“These things suck!” Sam said as she pulled a giant venom-coated fang from Nara’s back.
“Gah, they most certainly do!” Nara said, her voice pained, “but they helped me level my class quickly. I gained three levels in my class, and my Magic Bolt leveled up twice. Just from this fight.”
“The job was for Whitlings, not giant spiders,” Sam grumbled, grabbing the other fang in Nara’s back. “Okay, on three. Are you ready?” On Nara’s nod, Sam started counting, “One—” she yanked the fang out of her friend's back.
“Goink!” Nara wailed, “you said three!”
“Oh, did I?” Sam asked with a shit-eating grin. “Also, what does ‘goink’ mean?”
“Just heal me, please,” Nara snapped, grabbing the fang from Sam’s hand and putting it in her inventory. “And goink means the same as when you say ‘fuck’. I’m surprised your translator skill didn’t fill you in on that.”
“It translated the word as ‘unpleasant penetration’ in my mind. So, I wanted to clarify,” Sam said, wrapping a mana thread around Nara’s wrist, healing her, while giggling at the word. At the same time, she looted the giant spiders that had surprised them less than ten minutes after they entered the uncharted cave in search of the whitling brood mother. The cave was the only place in the area that fit the whitling nest described in the job contract and their guidebook.
Arachnid Stalker Items:
2-Gold; 17-Silver; 47-Copper; Monster core [Arachnid Stalker level 47]; Arachnid Stalker carapace [Level 47]; Arachnid Stalker legs x 8; Arachnid Stalker venom sack x 2; Arachnid Stalker fang x 2; 8kg Arachnid Stalker meat; Mana Potion x 2. Take all Yes/No
After selecting 'Yes,' Sam pulled a kilogram of the meat from her inventory. She was curious about what giant spider meat would look like. A blob of greasy black gelatin landed in her hand, prompting her to drop it immediately. The greasy blob splatted on the stone of the cave floor with a sickening squelch. The thin, oily film surrounding it split open, releasing a viscous fluid that sizzled and popped as soon as it touched the cavern floor, melting the stone beneath it.
Sam looked at Nara, who said, “It’s a delicacy. From what I’ve heard, a qualified chef can turn it into an amazing soup.”
“I think I’ll pass on the acid soup for now,” Sam said, wiping her greasy hand on her pants leg. Looting the next spider, she asked Nara, “How can some people and creatures conceal themselves from my mana sight? First, it was the bandits, and now these spiders.”
"Concealment skills mimic and project the ambient magical energies in an area around the user. Your mana sight was working fine, but it was being tricked by the concealment spell or ability. The spells are extremely mana intensive but also very effective." Nara explained. "Once your sight ability’s level is high enough, you might be able to see through some illusions and obscurations."
Sam nodded her understanding and, walking over, she checked Nara’s back. Smooth grey skin could be seen through the holes in the Tenarian’s armor where there had been bleeding wounds a few minutes before. Shaking her head at the state of her friend's armor, Sam ran her fingers across the damaged chest piece while she continued to heal the internal damage the poison had caused her friend.
'Bing' Mana Repair has leveled up to level 25: Mana cost reduced slightly. You are now able to repair all organic material. The restored material's origin, quality, and complexity determine the mana cost.
“Oh, now that is convenient,” Sam said, trying the new aspect of her skill on Nara’s damaged armor.
“What’s convenient?” Nara asked, looking over her shoulder at Sam, who was still behind her. Sam sent her the notification. After reading the details, Nara said, “Convenient indeed. You’re like a walking repair facility.”
“Cool, huh?” Sam asked.
“Very…um cool…is something being cold a good thing in your world?” Nara said hesitantly.
“Not exactly, but it is better than being hot and bothered,” Sam snickered at Nara’s confused look and explained, “It’s a linguistics thing. It doesn’t seem to translate slang very well. ‘Cool’ is an expression used to say something is very good or excellent in my world, among other meanings.”
“In that case, it is…cool,” Nara agreed, watching her damaged armor regrow slowly.
