Orion flung another of the Blood Mist Potions into the air as they rounded a corner, more of the monsters running into the cloud that exploded outwards. The toxic cloud had an almost immediate effect on the advancing creatures, causing them to slow, if not collapse and die on the spot. The armadillos and lizards appeared to be slower, but more resilient than the geckos and rodents, the larger monsters not seeming to die when one made it into the range of the potions.
As the small rodents died, they exploded, launching shards of their jagged armor out, which, in the situation they had created, was actually helpful. They were exploding near their comrades, hitting their own with the shards of armor—inflicting even more damage. Orion took note not to get near the speedy little things, not wanting to be on the receiving end of a rodent-bomb.
No wonder they’re called Bomb Bilbys… but what the hell is a bilby?
Arika ran beside him, holding her abilities until the potions were no longer viable—they didn’t want to waste the long cooldown on her abilities, the potent force of her explosions too effective to be used trivially. He felt more secure knowing that they had contingency plans and abilities held that could get them out of any dire situations.
They had both been taking turns with the projectiles. Orion had handed her one of the rings containing them, both using them one-after-the-other so neither of them ran out of the deadly potions if they were to be separated.
They’d used almost a dozen of the concoctions already, spending them liberally with each corner they rounded. There were still hundreds remaining, and Orion would rather use them all than get flanked or caught off-guard with two inventories remaining unused.
Orion took a moment to thank Shadow silently, knowing that this tactic was only possible because of the legwork his muscle-bound friend had been doing over the last hour. Every mark that Orion had placed was perfectly covered with the stones, causing the criss-crossed streets of Valbrand to become a linear maze from which Orion and Arika could unleash death. The creatures chased them single-mindedly, not learning from those that died before them that perhaps pursuing down the corridor and through the red-looking clouds was not a good idea.
Orion watched as his last cloud began to dissipate and three of the Flame-Horned Lizards approached.
This wave will be a tough one.
They turned and made their way down the linear path, stopping in place just before another of Shadow’s created walls. Arika removed a potion from the ring’s inventory and took a stance, readying herself to launch the fragile thing at the corner they had just rounded.
The faint knocking of stone-on-stone from behind him drew Orion’s attention. He turned, and his blood ran cold.
Five sets of eyes stared down at him and Arika; five of the geckos had climbed the walls of the buildings. Their ancient-looking eyes stared down at them intensely. Arika turned to see what Orion was looking at, then took a step back from them involuntarily. The geckos moved down the wall toward them at a frightening speed.
From the corner of Orion’s eye, he saw the glob of magma coming for Arika’s arm. He pulled her aside just in time, causing the volatile potion in her hand to drop to the ground. More globs of molten-rock slammed into the stone-bricks, melting the stone as they landed, and causing the geckos to scramble around the molten patches.
Orion returned his attention to the potion dropping to the floor, making a split-second decision that he believed to be the best course of action. He used Swap, sending the potion into the corner—just a few centimeters above the cobble-stone road, and just beneath the geckos. It exploded, the toxic gas within engulfing the geckos almost instantly, and blocking off the path of the advancing creatures.
At the same time, he pulled on Arika’s arm, feeling a need to get her to safety but not wanting to use Portal if he didn’t have to.
Arika screamed, and Orion looked back at her to see nothing wrong. He panicked, thinking that she had been just inside the gas cloud when it expanded. Had he miscalculated, causing her to become engulfed and poisoned by the deadly potion? He continued dragging her away, and she screamed again, hopping on one leg as he pulled her away.
Stolen story; please report.
“My foot! Stop!” she hissed out through gritted teeth.
That’s when he noticed one of her bright-green shoes was half melted off, the skin beneath burned and blistered. He looked back to see where the lava shot from a lizard landed on the floor and splashed onto her foot—an attack he didn’t see, and didn’t save her from. Feeling like a failure, he pulled out one of his healing potions, offering it up to her.
