“When someone says, ‘don’t look now, but’ or ‘there’s someone following us,’ you don’t freaking look back, you big dumb idiot!” she snapped.
Jandar glared at the girl and grew even angrier when he saw Saefa’s teeth flash in the waning light. “You could have just said so. You didn’t have to slap me.”
“I really felt like I did.”
“What can you tell us, Nyx?” Saefa asked.
“He’s been trailing us for at least the last twenty minutes. I assume longer than that. I only noticed him when he started to creep closer as it got dark. He’s sticking to the shadows but doing a poor job of it. His skill is somewhere between ‘hey, I’m Jandar, everyone look at me as I kick and step on every rock and stick with my giant feet,’ and ‘was that the wind or a ghost? No, it’s Nyx, master of shadows,” she said, switching between a mocking imitation of Jandar’s deep voice and a whisper.
Jandar deepened his glower, more in an attempt to keep from grinning than actual ire. “I’m surprised you noticed him with all your jumping around like a hyperactive child.”
“First, I still make less noise than you. Second, it’s called training. I increased my dexterity by a point during our little journey. All you’ve increased is your body odor. While it is an impressive feat, I don’t see it helping any of us in the near future.”
Now he fumed for real, but his frustration was with himself, not Nyx. He had seen how his stats increased with use but had not considered intentionally improving them. Simply swinging his hammers around as they walked may have raised his strength. He would need to focus on that if he wanted to become strong enough to defeat Matrice. There was so much he did not understand about this game.
“Can you handle him yourself?” Saefa asked.
Nyx blew through her lips and sputtered. “If his fighting ability is even twice as good as his stealth skill I could still make him cry and beg for mercy with one hand behind my back.”
“With a dagger clutched in it no doubt,” Jandar said.
“It sure wouldn’t be flowers—unless they were for you to cover up your stink.”
Saefa said, “Hide and wait for him the next opportunity you get. Take him by surprise if you can. If it turns out there are more of them or you are uncertain in the slightest, we will trap him between us.”
Nyx saluted with one of her daggers and disappeared in a small cleft when the path curved. It took barely a minute before there was a yelp of surprise behind them.
“Got him!” Nyx called out.
Jandar and Saefa hurried back and found Nyx propelling a man forward with one arm twisted behind his back and her blade prodding him in the side of his neck.
Jandar studied the man’s face, certain he had seen him before. “I know you. You were the one getting thrown out of the tavern last night.”
“Lexon, milord, Lexon the lawful they call me,” the man said in a hurried, clipped voice.
“I heard the man at the bar call you Lexon the Liar.”
“No, he said Lexon the Lyre, like the instrument I play.”
Nyx twisted his arm and made him yelp. “He’s lying.”
“Yeah, all right. Some folks have called me that, but it’s an easy mistake as I do play the Lyre.” Nyx gave his arm another twist. “Sorry, that’s a lie too. It’s actually a harp.”
“Why are you following us?” Jandar demanded.
“Following you? I ain’t following you. I was summoned by King Aelim to play at his court for his birthday six days from now.”
“He’s lying,” Saefa said.
Nyx burrowed the tip of her dagger into his neck’s soft flesh. “Fail to tell the truth again and your next lie will come out the side of your neck.”
“Yeah, that was a lie. I don’t know when his birthday is, but I am going to play for him. No, that was also a lie. I was actually barred from ever stepping foot in the palace on account of a slight misunderstanding last year.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you following us?”
“I’m a bard, and that’s the truth. I swear it in the name of Matrice. I overheard a bit of your conversation after I snuck back into the bar. It sounded like an adventure worthy of being chronicled in a song, so I followed you.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Nyx said.
“Yeah, I am,” Lexon said, more surprised at the notion than anyone.
“So why didn’t you approach us in the bar?” Jandar asked.
“Well, you didn’t seem to want anyone to know what you was up to, and I’m not so stupid to put me life in the hands of a bunch of strangers who might slit me throat the first chance they got, so I figured I’d follow you a bit and see what you was about.”