Sam started repairing both of their armor but had to stop and rest about two-thirds of the way through the repair. The gaping hole in her core was now leaking more black shit suddenly, and she had no idea why. And now, every time she used her magic, there was a lot of pain. Sam coughed, and a trail of black mana floated from her mouth. Sam's eyesight started to fade and grow dark as she watched the black energy dissipate. “Oh man, this isn’t good,” she thought, feeling dizzy. Sam shook her head, trying to clear it, and stood up.
Nara, who had been dozing while Sam worked, checked her armor when Sam coughed and stood up. Seeing her armor repair wasn’t complete, she looked to Sam, who tried to smile as if nothing was wrong but then coughed again, doubling over in pain. She looked up at Nara again, "I'm sorry, Nara. I tried to stop it, but it just happened so fast. Maybe if I give it time, it will heal itself…I always…heal." Sam's legs buckled as an infinite weakness washed over her.
“Oh no! Sam! Your eyes!” Nara jumped up, panicking. She grabbed Sam’s shoulders and helped lower her friend to the cavern floor, staring into Sam’s eyes, which were now pitch black with purple irises. Black veins spread across her friend’s face, traveling down her neck and disappearing under her armor.
“I just need to catch my breath for a second,” Sam said weakly before slipping unconscious.
***
“No, no, no, what do I do?” Nara thought, panicking as she cradled Sam’s unconscious body in her arms.
“I can help her,” Naris’s voice came unbidden into Nara’s mind.
“You will do no such thing!” Nara hissed back. “You are the reason this is happening! I will never let you touch her again!”
“I…am…sorry,” Naris said slowly. It almost sounded like he was surprised at the statement.
"Sorry isn't going to cut it, you asshole!" Nara snapped as she hugged her friend close to her chest, watching black veins spread across Sam's hand as black mist began leaking from her pores.
Nara looked around the cavern, worried some aggressive creature was even then sneaking up on them. She was afraid; she had never seen or heard of black mana. There was a darkness affinity, but all the dark magic Nara had seen had some life mixed in. This, however, was like the absence of all things. She stripped off Sam's armor and clothes. She gasped at the innumerable lines resembling veins made of the deepest black she had ever seen tracing across her friend's body. But what truly terrified her was the gaping black hole in the center of Sam's chest right above her soul core.
“What is this black?” Nara asked, looking at the lines ravaging her friend’s body. “She doesn’t have a darkness affinity, and no darkness affinity is this—”
“It is Void! I know this for certain,” Naris said, “it is like my home.” Naris’s voice was full of wonder, “How is this possible?”
“Void?” Nara asked incredulously, “Are you telling me my friend is a monster from the Void like you? Impossible!”
“I am not a monster!” Naris snapped with heat in his voice. “I am a denizen of the Void just as you are of this plane! I didn’t choose to be torn from my dimension and attached to a, to a—to you!” Surprised by the emotion in Naris’s voice, Nara remained silent as he continued. “This energy...the energy of my dimension, my home, it will burn you, Nara; it will eat and consume you in a way I cannot explain. It will do the same to you that your reality does to me. Let me help her. I swear I will do nothing more than absorb the Void energy coming from her soul so it stops poisoning her.”
“No, I cannot trust you! Just two days ago, you tried to kill her and—” Nara struggled with her roiling emotions, “Void monster or not, she is my friend, and I will not let you hurt her again.” Tears were falling from Nara’s eyes as she watched the Void consume her only friend.
"Then try it yourself," Naris said, "use your ability. Consume the Void to cleanse her soul. I will do my best to help, but I know you will fail."
“I will not fail,” Nara growled, “I cannot fail!” She extended her mana cutters, razor-sharp blue claws slowly extending from her fingertips. “Please work,” she pleaded, carefully cutting into her dying friend's chest.
