An hour later, Tilly left the workshop with a snoozing Kindle on his shoulder. She continued to glow faintly even as she slept, mirroring the soft but persistent light from the stars above.
If he had to guess he would have put the time at around midnight at this point, and he still had one more item to check off on his to-do list. He needed a health potion, the best quality he could get on such short notice. He trudged back toward the city, a soul-deep weariness dragging at his bones as he racked his brain for options on where to find what he needed to fill the final slot on his belt.
Tilly muttered to himself as he moved through the parade ground, the torches lighting the area sputtering and flickering in his wake as if stirred by an absent breeze. Step after step, he tiredly continued to bully the haphazard jumble of thoughts and contingencies into an actual plan, hoping to have something usable by morning. He hunched his shoulders against an inexplicable chill as he quickened his pace arriving at the main gate and nodding to the squadron of guards there.
He figured the best place to start was the Contribution Point Exchange. He didn’t know when or if they closed, but he hoped he could just roll up there, and grab the last thing on his laundry list, nice and simple. He rubbed his numb hands together in anticipation of finishing his errands and grabbing some sleep, scowling at the empty streets of the city. Everyone else was probably already in bed, lucky bastards.
Taking what he thought was the right turn off the main street, Tilly tried to keep moving with purpose, looking forward to the end of this endless day. His new amulet sat uncomfortably cold against his chest and he shifted it awkwardly, not liking the feel of the new accessory at all. He came to a break in the road and peered down both streets, which seemed to stretch on before him in a long hallow darkness.
‘Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?’ he thought blearily to himself. Kindle shifted in her sleep on his shoulder, chirping uncomfortably.
‘Don’t worry girl, we will be home soon.’
He turned back the way he had come, attempting to gain his bearings, but the way back seemed just as dark and foreboding as the way forward. Tilly frowned in thought, hands slowly falling to find his hatchets.
As if in response to his wariness, the surrounding shadow began to bend toward him, and the temperature dropped significantly.
Right at the edges of his perception, something seemed to writhe within the folds of shadow hiding the sides of the street, and a bone snappingly cold fog rolled in from nowhere, sapping any body heat Tilly had left.
Responding too late, Tilly attempted to push back the cold with his own fiery mana, but it felt sluggish in his pathways like he was trying to push cement where water had once flowed. A sharp pain radiated from the amulet against his skin as his hands groped for the handles of his weapons, clumsy and slow.
“Hmmm, they said Endurance was the only thing impressive about you… but you have somehow shrugged off several of my Abilities where many others would have succumbed.” a scratchy voice crackled out from the dark street. The shadows there seemed to relax, falling away from its center to reveal a figure in a long fur-lined coat with a fox's head. As its form resolved, a strange simmering sheen refracted along the surface of its skin as the faint starlight was allowed to touch it for the first time.
Level 79 Wechuge Dream Hunger
Tilly finally yanked his weapons free with numb shaking hands as the sub zero air clawed down his throat, into his lungs.
“Don’t bother,” the fox-headed figure said in a bored voice, “I took this job because I’m a hard counter to someone like you…Well, that and I love the taste of human meat.” the Wechuge said, licking its chops as it took smooth predatory steps toward Tilly’s shivering form. Its body was tall and stick thin which perfectly complemented its snout which was too long and filled with jagged teeth. The closer it got, the worse Tilly's shivering became, waves of cold radiating off the creature like light from the sun.
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Tilly tried again to activate any of his fire Abilities, cycling through each one, but they only flickered weakly around his weapons and body, before quickly sputtering out. As the wechuge confidently approached, Tilly searched in vain for some outrage or anger to stoke his internal flames, but all he found was despair in the pit of his belly. All his work, all the people depending on him, and his stupid min-max build was about to get him killed.
“I am curious what little tricks you are hiding in that warm meat sack… Let's find out.” It said, drawing long serrated knives from behind its back as it arrived within reach of Tilly’s incapacitated form.
In a fit of sluggish inspiration, Tilly dropped his weapons and fumbled with the flap of his jacket. The creature cocked its head curiously, “Hmm, what's this? Something interesting I hope.” It said, taking a long inhale through its snout.
Taking full advantage of the creature's confidence, Tilly pulled free the sack of iron filings, and the creature tsk-ed at the big reveal, “I’m no fey kid… I’ll eat a little cold iron for breakfast and ask for seconds.” It said, revealing all its teeth as it leaned forward curiously at the object, completely relaxed in Tilly’s vulnerable, shivering presence.
