by Erik Rounds
She had already lost two hearts from that hit alone. Though her vision was obstructed by the ground, she could see a debuff indicator reporting that the paralysis would last another ten seconds.
She felt something crawling on her prone body. When she was a kid, she used to have nightmares about spiders crawling all over her while she was unable to move, and it had terrified her. That wasn’t her anymore, though; that was the original Tasha. She was still frightened, as anyone would be, but she wasn’t panicking.
Fortunately a moment later she heard Ari’s voice, and the feeling abated. Once the paralysis left her, she scrambled to her feet and saw Aralogos land a drop kick on one of the spiders, killing it. He grabbed the legs of one of them and threw it across the clearing, but it got back up a moment later.
Pan nocked another bolt with a green end and aimed it directly at her. She fired, and Tasha felt a blunt impact from the hit. As the bolt hit her, she was surrounded by a warm glow. The pain in her leg from where the spider had shot her was gone. The combat log said that Pan had hit her with a healing arrow.
Three spiders were still focused on her, and one of them spat poison. She twisted out of the way just as the slimy mass of poison shot through the air past her.
Another one dived at her, and she swung at it, dealing half a heart of damage while knocking it away. Tasha clearly couldn’t harm them, but at least she could use her blade to defend herself. Other than being used as bait, she wasn’t much more than a liability during this battle.
A steel-tipped arrow hit one of the spiders in front of her, and it died screeching in pain before vanishing into mist. Tasha checked the combat window, and it showed that only six of the enemies had been defeated, but several had taken damage.
She focused on defense for the rest of the battle. The remaining spiders were focused on her and attacked her with poison shots and physical melee attacks. It was all she could do to avoid being hit.
Pan was firing a barrage of steel bolts into the same enemy, slowly draining its health until it eventually died and faded into ethereal mist. It only took her about seven seconds to reload each bolt, but in battle, seven seconds was a lot of time. While Pan was doing that, Ari was attacking another one with a flurry of kicks and punches. The one Ari was fighting targeted him but was quickly defeated.
Pan and Ari finished off the remaining spiders, and the battle ended. Tasha drew a deep breath, relieved that the danger had passed. A moment later, a window appeared before her:
Victory! All enemies have been vanquished.
+340 experience gained. (597 to next level)
63 GP found.
Level up!
You have reached level 6.
You have 4 unassigned stat points.
Choose either a heart container or a mana container.
Pan smiled and said, “Level nine.”
Tasha held out her palm for a high five, but Pan just looked at it, confused. “You’re supposed to hit it with your own palm. It’s means victory!”
The small girl carefully touched her palm to Tasha’s. They would have to work on that.
“Anyway, looks like I’m level 6 now.”
A magic vial and heart container floated in front of her. So far she’d focused on health, but maybe she should invest in magic. As it was, she couldn’t get more than three fireballs off before running out of mana.
She chose the mana container and put four stat points into agility. She decided to focus on intelligence the next time she leveled up. Right now, Tasha needed to be able to dodge enemy attacks, and a higher agility would help with that.
As she did this, her muscles became more toned, and she felt more vibrant. Tasha wondered how high she could jump.
Well, there’s only one way to find out.
It was time to test out her new agility. Crouching down, she leaped high into the air and saw the ground race away from her. A moment later, she slammed her head into a branch of the tree above her, flipped through the air, and slammed into the ground. Naruto had always made it look so easy.
Getting back to her feet, she rubbed the bump on her head where she’d hit the branch. That branch was at least three meters above her. She tried again, this time looking above her before taking the jump. She reached up and grabbed the tree branch, pulling herself up with ease. Tasha wondered if she might be able to jump through the trees ninja style with a few more agility upgrades.
“So… is this going to be a thing?” asked Ari. “Every time you level up, are you going to show off jumping and acrobatics?”
“Yeah, most likely,” Tasha admitted, jumping back to the ground and landing safely on her feet.
The next random encounter didn’t spawn for just over an hour. Tasha still wasn’t able to do more than one or two points of damage to the spiders and left most of the work to Ari and Pan. Honestly, she felt like an NPC in an escort quest. She had managed to get her Dodge ability to level 3.
By that evening, Tasha had made it to level 7. She took another mana container and socketed two more points into agility and two into intelligence. She didn’t feel especially smarter, but she couldn’t be sure. Her attempts at doing some long division in her head were unsuccessful. She would need to put many more points into intelligence before getting that Mensa qualification. Pan had reached level 9 and Ari said he was just a few fights away from reaching level 12.
Upon reaching level 7, an additional ability unlock prompt appeared:
Ability Unlocked: Stat Shuffle (Level MAX)
Type: Active ability (Player specific)
When invoked, all earned stat points may be reallocated. 15% of earned stat points are lost for the duration of this effect. After five minutes, all stats are returned to their original state.
Cooldown: 12 hours
Now this was kickass skill. It would let her min/max her stat points to fit the situation. It was a double-edged sword, though. She would lose 15% of her stat points, making her weaker than she would be without it. On top of that, there was a twelve-hour cooldown, which would severely limit its battle effectiveness. Maybe there was some way she could use it to her advantage in the future.