She pulled out a regular healing potion instead. “It’s just a burn. Ah!” She winced as she pulled back her robe from her lower leg that was also burned. “I might need the miraculous healing later. I can deal with a bit of pain while this heals.”
The guilt that Orion felt made him want to argue, but he knew she was correct. It would be better to deal with the pain now and be able to heal a more significant injury or debuff later with his potion.
He helped offered his arm for Arika to lean on, and as he returned his attention to his surroundings, he readied himself to Portal them both onto a roof. The gaseous poison was still blocking the path, but the three Flame-Horned Lizards had stepped through it, preparing to shoot from their eyes again. On a roof above them, another four of the geckos peered down at them hungrily.
Orion teleported them both up, and they landed awkwardly on the sloped roof above, opposite the four geckos as the magma shot from the lizards flew through the air where they’d been a second earlier. He braced her arm, ensuring she didn’t fall down while her leg still healed. The geckos scrambled down the opposite wall, intent on following their targets. As they crossed paths with the advancing mass of creatures, Orion threw three more potions.
One cracked on the head of one lizard, another on a gecko, and a third hit the cobble-stones between them. Three clouds of the toxic poison burst into being at once. All the visible creatures in the limited area of street they could see were covered in the slowly drifting gas.
Orion breathed a sigh of relief. That had been tight, but they managed to pull through. The reprieve was short-lived, as a Flamadillo soared into the air over the cloud, having shot itself up instead of across with its powerful legs. It flew towards them, and Orion recognized they had nothing left. He wanted to run, to escape with Arika, but he had no means.
He reached for the source of his ability as he had before, hoping to use his will to force his ability off cooldown, to Portal or Swap them to safety—but nothing came. He couldn’t feel the magic; he felt nothing but despair.
The armadillo soared towards them, reaching the top of its arc in what felt like both a moment and an eternity. It started coming down toward them. Orion looked at Arika and noted she was staring at him. She was looking at his neck, where he wore the Amulet of Fire Protection.
She looked into his eyes and smiled a sad smile as she brought her hand up, ready to make the move required for Invoke. He knew her plan instantly and tried to grab her hand—tried to stop her from blowing them both up. She had no hope of surviving the Explosion that would follow, but they both knew that with the necklace he wore, he would.
A flash and a blur of silver flew between them, knocking them both aside and causing Arika to fall awkwardly. She let out a cry of pain, even as their armor-clad savior flew into the path of the descending armadillo.
Shadow’s silent form swung his elegant-looking sword down in a single motion, cleaving the mutated-mammal almost in half. It fell lifelessly back down to the street, and Shadow turned and smiled at them, then furrowed his brow at Arika’s leg.
“Arika, your leg… I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“You saved me, you big idiot.” She winced as she tried to stand. “You know, that would have been a perfect moment to yell a finishing move.”
Shadow smiled at her comment, but Orion noted it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Still doesn’t feel right.” Shadow helped Arika to her feet as Orion brushed himself off.
Orion walked over to the edge and dropped another three over the side for good measure. He needed a moment to think.
I should have known some of the creatures might be able to climb. That was stupid.
He once more proved to himself that he had no business taking the lead, and he felt like an idiot for diverting so many of the defense force away from this place. He was dragged from his self-loathing by a startled noise from Arika.
“Oh. My. God.” Arika stared with wide eyes toward the gates, and Orion turned to see what she was looking at.
From their raised elevation, they could see out over the defensive wall of the town. On the open ground between the forest and the gate, they could see the true attacking force of the northern front.
Four slug-like creatures advanced slowly toward the town. They were the size of two cars, bumper-to-bumper, their bodies made up of molten rock and shards of black stone. Their illuminated forms slid ever forward, and in their wake, they left naught but scorched earth and devastation. The Forest behind them was now littered with small fires, four distinct trails marking their travel.
They spotted a fifth, much larger trail between the two-pairs of slug-made paths. The fifth trail was three-times as wide as any of the other trails, and instead of small fires, the entire forest in its wake was ablaze.
They locked their eyes on the advancing boss.