by Dakota Krout
Dale felt a shiver of apprehension at these words, how much booze would it take to make that happen? He looked up as he heard a now-familiar explosion, somewhere in the dungeon an infected had ruptured its Center.
“Shards! Hit the floor!” A voice rang out, followed by shrapnel from damaged rock pinging off the defenses hard enough to gouge chunks of rock. The unlucky few who didn’t respond fast enough fell screaming as holes were torn in their bodies. The Mages hit released a short grumble as their clothes were torn a bit more.
Dale waved at the man that had called out the warning, “A fifty silver bonus to you, sir! Teamwork is the only way we are getting out of here. Nice work!” His praise made the man swell with pride, and soon, warnings were ringing out across the fortification.
“The line is getting thin on the left wall! Get some archers up there!”
“Big-ass infected charging! Mage! Mage!” *Boom!* “Thank you, Mage!”
“We need some relief in the center! They haven’t had a break in hours!”
“Who needs a break? We’ve got this!” A roar of agreement rose from the center of the line.
Hans threw an arm around Dale’s neck. “Look at that. You’re inspiring! Who would have guessed?”
“Rude.” Dale responded, pushing Hans away and punching an infected that was scaling the wall.
“Oh, Gods!” A man suddenly screamed, “I can feel it! I’m infected!”
Hans looked askance at Dale. “Erm. Want me to go check on that?”
“No, I’ll do it. We needed a test subject for… a… thing.” Dale looked at his nonplussed friend. “I’ll go now, how about?”
“Sure?” Hans tried to suppress a grin. “Just so you know, people don’t really like their liege-lord experimenting on them…”
“It’s for a cure, I’m not exper… dang it, Hans.” Dale sputtered as Hans started laughing at him. Dale hurried over after confirming that his team was holding up well. He walked up to the small group looking at the man who was slowly sprouting mushrooms. “Come with me, the alchemist has been working on a potential antidote.”
The man looked up, fury beginning to build in his eyes. “You! I’m the leader of The Collective, and you ordered us around like animals! If I turn, I’m coming for you first!”
Dale was shocked by the anger directed at him, but didn’t let it show. “Nick, correct? If the cure works, then everything will be fine. Don’t worry, if you turn too quickly, we’ll put you down before you become a threat.” Nick’s face drained of color as he realized he was being threatened. He was used to people of lower cultivation rankings cowering before him, and the look of total unconcern on Dale’s face made him quail inside.
They moved over to where the alchemist was putting the finishing touches on his concoction. He looked up as they entered the room. “Ah! Do we have a volunteer?”
Dale hesitated a moment. “He was kinda volun-told.”
“A death for research is better than a death by devolving into a ravenous creature. Hopefully, you will even survive!” The alchemist didn’t seem to notice, nor would he have cared about, Nick’s unhappy face.
A thick sludge streamed into a vial, and when it was full the alchemist began to put it into a thin blade, similar to the style of injecting daggers that Hans used.
“Sorry, stress.” Dale hurried to explain.
The alchemist leaned closer to Nick, whispering. “He made a mess earlier…”
“Stop that!” Dale commanded, face flushing. “I need a drop of that liquid. In the chest here, please.”
“I can’t just waste this potion!” Came the indignant reply. “Who knows if we have enough time to make more?!”
“Sir.” Dale interrupted the tirade. “Please don’t fight this, I promise it is for a good reason. Have I let you down yet?” A grumble came, and a tiny droplet of the concentrated solution was dropped into the chest.
“Happy now?”
“Yes, that should do it.” Dale affirmed on my behalf.
The alchemist turned and jabbed the short dagger into the muscle tissue of Nick’s thigh. Nick yelped and started to take a swing at the man, but stopped himself as the potion hit his system. Nick went pale and dropped to the floor convulsing.
“Blast and damnation!” The alchemist stomped on the ground. “Hold his head, he will damage himself!” No one made a move to touch the infected man writhing on the ground. “Oh, right, the disease. He should be fine, then.”
“What went wrong?” Dale asked as the alchemist began mumbling about the quantity of potion remaining.
The man slumped and sighed. “This turned out to be a reagent. We will need to fill the lines of a Rune with this, then channel celestial Essence or Mana into it.”
“We can do that!” Dale determinately turned, preparing to call the clerics and celestial Mages.
