“Well, what a waste of time this is!” Tag said, stepping forward, hammer ready to smash the rest. Ben nocked two arrows and nodded at Gideon.
“Hey Gids, mind giving me a hand?”
It took a minute for Gideon to realize what Ben was asking. “I’ve never done it before.”
“So? Give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Cautiously approaching, Gideon placed his electric hands on the arrows, focusing his will as Chloe watched the electricity travel and spread to accommodate the arrows’ shaft and head. Gideon stepped back with a huge grin on his face. “There.”
“Thanks. Now duck!” Ben said, aiming the bow at where Gideon had been standing. Behind them, a large blob had reared up, about to strike. Ben released the arrows, watching the blob do as the others did, exploding a moment later and spraying globs of the stuff all over them.
“Eurgh, this is messy work.” Chloe scraped off the residue of the blob, trying to perform a quick headcount since more blobs now stood between them and the glow at the end of the worm’s massive organ.
Taking a leaf out of Gideon’s book, Chloe summoned her electric power, concentrating her will on moving the electricity into her sword. She felt the power surge within her, traveling with a tingling sensation through her hands and into the metal blade.
The sword came alive with power, the bolts dancing and jumping in jagged swirls around the sword. She advanced with the others now, steely expressions on their faces as they worked their way through the crowds. Blob after blob fell at their feet, crying out with choked and gargled screams.
The organ pulsed in blue light. Gideon accompanied Ben, thrusting his power into arrow after arrow. His hands shot the lightning in powerful bursts in between.
Yet, as often as they vanquished the creatures, still more came. Chloe couldn’t determine how much liquid was in the pools, yet with every death of an enemy, another one appeared in its place.
They had made it halfway across the chamber, sweat now pouring from their heads. The thickness of the smell in the worm’s organ, combined with the oily, musty smell of the blobs, became overwhelming. At one point, they heard a huge grumble from the worm and several bursts of air traveled through the chamber, knocking them all over with its stinking, festering power.
“We’re definitely in the digestive system,” Chloe said, pinching her nose with one hand as she mowed down yet another blob with the other.
Although they couldn’t see Jesepiah, Chloe heard her nearby as she coughed and dry-heaved. “You’re not wrong there.”
“That must mean we’re close, right?” Gideon rested his hands on his knees, his breath coming in short bursts. The amount of lightning he had summoned had clearly begun to take its toll on the mage.
“Here,” he said, reaching into a small pocket and withdrawing two vials of blue liquid. He tossed one to Chloe, then brought the other to his lips and drained it in one go.
Chloe eyed the vial suspiciously. “What’s this?”
“Mana potion. Got it from Francesca at a fairly discounted rate.”
Chloe looked at Gideon blankly.
“Francesca? The minotaur? The apothecary in Nauriel?”
The memories came back to Chloe—Gideon informing her of his strange relationship with the minotaur during her spell in prison.
“Oh, right.” She raised the bottle to her lips, pausing as the aromatic smell reached her nose. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t a cosmo, either. “Well, here goes,” she said to herself, feeling the cool liquid travel down her throat.
At first, nothing happened. Chloe looked at her arms, then her body, not sure what to expect. Then it came in a wave. She felt the liquid cooling every body part and surging to her extremities. She flicked open her stats and saw that her MP had fully recovered.
Chloe beamed. “Thanks, Gid. You rock!”
“Don’t thank me until this is over.” He winked, his own electricity coming in fast bursts now.
With their newly replenished magic, the group continued to make progress. They became a well-oiled machine, with Chloe and Gideon providing magical support, Tag hammering the blobs to pieces, and Ben thinning out those that rose from the pools.
When they reached the far end of whatever organ they were in, Gideon’s eyes lit up.
“Chloe.” He pointed. “There. Look.”
Chloe could see it, now—the alluring green glow of a piece of KieraFreya’s armor. She heard the mystic tinkling bells, a strange contrast to the dying gurgles of the blobs.
