image [https://i.imgur.com/MFoVvyD.jpg]
Removing my lance and pulverizing its twisted wooden cage preoccupied the snake long enough for us to run around its mass and duck back into the roots.
Fabulosa took every opportunity to dump mana into spells. The creature had lost half of its health by the time she relented her magical attacks, stopping when she fell to 100 mana, reserving the rest for healng.
As I wove through the roots, the snake withdrew to the open, eliminating opportunities for free hits. Free from the wood, its unfurled length explained how one small rhino wouldn’t satisfy its appetite.
The creature coiled into a mound and rolled itself toward us. Instead of constricting or swallowing, it went for a steamroll, giving me no confidence the roots could support its weight if we sought sanctuary again.
Without other options, we braced ourselves in the roots and jabbed the ophidian when it approached. The sky darkened as it blotted out my view. Roots split and cracked apart as the canopy buckled. Our blades made the snake pay for every second, thrusting as long as we had elbow room. When its bulk collapsed our sanctuary, our Anticipates triggered, teleporting us to safety.
Standing beside the pile of coiled flesh, Fabulosa and I looked at one another, searching for clues to see if the other wanted to run. We couldn’t see the snake’s head, so it didn’t know we had escaped.
The snake had over 700 health left. We could probably sneak away, but it meant leaving behind my lance and the creature’s experience and treasure. After only a second’s pause, we drilled our swords into the side of the ophidian giant.
When it unraveled, its flailing body hit us like a wall of bricks. Shattering the root system spoiled any promise of shelter, so we needed a new tactic.
“Fab, get back! Let me distract it. I can reset Slipstream!”
Using my robe to reset my cooldown, I held my ground as the rolling snake ball approached. Fabulosa reached maximum healing range while I maintained the ophidian’s attention by lashing out with Thrust. The darkening wall of coils loomed over me. The creature rolled like a tangle of rope, and I lured it away from my partner.
Fabulosa pulled out her bow and Returning Arrow. She aimed and loosed the missile. Her coiled up target approximated the size of a barn, so I had no doubts she’d hit her mark. Instead of recalling the arrow immediately, she waited until the twisting coils pointed the missile toward the far side of the beast before commanding its return. Like the minotaur, the arrow ruptured through the snake in a spray of gore, causing nearly 100 damage.
I waited until the last minute before Slipstreaming away, but luck wasn’t with me. In avoiding the rolls of flesh, my belt had caught onto a nearby branch. The Book of Dungeons added a fist icon in my peripheral vision. When I focussed on it, the word Grabbed appeared.
Slipstream wouldn’t work.
The branch cost me precious seconds. While freeing myself, I’d lost track of the snake. It served me right to always rely on Slipstream. The world darkened as heavy coils rolled over me, pinning me to the ground.
Opening my available abilities window froze time, but my repertoire of melee maneuvers and settlement powers offered no escape mechanics that the Grabbed debuff didn’t foil. The blessings weren’t helpful. Hot Air took too long, and dangling in midair made me an easy target—and Glowing Coals didn’t work outside Hawkhurst. I hadn’t earned enough glory for a commander promotion, and none of my items looked like they could help.
Available Spells
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Tier 1
Acid Splash, Arcane Missile, Bless, Dim, Eye, Faerie Flames, Featherfall, Grease, Ice Bolt, Just Strike, Light, Lightning Bolt, Moonburn, Purify Water, Scry, Summon Swarm, Tangling Roots, Vegetable Empathy
Tier 2
Avoid Ammo, Detect Illusion, Fireball, Primal Blast
Tier 3
none
Tier 4
Rally
Power Points
2
Grease became the only applicable option in my available spells. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as flexible as other games. It sprayed the area around the caster with grease while rendering them immune from the stuff. It offered a tactical advantage in melee combat. Dino’s lessons about balance and footing made me realize Grease’s potency—but it would do me no good now. Here, I needed to be the slippery one.
