Night 49: Escaping The Forest of Nightmares

--- Jon ---

Shaking his head as the dancing flames creeped over whatever foliage they’d managed to latch onto, he turned back to Audrey and Pix, “Pix, start mitigating the flames. Audrey, do you have anything to put a fire out?”

“Uh, yeah, but water isn’t exactly my specialty so I’m going to be tapped after this.” The other teen admitted as Pix flew off to start spreading her magic around the trees. “You got anything we can work with?”

“No, most of my stuff is enchanting or summons and unless Wolf can suffocate the fire?” He trailed off with a look towards his canine companion, earning a shake of her head for his thought. “I’ve got nothing I can use quickly.” (Really need to work on that.)

“Damn it.” Audrey cursed, glancing out into the darkness of the forest. “Alright, I might be able to put this out but I’m going to be pretty much tapped so we’re going to have to call it a night.”

“As long as you can keep the whole forest from catching.” He told her as his own eyes drifted to the flames with a fair amount of concern. “If we let this get out of control it could end… badly, especially with the drought these last few weeks.”

“Don’t need to tell me.” Audrey grimaced as magic began to glow around her. “If we let the forest burn, we won’t be able to touch any of those Creep Corpses and we’ll probably be facing a lawsuit on top of everything else.”

“Little more concerned with causing a small environmental disaster.” He admitted, watching as Pix tried her best to keep the fire under control. (We really need to look into other magics for her, Nature is useful in a forest but without further practice it’s not very adaptive.)

Idly he glanced at the Nature wielding Arcane next to him. (Maybe she’d have some ideas?)

Next to him Audrey slowly inhaled, and he felt a humidity of sorts filling the air with dampness, before the other teen began to exhale while pushing her hands forward causing a faint breeze as the flames began to slow their movement.

Curious, he asked her, “What exactly are you-”

He cut himself off as he caught sight of a large insect Creep stepping into the light of the fire, its carapace glistening in the dancing flames as its head twitched ever so slightly as it watched them.

“Fuck.” Audrey spat, glancing his way. “Think you can handle that? Can’t really split my magic here.”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” He nodded, readying his axe. “But if you can, try and hurry things up.”

“Already overloading a spell not meant for this.” The other teen told him through grit teeth.

“Yeah, unfortunately I doubt this is the only one coming this way.” He reminded her as he stepped between her and the Creep.

(Pix and Audrey are both busy and just about tapped, so I won’t be getting any help from them.) He noted as he stared the giant insect down, some instinct keeping it at bay as it waited for an opportunity to strike. (Molotovs are out since we’re already dealing with one fire problem. Its carapace is too much for me to just brute force unless I aim for that soft spot, which would leave me in mauling distance. And of course, given how low everyone is running, Pix probably won’t be able to heal me after this so that’s just a little too risky right now. )

Once more he was reminded that he really needed to figure out something with a bit more kick than his usual kit. (Then again, if you can’t do something yourself there’s no problem in asking for help.)

“Wolf! Pin it down!”

His canine companion shot at the massive Creep in a torrent of wind before digging her fangs into its throat as she tried to hold the creature several times larger than her in place.

The insect Chimera tried to shake her off before clawing at her, only for Wolf to kick off of its chest and in an impressive backflip bite into its arm as she used her wind and weight to drag it away from the Creep’s main body.

Not one to waste an opportunity he rushed forward himself as he slipped his knife into his hand before stabbing it into the Creep’s soft spot and driving it in by slamming his palm into the blade’s hilt.

The insect Chimera screeched even as Wolf released its arm to get a bit of distance to maneuver and he leapt to the side to avoid its retaliating claw swipe.

On reflex, he flexed his wrist before grimacing as he remembered that he’d had to switch knives after his main one was covered in Creep gore. (Guess I’m not getting this one back…)

From the otherside of the Creep he spotted Wolf crouched with wind swirling around her.

Realizing what she was about to do, he grabbed his axe with both hands before swinging it into the joint of the Insect Chimera’s frontmost leg. And while it wasn’t enough to cleanly cleave through the limb, it was enough to stagger the Creep for a moment.

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A moment Wolf used to once more launch herself at the Creep’s throat, and send it toppling as he tackled another one of the insect’s legs.

Once he’d gotten his feet steadied from having the Creep flip over him he found Wolf continuing to tear into the Chimera’s throat with her teeth as it laid on its side struggling to right itself.

(Alright, let’s see if your underbelly is as plated as the rest of you.) He thought as he recalled his axe into hand before raising it into the air and beginning to chop into the underside of the Creep, with each consecutive chop biting just a little deeper than the last.

He wasn’t sure which of them dealt the final blow -(probably Wolf)- but eventually between the two of them they’d dealt enough damage to the insect Creep that its body quit moving as it laid limply on the ground.

“Wolf, you good?” He asked, catching his own breath for a moment.

His canine companion gave him a nod, completely unbothered by the insect gore staining her maw, even going so far as to lick at it a bit.

