Chapter 56

“Spiderdile,” Lyrella called out toward Cenna as she inspected the next intersection of tunnels.

“Croco-spider,” the redheaded rogue countered, entrenched in her verbal position.

“Spalligator,” Alex added with mock seriousness, curiously inspecting a small vein of ruddy red moss that clung to one of the walls.

“No,” Dima stated firmly, after a moment. “It is an Alligider.”

Cenna’s laugh carried down the tunnel like music, and even Alex gave him a disbelieving look. “Alright, alright. I’ll check the notification.” She paused for a moment, clearly directing her attention to the phantom list. “What the hell is a ‘Tarantagar’? That’s a terrible name.”

“Alligider,” Ella agreed, “And it’s delicious.” At her insistence, I had carefully cooked through a piece of the terrifying monstrosity under the guise of ‘sampling the local culture’.

I allowed myself to drift back a few steps as the others walked along, laughing and talking. It felt nice just to hear voices that weren’t the Greenwarden’s monologuing, to feel like part of a group again. They were clearly used to working together by now, having fought together to survive on the surface. Cenna was a quick striker that used a combination of poisons and crippling strikes to slow down opponents and set them up for Ella’s powerful attacks. Dima took up a supporting role, using his serpentine lightning dragon to distract additional enemies and inflict debuffs that slowed and staggered them. Alex was our healer, providing salves to cure wounds and supplying Cenna with various poisons distilled from different sources, while also utilizing various powders and oils that caused everything from violent sneezing to mild necrosis; after Dima threw up when a Alligider sloshed onto him, Alex agreed to keep that one in reserve for real emergencies.

I didn’t quite know how I fit in, however. I was too used to having to fill every role; dealing lots of damage, tanking with my shields, evading enemies as best I could while chugging down potions whenever the going got too rough. I couldn’t quite figure out what I should do. I chipped in where I could with firebolts, slowing or pinning enemies with the javelin-like darts or blowing away clusters of weaker enemies with the heavier fireballs. That uncertainty lasted all the way to the second floor.

We emerged into sunlight with everyone covering their eyes, groaning at the sudden change in illumination. The enormous clearing wasn’t nearly as large as last time, the trees looming perhaps half the distance away, their trunks clustered close together, the shadows between dark and ominous.

“This one is waves of enemies. They will come from all around us, and will not relent until all have been killed. Be prepared for a mix of everything we’ve encountered outside, including the big ones. Lots of them. Hundreds, maybe.”

The others arrayed themselves around me in a triangle, Alex and I at the center. I began summoning firebolts with little wisps of energy, filling the air with tiny, burning motes of destruction. I couldn’t tap into the Cindervault like I had done before – the very effort of trying felt like it was going to burn me from the inside out, as if it still raged against my brazen theft.

The edges of the forest began to tremble, branches swaying and shaking as the monsters came, masked by the darkness of the forest until they were only a hundred yards or so distant. This time, the first wave was comprised of huge Boarfiends, clad in thick shells of brambles that wrapped around them like armor, the thorns piercing even their own flesh and drawing sluggish black blood, more tendrils sprouting from open wounds on their decaying bodies. I began to unleash single, targeted bolts at them, firebolts streaking alongside crackling bolts of Dima’s lightning, and Cenna’s throwing knives that cut the air like silver streaks. The first giant Boarfiend tumbled to the ground, the front of its’ skull a flaming ruin from a lucky hit, revealing a couple of dozen creatures that had stampeded in its’ shadow, smaller Boarfiends charging with renewed vigor, and a handful of Serpanthers leaping out of the brambles that had covered its’ back.

On the others, the brambles absorbed the fire and lightning, crumbling to ashes and sloughing off in chunks, an ablative armor that robbed my attacks of their damage. The first attacks, anyway. I focused the barrage on another one, the slender darts of flame arrowing in on the same section of the beast’s body, cutting through the brambles warding its’ neck and plunging into its’ torso. It tumbled after a couple of steps, tearing up great furrows in the soil. I reached inward, pouring energy into my Haste spell, and felt the world begin to slow to a crawl around me. I leapt upward, able to feel every movement, every muscle clenching and releasing as I launched myself skyward. I picked my targets carefully, amassing the firebolts that hung around me into a trio of enormous fireballs, each one the size of a beach ball but filled with a raging torrent of energy.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Even as I reached my apex, I had selected my targets, my racing heartbeat a perfect metronome for counting their steps and movements. I knew just where the giant ones would be, and the cloud of weaker creatures behind them. I released the first after an instant’s contemplation, and it tumbled forward as if in slow motion, distending into a teardrop shape from the force of its’ launch.