After closing the window, I scanned my spell list, smiling when I realized I’d been sitting on the solution the entire time—a power that had already saved my sauce a few times. I closed my character sheet and cast Dig.
I excavated a grave-sized cavity into the earth beneath me to reduce the weight of the ophidian’s bulk. The writhing coils above me blackened the sky, but I could still breathe within the makeshift grave. Dig didn’t work like a shovel. Instead, it vacuumed away loose soil, leaving behind anything that wasn’t dirt or debris—in this case, a spongy bed of thin roots.
I pulled out a normal dagger and plunged it upwards until my shoulder muscles burned from the exertion. The snake’s crushing coils writhed but never found my secret location.
Beneath the carcass, everything remained quiet and dark. When my combat state ended, I received 55 experience points.
Fabulosa wouldn’t be worried. With no death messages, she would have known that I was all right. Still, this hole offered no elegant exits. Compression Sphere would do nothing but pop my ears, so I cast Dig again and hollowed out a narrow ditch long enough for me to crawl out from under the carcass.
Wriggling from the giant snake’s bulk felt like being birthed. Blood, mud, and dirt covered me, but it felt good to breathe fresh air again.
“Howdy, stranger! I thought you would Slipstream away.”
“I was, but I got snagged.” I shrugged. “Did you get the core yet?”
“Yep. Another green.”
“All that for a green?”
Fabulosa nodded, and I could tell by her body language that she had something else to say. “I gutted it and found a robe that increases a person’s primal magic rank by 15.”
“Nice. Does it have armor?”
“Yeah, 20—which isn’t nearly as much as the chain mail I’m wearing now.”
“It’s yours if you want it.”
Fabulosa grinned. “I figured and slipped it under my armor. Being so tanky subdues my primal spells, but adding 15 ranks makes up for it. This way, I’ll be on par with you.”
“Except you have more primal spells. It makes way more sense on you. Besides, I have a robe—even if I did waste its reset ability on a useless Slipstream.”
Fabulosa handed my lance to me and recited the rest of our gains. “I also found some gems, silver pieces, and a few normal weapons.”
I cleaned myself as well as someone could get with a water canteen. It made me wish The Book of Dungeons offered a cleanliness cantrip.
Fabulosa and I performed a Rest and Mend and re-buffed ourselves with Heavenly Favor. Leaving the ophidian’s meat behind seemed wrong, but closing in on Thaxter’s coordinates made timing critical. We left the trampled ambush site and rediscovered Thaxter’s trail.
Five minutes onto the path, we encountered a squad of soldiers moving in the opposite direction. They wore Fort Krek uniforms, but their defeated, downcast looks showed little indication of remaining under Thaxter’s sway. The male soldiers sported a four-day growth, giving them a more haggard countenance than their female compatriots.
As well-trained soldiers, they fell into orderly protocols after spotting us. The vanguards warned their comrades in the rear.
Fabulosa and I let them approach in a formation of their choosing. Though they had numbers, the path bottlenecked them. Surrounding us in this thick vegetation would do them more harm than good. Their movements looked stiff and pained, and when I inspected their nameplates, a string of Exhaustions betrayed their poor condition. Some had a half dozen.
I inwardly groaned when they eyed the white ribbons on our belts. By forgetting to remove them, we’d blundered away bluffing options. We couldn’t pretend to be wayward explorers who happened upon their trail. The ribbons made us look like bounty hunters sent from the fort.
A few soldiers murmured to one another, but not loud enough for us to hear. They let their superiors do the talking. Three women corporals emerged from the tangled foliage, followed by a stocky man with a thin mustache. The nameplate over his head read Captain Jourdain. He stepped forward, arms akimbo as if daring anyone to challenge him as the person in charge. “Who are you, and why are you following our trail?”
Fabulosa and I exchanged looks. We hadn’t planned on talking our way through this.
Fabulosa answered. “We’re here to terminate your mission.” She gripped the hilt of her Phantom Blade, still undrawn, but her words and gestures gave us no room to hedge or soften our position. Her posture and gear make clear our resolve to face them all.