I moved swiftly and silently through the darkness, my eyes searching out the monsters that lurked in the shadows. I spotted a group of twelve bipedal rodent beastmen. They were something new, smarter than their dirt-crawling cousins. Thank the gods they didn’t wear armour or carry weapons, other than their thick hide and sharp poisoned claws, or they would have been much worse.
I took a deep breath and felt a thrum of energy racing through me before the world blurred around me as I activated Shadow Cloak. The shadows around me seemed to reach out and wrap me up in their embrace, instantly obscuring me from sight. Sounds were distorted, muffled, and even the colours that came to me as part of my Synesthesia were muted, but the ability to instantly hide and move amongst shadows was more than worth the trade off.
I allowed three of the monsters to run past me without being noticed, confident my team could handle them without me. But the larger group that followed close behind needed thinning out.
As they approached, I could see that one of the creatures in the back of the pack was particularly small and plump. My lips twitched in anticipation as I prepared to make my move. I silently circled behind the unsuspecting beastman, quickly snaked my arm around its neck, and with a single thought, I summoned a Shadow Blade and slid it across the creature's throat, severing its windpipe and preventing it from calling out. With a low sweep I put the beastman on the ground, the loamy ground absorbing the sound of its fall, and stabbed into the monster's back with precise accuracy: once for its whip-like tail, once for its kidneys and once for its lungs to ensure it died quickly. The beastman slumped to the ground limp, the body still warm as I pushed it aside.
I melted back into the shadows, my Shadow Cloak making me almost invisible as I continued hunting, attacking and vanishing before my prey had time to react. My Shadow Caltrops slowed them down as I moved across the battlefield with deadly stealth, a wraith among monsters.
The rewards from the twentieth wave made this method of hunting easier than ever before. Additionally, our defenders were able to take more punishment, our healer was able to cleanse poisons and diseases before they had a chance to really take hold. And those of us meant to inflict damage saw a boost to the damage we dealt. I was surprised by the Arrow skills that Seth, Sam, and Leonardo each got. I thought they would have been a downgrade in their damage . . . well, in Seth and Sam’s damage. Instead, those two gained some much-needed precision into their spells. Instead of dropping fireballs into groups that were now smart enough to spread out, they could send two or three arrows into one or two targets.
“Just get through today, and we’re going home,” Coach Liv said, drawing our attention away from breakfast, his eyes staring out at the wall of corpses and mud that was taller than he was by now.
“Coach, it’s in the bag,” Leonardo said cheerfully. “We’ve got these beasts figured out.”
“Yeah, relax, coach,” Al said.
Of course, Seth had to give his two irons, “I hate to agree with the mongrel, but he has the right to it. It was to be expected with two mancers of my family's quality amongst you. Be grateful.”
Coach actually growled, a deep angry rumble. “Shut up! We have nothing in the bag and none of us should be relaxed. The last day means the worst day. The final boss. The absolute hardest boss in the Lair. That is what we face today and if you don’t take it seriously, you will die and you’ll probably get someone else killed at the same time. You have all grown stronger but that doesn’t give you the right to be overconfident. This will be a struggle.”
“Coach is right,” Robin said, reinforcing the statement. “It would be a damned shame if we came this far only to die due to stupidity. Don’t be stupid now.”
Al had the good graces to look properly ashamed and Leonardo seemed to calm down a little, but Seth looked insulted
“Spend your time getting ready for the next wave, check your weapons, make sure your healing potions are easily accessible. If you’re good there, spend some time going over combat scenarios. How will you handle the bipedal beastmen? How will you handle them if they now have weapons and armour? How will you handle a combination of the quadrupedal and bipedal? A few minutes of preparation saves lives. You should all know that by now. Or have you already forgotten your fallen friend?”
The last comment hurt. I hadn’t forgotten Lulu. Her memory drove me to do better. To fight harder.
The safe zone vanished and lightning crawled across the sky followed very quickly by a loud booming thunder. It marked the beginning of rain with sudden and intense downpour, made worse by a blowing wind that seemed to surround us. It muffled my senses. I couldn’t hear footsteps within the rain. I couldn’t smell any of the beasts with the wind stirring everything about. For the first time in a long time, I was all but blind. Still, I strained my senses. I tried to sense anything in the storm around us.
I didn’t hear or smell anything, but I felt something. A tremor? A moment later there was another. Then another. I tried to pinpoint where it was coming from. I tried to feel the direction the tremor was coming from. Lightning flashed across the sky and someone called out.
“Over there!” It was Leonardo.
