by Skyler Grant
A part of me felt guilt over that corpse. Questioned the choices I was making. The larger part didn’t give a damn.
“You really are good at being bad,” I said admiringly as I sheathed the blade. “Are we done here?”
“We are. I still have the others locked in the game, since you need their help. You probably don’t want to mention that you aren’t.”
Yvera snapped her fingers and I was surrounded by a pulse of blue light.
Chapter 22
I fell back through the portal. Given how long I’d spent on the other side I expected the others to be angry at me for taking so long, but instead everyone seemed winded as if having just returned from their own adventures.
Ashley wasn’t quite Ashley anymore, she had gained at least a few inches in height. Features that before were attractive were now striking, although she remained recognizable. I suspected she had somehow gained a few points of Charisma. Most startling however were her eyes, they had gone from their usual brown-flecked green to the most vivid shade of amethyst.
Walt had undergone some transformation too, looking a fair bit more rugged and durable. While he still wore robes, he seemed more kind of badass.
I looked over Maria, excited to see what changes she had undergone and felt slightly disappointed there were no physical changes.
For my part, Intemperance remained sheathed at my hip and it continued to echo in my mind with raw hunger. My armor looked slightly different with hints of flame ornamentation. I imagined whatever I wore now would have probably have something similar. It was a strange world where what you wore was always a reflection of who you truly were.
Everyone came together and started to talk at once, then fell silent at the same time. Right.
“I’m sure we all have stories to tell,” I said. “But I don’t even know if I want to tell mine. That was both more rewarding and harder than I expected.”
“Mine was hard too,” Walt said wearily.
“And mine sucked, so let’s just talk about the loot,” Ashley said. “What we got. I now have the blood of the black dragon flowing through my veins and I’m an assassin instead of a thief.”
“I’m now a portal mage,” Walt said reluctantly. Just what had happened to him?
“I am now the founder of the Xerroxil path of the School of the Spider,” Maria said. “He was the spider who ate time.”
“And I’m now the Chosen of Yvera and I got a kickass flaming sword,” I said.
Ashley was instantly furious. “You what? You let that thing inside of you? You worthless, stupid, fucking moron!”
Walt raised a hand and said, “Ash...”
“No, Walt. Not this time, you know what they are,” Ashley’s eyes drilled into me. “I don’t care how hard she fucking gets you, what were you thinking?”
“Do you even know what she is?” I asked and Ashley’s eyes rolled.
She hissed, “Some of us have left our small town. Do you have any idea? Do you know what they are capable of? And you just let one crawl inside of you?”
“I love her,” I said, and realized it was the wrong thing to say.
Ashley’s fury turned from hot to cold and I wondered if she might put her new assassin skills to the test.
“You’ve made a mistake, Liam,” Ashley said, glancing over towards Walt. “And you picked the wrong side.”
“Whatever the others are like, Yvera wants something different,” I tried to explain.
“It’s the ones that want something different you need to be afraid of,” Ashley said.
Maria was looking extremely confused. I felt guilty for the love comment, not that Maria and I had any sort of relationship. Exactly. And it wasn’t like what I felt towards Yvera was serious. I mean, I was her divine instrument, not her boyfriend. I also had to wonder how Yvera and Walt seemed to know more about this stuff than I did.
“Ash, leave it for now,” Walt said. “We need to focus on the task at hand. We still need to get to the throne room and deal with we find there.”
“We just wander up and stab the King?” I asked with an apologetic look at Maria.
“It won’t be as simple as that,” Walt said, shaking his head. “That is a Boss encounter we’re going up against. Usually there are going to be a few encounters before them.”
“Killer accountant may have taken those with him. If not, each one is going to be tough,” Ashley agreed, calming down with the change in subject. “There will usually be some sort of trick involved with each. You don’t have to use it, but the fight will be a lot easier if you do. The rest of us will try to keep watch for those. Your job is going to be keeping attention focused on you. If something turns towards me or Walt, peel them off. If I’m not backstabbing and he’s not casting, we’re in trouble.”
“What about Maria?” I asked.
“I can hold my own and extract myself from a fight, if I need to,” Maria said in her usual monotone. “Especially with my new school I have a lot of abilities to slow enemies down and harm them over time, so I’ll be switching frequently between foes and winding in and out of combat.”
“The greatest struggle we’re going to have is a lack of dedicated healing,” Ashley said.
“Ideally one member of the party would be entirely devoted to that role,” Walt said. “But since that can’t happen we’ll just have to make do.”
Maria studied both Walt and Ashley. “You both take matters of murder and slaughter very seriously. I am pleased to have met you.”
On that cheery note I led the way back towards the main environs of the castle.
Chapter 23
Soon there were again the sounds of combat and we stepped back into a hall where undead fought with the undead. Taking care to avoid harming any in silly masks we made our way forward. Only a few broke off to engage us and for those I didn’t even have to draw Intemperance. Bashing them with my shield while Ashley slipped behind to deliver a death blow was the most effective tactic. She seemed even deadlier with the perks granted by her new race and class.
