by G. D. Penman
Lindsay did not freeze. She flung herself away from the wall and caught hold of Julia’s tail. That was all the impetus Martin needed. If Iron Riot were going to die, they were going to die together.
He kicked off from the wall and gripped the back of Lindsay’s streaming cloak. They all hung there for one awful moment, all holding onto each other without anything holding them up, when Jericho’s calloused paw clamped down on Martin’s tail.
The tension ran up the length of Martin’s body. He strained all the way from the base of his neck to the tip of his tail, and it felt like his bones were going to tear loose. Then the weight of the girls turned on the pivot point of Jericho and they swung.
All of them swept silently through the still, dead air, even though it felt like Martin was ripping in half, and he was certain that every one of them was screaming at the top of their lungs. Jericho’s tenuous grip on the stone tore lose as the whole chain moved underneath him and the guild fell together as one. Clinging desperately together as they spiraled into the endless void below.
Momentum sent them under the floor of the deep they’d just escaped. The same force that yanked Jericho off his feet flung him to the bottom of the chain, and then his weight and that force carried them on and on, tumbling and twisting until they crashed into the deep below. Deep Twenty-Three.
They passed through the roof unhindered. Collision physics didn’t seem to apply when you were coming at the outside of the structures of Strata. Despite the violence of their journey, when Martin clambered to his feet and blinked his eye, he was stunned to realize that not only was he still alive, he wasn’t even all that badly hurt. He hadn’t taken any fall damage. The cold equations of the game’s physics engine didn’t know how to comprehend the entry of people falling into a room from outside of existence, so it just didn’t count. He let out a startled laugh, then turned to help the others to their feet.
Which was when he saw the Night Ravager.
“Shit.”
Martin went for his sword at the same time that the oily black beast of nightmares pounced forward, lamprey-waste-disposal teeth already spinning. Those same glowing green eyes that Martin saw in his darkest dreams, locked on target. Julia. It was pouncing on her.
Die for me.
Jericho intercepted it in mid-air. Rising up from the ground and launching himself into a tackle in one languorous movement.
All four of the Ravager’s claw-tipped arms were reaching for their healer. None held back to counter an assault like Jericho’s.
[Night Ravager has suffered 29 bludgeoning damage]
The two of them stopped dead. Unstoppable force and immovable object locked together in stasis. Both straining with all their might. but neither budging an inch.
Kill for me.
Martin forced his gaze away from the Ravager. He needed to think, he needed to deal with this situation. Lindsay was up and circling. Julia was crab-walking away as fast as her spindly limbs would carry her. This could work. They were low on health and caught off-guard, but they were all in more or less the right position.
Live for me.
The ravager lunged forward and sank its buzzsaw mouth into Jericho’s chest. Jericho’s scream came out as a howl of rage.
[Jericho has suffered 33 slashing damage]
Julia was casting her healing magic, but not fast enough. It took Martin longer than it should have to realize what was happening. Jericho’s protection from damage was contingent on him being a Martyr. When he slipped down the Sin-scale into Heretic, his abilities flipped. He could churn out more damage than ever before, but he couldn’t take it.
Martin used Introit.
[Night Ravager has suffered 42 light damage]
The tunnel shook with the sound of that word of power, and the Ravager was knocked back, letting Jericho collapse to the floor in peace. Julia’s healing washed over him in waves as Martin charged in. If Jericho couldn’t tank, that left it up to him to plug that gap in their lineup. Exorcists weren’t particularly good tanks, but they were a hell of a lot better than Knaves or Hierophants.
His sword flared to light with Celestial Strike as he closed the distance. The Night Ravagers were weak to light and fire. All he had to do was keep pounding it with light to keep it off balance and the others would have time to organize a counter-offensive.
That was the theory, anyway. Instead, the Ravager looked from Martin to the lit-up blade and froze in place. Martin waved the sword in its direction to see if it could be taunted into action, but nothing. It just stood there, staring down at him with those same green eyes he’d been seeing all though the dungeon.
Come down into the dark. Come offer yourself up at my altar. Let my heart beat within you. Die for me. Live again. Live for me.
“Kill it,” Jericho rumbled as he tried to push Julia away and get back on his feet. “It tried to eat out my heart. Kill it.”
Martin didn’t move. He was still trying to puzzle out the Ravager’s sudden paralysis. Lindsay wasn’t so easy going. She lunged out of the shadows to hamstring the Ravager with one swift and brutal pair of cuts.
[Night Ravager has suffered 16 slashing damage]
[Night Ravager has suffered 16 slashing damage]
There was a hint of blood before the oily coating of the Ravager rushed back in to cover the wounds. It would regenerate and recover from the damage they’d dealt quick enough, but for now they had the big bad bogeyman of the dungeon deeps on its knees.
You are mine. You are my chosen. My beloved. My one and only. Come to me. Live for me.
Jericho barreled past Martin with his whip held high. “Eat this!”
When he brought it down, all the damage that the Ravager had dealt him was converted into darkness that darted along the length of each twisted cord of leather. Vengeance was the name of the mechanic, and Jericho seemed intent on enacting just that.