She still couldn’t deal enough damage to the enemy to contribute in a useful way, but she was able to dodge the spider’s attacks with relative ease thanks to her high agility stat and her level three Dodge ability. The battles were exclusively against spider-type creatures of varying size.
Each battle yielded experience points, GP, and the occasional cylinder that contained loot. Most of the loot were common dropped items. One of the capsules contained several packets of instant coffee, for which she was greatly appreciative.
Denver hadn’t been participating in the battles. Considering his low level, that was probably for the best. Whenever battles started, he ran off into the woods and rejoined the group when everything was clear.
There was one unfortunate incident. During one of the battles, Tasha shot a fireball at one of the spiders, but the creature dodged, and the fireball instead hit up some foliage behind it. Fortunately, they were able to get the fire under control before it burned down the entire forest.
After their fire-fighting episode, Ari suggested that Tasha hold off on shooting fireballs while in the forest.
“Yeah, I get it,” Tasha said. She made her voice deeper. “Only I can prevent forest fires.” Pan and Ari didn’t acknowledge her joke.
The forest was beginning to darken with the setting of the sun.
“How much more f-forest?” complained Pan.
“We should be almost there,” Aralogos said, consulting his menu. “But the sun is going to set soon. If we don’t make it before then, we’ll have to make camp. Trust me when I say that we don’t want to face forest monsters at night. They are much higher level and from what I hear, more terrifying.”
“But we’ll be fine if we set up camp, right?” Tasha said.
“Yeah, the campground spell will protect us from monsters and animals alike. We’ll need to find
a large enough clearing to set up the camp, though, and this forest has been pretty dense lately.”
“You mean we might not even be able to camp in the forest? What kind of monsters show up here at night?”
“Probably something spider based, though I’ve heard stories about creeper trees and daemon wolves spawning in forests at night.”
“Let’s just get through this forest as fast as possible,” Tasha said as she began speed walking.
Finally she cleared the forest, leaving a line of trees behind her. The western sky was already tinted red, but the sun was little more than a sliver on the horizon. In the distance was a row of dim lights that highlighted a dirt road. She thought she could see the faint glow of campfires in the distance.
Ari pointed at one of the lights. “Those lights are from the waystones, which protect travelers. Monsters can’t spawn near them.”
“I bet we could reach it in ten minutes if we hurry,” she said.
“No,” said Aralogos, “look around you. The mist around us is thick. We’re about to be attacked by monsters, and the sun has almost set. If we move, we’ll be attacked before we reach the road and the protection that it offers.”
She could tell that this was true. The telltale swirls of purple were surrounding them. How had she not noticed it before?
“We could just make camp here and go the rest of the distance in the morning,” she said.
Ari looked uncertain. “Campgrounds aren’t cheap. They cost money. That’s why I wanted to reach the road by nightfall. We can set up camp by the waystone without wasting one of the mobile campgrounds. They cost 200 GP each. That’s money that we could spend on food or weapon maintenance.”
She wondered for the first time just how badly off Ari and his daughter were. A pang of guilt stung her; they had been taking care of her, and so far all she’d been to them was a burden.
“What if we ran? We don’t try to fight whatever monster appears, we just run as fast as we can to get to those lights.”
He thought about her suggestion. “That might work, but it’s risky. If the mobs can move quickly or are projectile users, they might kill one of us before we reach safety.”
Pan pointed at the sunset. “Sun isn’t g-gone.”
“If we start running right now,” Tasha said, “we might be attacked by mobs before the sun is fully set. Then we’ll be attacked by enemies that we can beat.”
Ari made his decision. “All right, let’s go now. Everyone run!”
They broke into a sprint, making for the road, and after about five minutes they were attacked at the halfway point. Unfortunately it seemed that the sun had already set and the creature that formed around the party was an enormous spider, only this one was as large as a house. It raised its razor-blade arms and let out a paralyzing screech.
Tasha glanced at the combat window. The enemy’s name was Spider Queen and her level was twenty-nine. It had fifty heart containers, and her name appeared red in her HUD.
“Run!” cried Aralogos, and he and Pan darted for the lights in the distance. Tasha stood, momentarily frozen in fear. For several long moments she couldn’t drag her gaze away from the terrifying creature. It screeched at her and approached. Finally she came to her senses and turned around, running away from the horrific monster as fast as she could.
The Spider Queen fired some webbing at Tasha. The sticky webs caused her to collapse and pinned her to the ground. She squirmed against the webbing, but the spider silk vines were pliable and stuck to her skin. She couldn’t snap them or break free. Her gunblade was still in her hand at her side, so she pulled the trigger, engaging the gun’s trigger action “Firestorm.” The effect only lasted a moment, but it caused the webbing to catch fire, and she tore herself free. Some of the burnt webbing reached her left leg, scorching her flesh.
She stumbled back up and hobbled on her good leg as rapidly as she could. In the distance, Pan and Ari had almost made it to the safety of the road.
The Spider Queen spit at Tasha while she was running and hit her in the back with some kind of corrosive spit. Tasha didn’t stop running, but the acidic liquid burned through her bathrobe and into her back. Even so, she didn’t stop running. If she weren’t hobbling she might have been faster than the spider, but as things were, it was only a matter of time before it caught up with her.