I ran in his direction straining to see or hear anything. I heard Robin and the other members of the team following right behind me. I halted on top of the wall next to the mouseboy. There was another tremor, this one causing dirt to cascade down the wall. Lightning lit up the sky again and in the far distance I finally saw a silhouette of something. It was like the first time I saw the Concepción in the Puerto Manada harbour from a distance, fuzzy and indistinct. But my teammates, they saw it. Some of them cursed loudly, some said a prayer to one deity or another.
“What in the name of all the gods is that?” Leonardo questioned from next to me.
“It’s the Rodent Bog Lord, but it’s bigger than I’ve ever seen it,” Coach Liv answered.
Liam’s voice shook from nearby, “How do we even defend against something that big?”
“Look at it. It’s big and probably powerful but it moves slow,” Robin replied, trying to sound like she knew what she was talking about. There was fear in her voice, well controlled though it was. She pushed through her fear and added, “Dodge more than block.”
Lightning flashed again and I saw the outline a little more clearly. One head, six legs, and was that three tails or four?
“Be extra careful of those tails,” Coach warned. “I don’t like the look of them.”
Lightning flashed again, illuminating the beast, but something was different. I could almost taste . . . smell something cutting through all the rain and wind. There was something electric about it. I supposed that could have been the lightning. And yet, I’d been out in storms before and I’d never tasted something like this. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Water and moisture sucked in with the breath. Even the water was different. It had the white and soft blues I usually associated with it but there was something else there too. It wasn’t poison or anything like that. It was a strange power . . . an energy that was both familiar and completely foreign. Lightning peeled through the sky again and I got a stronger taste of it. I opened my eyes wide. I looked from the sky to the boss and back again.
Congratulations! Your Rare Skill Synesthesia has evolved into the Mystic Skill Magical Synesthesia.
Suddenly, my ability to smell and taste colour had a new . . . flavour to it. In this case, I could taste wind, rain, and lightning filling the air and trailing straight back to the beast. I cursed.
I must have reacted to the message or shown some outward sign because Coach had moved up next to me and yelled over the rain and thunder, “What? What is it?”
Frowning, I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I should answer. Our lives depended on it, so I had to. Taking a deep breath I replied, “It’s Mystic!”
“What is?” Coach yelled.
“The beast is. Storm magic, I think!” I shouted back.
Coach Liv cursed, and then asked the expected question, “How do you know?”
“My skill, Synesthesia, it just evolved into Magical Synesthesia!” I answered.
Coach Liv cursed again. “Congratulations, but I’m sorry to say I wish it were not true.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
Coach Liv shook his head, then started speaking loudly, “Listen up, everyone, this beast is going to be much more dangerous. It seems to be mystical and probably in control of the storm. That means it will have magical abilities that it intends to use against us. I do not know exactly what it will do with the wind or the rain, but based on other lair experiences, I would expect to get cut by near invisible wind blades and for the beast to be able to use the water to regenerate. As for the Lightning, if you start to feel tingling, it means the lighting is targeting you and you need to run away from the rest of us. Lightning likes to move from one target to another if you’re too close to anyone else.”
Coach Liv sighed tiredly, “Some of you are going to get hurt during this fight and I won’t be there to protect you. I need to put my full effort and attention into destroying this beast if any of us is going to survive. Focus your damage on the tails as usual. Good luck, students. I hope we all survive.”
It was a horrible pep talk.
“To hell with that!” Al shouted. “We’ve come this far! We’ve already survived a nearly impossible situation for the last thirty days! We’ve proven that when we work together, we can beat anything this lair throws at us! So, I say again to hell with that! Let’s kill this thing and go home!”
That was more like it and based on the cheer from the other students, they agreed.
Al smirked at me, and I returned a nod of approval. He did the right thing.
The beast roared in the distance and lightning filled the sky above us, dampening the effects of Al’s little speech.
“Good speech,” Leonardo quipped, “Now, how do you propose we fight this thing?”
It was my turn to speak up, “We hit and run, Comrade Leonardo. The beast, it is large yes, powerful yes, magical, yes, but it looks slow. You should feel the way the ground shakes with each step it takes. You can feel how long it is between each step.”
I looked into the distance where the beast was slowly stomping through the bog. I could smell it better now than before. I could see the colour of the magic coating each of the tails individually. “Each tail controls one of the elements. We cut off a tail, it gets weaker.”
“How do you know that?” Seth asked, for the first time not sounding haughty or obnoxious, but genuinely curious.
“I can smell it,” I answered, tapping the side of my nose.
