Level 6: Fire and Ice
The next few days were spent outside the challenges as a result of the end of the zombie horde level. Hurk had not finished the level unscathed during the attack, while Terry was being thrown around, he had sustained several deep scratches from the zombies bone claws. Thankfully there was only a slight chance of poison from the scratches. It would have been worse if he had gotten bitten as there is a definite chance of toxins infecting the wound.
For Terry’s part he was extremely sore, but had been protected by his Nano weave armor and so had thanked Morris for the gift profusely. The major downside to this whole ordeal was the extra money used to extend their stay and pay for the antidotes that would heal Hurk. Healing Outside a level was difficult, but not like it had been on Earth. Magic accelerated the processes that utilized medicine from Terry’s home. As a result the team was out of levels for a period of three days.
A few hours later the team was up and discussing ideas and strategies for the next level. They had juice and water in cups around the table. Rosa was on the table watching and counting ideas with logic. Morris had a bestiary in front of him going over signs that were common across known boss level stories.
In that three day time frame, Terry decided to introduce Rosa and Cinder. Since the night before he had wanted to see Cinder again, not just because she was beautiful and seemingly interested in him, but he found he wanted the companionship that she offered that first night. He thought about her interest in his home world and the way she had seemingly lit up at the mention of his familiar and pet. Having the two meet would be a fun and interesting experience.
Rosa seemed a bit less interested in accompanying him to meet Cinder. Terry had set up the date through Morris, as his friend had wasted no time setting out to meet Cinder’s sister, Edna, after they had returned from the level. That very night he had taken a note to Cinder for Terry, like he was some best friend in elementary school playing wing man with a girl in a separate class.
Terry was surprised to find that the only real way of short distance messaging on the Deck, instead there was only a form of long distance instant telegram. In his mind, it seemed a bafflingly in-efficient combination of snail mail and e-mail. Morris had returned that night with a similarly affirming note, it was even folded in a special style to not stop Morris from opening and reading the missive.
Cinder had a sweet and almost rushed scrawl, it was like she did not expect the note and had to get something out and on paper. The script was several jokes and seemingly sarcastic remarks about Terry’s age and he found himself laughing as she poked fun at the maturity level of someone wanting to meet in public over coming over seeing each other in private. She mused that it seemed ‘old fashioned’ and ‘overly polite.’ Terry had never thought of it that way and wondered if courting on the deck was usually this fast or straight forward. The tone of the letter did not shame him however and he was excited that she agreed to meet him the next day in a park and then have lunch.
-
Rosa was nervous, not for the prospect of meeting someone new, but rather for the effects of Terry having a new relationship. Remembering back to her time in his college dorm, watching the fumbling relationship efforts of Claire and Terry was not the fondest. Rosa remembered everything from her life before gaining the knowledge gift from Joker.
She had watched the two bicker and needle at each other, mainly Claire pointing out Terry’s flaws, and had comforted Terry after fights or bad experiences it had seemed Claire had caused. There was a short amount of time before Claire and now too short an amount of time after Claire that Terry had not been in a relationship and so Rosa was nervous.
“Are you sure you are ready for this? We have only been here a few months. What if the courting rituals here involve something drastic like a ceremony with sacrifices to love gods or planting a tree in a special hard to get to place.” Rosa complained as they walked to the park to meet Cinder.
Terry turned to ask, “Don’t you already know that answer, you have an Attribute for knowledge about this world to help me learn after all?”
Rosa scowled, “That is not the point, the point is you didn't know that answer is untrue. And that is the problem”
“I think you will like her, she was very interested in meeting you. She’s never met a creature with a shell, you know.” Terry put in.
“Well of course she will like me, I am just making sure she will like you.” Rosa shot back smartly.
Terry rolled his eyes, thinking of a line in the letter that had suggested what might have been if he had come over that night instead of sending a note. He did feel a need to take that part of the relationship slower than she had insinuated, as he did not want a relationship built solely on physicality. That notion was put to the test when he saw her however.
At the bar she had dressed with the idea of competing, but here she seemed to be wearing an outfit for the occasion. The dress was floral and colorful with bright yellow and red flowers with large closed buds much like a tulip. The background was white and the thin straps and short length caused Terry’s mouth to drop open in awe of her beauty. Her hair was braided and clipped back with a similar flower clip to the buds on her dress. She was stunning.
Then she turned around and any thoughts that Rosa had of her not reciprocating Terry’s feelings was lost in the smile that shone from her face.
