Chapter 42: Flash In The Pan
Light shone overwhelmingly bright in the darkness of the mushroom forest leaving blobby afterimages burning behind my eyes but the sudden incandescence had much more of an impact on the darkness-favouring monster-men we were facing off against, some fell over and some began swinging wildly while others brought their weapons up into a guard position and did their best to squint through the light. I had recently learned to toggle on more detailed spell effects via my menu interface and the data that flooded in was overwhelming.
“You have cast Sunflare, you have resistance to its effects due to natural acclimatisation to light, you are squinting in mild discomfort. 8 individuals within the Aoe have vulnerability to these effects, Derro warrior is blinded, Derro Whipmaster is blinded, 3 Derro guards are blinded. Hive Myrmidon is blinded, Grey Strain dwarves are blinded.”
I began preparing another candle, lighting it, channelling mana into it and waiting to see when the first of the Derro would recover his wits, arrows rained down from above, landing three non-lethal hits on the enemy before one of the warriors managed to focus his burning eyes on me, I saw recognition flash as he fixed on the little light in my hand.
"Surfacer! He's over this way, Follow my-- Urgh."
I cast Steel Shot at 20 mana, the magical wax of my candle flared in my hand and the solid steel slug at the centre fired silently into his gut. I saw the Derro lurch back into a tree and then slide to the ground with a hole in his belly the size of a fist.
"Steel shot strikes Derro warrior, warrior failed to react, warrior has lowered defenses due to blindness and surprised condition. Steel shot scores a critical hit, Derro takes 22 damage, Derro had been defeated, 3 experience awarded. You now have 85/89 experience."
I quickly set my system messages back to providing less information then smoothly drew a black candle and clicked it to life as the remaining four Derro drew swords and came after me. I continued channelling, not backpedalling or faltering, just investing mana as quickly as I could into my next spell. Two more arrows came from above before they reached me, the Whipmaster cracked his eponymous weapon and I watched in disbelief as he whipped one of the arrows right out of the air, his warrior wasn't quite as skilled however and he caught the second one in the neck and went down gurgling.
3 Derro was an improvement but I couldn't take them in a melee either, one cut from those poisoned blades would slow me enough to guarantee the others a second then a third cut and so on until I was dead.
Rather than let that happen I finished pumping the maximum of 40 mana into my candle and shot out a shotgun blast of shadow darts that targeted the three of them for 16 damage each, one Derro blocked with his shield, one caught a shot to the head and the headshot multiplier dropped him like a sack of Derro while the Whipmaster survived with a dart to one armoured arm that didn't seem to faze him overmuch.
I tried to draw a third candle but the other 2 Derro were on top of me at that point so I two-handed my weapon and my considerably lacking swordsmanship skills got a real workout. I blocked a vicious Derro swipe, leapt back from a chop, moved into and then around a thrust with a lucky bit of competence but thoroughly bungled my riposte and had to give even more ground when my intended victim's duelling buddy almost spilled my intestines on the cave floor.
No help was coming for me at this point as Victoria was firing into a squadron of rapidly approaching Derro guards, Luna was now providing overwatch to her sister and Farrah was right in the middle of the worksite where she'd managed to tear through the sentries, finish off a few blinded guards and then issued a Rallying cry that had inspired the badly beaten and poison-bloated prisoners to turn their tools against their oppressors in a state of battle rage. Part of me wondered how much experience points we'd be sharing with these torture victims but that selfish part of me received a vicious pommel strike to the head from the surviving Warrior when I bungled another riposte. I tried to back up as my vision doubled, head swimming from the hit and then I felt the whip wrap around my thigh, little thorns woven into the leather pricked my leg in a half dozen places and I felt fire blossom within my veins as the poison made itself known.
I had come here under cover of silence and magical darkness, I had attacked these creatures while they were unaware of my presence and killed without hesitation, some dipshit with a whip wasn't going to get the better of me. The line of pain screamed across my thigh and I felt my leg growing numb, threatening to buckle any second but I forced myself to stay up long enough to level my empty left hand at the vicious little dwarf-thing.
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"Telekinetic Ram activated, Derro Whipmaster fails strength check."
With little fanfare the Derro was slammed back and into one of his beloved Mushroom-trees, I got to see his anticipatory grin go from malicious to a classic 'Oh Shit' expression right before his spine was pulverised on impact and 5 experience tipped my level bar over to Level 7.
