by Jez Cajiao
“Thank god, they’ve healed fast..” I muttered, looking down. I attempted to lift my right hand to my temple, where I could feel some residual pain, but the handcuffs jangled again. “Ah, shit. How bad is it?” I asked quietly.
“You mean your head, or the kid in ICU?” He asked, one eyebrow raised in question.
The memories of last night felt…wrong. I vaguely remembered the trip to Lou’s, and Martin, but it was like I was watching someone else’s actions. They ran through my mind almost like a movie, but with a red tint to everything and a roaring voice screaming for blood in my ears. That, and the sense of strength and power…and the fact that even still, I knew I wanted to feel it again.
“What happened?” I asked weakly.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, kid. I’ve seen the CCTV from the shop. You were fucked up pretty bad, bleeding all over the shop, then you disappeared before either us or the paramedics managed to find you. Next thing I know, we’re getting a call saying a lunatic has broken in, aggravated burglary, we think. We turn up to find you on the floor, blood everywhere, and your skull cracked, another kid beaten half to death, and a wee lass with a baseball bat broken in half. Now, start talking, before that dumb shit comes back.”
“Ah, crap. I don’t know, man…”
“Don’t give me that ‘no comment’ bullshit; not from you, and not after all these years!” he snapped at me.
“Ha, no. No, man, I mean I don’t know what happened. It feels like months ago; it’s all hazy. How long have I been here?”
“About six hours, and you better believe the doctors have some questions for you about that. I saw your wounds.”
I blinked and looked at him, trying to make sense of the fact I wasn’t dead. I’d always healed fast, insanely fast, but this was a new level. Jonno snapped his fingers in my face and I jumped, looking back at him.
“Focus, Jack! What happened!”
“I…I…they fucked me over. I loved her, and…” I told him the whole story, not holding anything back, even the dream. It took a while, but he sent the rookie away when he came back and told the nurses to wait outside. Eventually it was over and I laid back, exhausted and sad to my soul. Tears had long since covered my cheeks, and he nodded as I finished my story.
“…and I still don’t know where he is, man. Five fucking years I’ve been alone, five years! She was the only one I cared about, and she did that.”
“That everything, Jack?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Aye, Jonno, honest truth. What state am I in? Fucked gently, or sideways with a chainsaw up my arse?” He snorted at me and shook his head, gesturing for his partner to come back from the end of the corridor.
“It’s not good, kid, but I understand some of it at least. You be honest and don’t try to hide shit, it’ll go better for you. I’ll have a word with the CPS. See if they won’t lower the charges, or at least spread them around, as the other two were both found with a fuck ton of drugs in the house as well. None of you were innocent, but you had cause. Best you can hope for is a few years, I think.”
“Well that’s me fucked, isn’t it?” I muttered, finding it hard to get worked up about it. My head felt like it was packed in cotton wool, even as my heart sank into my boots. “Wait… where the fuck are my boots? And my top?”
“Really, Jack? After all this shit, that’s what you want to ask?” Jonno looked at me with another of his signature raised eyebrows and a frown that said ‘I’ve seen it all before, and you’re barely higher in my eyes than a turd sandwich, don’t make me downgrade you…’
“Oh, fuck off, man. It’s been a shitty day, okay?” I snapped at him and tried to fold my arms over my chest, rattling the handcuffs again. “And seriously, can we get these off?”
“Nope, but good try.” Jonno turned to the nurse, who had returned to check the bag connected to an IV in my left arm. “Excuse me, miss, is he okay to be moved to the cells, or do you need him here still?”
“He’s certainly not well enough to go anywhere, officer, no.” An unfamiliar male voice interrupted, and I twisted my head around, trying to see the speaker. A tall, dark-skinned man walked around the corner of the wall separating my room from the rest of the hall. “Six hours ago, this man had a cracked skull, needed nearly a hundred and sixty stitches, and had lost a tremendous amount of blood. Now he’s severely dehydrated, malnourished, and appears to be in a state of shock on top of it all. Add to this, you, an experienced law enforcement officer, have been questioning him when he is in no fit state to defend himself. You can post a guard outside the door, but beyond that, you won’t be interacting with my patient again until I judge that he is fit for interview.”
