[- 565 HP]
“What? Why?” Balderdash13 says with dismay. “That’s the one. That’s the Scorpio door.”
She hesitates a moment, waiting for the fire to burn out, then rushes over to the door.
“I’m sure this is right. This is the symbol for Scorpio.”
She almost sounds like she's talking to herself. I don't have any way to help her. I'm not even sure I know what my astrological sign is, let alone its element or any of the other signs.
"Maybe it's not one of the fire signs," Erinocalypse suggests gently. "Do you want to go through them again?"
Balderdash13 nods, counting them off on her fingers, marking every fourth sign as a fire element. "Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo ..." She trails off, scrunching up her face in the effort to remember.
Suddenly she turns abruptly and examines the carving on the next door over.
“Oh.”
“Oh?” Erinocalypse echoes.
“It should have been Sagittarius. Not Scorpio.”
“Duh, I was going to say that,” Callidus teases.
She pushes his shoulder and smiles as she walks passed. “This one.” She thumps on the steel twice with her fist, all confidence now.
As the group settles in behind the protective spell for what I hope is the last time, I focus my efforts and aim at the lever connected to the Sagittarius door.
It's strange, this having to rely completely on Balderdash13. And I mean completely. Not only would I never recognize these symbols as astrological, I don't think I even knew the signs were connected to elements. If I were going through this on my own I would have literally just opened door after random door until one opened, hoping I didn't die first.
“Last time,” I say as I pull back the bow string.
The arrow hits its mark, pushing the lever back then falling onto the nitroglycerin and setting off the explosion.
[- 570 HP]
Attention: You have unlocked Active Skill: Archery Level 8
Description: Increase chance of hitting target +15%; Increase damage +3
Reward +240 XP
Even with my eyes closed against the explosion, I see these game messages. And when I open my eyes I see that Balderdash13 was right. The third door is open.
"Nice work," SteelFeather says.
"So, now we have to split up?" Callidus asks. "Do we, uh, pick teams or rock paper scissors or something?"
"Pick teams?" TexBadass says. "Come on, boy. This isn't high school kick ball. Two to a doorway. Just go for it."
I wonder if TexBadass realizes Callidus is actually in high school IRL. Funnily enough, that comment sends Callidus power walking straight toward the open doorway closest to TexBadass and the older man chuckles to himself. I watch the others maneuver around each other and I find myself standing in a doorway with Balderdash13.
Erinocalypse, paired with SteelFeather, takes a look at the groupings and nods. “Okay good. At least one healing spell caster in each pair. Everyone keep your private message on. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Callidus stops her before she disappears down the hallway.
“Erin, wait! Can you, um …” He looks embarrassed to be asking. “Could you light one of the torches for us?”
From where she stands, she closes on eye to aim and casts, lighting the hallway behind the rogue. With a swift pivot she turns and does the same in the hallway I'm about to walk into.
"Thank you," Balderdash13 says sweetly.
"See you all on the other side," I call.
Since Balderdash13 is used to tanking, I carry the torch, high above my head to spread the light as far as possible and minimize the shadows. As we pass new unlit torches, every ten feet or so, I light them, which, while being somewhat comforting in the abstract, serves mostly to cast more shadows and emphasize the darkness ahead of us.
“Remember,” I whisper. “Look for clues or treasure or some indication of why we had to split up.”
She nods, keeping her axe up and her attention straight ahead.
I have this strangely intense desire to make small talk with her. The last time we were alone was during the Challenge when she mentioned taking down Jargonaut.
"Hey, you think Jason wishes he was still playing?"
She snorts a laugh. “Jargonaut? Please. We're deep underground, totally isolated and no one has any idea we're here. The only reason he plays is for the fame and the accolades and the YouTube fans. He has exactly what he wants."
"Yeah, I guess it worked out for the best that he ended up winning."
"You would have been terrible in interviews."
"Hey!" I laugh.
She peeks back at me over her shoulder with a smile. "Don't deny it."
