Neil
As soon as the words were out of my mouth we were running up the stairs as quickly as we could. It occurred to me as we were entering the ruined building that we really had no proof that we had sealed away the source of the taint and most of the Lamia were unlikely to take my word for it. In fact, even in the best of situations the Lamia wouldn’t really have a reason to believe me, now that we would be running from our lives with monsters hot on our heels, they would have an actual reason to assume we were just lying in order to save ourselves.
It occurred to me all too late that this was likely Halice’s plan all along and I had stupidly walked right into it. I hadn’t thought ahead about the task I had been given, I hadn’t thought how or even if I could complete it, and even when I realized how much more difficult it would be than I thought it would be I continued forwards regardless of how bad an idea it was. It really made me start to think about what else I had agreed foolishly agreed to without considering how it would affect me down the line.
My musings were cut off as Yallia and I finally ran into the abandoned building. Looking through the doorway I could see the light of day for the first time in I wasn’t sure exactly how long in front of us.
Feeling energized by the fresh air and sunlight I started smiling and redoubled my pace. At the very least I would be dying in the sunlight. That smile was wiped off my face when I entered the sunlight and searing pain hit my eyes my hands flying up to shield them from the noonday sun.
“Fucking dammit!” I shouted.
Holding my eyes shut with my arms in front of my face I ran forwards a few more steps before I ran into something solid. Bouncing off the side of whatever it was I hit, I went down to the ground and I felt that whatever I had run into went down as well.
Forcing my eyes open I wiped away the tears that immediately formed as I tried to look at whatever it was that I ran into. Blinking a few times as the pain started to fade I saw that it wasn’t a what but rather a who that I had collided with. On the ground beside me was a male Lamia who was reaching for something that had landed near me. Looking to the side I saw that he was reaching for a knife that had landed near me on the ground.
Grabbing it before he could I threw it away and tried to stand up but the Lamia was up on his tail and looming over me before I could so much as get my feet under me. Although his hands were currently empty, he looked pissed off enough that I thought he might still attack me. While he was kind of runty as far as Lamia went I was pretty sure he was stronger than me.
I opened my mouth to declare my success with my quest and hopefully stop any fighting before it began, but I was interrupted by a loud crash from the building as parts of it began collapsing and the doorway was destroyed as something emerged from it.
Both of our heads snapped towards the building in time to see a creature standing in the ruins.
Most of the main part of the building with the stairs was still standing but the entryway and several walls were now piles of rubble. Looking into a window on the side of the main building I could see the far wall looked like it had been damaged as well.
It was the largest monster I had seen and I wondered how it had made it up the stairs. It was made up of flesh that had been shaped into a quadrupedal form. The flesh looked like it had come from a few dozen different sources, parts of it had scales like a Lamias tale, other parts looked human, and still others had fur on them. Every part was mixed together like a patchwork quilt.
The creature was extremely large, even bigger than the Onca-Parda I had seen in the jungle probably 25 feet long, 10 feet tall and 8 feet thick. Its head was two feet long and the proportions were all wrong. There were at least a dozen eyes not only on its head but placed in seemingly random places on its body, and its mouth took up most of its head. Its mouth opened and it roared loud enough that it was probably heard in the valley far below. The roar also gave us an excellent view of inside its mouth, instead of teeth it had dozens of small tentacles each with small barbs and suckers on it. The tentacles swayed around its mouth seemingly with minds of their own.
When the roar ended slowly the creature stepped forwards, taking one step and then another. Its entire body tensed and its head moved to face directly at Yallia and another male Lamia that had apparently been fighting with her. The two of them immediately backed away from each other and the Lamia pulled a bow and arrow off of his back knocked it and fired it at the creature.
The Lamia which was closest to me yelled a curse that I didn’t recognize at his friend and removed his own bow and arrow.
The second the arrow from the first Lamia entered the creature it began charging forwards. The Lamia showed a lot more speed and dexterity than I thought it capable of and managed to narrowly avoid the monsters charge.
