The next group they found was another group of three, digging a new tunnel. They fell just as easy as the first. They repeated nearly the same encounter twice more before anything changed.
A pair of moles, larger than any they'd seen so far, were screeching wildly ahead as they... coupled in the middle of the tunnel floor. They foamed at the mouth as they twisted and rolled. The fur on both was more grey than chestnut, and the claws seemed to be a deeper brown than any he'd seen so far. Neither of the things had noticed there were people in the tunnel.
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You have defeated Elder Deep Mole - lvl 20. (+75,000xp)
-
Reid tried to get both in a single swing, but only managed to kill the first with his opening strike. The other moved itself out of his immediate range, and then its claws began to glow with a silver-brown light. Reid waited for it to slash out, or throw stones.
Instead, a pillar of rock shot out of the wall and slammed into Reid from the side. He slammed into the cavern floor, and had to roll to avoid another pillar that crashed down from the ceiling. He spared a glance behind him - Lycra and Win weren't targets of the attacks, for now.
Reid had dealt with magic melee attacks, and things throwing regular projectiles, but he'd never really had to worry about magic projectiles - at least not any that could properly damage him. But he saw, in those pillars, bits of the darker, nearly black rocks that Win once had him break - the ones that were much, much harder than the normal stone. Danger hid in these pillars, and he needed to avoid taking hits.
In a series of haphazard jumps, rolls, and charging sprints, Reid reached the wizard mole and lashed out with his mace. A pillar from below took him by surprised and smashed into his elbow. It drove Reid's strike off-target, and Requiem smashed off the mole's lower jaw instead of killing the thing entirely.
Thick blood and saliva poured out of the open top half of its mouth and down the mole's neck. A flurry of pillars grew and shot out from all directions, like the tunnel itself had come alive. The new attack style was dangerous for Reid - but could be deadly for his companions. He threw himself into an open area not intersected with rock, and whipped his mace around into the creature's spine. It screeched, and the glow faded from its claws - but Reid didn't get a kill notification. He moved over to the head to kill the creature - and saw its small eye blazing with fury.
Its claws flashed with light as Reid brought his mace down. While requiem smashed into the creature's skull, a narrow column of black rock burst out of the mole's arm. It was a well-aimed, final strike. The thing had even ignored damage to itself to hide the attack - and the absurdly hard rock slipped in where his armor didn't cover, and smashed through his collarbone as well as part of his neck. Blood spilled out and discolored his armor, but Reid wasn't too worried - the damage wasn't the worst he'd received, by a long way.
You have defeated Elder Deep Mole Prince - lvl 22. (+125,000xp)
Reid stumbled, and had to awkwardly lift himself up and back to slide the rock out of himself. With the rock removed, his neck and shoulder bled heavily. The damage to some muscles made his head loll to the side, and Reid stumbled at the changed perspective. He caught himself on his knees by putting a hand to the ground. His other went to his neck. On instinct, Reid stopped the bleeding. His dense energy was still plentiful, even after recreating Requiem earlier - so he pushed on and flooded his wound with resources that stitched and knitted broken bits back together.
Reid's collarbone was fixed, and the wound itself was almost entirely closed by the time a sprinting Win reached him. Her hands were already glowing as she skidded to a stop at his side. She looked... more than worried. Panicked. Desperate.
"Reid! I've got you! It's alright - stay with me!"
Her face was concerned and searching, then confused, and bewildered. She spent another few seconds exploring Reid's wounds to make sure he was okay, then her eyes narrowed. Her tone was terse, even as she finished rejuvenating Reid's damage.
"How?"
Reid shrugged. His shoulder felt... good. No lingering pain or heat, even with only moments exposure to Win's healing energy. Her skill really was something else. "Strengthening, mostly."
She looked uncomfortably composed. "Right. I won't pry - but as our healer I need to ask questions. That's not at all what strengthening does, but - let's just say that's what it is. It only works on yourself, right?" Reid nodded. "Major restrictions? Cooldowns? Weaknesses? I want to know whether you're going to bleed out if I need to choose between you and Lycra."
Reid counted off thoughts on his fingers. "I have to be conscious, and it takes time and energy. More time and energy than healing magic. And it hurts. And the recovery time is longer."
Win stared at his moving fingers, then her gaze went back to his neck. It lingered there for an uncomfortably long time.
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"...Okay."
Win stood, and dusted off her legs. It was only then Reid realized her hands were shaking.
She made an unusually brisk walk over to Lycra, thanked him for retrieving her spear, then started off further into the dungeon.
Win was almost always composed.
Her sliding in to save him was the first time he'd seen her panicked.
And she was not okay.
#
Their trio had an awkward, silent half hour of walking where they encountered no moles. Win seemed to be lost in her own world - not so much aloof or ignoring them, but distracted and deeply contemplative. She'd been empathetic, to nearly everyone, the entire time he'd known her. It was only now that Reid realized he hadn't done much to figure out how she was doing herself - and that he had no idea what might be troubling her, so he had less than no idea on how to empathize. Lycra had stopped attempting to make conversation more than twenty minutes ago. He finally broke the silence again - with a new tact this time.
