Cade had been up several hours, taking the final watch of their night. He walked back towards the center of their camp as the sun peeked up over the tree-tops. Cade pulled out some rations, mindlessly eating them whilst promising to get some better food, and something else to drink besides water and alcohol. He was tired of such boring routines all day, every day. The others had started to stir in the morning light, packing up their things into their inventories. Frida stood up and walked over to Cade.
“Thank you for the invite, I look forward to learning and fighting alongside you.” She said with a straight face and a handshake that made Cade’s bones hurt. This lady is seriously strong, Ow.
“Not a problem Frida, although I will warn you; we have had some issues with trust recently and we lost a member of our party due to trusting in someone that then turned around and killed her. This is not a threat, but please know that we will not hesitate to protect each other from a similar kind of attack. I hope you can respect that.” Cade knew this was a heavy handed way of telling her about Kaia, and their lack of faith in the rest of humanity, but she seemed to like the more blunt approach.
“Mhmmm. I felt something of the sort coming from Crow, he has a very piercing stare. I understand and will prove myself to be someone worthy of trust.” She nodded and stood to the side as the other two approached them.
“Everyone good to go? We should be able to get to the base of the mountain in just a few minutes.” Cade smiled and looked over at the confused look on Frida’s face.
“We have a pretty sweet ride, so hold on tight when you get in!” King laughed excitedly as he warned Frida. Cade pulled the massive transport from his inventory and heard Frida gasp.
“How did you get this? Did you build it? This would have helped us so much, dammit.” She looked frustrated but moved to examine the huge vehicle. King jumped up into the rear facing seat, ready to go and smiling down at the rest of them.
“Frida, you want to take the middle seat up front? We can give you the low down once we get going.” She nodded curtly and jumped aboard, sitting her hulking frame in the middle seat. She was almost too big for it but when she sat down it adjusted downwards to let her head be below the canopy.
“Cade, keep an eye out. I don’t think she’s bad news, but I do know she would be one hell of an opponent if she decided to make enemies of us.” Brandon whispered to Cade, worry obvious in the look he followed up with.
“Yeah, same to you. I trust you to deal with anything like that, but be careful with that ability, hm? I saw your eyes yesterday, they flashed red. Get anything good?” Cade carefully said back, making sure to keep the smile on his face to not draw suspicion from King and Frida.
“I did. I got a top tier elixir. Actually, do you want it? I was reading that it might heal broken and cut off limbs to new. Might give you your fingers back?” Cade’s jaw had dropped, Brandon having pulled out a golden liquid in a simple flask, offering it up to him.
“Dude, that’s 15,000 coins. Are you sure? Also, that’s an insane prize. Maybe that skill is more useful than we initially thought.” Cade couldn’t keep the awe from his voice. “How do we explain my sudden growth in fingers to King and Frida? They will know we somehow have an insanely expensive potion and will ask questions.”
“Tell them I looted it from one of the men and just forgot about it? They pooled their money stupidly and one of them had it. Frida might be willing to blindly back the idea up that they had a ton of coins. If they had been fighting for a while, it may make sense numbers wise.” Brandon had a better excuse than Cade could come up with, so he decided to roll with it.
Cade turned back to the G.R.I.P.S., “Hey guys, Brandon found a potion that we think might heal my hand back to normal. Do you guys have any problem with me taking it real quick before we get going?”
“Nope, let’s see some magic happen. There’s no way this is going to feel good, want something to bite down on?” King gave him a grimace and held out a leather belt he had produced from his storage.
“Appreciate it, might as well be ready if it doesn’t feel great.” Cade responded, feeling slightly worse about the idea of forcefully and quickly growing back fingers. He took the offered belt and sat down in the lotus position. Frida jumped out and sat down a few feet from him.
“I would also like to watch, if that is okay. It is a fascinating system of magic that potions use.” Frida was definitely interested more in the process than if he got his fingers back, which Cade could understand… a little.
“Cade, is that one of the 15,000 coin versions? That thing is GOLD. How did you find that thing? Or buy it? Didn’t realize I was walking around with such high rollers these days!” King prodded fun at them, but Cade knew the question was coming. Fortunately, Brandon spoke up for him.
“When I looted the bodies of some of those men earlier, I found one of them had this. Probably hoarding money and bought it without telling anyone?” He looked over to Frida, her face an impassive mask as she gestured nonchalantly that it was possible.
“Sounds about right. There were many that acted secretively and because we were fighting in groups of four, there were often people off doing who knows what.” She probably hadn’t completely bought the story, but had the good sense to at least see how this played out. Cade and Brandon exchanged a look, Cade nodded once and drank the elixir whole. Nearly immediately a flash of warmth like a dagger drew a long through his body, starting with his stomach and extending to his heart before rapidly extending to his missing fingers. The biggest surprise was not what happened with his hand, but more so that he fell forward clutching his chest.