Seth's eyes widened, his mouth agape. "Dungflinger!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Smell it? How can you smell magic?"
“I have a skill for it,” I answered, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. “Defenders, I need you to trade taunts on the beast, keep it confused and make it harder for it to focus its attacks on the rest of the group. This also means you’ll be taking the brunt of the magical damage, so Al, do your best to keep them alive.”
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“What about you and Coach Liv?” Sam asked.
Coach Liv and I were melee damage dealers. We had no choice but to get up close and personal with the boss if we wanted to damage it. I had long run out of flechettes and I couldn’t shoot a bow, not that we had an extra lying around. It meant we were at the greatest risk of getting killed by an errant step or by one of the tails lashing out at us. “It’s on us to keep ourselves alive.”
“Mister Belov is correct,” Coach Liv agreed. “Defenders, I want you to taunt from your maximum range then run away. As soon as the beast starts following you, the other defender needs to taunt and repeat the process. I don’t want either of you trying to block any direct attacks.”
Coach was about to say more but lightning filled the sky above us and thunder so loud it stopped anything else from being heard. When only the sound of rain remained, the beast roared. The time to fight was quickly approaching.
“Spread out!” Al yelled, tapping on Liam’s shoulder and pointing to the left. He repeated the process with Robin and pointed to the right.
Seth, Sam, and Leonardo all moved on their own, spreading out toward the other end of our camp clearing.
I didn’t look for Coach as I started running, letting my Shadow Cloak hide me as I did. I needed to get to the tail end of the beast and hope I’d be able to cut one or more off once the defenders engaged with the beast.
As I got closer to the beast, I was amazed by its sheer size. Even walking on all six of its legs, it stood almost as tall as my apartment building back in Mancer and twice as long. It was a very round beast that thankfully lacked any fur or quills, instead, it looked to be covered in leathery skin that would be difficult to cut through. I assumed the skin was thick enough that I doubted my Shadow Caltrops would do anything to slow the monster down. It made me decide to hold on to my mana. I would need it to attack the tails.
Lightning crackled overhead again, and thunder rumbled. I was past the beast. I started making my turn toward the tails and finally got a better look at them and nearly vomited. There were three long tails, almost as thick as I was tall and they were covered in smaller tails that looked more like tentacles as they writhed, twisted, and undulated. I half-expect it to have eyes at the end of each tail tentacle.
“Taunting,” Robin’s voice carried across the bog as the thunder faded. The beast roared loudly at the proclamation then began a slow and arduous turn toward the beargirl. The turn had barely begun when the first ball of fire impacted with the beast’s head and face followed quickly by a second fireball and then a glowing arrow after that. It seemed the battle was on.
I pushed down my revulsion at the sight of the tails and rushed in. There was no way I was going to be able to cut through the tail with a Zhanmadao no matter how big I made it. It would just be a waste of energy. No, the best thing I could do was to shave off some of the tentacles to give Coach a shot at chopping through it.
I targeted the tail that smelled like water, the one Coach thought might be able to regenerate the beast’s health.
I formed a sword, a weapon I was unfamiliar with using and did not have a skill for. Still, I needed the reach, and I didn’t want to make something like the Zhanmadao that would drain all my mana in one go. As the sword formed, I came out of the shadows and sliced into the tails haphazardly, chopping away chunks rapidly but not nearly fast enough. Several of the surrounding tails lashed out at me, forcing me back and once again vanishing into the shadows.
Without warning, all three tails slammed into the ground, causing the whole world to shake and tumble. Lightning and thunder ripped through the sky, deafeningly. Wind cut through the air making dozens of tiny cuts everywhere. And water seemed to want to pull everything toward the boss.
I tumbled and rolled toward the tail and the grasping tail tentacles. I stabbed my sword into the mud and held on tight as the blade cut a jagged line through the mud. It was just enough to stop me from getting sucked in.
When the world seemed to have stabilised again, I pulled myself back up to my feet and put some distance between me and the monster. I would try again but first I needed to see if I was at all effective.
There was now a small hole where chopped tentacle tails hung limply. It wasn’t deep enough.
I struck from the shadows again, cleaving through some of the surrounding tails as my blade dug into the hole I made, trying to find the centre. I struck three times before I had to dodge back again, and still, I could not see the tail at the centre of the mass. I almost stayed on my feet when the tails slammed down again.
I repeated the process several times, recovering from the triple tail slam a little faster with each repetition, but I wasn’t making enough headway against the regenerating tail tentacles. It frustrated me to no end. I needed to get ahead of it. I formed a long knife in my other hand and committed myself to fighting longer. I needed to deal more damage which meant I needed to stay engaged longer.