[Night Ravager has suffered 9 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 26 dark damage]
The wound on his chest looked to be shut now, but he was still punch-drunk and slurring his words as he hauled himself off to hit the Ravager again and again.
[Night Ravager has suffered 7 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 24 dark damage]
Each time the trailing tails of his whip parted the oily black coating of the Ravager’s skin the darkness pounded in, reinvigorating the monster. It was a thing of darkness and vengeance. Was it any surprise that it fed on those things?
[Night Ravager has suffered 6 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 26 dark damage]
“Stop! You’re healing it.”
[Night Ravager has suffered 4 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 21 dark damage]
“You stand there.” Jericho’s whip cracked.
[Night Ravager has suffered 6 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 18 dark damage]
“You do nothing.” And again.
[Night Ravager has suffered 2 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 9 dark damage]
“And now you tell me to stop? Whose side are you on? Us or the monster’s?”
[Night Ravager has suffered 5 bludgeoning damage]
[Night Ravager has absorbed 12 dark damage]
Every breath Jericho took was punctuated with another strike. All the damage Martin had dealt with his Introit was undone.
[Night Ravager has suffered 6 slashing damage]
[Night Ravager has suffered 9 slashing damage]
[Night Ravager has suffered 12 slashing damage]
[Night Ravager has suffered 8 slashing damage]
Around the back of the beast, Lindsay was darting in and out, slashing away at the rear of its hide and puzzling as the wounds closed up unattended. It was like two people trying to move a sofa, with both of them pushing and nobody pulling.
The light in Martin’s sword faded, yet still the Ravager had eyes fo
r him only. Even as it lashed out at Jericho with its claws to send him stumbling back. Even as it hissed and swiped at Lindsay without a backward glance. Still it remained kneeling before Martin.
We are one. I am in you. You are in me. Kill for me.
Whatever was happening inside the monster’s over-muscled head, it came to an abrupt halt when the wounds on its legs closed up. It sprang into action, pouncing forward again toward Jericho, and refusing to take no for an answer this time.
The big lump of wolf-meat was used to enemy attacks bouncing off him, and he’d never even had to try to dodge them like mere mortals. The lack of experience showed. The Ravager opened Jericho up, strips of his skin trailing behind it’s claws like ribbons, blood spraying up the walls.
[Jericho has suffered 21 slashing damage]
All four of the Ravager’s claws drew back, and Martin instantly recognized that pose. Like the butterfly stroke, a praying mantis’ claws or a mouse trap just about to be sprung. Its body thrummed with tension.
Jericho couldn’t take another hit. Martin threw himself between the monster and his friend, hoping that the sword held between them might deflect some part of the blow.
He braced himself, breath held, but the deathblow didn’t come. Once more, the Ravager stood frozen. Every part of it was poised for murder. Ready to snap shut. Yet, it didn’t. Lindsay launched herself at its back, screaming, “Raptor Strike!”
[Night Ravager has suffered 28 piercing damage]
Her blade sank in and she bounced away. Martin fully expected the impact of their bodies meeting to set off the death trap that was poised to spring. It didn’t.
Die. Live. Kill. Kill. Kill.
The next time Lindsay sprinted back in, the coiled strength of the Ravager was unleashed. It lost some of the killing power by twisting on the spot, but it made up for it with surprise. Lindsay was caught by all four arms, every one ending in lethal metallic claws.
[Tesra has suffered 15 piercing damage]
[Tesra has suffered 16 piercing damage]
[Tesra has suffered 12 piercing damage]
[Tesra has suffered 14 piercing damage]
It might have shredded away a few of Jericho’s layers, but the Ravager cut Lindsay right to the core. As the monster reared up, she was lifted limp off her feet. The huge arms strained. It was going to quarter her.
Martin hissed. “No.”
Not again. He’d seen her torn apart like this before. Seen her killed and ruined. All her insides spread outside. Not again.
I know you Martin.
He charged in, sword blazing to life with Smite, hammering it deep into the Ravager’s back.
[Night Ravager has suffered 21 light damage]
[Night Ravager has suffered 14 piercing damage]
The steadfast footing of the monster gave out beneath that blow. It lost its grip on Lindsay, and she slipped clear of the claws just as Jericho came barreling back in, roaring. With its balance already lost, the sudden impact of that living slab of meat sent the Ravager reeling.
It rebounded off the tunnel wall and then ran. Martin wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eye, but it turned and fled rather than face them. It made no sense. Something had clearly gone wrong with the AI of this particular Ravager because, according to Martin’s math, it could have wiped the floor with the lot of them.
Still, the sudden retreat of the monster was a gift. Lindsay was out of action, Jericho was bleeding everywhere and Julia had been on her last legs before she came tumbling into a fight out of nothingness. Even Martin felt a little shaken after their brush with oblivion.
Come to me.
He ignored the voice. Just as he’d always ignored the voice. He was becoming increasingly convinced that he only heard it when he was thinking about hearing it, so as long as he maintained his focus correctly then whatever mental breakdown he was experiencing could be postponed indefinitely.