"Win!" She moved her head in his direction but didn't slow. "I have a serious request!"
That got her attention enough that she finally stopped walking. The rims of her eyes were discolored, and she had to clear her throat to talk.
"What is it, Lycra?"
"Please enact a life trust with me! Reid and I like you! We think you are good. I want-" Win held up a hand to stop him.
"No." Lycra looked wounded. Win sighed. "No, because there are things I would not share, and I could not enter the trust intending to break it." She fully turned herself towards them. "You were going to use it to figure out what's bothering me, right?"
Lycra nodded.
She sighed again. "I can give you a vague story. I had someone I cared for, very deeply." She looked both of them in the eyes. Hers softened a bit as they swept over Lycra and Reid. "That was too vague. Allow me to be... a bit more open. My father was a hero of a man. He was kind, and brilliant, and strong. I thought he was invincible. When it came, his death was so sudden and unexpected and bizarre that none of us realized it had happened at first. I didn't even rush..." She cleared her throat and shook out her hands. Her tail twitched. "I was too late. More happened after, and all of it was just as bizarre and confusing and terrible as his passing. Reid's injury - or what I thought his injury was, and then the shock that he was fine - brought up flashes of those other memories. It's why I rushed in like I did. Those memories - they've been buried for a long while, so I was sorting through them. I'm sorry if I was rude. I apologize for making you worry, but I'll be fine."
Lycra practically marched over to Win's legs, and slammed into her with a hug. She patted him on the head, and smiled.
"No apologies to us. You smile, and that is all that counts." Lycra gave her an extra squeeze. "I am glad the first plan worked."
Win cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? And what was your alternative?"
Lycra's teeth flashed a full smile as he looked nearly straight up at her. "A threat."
#
#
Win was - for the most part - back to herself after that. The next group of moles was a set of six diggers they ran into another 20 minutes walk down the tunnels. They fell easy - with no magic moles in the mix.
Their next encounter was another prince, by itself. Instead of pillars, that one had used rock defensively. While it made things take slightly longer, the kill came all the same - and Reid learned that Requiem was tough enough to crack, redirect, or break through the stone depending on its toughness. The memory of his final swinging blow through the mole's last attempt at a defensive wall made Reid grin.
The third and fourth princes had each been paired up with another, weaker, non-magical mole. Thankfully, none of them were... engaged. The third prince launched actual projectiles at him, instead of the 'attached-to-the-ground' pillars he'd encountered with the first prince. Stone bullets, each the size of a watermelon, were dangerous and risky things to deal with. Reid had made Lycra and Win retreat around the last tunnel bend while he fought that mole. The fourth was similar to the first's magic, though it used pointed spikes rather than flat columns. The thinner attacks were quicker, but also packed less punch. Both the stone bullets and the spikes had hit him, but he didn't receive any real damage. After the black rock injury fighting the first prince, he didn't underestimate them again.
They'd made good progress. Damn good progress, based on the timer. With Win keeping Reid from tiring or getting fatigued, they still had a day and a half to finish the quest.
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Challenge Quest: Eradicate the Mole King and his Progeny.
Objectives:
1. Kill the Mole King ( 0 / 1 )
2. Kill the Mole Princes ( 4 / 5 )
3. Kill Moles ( 21 / 23 )
4. Secret Challenge: Complete all objectives in the time limit and without losing a party member. ( 1d 12h 51m 38s )
NOTICE: You may not exit the challenge area unless all objectives are completed.
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Experience: 155,354,200 -> 157,029,200 / 209,715,200
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Reid's gains hadn't been insignificant, either. Between all the moles he'd taken out in the tunnels so far, he'd earned over 1.6 million xp.
And there were more points waiting for him.
-
The tunnel ended in a towering cavern that was nearly as large as the dung cavern. Glowing growths lined the ceiling and bathed everything within in a pale blue light. There were raised dirt and stone nests that littered the space, especially near the walls. Each nest was shaped like the mouth of a volcano - a cone where the tip had been removed and hollowed out. Piles of garbage were strewn about at multiple points in the place, though most sat close to a nest. They were filled with worn and faded clothing - and plenty of prison jumpsuits. The bulk of the piles were made up of building-material looking things like wood, metal pipes and frames, sheets and supports. But Reid also saw more interesting - and potentially valuable - bits here and there. A sparkle of shining material that could be a precious metal or discarded crystal. An odd mess of copper tubing, and somehow-intact glass lab equipment. One pile was full of partially decayed books.
The far side of the cavern sported a single, wide, raised portion of rock - like a shelf or stage had been built into the wall. The last prince and the final two standard moles were down on the main cavern floor. All three were sleeping.
The king - obvious in its size and the fact that it had no scars on its snout - slept on the shelf.
Convincing Lycra and Win to stay back and out of sight was far easier than he'd expected. He didn't even have to go into explanations about why he'd be able to focus more without worrying about them. Whether that was a good thing, he wasn't sure.
Reid eyed a nest that had started to crumble. There were some good rocks there.
Throwable rocks.