Chapter 13

The explosion that rocked the small island was enough to knock all three men off of their feet. From the ground Roden could see the sliver within the conflux was no more. In its place hovered a large black crystal nearly the size of Grumell.

For his part, Grumell was already grabbing at the thing and pulling it down into his arms. A low laugh came from the gremlin as the crystal slid into his clutches. His laughter grew into a maniacal cackling as the power visibly warped the air around him.

‘Well fuck.’ Was Roden’s only thought.

“It has been fun hugan, but it is time for me to go. Until we meet again.” As he spoke, tendrils of dark energy lashed out and drew in thick vines and branches. The appropriated vegetation formed around the black rock obscuring it. In seconds, the mass of greenery had formed into a semi-humanoid shape that stood nearly eleven feet tall. With all the green plants woven into the body the thing looked like a literal garden variety incredible hulk.

Riakon started them off by unleashing a gout of fire from his toothy maw. The flames washed over the creature eliciting hissing and popping as the green plants attempted to burn. Grumell was nowhere to be seen, presumably absorbed into the mass of herbage.

The three men had their new foe surrounded on three sides. Riakon’s flames had done little, but draw its attention. The creature lashed out in a sweeping motion with its huge arm. Riakon braced himself behind his shield as it slammed into him.

For everything it lacked in speed the sheer mass of the thing was enough to send Riakon staggering back.

Errrkkkk fired off a series of chi blasts at the creature’s back as it focused in on Riakon. Each one seemed to pass through the creature harmlessly.

“Guys! I think we are going to need something big for this one!” Roden said as he sent a Winter’s blast straight at the creature lumbering toward Riakon. The ice magic rapidly froze the plant material causing it to crack and shatter as the thing continued its path toward Riakon.

The plant hulk raised both arms up and brought them down hard intent on smashing Riakon into the ground. Lucky for Riakon he was able to just avoid the strikes by diving out of the way. Strangely even though Riakon had moved the creature continued moving in the same direction, ignoring the men.

After a few steps it became clear Grumell had no intent on fighting them in that form. He was trying to flee with the crystal.

“Fuck! He’s trying to run!”

Roden fired off another Winter’s blast as he rushed in with the last remnants of his Storm Strider magic. His ice magic was having the greatest effect as it slowed it down and forced it to leave some of its mass behind.

Riakon followed suit with a blast of super chilled breath that froze a large portion of the creature’s legs. Errrkkkk promptly shattered the frozen section with a diving staff strike from above. The top half of the creature fell on its chest having lost its lower half to Errrkkkk and Riakon’s combination.

It dragged itself forward along the ground in what looked like a sad attempt to escape until it started drawing in more plant material from the surrounding scrub. Instead of reproducing the same thick elephant-like legs it created a series of spider-like legs out of branches and logs.

When it rose to an upright position on its new legs, the space that looked to be the thing’s face twisted and opened up to reveal Grumell sunk into the thing like a mech pilot. His eyes locked on Roden as he spoke,

“Give it up hugan, I am too strong for you to stop me.”

“Maybe, but we’re going to kick your fucking ass in the process.”

From Roden’s right Riakon fired a bolt of lightning straight into Grumell’s cockpit. From behind him,

Errrkkkk rose up into the air, his golden silhouette against the night sky, and rained down a flurry of chi blasts, each one striking around where Grumell rested.

Roden held his sword out to the side and poured his magic into it. Bright energy rushed out of him like billowing white flames. He charged toward Grumell. His speed was no longer enhanced, but Storm Strider wasn’t his only option. The others’ attacks had distracted the gremlin enough to allow Roden to call his Nimbus back to him.

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Atop his cloud once more he gripped his sword tightly and prepared to unleash his spell. He drove the sword straight into the hulk’s neck, where he hoped Grumell’s body would be.

Hero’s Strike erupted out of his sword. The white holy magic blasted a hole through everything in its path. When the energy dissipated, the mass of foliage slumped before falling into an incohesive pile.

Roden poked through the vines of its chest until he found the black crystal Grumell had forged out of the conflux. The three men stared at the shiny object on the ground for a long moment, before Errrkkkk looked to Riakon,

“What are you waiting for, put it in your dimensional bag already, cacaw.”

Riakon shrugged and took a step forward. As he did, both Errrkkkk and Roden took big steps back.

“Ha ha, real funny guys.” He scooped up the crystal with little fanfare and slipped it into his bag before repositioning it back on his hip.

Roden looked to Errrkkkk, “welp, I guess we have an idea of where the shaman’s black crystal came from.”

