by Konrad Ryan
Chapter 18
A dozen arrows flew at Tad and the bunnyvoid, her ‘greased lightning’ struck her at the same time that she dashed toward Tad shooting acid bolts. He was caught in the middle. Two arrows sunk deep into Tad’s side *-149 health,* the bunnyvoid took two arrows to the chest. Tad’s own speed buff had worn off, and he had trouble seeing the movements of the other voids. Clearly they thought each other to be their biggest threats, but raced to finish Tad. But Tad knew the truth, the lionvoid was too fast, too strong, he didn’t stand a chance caught in the middle.
Behind, a wall glowed, reflecting the light of the lionvoid’s lightsphere. Tad threw himself through the wall, away from the barrage of arrows and acid bolts, then dashed further away from the two fighting voids. Was it better to allow the lionvoid to finish her? Then Tad would have to fight him solo. Better she finished first than he.
Tad had gone without his cloak long enough. With a thought, he equipped it. He had been hoping to save its powers for later on in his warrior trial, but seeing the speed discrepancy, he’d need it. Between the three voids, he was the slowest by far. The bunnyvoid had her lightning buff, and the lionvoid had the 2x stat aspect propelling him to incredible speeds.
Stealth vision activated, it wasn’t helpful for telling apart which walls he could pass through, but it helped him from smashing into the walls, and he didn’t want to leave a thunderbolt trail for someone to conveniently follow. In the darkness he was tempted to stealth, but he needed to get away first and his speed would break it. He sped further and further away from where he thought the battle had been, but he quickly got turned around, so he wasn’t sure exactly how far away he’d travelled. He needed a plan.
He couldn’t beat the lionvoid without one.
Suddenly the bunnyvoid burst through the wall right in front of him, knocking him from his feet. The lionvoid’s lightsphere was clutched in her fist. How had she stolen it and gotten away? Arrows sprouted from her back and arms, and her health bar was under 20 percent, before Tad had fled, it had been over 60. Her brief encounter with the lionvoid had almost been fatal. She no longer had her swords.
She was weaponless.
Her gaze met his, furious orbs of violet fire. Fierce and determined, she was clearly desperate to survive. Blood trickled from her arms and neck, but they didn’t slow her movement. Two fists caught Tad in the mouth, he brought up a foot to kick her away, but she had already jumped backward ten feet.
Tad climbed to his feet, fingers pointed rapidly between the two of them, doing the strange dance that they had done before, to negotiate them becoming a team. Her eyes glinted darkly with distrust, almost as black as the surrounding obsidian, but it was clear to Tad that the bow guy was the strongest of the three of them, and she slowly realized the same. Even if Tad was victorious here, he would have to fight solo against someone who had double his stats. It was smarter to team up here and worry about her later.
The girl moved her hands rapidly, making several hacking and stabbing motions, like she wielded a weapon. Then she pointed at Tad and stomped a foot.
Tad stared, bewildered. What on earth did she want? Did she want him to stab her? Was she accusing him of attacking her?
The girl void pointed at the Raekast’s Fang gleaming in his hand, then pointed at her own hand, then did the same motion Tad had done to team up. It really did look silly now that someone else was doing it. But her motivations were clear, to join up she required, no, demanded a weapon, if her foot stomp was any indication.
Tad hesitated. He had already made this mistake once by healing the lionvoid. He had strengthened his opponent. Plus Raekast’s Fang was soulbound, he couldn’t give it to her and the only other weapon he had was Fangshredder, which was so fierce that Tad wasn’t even sure he could beat it. Fangshredder was too powerful a weapon to face. But… maybe he could win her alliance and not have to make her stronger. A part of himself screamed at what he was doing, that it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t honest, that he shouldn’t take advantage of the girl. He stuffed it down, quieted it, slowly choked the voice until it screamed no longer. He steeled his resolve.
Only one could walk out of this fight.
He could feel guilty later.
Tad flipped Raekast’s Fang, so the hilt was facing the girl. Gingerly she approached, expecting a trick, then took the weapon from his hand. Delicate fingers, covered in blood, gripped the thin hiltless handle of the dagger and pulled it from his palm. He grunted in surprise. He hadn’t expected she could actually take the weapon. A second later, his alarm peaked, the dagger puffing into black mist. Tad’s eyes bulged in alarm. Had she been hiding equipment system after all?
