Delvers LLC: Adventure Capital

by Blaise Corvin

  He understood how the creatures could be a pain in the ass for adventurers, and completely deadly to most travelers. The creatures lived where cliff sides rose from either side of the water, offering no escape except to follow the river either way. The jelly spitters could submerge extremely quickly, pulling themselves down to the bottom with a pair of tentacles, and they could pop up just as quickly using the same appendages.

  It was hard to hit the monsters with projectile weapons. Even in peaceful circumstances it could be hard to hit a target in water, especially at an angle. On top of that, the creatures stirred up the bottom of the river so the water was murky. Melee fighters would be completely screwed against the aquatic monsters; the jelly spitters could easily drown two people at once in the silty water with their long pairs of killing tentacles.

  Heat and cold magic were of limited use because of the flowing river. Wearing armor wasn’t much help because of the goopy acid that the monsters spit. Gonzo said the creatures were known for blinding people or animals alike and dragging them into the water to eat. Jason believed it.

  Apparently, most adventurers just avoided jelly spitters altogether. At the least, they tried to get away from them as quickly as possible if they were encountered.

  Then again, most adventurers weren’t Jason.

  The surface of the river was dotted with the corpses of dead or dying monsters being slowly swept away by the current. Jason used his new psionics magic to quest out with his senses. The river monsters were not very smart, but they had just enough thinking ‘noise’ and the river was otherwise empty enough that he could sense them. There were only two left.

  Suddenly, a jelly spitter burst out of the river, launching a blob of goopy acid almost the moment it broke the water. The monster was fast, but Jason was faster. He erected a quick null-time shield and stopped the projectile in its tracks, preventing it from hitting a very surprised looking Vitaliya. Bezzi-ibbi’s hissing chuckle slithered around the large rock the youth hid behind. “Stay in cover. Let Jason-ibbi handle this,” the Mo’hali hero drawled.

  Red faced, Vitaliya didn’t respond, but she did hide behind her own rock. Jason sighed in relief. Now he was the only member of the group out in the open, meaning he didn’t need to worry about protecting the others as much.

  When the group had first been ambushed, things had gotten a little hairy, but luckily most everyone had been able to hide in or behind the Battlewagon. Jason carefully watched the surface of the water as he walked backward towards the group’s floating, bronze-plated vehicle.

  Mareen popped up from her position in the turret, her powerful bronze bow drawn. Jason didn’t fault her for trying to help. She’d been otherwise very effective on their journey so far, especially after leveling up and becoming a second rank ‘Bonded a few days before. Now she was stronger and tougher than ever, and she’d been getting really good at archery.

  But the jelly spitters were just a huge pain in the ass. One popped up and lobbed a sizzling blob of acid at Mareen at the same time she loosed an arrow. Then both the monster and the dusky-skinned woman ducked, dodging each other’s projectiles.

  “Hmmm.” Jason glanced at the water in thought. He could easily kill the last two monsters, but this was a learning situation, both for the group and for himself. Should he just take care of them or practice some new abilities?

  The tall, sandy-haired man crossed the last dozen feet to the Battlewagon and rested his hand on the vehicle’s bronze plating. It had been a few days since he’d gotten his new magic. He’d been practicing hard, though, and he was even already learning Matter school magic.

  The man from Earth used a handy new ability he had just learned. With an effort of magic, the first layer of bronze on the outside of the Battlewagon replicated itself, pushing the sizzling acid out with it. Then with a pop, Jason let the new material disappear, allowing the caustic monster goop to fall harmlessly to the ground.

  This is nasty stuff, he thought, eyeballing the bubbling green slime on the sand of the riverbank. Once again, he was struck by how crafty and dangerous the jelly spitters were. The creatures had waited for the group to be deep into their territory before attacking. On top of that, hiding behind rocks and things would normally only offer temporary safety. The creatures could spread along the river, hitting a hiding spot from multiple angles. They had those long, barbed, squid-like killing tentacles they could whip out of the river, too.

