I sighed. "You mean me, right?"
He laughed, almost giddy with excitement. I saw his hands grip the vines near him, and even though he was still on the other side of the thick stand of trees that separated us, I could clearly see the thorns flex and pierce his skin.
He didn't react to the penetration, but I was less worried about that and far more concerned about the look in his eyes. This guy was batshit crazy. However long he'd been in here searching for his mysterious grail, it had broken his brain right down the middle.
I tried to subtly look around, hoping that there'd be something nearby that I could use as a makeshift weapon. I couldn't see anything that wasn't firmly attached to a tree, and I didn't want any part of those thorns.
The only thing I did have was a couple of stones still in my pocket, but I didn't think I'd be able to get them through the thick branches with enough force to hurt him.
"Zurra and I took it in turns to wait for you, Challenger. He will be disappointed if your blood doesn't paint his face as well." The creature removed a hand from a tree limb and took something shiny from a hidden pocket before pressing a button in its center.
Shit.
I glanced over my shoulder, back down the path I'd sprinted. I was pretty sure that this guy had just done something to turn the encounter into a two-on-one affair, but I couldn't see anything coming from that direction yet.
Up until he'd pushed that button stalling had seemed like a good idea, but it sure didn't anymore.
I felt a flash of anger at Toot. Why had he sent me in here without any gear? What was I supposed to do against opponents that were both armed and dangerous, not to mention ones that erroneously believed I was keeping them from some promised artifact?
And had they promised these guys the same thing they'd offered to me, whatever the hell that turned out to be?
"Look at me," the thing hissed, and I felt an odd tug on my attention that made it impossible not to. I fought the urge as hard as I could, but the only defiance I could physically muster didn't add up to much. Instead of snapping my head around to face him, all I could do was manage to make the motion slow and smooth.
"That's right," he said. "All is safe and well."
I felt something brush my right ankle, and instinctively lashed out with my mind, managing to fight his willpower away. He'd already distracted me long enough, though. When I looked down at the ground I saw a slender tendril of vine wrap itself around me, tightening around my boot and holding me fast to the ground.
I tried to move my leg, but I wasn't strong enough to uproot the plant. Worse than that, the tendril was still growing. The end of it wound its way up my calf, and now a row of those wickedly hooked purple thorns began to sprout into life at the base of the vine and ripple upwards as the vegetation higher up became thick enough to support them.
I braced myself and kicked out with my right leg, barely managing to yank some of the tendril out of the ground. The violence killed the grass and disturbed the ground enough for me to see that what I'd assumed was a separate growth was actually a subterranean offshoot of the wall.
Worse, I was still held tight.
"Let go of me, you damn weed." A stray, rebel vine would have been one thing to deal with, but now all I could do was watch as the ground around me bulged with new growth in every direction. The entire cramped archway I'd been walking beneath suddenly had it in for me, and I was stuck fast by its initial attack.
"Death can be fast or slow. I advise you not to fight the woods, Sorcerer."
This guy simply didn't know when to shut up. It was bad enough that he was going to beat me by proxy, or at the very least watch me get beaten. Having to listen to him gloat about it ratcheted the situation up from irritating to unacceptable.
"Shut up," I hissed at him. "You think you're so fucking smart, when in reality you're too goddamn stupid to see that I'm not even a Sorc—"
I let that last word die in the air before it could make it all of the way out of my mouth. Toot hadn't sent me in without weapons. He would have known that the first area I'd come to would be a Safe Place, just like he'd be aware that I had enough experience built up to raise a couple of levels.
He was sure that I'd have skills I could use, even if I was here without my gear. It was my job to remember to use them...
My hands were bare, but I didn't let that stop me as I grabbed the top of the coil still climbing up my limb. Just like back at the thirteen fires, I poured power through my actions and enhanced my strength enough to tear the vine away from my knee.
Skill: Impetus
New Score - Thirty-Six
The fucking thing took another swipe at me, but I jumped back and tried to get out of its reach. Another shot out of the ground and hooked me by my heel, robbing me of my equilibrium. I cartwheeled my arms in an attempt to maintain balance, but the best I could do was settle for tumbling to the forest floor in the center of the wooded corridor.
It wasn't much, but I knew I needed to stay away from the trees. The vines were bad enough, but if those big branches got ahold of me they'd tear me apart with ease.
I dodged yet another tendril of vine and dripping thorns. Running hadn't worked before, but the only other option was to remain here and let the foliage pick me apart.
As I fled, I sidestepped a branch as it clawed for my face. Once I was clear of it, I accessed my statistics. Boosting my Stamina would give me the ability to run for longer as well as boost my hit points.
At this point, I'd have dragged a point out of any other stat to make that happen.
You are unable to change your Statistics outside of a Safe Place.
All that was left for me to do was to put my head down and run. I wouldn't stop until my lungs burst or my legs gave out, and when I was forced to a halt I'd throw as much magic around as I could.