The light post along the road was only a few dozen meters away. Tasha looked back and saw the enormous spider looming over her. She wasn’t going to make it. The monster shot more webs at her, wrapping her body in strands of spider silk. Her gunblade slid from her hands and fell to the ground. The Queen stuck Tasha with a stinger, paralyzing her and causing her body to go numb. After a moment, the pain from the acid eating away at her back receded, replaced by the panic of not being able to move.
The Spider Queen lifted Tasha into the air and began to spin webbing around her in a cocoon-like web. Tasha weakly tried to struggle, but it was to no avail. Her hands wouldn’t respond to her commands, and her awareness of the world around her was fading.
A bolt of fire flew through the air above her, and the webbing broke from the Spider Queen’s hold, causing Tasha to fall to the ground.
As she started to fade out of consciousness, Tasha saw Pan and Ari racing toward her. Her eyes started to shut of their own volition. For a time she faded in and out of awareness. She felt hands lifting her, and someone placed her upon Denver’s back.
Moments later, she was moving away from the battle. Aralogos was fighting the Spider Queen on his own, landing kicks and punches on the creature. Her eyes shut, and when they opened again, he had been impaled by one of the Spider Queen’s blade-like appendages. Blood dripped from where he was stuck as he was raised in the air. His body went limp in the Spider Queen’s grasp, and she threw him to the ground.
Tasha saw nothing else before her consciousness faded.
Chapter 12
A Song of Bacon and Pancakes
Light shone through a thin curtain, casting rays into the dust-filled hotel room. Tasha blearily blinked her eyes open. It was still far too early in the morning for rational thought. Slowly her memories of the previous night’s events began to trickle back.
Her heart sank as she remembered the previous night’s encounter with the Spider Queen. How it had poisoned her and wrapped her up in webbing. How Ari had been impaled, saving her from what she imagined to be a fate worse than death.
She sat up in the bed and found a tear was trailing down her cheek. Other than her parents, she couldn’t imagine anyone caring about Tasha enough to give their own life, but Ari had done so without hesitation.
She took in her surroundings. She was alone in a small room with two beds and a single exit. Her bloodstained bathrobe was folded and placed on the dresser. Someone had brought her here.
There was commotion coming from beyond the room’s single door. She stood up, but as she was about to open the door, the handle turned and the door opened. Aralogos stood framed in the entrance.
“Ari, you… you’re alive.”
“Yes, of course I am,” he said.
“But… I don’t understand. I saw the Spider Queen impale you. Your heart containers were drained. I saw you die.”
He shook his head. “Do I look dead to you? You… must be mistaken about what you saw. I’m okay. I fought her long enough for you to escape, but she didn’t impale me. After we escaped, Denver carried you to the inn. It was fortunate that the town of Bray was less than a mile up the road.”
Tasha wiped away a tear and hugged him. “I’m so glad that you’re okay.”
Ari hugged her back. After a moment, he pulled away. “It’s okay, Tasha. I’m not hurt. We all made it away safely.”
“Nobody has ever saved my life before. I’ll never forget it. From now on, you’re my hero.”
Embarrassed, Ari actually blushed. “It’s nothing, really. Listen, why don’t you come out and join us? They’re serving breakfast.”
Thoughts of food quick
ly changed Tasha’s mood. “I’ll be right out.”
Ari nodded and closed the door. As she retrieved a bathrobe from the dresser, another article of clothing caught her eye. It was the martial-arts uniform that Ari had been wearing the day before. It sat neatly upon the table beside his bed. She picked it up and unfolded it to reveal a large hole through the front and a matching hole in the back. Blood was caked to the fabric around where it was ripped.
It had all been a lie. Ari said that he hadn’t been stabbed, but the evidence was right in front of her. She hadn’t imagined it. Why was he keeping this from her? Didn’t Ari trust her with the truth?
It was time to confront him and get to the bottom of this. She slammed the door open and walked out into the dining room. Ari and Pan were sitting together at a table. Tasha marched up to Ari, stuck out her index finger, and regarded him sternly.
“Ari, there’s something I need to ask you, and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
Ari looked nervous but tried to meet her gaze. “Okay, Tasha. What is it?”
The smell of freshly cooked bacon and pancakes assaulted her, and she hesitated. “Um… where did that bacon and those pancakes come from, and how can I get some?”
Damn! That wasn’t the question that she meant to ask. Her willpower had been broken by the overwhelming power of bacon.
Ari pointed at a buffet-style breakfast table. “Oh, that’s what you wanted to know. It’s over there. It’s a buffet, so take as much as you like.”
So hotels in Etheria had breakfast buffets. Neat.
Tasha filled up on pancakes and bacon, allowing cardiac-arrest-inducing levels of butter and syrup to run off the pancakes and onto the bacon. She washed it down with several cups of coffee.
Pan was eating eggs, bacon, and what looked like grits, each of which sat in their own pile. None of the different foods on her plate were allowed to touch each other. She even used different pieces of silverware for each dish to make sure they didn’t mix.