The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  Richter sent him an assent and called the mauler back to him. The inky blackness of Quasea’s spell was fading and twin lines of bright red blood streaked out of her nostrils as she tried to maintain control. Empty mana potion vials lay on the ground near her feet. He tried to make eye contact, but the noctimancer was in a fugue. She had dedicated every ounce of her will to maintaining her spell. She lacked the energy to do anything else. Caulder still stood nearby, shield held high, protecting the Mage with both his armor and his body. The chaos seed looked at her in gratitude. She was buying them precious seconds. Time that would not matter if his plan did not work.

  As his pet came crashing down the stairs, literally falling twice due to the horrible toll the undead had taken on it, Richter ordered a waiting mist worker to carry Quasea through the portal as soon as she fell. He also gave the last vials of Flammable Life Oil to the sprites. Four ran up to the eighth level and split to cover approaches from either side. Richter had to hope that the wall of flames would at least thin the ranks of the undead rushing up the sides of the pyramid. He also prayed the undead weren’t strategic enough to climb to the ninth level before flooding down the stairs behind them. Fighting on three fronts was going to be hard enough. Fighting on four would be damn near impossible.

  The devastator roared again, and Richter looked back down the steps of the Mausoleum. It had risen out of the canyon, letting him see all of its horrific glory. The damn thing had to be seventy feet tall! Its bones were grey-white and neon-green light shone baleful in its eye sockets. Smaller undead were jumping onto it and being partially absorbed into its bones. Those whose heads remained free still looked up the Mausoleum at Richter. Those whose arms remained free lifted weapons and shook them in his direction. Each level of the Mausoleum was thirty to forty feet above the one below, but if that giant made it to them, the bulwark they had created would serve no more impediment than a sidewalk curb.

  He only had one chance to stop the colossus, and it would probably kill him.

  The mauler had arrived and Richter pulled every health potion he had and made the monster kneel down again. To the incredulous stares of the sprites, he opened each vial and poured them into the monster’s mouth. It had lost over four thousand health and was been losing more by the second. The health potions Richter gave it would normally restore over two thousand HPs in less than two minutes, but for a huge creature like the mauler, they would be lucky to get half of that effect.

  It would have to be enough.

  “If I don’t come back,” he told the sprites, “get through the portal and close it. That!” he shouted pointing at the devastator, “Cannot come through to my village. Swear it!”

  The lead sprite drew himself to full attention and saluted the allied commander, “By your command, Lord Mist!”

  Richter nodded and jumped onto the mauler’s back. A greasy strand of hair served as a handhold like a tenacious root on a cliff face. He cast Weak Haste on himself and then ordered the mauler to grab the last few boulders coated in the crypt mistress potion. What came next was perhaps the dumbest thing he’d done since coming to The Land. He ordered the mauler to run towards the thousands of undead climbing the pyramid!

  Alma shrieked in his mind until he told her his plan. Then she shrieked even louder. Richter shut her out. They had reached the sixth level. The mauler had easily leaped the fading remnants of Quasea’s spell and had thrown one of the boulders ahead of it. The white rock had knocked down several undead and two dozen more immediately piled on top of it, desperate to reach the source of the crypt mistress’s pheromones. The monster sprinted across the sixth floor to the next stairway, knocking undead out of the way with it prodigious strength. The good news about going downward was that the mean level of the undead was lower than the ones it had already fought above. The bad news was… there were thousands of the fuckers.

  Still, by momentum and ferocity, it barreled down the stairs, throwing another three boulders ahead of it. Just as before, these rocks riveted the attention of the undead. That was the good news. The bad news was that the mauler had the stench on it as well now, and the undead it was attracting were being driven into a frenzy. Richter rode the mauler, only feet above the sea of undead, his hand wrapped around a greasy and disgusting patch of hair.

