The others entered the room to join him. Paul chuckled, “I guess this will be easier than I thought.” The tension in the adventurers visibly faded. Their shoulders were now relaxed, their eyes stopped shooting about, and their grips weakened on their weapons.
Ha ha ha. You fell for the oldest trick in the book. Now my precious SWARM! Breck commanded the remaining four beetles to rush the mage from behind. All four monsters rushed out of the shadows, moving much faster than the first one had. By the time the mage noticed, the beetles were within a few feet of him.
“Ah!” The mage pointed his staff at the beetle nearest to him. A small ball of fire began to form at its tip, but it was too late. The iron reinforced teeth ripped through the mage’s lower leg. Everyone could hear a sickening crunch as the creature snapped the mage’s fibula. The man’s robe was now sticking to his leg because of the torrent of blood spilling from the wound. He dropped his staff as the forming spell winked out of existence. It was hard to concentrate on turning your essence into a spell when your leg was in several pieces.
Thao screamed and jumped behind Paul as he ran to aid his fallen party member. He thrust a sword at the beetle that was still chomping on his mage. The blade sunk in deep through its back, and he used the momentum from his run to fling it across the room with a flick of his arm. “On me! Focus up and retreat! Get me a healing potion for Mark!” Unfortunately for Paul, Mark the mage was already dead.
A pair of beetles charged Paul, but the swordsman was flailing his blade around in front of him. Do these guys have any training at all? Breck inspected the party of adventurers. All of them, except the deceased mage, were beginner rank one. Mark had been beginner two, but that didn’t seem to serve him very well against the beginner five beetles. Breck’s creatures weren’t hard to kill one-on-one, but they were extremely hard to manage when they swarmed their victims.
The party rallied after realizing their mage was dead. Paul tossed the potion that Thao gave him back to her, but she failed to catch it in her frightened state. It landed a few feet away and smashed, spilling its contents and allowing Breck to absorb it. Using the shield bearer and his massive shield as a defensive point, the group tried to pivot the monsters. Right now they were blocking the entrance, and the adventurers were in the center of the room. This tactic may have worked against brainless beasts but Breck had given his beetles explicit orders to stand their ground at the base of the staircase. After the Humans realized this, they stood at a standstill.
“What do we do, Paul? I don’t want to die here,” the shield man said in fear.
“Uh… we uh… we need to get out.” Paul was panicking.
“No shit, Paul. You useless fuck, I’m not dying here!” The man turned, grabbed Paul by his chest piece, and tossed him into the beetle’s clattering mouths. “Everyone for themselves!”
Well… That was a bit surprising. Breck commanded two of his creations to enjoy their meal and sent the remaining one toward the shielded man. He was doing his best to run around the fight and then out the door. To his credit, he was much faster than he looked and he probably would have made it out if it hadn’t been for his heavy shield. It was simply too heavy and slowed him down too much. It created the perfect opportunity for a beetle to pierce the back of his leg. It wasn’t a clean bite, but it drew blood. The man managed to turn and bash the beetle aside as he made his way up the stairs. Darn. I lost one. Wait… where’s the girl? Breck searched his influence and found the woman standing outside the dungeon. How the heck did she get out there? This is why I need Jeeves to watch the fights!
Thao was bent over, panting and exhausted. She had run past the creatures when they were distracted and huffed it up the stairs as fast as her legs would take her. She almost jumped out of her shoes when a hand landed on her back. “What the!?”
“Calm yourself Thao. It’s just me.” The shield man was putting all his weight on his good leg. Blood dripped down his other leg and he winced when he shuffled to lean on the dungeon entrance. “Do you have another potion? They messed my leg up and there's no way I’m making the trip back to town like this.”
