Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Part 2: Obsidian
Chapter 34: Scorched
“You need to wake up, or your ass is gonna get cooked.” An ephemeral voice that was oddly familiar blasted the inside of Jeff’s head, slowly dragging him to a barely aware consciousness: he had no clue where he was, how he got there or even matters of his current circumstance.
“Must have been one hell of a rager, I haven’t been this hungover in years.” He groaned to himself. He attempted to open his eyes and look around, only to be met with the skull piercing reverberating pain of a terrible migraine, immediately forcing his eyes to close. His mouth and throat burned with a parch like he’d spent the last several hours eating sand dipped cotton balls with a ghost pepper sauce chaser. From what he could feel, he was laid out on his side on a hard, dry cracked compacted dirt surface. Jeff buried his face into the crook of his elbow in an attempt to block out any light that might spike his skull. He was on the edge of falling asleep when a different, familiar voice rang out in his head:
“Hey jackass, wake your ass up! It’s time to get a move on!” Jeff shot upright into a sitting position, for the first time noticing the thick heavy metal collar clasped around his neck, a long chain running off out of the range of where he was able to see in the bright blood red light of the room. The desiccating air was stiflingly hot, Jeff struggling to breathe.
“Andre? Is that you?! Where the hell are you! Where have you been?!?! Above all else, what the hell is going on!?” Jeff didn’t dare open his eyes too wide or look around too quickly under threat of his already angry stomach fully rebelling.
“None of that matters right now bud, let me see if I can do something to help you out a bit.” Andre spoke again, directly into Jeff’s mind. The extremely hot room began filling with a cooling mist, swiftly followed by a dousing rainfall. Jeff opened his mouth in an attempt to catch at least a few of the droplets. As the rain poured over his skin, and trickled down his throat Jeff felt his head clear, the pain vanishing almost entirely; while the drops that made it into his mouth were an oasis in the desert.
“Sorry man, that’s all I’ll be able to do for you. It’s all up to you now, get yourself a weapon and get outta here alive; ya hear me? We have some catching up to do!” Jeff scratched his head through his now damp hair.
“Where the fuck are ya man?” He asked to the empty room, only to be met by silence.
“I have no clue where the heck that water came from, was it… rain? Regardless, it was desperately needed; at least I can think now.” He thought to himself, looking around the room he found himself bound in; more able to take in and process the reality of his situation.
It was a large, circular, light grey smooth stone chamber that seemed to be a naturally formed off shoot of a cave system with a two foot wide crack that ran from the floor to ceiling on one wall. The floor was densely packed dark brown earth with deep steaming cracks of varying length and thickness intermittently running through it, like what he imagined the ground after a lightning strike looked. Embedded into the walls at various heights and distances from each other were perfectly spherical domes of a clear crystal or glass that glowed brightly with red-orange hued light. As he sat, he struggled to remember anything about his journey to his current predicament. Last he remembered, he and Trinity had been lounging under the falls, and were about to make their way back to the shore when something happened…
“What the hell happened?!” Jeff muttered to himself, struggling to recall exactly what had transpired after she jumped off the rock into the hot springs pool, leaving him to follow in her wake.
“I remember…fuck me I just don’t remember a damn thing.” Frustrated, Jeff shook his head hard trying to clear the residual fog and climbed to his feet to follow the length of the chain binding the collar around his neck. It wasn’t a long exploration as Jeff found the end of the chain attached to a thick, heavy blackened metal plate that was inset and bolted to the back of the chamber opposite the large, wide crack. Following the suggestion made by the ephemeral voice of Andre, that somehow seemed to still reverberate through his head, Jeff began searching the chamber for anything he could use as a weapon.
Shortly later he slumped to the floor in the middle of the room, having not even found a blade of dry grass or even a chunk of loose stone. Through his explorations, he found at least that the length of the chain allowed him to fully move about the chamber, halting just before the giant crack, which he assumed was the exit from this hell hole. The cooling mist had long since dissipated, and the water from the rain having soaked into the dirt floor, the temperature of the room had skyrocketed back to blistering temperatures. Jeff groaned miserably, then froze as he heard the scraping of metal along stone. He turned, horror boiling in his chest as something he’d only heard described in tales of fantasy and had once seen in a video game.
Sidling sideways through the crack in the stone wall came a Seven- or eight-foot-tall humanoid creature with elongated double jointed scaly arms, its torso covered in roughhewn leather armor, carrying a battered and chipped scimitar that looked like it may shatter on a bad contact. To Jeff it looked like a salamander had evolved to gain human form, growing thick muscles under thick scaly hide. The parts of it body not covered in shoddy armer shown with black and red patterned scales. Its lizard head turned to face him, having fully passed through the wall it hunched forwards over its deeply bent knees with its thick tapering tail set back to counterbalance the awkward gait of its form. A long fat forked tongue shot out of its mouth in his direction before it cracked a wide, rotten jagged toothed grin as it spoke:
“Ssssso you have finally awoken, ssstupid human. Why have you come to our ssssspawning groundssss?” It hissed at him.
