About thirty seconds ago, I had been feeling pretty good about the plan. All we needed to do was buy a little time. I had a laundry list of ideas for how I could do that. I could use my new Cloudfall skill with a Potion of Life to cause a distraction or create a no-fly zone between myself and Rake, forcing him to wade through dangerous poison or fire to reach me. I also had the net between us, which, if not resisted, should have slowed him down considerably.
There were just a few problems, and I had discovered all of them in a single, terrifying moment that seemed to stretch out in slow motion.
One, my Forge Echo bow was more of a coward than I realized. Instead of immediately coming around the corner and firing at Rake as soon as the opportunity presented itself, my bow was still hiding.
Two, Rake had used his teleportation ability to appear in my shadow, effectively crossing the majority of my distraction plans off the list of options.
Three, he was on top of me, and he was fast.
I could hardly spare the concentration to avoid getting skewered, let alone forming careful clouds of elements or anything fancy.
Time seemed to resume as Rake rose out of the darkness at my feet, daggers already drawn and poised to strike before he was fully out of the ground.
Everything was happening too fast. I was outclassed and outmatched in every way, and the realization thumped with every pulse of my rapidly beating heart. Mana Sense exploded, warning me that some sort of magical attack was bathing both of his daggers.
The warning barely gave me time to hastily throw up a Mana Shield between us.
His right hand flashed out, shattering my shield as if it were brittle glass.
His dagger would have continued straight through to my gut, but the bubble of my Ring of Protection blossomed around me.
The tip of his dagger screeched, scratching off vibrant sparks as the shield disappeared.
I stumbled back, hands raised, as if it would do anything to stop his assault. There was no time to think. No time to draw on any of the plans I had prepared.
He was already aiming another attack with his second dagger.
God, he was too fast. Way too fucking fast.
I tried to jump and raise another Mana Shield at the same time.
Rake sidestepped around the floating shield, gathering more mana into his dagger.
Mana Sense helped me predict the attack early enough to raise and slightly reinforce a small shield no larger than a notecard. With the small size and precise placement, this shield was powerful enough to deflect his attack.
But Rake was relentless, eyes hardening as he increased his speed even further and drew more mana into the next attack.
I backpedaled, blocking four or five strikes in as many seconds—each deflected with tiny squares of mana that I was able to place perfectly with help from Mana Sense. There was no time to think. No time to panic. I relied completely on Mana Sense and my instincts, desperately wishing my fucking Forge Echo would come help. I had told the others to wait until the arrow fired, but I knew they would only put up with this for so long before they abandoned the plan and tried to join the fight.
Rake paused, head tilted. He looked down at his dagger, as if a thought was occurring to him.
Before I could react, he stepped to my left in a feint, spun, reversed the grip on his dagger, and slammed something into my thigh.
This time, no mana had gathered in his strike. Without the magical warning, I hadn’t been able to react to his speed in time, catching the full force of his blow.
The force of his dagger punching into my thigh swept my leg out from under me. I smashed into the ground hard, teeth clattering together.
Did he figure out I was only blocking his attacks when they were charged with mana?
The pain wasn’t just a physical shock. My confidence was draining almost as fast as the blood from my thigh, which was seeping out in a deep red stream. I fed mana to the wound, devouring it to heal myself.
I tried to get to my feet, but Rake lazily kicked me in the chest, knocking me back down hard.
“Why don’t you stay down, Helmet? The things I’m going to do to you require precision. It’ll be easier if you stay still.”
All thoughts of attack were momentarily washed from my mind. I only felt the pure, prey-like instinct to get away from the deadly predator.
I gathered mana, touching the Potion of Life in my belt as I began to form a Cloudfall behind Rake.
Rake loomed over me, circling slowly until his back was once again to the passage where my bow was hiding. “No, no,” he said, as if scolding a small child. He stomped down on my wounded thigh, instantly breaking the forming spell and nearly causing me to lose my grip on the Forge Echo, too. “No more tricks, Helmet. I want your full attention.”
Come on, Bow. He’s distracted. He has his back to you. Just come out and take the shot. I’ll unsummon you as soon as you do it.
Distantly, I noticed the party rushing out of the hole in the wall.
The plan was officially out the window, then. We were all going to fucking die, weren’t we?