My laughter is cut short when I catch sight of movement just in front of her. "What is that?" I drop my voice to a whisper. I hold the torch high above my head as we pause to take stock of what we're walking in to.
I can't comprehend what my eyes are seeing. It looks like the shadows are seeping out of the walls and congregating on the tunnel floor in front of us.
“Get behind me,” Balderdash13 says, on the defensive.
"But, what is it?" I repeat. "I don't have any weapons that can fight a shadow creature." I hope the panic isn't too apparent in my voice. My mind is whirling, trying to come up with a solution.
"It's not ... I'm not sure," she says, backing into me.
As she moves back from the dark, undulating mass, a narrow thread follows her. Instead of the unbroken, smoky shadow I expect, the trail is broken and peppers the floor irregularly. I take my eyes off the bulk of the creature and bring the torch down to more closely examine what is coming after us.
"Is that … ? It's ants. Right? I think those are ants ..."
Balderdash13 kicks at a group of them with her boot. Some are smashed, some disperse, but others latch on, crawling swiftly up her leg.
"Ouch! Damn. Not just ants. Fire ants!"
Name: Fire Ants
Level: 26
Description: Though they are but little, they are fierce.
Just as we identify them, the flowing mass in the center of the tunnel begins to change its shape, looking nothing like the ants I expect.
"What is it doing?" I try to angle the light from the torch better.
"It? You mean they?"
As she says that, I realize she must be technically correct, but the mass of Fire Ants move as one creature. Faster than I would have thought possible, they pile on top of one another, climbing up up up, crafting an enemy together more dangerous than any number of the Fire Ants could be singly.
Towering over us, nearly reaching the ceiling, stands a faceless knight, made completely of millions of individual Fire Ants. Its head, each limb, every piece of suggested armor, even the enormous mace it holds, is a moving, dangerous colony of Fire Ants.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Balderdash13 stands close to me, speaking under her breath.
"So, I'm guessing your bow and arrows aren't going to do us much good here, huh?"
"Um ... No. Probably not."
"So, you just want to stay back and heal me while I smash all these things?"
“What? No.” I look at her, surprised. “I’m not helpless.”
She shrugs. “Okay, but I have the blunt force weapon.”
Blunt force. That reminds me. I stow my bow and instead equip the Club I had crafted for myself at the beginning of the Camlan Challenge. I almost wish I hadn’t sold all my extras. I could look pretty badass with a Club in each hand, smashing these things. It would certainly be more useful against a mass of Fire Ants than her axe.
“Hey, nice,” she says, giving me an approving grin. “You’re not helpless.”
“But, um. I’m still not armored or strength-heavy as you are.”
"Don't worry, Asher. I got this." She pats my arm, grips the hilt of her axe with both hands and steps up to face the faceless knight.
There's a tense moment, waiting to see who
makes the first move. Then, faster than I could have imagined, Balderdash13 swings up hard, severing the knight's arm from the rest of the body.
Except ... within seconds, the colony of Fire Ants adjusts and moves and reforms both its arm and its weapon. More insects stream into the figure, bulking it up, reinforcing the structure.
“Hm,” Balderdash13 says, almost to herself.
I snort, trying to hold back my laughter, but give in almost immediately, flat out guffawing at her. In spite of the danger, in spite of the tenseness of the moment, in spite of the fact that if we can’t fight our way through this I’m not sure how to move forward … The whole situation is ridiculous and hilarious.
“Shut up,” she says, also laughing. “You’re not helping.”
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're right." I get myself under control and adjust my grip on the Club. "But, um, really, though. How is this going to work?"
"Well." She doesn't take her eyes off the enemy and again swings her axe at it, but this time her attack comes from the side and she follows through all the way to the tunnel wall, when she pulls the blade away, I notice the faintest dark spots on the wall. "That yielded a whole 12 XP, so I guess if we can't think of any other solution just taking the time to smash each individual ant will have to do.”
“Crap. There's got to be a faster way."