“No point.” The alchemist shook his head. “We would need a massive Rune, an Inscribed Rune, and we just don’t have that kind of time. An enchantment won't work, the reagent would be used up as it was applied, instead of in a quick, evenly activated sequence.”
“Why couldn’t we use a smaller one?” Dale questioned the reasoning presented to him.
“The area it affects would be too small to be of any real use. A few would be stopped, but an arrow or three can do that.” The alchemist scoffed.
Silence reigned in the room, at least as much silence as could be garnered while the world seemed to be ending.
~Twenty-Seven~
“Well… I suppose really any Rune that is specifically anti-infernal. This fungicide should do the rest.” He waved the small remaining amount of potion around.
Dale chimed in, “How much of that will we actually need in order to activate a Rune large enough to be effective?”
“Enough for at least an even coat.” Came the calculated reply.
Easy enough. I had been working on examining the pattern of the potion that had been put in the chest. At this point, I had almost… done! I fully understood the potion and how to make it. My method of creation was far less time intensive, and a *Thud* announced the arrival of an oak cask in the treasure chest of the room.
“What was that?” They lifted the lid and opened the cask, revealing a large jar of the precious fluid.
The alchemist looked around with bright eyes. “I never want to leave this room again.” He muttered under his breath.
“Could we test the potion with this?” Dale reached into his tattered, bloodstained shirt and withdrew an amulet. This amulet had the first Rune that I had ever learned, a celestial-attuned Inscription that would weaken the bonds of infernal influence when powered by Essence.
“I see no reason why not.” They moved over to the weakly thrashing leader of The Collective, and waited as the alchemist carefully poured an even coat of fluid along the lines. He started to lean down, but with a frown looked around. “I don’t suppose any of you are celestial cultivators?”
Head shakes all around.
“I’ll go get someone.” Dale took off at a run, grabbing Adam and sprinting back with a breathless explanation. Adam gingerly took the amulet from the alchemist, and with a quick prayer thrust it against the spasming man’s chest. Activating the Inscription with a burst of Essence, Adam was knocked back as a ripple of celestial Essence interacted with the reagent and expanded in a sphere from the Rune.
Nick screamed as the light flowed over him,
and the visible mushrooms withered and died. They tore themselves out of their host, leaving gaping holes as the semi-intelligent parasite tried to save itself. The light seemed to hunt down every last bit, spearing even the smallest speck and converting it to ash.
Adam applied his Essence in a different way, working to heal Nick before he bled out on the floor. He looked around as he spoke, “That took a lot more Essence to activate than it ever has before, did you say that you were planning to make a larger version?”
“Yes, the hope there was that we would be able to stop the infection by creating a cure, killing only the mushrooms.” Dale glanced at the pool of blood around Nick. “It appears that this process will be a bit more… fatal than we had originally hoped.”
Adam looked surprised. “You thought this could fix them without killing them?”
“I had hoped.” Dale stated glumly. “That hope is gone now, though. Nick here was barely infected and the cure nearly finished him off.”
The alchemist chimed in. “This Rune was pretty much our only hope. The area it affects is too small to be of any use in combat though. We will just have to do our best to survive.”
“Do tell.” Dale thought at me sarcastically.
“I don’t see that happening. Most of them would seriously rather die than give up decades worth of Essence.” Dale rebutted in frustration.
“I would rather die than give you that kind of access to people.” Dale returned unhelpfully.
I snorted,
Dale sighed in frustration. People were dying! “I don’t know if you were listening, but the reagent has to go on an inactive Rune.”
Dale perked up, a bit shocked at the information I was freely giving him. He relayed my story to the others, and the alchemist agreed that it was their best shot. The man also danced a bit when we told him it was an option. They quickly gathered the leaders in the area, asking for help in gathering a group to get to the powerful Runescripted quartz.
Frank was not at all interested. “Why would we do that? We’re holding the area, and they can’t last forever! We have a defensible area, supplies, and enough people to survive the hoard!”
Dale was taken aback at the Guild Leader’s vehemence. The other Mages of the group agreed with Frank’s words. Adam boldly joined the conversation, doing his best not to stammer in the face of these powerful people. “That is inaccurate. While we are holding out for the time being, almost a quarter of our people have received serious injuries. We have been able to patch up most of them, but we are running out of potions and Essence to make this happen. The people injured are weakened, and they will be exhausted for at least a few day. That increases their chances of being re-injured significantly.”
