by Macronomicon
In the center of the chamber was a crystalline heart, with black stone underneath the semi-transparent quartz. Massive crystal tubes rose up into the ceiling and floor.
Wrapped around the heart was…something that didn’t belong.
It looked like one of the lamprey-dragons that came out of the World tortoise by the thousands, except much, much, bigger and scalier looking, as though they were looking at an adult, and the others were babies.
Its jaws were clamped around the base of one of the oversized veins, seemingly content to greedily suck on the quartz. As they approached, a single orange eye as big as a melon slid open, peering at them from twenty feet above.
It watched them stop in place, but didn’t move.
“The fuck is that?” Ron muttered.
“Before we get started…Anybody wanna try to solo that thing for the Accolade?” Jeb asked out of politeness.
Nobody stepped up. Jess looked tempted, but she seemingly measured the length of her sword against the depth of the creature’s scales and thought better of it.
“Normally I’m a thrill seeker,” Bret said, waving a hand. “But that thing could use me to pick its teeth. It’s all yours.”
“Alright,” Jeb said, rolling up his sleeves. “Time to kick this thing’s ass…in a half hour or so.”
Jeb sat down cross-legged on the stone floor and opened his bag of untrapped marbles and started prepping for the fight.
It’s not a ‘fight’, it’s hunting. If the creature didn’t wanna leave its perch and come to them immediately, it only had itself to blame when Jeb used his big monkey brain to tip the odds in his favor.
He took the marbles and gave them packets of telekinetic force that would spear upward if the monster were directly above them –and Jeb wasn’t –, then a moment later, tug it back down and hold it to the ground as tightly as possible.
He mixed them up, making some into grabbers, some into blades, and other into spears. He had no idea which ones would work, if any of them. That creature’s scales looked tough.
In addition to the traps on the marbles, he put extra triggers on his own body:
1. If he was over 50% surrounded by mouth, then he would explode while forming a protective bubble.
2. If he was in a stomach of any kind, he would explode.
3. If he lost consciousness, a bail-out would occur that flung him in the general direction of the entrance.
4. With the creature’s hard scales in mind, Jeb created and bound several ‘penetrator’ fingergun shots to both index fingers. It worked by battering several dozen shots in the same spot within milliseconds of each other. Simple. They were labeled ‘Pen 1’ through ‘Pen 10’. Sadly no Pen15.
5. Jeb re-upped all of his previous triggers. His Core had grown since the first list of triggers, and they were nowhere near what he could do now.
Very carefully, Jeb pried his second cleaning wand apart and removed the Annihilation Lens, pocketing the filter.
There’s gotta be a better way of using this than just blowing it up.
The lens was tiny, and only capable of using the smallest amount of Myst before it was overloaded.
In addition, the shape of the lens was heavily concave, scattering all the Myst that came through to the four winds. It made it really hard to use it as a weapon.
Which is the point, I suppose. Wait a minute.
Jeb opened the lid on his fire-fly lantern and inspected the grain-sized three-layer lens sandwiches and compared them to the annihilation lens about as big as the tip of his pinky.
Muahahahahahah! Jeb swallowed the maniacal laughter as another genocidal idea bubbled to the surface.
“I’ve got an idea.” Jeb said, musing. “Can we sit down in the tunnel for an hour or so? We might not even need to fight this thing.”
Over the course of half an hour, Jeb performed surgery on the lantern and annihilation lens, being very careful not to get any Myst near it while he was working on it. He swapped out the Fire lens in the Fire/Fly/Control sandwich for a tiny, grain sized slice of annihilation lens carved off of the pinky-tip chunk.
It was delicate, cramp-inducing work, and the heat of the cave system made his ass swampy as all hell, but Jeb was confident it would be worth it in the end.
Jeb delicately lowered the myst lens sandwiches back into their slots and carefully closed the casing overtop them, making damn sure the tiny Myst capacitor was in exactly the right spot and nothing was out of place as he did so. If this thing blew up, he’d lose a hand…if he was lucky.
