The Ice Lands

by William Dickey

  ‘Not sure,’ Mai answered without me needing to relay the question. ‘They’re marching in single file. It hides their numbers since I can’t see them all from this viewpoint.’

  “I can’t tell. We just need to be ready,” I told everyone.

  Bearballs shifted. As far north as we were, his polar bearform couldn’t withstand this cold for long, but it should be okay for a single battle. Izusa and Bullseye kept to being human, they’d freeze to death in moments if they shifted. Titania, Rose, and Zelus had weapons and sigil focusing equipment drawn in preparation.

  “Shapeshift.” Although I’d lose my cold immunity, my murlimp form would perfectly match the enemy.

  My heart burned in my chest and I exhaled a plume of smoke as I began to grow larger. I wasn’t sure if my clothes ripped apart or burned first, but they quickly gave way.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Mai yelled, so loudly it caused me to jump.

  †Shapeshift† failed. Special condition †Shifting Sickness† applied.

  All stats -5%, †Shapeshift† disabled

  Time remaining: 5 mins

  “What did you do that for?” I cried as my body returned to normal. My stomach groaned its displeasure at having a whirlpool added to its contents. I felt like puking.

  ‘You can’t fight in your murlimp form here.’ Mai looked down. I followed her gaze to my feet.

  I was standing in a crater of ice water several inches deep. In just a few seconds, with just a partial transformation, my murlimp form had significantly changed the environment. I started to think about whether that could be a good thing when the answer came to me, literally.

  My foot slipped on the wet ice and I barely caught myself before my head slammed against the ground. I couldn’t fight here as a murlimp. I’d melt the ice wherever I stepped and would be lucky if I didn’t spend the entire battle on my backside.

  “At least I could use this against the enemy,” I said, trying to find the bright side of my disappointing revelation. Too bad I was carrying a party pooper on board.

  ‘I’m afraid that’s wrong. Those murlimps already have a way around that problem,’ said Mai.

  I looked towards the murlimp charge. They were no longer specks but Mai still zoomed in for me to see clearly. I could see the murlimps’ entire bodies. They’d crossed the horizon making them less than three miles away. All the murlimps wore a set of black armor, which included boots that insulated their feet from the ice. I wouldn’t be able to use slipperiness to my advantage. At least not as things stood.

  “Inventory,” I said as I separated from the group and ran north towards the murlimps.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” said Rose. She briefly looked at me leaving before turning away, not wanting to see.

  “Giving us a bit of protection. If the enemy murlimps don’t generate the water, I will,” I explained as I flipped through my massive inventory, found the right icon, and tapped it.

  A cascade of lukewarm water dripped down from the inventory screen and onto the ice plain. The water spread in a thin layer a couple hundred yards around me, almost reaching back to my companions, before I shut it off. The water wouldn’t last long, but it didn’t need to. I started to feel the tremble of footsteps and returned to my companions, taking care not to fall into my own trap.

  “So, what do you think?” I asked everyone when I got back. None of them seemed to pay attention. All were still looking towards the enemy. All were completely ready to fight and I figured I’d better do the same.

  I scrolled through my inventory and drew my gravity spear before turning to face the enemy. They’d be on us in a minute.

  “Ahh, shouldn’t you get ready,” said Rose, still focused on the approaching murlimps.

  “I am ready.” I shook my head and gritted my teeth. This was life or death, though not for me. I had to stop playing around and get serious.

  ‘Ready are you?’ Mai queried. ‘That’s quite a bold statement. I’m not even sure exactly what to call it. Going Super-Commando?’

  It was only then that I noticed I wasn’t wearing any clothes. I know that may seem impossible that I wouldn’t realize but I had a lot on my plate and with Low Temperature Immunity I didn’t feel the sting of the cold. My clothes had burned or burst off during my interrupted transformation. I didn’t remember taking a new set out from my inventory and putting them on, so I must not have. But for some reason, I could have sworn I saw myself wearing clothes a few seconds before while I was setting up the water trap.