"Yeah, well." She swings again, this time slicing through one of the legs and straight down to the floor. "You let me know if you think of something." She shrugs.
Okay then. Here we go. I’m a bit hampered holding the torch, but I should be able to swing the Club hard enough to kill some ants. I mean, they’re just ants. Inconvenient and there’s a lot of them, but still. They’re totally manageable insects.
I watch Balderdash13 for a moment, to get a sense of her rhythm. This tunnel is narrow and it would be too easy to get into each other’s way. I move to her left side. The torch is in my left hand and the last thing I want to do is accidentally burn her while I’m busy paying attention to the Club in my right hand.
“Stop fussing and start hitting,” she scolds me over her shoulder.
As she steps back, I step forward throwing my weight into the swing taking out the knight’s shoulder on my way to smash these ants against the wall.
[+ 12 XP]
[+ 13 XP]
[+ 10 XP]
[+ 12 XP]
[- 13 HP]
[- 11 HP]
[- 15 HP]
Whoa whoa whoa. Damn it!
Yes, I was able to crush some of the Fire Ants, but even more of them latch onto the club and scurry up my arm. Feels like there might even be a couple crawling under my bracers.
[- 12 HP]
[- 13 HP]
“Ow!”
“Hurts, huh?” Balderdash13 says with a grin. “This is gonna be a war of attrition. Keep moving.”
She swings again, then steps back to give me a shot. I get the minuscule XP bump, coupled with the minuscule health drain. As long as we don’t let them overpower us, the damage is manageable. We fall into a rhythm, her hitting then me, her, me, her, me. I can’t tell if we’re making any progress. The mass of Fire Ants before us seems completely undiminished. Every once in a while our rhythm is interrupted when the ‘knight’ attempts its own attack, but for the most part we’re able to dodge the bulk of it.
“I still feel like there’s got to be a better way,” I say, watching Balderdash13 take off the ‘head’ of our opponent, for the few seconds before the ants reform.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but this is all I've got, Asher. Brute force and a few healing spells. It's all you if you want to do this a different way."
As she steps back to give me room to attack, I decide to try something different. Instead of swinging with the Club in my right hand, I swing at the Fire Ant colony with the flaming torch in my left hand. If this is like real life, fire should make the insects scatter and maybe I can just wave them off as we pass.
"Damn it!" I yell when I see the Fire Ants' reaction.
Instead of dispersing, the tiny creatures latch on, literally clinging to the torch and moving through the fire towards me. Not a single one of them is destroyed. I gain not a single point of XP and instead have to bat away tiny, attacking creatures that are literally on fire. This is not like real life. This is a dungeon in a video game and we are battling fire elemental creatures. Why would they be in danger from fire?
Balderdash13 pauses in her own attack to laugh, doubling over and wiping away tears. I suppose I must look ridiculous, dancing around, trying to hit at the insects covering me.
"So ... That worked out," she says, again stepping forward to continue her own methodical attack.
"Yeah, okay, maybe that wasn't my best idea. I still think there must be a better way to do this."
“You might have mentioned that.” She shrugs. "Keep trying. I'm sure this will take a while either way."
Her smirk annoys me. As if I’m being ridiculous. As if I’m being a petulant child who doesn’t want to do the work and she is humoring me.
"I can do it," I insist. I realize too late that doesn't exactly help my looking like a child.
She laughs again and continues her methodical assault.
I review my inventory. Health potions, some food, older armor that I will eventually sell. Those weird stones I keep picking up. I pull out the Stone of Shrouding and hold it in my palm, willing it to show me what I'm supposed to do with it. But nothing comes.
So, now I come full circle back to my weapons. My Goblin Dagger, my Club and my bow and arrow. Well might as well see what my bow can do.
To free up both of my hands, I have to place the torch on the ground.
"Hey, what the—?" Balderdash13 protests as the shadows grow longer and deeper. She glances over her shoulder at me. "What? Are you just giving up?"