The instant her claws cut into Sam’s chest, Nara knew she had made a terrible mistake; the burning pain flowing through her mana channels when she activated the mana siphon was like nothing she had ever felt. Nara screamed in agony but refused to let her friend go. She held out for as long as she could, absorbing the Void poisoning her friend. All the while, the Void burned into her channels like acid. She felt Naris try to absorb the black energy, and he did to some extent, but it did no good because the energy still had to burn its way through her channels before it got to her soul core. Nara struggled for as long as she could, frying her mana channels in the process, but in the end, it was useless, "I can't...it won't be enough…I’m sorry, Sam…”
As Nara slumped across her friend's body, she didn’t hear Naris screaming into her mind as he banged on the seal on her chest, “No! Wake up! The seal is still too strong! You have to let me out! I can save all of us!” His pleas went unanswered, though. Nara was already unconscious.
***
Sam’s eyes flashed open, and she quickly patted herself down, looking around the room. When she realized she was safe in her room at the orphanage, she relaxed, “Wow, that was a freaky dream. Wait, why am I back in my old room? I haven’t lived here in years.” Instinctively, she tried to open her System menu, but nothing happened. “Huh, that’s weird; why would I even try that? It was a dream, after all…but why am I here? Did something happen, and the sisters asked me to visit?”
Sam sat up in the bed, the old and threadbare sheets feeling like they had all those years ago. She shook her head, trying to dispel the images from her dream. “Man, what a vivid dream! Maybe I should write it down or something…it felt so real.”
Hopping off the bed, Sam walked over to the door and tried to open it. A strange blackness surrounded the doorframe, and the handle wouldn’t budge when she tried it.
“Hello…” Sam said and waited for a reply, “Sister Nicholas? Anyone? Can anyone hear me? What’s going on?” When no response came, she looked back around the room. The corners of the room had the same black distortion the doorframe did. “What is that stuff? Okay, this is weird.” She thought, still scanning the room for any clue that might help explain why and how she was there. Her eyes lit on her old desk to one side of the room. It had three figurines on it. “That’s odd. I never had toys growing up.”
She walked over to her desk and studied the twenty-centimeter-tall figures curiously. One was almost an exact replica of herself sporting a cool-looking violet overcoat with black leather pants underneath held up by a strange tool belt full of weird gadgets. Black leather combat boots and a black crop top with violet pentagram emblazoned on the front completed the peculiar ensemble. On her head, she wore wrap-around glasses that didn't hide the violet of her eyes and headphones that were likely connected to the phone she held in her hand with fingerless anti-slip gloves. "Now that is some detailed work; it looks almost exactly like me. Well, except for the high-tech outfit." Sam thought as she studied the figure of herself. It was standing on a small pedestal with the name Samantha etched into the base. “I guess it is me after all.”
Sam moved to the next figure. It was a snake woman with long black and violet hair. Her eyes were solid black except for the purple slits of her irises. Two black fangs contrasted with her otherwise white teeth. The figure was fully nude, but a mixture of black and violet scales covered her body, which was that of a woman's upper half, turning into a long snake tail just below her belly button. Sam figured the tail had to be at least four times the length of her upper body, but couldn't be sure because of how it was coiled around her. Again, it felt like Sam was staring at an image of herself when she looked at the figure. “Well, if I was a giant snake person. What are they called…Labia, no, Lamia?” The name on the pedestal, the snake woman, was coiled around, read Moura. “That’s not ominous or anything.” Sam thought, reading her family name on the pedestal, "but it isn't my family name. My parents abandoned me, and I was never adopted. The church gave me my name, so why is it on the figurine of a snake person?" Not finding an answer in her mind, Sam had to move on.
Finally finished admiring the Lamia, Sam's interest was drawn to the center figure. She had intentionally skipped over this one to save it for last because it gave her the creeps. As she stared into the violet eyes of the center figure, a feeling of overwhelming dread washed over her. Intense violet eyes were set in a midnight black dragon's face. A smile of pure predation was fixed on the dragon woman's mouth, exposing sharp, pearly white teeth in her elongated jaws. The teeth looked more like weapons than something she would use to chew with. Two sleek black horns with streaks of violet curling around them protruded from the dragon woman's head, curving back and up to terminate in sharp points. The dragon's body was vaguely feminine and covered in black scales that seemed to reflect no light. Other than being bipedal, there were no other similarities to humanity; this was a different species altogether, yet somehow Sam knew it was her or at least a representation of her. Long black claws protruded from her hands and feet. A thick tail covered in spines was curved around her midriff with a wicked-looking curved blade of what looked like obsidian at the tip. What drew Sam's attention was the massive leathery wings spreading out from the dragon woman's back. The inside of the wings was a rich violet, while the backside was midnight black.