He started gagging, feeling something coming up from his chest, a burning pain followed by soothing filling every inch of his throat. After a handful of seconds, Brandon at some point having come to support his weight, he threw up a fairly large ball of something black and slimy. It was about the size of a small orange, one of the mini ones they used to eat before the freeze.
“Cade, talk to us. What is going on?” Brandon gently but firmly spoke to him. He spluttered and spat out gunk trying to respond as he recovered.
“I don’t know, what the fuck is that thing? It came from my chest. Fuck man, that was not pleasant.” He managed to get out between gasping breaths, the panic finally subsiding as he recovered. Brandon extended a hand to him and he reached for it, pulling himself to his feet. Brandon didn’t let go though, squeezing his hand and pulling it in front of Cade’s eyes. His fingers were back.
“Holy shit, it worked! And did something else weird! Yay?” King half celebrated, unsure if what had occurred was all good or not. Cade let go of Brandon’s hand, flexing his own and running his right hand over it, testing the fingers to make sure it was real. It was like they were made of brand new skin, untanned and uncalloused.
“Cancer. You had cancer. A big one too.” Frida’s voice pulled Cade out of his examination of his fully repaired hand.
“Sorry, what? I didn’t have cancer, no way.” Cade laughed at the absurdity of the situation. He looked down at the ball of nastiness that had come from him as Frida poured water over it, washing away most of the filth. Left behind was a darkened orb of skin, almost like a pouch, but somewhat harder than most skin would be.
“Frida, what do you mean?” Brandon asked, his voice carrying just as much suspicion as Cade felt.
“My wife was a cancer specialist, I’ve seen enough pictures of her work to know what this is. You had a tumor, probably stomach, or lung, or maybe something else.” She shrugged like it was nothing. “But that expensive elixir must have done its job well to kill and remove it, presumably.” She smiled as she prodded it with a boot, smirking at it in disgust as she did.
“So I’ve had that growing in me, and had no clue, and now I’m just… good? What the fuck man. How does any of this make any sense?” Cade moved to the transport, banged his fists on it in anger, and bent his body over, arms extended in front of him. The others let him figure out his mood, smart enough not to say anything. After a minute, Cade stood back up and turned around, hands on hips. A long sigh and closed eyes were all they had until he chose to speak.
“Fuck it. Not even the strangest thing to happen to me yet. Fuck cancer, and we are definitely buying more of those elixirs. Each of you is taking one.” Cade walked over to the transport, shaking his head and muttering under his breath the whole time. He looked back over at them; “Come on then assholes, let’s get on the move.” Spinning his finger in a circle, he waited for them to get in before flooring it.
They sped off, reaching top speed at an insane pace. Cade knew he was probably being reckless, but he didn’t much care. He had control of it. Probably. Looking over at Frida, he saw the whites of her knuckles holding onto the sides of her seats, her face nearly as pale. Cade laughed and saw Brandon staring at him from the other side of her, head steadily shaking at him in disappointment.
[ Don’t judge me! You wanna drive? It’s fun! ]
[ This is driving? ] Was all he sent back, turning forward. Cade decided to slow down; figuring they could find a fight soon if they looked for it. Dialing it down to half speed, he could almost feel Frida relaxing next to him. They drove for several minutes, eyes searching the sides of the roads for anything to fight. They were approaching the bottom of the main part of the mountain. Cade slowed to a halt after hearing King slam down on the canopy.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
[ Whatcha got, King? ] Brandon sent out to them.
[ North side of the road, saw some movement. Not sure of what it was. ]
Cade slowed down, spinning the vehicle to face perpendicular to the road, looking forward at the northern woods. At a stop, he jumped out, the others following quickly. King pulled up his shield, Brandon going dark off to the east. Frida took up her hammer behind King, her hulking frame dwarfing him as they entered the woods. They walked through the dense trees, the pine tree’s smell heavy in the air.
[ King. Stop moving. Now. ] Brandon’s message came through to them.
[ 15 feet in front of you, completely camouflaged against the branches of a pine ahead of you. It’s absolutely massive. Some kind of snake. ]
[ I can’t see it, what’s the plan? ] King had taken his shield and set it point first into the ground, peering over the top of it as he tried to make out what Brandon was reporting to them. Cade didn’t move a muscle. Frida, also frozen behind King as they searched ahead.