If they somehow reached me in time, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Rake’s speed, even with Ramzi’s music magic glowing around their legs.
I assessed the situation as Rake smiled down at me, knives in hand. I was feeding mana to my wound with Devour Mana, healing it as quickly as I could, but it was deep, and taking time.
I had my back to the wall. To my right, I could see the distant form of Rake’s two allies, who were still near the cave-in a few hundred feet away. My party was much closer as they ran toward me from maybe a hundred feet away. To my left, Rake stood over me, head cocked, as if he was trying to decide which body part to remove first.
There’s still a chance this could work. I just need my Forge Echo to do its job.
Zahra gathered black magic to her hands and Thorn had a chained shield rotating around his body.
Rake looked toward them, then back at me, but didn’t seem concerned to see five Woods rushing to my aid.
Why would he? I was likely the strongest of our group, and he had hardly broken a sweat to get me on the ground.
Come on, Forge Echo. I really need you to come through for me, Buddy. I know you’re scared, but you just have to do this one thing. Come on!
I felt a faint sense of resolve through my connection to the bow. To my left, the spectral bow drifted into view, Bombroot arrow nocked and drawn. The bow was shaking, almost as if the invisible figure holding it couldn’t keep their hands still.
Steady, I thought. You can do this, Buddy.
Rake flipped both daggers, caught them in an underhand grip, and smiled. “Don’t worry, pup. I won’t kill ya. Not yet. Just going to remove the parts you won’t be needing for—”
Thump.
The Silver Scream arrow punched into his back with so much force that I saw the tip sticking out just below his chest.
I heard shouts and felt magic gathering between myself and my party, but was too focused on Rake to look.
I had worried his Iron body might be too tough to punch through when I worked out this plan with my bow. If I could make him bleed, then it was possible to win. Possible, even if highly unlikely…
Rake looked down at the bloody arrowhead, frowned, and then turned to see my Forge Echo.
“Fucker…” he hissed.
My Echo turned and ran away as soon as Rake looked at it.
I cut off the spell, saving what mana I could as I got to my feet. I grabbed a Viperlilly vial in one hand and summoned my Elemental Spike. I took a moment to form a Forge Echo behind Rake while he still looked down at the arrow coming out of his chest. Holding the Elemental Spike and the Forge Echo was already straining my concentration. I was tempted to try to summon a Cloudfall above his head, but worried I wouldn’t have enough spare focus for Mana Shields and Devour Mana if I did. I also had to consider my dwindling mana pool.
Rake’s hood was drawn over his dark features and almost feral eyes. He was grinning as he reached down to touch the arrowhead sticking out of his chest with a fingertip, almost curious. “Glass arrow?” he asked.
Ignoring him, I glanced to my right. The spell I had sensed was a white, magical mask that was floating between me and my party. It looked like white porcelain with two slanted eye holes. I sensed a ball of mana in the mask calling out to something, almost like a magnet.
The whole tunnel rumbled, and dirt clouds suddenly exploded all around the mask, raising dust in every direction.
There was a clattering, crunching sound in the dust, almost like bones snapping and bending. The dust settled around a massive approximation of a golem, wide, tall, and hunched. The white mask hung in front of its face as the golem stomped toward my allies, shaking the cave with each step.
Rake pursed his lips at the thing, then shrugged as his focus returned to me.
My Forge Echo swung at Rake, but he didn’t even bother parrying. He simply disappeared into a shadow and reappeared out of the way of the attack.
I felt a sudden and almost blinding concentration of mana from the direction of Rake’s allies. This attack felt… wrong. It was as if the mana was rotten and sick, but god, there was so much of it.
A moment later, one of Rake’s allies raised his hands and produced a giant green skull bathed in emerald-hued fog. It screamed, wooshing forward as it solidified, eyes empty and mouth gaping as noxious fumes bellowed from its jaws. It drifted forward slowly, spewing poison as it traveled toward Lyria and the others, threatening to sandwich them between itself and the golem.
Sylara, Zahra, and Thorn were already trading blows with the golem. Ramzi was humming some kind of spell I hadn’t seen as a fuzzy barrier rose around all five of them.
Lyria swung her sword toward the approaching skull. A half-moon disc of green air sliced forward, cutting the skull as if it was nothing but a cloud.
The magic split the skull in half down the middle, but the fog swirled and reformed into two separate skulls that continued drifting toward the group.