The brass lid of the lantern squeaked into place, and everything looked like it was back to normal.
“Stand back a minute,” Jeb said, reaching out and touching the handle with his least-favorite hand.
Nothing happened.
A moment later, the capacitor clicked and three beautiful black butterflies with fluorescent blue in their wings manifested inside the lantern.
Jeb carefully opened the door of the lantern and directed the butterflies out.
Responding to his desires, the beautiful creatures fluttered out into the air and hovered far away, near the ceiling.
“Public safety announcement,” Jeb said, staring at the three fluttering creatures. “Do not touch the butterflies.”
“What are they supposed to do?” Jess asked, a brow raised.
“Well, the previous ones blew themselves up and lit stuff on fire…so I assume these will…make things not exist anymore? Let’s test it.”
Jeb sent the now-six butterflies to the opposite end of the hall, instructing them to do their thing on the wall.
The creatures landed deceptively gently against the surface of the wall, then the light around them warped for a fraction of a second before they vanished, leaving a divot about the size of a golf ball in the wall.
Six golf-ball sized holes in solid stone. No muss, no fuss.
Very interesting.
“That’s it?” Ron asked, seemingly a little disappointed.
“This thing can make thousands of them,” Jeb said, holding up the lantern to show Ron the next batch had already spawned, gently fluttering their wings inside the lantern.
“Oh, shit.” Ron said, eyes widening.
Jeb tried to read the description on the lantern, but he got nothing. Maybe it hasn’t been named yet.
“Anybody wanna do the honors and name this thing?” Jeb asked. “I’m terrible with names. I keep thinking ‘death butterfly’ but it sounds like a women’s metal band.”
“Beautiful Revenge.” Jess said with a smile.
“Oh come on, that seems like it would be on the cover of a-“
Name accepted.
Beautiful Revenge (Rare)
The second original by the Human Mystic Trapsmith, Jebediah
Trapper, this adaptation of a quaint Krokker design is a testament to the malicious ingenuity of Humans, converting household objects into weapons.
The Beautiful Revenge drains 5 Nitsu of Myst every four seconds, creating three Void Butterflies under control of the user. The lantern can hold fifteen of these creatures before it stops drawing Myst.
The strength of this design is the rock-bottom Myst requirement, as well as the damage that bypasses Body and resistances. The weakness is that butterflies aren’t particularly fast, so it will struggle against speedier enemies.
“You know how you can make an I.E.D. out of fertilizer? The same concept applies.” –Jebediah Trapper
This is perfect.
“Let’s hunt.” Jeb said, directing the six butterflies up into the air.
“Alright,” Jess said, rolling up her sleeves.
“Oh, no, not right now,” Jeb said, directing the next three to join the growing swarm. “We need some time to make an entrance.”
***Lagross, the Suppressor***
The tiny creatures ducked their heads in and gazed in awe upon Lagross. They must have decided to keep their pitiful lives, because less than a minute later they scurried away.
&
nbsp; They were of no concern to Lagross. Only feeding mattered. It still remembered that distant time long ago, when its brethren charged through titan’s halls, dying in droves.
Lagross had been slippery, and clever, flying above the battle, slipping through cracks in the rock until it finally came upon the heart. After that, Lagross did what came naturally: He feasted.
That was…So many years ago. Lagross hadn’t even been particularly conscious back then. Even now, he was dominated by his base instincts: Feed, and Protect. Despite having grown in intelligence, he didn’t feel unsatisfied with his simple task.
He was doing as he was meant to do.
He would drain the Titan, keep it asleep, and he would not allow any of the fiery ones to approach his feeding spot. They had long since stopped trying.
Lagross closed his colossal eye, going back to sleep as he nursed upon the titan’s nourishing lifeblood. It’s sense of time began to stretch into a sleep-state, spinning faster and faster as his consciousness waned.