[ King, crossbow to Cade. I’ll do my best to line up a shot for both of us. ] King reached back, a crossbow and bolts appearing in his right hand, not for a moment taking his eyes from in front of them. Cade pushed his sword and shield back into his inventory, taking the crossbow as slow as he could. King had left it ready to fire, smartly so. All Cade had to do was point and shoot.
[ Ready. What am I looking for? ] Cade sent out to the party.
[ Over King’s shoulder, left side, 15… maybe 16 feet from you. 10 feet up from the base of the tree, look for a knot, right side of the tree. ] Cade carefully followed his directions, looking through the low profile sight as he tried to find his prey.
[ Let me know when you have a bead on it. I’ll fire immediately when I hear your crossbow fire. ]
[ I think I can see it, not sure what part of it I'm looking at, but I’m ready. Firing in 5. You two ready as well? ] Cade put his hand to the trigger, ready to go as soon as they acknowledged him.
[ On you. ] King said.
[ Ready. Charging up now. ] Frida sent back; reminding Cade of her ability, if she had been truthful.
He let his breath out slowly, concentrating, and let the bolt loose. It hit the tree, or what he thought was tree, but it immediately slithered over the tree, the bolt stuck in it as its head appeared much closer to them, mouth opening wide at them. The flash took over their vision and they opened their eyes to a copse of trees, a coiled snake underneath one across from the area from them. Cade had to suppress his immediate reaction; snakes were not his favorite thing. He stowed the crossbow and pulled out his normal weaponry. The snake hadn’t moved, Cade studied its form. This thing was straight out of the old shitty horror movie, Anaconda, that had scared Cade under a blanket as a kid. It must be two feet thick at its middle, and its head was the size of Frida. Its name and health appeared above it; Woodland Slither
“I’m charged. Heading in. 15 seconds till I lose the charge.” Frida stepped forward, the end of her hammer glowing a dark orange hue, almost like it was on fire. King followed close behind. She picked up speed as she closed in on the snake. Cade started running a parallel line to her as King chased her. As she got close, Brandon shot another arrow into its coils. It stuck but barely even elicited a reaction beyond it shifting its eyes. The thing it wasn’t expecting was the application of Paralyzing Strike that Brandon had added to it. It likely wasn’t enough to completely stop it from moving due to its size, but Frida had enough time to lunge forward, leaping off the ground as she shouted out a battle cry; swinging her massive glowing hammer down at it.
The snake surprised them by striking through the paralytic, but King was faster.
“DASH!” They heard him shout, flashing through the air with his shield out in front of him; appearing directly in front of Frida to intercept the open maw of the snake. Cade heard him groan as he took the blow, knocked back down to the ground as he did his job well. Frida’s hammer came down hard into the coil of the snake in front of her. They both saw and heard the pieces of the snake go flying as the charged smash broke the rear portion of the snake's body apart. The snake thrashed and tried to get away from its attackers, but without the latter half of the massive body it once had, it quickly turned back to strike. Cade built up some momentum and swung his sword straight over his shoulder and downwards, Chain Flare coming to life as it sliced down into the open thrashing mouth of the monster. Cade felt it catch and ripped backwards, calling the individual pieces back towards him. They cut the thing up bad enough that it could no longer control its mouth, Cade having sliced through some important tendons and muscles. The fight ended quickly after that, Brandon didn’t even opt for his stealth as he ran up behind it and sunk his daggers into either eye. Again, it thrashed in pain as its life ended.
The instance flashed and they were back in the real world. Having a fourth teammate is awesome. Having her also be that strong is going to be a great asset, Cade thought to himself as he shook out his body, coming down from the excitement of the fight.
“DAMN Frida, you blew the thing apart! Nice job!” Cade said, grinning over at her.
“Not a very smart snake, but I suppose that’s good for us.” Frida commented lightly, shrugging modestly.
“Yeah, decent loot too, considering how comparatively easy the fight was.” King agreed as he reminded them to check their loot. “Anyone else get anything good? It gave me a pair of glasses, can’t tell what they do but pretty stylish, eh?” King posed, flexing as he showed off his new accessory. They were a darkly tinted, almost aviator style set of sunglasses, and Cade had to admit, they worked for him.
“I’d guess they probably have some other purpose, but nothing for me. Just the coins, a Heart, and a vial of some poison. Not sure what it is specifically though.” Cade shrugged, disappointed that he hadn’t received anything better. He looked over to see Brandon admiring a blade Cade had yet to see. It was bright red, somewhat plainly decorated, and had a crazy curve and body to it, making it look nearly impractical.
“What did you get there man?” Cade prodded him. He saw Brandon react to his voice as he lifted the dagger for his team to see.