The wing's tips protruded a sharp spike, suggesting they could be used as weapons and for flight. “Shit, her whole body is a weapon,” Sam thought admiring the endless ferocity of the figure before her. She looked at the name inscribed on the pedestal, and unsurprisingly, it read Alecto. “This is too weird,” Sam thought, eyeing the figure's name. “Someone has a bizarre sense of humor around here. And some serious artistic ability." She couldn’t help but admire the attention to detail the creator of these figures had. It was almost like they were alive.
Sam was about to step back when she noticed the faint outline of a fourth figurine in the black obscuration where the desk was pushed up against the wall. When she tried to focus on the outline, she couldn't grasp what she saw. She knew there was something there, but its form eluded her. That's when all three figures she could see started to move. "What the fuck!" Sam snapped, jerking back from the desk and retreating to the middle of the room. She watched in shocked fascination as all three of the figurines stepped or, in the snake woman's case, slid forward off their respective pedestals to stop at the edge of the desk. None of them spoke, only stared intently at Sam, who eyed them back nervously.
“Sister Nicolas?” Sam called out, not taking her eyes off the figures. "What's going on? Can anyone hear me? This isn't funny anymore!" There was no answer. At her words, all three figures brought their fingers to their lips in a shushing gesture. Sam had no idea why, but she complied and stopped shouting. Then, as one, the three humanoids spread their arms wide, and their chest cavities split open, revealing a sphere floating in the center of each of them. The techno girl, Samantha's orb, was almost all purple with only faint streaks of black swirling around in it. The snake girl Moura's orb was half black and half purple, looking like a 3D yin-yang. And lastly, the dragon girl Alecto had one that was black with faint streaks of purple.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Sam was freaking out now. “What the hell is going on?” She asked herself as she tore her eyes from the creepy figurines to search the room for clues. When Sam's eyes caught a glimpse of a purple glow under her bed, she investigated the strange light.
“What the hell…” Getting down on her knees, keeping the figures on the desk in her peripheral in case they moved again, Sam stared at a strange glowing purple symbol carved into the wooden floor beneath her bedframe. Tentatively she reached out to touch the glowing rune, which glowed brighter as her fingers got closer, the purple glow turning into delicate violet flames. Pausing for only a second, Sam felt no heat from the flames, so she continued reaching out until the tips of her fingers contacted the rune.
Sam’s vision went purple, then black.
The three figures watched in disappointment as Sam disappeared from the room that, unbeknownst to her, was the mental representation of a fragment of her fractured soul. Robotically, they all returned to their pedestals, becoming statues once again.
***
Three pairs of pitch-black eyes slowly opened, all three pure-white irises in each eye expanding in the darkness of the creature's prison to allow the dark pupils to gather more light. The creature shifted slightly, focusing on a small, non-descript book hovering in front of its nose. The book was open with only one thing written on its pages, [S.A.M]. The slight movement of the creature caused the chains binding it to rattle.
“Hmm…odd,” a deep reverberating voice shook the walls of the massive cavern serving as the creature’s prison, “I thought I felt her for a moment. Surely she could not have amassed so much power to be back so soon…that is assuming her soul survived the transfer.”
Far above the imprisoned creature in a sealed room full of antiquated electronic equipment, a red light flashed on an old dusty control panel. Distant shouts could be heard, along with the muted blaring of alarms outside the heavy steel doors of the small control room.
***
Sam's awareness returned slowly. The discomfort of the rocks and detritus on the cave floor digging into her back made her groan as she opened her eyes. Naris stared back at her, his hand on her chest. Everything returned to her instantly, losing the fight with the leak in her core, Nara lowering her to the ground, and then darkness. But there was something else inside the darkness; she felt it. It was like a dream, though. She couldn't worry about that now though.