The Warrior didn't turn and look at his boss like i'd hoped, instead he kept his gaze on me, it was steady and probing for gaps in my defences. I knew if I went for a candle he'd cut me down with ease and any tricks with umbral mana I could pull would be useless due to his Darkvision. There was one advantage I had over this well trained, well armed and armoured mook though. I was an adventurer, I earned hitpoints at a far greater rate than a professional warrior did, he looked near death from the two arrows he'd been hit by already and the steady blood loss had to be eating into his own reserves while I had only lost 9 hit points from a blow to the forehead and a very painful whip stroke to the leg, of course I could barely stand up and if he managed to stab me in the heart or throat I'd take critical damage that would lethally even the odds so it wasn't all good.
"You know, I'm going to fight defensively until you bleed to death right?."
The Derro snarled at my taunt and I continued. "Yeah, I'm not being cruel or anything, you're just a superior swordsman to me, that parry counter of yours, the pommel strike, damn that one smarts. You should be proud of it, a positive thought to focus on before the worms carry you off into your twisted little afterlife."
The Derro's focus was still entirely on me, I was talking as casually as I could through gritted teeth, every muscle fibre on high alert, doing my best not to show weakness, not to slump slowly to the ground as the numbing poison spread through thigh and up into my trunk. The Derro's eye flickered to my leg, I could feel my knee buckling from the poison but I just had to buy time until... With a sound like splitting lumber the Warrior's skull was cleaved open by an axe blade, I nodded my thanks to the slave who had been creeping up behind him while I taunted him. The axeman in question looked like a bipedal cross between a roach and an ant, he had the mandibles of a bull ant set into a roach face and the bulky wings of a roach while his limbs and segmented body were once more reminiscent of the ant. Apparently it didn't speak common though, shrugging and clicking in an eloquent but unintelligible manner as it looted swords from the four dead Derro and limped over to join Farrah in the height of the melee.
Looking around I saw that Victoria was engaged in a ranged duel with a pair of Crossbow wielding Derro that had come riding in on the back of a horse sized worm, the thing was soft and fleshy, writhing in an undulating and wormlike fashion that made it hard to hit but she was working a barrier spell with one hand to stop projectiles, and the other was firing off magic missiles like it was going out of style.
The barrage of magical force was only logical, it was currently her most cost effective attack, well, besides the Microwave anyway. That spell was usually her best choice, but in this situation magic missile had the advantage with a much more respectable range. I made my way over, staying behind her barrier as much as possible and burning an umbral candle down with the mana I'd replenished during my sword duel. The worm keeled over and spilled its riders to the hard stone as it took one to many magic machine gun rounds to the head and purple blood seeped out of its myriad of other wounds.
Normally her magic missiles wouldn't be so destructive but It helped that her new Tome-scholar class allowed her to cheaply copy higher level spell techniques if she put enough study into them. With a library on the estate that included the works of a Missile Maestro and an Archmage who had perished 300 years ago Victoria had been able to book-learn several ways to make her missiles hit harder and even change the damage type to either fire or lightning. I'd been interested in that, something about those two types of mana being simple reinterpretations of unrefined magical energy used in magic missiles but I hadn't been able to pick up the trick in any applicable way just yet. I suspected I would need a lot of levels in magical lore to replicate it however.
Some of the buglike prisoners were down now, muscles completely paralysed by poison while the others fought defensively over their bodies, humans protected humans and Bugmen, Bugmen returned the favour and the Derro of the Grey Strain only cared about their own kind.
A crossbow bolt splintered on Victoria's barrier and I unleashed a volley of high mana Shadow Darts in response, most of my shots impacted harmlessly on the collapsed worm mount but several darts drilled into the head of the crossbowman using it as cover and the follow-up barrage of magical missiles put him down for good. After that the tide had turned decisively and the surviving Derro attempted to flee to safety, the vengeful prisoners pursued them beyond the worksite and did the grim work of preventing a single one of their tormentors from escaping. I took cover and accessed my menus while the rest of my team looted the enemy and eyed the three surviving Grey Strain Cultists with distrust.
"You have levelled up to Level 7"
Experience to next Level 0/144
Hp increased to 56
Mana increased to 119
"Select a Second Tier Mana Technique before continuing, Select an improved cantrip before continuing, Select a second Tier Candle Casting Technique before continuing."