by M J Sweeney
Fzzt-craack! Spang! The staccato noise was distinct against the backdrop of the moaning wind. Multiple explosions went off as the group upstairs went over some of our elemental traps. We’d hidden them under as much debris as possible—mostly old broken chairs, some nicely fossilised, but also some table knives and silver cutlery. Some traps were set for a three-second delay, and others only one second… And so not only did all seven traps go off, but some of the well-placed shrapnel we’d set on top could be heard ricocheting off walls and bodies. Not being cautious was an absolute bummer. Then it went silent for a little.
Some time passed, and I waited some more, feeling impatient and agitated again. My biggest fear was that they would return to the surface. I could have locked the entrance door behind them when they first entered, but I had to leave it open so Elz could hopefully follow.
Then, with some relief I heard them moving again. With a little forethought, I read from one of the scrolls we had bought, the only defensive spell I now had running. I also activated a fourth charge from the cloak, and faded from sight. Once more I had my heart in my mouth as they came to my hiding place. They were checking each location a bit more carefully now—a mixed blessing, that. One of the rogues, a human with a pencil-thin moustache, and Lilac came over to peer inside the cavernous oven. I tensed, ready to spring up.
I was behind the big black thing, now laying prone, half under the belly of the beast. Fortunately, they seemed determined to reach the bottom of the complex, and as they heard the chatting from the immortal spirits as they played cards, the group turned as one. With quick hand gestures from Ingriss, they formed up and got into position.
When they ran en masse around the corner, all but one of the rogues fading, I got up slowly and crept along behind them. I decided to come out of the fade, to avoid attention that way. I branched to the right, to one of the southern rooms, slightly away from where they fought—to one of the side walls that was partway collapsed. Summoning my Holy Aura, which I’d had on mute to avoid detection, I peered through a gap in the dilapidated wall. The fight was on.
It looked like they were trying to end it fast, but when the cook and major-domo gave some decent resistance, things didn’t go so well. Ingriss appeared briefly, having thrown his hand axe, the silver metal glinting as it spun. It struck the cook in the side of the face, seeming to shear off one of its ears. The weapon then glided back, end over end, and landed back in Ingriss’s outstretched hand. He disappeared again. Despite myself, I was impressed. Didn’t stop me hating the shit-head, but I was impressed nonetheless. Their main warrior, the big guy, and Lilac and one of the rogues were also focusing their damage on the cook—as the undead mage had blink-stepped away from their initial assault.
I had a sense there was also a fight going on in the fade, as none of the other rogues were immediately appearing. Interesting. I’m sure that can’t be easy, I thought with a bit of a nasty grin. Elz and Sacheen had warned me fighting in that realm had peculiar challenges. When one of Ingriss’s team popped out of the fade, and began running further up the corridor, I thought that odd. He seemed to be looking for a way out, but then he dodged a couple of magic missiles from the mage and came running back, panicked—the Fear spell.
When he appeared round the corner and started running toward the kitchen, I quickly ran after him. He was swift—most rogues were fleet of foot—so I picked up the pace, and when I got a clear shot, I Charged him. Piercing him in the back may not have been sportsmanlike, but it certainly brought him down. He was not dead, but groaning and blinking owlishly, and trying to get up on his hands and knees. So before he got a good look at my face I pierced his back again through the side of his ribs and into his heart. He slumped again and didn’t move. One down.
When I felt a presence behind me, and couldn’t see anything, I ran. All possible speed, maximum effort! I had only one charge left on my cloak, and didn’t dare use it now. I wasn’t sure if I was sensing one of Ingriss’s rogues or one of the undead, but something was chasing me. I went up the stairs and burst through the Quadrinity door, still jammed open, but stopped abruptly once in the middle of the smaller dining room. Slamming the haft of my spear down, I summoned bright light.
Nothing.
I blinked in the glare, but there was no one near—at least, I didn’t think so. I waited for some seconds, then gradually let the light fade. There was not much mana left in the staff, so if I did that again, I’d have to use my own mana to ignite it. I wasn’t sure I’d imagined it, but I had a sense that was one of the undead rogues. Once I’d gone up the stairs, it must have turned back.