Nyx said in a low voice, “It looks like you were right to be worried, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
“Wait, now hold on!”
“Nyx, wait,” Jandar said.
“What? We can’t just let him go so he can run ahead and inform Eoselm we’re coming.”
“I would never do such a thing,” Lexon declared. “Nope, that was a lie. I would definitely sell you out the first chance I got. I’d sell me own mother for new harp strings given the opportunity.”
“See?” Nyx said, digging her dagger deeper into his skin.
“Wait, I really do want to go with you and chronicle your adventure!”
Jandar shook his head. “Ridiculous. Even if we could trust you, which, as you said yourself, we can’t, having someone strumming a harp and warbling out a tune isn’t going to help us.”
“I will have you know I am a true Bard, not some minstrel strumming a lute and singing ballads for a few coins and the ogling looks of women. I mean, I’m not adverse to either of those things, but they aren’t me primary motivation. No, that was a lie. It’s almost entirely about the money, but not all of it! Bard’s are creatures of adventure, and we’re not useless to have around. I have magic that can be very useful to people like you.”
Nyx nodded. “He does have some skill in magic.”
“See! You said you was outnumbered. I could help make the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat.”
Jandar glowered at him. “Yes, but which way will your presence sway the battle? Besides, I don’t trust you.”
“And a smart man you are for not, but that’s the very reason why you can trust me.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Think about it. The greatest betrayals are from those someone trusted. You already know you can’t trust me, and since I know you know you can’t trust me it will be almost impossible for me to betray you.”
Saefa crossed his arms. “You’re using circular logic.”
“That’s right, and a circle is the most perfect shape in the known universe, binding and eternally infinite. Not like those shifty triangles. Never trust a triangle. A triangle ain’t nothin’ but the devil’s chair, that’s what me mum used to say. Or was it the devil’s square? She was real hard to understand after her stroke and weren’t real intelligible before it if I’m being honest.”
“Are you?” Jandar asked.
Lexon shrugged. “It’s hard to tell, even for me. Been struck in the head by too many bottles and mugs thrown by angry drunks over the years—and twice by lightning. Mum says it scrambled me brains a bit, but that it was all right because brains weren’t nothin’ but the devil’s porridge. Or was it storage…forage? Does the devil forage in people’s brains, looking for sins and trickery?”
Jandar was about to make his decision when Nyx shoved the bard into him and all three tumbled to the ground. Before he could bark a protest, a stone half the size of his head struck the ground where he had just been standing. More rocks followed, crashing around them like huge, grey hailstones as they scrambled for cover.
Shadowy figures silhouetted against the darkening sky leapt across the rocks above them. Jandar found Nyx and Saefa pressed against the rock wall nearby, but there was no sign of the bard.
Either he had used the ambush to flee, or he was waiting for an opportunity to stab them in the back. He could not spare the attention to think about it now as the attackers were moving to get a better angle on them in the narrow divide.
Several heavy bodies dropped down onto the trail ahead of them. They were squat but powerfully built creatures about Jandar’s height but more muscled. Their flesh had the appearance of the stone around them in both color and toughness. A few of the creatures wielded tree limbs like clubs while others gripped large stones in over-sized meaty hands.
“Ogres!” Saefa shouted along with what Jandar took as a Caprian expletive as he drew his huge scimitar.
Jandar raised both his hammers along with the buckler strapped to his left forearm. He channeled electricity into his weapons and charged at the nearest monster. The ogre raised a tree branch and brought it around in a swift arc. Jandar raised his buckler and deflected it over his head while delivering a blow to the brute’s side.
You take 23 damage from lesser mountain ogre.
You hit lesser mountain ogre with steel war hammer for 14 physical and 6 electrical damage. Resistance applied.
He used his perception skill to see if it provided any useful information.
Lesser Mountain Ogre:
Threat: Challenging.
Disposition: Hostile.
Health: high.
Resistance: Physical -25%
Vulnerabilities: Unknown.
Advanced Combat Skills: Unknown.