“Yeah, but that means the gremlins already have control over at least one conflux, cacaw.”

Roden frowned, “yeah that can’t be good. We should probably bring the crystal back to the court mage.”

Both men nodded in agreement, before Riakon spoke, “yeah, but we should sleep first. I don’t want to do that run in the middle of the night.”

“Fair enough.”

“Cacaw.”

The following morning the men sat and enjoyed a cup of tea before they packed and set off back to the mainland, when a thought occurred to Roden.

“Hey guys, did either of you get an Advancement?”

Riakon shook his head no.

Errrkkkk closed his eyes briefly before repeating the gesture, “I don’t think we were under enough stress to force our bodies to advance.”

Roden pursed his lips knowing he was about to ask a question that was going to make him sound dumb.

Riakon cut in front of him, “oh brother it looks like he is about to ask another advancement question.”

Roden glared at Riakon, but sighed, “yes I was going to ask what you mean by enough stress?”

Errrkkkk clicked his tongue, “in order to advance, adventurers need to stress their bodies and minds. Some people can gain advancements through rigorous study of materials that are too complex for non-adventurers, but most gain advancements from surviving dangerous situations.”

“It has to be real danger too. You really have to feel like you are in danger for your body to react enough.” Riakon added.

“Hmmm, so it’s like an adrenaline thing?”

Errrkkkk and Riakon stared at him blankly.

“That excited feeling you get when you are about to get in a fight. That feeling comes from adrenaline. It’s a chemical in your body that tries to protect it by making you more alert and stuff.”

Errrkkkk thought for a moment, “then yeah it’s like that. You have to believe you are in danger in order for your body to push its limits. Life or death scenarios are the best for the greatest progress toward advancements, but less dangerous situations can still work, cacaw.”

Roden felt like he was starting to get it, “like when we are in the arena? It's dangerous, but not life-threatening.”

Riakon nodded sagely, “exactly, if our lives were on the line in those fights it would push us much harder and we would advance faster. I don’t think we were in any great danger last night beyond that crystal exploding like the one in Pescatin.”

At his own mention of the town Riakon’s face flashed a grimace.

“Well damn, there goes our plan of using this mission to advance.”

Errrkkkk looked to Riakon, “he has a point there, cacaw.”

All three men sat in thought for a good while as they sipped their tea. Roden actually remembered to pull out his pipe and have a light smoke while they batted around ideas.

They tossed out going back to the arena. Without having had a real challenge to test their current arrangement of abilities, they couldn’t be sure they were at a level comparable to their last fight against the Dream Team.

Roden found himself in a particularly awkward position. He was supposed to ensure things happened as closely then as they did at his table, but their current mission was already so different from his game. It was strange to him as the discrepancies were major yet made some semblance of sense.

For example, they hadn’t flown to an island for a conflux. He had Errrkkkk and Riakon investigate an underwater temple where they discovered a forge of power and no gremlins. However, they had run into a plant-like creature that possessed a magic gem within it, but again no gremlins.

Both of those encounters were essentially things that just happened to be going on in his world when his players ran across them. They had no significant connection to anything greater, Yet there he was on an island investigating a conflux where a gremlin forged a magical gem that a plant creature carried within it.

Roden shook his head in frustration as he blew out a large cloud of tasty smoke. He really wished Miriana was a bit more forthcoming with the details of his situation.

“Well boys, I’ve got nothing. Unless we want to go try and hunt down some random things in the Wilds, I don’t know where we are going to find anything worth our time.”

Riakon tapped his chin with one of his clawed fingers before his brows shot up and he plunged his hand in his dimensional bag.

When he withdrew his hand he clutched a small smooth rock. He held it up for the others to see and spoke excitedly.

“We should ask Bo! He might know about something in the area.”

“Yeah just don’t mention your lack of magic or he’ll call you a shithead, cacaw.”

“Good point. Roden you do the talking.” Riakon said, shoving the stone into Roden’s hand.

“Awe fuck why me?!”

The other men’s hands upon their noses told him everything he needed to know. Resigned to his fate he held the stone up to his mouth like a trucker on a CB radio and spoke into it. At his words the stone began to glow a faint blue.

“Hey Bo, it's Roden and the boys. We don’t have a contract. Do you have anything for us around Port Sept?” There was a pause, the stone still glowing, Roden assumed the magic needed a few more words to complete the enchantment on the stone so he quickly added “Riakon has no magic.”

“Awe c’mon.”

Roden gave him the middle finger, “you should’ve done the talking then.”

Errrkkkk stood up and drained his tea. “Well no point in waiting around here for his answer. Let’s hit the skys, cacaw.”