“Shoot man, I have no idea what you are talking about. Hold up, how the fuck do I understand what the hell your saying? I’ll wager you’re not speaking English?... anyways I do know you’re one ugly lizard freak! How about you just stop attempting to talk, let me outta these chains and I’ll do us both a favor and fuck off outta this hell hole.” Jeff said, eyeing the creature with contempt, having spotted the weapon in its hand, he was forming a plan… though it was more of an idea for a plan.
“Shut your dissssgusssting hole human ssssmoothskin. You are only sssstill alive because our hatchlings eat best when their meat iss sssstill alive.” The creature responded, cocking its head to the side, seeming to have just processed Jeffs comment:
“You ssssspeak my tongue, flesh pile. What do you mean “English”.
“I guess you’re as dumb as you are ugly. English is my native language. I’m certainly not able to speak freaky-deaky fuck face lizard lingo.” Jeff growled, as he slowly scooted on his butt backwards until his hand made contact with a small pile of the chain. Rising to his feet, Jeff picked up a length, while holding it behind his back; without breaking eye contact with the creature in front of him he spoke:
“If they’re as ugly as you, I just may stomp them out of their misery. Can’t allow freaks like you to roam my gorgeous world.” The creature had lost its blackened toothy grin and had reared back, straightening its posture raising the scimitar to an aggressive stance, ready to strike out at him.
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“Sssssilence. We Ssssalamen are a proud sssspecies, a threat to one issss a threat to all. The younglingsssss don’t need their meat to still be alive, bloody and fresh will do just fine.” It snarled at him. Jeff took several large steps back until his back was almost against the opposite wall, near the metal plate. Gripping the chain behind his back in a now fairly large loop with his left-hand. Jeff braced himself, readying for oncoming attack and the inevitable decisive blow from the creature. It edged closer to him, murder in its black pupilless eyes.
“Why do you show no fear in my presence, sssstupid human. Do you really think you ssssstand a chance against me while bound in ssssealing chainssss?” It gurgled a laugh out, its beady eyes staring directly into Jeff’s as it pointed the tip of the scimitar in his direction. Jeff further steeled his nerves, locking eyes with it:
“I really don’t know what ya mean, ya fuckin hideous crime against nature. I mean come on, you had to have been an accident, right? Why the actual fuck didn’t your parents toss your deformed ass into the closest magma pool after you congealed from the drippings of their drunken mistake? Afraid you just might be too grotesque to actually die, or maybe just too fucking stupid to realize it. Why don’t you pretend you’ve got a spine and come at me.” He said.
“I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THISSSSS INSSSSULT, SSSSSICKENING PILE OF MEAT. THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT FOR THE YOUNGLINGS TO FEED UPON WHEN IM DONE WITH YOU!” The creature roared with anger and charged Jeff, swinging its weapon neck level in an attempt to remove his head from his shoulders. Jeff dropped to one knee, shifted himself away from the wall just as the creatures scimitar flew over his head sparking against the rocky surface. In one motion Jeff flicked the chain held in his hand up over the creatures’ arm and grabbed the other end of the loop. He pulled down on the chain as hard as he could, the chain catching the lizardman in its second elbow. Jeff kicked off the ground bringing his knee into the forearm holding the bladed weapon. The creature shrieked in agony as Jeff felt bones splinter, breaking through its flesh. It staggered backwards dropping the scimitar as it clutched the arm, splintered bone tearing through its hide, to its chest. As the weapon clattered to the floor Jeff scrambled to pick it up, only for the creature to kick him hard in the gut, sending him skittering across the cracked dirt floor.
Jeff used the momentum to roll to his feet and charged the creature, driving his shoulder hard into its midsection. It staggered backwards, wheezing from the strike. Not losing a bit of momentum Jeff launched into a series of punches, aimed at its midsection finishing with an uppercut to its jaw; each heavy blow into the creatures’ hard scales tearing chunks of flesh from his hands. The creature staggered backwards several steps, stunned by the blows. Jeff took this opportunity to swoop down and grab the weapon that had clattered to the floor, despite his painfully torn and bloody knuckles. He felt a surge of strength and energy pass through him as soon as his hand grasped the hilt.
“ACCURSED HUMAN! I WILL DRINK DEEPLY UPON YOUR BLOOD!” The creature screamed, its rage echoing around the chamber. Jeff, having zero experience even holding a mock sword; mimicked the stance he’d seen the creature take earlier, his muscles relaxing into the footing, the scimitar raised and ready to strike. He dashed forwards, sweeping the weapon in a wide arc. It ducked, launching a fist into his abdomen, sending him flying backwards. Jeff landed in a heavy roll, somehow retaining his grip on his weapon. Scrambling to his feet, he slashed it out seeing his enemy charging towards him, this time the blade bit flesh, completely severing the creatures’ leg at its knee. It fell, its momentum causing it to fall into a heavy roll into the wall beside where Jeff crouched. Adrenaline pumping Jeff jumped to his feet, putting several steps between himself and his adversary.