Dread filled his stomach. She had just stolen his weapon.
But no, surprise covered her face as well. Tad found Raekast’s Fang tucked safely away in his void equipment slot a moment later. So that’s what happened when he tried to give away a soulbound weapon. What would happen if his slots were already full?
A moment later he produced the weapon back to his hand. He made gestures with his fingers, pointing at the weapon, trying to explain how he couldn’t give the weapon away, then put his palms up above his shoulders like he couldn’t explain it. Disappointment shown across the girl’s face, but she nodded, then repeated the alliance finger dance. Flashed it back. Alliance made, all it cost was a little deceit.
It ate at his gut.
Better guilt than Fangshredder.
* * *
Their plan was simple. She would cast ‘greased lightning’ on Tad and he would fight the bow void. With her buff only lasting five seconds, he would have to use every second combined with his cloak’s buff. Without the bunnyvoid on his team, he might have gambled on stealth combined with Raekast’s bite, but then he’d have to be at low life, with a dagger that thirsted for his own blood and moving at a snails pace toward one of the deadliest foes Tad had ever faced. With her on his side, he could come up with a better plan.
It had taken a lot of finger wiggling and even Tad casting thunderbolt on himself then pointing to her, then showing his fingers running even faster to get the point across. He had never realized how difficult it could be to make plans with someone who couldn’t speak the same language. He would have to come up with better ways to communicate. Maybe he could do something with firebolt… paint pictures or something, almost like the Defector had done with the titanspawn.
A thought for later.
The bunnyvoid placed her captive lightsphere into a net, she had pulled from under her shirt. She must have had that since the equipment room with the dull weapons. The lightsphere floated, in one direction, it took Tad a minute to understand the importance of that insistent floating, even with the bunnyvoid’s finger waggles. The lightsphere was trying to float back to its master. Careful following of the lightspheres pointed direction through reflective walls made quick work of it. Finally, Tad pushed through a reflective wall and found the lionvoid.
In the darkness, the lionvoid had chosen a long corridor to make his final stand. Whether by luck, or by previous scouting, the corridor had no side or back exits. Just a long tunnel of no escape. That the lionvoid even brought a lightsphere, indicated that he didn’t have stealth vision to explore in the dark. Even from this distance, the lionvoid’s posture burned with determination, his mane flared dramatically at the far end of the corridor. Maybe two hundred feet away, bow drawn. It would be hard to dodge the arrows in this small of a corridor, no, impossible even.
Even with ‘greased lightning’ and his cloak’s speed buff, Tad needed a plan.
He closed the corridor entrance. Against an archer, Tad wished he had a shield. He sat cross-legged in thinking. He opened his spell list and considered each in turn. How could he gain advantage over the lionvoid? For 80 mana, he could probably fashion a shield out of rock… if quake would even work in this labyrinth. The spell said earth, not obsidian or sandstone. He might just waste all of his mana. But there was one spell that might do something.
/> He turned to the girl, and made a drinking motion, as if he were thirsty, then made a questioning face. She seemed to understand. Her palm glowed light blue a moment later. She pointed her hand down the obsidian corridor behind her and a gush of water sprayed out.
Perfect.
* * *
Tad stood at the entrance to the lionvoid’s corridor, their preparations were complete. Tad had healed both of them to full trickle healing to make sure his mana stayed full, in case the lionvoid ambushed them. With advanced finger wiggling, they had devised a plan. Tad’s first thought was to fill the entire hallway with water and just freeze the end by the door, drowning the lionvoid. It would be a long and drawn out death, but it left the two of them safe. The bunnyvoid’s fingers weren’t confident that she could fill the entire hallway. Which left Tad with his backup strategy, the shield of ice on his arm.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he charged through the door. ‘Greased lightning’ struck Tad, his body felt light.
He charged.