“From now on I’m going to stand back and throw rocks,” Lindsay called up from the ground as they gathered around her.
Martin smiled. “That does seem safer than whatever it is you are doing so far.”
“I’ll be so stealthy. Nobody will know I’m there.” Julia was bent over her, casting healing spell after healing spell while Martin made sure that she didn’t look down. One existential crisis per player in the guild was enough. “One minute darkness. Next minute, rocks. Bam. Right in the kisser.”
Martin assumed that this was all Lindsay’s usual comedic rhetoric rather than a genuine attempt to change tactics, so he chose not to pass judgment.
As an afterthought to the frantic work she had done on Lindsay, Julia turned to restore the health of each of them in turn while the other two kept watch. “Who knew stamina drain could kill you so quick?”
She forced a smile, but Martin could tell it was forced, even on her serpent face. “Let’s never put ourselves in the position to learn that lesson again.”
Martin made himself play it off casually. “You don’t win by taking no risks.”
“You don’t win if we’re all dead either.”
Martin carefully closed his mouth. She didn’t need to know that, technically, he could still score the win for the guild if everyone else died. That was not a line of reasoning that was going to bring her comfort or get her back into the action quicker. He took a breath, then sought out the path of least resistance. “You know that I’m… risk averse.”
Julia had sympathy for him, even when he was blatantly manipulating her responses. She still felt like he was to be pitied, just because he was different. Just because he parsed information in a different way. Once again, he had no intention of examining a gift horse’s teeth.
“I know.” Julia cast a nervous glance at Jericho, then put a cool hand on Martin’s arm when she was certain the Wulvan was distracted. “I know. It isn’t your fault that Lindsay is always pushing you.”
“It isn’t just her, it’s all of you.” He blinked hard, like he was trying to hold back tears. “I don’t want to let you down.”
“Martin, nobody is expecting you to…”
Jericho loomed out of the shadows over them. “We are all holding hands now?”
“His scars. I was checking to see if his scars were fading after my healing him so many times.”
Jericho’s claw jabbed down into the hole in Martin’s upturned hand. Despite himself, Martin flinched.
“Are they?” asked Jericho.
“No.” Julia took a step back. “Not at all.”
Jericho’s teeth were huge, yellowed and pointed. Close enough to Martin’s face that some primordial part of his brain stem started screaming at him to run, that he was prey. The Wulvan’s fetid breath swept over him, ruffling his fur. “Good. Better to remember what happens when you make mistakes.”
Martin smiled at him. Jealousy. The physical contact with Julia had rattled Jericho, and he could work with that. He could use it. “Funny that even when I make mistakes, we still keep winning. Almost as if they aren’t mistakes.”
“You mean to poke yourself full of holes?”
“Unpleasant, but necessary. Remember that, Jericho. Whatever I have to do to win, I’ll do.” Martin very deliberately looked across at Julia who was tending to the last of Lindsay’s wounds. He stared at her. Or at least in her general direction.
He could feel the growl rumbling in Jericho’s chest, but it never made its way up and out of the other man’s throat. Rage, but contained. That was what Martin needed.
Turning back to the others he offered Lindsay a hand up, which she took gladly. “So, are we going to talk about what the hell just happened?”
“It seems like the game’s physics detection doesn’t…”
Lindsay cut him off. “No, not that. Why did that big black nightmare blender just run away from our resident rat-man? I mean, no offence, Martin, but you aren’t exactly intimidating. Unless this is like an elephant thing?”
Jericho’s low growl was interr
upted by a moment of puzzlement. “Elephant thing?”
Martin rolled his eye. “The urban legend that elephants are frightened of mice. Popularized in children’s cartoons and comic books for decades. Pop culture.”
Lindsay was on a roll. “Or maybe they know about the black death. What do you think? Did they teach monsters about the bubonic plague? Or maybe you reminded it of its mother. Or maybe it is just your personality, Martin. Or your body odor. Or…”
“I was the only one dealing light damage. They’re weak to light and fire.”
“Nuh-uh.” Lindsay shook her head. “Nope, I saw that thing, even before you hit it, it was being cagey around you.”
“My sword was lit up.” He shrugged.
“I don’t buy it. Come on, man, you are usually all set to dig into weird stuff like this, turn it to our advantage. Why don’t you want to know why the Ravager was scared of you?”
“I don’t think it was scared, exactly.” Julia interjected. “It was more like it was watching him, trying to work out what he was going to do.”
Jericho sneered. “Yes, tiny rat-man is most interesting person in the universe to all women and monsters. Can we move on, please?”
Lindsay clapped her wings together. “You’re right. We’ve got to get moving. Get our little froggy buddy back from the cats. Get some payback on them, too.”
The rest of them froze in place for a moment. It wasn’t that they had forgotten about Speckles exactly, it was just that rescuing him hadn’t really crossed their minds. Jericho scoffed. “Yes. Right. Let’s go backward to save our pet monster.”
“What?” Lindsay looked genuinely surprised. “Come on, now. Speckles is part of the team!”