Thao turned her back to the man. “I’m… I’m not sure I want to give you one.” She lifted a hand to interrupt any response. “You killed them. Both of them. It’s your fault we charged in there and then… and then you pushed Paul to his death. How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you won’t just toss me to the wolves if it means your life? I don’t think I’m going to give you a potion. I only have one or two left and I would rather keep them for myself.” She hesitated, trying to build up the courage to say the next part of her speech. She took a deep breath and continued. “When I reach town, I’m going to report this. I’m going to make sure you see the inside of a cell and pay for what you did. Do you have anything to say in your defense?” She waited for a reply, but none came. “What? Too scared to say anything?” Still no response. “Brendan?” She paused and slowly turned to face the man leaning against the dungeon entrance. She shouted in horror at the sickly visage in front of her. Brendan’s veins were visible through his skin, and they had turned a sickly green. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his skin appeared to be drying up, taking on the appearance of leather. She screamed one last time before she ran off.
“Haha. My dungeon entrance actually managed to kill one of them. What idiot would lean against a giant stone fang outside of a dungeon?” Breck laughed again.
“Sir?”
“What’s up Jeeves?”
“Sir. Don’t you feel a little…” Jeeves hesitated, not wanting to bring up what might be a sore subject. “…a little bad about absorbing Humans? I mean, until recently you were Human.”
Breck started absorbing the bodies and equipment of the adventurers before responding. The Human corpses tasted off to him, and he pondered briefly if this counted as cannibalism. When the massive amount of essence flooded his body from each of them, he forgot the thought entirely. “Not really. I mean, yeah, they are Human and it is a little strange absorbing them but they knew the risks. And besides, I want to be Human again and I can’t do that without gaining strength. Those three adventurers restored my empty essence tank to nearly full and I’m beginner rank nine. It may sound cruel or harsh, but the Earth we came from was a kill or be killed world. That being said… Let’s just not talk about it again, ok?”
Jeeves mentally nodded and moved on to the next subject. “Shall we review the fight and plan improvements?”
“Yeah. I’ll share it with you in a moment, but I’m cataloging my new patterns first. I got the pattern for some armor, weapons, a healing potion, a copper coin, and their leader, Paul, even had a silver coin on him. I think I can use these as loot in the future. Which is good because I forgot to add any in.”
“Splendid news. But I can sense a block in my vision still. It’s moving fast toward the edge of your territory. Did some of the Humans escape?” Jeeves questioned.
Breck frowned. “Yeah. A young girl slipped my vision while I was finishing off the rest of the party. She’s probably headed to her village to tell everyone about me. Wait…” He perked up and repeated himself slowly. “She’s headed to her village to tell everyone about me. This is great!”
“I apologize, Sir, but I’m failing to see what’s great about that. If she tells others about you, they will come here to challenge you as well, and…” It finally clicked for Jeeves. “…and you can absorb them as well. Brilliant, Sir.”
“Let them come and challenge the Boneless Dungeon! We’ll be ready!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Noelle
Noelle was still on top of Zach. He wrestled and wiggled until he got one of his feet under her. He kicked her with all his might causing her to land on the bed across the room. He took this opportunity to get on his feet and scanned the room for a weapon. Still unable to locate his sword, he grabbed one of the two chairs in the room and held it up defensively. “Noelle! What the hell are you doing here?” She glanc
ed at the window and the door before looking at Zach. “There’s no escape. Just answer my question.” She edged closer to the window, but he cut her off. “Even if you escape, I’m going to tell the guild about this.”
She tightened the grip on her whip. “You know, it's probably not best to threaten someone who attacks you. What incentive do I have to let you live now?”
Zach smiled. “Well… I guess you have a point. But seriously, what the hell is going on?”
“Don’t be naïve, Zach. You know everyone wants that quest. Do you think I’m the only one after you right now? I was just the first one to reach you.”
“What's so damn special about this quest? You must be in the basic or intermediate ranks. There are a ton of quests that pay gold coins if you're ranked that high. You seriously can’t let a lower rank have this one?”
