Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2)

by Christopher Johns

  That had been about 200 MP for me and Bokaj’s full 250 MP, since his tree had been slightly larger and the roots further. So this could take a while. That had been all of his mana. So this was going to be rough going if we were to try and clear the whole damned jungle while we looked for the problem.

  “This is going to take forever,” Bokaj groaned aloud. “There’s got to be another way.”

  “Could you enchant something that makes it easier?” Jaken asked after a moment. “Maybe some arrows? A ring? Anything that might give us the ability to use the spell?”

  Can I do that? I wondered to myself. I mean, I had given Muu the ability to use a modified version of my Regrowth spell with a ring. Maybe I could do the same with another ring? But the one I had was shitty; it may not hold this kind of enchantment at such a low quality.

  There had to be another way.

  “Hey, Jaken—think the Celestials can help cleanse this place?” I asked our Paladin.

  He thought it over for a moment, “I don’t see why they couldn’t. Though I would suggest that you do it. Just in case.”

  I nodded. It was a good idea. I could shift without any mana expenditure.

  I reached for the magic in me and cast Summon Celestial. The normal rent in the air opened before me. The tearing sound filled the air as the veil between the Celestial realm and our own opened wide for a figure to step through.

  Instead of the angel warrior Samu, there was a woman, roughly nine feet tall, in radiant armor that made Jaken and Muu’s armor look like shit.

  “Hello summoner,” she spoke, her tone commanding and breathy all at once. “How can I assist you?”

  “Hello, I’m Zeke.” I motioned to the forest around us. “There’s some kind of disease here that it will take us forever to purify as we look for the source. I was hoping you might be able to help us somehow?”

  “An open-ended request?” Her golden eyebrows arched. “Highly unusual. Samu was right about you.”

  She began to walk about the area with her eyes wandering the scene. She stopped in front of Maebe with a curious expression. “Queen of Ice and Darkness.”

  “Lady of the Rank and File,” Maebe returned mildly. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Can you assist?”

  “I cannot do anything about this disease itself, no. It seems to be highly resistant to radiant energies.” The angel turned her gaze on me. “I can tell you, however, that what you seek is further south and west. You will know it when you come to it, but be prepared for a fight. Good luck to you all.”

  She stepped back through the rent in the veil and was gone.

  “Well, that gives us a heading.” James shrugged. “Laongal, do you know what is that far down?”

  “Cultists, all manner of ill that have been quietly living in the jungle for decades.” The lion bared his teeth. “The denizens of the area usually stay away from them and their experimentation. They’ve left us well enough alone. I had thought to take you directly to where the spiders call home, as I was under the impression that they were responsible.”

  “We may be able to take care of them once we solve this issue. We’ll be here for a bit trying to find something.” Yohsuke glanced at the sky above us. “Bokaj, you know where we’re headed from here?”

  “Yep.” He pointed toward a trail that diverged from our current course and nodded. “That’s the best way to go, though Laongal should still lead us since he knows the environment best.”

  “I will agree with that,” Laongal rumbled at us, I translated. “If we are to try and see what is going on, then we should travel as far as we can today. One more night and we shall have you at your quarry.”

  A thought occurred to me, and I approached our guide. “Laongal, would you mind if I took your shape?”

  “I would be honored, Druid Zeke.” The lion sat for me, then bit my hand so I could take his lion form.

  “Thank you. Let’s head out, bud.” I shrugged my shoulder to relieve a little tension from the bite and began to eye my surroundings.

  Here and there, I would cast Purify on the worst of the diseased plants around us as we moved along. There was one animal I saw that was sick, a large, vaguely toucan-looking bird, but the beak was razor sharp, and the wings were longer than the body when folded closed. The vibrant colors of its feathers had begun to gray, its blue head feathers sprouting mushrooms and some moss.

  I cast Purify on it and watched as the color and life returned to the bird, and it flew off as soon as it could. I saw as it left that the same fungal coloring it had was on the branch as well and cast the spell again. The life returned, and it was a whopping 400 MP after that. The disease had been deeper than I had expected. Fuck.

