by Lars M.
The fifth monster dropped lifelessly to the ground, and I released the stream and stumbled back, slightly out of breath from the exertion. My mana was down to just above half, but things were looking good. I cried out, "Change of pace. Test your stuns." To lead the way, I aimed and let loose a stun blast. The spell promptly kicked into existence - Gods, but it was easy to cast spells when I didn't have to worry about multicasting - and I watched in satisfaction as the lead maggot slid to the ground, stunned. A second later, Atlas launched a smaller missile from a nearby tree to connect with one of the remaining maggots. The missile hit one of the dark patches, however, bouncing off harmlessly to connect with the ground. Confused, the maggot turned a full circle around itself when, moments later, a new missile hit it on the tail, incapacitating it outright.
As the last worm-like creature thundered on, Lyle bravely stepped forward to face it head on. The ankle-high creature should have made him seem huge in comparison, but the maggot circled, slithered, and bobbed, piling up its body to gain better height or momentum. Opening its mouth wide, the ugly beast revealed a nasty set of crooked mouth parts the length of my hand. Lyle kept his cool, however, and met it mid-attack with a thundering Shield Bash. Lyle cracked it across the lower face with the brunt of his shield, splitting the dusky flesh around the maw like an overripe watermelon. As the beast dropped senseless to the ground, Lyle proceeded to pound the stuffing out of it while the girls submitted the other dazed creatures to a lethal bombardment of arrows, daggers, and clay containers.
The splotchy-skinned monsters went down and they went down fast. Lyle yelled out in triumph as the foremost ringed segment of his opponent tore and collapsed from his mace blow, ending the filthy beast. Even as the remaining two struggled to rise, I saw three arrows stab into the mouth of one maggot with amazing precision, one after the other. One impacted the monster's mouthparts for little damage, but the following two projectiles cleared the tiny gap to enter the mouth, causing horrendous damage. It died with a screech.
A sudden idea struck me, and I shouted, "Pull back. Let’s test some things." Leading the way, I started running backwards. The others were quick to follow. Lyle, to his credit, simply moved backwards at a jog, keeping his focus on the remaining infested maggot that was starting to wriggle towards us.
The cooldown would be down in right about... now. A Stun Blast enveloped the lone survivor and I swerved towards the rest to see the questions painted on their faces. "Target practice. We're bound to bump into several other maggots downstairs. This is the best chance we'll get to see what they can do, with minimal risk." The maggot was moving again, shuddering with the return of its senses, and I continued, "You go first, Lyle. Don't kill it." To be certain, I also sent a message to Atlas to hold.
The blond blacksmith cracked his neck and glared at the ugly animal in front of him. He muttered something inaudible as he placed himself in the path of the maggot, feet wide and shield lowered. The maggot attacked, without thought or style. It moved deceptively slowly at times, only to turn quickly, slamming itself mouth-first at Lyle again and again. He reacted with calm precision, maneuvering the shield to stay at a safe distance from the nasty creature. 'Safe' being a relative term. As the direct attacks failed, the maggot changed tack, working harder to coil itself around Lyle, or raising itself on its hind quarters to send itself plummeting down onto the armored knight.
This was the first time I'd been able to watch my companion in combat after returning from Nerit. Hell, it was the first time I was able to stand around safely and just watch him fight, period. What I observed left me impressed. Clearly, the hours spent learning how to fight dirty from our friend Kiff had paid off. Where our earlier battles had sometimes resulted in panic or flailing, emotional attacks, there was a certain economy to his movements now. Move in close to the maggot as it laid fully extended, limiting its movement. Two steps back as it pulled back to attack, guide it to the side with mace or shield as it struck. I was just about to shout for him to let Arack have a turn, when something unexpected happened.
The mostly unharmed maggot was recovering from tumbling end over end due to Lyle pushing it off balance with his shield. Rolling to return to its stomach, it faced the stalwart warrior, but suddenly froze on the ground and started shaking intensely. Its attacks ceased as the trembling intensified. Lyle, slowly backing away, shot a confused glance at the rest of us. I shrugged, letting my eyes wander back to the creature. What the hell could... was it expanding?
