The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (41 page)

Richter took stock of the situation. All of his sprite allies were down and dying, if not already passed from this world. He stood against a demon who had yet to suffer a simple scratch. His only remaining allies were a small dragonling familiar and a charmed creature that in less than an hour’s time would try to kill him. Richter fixed a defiant grimace on his face. None of that mattered. He was still going to choke this bitch out!

First he had to help his comrades thought. He ordered the draugh to protect him, and then took a step towards his fallen party members to heal them.

“What are you doing, my pet,” a sultry voice asked him.

Richter look at the crypt mistress in shock.

“Yesss, my beautiful boy. I can speak, I can think,” she placed two fingers inside of her sex, “I can feeel. Hehehe,” she giggled.

He recoiled in revulsion.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “I have no interest in you right now, flesh bag. Not while your disgusting little heart still beats. After thoughhhh,” she dragged the last syllable out, giggling once again.

While had been speaking he kept walking. He cast
Slow Heal
on Yoshi, but didn’t take his eyes from the demoness. From the periphery of his vision, he saw that Sion was awake, and was crawling over to Daniella’s still form.

The crypt mistress’s eyes narrowed, “But I see you’re being naughty.” Somehow she arranged her freak show of a mouth in to a pout. The expression didn’t last long because then she smiled evilly and said, “I’ll have to punish you.” A chant began to ensue from her mouth.

“Kill it,” Richter cried.

The charmed draugh guard picked up a mace, and ran into the room with the demon, slamming heavy blows against the circle of protection. The chanting didn’t cease.

Dreading that he wouldn’t have enough time, he ran after it and threw the Life dagger at the horrible creature. The blade didn’t reach its grey skin, but it did penetrate the shield and stuck there, seeming to hover in midair. Apparently feeling the Life energy in the weapon, the demoness broke of her chant, and shied to the side to avoid being struck. The draugh continued beating at the barrier with its mace, and now faint spider webs of damage could be
seen emanating from where the life dagger had caused a break in the circle of protection. Every heavy blow made the cracks slightly larger. When the crypt mistress saw that the blade had weakened, but not completely penetrated her defense, she turned her attention to the draugh. A wave of its hand, and several whispered words, were all that was required to shoot black lightning at the guard. The electrical strike hit the draugh in the chest, it dropped to the ground twitching. The threat now past, the demoness started furiously chanting again. There was no leer on her face now, as she stared at Richter with deadly intensity.

The few seconds the draugh’s life had bought served one major purpose, it disrupted demon’s casting. Knowing this was his only chance, Richter had picked up his bow and nocked an arrow. Before she had looked up at Life dagger hovering in midair, a golden glow had already surrounded his arrow. By the time the crypt mistress figured out that the magic in the Life blade couldn’t reach her, black streaks had appeared. The scant seconds she invested in attacking the charmed draugh, saw the black streaks speeding quickly over the arrow’s gold aura. When she began her spell again, the aura was equal parts shining old gold and ebony black.

Richter had opened up the mana stores of the village. The magic of the village answered the call of its Master as 100, then 250, then more than 400 mana wove into this one strike. He felt like he was holding a severed power line. The arrow seemed to buck and spit in his hands. The arm holding the bow was having trouble bracing enough to keep the string drawn, but he forced through the pain. He knew that if he lost control, all of the power he had invested into the arrow would be unleashed on him instead. The gold aura now only seemed to peak through in spots. At that pivotal moment, Richter looked into the eyes of the crypt
mistress. Eyes that were brimming with hate as she frantically cast her spell. He released. The arrow crossed the twenty yards in less than a second.

It struck right beneath the web of cracks that stemmed from the Life dagger. The resulting explosion flung the draugh guard’s body through the air, and into the wall, leaving a sizeable dent in the masonry. The weakened circle of protection crumpled under the inexorable force of Richter’s attack, and the demon was thrown to the floor. Expecting the backwash of force when the shield collapsed, Richter had hunched down and braced himself as soon as the arrow was released. While the force of the explosion was strong enough to rock him back, he was on his feet a second later and running towards grey creature.

*
Brain Drain!
*

Alma swept in and wrapped herself around the mistress’s head. The demoness screamed at the psychic attack, not paying attention to anything except removing the source of her pain. This was probably why Richter was able to pour the entire vial of Basic Life Oil down her throat.

A screech of pure agony came from the crone, and golden light began peeking through her grey skin in spots. She fell back scrabbling. Red tipped claws drew great rents in her flesh as she tried to remove the offending agent, but it was no use. More gold light leaked through the new wounds. As horrible as the agony the demoness was experiencing though, she found no sympathy from Richter.

While she was distracted, he cast
Soul Trap
. Then with a look of utter contempt on his face, Richter reached down and grabbed the hair on the back of her head with one hand. He
yanked back, causing the horrid mouth to fall open farther and exposing the vulnerable soft palate at the roof of her mouth. He spoke softly, “You’re done.”

With that, he rammed his fist into her open mouth, driving the blade of his glass dagger through the roof of her mouth, past the crunching bones of the skull and into her brain. A rainbow of colors exploded from the body, and for the first time in what seemed an eternity, all was quiet.