Yallia made a gesture with her hands and I looked away just in time to avoid being blinded by the flash of light. Taking off my bag I threw it on the ground and removed two of the five spears I had been carrying with me.
Creating a water atlatl as quickly as I could I placed a spear on it and threw the spear as hard as I could. For the second time today aim was finally true and the spear shot forwards and impacted into the side of the creature. It sunk about a quarter of its length into the creature where it stayed.
The head of the creature opened and it roared in pain at the strike. Turning to face me the tentacles stretched towards me like they were personally offended by my existence.
The creature disoriented by the bright flash and distracted by the spear in its side stopped its pursuit of the Lamia and instead turned towards me.
I hesitated for just a second before resting my atlatl against my arm, putting my other spear on it and throwing it.
By the time I had gotten my weapon ready the creature had started loping towards me and was just starting to pick up speed, so when my second spear caught it in the top of its leg it stumbled and fell. As close as it was and running straight at me I was faced with several tons of monster rolling straight towards me, diving out of the way I was able to dodge the creature, but with its size I could feel the ground shake when it hit the ground and slid along the rocks. Wincing I looked at my bag which had been directly in the path of the monster. I couldn’t see the Lamia, but hopefully he had managed to get out of the way too.
Standing I brought my mana to my right hand and quickly formed it into a water whip, the spell finally coming easily to me after several days of practice. Whipping the water towards the creatures' forward leg, I managed to score several cuts where the leg reached its body. I was hoping to cause it to start limping or at least slow it down a little, but so far it was able to shrug off all of the damage I had done to it.
The monster started to stand and turn towards me when I saw two arrows impact its head one after the other. Flinching at the impacts the creature turned towards the source of the arrows and its body tensed preparing to pounce on the source of the annoyances.
I prepared to whip the creature again when movement from beside me caught my eye. Exiting the ruins of the building were two spider rats, three quarters of a Lamia dragging itself forwards by its hands, and another creature I had never seen before but looked like a wolf crossed with a porcupine. It was at least 8 feet long and its body was bristling with sharp barbed quills.
Cursing I realized that every single creature in the underground city was probably heading up the stairs after us. If we didn’t find a way to block those stairs, we’d never make it off the mountain. The best way to do that would be to collapse the rest of the building on top of the stairs. With the building as damaged as it was it shouldn’t take too much for that to happen, although my water whips probably wouldn’t be a very good choice for that. Looking at the monster and the part of the building it had collapsed I swore at the idea I had.
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“I need it to chase me! Focus on the smaller ones!” I shouted, hopefully they heard me.
Reforming my water whip I thrust my hand forwards catching the leading spider rat directly in its face. Punching through its head the whip was taking on a red and black color as blood and taint entered the water. Swinging the whip to my side the whip and corpse both collided with the other spider rat. The whip was sharp enough to leave a large cut along the monsters side, and it was heavy enough to shatter a few of the monsters legs but it had a half a dozen more to make up for it.
The closest threats dealt with I looked back at the large flesh abomination; it was currently trying to pounce on the Lamia I had run into, who ws busy rolling back and forth with surprising speed avoiding the monster. Shortening my whip and making it more solid I turned it into a spear, I threw it at where the creatures leg met its torso as hard as I could. The spear arced through the air and landed a little high, in the creatures' chest rather than in its leg. Almost half of the spear's length entered the monster before it lost cohesion and the water splashed onto the ground.
An inky black substance began leaking out of the wound as the monster turned towards me its mouth open and small tentacles began waving at me.
“Over here asshole!” I shouted waving my arms, when the creature actually turned back to me, I stopped and turned.
Running directly towards the still standing side of the building I heard and felt the ground shake as the large creature followed me. As I approached the building the quill wolf charged at me from the side trying to catch me.
Pushing myself as hard as I could I dove towards a window on the side of the building, the quill wolf managed to actually crash into my legs which threw off my trajectory a little causing me to hit the side of the window. Despite how hard I hit the side of the window I wasn’t feeling any pain at the moment which was probably thanks to adrenaline.