“Woodland Fang is its name. Gives me a bonus to any applied effects on my blades, so I’m taking that to mean my Paralyzing Strike will be all that much better.” Brandon had a big grin on his face as he swung the knife around him.
“I received the same as Cade, except with a Resist Effect Pill.” Frida added in the background.
“Alright, everyone good to keep looking for some more fights as we move up towards the mountain? Lots of daylight left, might as well see what we can do to advance!” Cade said cheerily, and was rewarded with nods in return. He looked down at his left hand, flexing his still new fingers appreciatively. They started off into the woods again, this time moving towards the peak above them to the east. They would likely fight their way up it, trying to level as they took in the scenery and beauty of the world around them. Brandon was stealthed up ahead, scouting for monsters to fight. King was next to Cade, shield put away to move easier in the underbrush. Frida held her hammer closely to her body with one arm.
It wasn’t long before they found trouble, or in this case trouble found them. They walked underneath a particularly large tree with low boughs when something small darted out and attacked them. Frida, King, and Cade dropped lower to the ground, attempting to avoid whatever was attacking them as the world flashed. Inside of the instance was different from normal; the monsters were much closer to them. Cade guessed it was because they had been the ones to initiate the fight, giving them an advantage. Brandon was on the far side of the instance from them, although he had kept his camouflage up in the transition. Cade felt his skin swelling up on his neck where he had been attacked, and started to feel woozy. He heard King drop and a groan to the ground, and could hear Frida muttering in what sounded like swearing in another language.
The monsters were visible now as they flew from the treetop ahead of them. Small bees, not much larger than what you’d normally see, but they had mouths… yes - mouths. Voidsting Swarm. Cade felt his faculties slipping as whatever he had been injected with took its toll. His legs started to shake and threatened to give out, and although King’s health hadn’t dropped at all, he was basically paralyzed right now.
“Cade, take a Status Null.” Frida shouted at him, already moving past him to swing her hammer at the bees closing in. There must have been several hundred of them moving towards them. Cade took her advice and swallowed the little pill. He was surprised at the immediacy of his recovery, spinning around to administer his only Resist Status to King. It only had a 50% chance to resist a status change, but Cade had to force that gamble, otherwise they would have to fight and defend King on the ground.
“Swallow, King.” Cade pushed the tiny pill into his mouth, but shouted in frustration as it didn’t take.
“Crow, we need your Status Null. King is paralyzed!” He shouted over towards Brandon, receiving a message in acknowledgement as he maneuvered himself between the bees to get back to them. Cade stood up and lunged forwards into the bees, swinging his sword and using his shield as a giant fly swatter to batter the massive swarm. He took several stings in the melee but trusted the Status Null to resist the paralytic for the next few seconds. He just needed to keep them off of King and Brandon until they got him back into the fight.
Brandon had arrived at King, administering the pill to him. Cade didn’t turn around as he took turns with Frida darting into the swarm to smash at the bees. It had probably been 10 seconds or so when he got a message from Frida;
[ I’m down again, out of Status Null. ]
Spinning around, he moved to keep her safe as the bees tried to sting her over and over. He managed to keep most of them off but saw that her health had been taken down by a quarter, which although wasn’t a worry yet, could easily turn into something bad.
[ Cade, get to the other side of the swarm, now! ] Cade read the message at the corner of his vision and lunged through the bottom of the swarm, his shield held directly in front of his face like a plow. As he pushed through it, bees pinging off of his shield, he heard King activate his skill. Cade turned his head to look backwards towards the swarm, which was a mistake. HE was splattered with the guts of the insects as King eviscerated them. His shield was covered as well, but he had a stupid grin on his face as Cade looked at him, clearly unhappy at his timing.
“That… was not cool man.” He said to King as he started cleaning off his face of the crushed bodies of the bees. They hadn’t left the instance yet, Crow jogging over to Frida to kill the last remaining few still on her. As they died they were pulled back into the real world. Cade sat down hard on the ground, annoyed with that fight entirely.
“Fuckin bugs, why do even the bugs have to be mutant dick heads?” Cade shouted into the forest, still peeling guts from his face and clothes. He had to pull a couple stingers and small teeth from his Oblivion Rat Hide, but he saw it already healing the tiny holes.
“Sorry bout that Cade, I wasn’t really thinking and just went for it out of anger at being downed. My bad.” King said apologetically. He sat down next to Cade and pulled some stingers out of his own skin. Frida was massaging her bare skin where she had been stung as well.
“That was… not a fun fight at all. Can we try to avoid fighting bugs please?” She said pleadingly. Cade couldn’t help but join in as they complained about how awful it was.