruwen, but the Mage pointed a wand in Ruwen’s direction.
The ground vibrated, and Ruwen didn’t wait to see what would happen. Channeling Leap, he jumped as hard as he could toward the tree. The earth exploded behind him at the same time, helping to propel him forward. He needed to destroy that hive. As he approached the ground, his Detect Traps found another trap, right where he would land.
Ruwen struck the ground and immediately fell into a covered hole. His staff flew from his hands as intense pain flared around his right ankle. A twenty flashed on his Health bar as it dropped. The severe pain caused his eyes to water, and he screamed. The pit swallowed him up to the waist, and something had snapped tight around his ankle. He was scared of moving his left foot in case there were more traps in the pit. His quest counter ticked down to twenty-eight seconds.
Clapper and the Mage were staring up at the tree again where Sift and the Assassin still fought. The Mage’s earth explosion had aided Ruwen’s jump and had put him within twenty feet of the hive. He could see it there, just out of reach. An Exploding Burrower landed on the ground in front of him. It looked up at Ruwen, and he realized he no longer had his goggles on. If that thing made it to his eyes it would dig right into his brain and then explode. The last two days and all his work would be for nothing. The Burrower walked toward him, and his quest counter reached twenty-three seconds. Three more Burrowers flew toward him. Nothing had gone to plan. This had all been a disaster. Worse even then the chickens.
The thought of the chickens from level two and their exploding eggs triggered a burst of activity in Ruwen’s head. It felt like his mind had turned to ice as ideas flicked impossibly fast through his thoughts. He latched on to two of them and ripped open his Void Band.
Three Booming Eggs dropped onto the ground in front of Ruwen. He’d only wanted two but didn’t have enough control yet to manage that. Thankfully, none of them exploded when they struck the ground. The Exploding Burrower had jumped onto his hand and started crawling up his arm. He tried to ignore his impending death as three Floating Clasper Suckers fell on the Booming Eggs. One landed in the dirt but the other two each stuck to an Egg.
He held his Void Band over one of the Eggs that had a sucker, and Sift’s water skin fell on it. Ruwen picked up the waterskin, Clasper Sucker, and Booming Egg sandwich he’d made to see if it would hold together. As the Exploding Burrower reached his shoulder and the quest timer ticked to nineteen seconds, Ruwen threw the waterskin at the tree. He prayed it would be enough to draw the Burrowers away from him and save his life.
The waterskin struck the tree skin first and the Egg didn’t explode. Ruwen brushed the Exploding Burrower off his shoulder, but he knew it was over. It would be back in a few seconds, along with the three Burrowers flying toward him.
The waterskin bounced off the tree, fell to the ground, and exploded. Spit water covered the entire area under the tree and much of the trunk. A moment later, screeching made it through the wax in his ears as the Burrowers all flew toward the spit-soaked tree. In seconds, expanded Burrowers covered the entire area beneath the tree. The Mage and Clapper kicked them in frustration.
The quest timer reached fourteen seconds.
Ruwen held his Void Band over the dirt, and the jar of Fire Mucus dropped out. He stuck the Fire Mucus to the Egg with the Clasper Sucker and then threw it as hard as he could at the tree.
The quest timer reached ten seconds.
He hadn’t aimed directly at the hive because his Dexterity was far too low to hit it even from this distance. Instead, he had aimed for the branches above it. A second later, the egg exploded, and Fire Mucus sprayed over everything around the tree.
The quest timer reached eight seconds. Unfortunately, it would take five seconds for the Fire Mucus to ignite, leaving only three seconds to destroy the hive. He didn’t think that would be enough.
The Mage and Clapper were wiping the Fire Mucus off their faces and glaring at him. The Mage lifted a wand, pointed it at Ruwen, and grinned as fire erupted toward Ruwen. The entire area exploded in flames.
The quest timer reached six seconds.
Ruwen started to open his quest log to see if he’d completed the quest in time when his Energy bar flashed red. Ruwen slammed the Void Band closed. He had to pay closer attention to that. Once again, he had almost killed himself, and now he didn’t have much Energy left.
Keen Senses triggered, making his skin prickle, and he twisted his head to see Tiny ten feet away. The Fighter had recovered his blowpipes, but all three were hooked to his belt. Tiny raised two hands above his head and clapped; another hand held a dagger, and the fourth stroked the necklace of hands around its neck.
Tiny stared at him and then laughed. Ruwen assumed that was what the hacking sound meant. Tiny stopped clapping, one hand pointing at Ruwen while the other swung up and down like it was beating the ground.
Tiny spoke, and while Ruwen couldn’t hear it, his Hey You ability allowed him to read Tiny’s lips, or gnashing teeth, in this case.
“You funny. Pretty hands. Look soft,” Tiny said as he stepped toward Ruwen.
Ruwen had no idea what the odd behavior meant or why Tiny thought Ruwen funny. Had there been something funny about their fight? He pushed the question to the side and concentrated on surviving.
Trapped as Ruwen was, his options for fighting were limited. A plan occurred to him, but he needed a couple of seconds to set it up. Unfortunately, it required him to be facing Tiny. Ruwen shuffled his left foot around as he turned his body in the pit. When he had almost completely turned around, his left foot triggered another trap, and he groaned in pain. His Health dropped eighteen points.
Still needing to delay Tiny another couple of seconds, Ruwen forced the pain away and focused on communicating with Tiny.
“Fire. Chief need Fighter,” Ruwen said.
It didn’t come out like he’d formed it in his mind, but that was probably because he thought in his own language, not Tiny’s.
Tiny froze and stared at him. “How you speak Clap?”
That was all the delay Ruwen ha
d needed, as he retrieved the Fastidious Dagger from his belt. He raised the blade above his head and gently threw it over the Fighter. Tiny watched as it arced over his head and landed behind him.
Tiny turned back to Ruwen. “You worst fighter ever come.”
“Me know. Me working on it,” Ruwen said.
Tiny moved toward him again, and Ruwen waited until only a few feet separated them. Then he raised his hand until it was chest high on Tiny, focused on the Fastidious Dagger, and pictured the icon for Retrieve.
Tiny smiled, clapped two of his hands, and took a step forward. The Fastidious Dagger struck him in the back, triggering Bleed and Backstab as it tore through Tiny’s body on its way back to Ruwen. Tiny’s Health dropped by forty-one, and he collapsed forward in pain.
The vibrating dagger flew toward Ruwen’s hand. He tried catching it, but his low Dexterity made that almost impossible. Instead of snatching it from the air, it impaled his outstretched hand. He screamed as his Health dropped twelve points. Making it worse, the dagger, coated in Tiny’s and Ruwen’s blood, vibrated at an alarming rate as it tried to clean itself.
Ruwen pulled the dagger from his hand and immediately cast Bleed and Backstab on it. It took two seconds and seventy-five Mana. Ruwen hoped he’d been quick enough.
Tiny had collapsed in shock from the blade ripping through his body, and only had twenty-five Health points left. Ruwen, trapped in the pit, couldn’t do the Retrieve trick again because of the minute cooldown. That meant he had to quickly end this.
Ruwen tried to pick up the dagger with his uninjured hand, but its frantic vibrations made it impossible to hold. Using both hands, he gripped the blade and quickly slammed it into Tiny’s back. Ruwen left the dagger there, vibrating madly, and leaned back. The information above Tiny’s head turned grey, and all the values fell to zero.