CHAPTER 17 - DEATH HUG

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were in ‘guard mode,’ so they started moving even before I ordered them. That was a good thing, because this snake was fast! It closed the gap between us more quickly than I could easily react, and its fangs sank into my calf. I let out a shout—the pain was intense. The snake’s head was almost as big as my own, and seeing those fangs punch through my pants almost made me pass out.

It yanked at my leg, pulling me over onto the ground, and then whipped the rest of its body forward. I got the idea right away; the snake was going to wrap me in coils and hug me to death. Not cool!

But before it could wrap coils around me, my zombies came to the rescue. They each grabbed onto a loop of the snake and started going to town with their knives. It didn’t take more than a blow each for them to get the snake’s full attention. It let go of me and turned toward them, biting at Rosie’s leg. The bit tore away a chunk of the zombie’s flesh, reminding me that I really needed to get the Heal Undead slotted so I could repair my undead critters.

Blood ran freely down my leg and into my boot, but it had to wait. I still had my axe in hand and used it to lever myself back to my feet. Putting too much weight on the injured leg was not an option, but I hopped my way a couple of feet closer and swung the axe as the snake tried to chomp Guildie. My blow bounced off its skull, but sent its strike wide.

The zombies kept stabbing.

My axe must have gotten the creature’s attention again, because it whirled back at me, lightning-quick. I fell backward away from the strike, jaws clamping shut just inches from my face. The zombies’ hold kept it from reaching me. I clambered back to my feet again and took another swing.

This time, the axe bit deep into the snake’s neck. Blood sprayed from the wound, dripping across the fresh grass. That was enough for Mr. Snake—it decided discretion was the better part of valor and tried to flee. But the zombies still had a tight hold of its body. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Before it could turn its attention back to them and free itself, I brought the axe down on its neck again, then two more times until the head finally broke free. It thrashed another few moments after I beheaded it, but there were no new heads growing or any other weird magical shit. The battle was done.

Panting, I tapped the snake’s head and was rewarded with something brand new: a green crystal! And this one was tier two! I pocketed the winnings and dropped my pack so I could fish through it for something to wrap my wound. I had a basic first aid kit—some gauze, ointment, and other basic crap—from my room, but I was going to have to replace that stuff before long. At the rate I was burning through supplies, I needed to find a way to refresh them soon.

I cleaned the wound with some water from my bottle, then hit it with antibiotic cream and gauze, wrapping around it all with a cling wrap. The holes made by the snake’s fangs were big enough they could probably use sutures, but I didn’t have a kit, and the idea of sewing myself up made my stomach flip. It could wait until I got back to the others.

The good news was that I didn’t feel any venom effects. I poked at the snake’s head, checking the fangs—I remembered reading somewhere that venomous snakes had hollow or grooved fangs, and this one did not. I was probably okay, but I lashed the head to my backpack, just in case.

As I cleaned the wound, I considered the snake and the stone it dropped. It had been significantly more difficult to fight than the other monsters I’d battled. This one took what, four blows with my axe, plus at least three blows each from the zombie daggers? It had taken a serious beating. Nothing I’d faced so far was that strong.

And it dropped a tier two stone, which implied that yes, I wasn’t imagining it; this creature really was stronger than the ones I’d fought yesterday. But that revelation opened the door to a whole slew of new questions.

Were all monsters now tier two? Had all the ones we saw yesterday ranked up somehow? Or was it only some creatures? If there were a bunch of tier one critters still out there, maybe I’d just gotten unlucky, running into this one. The fact that there were now tier two monsters, however, implied that we might eventually see tier three or higher as well. I was tier three, technically. I’d beaten the tier two snake, but I’d been hurt and Guildie was injured as well. If it had been a tier three snake, would I have been able to beat it at all?

The sense that I needed to grow stronger, quickly, increased. The existence of more dangerous creatures and the possibility of even harder foes appearing down the road made that very clear. But how to get that through to the others, back at the security building?

I glanced at the snake’s body.

Yeah, that would probably work.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I had the zombies each pick up one end of the snake. Between the two of them, they managed to carry the thing fairly well. Bringing it back with me had two major advantages. I could easily convince people of the threat level, and from what I’d heard snake tastes like chicken. For people who didn’t have a lot to eat, this was a lot of meat. Find some way to grill it up and it ought to provide a basic meal for the people huddled inside. With some food in their bellies, maybe they’d be more willing to get outside and fight.

Before we took off, I decided to test my two new stones. I focused and carefully pulled the Agility stone clear, hoping it wouldn’t break. It didn’t. I sighed with relief, then slotted in the clear stone I’d won the night before. This one was another Agility, which was interesting. I could merge it with my other one and be a lot faster. But before I did that, I wanted to check the green tier two. I pulled the Nightvision out—again, no breaks—and then added the green stone.