  Despite the mauler’s immense strength and high level, the skeletons, ghouls and zombies were slowing it down. Soon, they would drown the beast in pure numbers. The Labyrinth boss screamed in rage and the colossal skeleton bellowed back. The devastator had paused, allowing the smaller undead to load themselves onto it, but seeing another enemy giant, it took a massive step forward. Its bony feet crushed undead with every step, but nothing would keep it away from an enemy that had dared to challenge it.

  That was exactly what Richter needed. The devastator had to get closer before he did what came next. Looking down, he ignored the little voice inside of him that was screaming, “No!” It wasn’t Alma. It was his rational mind telling him to do anything else. Piss into the wind, shit in his hand, bareback in Hong Kong, any of that would be smarter than this!

  He ignored all of that. He was American. It was time to fuck shit up… and hope it didn’t fucking kill him in the process. Richter had never used this spell on the mauler before, because its will was already barely contained by his Blood magic. Now was not the time for half measures though. Ignoring the horde of murderous undead only feet away, Richter used Cloud Running to jump to the mauler’s shoulder. Balancing up there while it swung its arms about was like riding a wave, and would have been impossible without his high stats, but he managed it for the seconds it took to cast his spell. A sense of pure “rightness” filled him as the swirling grey energy surrounded his hands. Five seconds later, he released the energy of Chaos and let it flow directly into the monster he was standing upon.

  The mauler began to change… it grew bigger… it grew blacker… and somehow… it got meaner.

  Know This! Your spell Akaton Evolution has evolved your Tovuut Mauler into a Void Chain Mauler, 1 of 6 possible evolutions. Attack +36. Armor +29. Speed +38. Special Abilities: Chained Dominance.

  Know This! Void creatures have a hatred for any creatures not of their plane of existence that transcends almost any enmity in the Universe. They would destroy the Universe itself if they had the power. What creatures of the void want is nothing less than the destruction of everything in creation and a return to the formless!

  Between your domination of its will and its new nature, your relationship with Void Chain Mauler has devolved from Blind Hatred to Soul Malice! You have gained your second Mortal Enemy! The Void Chain Mauler will stop at nothing to destroy you!

  Know This! The essence of Void creatures is anathema to almost every other type of magic. The hold from your Blood Magic has been destroyed!

  The Void Chain Mauler is no longer under your control!

  And there it is, Richter thought. I’m fucked.

  The mauler raised both arms above its head, screaming its power to The Land. Strange undulations began writhing under its matte black skin. The devastator roared in response, now rushing towards the mauler, only seconds from attacking… but the onetime Labyrinth boss did not care. Instead, it turned its head just enough to see its own shoulder. The mauler fixed Richter with one rage-filled eye that was as big as a shield, crafted of pure midnight. Richter looked back and knew it was not only promising retribution for its enslavement, but it was also daring him to attack first.

  To Richter, the question the monster was asking was simple, “Do you want a piece of this, you no-good sonofabitch?”

  To Richter, the answer was even more obvious… “Good god, no.”

  That was why an instant later Richter had jumped off the mauler’s back and was skating through the air as fast as his Cloud Running would allow!

  The mauler screamed in rage even louder than before, and the entire surface of its skin seemed to bubble. Richter didn’t know what was happening, but seeing it through Alma’s ey
es high above was enough to make him run even faster. The dragonling didn’t think it was fast enough. Swooping down, she flew into range to cast Weak Static Earth Shield just as dozens of chains erupted from the mauler’s skin and flew in every direction!

  Sharp barbs tipped each chain and every undead they touched was pierced straight through. Neither armor, nor bone, nor decaying flesh could stop them. In a single second, the lich lost forty-nine soldiers. They were claimed by the void. They turned matte black just like the mauler, and the green glow of eldritch magic vanished from their eyes. The mauler was no longer just a monster, it was what monsters feared, and it had only two goals in its hate-filled life.

  One, to kill and destroy everything in existence.

  Two, to make sure Richter died first.