From what Jandar understood of the interface, a single ogre posed a challenge to him alone, but there were at least six of the beasts and only three of them. He was sure that put them in the dangerous category at the very least. He seemed to have a knack for drawing strong opponents.
The ogre bellowed in his face, a wave of putrid breath washing over him and blowing his hair back. Jandar felt a surge of fear course through him, but he pushed it down and struck the ogre between the eyes with his high steel war hammer. The brute went cross-eyed for a second, shook its head, and swung a fist at him.
Jandar ducked the swing and swiped at the thick leg before him.
You hit ogre with high steel war hammer for 16 physical and 6 electrical damage. Ogre is stunned for 2 seconds from lightning secondary effect.
You hit ogre with steel war hammer, numbing strike, for 19 physical and 8 electrical damage. You numb Ogre’s left leg. -19% dodge and movement for 19 seconds.
The ogre’s leg buckled, but the powerful beast did not go down. Before it could right itself, Saefa rushed in and slashed his two-handed scimitar over the top of Jandar’s head. Jandar rolled aside as Saefa reversed the stroke, opening another rift across the ogre’s chest just an inch below the first one. The Caprian then raised his blade like an executioner and brought it straight down, cleaving into the ogre’s head.
The ogre’s beady eyes rolled to look stupidly at the blade sunk into its skull before falling over dead. Saefa nodded at Jandar and directed his gaze at another ogre charging toward them. Jandar understood his meaning despite the lack of words. They would do well to try to double-team the ogres instead of engaging them in single combat.
Nyx wrapped herself in shadows and stalked toward the ogres trying to gain a position above Saefa and Jandar to throw boulders at them. She targeted the two closest monsters with her mana leech spell. While it did not harm or hinder the purely melee creatures, it allowed her to store up additional energy. She would need it when they began taking damage, forcing her to switch to her life leech spell.
The stupid brutes did not even notice the drain from their meager mana supply nor the wispy, shadowy streamers flowing from them to her. She flung a pair of shurikens at an ogre prepared to hurl a stone at one of the two men below. The metal stars both struck home, one in its throwing arm, the other in the side of its thick neck.
The ogre dropped the stone onto the foot of the one next to him, throwing off its aim. Nyx crept up behind another ogre and launched a flurry of strikes at its back.
You hit ogre with shuriken for 4 points of damage. Ogre resists poison.
You hit ogre with shuriken for 4 points of damage. Ogre takes 2 points of poison damage per second for 10 seconds.
You sneak attack ogre with Flurry Strike for 23, 18, 25, and 20 points of physical damage. Ogre suffers bleeding wound, -1 HP per second for 15 seconds or until stopped. Ogre resists poison.
The ogre roared in pain and swung a huge fist behind him, but Nyx was gone before the creature could turn around. Nyx cloaked herself in shadows once again and sidled around the periphery of the battle until lining up with another stone thrower’s back. She burst from the shadows and hurled a throwing knife just before stabbing the ogre in the back.
You sneak attack ogre with throwing knife using crippling blow for 7 points of physical damage. Ogre takes 2 points of poison damage per second for 10 seconds. Ogre’s right arm is crippled and takes an additional 2 points of damage per second for 9.7 seconds or the knife is removed, whichever is longer.
You sneak attack ogre with High Steel Dagger of Bloodletting for 23 points of physical damage. Ogre suffers bleeding wound, -1 HP per second for 15 seconds or until stopped. Ogre is already poisoned. Weapon no longer carries poison.
The ogre howled, spun around, and hurled its rock at Nyx with surprising speed. Before she disappeared once again, the stone clipped her mid-backflip, spinning her around and onto the ground. Her shoulder throbbed, lucky to have received only a moderate wound thanks to crippling the ogre’s arm. She dropped her mana syphon and replaced it with life leech, targeting the two ogres she had wounded.
