Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. There was no trace of judgment in her tone. No annoyance.

  “Please.” He chuckled at his own foolishness.

  “I wondered if you somehow had learned these things already,” she said with a grin. “It is good that I came along. Witherroot is found on and around tree saplings. Look for pale ashen bark with clusters of red vine.

  “That vine is the Witherroot. If you cut it, a milky substance should leak out. If a green substance leaks out, that’s another plant. They look similar, so you will have to test them.”

  “Is it poisonous?”

  “No, they both smell quite nice as a matter of fact.”

  “Well, that’s easier than I thought it would be. What else?”

  “Waterwheels are found in rivers. They look like lilypads but they slowly spin. Be wary, they are not what they seem. The bulk of their mass is below the surface and they will pop out of the water, spraying an acidic secretion that blinds and bites at once.

  “Then there is the Tree Sap. Contrary to the namesake, it is not from any tree. The Tree Sap we are looking for comes from a Treant. If we can, we should locate a Treant Sapling.

  “They will not yield as much sap but they will be a lot easier to kill. Also, do not use fire on them. While weak to it, doing so burns off the sap we need. I hear from Elora that you are possessed of certain magicks that might do just that.”

  Hal nodded. And it was good she warned him. Using Bomb Toss on trees seemed like a good way of dealing with them.

  “Full-grown Treants are big, Hal. If they stand still you cannot tell them from any other tree but when they start moving you will feel the ground quake with their step. And finally, the water is just water. We can get that back at the camp, so we need not bother picking it up.”

  “Thanks, Ashera. Did you want to split up and divide the list in half?” Hal asked.

  “I would like to stay with you, if you do not mind.”

  “Afraid I’ll die again?” he asked with a chortle.

  “Something like that.” Though Ashera’s warm smile took some of the sting of the confirmation. “In reality, we will get the job done much faster together. And it would be foolish of me to send you - our one and only Founder - off on his own to face unknown threats in a foreign place.”

  Hal arranged the Wortlings alongside them and headed toward the west, moving farther into the forest of tall trees. Monsters flanked them on either side, shadowing the curious group.

  One of them held an item he needed. He could feel the quaking of the creature’s ponderous steps from here, identifying it as a Treant.

  He had been moving toward the nearest river but with the Treant so near, Hal made a break toward it, sending his Wortlings out ahead of him to flank it.

  The other predators he had sensed backed off as Hal closed in on the Treant. That was a warning sign if he ever saw one. Hal slowed and slid into a crouch, trying to be as quiet as possible and realizing it was probably all in vain.

  If the Treant was anything like the Wortlings it likely had Woodsense too. But he couldn’t be sure, and so he hedged his stealthy approach by drawing [Goblinbane].

  Hal couldn’t contain his grin. I’m sneaking up on a tree, how weird is that?

  The ground shuddered and one of the Wortlings far off to the side simply winked out of existence. The rolling weight of darkness that failed to register on the Wortling’s Woodsense came into view a moment later, toppling small saplings and thick leafy underbrush.

  A boulder as tall as Hal rolled to a stop a few feet to his right.

  He broke to the left with Ashera, realizing the foolish nature of sneaking up on something with Woodsense. How would he even know a Treant from any other of the countless trees if it was standing still?

  His best bet was to draw it out. Failing that, a hasty retreat.

  Another Wortling vanished and Hal couldn’t contain the snarl that escaped his throat. Wherever the Treant was, it was still out of reach of his borrowed Woodsense.

  “Ashera?” Hal asked.

  “Yes, Hal?”

  “Do Treants have Woodsense?” As usual, Hal was Splicing aberration-shadow.

  “I would not doubt it, not that I have had the misfortune to encounter one until this moment.”

  “Why didn’t you stop me from going after this then?” he asked. She had to have felt the quaking ground as well.

  A glowing pool of orange light flashed at his feet and Hal dove to the side while Ashera danced to the side easily.