“Go.” Gideon smiled.
Chloe reared up to sprint toward the armor, but a strange thing happened.
Tag sped past the group in a desperate burst of urgency. Chloe’s mouth fell open, unable to believe what she was seeing. The dwarf was sprinting straight for the armor.
“Tag! Wait!”
Tag’s laugh followed behind him like the steam from an ancient locomotive. “Finders keepers!”
Confusion turned to panic turned to anger. Chloe felt the panic echo in her bracers and greaves, the rage of KieraFreya obvious in her voice as the goddess yelled in Chloe’s head, Get him, Chloe! Get him now!
Chloe started to run, but she was suddenly pulled back by the arms. She turned her head and saw that a blob had latched onto her. Chloe summoned her electricity in the hand the blob now engulfed and watched smugly as the thing exploded, just like the others.
Then she was free. Then she was running. She funneled every ounce of energy into chasing Tag, her face dropping as he paused a few feet from the armor, a hungry look in his eyes.
His head turned slowly toward her.
“No, Tag!” Chloe cried. “Don’t!”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Panic raced through Chloe’s body. Could Tag touch the armor? Would the armor then stick to Tag forever, meaning that her quest was over? What exactly would happen in that situation? The whole quest was about reuniting KieraFreya’s armor pieces. Could this throw a wrench in the works?
Chloe moved faster than she ever moved before as Tag’s hands slowly reached toward the armor. The piece of gleaming emerald and gold was somewhat embedded in what Chloe realized was another tube connecting the organs. The armor had sunk into the flesh, stuck in one of the passages of this great beast.
“Tag! Stop!”
Chloe coiled like a jaguar and dove at Tag. Her arms found his neck, and she wrestled him to the ground. Behind them were the sounds of battle and blobs exploding.
Chloe straddled Tag, holding up a hand, ready to slap him across his stupid dwarf face.
“No!” Tag cried, hands raised in protest. His hammer laying on the ground next to them. “Stop.”
Chloe restrained herself, her hand still ready to strike. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
Tag laughed weakly. “It was a joke, Chloe. I thought it’d be funny. Y’know, ‘Argh! I can’t believe he’s going to take this from me! Argh!’ I wasn’t really going to do it.”
“You thought that would be funny?” Chloe said incredulously. She backed off, letting Tag sit up. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Okay, maybe it was in bad taste,” Tag said, his brow creasing with thought. “You know I’d never take your quest from you. I’m not…” he turned toward Ben, now fighting with his knives in each hand, the blades blue and electric, “an experience-hogger!”
Ben gave Tag a brief turn of the head. “Get over it, dwarf!”
“How about you get over it?” Tag said, seemingly happy with his reply.
Chloe shook her head, her attention returning to the piece of armor stuck in the worm’s system. “I so do not have time for this.”
The armor glowed brightly. This one was much larger than the others she had found. It was strange, too, seeing the piece of armor stuck in flesh rather than floating suspended off the floor like the other pieces. She reached forward with eager hands, feeling the cold metal in her palms.
Chloe closed her eyes, waiti
ng for the armor to automatically attach itself to her. Waiting to feel the power as KieraFreya’s energy grew within her.
But nothing happened.
The damn thing was stuck.
Gripping the edges of the armor with both hands, she tugged and tugged. The armor didn’t give, though. She tried again, teeth gritted, eyes closed. Still nothing.
“Are you done messing around in there?” Ben called back. “Not being funny, but it’s two of us versus a million of these blob things. I’m not trained to fight sentient boogers on an endless loop, so whenever you think you’re ready, just let us know.”
Chloe saw Gideon drain another mana potion, wondering how many of those he had left.
“Just a second!” Chloe said. Tag rejoined the battle.
She stared at the armor for a second, wondering if there was any kind of spell that might free the damn thing. She decided to go once more with good old-fashioned force, this time gripping the edges of the armor with strong hands, raising her legs off the floor so that they were both against the wall, and heaving with all her energy.
