by A F Kay
Ruwen remembered the six traps and quickly opened his map. He stood less than ten feet from one and immediately backed toward it, keeping the Redhat in front of him.
“Run no good. Me soak hat your blood,” Redhat said.
Ruwen blocked two sword swipes but allowed the third one to land. Using the damage as an excuse, he threw himself backward and to the right, shouting in pain, as fifteen Health disappeared. He crouched in the grass and kept a pained expression on his face. According to his map, a trap lay directly behind him. He held the icon for Leap in his mind but didn’t channel any Energy to it.
Redhat, seeing Ruwen stationery, charged forward, and Ruwen fed Energy to Leap. As the Goblin swung his sword down in a powerful strike, Ruwen jumped to the left.
Ruwen heard a crash behind him. After landing, he immediately faced the pit, scared that his plan hadn’t worked. But the area appeared empty. He moved toward the trap carefully, tensed and ready to fight, in case the Redhat hid in the grass.
When Ruwen reached the trap, he glanced over the edge. The Redhat lay at the bottom of the pit, impaled on the spears that lined the ground. The information above the Goblin’s head had turned grey.
Ruwen’s Keen Senses triggered, and he threw himself to the right.
A spear landed where Ruwen had just been, and he used his crowbar to quickly push himself up. The Whitehat retrieved his spear and faced Ruwen. Blood soaked the front of the Goblin’s clothes, and he only had thirty Health left.
The Whitehat jabbed his spear at Ruwen again, but Ruwen batted it away with the staff move Slicing the Sky, one of the defenses he’d learned from Sift. The Goblin staggered to the side, and Ruwen finished the combination with the move Planting the Flag and slammed the handle of the baton into the Goblin’s face.
The Whitehat’s Health dropped another seven points, and he staggered to the left. The Goblin stood there, probably dazed from the blow, and Ruwen used his crowbar to shove the Goblin with all his might. The Whitehat took a step backward, trying to regain his balance, but his left foot encountered nothing but empty air. He dropped the spear and threw himself forward, but it was too late. The Goblin disappeared into the pit.
Ruwen walked to the edge and glanced down, just to make sure the Whitehat had died. The Whitehat lay next to the Redhat, both their info grey. The debuff Hex of Feebleness blinked as the last few seconds ticked down. Ruwen remembered the Hexer and whipped around.
The Hexer stood fifteen feet away, arms up, black lines of energy surrounding his hands like cobwebs. Ruwen only had a moment before the spell finished. He opened his Void Band and shot the only thing he didn’t mind losing. Something Bliz had given him in the Worker’s Lodge.
A cup, half full of jitter juice, flew toward the Hexer. The odd-shaped projectile tumbled through the air, and the contents spilled out. The cup missed the Hexer’s head, as Ruwen still needed to work on his accuracy, but some of the hot jitter juice struck the Goblin in the eyes.
The Blackhat stopped his spell and wiped his eyes. Ruwen picked up the spear the injured Whitehat had dropped, took a moment to aim, and threw it at the Hexer. His recent points in Dexterity and his years of practice to make himself ambidextrous both helped. He had aimed for the chest but hit the Hexer in the shoulder. The Hexer fell and disappeared into the grass.
Ruwen ran to the left, reluctant to stand in one place too long. A moment later, black flames erupted in the area he’d just left. Crouching down, he scanned the area where the Goblin spellcaster had fallen.
Not seeing any sign of the Blackhat, Ruwen looked at the last place he’d seen Hamma. He couldn’t see her or the Whitehat she’d been fighting. Might she be unconscious, or worse?
Ruwen glanced at Hamma’s portrait to check her status. Her Health remained full, her Energy almost empty, and her Mana looked two-thirds empty. But she might still be in trouble. He stood up straight so he could see into the cleared area near the wall. There were two Goblin bodies, but no Hamma.
Glancing at Sift, Ruwen made sure his friend didn’t need help, and then crouched again in the grass. He had to make a choice. Either sneak toward the Hexer or move toward where he had last seen Hamma.