Lyria jumped in front of the others and gathered the largest Wind Wall I had ever seen her attempt. It started in front of her body, and she seemed to stretch the weave, reinforcing it when it threatened to break. Within seconds, the wall of wind covered the entire passage. Ramzi’s protective bubble was growing thicker just behind the Wind Wall as well.
A moment later, the two skulls collided with the wind, but they were torn apart and sent back in a formless green fog that lingered, blotting out the passage beyond her spell as the others continued clashing with the bone golem.
The Wind Wall, Ramzi’s bubble, and the cloud of lingering poison would stop Rake’s allies from reaching the group temporarily. I hoped.
Rake dragged my attention away from Lyria and the escaped slaves, who were now desperately trying to dodge huge, bony punches from the masked bone golem.
Without even looking, he started parrying blow after blow from the Echo of my Elemental Spike as he smiled at me from one side of his mouth. “New trick, hm? I’ve got some tricks of my own. Watch this.”
Rake vanished, leaving a puff of smoke where he had been standing.
A second later, I heard clashing steel.
He had teleported past the golem and behind the others. Sylara never saw him coming. His arms moved in a blur, carving several shallow wounds before she could even turn to see what was happening.
My Elemental Spike Echo rushed after him, but it wasn’t fast enough.
This time, he had successfully used the magic attack he was trying to hit me with. Sylara fell backward in surprise as black, congealed blood pulled itself from her wounds. The dark blood landed in writhing clumps on the ground. The clumps rose up into thin, snake-like points and fired themselves back at Sylara like darts. Each dart drew a fresh wound that leaked more deadly dark blood, creating a growing cascade of shadow snakes.
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Before Sylara had even hit the ground, Rake was behind Thorn, dodging the spinning shield and cutting the back of his thigh, releasing the same deadly dark blood magic from Thorn.
A split second later, Rake was behind Ramzi, easily drawing blood from the sekmeti’s deep purple cheek.
The entire scene unfolded in two, maybe three seconds.
He’s just toying with us.
The realization hit like a punch to the gut, but I tried not to let it cause despair. If he wasn’t taking us seriously, we still had a chance. I reached out, doing my best to repair the party’s wounds, but from this distance, it was slow work. Thankfully, Ramzi’s regeneration magic was helping.
I cut off my Forge Echo spell and formed a cloud of Healing Potion over my party to hopefully help mitigate the damage. A red cloud that looked like it was raining blood startled them, but they seemed to quickly understand it wasn’t dangerous.
“I’ll give you what you want,” I shouted, hoping to buy time, if nothing else. After all, the tactic of promising him loot had worked in the Dark Wood. Maybe it could work again.
Lyria danced back from the bone golem, which was summoning fresh bones to repair itself every time she knocked away pieces of its body. Thankfully, the green fog was still keeping Rake’s allies at bay and Lyria’s Wind Wall was keeping the fog from reaching my friends.
Rake appeared beside me, lips only inches from my ear. “What if I want to watch you suffer? Will you give me that? Oh. Right. I don’t need your fucking permission.”
Ramzi and Zahra were trying to stomp on the shadows before they could cause more wounds while Thorn rushed to help Lyria push back the golem.
Rake’s eyes slid past me, and he grinned. “Interesting. What is that I feel you doing to them?” He tilted his head, face suddenly serious. “I see the cloud, but you’re doing something else. I feel it.”
Could he tell I was healing them?
“What do you want?” I asked.
Just give me more time. I was still drawing mana to my party’s wounds. Combined with their efforts to stomp out the dark blood snakes, the healing cloud, Ramzi’s regenerative ability, and my Devour Mana, we were just barely getting the situation back under control.
If that poison wasn’t keeping Rake’s allies at bay, this would go from shitty to hopeless in moments. I could see Lyria and Thorn were getting tired fast, too. They wouldn’t last much longer against the golem.
Thorn dodged sideways, slinging his chain shield up and blowing one of the golem’s arms completely apart, but a pulse of mana sucked the bones back together a moment later.
I made a fresh Forge Echo of my Elemental Spike appear behind Rake, straining my concentration to its limits.
“Let’s see…” Rake said, not reacting to the spell behind him. He could sense my healing, but not that? Or did he simply not care?
