It was only as she led Fat John away that she realised she’d only completed one quest. That of rescuing Fat John. The other one, to rid the tunnels of Mogwai, was still active.
She paused, looking at the quest area.
“What’s wrong?” asked Fat John in a low murmur. Whispers tended to carry further due to the sibilant ‘ess’ sound. Lower-pitched voices, such as those of men, when murmured were perfectly audible close up, but less so further out.
“The quests I had were to rescue you, and to rid this area of Mogwai,” she murmured back, leaning close into his ear.
She felt him shrug.
“And the quest isn’t complete. But what’s got me really worried is that the quest area is moving with us.”
There was a pause of a few seconds, in which Mai could only hear her heartbeat. Fat John lowered himself as he turned to look back in the direction from which they’d come.
“Get down,” he tugged on her trouser leg as he spoke. “The lights behind us silhouette us too much.”
Mai dropped instantly, placing a hand in the muck to steady herself.
“See anything?”
“No,” he placed his hand on her shoulder. “But that doesn’t mean anything. What’s the quest area doing now?”
Mai opened up her map, and shared it with him. Both cursed as they saw that the circle was still moving, albeit slowly, to cover them.
“What the Hells is happening?” Mai looked over at Fat John, trying to read the plethora of emotions that washed over his face in the dim light of the sewer.
“We’re being followed is what’s happening,” he scrubbed a hand over his face. It was surprisingly clean. She made a mental note to work out how he did that, as there wasn’t a chance in the Three Burning Hells that she’d touch her face right now. “There are mogwai out there and they’re hunting us.”
“Hunting us? We just killed a brood mother! They should be shitting themselves at the thought of facing us!” Her voice rose as she spoke, and he snapped a warning at her. “Sorry.”
“We have a choice, try to make it out of the Deadzone before they get to us, or stand here and fight.”
Mai didn’t hesitate. She hated the Deadzone with a passion. The constant not-wind, the drip-drip-dripping, the lights flashing on and off were all ramping up her anxiety. She hadn’t stopped sweating since entering them, and it wasn’t due to exertion.
“Fuck it, let’s get out of here. If we head this way we should come across some urbexers I helped out. Let’s hope they return the favour.”
Fat John didn’t wait for her to finish. He was up and running before she knew it, leaving her open-mouthed.
“Bastard,” she chuckled, surprised at just how fast the old man was moving. Activating her FREE RUNNING she was up and after him as quickly as possible. In no time at all she was past him, her FREE RUNNING showing her the best route to take even in the dark.
Chittering followed her, as well as a low bass moan which seemed to swell the longer it went on.
“Oh Sweet Emperor!” wailed Fat John, who was now a few paces behind her. “They’ve got a Mogwai Patriarch!”
Things just keep getting better and better! Mai thought. Even as she ran she opened up a menu and performed a quick search.
She instantly regretted it. Whilst she’d thought that an Ushi-oni was bad enough, and that the Brood Mother had most certainly left things to be desired in the looks department, the Mogwai Patriarch was utterly abhorrent.
It was the very spirit of a living nightmare. Unlike most mogwai she’d seen, it had four insect-like legs jutting out of the side of its body, which most closely resembled a lizard. Instead of a head however, it had a humanoid torso with a baby’s head.
Five pendulous breasts hung down the centre of its slime-coated-yet-furry torso, and the eyes of the baby were at least ten times too large. As was its mouth which stretched from ear-to-ear and was filled with needle-like teeth.
As with the Ushi-oni, a scorpion’s tail curled out of the creature’s hindquarters, but whereas you would normally expect a stinger, there was another baby’s head with yet another needle-filled mouth and a single barbed horn dripping with poison jutting from its forehead.
All of those details filled her mind's eye in the time it would have taken her to blink. Which she did, furiously as tears sprung from her eyes.
“How the Five Hells of Pleasurable Torment did that ever come into being?” She yelled, closing the image as quickly as she could. She knew that she would never forget that sight, no matter how many lifetimes she had to do so. “Left here!”
She bounced off the wall as she turned into the tunnel, grunting as her body met the unyielding plasticrete. John went skidding past the entrance with a surprised yelp, unable to stop due to the waste.
