by Adam Drake
But then Rob's view was blocked by Gredd's next attack.
Using his buckler, he stopped as many of the blows as he could. Several times, the bandit's strike deflected off to cut Rob's arm, or nick his side.
Weathering this angry storm, Rob waited anxiously for his Sun Bolt timer to hit thirty seconds. He had 18 mana left, enough for either a heal or an attack. He'd wait to attack, if he lived long enough.
Growing frustrated and tired, Gredd altered his attack. Instead of swinging his sword, he lunged at any exposed areas.
Rob did his best to catch these, but was getting tired. One quick strike from Gredd deeply pierced his right side, and he screamed in pain.
The bandit laughed and twisted the blade.
Overwhelmed by the agony, Rob tried to push the sword's blade back with his buckler, but only managed to make the wound greater. His low hit points fell lower.
Only when Rob thought the horrific pain wouldn't end did Gredd step back, pulling his sword free.
Rob nearly blacked out from the pain. The wound was bleeding profusely, and he thought he caught a glimpse of his own intestines. “Oh, damn,” Rob said, sputtering blood.
Gredd nodded in satisfaction. “Oh, it hurts does it? This is just the start. Maybe I'll pull your insides out and feed them to you?”
Through his wavering vision, Rob could see the strange green goop now covered a large section of the ceiling and walls of the tunnel behind Gredd. It was at least two feet thick in some areas. As it shifted about Rob realized it was alive.
The bandit, triumphant, moved forward, but stopped when Rob spoke.
“So, I sent that Dodger-dickhead off to some bright place, did I?”
Gredd glared. “He's watching now, enjoying your pain!”
“Well, say hi to him for me, will ya?” Rob said and cast Sun Bolt.
The beam struck Gredd in the face, and he pinwheeled backwards.
Instead of falling into the goop, as Rob had hoped, the goop actually shifted forward to meet him.
The bandit was enveloped by the moving slime. The goop fell from the ceiling and pulled him to the ground. It swirled and sloshed within the confines of the tunnel like a living, thinking jelly.
Rob couldn't help but stare, stunned.
The man's entire body could be seen immersed in the stuff. He thrashed about, trying to escape, but the goop moved more of its mass around him like a skilled predator.
Blinking out of his shocked trance, Rob tried to move, pushing rocks away from his legs.
As he dug himself out, he kept glancing at the horror show before him. For a brief moment, Gredd's head emerged from the quivering slime and the bandit shrieked and screamed. His eyes had dissolved away revealing wet sockets.
“God, damn,” Rob said, trying to hurry. He managed to loosen the rocks pinning him down and freed a leg.
Gredd's death screams filled the tunnel. His body within the stuff was dissolving. His clothing and leather armor were gone, exposing flesh that looked like mashed pulp.
Perhaps unsatisfied with one meal, the green slime suddenly heaved in Rob's direction, carrying the screaming Gredd.
Panicked, Rob pulled his other leg out, then grabbed the handle of his axe. He needed his weapon!
The unholy monster sloshed toward him, its outer mass reaching the pile of fallen rocks.
Rob yanked at the handle, but it refused to budge. His wounds had weakened him and his head swam. The loss of blood wasn't making him think straight. He had to run!
Suddenly, the axe gave way and slid out from the rocks with a loud metallic grinding noise.
Rob fell backwards and tumbled down the other side of the rock pile. His vision darkened for a moment, and when it recovered he could see the goop quivering and sliding its way over the top of the pile toward him.
Yelling in alarm and pain, he pushed himself into a crouch and staggered several paces away before slamming to the hard ground.
He wasn't going to make it. Not without healing.
Defying his own instincts to run away, he hurriedly reached into one of his bags of holding.
The goop now oozed over the pile like a living carpet. Gredd no longer screamed and pieces of his body could be seen floating within the semi-transparent ooze; fingers, a jawbone, a mash of innards.
Teetering on the edge of madness from the pain, Rob pulled out a Major Healing Potion and guzzled it.
The ooze seeped toward him, like a thinking lake of death.
In seconds, Rob could feel the effects of the potion. He tried to stand. Slamming against the rocky wall, he pulled himself along the tunnel and away from the pursuing ooze.
A glance showed him the thing was massive, filling the tunnel from side to side and extending back over the rocky pile and beyond. And still it moved.
More seconds ticked past, and Rob got stronger and stronger. He soon stood on his own and limped along as fast as he could.
The tunnel continued on, deeper into the mountain.
With the potency of the potion finally bringing him to full health, Rob ran. He could hear the thing behind him, sloshing as it moved.
