Hell, my brain was refusing to draw any definite conclusions. Fatigue made the gears spin sluggishly in my mind, and my concentration was everything but present. All we could do was fight for our lives. The longer I hesitated before attacking, the worse it could turn out for me.
Wait a second...
The Heart’s HP was ten times smaller than that of the Keeper. All one needed to do was strike the Heart right away. Soulcatcher... Taking into account the link between the ability and weapon damage and level 14 Flame, I could drain about 1,500 HP with Soulcatcher’s rank 3. That wouldn’t be enough to defeat the Keeper, but it would be more than enough to take care of the Heart. But there had to be some catch. Such a problem couldn’t possibly be solved so simply. Will I get a second chance if I make a mistake and the spell fails? Cooldown is a minute, I might not last that long; exhaustion could knock me out before the Keeper does.
Damn, her level twenty confused me too much! Could I even scratch her, let alone win? Her 6,666 HP was a monstrous amount compared to my 700 HP...
Well, one can’t know until one checks. I any case, the time for thinking was over.
Resolutely shaking my head and driving away the doubts, I stepped forward, distracting her from looking at the artifact. Catching my stare, her eyes flashed red. My consciousness blurred only for a second, but then everything returned to normal. Tinnie mockingly squeaked something near my ear; she could somehow nullify the Keeper’s attempts to bewitch me.
“Maybe we could talk it out?” My own voice, hoarse and cracking, seemed foreign. “I just want to get out of here. I don’t need your Heart.”
It sounded ambiguous as neither of us knew if I was referring to her heart or the lair’s, but I saw from the glint in her eye that she had understood me. She hissed quietly and a forked, flexible tongue flashed between her fangs. Regret seemed to have appeared on her demonic face for a moment. So, no talking it over, huh? Not like I expected that to work anyway; she was the lair’s slave, she couldn’t do otherwise. Protecting the Heart and exterminating outsiders were the only things she knew. But still, I felt sorry for her, since she, unlike the Demons and Imps, seemed much more reasonable.
A mental order sent Fury moving slightly to the right, along the hall’s wall. As soon as the Keeper’s attention shifted to the new threat, and she took a step toward the Direcat, I rushed headlong into the attack. It was either sink or swim. Ranged spells were left in the reserve as I would have to fight back somehow if my hastily designed plan goes down the drain. Slipping past the Keeper, I turned abruptly and, holding it with both hands, brought the blade down on the Heart, putting both Searing Flash and all the strength that was available into one blow. I was all in.
The recoil almost killed me.
The blade bounced off the Heart’s surface like a ping-pong ball off a table. The blow forced my head back and made me stumble backwards to keep balance. The blunt rear edge of the blade crushed my nose bridge and slit aslant my forehead, all the way to the bone. I felt the pain all the way to my toes. Blood gushed from the wound and obscured my vision, but a part of my consciousness somehow managed to catch a glimpse of the log.
[Wisecracker] attacks [Keeper of the Heart].
0 Physical damage.
203 damage absorbed!
[Wisecracker] attacks [Keeper of the Heart].
0 damage of Fire damage.
247 damage absorbed!
Damn it, while the Keeper was alive, absolute protection was cast on the Heart! I had only one attempt to correct the situation... I shook my head, spraying a fan of blood drops. I had to give an order even though I couldn’t see my target.
“Burst Attack!”
Interrupting her diversion maneuver, Fury turned around and threw herself into battle with a roar, providing me with the precious seconds needed to come to my senses. But the Keeper was faster. Demonstrating what her level 20 was capable of, she let out a furious scream that rang in my ears and numbed my body. I was Stunned. Her long tail, flashed through the air at breakneck speed. It was impossible to rebound or avoid it. My legs crackled, and I was thrown at the wall like a ragdoll.
A moment of oblivion snatched me away from the fight.