Jonno straightened up to his full height and looked like he was about to blast the doctor, when his fellow officer chimed in.
“Leave it, Jonno; you know he’s right.” Then he stepped closer to the doctor and nodded to him amiably. “We can post someone at the door, sir. No need for any hard feelings here; we’re all on the same team after all, yeah?”
Jonno looked pissed, but nodded and walked out, giving me a squeeze on the shoulder as he passed.
I sat upright, or at least as near as I could, and the doctor gave a disgusted snort, turning back to the police.
“Are those really necessary, officers? He can barely stay awake, let alone assault someone or escape.”
“They stay on, Doctor. Both for the safety of your staff, and to prevent him doing anything stupid.” Jonno called back over his shoulder as he walked off, his partner taking the guard post outside my room.
The doctor grunted and stepped inside, pulling the door closed and proceeding to adjust the drip. It took a few minutes, but by that time, even I could tell he was just trying to look busy.
“You’re a bit clumsy, mate.” I mumbled, and he flinched before raising a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture, then spoke quietly.
“The Baron has sent for his lawyers; I’ve been told just to delay things until they arrive. They know what to do, so don’t worry!”
“Baron? What fucking Baron? Listen, pal..” I started to sit up, catching myself on the handcuffs again, and started swearing loudly. The doctor began frantically shushing me and gesturing wildly.
“The Baron! Look, I don’t know what game you’re playing, and I don’t want to know, but you need to stop talking to them or you’ll get us both in even more trouble!”
“Fuck you! Listen, you prick, I don’t give a shit about…hey, what’s that?” He’d started swearing more and was visibly sweating, then pulled something from his pocket and grabbed my arm, stabbing it into my shoulder.
“I’m sorry! You’ve got to be quiet!” he hissed, and I felt my anger rising as he called back to the police that everything was fine in response to their knock.
“Look, it’s just a sedative, that’s all. It’s one the Baron’s man gave me, said it’d knock even one of you out for a while, so just relax; there’s no need for stress….” He muttered urgently in low tones, pulling the syringe out of my shoulder and patting my arm.
I glared at him and started to tell him where to go, and to call for the cops, but all that came out of my mouth was “Ergu, basip…meh…h.”
Then the room spun, and the lights went out again.
◆◆◆
“Incoming!” screamed a voice from further down the hallway, Thomas flinched, knowing all hope of stealth was gone now, as Rin, their scout, appeared around the far corner.
Before the echo of his cries had faded, the small group of adventurers heard another sound, one altogether more concerning. It began as a distant susurration, an almost gentle sound of flesh and fur rubbing together, but as the seconds passed, it grew stronger, and louder. Overlaying the first collection of sounds was a building thrum of tiny voices, melding together to become incomprehensible as hundreds of small throats repeated Rin’s cry.
“Oh, shit…Feenals!” a voice groaned from behind. Thomas grimaced and fell in with Dirik,
the party’s tank, and prepared to receive the charge while agreeing wholeheartedly with the muttered sentiment. He quickly brought up the bestiary in his augmented vision and checked the notes he had on them.
Feenals:
Feenals are a hivemind-controlled ambush predator. They have six limbs, consisting of four legs and two forward-facing flexible tentacles ending in barbed spines. The danger comes not from the individual, as they are usually easily dispatched, but from the sure knowledge that a nest can number from dozens up to tens of thousands, if enough food is available. Feenals can mimic the cries of other creatures, often attracting the unwary to their doom. Feenal bites frequently bring additional infection, due to their propensity to feed on carrion, and they generally attack in swarms.
Best defense: Feenals are afraid of fire, and their bodies are naturally flammable.
Resistances to: Cold, Water, and Lightning based spells.