  “Did you do this?” I asked Mai.

  ‘Why do I get blamed for everything? Clearly you were the one to destroy your clothes,’ said Mai.

  “You… you could have warned me sooner,” I huffed. I knew I couldn’t blame Mai for the initial act, so I switched to an accusation where I stood a chance.

  ‘And why would I ever do that?’ said Mai coyly. ‘Besides if I told you sooner than you wouldn’t have had time to set up that trap. You didn’t have enough time to both set up the trap and change. Stop that, didn’t I just say you didn’t have time for both,’ said Mai as I searched through my inventory screen for the right clothes. I carried backup sets for everyone so it took a while to find the right one.

  Mai spoke just as I had found it. I looked up. The murlimps were only a few hundred yards away. They’d be on us in around 30 seconds. I quickly grabbed the icons that were my backup clothes and swiped them over to my equipment screen. Armor instantly appeared around me with everything tightened and properly place.

  “See, that didn’t take long,” I told Mai.

  ‘Can’t blame a girl for trying,’ she replied.

  I closed the screen and levied my gravity spear. I could determine the enemy numbers: seven giant mutated murlimps adorned in black armor plates placed strategically on their feet to insulate them from the ice and over various joints, knees, elbows, and shoulders, to boost defense at the weakest points of their already robust hides. None of the murlimps carried weapons, but they didn’t need to. Their claws and fists were more than enough to deal with the likes of us.

  In addition to the seven murlimps, there was an eighth daemon riding behind on a sled hauled by two of the murlimps. Unlike the others, the eighth was a fire haired silver skinned Lilith, although I didn’t know that at the time. To me it just looked like any other succubus, not that I’d seen any others.

  Before this point, I had only vague suspicions brought about by a number of coincidences, Lilith wanting to kidnap and take me somewhere far to the north, the beastmen stories of monsters operating in the ancient Traveler base, and the random daemon I had killed and made into my beastform, but at this moment I was sure. The daemons were up to something huge and I needed to do everything in my power to stop it.

  The murlimps charged straight at us, not even bothering to slow down as they neared. I couldn’t blame them for it. I knew that even in their semi-protective armor, they had to be freezing and must have wanted to end this as quickly as possible.

  Well, it didn’t matter whether they wanted to slow down or not, I’d make them do it.

  It was like the group crashed straight into an invisible, immovable hurdle. The instant the first murlimp stomped onto the wet ice it slipped, the murlimps were built for power and stamina not finesse. It tumbled face first into the ground, caught so off guard that it didn’t even raise its arms in defense. I’m not sure it was because they too hit the wet ice patch or because they tripped over the first murlimp’s fallen body, but pretty soon all seven murlimps were crashing into each other like a group of semi-trucks that had been too close when one had an accident.

  After the pileup, the sled continued until it clanged off one of the fallen murlimps and skidded away. The succubus riding gave us a mean look, but she otherwise didn’t act. She just kept her arms crossed and watched like it was too dirty to involve herself with us.

  Pummeled by collisions with the murlimps behind it, the first murlimp was pushed across
the wet section of ice until it came straight to us.

  “Let’s do this,” said Zelus, slinging a fireball straight at the prone first murlimp.

  “Don’t bother using fire magic. They are extremely resistant to it, use ice instead,” I advised Zelus.

  “But I don’t know any ice magic,” said Zelus as Rose did just that, she created a large ice spike high in the air and let it fall on the murlimp.

  “Then use something, anything else,” I said.

  The ice spike crashed against the first murlimp but despite the sharpness and large force of the falling weight, the murlimp’s hide was too strong and withstood it. Still, the ice spike shattered in the collision and half-buried the murlimp in a mound of ice. The murlimp roared in pain as the cold ice covered its entire body. A mass of steam rose from it as the ice burned off, but contrary to what you’d think, steam means less ice, it actually made matters worse. The melted yet still ice cold water could sink in deeper and shaped itself to the murlimp’s body before re-hardening into a single block. This block of ice kept the murlimp restrained, at least for a moment.

