I shut my eyes, for a second, drawing in focus. That couldn’t happen, but I also couldn’t fight her. That much was obvious.
Crystal and Sally’s Skill sheets opened in my mind’s eye, and as I stared at them, I saw a new icon next to their names.
As I examined it, the icon opened a message box.
All Skill costs cut by 25%.
Was that from what Sam had done to me? I wasn’t sure, but either way, I was going to take advantage of it. I flipped open their Stat trees, frantic to find something I could buy that would save them, but there was a big problem. They had no way of doing anything that seemed like it’d slow Nadine.
“Nah, coins aren’t fun. I know a better way,” Nadine said, and then her hand was around my throat. My concentration broke, and their Stat sheets vanished as she hoisted me into the air. Her other hand glowed with light, and I saw to my horror that both Crystal and Sally were bleeding on the ground.
“You choose, Builder,” Nadine said, pointing at the two girls. “If you don’t, I’ll just kill both.”
“No,” I whispered, my hand dropped to Clarent, to the symbols emblazoned upon its steel. I reached out to them, trying to find Gwen. Only I couldn’t.
“Don’t stall. Choose.” Nadine’s tongue flicked out, and she dragged it across my cheek. “It’s so much more fun that way.”
“Take me,” Crystal said, reaching out to me with one hand. “Please…”
“No,” Sally said, shaking her head. “Me, please.”
“I won’t pick,” I said, meeting Nadine’s eyes.
“Pity. Their anguish would have been so much more fun.” She raised her hand to smite them as I focused on Clarent’s blazing symbols.
“Come on, Gwen,” I whispered.
“If you’re hoping for the succubus to come, well, let’s just say, she’s got other problems,” Nadine smiled at me knowingly before flicking out her hand. Fire tore through the space between us, forming a huge wall of living, seething flame.
And in that flame, I saw Gwen. Saw her bound to the statue of the Empress in the Graveyard of Statues. Saw the beholders and lizardmen surrounding her.
“How?” I said, turning my gaze to Nadine as the image faded.
“My dear, sweet summer child. You know nothing.” She flung me to the ground in front of Crystal and Sally. “Now choose. I won’t give you the chance again.”
I got slowly to my feet, turning my back to the two girls as I met Nadine’s eyes. Clarent blazed in my hand, begging me to try to save them, to do something.
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath as I nodded once. “I’ll choose.”
“Perfect,” Nadine said right before the giant fist of a ravager slammed down on top of her, smashing her into the ground.
For one blissful moment, the battlefield was silent. Sheila sat astride the ravager’s huge neck, the mind-controlled saddle firmly in place on it. The huge Dark Blood we’d gotten from the beholders embedded in the steel. Energy crackled along the saddle as Sheila looked down at me.
“Thought you could use a hand,” Sheila said, right before the arm of the creature blew off. As fragments of black ichor rained down around us and the ravager stumbled backward, gore streaming from its torn limb, Nadine slowly dropped her mangled hand.
“You’ll pay for this,” she hissed, and as she tried to get to her feet, the other ravager, this one being ridden by Annabeth of all people came forward to attack. Only before it could get to Nadine, the dark princess’s bones snapped back into place.
Annabeth’s creature hit Nadine then, sending her flying through the air to crash to the ground on the other side of the wall. I didn’t see the fetid Nexus Gateway open, so much as I felt it.
“She’s getting away!” Sheila called as the Nexus Gateway closed, leaving us standing there in an empty battlefield beaten, but somehow victorious.
33
“I’m torn between saying, ‘I can’t believe that worked’ and ‘she’ll be back,’” I said as Crystal helped me to my feet. Sally was already moving toward Sam, one hand held out to heal the unconscious blacksmith. White light wrapped around Sam before fading into her body. As the girl started to recover, Sally shot me a tentative thumb’s up, letting me know Sam would be okay. Good. I wasn’t sure I could handle another loss. Not after both Agatha and Polly.