The hall ended in a set of doors left hanging open, leading into a large courtyard that must have once been some sort of walled garden. There was vegetation, but it was all darkened and gray. The mists clung heavily to the ground here. In the middle of the courtyard was a monstrous-looking plant, twice as tall as I was and covered in frightful thorns.
I paused at the entrance to the garden, intending to talk over a last bit of strategy with everyone. I had no more turned to face them when I felt a vine curling around my ankle and I was being dragged towards the thorn-coated plant.
For the first time I felt the effects of my new level of being attuned to the surroundings—it hurt. I don’t even think any of the thorns pierced my armor, yet it hurt far more than any blow I’d taken so far since coming to this place. I reached for Intemperance, drawing the sword to hack away at the vine. The obsidian blade flared.
I had a flaming sword. Even in my pain I took a moment to marvel. That was pretty cool.
Then I got slammed into the thorns again and it was less cool. My world blurred with pain. I lashed out with my sword and cut the vine, noting with some satisfaction the severed end was ablaze.
I hit the ground and looked around for the others. Maria must have avoided being grabbed, she looked quite unharmed and was almost casually making her way between flailing vines and delivering well-placed punches and kicks.
Ashley had a decreased health bar, so she must have been taken as well, although she had already found her feet and was stabbing viciously at the central stalk.
Walt was trapped, hurtling towards a thorn when I saw him blink out of existence and reappear back standing on the ground nearby. That was useful.
Belatedly remembering I was supposed to be drawing the plant’s attention I began to swing Intemperance at the central stalk and any vines within reach. It wasn’t long until there was a fair bit of fire surrounding me, which appeared to enrage the plant.
I tried to keep an
eye on the others, prepared to assist if they were under some sort of attack. Maria was holding her own, though the raw hunger of Intemperance running through me made watching her far more distracting than it could have been.
I forced my attention towards Ashley and Walt. Ashley was fading in and out of view as she slipped between stealth mode, delivering attacks. Badass.
Walt was near one corner of the garden and I couldn’t figure out quite what he was up to until I saw a brazier burst into light. He toppled it over and burning coals spilled out into the vegetation setting much of it ablaze. This must have been one of those tricks they mentioned.
With my shield I slammed a vine that was making its way to Walt, and hacked at a second heading in the same direction. His antics were drawing especially vigorous attention.
Ashley noticed what Walt was up to and was heading towards another brazier. I heard a huffing sound from the central stalk. The top was vibrating madly and enveloped in a cloud in pink mist. This couldn’t be good. I hacked at another vine and turned back towards the plant.
Spore Cloud
I briefly saw a flash of text above the plant, then I was engulfed in the pink mist. I felt my insides churn and I clutched over, dry heaving. Realism like this I really could have done without. In my misery I noticed that the fires in the burning part of the garden had dissipated the mist. Sadly none of us had been standing there and we were all quite crippled.
A vine lashed out and wrapped around Maria, carrying her choking form into the air, before tossing her up and swallowing her whole.
I wanted to lash out, but I still couldn’t move, choking and gasping as the sounds of pained screams came from the stalk. With a sick, slurping sound the plant spat Maria back out, her body slamming against one of the walls and crumpling to the ground. One arm was at a most unnatural angle, and there was a large amount of blood.
She still had some of her health bar remaining, but it was rapidly declining under an alarming number of poisoned and bleeding status effects.
The main pink cloud of spores was almost gone, but around each of us a smaller mist still remained leaving us doubled over.
Intemperance flared with an especially bright burst of fire and suddenly I could breath again.
“Go,” I heard Yvera whisper in my ear. That was new. I wasn’t arguing. I ran to Maria’s side and reached out, focusing my Lay on Hands ability. There was a dizzying sensation and instantly Maria went from a twisted mess to being whole again. Even the various status effects blinked away in an instant.
I was preparing to use it a second time, but she shook her head. “Idiot. Save it. I’m good. Do your job.”
Since she was going to be okay I turned my attention back to the world at large and saw the timers keeping Walt and Ashley retching were just about to expire.
“Walt and Ashley, light up those braziers. I’m on the stalk. Maria, keep those vines off them. If you hear that sound from the stalk, stand in the fire.” I said.
I imagine they already knew what to do, better than I did. I also knew I was supposed to be leading and it probably didn’t hurt to give those instructions again, plus wanting to be the one drawing attention it made sense for me to be shouting orders.
I charged forward once more and began to lash out at the plant with my flaming sword. I wondered for a moment if something like this actually increased my skill. This was no sword-play against a skilled opponent, this was repetitive hacking of a sort that made my arms ache.
Walt and Ashley had set two more braziers alight and spilled their contents into the garden. That left only one to go and Walt was headed for it while Ashley was darting in and out of stealth to stab vines, making her way towards the main stalk.
My repeated blows were revealing the outside of the stalk to be something like bark, a thick black ooze seeping out of where I chipped it away. The stalk began to vibrate and I again heard that strange sound.