“Right now?” Rake said. “I’m kind of enjoying the fact that you idiots think you have a chance. Ever seen a cat play with its food? This is a lot like that…”
I felt a gathering of mana in Rake’s hand. He was too close to use a Mana Shield, so I instinctively activated Abyssal Step.
I barely activated my boots in time. His attack had been faster than blinking. When I looked down, his hand and dagger were extended through my chest. I sidestepped so he wouldn’t be inside me when the ability ended.
Rake casually turned and knocked away an attack from the Echo of my Elemental Spike behind him.
I saw Thorn fire a hook at the mask on the golem, ripping it free with a hard pull. The entire tower of bones came clattering down, breaking the spell immediately.
The others pushed forward, trying to help. Zahra slung wet webs of black magic on Rake, which clung to him and dripped to the ground. They acted like magic rubber bands, tethering him to the spot.
I snapped off my Cloudfall skill now that the group was fully healed. Juggling my focus between monitoring their wounds, Cloudfall, Devour Mana, Elemental Spike, and my Forge Echo was giving me a pounding headache. It was too much, and I was barely able to think about tactics with so many spells active.
Thorn fired another chain hook toward Rake, but Rake swiped a dagger to the side, deflecting the hook so it slammed into the tunnel wall instead.
The group converged on him. With one hand, he parried my Elemental Spike Echo. With the other, he blocked attacks while ducking, pivoting, and backstepping as if he could see every attack coming. He smiled as he seemed to dance away from everything.
The crazy bastard was enjoying this.
I looked for an opening to help, but all the slashing weapons in the tight space were too much. I kept focused on the others, healing any wounds as soon as I could to stop his shadows from overwhelming us. Occasionally, I threw up a quick Mana Shield and deflected attacks, or used them to stop Rake from moving in a given direction.
My mana was draining fast, though, and so was the mana of my allies. Lyria was almost completely dry already. Sylara was low, too, as I had used most of her mana to heal her wounds. Thorn and Ramzi weren’t much better off.
Nothing we did seemed to matter, though. Rake looked completely in control, even as my Forge Echo, Lyria, Sylara, and Thorn swung, slashed, and stabbed at him relentlessly.
If we could just buy a little more time, though, my Silver Scream arrow would detonate. Rake hadn’t bothered to pull it out, yet, and I could see the first hints of Bombroot Potion starting to bubble up from his pores like sweat.
Then again, if we waited too long, the poison would clear, and those other two would join the fight.
Rake vanished, nearly causing Lyria, Thorn, and my Forge Echo to hit each other by mistake.
Like a bug bite, I felt a cold pinch in my lower back. I turned and saw Rake kneeling and smiling. This time, the attack was loaded with mana, and my concentration was too strained to notice and react in time.
Rake teleported away, clashing with Lyria, who managed to deflect one of his attacks and blow him backward with a gust of wind.
Wet shadows slipped from my wound, coiling up like snakes as they threw themselves back at me, opening fresh cuts.
I cut off all my other spells, focusing on healing my wounds instead. For an irrational moment, I almost reached out and broke my Amulet of Escape. But I shoved that impulse down. I wasn’t abandoning the others, even if it meant dying here in the attempt to escape as a group.
The black magic snakes seemed to carry the same spell in their bodies, automatically activating more instances of the same dark blood sickness. They surrounded me and opened up wounds faster than I could heal, even as I force-fed myself a Healing Potion while using Devour Mana.
These shadows were going to overwhelm me and kill me in seconds if I didn’t fucking do something.
I had fallen to my ass and backed away on my hands and knees, kicking and slashing at them but only managing to deflect some of the growing number of magical attackers. I was leaking new, fresh shadows even as I tried to flee.
How the hell has it not been two minutes, yet? Time was moving too damn slowly because so much was happening so fast. But the Silver Scream effect hadn’t detonated, so it definitely hadn’t been two minutes.
I lifted a rectangular Mana Shield that blocked a few dozen shadows from drawing fresh wounds. But more shadows were leaking from my body and already jumping up, biting into me all over.
Lyria appeared, kicking at some of them like bugs, trying to smash them away from me.
Surprised, I looked to see Rake finally struggling with the black magic webs sticking him to the floor.
A moment later, Thorn, Zahra, Sylara, and Ramzi joined Lyria to help me finish off the shadows.