Would it stop? He didn't know, but he had to get as far away from it as he could. With no other direction to take, or any means to fight it, he kept moving forward.
All sense of time vanished within this enclosed space. The tunnel continued on at a slight incline making his progress slow. He checked his map several times, but all it showed was his indicator at the edge of the tunnel, its path ahead yet to be drawn.
Gredd's horrific screams rang in his mind. That was a terrible way to die, but Rob had no sympathy for the guy. He'd caused Rob pain and now it proved his undoing. Better he was dead than still out there, skulking in the forest waiting for more victims.
Rob didn't even mind the lack of experience points for his death. Let the slime thing have all the glory.
And what was that? In his panic and desperation he didn't get a moment to key in on its statistics or name.
Hell-Blob. That's what he'd call it. An appropriate name on many levels.
The tunnel suddenly came to a small chamber and Rob stopped to look around.
The floor of the chamber angled downward to his right, with three other tunnels branching off from the lower area. The tunnel he'd been following continued on the other side.
Which way did they go? He scanned the wet floor for any signs of passage, but he couldn't see anything. Going to each tunnel entrance in turn and checking the ground around them came up with nothing.
Shoot. Now what?
He heard the sounds of movement echoing through the little chamber. Whirling about, he tried to locate the direction of the sound. Was it the Hell-Blob? It didn't sound like it, but he didn't know enough about the thing to be sure.
From the direction he'd been going, three humanoid beings stepped out of the tunnel. Each were about Rob's height and lean of build. Their bodies were fully encased in a tight fitting black leather armor, from their feet up to their necks. All of them here perfectly bald, their skin a sickly white.
Immediately, Rob got their stats.
Creature: Pech Warrior
Hit Points: 100, Mana: 0
Armor: 14, Speed: 10
Surprised to see Rob, they shouted in alarm and moved toward him. In their hands were long sticks tipped with little rocks. He recognized them as sharding stones.
Pech! So these were the bastards.
Rob braced himself for a fight, pulling his buckler in close and raising his axe. He felt his anger sudden flare up. These guys took his people.
One of the pech said something in a strange language and they moved forward.
Within the small space of the chamber, Rob's options were limited. He had no intention of running. Maybe he could kill two and make the last show him where his people were. But this thought flitted away the moment the pech to his left lunged forward.
Rob easily blocked its odd stick weapon with his buckler. But when it touched the shie
ld, the stone at the end crackled with sparks.
An electrical energy shot through the buckler and burned up his arm and into his shoulder.
Yelping in pain and surprise, Rob jumped back. God damn, that hurt! How many volts did that thing have? Wisps of smoke emanated from the buckler itself.
If those weapons can hurt him even through his buckler, how the hell could he defend against them?
Even more wary, Rob tried to step away, but all three pressed forward. One of the pech on his right jabbed at him, but he was able to parry the stick away with his axe.
You have advanced in Axes! Skill has increased from 6% to 7%.
The third pech attacked at the same time and poked Rob in the thigh.
A teeth-clenching electrical charge fired through his leg and up into his chest.
Momentarily unable to breathe, Rob stumbled backward.
The pech stepped in closer to take advantage of his lowered guard.
But Rob managed to recover just enough to use Sweep.
His axe swung in a wide arc before him, and struck all three pech, gashing their glistening black armor.
As they pulled away, he tried to press his advantage and swung at one of them, only to have them jump back.
When the beings moved in again he realized what an idiot he was. He had more than an axe to attack with.
“Sorry, boys,” he said. “I'm getting a little slow in my old age.”
He cast Sun Bolt, and the beam shot out from the knuckles of his axe wielding hand. It struck the pech on the left in the shoulder and it staggered back with a shout.
Cool! he thought, and swung at the other two, but missed. He loved having magic.
As one, the two pech before him lunged forward.
Rob tried to pull back, but they both hit him at the same time. One on the buckler, the other on his right side.
One shock was painful, but two was pure agony.
As the electrical fire surged through his entire body, he lost control of his legs and fell to his knees. He made a strange keening noise through clenched teeth, and his eyes locked on the ceiling above.
Death by electrocution, his brain tried to tell him through his pain.
Once the shock passed, he pitched over on his side, dropping his axe.
Not finished with him, the Pech stood over him. As one they raised their terror sticks.
Oh, God, Rob thought, unable to do anything but watch.
A shout from behind made all three pech turn with alarm. The sounds of many footsteps echoed through the chamber.
In the blink of an eye the pech ran off, and back through the tunnel they'd emerged from.