“You!” Sam growled at Naris, her voice husky from her dry mouth. She grabbed Naris by his throat and squeezed hard.
“Stop…please…I’m trying to help you,” Naris barely managed to gasp out the words with Sam gripping his throat so tightly, “I’m…almost…finished…”
“Give me Nara! Where is she?” Sam was nose to nose with the Blight, her fingernails digging into his skin, tiny trickles of black blood running from the wounds.
“I…can’t…she is too weak…from trying to save…you,” Naris managed to say before yanking his hand away from Sam’s bare chest. “Finished…I’m finished…please…release me…”
Sam realized she was harming Nara’s body and released her grip on Naris. Pushing him off, she stood up and surveyed the cave. Nothing had changed from what she could tell. The two dead giant spiders still looked fresh, blood not even congealed. Sam patted herself down. Besides being nude, she could see nothing wrong with herself physically besides the hole in her chest where Naris's hand had just been, which she quickly closed. While closing the wound, Sam also noticed her mana was still at its current maximum. Seeing Naris wasn't particularly interested in attacking her, nor had he tried to drain her, she took a chance and checked her soul core. There was still a gaping hole in the side, but the black mist gushing out of it was now just the faintest trickle. When she checked her core, a flash of something crossed her vision; it was an image, no, three images. It was gone as fast as it came, though, and she pushed it to the back of her mind for now.
Naris realized what she was doing and quickly explained, “I cannot repair the core damage, at least not to my knowledge, but I can absorb the Void. It will come back, though, and if you want to live, you will have to let me do it again.”
Looking back to Naris, crouched a few meters away, eyeing her warily, Sam asked, “What happened to Nara, and don’t you fucking dare lie to me?”
Naris countered with an outburst of questions and accusations, “Why didn’t you tell us you weren’t human? Nara needs human flesh to survive, and you lied to her! How do you have Void in your core? Are you a Void beast? What is your true race and class?”
Sam was caught off guard between the weird vision and Naris's sudden outburst. She stared at Naris in confusion, "I don't know what Void is, and I'm a Human. I just…" she trailed off, pulling up her status screen to display it for him. "See! I'm a—what the hell?" Sam couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Samantha Alecto Moura [S.A.M.]
Race: Human Hybrid [Unknown]; Error; [Level 21]
Affinity(s): Arcane; Error…more data required.]
Class: Arcane Pathfinder [Level 22]
Health: 765 (1274)
Stamina: 573 (955)
Mana: 2084 (3473)
“This is not possible. I’m a human from Earth.” Sam said, staring at her status screen.
Naris stared at Sam's screen with her. He crept closer and laid a clawed hand on her arm. Sam jerked but didn't pull away. She looked down at him with a mixture of fear and confusion in her expression. Her violet eyes now had moats of the deepest black floating in her sclera. She was still ready to take him down instantly but needed answers. He hadn't killed her when he had the chance, so she decided to listen to what he had to say.
“Sam,” Naris started hesitantly, “You were summoned just as I was from another dimensional plane, were you not?” At Sam’s nod, he continued, “If you are not from this plane, you would have had to travel through the Void to arrive in this verse. It shouldn’t be possible, but you somehow survived contact with True Void.”
“What is Void?” Sam interrupted.
"I'm getting to that," Naris said patiently, "Normally, Void is just an affinity like any other. It's a powerful affinity, but no more than your arcane affinity, which, although I am not fully certain, I believe is the opposite of Void. However, pure Void will burn a hole in reality before the System has filtered it. That's why Void summons require complex magical structures before a hole in the Void can be opened. You have seen this once already, the day you met Nara."
Sam thought back to her fight with the elite wolf, how the beast had created the magical circle with blood before summoning the black hand that transformed it. How the black tips of its tentacles cut through her without any resistance. She asked, "Wait, are you saying that creature poisoned me with Void?"