“Oh boy, I think we might have lost this plot” Rosa rolled her eyes in turn as Terry stared dumbly at the beautiful gnome that was clearly there to meet them.
-
Several days later, the randomizer spun in a whirring display as they exited the locker room for the arena. When it stopped for the environment then the enemy. The terrain symbol was obviously representing a swamp with islands of moss and earth. The thing that gave Terry pause was the wavy lines that came up from the water. He understood what it meant as the ground around them changed.
The bog was bubbling around them and Terry got the sharp smell of chemicals as it softly popped around them. “Is that acid? Is this an acid swamp?” He asked
“I think so,” Morris confirmed from behind a pinched nose.
The Mob symbols were also easy and did not engender confidence. It was a pointed nose and a brimmed triangle hat. Properly hunched weaning robs, with a broom in hand. Morris confirmed Terry’s assumption when he called it to the listening Rosa.
“It's a pair of Hags. We need to stick together and not let them speak. Most of their spells are built up and letting them talk is a death sentence. They are stronger than they look too, but they use tricks more than close up tactics.” Morris detailed as they began to move through the swamp avoiding the popping puddles of acid.
Hurk grunted, “That takes out about half of my role.”
Rosa replied and Terry mimicked her response to Hurk, “Actually a common trick is minor illusions, Hurk can come in handy finding the real enemy during the fight, the illusions will disappear on contact.”
Rosa then told Terry, “They have magic senses so you won’t be able to sneak up or get too close before they notice. Stay with the others for now there is no need to scout.”
Terry wondered if that was good advice, but he trusted Rosa’s assessment of an enemy, she had the knowledge and a book of monsters she had found on a trip to the local library. Rosa and Cinder had become fast friends after the initial date and Cinder had taken Rosa to the public library after hearing how much he liked records and reading. The Turtle had been giddy for days after just having Terry fetch her several tomes and even looping in the librarians to feed her hunger for new knowledge.
The path through the swamp was easier to navigate for the acid as it helped show the trail that was safe and solid to step on. The smell made Terry and Morris nauseous, but seemed to have little effect on the goblin.
“It is my attribute Burly that helps me here, it gives me a boost to body functions and my goblin heritage allows me to filter inhaled toxins.” Hurk explained and Terry thought it was close to bragging as he smiled and let them through the marsh. Morris decided to rip the sleeves of his jacket and make a pair of masks, it only dampened the smell, but it freed their hands for fighting.
Then they came upon the clear site of the boss enemies.
It was a shack of a cabin, vines grew up the dark rotting wood along the windowless walls of the meager stilted home. It was five meters, at least, in air situated roughly on yellow wooden stilts covered in vines and barnacles. The barnacles were out of place, but seemed to fit the design over the setting. There was a rope ladder that looked so unused Terry wondered if the hags ever left or just had other means of getting to the door. The team viewed the hobble as they came over a rise in the land, as a moment passed and they spied the stilted house several things happened at once.
The stilts bent and moaned pulling and moving to free themselves from the earth. The four poles were no longer poles, but legs and large chicken feet, that recalled nursery rhymes and witches to Terry. The knees bent as the house seemed ready to pounce toward them.
“They have a moving house!” Rosa wailed over the line to Terry as he dashed to get out of the jumping path of the now very mobile and alive shelter. Each of them dove out in a different direction as the house leapt and landed where they had been spying seconds before.
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Terry rolled to evade as the hill shook with the impacting shed. Each member had gotten away but were not separated by the legged structure of the four legged chicken hut.
“You’re here for blood, but I have a proposal”
“We kill you instead and use your blood for a potion”
“So please come closer and I will give your hair a tousle”
“My sister and I will put our points in motion”
There were two distinct voices coming from the shack and two figures flew out on brooms. One was blue skinned with a classically ugly hag face complete with warts, aged wrinkles, and a massive pointed nose. She had hair like seaweed and a robe patched with deep purple and black. The other had the same worts, wrinkles and bumps, but instead had red skin and dark red robes that were almost purple.
Their brooms were gnarly and bowed with many knots and snares as if they were untrimmed branches from a tree. Their clawed fingers curled wickedly around the handles, till they lifted and pointed at the team firing bolts of energy.
Terry and the others had figured for distance, but only one of them was mobile enough to match and dodge the attacks, that was Terry. He decided to draw the fire of at least one of the enemies and give the others more of a chance. The idea of staying together had been thrown completely out the window once the house had landed and spread them apart. Terry crawled the ran back up the path, trying to seem tantalizing and get one of the hags to take chase.
