Chapter 210
“Are you okay Tom?” Everlyn asked in concern.
Tom touched his arm gingerly. The venom was still concentrated there to the greatest degree, and he could feel a dull ache from its presence already forming. “That was a harder fight than you implied it would be.” he said wryly, choosing to ignore her question.
Everlyn nodded her eyes wide. “I saw.” Her hand was on his arm healing him. All those wounds he had left partially healed were closing. “It was evolved. I didn’t realise. Pre-ambush I only caught a glimpse… I assumed that was enough and thought it was a normal dohunter… I should have checked properly.”
He shut his eyes and assessed his body again. In different company, he would be slightly worried about the venom, but with multiple healers and Michael in particular he felt safe.
“I used up all my fate the moment I realised.” She continued. “We weren’t ready to take on something that strong.”
Tom’s eyes snapped open. “You did what?” Now that he was bothering to look he could see her fate was depleted.
“You didn’t know how dangerous it was… I had to do everything I could.”
Tom chuckled. “I spent fate, too. It was pretty obvious after the first exchange I was over matched. Might have been wasted, but I survived.”
“The fate worked,” Michael interrupted. “But now is not the time to debate it. We have a bite to treat. My diagnosis results are mixed. I feel like it got a full dose in, but something is a little off. And it looks like it has spread. Is that right?”
“I didn’t have the mana to quarantine it. So I couldn’t seal it off…”
Michael grimaced and glanced between him and the spider thoughtfully. “Your trait? Can it tell me anything else.”
Tom remembered the ding when the monster had bitten him and stepped sideways into the system room. As always, the message he was looking for was there ready for him to read.
Results from Venom Resistance (V) title against Dohunter Cave Spider venom.
Neutralization of Tier 1 Rabid Necrosis Venom failed.
Neutralisation of Tier 2 Mana Necrosis Venom failed.
Hidden Necrosis Venom - Tier 2 neutralised.
Neutralisation of Tier 1 Paralytic Venom failed.
I guess that makes sense, he thought to himself. The title gave a twenty-five percent chance of instantly neutralising a venom and it had worked on one out of the four the spider had injected. The results were dead on with the probabilities, but thankfully one of the tier two venoms had been neutralised, putting him ahead of the statistical curve.
He opened his eyes. “My title removed one of the two major threats. There’s a tier two mana necrosis venom and two-tier one’s left.”
Michael tsked as he examined Tom. “I see now. That mana venom is nasty, but now I know what it is… I’m sure can burn it out.” Magic flowed into his arm. The healer nodded. “Yes, that work, a little fiddly but I can do it.”
“Is it bad?”
“Have you checked yourself?”
He winced at that pointed question. He hadn’t, so he dutifully activated Healing Tranquillity. Internally, Tom flinched. The quantity of poison the spider had injected in those few moments was troublesome. His assumption that there was nothing to be concerned with vanished.
The situation he was in took him back to the first day where the wasps were biting him continuously. Even with the aid of Michael and others he had barely stayed ahead of the spreading poison.
Lying in the dirt, his survival had very much been touch and go, and his body was now in a similar state. He could already see the necrosis poison acting in places to kill his cells. Currently, the impact was subdued. It was barely problematic, but the damage would only escalate over time. His mastery of Touch Heal, would allow him to stay ahead of the mounting damage, at least for a long time, but then… like when the wasps were swarming him and stinging him his ability to out the heal the consequences was borderline at best.
If he was by himself, he might have had to temporarily sacrifice limbs to preserve the more important parts of his body.
“I’ve checked now. Not good.” Tom pushed himself to his feet and noted how concerned Everlyn looked. In fact, the whole team was worried. He could wage a defence against the symptoms, but he couldn’t attack the underlying cause. Michael, however could. “Can you weaken it before it becomes a problem?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Will he die?” Everlyn asked.
Michael chuckled. “No, I don’t think there is any chance of that. I’ve got him covered.”
“Can you do it while walking?” Everlyn interrupted.
“Not ideal, but I’m becoming practised at healing while running. I did it earlier with Thor. I can do it with Tom.”
“Good,” Everlyn said tightly. “Because if we don’t want to be stuck waiting for half an hour we need to run. You guys?”
Tom followed her gaze to where the rest of the party had been busily butchering the spider. At a glance, he could see they were as good as finished. There was a pile that consisted of the monster’s legs and most of its insides.
It was the discarded components.
