Spy: Reborn

by Angie A Huxley

  Crystalweb Cavern

  This was the lair of the Siren Spinner, and deep inside it was the Blight Cube. For a moment, the Manticore Crew looked up at it in silent contemplation. Aaheli came up to Argo’s side and tapped his arm.

  “You okay? You’re looking a little peaky,” she said with a smile.

  He turned and nodded. “I’m okay. I just hope I don’t let everyone down.”

  “Don’t think like that. We either succeed or we don’t. Just do your best. We don’t expect anything else.”

  “I will,” Argo said. Despite sometimes losing her temper with him, Aaheli had Argo’s best interests at heart and she had supported him as best as she could during his time in the game. The same could be said in real life.

  “Scan please, Kip,” Henk said, staring intently at the glyphs.

  Kip raised his staff and triggered the Detect Magical Trap imbued in it. The enchantment revealed no other traps or defenses, and Henk gave a satisfied nod.

  “That’s something at least,” said the Paladin. “Okay guys, let’s go. Brier and Aaheli are with me. Kip and Sonia keep Argo between you. First sign of trouble, guard him with your life.”

  “Got it,” said Sonia.

  Henk drew his sword and tapped at the icicles hanging down from the cave mouth. They shattered like glass and he stepped into the darkness beyond. The others followed, and Argo’s heart skittered like a frightened animal inside his chest.

  The cave stretched downwards into a narrow tunnel, illuminated by glowing chunks of ice that sprouted from the uneven walls. The cold made their breath come out in vapors and everywhere pervaded the malevolent presence of the Siren Spinner. Argo felt baleful eyes watching him, but nothing came out of the gloom to attack them.

  They proceeded on in silence, the only sound coming from their footsteps and the rustle of clothing and equipment. They came at last to the end of the tunnel and an apron of flat rock that stretched forwards to a wide archway made of large blocks of white stone. Beyond lay a chasm of inky blackness.

  Tension wound tightly around the Crew, and they proceeded warily towards the archway, their eyes peeled for further traps with Kip holding his staff up to scan for concealed magical hazards. The route was mercifully clear. But when they reached the archway, rough guttural voices pierced the dark from the other end.

  Everyone stopped in their tracks, and Henk signaled with his hand for all of them to crouch down. He made a silent gesture ordering Kip to douse the light of his staff, and then crawling along he motioned for the others to follow him into the blackness.

  For a ways through the arch, they had to feel their path, and Argo groped the rough ground underneath his hands, terrified that at any minute he would trigger another trap. The voices came again from up ahead, speaking in hushed tones in a strange inhuman language of grunts, barks and hisses. A pale light appeared up ahead, and the Manticore Crew picked up a little speed to get to it.

  As it grew brighter, they saw the light coming from a huge cluster of ice crystals growing out of the other side of the archway. Beyond lay a wide ledge overlooking a huge frost covered cavern, festooned with glowing ice stalactites and stalagmites that bathed everything in an eerie blue light. Down on the cavern floor they spotted the pallid glow of a campfire.

  Still on their hands and knees, the Manticore Crew headed as quietly as they could to the lip of the ledge and peered down at the camp. Four humanoid creatures were seated around the campfire, playing dice and muttering to each other in their weird language. They were clad in patchwork outfits of stitched leathers and mismatching armor, and they had long beaklike noses jutting out of leathery, pallid blue faces.

  Ice Goblin

  Level

  03

  Health

  40

  Stamina

  20

  Argo didn’t need his HUD to tell him these ice goblins served as the rank and file soldiers under the Siren Spinner.

  “What do we do?” Argo heard Aaheli whisper to Henk. “Go in for a full on attack?”

  Henk pursed his lips, considering their options. “Too risky. There might be more of them hidden in the cavern. Are there anymore life signs, Kip?”

  Kip closed his eyes and muttered a Detect Life spell under his breath. He lifted his hand and it began to glow with a soft yellow light. Down below on the cavern floor, the ice goblins started to glow yellow too, though they were not aware of it. After a few moments, the glow faded from both Kip’s hand and them.

  “There’s nothing else about in the immediate vicinity,” the Mage reported, “but my spell only reaches so far. There might be more of them further back in the cavern. It looks like it stretches quite a way.”

  Henk nodded. “Hopefully no one else will hear us when we strike. We’ll lure those guys up here to minimize risk. Aaheli, will you do the honors?”

  “My pleasure,” the girl said as she rose to her feet and nocked an arrow in one graceful motion. She took her time aiming it directly at the head of the goblin near the right hand side of the group, and let loose with a Longshot. The long-range bow skill allowed her to hit targets up to 200 yards away while doubling the regular damage.

  The skill would strike even harder and further if she used a long bow, but those bulky, slow-firing weapons were best used in open fields. The short bow was far quicker and more versatile, perfect for the close-confines of a dungeon.

  Nonetheless, Longshot did provide a little extra range when it was needed—like at this exact moment.