The Hexer could be anywhere in the grass and worry about Hamma gnawed at Ruwen. He wished he could see where she’d gone. Could he? He focused on the map and thought about options. A list appeared, and three items were already bolded: Geography, Structures, and Traps. He quickly bolded Friends and Enemies, and then right before he closed the list, he saw Resources and bolded that as well.
A swarm of red dots surrounded the green dot representing Sift. Another green dot appeared between Ruwen and Sift, and Ruwen stood enough to look in that direction. Gently moving grass from the slight breeze was the only thing visible. He crouched again and wondered why he couldn’t see the Hexer. Probably because no one in their party knew where the Blackhat hid.
Hamma must be crouching as well and waiting to help Ruwen. Since neither of them knew where the Hexer hid, Ruwen figured the best bet would be to distract the Hexer and let Hamma ambush the Goblin.
Ruwen stood and strode back toward the pit. He didn’t think the Hexer would have had time to get past this location, and Ruwen wanted something behind his back to keep from getting ambushed himself. He stopped when he neared the pit and made sure he had five feet of a buffer from the edge. He didn’t want the Hexer to push him into it like Ruwen had done to the other Goblins.
Ruwen studied the grass around him and used Magnify on anything that looked suspicious. On the third pass, Ruwen found the Goblin peeking through the grass fifteen feet away, a hand pointed at Ruwen.
Ruwen tensed to run but couldn’t move. He looked down and gasped. Two large black snakes, one around each leg, had immobilized him. Ruwen’s mind went numb with horrified panic. He dropped his baton and channeled ten Energy to Scrub. His hands glowed as he slammed them into the head of each snake.
He screamed in pain. His Health dropped by fifty-three, and blood sprayed over his hands. He stopped channeling Energy to Scrub and looked down.
Ruwen’s pants, and the Clapper Skin Long Underwear underneath, had hand-sized holes in them. The skin of his leg had been shredded, and blood covered his lower legs. The snakes had disappeared, but a new debuff had appeared.
Hex of Constriction: Root (max 3 seconds)
The snakes had been an illusionary component of the Hexer’s immobilization spell and had never really been there. The debuff had already started to blink and would soon be over. But not before the charging Hexer reached him.
He thought again about casting Distraction, but he knew Hamma was near, even though he couldn’t see her, and he didn’t want to blow out her hearing. The fact that he couldn’t see her probably meant she couldn’t see him.
“I’m rooted!” Ruwen shouted.
Hamma appeared forty feet away and sprinted toward him. She would be far too late. Ruwen thought of the dagger and cast Retrieve, but nothing happened. Maybe he had to see the weapon or have a good idea where it was for the spell to work. He could see where the grass had been chopped down, but he didn’t know where in all the grass his dagger lay.
Hamma shouted, and a thunderclap erupted over the running Goblin. Hamma’s Energy bar went completely empty, and the Blackhat froze from the Fist of Order stun. The Goblin’s momentum carried him forward and he face-planted into the grass, disappearing from sight.
The sound of chimes filled the air as Hamma ran again, this time spinning the staff over her head. Ruwen, still rooted, bent down and ran his hands through the grass until he found his baton. He picked it up and stood, bracing for an attack.
The Hex of Constriction debuff blinked, and a moment later, Ruwen could move. He sidestepped a few feet, so he wasn’t in the last place the Goblin had seen him. Hamma reached him, and her Mana dropped thirteen as she cast Minor Heal on him.
The bracelet she had gotten from Sparkle halved the cost of her heals, but she couldn’t cast them forever. Ruwen figured she only
had five or six more heals like that before she depleted her Mana. The heal took effect, and Ruwen’s wounds stopped bleeding as his skin reformed. He hoped the laundry staff could fix the holes in the Clapper Skin armor.
“Good to see you,” Ruwen said as he searched the grass for the caster.
“Sorry it took so long. Fighting is a weak spot for me,” Hamma said.
“You did great. Oh, if you see eight-foot black snakes on your body, ignore them. They aren’t real.”
Hamma looked down at the wounds on his legs. “Are you sure?”
“I hate Casters,” Ruwen said, still scanning the surroundings. “I need to get better at ranged attack, or this will keep happening to me.”