Thor meanwhile stood over a more ordered stack, which included the spider’s carapace, fangs, feet and venom sacks. His face was vacant, which clearly indicated that he was in the system room probably organising the auction sale.
There was a flash of light as a portal appeared and engulfed the ordered materials at the large man’s feet. Life returned to his features. “Done. Should earn a pretty penny.”
“We need to be off.” Everlyn said simply.
Thor nodded and then she took off at a pace that the healers struggled to keep up with and all too soon they reach the exit to the canyon proper. The whole time Tom had used his mana regeneration to heal the damage the various toxins were doing internally to him. Michael to had been busy chipping away at the underlying venom and had reduced it to where Tom was now confident of surviving with no outside help.
Sure, if Michael disappeared it would take days for the venoms to be cleared from his body, but he would endure the process without loosing any limbs.
Stolen story; please report.
“We go out in battle formation,” Everlyn said instantly. “Tom first.”
“I’m out of mana.”
She sighed. “I know, but you’re still the strongest here.”
Tom glanced over at Thor and Rahmat the only two who could fill his role. They were three and two ranks below him respectively, which was on its own was not that substantial, but the skill differential was. Neither of them possessed skills to mitigate damage or avoid attacks and even with no mana to his name his tier five dodge skill was significant. From an offensive perspective, with him having no access to magic and they possessing their full ability set. They were probably stronger than him. Defensively, however, there was no contest. He was miles in front of them.
Everlyn cleared her throat. “No Tom. Not them. It’s me or you that have to take point.”
Tom regarded his girlfriend, ex he corrected hurriedly in surprise. That was not what he had expected, but when he thought about it, the statement made sense. She was not as strong as him, but as a scout she would possess skills for escaping and her higher perception would mean that any monsters laying in ambush would be spotted immediately. She was a better vanguard than either Thor or Rahmat. Compared to him the result was quite different, and it all circled back to his dodge skill. While her perception was a huge advantage, his unique version of dodge almost certainly trumped it.
Unfortunately, he was clearly the best choice.
“Fine. But I’m far weaker than usual.” He glanced quickly at the two healers. Michael had been burning away the poison within him and would have fully depleted his mana as he was the type of person to put everything into getting things done. The threat of a minor headache wouldn’t have stopped him. “I won’t be able to self heal like usual. Clare will need to be positioned to help.”
“Agreed,” Everlyn answered. “However, there’s unlikely to be anything threatening there.”
Tom rolled his eyes at that. “Now we’ve made a fuss. A monster is almost guaranteed.”
“It’s not like that. I haven’t made a fuss. This… what we’re planning now is standard operating procedure. It’s just prudent to be in battle formation when transitioning from one type of zone to another, especially when we’re blind. Usually we have Jingyi to check before he exits, but without his spirit animals we’re got no idea what’s out there, so we need to deploy properly.”
“I was joking.” Tom turned and prepared to leave the cave system. Mentally, he was ready for anything.
The others were following close behind him, but Tom’s focus was on his surroundings. He knew he was underground, but as he approached the exit to the cave, it felt like he was above ground. The light from outside was blinding. He’s squinted as he exited with his spear up ready to meet any threat.
Then, because he was the tank, he hurried forward, clearing the space to let the others exit.
He could hear the rest following. Tom’s eyes flickered around. There was nothing flying at him, or hidden in the ground cover.
He heard Everlyn gasp suddenly.
A threat, Tom thought. He knew Evie and that noise could be nothing less.
Tension rocked through Tom, and then there was a blur of motion. A monster struck out at him, launching itself from the underside of one of the giant mushrooms. The attack was coming from above at a forty-degree angle. He could remember carving a hole in a similar mushroom and suspected this monster had done the same. There had been nothing visible when he had checked earlier.
Tom primed by the noise at Everlyn had made was already stepping sideways. His spear glowed with a full Power Strike. He finished the quick movement and considered going further, but time wasn’t even slowing. As far as his skill thought, he was not in danger.
He suppressed his jitteriness. He knew how to deal with something like this.
The spear aligned itself perfectly with the plunging monster. There was a slight shudder as the head of the… snake, Tom realised suddenly what it was, hit the glowing blue point of his spear.
The weapon went through the snake’s skull like it was paper. Straight through the brain. Momentarily, the heavy weight of the snake stuck on the end of the spear. Then, with the weight being over a metre from where he held the shaft, the leverage created caused the weapon to almost twist out of control. He reacted by spinning backwards, twisting it and then using the benefit of his mass to pop his spear free.