I crept warily back down, and then picked up the pace when I could still hear the sounds of battle. As I cautiously approached the spy-hole once again, the clashing sounds faded, except for the low crackle of flames—which were then being put out. It seemed Lilac had managed to burn up the cook and major-domo, taking insignificant damage herself. She was some kind of pyro-mage, as I could see flames appearing at her fingertips as she waved them over the burning bodies and extinguished the fire on each.
“Not bad, eh, Brick?” she was saying.
“Easy for you to say.” The big fellow was glaring at her, not looking happy. “Now that incompetent prick Hissarisn got hisself killed somehow, I’m all fucked up.” Their main fighter looked pretty beaten—bleeding, bandages now around both arms, and scorch marks on his legs. He wasn’t in a good way.
“You missing our little healer, Brick? Oww, poor baby.” Lilac’s expression was not kind, her face creased with derision.
Brick groaned. “Not liking this shit-hole…”
All of them were wounded; Lilac had a small gash across her forehead, plus what looked like frost marks around her boots and legs. One of the rogues was limping badly, so he sat down and began applying some kind of balm to his wound, and then tied it off with some spare cloth while the others waited. The last rogue then got busy looting the corpses while Ingriss watched, a charcoal pencil and notebook in hand, as he marked down what was taken. Ingriss was also wounded, but minor scrapes only—one leg appeared scorched and the side of his face was scratched.
“You done, Yorbl?” Lilac asked, looking impatient.
“Hold your horses, gimme another minute…” The half-elf was still cleaning himself up; none of the others seemed inclined to help.
Ingriss motioned them both to silence.
“That’s enough jabbering. We’ve a job to do, so let’s get it done.” He looked around. “Where did Geis run off to?”
“Back to Argngung most like… little chicken-shit,” Brick was muttering. Ingriss ignored that and motioned Brick to follow him. Shortly, they came past my hiding place, but didn’t enter the room. They went past and shortly found the body in the kitchen, then had a muttered conversation. I was creeping up behind them, and as soon as I had line of sight, I burst from cover, and launched myself at the weakest looking member. The big fighter, Brick.
“To me! To me!” Ingriss was shouting, coward that he was, but I ignored that.
Opting for a mix of defence and attack, I was wielding the Staff-Spear of Light and had both heals and Frenzy activated. My successful Charge stunned Brick; I killed him with the next blow, piercing his chain mail and stomach with a twisting slash. He slumped right over his middle, intestines already falling out, and he folded to the floor. He may not have been dead, exactly, but he wouldn’t last long without a healer. He had only been wearing a mix of chainmail and leather, so he didn’t have the best defence. I booted his torso off, and got more room, but unfortunately Ingriss had disappeared.
The rest of the group was shortly clattering around the corner and peering at me in the gloom. I was still dressed as an immortal spirit, so I wasn’t sure what they thought. Then I could only see Lilac standing there, as the rest promptly faded.
She was glowing now, what looked to be soft flames flicking about her feet and hands—some kind of aura or buff. If I was counting correctly, there were now three rogues i
n the fade.
Rather than attacking, I planted the haft of the staff down and summoned the brightest light I could. As all three rogues had been converging on me, and were by then a little too close for comfort, the burst of radiance snagged them all. While the closest scruffy fellow was reeling—the one called Yorbl, a half-elf—I tagged him in one arm, making him bleed a little. Ingriss had been caught out by my light spell, but was also now being cautious, letting the other guys wear me out first. Seeing how that was going, I tried to position myself out of line from Lilac.
But I had no luck there; she was conjuring some kind of ball of fire in her hands, which she then launched at me as a kind of fire-lance. It singed one of the rogues on the way past, but collided with me fully, pushing me back. The fire was bad; I burned and smoked a moment. But I had precast one of our Greater Scrolls of Fire Resistance. Sitting on 60% fire resistance versus my usual 35% wasn’t bad at all. Luckily, I also had my hair tucked away inside my armour. Burning hair smelled and looked so bad.
