by A F Kay
When the flowers reached their chest, Ruwen grabbed Sift’s arm. “Hold up. I need to make a clone to distract Tickles, but once I do, I can’t move. You’ll need to carry me to one of the open plants.”
“You get carried more than a baby.”
“At least I don’t cry like one.”
“Oh, you’ll regret that,” Sift said and rubbed his left bicep. “I feel a cramp coming on, and you might get dropped. A lot.”
Ruwen laughed, glad that a bit of Sift’s spirit had returned. “Okay. I’m going to have some fun with Tickles.”
Looking at the far shore, Ruwen placed his clone there. Tickles floated in the center of the lake, spinning in a circle while slamming its tentacles onto the water’s surface. A mist had formed around the creature from all the disturbed water.
Ruwen formed a level one Light Orb in his hand and then ran down the beach. When Tickles approached, Ruwen dashed deeper into the flowers, curious if Tickles would follow.
The giant water squid came halfway on to the small beach, but no further. Every time Ruwen poked his head around a stem, a spear of water would hurtle toward him. He ran from flower to flower, keeping the squid’s attention.
From far away, Ruwen heard Sift’s voice. “We’re here.”
Ruwen had an idea to make his clone seem more real when Tickles grabbed him. An old stem lay on the ground, and Ruwen used level three Air Blades to cut a six-foot section. His clone easily lifted the hollow stem. Carrying the stem in front of him, he ran toward the beach.
A tentacle snatched the clone and stem and immediately squeezed. Snaps and pops filled the air as the stem shattered.
Back in his own body, Ruwen watched the distant Tickles slam the stem into the beach.
“You watch the squid,” Ruwen said. “If it moves toward us, tell me.”
“It sure likes pulverizing you.”
“Try not to enjoy it too much,” Ruwen said and then turned to study the petal.
Sift had taken Ruwen to a different flower. The gate runes on the lowest petal looked fresh and were easier to make out. The other two outer petals were above him, but looked clean, as did the three inner petals.
Ruwen bit his lip. He really didn’t want to clean a petal off and reuse it. If any of the old Portal Chalk remained, it might mess up his gate runes, and place them some place unexpected. Even though the other five petals looked clean, they were either too high off the ground or too small to use as a portal.
Looking around the entire lake, only ten of the giant flowers had bloomed. One of those flowers grew a few hundred feet away. Ruwen tapped Sift on the shoulder. “Follow me.”
They moved to the next blossoming iris, and Ruwen found the same results. They checked one more, and it was identical. Tickles had slowed the violent pounding and now twisted and pulled the stem apart.
Frustrated, Ruwen wiped a petal clean. He wanted to see how his Portal Chalk reacted to the petal. Maybe the petal reset itself somehow. Carefully he removed the chalk and lightly touched it to the flower. Just like in the dungeon, the Portal Chalk sank into the petal, not leaving a mark.
Ruwen tried again with the same results. Maybe the petal could only be used once. He jumped up and snagged one of the higher petals. But the Portal Chalk reacted in the same way. It seemed like each iris could only handle one set of gate runes.
Using his clone, he quickly studied the other blossomed flowers. Every single one had gate runes written on its lowest petal. Ruwen looked around at the hundreds of giant irises that remained closed and realized the process.
“We have to make one blossom,” Ruwen said.
“Can we do that on one farther from shore?”
“Their petals are too small,” Ruwen said. He pointed up. “We need a big one.”
Sift looked at the bulbs thirty feet above them. “How are you going to make it blossom?”
“You watch Tickles,” Ruwen said as he prepared to climb the flower.
Ruwen wished he could cast Grasp Crate to increase the grip of his hands by ten percent, but he couldn’t. He had never been good at physical activities in school. But a lot had changed. Even without the bonuses from his magic items, spells, and abilities, his six levels had increased his Strength and Dexterity to fourteen, and his Copper body had added two.
But he had changed in more ways than that. His years of training with Rami had given him superb control over his body, and as he shimmied up the stem, he realized it took almost no effort at all.