As soon as my consciousness returned, slowly, as if after a heavy hangover, I found myself lying on the ground. Not waiting to fully recover, I immediately started fumbling around, trying to find my sword. The Keeper slowly walked toward me, gently swaying her hips and tail. Anger and contempt burned in her eyes, as well as the desire to finish off the uninvited guest and consume his soul. The sound of hooves was getting clearer, but my mind was still swimming in contusion, and I couldn’t figure out what to do next... Where was Fury...? Why was she not fighting...?
Squealing in fear and desperation, Tinnie hovered above the Keeper’s head and applied her favorite trick — magic dust. The Keeper only frowned and Tinnie barely managed to fly away and avoid being snatched, like a sparrow in a cat’s claws. She wasn’t successful.
Synergy effect has been interrupted. Energy required.
I tried to jump up to meet the enemy face to face, even unarmed, but my left leg gave in and I sank back to the ground again. Not believing my own eyes, I stared at the mutilated shin that like it had been smashed in with a crowbar. A tangled mess of bone and flesh peered from under the tattered and blooded leggings; a fragment of my leg bone protruded from it.
Where the hell is Fury...?
I finally caught sight of her. Staggering and limping, the Direcat emerged from behind the Heart. She was breathing heavily, and squinting in pain. She was also having a hard time, and not even the Burst Attack helped. Her stamina was in the red and Metamorph was now impossible.
Somehow, only I could save the situation.
Without knowing what I was doing, I threw up my hand, aiming it at the approaching Keeper. But the hand froze in the backswing at the last moment.
Soulcatcher...
If the enemy is a member of the Forces of Chaos... It ignores any defense.
Which means...
Holy Mother of God! I’ve hit the jackpot!
Flying past the Keeper, the ghostly dagger went straight to the Heart. Breaking through the shell without the slightest resistance, it plunged into it until the hilt. Sensing that something was wrong, the Keeper turned sharply. She gasped at the sight of the ghostly thread, through which vital energy flowed from the Heart and into her enemy. With the same jerk, her fiery anger glanced back at me and her fearsome tail set in motion again. Breathing heavily, I threw up my hand again... The flame died away almost immediately. Flamespear misfired; my HP was running out and, despite Soulcatcher’s help, purple murk appeared before my eyes. Too slow. The Heart was reluctant to part with its HP and thus gave far less than I expected. I instinctively curled up, anticipating the inevitable blow, and hoping that I would have time to roll away...
I think she would have finished me off with that blow if Fury hadn’t reached her at that moment. Charging forward with the power of an arbalest shot, the sting on the tip of the Direcat’s tail pierced the Keeper’s back. Hit by the Mortal Sting, she screamed shrilly, arching from the pain. Her cry grew louder; the force of the sound wave picked up and threw me against the wall. I lost my sight again...
Chapter 28
It was much harder to come to for the second time.
Rows of lines about the battle’s results and unlocked achievements unlocked blinked green against the background of reigning darkness, but I had no strength, desire, or opportunity to study that information.
Something was happening.
The sound of deafening crashes echoed throughout the hall. Something collapsed. There was chaos all around me. A large, strong body flashed before my eyes, followed by an alarming roar, and fangs sank into my forearm. The Direcat. I felt her fear and ardent desire to get out of here. As soon as I grabbed her neck, Fury rushed somewhere upward. I immediately hugged her neck harder, leaning on her with my whole body. She scaled the crumbling wall in a d
esperate attempt to escape from something terrible that was behind her. Tinnie hung like a beacon a step ahead, illuminating Fury’s path.
When she pulled us both out of the deathtrap into which the collapsing den had turned after the Heart’s death, my fingers slipped from the dirty, felted fur. I buried my face in the snow. Jumping to my knees, I looked back and tried to locate the exit through the blizzard that was raging around us with a frenzied howl. Despite it being night outside and the raging bad weather, I saw enough.
On the snow-covered ground was a gaping breach, about sixty feet in diameter. In the depths of the black hole thousands of black-and-red shoots stirred furiously, pulling in snow, stones and soil and slowly filling it in. Something flashed inside this giant, worm-infested cesspit — another movement. I thought I saw a waving hand and a pair of red eyes. I think I heard a groan, too. Was that the Keeper?