In any case, the fire spell knocked the wind out of me. Coughing and spluttering, I righted myself as the two closest rogues came at me. Ingriss had backed off, so I engaged these in melee—the dwarf was pulling his crossbow off the clip on his back. I traded a few quick blows with both, deflected a couple, received one minor poke to my ribs, and gave a couple of weak feints in reply. Just getting warmed up. Strangely enough, my heart had calmed; it felt much better to be in action. Lilac was also casting another spell, and it seemed some portion of her fire buff was spreading to each of her team mates. Now they all glowed with fire-hands.
“You!” Ingriss had recognized me now, his weasily little eyes widening in shock. “Fucking dryad.” I felt a light touch, from a source I couldn’t place, and dodge-stepped away from both rogues to create some more room. “You’re a fool,” he was saying, teeth grinding in hatred. “You just made yourself a target for all of us. Lilac, kill him.”
He shot the fire-bolt from the crossbow, but I was already moving, and luckily avoided that one. Ingriss cursed, and I struck at the closest rogue’s head to make him back up, but then I sprinted through the gap, away from the lot of them. It was great having excellent agility! A bunch of knives that were previously around Lilac’s waist, were now circling her torso, all glowing fiery red. Now that can’t be good.
I grabbed the edges of my cloak, as awkward as that was while holding onto my spear, and faded. Using the distraction, I sidestepped quickly away from any wild blows and dive-rolled to the side. I could feel the cloak around me slowly melting into itself, only thin threads remaining. The rest had been used up.
Mutely I watched as each of the flaming knives smacked into the wall behind me, only a metre from my head. They hit like the report from a gun—nasty sounds, but I grinned wickedly and dodged far to the side of the mage as possible.
For I had just seen another rogue in the fade.
And I could barely discern Ingriss this way—which made him an odd kind of non-target.
Nevertheless, I Charged Lilac from invisibility. Critical hit! Emerging from the fade, I received a bit of a wild-fire reverb from my blow—the burning from her fireshield flowing back up my spear into my arms. Despite the fire damage, I looked to be faring a lot better than she. I pulled my spear out from the puncture in her lungs, blood followed. She wobbled on her feet, mouth open and closing a moment.
Ingriss was quickly unsheathing his melee weapons again, having dropped his crossbow. With a small sword and a tomahawk, he was coming towards me. He threw the axe, which I only partly dodged, ducking my head, but it clipped my shoulder with a bit of a bad gash. Ingriss caught it as it circled back and smacked into his palm. Nasty weapon, that—I was certain he’d killed me with it before. I thrust my spear forward and managed to gouge one of his arms, but he was quick and light, and avoided my next strike.
Then I was grinning. “I made you a target too, Ingriss. Goodbye.”
When Elz backstabbed him, it was more than a little satisfying. It wasn’t pretty; it wasn’t neat. One sword pierced the dwarf’s kidney, but the other was embedded right down through the top of one shoulder, down into his lungs and chest. Ingriss’s eyes went wide and he slumped to one side as Elz withdrew the weapons. The weasel-faced rodent was down on his hands and knees, and looked like he should be dead, but he rolled away from Elz’s next blow and faded from sight. Shit, damned dwarf was tough.
Quickly, I reignited Light, bright as I could… and held it for a bare two seconds as it chewed through most of my remaining mana. This time, Ingriss did not appear—while the others were all blinking from the brief brightness. Elz faded from sight too, so now I just had to trust him to do his job while I did mine.
Lilac was staring at us—in amazement or horror, I wasn’t sure. Blinking and dazed, she put up her hands, but I swung my spear in a tight arc and pierced her through one shoulder. Again, her fire damage rebounded up my spear and into my arms.
“Wait, no…” she was saying, but I shook my head in a tiny gesture and cut her throat. Not going to take any chances, I thought grimly, and watched as she fell, arterial blood spurting to the side. My arms were burning, the front of my armour damaged, but right then I didn’t care.