  The skill-boosted projectile cleaved through the frosty air and hit the monster straight in the neck, dealing critical damage. He let out a shriek of pain and the red bar that appeared above his head went down dramatically, the numbers that flashed up indicating that she’d taken away a whopping 32 points from his original 40 points.

  That wasn’t all, however. The critical strike hit a major artery in the neck, causing severe bleeding damage—4 damage a second. The force of the blow also caused the struck Ice Goblin to stagger forward, tripping and landing face first into the campfire.

  Needless to say, the monster expired pretty quickly

  The two other goblins let out shouts of alarm and shot to their feet. Just as Henk guessed, six more goblins emerged from the darkness and rushed to assist their companions.

  The advancing goblins drew their swords and started running towards the left-hand side of the ledge where some crudely carved steps led up to the Manticore Crew’s position. Aaheli managed to fire off two more Longshots, though these were unleashed more hastily than the first one. She hit one goblin in the arm and the other in the chest, cleaving off valuable health points before they closed into melee distance.

  They could only move up the steps in single file, however, giving the adventurers a distinct defensive advantage.

  Henk drew his sword and swept forward to meet the first of the goblins, taking him in the stomach with a quick sharp thrust. The already-injured monster stumbled forward, and Henk finished him off then and there with two consecutive slashes.

  As the Paladin absorbed the goblin’s experience orb, however, the goblin coming up the stairs directly behind leapt over the body of his dead comrade and launched into a full-on attack with its spear. It struck true and the goblin jumped back before Henk could counter-attack. This creature clearly possessed a high skill level with pole weapons and fought ferociously, forcing Henk into a savage battle of thrusts and counter-thrusts.

  In the meantime, Brier ploughed like a freight train into another rushing up to meet him. He rained down axe blows on the monster’s attempts to defend, relying on his Bash passive ability to deal damage through the parry. Against creatures with lower strength, Bash allowed his regular attacks to ignore 30% of a target’s defensive bonus from parrying. This synergized perfectly with his gnollish Rage, which increased his regular attack speed by 50%.

  He managed to reduce the monster’s health
bar by half before leaning into the attack and smacking the goblin with a Headbutt—stunning it for 3 seconds.

  The disoriented goblin stepped back, dazed, as Brier grabbed him by his chain mail vest and dragged him to the edge of the ledge. Before the goblin could struggle free, Brier pitched him over the side. The mob plunged to the cavern floor, dying instantly. His experience orbs floating up from his crumbled body.

  Aaheli and Kip did their fair share of work as well. While Henk and Brier held the stairs, the Ranger and the Mage provided ranged support. Aaheli picked off her targets one by one, forcing the Ice Goblins to dodge her arrows instead of help each other push the two melee warriors. Kip’s Energy Bolt helped out as well, the glowing orbs lancing out from his staff to injure and wear down the hapless goblins.

  A few minutes later, the last of the attacking goblins fell beneath Henk and Aaheli’s joint attack. One of the goblins in the rear—one with an arrow sticking out of its shoulder—stared wide-eyed at the Manticore Crew. It immediately turned tail, staggering deeper into the cavern to no doubt summon reinforcements.

  “Sonia,” Henk hissed, hoping the Rogue was doing her job.

  Sonia dropped her Cloak then, ducking low and activating Hamstring. The attack found its mark, severing a tendon and causing the Ice Goblin to stumble face-first into the dirt. A quick dagger thrust to the heart of the crippled Goblin drained what remained of his health. She turned and waved as the others rushed down to join her.

  Argo simply stood back, simmering in frustration as he could only watch events unfold. He couldn’t wade into the melee fight; he couldn’t contribute damage with a ranged attack. He couldn’t even buff his allies, pluck a Medley to heal his party or cast Ditty to bolster their accuracy and evasion. He needed to preserve the charge points of the Lute of Decimar for the Blight Cube.

  He was nothing more than a glorified mule for this run, which he was dangerously under-leveled for, and he hated it.

  “Good work everyone,” said Henk.

  “Okay, where’s this secret passage then?” asked Kip. “Are you sure Casadraggrio is on the level about that?”

  Henk accessed his HUD and called up the holographic map he’d bought from the wily old NPC that showed a layout of the Siren Spinner’s lair. Unlike the challenges and enemies that spawned during the quest, the geographic location remained identical.

  “The map is straight on the money,” Henk said after a moment. “This is the main cavern, and the secret passage should be somewhere over here.”

  He pointed to the rock wall to the left of where they were standing and the group headed over to it. Sonia ran her hands over its surface. The others followed suit, but could not find anything hinting at the passage’s existence. Kip huffed in frustration. “This is a waste of time. Casadraggrio set us up. You can never trust the NPCs. They’re too sneaky; I’ve always said that.”

  Argo, standing next to him, noticed a small black bulge that didn’t look like it was part of the natural rock. He didn’t want to touch anything after the disaster with the crystalline spider trap, so tapped Aaheli on the arm.

  “I think I’ve found something.”

