The boy could only sigh and dump his loot in his inventory. The store wasn’t working, so he didn’t have a way to sell the useless level two equipment. Meanwhile, Valanil watched him and again suddenly realized that she felt something for the country bumpkin. Was it gratitude? That was possible — he’d figured out how to beat the hydra, and not her, after all. But remembering how Tailyn had openly taken her on put paid to that idea. Valanil nipped it in the bud, deciding to lean into the resolution without much thinking about the consequences.
“Tailyn, are you planning on sharing the gold and coins? Maybe, you didn’t think about that for Keran. And you might have forgotten about it when we took out the mages in the mountain pass. But what’s keeping you from giving us our share this time?”
“You’re so petty!” Valia piped up predictably, pouring oil on the fire of the rift that had yet to close. “Tailyn gave us outfits, elixirs… He’s done everything for us, and you’re here thinking about gold!”
“We gave the outfits back, and we’ll take care of the elixirs later, but nobody wiped my rear with gold paper, little duchess. I’ve had to struggle for every coin I can get my hands on in this world, and I have no intention of losing my share.”
“I thought the god splits everything up, including coins and gold,” Tailyn said in surprise.
“No, that only applies to the loot. The gold and coins go to whoever collects everything,” Valia explained. “What, you didn’t get that far in the book?”
Tailyn could only sigh. The encyclopedia was his weakness — he should have spent more time reading it and less time training.
“My share stays with Tailyn,” Ka-Do-Gir said. “If I need something, I’ll ask my master, and he’ll decide if it’s something he wants to buy for me.”
“That’s your right. But I’d like to see fifteen hundred coins in my account. The sooner, the better, in fact.”
An awkward silence fell. The healer crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Valia with a grin on her face, the girl busy trying to find the right words to put the commoner in her place. But she wasn’t able to. When it came down to it, the loot really was for the whole group, and Tailyn had kept it all for himself. Everyone stared at the boy, who was taken aback by their attention. He wasn’t used to that.
“Here.” He quickly counted off the herbalist’s share and handed her a large coin materialized by the god. “I’m not trying to take what isn’t mine.”
And with that, everyone realized it was time to move on. They weren’t going to be able to help Forian or Vavon from where they were. If they were going to be able to at all, of course. Valia had insisted she’d seen the magistrate die, though when she saw him hanging over the red acid, her insistence vanished instantly.
The first two levels were easy enough to get through as the marauders had stripped everything down to the bare walls. On the third, there were still workers toiling away, though they took off under the cover provided by their leaders as soon as the group appeared. Without paying any attention to the remains of the shelves and cabinets attached to the walls, Tailyn and his troops made their way down to the bottom of the tomb.
“There’s no sarcophagus here, either,” Valia whispered as soon as they stepped through the door. The entire fifth level was laid out in front of them. Besides the horrifying pool, the open portal, and a few boxes the lixes had clearly been carrying from somewhere, it was vacant. And the lixes themselves were all hiding behind Vu-Rga, though the old shaman was making no move to attack. Leaning against his staff, he gazed steadily at the approaching group.
“There are only two to keep in mind,” Ka-Do-Gir said as he stepped to the front. “Vu-Rga and his advisor. The two shamans holding the portal open are out of this, and the one collecting mana elixirs is busy. The green isn’t a fighter. And the marauders… They’re level three, so we can ignore them.”
“Ka-Do-Gir.” Finally, the silence was broken by Vu-Rga’s rasping voice. “The lix who proved unworthy of a place next to Halas. I’m not surprised you’re a slave, especially to a human. When I get back, all the green tribes will be wiped out. Your former tribesmen will curse your name as I strip their skin off.”
The old man fell into a coughing laugh that sent shivers running down Tailyn’s back. Vu-Rga looked out of his mind. And with no hydra next to him, the boy decided to attack without waiting for Valanil’s signal. It was time to rid the world of the mad lix.
Ka-Li.
Ten waves of fire flew off toward the lixes, raging in their desire to turn the creatures into charred embers. But at the last moment, Vu-Rga reacted — the old guy turned out to be fairly quick on his feet. He waved his staff, and a protective dome appeared to stretch a few meters out in front of him. And while the flames were powerless against the new obstacle, the worst part was that they didn’t even bounce off. The shaman’s protection was capable of absorbing the fire the same way the hydras had.
The response was quickly forthcoming. The air around the shaman began to materialize, turning into something dark and fanged, looking from a distance like a disfigured wolf. No sooner had it appeared, than it snarled and dashed forward, freezing a few meters in front of Tailyn. A chill ran down its skin, but it wasn’t fear. Valia had used her ring of cold to pin the creature to the ground.
Vargan wolf (monster). Artificial creation. Level 100.
A few icicles hit the wolf’s flank as Valanil and Valia kept up their fire, though they couldn’t damage the creature. It was going to take something more than icicles fired by level seventeen and twenty-two humans to break through level one hundred armor.
For example, another ten waves of fire.
Ka-Li.