  I looked to the other murlimps. They were all still struggling to get back to their feet. The wet ice was hard for the clumsy daemons to get traction on and to make matters worse, only certain pieces of the murlimps were armored. Since they fell over, their skin directly contacted the ice in several places. This caused more ice to melt and made what remained even wetter and more slippery. The other murlimps were slow to resume their attack. I had some time.

  I charged the first murlimp, the one Rose had entrapped in a block of ice. It remained motionless as I climbed on top of its chest and stood over its head.

  I cranked up my gravity spear to its maximum setting. In this mode, I could barely lift the spear much less properly wield it, but that was okay with my current target’s state I didn’t need to swing it around. All I did was let go.

  The spear’s weight did all the work, bringing the spear straight down. The murlimp was trapped in ice so it couldn’t move out of the way as the spear pierced its eye and dug down deeply.

  The murlimp roared in pain, its impending death must have released a spike of adrenaline, or the daemon equivalent because its muscles surged in their struggle and I heard large cracks as the ice gave way.

  I couldn’t waste this opportunity. I grabbed hold of the end of the spear and leaned on it letting my weight aid in driving the spear deeper until it reached the murlimp’s brain.

  You gained 9947 EXP

  You gained a level.

  I jumped off the dead murlimp and returned to the safety of the group.

  “We cannot let them regroup. We hit them now and take out one at a time,” Izusa ordered. The numbers were roughly even but we didn’t stand a chance against the murlimps one on one. Our only chance was to overwhelm them one at a time. “That one.”

  Izusa pointed at the nearest murlimp who was already upright and in a kneeling position, only a single motion from returning to its feet. There were others who were in a worse state in terms of ability to defend itself, but this murlimp was close and relatively separated from the rest of its kind.

  We all ganged up on the murlimp. Rose had drawn a lot of power to conjure up that giant ice spike, so she acted a bit more restrained and only froze the daemon’s kneepad to the ground, stopping it from rising to its feet. Bullseye jumped high and made a large slash across the murlimp’s chest with his axe while Titania circled around and tried to take off the murlimp’s tail near its base. Unfortunately, neither strike made more than a shallow mark that barely drew blood.

  Izusa and Zelus made similar attempts with their own abilities, Izusa with her blade and Zelus with a lightning strike, but both similarly failed to deal much damage. By the time it was my turn to give it a shot, three of the murlimp’s companions had righted themselves and came at us.

  “One of you distract each of them while the rest finish this one,” Izusa ordered.

  I broke off to contend with one of the three murlimps. Zelus did the same and used a couple of his illusions to trick the other two into attacking each other. I didn’t catch most of the next part, I was too busy handling my own murlimp, but somehow Bearballs jumped in to ram one of the two hallucinating murlimps only to be sent flying. Unfortunately, Bearballs crashed into Zelus, breaking his concentration.

  This allowed the two murlimps to return to their initial intention and aide their captured and endangered companion who was faring surprisingly well under the coordinated efforts of Izusa and the rest. They simply couldn’t pierce the murlimp’s thick hide.

  Since two were coming to help, it looked like their chances of taking one out ahead of time was slipping. This was exacerbated by the fact that all the other murlimps had recovered and were carefully lumbering over the wet ice to join in.

  We were falling apart. I could already tell this battle was lost. Six giant daemons engineered for battle versus seven humans and beastman, we never stood a chance. A wave of despair came over me as I continued to struggle against my single murlimp. I pushed back against that dark mood the only way I could, by telling myself that if this was to be the end, I might as well go all out.