Instantly, his spear was back up and ready to fight off any new threats that threatened the group.
The snakes body crashed to the ground. On Earth it would have been a large python, here on Existentia it was almost tiny. Tom watched it momentarily to confirm it was dead. The energy of life had fled from it and it had no fate remaining. Some animals could play act death and hide those signs, but Tom doubted the snake was one of them. It’s lifeless body and the neat hole drilled into its brain meant that Tom was pretty confident about its status.
In battle trance, he waited. Alert to everything happening around him.
There was a sound of scrambling behind him. Thor shifting into a fighting position, his legs making a distinct thud as he braced himself in order to swing his heavy hammer. Rahmat’s own positioning was almost silent in contrast just the softest of rustles.
Tom’s eyes kept scanning the surrounding taking extra time to examine the underside of the mushrooms. The snake had not been dangerous, but he wouldn’t want anyone to get bitten unnecessarily.
“We’re clear.” Everlyn reported after a moment.
He relaxed and poked the snake. It promptly disappeared into his inventory. “Just a critter, but I’m sure it’ll be nice eating tonight.”
“We’ll butcher it properly during the first rest.” Everlyn agreed. “Now move. We need to catch the front pack.”
They fell back into the same pattern they had perfected the previous day. Run for an hour and a half while fighting off the occasional critter that targeted them. The critters were all rank thirteen to eighteen and often came in a midsize pack. Which made them too strong to ignore, but too weak to truly threaten them. When they swarmed to attack, fighting back was more of an exercise in cleanup than life or death. Tom would consistently taunt the pack and then dodge through their ranks while the others stepped up to eliminate them. Usually, by the end of the fight, his fate would present opportunities to land some critical blows.
Each fight, even as a minor distraction, was a relief. There was something cathartic about being able to blood the tip of his spear every ten minutes or so and the trickle of experience the fights generated was welcome. The others had taken the opportunity to level multiple times.
They were getting stronger and while he didn’t believe they could fight a pack, even one selected to be beatable, Tom could see the allure of making the effort.
It was a simple equation.
Survive one pack and they would no longer be ridiculously out levelled by the area.
After defeating the first, they could then wait until another one vulnerable to their strengths circled into their attack area. The second pack would be easier to defeat than the first. Rinse and repeat and six or seven packs later they would be ranked at the same level as the surrounding monsters. Then they could probably take whichever monster was next in line and consolidate those gains.
Two handfuls of days were all it would take, and they would explode in ranks. Of course, that first fight would be extraordinarily challenging and they might die, but he couldn’t help but think that it was worth it. With a threat of the challenge portal coming up, it was something that Tom was seriously considering.
If the situation with the killers wasn’t so dire, then Tom would continue the conversation that Thor had begun. Unfortunately, Keikain and Clare had to be escorted to a location where they could find sacrifices to get their bloodline points and starve off their madness.
Otherwise, in different circumstances… it felt like using this circular to grow his strength would be his best gamble.
They were jogging along, in an area that had been transformed into a tropical jungle.
“I’ve found a place to sleep in.” Everlyn announced abruptly via group chat.
“Another dead zone.” Tom asked hopefully.
“No, just a narrow, defensible entry point, along with water and ventilation. I’m about to link with you.” She warned.
Tom raised a hand, and everyone came to a stop. Everlyn burst out of a small animal trail to the side. It was a pathway that Tom hadn’t noticed. His instincts flared and without the warning he probably would have lashed out.
“Follow.” She ordered.
She disappeared down the nearly invisible track, and they followed. Through all the vegetation it was hard to see anything, but it was clear they were heading towards the cliffs and soon they broke out of the jungle. For whatever reason, there was a five metre stretch of land clear between the cliffs and the jungle. They entered that area and came to a halt. In front of them, and stretching out as far as could be seen on either side was a bone white rock face and then directly ahead was a dark hole that led deeper within the stone.
“It’s just rock,” Everlyn told them dismissively as she headed over to the entrance. She was holding one of the many pink fruits that grew on the nearby trees. She pressed it hard against the rock and dragged it into a circle to leave a pink circle above their chosen cave.
“There are lots of these along the cliff.” She explained as she worked. “This one hasn’t been disturbed for three months, which is like lots of the nearby caves. It’s why I think there might be a deadzone in this white rock. Some haven’t been touched for over six months, which, given the abundance of life is extraordinary. Anyway, the circle will let Jingyi find us and for now we should check out our home for tonight.”