Noelle laughed briefly before returning her steely glare. “You think I care about the money? Sure, a few gold coins are nice, but it's the facetime with Alcot that I want and I won’t let anything or anyone stand in my way.” She cracked her whip toward Zach. He held the chair up in defence, and the whip coiled around one of its legs. Noelle pulled as hard as she could, but Zach was able to keep his grip. “Fine. You want to play it that way?”
Zach wasn’t able to see Noelle because the chair was blocking his view, but he could hear her. He heard her muttering something under her breath, and then a loud crackling noise filled his ears. Before he could gauge what was happening, a jolt of electricity traveled down her whip and into the chair. Luckily for Zach, the chair was made of wood, an excellent insulator. Unluckily for Zach, this was magical electricity that didn’t follow the same scientific rules that normal electricity does.
The jolt traveled along the outside of the chair and shot directly into Zach’s arm. His body tightened as the current ran through his muscles and locked them up. Pain and heat filled him, and he could do nothing to stop it. The magical current dissipated after traveling from his arm to his feet and out through the floor. Zach crumpled to the floor and spasmed.
Noelle collected her whip and clipped it to her belt. She strolled over to Zach until she was looming over him. Bending over, she put one knee on his chest and the other on his right arm. She pulled a dagger from a sheath on her leg and held it to his neck. “Now hand over the quest.”
“Let’s not do anythi…” She pushed the dagger against his skin and a thin line of blood appeared. “Ok, ok. I’m going to grab it from my pocket.”
“Don’t try anything stupid,” she threatened.
Zach slowly moved his hand into his pocket and grabbed the quest paper. When he withdrew it, Noelle relented slightly with her blade. “This won’t do you any good. The quest is assigned to me.”
She pushed the dagger against his neck again. “You're going to forfeit the quest and tell me all the details. Then I can complete it and turn it in. Understand?”
I didn’t even know you could do that. “So I give you this and you let me go?” Zach questioned.
“You give me the quest, tell me what I need to do and then, yes, I’ll let you go.”
She’s not going to let me go… I need to think of something quickly. If I give her what she wants, she’ll have to kill me. One word from me and she's out of the guild. Think Zach, think! He slowly stuck out the paper, and Noelle grabbed it with her free hand. When she tried to pull it away from him, he tightened his grip. Here goes nothing. A chill that was beginning to feel comforting to Zach crept up his arm. When it reached his hand, he pushed it outward with everything that he had. A blast of cold air shot from his hand, across the quest paper, and washed over Noelle. Instinct forced her to recoil, and she fell backwards off of him.
Zach got ready to recoil in pain. Huh? No pain? All that ice essence absorption is paying off! He hastily got to his feet and used his sleeve to wipe the trail of blood from his neck. He looked down at Noelle. She was also getting to her feet but had a noticeable amount of frost developing around her hand and arm. Still unable to locate his weapon, he did the only thing he could think of. Running forward, he tackled her and pushed her into the window.
The glass shattered, sending shards flying everywhere. It was at this point that he remembered he was as nimble as a rock. He fell the two stories and attempted to land in a roll but ended up falling on his side with a thud. The fall immediately knocked the wind out of him and he was gasping for air. His arm and shoulder were pulsing with pain, but he caught his breath and looked around. Noelle was shambling toward him, blood dripping down her arm and falling off her hand onto the ground. She supported her arm the best she could, but it was clearly broken or dislocated.
“You bastard!” Her hand went to the dagger sheath at her side, but it was empty. She searched the surrounding area for her lost weapon, but the look on her face told Zach that she wasn’t having any luck. Her hand went to her whip just as a crowd came to see what the commotion was all about. “Fuck. I’ll be back for you.” She did her best to move as quickly as possible, but she appeared to be dragging one of her legs as she moved away. Even with her slower movement, she ducked into an alleyway before the crowd appeared.
It surprised Zach that he could get to his feet on his own. His clothes were torn, and small shards of glass were embedded into his side. The arm he landed on was dangling free and out of his control. Among the amassing crowd was a familiar face. “Where have you been?”
Droknal ran forward and examined Zach’s injuries. “What >>click<< happened?”
