by Adam Drake
They moved into the trees and kept going, the swarm in pursuit. Bugs scurried up trees to launch themselves at them or plowed through bushes without slowing down.
I'm dead, Rob's mind screamed at him. I'm going to be eaten alive by a bunch of fricken bugs. A glance back at Stenn told him they both might be doomed. The big man was struggling to keep from being overwhelmed.
Even though the swarm was thinning a little, many still pursued them.
Suddenly, ahead of him, a man launched out of the vegetation and ran past Rob.
Rob blinked in surprise as the man went straight for the swarm. It took his tired brain half-a-second to realize he recognized who it was.
Fenton.
The young man ran up to the swarm that threatened to engulf Stenn. In his hands was a long staff, the same one he wielded when Rob first met him.
With a wide sweeping arc of the staff, Fenton smacked back a dozen of the bugs. Then he skillfully swung the staff over his head and smacked it hard to the ground.
An explosion of air hit the bugs, sending scores backwards.
Stenn cheered. “Well done! Now let's go!”
The three men turned and ran into the trees for all their worth.
Rob noted that the other two kept themselves between him and any potential bug attack and felt a mix of relief and embarrassment. But he didn't let it take away from what just happened. He was alive.
Eventually, the pursuing bugs petered out and turned back much to Rob's relief.
“Well, done, kid!” Stenn said, smacking Fenton on the back. “You came at just the right time.”
“I thought I could be useful,” Fenton said, with a look to Rob.
Rob stumbled beside him and nodded. “You were more than useful. You might have saved our lives.”
“Might have?” Stenn said, jogging behind them and watching the trees for bugs. “He damn well did. Was that Knock Back you used?”
“Yeah, and Arc of Damage, too,” Fenton said with a smile, hefting his staff. He genuinely looked bashful from the praise.
They came to the little clearing with the Hazziq-berg. The little goblin was still entombed, but none the worse for wear. Tiny droplets of water dribbled down the sides of ice.
When Fenton gave Hazziq a confused look, Rob shrugged. “Long story.”
“We'll be safe here,” Stenn said. “They only go so far from that plant-thing before returning to it.”
“It's called a Death Flower,” Rob said. “The name seems appropriate.”
Stenn snorted. “Whatever its called, we need to avoid it completely next time. You can see why. If it takes any damage it shoots out a hundred more of those bugs.”
“You've been killing those things for days?” Rob said, incredulous. “And still no sign of the statuette?”
“Yes to both questions,” Stenn said, sitting on the fallen tree.
“You really want that statuette,” Rob said, amazed at the man's dedication. Even if it smacked a little of insanity.
“I really want that magic pony!” Stenn said with a laugh. He turned to Fenton who sagged against a tree. “That is a fine weapon you have there, kid. I'm partial to blunt weapons myself. What kind is it?”
“Quarterstaff,” Fenton said. “My father gave it to my on my sixteenth birthday. Builders need protection when traveling between jobs. Sometimes at job sites, too. He said I was ready for it.”
Rob was about to ask a question when Stenn talked over him. “A builder, huh? What's a builder doing out here in the middle of the forest? On the way to a work site?”
Fenton glanced at Rob, then lowered his eyes. “I'm helping to build Lord Robert's castle with my father and brother.”
“Lord Robert!” Stenn said with a laugh. “Is that what you make everyone call you, new guy? Sounds a little pretentious to me.”
Rob ignored him. To Fenton he said, “Did your father send you after me?”
“No.”
“Wait. He doesn't know you left?”
Fenton shrugged. “If he didn't before, he does now. I snuck away during lunch break while he was napping.”
Rob rolled his eyes. Oh, boy. “This isn't good, Fenton. Your father is going to be angry.” And probably more at me than you, he thought.
“He knows I don't want to be a builder anymore. I want to be an adventurer,” Fenton held Rob's stare. “Like you.”
Stenn said, “With abilities like those, I can see why. That was one amazing combination you pulled off. Must suck your Energy like a tavern whore on a pay day.”
“I can manage it,” Fenton said. “I've been practicing in the forest so no one can see.”
Rob held up his hands and the others went quiet. “Fenton, your father must be deathly worried for you. I need to take you back.” I don't want your death on my hands, was what he really wanted to say.
“Whoa, now,” Stenn said. “He can be useful to the quest.”
“I am useful!” Fenton said. “And I'm not going back. I'm going to help you.”
Rob shook his head. “I don't want to see you get hurt.”
“I'll just heal myself,” Fenton threw back. “Besides, this is what I want.”
“I want you, too, kid,” Stenn said.
Rob turned to Stenn. “This has nothing to do with you. Stay out of it.”
Stenn backed down, grumbling. “Got plenty to do with me if he can help finish my quest.”