“Brilliant Burst!” Tad screamed in the darkness. With both spells enhancing speed, Tad became the wind. He charged forward faster than ever before, immediately a dozen arrows flew to greet him. Tad brought up his full length shield, a sheet of magical ice gripped on one edge. Tad charged forward. Arrows crashed into the icy exterior, but caused no visible damage. Tad grinned, magical ice was immune to physical damage. Suddenly the walls on both sides of Tad illuminated, complex shapes and rings formed a glyph of some sort, one glowed red, the other blue. Time compressed as the danger sank in, Tad summoned, hoping to pull out the second shield of ice from his equipment slot before the runes activated.
Explosions of ice and fire crushed Tad between them. *-15 health.* One shield melted completely from the fire blast, leaving his left arm scorched, but the second shield appeared just in time to block the ice shards successfully. More arrows sprayed from the front, this time ensheathed in flame. The lionvoid had picked up on his trick. His second magical ice shield melted, and he was only halfway to his enemy.
Arrows sank into his flesh, but his third and last ice shield appeared in a puff of black mist. It didn’t last long, but it was enough to get in range. Finally, the red indicator of Tad’s spell turned green.
It didn’t matter how fast you were, if you had nowhere to go. He couldn’t help but smirk as he released his first spell.
“Firewall!”
Fire sprang up from beneath the lionvoid. The flames filled the entire hallway and danced up to the ceiling of the small square-shaped obsidian tunnel. The lionvoid roared in pain fitting an actual lion, like a peal of thunder, constant health notifications poured off the man. Tad did a backflip and prepared to cast the second firewall, but his foot slipped and he found himself on his back. His limbs were suddenly weak, his eyes spun in his head. What was this? Poison?
The sudden dread took Tad in a heartbeat. The arrows were poisoned. Without missing a beat, Tad yanked each of the arrows from his torso, arms and legs, before he cast ‘neutralize poison.’ fifty points of health ripped from his chest, the pain sharpened his thoughts. He leapt to his feet as the poison diluted, but two more arrows sprouted from his back. He fell to the ground in weakness once more.
Raekast’s Fang was banished in a puff of black mist, instead, Tad summoned Fangshredder. “Cyclone!” The glass ram-horns turned downward toward the lionvoid and roared to life. His mana was like syrup in his veins, but he fed it to the weapon. The gust of wind shot Tad backwards, toward the only exit in the tunnel.
“Firewall! Firewall! Firewall!” Three more firewalls erupted, chained together, making a wall of fire eighty feet long, almost filling the entire tunnel. The heat was immense and the wind from Fangshredder only fed the fire hotter and hotter. Even from this distance, the heat caused sweat to burst from his brow. The lionvoid tried to dash from the flames, but Fangshredder’s incredible wind in the narrow tunnel forced him back into the firewalls, his health bar disappeared rapidly.
That’s when the water hit.
Water, cold as ice, splashed from the exit to the tunnel, spilling past Tad, extinguishing the closest of his firewalls. Confusion sprang in Tad’s addled mind.
The bunnyvoid had lied.
Not only that, but she had stolen his original plan! He hadn’t been the only one to use deceit to gain advantage. The knowledge hit him like a brick, but he reacted instantly. His free hand aimed toward the water, his hands glowing blue.
“Icebolt! Icebolt!”
Twin icebolts froze the water solid, Fangshredder smashed Tad’s head into the magical ice, sending stars dancing in his vision. The water flowed once more, over the top of Tad’s impromptu dam. He cast more icebolts above, stopping the water once more. This time the dam reached the ceiling. There would be no more water from behind.
Six fire arrows flew from the lionvoid’s position, not well aimed, but sheathed in fire, they melted the thin ice block, causing the torrent to begin anew. Three more sunk into Tad’s legs, but the force wasn’t as fierce as it had been. Tad cast two more icebolts to reinforce the wall of ice before he glanced down toward where the lionvoid should be. His body trudged through the flames, damaged beyond function. He looked like a zombie, or a spectre in the fire, coming to consume Tad’s flesh. Tad screamed as fear filled his mind and gut. But still the flaming spectre pulled back his bowstring.
It was coming.