Another wave of his staff once again kept Vu-Rga safe from the flames, though the dome didn’t reach far enough to cover the wolf. A pained howl broke out. Still holding the creature in place, the ice refused to melt in the inferno Tailyn had cooked up, the result of what the encyclopedia had told him was the symbiosis of group magic. The wolf could do nothing but twitch and wheeze until it disintegrated into white smoke after the fiftieth second. The fire had been able to burn through its armor.
“Not bad for humans,” Vu-Rga called over as soon as the fire died away. “But what are you going to do about this?”
An intimidating spider appeared next to him.
Lera tarantula (monster). Artificial creation. Level 100.
“Cold doesn’t work on it,” Valanil said immediately. “But it doesn’t have an answer for this!”
Before Vu-Rga’s creation could charge the group, a bukamonster appeared next to the herbalist. And while it may have been all the way down at level thirty, that was enough. The two monsters rushed each other, crashed together, and collapsed to the ground in a blur of action. A minute later, only one stood up. The bukamonster. It staggered and had to hold itself upright, but it was alive, unlike the melted spider. Valanil immediately sent her creature forward at the lixes. Of course, the marauders glanced at each other and took a step backward, but the mage wasn’t impressed. His staff waved, a block of ice hit the bukamonster, and the latter disappeared without a trace.
“He’s just toying with us!” Valia exclaimed in a shocked tone. “He could kill us at any moment!”
“I don’t have that card,” Vu-Rga called over happily. “It’ll be good to pick it up — I’m glad you showed up here with it. What else do you have? How about locusts?”
An incredibly thick cloud of insects appeared next to the shaman. Without waiting for the humans to respond, he sent them over, and it was once again Tailyn’s turn to show off. The locusts looked particularly flammable, and he had another twenty charges left in his wave of fire card. Ten was presumably enough to take out the new opponent.
“Just like that?” the old lix spat with a scowl, and Tailyn flew backward a good twenty meters, his back hitting the wall hard. But while the electric strike should have fried him to a crisp, his protection held up, just dropping to zero and leaving a giant hole in Va
rgot. The boy’s consciousness was barely able to hold back the darkness that looked to overwhelm it. Coughing, he got to his feet, his regeneration telling him it needed an hour. The lix shaman was incredibly powerful.
“No more of that! If it happens again, I’ll take it out on you.”
Vu-Rga had shown off five of the fifteen cards in his active deck, but even they had been enough to reduce the humans’ cards to nothing. And that was when the sixth card kicked into action. The air next to the old lix again began to materialize, that time turning into an enormous snake capable of both poisoning and swallowing anyone whole.
“Leave that thing to me!” Valia called melodiously, and an army of summoned creatures rushed off after the snake. Jungle call spawned the animals that were needed in the moment. That time, they were five nimble mongooses the size of Ka-Do-Gir, all of them sprinting toward the snake and surrounding it in a deadly dance. One leaped in, then a second, and then a third. The poisonous viper tried to fight back by crushing the animals, but it just wasn’t fast enough. The creatures Valia had summoned stayed one step ahead of its lunges until its protection had been beaten away to nothing. A minute later, the winners dashed off toward Vu-Rga only to disappear right next to him in a cloud of white smoke. The old shaman had nailed every single mongoose with an icicle.
“You said that wouldn’t happen again!” Valanil yelled, though Vu-Rga just chuckled.
“So punish me, human female. And if you can’t, shut your mouth!”
Another body hit and slid down the wall. Unlike Tailyn, the herbalist was knocked unconscious.
“And you’re the ones Halas is so afraid of?” The old shaman’s voice dripped with disgust. “My students are capable of more than you! I haven’t so much as broken a sweat, and look at you. Weak, useless, wimpy… You’re just lucky you’re mages — you’ll live a tad longer up over the pool. But you, green slave, earned yourself a separate punishment. You’re going to watch as the green lixes are slaughtered. They’ll look you in the eye as they die, and when I begin stripping the skin from them, they’ll curse your name. Freeze!”
Something dark appeared in Vu-Rga’s hands to cast beams on everyone in the group. Tailyn lost control of his body — he was reduced to a statue. And as his insides burned, he wanted to scream in pain, only he couldn’t. But not everything went the way the old shaman had planned it. Even through his agony, Tailyn saw a black beam hit Ka-Do-Gir and ricochet right back at Vu-Rga. The old shaman wasn’t prepared for that move, and he found himself just as frozen as the humans.
The sphere of reflection. Ka-Do-Gir had activated it in time.
There was a flash of silver lightning as the lix dashed in to attack. The marauders died one after another, incapable of standing up to their enraged green comrade — just as Ka-Do-Gir had said, they weren’t fighters. Things weren’t so simple with Halas’ adviser, however. After standing up to his new opponent’s initial onslaught, both of the two swung away with their steel claws, only neither was able to gain the upper hand. Regardless of his fury, Ka-Do-Gir just couldn’t make up for the difference in levels.
