Chapter 66 Asking To Die.
“I don’t want to run back, I’ve lost all sense of urgency now that it’s dead.” Isaac whined.
“Then stop complaining about it taking so long to get back.” Lenna told him. “Besides, I don’t think the rest of the team would survive a run back.”
Isaac glanced back at the worn out group of adventurers behind them. They were looking a fair bit better than they had been an hour and a half ago. “Let’s walk for a while and then stop to sleep somewhere. When we all get up in the morning, we are running back to Safeharbor. Sleeping out here is awful.” Isaac told them. He received some appreciative looks and nods of assent before turning back to Lenna. “The more I think about it, the more strange this whole situation is.” He told her.
“I know what you mean.” Lenna agreed.
“Why didn’t the mushroom assassin attack us when we were fighting the mushroomancer? Where did the mushroomancer come from? Where did so many Ori-Masa come from for that matter? Have there always been this many Tunnel Horrors around?” Isaac listed out the questions he had been mulling over.
“It might have needed us to kill the mushroomancer.” Lenna postulated. “Imagine if it was taken over by the fish.”
Isaac shivered thinking about the mushroom assassin with the regenerative ability and death flame immunity of the mushroomancer. “No thanks.” Isaac replied. “That is a fair point though. The thing with the mushroomancer that gets me is that I remember seeing a band of Ori-Masa a few months ago and they seemed normal then. It was just a normal band of nomadic fishpeople wandering around and causing normal amounts of trouble.”
“I actually had a theory about that.” Lenna said. “I’m wondering if your death flames didn’t cause some of the mushrooms to mutate.”
“During our shortcut through the mushroom kingdom?” Isaac requested clarification. Lenna nodded. “I won’t say that it’s impossible but I find it very unlikely. There shouldn’t have been any parts of those mushrooms left to mutate. The black dust is just dead cells and necrosis residue. They would have to be both resilient and adaptive to an insane degree. I almost killed myself while messing around with my death flames in the beginning and I was being careful, mostly.”
“The mushroom kingdom has been around for thousands of years.” Lenna explained. “If nothing had been able to kill it thus far then there must be a reason.”
Isaac frowned in thought. “This might be one of those questions we never get to answer.” He conceded.
Lenna nodded. “Life likes to give us those.” She replied. “As for the Tunnel Horrors and Ori-Masa, they have always been around but they aren’t usually seen in numbers like this. The Ori-Masa travel in large bands instead of armies like what we saw. The mushroomancer had to have traveled around to gather them all up. The Tunnel Horrors have kept stray mages in check for longer than drow history. You are just a magnet so we see them more often.”
“So are there no more Ori-Masa around now?” Isaac questioned.
“Probably not in this area, no.” Lenna answered.
The pair continued in silence for a while before Isaac brought up the other thing that was on his mind. “When do you think Jallen is going to make his move?” Isaac questioned.
Lenna shook her head. “He is as old and patient as he is brash and powerful.” She sighed. “I have no idea. He might come charging down here himself tomorrow or hire someone to run some elaborate scheme to get us kicked out of the city.”
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“That tracks with the mental image I had of him.” Isaac confessed. “It also isn’t helpful.”
Lenna nodded. “I know.” After another long moment of silence Lenna offered an idea. An idea along the lines of one of Isaac’s bad ideas. “We could have Jala contact him if you really want to know. He might actually tell you. He’s arrogant like that.”
Isaac chuckled. “That is some real storybook villain arrogance alright. Does he really think that he is that invincible?”
Lenna nodded. “Yes.” She told him truthfully. “Not only is he incredibly difficult to kill without magic items, all of his gear is made to keep him alive. The heads of each V’Nova branch have roughly the same gear. Legendary armor that is immune to all physical attacks, pendants that prevent lethal damage, swords that steal the life from those they are fighting, shields that project a reality shield the size of a wagon, crown that reflects mental attacks.” She met Isaac’s widening gaze. “And that is not counting whatever extra gear he has picked up over the centuries. It would be easier to break through Safeharbor’s walls than to kill Jallen V’Nova while he is in full battle gear. Even if you kill him, if you aren’t careful, a cleric of Dri’El will bring him back to life.”
