Chapter 24

“Just give him some time,” I heard Samantah whisper to the others.

I couldn’t believe I’d been near dying. Second time in my life being this close to death. I’d lost a finger the first time. Was that not enough of an experience? Did I really need to put myself through near death a second time?

I heard someone approach. Splinters of wood crunched beneath their boots.

“Here, eat this,” Wesley said, handing me a small smoked fish and an apple. “It’s not much, but a little food always lifts the spirit.”

The apple was soft and on its way out, having been in Wesley's possession for at least a week. The saltiness of the fish warranted half the contents of my water skin. I took my time picking small bones from the meat.

Everyone decided to sit with me and eat from their own provisions. The company was welcome and comforting. My companions were mostly silent, respectfully giving me time to get back on my feet, mentally.

I did feel better at the end of my meal, though my experience would probably haunt me for months to come. Probably years. I was still visited by the memories of frostbite from years ago, so why would this be any different? I let out a great sigh.

I’d made a mistake. I’d been too careless. I couldn’t allow such a close call to ever happen again. I resolved that it would never happen again. I would go on being more cautious and more resilient. Right now, we needed to complete Samantha’s quest. We couldn’t afford for a healer to be preoccupied.

“I appreciate everyone’s help in saving me,” I said. “You all have my deepest thanks.”

My companions smiled warmly, reassuring me in turn.

“Well then,” Belpheus said. “The path ahead is open, and it seems we’re all back to rights.”

Battle-wise, I was disappointed I’d wasted Boera’s Flux. I did have a level 1 mana crystal that would refill my mana by 50 points, but my mana pool was currently full. I wouldn’t be able to spend half an hour absorbing the crystal in battle, so hopefully I’d get a chance between fights that lay ahead of us.

On the path forward, I was the last to follow my teammates. Allmeer led the way, followed by Wesley, Belpheus, Antoine, and Samantah. Thankfully, we traveled on land, though it was through mist and humidity. There were pockets of still swamp water around us wherein several giant tortoises floated. We’d find an occasional one slowly stomping about, and we mostly avoided them. We had to engage in battle a few times, but the advantage was ours on land.

The further we traveled, the thicker the mist became. At some point our trek was slowed just from the lack of visibility. We urged each other to stay close and kept our eyes and ears open.

The light of the world began to lose color. When the mist was at its thickest, all color was lost. Everything was either black, white, or shades of dull gray. The once colorful items on my flagstaff were now all shades of gray. My companions were all shades of gray.

Even the mist was a light gray, but at some point, it darkened. That’s when the poisoning began. I felt slightly off at first, not having noticed. Then I began to feel queasy.

“Something’s wrong,” Samantah said.

That’s when we figured it out. She cast her mana bar in a small circle which lit the mist with bright white light. Our health bars and mana bars were devoid of color.

“This is bad,” Samantah said. “I can’t tell what’s going on. Look, everyone’s health bar is slowly draining. We’re being afflicted by something. Since we’ve run into corrupted turtles, I’d say we’re being poisoned.”

“Must be the mist,” I said. “I started to feel off when it got thicker.”

“You’re more than likely right. There’s no sense in curing poison if we’re not leaving the mist anytime soon.”

I heard a deep boom. the swamp shook beneath our feet. Trees trembled. Pools of swamp water rippled. Then I heard trees crashing down to the swamp floor in the distance.

“Sounds big,” Belpheus said.

“Must be another boss,” Samantah said. Then she turned to me and gave a quick appraisal. “You alright Tosin?”

“Absolutely. I’m ready.”

Allmeer and Wesley led the way forward. We came upon a deforested section of the swamp where the mist had only slightly lightened, granting us a little more visibility. We could clearly hear something stomping around. We felt the vibrations of each footfall in the ground.

Smashed trees littered the land. A massive form came into view, slowly moving through the mist. It looked like a giant hill.

“Wait for me,” Samantah said, casting her mana ring once more. “Confirmed. It is another boss.”

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Through her mana bar I could see the boss’s health in the top left.

“I’m going to cast Necrotic Crush as many times as I can before we engage it in battle,” Belpheus said. “The spell is stacking, and I’m only going to finish the chant when it notices me. At that point, I’ll retreat behind the front lines.” He gestured to Allmeer and Wesley. “Then I’ll continue attacking from there.”

That was the plan, so Belpheus went off on his own. Visibility was enough that we could vaguely see his form take a wide loop around the boss.

Samantah kept her mana ring suspended and we all gathered to watch Belpheus’s mana bar deplete and refill several times.

The boss had come closer to us and we identified the monster as a colossal turtle. It’s feet were widely webbed with claws the size of small huts. It paused and sniffed the ground.

Belpheus’s nether orbs of Necrotic Crush sailed one after the other like floating black bubbles. Each one soundlessly absorbed into the monster through its shell. The monster didn’t notice. It neither felt nor saw Belpheus and his spell.

The mage cast his spell at least six more times before the monster must have caught wind of him. It lifted its head and roared with the sounds of tortured, squealing lions. Then it spun around, searching. It’s speed was alarming. The land beneath its turning, digging feet, was churned to paste.

