by Dakota Krout
Incantations were especially powerful because they used all of the Essence provided in a single, massive burst. The Mages who had opened the portal recently had used incantations to quickly and evenly distribute power to the Runes inscribed on the portal obelisks, for instance. Heedless of the battle continuing, Adam carefully added his Essence to the spell forming from his words and actions.
The Cat was too agile to hit easily, each blow of Dale's Morningstar or Toms Warhammer easily dodged while the tentacles smacked arrows out of the air. Hans stopped moving, concentrated for a second and seemed to vanish into the darkness as he took a single step backward. He moved as quickly as the wind, hovering over the floor by a quarter inch. He suddenly shot high into the air and dove down, timing his attack for when the Cat was dodging a series of blows from the other fighters. The Cat moved too quickly and while he was unable to land a killing blow; he did manage to stab his daggers into the Cat’s flanks and activate the Inscriptions, injecting poison deep into the wounds.
The Cat whipped around and focused entirely on Hans for a moment. Three tentacles slammed into his torso while the other dropped to the ground and provided stability for the attack. Hans braced himself as best he was able, crossing his arms in front of his face as the attack landed. Now flying through the air for entirely different reasons, he felt both of his arms break at odd angles and something inside him ruptured as his torso was impacted. He collided heavily with the wall and fell on his face awkwardly, unable to arrest his fall with his unresponsive limbs.
Tom landed his attack for the first time in the battle, crushing the tentacle that was providing stability to the massive Beast. The tentacle vanished in a gout of black blood, being ripped by the roots from the body of the Cat. Screaming, the Cat turned on him lashing out with its paws. The only thing that saved Tom from having the arteries of his neck severed was the acid which had destroyed two of the malice filled eyes and reduced its depth perception. The sharp claws tore open Toms’ chest, spraying the area with red blood over the black. Tom fought on, doing his best to ignore the potentially fatal wound.
Several arrows had found their mark and a second tentacle now hung limp, connected to the body only by a scrap of flesh. Dale swung at the main body of the Cat, dealing some small damage but not enough to seriously hurt the Cat. The spikes only penetrated half an inch; its thick fur and tough, leathery hide underneath protected the Cat from real harm. The glow on the cat was beginning to lessen, so it took an opportunity to vanish back into the shadows, a now-soft glow the only indication of its position. It charged at the wounded Tom, when Adam finally finished his incantation.
Adam held up his staff, celestial Essence pouring from the topaz in the top like a sieve, as his face grew far too pale. A beam of light shot upward, entering the celestial quartz far overhead. With this sudden influx of Essence, the Quartz above glowed stronger, flooding the Inscriptions with Essence which rebounded the energy downward, greatly extending the power and range of the Runescript placed upon it. The Runes, similar to the pendant Dale wore, tore through the veil of darkness below, dissipating it all at once. The Cat - which had leapt at Tom - was smashed to the floor by the massive pressure of the celestial Essence, while the others took a deep breath with feelings of hope filling them.
Tom did not waste the moment and swung down at the prone Distortion Cat, landing a blow even as it twisted away. The massive force behind the hammer shattered the spine of the Beast just beyond its back legs, rendering them useless. It roared and used the remaining tentacles as legs, dragging itself into the brilliant light - vanishing entirely. It appeared again a few feet away, running this time at Adam who had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Rose stepped in front of his fallen form, firing arrows wildly at the Beast charging her, but every attack seemed to either miss it or move right through its body without causing damage.
Rose screamed in frustration and terror as a tentacle raced toward her, tossing her aside with bone shattering force. It mauled Adam, vengefully tearing open his legs with vicious attacks. Dale and Tom reached the cat, simultaneously swinging at it. Both missed, though the Warhammer continued on and clipped the real form of the Cat, launching it away with a yowl. A lightly glowing silhouette was visible, though the illusion in front of them didn’t move. Tom took another step after the Cat, but stumbled and fell to the floor, too weak from blood loss to continue. His hammer clattered to the floor as he fell unconscious.
Dale grabbed the Warhammer and nearly fell over trying to lift it. “Right,” he thought, “It is bound to Tom.” Dropping the hammer, he raced after the Cat, viciously swinging his weapon into its acid eaten torso. With contemptuous ease, the Cat sent him flying in the same manner as Hans had before.
~Thirty~
“Cal we have to do something!” Dani frantically demanded, “If they die, we are screwed! It’ll come back here and… and…” She was unable to finish the thought.
~Dale~
The Cat half limped, half dragged itself toward Dale, single working eye fixed on the heart beating in Dale’s chest. Dale tried to struggle into a defensive position, but his limbs were broken, each small movement causing excruciating pain. He gasped for breath as a tentacle raised up above his body, plunging down directly into his heart. Although Dale's heart had been reinforced by opening a meridian, the sharp point of the tentacle went directly through, leaving a perfectly round hole in his body. The hole began at the skin of his chest and exited his back where the talon had driven deep into the stone below him. The tentacle slowly receded, twisting as it did so as to inflict maximum pain to the dying man.