Tad felt it in his bones. The arrow that had finished the minotaur was about to be fired. Would Fangshredder be enough? An arrow, twice as big as Tad, flew towards him. Fangshredder blasted air, but it wasn’t enough to stop the gigantic arrow. It smashed into Tad’s weapon, almost throwing it from his weak and poisoned hands. In fact, it probably would have disarmed him, if Fangshredder weren’t braced against the ice wall. Fangshredder’s spinning glass teeth shredded the arrow, its reinforced trunk was more than a match to the lionvoid’s attack. Chunks of shrapnel were blown back, sinking into the lionvoid’s burnt flesh, gushes of blood spilled from his wounds.
His final attack failed, Tad saw the defeat in his eyes. There was nowhere for him to go. Fangshredder filled the tunnel ahead, fire behind. Health notifications poured from the man like rain, from the fire that licked his flesh.
Fangshredder came to a stop at the same instant that the lionvoid’s health bar slid down to black, before it disappeared completely.
*Void defeated. 2 of the 4 voids remain.*
The chime played in Tad’s head. Behind him, he could hear smashing against the ice barricade, the barricade was the only thing keeping him alive. It became harder and harder to think each passing second, he knew his life was in danger… but his thoughts slipped away like mud from a hill. Tad searched his body for the arrows he knew were there. His body had become numb, pain no longer guided his search.
He pulled arrow after arrow until he could find no more.
He tried to cast ‘neutralize poison’ but mana wouldn’t flow properly. It wouldn’t pool into his hands. Splashing and sizzling replaced the hammering behind him. His unfocused eyes found green liquid eating at the ice. Her acid spell! She was trying to end this before Tad could recover.
No… That’s not how to cast this spell. The thought was weak. Neutralize poison didn’t use mana, it used health. Tad focused on his chest, on his life force. Felt it rip away as he chanted the words.
“Neutralize Poison!”
A wash of cleansing energy shot from heel to toe, as the poison that burnt inside of him evaporated. Legs shaky, he flipped onto his stomach, then rose to his full height. Tad banished Fangshredder, then summoned it once more, this time aiming it at the paper thin ice barrier, about to be penetrated by the acidic bolts of the bunnyvoid. He glanced at his health and mana to make sure he had enough to activate the weapon one more time.
*Health:111/850
Mana:36/150*
Tad was almost grateful that the bunnyvoid had back-stabbed him. It made what was about to happen a lot easier.
>
“Vortex.”
The ice broke at the exact moment that the glass ram horn’s that extended along the length of Fangshredder finished readjusting. Tad forced the weapon to activate. It roared to life as it consumed her acidic bolt, the bunnyvoid was next, the suction pulled her from her feet. Blood sprayed across the obsidian corridor. It painted every surface, including Tad’s skin. The weapon spun, tearing through flesh and bone alike. Flame licked his back from behind, the firewalls danced like mad from Fangshredder’s vortex, but the fire burned bright.
That was the scariest thing about Fangshredder. Once it had a hold on you, it didn’t let go. It was a bastard like that.
Tad was grateful that the girl bunnyvoid didn’t scream.
At least, not for long.
Chapter 19
The crackle of flames roared in Tad’s ears, its only competition was the drum in his chest.
Was it over?
A congratulatory sound played in his head, answering his unspoken question.
*Void defeated. 1 of the 4 voids remain. Congratulations! Choose one to consume!*
The labyrinth walls disappeared instantly. He lay back in the room where the four voids had first fought the minotaur, Fangshredder still painfully gripped in desperate hands. Three inky dark shapes stood, arms crossed before them. The void minotaur, the bunnyvoid, and the lionvoid, each stood in identical poses, each stared behind Tad at some distant point. The fourth void, the panthervoid girl, didn’t seem to be an option. The alert had said the void minotaur had consumed the fourth and gained strength. It must be true, even now.
Tad walked up to the void minotaur and placed his hands through its essence.
*Is this the essence you choose? You can learn one of the following skills:
Voidshift - ability to walk through physical darkness barriers
Roar - Consume fifty mana to paralyze nearby enemies for a short duration (based on enemy’s constitution)
Equipment Aspect - Already owned.*