The fire in her shoulder cooled as stolen health trickled into her. She tried to get up and run, but the ogre was almost on top of her, another rock wielded by its uninjured arm. If she failed to dodge its second attack, her chances of surviving this encounter was not looking good. The ogre reeled back to throw the stone at near point-blank range when another figure clomped toward her from her left.
The bard, Lexon, looked larger than she recalled him being, and he was trudging their way carrying a club. “Hey, pick on someone your own size, you giant, scabrous twat.”
Seeing Lexon as the greater threat, the ogre spun toward him, bulled forward, and smashed the rock into his face. Nyx cried out at what must surely have been a fatal wound, but Lexon roared like an animal and began clubbing the ogre. Then the strangest thing happened. Lexon vanished from site, and now a rather furious ogre stood in his stead.
The two ogres, both enraged beyond reason, forgot all about the dark mistress and commenced to bashing each other with rock and club. Nyx concealed herself in the shadows while draining life from the two, battling ogres.
Her health was almost replenished, and she was about to switch to stamina leech since her two special attacks had nearly drained her, but a surge of energy coursed through her as the distant sound of harp strings reverberated through the air.
She switched to mana leech instead and sought out Jandar and Saefa. The two men were hard-pressed by three ogres. Only the rock face kept the brutes from surrounding and overcoming them. Jandar’s hammers arced with electricity and flashed like lightning with each strike.
Nyx saw that both men bore wounds, so she switched back to life leech and directed one of the streams to Saefa, who looked to be the worst for wear. She crept toward the ledge of the escarpment and jumped atop of the ogre. She unleashed another flurry of blows in conjunction with her sneak attack and rode the creature to the ground as it fell dead.
“Nyx, mana!” Jandar shouted as he blocked a swinging club.
Nyx did as ordered and sent a mana stream his way. He was apparently more concerned with his mana reserves than health. With two streams available to her, the amount of mana she siphoned was almost the same as what the spell cost. Once she reached novice rank, she would gain more than she spent.
The air rippled around Jandar’s other hammer the moment she supplied him with mana. His next strike resulted in a loud cra
ck of sonic energy.
Jandar hits ogre with earth-enhanced steel war hammer dealing 19 physical and 13 earth damage. Ogre is knocked down.
Jandar hits lesser mountain ogre with high steel war hammer for 28 physical (+50% vulnerable target) and 6 electrical damage. Ogre is dead.
Now outnumbered, the other two ogres found themselves beaten back with no way to retreat. Nyx finished off the last one with a well-placed dagger to its spine followed by a throat-slitting coup de grace. Of the two ogres Lexon had tricked into fighting each other, one lay dead, the other nowhere to be found.
“We should depart this place before more come,” Saefa said.
“Should we check the bodies first?” Jandar asked.
Saefa squinted into the darkness. “If you must, do it quickly.”
The ogres had some lumps of gold and silver. The only thing of interest on them was a wide, tooled leather belt.
“Nyx,” Jandar called out, “I think this might have magical properties, but I can’t tell what they are.”
Nyx pocketed the bits of precious metal into a pocket and jogged over. She took the belt in her hands and focused on it.
Bullard’s Belt of Crushing: Uncommon. Quality: Average. Armor rating: 2. Durability: 18/25. A terror lizard skin war girdle crafted by the notorious brawler Bullard Scott. Special Properties: Strength +4, 1-hand bludgeoning +10%, 2-hand bludgeoning +20%.
“Hm, I could really use the strength boost,” Nyx said as she read aloud, “but the bludgeoning bonus is wasted on me.” She tossed it back to Jandar. “Enjoy, but the next strength item we find that isn’t gimped by a crappy skill is mine.”
“Doesn’t your class rely more on dexterity?” Jandar asked.
“Yes, but it doesn’t hurt to be able to do a little more damage. If I’m going to be delivering bee stings, I at least want to be a bull hornet and not a honeybee. I tell you what, since your magic skill is shit, you get the next item that increases arcane channeling, and I get the next strength boost.”
“Fair enough. We should get going.”
“Wait,” Nyx said and called out into the darkness. “Lexon, you still out there?”
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 19