Richter left the dagger in the crypt mistresses mouth, and ran back to help his comrades. He heard a faint sound and saw the charmed draugh weakly pick up its head. Analyze showed it barely had any life left. With a dismissive sneer, he cast
Soul Trap
and had Alma drain it. Alma disengaged from the dead monster, and flapped along behind him. Sion was cradling Daniella’s head in his lap and pouring a health potion down her throat
.
He cast
Slow Heal
on her and then ran over to Yoshi.

The bubbling effect had stopped, but the sword adept’s skin was still covered in weeping sores. Yoshi was unconscious, but Richter was thankful to see that his chest still rose and fell. A ribbon of light heralded the last draugh’s demise. He cast
Slow Heal
, then dragged Yoshi’s body over by Daniella and Sion. Richter slipped in something, almost falling. When he looked down he was appalled to realize it was the cooling blood from the young sprite that Sion cradled.

Sion was still slowly pouring healing potion into her mouth, but Richter couldn’t tell if it was having any effect. If her chest wasn’t rising weakly, he would have thought she was dead. He settled next to his Companion, and cast
Slow Heal
on Daniella. He alternated casting the spell on Yoshi and Daniella once per minute, until finally first Yoshi’s breathing eased and hers
did as well. Against Sion’s protests, Richter then cast
Slow Heal
on him, and made him use the healing ring. Feeling exhausted, he told Futen to stand guard. Then he let the stress and demands of the battle pull him into unconsciousness.

No time at all seemed to have passed when he opened his eyes again. Sion was sitting in the same place with Daniella’s head in his lap, but now he was smiling. The female sprite’s skin was still far too pale, but her eyes were open and she was speaking softly to Sion. Yoshi was still sleeping, and thanks to Richter’s healing spells most of the sores on his skin were gone. There was still a duskiness to his skin though. It was a bit hard to tell because Futen’s light gave everything a washed out appearance, but he thought he saw the same duskiness in Sion’s and Daniella’s skin too. Resolving to ask them about it later, he put the thought from his mind. Richter didn’t want to disturb the quiet moment the two sprites were sharing, so he quietly cast
Slow Heal
again on the adept, and then examined his prompts.

Quest Update: When Good Men Do Nothing. The draugh you defeated were all honorable men who had fought for their people millennia ago. You have freed them from the demented control of the crypt mistress. To claim your reward, place the remains of their former queen in the central sarcophagus. The location of her remains has been marked on your map.

You have been award 6,300 (base 252,017 x 0.02 x 1.25) experience from Brain Drain against Level 20 Draugh Elite Guard.

You have been award 12, 848 (base 513,900 x 0.02 x 1.25) experience from Brain Drain against Level 26 Crypt Mistress.

TRING!

You have reached level 16! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. As a Chaos Seed you gain 6 points to distribute to characteristics instead of the usual 4. You also get 25% advancement to the skill of your choice! Crush your enemies, honor your allies, LIVE!

Your familiar has reached level 4!

You familiar has reached level 5!

You familiar has reached level 6!

You familiar has reached level 7!

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 6 in Analyze.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 10 in Archery. +2% bonus to aim. +2% bonus to damage.

Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Archery. 50% chance to retrieve special arrows after they have been shot.

You have received 2,500 (base 2,000) bonus experience for reaching level 10 in the skill: Archery.

Congratulations! You have reached subskill level 5 in Imbue Arrow. +5% damage. +5% speed of mana flow.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 2 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 3 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 5 in Life Magic.
New spells are now available.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Air Magic. New spells are now available.

Congratulations! You have reached skill level 8 in Light Armor.
+2% to defense of all light armor.

Congratulations! You have reached subskill level 5 in Grace in Combat. Dodge increased by 14%.

Congratulations! You have reached subskill level 6 in Grace in Combat. Dodge increased by 15%.

You are Diseased! You have contracted Cankerous Rot! Your Constitution and Endurance will remain reduced at their current level until you are disease free. Contact with the uninfected may spread the disease. Constitution -10. Endurance -10.

You have suffered a broken bone. The ulna of your left arm has suffered a hairline fracture. Decreased strength in that arm until healed. Strength -35% in left arm.

The last prompt made it clear why his arm was still in pain, and also why holding the bow had been so difficult. It was the diseased prompt that was alarming, though. He didn’t even take the time to allocate his new points. He quickly scrabbled back from his others. Sion and Daniella looked up in alarm.

“Stay back,” he said. “I have a disease!”

The two sprites relaxed, “We all do,” Daniella said weakly. “Cankerous Rot. That’s why our skin looks darker. It’s from that accursed hag’s spell.”

Richter was relieved that he wasn’t a danger to friends, but understandably concerned that they were all suffering from this infection. “So you all have minus ten to Constitution and Endurance?”

“Yes,” Sion said. “Daniella already tried the cure disease spell she knows, but it wasn’t strong enough. We will have to wait to get back to Hisako or Sumiko. They will be able to help us.”

Richter nodded. He told the two that he needed to finish the quest, and to just stay where they were. They agreed, and soon were speaking softly to one another again. He got up and accessed his map. The bones he needed were only two chambers away. While he was walking, Alma landed on his shoulders and nipped at his ear. He absently reached into his Bag, and withdrew a bit of dried meat. She snapped it from his fingers, and then flew off with her prize.