Someone from the other side of the poison cloud shouted in a crazed, high-pitched voice, then laughed. I looked to see a man bathed in green flames walking through the poison. It was making his flesh fall away in patches and his hair sizzle off, but he didn’t seem to care. He strode forward, eyes nothing but hollow sockets above a skeletal grin.
Who the fuck is that?
I absently checked my map and realized he was the half Iron, half-greenish-yellow dot.
I didn’t have time to speculate. Rake had broken free from the black magic webs and finally decided to tug the Silver Scream arrow from his chest. He dragged it through his body with a shudder and a crazed smile.
Shit.
“Ouchie,” he said, laughing.
How long had it been in him? A minute and a half? Maybe a little more? I didn’t trust my sense of time. All I knew was the battle had gone badly, and with ridiculous speed. Maybe it hadn’t even been that long.
The skeletal man would reach us soon. Rake coughed suddenly, wiping orange liquid from his chin with an interested expression.
Our whole group had gathered tightly together, maybe for one last stand.
There was finally a semblance of calm as we backed away from Rake, who slowly walked toward us, still smiling, even as orange leaked from his mouth.
The original plan was to hit him with the arrow and keep him too busy to pull it out until Silver Scream detonated. With the way things had actually gone, we would’ve been dead the moment we tried to run for the tunnel. This felt more like delaying our death for as long as we could.
“When I say,” I whispered, “we run into the cave.”
The gathered party nodded, posture defensive as we continued to inch backward toward the hidden passage entrance.
“Taste that orange stuff?” I asked Rake between gulps of air. I was feigning calm, because I knew one more of those dark blood wounds of his would probably be the end of us. None of us had enough mana to deal with it. “It’s a potion made from something called Bombroot. Ever heard of it?”
Rake’s smile suddenly faded. He held up a hand, urging the skeletal man to stop his advance. “Stay the fuck back, Morrivan.”
Lyria’s Wind Wall and Ramzi’s bubble had both fallen, meaning the poison fog was slowly drifting closer to the tunnel entrance. We had to get in there soon, or it would be too late.
“Yeah,” I said. “You’re a powder-keg right now. One spark and I don’t know if being Iron would save you, but I’d be happy to find out.” The fact that Lyria and I had survived being so close to an explosion at only Wood made me suspect an Iron could possibly survive in Rake’s position. It was the only reason I thought we needed to risk letting enough Bombroot build up in his body for him to actually taste and see the potion. Otherwise, I would’ve wanted to detonate it as soon as we could.
Rake looked down as if only just noticing the orange liquid leaking from him like sweat. He coughed again, then cleared his throat. With the arrow out, his body was probably just trying to expel what was already inside him. “You’d blow yourselves up, too.”
“That’s Plan B,” I said. Technically, it was Plan C, but he didn’t need to know that. “Plan A is we walk into this tunnel, and you don’t follow us. Because if you do, I’ll summon another bow, but this one will shoot you with a fire arrow. The sparks will probably ignite even if you try to block it.”
No need for him to know my bow would more likely run for its life than obey me.
We kept creeping backward toward the grommet tunnel’s entrance as I spoke.
Rake flicked a clump of Zahra’s black magic from his arm, but it only stuck to the ground, nearly rooting him in place. He coughed again.
I saw Rake’s final ally approaching behind the poison mage. The poison cloud hadn’t dispersed, but the man wore a full black plate that must have been protecting him from its effect. That, or he was using some sort of ability.
He stalked behind the skeletal man with a huge greatsword drawn. There was something suspicious about the way he was moving. It was almost as if he was wary of the poison mage.
“Come on,” I urged. “In the tunnel. He knows he’s fucked if he tries to stop us.”
I touched a Dragon’s Tail vial, sending a thread of fire element up and above the grommet tunnel’s entrance. As soon as we were inside, I let Dragon’s Tail rain down in flaming drops, completely blocking off the entrance. I hoped the light from the falling flames would also blot out any shadows Rake might be able to teleport to.
I also hoped he wouldn’t detonate himself right on top of us out of spite.
“Run if you want,” Rake said, voice casual. “We’ll be right behind you. There’s only one way out of this fucking dungeon, idiots.”
His voice grew quieter as we carefully walked deeper into the grommet tunnel.
“You’re only delaying the inevitable!” Rake shouted, voice barely audible.