Rob gasped as his body returned to his control. Dozens of other humanoids had entered the chamber from another tunnel, some racing after the pech.
As he sat up, Rob looked at these new arrivals. They looked like scaly skinned men with the heads of an iguana. Some were clad with patches of armor, and armed with various kinds of weapons. Each had a dark red frill that rose from the top of their heads to extend down their backs.
Several of them crowded around to look down at him, their heads tilting left and right to get a better look with their large bulbous eyes.
Rob didn't have to pull up their stats to know who these beings were.
Troglodytes.
CHAPTER TEN
Rob looked up at the dozen or so iguana men that crowded around him. They jostled each other for a chance to angle an eye at him in curiosity.
He sensed they didn't want to hurt him, at least not yet. Maybe once they were bored with ogling him things might turn nasty.
Careful not to make any threatening motions, he used the wall to push himself to his feet. The mind-numbing pain of the shock attacks tingled away to nothing.
He looked over his admirers. Close up, he could see that his initial impression was right, they were iguanas, only with bodies shaped into a human's with two arms and legs. Their fingers were long with webbing between them, along with their toes.
One large trog pushed closer and turned its head in profile to look at him with a huge eye. A long, pink tongue unfurled from its wide mouth and licked over its snout, revealing short sharp teeth.
Their bulbous throats pulsated with each breath, and their long thin tails whipped back and forth, sometimes hitting one another.
Man and iguana looked at each other for several moments.
Rob cleared his throat. “Thanks for helping me,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
They continued to look at him, but none responded. Did they understand him?
From one of the tunnels another group of trogs appeared. Each wore a single red shoulder guard and carried twin-pronged tridents. As they entered, Rob was shocked to see a human woman walking with them.
He stared at her as she approached, the trogs parting out of her way.
Her blonde hair was cut short to the scalp, and she wore a flowing red robe. In her hand she held a silver scepter carved in the shape of a troglodyte.
Rob blinked as she came to stand before him. Like Myna, she was stunningly beautiful, but in a human way.
The woman paused to look him over from head to toe. Then she said, “You are Robert Barron, King of Anika.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yeah, that's right. Who are you?”
The trogs crowded around them, fascinated with their interaction.
“My name is Ynette, advisor and translator for the Crimson Council. What is your business here within our realm?”
Rob said, “I'm trying to find my people. They've been kidnapped by those pech slavers who were just here. Do you know where they are?”
“It was your people that was taken through this tunnel?”
“Did they come through here?”
“Yes, and they did so without paying a fee for the right to pass.”
Rob frowned. “They were taken against their will.”
Ynette stared at him for several moments. “Before their illegal transit through our tunnels, the Crimson Council was considering entering into an agreement with the Kingdom of Anika.”
Rob said, “Like I said, they are prisoners of the slavers. They would never have used your tunnels, otherwise.”
Ynette thought this over. “Perhaps the Council will overlook this infraction, in the name of brokering a deal.”
“Look, I need to get my people back, can you help?” Having several dozen of these trogs at his side would make one hell of a difference when it came to fighting the pech.
“That is not for me to say,” she said. “Since you have arrived unannounced, it is best I bring you to see the Council. Let them decide what should be done.”
Rob needed to be moving on, but he knew that if there was a chance to get the trogs to help, it was worth the detour. “Where is this Council?”
Ynette tilted her head almost in the same manner as the trogs. “They are gathered at one of our warrens a short tunnel away.” She must have sensed his urgency because she said, “A ten minute journey, no more. Will you come?”
He was surprised she asked. He'd assumed he was a prisoner. “Yeah, I will.”
She nodded, then motioned with the scepter for him to follow. The trogs parted, and she moved through them. Rob hurried after her.
They went back through the tunnel she'd come from, walking between the trogs with the red shoulder guards. He suddenly realized they hadn't tried to take his axe away, so he slung it on his belt and hung the buckler off his backpack.
“Do you know where my people were taken?” Rob asked.
“They are located in a narrow valley on the other side of the mountain. It appears they are making camp. We have scouts watching them.”
Rob was relieved to hear this news. “Are they okay? Are any of them hurt?”
Ynette glanced at him as the walked. “I don't know. Our concern is that these slavers violated the sanctity of our tunnels without entering into an agreement. If any of your people were hurt during this trespass, th
ere is no evidence.”
Her stilted manner was annoying, but Rob persisted. “Maybe, with your help, we can attack the camp and free my people. Do you think that's possible?”
“Trogs do not allow themselves to get involved with matters outside their tunnels. But you can bring this up with the Council.”