Instantly my mind flooded with information about plants, specifically their growth. The spell was Entangle, which felt fitting given that the snake tried to tangle me up in its coils. It would allow me to turn the grass or other plants into a weapon, pinning targets in place. They could rip or cut their way free, but at tier two the spell would hold a lot of things fast.

Good enough for now! I left it slotted, and then added back the other Agility stone. It merged with the one I already had in place, and now I had two tier two stones alongside my one tier three. If I was going to advance more, I still needed a way to get a stone to tier four. But this was a great start! I felt faster than before, and my reaction time was clearly better.

Magical Stones

Point 1: Black Stone (Tier 3) - Control Undead

Point 2: Clear Stone (Tier 2) - Agility

Point 3: Green Stone (Tier 2) - Entangle

Point 4: X

Point 5: X

Spare Stones

Black: Heal Undead, Animate Dead, Drain Life

Clear: Will

Using the axe as a cane, I made my way back toward the security building. I winced with every step, but the wound wasn’t that bad. I kept my head on a swivel the whole way back, though. I’d been surprised by one monster this morning. A second encounter, with me injured and the zombies laden down? Not good.

Fortunately we made it back to the parking lot in one piece. One of Lords’ men—I think his name was George—saw me coming and jogged over to check on me.

“You all right, miss? Boss was worried when he saw you were gone.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. My leg’s a little banged up. Is that paramedic available? I patched myself up, but I could use another look,” I replied.

“Yeah, we can get him. What were you thinking, going out like that?” he asked.

I shot him a Look. “I was thinking that if we all sit tight here, we’re all going to die. That snake my boys brought back? It’s a second rank monster. Tier two. Dropped a tier two stone, and was hard as hell to kill.”

“What’s that even mean?”

I sighed. Hadn’t this guy ever played a single video game? “It means they’re getting stronger. The monsters. This one was harder than anything I saw out there yesterday. If there are more tier two monsters like it, then that changes everything. We need to grow stronger too, or we’ll be left behind.”

“Uh huh. Let me get Lords and the paramedic,” he replied, then walked off.

Why was this difficult to understand? If we didn’t step up, we were going to be stepped on. How could I make them see that?

Lords and the paramedic came out moments later. The young guy bent over my leg and unwrapped my careful bandaging.

“You did a good job on this. Any poison?” he asked.

“No, pretty sure I would have felt it by now,” I replied. “I brought the head just in case, though.”

“Smart move,” he replied. He checked it over. “Shit, that looks like a regular gardener snake. They’re usually cute. And about a foot long.”

“This one grew past average, I guess?” I replied with a chuckle.

He laughed, too. “Sure did. Okay, I can get you patched up with my spell. Hang in there a sec.”

White power flowed from his hands, down into my leg. As I watched, the holes knitted themselves back together. My leg itched as the injury healed, but all I felt was relief that I could get this fixed so easily.

He leaned back when the wound was mostly closed. His face was pale and sweating, but he still took the time to rewrap the gauze around my leg. “Got it most of the way. You’ll want to stay off it another day or two, let it heal up.”

“Thank!,’ I replied. I didn’t think we had a day or two for rest, but there was no point saying so. It felt ungrateful. “That power is awesome. We need to find more like it. Where did you find it, anyway?”

“Some sort of stone monster we saw right after the whole mess started,” he replied. “I’m Henry, by the way. I suspect I’m gonna be seeing more of you?”

I laughed at that, nodding. “Probably will, yes. I’ll try not to need your help too often, but we need to get out there, or we’re in trouble.”

Lords broke in at that point. “You say this thing dropped a second tier stone?”

I nodded. He cursed. Good, at least somebody understood what that probably meant.

“Can I see it?” Lords asked.

“I slotted it to see what it did,” I replied. “Since they can break if you take them out, I don’t want to do that without cause, if that’s all right.”

“They can break?” Lords asked.

“Yeah, one shattered last night while I was testing a couple,” I replied. I pulled the broken shards from where I’d stowed them in a pocket. I figured it might be worth keeping them; maybe they could be repaired, or used somehow. There was still too much I didn’t know about all this.

He took the broken pieces from my hand. “Well, that sucks. We’ll need to be careful, then. And the snake?”

He gestured to my kill.

“It’s a snake. How much food did you say you had in storage? I’m guessing whatever it is, it’s not enough. I figured we could grill this critter up and give everyone a good meal. With some fresh food in all our bellies, it might make things easier to manage.”

“Good thinking,” he replied. “I’ll get some folks collecting firewood so we can roast it. I can dress it; never done a snake before, but it can’t be too different from dressing any other animal.”

He helped me back to my feet, and we got busy with the work of keeping this little collection of people alive.