“My clan?” Chai-nee Shu suddenly perked up her ears. “Since when, advisor Uvari-Dor, does the Clan of the White Lily belong to you?”
“I meant to say the clan temporarily entrusted to my control, until your highness comes of age,” the rougarou druid prattled out, afraid and embarrassed, but the forest nymph cut him off with a gesture:
“Princess, if you'd please answer, I'm just curious... Who would be in charge of the Clan of the White Lily if something were to happen to your Highness?”
The young huntress thought about it briefly, then pointed with a clawed paw at the regent. The forest nymph started laughing acridly and shook her head in reproach. I caught my smarty pants sister's idea right away and tried to build on it:
“Then I see why your advisor is so impatient to place the Clan of the White Lily and its Princess in harm's way. All of your relatives are dead, and all your advisor has to do is get rid of one last representative of the old dynasty, then power over the clan will be fully transferred to him. Technically, Uvari-Dor Shu is already the leader. The Princess trusts him and, from here, it's just a technical matter of making sure the naive girl dies in the upcoming encounter with the undying.”
Diplomat skill increased to level 14!
“Yikes...” the Princess's already big eyes had grown huge in surprise, like those of an anime character. She clearly hadn't ever even considered the line of succession in the clan before.
“How dare you accuse me of betrayal?!” the druid objected, walking up to me and starting to growl, showing his fangs. “I have served Chai-nee Shu's relatives faithfully my whole life and, after their death, I have served their daughter!!! But you, vampire, are foreign to our rougarou clan! Get out of here with your orcs and leave us in peace!!! Princess, order Amra to leave!!!”
Successful check for Chai-nee Shu's reaction
Check for Uvari-Dor Shu's reaction failed
The girl went silent and just lowered her snout to the floor, starting to whine just like a dog. We had reached a dead end. The young rougarou Princess didn't want to leave without me, but she also couldn't find the resolve to contradict her advisor.
“It seems this interminable situation can only be resolved by a ritual duel!” the regent roared, frightfully upset by the Princess's silence. “We will have a battle to the death! One-on-one! One rougarou from the Clan of the White Lily against any of your warriors! If my duelist wins, you and your orcs get out of here and leave our clan in peace forever!”
The Princess started trying to break up the fight, but it was too late. No one was even listening to her anymore. My sister then gave an approving hand clap and wrote me a private message:
“Alright, finally! I was starting to get worried. My operation is in two hours, and you were just tongue-tied, unable to solve the rougarou problem. Agree to the duel now, before this mutt changes his mind.”
“Sounds good!” I agreed, barely able to hold back a smile after reading my sister's message. “But if my duelist wins, you must obey me and lead the rougarou of the Clan of the White Lily wherever I say!”
The huge shaggy dog-headed man stretched out his lips into a ghastly fanged smile:
“Agreed! Fortunately, I'll never have to see such a shameful act, because I will be the rougarou duelist! And now, name your fighter!”
Valerianna Quickfoot took a step forward and, skillfully tossing her shining scepter from hand to hand, asked:
“Amra, let me fight! You've seen me in action many times, and know perfectly well that this hard-headed fur ball doesn't stand the slightest chance against me! My hornets will devour his frozen corpse in a matter of seconds, even through his thick fur!!!”
“Hornets?” the high-level opponent faked amazement. “We were talking about a fair one-on-one fight, without the whole pack of other beings that accompany every undying!”
If the mavka, a Beast Master by trade, got embarrassed, her behavior didn't show it. I had no doubt in my sister and understood perfectly that, if the forest nymph had spoken so openly about hornets and ice spells, then she was probably preparing a totally different plan for this battle. Valerianna was strong not only from her pets. She could also use Water Magic, Illusion Magic and Death Magic and, with my sister's rich imagination, the variations for combining spells and tactics could be truly limitless.
But appointing Valerianna or anyone else instead of myself... it was hard to find the words... was it not right or something? After all, in this ritual duel, we were technically deciding whether Amra was strong and capable enough to replace Chai-nee Shu's advisor, and lead the five-hundred-strong rougarou clan after him. So, it would be more correct and honest for me to take part myself, despite the huge chasm in level between my level-52 Goblin Herbalist and the level-124 Rougarou Druid.