A tiny fraction of movement.
A disgusting sucking sound, like a finger withdrawn from a vat of slime.
And then it was free.
Chloe flew backward, the armor in her grasp. She hugged it tightly to her chest, then realized she was holding nothing. The armor had finally morphed around her, now taking pride of place on her chest.
Chloe stared down with an ecstatic, disbelieving look on her face, the breastplate more beautiful than she could ever have imagined. She felt a surge of strength and power growing within her, feeling and hearing KieraFreya’s excitement as she felt the synchronization between the bracers, greaves, and breastplate as though fuel was running through a newly-built car for the first time.
Yes! Yes! KieraFreya shouted.
Chloe’s chest rose and fell of its own accord, as though she was experiencing KieraFreya’s breathing in her body. She stood up straighter than usual, the goddess correcting her posture and causing several bones in her spine to crack and pop.
Chloe lurched forward, then back, her hands finding the wall behind her.
How the hell do you drive this thing? KieraFreya asked.
The goddess tugged once more at her hands and ankles. Chloe steeled herself and pinned her wrists to her sides and kept her ankles together, visibly shaking as KieraFreya once again fought her.
You don’t drive this thing, Chloe told her. I do.
KieraFreya sighed, and Chloe felt her body relax. Fine. I’ll wait.
Wait for what?
Never you mind.
Hearing the continued cries and grunts of battle, Chloe decided to let the comment go, quickly flicking up her notification and reading the description of the armor now on her chest.
Item obtained: Breastplate of KieraFreya
You’ve found the lost breastplate of a fallen goddess. Made from metals forged by the gods, this breastplate is virtually indestructible, though some say that it has a mind of its own.
Bonuses: +5 strength, +10 endurance, +5 etheric potential
Rarity: Mythic
“Yes! More bonuses!” she cried.
Tag’s voice floated back. “Screw you!”
And then a thought came to her that made Chloe squeal with such excitement she couldn’t bear it. Her hands flew to her mouth.
“I’ll never be naked again!”
Ben shook his head in mid-swing. “Such a shame.”
Well, maybe that’s partly true, KieraFreya corrected, but remember that you haven’t got anything to cover up your lower bits yet.
Chloe ignored her, happiness and relief swelling from within. If this piece of armor acted in accordance with the rest of the pieces she had gathered—and she was pretty sure it would—she was free from the embarrassment of respawning amid different peoples and races completely bare-chested because of the stupid system in which, when a player died, they lost half their equipment.
Granted, that had likely not happened to as many people as Chloe—let’s face it, how many people didn’t make it a mission to collect items or died several times within their first few hours of gameplay?—but still, the idea that it wouldn’t happen again was definitely a bonus and a boost to Chloe’s confidence.
Chloe picked up her sword, which had fallen on the floor in her dive for Tag, and moved to return to the others. Based on her experience during the last few trials, she half-expected them all to be transported away from the worm, away from the blobs, away from this disgusting organ that processed whatever crappy food the worm ate.
But then a thought came to Chloe: hadn’t this all been a little too easy? Granted, gaining entry to a sandworm had been no easy feat. But the blobs... They had been easy to destroy, hadn’t they?
Chloe’s answer came when Gideon’s voice trailed toward her. “Er, guys?”
Tag and Ben, who were in mid-fight, said, “Yeah?”
Chloe returned to the others, suddenly seeing what Gideon was seeing. The chunks of the blobs that clung to their clothing began to vibrate, suddenly leaping off them and back onto the floor. They moved as if a giant vacuum had sucked them up, and when Chloe saw the giant shape forming in the middle of the organ, she knew that in a sense, that was true.
“Oh, for—” beep ”—sake,” Tag grumbled.
The blobs joined together like water droplets as they fall down a window. Each and every blob that had been destroyed was now pulled into a large mass that blocked their way back out. The gigantic blob was growing arms, and sunken holes formed in its face that looked like eyes.