Ruwen climbed to the top of the bulb, formed from the six closed petals. He tried to force his fingers in between the petal seams, but the flower wouldn’t part. He didn’t want to damage the plant, so he tried to squish the top gently, hoping to distort the bulb enough to get a grip. In the end, Ruwen’s sixteen Strength, which should have been plenty, made no impact. The bulb seemed immune to physical damage or manipulation.
In the Material Realm a flower would bloom in sunlight, but the sun didn’t shine here. A terrible thought occurred to Ruwen. What if these flowers needed Spirit to open?
Ruwen looked down at Sift. “I’m going to try something. Get ready to run.”
“That sums up all your plans,” Sift replied.
Ruwen dipped an essence rod into his Spirit and brought it to the edge of his body, careful to keep it inside. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he felt the plant vibrate. Another idea occurred to him, and he let the Spirit rod melt back into his Core.
Taking another level one essence rod, Ruwen dipped it into his Life Meridian and held it just inside his body. This time the plant shook.
Essence would make the iris bloom.
Hoping Tickles only sensed Spirit and not essence, Ruwen pushed the Life essence into the flower.
The flower shuddered.
“Tickles is coming,” Sift yelled.
To get home, they needed to make an iris blossom.
To make it blossom, Ruwen needed to use essence.
And essence attracted Tickles.
Sift and Ruwen were the only ones who stood a chance against the Gem level Spirit creature.
Ruwen had ten seconds to figure out how to beat Tickles.
Chapter 40
Tickles skimmed across the water, headed directly for Ruwen and Sift. Ruwen knew if he wanted to use fire, he needed to do it now. Once Tickles got too close, any steam generated from Ruwen’s fire and the squid’s watery body would damage them as well.
Ruwen cast a level fifty Magma Lance at Tickles, six hundred feet away. Tickles didn’t slow but raised four tentacles in front of its head, and the space between the squid’s arms filled with water. A moment later, a cylinder of water thirty-five feet across shot toward Ruwen’s fire spell.
The two spells met three hundred feet away and exploded. Steam erupted, a scalding storm, the heat so intense the air screamed as the blast ripped through it. Blistering fog covered the entire lake in a blink, and a shock wave struck Ruwen, throwing him off the iris.
Ruwen turned his body as he fell, somersaulting as he struck the ground, which would have been impossible before Rami’s years of training. Hot vapor seared his lungs, the pain intense, and he cast a level ten Vigorous Branch on himself to heal his damaged lungs. Sift appeared out of the mist, and Ruwen grabbed his shoulder, casting the heal again. The Aspects were powerful armor but didn’t seem great at telling when common things became dangerous.
“Thanks,” Sift whispered. “Why do your plans always include running?”
Ruwen didn’t take the bait. Instead, he held a finger over his mouth. If Tickles had super hearing, he didn’t want to give away their position. Ruwen cast a clone on top of the flower nearest them. The fog remained just as dense up there, and he let the clone dissolve.
He didn’t know where Tickles had gone and moving might alert the squid to their presence. The limited visibility made the clone useless. He needed to get out of the fog, which meant moving higher.
An idea occurred to him, and he immediately dropped into a level three meditati
ve state to stop the fear from overwhelming him. Once the initial panic subsided, he brought himself back out. His stomach turned just thinking about the idea, and he almost returned to his meditation.
He had feared heights since he could remember. Unlike Sift, Ruwen had zero desire to fly. He swallowed hard, knowing he had to try.
Ruwen held his hands up in front of Sift’s face to make sure his friend could see the Shade Speak. I. Paralyzed. Soon. Possible. I. Scream. Grab. Run.
Sift nodded and stepped closer, ready to grab Ruwen and run.
Ruwen took a deep breath and then another. His thoughts roiled as the primal desire to survive fought to stop his next actions. Because even though he used a clone, he knew it would feel real.
Waiting made it worse, and with a thought, Ruwen created a clone.
One thousand feet above himself.
Ruwen fell. He immediately closed his eyes as his stomach rose to his throat. It took every part of his mental barrier to keep from screaming. Like a mantra, he repeated, “this isn’t real,” until his mind allowed him to open his clone’s eyes again, only to see he was seconds from striking the ground. He let the clone dissolve.