“No,” Naris said confidently, “that was an example of filtered Void, not pure Void. Had it been pure, it would have burned the creature to nothing within seconds.” Naris removed his hand from Sam’s arm and pointed up. He said, “There is a giant gateway to the Void realms on Tenaris. That is where I am from. It’s why your reality burns me. Although I am not a Void beast, I am of the Void.” Then he pointed at Sam’s chest with a clawed finger, “I don't understand how you have not exploded! If Arcane and Void are true opposites, your core should have exploded or dissolved already. That black mana leaking out of your soul is Void, pure, unfiltered Void. Why do you think I can stand here and speak with you? I have absorbed enough Void to last in this reality for hours. The System used my mana siphon skill as a filter, making it compatible with this reality.” He lightly touched the symbol on his forehead, “which is good because Nara will not be able to return until I have flushed the Void from her mana channels.”
"Can I, um…speak with her?" Sam asked, trying to comprehend everything Naris had just told her without freaking out. “I have a reality destroying…what would I call it element…energy leaking out of my soul? How fucked up is that? And now the System is calling me an unknown hybrid… this is all just too weird. Not to mention terrifying.”
Naris pulled her out of her thoughts, saying, “Nara is unconscious. She nearly died trying to absorb the Void to save you. I had to force my way out of the seal, so…uh…she will need immediate healing when I retreat back to her core.” He wrung his hands, clearly expecting Sam to be angry, and said, “You can visit her, but I don’t recommend it.” He pulled up his light armor and shirt, revealing a gaping hole in his chest right where Nara’s mark would have been.
Sam stared in horror at the wound. The walls of the injury and exposed organs were cauterized. Hence, no blood flowed from the hole, yet the severity was undoubtedly life-threatening. Sam reached out, intending to heal the wound.
Naris jumped back quickly, shouting, "Careful! I still have too much Void energy! You may only cause more damage if you try to heal me now!" He calmed himself and said, "Let us try slowly at first. Also, we must teach Nara a healing spell. She cannot replicate your healing skills, so it must be a spell. I can heal damage almost as fast as you with my current energy if we have a healing spell."
Taking Naris's advice, Sam touched the inside of the wound with one of her threads. She activated her skills and began to slowly close the wound. Glancing up at Naris, he nodded. Sam started speeding up the healing process until he held up a hand when she was at about half her average healing speed.
“I am isolating the wound with Nara’s neutral mana while channeling the void mana away from it. It is much more difficult than it sounds,” Naris grunted.
Sam kept healing the hole in his chest until it was closed, noticing the hole in her core wasn't making it quite as challenging to use her magic as before. “Hmm, that’s something to look into later. I don’t think it’s because he drained all the Void out of me either.” A quick glance at her status showed the blacked-out parts of her energy bars were slowly receding at a barely perceptible rate. "Well, now, that is promising."
It took nearly an hour to heal Naris. During that time, Sam asked him how he kept getting out of his seal because she was under the impression that wasn't possible. He only said there were certain circumstances he could exploit, but this latest time, the Void he absorbed allowed him to brute force his way out.
"There. Done." Sam said, standing from her meditation, "Now what?"
Naris shrugged, "I am still at approximately ninety percent capacity, and that is just the filtered Void. We could wait for me to filter the energy from Nara's mana channels, then try to wake her or continue with the Whitling's job. You should be good for at least a day before I need to absorb more energy from you, too, so we have a good deal of time." He looked a little sheepish and continued, "I must confess I would like to assist you as much as possible, not just to experience this reality but also to apologize for what I did to you." He looked down at the ground, "I know you are only helping me because of your affection for Nara, but the fact still remains that you are the first person who has ever even offered to help me. All others tried to enslave me or find a way to keep me bound and silenced. I was selfish before, thinking it could only be me or Nara, but now you have given me hope it can be us, Nara and I, together.”
Sam gave it some thought, and her curiosity at how she and Naris would perform if they fought together, coupled with how easy it was to use her magic again, won out. "Okay, let's see what kind of team a human hybrid and void blight make, shall we."
Naris grinned, his fangs glistening black in the dim illumination the cave moss gave.