  For the next few minutes, the mana headache kicked my ass. Thankfully, I regenerated at a good rate.

  Other than the events of the day previously and trying to rid our surroundings of the worst disease as we went, nothing happened.

  That night, we had the shadow dome around us once more, and we watched as creatures of fungus—not just covered in fungus, but made of it—loped through the areas of shadow around the trees just outside camp. They looked like mushrooms with lichen and other decaying things growing on them with sharp teeth and dead, gray eyes, but they seemed to sense that something was nearby. I watched as they sniffed and snorted around the area.

  As they drifted closer, they growled at the field around the dome but didn’t venture too close. As they gathered, I tried to get a reading on their levels. They all seemed to be around our level. The highest ones being level 25, and those ones looked like wolves.

  They eventually left us alone after a while. The Elves took turns meditating, while Muu and I tried to get what sleep we could with their noisy asses snooping around.

  I was a little grouchy when I woke up but otherwise rested and ready to take off. Where those creatures had been, let's just call them Shroomies—No? Okay, how about Fungal Beasts? Better? Cool—had snooped, the disease had returned, their close proximity bringing it back.

  One of the smaller trees looked particularly gnarled and eaten away. As I stepped into range to try and clean it up, I damned near shit myself as it pulled itself from the ground and drudged forward with a jack-o-lantern-like face. It swung at me with a newly made, branch-like arm, and I had to drop to get under it in time. I stood and got a read on it.

  Fungal Beast (Tree) level 27.

  “Fuck me!” I shouted as I backed away. “Kick the shit out of it. It’s gotta be too far gone for me to try and purify.”

  “On it,” Jaken grunted as he stepped between me and a wooden spear with razor-sharp leaves on it. “I know I don’t even need to suggest what it might be weak to.”

  Yohsuke and I grinned at each other and shouted, “Fire!”

  I cast Filgus’ Flaming Blade, then began to funnel more mana into it to make the blade into a great axe. I just knew it could be done.

  NEW SPELL CREATED!

  Filgus’ Flaming Great Axe – Caster summons a great axe made of pure flame to fight with. Cost: 80 MP. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

  “Oh, daddy loves new toys!” I growled triumphantly. I leaped over Jaken’s head and activated Cleave before striking at the Fungal Beast in the upper boughs of its body. It shrieked as a few of the limbs fell away and burned. I used the trunk as a stepping stone and kicked myself away from it, barely getting out in time to avoid Yohsuke’s Hellfire Arrow as it beamed straight into its face.

  It shrieked again and its health was falling slowly but surely. I danced around Jaken, then James who was using his Elemental Fists and his Flame Fang weapons to beat the hell from the creature, and I slashed horizontally with my flaming great axe. It charred the bark, and the creature began shrieking again.

  I watched as its roots began to try and wiggle their way into the ground on my side. That couldn’t be good.

  “Go for the roots!” I barked at the others. “Bokaj, take the trunk. Where the fuck is Muu?”

 
Deciding I didn’t have time to babysit the Dragon-kin at that moment, I started slashing at the roots near me. I would slice through a few of them, and then the tree would turn on me. Yohsuke sawed through a couple, then the same occurred.

  At least until I heard the sound of wood splintering, the crackle of electricity, and the telltale whistle and shrieking laughter of an airborne dragoon reached our ears. I shoved James away from the tree and dove out of the way as Muu crashed into the top of the Fungal Beast.

  SLAM!

  The crystalline lance under his legs like a pogo stick, I watched as a good majority of the wood at the top of the tree turned to ice and shattered at the force. A great chunk of health was sheared from the HP bar after that, and the rest of us were able to fell the tree in seconds.

  “Solid work, dragoon,” I grunted, then pulled him close. “How about a little fucking communication next time you do something like that?”