Again, Ruwen created the clone far above. This time Ruwen forced himself to keep the clone’s eyes open. Fog covered the entire valley. It took less than ten seconds to fall a thousand feet, and it took all of that time for Ruwen to get his bearings and find Tickles.
He dissolved the clone and tried a third time. This time he found Tickles right away and watched as the giant squid delicately walked through the flowers, each of the twelve tentacles rising and falling in a careful dance. The head would appear above the fog for a moment before disappearing again as it searched for them.
From the way Tickles moved, it must have left the lake, which made Ruwen’s stomach knot. Running away from Tickles might not work. Assuming Ruwen stood directly below the falling clone, the squid walked fifty feet to the north. A spear of water passed over the clone’s head, followed by another six. Tickles had seen him, and worse, moved toward Ruwen’s actual body. He let the clone dissolve.
Ruwen pointed north and then in Shade Speak. Forty. Feet.
Sift nodded.
Ruwen needed some time to think, so he created a clone three hundred feet west. As the clone sank under the water of the lake, Ruwen funneled a level twenty Light Orb to the clone.
The valley remained silent, and Ruwen wondered if Tickles had caught on. And then ten seconds later, two tentacles wrapped around the clone and ripped it in half. Distant splashing filled the air as Tickles thrashed in the water.
The fog swirled, and Ruwen felt a breeze. Quickly it gained in power, and the mist churned as it moved past them faster and faster. He could see further with every blink, and soon the lake came into view, and then a giant cyclone with Tickles spinning at its base.
Tickles stopped and extended eight of its arms, causing a deep hole to appear beside it in the water. The rotating column of fog dropped into the hole and disappeared. Awed by the squid’s control of water, Ruwen frowned at his lack of options. He had access to all twelve essences but didn’t know how to combine them effectively yet.
Maybe Tickles wouldn’t be able to use frozen water. Ruwen hadn’t created named spells yet for his freezing recipe since they were so simple, only requiring two Meridians, Order and Dark. He had learned on the beach of the Frigid Sea that a level forty essence rod would freeze one thousand feet of water a few feet thick. He created one Order and one Dark essence rod and mentally smashed Tickles with them.
The entire lake froze, and Tickles stopped moving. For a moment, Ruwen thought the fight had ended. Then with a loud snap, Tickles broke the ice covering it, turned on its side like a wheel, and spun toward them. Each leg whipped as it descended, and shards of ice flew toward them with astonishing speed.
Hundreds of ice projectiles buzzed through the air like lethal bees but avoided striking any of the large flowers near the beach. Ruwen dodged a few of the ice spears, but many more struck him, throwing him backward as if a giant had punched him. The exploding ice sounded like thunder as it struck them and the ground.
Ruwen looked down, expecting to see holes in his chest, but his Aspect armor had stopped the projectiles, although it felt like a few of his ribs might have broken. He cast level ten Thriving Branch on himself.
Following the moaning, he found Sift. Sift’s armor had also stopped the flying ice, but his body, still Lead, hadn’t held up as well as Ruwen’s Copper. Ruwen cast level ten Thriving Trunk on Sift, and then pulled him to his feet.
“Are you trying to help it?” Sift whispered.
“We have to move,” Ruwen whispered.
They quietly ran south, parallel to the beach and away from where Ruwen had just used Spirit. Tickles didn’t seem able to resist anyone using Spirit. It surprised Ruwen how easily Tickles had turned the ice spell against them. But Ruwen had learned something from the painful exchange. Tickles didn’t want to damage the mature flowers. Missing all of them with the ice shards meant the squid had acted with precision and purpose.
The world darkened a little, and Ruwen looked up. A watery film had appeared a hundred feet above them. Ruwen stopped Sift, and they hid behind the trunk of a flower. There had to be a better way to scout, but for now, it was the only thing Ruwen knew. He created a clone a thousand feet above himself and fell.
The watery film encased the entire lake and most of the flowers in a bubble that Ruwen couldn’t see through. He angled the clone through the air toward where he’d last been, hoping to glimpse Tickles as he passed through the bubble.