  Aaheli looked at the bulge and reached out to touch it. There was a grating sound and a section of the wall slid open, revealing the secret passageway Casadraggrio said was here. According to him, it was a shortcut that led straight to the chamber where the Blight Cube was kept.

  “All right,” Brier said. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”

  “I knew Casadraggrio was on the level,” said Kip brightly as he strode confidently in.

  Argo and Aaheli shared a look but nobody said anything. “Come on,” said Henk.

  There was no light in the narrow passage, so Brier lit a torch to show the way in order to let Kip’s magic regenerate again. They moved in single file and the tunnel twisted and weaved deep into the earth. Again they trudged on in silence, only stopping when they came across a mushroom grub that crawled into their path. It was a low level monster with 5 measly HP and not much in the way of attack strength. Nevertheless, it tried to take a bite out of Brier’s feet. The adventurer dispatched it with a single blow of his battle-axe.

  At the end of the passage lay a stone wall. Argo was struck with the fear that they had been led to a dead end after all, but Brier quickly spotted another small mechanism and pressed it. The wall slid open onto another icy tunnel. The Crew slipped from the passage and crept along this new tunnel, coming to another archway and a flight of steps that took them upwards to a wide gallery. Careful to keep to the shadows, they moved along the gallery and came to another opening that led out onto a balcony long and wide enough to fit them all on.

  The balcony looked out upon a vast, vaulted chamber of stone and ice. As they assembled on it, Argo took in the scene below in silent awe. A huge chandelier filled with candles burning with icy blue fire showed a floor of polished black marble where huge snow drifts had gathered between the fluted pillars that held up the ceiling. Snowflakes floated down from the chandelier and danced in the stagnant air, adding to the eeriness of the place. The chamber was empty of any kind of furniture, save for the long onyx altar at the far end. Suspended a foot or so above the pillar, encased in a transparent orb that glowed with stark white light, floated a pulsating cube made of a strange and sickening green substance that rippled and throbbed repulsively. Just looking at it made Argo feel queasy.

  It went without saying that this was the Blight Cube and it was protected from harm by the powerful defensive ward surrounding it.

  This was what the Crew needed to dissolve if they were to destroy the Cube and complete the quest. And it was up to Argo alone to do that.

  At that moment, the responsibility hit him like a lead ball and he felt himself begin to hyperventilate. Being useful to the party, providing timely assistance, heroically saving the day—all these thoughts scattered as panic gripped him in its icy clutches.

  It was like he was on stage again and had forgotten his lines. Trapped and terrified, he had let the rest of the cast down and himself, and now he was going to let down the Manticore Crew as well. They all wanted to succeed so badly, especially Henk, and they had put their faith in a loser like him. The knowledge ripped through him as mercilessly as Brier’s battle-axe and he wanted nothing more than to turn and run down back through the passage and out of this wretched cave.

  He realized then that he didn’t even need to do that to get out of this. Almost unconsciously, he called up his HUD and focused his attention at the option at the bottom of his menu.

  Log out of Astra-verse?

  Yes

  No

  He could quit right now and avoid the misery and disappointment that was going to come. Sure, the rest of the Crew would be furious at him, but at least he would avoid the humiliation he’d endured at today’s matinee. And though there was the risk that they would throw him out of the adventuring company, he was prepared for that consequence. He would probably be better off playing as a merchant or even a farmer, away from all the death and danger and expectations of adventuring.

  A shadow moved behind the Blight Cube, and Brier suddenly grabbed his arm. “Get down,” he hissed as he and the others hit the deck. Peeping through the support columns of the balcony, Argo watched as a huge hunched reptilian creature lumbered from the shadows behind the altar and raised its gruesome head to sniff the cold air with its snout.

  The monster crouched a little over seven feet tall with a barrel-shaped torso—probably taller if it stood straight up. It lumbered about with large powerful legs that ended in three sharp talons. Its arms were thick and packed with muscle and its head was distinctively crocodilian in appearance and two curling yellow horns sprouted up from its forehead. Thick blue scales covered its body, naked save for a tattered loincloth, and it was holding a large nasty-looking, spike-studded mace with just one arm.

  Argo activated his HUD once more, scanning the stats that came up fo
r the monster:

  Abhorrent Scaler

  Level

  08

  Health

  500

  Stamina

  200

  He grimaced at the formidable brute, which no doubt served as the guardian of the Blight Cube. It was one of the most powerful monsters the Manticore Crew had encountered so far, and he couldn’t imagine how much more powerful the Siren Spinner would be. He glanced again at the quit game button but the moment had gone. A strong feeling came over him, insisting that he had to stay and stand with his team no matter what.

  The Manticore Crew remained motionless, watching the Scaler as it lumbered to the center of the chamber, walked back and forth for a little while and then returned to the darkness behind the altar. It did this a couple of times and it became obvious it was programmed with a set patrol. A quick Detect Life spell from Kip told them that this was the sole enemy in the chamber.