“My candy is almost gone,” Hamma said as she scanned the area.
“Mine, too.”
“How should we do this? Split up or stay together?”
Ruwen opened his mouth to respond when the Hexer appeared ten feet away and to Ruwen’s left. The caster’s arms were covered in black fog, and he thrust them outward as he stood.
The black fog struck Ruwen and Hamma like a fist, throwing them both backward. Ruwen’s training with Sift kicked in, and Ruwen kept hold of the baton. He placed his hands behind him to brace his fall and protect his head.
But he didn’t strike the ground. Instead, the Hexer’s spell had forced him into the same trap he’d used on the other Goblins. The cloak icon flashed at the top of his vision as his cloak’s shield activated, whatever was left of it anyway. The Hopper in the maze had already consumed some of the shield today.
Pain exploded in his right bicep and thigh. He looked down to see spikes sticking through his arm and through the fleshy part of his leg. His right hand still gripped the baton, for which he felt really proud.
The map displayed Hamma’s location and showed her almost on top of him. The dot wasn’t moving, though. Her Health bar remained full, so perhaps she’d been knocked unconscious.
He had moved to the side and away from the pit to avoid this exact situation. He had only thought of physical attacks, though, not magical ones. The Goblin was smart. It had moved to the left before attacking, so its spell would knock them into the pit.
While it had worked on Ruwen, it had failed on Hamma. Maybe her shield had absorbed some of the blast, or the angle hadn’t been right. If she remained conscious, they still had a chance.
Ruwen had landed on the very edge of the pit and almost missed it himself. He could feel the spikes against his back and didn’t know how long the shield on the cloak would continue to work. Better to get off the spikes as soon as possible.
He released the baton, and gently pulled his right arm up and off the spike. Vertigo and Bleed debuffs appeared, and Ruwen thought he might lose consciousness. He rolled to his left, ripping the spike out of his leg. Landing face first in the dirt of the bottom of the pit, he puked from the pain.
He had lost over a hundred Health between the spikes and bleeding, and now only had forty-five left. The world spun, and he didn’t think he could concentrate for the two seconds a Massage heal would take.
Ruwen crawled forward a few feet to get his face out of the contents of his stomach. Resting his head on the dirt, he tried to regain his wits. He brought his left wrist near his head and concentrated long enough to open his Void Band and drop two of the Minor Health Stickers he’d made. He lifted his head, pinched each sticker to activate the Clasper Mucus adhesive, and pressed them to his forehead.
His Health rose by forty and ticked for four Health per second. The Goblin had to be close, and Ruwen needed to attack him or at least stall him until Hamma rejoined the fight. The darkness of the pit gave him an idea, and he dropped his Worker Symbol of Radiance, the quest reward from the mine, out of his Void Band before closing it.
Ruwen pressed the Worker Symbol of Radiance against his forehead and channeled ten Mana to it. That would be plenty of Mana to create the bond to his skin. Holding it might have been better, but his right arm remained useless, and he needed his left hand to wield a weapon.
With that thought, Ruwen found the baton with his left hand and forced himself to stand, using the baton’s crowbar to push himself up.
“Kneeled you should. Now pay your life,” the Blackhat Hexer said from above him.
Ruwen turned himself along the pit wall until he faced the Goblin. The Blackhat stood ten feet above him, a spear raised and ready to throw. Ruwen closed his eyes and channeled one hundred Energy to the Worker Symbol of Radiance. Even with his eyes closed, Ruwen’s eyes watered from the brightness, and he stopped channeling almost immediately.
The Goblin screamed. Ruwen opened his eyes to find the Goblin using both hands to rub its eyes. A moment later, the sound of chimes reached him, and Ruwen smiled. Hamma had arrived.
The staff crashed into the Blackhat Hexer’s head, and his information turned grey before he landed in the pit.
Hamma knelt next to the lip of the pit and looked down at him. She smiled but tried to hide it.
“What?” Ruwen asked.
“Nothing. Are you okay?”
The stickers were doing their job, and he could almost stand without the help of the wall now. “Yes. Please yell at Sift that we’re done.”