If these things were going to take me out, I was at the very least going to make an impression on them.
I sprinted ahead, and it felt like the walls were closing in around me. The path was absolutely getting narrower, and the trees were growing more and more bold in their efforts to slow me. I leapt a low swing and ducked yet another attack, all the while hearing the strange grass beneath my feet shatter and crunch as I darted forward.
Vines pulsed beneath the soil, making the ground uneven. More than once I almost tripped, and I could only believe that it was my new Kismet alone that was keeping me from breaking my neck in a vicious fall.
Twigs grasped. Branches tore the air. Thorns snagged my clothing and oozed venom like saliva as they sought my flesh with their malicious life.
It felt like everything was reaching for me, but I was still one step ahead of the worst of it. I knew without looking that I'd only lost 5 Hit Points so far, and I was determined to hoard the last 11 like my life depended on it.
Which it did, of course.
I had no way of knowing if the trees I was dealing with were truly sentient or not, but whether by instinct or scheme, the woods somehow sensed the game was up. The groans and creaks of the woods became a rough shout, and it was this angry reaction that put a newfound burst of speed into my legs when I looked ahead and saw, quite literally, a light at the end of the tunnel.
I used the last of my energy and tried to boost my pace with some magic. This time I got a surge of speed which let me burst through into a place where the wooden walls that'd held me prisoner finally fell away.
Skill: Impetus
New Score - Thirty-Seven
I could see the sky again, and for the first time since the beginning of that final dash I felt confident enough to look over my shoulder and see if my pursuer had left me to my own devices as well.
My breath caught in my throat. There were more footprints than just my own now in that odd, blue grass. One set led from where the stand of trees on my left ended, and another crisscrossed the ones I'd just made.
I couldn't see anything or anyone back there, but I had no doubt that I was now being stalked by a pa
ir of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The impact jerked my arm around before the pain soared up through it. I looked down in shock at my own bicep only to see the end of an arrow sticking out of it. It had certainly hit me hard enough for the tip of it to be sticking out the other side, and the fact that it wasn't told me it had struck the bone.
There went 2 more Hit Points, just like that...
I stepped quickly to one side and another arrow zipped through the space I'd just left. If my enemy could fire at me that quickly, I was in real trouble. There was nowhere to hide. Even if there had been a tree in this open area, I don't think I would've trusted it after the tunnel I'd just escaped from.
A third shot was already on its way, and I had no choice but to dance backwards. Even with my hasty retreat, the arrow still almost struck me in the ankle. The archer was aiming low now, and when I glanced up to finally spot him across the clearing, I saw what he was doing it again.
He was driving me backwards on purpose.
You're not out of the woods yet, I told myself with a wry smile. A moment later a tendril of vine snaked out from the trees at my back and snapped through the air, scoring a line across my cheek.
It was a wound similar to many of the others I'd picked up in my mad dash down the corridor of reaching branches, except that this time the vegetation had been ready for me. I could smell the burnt scent of the air as I watched the thorn at the end of the vine tear away a scrap of flesh.
I'd thought that the pain in my arm was bad, but I was forced to reevaluate that estimation when the venom immediately sent a wave of nausea spinning through me that just about brought me to my knees. I fought to stay upright, but even though I won that little battle, victory in the war might already be out of reach.
I could feel other effects of the toxin already taking hold as it slowed my reflexes and narrowed my vision.
Heliotropic Sting
A vicious toxin exuded by the thorns of a variety of malicious Crawler Vines for the purpose of allowing larger, stronger species of sentient flora to capture prey.
Temporary Status Effect: -1 from Strength
-1 from Stamina
-3 from Dexterity
-1 from Endurance
Negative Temporary Status Effects are cumulative, though they do not adjust Hit Points
Skill: Organic Scrutiny
New score - Thirty
That was bad news. I didn't bother wasting time wondering how long the effects of the toxin were going to last. What really mattered was for me to figure out a way to free myself from the swarm of vines that was slithering across the ground. If more of them caught me, I was as good as dead.
Even if I managed to escape their grasp, I needed to take out my other attackers as quickly as I could. That was going to be a problem, since I didn't even know where the second one was...
I needed to remind myself that the forest behind me was still my primary adversary. I needed to get out of reach of that damn thing, even if it meant being closer to the archer. I'd already demonstrated that I could dodge the arrows when I knew they were coming. Even though I didn't expect that to always be the case, especially now that I had this new disadvantage weighing down my stats, I'd rather chance being turned into a pincushion than get dragged back into that nightmare of living vegetation.
I had a slight reprieve from incoming arrows as the archer fiddled with his quiver. I wasn't willing to underestimate him, which meant that the only reason he hadn't taken a shot at me when I was motionless and fighting the effects of the toxin was because he had something worse planned than a simple arrow to the face.
"Come on," I said under my breath, "cut me a little slack here, huh?"
