Chapter 09

“Just give me two minutes!” Arris said.

“C’mon! Hurry up! I wanna kill things!” Klin said.

I was helping Arris collect all the beetles together while they argued. Klin was eager to continue on even though Arris wanted to “absorb nature”.

“Klin, we can wait a few minutes while Arris does what he needs to do, it’s not a big deal,” I said.

“Fine. Whatever,” Klin said, and stormed off to smash the albino squash that grew out of control in the deeper parts of the grotto.

“Thanks,” Arris said. I gave him a nod and stepped back to watch.

He spread his hands and lime green vines of light formed a wreath in mid air. It was almost the same as a mana ring. Light filled the entire grotto and lent the whites of the trees and plants a sharp saturation of bright green.

One by one, the beetle corpses floated up to the ring of Ancienne’s Nature--he called it. The beetle carcasses absorbed into the twisting green wreath the same way mana crystals did to mana bars. One by one, the beetles and beetle pieces cracked and imploded. The ring of Ancienne’s Nature grew substantially by the time he was done.

“Finally!” Klin said, disgruntled at having to wait. Personally, I thought what Arris was doing was cool. I tried to ask him what it was all about, but he skirted the topic, not wanting to go too deeply into it.

“It’s like mana, but it’s older than mana and we need to use it for...other things.”

“I saw your mana bar when you conjured your spider,” I said. “I’ve got 1 mana potion, do you want it? You’ve got half your mana left.”

“I don’t have anything to trade for it. Sorry.”

“No worries, just take it. You might need it. If you want to trade something with me for it, just give me something you loot. If you don't, that's cool. I’m not expecting anything in return.”

“Fair deal,” Arris said and drank the mana potion.

“GUYS!” Klin yelled from the mouth of the next tunnel entrance.

Arris grabbed up his torch and flowed 1 mana point into the rune that activated it. It flared to life and we journeyed forth.

The tunnel was filled with fresh air, flowing in neither direction. The roots that formed the walls were wet. Green glowing resin slowly dripped from the root system. Klin kept us at a jog's pace as we flew through the tunnel. There was no time to admire our surroundings: The way the light glowed like freshly milked venom. Hissing everytime it dripped. Pulsing with hues of green that made the air around it wobble. The resin, giving off something like heat but colder and hair raising.

We were dumped down a short slope that put us at an open field. There was no ceiling here. Only cliff walls that bordered a large meadow. Gray skies hunkered just above. The cliffs were at a distance and being buried beneath shifting hazes.

Billowing scythe shapes of wind struck the meadow intermittently. The blades of grass whipped out with each strike and emitted a thousand snaps. Squat, pruned trees moved in the distance. They wore sashes of fuzzy green resin with rust colored orbs for eyes.

“Treants!” Arris said. “Exercise caution guys! They’re slow, which means they can deal damage in a number of other ways.”

“Charrrrrrrge!” Klin, said sprinting across the meadow.

“Son of Felke!” Arris cursed.

We ran after Klin as fast as we could. The distance of our run was exhausting. We should have made our way closer, then sprinted the last bit of distance. Wouldn’t that have been better?

Klin was already fighting up ahead and the surrounding treants were slowly turning to meet him in battle. One of the treants held Klin by the neck in a ferocious gnarled grip. It’s fingers formed a ring of glowing green resin around Klin, who flailed his spear in a mad attack. I knew he was receiving a ton of damage already.

“Potion incoming!” I said and hurled a bottle. It arced perfectly and exploded just beneath Klin, healing him in an unknown dose.

“Garden Spider,” Arris said and nearly half his mana bar was depleted once more. Stepping out of the inverting cloud of mana, his conjured spider raced forward at spine tingling speed. Can you fault me for shivering at the spider’s movements?

Klin was in bad shape. I flowed out my mana bar to look at the warrior’s ring of health. Chunk by chunk, it was disappearing.

“Potion incoming!” I shouted and lobbed another over at him. The potion shattered on impact and red liquid doused his form. Arris’s spider wasn’t faring well against the treants. Three had ganged up on it. However, Arris came in from the side, torch in hand.

He was swiftly passing by each treant without notice. His torch was held aloft and the flames licked at the treants. Their squat bodies of trunk and root and vine and leaf and garlands of resin were catching fire. Arris leapt from one to the next. Klin’s spear thudded to the ground and he was wrestling against the grip of the same treant that still had him by the neck. A grip that was igniting in flames. The treants let out spectre screams as they burned.

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EEEEEEAAAHHHHH!

The next thing I knew, I was charging in: I was brandishing my mace, swinging it down onto treants that were erupting with screams and with fire, I was lobbing a potion at our fallen comrade, parrying a flaming fist, dodging an attempted fiery tackle, leaping beside Arris’s garden spider and bashing treant faces, hearing their dying spectre screams, lobbing another potion at Arris, taking an unseen spread of ignited claws in my side, spinning back from the force of that blow and smelling burnt tunic, then sliding to a stop in a smear of grass and dirt before Klin freed himself and leapt to protect me from more incoming swipes of infernal claws.

Attacking Klin was the last treant and it was impaled on the warrior’s spear. It thrashed and screamed with a wooden lilt that burned with woe and fire.

EAHHHHHHhhhoooooohhhhhh.

It died in a fall of embers.

“You fool!” Arris said, grabbing Klin by the scruff of his tunic. “You mad battle-monger! Do you realize how much healing we’ve wasted because of you!” Arris was shaking the warrior. The normally quiet ancienne must have been counting the healing we had. Half our supply was gone. Honestly, he was right. We could have better designed our attack against the treants. I pushed myself to my feet.