“Yeah.” Crystal nodded and squeezed my hand as a realization hit me. Gwen was still in the Graveyard of Statues.
“Dammit,” I cried, spinning away from Crystal and looking up at Sheila and Annabeth where they sat astride their huge ravagers. The creatures’ flesh undulated in the light, and in the time it took me to walk the ten or so feet to them, the arm Nadine had blown off of the creature had already regenerated.
“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked, catching me with ease thanks to her long legs.
“Didn’t you see the images Nadine showed me in the flames?” I asked, turning to look at her.
“No. All I saw was fire.” She swallowed. “You didn’t choose.” She put her head against mine. “Why?”
“I couldn’t make a decision like that. You’re all my responsibility, and we’ve already lost too many. ‘Sides, I knew Nadine wouldn’t stand a chance once Sheila got Big Bertha over here to help. I just needed to buy her the time.” I pulled away from Crystal. “Only, now I’m not sure what to do. In the fire, I saw Gwen bound to the statue of the Empress. We have to help her, I’m just not sure how.”
“We could take the two ravagers into the Graveyard of Statues and get her,” Crystal said, gesturing at the two massive creatures. “I bet they eat beholders for breakfast.”
“And how would we get back? Last time Nadine opened the Nexus Gateway. Without a way to do it, we’re screwed.” I shook my head. “We might rescue her, but we won’t be able to get back.”
“Well, we had a deal, right?” Crystal said, meeting my eyes. “You slay the dragon, I’ll figure out how to get the recipe.” Her eyes flicked to the two ravagers. “Something tells me, the dragon isn’t going to be the hard part of that scenario. Just saying.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand though.” I shook my head, dismissing the idea. “Let’s assume we have the time to do that and can slay a dragon. I didn’t see any Skills related to the Nexus Gateways in her Skill Tree.” I sighed. “Look, I know what you guys read in the book, but if it was there, I’d have found it.”
“Maybe,” Crystal said with a shrug, “but what it sounds like is you want to give up on Gwen already.” Crystal shrugged again, this time with exaggerated emphasis. “I thought you cared about her.”
“That’s not fair,” I said, and she grabbed my arms, forcing me to look at her.
“Life isn’t fair. Now be the goddamned Builder, rally your troops, and kill a goddamned dragon.” She touched her chest with her thumb. “I’m on the recipe. I will figure it out.”
“Figure what out?” Sally asked, walking over to me with Sam. The blacksmith still looked beat to all hell, but she didn’t look broken anymore.
“How to make Nexus Gateways,” I said, gesturing at the darkened horizon, “because we need one to rescue Gwen.”
“Okay,” Sally said, nodding her affirmation. “I feel like I missed the important part of the conversation, but I’m in.”
“Me too,” Sam said, looking at me for a long time, “after I fix your armor.” She pointed at the spot where it’d been blown open. As I looked down at it, the armor surrounding the rest of my body evaporated into bits of blue light that absorbed back into Clarent. “Or not.”
“You had me at dragon,” Sheila called down from astride her ravager. She smacked the creature lightly. “Bertha here wouldn’t mind snacking on one.”
“I guess that settles it then,” I said, taking a deep breath. If we needed Etheric Flame, there was only one place to get it. “We’re going on a dragon hunt.”
“There’s only one problem,” Annabeth said, leaping off her ravager and landing lightly on the ground beside me. Her
ravager, to its credit, didn’t move a muscle. Instead, it stood there, waiting for her command.
“What’s that?” I asked, looking at the sculptor. She was covered in sweat, black ichor, and bits of plaster.
“Tom Tom and Bertha are slow. They’ll never make it across the entirety of Hell to Dragon’s Reach. We won’t be able to take them.”
“Did you seriously name the ravager Tom Tom of all things?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“It was that or Weed.” She smirked. “You know, tough and hard to kill?”
