Chapter 23: Uneasy Alliance
Thomas, Jark, and Sarguhl stood next to Vanessa and Sev. Thomas smiled innocently at me, and I realized I had to respond.
I opened my mouth to rat out the murderous trio, but then thought better of it. I inspected the three.
{Thomas}
HP: 65/65
MP: 130/130
Type: Player
Race: Human
Level: 5
Class: Mage
{Jark}
HP: 115/115
MP: 50/50
Type: Player
Race: Dwarf
Level: 5
Class: Warrior
{Sarguhl}
HP: 95/95
MP: 70/70
Type: Player
Race: Troll
Level: 4
Class: Cleric
Despite the fact I had not extended my level lead over them, I was now a Soulsworn. The benefits conveyed by Abyssius and Calrexos were not small by any means. Unless they’d convinced Vanessa to join them, I was confident in my ability to take all of them on at once if we fought again. And if we left Terris as a group to seal the portal, they would try to ambush me again. I thought about Vanessa, and from what I knew about her so far, she didn’t seem like the kind of person to agree to a four on one ambush. In fact, I imagined she’d love to bash their skulls in once she learned of their backstabbing tendencies.
“What do you think, Cal?” I asked the spirit.
“I agree with your assessment of Vanessa. As for your chances in a one on three, I'd give you nine in ten odds, assuming they don’t have any tricks. Though, assuming they haven't recruited Vanessa, they almost certainly do.”
“Good to meet you too” I responded, nodding at the other two.
“Wonderful! Now, you three can trust my star pupil Locke as well as Vanessa here to lead you without fault!” Sev said, walking back to Terris.
Sev turned around, walking backwards as he spoke.
“Unfortunately, I must stay here to fend off the cheesemongers, but I wish you all Good luck!”
A brawny man carrying carpenter's tools stumbled out of the Sevs path as he swung back around.
Vanessa rolled her eyes, and she looked over our new party members.
With a fake smile, I invited the three to our party.
Thomas has joined your party!
Jark has joined your party!
Sarguhl has joined your party!
“We only have six hours to complete the quest, best to be on our way!” I said, injecting far too much false cheer into my voice.
Vanessa looked at me like I'd sprouted an extra head, but followed me as I led the way towards the Frostlake.
When we were several hundred yards from the city, I sent a private message to Vanessa.
I know these three. They ambushed me less than an hour after launch. We can’t trust them. The mage, Thomas, is a bit cracked in the head.
Vanessa’s eyes went blurry as she opened my message, and she stiffened almost imperceptibly, but did not stop walking.
What?! Why didn’t you tell Sev while we were still in town?
I considered her question, and decided that I'd have to trust that she was on my side.
I don’t think we’ll need more than the two of us to complete the quest.
Her weary expression flashed into a dangerous smile for an instant before melting back into something more reserved.
Maybe grouping up with you will prove to be a good decision after all. When do you think we should attack?
I held off on telling her right now. As much as I'd love to show the backstabbing trio their place, I was unsure of how that would affect my reputation with the guard, or even Terris as a whole. Given that the three had apparently spent some time helping out the guard, I didn’t think I'd be able to lean solely on my relationship with Sev.
I don’t think we should initiate, I'm unsure of how it will affect our rep with Terris. Even if we let them choose when and where to betray us, we’ll still dumpster them. We just can’t let ourselves fall into a disadvantageous position during the dungeon. Their dwarf is a warrior, and so we can pressure him into tanking for the dungeon. If we don’t overextend ourselves too far, or show all our capabilities, we’ll be fine.
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Vanessa let herself return to a casual posture, but I was afraid the three had noticed her momentary shift in body language.
That sounds fine to me. Now that we’ve hitched our wagons to the same horse, you should know a little about my capabilities. The short version is that I have two separate states, kinda like having two classes. My base state is a close range fighter that possesses some supporting abilities. I can swap to my other state to assume a more offensive style, at the cost of burning my own lifeforce away. Stacking that debuff I applied onto you in our fight allows me to enter the offensive state with less of a cost to myself.
Her explanation matched what I'd managed to piece together in our fight. In exchange I gave her a brief explanation of how my contract with Abyssius worked, but left out Cal and the Soulsworns Legacy. By the look she shot me, it was obvious I hadn’t fooled her. But to my surprise, she didn’t push for anything more. Perhaps she kept secrets of her own that she wasn’t quite willing to share yet.
Vanessa elbowed me, and I looked up to see the mage, Thomas, looking at me.
“What was that?” I asked.
He smiled brightly, “I was just thinking we should talk about our strategy! We are going to be doing a dungeon together after all.”
His sickly sweet cheerfulness grated on me, but I endured and returned a beaming smile of my own.
“Why, I'd LOVE to Thomas!”
Before he could respond, I continued
“Why don’t you tell us about your skill set?”
He offered me a brittle smile, eyes hard.
“I’m a fairly generic mage right now, I have a couple straight dps spells, as well as an ice based crowd control option.”
Without acknowledging the mage, I turned to the Dwarf.
“And you? You’ll be tanking for us, I presume. Surely you have a taunt spell then?”
Jark looked at me cautiously, as if judging whether or not I'd allow him to respond.
When I didn’t move on to the troll, he spoke.
“Yea, I’ll be the tank, assuming neither of you want the role.”
“Wonderful! Now, you must be the healer, Mr. Cleric. It’s our job to protect you, don’t want anyone to take away our support!” I said.
I mimicked stabbing the troll, and he flinched back.
I promptly turned around, and started walking towards our destination.
Pretending as if I'd just been struck by a thought, I looked over my shoulder.
“Oh, we’re both going to be playing DPS. I stab things,” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder at Vanessa, “she bonks them.”
