Time remaining: 4 days, 12 hours.
Orion woke to a splintering headache and Honeypot singing what sounded like a sea shanty.
“Sooon maaaay Explodey Death come, to round up moths and burn their bums, ooone daaaay when the ‘splodin’s done, she’ll take her leave and gooo—”
A sharp slap sounded.
“Shut up, you idiot! Orion needs his rest!”
Orion took his time sitting up, not wanting to aggravate his pounding headache too much. His stomach felt like it was doing flips as anxiety peaked within him. He didn’t know the source, but it felt oddly familiar, like an old, unwelcome companion coming to visit. He stood, feeling the need to move, and as he did, a bone-deep ache in his legs made itself known, and he wobbled on the spot—this, too, felt almost familiar. It took him a long moment before he steadied himself and stepped out of his tent into the daylight.
Orion squinted against the light that was overwhelming his senses.
“Well, personally,” Honeypot said, affront clear in his voice, “I think a lovely ballad is the perfect way to wake our sleeping beauty.”
“It’s fine. I’m awake.”
The sun was shining directly on Orion’s tent from the clear patch of sky above—meaning they must have waited hours for him to wake up.
“Ah, the sun god approves of our supreme leader! See how it beams down energy upon him? Praise the sun!”
“Thank god you’re awake.” Arika held Honeypot by a loose fold of his cloak. “This idiot has had entirely too much rest, and is unleashing his excess energy on us.”
“Am I being detained? What is the charge, foul wench? Singing a song? Praising the sun? Stick to adventuring, oh fickle-minded Mage. A position of power would see you locking up bards and priests, the very beacons of creativity and all that is good in the world.”
“Can you just take it down a notch or two until I’ve eaten, Honeypot?” Orion rubbed his eyes. “I’ll do my best to keep up with you… just let me eat first. God… my head.”
“I’ve already made breakfast for everyone.” Shadow rushed over to his kitchen and start moving things around with a criminal amount of vigor. “I’ll just need a moment to heat it up!”
A few minutes later, the chef set down a delicious smelling bowl of what looked like scrambled eggs. Orion took a bite, and the savory flavor exploded across his taste buds. The taste, combined with the cool mid-morning temperature, was pure bliss.
“Shadow, I could kiss you right now. Is that cheese?”
“It is! I made cheese this morning from some milk I looted last night.”
Orion put his food laden fork down and looked at Shadow with disgust. “Please tell me this isn’t made with moth-milk.”
Unable to keep a straight face, Shadow burst into laughter.
“See?” Honeypot asked with a laugh. “I told you that would work! Our glorious leader is adorably trusting.”
“I-I brought the milk with us. Your face—” Shadow burst into laughter again, unable to speak.
“I specifically asked you to wait until I ate before messing with me, Honeypot.”
“You did, but Shadow did the messing, and technically, you took that first bite already. That’s a double technicality, baby. I’m in the clear.”
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Too relieved to even be annoyed by Honeypot, Orion finished the meal, swiftly shoveling down the piping-hot food as fast as he could.
As he ate, everyone else methodically packed away the camp. Gizmo was quite literally a packing-away machine, folding tent canvas and squeezing them into tiny, manageable parcels that he handed to Shadow for storage. The last thing to go was Shadow’s kitchen, which popped out of existence with a thought.
Making sure they’d left nothing behind, they scanned the scene. Orion took one last look at the clearing they were leaving behind.
Yesterday, they’d entered a clearing with pristine waters and lush foliage that was brimming with life—today, they left behind a muddy crater desolate of life, and a handful of scimitar stabbed plants. He wondered if the crater would become a pond once more, spawning more of the Bony Blood Fish now that the clearing had seen even more slaughter.
They set off, leaving the light of the clearing behind, and heading deeper into the dark shadows of the Eclipse Forest. Every Staghorn they came across was quickly administered a “stab check,” as Honeypot called it. Most were Moonleaf Moths, all of which were quickly and efficiently dealt with—they posed almost no threat during the day and on their own.
