Shaking her head from side to side, Kylie slowly sat down the pelt she was examining and walked over to hold out a hand to Heather. “You OK?” She asked, gently.
“I.. I’m.. I’ll be fine,” Heather stuttered. “I just wasn’t expecting anything like that,” she whispered softly, as she slowly rose to her feet while ignoring Kylie’s outstretched hand. “Let’s catch up to Sera. I’ll feel better after blasting something anyway.”
“Are you certain?” Kylie asked, still concerned.
“I’m certain!” Heather snapped. “Don’t make me blast you too! Let’s go.” Wiping her hand quickly across her eyes, she stomped towards the exit, leaving Kylie to stand there alone and even more confused.
“Women!” She tried to stomp off herself, but being forced to walk on her tippy toes made that almost impossible and she felt foolish even trying. Grabbing up her pack and staff from where it was lying, she firmly thumped the staff on the ground with each step to show her annoyance as she rushed to catch up to the others, leaving the pile of furs, fangs, and claws behind.
Getting outside and in the hallway, there was already sounds of a massive battle taking place down the corridor. Heather was halfway down the tunnel, running with a small trail of fire flickering from around her hands, and there was no sign of Seran anywhere in sight.
“Dammit!” Kylie cussed to herself as she rushed to catch up. As Heather darted into a room at the end of the tunnel straight in front of her, Kylie ran past a tunnel that veered off to the left, and another that lead off to the right. She could only hope that there wasn’t danger down them which might circle up behind them all, as the sounds of battle was intense already from straight ahead. Squeals, grunts, growls, intermingled with loud sounds of thumps, crashes, and things just generally being pounded on. A flash of light flared out from the room, almost blinding as her eyes had adjusted to the dim light of the fluorescent moss, as Heather apparently unleashed a blast of fire upon something.
With one arm up to help shield her eyes from the sudden change in lighting, Kylie finally ran into the room to a scene of pure pandemonium. Seran was in the center of the room, kicking and stomping at large rat-like creatures, swinging his massive hammer wildly left and right, slamming it against the ceiling and floor more than he was the creatures. Heather had run in, backed up a bit into the far corner and was blasting away freely at rat-beast after rat-beast as they scurried around and tried to swarm Seran, who himself was bleeding and clawed in several places, while laughing wildly like a madman, apparently completely unconcerned about his own wounds.
“Heal!” Kylie screamed, trying to get Seran’s health back up. Much to her surprise, Seran’s health only rose to about the halfway point and was immediately starting to go back down from the rat’s constant assault. Another blast from Heather forced some to scatter back, and they tried to turn their attention in her direction until Seran jumped back in front and slammed his hammer back into the ground spraying dirt and dust everywhere, drawing their attention back to the closer, more immediate threat.
“Heal! Heal! Heal!” To Kylie, it seemed it was all she could do to keep casting her spell fast enough to keep Seran’s heath up, but slowly it began to go up faster than it was going down as Heather thinned out the swarm. Once there were only four or five rats left circling and snapping at Seran, Heather leaned against the back wall and sank down to her knees, looking pale and sweat drenched. By the time Seran had kicked and beat the last few creatures into smithereens, Kylie felt about the same.
Only Seran looked around when the carnage was over, pumping his huge hammer up in the air in victory. “HISSS HISSS!” He yelled strangely in victory, before finally going around and starting to collect all the loot that was lying nearby. Kylie wasn’t even certain what type of treasure these things had dropped; she was simply exhausted. Glancing in the corner, she wearily forced herself to get up and wobble over to where Heather had flopped down.
“You OK?” She asked.
“Just drained,” Heather replied, looking up with a slight grin. “That was intense as heck! I don’t know exactly what those were, or how many we killed, but I got a level in that mess.”
“It was a stupid mess,” Kylie said with a snort. “Sera didn’t have to go rushing off like that. She ran right into the middle of them all! We probably could’ve lured a few out of the room if we’d been careful and fought them in the hallway.”
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Heather paused for a moment as if considering and then slowly shook her head from side to side. “I don’t think so. Seran’s – not Sera, by the way – Seran’s hammer is too large for the hallway. There’s not enough room for him to swing it there. He had to fight in the room.”
“Well…” Kylie said, still half angry. “He could’ve waited on us at least!”
“Actually,” Heather leaned up closer to whisper, “I think I know why he didn’t. He was building up agro so he could keep the creatures on him and away from us for the entire fight.”
“Fat lot of good that would’ve did, if he would’ve died,” Kylie griped, looking for anything to complain over now since it seemed Heather was taking sides against her.
“If me die, me just pop back to entrance and run back,” Seran answered, apparently getting close enough while looting to hear the last complaint. “Me only lose bottom. Me never lose hammer. It bonded, no trade weapon. Them kill me, me near entrance, me just come back.”
“Fine. Whatever. I give up.” Slumping back against the wall, Kylie took a moment to look at her own mana gauges. Surprisingly, she still had considerable reserves of mana left over, and was steadily recovering what was lost. Thinking about it, Kylie had to admit that it made sense, since she had accidently spent a ton of points to get an ungodly mysticism and mystical regeneration talent, but it was still just shocking to her, to witness the difference in her mana levels and recovery rate compared to Heather’s.
“Come woman.” Seran held out a single massive hand towards Heather, who still looked the most exhausted. “Go back to safe room. Rest there.”
“Fine. Whatever. I give up.” Glancing over and smirking slightly at Kylie, Heather slowly took Seran’s massive hand in hers and staggered up.
“Copycat,” Kylie teased as she slowly got up once again as well. Heather simply ignored her by pretending not to hear, as they both slowly followed Seran back out and up the hallway to the little alcove where all the pelts were.
“I guess since no one else can come in here for the next few days, and since no monsters come here, this room can make a nice little storehouse for us,” Kylie said thoughtfully as Seran dumped everything back into the same pile in the middle of the room. “What’d we get from those rat-things anyway? I didn’t see what you looted for us.”
“Tails ‘n’ Teeth,” Seran said with a laugh. “Them drop many tails and lots of teeth.”
Nodding to herself, Kylie began once again digging through the pile and separating everything. Once she had a sufficient pile of furs stacked off to the side by themselves, Heather came over and got them and made a separate pile out of them off to the side and stretched out on it resting to recover her mana quicker.
Seran watched for a while, but then quickly got bored. “Me go scout. Keep watch.” Turning, he started to head back to the main tunnel.
“Don’t get swarmed by yourself out there,” Kylie warned. “We won’t be with you while we’re meditating back up, and I know you have experience now to lose if you die. Be careful. Be safe.”
“Me always safe. Me Seran!” Thumping his fist against his chest, he slowly walked to the exit, before stopping to giggle girlishly in his rough manly voice for a moment. “Besides, silly! I’ve got a ninety-six percent reduction to any experience loss penalty now. I don’t have to be careful. I really have very, very, very little I can lose.” Sticking his tongue out at Kylie, he skipped out of the room whistling lightly to himself, not a care in the world.
“Must be nice to have such a massive advantage,” Kylie griped jealously. “I’ve got just the opposite. My penalty just gets worse and worse all the time. Since I’ve barely leveled at all, it’d probably put me all the way back to level zero or something if I ever died.” Sighing heavily, she sat down and began seeing what she might be able to stitch together for someone in the party quickly. Heather would need a few minutes to get her mana back, and Kylie thought if she could work the massive wolf pelts, she might be able to toss something together for a little more armor and protection so the next fight would be just a bit easier than the last one.