“He’s right, Klin,” I said. “If we continue recklessly charging every time something moves, we’re not going to survive the dungeon boss.”

“It’s not my fault-”

“It is your fault!” Arris and I said in union.

There was tension for a moment. Klin got green in the face and his cheeks puffed into great big balls. Arris let go just in time to avoid Klin’s projectile vomiting.

“Poisoned,” Arris said.

“No, I’m fine,” Klin said.

I flowed my mana to its ring and checked his health. It was red, but his health ring blinked a noxious green every few seconds. Everytime it blinked, his health suffered an unknown amount. It was a small amount at a time though.

“Arris is right, Klin. Looks like you're poisoned. It’s affecting your health bar.”

“Well you're the healer!” Klin shouted while wiping bile from his mouth. “Heal me, healer! Where were you in the fight! I was doing all the work and I had to save you! I’m doing your job!”

“You’re mistaken, Klin,” Arris said, suddenly calm. “It’s obvious you’re not understanding what’s going on.”

“You know what,” Klin said, “You guys are just weak. I’m--” Klin gripped his stomach and folded over, puking once more. “--going on ahead. I’m doing all the work anyway.”

“Klin just wait,” Arris said, “I want to absorb the treants. What’s left of them at least. Then we can go.”

But Klin ignored him and trudged onward, holding an arm across his stomach, dragging his spear, and hunching over in pain.

“What do we do?” I said.

“I hate this,” Arris said. “This is so stupid.” He growled and ran after Klin as the warrior disappeared over a slight hill. “We have to stick together!” he shouted over his shoulder.

“Son of Felke!” I said, adopting Arris’s curse. We caught up to Klin shortly, who coughed and gagged. Veins throbbed in his neck and his eyes bulged, seeming to lead the rest of him forward.

I checked his health bar again and it was halfway gone. I showed Arris who muttered under his breath. We dropped a few paces back to talk in whispers as we followed Klin across the ever spreading meadow.

“If I keep healing him then I’ll waste all my healing,” I said.

“We don’t have any other options,” Arris said. “Let me borrow your mace. You’ll have to be vigilant on healing. Try not to waste healing on me or my spider--if I even have enough mana to conjure the beauty. Just keep an eye on Klin. It sucks, but if we keep him alive to deal as much damage to the boss, it might be our only chance. You don’t have any other healing on you?”

“No.”

“At all?”

“Sorry.”

We arrived at a cornfield. We came upon it suddenly. The stalks were brown and ears of corn had long dried and greyed upon their perches. A narrow path led through the crops to a giant circle in the middle. In the center of that circle was a scarecrow. It had been fitted onto a post on a wooden platform. Klin stopped and puked. At the sound Kiln made, crows scattered in the distance.

The scarecrow’s head tilted up and jagged eyes opened, revealing a candlelit orange. It tried to take two unnatural steps forward, yet dangled from it’s post instead. Limbs thrashed in a mad rage and it laughed. The laugh was a sound that a man would make, pressed between crushing slabs of stone.

“HA HA HA HA HUEHHH!!!!!!”

The scarecrow's next thrashing was so violent that he fell from his post. In a moment he was awkwardly back on his feet and cackling.

“EH HEE HEE HOOOOO!”

It’s oversized tunic was suddenly lashed with wind. It’s straw arms exhumed from the sleeves, revealing claws made of farmer tools.

Klein charged immediately, vomiting as he ran, leaving a trail of spew behind him. Arris shook his head, brandished the mace and charged in right behind the warrior. I flowed mana into a ring and focused on Klin’s health bar.

There was a quarter of red left where the ring would be. I lobbed over another bottle and shouted “potion incoming!” It smashed to the ground and I watched the warriors health bar move up to half a circle.

Klin’s charge met an unfortunate end when his spear simply passed through the scarecrow's body. It howled with laughter as Klin’s momentum brought him within striking distance of the boss.

“Pestilence for the petulant! I mark this harvest moon with blood!” Said the boss and thrust 10 claws into Klin’s belly. “Human blood, this human blood! I’ll terrorize trespasser enemies and fertilize with chopped up entities!”

“Potion incoming!” I said and lobbed two more bottles his way. Klin’s health returned just above halfway and he ripped himself from the farm tool claws. He swung his spear and struck a slice that cut the scarecrow's pumpkin head from ear to ear.

Arris flanked with a mighty swing that bashed the head in two. The boss laughed a wheezing laugh and swung its claws blindly.

“Heuh! Hueh! Hueh!”

Klin’s health lowered after another flash of green. The scarecrow’s blind thrashing and blindly slashing claws caught Arris and scored gashes across his arm. He fell back in a cry of pain. My mace tumbled from his grasp. Klin rushed in and swung his spear in several slices. The first slice cut the scarecrow's body in half. Then the second swing sliced another half, and the third swing scored another division.

Klin promptly fell face first into the roots and broken stalks of the cornfield. Arris favored his arm and grimaced in pain. I fumbled for my Pyrrhon’s potions. I was almost out.

“I’ve only got one left. Sorry Arris,” I said and dumped my last healing potion on Klin’s prone form. Arris brought out a potion from a pocket in his tunic.

“No worries, don’t forget Klin and I each have a spare one.” Klin stirred and his health bar flashed green again. His health bar was only a quarter full but it was surely dwindling.

“Healing!” Klin said as he got to his hands and knees. “I need healing! Healing!”