Cal yawned in my mind, “A brilliant performance, I wonder if it’ll have the desired effect, though.”
“I hope so. Even if it doesn’t, now we don’t have to reveal any of our abilities to them. I already know at least some of theirs, so that puts them at a disadvantage.”
We walked in silence for the next several minutes as I led our group through the forest, and towards the frostlake. An alert popped up in my vision, and I glanced at Vanessa.
I know they player killed you, but was openly burning any chance teamwork worth it? Even though they we know they’ll betray us, and they likely suspect the same of you, perhaps I could’ve pretended to be neutral. I could have even pretended to ally with them.
I blinked. That possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind. I’d assumed the trio believed us to be working together in the same way they were, but in hindsight what she suggested was definitely possible, especially if she pretended to distance herself from me.
I never even considered that to be honest, sorry for acting without discussing my plan with you.
I’d assumed Vanessa was just a battle-hungry barbarian kind of player, but apparently I'd been too hasty in my assessment.
That’s ok, this just means I get to kill them without doing a bunch of pretending. Playing a role isn’t really my style, anyways.
Ah.
A quarter hour after we passed the ruins Sev had “died” at, the forest became quieter and quieter with every passing step. The chirping of birds high up in the canopy had ceased. Despite no tangible sign of danger, the tension in the air had spiked. Vanessa gripped her staff in both hands, I’d manifested my Fangs, and the trio behind us glanced around warily.
The troll broke the silence.
“Wha.. what's going on?” He said, voice quavering.
The warrior opened his mouth to respond, but Thomas motioned for silence, glaring at the Dwarf.
A flicker of movement caught my eye at the tree line, and I spun to face the movement.
I expected to catch a flash of white fur, or the sheen of icy eyes as the Tundra wolves circled us.
Another blurring form sprinted from one behind one tree, disappearing before I could make out its destination.
Sprinted? And was that a flash of purple?
I opened my mouth to tell our group what I’d discovered, but there was no point. We were already surrounded.
At least a dozen purple Abyssians circled us, likely with many more still hidden.
I slowly stepped backwards, hoping not to startle the creatures into action. I collided with something behind me, and a quick glance over my shoulder showed Vanessa had thought similarly. The group encircling us consisted mostly of scavengers, though a few of the strange Angari tribesmen stood out. I considered calling out to the others to try to assemble some kind of formation, but with enemies on all sides it was unlikely to be more effective than just fighting back to back. A glowing ball of fire crashed into one of the tribesmen, and the battle began. A green aura blazed to life in my peripheral vision, and the guttural scream of the Dwarfs taunt sounded behind me.
I wanted to open with Fade, but that would leave Vanessa open to attacks from behind.
“Hey, Vanessa, can you tank my side too for a moment?” I shouted, trying to make myself heard over the roar of battle.
“Are you kidding me?” she said, and I started to apologize, but she cut me off, “I’d never turn down an invitation to kill more”
I snorted out a laugh, and activated Fade.
In addition to the three enemies Vanessa currently fought, she now had to deal with the three scavengers and lone Angari that had focused on me. My experience in the labyrinth with the scavengers tempted me to try to pick them all off first, but I reconsidered.
I double cast Shadow Needle, mana flooding into both daggers, and popped Dread. Although the scavengers were easy to kill, they didn’t actually pose much of a threat. According to the inspect window I’d read, the Angari tribesmen were variable, which I took to mean that they might have potentially dangerous innate abilities.
“Cal, save Glassheart for if the trio betrays us.” I asked.
The spirit agreed, and I crept behind one of the tribesmen.
As Dread peaked, I launched a needle at the other Angari, and I flicked the other at a dagger wielding scavenger sneaking up behind Vanessa.
Both the Angari I’d struck with a needle, and the one I stood behind whirled. The closer of the two creatures swung a club of purple stone at me, and I ducked.
Having discharged both needles, I cast Twisting blood before plunging my other Fang into the neck of the club wielding Abyssian.
Before either foe could react, I vanished. I kicked the sneaking scavenger in the chest before slashing it with the dagger not enchanted by Twisting blood. In another space warping blink I appeared behind the uninjured Angari. I deposited my corrupting payload into the creature's neck before dancing back from a retaliatory backhand.
In the space of only three seconds, as many enemies were out of the fight. I made my way to the remaining scavengers who’d originally targeted me, and glanced at Vanessa. The faint whisper of green aura that always surrounded her in battle had grown into a verdant whitewater. Several enemies lay on the ground near her, crumpled. She deflected a swordstroke off one gauntlet, and slammed the end of her staff into the tribesmen's skull, a cracking sound echoing out across the battlefield.
The remaining scavengers “assigned” to me fell quickly, not even managing to land a single blow. I turned to help Vanessa out, but she was already walking towards the trio, enemies bested.
The trio had not fared as well as either of us. The healer stood between the other two, frantically chanting. The Dwarf seemed to be doing the best of the three, suited to melee combat as he was, the mage, not so much. Cuts opened on his body as fast as they closed as he alternated between launching spells and using his staff.
He was much less skilled in the use of his staff as a melee weapon than Vanessa was, but I suppose that was to be expected.
For a brief moment, I considered standing by and hoping they died, but Vanessa was already running towards a ranged Angari.
I sighed, experience was experience after all.
After Vanessa had slain the last enemy, we collapsed. Well, the trio and myself collapsed. Vanessa stood, the look on her face telling me she was ready to go another round. Perhaps several more rounds.
I turned to face the trio, but they all stared at Vanessa.
She gave them a bloody grin, a bonfire of green power blazing around her.
They quickly found other places to look at, and I smiled inwardly.
No betrayal yet, it would seem.