Belpheus ran back along his loop while Wesley and Allmeer made their way forward. Wesley’s form became encased within Galnokrah’s Bark until he was covered in deeply grooved bark armor. Both ancienne’s equipped their weapons.

Antoine and I flowed our mana bars wide enough to step through. We advanced our back line and Belpheus stayed in the middle, only a dozen meters ahead of us.

Allmeer cast his Vine of Bear spell and a massively thick vine grew from the ground before the ancienne. From the shell at top of the vine, burst an angry zombie bear.

The colossal turtle roared once more and swept a webbed foot toward the anciennes.

“Bher Dheu!” Belpheus said, finalizing his stacked Necrotic Crush spell.

The monster’s limbs buckled beneath it. It’s attack was successfully interrupted and it’s health plummeted halfway. The monster was stunned. It’s shell began to tremble. Hexagons lifted from the patterns and turned in place. Feet popped out from those risen shells. Heads popped up and I realized they were the giant tortoises that we’d been fighting so far. They tumbled off the monster's back, dropping from the shell. They left behind empty spaces in the monster's shell, effectively exposing vulnerable flesh.

The giant tortoises ambled to the anciennes with gaping jaws.

Belpheus focused on attacking the colossal monster while it was vulnerable, throwing tridents of grey fire into the exposed flesh. His fire spells did substantially less damage then his Necrotic Crush, but the boss’s health lowered bit by bit.

With a few castings of Zekaidean’s Anvil, and Samantah’s and Antoine’s healing efforts, it was no trouble keeping up with the damage the anciennes received.

When the last giant tortoise was slaughtered, the boss’s shells self healed and new shells rose to protect the exposed flesh. Belpheus’s tridents of grey fire sizzled against the shells uselessly.

In one quick lunge, the boss snapped its jaw around Allmeer’s Vine of Bear. The vine was ripped in half and the Bear was crushed and swallowed.

“One more Necrotic Crush, Belpheus!” Samantah said, as the anciennes retreated half a dozen meters.

“Bhel Dheu. Sag Dheu. Dhe Dheu. Gwel Dheu,” Belpheus chanted.

Black bubbles of nether floated toward the boss. The monster swiped a clawed foot, striking Wesley and sending him flying into the woods. He looked like an uprooted tree being flung from torn roots.

“Antoine!” Samantah said. “On Wesley!”

“Bher Dheu!” Belpheus said, activating his spell. The boss roared and its legs buckled beneath him. His health fell to near zero, and shells began to climb down off the monsters back.

A few fire tridents finished off the boss. It fell with a haunting low groan, then vaporized away in ribbons of smoke and grey cinder.

Samnatah and I gathered with Allmeer and Belheus, making sure everyone was doing allright. Then we went searching for Antoine and Wesley. The mist had begun dissipating but we all found each other by the sound of our voices.

“Never seen someone fly like that,” Allmeer said.

“Saw my chance and took it,” Wesley said, cracking a wide grin.

Antoine’s Hawk Familiar landed on his shoulder and he cooed to the beast. We each collected ourselves and began searching the mist for the next path forward.

Since the boss’s death, the mist had begun dissipating. Color was slowly returning to the dungeon, and I don’t ever recall being so enthused about seeing brown before. The inside of split trees were sometimes yellow, and the fresher ones were pale green.

It was Antoine’s Hawk Familiar that helped us find the path, which lay northeast of where’d we’d come from. The path was wide, and stank of death and soup.

We came upon piles of organs drenched in broth. Steam rose from each pile as though they were fresh landmarks, leading our way forward. Giant turtles ate at each pile and we battled our way forward.

When all of us began feeling worse by the minute, I checked our health bars. Now that everything was back in color, we could see that our health bars were flashing green. Every minute, each of us took damage. What was most disconcerting was the number that floated above each of our heath bars. The number 3 was blinking green at the same time as our health bars.

“This isn’t good,” Samantah said. “If that number goes up, every instance of poison damage is going to seriously take its toll on us. I suggest we cure poison before moving on.”

Antoine had 8 bottles of cure poison. I contributed 2, and Samantah had 6. That left me and Samantah with 1 mark of poison left, since we’d focused on curing everyone else first.

I spent 30 mana to utilize the cure poison rune in my spellbook and successfully cured Samantah of her final stack of poison. Then I spent another 30 points of mana to cure myself.

My total mana pool was now down to 70. With three mana potions, I was able to recover 29 points. In half an hour I was able to absorb the mana crystal I had, which recovered another 50 and earned me an additional 6 points.

“Before we get to the boss, Wesley and I will cast a mana totem spell to recover mana, Allmeer said. “It’ll take a few hours because it's slow.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

It was late evening, and several battles later by the time we heard cackling, far off in the woods. A wind riding stench licked at us like humid tongues.

“That has to be the hag,” Samantah said. “The final boss.”

“Aright,” Allmeer said. “We’ll cast Elder Azure Totems, and replenish mana. Then we fight.”