  “I tried to use the earring, but for some reason, it wasn’t going through. I figured it would be best to just attack and do what I know I should be doing,” Muu explained. “Try it. Try using your earrings, all of you.”

  I willed my thoughts to project to my friends, the same as I had dozens of times before and got blank stares in return.

  “I think there is something here fucking with any kind of mental signal or communication magic,” Muu said as the rest of us stared at him. “Try your other communication spells.”

  I used Mental Message and tried to speak to Muu with my back turned, “Testing. Testing.” I turned and looked at him, and he shrugged.

  “I cannot use Shadow Speak,” Maebe spoke and sealed it.

  “Okay, so something nearby stops communication,” Bokaj said. “We go by mouth from now on.”

  “Your mom goes by mouth,” Jaken teased. We shot him half-hearted dirty looks, and he laughed anyway.

  “I would wager that it would be the cultists,” Laongal said. I had made it a habit to cast Nature’s voice so much that I didn’t even think about it anymore.

  So, at least that worked. I would have bet that it had something to do with it being more about talking in person than over distances.

  “Probably right,” Yohsuke offered. “Anyone else level up? That just pushed me over the edge.”

  I looked and found a level up notification. Everyone else raised their hands. Muu held up two fingers.

  Christ, man. What I wouldn’t give to be making those gains again, I thought as I slipped the little green monster in my heart another knockout punch. Jealousy has no place among friends. That bitch stays in the dungeons.

  I bumped my strength up to fifty even with three points, then added a point each to dexterity and constitution, taking them to thirty-seven and thirty-three respectively. Then I mentally berated myself for not thinking to summon Coal so that he could level up a little bit.

  Then again, against a monster that size, what could he have done? Pee on him?

  I felt a distinct sense of anger in the core of my being and felt Coal lift his leg. Don’t you fucking dare, Fido. He lowered it slowly as a threat, and I got the idea. Little bastard.

  We were much more cautious moving forward, and everyone’s idea of preparation was to ensure we knew to use flame magic.

  As we walked through the jungle, eyeing trees carefully and treating the worst of the infected wildlife, we caught the scent of decay and heavy death.

  “Think we’re close?” Muu whispered to us. We just kept moving, but it sure seemed that way.

  Within ten minutes of dedicatedly sneaking forward—we caught sight of a village.

  The layout was circular, the houses and buildings well-built and maintained, but there were no signs of life.

  “You guys cover me again. Hopefully, we see something,” I looked once more, and nothing had changed. “You see anything that even remotely looks hostile—light it up.”

  I walked back a little ways and took my owl form, then took off. I weaved my ways through branches and boughs, minding my distances between things and surveyed our surroundings first. This place was surprisingly untouched by the disease that was spreading through the jungle.

  It made no sense. If this was where we were supposed to go, how was this place as normal as this looked?

  I tried to get closer to the village itself, but I saw something that really set some alarms off for me—a barrier.

  I dipped low toward the ground, being careful not to touch the barrier and noted that where the barrier touched the ground, there was blood. I looked and tried to find any signs of bodies, but nothing was immediately visible.

  I turned to find a lumbering figure that looked like a zombie with mushrooms in its human-looking face reaching toward me with one of its arms. I clawed at the air as I whirled midair and dropped to the ground to shift into my fox form. I heard the thud of arrows peppering the figure and the ground and a distinct squelching that made me pause. I turned and saw Muu’s older spear disappear from the body of the creature and another few arrows sprout from it. I shifted and planted my Ursolon paw into its chest and shoved it into the barrier.

  It turned to dust.

  I quickly turned and saw no more of the fungal creatures, then waved to my friends. I kept a lookout while they crossed the distance toward me and the barrier.

  “Thanks for that, guys,” I said after shifting back into my fox-man form. “If this barrier does what I think it does, then we’re in trouble.”

  “Well, I saw it turn that thing into dust, so that means that it’s keeping something in there, right?” Yohsuke checked. He looked at the ground under the barrier at the blood. “Blood magic. Think it was a cultist?”