Hamma did, and Ruwen watched all the red dots around Sift disappear. In less than a minute, Sift stood next to Hamma.
“Do you step in every trap you find?” Sift asked.
“I actually tried to avoid this one,” Ruwen said.
Sift squinted at Ruwen and then laughed.
“What?” Ruwen asked.
Hamma giggled, the amusement from before overflowing.
“What?” Ruwen asked again, this time louder.
“Stickers,” Hamma said, only able to get the one word out between fits of laughter.
The stickers had finished their job but had remained stuck to Ruwen’s forehead. He reached up and peeled one off.
It had a gold star and flowers surrounding the words, I pooped today! Ruwen groaned and pulled the other sticker off. It had a lemon with arms extended and read, Hug Me, I’m Sour.
“Did you make those?” Sift asked.
“Yes, but the pictures don’t activate until you use them,” Ruwen said, cursing Blapy and her sense of humor.
“I think they’re funny,” Hamma said.
“You have a lot to be proud of, Pooper,” Sift said.
Ruwen groaned again.
Chapter 39
Ruwen removed the Class symbol from his forehead with another ten Mana and placed it back in his Inventory. Folding the crowbar back into the baton, he attached it to his belt, and then carefully collected the hats off of the three Goblins in the pit. Using Leap, he jumped out of the hole on his own.
His clock read 5:47 AM, but it felt like he’d been fighting for days.
“What does ‘deferred’ mean in my log?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen stared at the castle. “It means these Goblins are part of a larger group, and we won’t get experience until we kill them all. Which probably means the guy in that castle.”
Hamma nodded and stepped up to the edge of the pit. She pulled a hand-sized black book from her Inventory and opened it to the very back. She ran her finger down the page, stopped, and then flipped to a section halfway through the book.
Holding the book in her left hand, she raised her right arm and extended two fingers. Then, in barely recognizable speech, she spoke the Goblin’s language. “Them all hear. Honor gave you Clan. Great master takes yourself. Give much riches purple hat.”
Hamma put the book away and turned around. Sift and Ruwen stared at her.
“Did you just speak Goblin?” Sift asked.
Hamma shrugged. “I don’t know. I just tried to read their last rites as best I could.”
“It sounded good to me,” Ruwen said. “Is that part of your chapel quest?”
Hamma nodded. “It feels awkward as a priestess of Uru to be doing last rites for other religions. But Blapy and I talked about it for
a long time and agreed it was within the spirit of Uru’s teachings.”
“It seems like a kind thing to do,” Ruwen said.
“You never did this for Sparkle,” Sift said.
“Not every creature here has a religion, or even if they do, they might not have final rites,” Hamma said. “If they want final rites their bodies won’t disappear right away.”
“I never realized all these creatures had religions,” Sift said.
Ruwen stared down at the three corpses as they melted into the ground. “Me either. It’s easy to view those different from us as simple and barbaric.”
Sift rubbed his chin. “True, but I doubt they are so sophisticated that they would wear a sticker of –”
Ruwen punched Sift, who moved just far enough to avoid the blow.
Sift kept talking. “I mean, intelligent people take pride in their accomplishments like –”
Ruwen dived at Sift, who easily stepped to the side.
“Will you two stop,” Hamma said.
“He started it,” Ruwen said.
Sift laughed and Hamma smiled.
After a moment, Ruwen smiled as well. “It is kind of funny. I swear Blapy has it out for me. Those stickers are only going on other people from now on.”
Ruwen took a last glance into the pit, and something caught his eye where the Blackhat had been. He flicked on Magnify, and the top of a leather bag appeared in between the spikes. Ruwen turned off Magnify and jumped back down into the pit, careful to avoid the spikes.
“Again?” Sift said.
Ruwen cleared away grass that had fallen into the pit and pulled out the leather bag. Then he used Leap to get back to the surface.
“Loot? I assumed that was deferred as well,” Hamma said.
Ruwen shook his head. “I think it’s a quest item.”
Ruwen opened the bag and dumped its contents. A book fell out, and Ruwen picked it up. When no notification appeared, he opened his log.
Tring!
The Black Pyramid’s Ink Archivist has reclaimed…