I step back a few feet, equip my Bow of Elements and nock an arrow, shaking my head.
"Trying something else. Give me a little space?"
She steps aside with a mock bow. There's only a short moment before the Fire Ant-knight strikes again. I quickly call on an Earth arrow and fire it at the torso of the ant body in front of me.
[+ 12 XP]
[+ 11 XP]
[+ 12 XP]
[+ 14 XP]
…
Well, that wasn't terrible. Just as much damage as the club but minus the things crawling up my arm to eat me alive. The problem, of course, is that it’ll take approximately millions of arrows before I can even get close to killing the millions of Fire Ants.
"Nice one," Balderdash13 says encouragingly, stepping in to take another swing.
I’ve got one option left. At the very least it can’t be any worse. Maybe it will be better. I ready a Water arrow, stepping into the gap as Balderdash13 steps back. This time I aim for the knight’s left knee, hoping to incapacitate it for at least a short time.
I fire quickly, stepping back to make room for my partner.
[+ 11 XP]
[+ 11 XP]
[+ 13 XP]
…
The list of XP numbers is two to three times as long this time.
“Oh, hell yes,” I whisper, watching the train of insects struggle under the deluge.
There’s not a ton of water expelled with one of those arrows, but there’s enough. Enough to create a little rivulet of water, inching toward us over the packed dirt floor, carrying even more Fire Ants toward us.
“Wait.”
When Balderdash13 looks at me, confused, I point to her feet, where she can end even more Fire Ants before they get a chance to attack us. The new boots she looted from the Blood Worm are heavy, sturdy, and I’m sure she’s already crushed dozens of ants without realizing it.
She laughs. “Okay, don’t laugh at me.” She gleefully jumps up with both feet, landing solidly on the stream of Fire Ants swirling down the path toward us.
I laugh too; this could actually be fun. I aim again at the bottom of the knight and fire off thr
ee Water arrows in quick succession. The small puddle of water quickly fills with drowning Fire Ants that Balderdash stomps on again and again. She alternates with jumping with both feet.
“Oh hey, watch this!” Balderdash13 shows off a quick tap step, smashing ants with every step. She doubles over in laughter. “I don’t even know why I still remember that.”
I grin, watching her have so much fun. It only takes a few more Water arrows to completely demolish the knight, and between the two of us we finally smash the last of the Fire Ants.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Balderdash13 and I exchange cautions looks and I hesitate before saying anything, not quite daring to believe that we’ve managed to take out very last Fire Ant.
”Ok, I guess that could have been worse," I say cautiously.
"I swear to god, if there's another colony of Fire Ants in here I'm going to cry."
Looting their little carcasses, we each get a handful of gold. I had been hoping for some more armor soon. My current inventory is not terrible but I'm glad we're reaching the end of this dungeon. We're likely nearing the eighteen-hour mark of being in this virtual reality and without a place in the game to 'rest,' Toterra will force us to log out, even if we haven't completed our objective.
"Let's keep moving."
I pick the torch up off the floor. All the water from my arrows had caught up with it and put out the flame, but I jog a bit back up the tunnel and am able to relight it with one of the torches we already passed. In only a minute or two, we're both ready to press on.
Since I can't shoot the bow and hold up the torch at the same time, I equip my Goblin Dagger. Really, just to have a weapon in my hand. Just in case. If we come across another colony of Fire Ants it's not going to do us any good.
The tunnel continues weaving to the right and left. Occasionally we come across the same floor plates Callidus sniffed out for us earlier. Thank goodness for that kid. I’m not sure I would have known what to look out for if he hadn’t already pointed them out.
It’s in this careful scrutiny of the floor that Balderdash13 notices the clue I had partway been expecting. At first, with the dirt packed into the crevices and with elaborate formation, I think it might just be a decorative element. But when has this dungeon offered us any other decorative element? Why would it have just appeared now in the tunnel after so much nothing? The decoration forms a border along the wall at the very bottom, like where a baseboard would be.
Depths of Camlan Page 16