I struck again, hacking with the sword, trying to find the tail in the centre. As I did that, I used my knife to deter the other tails from trying to grab me, cutting off small chunks as I did. I was fast and furious with my attacks, hacking into the beast’s tail for all I could, finally getting deeper into the tail and finding that some of the tails branched off of other tails like some kind of warped tree. When I cut off a thick branch the tail and those around it seized with pain, giving me even more time to cut toward the centre. I was right next to the tail when it slammed down this time. I lost balance and almost fell into the tail, halted only by the point of my sword piercing into the tail and stopping when it hit bone. I held on as hard as I could, using my knife to fend off the angry tentacles. I don’t know how I kept my grip through that, but it saved my life.
The tumult settled and I started hacking and slashing. I was cutting deeper and deeper into the mass of tails when at long last I found the centre. It was only as round as I was but covered in the thick branching tail stalks. I grinned as I chopped into the tail. I hacked at it repeatedly, but my sword had trouble cutting through the bone. Knowing I was running out of time before the beast slammed its tails down again, I dispelled my sword and formed a slightly larger and heavy Flamberge. Three chops. It took three chops to cut just a few centimetres into the tail. Not for the first time, I really wished I had more strength. The tails around me finally decided they’d had enough of me and tried to converge at the same time. I had no choice but to retreat.
I retreated just in time for another triple tail slam, barely keeping my feet. I let the shadows protect me once again but as they did I felt tingling all over. It was strange and not something I’d ever felt before. It took me a moment to remember what Coach said about the lightning. There was no one else right next to me, Coach Liv was on the other side of the body working on the tails over there and the rest of my team was somewhere near the beast’s head. As I looked at the tail I’d been chopping into, I had an idea.
If I’m going to get struck by lightning no matter what I did, I might as well see if I can use it to my advantage. I ran back toward the already healing tail and dove for the muck underneath the water tail. Lighting struck the tail first, sending a chain of lightning arcing along the length of it before it chained from the tail into me and the wet ground around me. It hurt as the electricity coursed through my body, cooking my organs and muscle alike. Oh, gods did it hurt. A pain that was made worse when the tail limply crashed down on me, pinning my left arm and leg beneath it.
The pain in my body was almost unbearable, but with an effort I mustered the strength to transform the flamberge into a short sword. I hacked and slashed at the beast, and with each strike, its screeches of pain grew louder. Blood sprayed from the deep wounds inflicted by my sword, and I could feel my weapon bite into its flesh. The tail pinning me to the ground grew heavier with each swing, and I knew I was close to freedom. Adrenaline surged through my veins, and I hacked away with all my might, despite the burning in my arms and shoulders. I had to get away before it stomped me into the mud and blood—or worse, the tail started to regenerate.
I hacked through tails, one after another, trying to create a small gap for me to wriggle free. With a wet sucking sound, my left arm was suddenly free. With two hands free, I formed a second blade and started hacking away at the limp tails, trying to free my leg. My leg came free of the mud, blood, and tails a minute later. I rolled away from the tail I was sure was going to recover at any moment. I scrambled to my feet and ran until I slipped. I had made it a little distance from the beast and was too tired to do more than lay in the mud and try to catch my breath.
There was another loud screech of pain from the beast, and I smiled. Coach Liv really wasn’t holding back. He must have gotten through another of the tails.
I laid there panting for a couple minutes as the sound of battle continued around me. Eventually, I dragged myself back to my feet and turned to face the beast. I assumed two of the tails had been severed and I was right. I just hadn’t realised that the tail I’d been pinned under was one of the tails that had been cut off. I stared at my handiwork for a minute as I tried to catch my breath. As I breathed in, I noticed it had stopped raining and that there was now an absence of the magic that made it. As was the wind. It had died down to almost nothing. That must have been the second tail removed then.
Lightning chose to arc through the sky the next moment followed by a peel of thunder. That left the lightning tail, which I then saw Coach Liv was hacking away at with his axe, making steady progress toward the centre of the mass. I winced as I saw lightning discharge from the beast and crawl across Coach’s axe then arc into the bearman’s body, making him spasm and clench his teeth. Coach only paused for a moment then swung again, repeating the process. The last tail slammed into the ground and Coach hardly stumbled, not that the tail slam had nearly as much power as it once did. Still, Coach was certainly a tough old monster.