***
Sam and Naris continued deeper into the cave. They took their time and moved carefully but were ambushed by two more Arachnid Stalkers on two separate occasions. Fortunately, Sam kept a weak magic shield covering her and Naris as they walked, having learned from the first ambush. Even though the spiders broke through the shield quickly, Naris had time to react and quickly dispatched them. Sam let Naris fight each spider on his own at his request. Watching him fight, she wasn’t sure which was more lethal, Nara with her bow and magic or Naris with his claws. She leaned towards it being Naris since Nara still needed Sam's arcane arrows to fight above her level.
When they had finished killing and looting the second spider, they took a break behind one of the giant mushrooms that were becoming more numerous as they progressed deeper into the cave. The giant mushrooms, like the moss on the walls, gave off a slight orange glow, casting eerie shadows along the floor and walls of the tunnel.
After their short break, they continued deeper into the cave. Sam was still keeping her mana sight active, and it was a good thing because it was the only reason she spotted the Whitling before they stumbled into the nest. She actually spotted hundreds of them.
A large area had just opened up to them as they rounded a bend in a tunnel, joining two caverns. The cavern was at least half a kilometer across and circular in shape, housing a forest of giant mushrooms, the largest of which stood nearly twenty meters tall with a two-meter base. Sam's focus on the fantastic glowing forest almost caused her to miss the hundreds of figures glowing in her mana sight dotting the high domed ceiling. Even then, when she spotted the small glowing shapes, it wasn't until one of them spread its wings that she realized what it was. Silently stopping Naris with an outstretched hand, Sam pointed up and identified the closest one.
Whitling Scout [Level 16]; Hostile; Affinity: Poison.
Naris tapped her shoulder, pointing toward the back of the cavern. It took Sam a moment, but she realized what he was pointing at. It was a massive Whitling the size of a horse curled up asleep on a giant nest of countless bones of all shapes and sizes. Sam identified the sleeping creature, thankful her skill worked at this distance.
Whiling Brood Mother [Level ??]; Hostile; Affinity: Poison.
Sam motioned Naris back into the tunnel, and they slank back slowly. Once she thought they were far enough back, Sam said softly, "There are at least one hundred of the damn things, plus the Brood Mother." She asked, "Do you have enough juice for an extended fight?"
Naris thought about it before responding, “If I go all out, I will be able to last for over forty minutes.”
Sam mulled his response over. “Forty minutes is a long time for a fight, but I don’t know how long it will take to bring the big one down. Also, Naris doesn’t have a ranged skill—wait, yes, he does!” She looked at Naris and asked, "Do you have Nara's spell?"
Naris's eyes widened and then unfocused. A wicked grin spread across his face. “It is called Void Bolt.”
“Okay then, here’s the plan," Sam said, "you and I both stand at the mouth of the tunnel and try to pick off as many of the little ones as we can as silently as possible." At Naris's confused look, she explained, "They looked like they were sleeping, and they are weak, so if we can hit them in the head, it might kill them without waking the others. I can conjure some mana under their bodies if they fall to soften the sound of their impact, but they may not even fall.” Naris was nodding along now and made to move when Sam grabbed him, saying, “One last thing. We will try to escape if they swarm us and it proves too difficult. If we retreat, I'll collapse the tunnel behind us or try to create a barrier to block the tunnel as long as possible. Also, if you get down to, let's say, thirty percent, and it still looks like we're winning, but the big one is still alive, we will try to escape. We cannot risk you running out of energy and reverting back during the middle of the fight, not if Nara is still unconscious in there.” She tapped his chest.
Naris nodded his understanding, and they crept back to the mouth of the cave. Sam focused three of her threads at three of the closest creatures and quickly fired two bolts out of each, going for a double tap on each of her targets just to be safe. All six bolts hit their marks dead on. Three kill notifications chimed in her mind an instant later. Naris fired a bolt of black energy, and Sam winced as it made a crackling sound flying through the air. When the magical projectile hit its intended target, the Whitling’s head exploded with a soft popping sound.