  The ground splintered and spewed dirt in a shower over them both. Hal landed hard on his belly and he scrambled quickly to his feet. Hal pulled in the remaining Wortlings, hoping their converging Woodsense would illuminate the danger his eyes could not.

  One of the Wortlings far to Hal’s left found the Treant and Hal made a beeline toward its location, always trying to keep a thick tree trunk between him and the creature. Hoping against hope that he wasn’t about to run into another Treant by doing so.

  As he caught sight of Ashera again, he utilized Deep Magic to bring coiling shadow up the length of his blade.

  “I thought you would enjoy the experience,” she said with a mischievous grin. “I am by your side, and you have many of your monsters with you as well. I did suggest finding Treant Saplings as you recall. I find that experience is ever the best tutor.”

  Hal grumbled but didn’t refute her reasoning. Object lesson aside, now that he had a Treant in his sights he wasn’t about to let it go. Not after it took out two of his Wortlings.

  He still hadn’t paid back the EXP he lost from them.

  Woodsense told him that the towering ten-foot-wide tree on his left was different from the rest. As far as Hal could see, it was just another massive tree but he trusted the Wortling’s assessment and struck out at the motionless thing.

  Ashera skidded to a stop, noticing what he was doing and joined in. Her mace shattered its thick bark and made a crater in the wood.

  Without Woodsense he would have walked right by it. Good thing it worked on the Treant after all.

  An axe would be nice, right about now.

  His shadowy blade bit into the wood easier than it seemed it should have. A thick ichorous green sap flowed from the wound.

  As soon as the Treant’s cover was blown, the thing shuddered and a thick series of branches high above Hal’s head came sweeping down and knocked both Ashera and Hal aside.

  Air blasted from his lungs, Hal flew ten feet back and fetched up hard against another tree. Ashera managed to get to her feet first and came out swinging, distracting the Treant from the easier target.

  The Treant’s slam had taken nearly 15% of Hal’s newly increased HP off with a single strike. He staggered to his feet, sending his Wortlings to swarm from the sides to help Ashera. Hal was beginning to have second thoughts about fighting the thing but forged on, eager to rise to the challenge.

  Four Wortlings converged on the charging Treant and though their attacks seemed to hardly slow its pace, they distracted it long enough for Hal to get out of range of its second slam attack.

  Or so he thought.

  The Treant raised a knotted limb like it was going to strike Hal but instead, it gently rested the branch on the tree Hal had been near. Only when the second tree shuddered its branches and began to move did Hal realize the danger he was in.

  No, no, no. Not fair!

  Ordering the Wortlings to attack only the first Treant, Hal summoned forth the glowing spectral chains of Enchainment. They leashed around the roots of the waking Treant and pulled it back into place. Hal could already tell the spell wasn’t going to hold it for long.

  As much as he wanted to use Bloodrake, he felt the need to be conservative. Enchainment, at a cost of 18 MP was less than half of Bloodrake’s 45.

  The Wortlings attacks had little effect on the Treant’s thick bark hide, but they seemed to work exceptionally well wherever Ashera had cracked open its hard bark shell.

&nbs
p; Hal dashed between the slamming tree limbs and struck out with the [Goblinbane]. Channeling Rending Steel, he carved a series of cross-hatched marks onto the bark in quick brutal succession.

  As he thought, it didn’t do much to the monster. Its thick bark-like armor absorbed most of the damage but Hal took aim at one of the cratered wounds left by Ashera’s attack and struck again.

  Hal’s next attack bit deeper into the Treant but it still was not enough. With his Enchainment spell likely to end soon, they needed to finish this quickly.

  It was the perfect time to see what Rend could do, and more importantly how much it cost.

  Keeping an eye on his current EXP, Hal hooked his fingers and lashed out with his free hand. The chain wrapped around his wrist dangled and rattled in the air.

  The golden mark pulsed brighter, its floating projected image clear as day.

  Hal’s hooked fingers were coated in a sheen of golden energy as the mark slid up his forearm and came to rest on the back of his left hand.

  Hal winced, fully expecting to lose a few fingernails in the process if the magic didn’t work. The only thing he had used it on hadn’t been physical and he didn’t know what would happen when his hand met the rough bark.