Leaping over the corpse of Brick, I attacked both the remaining rogues. The half-elf gave some quick ripostes, but his reach was terrible with his two shortswords, and he was taking great lungfuls of air as he limped on his still bleeding leg. He was flagging. The other one was fighting with a broadsword, but now holding it in a two-handed grip. He kept glancing over his shoulder, looking at the exit.
Balancing on the balls of my feet, I feinted one way at the human and made him flinch back with a head shot, then spun the spear down and pierced Yorbl’s other leg. That made him cry out, his hands spasming in pain, so I spun the staff over and clubbed him in the head. He went down.
Elz and Ingriss reappeared a few metres closer to the exit, swinging and slicing at each other rapidly. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Elz taking that particular responsibility—I really wanted to kill that dwarf myself, face to face. In that moment of distraction, the last rogue was off and running. Shit, now what do I do? Grunting in effort, I gave chase, and left Elz to it.
The last rogue was quick, I’ll give him that. He was off and out of the kitchens in a matter of seconds, but with me only a few metres behind. I didn’t have a clear line of sight, so I couldn’t activate Charge. Instead, I just sprinted, I had to catch him before he exited the ruins and faded. We dashed up, and around corners, and then on the final straight, luck was with me. The rogue stumbled when a cursed spirit appeared, howling right beside him, then panicked trying to scrabble up the final stairs.
My Charge got him in the side—only a glancing blow—but he slipped down further on the old stone steps. With a rapid series of thrusts, I speared him again and again, puncturing his back. That did it for him, and he expired with a sad little sigh. Making sure he wasn’t going to get up, I stabbed him through the heart for good measure.
As I began running back to Elz, Frenzy expired, and so I shuffled wearily back instead. Loosening the chin strap of my leather skull cap, I let some air in, as I was sweating profusely. My healing spells were already repairing my burnt and damaged body, which always felt great, but I was down on 35% health.
Elz was only slightly wounded, with cuts to both his arms. Everyone else was down. Placing both hands on his shoulders, I cast Breath of Life.
“Thanks boss. Shortie was a tough nut.” He squinted around at the bodies, then checked each of the corpses, toeing them or piercing with his sword. “Dead. Dead. And this one too.” He nudged Ingriss’s corpse, who actually gave a slight groan. “Oops,” said Elz, “not dead.”
I knelt down over Ingriss and rolled him over. There was a lot of blood leaking from him; I didn’t think he’d recover. Still, he was managing to glare at me, and grunted and coughed before he motioned me closer.
“Going… to kill you…” He coughed again,
his glassy weasel eyes peering intently at me.
“What?” I looked at him incredulously. “Not likely chap, you’re dead meat yourself.”
He shook his head. “Going to kill… your tree…” He laughed weakly, until I slammed my spear-head solidly through his eyeball.
“Shit-head,” I muttered. I glared at the corpse for a long moment. Although killing him was satisfying I was acutely disturbed by his final words. Trying to shrug off the sense of gloom, I patted Elz on the back, then rested one arm on his shoulder while I recovered. I’d probably be dead without him, but figured, what’s reward without a little risk? We’d been lucky—we’d been outnumbered and outgunned, but we’d taken away their advantages one by one.
“Thanks mate, couldn’t have done it without you.”
Elz grinned at me, head tilting to the side, but also looking a little shy. “S’oright boss. Teamwork, yeah?”
I grinned back at him. “Excellent, I would say.”
Elz then let off one large, heart-felt fart. And what a stinker.
“Gods!” I retreated out of the horrible stench while Elz laughed, unrepentant as usual.
“How did it go?” I eventually asked, once I got my breath back. I pointed up above.
He smiled, and did a short skipping dance. “We rescued Jayvar. He was wounded, but from before, so going to be fine, I think. Sacheen and Renniti and others all fine too.”
“Shit… that’s great,” I sighed in relief. That was a big weight off my shoulders. Elz was looking positively happy.
I held up one hand and we fist-bumped.