Tailyn’s body still didn’t belong to him. And what bothered him most was that there wasn’t even a timer to tell him how much longer he was going to be held motionless there. He narrowed his eyes — the shaman who’d been busy with the mana elixirs had left his post and was heading over toward the scuffle. It was clear that he was just waiting for the right moment to block Ka-Do-Gir and hand the advisor the victory. Tailyn needed to do something, but what? He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t yell, he couldn’t move. Nothing. It was like he’d been thrown into the store and turned into a statue, only his consciousness was there in his body rather than over by the virtual shelves.
But wait, there was the store. Sure, it didn’t work during battle, but the boy had something else — the workshop. What if leaving it unblocked his body?
Making the decision took one moment, loading his mind into the room with the alchemical tools took another, pulling it back out took one more, and the last saw him filling his lungs with air and staring over at the creeping mage.
Ka-Li.
The lix’s body collapsed in a fit of convulsions. Tailyn hadn’t been able to think up anything better than an electric strike, buying himself another minute. Without taking long to think, he looked over at the two shamans still holding up the active portal. Two more electric strikes dropped them to the ground. The portal collapsed, sending a shock wave across the room, and while Tailyn held up under it, Valia was knocked to the ground. The girl was still frozen.
“Push him away!” Tailyn ordered, and Ka-Do-Gir did just that. Twisting, he gave Halas’ advisor a punch in the chest that sent the black lix flying back a few meters. And by the time he hit the ground, he was a twitching mess. The boy had struck hard and fast.
“Finish him!” Tailyn yelled as he switched cards. The four lix shamans were all lined up nicely for him, and he emptied his wave of fire card. That time, there was no protective field capable of absorbing the flames. They got to the far wall and bounced back to intensify the attack on the brown beasts.
A minute went by… It was an eternity for the boy as he waited to see what happened, and while neither Valia nor Valanil had regained consciousness, he couldn’t let himself be distracted by them. Three of the lixes burned up in just a few seconds, but Vu-Rga was a monster. The prostrate lix’s shield had managed to surround the old man with an additional field that kept him safe from the fire. Nothing was happening.
Again, the silver shadow flashed by, and Ka-Do-Gir appeared next to Vu-Rga. Regardless of the situation, Tailyn couldn’t help but notice that they were down to just two opponents: the old shaman and the green lix cowering in the corner. Steel claws whipped through the air, though there was nothing they could do but send sparks flying. The lix couldn’t get through the shaman’s defenses.
“Get away from him!” Tailyn yelled as he went to a different card. He didn’t have that many charges remaining, but his fireball card was still full. And that was presumably going to be enough to finish off even that monster.
Only a little while later, he turned out to be wrong. Vu-Rga’s field absorbed the fireballs without the shaman taking a single point of damage. Not only that, but the temperature around him didn’t rise at all. Since the fireballs didn’t explode, their extra feature didn’t kick in. Lightning, icicles, and cold — none of it could beat through the old lix’s shield.
“Stop, Master,” Ka-Do-Gir said, running over to stand between Tailyn and the shaman. “You aren’t going to be able to destroy him! Much stronger mages had tried and failed.”
“So, what?” Tailyn even growled in frustration and barely kept himself from sending a frustrated fireball flying at his own lix. “You think we should just sit here and wait for him to get up?”
“No, young mage. I think we should tie him up and stick him in a cage. We won’t be able to do anything to him now, and I’ll bet even the red pool would be powerless. But we can keep ourselves safe from him, at least for a little while.”
The fog of rage and anger was just short of controlling the boy’s mind, but Ka-Do-Gir’s relaxed gaze kept his emotions from gaining the upper hand. The boy couldn’t show weakness in front of the lix. After taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, he materialized his long-suffering rope.
“Do it.”
Even in that moment, the old shaman’s protection was incredible — it held the rope almost two centimeters away from his body. But that wasn’t about to stop Ka-Do-Gir, and the long rope soon turned the terrifying shaman into a caterpillar inside its cocoon. Then, Tailyn materialized his cage, and as soon as the shaman was locked inside, there was a long groan accompanied by gasping for air. Valia and Valanil had woken up.
“That just leaves one,” Tailyn said, pointing over at the green lix in the corner.
“I’ll take care of him.” Ka-Do-Gir went over to his tribesman, who shrank back even further, turning into a tiny green ball of
shaking flesh.
“Do you want to live?” Ka-Do-Gir asked, looming over his opponent. The latter could only squeak in reply.
“In that case, repeat after me. I have been defeated. Spare my life.”
Tailyn didn’t hear what the green replied, though he saw the steel claws flash. The chain that had been around the poor guy’s neck dropped to the ground. And right then, the System finally decided to do the group a favor.
Status change: combat complete.
Tailyn collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. He had no more energy left. In fact, he felt as expended as his cards, completely and entirely. Even when Ka-Do-Gir came over to shake him by the shoulders, asking something and pointing over to the side, Tailyn couldn’t find the strength to so much as understand what the lix wanted. He nodded, only looking to rest.
“Leave him alone,” Valanil said as she crawled over. The hit against the wall had shattered her spine, leaving her pulling herself around using her arms, and her regeneration needed another three hours to get her upright. “He’s burnt out and needs time. Can you get the mages free?”
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 23