“I'll fight you myself!”
Mission received: Negotiations with the Rougarou (additional stage)
Mission class: Required, personal
Description: Defeat the Regent Uvari-Dor Shu in a ritual duel to the death without using your pets
Reward: 48000 Exp., +15 to the opinion of the Clan of the White Lily, +5 to the opinion of all other clans, -30 to the opinion of Chai-nee Shu
Penalty for failure: Hostility with the Rougarou, -70 to the opinion of Chai-nee Shu
The Princess was already crouching and whining in sadness. What was that? The girl must have been categorically opposed to her two closest friends fighting. Clearly, this was the very reason. No matter what the outcome of the duel, the Princess's opinion would noticeably fall. My little sister was also obviously upset, but not over the duel, because I had refused her help.
“It's your choice, Tim. I hope you know what you're doing.”
I sent the Gray Pack to the furthest end of the island to avoid any excesses, ordering the wolves to lie down and not intervene under any circumstances. At the same time, the orcs and rougarou from a few boats landed on the island and formed a small circle thirty steps across, thus blocking off the area for the ritual duel. In that perimeter, I saw the familiar faces of Ziabash Hardy, Irek, Shaman Ghuu and Gnum Spiteful. But the main part of the audience preferred to remain in their boats and observe the duel from afar. At the same time, many of the rougarou were loudly cheering their fighter on, also shouting out curses and insults at me. My orcs were silent at first, not accustomed to such spectacles, so they slightly lost courage but, after that, they totally lit up:
“Show this flea-ridden mutt who is the terror of the seas! Captain, bite his nuts off!!! Amra, break his neck!!! The staff, pull the staff from the rougarou's paws and stick that curvy branch where the sun doesn’t shine!!!”
Valerianna Quickfoot, who should have been maintaining order, spent a long time comforting the weeping Chai-nee Shu, and finally convinced the Princess to leave the circle.
“You may begin!” the forest nymph exclaimed before also leaving the perimeter, in order not to interfere in the duel.
One after the next, I drank down an Elixir of Agility, Strength, and Speed, after which I took my whip in my hands and prepared to meet the huge shaggy rougarou, who had thrown off practically all his clothing, leaving just a chest sling, and was stretching just twenty steps from me. The huge rippling muscles of the druid were distinctly visible even under the layer of thick brown fur, which inspired enthusiastic shouts from his tribe members, especially the females. By the way, the druid did not leave his staff and was spinning figure-eights in the air with it, stretching the hands of his clawed paws.
And then... without coming near me, the druid grabbed the staff with both of his paws and raised it over his head, shouting out a curse as he did! A crack formed in the dense gray clouds, and a bright ray of morning sunshine lit up the ground. Sun!!!
Damage taken: 0 HP (Immunity to sunlight)
I tensed up in fear for a few seconds, morally prepared for a rapid death but, other than a few messages popping up about immunity to sunlight, nothing too scary happened. It was funny, but my Dodge bar was quickl
y filling up. The game algorithms thought my character was dodging the deadly dangerous rays by some kind of miracle. I snorted happily. I mean, it sounded pretty funny, dodging the sun! I wondered if I would have to move faster than the speed of light to really dodge the sun. Didn't that go against the laws of physics? In any case, I would have to thank Hel if I got the chance. It was her divine blessing that had allowed me to survive.
Clearly, the druid was counting on a different effect when he had called the bright sunlight down on my vampire, because the huge rougarou was batting his eyelids in surprise, and even lowered his staff. And while my opponent was still in a confused state, and the high-level druid hadn't readied something deadlier from his rich arsenal of spells, I dashed out in front, closing the gap. From seven meters away, I gave a flick and lashed my opponent deeply with the unique hair whip. Got him! Hit! The whip strike connected with the rougarou’s shoulder, deeply splitting his flesh and spraying drops of blood. However... my opponent’s life bar went down by, at best, three percent, but probably less!!!