The Cat lowered its ruined face to his and hissed evilly, watching for the last bit of life to drain away from Dale. Dale stared into its eye, even as his own vision went dim. The bleeding hole of the Cat's neck poured black blood onto him. Wait, what?
The huge body flopped over onto its side, head torn clean off. Tom stepped into Dale's view, chest seemingly fully healed; only shiny scar tissue present to show that he had been mortally wounded.
“Adam! Get thyself over here, tis bad!” Tom boomed, dropping his Warhammer to the ground as he cradled Dale's still form. Dale’s vision darkened entirely as his body was filled with celestial light.
“It’s too late.” Adam whispered, tears streaming down his face. “I fixed the damage to his heart, but it is just… too late.”
“No!” Hans ran to his fallen friend, “I refuse to believe this! Work harder!” His voice broke on the last word.
“I have nothing left to give.” Adam sobbed, “I’m drained to near death myself.” He shook, his body wracked with sobs.
“Here!” Rose ran over to them, vials in her hands, “Pour this down his mouth!” She held out a healing potion.
“Rose, he is gone… It won’t help.” Adam informed her morosely.
*SLAP* Her hand rocked Adam to the side, he looked at her startled and astonished out of his depression. “You will do what I say! Now!” She screamed in his face.
He took the vial, handing it to Hans, who poured the potent healing potion down his fallen friend’s throat. No effect was visible, no miracles appeared.
“Now you drink this!” Rose directed, handing Adam another vial that blazed with concentrated Essence. She gave another to Hans, directing him to administer it to Dale. Reluctantly obeying her, Adam drank the contents of the vial. It never reached his stomach, the potent Essence being absorbed directly into his Center, lighting it up like a dawn forcing away the hold of night. The Essence rushed through him, filling him to his maximum potential and then continuing, the overflow of Essence beginning to burn out his meridians.
Quickly - full of panic - Adam returned to Dale and attempted to revive him. The Essence in Dale from the vial was now sitting in his center like a lump, unmoving. No matter what techn
ique Adam tried, it refused to move, to connect to Dale’s life-force. His ministrations restarted Dale’s heart, but the man refused to regain consciousness.
“I’ve done… all I can.” Adam slumped. “He is alive, but… I think not really. Let’s get him out of here so we can at least give him a proper burial.” The stunned, sickened members of the team gathered his body and prepared to leave.
~Cal~
“He isn’t all the way dead though!” Dani gasped. “You won’t get his Essence anymore!”
I looked at them wonderingly. I couldn’t absorb him since he was alive, so the others had placed him near the exit as they moved to take a trophy of the great Beast they had slain. With the human auras no longer blocking him from my sight, I was able to inspect Dale carefully. Since he was dead - but not really - I was able to learn everything about his body near instantly, as I had with Dani. I was quickly able to determine what the issue was and corrected it in his body, as I would a stone in my walls.
This did not bring him back, the Essence in him was no longer funneling into his quickly dimming life force. Even the liquid Essence in him began to sputter and make its way out of his body. There was still more Essence in him then there had been; truth be told the overdose they poured into him would have made his chest explode if his body were alive to contain it. Now, it was just dissipating into the air.
“Will it cost you too much Essence?” She reminded me, to which I responded with a negative. She kept asking questions, the primary being, “What will happen if it doesn’t work?”
I was getting frustrated,
Dani had no idea either, obviously. “You know his pattern better than I do, Cal. If you don’t know what can help him, there is nothing I could do.”
I shifted Dale’s intestines around a tiny bit; creating a perfect soul gem around his center, just below his heart and almost against his spine. The Essence which had been escaping him was quickly drawn back into what had been his center, now a highly refined Beast core - a Masterwork Soul gem. Now, the issue was that no Essence was able to leave the gem and all the Essence contained in him was being slowly drawn into it. Working quickly but carefully, I surrounded the Gem with a perfect layer of Runescripted diamond.
Diamond, I had found through exhaustive testing, allowed for all Essence types to move through it well. It was a spectacular conductor for all of it. Each type had a gem that allowed for perfect flows, but needed to be purely that type of Essence. For instance, the topaz head on Adam’s staff allowed celestial Essence to flow perfectly, but would greatly impede all other types.
Where his cultivation had drawn in the Essence of the Heavens and the Earth, I made a Rune - which would activate by cultivating - to draw in that power to his Center/Core. At each place around his meridians where energy would flow out into his body I placed that same Rune, but inverted it in order to send energy out. At each corner of the new Soul Gem I placed tiny yet powerful Beast Cores, which would absorb only the Corruption his cultivation produced. With luck, I would be able to use that for something in the future.