Hurk jumped to block one of the bolts of energy that had been fired at Morris. The two had landed closer to each other, as Terry’s heightened acrobatic skill had drawn him further away. Morris aimed his staff calling “Break” toward the broom of one of the hags hoping to ground a foe rather than let it keep the advantage in the sky. It worked as the red hag had gone for preservation. As the broom broke, it did not appear dismayed, and once it landed far too gracefully it braided the broken end as a second wand.
Hurk stayed in front of Morris as a shield, blocking several bolts as they fired chaotically at the duo. The idea seemed to be quantity over precision for the hag and the spells seemed to vary in color and violence. As they are in every place around Hurk’s shield.
Morris took more time trying to aim more directly, hitting the hag several times to little or no effect. She was moving erratically all over the place, running and cackling like a mad woman. He and Hurk were forced to stay in one place as they could not coordinate effectively with the loud bangs and snaps of the various spells. Then Morris got an idea, the red hag seemed to want to keep them at a distance. He had read that this was often a sign for an enemy weakness.
“HURK, SMACK’EM GOOD!” Morris cried trying to yell over the explosion of spells. Hurk seemed to understand as he rushed forward and his shield collided with the hag while he screamed a battle cry.
-
Terry was running as the blue hag shot spells behind him in an epic chase. She was getting closer and closer with each shot, it seemed her broom was faster than the speed spell he had enacted.
Call Wind had a variety of spells that commanded the element of wind, Terry had a spell that enhanced his speed called Rush of the Wind. The command was simple, simply calling, “Rush” allowed him to sprint quickly as long as his SP and MP meters were filled. This was faster then Terry had ever run before, but it was not faster then the spells and broom the hag had at her disposal.
He needed to get her off the broom, and he needed to do it fast. And Idea came to him with another of his Call Wind spells. He jumped, spun and called, “Gale” while swiping an open hand back toward the flying hag. A gust of wind knocked her from the broom, the force throwing her several feet. She landed gracefully, rolling to her feet like a trained gymnast.
His landing was decidedly less elegant in comparison. He smacked the ground with his rear, rolled backward along the ground bumping and tumbling in a heap, coming to a stop in an acid puddle. It popped and sizzled, but his nanoweave shirt and pants actually protected most of his body. He was burned in random patches that the clothes did not cover.
Health: 125/150 HP
He stood quickly rushing to exit the acid, it was shallow and he also found his feet protected in his Sneaky Sneakers. The hag stood about ten meters away closing the distance menacingly.
“Oh child, I will have fun bathing you in that acid pool.” It called to him. He prepared for a more direct flight. Or at least he thought.
-
Hurk was pumping the red hag quite effectively, it took the hits soundly at first but once a rhythm was established Hurk gained the upper hand. The hag was indeed weak to physical attacks, however it was a slippery foe. Morris did his best to fire shots around the hag to keep them in place, but was needed less and less as Hurk took more and more command of the battle.
His eye wandered to the now non-moving chicken leg hut, it had not moved since the two hags had exited. He decided to leave Hurk to his duel and investigate.
He climbed the ladder, the wear and tear had apparently been an illusion to discourage this as the effect had disappeared once he grabbed a hold of the rope. Once on the porch he found the door still open, from where the hags had exited and the contents of the home were surprisingly organized.
There were shelves of bottles and ingredients tied in bundles, his tradesmen HUD giving values and descriptions for the items around the single room hut. A large black cauldron sat in the center on top of a roaring fire, it was like a picture of a storybook in his orphanage.
Morris peered into the cauldron and was surprised to see pictograms and symbols that enabled the huts locomotion. Morris remembered that Terry had run off, and he figured this was probably the easiest way to catch up with his fast friend.
Morris returned to the door to see Hurk climbing the ladder, “I took care of her, right quick once she balled up on the ground. What did you find up ‘ere” He called seeing Morris peer dawn at him.
“I think we will have some looting to do, but I think we should catch up to Terry before anything else.” He told the goblin as he reached the top and they went into the hut.
-
Terry was having a harder time then he had thought he would, now that the hag was on the ground. She employed a similar crazy spell firing style, but Terry did not have a way of blocking. He only had his Speed and Acrobatic skills to try and dodge the freezing effects as the blue hag shot explosions of magic at him.
Health:100/150 HP
Terry had small popping sores from his tumble in the acid and more black deadened patches of skin on his hands and face from the Hags ice spells. They burned with cold and if he missed his footing for a moment he sizzled in the acid.
Health: 90/150 HP
“We have to get you some help. Can you distract with a shadow or wind trick?” Rosa put in. She was horrified watching her owner and friend get hit time and time again while trying to dodge and survive.