Frank waved his hand, “We can make it just fine. We’ve killed thousands, the end is in sight!”
“How many Mages were in Spotterton?” Dale had a flash of insight.
Amber glanced at him, “Dozens. Maybe as many as fifty?”
“And how many have we seen in this fight? Just the known ones from Spotterton?” Dale questioned leadingly. Sometimes it was better to let powerful people think that they were the ones making the important decisions.
“Oh, abyss.” Chandra cursed. “We’ve seen a bare handful.”
Frank powered on, “Maybe they all were the ones to rupture their Centers up above!”
Dale sighed, “Frank, you are making good points, but we can’t rely on ‘I hope so’ right now. We have a proven method of defeating this enemy, and I feel that we need to take this chance.”
“Frank. You… you have something on your arm.” Amber announced in a tremulous voice, pointing at his left arm.
“What are you..?” Frank swatted at his arm, wincing when he hit a small mushroom. “Oh no.”
“You have been seeming a bit more… aggressive.” Chandra took a step away from him.
Frank looked at Dale, eyes wild. “You said something about a proven cure?”
“Better, I’ve tested it. The cure takes a large amount of celestial Essence, though. We can’t continuously use the process on individual people.” Adam spoke again. Frank looked at his arm, deeply troubled.
“I’ll go.” Frank‘s voice cracked as another mushroom began to sprout from his elbow. “I can’t order other people to go, though. It would not be right, and we still need defenders.”
“I’ll go as well.” Dale stated, hushing the people that started to object. “I have access to information that you just… don’t. I really cannot explain.” His words had all of the Mages in the room look at him. Several did a double take, and a few gasped.
“You… you Beast! What did you do with Dale?” Chandra’s hands and eyes lit up with Mana.
“I’m still me.” Dale tried to remain calm, eyeing the deadly glow. “Also, if I understand my situation correctly, I am immune to the disease.” More gasping and a few suspicious looks were his reward for honesty.
“I mind. But as long as you only do it to infected bits, and you grow them back, I think it’ll be fine.” Dale agreed to my statement and also found the loophole I was trying to use.
“Immune… and there is a Core in your system. How did we not see this?” Frank muttered, still mistrustful of this new situation.
“I really can’t say.” Dale apologetically muttered.
“There is going to be some long talks when this is all over, Dale.” Chandra threatened. “You’d better get your story straight by then.”
“I’ll see what we can do.” Dale promised, then quickly tried to recant his slip of the tongue. “What I can do.”
“Fine. You still need more people. You need to make it up the stairs, through the hoard, and apply the reagent. That isn’t a two-person job.” Amber’s voice was harsh and filled with frustration.
“I’ll only take volunteers.” Dale agreed with Frank on that particular subject. They went out and asked for people to brave the conditions, but the area stayed near-silent. Dale’s group all stepped forward bravely, but no other Mages or regular cultivators offered their services. They had already agreed that the rest of the council would stay as a last line of defense.
Dani interrupted my concentration. “I
’m going too, Cal. I don’t trust these people to get the job done without some serious Goblin power.”
“Neat.” She chimed, circling the spawn room as I formed the Goblin Amazon. I didn’t bother to set her armor to the side, I formed a seamless set of aluminum around her towering form. Dani entered the huge Mob and took a deep breath as I flooded the aluminum armor with Essence, pleased as it darkened to a silvery-purple. Mithral. She prepared her weapons, and nodded as I swung the door open.
There were a few shouts as a dozen Goblins and one Goblin Amazon entered the area, but they stayed right next to the door and didn’t make any hostile moves, so the humans calmed down fairly quickly.
The group started moving hesitantly past the steel-clad Goblins, and very cautiously past Dani’s over-armored form.
“Wait!” A voice called. “I’m coming with you.”
Dal and I looked at the speaker, watching as Nick strolled up to the group. Dale was quite a bit happier about the help than I was. “Alright, Nick! Thank you, any help is greatly appreciated! You’ll be well rewarded for your services.”
“Yes. I will be.” Nick stated flatly.
Hans clapped him on the arm. “Ah, yes. Nothing like being a jackass to make people want to shower you in silver. Well, molten silver. How do you feel about being a statue?”
“Look, I am here to make that cure happen and get the hell out of this deathtrap.” Nick growled. “I’m the leader of The Collective! All I was supposed to be doing was making money here, not playing nursemaid to a bunch of incompetents.”