  Normally, the merciless creatures could probably massacre a small army. Unfortunately for them, there wasn’t a lot they could do versus Jason.

  The Delvers leader narrowed his eyes as the last two monsters popped up at the same time, launching salvos of acid at him from different angles. “Nice try, guys,” he muttered. Then instead of teleporting, he used another new ability he’d been practicing. Jason erected two null-time shields at once. The monster goop halted in midair before falling to the ground, and Jason beamed. He had been ready to teleport if one of the shields had failed, but they’d both held. He was getting better.

  Now it was time to work on some of his attack abilities. He readied himself to teleport, but paused as Vitaliya briefly left the relative safety of her rock, scything a stream of fire across the river before her. The gesture was useless, of course, and Gonzo’s arm snaked around to pull the young woman back into cover again. Jason shook his head. He still knew next to nothing about Vitaliya and she acted...oddly sometimes.

  Jason sprang forward, teleporting above the river. The muddy water offered zero visibility. The steam that Vitaliya had created with her angry fire attack wasn’t helping things, either.

  Jason’s new infrared sight wouldn’t help see the monsters under the water. He didn’t even bother activating it. It took a lot of energy to maintain, and he knew it’d be useless. Luckily, none of it mattered. He just continued tracking the nearest monster with his psionics magic.

  He pulled a knife from a sheath on his leg where he kept a few really good ones.

  “There you are!” he crowed, teleporting directly above the closest creature in the river. Jason knew exactly where each monster was, and while they were great at dodging up and down, they were terrible at moving quickly from side to side.

  The tall programmer-turned-adventurer used another of his new abilities he’d been practicing and cloned a copy of his perfectly weighted throwing knife. The new version rested on top of the knife in his open hand. Jason grinned and flipped the copy into the air. He caught it, applied a null-time edge, and sent the blade spinning straight down toward the river.

  As soon as the weapon left his hand, Jason concentrated, extending the null-time blade all around the copied weapon, turning it into a magical, bronze frizbee of death.

  “Destructodisk!” he yelled, teleporting higher to watch his handiwork. Neither the copied throwing knife nor the attached null-time would exist very long, but they’d last long enough to give this river monster a very, very bad day.

  The throwing knife hit the water with a violent spray of liquid, the silty water rushing to escape the unstoppable, spinning null-time field. The reaction was so energetic, the rotating blade almost bored a tunnel straight through the water. Jason could catch a glimpse of the startled, brown predator as the projectile hit. Then the water sloshed closed again, and the lazy current grew dark with blood and ichor.

  Jason teleported higher and shook his head, continuing to watch the river. A few moments later, the monster’s bulbous body floated to the top of the water. Jason had hit it square in its mushroom-looking head, its tapered mouth full of sharp teeth gaped open in death.

  This is almost too easy, Jason thought, teleporting above the last creature. If these things weren’t quite so nasty, ugly, disgusting, and brutal, I might even feel a little bad.

  In moments, Jason had practiced his new, deadly abilities again and the last monster was jerking in its death throes, floating down the river. The tall, orb-Bonded man teleported back near the Battlewagon, timing his vectors perfectly to tou
ch down on the shore with a gentle drop. “It’s okay to come out now!” he called. “They’re all dead!”

  Bezzi-ibbi was the first to leave cover, bounding out and jumping up and down, hissing in excitement. “Jason-ibbi is great hunter! More sneaky than Henry-ibbi, make enemies just as dead.” The dancing young Jaguar Clan hero was wearing a new green vest, green slacks, polished penny loafers, and a cream colored shirt. He looked like a 60’s era pop star, and Jason shook his head to dispel the thought.

  Ludus was already weird enough with any running mental commentary.

  The rest of the group left their hiding places as well, staring soberly at the distant, bobbing bodies. Mareen drew, aimed, and loosed an arrow into a corpse and grimaced. “I should not have done that,” she groused. “Waste of an arrow but I hate those things. This river is…bad”

  Jason gave her a sidelong glance, struck again by the thought she was acting strangely, but not able to put his finger on how, exactly. He felt bad for doing so, but with a slight effort of magic, he focusing on adjusting his thinking, pointing his mind in a new direction. After the transition, he was able to pick up the surface emotions of anyone he looked at as long as he was relatively close enough and their feelings were strong enough.

