Chapter 38 Platinum’s Are Odd.
A soft deep rumble reverberated through the ground. Isaac felt the ancient monster of bedtime stories and legends approach. He jumped to the side right before it reached him. He felt it change course to devour him regardless of his change in position. He teleported to the other side of the monster as it broke the surface like a breaching whale. It turned and twisted in mid air to reorient itself on its prey. Isaac launched himself at the monster before it could properly face him with its thousands of teeth and corrosive innate magic.
Isaac punched the side of the Tunnel Horror with all of the force he could muster. His boosting ability was back on at its highest sustainable level. The Tunnel Horror rippled from the impact. Its mouth was tossed upwards and its momentum was halted but it wasn’t disoriented in the slightest. Tunnel Horrors were considered smart but not conscious creatures. It used the momentum from Isaac’s impact to the best of its ability. It rotated towards the opposite direction and swirled back around into a circle in order to orient back at Isaac. Tunnel Horrors did have one main problem. They couldn’t go backwards. The reason why the first one the duo fought had to sit still and take Lenna’s attacks was because of this unfortunate fact. It could. however, twist, turn, arc, and aim to its five hearts’ content.
The dark mage dug his fingers into the closest piece of the armored worm’s chitin and yanked himself out of the way as its mouth end went barreling through the space he had just occupied. ‘I have never been so glad that I can’t get tired when I’m like this.’ Isaac thought. After the battle they were just engaged in he was glad that he could still be wide awake, not sore at all, and ready to go for round two. Lenna was still not in perfect condition as they had only had a handful of seconds of reprieve. She didn’t hold back however and took the opportunity Isaac had just created to thrust her sword into the creature’s side. Mana, aura, and muscle came together to help her magically enhanced blade piece the monster’s rockhard shell.
The monster jolted at the sudden influx of damage but its focus remained true. It twirled around itself as it went after Isaac. Isaac for his part danced around it as its body tied into loose knots that could never tighten. Lenna’s sword threatened to rip out of her grasp as it moved. She clamped down on the hilt harder and the worm drug her up into the air as it moved. She planted her boot on its shell and shoved off leaving a spraying trail of acidic blood arcing across the air. Lenna landed gracefully despite her heavy armor and awkward footing. She dove back in to do it again.
Isaac continued to punch the Tunnel Horror as he danced around it. ‘This would be a lot easier if it could actually tie itself up.’ He grumbled internally. The pair continued this way until their quarry decided to switch targets. It abruptly changed direction to go after Lenna. The damage she had inflicted had caused its focus to shift to the less dense meal. ‘Shit!’ Isaac swore as he teleported next to its mouth end and spinning back kicked it in the side. The impact tossed him away from it even as it threw the monster’s gaping maw off course.
The side of its mouth slammed into Lenna and she staggered away from the impact. She quickly found her footing and stepped closer towards the middle of the creature so it would have a harder time targeting her. “This could be going better.” She told Isaac. “I’m almost out of mana.”
“It should be dying soon, right?” Isaac questioned and hit the worm again. It had been slowing down and Isaac could tell that it had taken far more internal damage than he thought it could survive.
“You would know better than me.” Lenna retorted and planted her feet before slamming her fist into the side of the monster with only her natural strength and aura behind the hit. The worm lurched to the side and then began to fall.
Isaac felt its presence finally diminish to almost nothing. The lingering feeling coming from the worm was simply from the fact that it was a dark creature’s corpse. It hit the stone ground with a thud that shook loose stones and dust from the cavern ceiling. The duo stared at it for a long moment. It twitched once and then laid dormant. “Huh.” Isaac commented.
“That was…” Lenna’s voice trailed off as she tried to find the proper adjective.
“Anticlimactic, underwhelming, expected yet unexpected.” Isaac finished for her.
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“Yes.” Lenna agreed.
Isaac sighed as he lowered his boosting skill down to barely a trickle of power. He reached out his hand and set it on Lenna’s shoulder. He fed her power to remove her exhaustion and any remaining injuries. “Let’s loot the assassins and then get on our way.” He told her and looked around. One of the corpses had lost its legs from the Tunnel Horror and another was reduced to only a hand, a foot, and the top half of a head.
Lenna nodded in agreement. “Yes. Some of them had good gear.”