Trying to get my feet under me I saw two more quill wolves and a mutated Lamia coming up the stairs, this put them between me and the window in the other side of the room. I had hoped to run through the building and dive out the window on the opposite side of the room, but that was now impossible. Diving into the corner of the room furthest from the window I curled into a ball covering my head as the quill wolves prepared to pounce on me. Before they could the large creature burst through the wall in a shower of rock, crushing the two quill wolves the large creature tripped over their bodies and fell into the far wall damaging it further.
Coughing as the dust entered my lungs I stood up and tried to run out of the newly formed door. Losing my footing a few times on loose rocks, it was more of a stumbling run than the terrified sprint it probably should have been, but I did manage to get out and get some distance from the building as I heard it collapsing behind me. Terrified that I was about to be crushed I tried to pick up my pace when something landed on my back knocking me forwards. Landing face first on the ground I was winded as whatever hit me landed on my lungs knocking the air out of them. I was wondering if it was rubble or a monster that hit me when a pain blossomed in my shoulder. I started screaming in pain when I was shaken back and forth several times and then thrown far to my right.
Bouncing and sliding several feet when I got my senses back I found myself laying in a heap trying to figure out what happened. Looking up I saw Yallia doing what I could only describe as dancing with quill wolf. She ducked and slid barely missing the creatures pounces and the swipes of its paws. She wasn’t able to do much damage to the creature in return, but was instead distracting it as arrows would occasionally impact the creatures' side. If it ever looked like it was going to attack the Lamia who was firing arrows as quickly as he could Yallia would dart forwards and swipe at it with her knives. She was never able to do very much damage to it but between the two of them the damage was stacking up.
The other Lamia was fighting the injured spider rat with a short knife, while it looked like he was winning his arms were also bleeding in a several places.
Behind the quill wolf the mutated Lamia was approaching the Lamia assisting Yallia from its blind spot. I tried to call out a warning but I found it hard to breath and I only managed a gasp.
Forming the largest water bullet, I could I took aim at the distant creature and fired. The Lamia that was helping Yallia looked betrayed for a moment as the water bullet struck the ground behind him, but that was enough to get his attention on the mutated Lamia sneaking up on him from behind. Turning his attention to it he took a glob of spit in the chest and cried out in pain before launching an arrow at it and pulling back to avoid the sharp blades it had instead of hands.
Exhausted and in pain I stood up holding my shoulder. The quill wolf now peppered with almost a dozen arrows seemed to know that it was about to die, headless of the damage it had already taken the creature leapt straight at Yallia swiping at her with its paw knocking her to the ground. Using my left hand I created a spear of water in it and rather than try to make the throw with my off hand I just charged at the creature and impaled it in the side of its chest. Forming the end of the spear facing my into a large plate I pushed the spear forwards with my entire body until I had several feet of spear inside of it.
With the spear being as sharp as it was and my body weight behind it the weapon entered the monster easier than I had expected. The creature while injured wasn’t dead yet and it was still snarling and biting at Yallia.
Still touching the water I was able to stop it from dissolving, and I could also alter its form. Turning the spear into a whip I began wiggling it back and forth inside the creature. Its back arched and it leaned towards me while hissing and I had to back up in order to avoid getting bitten and stabbed. Angling the water straight up I cut through most of its neck as the water blade exited it. Finally dead the creature fell, landing half on Yallias legs.
Yallia was in rough condition, her face had numerous scratches on it and several more on her arms and chest, pinned as she was she couldn’t even help herself let alone the others.
The two Lamia weren’t in much better condition than Yallia or myself, between the two of them they had finished off the mutated Lamia but not without taking a few more injuries.
We looked at each other for a few moments each of us exhausted and bleeding from multiple places.
“I have some healing potions, can you help me lift this off of her?”
They looked at each other for a moment and then looked at the monster.
“There aren’t any good places to grip it.”
Yallia was still breathing and conscious but she looked to be in a lot of pain. “We don’t have time for this. I’ll lift it you pull her out.”