“It’s kinda like a hydra,” Ben said, almost in awe.
“Remember that hydra we took on in Huntilligan? The blue one with the bad teeth?” Tag said affectionately. “We managed to mow that down, didn’t we?”
Gideon gulped. “The hydra was easy. Forget the heads and go for the body. That’s where the pain organs are. This, though... Where does it start, and where does it finish?”
Ben and Tag looked at each other, then took a nervous step back. “Looks like a job for a mage and a battle mage, don’t you think?”
Chloe’s jaw dropped. “What about your arrows?”
Ben spun his quiver around, revealing the empty container. All the arrows had been used on the mini-blobs and now lay scattered on the organ’s floor.
Chloe threw her head back and exhaled. “Gid? Got any ideas?”
“A few,” he said, looking strangely more resolute than Chloe had come to expect from him. A proud warmth filled her as she saw that he was deep in thought, no longer cowering before an enemy as he debated which kinds of magic to try in his head.
He handed Chloe a mana potion, drinking another himself. She felt her levels replenish and summoned a purple fireball in her hand. Gideon closed his eyes, manipulating his own hands as an incantation left his lips.
Chloe shouted with rage as she grew the fireballs in her hands, tossing two directly at the monstrous blob. The flames lit the base of the creature, catching fire and ringing the entire body in a matter of moments.
Well, that was a good guess, Chloe thought.
The blob reared back, its cry deafening. A mouth appeared on the jellied face and opened wide, stink pouring out. It swiped its amorphous hands at them.
Gideon was apparently frozen to the spot, and the hand was coming straight for them. Without hesitation, she lunged toward him, diving and shoving him out of the way. He landed just a few feet away from the area of impact.
But Chloe did not.
Warm jelly encased her, the oily, greasy stuff like a filthy, drug-induced rainbow around her. She was sucked inside the blob, using her hands to try to swim outward but unable to do so. She held her breath as her head disappeared inside the body.
Chloe felt like a Russian nesting doll—a creature inside a creature inside a creature. A girl inside a blob inside a sandworm. Through the blob’s flesh, she could still see her friends.
Gideon stepped forw
ard, his hands glowing with a white light that shone bright and brilliant. She could faintly hear his muffled cry as several long white strings shot from his hands and came straight at Chloe.
The strings pierced the blob and wrapped around Chloe’s frame. She felt a tug, the strings battling against the blob’s inward suction. Gideon’s cry was fierce, the light blinding. Chloe was pulled out, her head finally bursting free of the blob as she took several lungfuls of clean(ish) air.
“Thanks, Gid!” she shouted, an arm now free enough to cast him a thumbs-up.
Gideon wasn’t paying attention, his focus entirely on his spell. He pulled, with Tag and Ben now behind him, tugging him backward to help. Chloe emerged from the blob with a loud sucking sound before landing on the floor.
“Lesson learned.” She huffed, looking up at the others. “I wouldn’t recommend skin-to-skin contact with the damned thing. Not a good idea.”
Ben nodded, a grin on his face. “So, what now?”
They all turned at once to watch Gideon, his hands now busying themselves in swirls and patterns, the ethereal strings growing into ropes as they flew through the air and latched around the blob.
Rather than sinking into the blob’s skin, somehow the ropes found purchase, winding around the body and pinning the blob’s arms.
“Good work, Gid!” Chloe said. “You’ll have to teach me that one.”
Gideon didn’t reply. He closed his eyes and blue electricity swirled around him, making his cloak and hair stand on end, waving like seaweed beneath the water. The electricity jumped to the ropes, surging toward the blob until it had surrounded it entirely.
The blob roared again, small bolts of energy jumping here, there, and everywhere, splatting several of the smaller blobs into tiny fragments which shifted and combined with the mother beast.
“Is it doing any damage?” Chloe asked Ben as they both used their Creature Identification again.
BIG Unknown (Lv ???)
Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1) Page 49