  His eyes rested on Mareen again, and he felt her fear, disgust, and resignation. Jason frowned. These were not exactly illogical emotions for his friend to be having. He made a face before feeling a small hand on his arm.

  Jason turned, and met the bright blue eyes of his wife looking up at him. His magical senses were metaphorically hit between the eyes by intense love, respect, awe, lust, and…

  He shook his head and let go of the ability. It was one thing to read the surface emotions of strangers or enemies, or when he was concerned about someone, like Mareen. He wasn’t quite ethically comfortable with regularly reading the emotion of his friends, much less his wife. He smiled at Uluula and did another quick scan to check on the others.

  Vitaliya glowered at nothing, staring out over the flowing water. Gonzo whistled. “That was impressive,” said the Hispanic Berber spy. “I am third rank myself. You’ve been third rank for less than a week, yes? I have no shame in saying I can’t do anything like this.”

  Jason’s mouth moved before his brain could catch up, or rather, his mind was working so fast on multiple things that it just forgot to check in with his tongue. “That doesn’t mean you aren’t still keeping a shit ton of tricks in your spy bag, though.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he inwardly cringed but tried to act natural. Telling the spy in his group out loud that he didn’t fully trust him, and believed the man might be sandbagging squarely fell under the ‘Dumb’ category.

  Gonzo didn’t try to hide the speculative look he gave Jason. The taller man began to feel uncomfortable, and he randomly wondered how much blood Gonzo had on his hands. The spy carried a mournful, dark aura with him wherever he went.

  Uluula tugged on Jason’s clothes. “I was very impressed, my love. Thank you for taking care of us.”

  Suddenly, Jason heard a familiar voice above them. “Yes, that was very impressive, Jason Booth, but we need to talk.” He glanced up and saw Keeja descending from the sky with a new woman he’d never seen before.

  As other members of the group gasped in surprise, Jason studied the two women. He was not surprised that his magical senses had not noticed Keeja earlier and still couldn’t lock onto her mind. Despite the cooling climate, Keeja wore a yellow floral summer dress with spandex shorts and laced sandals. She had on an enormous, floppy yellow hat with a black band that matched her shorts, poking out from under dress.

  The other woman...Jason’s mouth went dry. He had trouble focusing on the fact she was wearing black shorts, a cream colored top, and suede ankle boots. She was drop dead gorgeous. Her dark eyes, her jet black hair, her pale skin, her full, pouty lips, her long legs, her voluptuous frame, her bone white horns, and…

  Her horns? Jason shook himself. What the hell is wrong with me? With an effort of will, he forced his mind to focus and noticed that the woman’s eyes were not human. Her sclera were black, her pupils white, and her irises black. Her horns were small, but noticeable, peeking out from above her oversized ears.

  She gracefully touched down on the ground and Jason noticed a moon shaped symbol on her cheek. His mind in disarray, he asked out loud, “What is the mark on her cheek?”

  Keeja answered, “Every nymph has a natural crest on her face to identify her familial allegiances.”

  “It’s like a real life cutie mark,” breathed Jason. He stared at the mark on the new woman’s face, and distantly realized that Gonzo and Bezzi-ibbi seemed to be staring too. What is wrong with us?

  The tall, beautiful, dark-haired woman stepped forward, opening her mouth, but Keeja stepped in front of her. “I was afraid of this,” announced the Areva demigoddess. She held a hand out, not quite touching the raven-haired beauty. “Philana, calm down.”

  The horned woman, apparently named Philana, narrowed her inhuman eyes. “Keeja, I love you like an older sister, but we are peers now and you are beginning to annoy me. I already told you I am not going to jump the first man I see. In fact, I don’t know that I want anything like that in my life anymore at all. Sure, I had my wild younger days. But I behaved that way because of what I am. You did because you were running from what are. Which of us is the greater threat to males?”