"Down! Now!" I yelled and pulled whoever was next to me to the ground beside me. Arack let out a surprised squawk as I landed on top of her – and then the world turned black as dark energy exploded in all directions.
Unconsciously, I waited for the world to turn grey and the familiar 'You have died' message to appear. When it didn't happen, I peeked up and then glanced swiftly over to where Lyle had been standing. He wasn't standing anymore. He was lying flat on his back, looking dazed. His shield lay several meters to the side and behind him, apparently propelled by the explosion. From the looks of it, Lyle had managed to divert the worst of the destructive force. "Everybody okay?" My voice sounded abnormally loud in the abrupt silence of the clearing.
Voices arose from Arack and Darya, confirming that they were unharmed. I could feel Atlas in the back of my mind, surprised but well. Lyle brushed himself off and stood, eyes wide. His voice croaked, "I'm alright. My shield took the brunt of it." He pointed shakily at the ground before him. "Our maggot friend here looks the worse for wear, however."
Arack ran forward. "Wooow. That's probably the worst understatement ever. He's like, everywhere. Here, and here. Oooh, and a nice spatter there."
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I looked at Darya, who just rolled her eyes. Kids these days. "Mind if we keep our focus?" They looked chastised for about half a second before Arack mumbled, "What? Or you're gonna blow up too?" The teenagers lost it completely, rolling with laughter. I flung up my hands in despair. "Fair enough. We did just survive a giant explosion. I guess that earns us a break."
I spent the time picking up the items left by the maggots. Their remains were exactly like you'd expect - disgusting and, above all, smelly like a dump at mid-summer. Distasteful as the task was, the rewards were not bad - plenty of items for crafting, including a small handful of [Dark-infested Maggot Mouthpart] of uncommon quality. I had the feeling those might be used for something more than just Tinkering. However, now was not the time for an in-depth discussion on crafting. With the mayhem we'd witnessed, I kept an eye on my surroundings, my attention constantly drifting toward the entrance to the kobold ruins. That ugly carved lizard face looked like it was taunting us. I shook my head - I wasn't paranoid, I was merely not interested in falling prey to a surprise attack. I asked Atlas to stay vigilant as well - I believed he understood the importance of the task.
As I worked, I observed the rest of my group. Darya was looking over her shoulder from time to time as well, as she worked at the grim task of extracting whatever arrows she was able to find. Lyle and Arack? Not so much. They were in the middle of an animated discussion, both of them gesturing wide, clearly explaining some scene from a battle. Good to see they were getting along. I clapped my hands together. "That's it. Break's over. If we want a chance to do our duty and return before nightfall, we'll need to get to it." At the word 'duty', Lyle snapped to attention and I continued, "I was damn impressed by everybody so far. No getting in the way of each other, and you all dealt an impressive amount of damage. Good job on managing your target too, Lyle. Not your fault that it went and did something completely unexpected. As for the explosion itself - well, now we know to look out for something like that. I wouldn't bet on that being the only unexpected magical effect we get to encounter either."
Darya spoke up, "You'll want to expand on that a little..."
"What? Well, I mean, it makes sense, right? There's no way that was a natural ability. If we have uncontrollable dark magic infecting whatever they encounter, causing t
hem to only commit suicide would seem - weird to me."
Arack shrugged. "Whatever. Could we focus on the monsters, instead of just coming up with weird magic theories? Because those dark splotches on their bodies totally deflect attacks. I mean, their bodies are sort of tough already, but I couldn't get any of my daggers to strike through those."
"I could. Somewhat." Darya frowned. "It took my armor piercing skill, though. Better to just aim for the mouth instead." She opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind.
"You've got something else, Darya?"
"Nah. Just a worry. Nothing solid."