  “No doubt,” James grunted, and Muu nodded agreement.

  Bokaj walked over, careful not to touch the translucent energy and eyed it. “So, how do we get in there?”

  “We could break through it.” James held his fist up with the blade out.

  “No.” Yohsuke touched his shoulder. “That would give whatever is inside an escape route, and we might never find it.”

  “The barrier will hold whatever is in it, but tonight, I can get you inside.” Maebe stepped over to the barrier and eyed it before turning to the rest of us. “Until then, we must rest. Get what sleep you can, and prepare.”

  We fell back to the tree line where the thickets were the heaviest and closest and set to work.

  Once we had our meeting place and best vantage points, I nodded to the others and turned to gather some essentials from around us. If whatever was inside could cause and spread this disease from inside a barrier, we were in shit creek and our paddle was in a crocodile with a taste for flesh.

  Looking at the area around us, the trees had grown much larger than that of the ones on the outer rim of the jungle. I touched the bark of one of them and tried something I hadn’t before. I spoke to the tree in Druidic.

  “Hello, friend,” I began, honestly not knowing if it would even understand me. “I was wondering if you could help me. My friends and I need to go in there, and we need something to help us keep the disease away from us. You’re the strongest tree I can find here. Can I trouble you for something—anything—that could help us?”

  I waited for the tree to respond somehow, with no overt results. I heard the wind blow through its limbs. I looked up in time to see a limb dip low for a moment, impossibly low for the height it was up there. I heard a crack and thud as the tip of the limb snapped. Another. Then another. Two more. Finally, one last limb tip landed at my feet. Each was a foot long, the widths varying slightly from each other but just barely.

  “Thank you, friend.” I felt a leaf drop on my head in return and returned to the group to get busy.

  I took a moment to think of the designs I wanted to etch into the wands. I decided on a simple, swirling design of a tree, much like the one that had given me the pieces. It was a simple process and only took a moment for each of the wands to be etched the same way.

  “Anyone have an emerald?” I
asked the others. They began checking their inventories, and finally, Jaken raised his hand.

  “It’s uncut. That okay?” I smiled at him, and he tossed it to me.

  It was roughly three inches wide, thick and long, but it was rounded in a lot of areas. Very rough. It was perfect.

  “I’ll buy you a new one, man,” I told Jaken, but he waved it away. “Fuck you, I’ll get you a new one.”

  He grinned, and I turned back to my work. I took about twenty minutes or so to scrape the hell out of the precious stone with my claws. As the scrapings and powder began to fall on to the leaf that I was using to collect it, I said a little prayer to the Mother in my mind. Hoping like hell this would work, I took a moment to pull some of the larger chunks out of the powder, then prepared for the enchanting portion.

  I focused on keeping the person that has this item on their person or in their inventory free of the disease that was plaguing the area. Of constantly purifying the owner. As I funneled my mana into the design, I took a good-sized pinch of powdered emerald and sprinkled it over the item.

  I repeated the same process for each, though halfway through, I needed to stop and file off more powder. Each wand took my full amount of mana to prepare, but the end results were worth it. Not to mention, I had leveled up my enchanting again. I was level 34 in my craft.

  Nualo Wand of Purity

  Owner of this wand is granted a measure of protection against the disease spreading through the Nualo Jungle. Restriction: The item must be on the owner’s person.

  Wand given of Dregnortillo’s free will and enchanted by Craftsman Enchanter Zekiel Erebos.

  “Muu, when you were working with Natholdi, did you happen to keep any leather?” Muu looked over at me, curiosity in his features. “I could use some pieces to tie these to us so our hands are free.”

  Muu reached into his inventory and pulled out a large roll of leather, tanned properly and thin. “How many cords do you need?”

  “Well, possibly only one each for you and Jaken.” I thought about it some more. “I’ll need a few to tie them directly to the rest of us. Around the neck and possibly around the waist or under the arms? FUCK!”