The duo looted the assassins and made out with enough gear to fully outfit half a dozen silver or electrum rank adventurers. The gear was functional and high quality but it lacked any added effects. Isaac and Lenna were under equipped compared to most platinum adventurers by a large margin. When completing one job would net each member of a team of four twelve thousand gold they tended to be well equipped.
The new gear was a mix of magically strengthened weapons and armor. The only special gear looted were their boots and cloaks save for a golden circlet that the leader had been wearing. The boots were silent and the cloaks changed color to match their surroundings. Nice gear but mostly useless for Isaac and Lenna. Lenna generally disliked cloaks and Isaac didn’t like to wear anything that wasn’t black. The boots weren’t useful for them either. Isaac’s steps were always silent and Lenna’s armor made more noise than her footfalls if she was trying to be quiet.
“It would sell for a lot but I think we have some rogues that would make better use of the gear.” Isaac commented as they finished tossing the last of their loot into the bottomless bag.
“Agreed.” Lenna replied. “What about the circlet?”
“What do you think it does?” Isaac questioned.
Lenna shrugged. “Long range telepathy if I had to guess.” She told him. “It would make contacting his employer easier.”
Isaac nodded. “Makes sense.” He agreed. “We can find out back in Safeharbor.” He looked around at the completely destroyed cavern. The pathway had a massive gaping hole in the middle of it and there was blood and corpses scattered about. “Let’s keep going.”
Lenna nodded. “Yes. We aren’t very far from Ben’s End.” She was about to start leaving when she stopped. “Do you want to tell them about the mess?”
Isaac sighed. “We probably should, shouldn’t we.” He grumbled.
Lenna shrugged. “Probably.”
“Fine.” Isaac continued grumbling and turned back the way they had come from. They ran the few miles back to Ben’s End and informed the sergeant.
“A bunch of drow assassins and a Tunnel Horror.” The sergeant repeated. “A second Tunnel Horror for you two.” He added. He looked like he didn’t want to believe them but didn’t really have a choice. He sighed. “Show me.” He told them and informed his second in command that he would be away for around an hour or two and if he was gone for any longer that they were to inform the Adventurers’ Guild and Safeharbor. He turned back to Isaac and Lenna. “After you.”
—
“By all that is holy.” The sergeant swore as he took in the carnage. “Is this what platinum adventurers can do?”
Isaac shrugged. “I doubt most platinum teams could handle this.” He told the sergeant honestly. “I have the right skills and abilities to deal with counter assassination. The Tunnel Horror was a Tunnel Horror. I’m sure there are plenty of platinum teams who can handle it. The assassins were way more risky.”
“Their levels ranged from eleven to sixteen.” Lenna informed the sergeant.
“There’s almost a dozen of them.” The sergeant replied in disbelief.
“Yeah.” Isaac replied nonchalantly. “So, can you make it back on your own?”
The sergeant nodded. “I should be fine.” He replied. “Thank you for informing me of this. We’ll need to let the incoming caravan know about the… damaged… road.”
“How far out are they?” Isaac questioned.
“They should be about halfway.” The sergeant replied.
Isaac nodded. “We’ll want to meet up with them for a bit so let them know they’ll be seeing us within the next few hours.”
“Few hours?” The sergeant asked skeptically.
“In an hour and a half we cover a day’s worth of traveling for a caravan.” Isaac explained. “If they are half way then it should be like four or five hours.”
The sergeant nodded slowly. “How are you traveling so fast?” He had to ask. It just didn’t seem reasonable to be able to cover that much ground for that long of a period of time.
“We run.” Isaac said simply.
“You run?” The sergeant asked.
“Yes.” Isaac replied.
“You don’t get tired or need to rest?” The sergeant questioned further.
“Not unless I get hungry.” Isaac continued to reply like the sergeant was asking him if the sky was really blue.
“I see.” The sergeant replied.
Isaac shrugged. “Let’s go.” He told Lenna and turned to leave. “Don’t get lost Sergeant.” Isaac said without looking back. Lenna nodded to the sergeant and continued after Isaac.
“Platinum’s are odd.” Isaac heard the sergeant whisper under his breath.
Isaac shook his head as he picked up speed. Lenna followed suit and as soon as they were a good distance away from the sergeant, Isaac started feeding them both death flames so they could keep up their high speed travel. “You were having fun weren’t you?” Lenna asked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Isaac replied with an absolutely shit eating grin.
Lenna rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “You’re such a child.”