Not waiting for an answer I grabbed the monsters open mouth and picked it up by some of its teeth. While they were sharp enough dig into my hands, they weren’t sharp enough to cut me without more force being applied. Pulling it up and back I managed to get it partially off of Yallia but not enough for the Lamia to pull her out. The smaller Lamia that I ran into, that I was pretty sure was named Kallix moved from pulling Yalliia to helping me lift the monster, and between the two of us we shifted it enough that Renther was able to pull Yallia free.
Although awake Yallia wasn’t very coherent, it looked like she was in too much pain to be able to say anything.
“Hold her wounds shut, I’ll get the healing potions.” I said to both of the Lamia.
Running to my pack I saw that it had actually been pushed into some of the soil when the creature landed on it, which had saved the canteen, but the bottle of Night Eye potion and the flasks of stamina potions had shattered. Opening the bag I scattered everything onto the ground, finding my canteen with the healing potion in my bag and several MRE bags filled with dried healing herbs I ran back over to Yallia. Pouring some of the potion on her wounds I let her have a small drink before I drank some and felt my shoulder close up, feeling better I passed it over to the Lamia.
They each took a drink and I watched as their wounds closed most of the way. I waited for them to hand it back to me but after a few moments of Renther holding it and looking at me not moving I just took it from him.
Falling on the ground in a sitting position I regarded Renther and Kallix as they looked at us.
Not wanting them to start the conversation I started talking “Alright so, it’s done, we sealed away the source of the Taint and the monsters. Of course, there are still monsters down there so you may not want to actually go down there anytime soon.”
Renther and Kallix looked at each other awkwardly and then back to us. “We were told that unless it was safe for Lamia to enter the city of the Ancients we were to take you straight to Hallice and to kill you if you refused.” Kallix said uncomfortably.
The two Lamia looked like they were uncertain about what to do next when the rubble of the building began shifting, at first it was just a few rocks, then large sections of stone began rising and talling. For a few moments we stared at it and then wordlessly spread out, Yallia slowly made her way to her feet, her knives held in front of her. The two Lamia stayed close enough to each other to support the other, but far enough away that the creature couldn’t crush them both, and I walked closer to the edge of the mountain.
The rocks shifted and slowly the creature stood up, stone chunks raining off of it landing on the rubble. It took a moment to shake off the last of the stones and some dust before it turned to us mouth open tentacles whipping back and forth wildly. Despite being crushed by a three story building the monster looked to be in excellent condition.
Making the thinnest water spear I could I held it above my shoulder readying it, when the creature was finally up to its full height, I threw the spear as hard as I could using an atlatl.
The spear at its tip was as sharp as and strong as I could make it. It pierced into the monster's chest and almost half of its length sank into the monster. Not even rocking back the monster simply looked at me with what looked like contempt in its eyes.
This spear was different than the others I had used. Inspired by my success against the quille wolf I altered the spell. Instead of just being a spear I had left a small rope of water attaching it to my hand allowing me to control the weapon. Adding as much water and mana to the spell as I could I increased the size of the spear as much as I could, until I started to feel a little dizzy as exhaustion began to hit me and I even had to start worrying about mana shock. Segmenting the spear into eight different water blades I opened the spear like a flower inside the monsters chest, spinning the spear inside the creature while moving the blades up and down the monster started to shake and howl in pain and with a pull of my arm the spear shot out of the monster returning to my hand as I was covered in a shower of blood and viscera.
The monster collapsed onto the ground a large hole in its chest forming as blood poured from the wound.
DING
For creating and using new spells during combat you have improved your water affinity!
My vision started to swim and I was in danger of collapsing so I stood as still as possible and just looked at the corpse of the monster as I held myself up with the spear which was now stained red and black with the monsters blood, while I tried to wait for the world to stop spinning. After a full minute I felt like I could turn around without falling over.
Slowly turning to look at the two Lamia I tried to project an aura of confidence and that I wasn’t on my last legs.
"I’ve changed my mind, I’m going to wash up here, and then we're gonna have a conversation. Any questions?” I asked, the two Lamia looked intimidated enough that they had none.