Damage dealt: 314 (2467 whip strike — 709 armor, 70% resistance to physical damage)
Exotic Weapons skill increased to level 17!
Now it was my turn to stand in confusion with my jaw hanging down, and for the druid to touch his wound and be surprised at the lack of serious damage. What was more, Uvari-Dor Shu's excellent regeneration quickly healed the wound over, and the druid's life bar filled back up right before my eyes. I made another couple whip lashes but, other than raising my Exotic Weapons skill to 20, no effect was achieved.
Uvari-Dor Shu recovered from all the damage quite quickly and easily and, on my next blow, he made a clever move and grabbed the whip as it curled around his hand, pulling the weapon away from me. However, his long and heavy druid staff was nowhere near the greatest weapon against my nimble goblin, and Amra easily dodged the bulky inert bludgeon:
Dodge skill increased to level 32!
Dodge skill increased to level 33!
Dodge skill increased to level 34!
Acrobatics skill increased to level 23!
For now, I was getting lucky. The druid hadn't hit me once. Nevertheless, my brain was fitfully searching for a way out, or better tactic. Should I just keep fighting and hope that, with my rapid leveling of skills in this duel, in five or six hours, my stats would be strong enough to do more serious damage to the enemy? Funny! I would get tired much faster than that. My endurance points would go down to zero and I would begin to take heavy damage.
But the druid decided to change tactics first. After throwing his useless staff aside, Uvari-Dor Shu got down on his haunches... and his body began to quickly change! All druids had the ability to take animal form in battle! I took advantage of his temporary vulnerability and gave him a Vampire Bite, a few strikes with my clawed gloves, and even threw my Throwing Net over him.
Exotic Weapons skill increased to level 21!
Athletics skill increased to level 22!
But from there, it got dire... A huge brown bear straightened up to his full four-meter height and tore the Throwing Net to bits with ease, as if it were a spider web, then pinned me under him and started tearing with his fearsome claws!!! I answered with blows and occasionally restored my quickly falling health with Vampire Bites, making bleeding tear-wounds, but I couldn't keep this going for long, because my endurance was falling.
“Don't hold me back, let your rage out. Otherwise, we'll lose!”
A voice rang out right in my head. It was definitely not a message from my sister or any other player. What the hell?! Had I started hallucinating due to lack of air? The bear really was pressing on me with his paws and starting to strangle me. My ribs were creaking and threatening to break at any moment. I couldn't breathe. At that, I could barely hold back his fearsome jaws and stop his bear teeth from sinking into my neck. It seemed that, no matter how I resisted using the arrow of darkness, I had no other way out. The druid had gained the upper hand in the ritual duel.
“Don't think about the pain and possible loss! Only rage and battle lust, only the intoxicating taste of blood! Let me out!!!”
There was that voice again! I understood it clearly and... believed it! Just then, I wailed in unbearable pain, when my own body began to transform. My bones stretched out, my jaw grew longer, my green skin grew black fur and gruesome claws grew out of my furry fingers!
Level fifty-three!
A huge black wolf, no smaller than the brown bear, had taken the place of the small and scrawny goblin in this fight. Two huge predators intertwined into a tangled ball with a roar and, rolling along the wet ground, were tearing into each other with teeth and claws. I couldn’t see my audience and their reaction to what was happening, because I was too busy tearing into the flesh of the enraged bear and getting soaked with blood, both his and my own, which was abundantly lashing from many wounds. It was the most natural mindlessness, pure intoxication of battle, like that experienced by the ancient berserkers. I didn't care about my own wounds, all the more so given that the blows and bites I was making were slightly restoring my character's health and healing my wounds.
The scales on the altar of victory went back and forth for some time, but then started tipping distinctly in my favor. Finally, three minutes later, the exhausted bloodied bear unclenched his gruesome embrace and collapsed onto his back. All that remained was for me to bite open his throat, and I sunk my fangs into the neck of the brown-furred predator. I wondered how many levels I would get for a solo victory over a creature that was seventy-one levels higher than me, especially considering the triple experience bonus I had! Twenty-five or more like twenty-eight levels...