  One chain struck the bubble of Earth energy Alma had erected. It easily overcame the defense and the protective shield shattered, but it was enough to slow the attack for a fraction of a second. That moment, and Alma’s warning, let Richter dive to the side on a cushion of air and narrowly miss the deadly tentacle of void magic. As he fell to the ground, the only saving grace was the very ferocity of the mauler’s attack had stunned some of the undead. He rolled, jumped off the ground and started Cloud Running again.

  That still would not have been enough to save him, but then the very essence of Richter’s plan came to fruition. He had laid one foot on top of a kneeling skeleton’s head and was pushing off it, all the while thinking, “Get that parkour. Get that parkour!” when the devastator skeleton arrived. Though the Labyrinthine monster had evolved into a ridiculously more powerful iteration of itself, the behemoth undead was undaunted. Raising both of its thirty-foot-long arms high overhead, it slammed them down on the void mauler with a force that could have toppled castle walls.

  The mauler was laid low, and for just a moment forgot about Richter. The chains that had bound it to its dozens of slaves lost cohesion… but this was not the end. The physical chains had only morphed into their void form. A second later, the enslavement of the various undead was complete. With unified screech coming from the forty-nine hellish throats, the ebon forms of the new voidlings attacked the undead that had been comrades only seconds before. The mauler looked up as well, and raising one arm, pointed its talons at the devastator. In a blink, the talons elongated thirty feet and pierced straight through the gargantuan skeleton. The undead screamed as the void attack not only damaged its body, but the very magical essence that gave it life after death. It felt pain for the first time in centuries and swung another hammering blow onto the mauler’s prone form.

  The pheromones of the Allure Potion of the Crypt mistress were still thick on the mauler, making even the smaller undead lust after and attack it with abandon, but the voidlings defended their new master with otherworldly attacks of massive power. Void magic was something that not even the eldritch magic of the lich could affect. Undead fell by the score. The voidlings were outnumbered hundreds to one, but they could only be destroyed by attacks of the strongest magic. As the mauler and devastator began to trade blows, the strange undulations began to build under the void boss’s skin once again.

  *That should NOT have worked, master!* Alma yelled at him as they sped back up the Mausoleum. While many of the undead were now embroiled in the battle between the undead and the void creatures, there were still hundreds surging towards the portal. Black Ice delivered the final death to several undead trying to stop them, but Richter only touched down when needed. Between his high reflexes and Alma’s warnings, they were already back to the sixth floor.

  Richter continued to fight his way forward and thought back, *You are so right! I can’t believe I’m still breathing!* There was a tinge of hysteria in his thoughts.

  Initially, the only response on the psychic line was a stunned silence from Alma. How she managed to psychically project silence he had no idea, but then, he’d never understood how a woman did that. She shot a bolt of lightning into the face of a skeletal Rogue that was getting ready to fire an arrow into him. Richter delivered the coup de grace to the stunned monster and kept running. He was airborne again before the zombie’s head even hit the floor.

  *You aren’t going to argue with me?* Alma asked him incredulously.

  *Argue?* Richter thought to her as he cast Mirror Image. Three copies of himself appeared and he kept running. *Why would I argue? I can’t believe I’m alive! My whole plan was to evolve the mauler and then run away. I was pretty sure it would be able to break through my control once it evolved, but I had no idea it would turn into some creature that was an enemy of the Universe itself. There is NO way that should have worked!*

  Alma was silent again as she flew next to him, until she said, *You know what, master? It absolutely infuriates me that you are agreeing with me!*

  Richter let loose a mad cackle that he was sure he would pay for later, but couldn’t help it. He was alive!

  They made it back to the bulwark. The sprite archers had created another wall of Life flames, buying themselves a brief respite. The flames licked at the bottom of his boots, but he cleared them and landed on the other side of the incomplete fortification. Even though so much had happened, bare minutes had passed since he began his nearly suicidal plan to ride the mauler into a sea of undead. He addressed the senior sprite again, “You have to hold this position as long as possible. I hope those two things kill each other, but if one starts making it up here, my previous orders stand. Leave and close the portal.”