The second followed an instant behind, the third launched half a second behind that. The first struck even as I released the last, the enormous orb weaving at the last moment to slide between the monster’s forelegs, striking off the torn-up grass and detonating against its’ stomach, nearly shearing the creature in half as the explosion propelled its’ back half upward, detonating like a small artillery shell in a plume of smoke and dirt. Chunks of the Boarfiends trailing behind rained down like hail, several of the Serpanthers thrown off the body by the explosion, many burnt from the flames or torn into from the brambles they’d hidden out amongst.

The second explosion was no less calamitous, striking a little farther back and blowing away its’ hind legs, causing the beast to slide to a halt, and wreaking devastation among the throngs following it. The third I was perhaps most proud of; it struck between the leg and stomach on the beast’s left side, immolating its’ rear half and erupting like a volcano, turning bone shards and brambles into a sleet of sharp edges that scythed through the rear ranks.

While Ella had a lot of firepower up close, she was no match for me in sheer firepower, and the group’s attacks abated for a moment at the devastation I’d wrought. I was already summoning another trio of fireballs, the ring of defenders finally giving me the freedom to focus on absolutely maximizing my destructive power. The last of the huge Boarfiends struck the line, Cenna’s throwing knives bristling from its’ body until she activated some ability that drew them all back at once, ripping out chunks of the enormous beast and sending it tumbling to the ground. Ella opted for a direct attack, sliding forward into a fierce uppercut that nearly flipped the boar over backward, a spinning kick destroying both of its’ back knees, and a third kick sending her sliding out from under it before it collapsed, crushing a handful of the others beneath it.

Dima’s target didn’t fare much better; his lightning arced and crackled, twisting around the giant beast’s body to strike those sheltering around it. As each one fell, they gave a harsh actinic spark that left trails in my vision and enormous smoldering wounds on its’ flank. When the beast finally reached him, Dima extended his hand almost dismissively. I didn’t see the lightning bolt – I blinked at the wrong instant; or the right one, depending – but I felt the thunderclap of its’ passage, ears popping from the sudden overpressure. When my eyes opened again, the beast was simply gone, the grass flattened and burned where its’ charge had been abruptly ended.

I landed lightly on my feet, bending my knees to absorb the impact, and then extended my hands outward, channeling my Haste into everyone. I lifted my hands skyward and the three newest fireballs lifted up like a trio of stars. I brought my hands down, and they split into a flurry of blasts, cone-shaped torrents of flame that burned away creatures by the dozens. I slowly rotated them around us, sweeping the flames back and forth to deal with the majority of the creatures, leaving only the strongest or quickest for my companions to contend with. I felt powerful, standing at the heart of a firestorm, shielding my allies from the choking heat as the dirt around us dried and cracked.

“David,” Alex called out, gesturing to a small orb in their hand, a fuse sticking out of one end like some kind of medieval ceramic grenade. I pulled aside a sliver of flame and hung it in the air between us, and they grinned at it, carefully sweeping a trio of these devices beneath the flames, letting the fuses ignite with a sputtering ferocity. All three bombs lobbed outward with surprising force, reaching well over our formation before detonating in midair, puffs of what looked like glitter slowly trickling down from them, coating the ground beneath in spiraling patterns of shining flakes.

The first creature – a Serpanther – that crossed them stumbled abruptly, its’ paws refusing to come back up from where they touched the ground. Its’ charge was arrested and turned into a headlong slam as it struck the grass, a fierce yowl turning into a startled yelp. The glittering field had turned into some kind of powerful adhesive that absolutely refused to relinquish its’ grip on anything that touched it, bones breaking and flesh tearing before the adhesive would relinquish its’ grip.

Just as I opened my mouth to cheer them on, seeing the trickle of creatures finally abating, I saw something else coming: The trees were rattling and shaking, enormous forms just barely visible through the densely packed trunks. An immense spike of danger revealed it far more clearly than their movements alone; the beast was very, very powerful. And very familiar. It weren’t as big as it’d last been; perhaps the size of a large car instead of a building, but no less concerning.

A stag, its’ rack replaced with a starlit constellation stepped from the edge of the forest.