Thomas swore, checking through his available spells and trying to guess at the number of incoming vermin. He had learned Fireball and had leveled it up several times. With his greater understanding of the School of Fire, he could adjust the spell slightly, increasing the mana invested to boost the explosive effect, but that meant he’d get three, maybe four spells off before he was completely dry.
“Yulin! Get ready to slow them down!” he called to the party’s mage. “Arran, Hinko! Pick off any you can. Dirik, get ready to pass Rin through to the rear. Wena! Save the heals for when we really need them, ‘cause we’re really gonna need them this time…” With the party orders given, Thomas readied his shield and short sword and waited.
Rin covered the last dozen feet to the group almost at the same time as the Feenals finally appeared, the revolting creatures rounding the corner in a collapsing wave of bodies, rolling over one another and bouncing off the walls. Thomas and Dirik closed ranks and set their shields as the oncoming swarm surged forward. It was deceptively slow appearing, but all too soon they’d be knee deep in them, Thomas knew. Feenals didn’t give up; once they’d sighted prey, they’d keep going until they killed it. If they had to literally run their target until it collapsed into unconsciousness from exhaustion, that was fine with them. The little creatures that made up the swarm died easily and fell for practically every trick in the book, but their strength lay in dogged persistence. Thomas hated the damn things, just like every other sentient creature he’d encountered in the UnderVerse.
“Yulin!” he bellowed, breath coming faster as adrenaline flooded his body. “Now!”
The mage had been listening, thankfully, and let loose with something that seemed to shred the very air as it screeched overhead. Thomas blinked at seeing a small black blur flash into the middle of the oncoming mass. The spell increased drastically in size just before it impacted the leading edge of the Feenal horde.
“You crazy bastard!” he screamed, recognizing the spell from conversations he’d had with the mage. He desperately hunched down behind his shield further and shouted a warning to the rest of the group. “Althair’s Breach!!!”
Yulin had been one of the only mages available when he’d gone recruiting for this party; most wouldn’t work with him, due to his history, so he’d been forced to take what he could get. In Yulin’s case, that meant a dangerously powerful yet unstable mage, who also held a fascination for other realms.
Althair’s Breach went off on impact with the first Feenal that leapt to attack it. The spell form unraveled from a tiny gravitational anomaly into a breach between the realms of existence in the blink of an eye. Air was sucked into the rapidly growing hole in reality as it formed in the corridor. By the time it approached its full size, even light began to bend into the vortex.
The Feenals were flooding forward, but in the next moment, they were being sucked from the hallway and gobbled up by the miniature black hole that filled the hallway . As more and more vermin were absorbed into it, it flew down the hallway to impact the far wall, eating into the stone and ignoring the bend that led away.
For three seconds, the spell raged. Thomas and his group felt the gravitational pull of the spell; a spell that was never designed for use in a confined area. They could feel themselves being dragged from cover as they fell toward oblivion.
As Yulin’s mana ran out…over a thousand mana in three seconds…Thomas and the rest of the party crashed to the floor, rolling and bouncing through the remaining Feenals that had escaped the spell.
For a second, all was confusion as everyone tried to make sense of what had happened. Then the sound of maniacal laughter filled the hallway, echoing off the walls. Thomas blinked the world back into focus. He was laying atop a Feenal that began to struggle as the hivemind overcame its shock. He lashed out, crushing its head into the ground with the pommel of his sword before shoving himself to his knees and striking it with the blade, slicing it from end to end.
As the creature died, the growling from his left resolved into words…
“I’ll kill him! You hear me, Yulin…you’re a dead man! I’m gonna kill these things, then I’m gonna fucking murder you!” Dirik roared in rage as he laid about himself with his six-bladed mace, crushing disoriented creatures as they tried to regain their feet.
The entire party been shifted from a position of partial control over the battle into being surrounded by their enemies, even if there were only a few dozen left alive.
“Heheheheh! It worked! It actually…worked! And you’re all alive!” Yulin giggled, hugging himself and making no effort to help. The insane mage instead began staring down the corridor at the destruction he’d unleashed.