“I answered life’s biggest question.” Droknal looked puzzled. Zach grinned before responding. “Can man fly? Turns out, we can’t.” He chuckled, but the motion caused a sharp pain in his ribs. “Yup! Definitely broke a rib too.”
The pair waved away the crowd and reentered the inn, Droknal helping Zach to their room. After setting Zach down on the bed, Droknal closed the wooden shutters and locked them before leaving the room. It was at least an hour before he reappeared, locking the door behind him. “I paid the innkeeper for the damages. I am now low on coin >>click<<.”
Zach raised an eyebrow in alarm. “How much did he charge you for the damages?”
“Not much but I had already spent much of my coin on the provisions, a gift, and I ran to purchase a healing potion >>click<<. Please drink this.” The Anthronoid took a small vial out of his pocket and removed the stopper.
The liquid inside was a red, milky mixture with specks of silver. Zach took the bottle and sniffed it, having never seen a healing potion in person before. It smelled like wild berries, and now that he had it close to him, he noticed a faint red glow coming from the vial. Bottoms up. He poured the liquid into his mouth and immediately tried spitting it back out. Droknal snatched back the empty container and gave Zach a stern look. He promptly swallowed. He knew healing potions weren’t cheap and didn’t want to waste his friend's money. The texture was like watered down yogurt and it buzzed as it went down his throat, as if it had a slight electrical current. He coughed several times before catching his breath enough to talk. “Wow! What was that!?”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t afford a better quality >>click<< potion. Please excuse the taste.” Droknal bowed his head.
Zach’s arm and side were burning hot. He lifted his shirt, fearing that he had caught fire. The skin on his side already had a large bruise covering it. He stared in amazement as the bruise faded. Droknal placed a hand on Zach’s bad shoulder and arm. “This feels weird, but the pain in my side is fading fast. How much was…” were the last words Zach uttered before Droknal snapped his arm back in place and the pain caused him to fall unconscious.
His dreams were filled with Noelle and not the good kind of dreams. He dreamed that she attacked him at the inn again. This time she came with backup. A large man threw fireballs, and the building went up in a blaze. They tried to escape, but assassins, thieves, and warriors blocked every path they tried to take.
They were forced into a corner, Zach with his short sword and Droknal with
his staff, but no matter how many people they fought off or killed, more took their places. They continued to fight for what felt like hours until Droknal took a fatal blow to the head. Zach screamed out in anger at the loss of his companion. He charged forward, and the pack parted to reveal Noelle waiting across the still-burning room.
Filled with anger, he foolishly charged her. A crack of her whip was all it took to bring Zach to his knees. Crack. Crack. Two more snaps left long bloody marks on his chest and zapped him of any energy he had left. She approached him and pulled a familiar dagger from her waist. He tried to speak, but blood filled his mouth and dripped down his chin. It took everything he had to prevent himself from choking on the metallic tasting liquid.
When she reached him, she stared down at him threateningly. “I told you I would be back. No one’s here to save you this time and I’m not taking any chances.” She plunged the dagger into his chest. A pain greater than anything he had ever felt before radiated from the point of impact. A torrent of blood spat from his mouth as he fell forward. As his chest landed, it drove the hilt of the dagger deeper and ended his life.
He shot up. He was in his bed, soaking wet. He looked around and saw light entering the room from the still broken window. Droknal stood from his chair and rushed over.
“Zach! >>click<< Are you ok?” he called out with concern.
Zach wiped sweat from his brow, but it was ultimately pointless. He was completely drenched. It must have been a nightmare. He lifted a hand to calm his friend. It was at that point he realized he could move his arm again and, better yet, it didn’t hurt. “Yeah, I’m fine. Actually, I feel kinda good.” He lifted his shirt, the bruise on his side was gone and poking it resulted in no pain. “Healing potions are amazing. I wish they didn’t knock you out though.” Droknal shifted uncomfortably. “What? Is everything ok?”
Rebirth Page 9