“Everyone into the fire!” I called and ran to stand in one of the burned parts of the garden. Everyone else made it as well. I was taking a small bit of damage from the fires around me, although between my large health bar and my innate fire resistance it was barely noticeable.
I checked how the others were doing. Health bars were worrying. They were all down to around half health, although I saw a steady upward ticking from Maria and Walt that suggested they were both using a sort of healing ability in the downtime. I was doing better at three quarters health, which probably meant I wasn’t doing my job very well at keeping attention focused on me. The plant only seemed to be down about ten percent, which was horrible math all around.
Ashley moved closer to me as the top of the plant chuffed once more and a cloud of pink spores filled the air, drifting towards us.
“We don’t seem to be winning,” I said to Ashley.
“It’s not over yet,” Ashley said. “Usually something dramatic happens when we fully fuck with the environment, so when that fourth brazier is lit it’s going to be all in one attack.”
“I’ve burned a part of the outer layer off where I’ve been standing.”
“Switch positions when we go back. I’ll hit that when it’s time,” Ashley said, stabbing at a vine as it drew close even as I lashed out with my sword at the same one.
The spores drifted down to the fire and sparked. As soon as they did a larger vine lashed out and wrapped around my waist, taking me by surprise and dragging me towards the plant. This must be the same maneuver that grabbed Maria. I didn’t think it could still happen, if nobody was incapacitated by the spores.
Fortunately this time nobody was helpless. Ashley and I slashed madly with our weapons opening a number of gouges in the vine—flaming ones, in my case—although it was a flying kick from Maria that shook its grasp loose and dropped me hard onto the ground. Her expression was scary, normally her features hardly seemed to change. Now there was something intensely murderous about her. I suppose it was because of how badly the plant hurt her earlier.
I called out, “Walt! Get the last brazier. Maria and Ashley, stay close to the stalk and get prepared to strike, if something happens.” Sure, it was mostly Ashley’s plan, but I figure she’d told me for a reason. I didn’t get any dirty looks.
I struck out at several vines on my way back to the stalk, wondering why they even existed. They barely did any damage and died so quickly, though they were just threat enough that if left unattended you’d regret it. Perhaps it was some reflection on life, the various meaningless bits of maintenance that made up a day and were safe to ignore once or twice, but could become overwhelming.
No further time for philosophy, I moved back to a different side of the stalk and again attacked it. Walt blinked out of existence and reappeared near the last brazier which he lit and tipped over. That was probably a waste of some sort of timer, cool though.
With the entire garden ablaze there was a painful shrieking from the plant. It swayed for several long moments before slumping over, the mouth at the top opening to reveal it to be a flower with petals lined by jagged teeth. There were partially dissolved corpses, and fresh blood that must have come from Maria.
Ashley blinked in and out to slam her daggers down.
Draconic Fury
I prompt flashed over her head and her blows began to be delivered almost faster than I could see and with a force making the trunk to shake.
Deadly Dance
More text as Maria invoked some abilities of her own and began to rain choreographed punches and kicks between the thorns.
Critical Hit
Critical Hit
Critical Hit
That all came from somewhere above and I glanced up to see Walt attacking the open flower with some sort of magic, tiny blue portals of energy opening up and gouts of fire emerging from within. Well, I could do that, too. I channeled my Smite spells to unleash several at once.
It was different now than it was before. I don’t know if it was being attuned or becoming Yvera’s Chosen. Before, casting
the spell had been a mild pleasure, a tickling rush of power. The dripping faucet had become a raging river. Now it was intoxicating, overwhelming.
In the air near the stalk tiny stars formed, glistening brightly, and then poured forth waves of billowing flames into the flower. My divine magic was kicking ass now.
Our combined assault was devastating the plant’s health bar. With a shrieking roar the flower closed again and the thorns on the stalk began to tremble.
Walt was too far away for me to get to, and Ashley was probably the most in danger. She was pulling back from the stalk and I raised my shield to stand between it and her.
Pincushion
Thorns exploded outward with incredible force. Two penetrated my shield as I was driven backwards with bruising force into Ashley and we went tumbling through the flaming ruins of the garden.
Groaning, we made our way back to our feet and I looked to check the status of the others. Maria looked quite unfazed, but where was Walt? I heard a moan to my right and saw him impaled to the wall, a thorn driven directly through his chest. His new larger health bar was very nearly empty and ticking down with the gaping wound.
Walt flickered and was free of the thorn, his short range teleportation trick again coming in handy, and he collapsed into a heap nearby. I rushed to his side and reached out to make use of my Lay on Hands. This would exhaust my charges for the time being, but there was no doubt he was in need. In an instant he was back to full health with the wound closed.
I turned just in time to witness the last moments of the giant plant, Maria and Ashley delivering a furious assault. The stalk leaned over and collapsed onto the ground. The fires in the rest of the garden faded and all around us was ashes and ruin. Win.