  “Yes, my lord. Will you be defending with us?”

  “No.” Richter sheathed both Black Ice and his elementum short sword before downing his second-to-last stamina potion. The sounds of battle and cries of pain still sounded from above as the strike team tried to secure the tenth level. “I have someone to kill.” Then he took off again, Alma flying close above.

  CHAPTER 101 – Day 150 – Kuborn 39, 0 AoC

  Yoshi executed a perfect Crane’s Neck, thrusting his sword through the mouth of a screaming banshee zombie, puncturing its brain and finally killing it. This happened just as Richter made it to the tenth level. It was the last monster to fall. This would have been wonderful, if the adept wasn’t also one of the last three members of the strike team standing. As the chaos seed’s feet touched the landing, the adept withdrew his blade and turned towards Richter.

  “Foresuto No,” were Yoshi’s last words before he crumbled to the ground, blood streaming from his eyes, nose and ears like someone had turned on a tap. The only way he had been able to get close enough to end the banshee zombie was for him to suffer its full attack. The adept had paid the price. Richter ran over to the prone form and sighed with relief when he found a pulse. Analyze showed that Yoshi’s health was very low, though, and it was continuing to fall.

  The only other two conscious fighters were Sion and Caulder. The sprite’s armor was punctured in two places and both his own red blood and the black sludge of the undead covered him from head to toe. He was leaning against a nearby wall, lungs working overdrive as he tried to catch his breath. As Richter watched, he put the cork of a health potion between his teeth and pulled the stopper free. A second later, the red liquid was splashing down his throat and the sprite let out a sigh of profound relief as his breathing eased.

  Caulder stood nearby, missing an ear. The sergeant had rushed up the stairs once Quasea had collapsed and been tossed back through the gateway. His wardoor shield had been lost somewhere along the way, and all the bloodied man held was his enchanted mace. Blood flowed down the side of the sergeant’s face, but he downed half of a health potion before walking over and pouring the rest into Yoshi’s mouth. The adept didn’t wake up, but the color in his face improved slightly.

  The sergeant looked at Richter, ichor dripping from the man’s mace and the sclera of one eye injected with blood. Whatever had torn off the man’s ear had struck the side of his head hard. Richter revised his earlier estimate of how the sergeant looked. The man was on his last legs. He just wouldn’t sh
ow it. Caulder just drew himself erect and, on wobbly legs, clapped a fist to his heart, “Lord Mist.”

  Richter didn’t know what to say for a moment, overcome with emotion at seeing the stoic loyalty in Caulder’s face. Then he looked around at the fallen, and understood. Too much had already been lost. Battle still raged below them, and their target waited above, but in that moment, they were existing in a paradoxical oasis of peace. For those few seconds, they could collect themselves and decide, not just react, on what they must do. That realization was what brought pride and sorrow to Richter’s heart because for Caulder, a man that had lost friends and blood in this battle, there was actually no decision. Better to walk through the jaws of death, daring it to bite, then to let these fallen lives mean nothing. He would follow Richter and give everything that he had. He would see the job done.

  The chaos seed couldn’t think of anything he could do to add honor to such an honorable man except to devote the same level of dedication to the cause. “Report,” he ordered quietly and handed Caulder some forest sage to chew. The herb would not do much, but it would help a bit.

  “Sir! We have secured the tenth level. Only the stairway to the roof remains and the vampires who guard it. We have taken heavy casualties. Only myself and First Meidon Sion are battle ready. We have used all of our healing and stamina potions. The wounded are being carried back through the portal, but more than half of our fighters are dead. The arrows and blades of the undead were laced with poison or Death magic. The lack of Life magic has made this a costly battle. Can we expect more reinforcements from the portal?”