Rob said, “Fenton, we're going to go back to the castle. Now.” He used his best 'dad' voice he could muster. It had been years since he'd wielded its power on Anika, when she was younger, but it was quite effective.
Fenton arched a defiant brow at Rob. “No, I'm not. You can go back if you want, but I'm staying here to help this man if you're not going to.”
“The name's Stenn,” Stenn said.
“Fenton,” Fenton said. “Please to meet you.”
“No, the pleasure is all mine!” Stenn said. “With those skills-.”
“Enough!” Rob shouted and the others fell silent again. His temper was threatening to surface. “Fenton, I am ordering you to come back with me.”
Fenton's other brow arched. “Ordering me?”
“Yes.”
“You can't order me, you're not my father!”
Stenn chuckled and Rob ignored him. “Then I command it. As king.” As soon as he said the words he realized how foolish they sounded.
Fenton crossed his arms, cradling the quarterstaff between them. “You can't command me either. You're not my king. In fact, I don't have a king and if I did, he'd want me to follow my dream and be an adventurer!”
Rob frowned at the immature outburst. But the kid did have a point. He wasn't his father or his king. And he couldn't make him do anything. It was a no win situation. His only hope was to finish Stenn's quest and use that as a reason to return home.
Both Stenn and Fenton watched him expectantly.
With a sigh, Rob said, “Okay fine.”
Stenn laughed and Fenton grinned.
Rob held up a finger. “But on one condition. When we finish here you go back. Agreed?”
Fenton's expression faltered, but must have realized he couldn't push his luck any further. Besides, he was getting what he wanted. “Yes, agreed.”
Rob and Fenton shook hands.
Stenn said, “By the Many Hells, that was painful to watch. Now we can get down to business.”
“Not yet,” Rob said. “We're going to do things a little differently this time.”
“How differently?” Stenn said, suspicious.
Rob grinned, despite himself. “I have a plan.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Are you sure this will work?” Stenn said.
“Nope, not at all,” Rob said as the three walked back through the forest to the cave. “But it sounds good.”
Stenn nodded. Even carrying the heavy warhammer over his shoulder, his strides were long. “I'll admit, I thought of doing it before, but could never get close enough. And I got caught
up in the entire experience points orgy I've been enjoying to really give it a go. Now I'll find out.”
Both Rob and Stenn had cast their Damage Shield auras well before heading out, and timed it so when they arrived, their cooldown timers would be close to popping. But Fenton didn't have such a luxury.
“So you stay by me at all times, right?” Rob said.
“Yes. I said I understood before,” the young man said. “I really don't need these. I can move faster without them.” Rob had given him his helmet and leather jerkin since all the kid wore were simple clothes.
“You need them. I got my buckler and aura. This evens it out a little.” Rob frowned. Fenton was the lowest level out of of the three of them and lacked combat experience. He intended on keeping Fenton as close as possible until the right moment. The young man was crucial to his plan.
Just don't die, kid, he thought. Despite his doubts, both Fenton and Stenn were right. The young man could make up his own mind. And since he couldn't get rid of him, Rob would protect him.
They moved through the forest quietly, wary of any straggler bugs. Rob hadn't seen any other animals in the area. Not even birds. The bugs must have cleaned out the fauna from this portion of the forest.
Stenn was grinning. “Ah, a party. Been a while since I'd joined one. More of a solo adventurer by nature. But when it comes to dealing with bigger encounters or crowd control, parties are the best.”
Fenton looked at Rob in confusion, and Rob shrugged. He didn't know what the big man was going on about, either.
“We should give ourselves a name!” Stenn said.
“No, we shouldn't,” Rob said.
“Oh, come on. It'll be fun. We need a name that will strike fear in the blackened souls of all the monsters in the land. Let's see. Oh, I know! Stenn's Sinister Sneaks.”
“That's awful,” Fenton said. “I'm not sinister, nor a sneak.”
“Well, it's just a flourish of words,” Stenn said. “Maybe Stenn's Sword Stabbers. Or Stenn's Swarthy Swordsmen.”
“None of us have a sword,” Rob said.
“Okay, new king, what name should we have?”
Rob thought for a moment, then said, “The Bug Bashers.”
Stenn gave Rob a bewildered expression, then burst into laughter, his guffaws echoing through the trees.
“The Bug Bashers!” Stenn said, wiping tears from his eyes. “Perfect! Bloody perfect!”
Looking ahead, Rob raised a hand and slowed. “We're here.”
The forest thinned out into the clearing where the cave was. Dozens and dozens of Shale Mites swarmed the area, still agitated. They buzzed through the air, sometimes colliding with one another. The entire place was filled with movement.
“Blast, that's a lot of the demons,” Stenn said.