Desperately shoving his tar-like mana through the very first spell form it had ever developed, Tilly attempted desperately to manifest a flicker of flame. The creature’s sub-zero domain ruled the space all around them and igniting the air near his hand felt like lifting a boulder. The fox-headed wechuge shrugged, lazily bringing one of its knives to Tilly’s warm, throbbing jugular, with a disappointed sigh.
This close Tilly could see that the creature's body seemed to be made up of ice stained a rusty brown. If there was one positive in the all-consuming cold, it was that Tilly could not smell the bits of meat caught between the creature's teeth as they hovered inches from his nose. With aching slowness, he finally felt the Ability form, sending a tiny surge of warmth up his arm and into the sack. The bite of the jagged edge of the creature's weapon was barely felt on his numb skin as the wechuge slowly began to cut through Tilly’s neck.
“Who… said…” he forced out through chattering teeth.
“Ooooh, last words? I love last words!” The creature smiled indulgently, leaning in and pausing in its murder.
“a-a-anything… a-a-about c-c-cold i-i-i-ron?” Tilly finally stuttered out, feeling the sack begin to warm as the delayed reaction Cog had built into the blasting component catalyzed its own ignition. Of course, that delay mechanic had been put in so that Tilly could get the thing as far away from himself as possible before it exploded… but beggars can’t be choosers.
‘Suck some explosives, discount Dr. freeze.’ Tilly snarled internally as his newest item went off between them. A sound like ripping paper whooomphed from Tilly's hand and the Wechuge snarled and looked down at the object in Tilly’s hand, jumping backward too late as a cloud of liquid-hot iron fillings shot out in all directions.
Tilly just had enough time to close his mouth and eyes before his world was filled with burning metal and seared flesh. Unconsciousness blessedly swooped in to claim him a second later and he awoke to the concerned muttering of someone above him and distant yelling.
The surface of his skin was ablaze with healing magics and an intense itching skittered over every square inch of exposed flesh.
“No vital points!” A voice shouted,
“Area Debuff!” Another added.
He tried to open his eyes, but they had been sealed shut somehow, and the act of pulling apart the fused lids shot fresh agony into his brain, and he released a deep groan.
“Not yet, Mr. Tillman!” a familiar young voice cried urgently from above him.
“I have never seen anything like this, but your wounds are still expelling… something? I don’t know, but you need a few more seconds.”
“Gah! Away with you gnats, give him to me!” the wechuge shouted from somewhere nearby, punctuating his words with a burst of cold so intense it threatened to fuse Tilly to the cobblestones he was lying on.
“Oh dear… t-t-this will not d-d-do.” Aurelia said in reaction to the area effect. She started muttering a prayer, and tongues of blue flame began to dance in the air around them, flickering weakly against the cold, but stealing the edge off its strength.
“Can I o-o-open them?” Tilly asked, afraid to try, even after the itching finished dancing across his face.
“Yes, -it should be fine-” she answered distractedly between verses.
Tilly blinked his eyes open and found Aurelia, the Priestess standing over him aglow with the light of Origin’s Flame. Then appearing behind her like a specter was the Wechuge, half its body missing as it raised a knife above the healer's head.
Before Tilly could even shout a warning, a vine the size of a truck slammed into the creature from the side, sending it careening down the street. There it met the happily bellowed challenge of Gorock, who charged wildly into the creature. It seemed no worse for wear missing a limb, and displayed a freakish speed as its long knife ripped through Gorock in a dozen places in the space of a breath.
The Wallbreaker laughed, throwing his arms around the creature to restrain it momentarily as Threstus appeared behind the figure, shoving both his weapons deep into its chest cavity and activating some sort of Ability. A sound like shattering glass rang through the street, and the nightmare of animated ice fell to pieces.
“Hey! I had him!” Gorock bellowed in outrage.
“It looked like you were about to take him home after dinner...” Threstus snided back.
Gorock snarled and kicked one of the chunks of ice away in frustration.
Tilly rolled over, getting to his hands and knees, as the cold finally started to dissipate. The shattered pieces of the wechuge remained still, scattered over the street, but that didn’t stop Tilly from keeping an eye on them as he got to his feet.
“We have got to stop meeting like this.” A bemused voice said behind him.