  “Inventory,” I summoned the blue panel as I put some distance between the murlimp and myself. The murlimp thought I was trying to run away and moved to pursue me, but I had no intention of running. I turned and charged straight at the murlimp, or more accurately, the murlimp’s left leg. As I went, I tapped both the rocket button on the gravity spear to boost my speed and a random mess of icons on the inventory screen.

  When I release stuff from my inventory, it takes on the same conditions as the inventory screen. This includes both position and, more importantly in this case, velocity.

  Dozens of random items popped out of the inventory screen in accordance with the icons I’d selected. The items varied from mounds of ores I’d collected for future forging to precious food packs the Doragans prepared for our long journey. Regrettably, it also included the big pot of Albert’s meat stew I’d been saving for the victory feast, but in retrospect, I suppose it went to a good cause.

  As I blew past the murlimp with my rocket-powered spear, all the items, many of which were quite heavy, smashed into its legs knocking them out from under him. I released the fire button and turned the dial of the gravity spear to its lowest setting. I held onto the spear with one hand and scrolled through the inventory as I jumped high into the air.

  I was about forty feet up when I found what I was looking for. I turned off the gravity spear, threw it back into my inventory, and selected a different icon. One of the massive iron halberds meant to be wielded by my murlimp form appeared below me. I grabbed onto its handle out of a combination of instinct and a deep-seated desire to feel like I was doing the deed myself even though there wasn’t much I could do.

  Gravity took over. Since I’d already caused the murlimp to fall over, it wasn’t going anywhere. I rode the halberd down. It smacked the murlimp right in the back of its head.

  You gained 8732 EXP

  I have to hand it to the augmented murlimps. They were tough bastards. Even after getting hit by half a ton falling forty feet, barely a mark was left on the outside of the murlimp’s body. I figure that even though the halberd hadn’t crushed the murlimp’s skull, a good portion of the impact had still transferred through, causing the murlimp’s brain to be splattered against the insides of its casing.

  †Sense Jeopardy†

  ‘Always mind your surroundings,’ Mai sighed. Both warnings came too late to do anything, but I had been expecting what came next. I heard a large crack.

  A lot of energy went into my strike and energy doesn’t just disappear. Some went into smashing the murlimp’s skull, some went into knocking the murlimp over, some even went into the satisfying boom of the halberd’s impact, but all those things only made up a small portion. The rest of the energy was transmitted through the murlimp’s solid frame and into the ice below. A patch of ice ten yar
ds across shattered and both the murlimp and I plunged into the icy waters below.

  I let go of the halberd, fearful that it would drag me down, but it didn’t matter. As the giant murlimp below me sank, I was caught in its wake and dragged down with it. I swam back up to the surface as soon as I could, but I was too late. The water had already refrozen.

  I pounded on the ice, first with my fist than with a dagger from my inventory, but it didn’t work. With each passing second, the ice got thicker and my chances of freeing myself narrowed.

  Strangely enough I still felt fine at this point, Low Temperature Immunity protected me from the frigid waters, or at least from its temperature effects, I could still drown. I knew how I’d go if I didn’t find a way out.

  I swam a dozen feet over and found a small air pocket between the ice and water. It wasn’t enough to stick my whole head out, but I got a free breath or two. I had some time but needed to find a way out of my situation.

  I briefly imagined swimming under the ice from one air bubble to the next until I reached the end, but that would take days and I’d probably pass out from exhaustion and drown before then. My only real chance was to break through the ice and clearly the best place to do that was where I had first broken through before the ice there regained its full thickness.

  “Shapeshift,” I gurgled. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t clear. Intention was all that mattered to the interface and the skill triggered. After a moment of excruciating pain, my transformation finished.

  You have transformed into your murlimp form. (†Murlimp Physique Lvl. 2†)

  Strength +66

  Defense +55

  Endurance +33

  Vitality +55

  Agility +11

  Dexterity -17

  †Low Temperature Immunity† is temporarily disabled

  Dexterity is reduced by 50%

  Magic is set to 0