“How many should there be again?” Rob said, spotting his fallen buckler nearby and grabbing it. He knew the answer having already asked before, but wanted to double check.
“About fifty, give or take. Never paused long enough to count. That's what the Flower keeps the population at. Each time I went in, it would replace the ones I killed until there was about fifty again.”
Rob looked at the clearing. There were easily a hundred or more now. Maybe two hundred. All the result of his attack on the flower; its defensive reaction. Flood the area with as many bugs as it could, then wait for the population to even out again.
And the Bug Bashers were here to even it out, and then some.
“Okay,” Rob said. “Stragglers only for as long as we can. We don't move forward until it's thinned out.” Moving into the clearing was suicide with so many bugs. There only chance was to kill as many here, before proceeding further.
As if on cue, a pair of Shale Mites scampered close to where they stood. Spotting them they darted in their direction.
The two were easily dispatched, but the commotion attracted others. Soon more bugs were drawn to them in ones and twos. All dealt without the trio breaking a sweat.
“This is easy,” Stenn said, swatting a flying bug out of the air.
“Don't jinx us,” Rob said. “This is just the start.”
“Jinx? Is that like a luck curse?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
The bugs kept coming. Ones and twos became threes and fours. Sometimes in the air, or along the ground, or sometimes both.
Mashed bug bodies and green goop started to form a wall around them. The smell was retched.
“They don't need to fight us,” Fenton said. “They can just kill us with their stench.”
“It's the smell of victory, kid!” Stenn bellowed and bashed four bugs away with a single hammer swipe.
“I think we can move forward a bit,” Rob said. The corpses were getting in their way and the ground was slick with green goop.
They slowly moved out of the trees and stood at the edge of the clearing. From here, Rob had an unobstructed view of the cave mouth. He gasped. Hundreds of bugs were jammed inside and clotted the air within. Far more than the two hundred he'd guessed.
“By my mother's beard,” Stenn said, agog. “I guess you hit that plant-thing good and hard. It's summoned every bug in the Many Hells to this spot.”
Rob hesitated. This was more than he ever anticipated.
“What should we do?” Fenton said from behind him. The young man had been doing well bashing bugs, while Rob would jump in to protect him with the buckler.
“I know we shouldn't go in there,” Rob said. “Not with so many.”
As he spoke, the bugs in the clearing kept throwing themselves at them. The trio stood their ground and fought. It was Rob's hope to slowly draw out more from the cave without bringing them all onto them.
For a good twenty minutes they fought, keeping close to each other, but never moving off their claimed ground. Soon, they each grew tired from the endless slaughter.
Fenton swung at a bug overhead, but missed. It dived at him, pincers wide, but Rob quickly Shield Bashed it away.
“What's your Energy at?” Rob said.
“Uh, twenty,” Fenton said. “I'm okay, though.”
“You won't be for long. Go ahead, I got you covered,” Rob said, putting Fenton between him and Stenn.
Grateful for the pause in fighting, Fenton fished an Energy Potion from his pocket and quaffed it. Before they'd left, Stenn had given them each two Energy Potions to help recharge them during the fight. They wouldn't have been able to attempt this, otherwise.
Stenn had made the potions while Rob watched. But Rob couldn't discern the recipe. Of course, Stenn had offered to teach him it for two hundred gold, his standard price for everything it seemed.
Regardless, Rob was grateful for the potions now.
Fenton finished drinking, and hefted his staff, striking out at a bug. As the thing exploded in a cloud of black carapace and green goo, his eyes brightened. “I leveled!” he exclaimed.
“Good, kid!” Stenn said, sweat casting a sheen over his face and neck. He kicked out at a bug. “Do your points now, while you can!”
Rob kept the younger man protected while he distributed his points. He'd never been around someone else who'd leveled before.
“Done!” Fenton said and swirled his quarterstaff like a helicopter, striking bugs.
“What did you do?” Rob asked, then winced as a pincer lanced through his right thigh. He bashed the bug away. His Damage Shield aura was now gone.
“Upped my Strength and Dexterity,” Fenton said. He suddenly swung his quarterstaff in a wide arc and three bugs exploded with the powerful blow. “And dumped all skill points into Arc of Damage!”
“You'll put it all to good use here, kid,” Stenn said.
Rob reminded himself to ask Fenton if his Arc of Damage and Knock Back were teachable. But his mind was immediately sucked back into the moment, and used Sweep on two flying bugs.
After another minute, Stenn began to lose the power in his swings. “I'm close, too. Like a tankard of ale down to its dregs.”
Rob stepped in front of him, Fenton behind. The big man quaffed an Energy potion and grinned. Then he removed another flask from a pouch and took several gulps from it.
“What the hell is that?” Rob said between swings.
Stenn gasped in satisfaction and smiled. “Whiskey! Want a snort?”