  The two women frowned at each other, and Jason finally saw that the newcomer wore a golden necklace similar to Keeja’s.

  Suddenly, there was a splash from the river and Jason’s befuddled mind took a moment to register what the sound meant. Before he could react, Philana blurred sideways, moving so fast she generated a slight wind. She threw up a shield of golden energy, blocking the sizzling acid from a new jelly spitter that must have made its way downriver.

  “Dirty thing,” she snarled. Then the horned beauty held out a hand and launched a ball of glowing yellow energy that detonated with a thunderous crash on the surface of the water. Defying the laws of physics, the water from half the river and the entire opposite riverbank was destroyed, blown outward by the massive concussive force of the explosion. The wreckage and energy from the attack all projected outwards, the blast somehow not reaching the group on the riverbank.

  Jason’s pupils dilated and his heart sped up. His addled brain was having difficulty understanding what was happening, but part of him recognized the energy, and knew that attack. Something ugly stirred within him. He snarled, “Biivan!” and moved without conscious thought.

  A moment later, when Jason came back to himself, he blinked and swallowed. The tip of his sword was inches from Philana’s throat. However, Breeze’s spitting, crackling blade was held in an iron, bare-handed grip by Keeja. Philana stared at the blade and the hand holding it, her dark eyes wide.

  Jason’s ears were assaulted by the roar of the distant cliff falling in on itself, tons of dislodged rocks and dirt being disturbed after hundreds or even thousands of years, and the rushing river beginning to fill the massive crater created by Philana’s attack.

  Keeja spoke, her terse voice somehow easily heard over the background noise. “Philana, that was unnecessary and you are still not trained. You will not use your power again without guidance, or I will spank you. Publicly. I am your trainer and you will obey. Do you understand?” The Areva woman’s eyes were steely.

  “Yes—yes, mistress,” Philana meekly replied.

  “And you, you fucking idiot Terran,” Keeja snarled, turning her furious gaze on Jason. He swallowed as the demigoddess continued, “You fought one High Priestess, one time. You were in a special state and still got your ass kicked. I don’t care how upset or emotionally damaged you are, you will control yourself, both for your sake and for mine. I happen to love this idiot dryad, here.

  “I have known her for hundreds of years. She has served me faithfully. I have known you for less than a single Terran year. If you had somehow managed to hurt her, I would
have personally ripped your penis off and shoved it down your fucking throat up to my elbow. Do I make myself clear?”

  Jason didn’t make any sudden moves. He was almost afraid to speak. “I understand,” he managed to choke out. Keeja was not much taller than Uluula, but in that moment, she seemed to loom over him and he fought to control his bladder. He knew she had meant every word.

  “In fact,” snarled the ancient Areva woman, letting go of Jason’s sword with a shove and smoothing her pretty sundress, “this is a good time for another practical exercise in humility. Create one of your ‘null-time’ shields, Jason. Up in the air.”

  Without hesitation, Jason did as he was told, using his ability to generate a shield above them, the air distorting with energy. Jason’s brow scrunched as he concentrated on holding it. Then casually, staring him in the eyes the whole time, Keeja raised a hand, not unlike she had done what felt a lifetime ago while riding next to Jason in a wagon.

  The man from Earth heard a snippet of a strange, classical sounding musical score, Keeja’s soul song. The area in front of her hand shimmered, and a brilliant green beam of energy lanced out, not only piercing Jason’s null time shield, but shattering it into a million pieces. Jason cried out, his mind stinging, almost like he’d gotten brain freeze from eating too much ice cream.

  “You are strong, Jason,” said Keeja quietly, “but you have a long way to go. Never, ever lose your humility, your caution, or Ludus will kill you.” Jason numbly nodded and Keeja said, “Now I heard you got confirmation that Henry is still alive. Where is he? I have things to tell you and I’d prefer that you were together when I did. I also need to find that boy for other reasons.”

  “He’s in Berber. He sent a message to Mareen,” answered Jason.