Thomas growled as he lashed out again, shield bashing one creature as it leapt off the wall toward him while stabbing his blade into a second creature’s back. He’d seen Rin at the back of the group, face dark with anger as he drew a bead on Yulin’s back with his hunting bow.
“Rin! I need support here; we’ll deal with that later!” Thomas bellowed, unable to take the time to check if Rin had heard him. When an arrow flashed past to embed itself in a crouching Feenal, he breathed a quick sigh of relief. His scout hadn’t taken down his mage…yet. Now, just to hold the rest of the team together until he could gut Yulin personally.
The battle rolled around the party, dissolving into a frantic blur of gnashing teeth, scrabbling claws, and jabbing tentacles being met with flashing metal. Screams filled the air behind Thomas as one of his team went down, but he had no time to react before Arran’s health bar went black on his HUD. The entire team’s health was dropping, several showing the mottled green and brown of poisoned status. Finally, Thomas stamped down on an arrow-pierced creature that writhed and coughed blood. Silence fell, broken only by gasps for air, groans of pain, and the occasional titter from Yulin.
Thomas stood there, his HUD flooded with notifications as the fight ended as he tried to catch his breath. He took a few seconds to close his eyes, mentally swiping the notifications aside, and breathed deeply. He straightened up and winced at an unexpected twinge of pain in his left leg. Blinking, he looked down at the Feenal head still attached to his thigh. Its teeth were sunk deep into the muscle, though a line of bloody flesh dangled from the head towards a headless corpse on the ground nearby. He had no clue when that had happened. He shook his head as he pried the dead jaws apart, looking around and spotting the body of Arran. His throat had been torn out, and he lay slumped against the wall, pooling blood surrounding him. With a sigh, Thomas checked the rest of the group and began triage; he had enough for six healing spells, but one badly injured member could take all of that, and more.
Looking over the team, he could see that some were already reluctantly using expensive antidote and healing potions. Others, who couldn’t afford those or weren’t as badly injured, used cheap cloth bandages and washed the wounds down with their canteens, even as they glowered at Yulin.
The mage picked his way gingerly through the mess of bodies, lifting his robes in both hands to keep them from dragging through the already cooling pud
dle of Arran’s blood. He ignored everything in sight as he swished his way to the end of the corridor, reaching out with one manicured hand to feel the edges of the stonework cut by his spell.
“Fascinating! It’s cut through cleanly; it’s so smooth…!” he muttered. The rest of the group silently watched him. Thomas exchanged a look with Dirik, and then both looked back to find that Rin and Hinko, and even Wena, kind-hearted and slightly soft in the head, were all looking daggers at Yulin.
Rin stepped forward into the middle of the group and raised his bow again, and this time, Thomas made no move to stop him. Arran’s death could have been avoided; the mad mage’s actions had killed him as surely as if he’d fired the spell directly at him, and rest of the team had nearly followed him into the darkness.
Rin muttered a quick cantrip, activating the enchanted arrowhead as he drew a bead on the giggling mage. He half released his breath as the arrowhead flared to life, red and black markings suddenly visible, and he fired, sending the mage-killer arrow at its target.
The arrow flashed down the corridor faster than Thomas could follow it, the zipping noise as it pierced the air clearly audible.
BOOM!
The air shook a second time as one of Yulin’s amulets exploded. The shield spell it had contained was barely enough to slow the arrow, let alone stop it. Yulin screamed, twisting in shock as he was alerted to the attack. The arrow should have killed him outright, but instead was deflected to pierce his shoulder on the right side and erupting from the front in a spray of blood
The severely injured mage spun around fully, lifting his right hand in reflex to touch the glowing point of the arrow, even as his left grabbed at a second amulet and broke it in half.
A new shield spell flared to life, reinforcing itself over and over even as Yulin snapped the end off the arrow and forced the shaft back out with a disgusting ‘shlurp’, followed by the wheeze of his lung sucking in air.