  The magic bit through the creature and thin golden cracks of light appeared all over its bark, lighting it up like the weirdest Christmas tree he’d ever seen.

  You use Founder’s Sigil: Rend.

  The [Treant | Lv.19] takes 55 points of damage.

  Additional Effect: -50% DEF.

  Bark splintered and fractured under the relatively minor blows of the Wortlings and the Treant was hard-pressed to keep them at bay. Without its superior defense shrugging off their biting toxic attacks, the large creature was at a loss.

  Ashera waded in and each blow crunched not only the bark but the tender wood beneath, turning it into pulp.

  Glancing at his EXP, he cringed. He had been right. Founder Sigils took EXP instead of MP or SP. Rend appeared to take 250 EXP. A hefty cost, but he couldn’t deny the effect. Maybe he could use sparks instead somehow.

  Halving a powerful enemy’s DEF was worth the cost in the right situation. Such as right then, when two of the Wortlings Hal brought with him lay dead.

  55

  Even though the Treant was losing the battle, it managed to crush another of the Wortlings in its wild rage. They weren’t quite as fast as Hal and they were difficult to control while he was in the thick of things himself.

  When a gnarled branch swung down on Hal’s head, he lifted his arms reflexively to block the coming blow, even though he should have known the futility of it.

  The Wortling he had unconsciously summoned to his aid had no concept of futility or failure and it complied willingly. Standing nearly a head-and-a-half above Hal, the Wortling took the brunt of the attack, pushing its vestigial head down into its shoulders but somehow surviving the assault.

  Uncharacteristically, Hal burst out laughing at the sight of the ridiculous near-headless Wortling. But his mirth was shortlived as he remembered where he was.

  Hal swept to the side and swung the [Goblinbane] with both hands. The blade met little resistance as it carved through the gnarled branch and severed it neatly. The ground rumbled a moment later as the collective attacks spelled the inevitable end of the Treant.

  It broke apart into a swirl of green leaves and smoke, siphoning into Hal. Infusing him with a large dose of treant essence. The most he ever received from something that wasn’t a boss - or whatever passed for a boss in this world.

  Before Hal could celebrate, however, the second newly raised Treant broke free of its chains.

  You defeat the [Treant | Lv. 19].

  You gain 303 Experience Points (+1% Well Rested).

  You earn 30 Sparks.

  You absorb 50 Treant Essence.

  You obtain:

  10 [Vials of Tree Sap]

  5 [Treant Seeds]

  1 [Bag of Treant Cuttings]

  2 [Silverleaf]

  Trusting to his instincts, Hal dropped flat onto his belly and felt the rustle of wind blow over him as the second Treant swept its branch where he had just been a moment ago.

  Your Evasion Skill has risen to Level 1.

  +1% Evasion speed (+1%).

  -1% Stamina cost (-1%).

  The Wortlings, following Hal’s command, did likewise and when Hal got to his feet he found the remaining three were still alive and well.

  Knowing the strength of the Treant, and worrying that the thing would wake another of its kind, Hal wasn’t about to risk another of his Wortlings.

  Hand outstretched, fingers curled, Hal summoned forth the Dominate sigil. The Founder mark slid to the back of his left hand and golden lightning shot from the mark to the Treant.

  It went rigid and for a moment Hal feared that he had somehow made an error. That he somehow reverted the Treant to a simple tree. But when it moved again and Hal felt it there in the back of his mind like a Wortling, he knew he had succeeded.

  Taking a look at his EXP was slightly less comforting. If Rend was 250 EXP, then Dominate was several times more expensive.

  He had just lost 770 EXP. That was far more EXP than it took to Dominate each Wortling. Maybe size or strength played a role?

  I guess I better make this worth it then, Hal thought with a grin.

  Ashera gave him a questioning look. “Did you…?”

  Hal nodded, and just to show off a little, Hal had the Treant bend and lower one of its branches for Hal to walk upon. “Come on up,” Hal called to her.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” Ashera asked, putting away her mace and wrapped her arms around herself as she looked warily at it.