Ow.
Ow.
OW!?
Lagross opened his eye and spotted a fluttering black…something, an instant before a chunk was hollowed out of his pupil.
PAIN!
***Jeb***
The void butterflies were silent and nearly weightless, able to crowd around the monstrous creature and stand upon its thick scales without waking it.
Thousands upon thousands of butterflies swarmed around the creature, looking for a place to land and deliver their payload of annihilation Myst. At first, the creature didn’t even wake up, unable to feel the holes cut out of its thick scales.
Eventually that changed when they began carving away flesh.
The creature’s eyes snapped open, only to be blinded by the butterflies crowding its face.
It gave a honk like a fifty-ton goose and unwrapped itself from the heart, thrashing around violently, gnashing its bleeding gums at the enemy attacking it from every direction.
“Heyo!” Jeb shouted, flinging his bag of trapped marbles out into the room, scattering them all across the open area.
The weakened, pitted armor of the titanic lamprey was unable to stop the spears of telekinetic force as they slammed into the creature, then pulled it down to the ground, cinching it in place. Every time it moved, it triggered more of the traps, until the entire creature was held to the ground by a hundred barbed spears.
It was locked down in a vision of contorted agony, breathing heavily and bleeding from hundreds of tiny wounds where the butterflies had chewed through its armor.
The butterflies had blown their wad and disappeared. Now it was time for Jeb to do the dirty work himself.
He siphoned out Myst and picked himself up, rushing over to the creature faster than he ever could have run by himself.
Its head reminded him of a blue whale skull he’d seen one time in a museum. Absolutely enormous.
“Apologies,” Jeb said, holding out his palm to face the creature’s wounded eye. “Alpha strike.”
Hundreds of barbed Lances of telekinetic force shot outward all at once, grinding past each other with the intention of creating as much damage to a living organism as possible.
Dozens were stopped by the thing’s tough armor and bone, but even more made it through the eye socket and began bouncing around the creature’s brain.
The giant gave a pitiful shudder as it died, and Jeb drew himself backwards, not interested in getting squished by its death-throes.
Congratulations! You have Beaten Lagross the Suppressor in a one-on-one duel. Your power is beyond reproach!
Lagross’s Power Accolade Granted!
+5 Body +5 Myst +5 Nerve
That’s a lot.
“Holy shit, dude.” Ron said as Jeb landed next to them. “You sucker-punched the shit out of it.”
“What was I supposed to do?” Jeb glanced at him curiously. “Take it out to dinner first?”
“You get an accolade?” Jess asked.
“Yeah, five Body,” Jeb gave her a half-truth, trying to ease the persistent cramps out of his muscles. For the Nerve sickness, he simply avoided looking at anyone pretty and focused on the pain.
The headache from his Myst sickness was negligible.
Jeb was stretching his cramping jaw and shoulders when he heard the sound.
Ding!
Your party has cleared the Grave of the Titan! Please take your
rewards.
Ron and Jeb grimaced as five identical sphincters appeared in the sky and shat out their prizes.
“Get ba-“ For an instant, Jeb thought he could hear someone’s voice coming from one of the sphincters.
One of the chests clattered to the ground awkwardly. The wood sported a jagged cut along the side and a spatter of blood on it.
What the hell?
Ron and Jeb studied the spot where the unusual magic sphincter faded into nothing, frowning. The others weren’t quite high enough on their Myst to see the damn thing except Amanda, and she was more focused on the chests.
“What happened to this one?” Amanda asked, running a finger across the jagged cut
“Maybe the people sending the prize got in trouble?” Brett said with a shrug.
Sending the prize? Jeb had always thought the prize had been manufactured on the spot by the sphincter. That bore more thinking about.
“Nothing we can do about it here,” Jeb said with a shrug. “Pick a chest.”
Jeb’s chest had an ebony pen with actual gold inlay, creating a brilliant, looping design along the sides. Ron’s chest had a fancy–looking bow, Jess drew a milky-white potion of Myst, Brett got a Body one, and Amanda pulled out another slave collar.