After an hour of travel, seeing nothing and hearing only Honeypot’s monologue about the robust culinary nature of sausages for the last hour, Gizmo spoke for the first time Orion had heard today.
“Though it may be my conflict resolution programming kicking in, I no longer harbor a disdain for your general existence, Daddy.”
“Thank you, Gizmo. You know I only stopped you from getting exploded because I care for you, right?”
“Hmmmmm. Please do not remind me. When I think of the pain that I missed out on, I am filled with longing and unwavering sadness.”
“Don’t worry, my metallic friend.” Honeypot touched him on the shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find something crazy to smack you around in no time at all.”
Honeypot’s words proved prophetic fifteen minutes later, as a three-headed venus flytrap called a ‘Flytrap Hydra’ slammed Gizmo into the ground with one of its heads.
The monster stood almost two meters high, extended to its full height. It had a dense cluster of tangled roots and vines acting as a torso, which was covered in a patchwork of gray leaves. It leveraged thick limbs to move around at an honestly terrifying speed.
Honeypot appeared behind the body, attempting to stun it. Thankfully, the three heads counted as one monster, and the stun went through. Honeypot attacked immediately after with his scimitar, but the blow bounced off one of the leaves with a metal twang. Everyone saw the blow and understood the implication—hit between the leaves if you want to do damage.
Between the barrage of attacks from Shadow, Honeypot, and Femera, the monster was brought down to almost half-health before the stun wore off. As soon as it was able to move again, however, it shot a head toward Femera at lightning speed, fast enough to catch the blazing Femera in its maw. Femera had already used her Flying Fox ability, so currently only have fifty-percent protection from physical attacks.
“No!” Arika yelled.
Orion was already prepared—he’d saved his Swap just in case. Femera appeared safely before Arika. The small fox circled back toward the monster warily, waiting for a chance to strike. Orion felt a sharp pain in his head and chest. He fell to one knee. The pain subsided as fast as it had come, and he warily got back to his feet. He glanced at Arika to see a look of worry on her face, but she didn’t move to help him or stop Femera from her reckless approach—Arika knew the stakes, and so did he.
He returned his attention to the battle.
The head that had darted at Femera continued powering forward, maneuvering its large body to cause the striking head to swing around with the momentum. The powerful mouth collided with Honeypot’s leg, the priest not expecting a strike to come from that direction at such speed.
Honeypot let out a horrifying scream, part of his leg being torn away by the glancing blow. He was sent skidding along the ground, and Shadow quickly put himself between the fallen Honeypot and the monster. The green glow of Honeypot’s tentacle hat began to cascade down, the single blow enough to take out most of his health.
As the dust settled, Orion wasn’t as surprised as he should have been to see that Honeypot was no longer wearing any pants. What he thought had been part of his leg was just his clothing being ripped away. Gizmo appeared back on the scene, rolling as fast as he could into the body of the plant monster before glowing red as he unleashed his Taunt ability.
All three heads began raining down blows on the stationary Gizmo, who was making decidedly uncouth noises in response to the devastating hits. One of the heads reeled back so fast Orion thought Gizmo must have hit the creature, but the truth of the matter quickly became evident—the same head swung forward with the same momentum, and Gizmo was sent flying once more.
The creature pulled all its heads together and began casting a spell, moving hypnotically and making guttural noises like stone rubbing against dirt. Shadow launched himself at the back of the creature, interrupting whatever the spell was with another Vicious Blow—this time, between the leaves.
All three heads turned to Shadow at once, the creature no longer fixated on the robot humming contentedly against the base of a tree. Shadow froze, unsure of his next move. Orion panicked, unable to help the situation in any way. Arika looked on helplessly as Femera positioned herself to attack the creature if need be, even though attacking now could be the end of the familiar.