A few seconds later the clone struck the bubble, but instead of passing through it, it disintegrated as if hitting the ground. Ruwen gasped as he returned to his body, the echo of pain following him as he returned.
Ruwen pointed to the bubble above them and signaled to Sift in Shade Speak. Trapped.
Tickles had incredible control of water, had immense strength, and could act with precision. Its only weaknesses seemed to be a blind urge to attack the use of Spirit and not wanting to damage the mature flowers. But Ruwen didn’t want to hurt them either, so that cut both ways.
Twenty feet east of them, a tentacle appeared, quickly followed by four more, as Tickles walked silently through the giant flowers. A rotating cylinder of water, the thickness of Ruwen’s arm, arced from the squid’s head and connected with the bubble prison above them, while another column of water ran from the Water Meridian tentacle back to the lake.
It appeared Tickles wanted to stay connected to the lake, which made sense since the source of its power stemmed from water. Ruwen needed to get rid of the water.
Ruwen had already tried fire, with no success. Water neutralized the fire too quickly, and even evaporating the water wouldn’t work since Tickles had pulled the mist back to itself. Freezing had been a disaster as the squid’s strength had overcome the spell. And Ruwen couldn’t use a massive amount of Spirit to overwhelm Tickles because Ruwen risked destroying all the flowers, leaving them stranded.
Tickles walked around the forest like a giant spider. Ruwen created a clone fifty feet south of them but didn’t channel any Spirit through it. Instead, he ran the clone south. Tickles saw the clone and quietly pursued. Ruwen hid the clone behind a large tree and let it dissipate. Hopefully, that would keep Tickles busy while Ruwen figured out a solution.
How could he get rid of the water or at least make it harder to use? Two options occurred to him, making the lake deeper, or draining it.
Making the lake deeper had risks. Mountains were already unstable, and forcing that much stone apart or compressing it would add incredible stress to the surroundings. Ruwen might trigger rockslides that would bury the entire valley. That would be a disaster. Plus, the water would still be here, just harder to access.
Draining the water made the most sense. Ruwen could simply split the ground along its lowest point, which the stream had already identified for him. Gravity would do the rest. It
would only destroy a small part of the flower forest, leaving them plenty of petals to get them home.
But Shelly might still be along the stream, or worse, inside it. If Ruwen split the stone to drain the lake, he had a real chance of killing the tiny turtle and ending Sift’s dreams of flight.
Sift might never forgive him for that.
But, not doing it might trap them here forever.
Chapter 41
Shelly sat on the other side of the bubble prison, and Ruwen and Sift had no way to move her to safety.
No, that wasn’t true. Ruwen could.
Ruwen checked on Tickles, who stood a hundred feet from them and faced the other way. With a thought, Ruwen created a clone outside the bubble prison due east of where he stood.
Ruwen ran his clone down the stream to the location Sift had left Shelly, but the turtle had disappeared. Ruwen looked around frantically and then much more slowly searched back toward the bubble.
Shelly had left. Just like Sift had thought she would.
Since the turtle wasn’t here, Ruwen could implement his plan of creating a deep gash down the stream. Everyone would believe Ruwen had displaced Shelly, and Sift would never know Shelly had rejected him. He’d never suffer that terrible blow.
The cost to Ruwen would be high. Sift would feel betrayed that Ruwen had ruined Sift’s final chance at flying, and Ruwen would need to live with his lie and endure Sift’s pain. But Sift’s misery from losing Shelly would be less than the misery of being rejected by her.
Ruwen let his clone dissolve. If he could slice off the squid’s Water Meridian tentacle, it should make fighting Tickles easier, and in any event, it would give Shelly more time to escape downstream.
Ruwen peered around the trunk of the flower he’d hid behind and found Tickles walking toward them. Ruwen created a clone behind the squid, funneled a level twenty Air essence rod to the clone, and slashed the squid’s Water Meridian tentacle.
Equivalent to a hundred-foot air blade, Ruwen had expected to do some significant damage. Instead, the air blade shattered against the squid’s Gem level paths. The tentacle immediately healed as water surged down the umbilical cord connecting Tickles to the lake.