“What are you waiting for, sssstupid human, finish me before my leg regrowssss.” It growled angrily at him, almost daring him to attack. The creature forced itself up onto its remaining leg, black molten blood dripping to the floor, hissing and melting stone where it fell.
“You really think I’m that stupid ya ugly bastard?” Jeff growled back.
“Yesssssss, yessss I really do.” It replied in a mocking manner as it grabbed the chain attached to Jeff’s collar and pulled him hard forwards. Jeff staggered towards its waiting other hand, the suddenness of the pull a complete shock. He lost his footing and stumbled further towards the creature’s outstretched hand. He fell hard, his shoulder striking the ground even harder. Gasping in pain from the fall Jeff struggled to his knees facing upwards towards the creature sneering down at him, its blackened toothy grin mocking his very existence.
“It’ssssss over pathetic creature” It hissed gleefully, watching Jeff gasping breath against the pain and growing heat of the room.
“You never stood a chance on my ground, in my environment. The hatchlings will feast well tonight.” The creature brought it’s fist down hard across Jeffs face, splattering his blood across the ground as he slammed into the hard surface. Jeff looked up at the creature; blood staining his vision. The stump where he’d severed the creatures leg roiled, the surface bubbling and blistering as it shrieked in pain that quickly turned to pleasure. Jeff watched in complete horror as a glistening leg exploded out from the roiling stump, dripping with blood and viscera. It cackled as it stepped the newly formed limb onto the forearm holding its scimitar, pressing down hard. Jeff grimaced feeling the bones in his arm grinding together, beginning to crack as the blackened blood of the creature singed his flesh to blisters.
“You shall not fall here, while it is against every rule written by my kind I shall grant you just a fragment of my power. Use it well, with precision and decisiveness. Do not fail, as this is the only time I will be able to do this for you.” A calming, female voice spoke in the back of his mind as he felt a tremendous surge of white-hot energy blast through every limb of his body. Instinctively, Jeff held up the hand that was not pinned to the steaming floor and focused every ounce of energy rippling through him to his palm.
“Burn to ashes for life’s renewal” He muttered to himself, once again not knowing where the words came from, or exactly why he spoke them. Jeff felt a rush of heat begin to swirl in his palm and lay aghast as his palm lit up with a thrumming orb of white, yellow and orange energy.”
“What in god’s name are you doing! Are you not human?!” The creature roared with disbelief, staring directly at the orb swirling in Jeff’s palm, currently pointed at its upper half.
“I’m definitely human, ya worthless jizzstain!” Jeff roared, willing the ball of energy away from his hand. It shot off like a bullet, growing in size as it hurled up and into the creatures abdomen. The lizard shaped humanoid being shrieked in agonizing rage as the orb ripped through the middle of its torso, leaving a wreathe of flames burning everywhere it touched.
“The ressssst of my kind will sssseeeee your end, sssscum!” The creature shrieked as the flames enveloped it, quickly burning through the majority of its form, leaving behind only smoldering legs, a twitching lizard tail, and the acrid aroma of burned flesh.
Jeff roared with a guttural, triumphant glee as the legs fell to the ground where the creature had once been. Climbing to his feet, Jeff realized the ball of energy had ripped right through the lizardman and melted a large chunk of the blackened metal plate binding him. Grabbing the chain, Jeff gave it a hard yank, ripping the remainder of the molten plate from its inset. As it clattered to the ground, the chain began to hiss and smoke. Jeff backed away, terror filling him as the chain links began to rapidly disintegrate, growing closer and closer to the collar around his neck. While he was free from the wall, he was now worried that his gruesome victory over the lizardman was going to bring about his own demise.
As link after link burned away to ash, edging closer and closer to his collared neck Jeffs panic grew:
“What the fucks gonna happen when whatever is destroying those links reaches my collar?! I sure as shit don’t want die having narrowly avoided that lizard freak killing me!” Jeff began yanking hard on the chains, trying to break a link, any link attached to the collar. The efforts were to no avail, as the chain turned to ashes in his hands burning and blistering the flesh as it fell away.
“Trinity, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it back to you!” he gasped, almost sobbing as the third to last chain-link turned to ash and fell away. The second to last crumbled away as Jeff braced himself for the inevitable pain, and hopefully quick death behind it. The last link, holding the collar closed around his neck sizzled to ashes and crumbled downwards, burning his shoulder to blisters as its remains fell. Jeff tensed, ready for the fire to spread through his body, only as the final link burned its last. The collar cracked open and fell to the ground.
Jeff felt his mind flooded with information; his vision overwhelmed with flat, opaque boxes he could only correlate to tablet screens. As what he assumed to be visual hallucinations overwhelmed him, an indistinguishable voice screamed in his head. Falling to his knees Jeff let himself fall forwards so his head could rest against the ground, the screens following his sight line. It was all too much, between the exhaustion of the battle, the stress of the burning chain and everything that transpired once the collar fell away Jeff broke, fully collapsing into a blackout.