I had done all I was able for his body; his mind would need to heal on its own. Luckily everything I had created was small, therefore quick and easy to make. His organs were repaired, and drawing in Essence should be really easy for him now. The only question I had was: Would this work or kill him when everything became active? I was really excited to find out! I kick started the fractal pattern of the Essence and forcefully activated every Rune within him. Then I moved my mind back to enjoy the show.
~Dale~
Hans turned back to his fallen friend and began walking toward him. From the dead Cat they had gathered each tentacle, the last good eye, all of its teeth and claws, and a few other samples of strange organs. The Cat weighed nearly half a ton, they certainly couldn’t carry everything. Hans’ eyes were shining with the light of Essence, which he used to find the important bits of the Distortion Cat. He definitely wasn’t using it to hold back tears. He glanced over at his fallen friend and saw Essence streaming around Dale in an incredibly advanced, incomprehensible pattern. With a shout of rage, he started to run to Dale’s rescue, but pulled up short as his eyes followed the trail of Essence to its source.
It appeared to be coming from the… Silverwood tree? Hans knew that Silverwood trees were powerful and mysterious, but what was it doing? He stood away from Dale, motioning the others back when they tried to move to Dale in panic. Hans watched the barely breathing body as closely as he could, but the thick Essence dancing around Dale prevented him from seeing what the pattern was creating. Several minutes later, the light finally stopped flowing, though Dale’s form remained unmoving.
They walked over to his body, realizing that even the mysterious forces of the dungeon’s Silverwood tree could do nothing. They tried to inspect Dale for recovery, but could detect no Essence whatsoever in his Center. With a sob, Hans realized his comrade, his student... His friend... was truly dead.
~Thirty-One~
Adam reached over to close Dale's eyes, but stopped as they shone a brilliant molten silver. With a gasp he tried to move back, falling awkwardly onto his butt. Dale started convulsing, his entire body shaking in the sudden onslaught of muscle spasms.
“Hold his head!” Adam immediately took control of the situation and shifted his thoughts back into a healing mindset, “We need to keep him from damaging himself! He’s alive!”
Hans was by Dale's side in a flash, keeping his head from bouncing around on the hard rock. “What is happening?!” Hans shouted at Adam, who was trying to recover from his position on the floor.
“Besides Dale having a seizure? No idea.” Adam stated grimly, lying perpendicular across Dale in an attempt to hold him against the floor. “All I know is his heart is beating and he is breathing again.”
The group piled onto Dale, holding him in different places. Adam, being so light, was nearly thrown as one spectacular shake tore through Dale's body tearing muscles and popping blood vessels. Hans was watching everything closely, and suddenly cried out.
“Look! Look at that! His Essence is… pouring through his body!” Hans was flabbergasted. “It’s going through his meridians… He hadn’t opened those ones yet!”
�
��What?!” Adam looked with Essence enhanced sight, worried that this was Dale's death throes, “Is the Essence escaping his body?”
“No. No!” Hans shouted, realizing what effect the Essence was about to have on Dale’s body. “Everyone, get off of him! Now! Trust me!” Listening to his order, the others reluctantly let go while only Hans remained to hold Dale’s head. A rancid, waxy discharge started finding ways out of Dale. Through the pores in his skin, his eyes, ears, mouth, and less... pleasant... orifices came this loathsome fluid. It drained out of these exits as fast as liquid removed itself from the vicinity of a liquid repulsion Rune. Dale’s body seemed to deflate as the seemingly endless torrent continued. After what felt like hours it did eventually stop, and Dale finally stopped shaking. Now in what seemed to be a natural slumber brought on by exhaustion, the group tried to get close enough to help carry him away. Unfortunately, the smell made all but Hans retreat as far away as possible.
Dale opened his eyes, blinking in the bright light of the room.
“Buddy?” Hans cajoled in a broken voice, “You there? Are you… Can you tell me your name?”
“Hans?” Dale looked up into Hans’s beaming face. “Wha…?”
Hans looked at him with sad eyes, smile vanishing. “Oh, no. Dale... Hans is my name.”
“Oh. My. God. Be serious for once, you shit!” Rose shouted at him, braving the reeking odor to smack him on the head.
Hans’s smile returned as he looked down at Dale. “You all there buddy?”
Dale nodded as best he was able. “What happened? And who,” he grimaced and spat out some foul fluid, “Who let that Cat shit in my mouth?”
All but Dale started laughing as the tension of the past few hours caught up with them. Eventually Dale tired of scowling and joined in. A few moments later, wiping a tear from his eye, Dale sobered a bit, “So seriously though, what happened?”