"If you don't mind me putting you on the spot, I'd still like to hear it. Odds are, it's something I haven't thought of." I wasn't lying to flatter her, either. Lore skills aside, her in-game interests and areas of expertise lay so far from mine, it was practically another world.
"I guess. It's just... maggots are only the first stage. I don't know the proper words, but they're only the larval form. What do you think they're going to develop into?"
Silence fell as we all handled that wonderful nugget of positive promises. "That's an ugly thought, Darya – and a sharp one. We'll make sure to be prepared for anything and run if we're outmatched. Atlas goes first to scout, so we're hopefully informed in advance."
Darya nodded and gave me a small smile – a more personal one.
Lyle raised a hand, "Em. There's one other thing too." He balanced on one foot, stretching out the other for the rest of us to see. Moving closer, I looked at his leather leggings. They looked to be close to falling apart, liberally spattered with holes and discoloration. "I started feeling it during the fight. When that disgusting creature managed to press itself against my armor, it started eating into the leather."
"Some kind of acid?" I asked, at the same time Arack shot "Does it hurt?"
"Not really. I mean, yes, it's acid. And I guess it burns a little. The damage to the leather's worse, though."
"You crafters have a weird sense of priorities." I shook my head, grinning, "Anybody else have something to add – or are we doing this?"
Chapter 9 – New Tenants
Summoning an appetite in the middle of the maggot cadavers hadn't been easy, but we each managed to cram down a bit in order to get as many buffs as possible working. I was a veritable powerhouse, compared to usual - Gillem's food, the items from the walk, and the buff from sleeping at Darya's place were impressive.
The tunnels were every bit as claustrophobic as I recalled. Fortunately, there was no need to crawl around, checking for traps, and we had light, this time around. Sort of. The walls and floors were all liberally covered with a dark liquid that gave off a pulsing, weak light. The effect in the oppressive silence was disconcerting – like somebody turning on a strobe light inside a cathedral.
Once we agreed on our order, we descended as silently as we could. Atlas went first, well ahead of the rest of us, walking on the ceiling to minimize the risk of bumping into something. Lyle came next, with Darya and I right behind him - me on the left side and Darya on the right. Since there wasn't space for all four of us to walk, we had agreed that Arack was the only one agile enough to move back and forth to fire through the gaps the rest of us left.
I checked the corridor ahead, peeking along through one of Atlas' eyes every so often. We didn't have to go far. Even before we hit the place where the corridor branched out into three separate tunnels, the first trio of maggots came ambling out of the semi-darkness toward Atlas. Not attacking, however. They were clearly unaware that we were present, and a rambled series of orders set the scene for an overwhelming ambush, while I kept one eye with Atlas for any add-ons.
Thirty seconds later, we were breathing hard, watching as the last maggot slumped to the ground, head caved in from a mace stroke. I asked Atlas to keep his focus on the corridor ahead and reported, "All clear for now. Well done." No challenge this time around. I'd sent a Stun Blast to catch all three and we'd followed up with a ceaseless wave of hurt. The only reason Lyle had even managed to reach his target was that we'd been unable to aim at it for fear of hitting him. "Slight change of plan, folks. Four or less maggots, and Lyle stays back while we go all-out on the offensive. More than that, we fight defensively, Lyle in front."
The curly-haired knight's face fell. "Aw. But..."
"No buts. We're not taking any chances here. Tell Kiff you want to learn a ranged weapon next time, so you can join us."
"Double aw."
He relented, and we moved on. Opting for a slow, methodical approach, we explored the two dead ends before picking our way toward the large chamber. Any traps that'd been left in place had long since been detonated by maggots. Twice, we bumped into smaller groups, exterminating and looting them with little pause. The piles from the leftover magic were everywhere. Not only that, they were also damn slippery - which Lyle confirmed by keeling over in a clatter of armor. It would've made for proper slapstick comedy, if it weren't for the godawful noise. The knight blushed to high heaven from the glares we sent his way. We were closing in on the chamber when Arack paused next to a corpse. "Are they... growing bigger?"