  “As safe as can be,” Hal assured her, sheathing his sword.

  Another branch lowered, this one much closer to the ground and Hal had the remaining Wortlings climb aboard. Together with Ashera, Hal commanded the Treant to bend its branches to provide a stable seat high up on its shoulders.

  From there, Hal could direct it to wreak havoc. Ashera sat tentatively beside him, gripping a small branch to steady herself. Each of the Treant’s lumbering steps was fairly jarring.

  The Treant’s Woodsense was far superior to anything the Wortlings had. Despite its slow, lumbering motions it illuminated hiding monsters all over the place. Many of them were the same predators that had stalked Hal and Ashera when they first left the safety of their camp.

  Hal looked to Ashera with a grin. “You ready for some wanton destruction?” he asked, raising a free hand he summoned Bomb Toss. With the Treant’s Woodsense guiding him, he lobbed it at a small unsuspecting shrub.

  Another Bomb Toss followed in its wake and a third after that. Safe on his perch, Hal didn’t have to worry about reprisals. And if he needed to regenerate his MP, he could always wait patiently while the Treant dealt with the threat.

  The shrub erupted into screeches as several spindly gnarled wooden creatures - like man-sized treants made of dry wood - burst from the protective shelter. They ran around as the fire continued to deal damage to them at an astonishing rate.

  Hal made sure to keep the Treant well away from the growing conflagration. One of the creatures fell down dead, turning into a pile of ash.

  You defeat the [Entin | Lv.18].

  You gain 202 Experience Points (+1% Well Rested).

  You earn 20 Sparks.

  Ashera’s eyes lit up at the spectacle. More Entins died as they ran into sheltering members of their own kind in their desperate bid to flee the pursuing Treant and its firebombs.

  If a single Entin gave 202 EXP, then he’d need to kill at least 4 to even the cost of the Treant. But considering he had a walking tower, Hal was interested in more than just covering the cost of the Treant.

  He needed to balance the debt he created from Dominating the Wortlings. And the three that he lost to the first Treant.

  For once, Hal was going to turn the tables on his enemies. No running and hiding, skulking about in the shad
ows. They still had a purpose here, and being separated from their friends Hal couldn’t afford to spend too much time destroying anything that came across their path.

  But he could spend a little time.

  Ashera joined in the fun shortly after. She touched Hal’s shoulder, healing his wounds a little and forming a black dart in her upraised hand. She sent it at one of the fleeing Entins, spearing it through and killing the thing instantly.

  “Ashera?” Hal asked during a lull in the fighting.

  “What is it, Hal?” she asked, tucking a strand of white hair behind one ear.

  “Your abilities… they require you to heal somebody to function?”

  “To a degree,” she confirmed. “It is a complex dance and as I said before, healing is difficult. But yes. Healing empowers my other… darker magic. Dramatically increasing its effectiveness and power. Why?”

  “So if I was hurt… and you healed me constantly, you would be much stronger?”

  “I suppose so.” Ashera gave him a concerned look. “Hal, I do not think I like where this is going.”

  “Normally I would agree with you,” he said with a grin. “But up here, and with our big friend taking the hits for us… I could use my health to replenish his or even to bolster my own mana….”

  Ashera nodded, understanding clear on her face. “And I would be beside you, healing you along the way while empowering my own spells. A unique confluence of events that normally wouldn’t be possible. Interesting. Very well, if you are okay with this then I will of course do my utmost to assist you.”

  And so Hal used Assimilation to repair the damage to the Treant and to Stumpy, the Wortling with the pushed in head. Unfortunately, the recovered health did little for the Wortling’s physical state and he remained unique among his brethren.

  The Treant, however, was noisy and their chaos was even noisier. While they wreaked havoc on the local monster population, many of the creatures were canny enough to avoid them.

  And so Hal sent down the Wortlings to corral the monsters. Their scouting was almost unnecessary considering the massive range on the Treant’s Woodsense.