Was this actually working?
I hardly dared to hope we had escaped. Everything had gone so fucking badly, I was halfway expecting him to punch through the hidden tunnel’s wall and grip me by the throat.
But we kept moving and nothing happened.
We dodged the support pillars, moving as quickly as possible through the tunnel without collapsing it on ourselves. Once we had covered a little distance, I used some of the last scraps of my regenerating mana to cast Elemental Projection and create a pool of Bombroot on the ground.
When we were far enough away, I considered the safest way to collapse the tunnel behind us. An Elemental Spike infused with Dragon’s Tail could easily detonate the puddle of Bombroot. But… I would be asking the Echo to blow itself up, which felt wrong.
I couldn’t safely fire a Silver Scream arrow at the puddle without putting myself in danger.
I supposed it was time for my Forge Echo bow to build a little courage.
I took an extra moment to grow a fresh Silver Scream arrow from my quiver, infuse it with Dragon’s Tail, and then made an Echo of the bow. My Echo could detonate the Bombroot from a distance, and I could unsummon it before the explosion blew it up.
The bow seemed to understand that I was planning to protect it. It gave a little gesture, like a salute, then rushed off to do the job.
Lyria was giving me a strange look. “What are you doing?”
“I’m closing up the tunnel behind us. No reason to make it easy for them to follow us.”
I started weaving the thickest Mana Shield I could between us and the direction of the Bombroot. I was nearly spent on mana, though, so I focused on the more efficient method of reinforcing a single shield instead of using multiple stacks.
A few seconds later, there was a bigger boom than I expected.
As soon as I heard it, I unsummoned my Forge Echo. The shockwave rushed toward us, blasting apart support after support and causing the cave to collapse in a rush of dirt and boulders.
My shield flexed and cracked on impact but didn’t shatter, giving us a window-like view into the collapsing chaos of the grommet tunnel on the other side. Within seconds, the shield was holding back a pile of dirt and stone.
I cleared my throat, dismissing the spell with some trepidation.
A bit of dirt and rock rolled toward us, but the tunnel held.
“Just as I planned,” I said, coughing through the dust. “Let’s keep moving.”
“He grows his legend,” Ramzi said, giving my back a pat with his big hand.
I looked at the purple-skinned man, confused. “I got my ass kicked and we all nearly died. Is that what you mean?”
“You stood toe-to-toe with an Iron in single combat. You still breathe. We all breathe, thanks to your plan. The demon in the mist. The thorn in the side of Irons. The—”
“Easy,” Lyria said. “We don’t want his head to get so big it won’t fit in his helmet.” But she was smiling and looking at me with something like admiration.
Did they really think that was a success? I supposed it probably was a small miracle that I survived Rake up close. One of the only reasons I lived was because he had underestimated me and wanted to keep me alive for torture. I knew I was having a tough day when I caught myself feeling thankful that somebody wanted to torture me.
Next time, I couldn’t count on him underestimating me again. He had seen almost all of my tricks, and the Bombroot move wouldn’t work again. He’d either be watching for my Echo and avoid the arrow or pull it out as soon as it hit.
I needed to find a way to get stronger before we fought again. I was level 50 now. If I could somehow push myself to reach Iron before we met a second time, I could stand a chance. And maybe there was still some treasure worth looting at the dungeon’s heart—something we could use to turn the tides against Rake.
When nobody had spoken for a time, Zahra broke the silence, voicing the question I imagined we were all pondering. “What can we do now? They will still find us, no?”
“She’s right,” Thorn said. “There’s only one way out. They’ll camp out at the entrance and wait.”
“No,” I said, referencing my map for confidence. “There will be too many people at the entrance for that. If they want to kill us, they’ll have to hope they can find us on our way out. It’s a big dungeon…” Mostly, I was thinking about how I should be able to use my map to help us avoid them again.
“We will have to hope the entrance is populated, yes,” Thorn said, scratching his beard.
“We could rush the exit before they finish us. Fight our way to the surface, maybe?” Lyria said. “There will be guards up there.”
“Yeah,” I said, only halfway listening as the group worked through the problem.
In a short while, they were all going to find out what I had known was coming for the past few hours. We were heading straight for the dungeon’s heart, where the purple dot was waiting.
Out of the frying pan and into the fryer.