“Shit! I didn’t think about how other magics make so much freaking noise!” Sam berated herself mentally as she and Naris froze in place, waiting to see what would happen. Several long seconds passed, with the only sound of blood dripping from the dead Whitlings landing on the mushroom caps below. Releasing a slow breath, Sam shrugged and was about to aim for a few more of the beasts when, almost as one, all of the poisonous vampire lizard bats exploded off the ceiling in a screeching cloud. Sam felt a low sonic pulse hit her ears at the same instant. It wasn't an attack, not that she could tell, but a wake-up call from the brood mother.
The cloud of Whitling's flooded toward Sam and Naris's position, and for the first time, Sam got to see one of the creatures up close. “Not as disgusting as I imagined,” she thought when the swarm was close enough for her to get a good look. They were Labrador-sized lizards with bat wings and ears and no eyes. Two four-centimeter retractable fangs in their upper jaw were similar to a snake’s but not as curved. Sam summed up her opinion of the strange creatures with a thought, "Compared to a Deep Hunter, they may as well be teddy bears." Then, the swarm was upon them.
Sam threw up a magic shield to block some of the monsters. Her shield must have been physical enough for the creature's echolocation to detect because the first ones to it dodged around the barrier with impressive ariel maneuvers. Those behind them didn't fare as well, though. Without enough time to dodge, they were smashed into Sam's barrier by their brethren following too close behind. Naris was firing Void bolts as fast as he could, and each time one of the energized bolts of Void struck its target, the part of the body it struck exploded, causing all those around the target to falter as they flew through a mist of blood and bone fragments.
Sam was even more devastating, though. Her magic no longer hurt to cast, and she was going all out. She was launching bladed discs, arcane bolts, and mana spikes from all six of her threads and one hand while throwing up barriers directly in front of the faces of any Whitlings that managed to dodge her attacks. She had learned her lesson and waited until the last second to form her shields, giving the creatures no time to dodge.
Red blood sprayed in all directions as the creatures were sliced, perforated, and blasted from the air by the barrage of attacks. Body parts, viscera, and blood rained down, coating the once light orange mushroom caps red with gore. But the Whitlings kept coming. The original hundred or so were mostly dead, but they had been joined by hundreds more flying in from tunnels in the ceiling. They dove toward Sam and Naris as they entered the cavern, ignoring their kin dying and falling around them.
“It’s the Brood Mother!” Sam shouted over the din of the screeching swarm. “She’s calling them in and causing them to swarm! We have to retreat! There are too many coming in! I can't keep this up forever!" Even as she said it, more Whitlings were pouring out of a side tunnel obscured from their view behind a giant mushroom when they surveyed the room earlier. That's when Sam felt air rushing in from behind her.
Without hesitating, Sam grabbed Naris by the arm and, throwing up as strong a shield as she could to cover them, yanked him from the tunnel entrance and down the short slope to the cavern floor below just as a thick mass of Whitlings burst from the tunnel they had been standing in only a second before. Wings batted at her barrier as claws and fangs tried to gain purchase against it as they ran into the mushroom forest, dodging around the thick stalks.
They ran for several minutes, and Sam thought they must be halfway across the cavern when Naris suddenly jerked her to a stop, shouting, "Here!" He caught himself realizing where they were amongst the mushrooms was much quieter than the tunnel entrance. He swatted a lone Whitling to the side, his claws raking deep furrows across its throat. The creature's limp body struck the ground and was still. Naris continued in a more normal tone as they dispatched the occasional lizard bat that found its way to their position, “This area is dense enough so they cannot swarm us, and I do not think we are close enough to the Brood Mother for her to attack us directly.”
Sam couldn’t argue with that logic. The thick caps over their heads were hiding their position from the swarm above for now, and the density of the stalks kept those that found them from being able to attack in too great of numbers. She asked, "How much energy do you have until you turn back?"
“I have some time, but not enough to fight through the swarm above us,” Naris said thoughtfully.
Sam checked her map. It was little more than a red cloud above them, but she could see the Brood Mother had not moved, which was a good sign. Still, she sighed inwardly at their situation, “I just never learn my lesson, do I?”