PART VI: ANYONE KNOW A DRAGON?
For a few more seconds, Tazrok tried to fight whatever it was off, grunting even more, before he was forced to scramble back onto the shore. His legs were both a complete mess. His protective leather armor had multiple holes in it, sections looking as if they had been shredded by claws or long teeth. He was bleeding from several of the wounds, some quite heavily. The Druid turned to glare back at the water, only to reveal some kind of a toothy eel-like thing attached to his rear trying to chomp on him, but thankfully not yet through his armor.
Pixyl ran for the Ogre. She hovered slightly, grabbing the bitey Eelthing, which was almost as big as she was. She twisted and wrenched it off, tossing it aside, where it flopped several times before managing to flip back into the dark waters. “Ambria!” Pixyl called, gesturing to the bleeding Ogre.
The Faun looked up, and then rushed to the Ogre’s aid. She ordered Tazrok to be still so she could look him over. Like his armor, his clothing and skin was in tatters in several places, bite and claw marks evident as the multiple small wounds ran with blood. Serious, but not critical. She put her hand on Tazrok’s skin where the leather had been fully ripped away and pushed her general healing touch spell. That served to close many of the smaller wounds, and at least get the bigger ones to stop flowing so freely, He was still going to need more work, though.
“I can fix,” Tazrok said, looking down at Ambria and gesturing to his wounds. “Go help Major Elf.”
“Are you sure?” Ambria said hesitantly.
“Yes. Eat Healberry and Druid heal.”
“Okay. Let me know if you need help, though.”
“I don’t think we’re g-g-going to be able to get the Dragonfire. Does anyone know any nearby Dragons where we can get more?” Pixyl called out to Reynard and Callie. She was staring intently into the waters, trying once again to find it with her Telekinesis skill. The waters themself had calmed, almost becoming placid, betraying the danger under the surface.
“Wait,” Callie said in mid-shot. “Reynard, what is Dragonfire Oil made of?”
“It’s what allows a Dragon to breathe fire, of course. It’s thus rare and why it’s so valuable.”
“So, it’s like Dragon spit?”
“I suppose,” Reynard replied with a shrug.
It took a heartbeat to make the connection, but then Callie’s face lit up. She spun to face Shul’an. At the same moment, the Fire Salamanderkin made the same connection and spun to face Callie.
“Will it work?” Callie asked, nodding rapidly, a beaming hopefulness on her face.
“Yes, I believe so!” Shul’an replied just as excitedly.
“Go! See what you can do,” Callie cheered. “We’ll cover for you.”
Shul’an looked briefly for somewhere to set their bow down, then foolishly remembered they already had a storage place and promptly unsummoned it. They rushed off towards the dome to take stock on next steps.
“Callie?” Reynard asked, not sure what had just happened.
Callie gestured sharply towards Shul’an. “They breathe fire!”
Reynard slapped his forehead, realizing he had missed something so obvious.
Lhawni was concentrating on the last of the Major’s fingers. The first two had been fully healed by now, although they were still an ugly purple and swollen. Celeste would probably have difficulty moving them until that swelling went down, which would make holding a sword difficult for probably a day, maybe two. Silently, the Goblin hoped the worst of the attacks were over before more people got hurt, because the Major wasn’t going to be in top fighting condition.
Tazrok summoned a Healing Berry, popping it into his mouth. He did that twice more, before starting to focus healing on his legs directly. As he worked to heal himself, Tazrok could tell his healing was less effective than it should be, and he realized he must now be infected by the waterborne parasite. While the Resist Disease potions were certainly helpful, even the few seconds of sizable open wounds in the water were enough to get through it. Rowani had said it moved fast, but he never envisioned it could move this fast. There was no time to do a proper Cure Disease right now, though.
Shul’an ran up the dome, falling to their knees to look through the hole Pixyl had cut. Inside, the smell of death and rot was rampant, almost making them gag. The decaying corpse of the original creature was easily visible in a layer of slime, along with dozens of wriggling hatchlings, each about eight centimeters long. The space was hollowed out, and Shul’an was sure they could easily coat the inside walls and the creatures in their flammable spit. “I think this will work!” they called out generally.
“Get the Major decursed first,” Reynard yelled back. “It’s going to be very hot and she’ll need to move back. Shul’an, you can light it, right?”
“I can,” the Salamanderkin called back. “I have a spell and I’m fairly resistant to heat and fire.”
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“Major, I’m going to remove your curse now,” Lhawni said, trying to remain calm despite all the yelling and activity around her. “I need you to keep as still as you can, so you don’t hurt yourself more.” The Shaman grabbed one of her blue mana potions and drank it back quickly, needing a refresh after all the work on Celeste’s hand.
With a deep breath, Lhawni began focusing on the curse. Having already done it once on Tazrok, the tapestry in front of her was more familiar, but she still needed to find the thread to pull. “Come on, where are you?” she mumbled as she psychically stumbled through the curse. There! “Remember, try not to move!” she warned a second time. She grabbed the thread and pulled, loosening at first and then yanking with all the speed she could manage.
As if she was a marionette with its strings cut, Major Celeste’s body suddenly went limp. The pain from her muscles being held at maximum rigidity for so long hit her, followed quickly by some in her fingers also leaking by Ambria’s blocking spells, and she groaned in agony. Her body instinctively wanted to writhe, but she remembered Lhawni’s warning and forced it to behave. Still, the groan of pain quickly grew louder, almost becoming a scream.