I probably imagined it all. No creature would be able to get out of there. Crushed by the realization of what had just happened, I swore in regret. Fury saved my life, but all of my possessions remained down there: the sword, the backpack, the pipe, the escs...
Fury grabbed my shoulder with her teeth and pulled me almost demandingly.
She was right, it was better to get away. There would be time to grieve, as well as enjoy the achievements. Trying to ignore the icy wind that was whipping my face, I examined my shin. It wasn’t clear how the fracture healed itself, the bone seemingly glued itself together and was already covered with flesh, but the wound was still fresh and I could barely stand.
Hopeful, I looked around, but besides Fury and Tinnie who was hiding in her fur, there was not a single living soul around. No one rushed to help me. It was time to bury wishful thinking. The Lowlings had long left me behind and excluded me from their group. I would have to rely on my own strength. Actually, from now on, it would be for the best to always rely on myself. This was the only way to avoid unwarranted expectations from others.
In the end, I was no one to them, as they were to me.
In the meantime, the fissure continued to grow. The process would probably stop only once the surface is completely leveled and has taken on its original appearance. I was sure that it would be hard to even find traces of it in a few hours as everything would be covered with snow.
Fury…
I looked at her stats and smiled weakly, having no strength left for brighter emotions. Level twelve. Using her newly acquired strength, she managed to pull me out of the hole. I’ll find out how it happened later. For now, I needed to find a shelter. I opened my stats window, almost indifferently invested free points into Mount, raising it to rank 3, and somehow rose to my feet, grimacing from the sharp pain in my shin. Sensing my intentions, Fury turned her head to face me and looked at me almost intimidated.
“Be patient,” I could barely be heard through the howling wind. “A bit more and we will all rest. Okay?”
She sighed sorrowfully.
I had taken hold of her nape to crawl on her back when I heard a muffled tromp. Turning around anxiously, I looked for the source of the sound. In the distance, horse figures emerged from the whirlwind. They were quickly approaching us. Guttural cries sounded; the riders had clearly noticed me. Wait, riders? Centaurs! Those things were really patient! They had been waiting for me despite the bad weather! That’s why the Lowlings left!
Something hit my thigh with terrible force, knocking me down. The sky was spinning in front of my eyes, and my face was covered in snow. Wheezing from pain, I tried to get up as quickly as possible, realizing that every second of delay could be the last for me. But something was hindering me, pulling the disobedient foot to the ground, forcing me to stay, as if paralyzed. A spear. A heavy spear with a black, seven feet long shaft and an elongated jagged tip made out of some black metal.
Roaring in rage, I yanked the spear out of my thigh.
Weapon in hand and almost losing consciousness, I struggled to mount Fury. She didn’t disappoint me. Sighing noisily, she took off and we rushed through the blizzard in abrupt jumps, trying to outrun the chase.
Few minutes of frenzied jumping turned to be grueling torture, which was interrupted when one of the leaps over a snowdrift ended in a tumble and a fall into a ravine that we hadn’t seen in time. Having fallen off the Direcat and dropped the spear, I rolled over and burrowed my head into the snow. I immediately rose to my knees, anxiously looking out for my pet through the snow gusts. Weak, I trembled like a leaf in the wind — it was a lousy feeling and made me want to howl dreary. With a growl, Fury rose on all fours and shook her head in shock. Good! Tinnie shot out of a snowdrift, squealed and, like a shooting star, landed on my shoulder. Ignoring the dirt, she hastily climbed under my jacket and pressed herself against the skin near the collarbone, and calmed down.
Hearing the sound of hooves, I collapsed into the snow again, trying not to crush Tinnie and mentally ordering Fury to copy my maneuver. We had nothing to lose; in the state we were currently in, the Dions would defeat us in direct confrontation, so it was worth a try. And it worked. I heard no less than five individuals passing by the edge of the ravine and disappearing into the blizzard. This meant that the raid party had been divided to cover as much territory as possible and not miss us.