The rest of us, already past the body, paused as one. I asked Atlas to stop momentarily as we turned back to stare at the tiny kobold.
"Bad joke," Lyle grumbled, shaking his head. When she didn't waver, he asked, "No joke?"
"Not bloody likely. The last ones came almost to my thigh – this one's close to my waist."
"Damn." I hadn't been paying enough attention in the latest fight. They had taken longer to drop, too. "Good catch, Arack. Everybody, let's be extra careful from now on. Everything else is unchanged."
The next group of four maggots confirmed her assumption. Their icons were framed in blue, rather than green, indicating a tougher opponent. We fell back a bit before engaging – no need to risk any add-ons. Then we let Lyle engage after our initial salvo and wore them down. It was still extremely doable, since the malodorous monsters were slow and not made for combat. Lyle had a bit of a scare when one of the creatures suddenly rose and started spewing chunks of dark matter everywhere. Luckily, the maggot didn't seem to do so voluntarily. Rather, the moment it was done, it shuffled around in confusion, surrounded by a circle of the caustic, nasty liquid, as though it had forgotten what it was doing. Moments later, it went straight back to attacking Lyle.
As a complete surprise to nobody, the hidden door was still open from the last time we'd visited. The closer we proceeded to the demonologist's hideout, the more noticeable the signs of the infestation became. Along the wall, dark matter was piling up, and the corridors themselves were filled with tracks from the maggots. We paused right before the chamber itself, allowing Atlas the time to approach in peace and scout the place.
I, of course, rode along on his senses. There was no doubt at this point that there was a boss battle of sorts waiting. A noise had been building in the background and was becoming more apparent. Anxious to see what we were up against and share the news with the rest of the team, I chewed my fingernails and tapped my foot. The low noise built up into a loud buzzing, and my heart sank as I recognized the sound. As soon as Atlas made it into the room, I was about to start talking... but as he proceeded along the back wall and managed a full overview, I found myself staring slack-jawed. The seconds dragged on as my mental vision followed Atlas' eye, taking in the tableau before him.
After a while, Arack was the one to speak up. "Well?"
I jumped from the shock. My mind had been far away. My voice shook as I responded, "Let's move back a little, and we'll talk."
We shuffled back for a full minute, all keeping an eye on the far opening leading into the chamber. The light beyond was flashing, changing constantly, and I could tell from Darya's restless fiddling that I wasn't the only one getting bad nerves. I took a deep breath. "Okay, good news first. There are six of the larger maggots in there, slithering around in the back of the chamber."
Lyle did a double take. "That's the good new
s?"
"Yeah. The bad news is that Darya was right. They do evolve. There's one giant-ass housefly the size of a horse cart in there, and it looks like it's been bathing in the dark energy." I kept silent while that sank in amidst a chorus of exclamations, mumbling, and curses.
Our local hedge knight was the first to digest the information. "What do we do, then? We're not going to give up." His tone was equal parts question and exclamation.
"Not if we can take them." I could easily imagine what would happen if we left the place to come back at a later date. Next time, there wouldn't be one fly, but nine. I shuddered at the thought of those multi-faceted eyes glimmering in the wavering light, Jeff Goldblum trapped inside, crying for help. "I... need some help here, though." Taking care to keep my voice low, I looked at each of them in turn. "I can't see how to handle this in a way where we win." I extracted my battered old spear from my inventory and started drawing in the layer of blackish goop on the floor. "This is the room, right? Squarish, two other exits, two rows of pillars like this. Whatever magical contraption Othell left running is way back here with the fly, surrounded by the maggots." I glanced up – the rest of the group were staring intently between the drawing and me. "Now, by themselves, we should be able to take the maggots. Take it slow, pull back fighting and stunning, and grind 'em down slowly. But that monstrous fly? That complicates things. One good hit from him could probably take down either Arack or me – and he can fly."