Ambria was quickly at the Major’s side as she struggled. “I can block the pain at your neck again, but you’ll be numb all over for a while and it will make moving and fighting difficult.”
“No,” Celeste hissed, shaking her head. “I need to be functional. Just give me a pulse from your Totem when you can,” she nodded at Lhawni. “Good work. Both of you.”
Lhawni pushed her last charge of Healing Pulse from her Totem, the magics washing out over everyone. The generalized anesthetic effect flowed through the Major, easing the full-body muscle cramps, as well as helping with her hand a bit as well.
With the Major still not in fighting condition, Tazrok returned to his Spider form to take up Guardian duties again. This proved a mistake, however. The moment he did, a wave of muscle cramps washed through him again, much as had happened when he was first unpetrified. Tazrok-the-spider collapsed to the ground in pain, barely avoiding squashing Pixyl in the process, screeching agonized spider noises in surprised hurt. But before any of the Healers could assist, he quickly transformed back into his Ogre form, noting the muscle cramps had vanished a second time.
Shul’an, still perched on the lip of the open nest, pulled their attention away from the screaming spider turned Tazrok, calling down to the Major and the two healers. “Tell me as soon as you’re ready.”
Callie, Thucax and Reynard concentrated on taking out any zombie creatures that came their way before they were close enough to be a threat. Reynard eventually needed a quick moment to drink a mana potion, everything finally catching up to him despite his extreme efficiency and huge mana pool at Platinum. Callie had noticed the incoming waves of animals had thinned, and she reasoned they had probably killed off the majority of the infected wildlife in the area of the Bogwump nest. Nothing large had attacked since the Basilisk, and it hadn’t even been infected, just cranky. Could they dare to hope the worst was over?
Major Celeste rose unsteadily to her feet, her face making grimacing expressions as she stretched out her complaining muscles. Her one hand was virtually useless; she couldn’t even make a fist, let alone hold a sword with it. She resorted to wielding a single blade as she staggered into position to assist the Rangers.
Tazrok, also wanting to get back into action, but wanting to avoid his Guardian spider for now-obvious reasons, assumed his ferocious Hellhound form. With no muscle aches in that shape either, he lept into the fray. His huge paws tore at anything coming close, flinging bodies into the reeds, or he would simply smash things with his heavy-tipped tail.
“I’m going to do this!” Shul’an called out, gesturing to Pixyl to get away. “It’s going to be really hot.” The Salamanderkin took a deep breath, a muscle in the back of their throat squeezing the gland filled with flammable oils into their mouth. Leaning into the hole, they exhaled, spraying the inside walls of the nest. The Beastkin took another breath, filling their mouth again with nearly all of the remaining fluid, and exhaled, coating the remains of the Bogwump corpse and the dozens of wriggling hatchlings. Shul’an didn’t have enough for a full third breath, but they had just enough for the final action.
“Are we ready?” Shul’an called out one last time, waiting for a general confirmation.
“Fire in the hole!” Callie yelled out. Then, with a grinning snicker, she added, “I always wanted to say that.”
Taking a deep breath, Shul’an squeezed the final few drops of flammable fluid into their mouth. In their left hand they called forth their seldom used Burning Hands spell, flames erupting. Holding it before them, the Ranger exhaled one last time, the spell catching the mist as it blew through the hole into the dome.
The resulting WHUMP that erupted seemed to suck the air inwards, as scorching flames shot easily a dozen meters in the air, maybe more. Pixyl had to scramble even farther backwards on her rear to get away from the heat, not daring to turn her wings towards it. Ambria and Lhawni crawled away as well. Shul’an, while having some immunity to fire and heat, needed to rush away before their clothing ignited.
At once, the few remaining attacking creatures seemed to stop, and then turn to run from the fire. Even with the zombie parasites pushing them to attack, it apparently wasn’t enough to overcome that core instinct to run from fire. Callie lazily loosed a final arrow, missing the little critter she was aiming for as it slipped into the dark water.
The Rangers turned to take in the scene, and what a sight it was. A scorching pillar of flame, constrained to the narrow half-meter hole, shot straight upwards like the fires from a rocket engine. You could see steam rising from the surface of the dome as the heat inside evaporated the moisture in the mud and clay. After ten or fifteen seconds, a divot appeared on one side before collapsing inwards, providing an inlet for fresh air, which just strengthened the inferno.
“That is … beautiful,” Thucax said, adding a low whistle as everyone gathered together a dozen meters away.
“It really is,” Reynard agreed, a smile forming on his furry face.
The flames continued to roar skywards, the height slowly decreasing as the intensity eased, but it was still an amazing sight. The ten of them were mesmerized by the flames and by the dawning realization that they had accomplished their goal. Around them, the creatures all seemed to have vanished back into the swamp, either fully scared off by the fire, or maybe having a sense they had nothing left to protect.
“We go,” Tazrok finally said calmly, breaking everyone’s reverie.
Reynard nodded, taking a deep breath in relief. “Yes, let’s get the hell…”
The rest of his words were cut off as something long and black flung itself out of the water behind him. Its huge head turned sideways as its jaw opened wide. With not even a snarl to announce itself, the creature chomped down on Reynard’s leg, and pulled him backwards into the water, his suddenly-ending scream mingling with the roaring sounds of the Bogwump fire.