I assumed that this was the creature that had been on the other side of the trees. He had the same glowing, purple eyes at least, though now they were mostly obscured by the dark green hood he wore. Most of his armor looked leather, though the grain was odd, reminding me of elephant or rhinoceros skin as opposed to deer or cow.
The bow he was holding caught my attention. It looked metallic, although the dark material did not in any way reflect the light. I couldn't see a string attached from one end to the other, even though the shape of it made it look like it was still under tension.
I took another few unsteady steps toward him.
He'd made whatever adjustments he needed to now. This time when he withdrew an arrow from the quiver on his back, I saw a flash of purple come from within the container. The arrowhead glittered in the sun, and he treated it with a cautious reverence that immediately told me that I did not want to get hit with this one.
"Last chance," he told me, nocking the arrow. As soon as the rear of it was seated where the bowstring should have been, I saw a dark bowstring appear. It was strange, like it only existed when it was necessary and faded into unreality when it wasn't.
I didn't have much time to ponder that, though I did notice that the black bow flexed as one would expect as he drew the arrow to his cheek and sighted down it at me.
I tried reasoning with him, since he'd shown a willingness to engage in conversation earlier. I needed time, and this was the only way I could think of to stall. "I'm looking for the thing, too. That's probably how they bring us in here."
He didn't release the tension on the bow, but I watched as he allowed the arrow to drift a quarter-inch to the right. "What do you mean?"
I shrugged. I had no idea what I meant, but the more I talked the more a little bit of what I was saying made sense. "Was it a floating silver orb that talked to you, that promised you whatever it was you were supposed to get in here?"
"Perhaps."
"That's what the Yvarre'en I was speaking to looked like to me, at least. He said he was offering me a gift, but now I think maybe others of his kind offered it to you as well."
The Negative Effects of Heliotropic Sting have faded
Temporary Status Effect: -1 from Dexterity
The archer nodded, and his aim drifted even wider. "I spoke to a Yvarre'en named Veste. He told me that the artifact they guarded may benefit me, but that there'd be a challenger. That's who you are."
I nodded. "Makes sense. Just the one challenger, though? Is that what he said?"
The way the creature cocked his head was emphasized by the hood. I had his interest, that was for sure. "Yes..."
"Don't you think that's strange?" I thought I was on to something, and I couldn't stop talking because it was the only way I was able to get my thoughts in some semblance of order. The toxin had slowed my mind, but hearing the words out loud was helping them to sink back into my brain. "Isn't it weird that you were stuck in the woods for so long? You told me yourself you searched high and low through that thicket, and you came up empty."
"What does that mean?" the archer asked, and I almost felt sorry for him. I could hear in his voice that he was trusting me to help him work it out.
"I don't think you were ever supposed to get the artifact. In fact, I think you're supposed to guard it from me. That's why you couldn't remember your purpose when I asked you about it. I'm the challenger. Even Veste said so. You're a safeguard. The only way I can prove myself worthy is to get through you."
I didn't know if I was right, and I sure as hell didn't know if he agreed. But he angled his head and the sun slanted past a fold in the hood to show me his sneer. "Well, I guess you aren't worthy, then..."
The Negative Effects of Heliotropic Sting are gone.
The arrow had initially been aimed at my throat. If he'd been paying more attention during our conversation it still would've been, but he'd allowed himself to be distracted.
I couldn't really blame him. If I was right, he'd just discovered that both him and his buddy were pawns, since the thing they'd been promised had never been intended for them.
I could see the background behind him until he made his shot. Once he released the tension on the bowstring, everything to his rear flickered into darkness for a moment.
It was
disconcerting, to say the least. It almost threw my timing off. Not only was I not expecting it, but it told me that the arrow he had just shot in my direction was a Very Big Deal.
I let my instinct and my reflexes get me out of the way. I had to trust in those baser, more primal abilities to handle themselves without supervision because the logical part of my brain was completely absorbed in the process of making magic.
While my lizard brain was happy to throw my body to the left, the higher functions that I was still in charge of were working overtime as well. I whipped my hands across my body in the opposite direction of my fall. I was so desperate for an effect to amplify that I even turned my head and emptied my lungs with as much force as I could.
I only got one chance in this part of The Citadel. The system had made that clear when I entered. The fear of permanent death is something everybody probably has hardwired into them. The edge had been taken off of mine, though.
I'd spent so long coming to terms with the fact that I was dying in slow motion that the rush of the arrow dredged up something half-buried. True, existential terror.
I felt a gust of wind erupt away from me, drastically changing the course of the projectile. There wasn't time to feel any sort of triumph, since the thud of its impact coincided with a strangled scream that made me whirl around in order to find its source.
The would-be assassin had almost made it to me. She was only a couple of feet shy of her target. They'd planned it well. I could tell by the footsteps in the grass and the way her body had fallen that she'd been cutting toward me at a ninety-degree angle to the archer.
His shot would never have risked hitting her if I hadn't blown it askew, and my heart beat faster when I realized how close I had come to getting the black dagger she still clutched shoved between my ribs.
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