“I guess, Tom Tom works better.” I was more than happy to leave the naming of the ravagers to the girls as I turned to the huge creatures. A smile crossed my lips as I looked them over. They had the same menu orb above their heads that the rest of my people did.
“Glad you agree,” Annabeth said. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d love to finish my sculpture.” With that, she walked off, leaving me staring at the giant creatures.
“Okay, let’s get to work. First thing’s first. Let’s get a hold of all the Dark Blood and set to refining.” I looked back toward the other side of town where all the noncombatants had stayed. “Someone get Buffy too, we need supplies and to offload some of these Dark Bloods. Crystal, Sally, can you two handle that? Maybe grab a few of the guards to help with the gathering?”
“Sure,” they said in unison before looking at each other and blushing. Then they nodded to me.
“What about me, boss?” Sheila said, joining me on the ground as the Sally moved toward the battlefield to collect Dark Bloods while Crystal went to find Buffy.
“Round up all the people who fought. Give them some food and rest. I wanna talk to them after.” I took a breath. “We need to do something for Polly.”
Sheila looked up at the platform where Nadine had killed Polly. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks,” I said, and as she turned to go, I looked back at Sam.
“What about me?” she asked, watching me carefully. “Whatever you need me to do, I will.” She bit her lip. “I’m not good at running things, but I’ll try if I need to do that.”
“No,” I said, waving off the comment as I opened her Tech Tree. She had almost twenty-one thousand Experience. “I need you to start working on the Dark Blood weapons.”
For whatever reason, the bonus I’d gotten from her repair was still effective, so I used it to upgrade the Dark Blood Tree she’d opened, as well as give her the Dark Weapons and Dark Armor Skills. That done, a quick glance through her Skills left me staring at a new tree that definitely hadn’t been there before.
Legendary Smithery: Able to use Skills and Abilities to improve Clarent. Cannot be improved via Experience.
There were a bunch of Skills underneath the tree, but they were all blanked out except the first row, which had two of the three Abilities visible.
Legendary Armor
Skill: 1/10.
User can restore Clarent’s Ability to summon magical armor. This armor will appear when the user uses Clarent to summon it. Once summoned, the armor will give the user increased Abilities.
Legendary Skill
Skill: 4/10.
User can increase Clarent’s Ability to spend Experience on friendly targets. Doing so will decrease the cost to learn an Ability by 25%.
“Holy crap,” I said, taking my eyes off the Skills and turning them to Sam. “You have a whole Skill Tree based on Clarent now. You can make it stronger, and what’s more, you’ve barely unlocked any of it.”
“So how do I make you even more powerful?” Sam asked as I held the glowing blade out to her. “I had to use nearly all the Dark Bloods we found before just to fix it.”
“Well, that won’t be a problem,” I said as she took the sword from me, causing all the menus to disappear once more, “because we have a ton of those now. Work on the weapons and armor for our people. After that? See if you can upgrade Clarent some more.”
“I’ll do my best,” she said, handing the sword to me. “You should keep it until I’m ready to work on it, okay? Just in case.”
“Okay,” I said, taking it back from her. Once again, all the menu orbs reappeared. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” she said, waving at me, and then she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “And thanks for giving me a chance. It’s been a long time since someone has.”
“You’re welcome,” I said as she turned and hustled away. I watched her go for a moment before turning my gaze back to the ravagers. Taking a deep breath, I began looking through their Skill trees.
34
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, throwing my hands up. Buffy and Annabeth were sitting next to me at the table as we ate. To be honest, I was getting really tired of eating grilled demon dog, but we had no other source of food. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Annabeth had started making grass porridge in order to deal with all our people, but I was a man, not a rabbit dammit.
“Maybe if you just lay the problem out for us, we can think of an answer?” Maribelle offered in that hopeful voice that made me feel like my annoyance was unjustified.
“We already know the problem,” I said, pushing my plate away and rubbing my face with my hand. “The problem is that we have no way to make the ravagers move fast enough to actually get them to where dragons are located. If we had Nexus Gateways, it wouldn’t be a problem, but we can’t get those without killing dragons.”