Jeb was turning the pen over in his hand, about to inspect it, when he heard another sound. This one was much deeper, resonating through the entire room.
Thump.
Frowning, Jeb and company glanced up, looking for the source of the noise. Their attention was attracted to the crystal heart in the center of the cavern when it convulsed.
Thump.
The black stone inside the quartz began to heat up, turning cherry red, then orange hot.
Thump.
“Aw shit,” Jeb muttered as he watched the molten rock begin to travel up the building-sized artery.
A nearby lava trap began bubbling, oozing liquid stone out onto the floor.
The heat in the room went up in an instant, from sweltering to scalding.
If this is happening everywhere…
“RUN!” Jeb shouted, pointing toward the entrance to the boss room.
“Shouldn’t we try to -” Ron protested.
“Run, you piece of shit!” Brett shouted, throwing the skinny necromancer over his shoulder and hauling ass.
Chapter 20: This is hopeless
They ran.
The team screamed down the sizzling hallways at full speed, dodging around the overflowing magma pits, not bothering to give the magma squid a chance to grab their legs. When they made it to the next room, they skidded to a halt, gaping at the altered scenery.
What had been an extra wide room prior to the boss fight had become a lava-bridge, maybe two feet of stone with liquid death on either side, radiating heats that would char-broil a normal human in a matter of seconds.
Something they don’t tell you about lava rooms, lava gives off enough heat to cook you from several feet away. Even further if you’ve got an entire lake of it.
“What, what’s going on?” Ron asked, still slung over Brett’s shoulder.
In the middle of the bridge was a red-hot golem monster being birthed onto the path they needed to use.
“We don’t have fucking time for this,” Jeb muttered, glancing at Jess. “Can you go over and get ready to catch?”
“I can do that.” Jess said, bracing her foot against the wall.
With a grunt, she launched herself up, sailing high over the golem, presumably landing safely on the other side of the room.
“Who wants to
go first?” Jeb asked.
“I’ll go,” Brett said, handing Ron his shield.
Without preamble, Jeb picked up Brett and tossed him over the obstacle, aiming for the other side of the room. The big Soldier flailed his arms and legs as he flew across the distance, until Jeb felt him come to a halt on the other side.
“Alright Ron, you ready?” Jeb asked, watching the Golem’s head turning ponderously to look at them. Behind the golem, he could barely make out the tip of Brett’s spear waving.
“I’m not sure if – AIIII –!”
Jeb grabbed Ron and his death knight and threw the two of them over the bridge, into the waiting arms of Jess and Brett. The necromancer had the presence of mind to put the shield between himself and the lava lake, but Jeb saw the death knight burst into flames before it disappeared behind the charging golem.
The air was hot.
“Cover your sensitive bits!” Jeb said, picking up himself and Amanda, lifting them out of the way as the flaming golem slammed into the wall just below them, snatching up at their feet.
Jeb felt like he was flying through a convection oven as they flashed across the open area, his exposed skin screaming in agony and peeling. Jeb was pretty sure he lost a good portion of his hair to the oppressive heat. Amanda fared a lot better with her armor acting as an insulator.
They landed to see Ron putting out the fires on his Death knight, Brett and Jess motioning them to hurry.
“Go, go go!”
Ron grunted as Brett picked him up again and the five of them got back to running, turning their way up the winding tunnels, aiming for the copper insect people village.
They blazed through the place, some of them literally on fire. The leather exterior of Jeb’s armor released a cloud of smoke behind him a moment before it burst into flame, fed by their high speed movement.
Jeb couldn’t stop to put it out. That was a death sentence. He couldn’t take the armor off, either. It might be on fire, but it was still cooler than not wearing it.
“My ass is on fire!” Ron’s voice was lost in the constant rumbling surrounding them as the entire cavern shifted.