After waiting a few more seconds, I got on my knees and cautiously looked around. The steep slopes of the deep ravine stretched in both directions, as far as the eye could see. The terrain was familiar to me. I used to hunt with the Lowlings here. The camp couldn’t be far away then; a few hundred steps maybe, and a half of this distance could be covered by walking along the bottom of the ravine, hidden from the Dions’ prying eyes. The wind wasn’t blowing as hard down here, too. With such awfully limited visibility it was surprising that we hadn’t fallen into some hole even earlier. But that fall saved us.
However, the Dions were an arrogant bunch, I had to give them that. Hanging so closely around the hunting camp... Was no one going to teach them a lesson? Thinking about it, I mechanically licked the snow off my lips; my tongue was rough like sandpaper. Snow... Water. Thirst. And then I broke. I scooped up the snow and shoved it in my mouth, stopping only when I realized that I was starting to freeze; the snow wasn’t even melting on my fingers that had turned blue from the cold. Looking at my auras, I discovered that something new had appeared. New, but not all that helpful.
Snow Sustenance
HP and energy recovery increased by 5%.
Bleeding
You lose 0.5% HP every minute.
Hypothermia
Cold resistance reduced by 30%
Exhaustion
Reaction rate, HP and energy recovery reduced by 20%.
Exhaustion had been present in the lair already, but I was too occupied with other things to notice. A quick visual inspection of the damage didn’t improve my already sour mood. The wound on my hip no longer caused tearing pain, but was in no hurry to close; blood was still oozing out of it, soaking the leather rags and diminishing my already battered HP. Torn muscles would heal for a long time in this state, not to mention the fact that the bones hadn’t stuck together completely and ached painfully with the slightest movement, I felt like a rusty nail had been screwed in my hip. I was really not going anywhere on my own. And I was certainly not running. I had to put all of my hope into Fury.
But I still had something. I hurriedly took a flask from my belt and allowed myself a tiny, refreshing sip to “fix” my frozen throat. I smeared the wound on both sides of the thigh with the remaining potion, fingers crawling through the holes in my clothes. The flask was now empty. The pain began to subside after a few seconds. I could at least stand on my own now. After the lair’s acid infested air, the fresh air of the outside invigorated almost as well as a sip of the potion.
“Fury, come here.”
The Direcat moved closer, licking snow off her muzzle; misbehavior was contagious, it seems. She had the same auras as me. I fastened the rope from the trophy bola under her front paws, tying it
at the withers to make something akin to reins. I then awkwardly climbed onto her back, clutching the improvised reins with my left and the spear with my right hand, which was dragging at my arm as if it weighed a ton. There was nothing surprising about that though as the Lance of the Convert was meant to be used at level 16. Equipping it, I immediately received Imbalance, a debuff that reduced dexterity and strength by 20%. It took a lot of effort just to keep the damn spear in my hand, but one couldn’t remain completely unarmed. So I had to endure.
We trotted along the bottom of the ravine. I wasn’t worried about the achievements or the bonuses received for having cleared the lair; I was driven only by one desire – to get to safety as quickly as possible. Alive, preferably.
The next ten minutes turned into a new torture session.
Rain had eroded the bottom of the ravine, exposing sharp stones, now deceptively sprinkled with snow, which we were sometimes able to go around, and sometimes had to jump over, with the risk of breaking Fury’s legs. Although Mount was at rank 3 one could never ride without practice; it needed to be driven into the muscles and subconscious, mine as well as Fury’s. An artificially developed skill still required practice, and practice required grinding.
It was becoming more and more difficult to resist the exhaustion, but I decided not to stop, to endure until I collapse. We would soon be out of the ravine. Judging by the map, there was still about a hundred steps till the hunting camp. Once the ravine turns west, we would go east. But as soon as Fury, with a convulsive jerk, overcame ten feet of the steep slope and climbed out into the icy embrace of a blizzard, I heard the approaching tramp of hooves yet again. These things were really stubborn!
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