I gestured at the wall in frustration. The ravagers were just outside, and surprisingly, didn’t have any discernible Abilities. Pretty much the only thing I could alter about them were their base Stats of Strength, Agility, Special, Intelligence, and Charisma, which might have been helpful if they weren’t already capped.
In short, they were Xboxes. Great if you wanted to use them for whatever they were designed to do, but not so much when it came to customization.
“Well, the answer seems simple then,” Annabeth said as she looked up from her bowl of porridge. “We just go to the dragon cave without them. Kill us enough dragons to open the Gateways and then bring them through.” She shrugged. “Might be hard, but we only need to kill one, right? After that it’s easy.” She scraped her spoon along the bowl, making sure to get every last drop before shoving it into her mouth.
“We can’t kill a dragon,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s a dragon.”
“Well, not with that attitude.” Annabeth pointed her spoon at me. “A dragon is just a monster. You’re supposed to be the Builder. Rally your troops and go kill a dragon.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Or are you scared?”
“I am scared,” I affirmed, “scared more people will die. How can I ask them to go after a dragon? I saw that head back in the Royal Centre. It could swallow one of us whole.”
“Firstly, you’re fighting a war with the Darkness that Consumes All Things.” Annabeth leveled her gaze onto me. “People will die. Your job is to make those decisions. No, not just that. Your job is to win the war, and so you have to understand wars have casualties.” She dropped her spoon into her bowl. “Secondly, you didn’t beat the ravagers by hitting them until they were dead, did you?”
“Well, no, I—”
She cut me off. “So be the Builder. Use that brain of yours to figure out a way to get what we need.” She pointed at the wall where the ravagers stood. “Be smarter than all the people who want to punch us to death. It’s the only way we’ll win.”
I wanted to reply to that, to tell her I’d been trying to think of a way. Only I hadn’t been able to. We couldn’t brain box a dragon without first having Etheric Flame to power the brain box. Otherwise, we could have beaten them the same way as the ravagers.
“You know, I think Annabeth is right. We have been going about this the wrong way,” Buffy said, finally speaking. She’d been sitting at the far end of the table with a far-off look in her eye. As we turned to look at her, she grinned nearly ear from ear.
“I’m guessing you have an idea?” I asked, watching her carefu
lly.
I still wasn’t quite sure if I could trust the goblin. Sure, she and her sister had requisitioned what we needed, and thanks to all the Dark Blood we’d gotten from the battle, our mill, blacksmith, tailor, and alchemy shops were better than ever. Unfortunately, we hadn't been unable to do much else on account of needing to spend ever more money on supplies to keep people fed, and part of me wondered if the reason was that she’d been siphoning off funds. It just seemed crazy that all our money was already gone, but then again, we’d needed a lot of stuff.
“I do.” She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling even though I’d asked her not to do that because she might fall and get hurt. “Look, there are two ways to get Etheric Flame. You either get it from a dragon or…?”
“I’m not following,” I said, shaking my head. “Or what?”
“Or you get some from someone who has it already.” She rocked forward and slapped her hands on the table.
“I’m pretty sure anyone who has Etheric Flame isn’t going to just give it to us,” I said, waving off her idea. “That’s a non-plan.”
“Oh, I didn’t say anything about giving.” Buffy grinned. “I’m more suggesting we make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
“Oh, and what would that be?” I asked, sighing. “We don’t even know who has Etheric Flame.”
“That’s not true. I know a place that has some.” She pointed to the map that had been tacked to the far wall. “Blade’s End has some. They’re on the border of dragon country. They’re probably swimming in the stuff.” Buffy smiled at me, and as she did, I realized she was right. Maybe we could just trade for some Etheric Flame. “You’ve got a mountain of Dark Blood that’s waiting to be processed, and a smith who can make Dark Blood infused armor and weapons. Pretty sure you can think of something they’d want.”
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 19
