Owin crawled backward until he bumped into the tower ruins. Katalin and Ernie shouted, but their voices were muted and distant. Everything was red as fire burned through Owin’s veins. His stomach twisted as it readied another bout of vomit.

His health couldn’t take another one.

Hands shoved him down with incredible strength as a health potion was poured into his mouth. The familiar taste burned on his tongue.

Health 80/140

His stomach contorted as he heaved and immediately vomited again, forcing the burning pain to pulse through his whole body again.

Health 3/140

More health potions were poured into his mouth, burning like acid as they jumped his health back up. Still, nothing stopped the pain or cleared his vision. Owin tried curling up, but the hands forced him to remain still.

“What did he eat? What did he eat?” Katalin screamed, and yet her voice sounded a mile away.

“It’s not the horrific damage. I—I don’t know!” Glass clinked as Ernie dug through his bag right beside Owin’s head.

Owin tried to curl up again, but one of the alchemists shoved him back again.

If he had to die, he had hoped it would be in a fight. At least he would have had a chance of winning. At least he would have been able to kill Artivan’s murderers first.

“Bring him to the exit,” Katalin said.

“No, Kat. We need those mushrooms.”

“Not for his life, Ern. We talked about this.”

“If he’s going to die, being outside isn’t going to fix it. I’ve never seen something like this. I’m not a healer.”

Owin tensed as his stomach twisted again.

“Think about the fight. What happened? What did he . . .” Katalin’s hand firmly gripped Owin’s arm. “Snake venom. Horrific damage.” She muttered something completely unintelligible to Owin.

“Snake venom will work its way through quickly. Too much blood for that. It would only tick his health down a few points at this level. It’s not a boss snake or a top floor mob,” Ernie said.

Owin puked again and successfully curled up, still unable to see his surroundings. His health didn’t drop as far, having been topped off by the multiple health potions used last time. Still, he had no way to help himself. The alchemists would be better off without him. They could follow after Arkasti and get to the mushrooms.

Owin tried to talk, to tell them to go, but all it did was burn his throat and cause his stomach to twist faster.

“There’s something we don’t know about goblins, horrors, or snakes, and I don’t think there is anything about snakes that’s going to surprise me,” Ernie said. His voice was extremely close to Owin’s ear. “Find me a piece of Baby Head.”

“Really? You’re going to use it?” Katalin’s voice quickly faded as her feet crunched in the sand.

“I don’t have much of a choice here.” Owin was partially turned over. Small hands kept shoving him in different directions, turning his head, moving his hands, even lifting his feet. “What in the abyss happened to you?” he asked quietly.

Owin’s whole body flinched as another wave of pain pulsed from his stomach. He heard a groan escape his lips, though he had no control of anything happening.

“You’re making my job a whole lot harder, Owin,” Ernie said. Bottles clinked as he dug through his backpack. “I’m trying here, you know. I don’t hate you. I just can’t fail Althowin.” He sighed. “I don’t even know if you can hear me. I’ll do my best.”

Katalin’s footsteps crunched in the sand, followed by a thump as she sat down. “A leg should do, right?”

“Sure. A leg is fine. Any part of the horror will be enough.”

Some things shuffled and a few more glass bottles clinked. Owin twitched again, feeling his stomach start another round of spasms.

“How long does it take?” Katalin asked.

“Seconds, but it will take me a bit to sort through.”

“Sometimes I wish I took Discern,” Katalin said.

“If you chose Discern instead of Explosion Ward, you would be dead right now.”

“Yeah, but think how much better my bombs would be if I could—”

“Sorry, I need to focus.”

“Right, right.” Katalin shuffled around until she sat on Owin’s other side.

As soon as he heard her settle, he heaved and vomited another cloud of blood into the air. She put a hand on his shoulder, and rubbed gently as his muscles relaxed.

“Shit. Okay.” Ernie was suddenly moving, digging through his bag and rearranging the bottles he had pulled out earlier. “Alright.”

“Did you get it?”

Ernie only grunted in response. He shifted some more bottles around. “This. This. And . . . this.” He grabbed Owin’s cheeks and turned his head. “How long until his next vomit? It’ll kill him.”

“Don’t we have any health potions left?”

“No.” Ernie let Owin’s face go. “If ingested, prazene blood will attack the stomach lining and rip the being to shreds from the inside. Health potions do not calm the poison, only restore the health. Based on the ingredients in my bag, I can make one, possibly two variations of an antidote. We’re going to go with my first idea, which is like making raw versions of two separate potions. This prazene antidote is a Power 5 or master level potion.”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“Fuck.”

“I can do it. I just don’t know if I can do it fast enough.”

“Tell me what you need from me.” Katalin hopped over Owin and sat next to Ernie.

Owin could hear everything they did. He could even sense a little of what was happening as the water shifted with each of their movements.

“Heat this. Mix with this once you’re done. I need to Cool these two.” The water immediately started changing in temperature. Owin’s whole body already felt hot, but he could tell where Katalin was working as the water became warmer.

“And this,” Ernie said quietly to himself. “This needs Heat, and . . .” He tapped two bottles together. “What does slug arum do when it’s heated?”

“Withers and crumbles.”

“Right. Then Cool this.”

“It’ll slow the movement,” Katalin said.

“Yes.”

Two bottles clinked together. “What about the sarracenia cardiosa you had me mix? It’s a pulp now.”

“Mix that with the snapdragons you heated, then put the slug arum inside. We need the flowers coated in the snapdragon and cardiosa pulp.”

“What are you doing?”

“We’re trying to neutralize the prazene blood in his stomach. The only way to do that is heal the injuries, which you’re working on, while simultaneously capturing and containing the prazene blood for him to move through his system.”