“NOOOOO!!!!!” breaking through the perimeter, Chai-nee Shu ran onto the little square.
The Princess threw herself on the bloodied and wheezing bear. Bubbles of blood were already coming out of his mangled throat. The girl covered my prey with her body.
“You must eat her as well!!! Before anyone else does!!!”
But I was already in complete control of my character and suppressed that spark of rage. Grudgingly unclenching my fangs, my huge black wolf stepped back, angrily whipping his tail at his feet. The pain returned. My body started squeezing back down to size. A few seconds later, next to the barely living regent, who had already returned to his dog-headed appearance, there was a Goblin Herbalist covered head to toe in blood.
“Was that... Fenrir?” the druid rasped out, finding me with his half-mad gaze. “I... can't believe... I held out so long...”
“That was only the shadow of Fenrir,” I said wearily, “but you did fight honorably.”
The Princess, leaning over the wounded figure, muttered words of encouragement and, one after the other, poured healing elixirs into the regent's mouth. I then picked up the whip I'd lost in battle and walked around them both, thinking over what to do next. Clearly, finishing off the wounded rougarou after the Princess's intervention wouldn't have been merely bad form, but fundamentally improper. I wasn't even feeling so sorry for the lost experience and levels (although I was sorry for that, what's to hide?) — what could I do now? — worse was that the still-active mission said battle to the death, but none of the conditions it listed had come to pass.
The druid then, with the help of his young ward, stood heavily on his shaking legs, but immediately went down on one knee and bowed his head in respect. And together with him, hundreds of other rougarou also bowed down, both on the island and in the many boats. Chai-nee Shu then, the only member of her race still on her feet, walked over to me:
“Amra, open your portal. The whole Clan of the White Lily will follow you. And...” here, the Princess gave me a totally dog-like lick on the face, “thank you!”
Mission: Negotiations with the rougarou (additional stage) has been canceled
* * *
“Amra, the water in the river is unbelievably cold, and also burns like acid!” The Naiad Trader raised his hand and showed it to me. It was covered with blisters li
ke it had been scalded in boiling water. “I can't believe such caustic water didn't dissolve our boats!”
“It isn't dissolving them yet, but I've been watching the canoes with alarm for a long time now,” Valerianna Quickfoot called back from the neighboring boat. “It's more like some kind of poison than an acid. To everything alive, this poison is very dangerous, but it seemingly doesn't work on nonliving material.”
“It's so cold!” Yunna, sitting next to me on a bench, was wrapped up tight in a blanket thrown over her jacket. She was also using the blanket to cover the tiny black puppy.
Gjöll had already reached level three and was a member of the Gray Pack, but was still just a tiny frightened pup, afraid of everything around and only at ease in Yunna’s arms. The Goblin Wolf Rider had already gotten me to promise that, when Gjöll grew up and got stronger, she would be her rider. Irek obviously envied his sister and even tried to ask me for Fimbulthul instead of Lobo, but the huge shaggy hound didn't give a damn about the goblin boy, and more likely considered him an element of the decor than a master and rider.
“And how am I supposed to find my way around in this darkness?” Chai-nee Shu was also freezing, despite all her fur and warm jacket, but she was trying to look confident and strong, because, in the neighboring boats, her many subjects were watching her, and they weren't too pleased by the weather out here either.
The weather when we came through the portal was a piercing cold wind with snow and a sky as dark as night, even though the clock showed right around nine in the morning. One after the other, we had all poured out of the oval hole that burned with an orange-red fire and found ourselves on an expansive stone plateau, where not a single plant grew. Far below, under the precipice, we could hear the noisy black river. The orcs and rougarou had the foresight to bring our boats through the portal with us, but it was still a whole operation to lower them down to the black water with ropes. Thankfully, the Ogre Fortifier made a block and tackle system that worked very well and allowed us to carefully lower all the boats without damaging a single one.
A Trap for the Potentate (The Dark Herbalist Book #3) LitRPG series Page 28