The lightning had left me wary, knowing one wrong move could send me into oblivion. But I couldn’t let my team down. I gritted my teeth and used the last ounce of strength to surge forward towards the beast. Its tail lingered over us, twitching back and forth like a pendulum, but I slipped underneath it and circled around Coach. Gripping both hands tightly around the hilt of my sword I formed, I swung it with brute force, channelling all my energy into the point where the bearman had finished cutting. The flamberge vibrated with power as it sliced through the viscous hide of the creature. But just as I felt a sense of accomplishment wash over me, the lightning surged up my blade and into my body. My muscles seized, and I fought to keep my teeth from cracking as the electricity coursed through me. When it finally finished, I stumbled back and let out a gasp of pain.
Coach Liv nodded and shouted, “Aye, it hurts doesn't it?” before he swung his axe again.
I groaned as I lifted the flamberge overhead again and hacked down. We took turns hacking into the electrified tail, eventually reaching the centre. Coach Liv grinned at me as he lifted his axe overhead. His weapon crashed down, and the tail popped free with a massive spray of blood and a scream of pain from the beast. I breathed a sigh of relief as I let my weapon dissolve into shadows.
We didn’t stick around to see the beast thrash, choosing instead to run away and get clear of the massive rodent.
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” Coach Liv said, making me cringe.
“What part of being repeatedly electrocuted was easy?” I asked, trying to get my hand to stop twitching.
Of course, that was when I heard the pitter-patter of thousands of tiny feet all around us. It seemed a beast horde was coming for us.
“Beast horde!” I screamed, running toward the rest of my team.
I barely heard Coach Liv curse beside me as we ran together.
“Kill it faster!” Coach Liv shouted. “If the Lord dies, all the little ones will stop coming!”
I heard Al in the distance yell, “Burn everything you’ve got! Hold nothing back or we’re all dead.”
I didn’t like this at all. I changed the angle of my run anyway. I was certain I was about to do something really stupid and should have been really afraid it would get me killed. It was times like this I really wished I felt fear. I kept turning my angle until I was aiming for the space between two of the legs. I shot right past the legs and found the beast’s underside where I discovered it was a ‘he.’
I formed a flamberge again because I needed the length to cut into the boss, but it still wasn’t long enough. I was still a metre shy of its underbelly. I changed my grip and tried throwing the sword like a dart, but it vanished as soon as it left my hand.
Suddenly, I was picked up, making me react in panic until I heard Coach’s voice, “I’m going to throw you at it.”
Before I could protest, I was turned into the dart and was sent flying for the beast’s soft underside. I formed a long knife in each hand, hoping they would cut into the skin and stick well enough to hold me up there.
Both knives cut in easily. The skin there was softer and thinner than I expected. My knives pierced and cut deeply, quickly sliding out of the wound. Then I let one knife disperse and replaced it with a long sword, cutting into the beast’s underbelly even more deeply, then repeating the process with the other knife. It gave me more time to come up with a better solution.
I didn’t find one as one blade started cutting through the skin, widening the gap until it came free, and I dropped the blade. I grab for the edge of the skin, my fingers not finding much purchase as the other sword began to slide free. Desperate, I punched my arm into the wound, grabbing for anything I could. I felt a thick cord of some kind and quickly grabbed ahold, pulling myself up closer to the wound but not daring to go any further. Instead, I pulled the sword free and started slashing at the underbelly, cutting large gashes, and making the beast bleed even more.
It wasn’t enough. I let the sword dissolve and formed a flamberge. As soon as the blade formed, I felt weak. I didn’t understand where it was coming from until I realised I’d just used the last of my mana to form the weapon. That on top of my body already starting to flag due to the stamina drain holding on like this was causing. I knew it wouldn’t be long now before I dropped. I had just enough juice left in me for a final act of defiance. I stabbed the blade upward, burying it to the hilt. I felt something inside the beast snap as whatever I was holding on to came loose, dropping me a metre from the beast and giving me a look at what I was holding onto. It was part of the beast’s intestines.
There was another roar of pain from the beast as it jerked suddenly, dropping me and the intestines another metre. There was another thrash and I was suddenly deposited into the mud as intestines started streaming out from the hole I had punched into the beast’s underside. It was a deadly blow. The beast would bleed out quickly now and when it did, it would fall . . . right where I was laying in the mud.
I crawled, then tore at the mud, trying to get away before that happened. I was suddenly lifted into the air and Coach Liv’s reassuring voice filled my ears, “I’ve got you, Mister Belov. Well done!”
I smiled faintly as I finally lost consciousness.