“He has to shit it out?”

“In short, yes.”

“Well, fuck.”

“So, the slug arum coated in the mixture will repair the injuries, although it’ll be painful—”

Owin tensed again.

“We don’t have time,” Katalin said.

Ernie shushed her and continued muttering to himself. “Prazene are weak to energy attacks, which should then be neutralized through a source of arcane powder.” He mumbled a few things. “Occult welwitschia should have enough energy to create this, so I’ll Mix this to the right coarseness.” It sounded like something churning beside Owin’s head. “And then Compress to a perfect bead,” Ernie said.

The air hummed.

“This is at least a year’s salary of ingredients, Ern. You need more grenades too.” Katalin sighed. “Thank you.”

“And . . .” He tapped a finger on the bottle, ignoring Katalin. “The welwitschia bead has a purple glow, which is exactly what we need. Now its carrier to latch onto the prazene blood has to be strong enough to survive the inner workings of a damn goblin, so I’ll let ocular blood carry it. It should even help the poison move through his system faster.”

“Because he’ll have diarrhea.”

The bead plopped into the bottle of ocular blood, immediately followed by a flash. Power radiated through the water, brushing over Owin’s skin.

“Did you just hit 51?” Katalin asked.

“Are the slug flowers ready?” Ernie asked.

“Yes,” Katalin said.

“Alright.” Ernie grabbed Owin’s face again and forced his mouth open. “Sorry, Owin.”

Owin felt his body tensing, readying for another bout just as Ernie poured in a bitter, horrible potion. Energy washed straight down his throat, numbing everything it touched. Every muscle, starting from his heart and moving outward, twitched as the potion rushed to his stomach. It gurgled, and Owin felt the potion and prazene blood fight.

“Now,” Ernie said.

Katalin leaned on Owin’s chest and dropped what felt like a full slug into his mouth. It wiggled through his mouth and slipped into his throat. She dropped two more, one after the other, until Owin felt three slugs crawling through his throat toward his stomach.

He would’ve preferred Ernie’s potion again.

“Did it work?” Katalin asked.

“Give it a minute.” Ernie had already started packing things up as bottles clinked together.

Owin farted.

“Uh.” Katalin poked him. “You’re still alive, right?”

Owin farted again.

He had never had such an experience. Without needing to eat, he had never had to defecate. Even the things he had consumed had just . . . disappeared. But now, something was happening in his stomach as it continued gurgling and rumbling.

“Yeah, he’s about to shit,” Ernie said. He was already on his feet, walking away.

“I didn’t think it would work that fast.”

“Ocular blood moves straight through. It’s a dangerous one for us. For Owin who doesn’t usually shit, I assume this is a new, horrible experience. But it’s an experience he’ll survive.”

Katalin stood and hurried away as Owin released everything built up in his system. His eyes immediately shot open, only to be completely blinded by all the blood floating in the water. He crawled away, feeling aches through his whole body, and took a deep breath as soon as the water was clear. A brown cloud floated just beside all the blood where he had been lying.

“That’s about our half hour,” Ernie said. “Who’s ready for the third floor?”

Owin scowled. “I need to change my pants.”

“We’ll kill a cetanthro on the next floor and get you a pair. But for now, it’s either that or being naked on the bottom half,” Ernie said.

Katalin walked up and hugged Owin’s head. “Glad you’re okay.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist. “Thank you. Both of you.”

Ernie just grunted and walked to the stairs.

“What did I tell you about eating things?” Katalin asked.

“It wasn’t on purpose. I barely remember doing it.”

“He didn’t eat it. Blood floats in the water. I mean, look at that mess where he was lying. I’m sure a lot of people have died to Baby Head just because they accidentally drank a small bit of blood.”

Owin groaned and put a hand over his stomach.

“The slug arum will continue repairing the damage. Your health should be ticking up slowly,” Ernie said.

It was climbing, though at the current rate, it would be days before he would be full health again. He slowly gathered his things, double checking that he had all his various weapons. The new wand sat in his belt right beside the lich bone knife. Owin took a deep breath. Everything hurt. Each time his body had tensed, it had added new aches. With his health so low, pain would be constant, at least until the potion fixed the injuries.

Floor two had almost killed Katalin and Owin, and they had two floors to go before they could harvest the mushrooms Ernie needed.

All of this for some mushrooms.

Ernie walked down the stairs. “Anybody against going down right now? No?” He waved. “See you there.” He disappeared into the black void of the doorway.

“No matter what he says, he’s glad you’re alive,” Katalin said. She adjusted the trident in her hands. “Now, this next floor is what killed our last escort. We want to avoid fighting, okay?”

“I’m not sure I know how to do that,” Owin said. He groaned again. If he thought about it, he could feel the slug flowers crawling inside of his stomach. “How long does this last?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never made a potion like that before. Ernie’s the more potion oriented one.”

“What are you?”

“Bombs and items. That’s why our abilities and spells are so different.”

“I heard him say it was a master level potion,” Owin said quietly as they approached the stairs. He stared into the black doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

“Right. Potions and bombs have rarity classifications like weapons. Part of that was the Power 5 spell he needed to create it, and part of it is the skill required. Even if I had Compress, I don’t have the control to make things the exact right size like Ern does.”

Owin just nodded as if he understood. He had his own couple of spells, and that was all he would ever have. Anything above Power 1 was a mystery to him. Even knowing the names didn’t really help him understand what it was like to have those spells or what it took to cast them.

“What he did more than makes up for what he did in the golden city,” Katalin said.

“I know. I agree.”

Katalin smiled and bumped him with the butt of the trident. “Better get down there before Ernie gets jumped by some fish.”