(Well, to each animal their own, I guess?) He shrugged, figuring it was natural enough.

After taking a quick moment to make sure there were no more Creeps, and noting the continued buzzing, he turned towards Pix and Audrey where the last of the fires were beginning to sputter out.

“You two done?”

“Yeah, though I’m not going to bother trying to cover up the fire damage.” Audrey warned him as she adjusted her glasses..

“That’s fine.” He told her. “At the very least it gives us a landmark to track things down later.”

“Good, because at this point I’m running on fumes as far as magic goes.” The other teen admitted with a roll of her shoulders. “Like I said, we should probably call it a night now.”

“Yeah, Pix is looking just as drained.” He agreed, catching the little fairy as they started to move. “You did a good job.” He told his little light as he petter between her antenna.

Pix gave him an exhausted chirp before climbing onto his shoulder and starting for his pack, likely trying to find a place to sleep off her magical exhaustion.

“Oh, that reminds me.” He stopped Pix before reaching into his pack and digging around until he found a pair of spell scripts he’d been sitting on for a couple of months. “You got enough to trigger this?”

“What is it?” Audrey frowned, accepting the script.

“An experimental Script that might restore a bit of magic.” He answered, handing the second to Pix. “They won’t restore a lot, but they might give you one last attack if something manages to catch up to us.”

Audrey watched as Pix triggered the script before burning to a crisp and regaining a bit of her natural glow and pep.

“You know what, fuck it. Magical exhaustion sucks.” The Arcane teen admitted as she triggered her own and gained a glow of her own for a brief second. “Okay, yeah, I can feel that.”

“So, it works on you too?” He asked, having been unable to try the Scripts himself given how his magic wasn’t an innate part of him like it was Pix and Audrey.

“Yeah, gave me a bit of magic but not a lot.” Audrey nodded. “Probably enough for one real spell, you got any more of these?”

“Uh, actually I wouldn’t take two so close together given how they work by stimulating your own magic production and messing with that too much might slow your natural regen until it rights itself.” He explained before handing over a second script. “I should warn you that that one there is my last one.”

“Yeah, well hopefully we’ll be out of here before I have to use it.” Audrey told him as they continued through the woods.

“Not sure if that’s going to work the way you wanted.” He grimaced as he looked behind him, having noticed that the buzzing was growing stronger for a fair while. “I think we need to pick up the pace if we want to get out of here without another fight.”

Rather than continuing, Audrey stopped altogether as she glanced behind them.

“What is it?”

“I’ve got an idea.” Audrey answered as she dug around in her satchel. “I just need a minute or two to make it work.”

“Again, not sure if that’s going to work.” He reminded her as he heard a branch snapping. “Something is almost here.”

“Yeah, and we’d have a lot of something’s after us if I don’t do this.” Audrey argued as she found what she was looking for and shoved a seed into the ground with a fist that parted the dirt with surprising ease.

Having more than a little experience arguing with the stubborn women in his life, instead of arguing he shoved his axe in his pack and pulled out his bow and arrow hoping to slow down whatever was coming after them. “Just make it quick, I’ve only got so many arrows. Wolf, keep close to Audrey in case something tries to ambush her.” (Again.) “Pix I need a little more light if you can manage.”

Wolf gave him a bark of confirmation as Pix gave him a chirp of similar meaning before rising into the air and giving the world around them a faint neon glow.

A rustle of branches had his eyes shooting upwards as he released an arrow into the branches of the trees ahead of them, piercing one of the flying Creeps through the shoulder and sending it toppling to the ground where a second arrow through its chest put the fire breathing Creep down before it could send them back a step.

“Okay… that should… about… do it.” Audrey told him as she stood up and stepped away as a small glowing blue flower grew from the space in front of her.

“And that is?” He asked, eyes only briefly darting to the plant as he kept his guard up, figuring that despite what she’d said the Arcane wasn’t actually done implementing her plan.

“Modified and spliced several plants together.” Audrey explained as her hands glowed around the flower and it began to rapidly grow into a massive vine covered in a number of the original flowers. “Should make a decent distraction.”

“You’re luring them in with the lights.” He figured, as Audrey backed away from the plant.

“At which point it’ll give whatever Creep gets to it first a very nasty surprise.”

“Only if we’re gone before-” He dropped to the ground as one of the wolf chimera’s lunged at him, just barely flying over him. “Before that happens!”

The wolf chimera righted itself on the ground and snarled at him, before his Wolf lunged at it slamming the Creep into a nearby tree and staggering it long enough for him to fire an arrow through its throat.

“Right, no more waiting. We need to move now!” He told everyone before starting to move.

“How sure are we that this is the right way?” Audrey asked once she’d caught up to the jog he was setting.

“The moon is in the southern sky.” He answered with a gesture towards the near full moon. “We just need to move east towards the city and we’ll get out of the forest eventually.”

Audrey glanced behind them at the moon before nodding. “Alright, sounds legit.”