“This is quite the buildup.” Isaac commented. He wasn’t sure how to feel about everything Lenna had told him. On one hand a battle with Jallen would be a truly legendary affair. On the other, the man sounded utterly unkillable. Isaac knew that he would end up fighting Jallen at some point. Either that or one of them would die of old age. Isaac had the feeling that Jallen wouldn’t go to the grave with any regrets if he could help it and that meant coming after them at some point before either of them died naturally.
“The best course of action would probably be to run to the surface when he makes his move.” Lenna advised. Isaac could tell that her advice had come from a purely logical perspective and he could also tell that it was not something that she actually wanted to do.
“Probably.” Isaac agreed. “You know I’m going to fight him anyway though.”
Lenna smirked and shook her head. “If it’s you, I might just believe that he can be killed.”
—
Lenna and Fina were meditating while the rest of the group slept. Isaac and Fable may have been asleep but they were still on watch. Both of them had a natural ability to tell when someone was watching them even while they were asleep. Things like bloodlust or deep hunger directed towards them would wake them up especially when they were in a place that they didn’t feel safe in. Only Isaac and Esk bothered to stretch out. Lenna, Fina, and Fable sat cross legged. Mark and Shy were sitting against the wall of their little alcove with one knee up and the other down in the most stereotypical soldier resting position Isaac could think of. The group was making the most of their brief reprieve and resting up while they could. Their biggest mana signature was actually the meditating Fina and even that was hard to detect from farther than a dozen feet.
Everything was peaceful in their little alcove until a familiar feeling fell upon Lenna’s shoulders. Lenna took a deep breath and sighed. It was too unrealistic for her to think that they were done with Jallen for even a little while. They had already been given almost two weeks reprieve after the assassins were wiped out. Lenna’s aura flexed and the magic resting on her shattered under the superior force. Scrying magic was fragile but could only be broken with an act of opposing will, something about the soul lock needing the soul to break it, it was all magic that Lenna hadn’t bothered to study. She only needed to know the effects and how to counter them when it came to magic, that didn’t mean that she hadn’t picked up an entire encyclopedia’s worth of magical knowledge along the way, it just meant that her knowledge base was disorganized.
Fina’s eyes shot open as her head snapped to Lenna. She hadn’t felt the contained aura usage but instead she felt the spell shatter even if she hadn’t felt it form. Fable had much the same reaction. Both of them looked at Lenna like they were awaiting the announcement of an ambush. Isaac opened one eye and eyed his mate. “Back at it again?” He questioned casually.
Lenna nodded. “Yes. We need to move.” She replied.
“Why? What is going on?” Fable demanded. The other three party members started to stir at the commotion.
“Our odds of getting ambushed by something worth fighting just went from basically nonexistent to a slight probability.” Isaac answered and used shadows to pick him up from laying flat on his back to standing upright. The show of mana was entirely unnecessary. What was even more unnecessary was what he did afterwards. Isaac used the shadows at his command to pick up his bedroll and blanket before tossing them into his inventory. The show of extreme power abuse and laziness got an annoyed look from Fina but nothing else.
“Ambushed by what?” Fable furthered his questioning.
“Whatever Jallen V’Nova feels like trying to kill us with this time.” Isaac replied simply. “Esk, hurry up or I’m leaving you behind.”
Esk let out a groan as he slowly sat up. “How much sleep did I get?” He questioned.
“A little over an hour.” Fina replied. “Hurry up or I’m leaving you behind too. I don’t want to get caught out here with no one but you.”
“Ouch.” Esk replied and started moving not nearly fast enough. Fina grabbed his blanket and bedroll and tossed them into his face. Esk started sputtering as he tried to get stone dust off of his tongue. He didn’t say anything to her though and just stuffed his things into his Bottomless Bag.
In a matter of moments the group was on the move again. The last thing any of them wanted was to get ambushed before their whole group was recovered. Lenna, Fina, Esk, and Fable were barely at a quarter of their maximum mana. Mark was good to go after the quick power nap and so was Shy. Isaac, as usual, was the only one truly back up to one hundred percent. “Are we running again?” Fina asked. There was a hint of dread in her voice but also the resolve to do it.
“For the first hour at least.” Isaac explained. “If they don’t tag Lenna again within that hour, we can either stop to rest again or slow our pace a bit.”
“You two have to deal with this regularly?” Esk asked with a yawn. “How do you survive?”
“We only sleep in Safeharbor.” Isaac explained. “Sleeping in the tunnels is asking to die.”