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Mai slowed, not wanting to leave Fat John behind even though every fibre in her body was screaming at her to just keep running. In what seemed like an age, but was only a few seconds, Fat John appeared in the entrance.
“Go! What are you waiting for!” he yelled, sprinting past her, arms pumping as hard as they could.
That’s the second bloody time he’s left me standing!
A howl echoed down the tunnel they’d just exited. Needing no further prompting she was off after him, maxing out the effectiveness of her still active FREE RUNNING. It was nearing cool down however, so she plotted the route as far ahead as possible, trying to commit it to memory before the skill went passive.
Light shone towards them, more than one hundred paces away, and Mai breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is that them?” Fat John yelled over his shoulder. “Are those the urbexers you helped?”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know that! They’re over one hundred paces away!”
Another roar, and more chittering, seeming much closer than before. Her shoulder blades twitched as though someone was running their finger down her backbone. Mai arched, the feeling was so strong.
“Bollocks to this!” Still running she opened up her menu, selected bouncing betties and formed two as quickly as she could, throwing them down behind her as soon as they were in her hands.
BIO-MASS – 90%
Ten per cent BIO-MASS was a price she was willing to pay at that moment. She could have sworn she could hear claws scraping at the plasticrete of the walls behind her.
Light flashed into existence, throwing her shadow dozens of paces in front of her before a wave of heat slammed into her back and she found herself flying headfirst. With the last second of her FREE RUNNING activation she tucked into a roll, coming smoothly back to her feet.
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
MOGWAI BANE – 60%
Ears ringing she pushed herself back into a run, only now realising just how hard her lungs were straining for breath. More torches sprang into life ahead of them, only seventy or so paces away.
Fat John started shouting, but just as she thought she could understand what he was saying, there was another blast. This time her FREE RUNNING was in cool down. Caught unawares, despite having laid the mine, she was blasted into the sludge at her feet, sliding Emperor-knew how many paces on her front.
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
MOGWAI BANE – 80%
HIT! 30%
BLEED @10% PER SECOND
HIT! 23%
BLEED @3% PER SECOND
HIT! 37%
BLEED @10% PER SECOND
CRITICAL HIT! 47%
CRIPPLED!
PANIC!
BLEED @14% PER SECOND
Groaning, legs shaking, chest heaving as she tried to suck in air, Mai pushed herself back to her feet. Not daring to look behind her, she set off running once more.
Not running, need to run, she tried to push her flagging body to greater extremes, but all she could manage was a shambling jog which didn’t seem much quicker than a walk.
“Mai! Bloody run girl!” Looking up, she tried to see where Fat John was, but the torches of the urbexers were now much closer.
DAZZLED!
Yet another redundant notification informed her of what she already knew. Multiple beams of light shone into her face, removing any hope she had of being able to see in the dimly-lit sewer.
Giving up on trying to see where she was going, Mai crafted another two mines as she ran, lobbing them over her shoulder.
“Mines! Watch out!” she screamed at the nearest torch holders who appeared to be no more than a few paces away from her. Straightening her arms out by her side, she aimed for where she thought was a gap between them and threw herself forward.
Whatever felt as though it was snapping at her heels ran into the bouncing betties’ sensors, detonating them millionths of a second later.
Mai crashed into the two torch bearers, piling them into the ground as heat washed over them.
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
INSTAKILL!
BOUNTY! 50 UC!
NEW TITLE – MOGWAI BANE!
NEW SKILL – SONIC BOOM!
HIT! 23%
BLEED @1%
STUNNED
STAGGERED
CRITICAL HIT! 65%
BLEED @25% PER SECOND
HIT! 5%
BLEED @5% PER SECOND
HIT! 10%
BLEED @4%
STAGGERED
STUNNED
UNLOCKED – DELVER’S SHIELD ARMOUR!
YOU KILLED TEN OPPONENTS WITH MINES IN UNDER ONE MINUTE
The creatures must have been clustered incredibly close for her mines to have killed or injured so many, and she tried not to think about just how many were actually still coming towards her.
Snarling, Mai turned to face her pursuers, ignoring the squeals of the urbexers as she used their bodies to push herself back up.
A veritable wall of mogwai charged towards her, claws, tongues and stingers extended, howling now that they were within a hair's breadth of avenging the Brood Mother.
“Fucking bring it!”