A vine slapped down with a whump in the sand I’d just been standing on. They all had their own variations—flytrap-headed vines, ivy-wrapped vines, squiggly wiggly vines that were thin but wickedly fast… This one was coated in thorns far tougher and longer than the ones I was used to.
Luckily, I was fast enough to roll out of the way. Then I got to my feet and bolted on sheer instinct, darting toward…aw, I couldn’t see Reed anymore!
In fact, I couldn’t see anyone. I thought I heard a bleat from one of Heidschi’s sheep, but that was it…
Besides random humans. The closest were a couple of spellcasters, two people in rugged, hikers’ clothes with glowing palms. The man shot pellets of fire—nice choice, nice choice—while the woman shot slender bolts of an odd, nauseous green. Even from a distance, I could smell them. So that was the toxic smell.
They did their best to fend off three looming vines, backing up but chipping away. A dandelion tree, smoldering but intact, was behind them—soon they would quite literally have their backs against the wall. A wall that might also be alive. Good thing another human was running in with a dagger in either hand.
Instead of going after the big ones, though, the third human ducked near their feet and sliced at foes I hadn’t even noticed…no, foes I forgot to notice!
Ugh! Ugh ugh ugh! Yet again, there was so much flying around here that I could hardly concentrate on any of it! On the ground, threaded beneath the sand, were patches of much thinner vines. But these were the real powerhouses. I remembered them well from my tag-team battle with Heidschi and their sheep. Those were the vines that could take people over. Mind controllers.
Parties like the one in front of me knew them all too well. One guy slashed through those mini-tentacles while the others fought the larger threats.
But past them, deeper in smoke, I sensed there was something more ominous. Specifically, I smelled more blood. I smelled wounded. So as a flytrap-headed vine gave a cry as the toxic skewers no doubt hit something vital, I slipped away and ran onward.
It was just as I thought. A heavily injured team was struggling to get away from the battle. Which was basically impossible. Even if they escaped the main fighting, where would they take cover? They’d have to speed away. That kind of magic had to be rare, because I didn’t see anyone teleporting.
Five people carried four others. They were all equally wounded, but the ones staying upright were glowing with a red energy I assumed was buffing their strength.
I quickly glanced behind me, smelled that stinging air. Where had my teammates gone? If only Chora were here with her wind powers to push these people away or something… I considered taking out the crystal, the one that would warp Chora here. But I didn’t want to use that if there was a better way.
Like maybe airlifting them out. With bugs. Where the heck was Logy when you needed her?! I'd have to check in a calmer moment, but wherever she was, it wasn't close enough!
Well, I didn’t have time to stand and mope. I charged toward the injured group, Morphing on the way—then when I got in front of them, I pulled out a piece of paper that’d been ready in my pocket.
“My name is Taipha. I’m here to help. Please tell me what I can do.”
I really really wished I’d been equipped with some of our first aid. We’d only had two kits to go around. They weren’t magic and weren’t instant, but they would’ve been something.
These people were carrying teammates on their backs, grimacing through pain. Yet the one right in front of me still managed to say, “Thank you. Thank you. If you can just fight them off—”
A rasping howl, somehow too dry to be animal, sounded behind us. I nodded, un-Morphed, and ran for the vine-beast—it turned out to be two.
Plus the ground was shaking, and breaking up a little. Oh gosh.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Well, I was no longer on a rapidly moving vehicle, and thanks to the meager boost given by Bayce’s Intelligence cantrip, I was no longer afraid to equip the Debug Blade. I finally had the confidence that it would not be the thing bringing us all to certain doom.
So I jumped forward, just enough to get good distance between me and the people I was now defending. I landed straight into some mind-controlling vines—a threat I would deal with in about five seconds. Right now, I equipped my blade.
Then stacked on an Attack Up.
ATK 908 (x5 +50%)
Even as my Intelligence dipped, it occurred to me that the scratchy-scratchy glowing masses now rushing around my feet and ankles should be hurting me more. In fact, that pulsing energy I sensed within them should be rocketing into my pores, and through to my brain!
Oh wait. Of course it wouldn’t. Wisdom was Magic Defense, and that’d gone up too. More modestly, but the gains were there.
WIS 218 (x2)
I sliced them off without fear. My chop was rough, but so powerful that it tore them away in a single, glancing blow. Then I hefted the sword into a rising cut, ripping through a larger foe.
And for several minutes after that, I dueled.
This wasn’t like the trancelike state I’d fallen into at Cornutopia, fighting that stream of raccoons with such a blur of determination that they all seemed to become one. No, I remembered each and every one of these foes.
The flytrap, speckled with sickness from an Outlaster’s poison needles, that had nearly clamped its jaws over my forearm, before I shoved my heel where its face would’ve been and jammed the sword hilt into its lack of eyes. The vine that branched off into spinning, razor leaves, too fast to cut—so I didn’t try, killing it at the base. The dandelion tree that leaned down and started to swing at ground level, attempting to bowl everyone over, stopped by a sword going where a beast would have a heart.
When one Attack Up wore out about five minutes in, I briefly debated whether to use another or just keep going.
Wait, I thought, I can do better.
Ten minutes later, I had a bit of a lull. I mean, technically several mammoth vines were working in concert like a kraken’s storming limbs to try and smack me down…and yet it happened. Somebody else tagged in, so to speak, freezing the latest attacker, sending the tip of a tentacle crashing to the ground, encased in an icicle prison. The freeze tripped up the “kraken’s” whole strategy, and they began to crash, flail, and tangle themselves up.
They’d be free soon, but yeah, I had a bit of a lull. Still standing, still in nekomata form, I let my shoulders relax as I checked my Stats.
HP 77% (678/678) SP 52% (446/855)
Not bad at all. I was adept enough at dodging now that most of my injuries were just the cost of tumbling with no mats: less battle scars, more falling on rocks. Meanwhile, being in this form constantly drained my SP, but ever since I’d Evolved into a Calico Ranger, Morph had been lasting much longer. Performance varied so much depending on what I was doing that I always had trouble gauging its time limits, but…yeah, I could fight like this for a good while longer.
And that was the real issue. I couldn’t tell whether this battle was calming down or about to really stretch on.
I decided, on instinct and faith, that it was calming down. I’d looked over my shoulder and seen people escaping further into the trees, toward areas that my Map told me were less monster-infested. I would believe I was growing those numbers.
Anyway, why was I messing around with Attack Up when I could just equip and unequip until I multiplied Attack by exactly 7? Then again, I had my reasons for not doing that to begin with. I mean, it took me exactly eighty-two tries, my base SP randomly dipping below normal gave me profound stomach pain, and checking my Stats so fast they flickered like this almost got me a seizure, but heck if the rest of this place didn’t already make my head throb.
Besides, I had practiced this a little bit yesterday. I wasn’t a master (of my own dubious art), but when base SP stayed high and that magic number rolled in, I did not let it pass.
ATK 1155 (x7)