Terry could not easily reply, the battle was drawing too much of his attention, but she had a point and his mind raced to figure a way out of this mess. Call Shadows was different to the spells that came in Call Winds. He could move shadows that already existed to shroud himself, others or cover an area. It was more useful in sneaking and hiding, but maybe he could combine the two spell groups to give him a reprieve. His MP was halved after his sprint and use of gale to ground the hag. He would have just enough for the two quick spells.
“Enshroud” then a pause as the shadow moved to cover the hag, then “Cyclone'' Terry moved his hands around while commanding his strongest Call Wind spell. The air came alive around him speeding up and wiping debris off the ground. Several illusions were broken as the twister moved toward the mass of shadow where the hag was hidden from view.
The real body of the hag was not bothered by the winds, Terry had fallen for a blunder as the hag was not caught by his shadow tricks. It was apparent that magic was not effective after that display and the hag continued to fire an icy blast at Terry.
Health:75/150 HP
The force of the ice blast threw Terry into the air, he landed hard and the wind was knocked out of him.
Health: 66/150 HP
Terry flashed back to a time where a bully had thrown him to the ground on the playground. He had kept to himself in school, barely keeping friends as he was constantly the new kid after him and his mom moved here and there. This had been his first and only interaction with a bully, the massive fifth grader had called him several animated names then grabbed him by the collier before throwing him to the ground in a fit of laughter. Terry did not even know what he had done to get the bully mad. He had just turned on him like some wild animal and no one had come to save him as he had received his first black eye. This was going to hurt just as bad or Terry could fight back.
The witch fired another bolt, it singed and broke the arm of his nanoweave as he drew it up to black the shot.
Health: 50/150 HP
Terry decided not to cower like he had in the past, and in one motion drew and threw Flicker at the Hag. The knife soared from his bruised and busted hand as he fought through the pain to aim at the target. A spell threw the knife off course, but Terry had two knives and the first had distracted the hag as the second tumbled toward its target.
Spark was larger and throwing the hunting knife resulted in a less graceful yet more devastating attack. As the blade sunk into the Hag’s shoulder, its effect went off. Flames burst out all over the witch. Then for good measure Terry commanded Flicker back to his hand and threw it as well. It sank into the other shoulder of the burning witch.
Then something happened that Terry did not expect, a chicken foot planted squarely on the hag as the hut pounced from out of nowhere onto the flaming enemy.
Your points of experience have increased. You have 193 points of experience. You now have 229 points of experience. You have gained an upgrade to your HUD and gained the Special Attack Machine Gun Arm.
Special Attack: Machine Gun Arm: Throw objects in rapid succession, this works best with summoning weapons or objects.
The popping of this information meant that the other enemy must have been defeated. This was further confirmed when Terry looked up at the shack to see Hurk, peering down and waving from the door. This time as the level met into the ground and the podium appeared the Hag’s hut stayed, and they were able to fill Terry’s inventory up with ingredients and bobbles from the shelves of the hut.
This idea of looting was something Terry was familiar with but had not seen in other levels, Morris explained it was usually decided on conquering an area or finding something before the level ends, in this case Morris had conquered the hut and so the items inside were rightfully lootable.
Once they left the level, they went to the Player Tavern, who got them in touch with an alchemist who would trade for the ingredient.
“Ingredients and potions from a level are purer and more potent than what a common equivalent would be. This was placed and crafted by the gods and is purely and exactly what it says it is, that is why the healing potion you used in the level worked so well.” The alchemist was referring to a potion that Terry had taken in the level, it had healed his HP up fully and once he ranked up had even fulfilled the new HP he had earned in the level. He now had two hundred HP, and it would go up by fifty each rank, unless there were some other boosts involved.
His modifiers for his skills would only go up every five ranks, and that might affect his HP, MP or SP as well. It all depended on chance and which of his attributes modified once he hit Rank 5, that was all random.
Once the ingredients were sold it gave them a massive boost to their funds and the team made a decision. Each member would get a piece, but a portion would be put toward staying in Kimberglade for an extra week and running the Platforming level arch multiple times. This was an excellent way to gain ranks and grind further.
Each member had an ulterior motive for wanting to stay as well. Hurk was going to take a portion and go for a league at the Sports Bar joining and competing for a larger prize.
For Morris and Terry the reason was simply Edna and Cinder. Both admitted that they wanted to spend more time and continue to pursue a relationship with the girls. For Terry this meant dates and for Morris this came in many other more intimate forms.